Karen’s Animation Blog!

If for nothing else than to get me to keep doing…stuff…and stay out there…since moving I’ve found myself getting more and more shored up into my own little hole without really getting out there at all in this big wide world.

So the strip is back going again!

Good Times! I’m so glad! I love doing Good Times and the idea that there’s a small amount of people out there that enjoy it too is just gravy I love that phrase. I’ve also started going back and getting tutoring from a wonderful Artist and animator named Lenord. He’s the greatest guy and he’s given me assignments to work on until we meet again. The first is a list of emotions that I have to work out by drawing a sand back emoting. It’s been quite a challenge but a lot of fun. I work on them during my lunch break and I LOVE it! It gives me a chance to escape work in the middle of the day. Here’s what I’ve done so far;

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I’ll be sure to update with more as I get them!

Also me and the hubby had a chance to live it up by seeing a screening of the short “Wild About Safety” over at the Disney Animation building a while back where I was the PA. It was quite and adventure and I must say it was a lot of fun working on that project! Granted I was behind a pencil test machine and sitting in the car almost the whole time, but just to do that and meet the people that I did made it all worthwhile! I sometimes really miss working at Duck Studios…but things were getting tight with me only working 25-30 hours and putting 100+ miles on the car every week so the stress was there and sometimes ya just gotta hit the dusty trail. And it did feel like it was my time to go. Ya gotta do whatcha gotta do….

And last but not least I want to recommend a great short called “The Story of Stuff” It’s go adorable animation and a fantastic message. Check it out! The Story of Stuff

That’s all for now….stay dry!

~K

…you find yourself at a life drawing workshop in North Hollywood where you walk through the doors to be assaulted by a barrage of billowing drapes, once you find your way through the drapes you see an entirely white room the size of a warehouse in front of you. So white that you could swear this was a room in one of your nightmares as a child. It’s completely silent….you’re about to call it a loss and go home when a tiny pixie of a woman with huge puffy hair that you would expect to see in Narnia prancing with fairies comes up to you and confirms that you are in the right place. It was an unreal experience….here’s some of my drawings from the night. I loved the accessories they used! All of these poses run an average of 5 minutes each or so…I didn’t really time them..just went for it;

So I go to a church near me and my whole life I haven’t been too incredibly active in churches…just recently I got back into going to church at all. But I heard that they needed volunteers for a music camp for kids. Aaaaand since I’m only working part time currently and also I’ve grown up with music all of my life (my Mom was a piano teacher, I took band all through school etc etc) I thought “what the heck” So to make a long story short (too late) I found myself helping out with the art wall that they set up in their recess area where the kids take some markers and big pieces of poster board and go nuts! That in itself is a fun adventure but I found out today that the lovely older lady I’m helping out actually has a HUGE history in animation! So the numbers may be off in my story but you’ll get the idea.

She started off going to college taking some art classes and started to date a guy who turned out to be the nephew of Joseph Barbara! And I guess back in those days there was a lot of family involved with the studio so after doing her thing she ended up painting cells for them for something like 10 years! She only got the boot because the studio turned everything over to be shipped overseas. So she found herself out of work and thought her career in animation was over because she didn’t even have a resume or anything. So she took it easy and took some night classes in interior design. But one day she was having lunch with some old co-workers and they said that she should get out there. So she got a resume together, got a list of studios from the union, and mass mailed a ton of her resumes and then went on vacation. While on vacation she got a call from Disney to come in for an interview! But actually it was for a position that she wasn’t really qualified for so she didn’t get that one but 2 weeks later they called her and hired her on to be an animation checker! Which she happily stayed there as for 20 years! And since she had worked union all of those years she got to take retirement with a pension at 60 years old……who would of thought??!?!?!? Volunteer at a music camp and get an incredible story of animation!!!

Just had to share…hope you enjoyed it as much as I did

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but things have been pretty crazy lately. My most recent project has been my comic strip “Good times!” which takes up a lot of time, but I’m having a great time doing it!

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Also if you’re going to Comic-Con in San Diego I will be there with my hubby and fun little samplers of “Good Times” to pass around the joy! HAHAHAHA

The life drawing class is going GREAT! I’m having a fantastic time and will be sure to post up more pictures of my drawings there. I realized something from the last class that was pretty cool. The guy I was sitting next to had developed a habit of drawing little models of every pose…it didn’t have much character it was the same as if you were drawing from one of those wooden models they have for artists…but last night they had such an interesting model that I watched him break out of his shell just a bit, try something new….it was great to watch and he really caught some great emotion in some of his drawings too. I just have to remember to always try something new, don’t get caught up in just what feels “right”

Well, it’s Friday and my mind has officially checked out. I will try to post more often on here with news and updates and any other sort of goings on.

Tootles!

So I just started a life drawing class by me at the animation guild and it has been a lot of fun. Here are the life drawings from my first class last week;

A practice on timing from the Richard Williams book “Animators Survival Kit”

This I may say is a bit odd….I was sitting at work and started doodling and found myself drawing my own coffee cup….then I started to let my mind drift…what if this coffee cup came to life? What if he had feelings? I began doodling him sad, and happy and jumping you get the idea..well here’s what it finally ended me up with…a strange test animation of my coffee cup at work coming to life…..I don’t get it, but I likes it!

I was doing some animation practice and I decided to try something new. I drew out the key frames, then I imported them in Flash and traced over them and then added in the inbetweens and tweeked the timing and TADA! A funny little test in which and unsuspecting subject meets a spontaneous worm hole! I really enjoyed doing this and maybe soon I’ll try some more or clean this one up a bit.

So I was at Barnes and Noble with Bill and we picked up this book I had heard about called “Your Career in Animation; How to survive and thrive” and I started reading it last night and after the first few chapters I must say this book is pretty darn amazing. As I was reading it I couldn’t stop thinking “Why didn’t they teach us this stuff in career services back in AI?!?” All of the information is so complete and to the point! It doesn’t say “Make contacts and network, that’s how you get jobs” and that’s the end of the chapter oh no, it goes on to give you tips, ideas, and first hand accounts of how you go about networking and getting informational interviews and what to say and not to say when cold calling a studio. All of the information is fairly recent too, it talks of stories from the 1990’s so you know it’s not all yesterdays news. Old stories from the 60’s are fantastic, but sometimes they’re not very relevant to landing a job in today’s industry. Now I feel so great because I feel like this book has given me bit of direction again. And this is all from the beginning of the book. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the book brings me.
Overall I want to completely recommend this book to anyone out there that’s got a passion for animation and who is in or wants to be in the industry. Also for any students who are currently going through career services and feel as though their mentors have never worked a day in the animation industry before in their life! This author has been there, done that and now wants to help you out! Great job David Levy!

So here I go on my journey to diving head first into animation. I sat down at my light box and this simple animation came out. Nothing too special, just a little girl jumping rope. And after looking at it put together I’ve decided that at my second go around I want to make her arm go more in circles rather than up and down, also I want to make her little skirt flip up and down as secondary action, and add a cute little face that’ll also react to her jumping up and landing. It’s a start, even though I know that it needs a lot of work. Any advice is appreciated…and please…..be gentle!