Keith's Last Blog

So this is my final blog entry, and what a ride it's been.

I can feel all the experience I've gained here at Smiley Guy, and I'm thankful for the multitude of different assignments I've received. On each assignment I successfully learned something new, and became just a little faster and slightly more efficient.

I was especially fond of the sparky graphics . These assignments although small gave me a great deal of creative freedom, so long as I followed the initial sketch as a guideline. The benefit of them being smaller assignments was the sense of accomplishment I got after finishing so many of them.   it's very akin to the Dopamine hit from leveling up in a video-game haha.

Had a bit of a surprise today when I found out Photoshop up and rebooted itself, taking my file that I had worked on all of yesterday with it; and all my brush presets were gone too (still don't get why that happens).

After a few minutes trying to find another copy of the file, I realized I had to do the entire thing again

After the usual few moments of shock and a involuntary eye twitch or two; I shrugged and realized I could do it again in half the time because I didn't need to spend time figuring it out from scratch; and it's still experience in working faster, so it's all good.

It wasn't as bad as loosing over 10 hours of fairly complex animation because of a corrupted flash file. 

That was unpleasant.

At times like this, I think about the story I'll be telling one day and that makes the entire experience less serious.

The process of painting as much as I have this summer (literally 8 hrs a day) and with a variety of subject matter, has thoroughly improved my understanding of colour and light.

 I'm a hell of a lot faster too.

I leave SGS wiser, and more confident in my abilities, and I thank everyone who helped me evolve, be it directly or otherwise.

KEITH LEARNS SOME VALUABLE ANIMATION AND LIFE LESSONS

It's been and interesting couple weeks. I tried ramen at the place down College St. and it was pretty nice. the atmosphere was very pleasant and inviting. I got a bit of advice about how to think about my film for next year, and it was very helpful. Granted a lot of it was already part of my thinking process, but it was still cool to hear from another.

I've also been doing a few layouts for a short that the studio is working on, and it's been really fun.  In love the style of the show, and I can feel my colour and shape design sense improving just from working on it.

Our resident magician introduced me to the world of Team Fortress 2, an awesome online team first person style game, and what could be possible to those who mastered it. It was incredible watching them take out the other team pretty much single-handed.

He also mentioned in passing how to invite oneself to bonfires- an extra case of beer or two. I honestly didn't realize how easy it could be to crash a party .

Overall, working at the studio continues to be a very interesting learning experience.

Keith Talk about Bubbles and Books

This week has been very fruitful, learning how to flow with the creative current as opposed to resisting it, when I second guess myself. I did several Sparky graphics, and some equally challenging grandma post cards. They are sooo very fun to do. I'm really enjoying the whole playing with colours and calling it  "work" thing.

A highlight- someone got a surprise birthday cake that looked very much like a huge burger. It was hilarious!!

That and gigantic bubbles!!!    on the rooftop!!!     soo fun!!!!!

 

Brad demonstrating how to make massive bubbles

Finally caught up with "the girl with the dragon tattoo" series, and am on the last chapter of the audio book. its really exciting, I love the sense of divine retribution the author put into the book, it makes it so much more enjoyable, like everything gets wrapped up, and everyone gets their just desserts. 

Spoiler alert lol

I mention the audio-book, because I find they work much better than movies, or t.v. shows at keeping me just on the edge of my seat and alert so I don't get fatigued when painting all day.

It really adds to the experience, almost like you're on the adventure with them, feeling their sorrow, their joys all from the safety of the office.

Keith's Musings on the TTC and Sparky Graphics

Wacky Wednesday:

I wake up to the sound of  the radio show host saying that all the subway lines are shut down. With a groan I fall back in bed, while his co-host tells everyone to just take a day off. I drag myself out of bed and trudge along to start what promised to be the start of a terrible day. As I dose off on the bus-ride to the subway station, I wish the subway lines would magically just be open when I get there, that they were never closed in the first place.  

Imagine my surprise when I got to Islington Station expecting a crowded shuttle bus and instead see the subway functioning as normal.  Bewildered I get on, did I dream that the subway was closed? Did i fall asleep and dream that it was open?  I ponder these questions as I drift off once more. 

When I get to work, I'm still confused. I ask Joel if he heard about the subways, and he confirms he heard they were closed. 

With a shrug of disbelief I start painting...

 

I do love the crazy rain we're having, it always manages to put me in a better mood.

Been working on Sparky Graphics, which is something completely different from what I'm used to, which is great. It's funny, whenever I begin to feel the strain of working on something too long, I get a new assignment to balance everything out.

Really enjoyed playing with colors on the surfing grandma postcard assignment I got to do.

 

Keith Commutes, and Smiley Guy Video!

So I've been working on backgrounds of the actual show and things are getting a lot more intense. Lots more to do, but I've started to see improvements in my work and am getting faster. I believe I'm nearly ready to work from home some of the time. Love working in the studio, but the commute is still exhausting. I also like that every morning at the subway there's a street musician doing his thing, really brightens up the day.

Loved the little "featurette" CBC did on the studio: 

Introducting Keith!

It's been an interesting couple of weeks so far at Smiley Guy.

Best surprise of my first day? Working with Thor (well a look-a-like anyway). Still laughing at the coincidence because the previous night I was watching the movie.

I'm learning a lot about lighting, rendering and basically how to become a better painter/ designer. The challenges have been many, but are all very exciting.

So far have completed a cave BG based off  concept art, and a concept for a comic themed episode. Still have a great many revisions to do on those, but  moving onto more layouts for now.

I love the restaurants nearby, especially the wrap place. It felt like I was in Europe on holiday, sitting in an outdoor cafe.

The commute is about 2 hours and is a bit of a pain, but I'm learning to adapt to it.

All in all, definitely an interesting learning experience