Quick Update from Carol

Hey guys,
This is almost my final week here. It has been an amazing experience being able to work with Smiley Guys people. Thank you for the pizza and beer, it was awesome!

Aside from that, I colored Uberdude backgrounds and other characters most of the week and designed an airplane and a pilot for defying gravity. After that, I incorporated what I learned from Chirp's fan animation and use the same technique for the propeller on the plane.  

Goodbye from Anna

Hey guys. I'm sad to say this, but today is my last day at Smiley Guy... It was a lot of fun, and I genuinely learned a lot from everyone. I would totally recommend it to anyone wanting an internship at an animation studio. Not only are the people there friendly and helpful, they are all very talented in their field.

Throughout these eleven weeks, I've accumulated a wide variety of experience in flash. Not only did I animate using symbols - which I've never really done - I created the symbols that I used to animate, and created props and backgrounds as well.

In the beginning, I was pretty nervous, since the meager experience I had in Flash was all traditional animation. But as I worked on Teleporting Fat Guy, I started to get the hang of it. Now, when I look back, I can actually see the improvement, from the flow of the animation to the speed in which I animate. After working on Teleporting Fat Guy, we helped out with First Hand, which was something that hit us all emotionally at one point or another. Environmentalism is something I've always had an interest in, so I really wanted to work on First hand, and I can probably say the same thing for the rest of the interns, too. This was when I drew backgrounds based off the animatic, in a style I've never really done much. First hand was a great experience, because it was back to the basics, but at the same time, something totally new.

After a week or two in First Hand, we worked on Uberdude. I was colouring animations, and that needed to be done fast. That improved my speed as well as my skills in Flash, because I have honestly never coloured so much in my life. Haha. Later, Teleporting Fat Guy needed help, and so we helped. I was just doing various things at various times, and it was totally normal at the studio.

Lastly, Interactive. Another environmentalism project, but with a spin. It wasn't a film, but a game. Since games are somewhat an interest of mine (Hah, who am I kidding? I love games), I jumped at the opportunity to work on it. And in the end, I loved every bit. The hard parts, the not so hard parts, the fun and the tedious things that I had to do. Having an internship at Smiley Guy was one of my best spent summers of my life. Meeting new people, who were all so friendly, and working on things that were just so interesting really made this summer worthwhile.

I guess I'll leave it on this note. And well, I've pretty much written all that I've wanted to. Thanks to everyone who've read this, for even giving a little bit of your time to browse through my ramblings. So yeah.
Over and out~
Anna

Anna Draws Some Garbage

This is week 10 of my internship. How fun and fulfilling my summer has become because of it. Although the transit from Markham to Toronto has been a bit of a hassle, it was quite fun - observing people who were either going to work or leaving it, and actually being part of that crowd, with the same purpose. 

This week, I have been working on my animation skills, using the characters that I created. It really made me appreciate the people who designed the Teleporting Fat Guy characters. It took a while for me to get the hang of making the character, placing everything in its proper order and getting them to look right. But not only did the character designers from Teleporting Fat Guy do that, they created them with the animators in mind. Every little bit of change was anticipated, and every little bit had a corresponding symbol to it. Although I had created mine with that in mind, I didn't put as much detail into it, and so when I was animating, I ran into obstacles. None that I couldn't jump over, but it would have made it a lot smoother had it been done with more detail in the first place. Let me just say that I have a lot of appreciation for people who create symbol characters now. Not that I didn't have any before... But now I have the knowledge to back up that claim. 

But that's not all I've done. I've also finished with the garbage that the game needed. Yes, I was drawing garbage for the first half of the week. And everyone complimented me on it. I do need to show you, because I'm quite proud of it myself.

Let me describe the process. I first had no idea what to draw for the garbage, so I researched a bit, and it didn't really tell me a thing. All it showed me were generic garbage, and I had that image in my head already anyway. So I looked around the studio (all I did was turn my head around), looking for possible trash ideas. I classified things into recyclables and trash, and made a list of what could be what. Then I drew a rough version in photoshop and imported it into Flash. And from there, I used the pencil tool and traced over my rough drawings, converted them into symbols and coloured them. I didn't really have a colour scheme in mind, but I wanted the recyclables to stand out, so I used brighter colours for those, and duller colours for the garbage. I also tried to keep in mind that the props needed to fit in with the background and the characters. So I simplified that even more and deleted the inner outlines of the objects. The result is what you see above. Overall, I'm pretty satisfied...

Carol Streamlines the Colouring Process

Hey guys,
This week was intense. I been coloring Uberdude the entire week because I had to color a whole episode myself. In the process I had to find the more effective way of doing it so I can get it done fast and this is what came up with. I learn to use the lasso tool to choose the parts that I can copy and paste onto the next frame. I learn to use ctrl+shift+v so I can paste it in place which
saved me a lot of time. That way I don't have to color it by hand like I did before.

Next thing I had to do was add 2 square shapes onto all the Uberdude's clothing on top of what I already colored.

For that, I just drew the squares on a new layer on top and turn them into symbols and just add a keyframe to adjust the position of it so it matches the rest of the body.

When I was coloring the mouth, I realize they were symbols and I couldn't just paintbucket everything, At first I just drew in the colors myself and find that too time consuming. Then I remember what I learn from making designs for Chirp that there is usually a drawing
inside a symbol. So I went inside the mouth symbol and paint bucketed everything so I know that every lipsync will be colored once I come out of that layer. That also saved me a lot of time.

As for the rest, I memorized all the hot keys to make everything easier to control.

Anna Cleans Up

Blog - Week 09

Hi guys. It's me again. Boy, time passes by so quickly - I can't believe it's already week 9 of this summer's internship. I guess what they say is true. Time passes quickly when you're having fun.

I've been continuing my interactive this week, working on finishing the background for the game. Deadlines are coming up, so I've got to work harder and faster.

This week, I've been animating conveyor belts for the background. These conveyor belts will bring the garbage to the player so that they can hand it over to 'volunteers'. It probably doesn't make any sense at this moment, especially not when I've described it this way. You can tell I'm not that good at explaining things, haha.

Figuring out the background was tricky, because there were so many elements to consider. The volunteers going in and out, where the garbage would end up, and where the recycling would also end up gave us such an obstacle. However, after juggling around several ideas, I'm happy to say that we figured out what to draw, and hopefully, people will like it.

Over and out, see ya next week~

Props To Carol

Hello everyone, this week I finally got to work on some designs for an upcoming CBC Kids' children show. Everything had to be designed in flash, which was new to me. It took me a while to figure things out before I could actually make things work. Not only I am building props, but I have to also design how to make them move which is animating as well. I learned many new things such as making a symbol inside a symbol so I can have different instance inside so I have the option of changing to what I want to show the audience.

I also learned to put textures onto an object I drew by using a mask so that only certain parts of it would show. There were also other little things I learned to make things a lot easier to manage later on. As an result, I made a cannonball, an acorn and a fan with different components and views.

Down below is the fan I made, you can't see it moving but the button can be pushed. The fans are also spinning at different speed. You can also see all the layers inside.

Inna's Inspirations

This week I’ve been working on sparkles/stars for Bead Mountains and Goose animation and learnt more from Darien and Keith about gradients, transparency and radial coloring in flash. Also I’ve been working on Animal Wall design and animation. Alex wanted me to improve silhouettes of three animals (meerkat, beaver, salmon) so that they read better and then color each animal using our beads palette.

Changing colors was a bit tricky because magic wand tool would leave outline and the edges would be jagged and uneven. Peter showed me the cure - Modify/Expand tool and Image/Adjustments/Selective Color for coloring. Learn to change rgb settings in Flash now too, it’s not that hard, even easier then in Photoshop.Learnt about Clipping Masks as well. It’s such a handy tool!

Couple of weeks ago Julie shared an awesome link: www.skillsforsolidarity.ca

This summer Leadnow.ca community (https://www.facebook.com/leadnowcanada) launched Skills for Solidarity program that is a series of five online modules, each include a panel of interesting Canadain Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Peoples who share their personal stories, discuss how to renew and heal the relationship between nations. I was blown away by the life story of Bernice Kamano from Victoria area and who belongs to Kwakwaka’waka Nation. Her story starts around 45:05: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4VaGd4mIhY What an strong woman! She lived through a lot but she managed to keep her beautiful smile and kindness. Bernice is an activist, a Native Employment Counselor assisting with job search and a founding member of M'akola Housing Society,- she created M'akola's first housing project. Amazing woman!

Carol loved Bernice story too, she said she wants to be like her one day, help people and change the world for the better. Carol is awesome! It’s amazing my summer 2014, got to know so many beautiful inspiring people.

I really liked a Haida quote shared by one of the Skills4Solidarity panelists. This message is from Chief Skidegate - Lewis Collinson who said back in 1966:

"People are like trees, and groups of people are like the forests. While the forests are composed of many different kinds of trees, these trees intertwine their roots so strongly that it is impossible for the strongest winds which blow on our islands to uproot the forest, for each tree strengthens its neighbour, and their roots are inextricably intertwined.

In the same way the people of our Islands,composed of members of nations and races from all over the world,are beginning to intertwine their roots so strongly that no troubles will affect them.

Just as one tree standing alone would soon be destroyed by the first strong wind which came along,
so it is impossible for any person, any family, or any community to stand alone against the troubles of this world."

Anna Grows in Interactive

Blog - Week 8

Hello people~
How was your Canada Day? What did I do that day? I watched fireworks at my local park and miraculously did not get bitten by any mosquitoes. Since I am like a bait for mosquitoes, I'm considering that to be quite a feat. Other than that, I've been rereading  The Name of the Wind. It's such a great book. I simply cannot wait for the third book to come out.

This week, I've been continuing to work on my interactive stuff, trying to polish it. My concept art for the characters was lineless, but when I was creating the symbols, I used lines. Today, I decided to stick with the lineless look because it made everything sleeker. By doing so, the characters stand out on the screen even more.

Several technical bits that I didn't know about or was confuzzled by was taught by Joel. He really clarified things up with smoothing out the shapes and other small but really important bits. I mean, you wouldn't think that there was a command for pasting in place, and so I spent so long just trying to shift a circle back into that same position in the previous keyframe... There were numerous shortcuts and stuff that Joel taught me that just simplified the process and simplified my life too.

Other than that, when interactive overwhelms me, I shift back to working on First Hand. At the moment, I am flashifying some props to animate them. I'm working on this scene in a greenhouse, where stalks of tall grass start sprouting up from the ground. Since I haven't really finished it yet, I made a small gif to illustrate what I want the result to look like.... Kinda... Beware. I made this gif in 10 minutes... Quality isn't... well, let's just say it isn't my best work.

 And here's a pic of what the greenhouse actually looks like. Just not animated.

Anyhow, that's it this week. Ciao
- Anna

Carol Pops

Hey guys, this week I got to animate Luigi and many different shots of Teleporting Fat Guy. This episode is very interesting because of where they were and the things they're doing. I learned to push a movement by changing the expression of the character along with the action to emphasize the acting more effectively.

Other than that, I started popping again after a long time of not dancing. Currently focusing on doing the robot/animation part of it,  so I can understand the movement of my animation better once understanding my own body movements.

And finally, I beat Freddy in Foosball one on one today. So over the weeks of working here, different skills I have improved.

Inna 'Meets' Norma and Foosball

Norma Kassi

We finally heard from Norma about Mandala Designs that she liked most -out of six options Norma picked #6, the spacious one! So cool to get feedback from Norma herself!

I was so excited to know that Norma is a real person, so I just Googled her name and found out that she is actually Chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin!! She was elected in 2010 and she has also been vice chair of the International Gwich'in Steering Committee.

Norma Kassi devoted her life to activism and served as an elected tribal spokesperson for the protection of the Porcupine Caribou as well as director of Indigenous Collaboration at Arctic Institute of Community Based Research. Here’s some more information about Norma.

Here Norma Kassi speaking about climate change and presenting the film she was on of the producers on: Our Changing Homelands Our ChangingLives.  Here's the film trailer and film.

I found this article while reading about Porcupine Caribou activism.

The more I work on First Hand Stories, the more I learn about Canadian First Nations. It’s such a beautiful and meaningful project!

So back to Mandala designs, they are here: 

Norma's Choice

Here’s some of my research on Mandalas and some sketchbook drawings for First Hand stories designs:

I will post some animation tests in July when I jump onto Mandala animation. I tried rotation in Flash two weeks ago and it’s so nice, it looks like kaleidoscope if the timing is set right:)

As for our studio’s life, it’s awesome. Every Tuesday we have Cartoon Lunches and Joel brings us cool animated shows to watch. Last time we saw Steven Universe, Adventure time and today it’s gonna be Gravity Falls. Awesome-awesome. It’s great to see different styles of animation and be updated on the industry new shows.

Last week we were invited for celebration of the official Canadian launch of Warren United, funny animated show about about a soccer fan Warren and his family. I enjoyed watching the show on a big screen, it was fun! My Sheridan groupmates David and Jordan who did their internship with Smiley’s last year and got to work on Warren, were also invited, it was great to see them :)

Smiley Guy Studios made super high quality animation for the show. UK partners were happy with the result and it seems like the second season is coming soon into production.

 

We also had to watch FIFA : the England Vs Uruguay game, there was lots of fun. Uruguay guys won, they were crazily intense. Carol introduced me to foosball and now my adrenaline level is pumping every time I see any game:) that’s awesome, now I can help my husband watch his NFL games:)

Anna Moves to Interactive

Hey guys! What's up? This week, yes, what I have been waiting for - INTERACTIVE STUFF! Ta da~ I feel like waving my hands in the air or something.

So anyway, this week, I've been concentrating on an interactive game like I said last week, and it has been pretty fun. Everything is new to me, and majorly daunting and majorly cool. I started on the concept side, giving an image to the idea that was emailed to me. I drew some characters for the game, and a background as well, on photoshop. After that, I imported it into Flash and cleaned it up. This part is really awesome, because I'm actually making the symbols for the character animation. How cool is that?

I've done some Teleporting Fat Guy animation before, so I understand how crucial a good and well done symbol can be. If the pivot point is in the right place, it makes everything smooth sailing. Otherwise, watch out for that tsunami!

I got a great tutorial from a co-worker (thanks Darien!) and I am learning a lot. I've had to backtrack a bit, since my concept doesn't exactly work with what the symbol making needs it to be, so I'm currently drawing a better character design.  But all that drawing will just make me a better artist~

So yeah, this week it really has been overwhelming, with all the new things I'm absorbing. I'm also still working on my freelance stuff as well as helping a friend with some illustration projects she's stuck on. With internship, transit and just life in general, I don't have a lot of free time. It makes me sad when I see my brother, who just finished graduating from high school yesterday, be so carefree that he can sleep until 3 in the afternoon. No, you know what, it makes me mad. It's not healthy to sleep so much.

Sleep? What's sleep?

Well, until next time.

Oh, and here's two cool Molson commercials for the upcoming Canada day~!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t41wNkGvJ9k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gper3YkzMg

(Why am I promoting Molson's beer? I don't even drink alcohol... OTL)

Carol Learns to Walk

Hi guys, This week was intense. I finally reached my goal of animating 10 seconds today, feel so proud. Not only that, I learned how to do a walk and talk cycle. At first I thought I had to animate a fresh walk cycle because the system didn't have Rachel and Oliver walking in suits yet. Turns out all I had to do was drag the symbol of them in suits into the file where they didn't have it and swap
the arms, body, legs with the ones I want. It allow me to explore other tools like the pencil tool, so I can fix and draw over some parts where it's needed.

The most complicated thing I learned this week was changing a certain part of the body parts into a new symbol on its own so that I could do actions while the character is walking. The reason why you must do that is because the walk cycle is already looped, so you have to break that loop in order to make something different happen. Basically you select the parts that you are going to be animating, for example if I want to move the arm when the character is walking, I will select only the arm. After that it must be copied/paste in a certain way into a new layer so that you can animate that layer inside another layer.

It is too complicated to even explain, but I had to write down every step when Rich was showing it to me because I couldn't remember it. So after you animate it's own action, you must match the body part to the beat of the walk so that the arm still looks attached to the rest of the body.

Sorry that I can't explain it properly...there is way too many steps lol.