Rae Starts to Samurai!

I have started the process of making my own short film! So far I love it, I'm learning so much. I started out by brainstorming ideas and writing loglines. When I finally settled on an idea, I made my schedule for the rest of the year to give me an idea of when I should have things done, and how long it will take. Right now I am in the process of doing my storyboards, my idea is to do a Samurai Jack inspired fight sequence. The first part was a lot easier to storyboard, but now I am a little stuck figuring out how to start off the fight, and have it make sense, so I'm a little stuck, but I am up for the challenge! Today I have finished the first draft of my storyboards, and I am going to go over it with Rich and Aaron, to get some notes and see what they think. Everyone here has been really supportive, and offered me a lot of inspiration, and conversations about Samurais! The past few weeks have been great! I can't wait to start the next part of pre-production!

 

-Rae

Rae Works on a Walk Cycle

Hello!

It’s only been a week or 2 since my last blog post, and a lot has happened already! I continued working on my walk cycle, and then showed it to Mat one of the animators, for some feedback. There was a lot of that needed improvement, and he started a new one and walked me through each step, showing me how he goes about blocking a shot. It was really cool getting to observe how he works, and learning about his approach and technique to animation. He showed me how he breaks stuff down and works with one part at a time, starting with the main movement of the torso, and letting the rest follow. It gave me a new perspective on how to approach animating, and made things a lot simpler. With what I had learned I started my walk cycle over again, which turned out a lot better than my first try. I’m starting to understand flash a little better, and how to work in it.

I was also just told that I will be making my own short film during my time here, and I’m very excited! I’m about to start on my first stage of pre production, by brainstorming ideas, Hopefully by my next blog post I’ll have a story down, I can’t wait to get started!

See you on Thursday!

Bendix Says Farvel!

Halløj I kabyssen!

I was allowed to sneak in one last blogpost before I end my internship! I'm terrible at goodbyes so instead I will say: see you all later. Thank you so much to everyone at Smiley Guy for the best internship I could ever have hoped for. These past three months just flew by. I learned so much in terms of animation, concept art and about myself, I felt extremely welcome and it's just been an awesome experience overall. I will leave you all with a bunch of small drawings instead of a single comic. I tried to draw everyone, but if I've accidentally missed someone I'm really sorry! 

Oh and one last thing: Cherry and I finally broke down our language/country barrier

I'll see you all again and hopefully sooner rather than later!

- Bendix

Say Hello to Rae, Our New High School Intern!

Hi i'm Rae, the new high school intern at Smiley Guy Studios!

My first few weeks here have been great! I’ve already learned a lot and met a lot of great people. Everyone is really nice and encouraging, and I’ve really enjoyed being able to talk to people about animation and art. It’s really cool to be surrounded by people who all share the same passion. I was given my first assignment, to do a walk cycle in Flash using one of the walk cycle tutorials. It’s my first time using Flash, and it’s a bit foreign to me, but I feel like I am starting to get the hang of it. I’m still settling in, but I’m really looking forward to getting to know everyone better and learning more! I think it’s going to be a great year!

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

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 

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 3^rd 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 

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

Bendix Has a Scare and Eats Some Haggis, the Two of Which Are Unrelated.

Hullo!

Outside of work, this week has been rather uneventful. I'm enjoying my daily updates from Cherry and her adventures across the sea and I try to live vicariously through her. I've also figured that I've been here for quite a long while, as the lovely people at Central know what kind of coffee I want before I even get to say it.

As always, work is awesome and a great motivator to get up in the morning, and I only need one more shot until I've cleared my queue of Clean up and Tie-down shots, so I can move unto the next stage!

In other news, today the power suddenly went out and we were left in a very dark lunch room for a few scary seconds...

And to end the last week of September with a bang, we're going to a Scottish bar after work, almost celebrating Oktoberfest, but mostly just enjoying ourselves. I'm looking forward to haggis and good company :)

Until next week! 

- Bendix

Bendix Makes Comparisons and Conquers Flash!

Plenty of things have happened this week. I got a package full of Danish (and some Swedish) candy from my parents, we went out dining at a Danish-ish place to test just how Danish it was, we've been playing around with helium balloons, covering our ears because of a fire alarm testing and Cherry left for HK and Japan and won't be back for two weeks ( :( ).

The differences between Canada and Denmark are becoming more and more clear every day. I feel that it's the subtle differences that set us apart, besides the obvious things like architecture, our history and language, it's also our different taste in food and humor that I find deeply interesting. Thus I was pleasantly surprised when three people from the studio actually liked the licorice with salmiakki that I brought in. When we went to the danish restaurant, it seemed that most people liked the food! I won't go into detail about what was wrong and what was right about the food, but all in all it was a fun experience and I was really excited to get to share something danish with the rest of the studio. Ever since I got here, I've become more aware of how much I actually appreciate my own country, and I think I've talked more about Denmark in these two months, than I have in my entire lifetime. It's not because I'm homesick, on the contrary I LOVE being here, and I love how being here has made me more aware of how my own country is put together.

Another thing that I think the entire studio knows by now, is that Sweden and Denmark have a love hate relationship for each other. It's our duty to hate each other and it's deeply rooted in our history, but if I meet a Swedish person outside of Scandinavia, we will greet each other like family! You love the people you hate....yeah?

But more importantly, we don't like to get mixed up, hence why when I showed Darien our Danish beers, Darien and I are no longer friends. It was nice as long as it lasted. Only kidding, Darien is great.

 

 

And I'm finally conquering Flash! The program is less scary than when I first started out and I'm getting up to speed. I feel like the style of Todd is more natural for me to both draw and animate in, and for the first time in a long time – weekends are becoming a bore, and I genuinely look forward to Mondays so I can come back to work, see people and get cracking with my scenes! I'm so happy that everyone always has time to help and give me advice, as it has really helped making the experience of learning a new program, a lot less scary than it could have been.

 

The scenes are also really fun and challenging and a good mix of having different characters with various traits to keep in mind while portraying them, and a mix of both puppet-animated scenes, and full on skewed hardcore perspective and classically 2D animated scenes. It feels good to try both out and be trusted to do both :)

- Bendix

Bendix Works on Her Awkward Hugs

Hello and happy Friday!

Today I brought in a danish version of pierogi (or Pirogger if you wanna try the danish name out. Good luck.) and they're a hit! I made 30 but it seems like I should have made double the amount, hah. I'll definitely have to bring in a batch again next month, and perhaps some mini hotdogs. Credit to both of those recipes go to my mother :)

This week I've had another food adventure and went to have ramen with Cherry and Kris (see I got your name right this time!) and it was so delicious, my god. We finished off with bubble tea and it is the fullest I've been all week.

Work wise I'm getting faster at animating and I finally feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of it. I still feel like I'm too slow, but I am confident that I'll finish all the shots I have for this month!

I'm also trying to learn how to communicate better with my co-workers and it's... a work in progress. 

We're going out for drinks today, so maybe I'll have a chance to practice my awkward hugs again.

- Bendix

Bendix Starts to Animate!

This week we had Monday off, so I spent it finishing up my first draft of my bachelor thesis and sleeping. Mostly sleeping.

Tuesday I was introduced to my first animation task, and as I have never animated in flash before (except for a one week course 3 years ago), needless to say I was very confused by the program. After two years of animating in Maya, my brain has been 3D-fied in many ways. Wednesday, Matt gave me a short and very informative lecture on the program, and I feel like I'm a little less scared of diving into it! It's still very hard getting comfortable with all the different buttons and ways of using layers and rigs, but I'm slowly getting there.

I have a quota of 20-30 seconds a week, and I've reached about half of that this week, but I hope that I I will soon enough get up to speed and conquer Flash!

Yesterday, Cherry, Kris, Darien, David, Gia and I, went to a Thai place called Pai (you've probably noticed a theme of food by now in all of my blog-posts). It was extremely good food, but I did manage to get one bad mouthful of spice that nearly sent me on the verge of tears!

Today feels like a chill day, leading into a very chill weekend of thesis writing and getting my hair done (which is about time)!

And to finish off the blog, here is another glorious Cherry moment from this week.

- Bendix