Worked on a shot today. It always feels good to be able to do that. The shot was originally someone else's but he had to work on a different shot so I edited his work. Basically I adjusted the camera move and altered the background a bit.

Being able to study a veteran animators shot in detail is very helpful. Working on the shot I was able to see what a well crafted shot looks like. On top of that I have two very talented animators working on either side of me. When my computer is loading slowly I'll sometimes watch them work.

The internet in my apartments been down for the last couple days. Its been pretty bad for a week before. There was a power surge a week ago and my housemates and I believe that is what caused the problem. We're probably going ot have to buy a new router and install that.

I have my internship class today so I am writing this in my studio. I am finishing up a paper on a profile of the Third Floor.

Spent the day at my internship working on Mocap. It was fun despite the fact that motion capture programs are more often than not filled with bugs. We had a lot of problems putting two people in suits at the same time. In the end though the shots were made.

Its is satisfying to help work out the plot of a movie. The script is pretty much done and most of it is storyboarded. However, when we act out the movie there always a moment when you realize that something doesn't make any sense. Such as picking up an object and then having it disappear the next moment or a character making a daring escape off screen.

After work I went to the Laugh Factory in Hollywood with some friends. It was really fun but long. It was scheduled for 2 hours but ended up going 4. That's a lot of jokes.

Long day at work today. I was putting together stuff for the archive and most of the files were scrambled throughout the companies database. Around noon though the company had a Learn at Lunch event. One of the head animators discussed some tips on how to take mocap data and use it effectively in a scene. This is pretty useful information.

Tough day at the internship today. Without getting too technical I basically had to track down images spread throughout the company's database for a project. After a long search they ended up being in the database's folder marked for deletion for some reason. I was able to save them and get everything done though.

During lunch I had a good conversation with some of the artists. The company has a lot more generalists than I expected. It is a fairly large company with maybe 50 or so people at the headquarters and thirty or so abroad at shoots. However, I only know a few people with a dedicated job there.

I bought a dart board today. Not a fake cork board one like I had last year but a real one. I got a great deal on it and ended up walking away with a dart board and three sets of darts for $50. I played for about two hours before my arm started hurting.

Had my internship class today. We discussed bosses from hell and how to deal with them. I've been pretty lucky and haven't had any really bad bosses yet. At least at the level that some of my classmates spoke of.

My friend Matt is leaving for Japan tomorrow for a month. He's taking a Japanese language class there. He's also going to meet with some of the Tokyo animators I've been working with. They sent us a photo of the team last week.

Tomorrow at The Third Floor I should be finishing up my second shot. It uses the Animation program Motion Builder. I'm one of the few people at the office that's good at using it.

I've been working really hard at my internship this summer. The other intern quit so I've taken an extra day. Including my Monday internship class I'm busy four days a week.

I've been archiving material from previous shows the Third Floor has worked on. A few films have already come out like XMen First Class. Others are a couple years away still so I can't say what they are. Between archiving I've been learning the software the company uses in hopes of animating actual shots.

Today I got the chance to animate my first shot. It wasn't a complicated one but I did my best to impress my supervisor with it. Hopefully this is what I'll be doing the rest of the time at The Third Floor.

Had my first day at the internship. I am pooped. They had me archiving old materials the first day but the woman in charge of interns promised me that I'll be doing something more interesting soon. I've spoken with the old intern and he says that they put him in charge of real work fairly quickly.