Christian Slade + The Detroit Zoo= Cold

Especially if you decide to go to the zoo in december. It was fun and we really had a good time sketching the animals that were enclosed. The giraffes were amazing and so was the polar bear and seal exhibit. I had a good time overall. I just wish that i hadnt left my lights on and drained my battery...and I wish i had worn boots.

We got to have a quick drawing session with him and a lecture about where he started and where he is at now. It was hilarious to see the stuff he was drawing when he decided he wanted to be an artist, and where he is now as an artist. He seriously is amazing. His studies of people and animals are sooo extensive. He talked about filling up one sketchbook a week while in college. That is perserverance. I mean, I love my sketch book and I think I do a pretty good job of filling them up, but one a week!? Holy Crap. Maybe its a different situation with being an animator. I feel like all my time drawing is put into each seperate page of animation....i feel like its hard to keepo drawing after youve done so many frames in a day. But its good to know that all this drawing will pay off one day.
I really think that I do need to start stretching my legs in the whole basics of characters....Im so stuck on what im animating at the moment. The fact that this is a year long project, is starting to make me depressed. I dont want to just draw one character for the rest of the year!
Im terrified of drawing animals...so i probably need to do that more.....im just not familiar with them...im not around them....i dont have pets...i dont like pets...ugh.
so apparently i should learn how to draw animals....like so i can from memory. it would be good to be able to understand the basic anatomy of some animals....like dogs, cats, that kind of thing...i mean i have some understanding, but its not convincing enough if i dont have a picture of it in font of me.
my teacher is a total hippy. he definetly looks like he is wearing a night gown over his jeans.
Ok well...so hopefully more to come...on the whoel sketching deal...
and check out my rough animation animatic...Its posted on my youtube site....
its still rough! so be kind!

more tidbits

woohoo...im in class right now, getting my demo reel finalizzed and ready to post on my youtube account. later on today Sam Raimey is upposed to be stopping in. Everyone was joking about asking him "why the hell did you make Spiderman 3?" I guess its a legitiamte question. Though i didnt mind the movie so much. The first one was obviously still the best. I think no matter what you do, if you try to change a character so much as Peter Parker did in the third, you are going to be stuck with a confused audience. It was a bit corny, which was the worst part. I think that they could have made the character seem more confident, without making him dance and prance around. It was cute, but it was so far removed from the rest of the films. It didnt fit in at all. On the other hand, I thought that the characters were very cool. I loved the black goo from Venom.It was very well animated and had a very organic feel to it. I think that with this movie genre, you kind of cant help but have these "cheezy" events take place. I know that Van Helsing couldnt escape from them at all...the Dracula character was incredibly silly....not too mention all of the horrible accents. The Xmen get stuck in the cheese factor when Wolverine comments...."you're a dick." when asked to prove that he is not Mystique. The chracter Chas from Constantine, unfortunately was on screen solely as comic relief.....well if you had told me there was going to be a 200 pound mirror.... or something along those lines. i dunno his character was not needed at all...except for the fact that keanu reeves is soooooooo boring.
ok thats my rant about pointless silliness in comic book/super hero movies.

buttt shot.....o so cute.

this is a silly render of a model that i am currently rigging in Maya. I havent done too much with the program lately, been too busy with my traditional animation. But i do really really love this class, its been a whole new experience, now that i understand timing alot better than i did when i first played around with maya.

if i had more time, than i probably would spend a bit more time exploring the program.
anywho, enjoy.
o ya, and dont forget to check out my youtube account.
www.youtube.com/ishbeth
i just uploaded a bunch of quick animaiton with still frame storyboards.

more to come....

Next semester I will hopefully be able to work on my pitch for the cartoon series called "Mammies Closet" or "Mammies Attic". I hope to be able to pitch the series by the end of next semester.
As soon as I can figure out how to upload video onto this thing, I will ahve a few pencil tests available for critique.

Update: the life of Liz

Ok so i had my 10 week review on wendesday. It went pretty well. I had a bit of trouble with the computer, but finally got a grasp of the situation and pummeled forward. I got a great suggestion that tied up the loose endings with the end of my film. My friend Mike had some great ideas, that I think really improve the overall film. It finaly feels like a finished and complete piece. I cant wait to see it colored and on the big screen. I should be dont with my rough animation pretty soon, and i hope to start tying down my shots by Christmas. The film right now is about 1 minute and 30 seconds, which I think is a pretty good length, it might get a bit longer, once everyhting is timed correctly, but I really feel like Im on the right track.
I found out that my school CCS, is offering an advanced environments and characters class next semester, whcihc will help me fill my last sutdio class requirement. I also tallked with the teacher Ben, who has apporved of me using the class to develop my pitch, so I can have it ready for Heather at Cartoon Network.
Im really excited about it, and acutally I think that I will probably write my thesis paper about my pitch for cartoon network, rather than about my senior film. Both are very character driven pieces, but I feel it will help me out more to explore the thhree main characters in the Mammies Closet piece, rather than exploring Lilly, in Beware of Wolves..(which by the way is the new title)
Alrighty, welp. today I am attend the Southgate Players Club, rendition of "The Sound of Music" It should be interesting to say the least.

tiki. and stuff.....

tiki quick character model sheet.
i like him....ooolalala.
i also love this characterrs hips.
love it.

so class is going good. im staying super busy, and am almost at my 10th week review.
terrifying.
the problem is tha i have been spending sooo much time on our collaborative short film, that i feel as though ive neglected my senior film. hopefully the work im putting into the first one will just help me to know that i can get my final senior film done.