Spring Semester (7th Week) & TEDDY NEWTON !!

I haven't been updating for the past few days due to commitments I've made to my film, but before I move on to talking about my film's progress, I just wanna say that the guest speaker for last Friday was TEDDY NEWTON !!!! If the name, "Teddy Newton" is unfamiliar to you, just look him up here-> http://www.pixartalk.com/pixarians/teddy-newton/

Teddy Newton's work has inspired me on so many levels and just being able to meet him in person is FANTASTIC! He is born a natural entertainer and he's my favorite guest speaker so far! He is funny, entertaining and Teddy is a very very special guy like none other I've met so far! After the talk ended, Teddy Newton signed my Day & Night book and I gave him the caricature I did of him! It was an awkward situation when I handed him the caricature telling him how big I'm a fan of him and his work and I felt really dumb in front of him ! Anyway I didn't manage to really talk to him a lot since there were a lot of other people waiting in line to speak to him :(

Here's the caricature which I drew and later gave to Teddy Newton! I also attached a message I wrote to him to the back of the picture frame made out of black foam cord, which I forgot to tell him! I hope he sees it though!



I remember joining an online competition half a year ago and what I had to do was guess the composer for Teddy Newton's "Day & Night" short. The prize was Teddy Newton's "Day & Night" book autographed by he himself. I sent in my answer and it was correct! Unfortunately there were a lot of people who got the right answers ahead of me so I didn't get the book. I was disappointed of course... However, last week before Teddy's talk on Friday, I had ordered his book, "Day & Night" off amazon on Wednesday and it arrived on Friday just in time for him to sign it right before my eyes. I prefer this so much more than winning the book ! Well I guess if you just wait long enough and keep believing !!!



Teddy Newton will always be one of my greatest inspiration and I cannot wait to see what other amazing things he'll be churning out in the coming years !!

Anyway, a little bit of good news is that I'm done with my rough keys for now, and I'm currently working on my in-betweens and tie-downs. I have never worked on a real 2D animation short that's more than a minute and this whole process can sometimes be really tiring. I have to admit it's a lot of fun though to see your animation come to life on the pencil test machine and it can be really rewarding. The first week I started my animation, I tried going to bed before 12 and waking up at 6 am every morning just so that I can make full use of my production time. It worked really well in the first week of production and then that habit disappeared the following week, and this week it feels like I'm slowly getting back on track again. If I'm gonna try to complete my film in color I need to do better than that for sure, so tonight I'll be retreating to my bed early!!

-Yon.

Caricature Addiction #4 !!

Some people form my European Studies class !



By the way, we had an outdoor life drawing class at the lawn today ! It was really fun cuz it was such a beautiful day and it was perfect to be sitting outside feeling the breeze and just draw away ~ I'll see if I can post some pictures of it later in the day!

-Yon.

Caricature Addiction #3 !!

I did several caricatures of my European Studies teacher, Norman while in his class today. Thanks to him, my interest in European history and art has gone up tremendously. He's an amazing teacher and it was fun caricaturing him !! I'm hoping to print this out and give it to him in next week's class !



I also did a bunch of caricatures of other students from my critical studies class today and I'm hoping to post them up soon !

-Yon.

Mermaid Series 2 - Devouress

Here's the second in the series !!



I'm having a lot of fun on this series and I'm looking forward to come up with more that's off the conventional.

-Yon.

Caricature Addiction #2 !!

Another caricature of my friend, Tahnee !


Tahnee

I'll try to do one everyday if possible !

-Yon.

Caricature Addiction !!

After the gallery show, I couldn't forget the caricature experience I had that night so I decided to do more of it ! My friend, Nak and Mirae who are both first years in Character Animation did caricatures of our entire classmates for the gallery show and that inspired me to give caricature a serious attempt ! Thanks, you guys ! I couldn't believe how much I've missed out all these years without studying features of people in depth ! It's such a great exercise !! I realized how much more I could have learned in designing characters by learning to observe and capture the most distinctive features of people! Everybody has their very own unique features yet they could be portrayed/drawn in 100 different ways without losing the essence of their character ! Isn't that crazy ?? I'm really having a lot of fun studying all the various shapes and capturing the attitudes of people I'm caricaturing ! It's such a great and rewarding feeling !!!

Here's a caricature of both my friends in Character Animation !


Kari


Aron

More to come !!

-Yon.

Spring Semester (5th Week) & CalArts Character Animation Gallery Show !!

I apologize for not updating on my film and current happenings over the past few weeks. I've been busy working on my film and coming up with a schedule that will help me finish my film in time.

Things have been going well and I'm now working on my rough animation for my film. I'm trying to speed up my animating skills in hopes to get my film done earlier than my schedule. My film is scheduled to be done a week before the deadline but I'm looking at the probability of me screwing things up, and if I do, I could really use the extra time to fix those shots. If my film turns out looking good in the end as planned, I'll post up my film schedule here for a rough idea on how I assigned myself shots on a day to day basis. Right now, I seem to be still on track, which is a good sign. I've currently animated  5 rough scenes, one which I would have to go back and do a serious fix, but should be okay since I have an idea on how I'm going to work around it.

On the other hand, it was the CalARTS 2012 Character Animation Gallery Show last Thursday, which was two days ago !!!



I feel super lucky to be part of this show and it's actually regarded as an official gallery show which I could put into my resume ! The best part of the show was definitely the caricature session ! Students from all different schools were brought together with the character animation students! There were also other people visiting from other schools and people from the industry were here as well ! It was really inspiring to see all the beautiful works that came out of the character animation students here and I feel so lucky to be part of the community, and the camaraderie among the students here are AMAZING !! 

To see some photos of the amazing works up in the gallery, visit this link:
http://blog.calarts.edu/2012/02/16/photos-from-2012-character-animation-gallery-show-at-calarts/

Thanks to Amanda Candler, a second year character animation student who worked so hard to make this event possible, and to all faculties and students who supported this event !! :)


We love you !!

One of the best part of the gallery show was definitely the caricature event !!



The caricature event has become part of the annual gallery show's culture and drawing horses and chairs were set up in the main gallery for the event !! The amount of people who were in line waiting for their turn to be caricatured were amazing !!

Here are some happy faces of students from other schools posing for the character animation students !!!











At first thought, I didn't want to be a part of the caricature event since I've never really been good at caricaturing and I haven't had a real attempt at it in a public space ! The upperclassmen are all very upbeat about it and they were masters at it! 30 minutes into the event, My first year friends took part in the caricatures, and I realized that what's most important is not to strive for a perfect caricature but to have fun and really just enjoy the gallery show !! I took part in the caricature event shortly after that which I turn out to like a lot and it wasn't as bad as I thought ! I was pretty nervous at first, but the first person I caricatured had a very distinctive feature which made it easier for me. Her name is Lori and she's been taking classes at Art Center. Here's a picture of my silly face and Lori, who's the first person I caricatured in an official public event who also gave me confidence in caricaturing through her amazing features !!!


Me & Lori

I also caricatured a bunch of other people and although some of them turned out looking like a completely different person, it was the joy of being part of the event that made the worth !! It was the amount of camaraderie I got from my fellow character animation friends sitting down, working as a team drawing so many different people together ! Here are some photos of the character animation students doing the caricatures !


 From left to right: T, Ali, Louise, Louis, Skyler


Jacob


Skyler


Nicolette


Aron wowing the audience with his amazing paint job.


And that's me caricaturing my lovely friends who are also first year character animation students !!

Here's the outcome !!


From left to right: Nak, Felice, Thomas.

And finally ~~~~ Here's the wall I shared with my amazing and talented friend, Paula !!


- Photo courtesy of Tahnee Gehm , Thanks Tahnee !! :)

And here's me and Paula, who's also a first year character animation student !! Sometimes I really want to put more time into learning how to dress and look better but I guess all the focus and attention went into designing my characters instead.



The event was a successful one and it showed the spirit of the character animation students !! It's also my favorite gallery show by far ! The event ended at about 3am in the morning and I left shortly before that.



It's true when they say that art brings people together no matter where you are, and although the event was only for a night, it was one of the most memorable and enjoyable moment I had at CalArts so far. Here's how the main gallery looks like this afternoon after all of the works have been taken down.



The walls are white with plain emptiness and they look somewhat unfamiliar to me anymore. I guess artists just have the urge and the impulse to want to draw on clear white paper/wall.



Nevertheless, it's a show that I'm looking forward to have again next year and hopefully it'll continue to become part of the CalArts Character Animation tradition. I'm excited to see how everybody's work is gonna evolve in a period of one year. As for the amazing 4th year students, it was their last gallery show of their CalArts life and they are most probably ready to step out into the industry and rule the animation world !!!

CalArts is an amazing place and I apologize for having repeating this over and over again but it is true. In everybody's life there's bound to be a place or event that'll change their life forever and for me, CalArts is the place, and I believe for many others who went here as well. I'll never forget how hard I worked to get over here and how hard it must be for my parents to pay for me to get here since we aren't eligible for loans.

Now that I'm here and having met so many people and friends who are also becoming part of my family, I'm giving my full potential in all that I do in hopes that I'll one day become an artist/entertainer I've always dreamt to be.

-Yon.

Mermaid Series 1 - Botanist

Here's a little something which I'm also working on now aside from my film. I'm planning to come up with a 100 different mermaids and having them all done before the end of summer break. Lets see how it'll turn out !!