Callie Says Goodbye!

There was absolutely no one at school today so I missed second period to come down to co op early. I brought a card and chocolates and I am happy to say that a few hours later most of the chocolates are gone. Yum yum. Wowie. I am done co op. It's so crazy to think that I won't be subwaying to Ossington every other day at lunch time next year. What will I do with myself!!??? Today Sam helped me put the finalized credits on my film, and now I am copying everything from my intern folder onto a USB. Then a few people are going to watch my film. It's very scary because I've worked on it the entire year so it's a lot of effort with not a whole lot of result. Like not visible result I mean. The film was my overall project at smiley guy but I have definitely learned so so much than you can see just in the film. I'm not totally sure that makes sense. Oh well, what can I say I'm nervous. Exams are coming up. Anyhoo I must go now. I am signing off for the last time :(((( I promise to come back and visit! Have a good summer xoxox

Callie, the Human Popsicle

It is shorts season which is fabulous but the air conditioning in the studio is infinitely better than in my school, meaning that I turn into a Callie Popsicle after an hour. Next time I will bring a sweater. Slash I will only need to bring a sweater twice because oh my god, next week is my last week at Smiley Guy. That’s insanity, I cant believe it. On Tuesday of this week Joel was busy so I couldn’t go downstairs to work on special effects with him and instead I worked on prop builds again for Vampire Steve. That was pretty cool because it was like a memory test on all the stuff I learned earlier in the year about Flash. Turns out I actually remember how to use it. Yay!! So I built a cellphone, a clip board and a pen.

Today, Thursday, Joel was busy again (some looming deadline), so I sat at my desk and drew a lot. That was a nice treat actually. I am just not sure if I will end up adding special effects because I do not have Joel to help and also the computer I was working on was removed because it was needed for a new project. If I don’t get to add special effects, I will be a little disappointed because I saw how cool they could make something, but I will also be okay. See you next week! :)

Callie on After Effects

Hello! This is going to be an uber short blog post because I have two art projects, my co-op final project, a math test and a practical lab exam for biology all tomorrow! Basically a lot of work that will result in me pulling an all nighter. RIP my health. Oh well. I am only documenting today's work in the studio because on Friday I will be on a school field trip and of course Monday was Victoria Day.

I got to the studio and luckily there was still pizza leftover from the pizza party I missed on Tuesday, so I ate many pieces of cold pizza. So wonderful. Then I went downstairs and watched some of the Todd animatic and it's so funny, I can't wait to see what it looks like finished (although I will not be at Smiley Guy when it is done, I will drop by or something). Then Joel came and he went over some truly mind boggling things on After Effects. We (actually Joel did everything I just observed and absorbed information) composited one of my shots and made it look super funky. Special effects, according to Joel, should not function as a fixer upper for poor animation rather it should just enhance it. All the same though, the gradients and glows that were added to my shot really fixed up my animation. I think it's ok because I am new at Flash and this is all a learning experience.

Next week I will continue with what Joel was doing and hopefully the shots will end up looking nice and polished. Bye!  

Callie's Path is Distinctly Her Own

Today is Friday! And tomorrow is Saturday, therefore a day on which I can sleep in! Yay! This whole week I've been working downstairs with Joel on the rough cut of my film. Monday I sat with Sam and Joel and they taught me about the program used for editing, called Final Cut Pro and I was able to pick it up relatively quickly actually. Maybe I'm getting better at computers!? Hahahah. I think it's more that there are only few basic functions of Final Cut Pro that I am using currently. Wednesday I went into the basement again and worked quietly on the edit. It's pretty relaxing because its small room with not a lot of noise. Today, I got to co op late (don't worry I emailed ahead of time asking for permission:) because of a music festival type thing at my school. There were freezies and watermelon and I had to wear so much sunscreen, oh lord. So I came into co op all sunburned (despite the sunscreen) and sweaty and went downstairs again, Joel showed up after a few hours and then I finished adding the audio to my film. I'm not yet sure if I want to manipulate the transitions between shots (like add fancy cross dissolves or whatever) but I'll figure that out later. I rendered out my video and watched it with the audio which was cool. I'm a perfectionist to a fault, so it's hard to look at my film and know that there are many areas I could improve. I mean, I came to Smiley Guy knowing nothing so of course my first animated film is going to be rough around the edges, but I am happy because the firefly sort of makes me laugh and I know that the rough parts show I have improved a lot this year.


So in terms of animating, that is all I did this week, but actually I was finishing up my edit and Joel and I started talking and the industry and careers and also a shared admiration of Malcolm Gladwell. I'm pretty scared to leave co op and know that the next time I will re enter an animation studio might possibly be my first job (also scared about managing finances). We just talked about what to expect from this industry, how it works and also how it's ok to not do something super academic like my parents or sister because my path "is distinctly my own". Joel pointed out that with animation or arts/media careers you see an immediate result from your work in front of your eyes and to people like me and I guess everyone here at Smiley Guy, that's what makes the work meaningful. Anyhoo, that 40 minute conversation along with my invitation to a pizza animatic viewing party was the highlight of my week, so thank you Erin and Joel. Next week's highlight will be actually eating the pizza! Yummmmmmyy. Adios until then!

Callie and Final Cut Pro

Its the end of the week already. Insanity!! Exams are coming up and I'm currently drowning in culminating projects so even though it's the weekend, it is still basically school. Blegh. Someone help. Lots to talk about for this blog post though because I have moved into a new stage. I am reaching the home stretch and the brief romantic tragedy of Sam and Donna will soon be finished. On Tuesday I stared at the computer for hours looking for suitable audio and sound effects for my film. It was very fun at first because the website Erin gave me has a vast stock of sound effects, which are really amusing. Imagine being the person on Audio Blocks belching. After a while I got all cross because you had to properly word what you wanted in the search bar otherwise nothing would come up. However, I am victorious! I, more or less, have all the sounds I need.

Today I was assisted in rendering all my shots and then I ventured into the basement of the studio to have Joel and Sam walk me through literally every step of how to put your shots in to Final Cut Pro (I think that's the name) and a few editing tricks. They are so nice and very patient. I am still quite useless at picking up computer programs quickly. Anyways, they helped me out and I watched all my shots stitched together for the first time. Even though it's a very rough version, it was pretty amazing because all this started as a little pen sketch a BILLION years ago (OK maybe only 7 months) and now it's a mini movie!! Next week I will go back downstairs and just clean it up. Maybe I'll make some dissolve transitions!! And probably learn more on adding audio to animation. Have a good weekend everyone!!!

Callie Conquers Revisions!

I got back from Alberta on Monday but on Tuesday I had the flu, so that was two days of school missed. Fortunately, I only missed one afternoon of co op and I seem to be still on track. On Wednesday I went over my shots with Darien and he made up a document with a bunch of revision notes for me which was very nice of him. He also showed me how to fix the things he pointed out and how to make a shadow for behind the lamp shade.

So I did all the revisions that Darien suggested and then today I sat down and was very confused about what I was doing (like what stage I'm on). I think I'm in limbo or something. Because I'm done revisions but I also haven't strung all my shots together, and I don’t know how to do that slash I think Erin said someone would edit it together for me. So basically I made a word document and went through all my shots and though about what audio I will need to find online to go with the film.

Going through the shots slowly also made me catch a bunch of tiny things that Darien was probably too nice to point out, because he knows I have limited time/skills to fix any problems with my film. But I am very nit picky and so the issues I could see, I tried to fix. Problems like unnatural expressions mostly, or just not enough movement to make a character look alive. Anyhoo, it's time for me to go home. Have a great weekend!

Callie is Flying Away...Again!

This week is particularly short (AKA 1 day), because on Thursday I have another plane to catch! It seems like I am always traveling so says Erin, but no matter, because I am up to date with my schedule! And she said it's coolio as long as everything gets finished in the end. Of course I'll stay extra time if I can't finish my project within co op hours, but I'm hoping I don't need to have too many long nights. Last week I added that change to my script about the last scene and modified a background to fit with it, and then today I animated it so I think I'm all done animation.

Even being done animation though, I feel as if I want to fix up a few background closeups. When I was painting in Photoshop, I didn't anticipate how every detail would be very pronounced when the camera zoomed in. So basically anywhere I got sloppy you can really tell. Especially because the main character is a bug so there are plenty of shots that are super zoomed in. Also there was the fact that my first background was a very experimental piece (I didn't know Photoshop at all) and I didn't know all the tricks to make it look clean.

So I'll fix those background issues that are bothering me and review my shots with Darien after. Darien would have reviewed my shots on Thursday but he happens to be on a cruise (lucky guy) and I will also be away visiting grandparents! So we will have to look over everything next week. Adios!

Callie is Creative!

I thought I would finish animation today but I didn't. Oh well. It was for a good reason. I've realized the final scene in my short was really lame and I didn't like it (it was very anticlimactic) so I brainstormed and brainstormed as to how I could change the last scene using design elements I had already created. It's pretty tricky when you have to confine your creativity to a few flash puppets and like 4 backgrounds. But I discussed with friends and also bothered Lea for about an hour and thus came up with a few ideas. Whoops.

I was wondering if I should set the bug on fire or make him explode but then I went absolutely crazy and figured I should turn Donna, the light bulb into Pacman and have Sam, the Firefly into a little gobbley bit and have the film end with Pacman Donna eating Sam. It's ok though I regained my sanity and chose a different ending. The end to my short will have Sam trying to get to Donna, but then you hear a streetlight flicker on outside and a little “yoo hoo” and Sam will screech to a halt and the camera will cut to outside where a gorgeous streetlight is beckoning him. FIN. This may not be the funniest ending possible but it's much better than the lame pinging against the glass bulb and it works with the design elements I have.

Hopefully it turns out. Have a good weekend!

Callie is Caught Up!

I can't believe it, but I've caught up in my schedule. I might even be ahead of schedule and I never thought that would happen because of how long I spent in design. It's crazy. I think it is a lot to do with the simplicity of my characters and film, but even so I thought animation would take forever!!! It's very strange to think that I have been working on this project for over half a year (slash even that school is almost over!! This is insanity). Everything has gone by so quickly and I'll be leaving Smiley Guy in less than two months :((


I am being too sad too quickly!! I still have 2 months left! Ish! That is plenty of time to use my new key card and be in this super cool environment. I still have maybe a third of animation left to do and then after that I will have to pick out cool music. I'm excited for that part because having a musical element will add so much to it. There's this trailer for The Shining which has been remade so that it looks like a rom com and it's seriously baffling because it's the exact same movie (like the trailer uses movie clips straight from The Shining) but just through music, one of the most classic horror films has been revamped to look like a romantic comedy. Absolutely ridiculous is what it is, and very funny, but it shows just how much music can do so I can't wait to add it to my film. See you Monday!!

Callie Makes 40,000 Birthday Cards!

This post is going to be fairly short because I must run home to make 40000 birthday cards. Why do all my friends have their birthdays in April??? This week has been very efficient, and I have also mastered half paying attention to my Netflix show and animating at the same time. Whenever I try to watch while I'm doing math it doesn't work because I just watch the screen all the time, but it just so happens that I am more interested in animating than I am in watching the show, so it works out really nicely.

I've started animation, and contrary to my previous belief it is not the longest part of the process (thank god or I wouldn't have finished). There are so many little tricks to use that speed up the process. I probably have around 15 seconds animated which is around half the film, but I think the timing in the animatic is a bit off. Either way, I am getting closer to reaching my goal (and at the same time closer to leaving Smiley Guy :(((). I will think about that later though, have a good weekend!!