Cody: That's a Wrap!

It's hard to believe it's my last day at Smiley Guys. Four months went by so fast.

I ended up finishing my animated short "Magic Pen", and although it didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped I feel like I've learned a lot in the process.  Starting with the concept, writing a script and storyboarding before heading into animation was a good way to understand how an animation can go from an idea to a finished product.  At each phase there was always someone willing to explain things to me and to help me get started with what I was doing.  Everyone had some very good advice to share and ways of improving upon what I was trying to accomplish and I'd like to thank everyone for all the help with my project. 

It was an awesome experience to be able to work with such talented people and a privilege to have done my placement here. Here's a picture of what my animation started as and a picture from the finished animation.

Original Concepts

Final Designs

Erica Needs Her Ogres To Be Ugly

Well I am finally finished my scene planning, which I am currently working on now.  I did my props which were just some doors opening and I did all of those in flash. There was also one more the bed sheets on the girls bed.  They said that we should do it while animating so we can get a better idea of how it is going to look, the way she grabs it and etc…which I totally agree on. 

So I also finally finished my characters YAY! The giant I had to do over because I didn’t like the way she looked, not ugly enough.  So yes now I am currently working on the scene planning.  Darien split it up for me into 4 or 5 parts can’t remember hahaa :P anywayys these are the pictures I got for you today.

My new characters:

Lalo's Cool Project Tease

For the past two weeks I've been working on a project for school that shows what I do at work.  For my project, I've taken the scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" where Darth Vader tempts Luke to join the dark side after revealing the he is his father.  For this clip, I've changed the dialogue making it seem like it's about a boy reuniting with his father.  This clip has Barry White music which changes the mood of the scene, different sounds and the voices of the characters are different (I voice Luke and Jeremy voices Vader).  Once the video is done, I look forward to posting it.

Adam Reflects

As the end of my co-op experience is coming in the next few months, I think it’s time to think
about what I’ve learned and what I would like to do with all the tools and abilities I’ve gained from
working at this great studio.

Prior to working here, I’ve had minimal drawing experience.  I didn’t know how to design
characters and I had absolutely no idea what properties make a character look pleasing to the eye.
 After being here for 8 months, I can gladly say that I’ve grown as a designer and a director.  Most co-op placements would usually ask you to simply join on in their projects; at Smiley Guy Studios, they have allowed me to actually be the creative director of a short film that I created.  And that’s exactly what makes this great studio unique.  The employees are always happy to help me out (I’m a little shy, so I don’t ask too much), but in perspective, I’ve truly enjoyed my compelling experience here.

The only real medium of design that I was familiar with before being at SGS was with 3D
modeling and animation.  Now I am extremely comfortable with 2D modeling and animation because of the help of Kurt Scott.  He’s been assuming the role as my manager/supervisor of the project and he’s been doing a hell of a job with getting me to up to par with the roles of animation.  I plan to make short and quick YouTube videos in the future with Flash animation as I feel very comfortable with the skills I have gained. 

Here are the images of both backgrounds of my short film.

Erica's Approaching Animation

I finally started my animatic and finished it quite quickly too. All that was left was the music or the voice over for the characters. I finally finished it for good! I started the backgrounds in photoshop and at first they were really confusing to do because it’s something new to me, I have always done my work in flash, but after a little more review I got the hang of it and managed to finish all of my backgrounds. YAY!! So now that is left to do is the character designs and then I’m onto making the props and finally the ANIMATION!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!

Well here are some/most of my background designs IN COLOR! :

Lalo Wins An Emmy for Intern of the Year!

Lalo holds the Emmy that Guidestones just won in Cannes

Cody Approaching the Finish Line...

Over the past couple of weeks I've begun to animate and I've got my first few shots done.
Initially I had a hard time figuring out where things go and what things do in Flash.
Nothing seemed to want to do what I thought it was going to, but the more time I spend in the program the more it's starting to make more sense to me.

Now that Iv'e straightened out some of the issues I was having I think I could speed up my process.
There's still a lot of work to do but I look forward to continuing and finishing on schedule.

Here's a frame from the opening scene.

A Lalo Production - Part 4 of 4

The fourth and final installment of Lalo's Blog video.  *tear!

A Lalo Production - Part 3 of 4

Another highly anticipated installment of Lalo's blog video:

Cody's Ready to Animate!

This week at Smiley Guy Studios I worked on refining my animatic and finalizing my character rigs.
I've also made revisions to my backgrounds and props and I think I have all the assets I need.
Now that things are set I believe I'm ready to begin animating.

Here's a picture from the title sequence.