film, screenwriting, animation, illustration
it’s already july (a week in actually), which means the year is half over! i like to keep track of goals and such, so here’s my status report.
ACCOMPLISHED:
i decided to go with ballie kicking, but instead of having him just kick a ball, i’m going to have him throwing 2 kicks to another character.
there’s a lot of shifting of weight going on as he throws the kicks with each leg. i want to make sure he looks balanced, and i want to sell the power of the kick.
i shot reference video of myself kicking a bag, but i won’t be posting that.
my short break is over, and the second term – psychology of mody mechanics – started this week.
here’s a reel of the animation homework i did from last term. now that i upgraded from my white plastic macbook to the new 13″ macbook pro, maya renders things correctly.
the first project lasts 4 weeks! we start by picking a movement for the ballie character to perform. over the next several weeks, we sketch the shot, block it out, and animate it.
we have a list of 10 movements to choose from, ranging in difficulty from 1 easy – 3 hard. i want to do one of kicking a ball, but that’s considered easy. i might add a little complexity to it to make it more interesting.
the disney abc writing fellowship deadline was today. unfortunately, i procrastinated and arrived at post office after it closed. this has happened before with other applications and film festival submissions. in the past, i’d go down to kinko’s and fill out the fedex ground shipping label, and it would be postmarked with the day’s date. once i got in at 11:45pm, filled out the form and finished everything before midnight, no problems.
today was different. i filled out the form and paid. the clerk hands me my receipt and i start to walk away, but turn around to double check the date. the clerk attaches the label to the envelope and is about to throw it in the bin, but i ask to double check. good thing i did! it had tomorrow’s date on it. he tells me it’s after 6, so it’ll go out tomorrow. he tells me this while the fedex guy is hauling off boxes and envelopes. i say ok, it’ll go out tomorrow, but the postmark date should say today because guess what, it’s today. he says no, it’s after 6, so it has tomorrow’s date on it. this is the same fedex location i always go to. it’s even the same clerk! he tells me don’t worry, it’ll get there tomorrow. i tell him i don’t care when it gets there, but this application MUST be postmarked by today. he wouldn’t budge. i canceled the transaction and left. it was 7:30pm. Continue reading ‘you need something postmarked today, but it’s too late and the post office is closed’
the deadline for nbc’s writers on the verge program is today at 3pm pacific time! if you haven’t submitted yet, better hurry up. i just emailed my application in.
here’s the timeline from their site:
my plan this year has been to write tv scripts and submit them to the various fellowships around town. i feel that’s the best way for me to break in because the fellowships are designed to find and develop talent. ideally, the fellows would become staff writers. most of the fellowships are for tv writers, but if you wrote a feature, there is the nicholl fellowship and the sundance screenwriting lab.
as a back up, i did also apply to a couple contests: the scriptapalooza contest and AAA contest. if i place well, i’m hoping i can use that as leverage to get an agent or someone to read it.
but here’s an article about the Fade In contest not giving out the winners the prizes it promised. i applied years ago and had an issue with that contest (where i feel my script was never read or even entered into their system, yet my check my cashed) and will NEVER submit to them again.
unfortunately, contests like this exists, so buyer beware. you can find reviews of this and other contests at moviebyes.com.
not all contests are bad. i’ve had great experiences with the slamdance screenwriting competition and the dc shorts screenwriting contest.
i feel if you’re going to enter a contest, stick to the bigger ones and ones that give feedback on your script. at least that way, you know someone actually read it.
one of my animation mentor classmates forwarded this video. it is amazing and hilarious, and also a little sad. make sure the volume is up.
you can read about his experience learning animation here.
well i figured out how to add some heels to the ballie character, but that meant i had to throw out the blocking from last week and start from scratch. i looked at reference video of runway model walks to try to get the right hip movement.
i bought the new 13″ macbook pro which has an nvidia graphics card, so it’ll be able to run maya and render everything properly.
there’s only one week left in the first term! i started off not knowing how to animate anything in maya, and now i can animate a walk cycle. but i’ve learned a lot more than just how to push buttons in maya. animation mentor does a great job of teaching the fundamentals of animation that apply to anything, whether it’s maya or flash or traditional.
i’m looking forward to term 2 – psychology of body mechanics.
we had to do a pose with stu showing balance.
here are my sketches.
and here is the final.
i chose to go with stu throwing a muay thai roundhouse kick to the head. a proper muay thai kick doesn’t arc up at the moment of impact, because you can damage your foot or shin on the target’s elbow. instead, you throw your leg up, and the shin makes impact on the way down, cutting into the target.
this week we have to do a walk cycle with personality. i decided to do a runway model walk.
even though we start with a side view, the finished animation will be delivered in a 3/4 view. from this side view, you can’t really see the hips swaying and so it just looks like a regular walk. i want to add high heels to sell the runway model look i’m going for.
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