Jasmine Works on Backgrounds

Week twelve has come and gone. I have officially finished two full backgrounds, the sketch of the third and have started on the line art for that one as well. So far I’m just on schedule. I think I may run a week over for backgrounds but cutting a week into concepts shouldn't put me too far behind schedule as I've already done some concept sketches on the side. Hopefully next week I can get the opportunity to speak with someone from backgrounds because I have a few logistical issues I need help with. That's pretty much it so far, wish me luck!

- Jasmine

Molly Works on Beat Boards

So last week I got introduced to beat boards, and I've been basically trying to make them look decent the entire week. I'm almost done (I think there's one more), and I'll probably get back to the storyboards at the beginning of next week. Really productive three days (finding a way to put Bob Ross in one of the boards was probably the highlight of the week lol), and hopefully I'll get everything done before the holidays.

Molly Figures Out Storyboarding!

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful, as I had really only been working on concept art, and I realized that I was getting really behind. Last week, however, I did get to talk with Darien about the storyboarding process. It isn't what I thought it was (I wasn't supposed to put all the frames on one document but oh well), but it was also easier than expected, so I don't think I will spend 6 weeks on this part of the project lol

Kal (storyboard artist) also talked to me today about my workflow, and recommended that I create "beatboards" (more detailed illustrations for major events) and write a mini-script so I don't get confused or lose the original concept while drawing. He also said the actual storyboards should be really rough sketches, so it turns out I got stressed over nothing :( Overall I'm happy that I'm not as far behind as I thought I was, and I have a clearer sense of what I need to accomplish this next month.

- Molly

Jasmine Tackles Backgrounds!

Week ten is all gone and the time for my backgrounds to be finished is fast approaching. They’re taking me a surprisingly long time to complete but that's mostly due to me never having done one as seriously as the ones I'm doing now. Usually, a background is a kinda last minute affair for me but I want these ones to actually be good so I'm taking a bit longer on them. Things like perspective and making sure that if I make a chair, that my character can believably fit in it are things that I haven't had to think about when drawing before but are important now. So far I've completed one full background and gotten about ¾ of the line art for the second one done. I have 2 more to complete afterward so hopefully, I finish this one next week. Wish me luck!

- Jasmine

Jasmine Finishes her Animatic!

November 13th and 15th

Week 8 is over (I forgot to make one of these last week, oops) and with it, I have officially finished my animatic and started on my background concepts/ sketches. Hopefully next week I get the opportunity to speak with someone in the background area so that I have a bit of a better understanding of what’s going on. On other notes, I’m also very tired… probably because I’ve recently been affiliating myself with cringy children’s superhero cartoons into the wee hours of the morning and or re-watching some of my favourite Dreamworks animations (how to train your dragon and rise of the guardians were amazing). As such my sleep schedule has been a little lacking and my eyes like to do this thing where colours mush together when I’m tired. Good thing I have a PD day tomorrow. I will finally be able to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Next week is more backgrounds, let’s hope they go well!

- Jasmine

Molly Wraps Concept Art & Starts Storyboarding.

My art block seems to have resolved itself, so I've been able to finish most of the concept art this week. I decided to start storyboarding on my own so I didn't get too off track, so I surfed google for a solid 20 minutes trying to figure out how to show camera movements on individual shots and how to cut down on unnecessary frames. One thing I realized was that you have to be really efficient when storyboarding, which apparently means short-handing the drawings. I had to simplify my art style a lot for the concept art itself (I usually go towards realism), so the storyboards look nothing like the original designs lol

At the beginning of the placement, I told myself to have everything finished by the end of November so I could have more time to animate, but I doubt that's going to happen at this point, considering that I spent a month working on character design and procrastinating on storyboards. I think I only have backgrounds to work on before I start builds though, so I'm not as far behind as I thought. I'll try to work more efficiently over the next 5 weeks, and maybe I'll be ready to animate by the new year.

- Molly

Jasmine Finishes her Boards and Searches for Butter Tarts!

Oct 30th and November 1st:

Week 6 has come to an end and I’ve finished my storyboards woot woot! I also had some extra time so I decided to draw my character and one of the backgrounds just to see what I might want both to look like. Currently, I’m trying to decide if I want my character to have a blue shirt and purple shorts or a purple shirt and blue shorts, decisions, decisions.  Other than that my mother has beseeched me with the task of procuring some butter tarts for the weekend so I’m off to go and do that. Next week I start on my animatic. We’ll see how that goes!

- Jasmine

Molly Needs a Break from Design

This week wasn't as busy as the last few, partially because it was a two-day week, and because I've spent most of my time fixing the concept art from last week. I'm having a bit of art block, which would be fine if it didn't affect how I draw the face (not surprised at this point). I feel like I'm wasting a lot of time on consistency when I should have moved on to backgrounds or something along those lines. I'll probably take a break from the design over the weekend, and hopefully, I'll finish by Thursday so I can move forward with the project.

- Molly

Jasmine Continues to Finesse her Storyboard!

   I finished my first draft on my storyboards woohoo! It was a little rough at first because I was trying to decide how I wanted to lay out the storyboards but after that, it was mostly smooth sailing. On last week's note about the cinnamon buns: I did not, in fact, purchase any cinnamon buns but I did buy two butter tarts that were very good and have gained the Jasmine stamp of approval. Also, I got the opportunity to properly met the other intern Molly, (hello if you're reading this!) because before this our schedules have not aligned at all but now we have met. Going into next week I'm doing my revisions for my storyboards and finalizing them. So far so good! - Jasmine

Molly Meets Rossi and Revisions.

This was a pretty eventful week, although I didn't get to speak with anyone in the storyboarding 

department, I met with a concept artist (I think her name is Rossi, she's really talented!) and we talked 

about making a good portfolio and the joys of the art community on Pinterest. She gave feedback on 

the concept art I was working on afterwards, so I spent much of today revising the design.

I got to meet the other intern Jasmine, who is really nice. Great week overall!

- Molly

Molly Is Super Productive!

This week was pretty productive, considering that it was the first 3-day session this year (I've only been at the studio for two days at a time). I forgot my tablet at home on Monday, something I only realized once I was walking onto a subway train, but thankfully I got to borrow one from the studio. I'm pretty sure I like the new tablet (Intuos Pro?) better than my own, but I probably won't be able to buy one until after university (its price is well out of my high school budget lol).

I got to work on thumbnail sketches along with concept art this week, which are basically just really rough drawings of the key scenes. I might start storyboarding next week, but if not, I'll probably just work on background art (although I'm a bit skeptical about how I'll colour it, since I'm a noob on Photoshop). Overall a very busy week, but I'm enjoying the project so far!

- Molly

Jasmine Does The Storyboard Thing

Oct 16th and 18th 2018

   Almost forgot about this, oops. The end of week 4 is upon us. Today I did the storyboard thing. I've done storyboarding before and I love it more and more every time. It's a very fast process where your ideas can morph and change rapidly and I love the fluidity of it all. That's mostly what I've been working on this past week. I’m about halfway done my initial storyboards but then I'll have to go over them and revise but so far so good. On other notes I think I'm going to buy some cinnamon buns on my way home today and try them either tonight or tomorrow for breakfast, we shall see how they taste. Can't wait to see what next week brings!

- Jasmine

Molly Starts Storyboards and Concepts!

These past three weeks have gone by really fast, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot; as of Thursday, I have officially started working on the visual aspects of the 30-second film (so concept art and storyboards).

 After finishing the script on Tuesday, I started designing the girl I'm going to animate later on in the year. I wanted a simple enough design to make the animation process easier, but this ended up being more challenging when clothing/hair movement came into the picture.

Even though I never got around to meeting any of the storyboard artists this week, I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to do so soon.

- Molly

Jasmine Discovers Helpful Tricks and Custard Tarts!

Oct 10th and 12th 2018

   Week number three is done! I can now officially say that I have finished my production schedule (it’s all nice and colour coded now (very pretty)). I got my thumbnails finished as well and I’m hopefully going to get them looked at by someone other than my tired self soon. Other than that I've had some helpful tricks about adobe animate bestowed upon me and learned that white boxes can be very important in an animation. Also after I left on Wednesday I went to the bakery next door (Nova Bakery I think) and had a very delicious custard tart. 10/10 would recommend. (I convinced my mom to lend me some money to buy a bunch more for the weekend so guess what I'm having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next week). - Jasmine

Molly Learns the Pipeline and Writes her Outline!

I've finished another week at my coop placement and I already feel like I'm halfway into the production. I didn't expect that I'd accomplish so much in four days. I spent a lot of my time this week talking to people from various stages of production (i.e. builds, scene setup, animating, backgrounds). The animation program I'll be using (Adobe Animate) seems really cool and looks a lot less confusing than I thought it would be, so now I feel somewhat better going into the next part of the project. 

I also got feedback from the writer who looked over the outlines I submitted last week, who said I should go with my slightly less intensive outline. I'll be working on the script and the concept art for the next month and a bit. 

Overall, the placement has been very exciting and I'm looking forward to the next several months to come. 

- Molly

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jasmine does the Script Thing and Hugs a Turkey.

This is the end of my second week here at Smiley Guy and it's been great! This week I got to work on my script and figuring out the format of that (thank you Erin and Wikihow). I also got the privilege of talking with a few of the department heads about what they do and how their job contributes to the overall animation process. In total, this week has been very informative and was really interesting to me. Next week I think I'll be working on… something. Probably my script more but I'm not really sure. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it :) - Jasmine

Anyways, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Introducing Molly!

'm Molly, and I'm one of the high school interns at Smiley Guy Studios this year! It's only been a week since I started my placement here, but I have been busy planning the 30-second short that I'll be working on this year. Although I have a few ideas (barely lol), I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'm hoping I'll have a better idea of what I want to accomplish by the end of October.

During the brainstorming process, I realized that I came up with some (probably) overly complicated ideas and that I have no idea how I'll animate them. I barely got everything to fit into the 30-second time frame I've been given, so now I have to figure out how to finish the project for the end of May.

I don't really know anyone near my work space except for the guy to the left of me (I still can't remember his name, even though he told me a bunch of times). Overall, I've had a good first week and am looking forward to the rest of the year.

- Molly

Please Welcome Jasmine!

Today marks the end of my first week here at Smiley Guys! So far I've brainstormed some ideas and created an outline for my short. Or what I hope counts as an outline. Making a 30-second film doesn't sound like a lot but in actuality, it will take a lot of time. When I was writing my outline I had to keep reminding myself not to add too much detail because a 30-second idea can quickly spiral into a 30-minute idea if I'm not careful.  Currently, I'm waiting to get my outline back and make some changes as well as starting on my production schedule.

A few notes about my first week:

1. The guy who sits beside me (I think his name is Christian, or Christopher or something with Chris in it) has a salad every day for lunch and it smells really good and inspired me to order a salad last night when I went out for dinner. My digestive tract thanks you. 
2. Apparently, Lisa knows CPR which is cool.
3. Someone who sits in front of me and to the left has some really awesome funko pops on her desk
4. I suck at remembering names

All in all this week has been amazing. I can't wait to see where this goes! - Jasmine