Final Update

So here we are. The portfolio disk is finally done. I think for the first time since I've been in this class, I actually feel really good about the outcome of a piece. There might be some things I'll think of later that I needed to tweak and forgot to, but alot of tweaking was done already. All in all, I'm actually really happy with this piece. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I'm happy with the amount of work I invested in it.

Kitty Blues from Celia Mitchell on Vimeo.

I'm also pretty happy with the DVD menu. I spent a lot of time working on that this weekend. All in all, I think this was a good end to a rather rough semester. I fully intend to experiment a bit more over the break with AE, and hopefully come up with something even better.

Finals Update

So, I'm back on schedule with my animation. The main part is done. I will admit it still needs a little tweaking here and there to help with the pacing, but overall, I'm more glad that it's finally completely animated. The one thing I didn't get done is putting the DVD together. I going to need some time putting it together correctly for the final DVD. The menus though, are done, and the files are compressed.

That said, the rest will be ready to go on Thursday.

Sean Shihi Lecture

Sean Shihi is a pop-up book artist. He makes his own pop-up books by hand. He talked about the different methods and periods of book arts including people like Peter Rhode with "Daily Mirror." Pamela Paulsrud with books stones (stones created from books). She cut books into blocks and took them to a sander. In the end they look like stones. Philip B. Zimmerman with "Shelter 2006," Theresa Harsma with "untitled 2003" (vibrant cover, no content), and several more. He made the statement: That there is "no point in having an artist book unless it has a key expressive role." I tend to disagree. There are many reasons to have an artist book. Perhaps you like the material and wish to model yourself after the person. Perhaps you simply like the works and want to bring it out and look at it every now and then. Maybe you want motivation and the works awe you, so it becomes your motivation. Books play both active and passive roles in our lives. Just like any other source of information or media, they shape our interests and viewpoints.

For pop-up books, he made the conscious statement that pop-ups are "more for grown-ups than kids." Some are even made in comic and text-book format. They are made in accordion folds (flag books), and tunnel books.

Shihi made concept books, collapsible books, studied education, and later wen back to school to study graphic design. He's made lots of posters, including a main job with making posters for he Chicago Symphany Orchestra.

His latest work is for a Post Apocolyptic Chicago. He puts in animals that would survive and how they would evolve.

I think this lecture is pretty interesting. I learned a few things about books and pop-up books. I think the subject is interesting. That said, our school needs more animation and video artists/producers, etc. And contemporary and highly professional based ones at that. I would like to have at least one lecture from someone who has been in the movie industry as part of a very large company, just once, rather than all the small Indie film artists we've been getting.

Joy of Birthdays

So once again, because of a little birthday celebrations put on by friends, didn't get even half of what I wanted to done yesterday. That is okay though. I foresaw a little problem with getting efficient work done yesterday, so I scheduled in the weekend to finish. Once I get some sleep things should also go faster. I made a few minor revisions and animated a very tiny clip. I am having problems getting my character to step into the position I need and then get the trap to move with his foot. Right now I have the trap moving with the foot, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get the cat to initially step in it without it moving with the trap. Moving right along, lots more to revise and animate on this weekend...

Revised Schedule

So I gave myself a little extra time in case what I thought might happen did happen. And behold, yes it did. Over the break I revised the bulk of my assets that weren't working and got some much needed work done on other assignments so I can focus here on more where I need to focus. That being said, my schedule isn't really valid anymore.

What I'm planning is to have at least half done by Tuesday (30th).

Attempt to get the remainder finished by Thursday (Dec. 3rd)

Then I'll have the DVD packed up and ready to go (Dec. 7th)

If the worst case scenario hits and this animation takes absolutely forever (meaning much longer than I've planned already), I'll finish over the weekend, but the DVD will still be ready to go by the 7th.

Further Editing to assets

For the outdoor scene, I changed the look of the tree to something a little more simple. I'm stll not totally sure it works, but in my opinion it works better than it did before. Also, I changed the mole to a skunk, just because there were complaints before about the mole, and I think the skunk would be funnier in the end. I chose not to to make purely a line character because it didn't work with a skunk.

For the living room I remodeled the cat and mouse, as well as put them in a different spot.

For the kitchen, made each character articulated with separate limbs.

Break Down of middle parts

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