Goodbye from Miyeon!

This is my last blog post. How time flies! For this week, I have been working on the rotation sheets for the characters from The Curse of Clara. It reminds me of when I was a kid because I did ballet too even though I barely remember what I learned. Anyway, I enjoy drawing them because the characters are all very cute.

Since this is my last blog, I want to talk about working as an intern for Smiley Guy Studios. I feel great about doing my internship at SGS because all the artists from here are very nice and I really learned a lot. Working as an intern helps students learn how real productions works from experience but, working here also helps to decide what to focus more on by trying many different areas, not just focusing on one job. Even though I started doing concept art first, I also had chance to do some backgrounds, building up the puppets and animating in flash. As I worked on concept art, I also could work on many different shows with various different styles. Before I came here to work, I always stayed in my comfort zone and drew only in the style I like and was familiar to draw, so it was very good training for me but it was hard at first. But, I've got a lot of help from Aaron and now I am doing much better than before. I am really happy that I had an opportunity to work from SGS!

David J. Signing Off

Today is my last day as an Intern at Smiley Guy Studios! It's hard to believe just 13 short weeks ago I started my time here. When I first started I was pretty nervous about how my first experience in the industry would turn out. Would I be able to cultivate the skills necessary to become successful in this field? Would I fit into the studio?

I feel very lucky to have been able to work on three different shows during my time here because I think that doing so stretched my skillset and understanding of the different styles and subtleties that making each show look distinct and unique. Getting to do special effects was a lot of fun too!

Furry Force was my first experience in the industry and let me tell you, there’s nothing I won’t animate now. It was a lot of fun working on the shot where Leon timetravels to the past to warn Vivisector because I got to do hand drawn special effects for the lightning, plus it was SO hilarious making Leon shiny. Later I moved on to Chirp.

Doing Scene Setup on Chirp was an interesting experience because it's one of the jobs that I didn't realize existed. I had expected that it would have been the responsibility of the animator to bring all of the characters, backgrounds and audio into the scene. Now I realize that it actually makes it so much easier to get the animations done quickly because the elements are already sitting there waiting for you to make the characters think and act.

Animating on Chirp was really fun! My favourite character on the show is Squawk. I love bluebirds first of all, and Squawk is so fun to animate because he’s so boastful even though he’s always the first to run away. I like that mix of wanting to the great but also having alot of panic and fear. I think Character Animation is by far the most challenging facet of animation. Getting an appealing performance from the characters is always a new challenge every day but I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at it since working at Smiley Guy.

I have been working on Wussywat for the last couple days. I really like the characters. They have really cute individual personalities and it makes the acting choices a little more obvious because there is more variety between how they think and behave. On Wussy Wat the characters have more complicated rigs and they do a lot more moving around than on Chirp. Yesterday I had my first Skype meeting for Wussy Wat. It went well but I will ask more questions for the next time.

I am incredibly grateful to have been given the opportunity to work with such a great group of people who have mentored me throughout my time here as in intern, and look forward to moving into my new role as an employee at Smiley Guy Studios when I return from a week long trip in Montreal.

Keith's Last Blog

So this is my final blog entry, and what a ride it's been.

I can feel all the experience I've gained here at Smiley Guy, and I'm thankful for the multitude of different assignments I've received. On each assignment I successfully learned something new, and became just a little faster and slightly more efficient.

I was especially fond of the sparky graphics . These assignments although small gave me a great deal of creative freedom, so long as I followed the initial sketch as a guideline. The benefit of them being smaller assignments was the sense of accomplishment I got after finishing so many of them.   it's very akin to the Dopamine hit from leveling up in a video-game haha.

Had a bit of a surprise today when I found out Photoshop up and rebooted itself, taking my file that I had worked on all of yesterday with it; and all my brush presets were gone too (still don't get why that happens).

After a few minutes trying to find another copy of the file, I realized I had to do the entire thing again

After the usual few moments of shock and a involuntary eye twitch or two; I shrugged and realized I could do it again in half the time because I didn't need to spend time figuring it out from scratch; and it's still experience in working faster, so it's all good.

It wasn't as bad as loosing over 10 hours of fairly complex animation because of a corrupted flash file. 

That was unpleasant.

At times like this, I think about the story I'll be telling one day and that makes the entire experience less serious.

The process of painting as much as I have this summer (literally 8 hrs a day) and with a variety of subject matter, has thoroughly improved my understanding of colour and light.

 I'm a hell of a lot faster too.

I leave SGS wiser, and more confident in my abilities, and I thank everyone who helped me evolve, be it directly or otherwise.

Cheeawk! by Mary

This is my last blog post! It seems like I was on a faerie theme from the past posts, so here's the last one for you!

As you can see, I love this little kids show, and it was a pleasure working on it during my internship, and I look forward for more in the next month! Smiley Guy Studios has offered me a job here, so I'll still be animating these birds until my school starts. This means I'll also have more time to ask for some feedback on my thesis film.

I had a really fun experience here with friendly people and a relaxing environment and I think I've already blogged enough about what I've learned from the studio in my past posts, so perhaps here's something funny for my last blog post!

Last week Joel sent us a funny faerie Chirp clip from a future episode, and I had to check out the full animatic - no surprise I loved it! I was also wearing my Tinkerbell t-shirt that morning too. Hehehh.

On the same day, intern buddy David and I had a hilarious skype conversation after watching the episode before work. We really got into the Chirp world...so many deep questions were asked and a future story of Chirp turned into some strange fanfiction...PG-13 rating? David and I don't mind sharing this. I hope our energy entertains you!

The Skype Conversation:We made couple-pairing names?!!!!

David Just: squawk is my spirit animal

MaryT: I KNOW RIGHT???

David Just: ok thats it i offically ship tweet and squawk

MaryT: SAFJDNSAKJDNSAKDSADSA

David Just: i had them holding hands in my shot

MaryT: SQUEET!!!! 5EVERE (squeet = squawk + tweet)

David Just: i kinda changed it though so they aren't rrreeaaalllyy holding hands

MaryT: BUT I WANT CHIRP IN ON THIS. CHIRPAWK. (chirpawk = chirp + squawk)

David Just: cheeawk(cheeawk = chirp + tweet + squawk)

David Just: the ultimate OT3 (ot3 = one true triple pairing)

MaryT:CHEEAWKTHAT IS PERFECt

David Just: so much vowels

David Just: its like a hawk screeching

David Just: wait... aren't they siblings?

David Just: everything is so ambiguous!

MaryT: What colour parents would they have if they were siblings???

David Just: couple of rainbow parents duhhhhh

MaryT: maybe the show ships them as siblings....but NEIGH we shall Cheeawk into the horizon in the sunset

MaryT: PARROTS???

David Just: yellow blue orange purple probably the other colours too ;)

David Just: maybe???

David Just: i feel like tweet is an owl though

David Just: hahahah

MaryT: Tweet would be....Hoot

David Just: yeah!

MaryT: What if Squawk had a crow for a dad because of his beak? He'd be....Caw....Squawk Caw.

David Just: yeah!

David Just: and chirp is like... part canary

David Just: from a pet store

David Just: honestly he reminds me to tweety bird so much

MaryT: His mother was....TWEETY BIRD

David Just: YES! :O

MaryT: THATS IT

MaryT: THIS IS LOONEY TOONS NEXT GENERATION

MaryT: LOONIES

David Just: AAAAAHHHH!!! WB will be so upset :P

MaryT: Maybe the Warner Brothers turned INTO the vole brothers?

MaryT: they are secretly the Warner brothers. watching over Tweety Bird's lost son

David Just: we're in way too deep! write the back story n post it somewhere

MaryT: I'll use it as my next blog post OMG

David Just: who's the dad though?

David Just: Multiple dads?

David Just: :O

MaryT: I dunno but maybe LOL oh Tweety.

David Just: i feel like squawk's dad is the crows from dumbo

MaryT: YEAH

MaryT: omg

David Just: tweets could be owl from winnie the pooh

MaryT: Oh my god

David Just: and chirp is immaculate conception from god

MaryT: WELL THEN TWEETY WHOA THERE

MaryT: he's the precious one born in a cage

David Just: sweet summer child

MaryT: the golden child. who's grandmother will never visit him

MaryT: imagine the angst when he'll never see his grandma in person

David Just: he is his own grandma

MaryT: OMG

MaryT: YOU'RE RIGHT

David Just: come on Mary, it's obviously just chirp in a dress ;)

David Just: she doesn't even have wrinkles

MaryT: FOOLING SQUAWK AND TWEET EVERY DAY HE HIRED THE MAIL SQUIRREL IN THIS DAILY SCHEME.

MaryT: TO PROVE TO THEM THAT AT LEAST HE HAS FAMILY.

MaryT: WHEN TWEET FINDS OUT ABOUT HIS EVIL LIES SHE LEAVES THE BIRDS AND MARRIES THE VOLE BROTHERS. SQUAWK FINDS OUT HE FORSAKEN THE CANARY'S HEART AND SINGS A SAD SONG AND ATTRACTS SPARKY BUT THEIR LOVE CAN NEVER BE. AND THEN CHIRP IS ALL ALONE AGAIN.

MaryT: oh i just had caps on. omg

MaryT: messed up chirp angst

David Just: lmao

David Just: so much angst

David Just: holy moly

MaryT: coming up next "the friendship is broken. the season finale. Will they ever be together again?"

David Just: the answer, YES

MaryT: a loud battle cry was heard because love is a war. love is...CHEEAWK.

David Just: lmao

David Just: i wanna draw like a mega bird with 3 heads called the cheeawk

MaryT: OMHG

The end! Well you can tell we're into the show.

Thanks a bunch Smileys!

Meghan's Last Blog Post

Throughout my stay here at Smiley Guy, I learned a lot about flash, how to build props, scene plan and even a bit of painting. I met a bunch of really nice people who were helpful and always willing to give advice about my upcoming year at Sheridan. My supervisors are awesome! They never minded when I asked a million questions and they were so welcoming when I first started. They never made you feel like you couldn’t do something. If you struggled, that was okay, they reassured you that everyone struggles at the beginning and everyone still makes mistakes. One of my supervisors even helped me with my film idea.

After getting a taste of what the industry is like, I’m now more prepared for graduation and I’ve decided what my focus is going to be. I’m lucky enough to have supervisors who would be more than willing to critique my work for the rest of the summer and throughout the year. I will definitely be taking advantage of that.

Over all, I’m very happy with my experience here at Smiley Guy and I would recommend it to any student!

Mia Starts on Chirp!

For last week, I worked on pose sheets for Vampire PI.I just created them of two characters from its very cute character design sheets. It takes more time than I expected maybe because I can't work fast with pen tools. Sometimes, I got crooked line instead of nice curved line on my intention.

I got assigned some works to work at home on last week and I borrowed my sister's Mac and this was the first time that I used it because I have been using Windows in my life. And it went over my head! Their mouse scroll direction is opposite of Windows and they have command key which I couldn't figure out its exact functions. That key functioned similarly with control key but mac has control key too and it was confusing which key should I use. Mac was challenge for me and I am afraid to use them again for fear of losing my work by pressing wrong key...

For this week, I am working on a layout for the underwater scene from Chirp! I made a big dumb mistake from the beginning because I worked on very small canvas size. Therefore, I should work all over again.I will never make the same mistake again!

David Just Learns to Walk

This week I got my first scene that was longer than ten seconds. With about 14 seconds to animate for one scene, I’m pretty busy. The shot has the three birds in a hot air balloon and there is a lot of dialog. I think I’ve figured out how to get faster with the lipsync, but I'm still struggling to get all of the acting done in a quick and effective way. Luckily I was able to get some tips from Darien, the Animation Director on Chirp, and improved my scene.

 One of the things I’ve learned this week is how to modify walk cycles to prevent foot positions from sliding. I was told that the producers on Chirp aren't too concerned with feet sliding, but for my own sanity I needed to keep Chirp from look like an ice skater. I was able to fix the problem by making the cycle repeat a few more times and then shortening the distance the birds needed to travel as well. Darien told me that in some cases the whole cycle may have to be sped up and all the tweens would then need to be re-adjusted. Luckily I didn't need to do it that way.

I also learned from Joel about how to make better acting choices. Normally I follow the storyboards as closely as I can but in one scene I was able to improve the performance by making Chirp look more excited. By using the recorded dialog as a basis for finding the “beats” animators can emphasize the character's actions in sync with the line delivery to help the audience understand the message as clearly as possible.

KEITH LEARNS SOME VALUABLE ANIMATION AND LIFE LESSONS

It's been and interesting couple weeks. I tried ramen at the place down College St. and it was pretty nice. the atmosphere was very pleasant and inviting. I got a bit of advice about how to think about my film for next year, and it was very helpful. Granted a lot of it was already part of my thinking process, but it was still cool to hear from another.

I've also been doing a few layouts for a short that the studio is working on, and it's been really fun.  In love the style of the show, and I can feel my colour and shape design sense improving just from working on it.

Our resident magician introduced me to the world of Team Fortress 2, an awesome online team first person style game, and what could be possible to those who mastered it. It was incredible watching them take out the other team pretty much single-handed.

He also mentioned in passing how to invite oneself to bonfires- an extra case of beer or two. I honestly didn't realize how easy it could be to crash a party .

Overall, working at the studio continues to be a very interesting learning experience.

Audio Book Reviews by Meghan

The last couple weeks at Smiley Guy I have been doing more prop building. I enjoy the challenge and like that I'm able to listen to audiobooks while I work. Last week Mary and I decided to listen to a book called "I've got your number" by Sophie Kinsella and we absolutely loved it!! I would recommend it to anyone who likes romantic comedies. She's also the author of the book "Confessions of a shopaholic" which is a movie. Another good book of hers that I read a while back is "remember me?". So if anyone who's reading this needs a light-hearted entertaining book to read, choose one of these or another of Sophie Kinsella's books. 

 

I'll be moving back onto Scene set-up this week and will be moving to Wussywat next week! Looking froward to the challenge!

David Works on the Birds and the Bees

This week was Canada Day so it was a short week! I’ve been finding Mondays are usually my least productive days but this week on Tuesday even though I came in late (for good reason!) I still managed to get all five of the scenes in my que finished! I feel like I’m starting to get a better handle of the animation style of the show along with streamlining my work-process. 

I’m finding that Chirp is a fun show to work on because the birds are always pretending to bee somewhere else and someone else! This week in the episode I’m working on, Chirp and friends are pretending to be bees so I changed my desktop to a screencap from Wickerman to get me in the the mood:

Mary's Faeries and Romantic Comedies

I've been animating for Chirp episodes this week and I'm still enjoying it! In fact here's an adorable still from a momentary glitch I got animating one of the scenes:

Isn't he so cute?? Hahaha! I joked to Joel about how I was animating the next Jurassic World with this little guy. Hahhah! Imagine that? JurassicChirp World!

Anyway, I had even checked out the magazine this show was from. I say, this tv show really did a good job redesigning the characters. (Though I still don't know what kind of bird Tweet is...) I told my little sister that if I were to create more bird characters for Chirp, they'd be named, Hoot, Caw, and Quack. You can guess what birds they may be. 

Also here's Meghan as a faerie:

Thanks for introducing me to an awesome romantic comedy novel Meghan! :) If anyone's curious, the novel was "I Got Your Number" by Sophie Kinsella. It was really entertaining and I really hope they make a film out of it one day. I'm reading the "Lunar Chronicles" by Marissa Meyer now. So far the scifi/dystopian world is really interesting, especially with their android female protagonist.

Mia Works on Chirp

For this week, I drew concept art for the layout from Chirp and this was the first time that I worked something for Chirp! I drew the rough layout first and then continued to work on painting it which was pretty interesting. The backgrounds from Chirp has its own unique style like the sharp edges, bold outline and realistic textures. I used pen tool for blocking all the layers first and then searched for good textures for the layout. The scene that I worked on was a desert canyon scene and I found various different rock textures for the canyon. I played around with them and it was a lot of fun. What I am working on now is making the characters from a concept art to be able to build and animate in Flash.