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'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!!!