Thursday, October 27, 2016

Bendix Loves Beef Tongue and Hair Animation.

Halløj alle sammen!

My weekend at Cherry's place was incredible! She showed me a bunch of new food and I can now say that I have a deep craving for beef tongue, preserved egg and matcha ice-cream. It's right up my ally, it's savory and full of flavor! She also has the most adorable dog. 

 
Monday I was assigned a laughing shot – laughing is incredibly hard to get right without making it look like the character is shaking like a coke bottle full of mentos, but it's also fun to get a challenge and experiment until you get it right.

Tuesday we went out for Karaoke and it's probably one of the funniest things I've tried while being here. I was really nervous at first, but seeing how Ash and Aaron screamed their lungs out and everyone was laughing, I dared to be just as ridiculous despite not being able to hit even half of the notes (I'm sorry for any bleeding ears I might have caused)! At work I was also assigned a shot where I got to do hair animation!!!! I couldn't stop writing to Cherry about how excited I was and I still am! Hair and clothes are my favorite things to animate! My shots this week have been challenging, which has sadly slowed me down significantly, but thankfully they've been a lot of fun. 




We also carved a bunch of pumpkins at the studio before going out for Karaoke, which is yet another thing that I've never tried before. There was a lot of trial and error but in the end, my pumpkin ended up with a decent face. His name is Gregory.



Today we're going out for a ladies only lunch at a vegan place and tomorrow we're going to watch Cowboy Bebop and play games! The weekend is pretty packed and I'm really looking forward going to High Park and see if all the leaves have changed color, especially since I've been told that it's one of the most beautiful things to see when you're in Canada, so Canada, you have a lot to live up to now.

Next week is my last week, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to sneak in one last blogpost. If not, then I won't say goodbye but see you all later, as I hope to come back to say hello in the future at least once more!

- Bendix

Friday, October 21, 2016

Bendix Becomes Increasingly Canadian!

Hello again! 

This is my second to last blogpost. I only have one official week left here but I asked if I could come in for a few extra days as I'm still in Toronto a week after the internship is over, so maybe this is my third to last blogpost? I've grown to love the studio and the people here so much that I already know now that the trip home will be bittersweet.

This weekend we celebrated David and Kosta's birthday and the day after I went to my third life-drawing session ever! It was very relaxing to just focus on drawing whatever was before me and on all the technical stuff, rather than having to come up with an image in my mind first. In the evening Kris and I went swing dancing again and according to him, I'm doing really well! I'm going to believe what he says as he, in my mind, is a swing-dance-master. Just the fact that he can actually move and not trip over himself makes him a dance guru compared to me. 

We went out yesterday to play ping-pong and other table games and it ended up being an incredibly late evening but with tons of fun and good laughs, and speaking of laughs – Rich insisted on paying for my coffee a few days ago, but I'm really bad at letting people pay for me (despite that I had bought him a coffee months ago), so I slammed the money back in his palm. He said that it was very Canadian of me. 

Today I'm going to visit Cherry and stay over at her place for the entire weekend, and if all goes according to plan, we're going to have at least three food adventures, play Mass Effect and Bioshock and watch some horror movies! 

I've also hit a milestone for animation and I reached 21 seconds this week! It feels awesome to get faster and faster week by week and even more so to hear the reactions from the creators of the original show. They're always super positive and engaged and their enthusiasm for the movie is very contagious! 

And one last note: at the beginning of the week, the studio was used to film a few scenes for a tv-series with the smiley's working in the background, and now I can finally say: LOOK MA' I'M ON TELEVISION!


- Bendix 


Friday, October 14, 2016

Bendix Draws Butts and Makes Frikadeller.

It's Friday again! 

This Monday I celebrated thanksgiving with Kris, Jia and two of my friends with drinks and yummy food, except for the poutine we had later in the evening. I promised I would try Canadian food while I was here, which is only fair considering that I constantly throw Danish food at the studio, but it was uh... definitely an acquired taste. A taste I have yet to acquire. A taste I might never acquire. Same goes for the Nanaimo bars we had Wednesday, it's simply too sweet for me! 
I brought in Frikadeller yesterday, 70 of them, and it seems that people liked them as they were gone by lunch!

Tuesday I finished a shot that I've been working on for quite a while. It's probably my favorite shot so far as every single frame was customized drawings with skewed angles and forced perspective, and I am now very familiar with Atticus's butt. Before we head out for drinks, movies and other shenanigans today, I aim to finish up another long shot to add to the pile! 

Tomorrow I'll also try live drawing for the 3rd time ever. Everyone at the studio is always talking about it, and it's about time that I thoroughly practice my life drawing skills, and in the evening, Kris and I will venture into the realm of swing dancing once more.  

Erin is also out of the studio today, so this weeks comic is dedicated to her! I can't believe that I haven't drawn her before as she is an absolute sweetheart and has so many golden moments that are comic worthy. This one in particular, is from some time ago when we talked about tattoo's. 



That's all for now, until next week! 

- Bendix 

Friday, October 7, 2016

Bendix Animates Better Than She Swing Dances!

Ello' again!

This week has been pleasantly busy compared to the last! I caught up with the Inktober challenge, and then managed to fall behind again. I went out eating with a friend (whom I get to see maybe once a year as he is usually found in Sweden) who happens to be in Toronto right now. I went swing dancing with Kris (more on that later). The entire studio went for sushi yesterday. I took David to a mysterious licorice candy store that he refused to believe actually existed. Cherry came back from Japan and brought gifts and food back. And today a pet cockroach crawled over the desk in the meeting room this morning. It was a very effective way to wake us all up! We fed the roach orange peels and kept it safe in a jar until it could be taken away.

Swing was absolutely amazing! I've always wanted to try dancing, but I've sadly been born with very white genes and five left feet, thus all I can really do is bounce back and forth to pop music, and even that requires a huge amount of concentration. Luckily it was a beginners class, but after the class, the pro's came to dance to the live band that played way past midnight. 


Work started out slightly confusing this week. Shots are being sent back and forth as they get feedback and requires immediate attention, which means I sometimes have to be able to juggle a number of shots and keep focused on all of them at the same time. I've found, after a few days of getting used to it, that I actually enjoy working like this, as when one shot frustrates me, I can very easily move on to another one and work a bit on it before going back to the former with fresh eyes, so I'm never wasting time. This morning, it was also really nice having my shots shown to the creators of the Todd show and to see their reactions! It's was a very rewarding and humbling feeling :)

I'm also incredibly happy that Cherry is back, as now I finally have someone to be a nerd with again and talk about Osomatsu and how great the wonderful sextuplets are! MUSCLE MUSCLE! HUSTLE HUSTLE! (that one is for you Cherry)

One last thing to end the blog with: it's Thanksgiving this weekend! Hopefully Kris, a danish friend of mine and I, will go somewhere to celebrate it together!

- Bendix