First week into 2D Animation...

... and I still haven't gotten my books. =(

But the good news is that I can now animate a bouncing ball in Adobe Flash! W00T!!! The teacher's a great guy - probably in his early thirties, with shoulder-length hair and colorful striped button-down shirts that looked stolen from the 70s - but something about him just seems off. I think I felt it when he flew out the door the millisecond class was supposed to end.

Don't get me wrong, he's amazing at what he does, and one of the things he's taught us is that as an Animator, you need to me meticulous with your work. The bouncing ball example was a perfect demonstration... because it's one thing to animate like it's bouncing onto ground, but it's a whole different thing when you want to make it look realistic. That's when the detail comes in, because first of all... every frame in a moving shot is important. Here's the first rule I learned from Animation:

Frames = Time.

Roughly one second of animation takes up 24 individual frames, and it's the animator's job to determine how she wants to use the frames. You can make the object look like it's going in super slow motion, like it's in control of its own weight or completely at gravity's mercy, etc. The more realistic an object moves in an environment, the more believable it will be to the viewer. Apparently... the Laws of Physics are quite handy in the world of Animation. =)

So I created a circle. I gave it an environment (actually just a horizontal line for it to 'bounce' on) and did my fancy Adobe Flash magic to direct the circle in a straight vertical movement. I selected the 1st and 24th frames in the shot to have the ball stay "up" and then selected a Key Frame in the 12th frame. This 12th frame would direct the ball to 'land' on the horizontal line. if you put it together, the circle starts up... slowly moves down, lands on the ground... then magically goes back up to where it started! That's just the basic animation. Now comes the meticulous part... where you have to ease into the timing to make the ball go faster into the bounce, and then ease out when the ball is back up in the air like a floating balloon. And don't forget that the ball needs distortion! It goes into a flat shape when it hits the ground, then thins out as it's about to go up into the air. Hah. Physics!

It's been a great experience thus far. I'm definitely looking forward to creating my own characters... starting next week! Sketching is the best part of putting together an idea. That's what I'm doing right now!

In other animation news, I showed Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away this week to my girls, and... it sold like hotcakes. They absolutely loved it! It makes me feel good that the girls I take care of have an utter appreciation for this art. Yay!

The Arrival

I sat in on the Graphic Novels class today as if I were a student, no different from what I did last year with Japanese I. It's actually fun, but it gets really strange when the kids get obnoxious and there's nothing you can do about it. =) But anyway... the class looks very promising. I'm excited about the books we'll be covering throughout the semester, like Art Spiegelman's MAUS and Alan Moore's Watchmen (which I'm still trying to get through!), analyzing the definition of comics and deciding what makes a good illustrated story.

For homework, he gave us a copy of Shaun Tan's The Arrival, a short illustrated novel about a young man's experience as an immigrant.


The kicker is unlike other graphic novels, this one has absolutely no dialogue! It's just a series of images... what Will Eisner once described as traditional "Sequential Art." The Arrival is a quick read, and the illustrations are unlike anything I've seen before! They are colorless except with gray and sepia tones, depicting a foreign Metropolis that functions under the mechanics of the early Industrial Revolution. In spite of the lacking dialogue, it's unnecessary, because the images and expressions of the people are enough to understand what's going on - or what happened in the past. There's also a certain fantastical element to Tan's work, regarding the animals (often seen as house-pets in the story) and the methods of transportation. It's a great story, and the images reminded me of something Hayao Miyazaki would probably do.

Speaking of whom... I just learned that Miyazaki's newest animated film, Ponyo, just came out into theaters! Thus far he has never let me down, so I'm pretty sure I'll love the story behind this one. Can't wait to see it!

First Day of School!

...for the kids, actually. =)

This makes it the second consecutive year that I've had twenty girls with different names. I love having distinct names like Ashtin and Irene, and Faith. It gives me the urge to start writing a comic book with each of them as characters. Such sweet ladies!

Major thing came in the mail for me this week, but let me explain why it's so cool. My friend Jul and I are setting ourselves a goal to become better comic artists (to better perfect my long-term goal with animation) and she'd recommended me this graphic novel entitled Blankets, by Craig Thompson. I'd never heard of it before, but she told me it's one of the best-illustrated novels she's ever read. This past week, I've been pumping myself this graphic novels class I'd be sitting in on with the IMSA kids this semester... and when I emailed the professor about book recommendations, he mentioned Blankets!

So naturally, I had to get it.

Okay, before I comment on it... let me just say that the size of this thing confirms my utter love and appreciation for the graphic novels genre. It's roughly takes up the same mass as Gone with the Wind (which is also currently sitting on my coffee table) and it's a pure black-and-white comic from beginning to end. Now I'd read b/w graphic novels before, such as Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi that deals with coming-of-age experiences of the respective author, and Blankets takes it to a whole different level. I've only read the first two chapters, and thus far I'm really enveloped by the way this guy can draw & write about his rough childhood... how he was bullied, isolated, and pushed into this deep depression. It isn't until he finds true love when he finally begins to get out of that black hole. =)

I love the book so far, and I recommend it to anyone who's interested in graphic novels. I'll comment more about it when I'm done. My animation class starts next week. Yay!

Building the Animation dream.

My newest endeavor.

So for the past year, I've been working at a residential school for gifted teens. They're some of the most brilliant minds I've ever met, kids striving to become pediatric oncologists or chemical engineers at the age of fourteen. They live here at the school, and since parenting and guidance is of the essence... that's where I come in. My name is Sandra. I'm a resident counselor, and I take care of twenty girls as if I were a second mom, disciplining them and teaching them how to do their own laundry and housekeeping... with the occasional batch of brownies. ^^

I just finished training for a second year at this job. It's exciting, but strangely uneventful... and I'm determined to fix some of the mistakes I made from last year. One: not hesitate or be afraid to get to know my girls. Two: to push for more community within the group of girls I'm committed to. Three: to do a damn good job at it.

And to think... I'm also doing this to save up money for art school.

You see, I want to be an Animator.

It's funny how sometimes you can remember parts of your life and wonder why the heck you didn't just go with your gut feeling, even when everyone else around you said to take a safer route. Artists don't make money. Artists are really competitive. blah blah blah. So I graduated college two years ago with the faint plan of becoming a teacher... and it took me about four months of academic tutoring in inner-city Boston to make me realize that no, I'm not ready to be a teacher. First, I want to make it in the graphic arts and animation world. Then maybe... just maybe... I'll be able to enjoy my life as a teacher more.

So that dream's been locked away in my mind, even while I had this job as a resident counselor. I want to have that chance to work for an awesome company like Nickelodeon or Pixar or even Studio Ghibli (if I can master Japanese). I'm aware of what I want, even though I barely have been able to master Photoshop this summer! It's a looong way to go, but I'm determined to work hard for it.

Every artist needs inspiration, so what better way to find it through the job? I love these girls and will use all my energy in getting to know them this year... with enough energy left over to keep those Photoshop and Flash tutorials going! I'll be the Nanny working diligently to raise her twenty girls, but also dedicating her spare time and creativity for her dream job in (Ani)mation. I'm the AniNanny.

Get ready to read about a young woman's progress in Photoshop, her responses about the latest animated film she's seen, as well as her personal experience working with a new batch of twenty gifted teenage girls.

I have a feeling inspiration will happen this year! =)