Juhi Has a Heartfelt Goodbye!

From the first time I stepped foot into the studio, to the last step out at the end of the term, I have enjoyed my time here and learned so much along the way. I cannot thank everyone enough for this opportunity; from the lessons, to the laughs, it had me feeling proud and grateful to be part of Smiley Guy's at the end of each day. It's true when they say if you truly enjoy what you're doing as a job, it doesn't feel like work. Now that I've had this experience, I have a solid confirmation that the studio environment is perfect for me. Once again, thank you for everything you've done for me Smiley Guy fam!

~Juhi Out~

Juhi Works and Plays Pokemon Go!

This week zipped by so quickly! With the launch of Pokemon GO, everyone has been catching the craze left and right. In the midst of it all, I've been working on revising background characters and designing new ones to populate Todd's school. It's fun making up characters in the style and reusing assets wherever I can. Efficiency!

I can't believe it's nearing the end of the internship...the whole period has been a wild ride and I've enjoyed every minute of it. It feels much, much too soon. I hope the next week feels at a normal pace. I feel like pokemon is to blame.

~Juhi Out~

Juhi and the Background Test

This week we were assigned a background test so I've been working on creating a layout for the Todd feature. The style we're going for is Mike Mignola's use of harsh black shadows and bold colors for dramatic effect. I personally love the look and it's an inspiration for my style development. I think it fits the comic book style of Todd really well, and I am further excited to see the film in color!

I have also continued to work on designing and flashifying background characters, paying special attention to the Indie GoGo Funders. It was fun adapting to less exaggerated styles and getting the likeliness of the actual people.

~Juhi out~

Juhi Loves to learn!

Continuing on with Todd, I've got to tweaking and revising props, as well as going through the latest animatic and making additional angles. It's quite exciting to see the animatic as it update with early music and sound effects. I especially liked the match cuts supported by musical cues, as it brings the animatic that much closer to the final.

Currently, I'm on the task of designing background characters to populate the school. It's a fun challenge designing based on the established Todd style, gain feedback and designing with possible reuses in mind. And then, taking it straight to flashifying after approval. It's incredibly exciting to imagine the assets I create debut on the final!

I'm also constantly absorbing and learning new tips and tricks from the software. No matter how much you'd think you're used to working, it's always a joy finding out more faster, efficient tools that function the same. I will always be exploring and hoping to develop that level of workflow.

~Juhi out~

Juhi Understands the Pipeline

After finishing up tasks for the Beethoven's Wig Can Can finale short, I went straight back into my projects on Todd. Now that I've gotten experience animating with rigs, it was easier to understand the procedure of designing and flashifying assets cleaned up and ready for animation. I'm enjoying seeing the returns on everything I take on. Every learning experience relates back to how the pipeline works in the studio and gaining a grasp on that I find is important not just during the job but for personal and school projects as well. 

Efficiency is key!

~Juhi Out~

Juhi Animates

This week had been non-stop animate, animate, animate! and I loved each scene that I was put on. Working with different rigs of varying difficulties kept me focused, and it was a joy to practice character performance and convey emotions through the rigs. To bring life to the characters and seeing the short come along was definitely rewarding. At the end of the week, the whole studio went out for food and to celebrate Rich's birthday. I had a lot of fun and it was a great way to cap off the busy week!

~Juhi out~

Juhi Can!

After posing out more CAN CAN characters, I moved on to animating scenes this week. Working through the different stages of the pipeline is a definitely helpful learning experience for my own workflow. I hope to gain more practice and insight into the pre and post production of projects as well.  

~Juhi out~

Juhi Celebrates Her Day of Birth!

This week seemed to zip by, but I retained a lot of good memories from it! We started on an exciting new project, and I've been having a lot of fun posing and drawing out the appropriate characters for an intense CAN CAN finale.

Along with the ice cream and lunch outings, puppy visits, and a birthday surprise I've grown even more attached to the studio and everyone's kindness here. Everyone emphasizes a good "work hard play hard" attitude so naturally I feel compelled to do the same!

~Juhi out~

Juhi Likes Melting Faces Off

A month had already passed! It's incredible how time flies but I also feel like I've been working here for much longer. I'm continuing with tweaking props and getting them ready for animation. A fun task I was handed this week was taking reference photos of real people and designing them to fit the Todd style. I even got a chance to design a background character (getting their face melted off haha) and I indulged by designing myself in the Todd style. Although they may not be final, it definitely feels rewarding and I can't wait till they're animated!

~Juhi out~

Juhi is Hyped

This week I did revisions based on the helpful notes I got back for the props I built. It was great to receive feedback and make the necessary changes to make animating go smoothly. Along with building props, I had my hand at designing them too which I really enjoyed. It was a good break from flashifying props; but with the experience it made designing for the look of Todd and the animation in mind easier.

This week was also full of events including a VR info session and a pizza leica viewing day! It was super cool to fully watch the rough draft of the production we've been working on for weeks, together with the studio. Definitely hyped!

~Juhi out~

Juhi on Props

On the third week, I moved from posing and building out skeletons to building some props used by the characters in the Todd feature. It ranged from a simple bag to a tape recorder, where I created the different angles for both that were needed according to the animatic. From the practice, using shortcuts and manipulating the software comes much quickly and easier now. I definitely feel accomplished to see the progress come along!

~Juhi out~

Juhi Makes Progress

Second week dunked and I'm starting to get used to the routine here at Smiley Guy's! I did some exploring during lunch and found some great bakeries and shops in the area. There is also a store selling cheap, cute cactus plants and I'm thinking of grabbing some for my desk area. :D After practicing with a character build in Flash, I took on another task revising and posing out a gnarly face-melting skeleton fight sequence for the Todd feature! I adjusted to Flash short cuts and did lots of problem solving in order to learn an efficient workflow. I definitely feel progress and will be looking forward to tackling more tasks on the project.  

~Juhi out~

Introducing Juhi!

Hi, Juhi here! I'm an animation student from Sheridan. I like dogs, robots, and robot dogs.

Wednesday was officially my first day as a fresh intern, and with everyone's support and easy-going nature, I easily had a good time doing the tasks provided for me. I familiarized myself with Flash and the studio's character rigging procedures. Practicing rigging with one of 'Todd and the Book of Pure Evil' characters, it was interesting to see how the studio deals with builds meant for the ever-evolving nature of Flash animation. I'm excited for the rest of my time here and see where this journey takes me. Nice to meet you! ~Juhi out~