A Fairwell from Adam Roberts

Hello fellow future interns and the staff of Smiley Guy Studios,

I would like to let everyone know that my time at the studio was a memorable experience that not only developed my skills in animation and design, but it helped me meet awesome and talented people that were able to share a bit of their knowledge with me over the past year. The team also took me out for breakfast at the local restaurant named KOS (I believe). We sat, ate food and had a good time. Unfortunately, my contacts were irritated during the subway ride, so I had to consequently take them out. I was almost blind for the entire meal, but I still managed to interact and have fun at the table. 

Kurt Scott was an unbelievable mentor for myself as he guided me through every important stage of creating a short animation and our friendship also became quite strong near the end of the year. I'm happy that my Co-op teacher found such a talented studio to help me understand so many things.

I had a wonderful year, and I'd love to keep in touch with the people from the studio.

STAY AWESOME AND I HOPE THE STUDIO'S FUTURE ENDEAVORS ARE BRIGHT! 

Sincerely, 

Adam Roberts

Adam Wraps it Up

With my Co-op year coming to a close, it was a good idea to begin doing these animation and design tests created by the company. After constantly putting small tweaks into my main "Metal-Head" animation, it was a good end-of-the-year change that has been teaching me and helping me learn advanced animation.

The first test I did was to re-create a character with Joel's tutorial. The tutorial was definitely not the easiest task as it taught me not only how to design a character, but it showed me how to create a character that is actually formatted to be animated properly. The next tutorial focused on animating certain elements from a scene from the show 'Warren". This was much more difficult as it forced me to animate a whole body composition opposed to one figure. 

The final animation tests (which are my favorite) are the simple object animation. From a flower-sack to a bouncy ball, Kurt asked me to animate them how ever I wanted to. This really tested how much I knew and I was forced to ask Kurt for some aid as it was deceivingly difficult. Learning the "eases" and "ease-outs" was also great because that little extra amount of animation makes the biggest difference.

With the Co-op year almost complete, its great to realize how much I've learned.

Adam Reflects

As the end of my co-op experience is coming in the next few months, I think it’s time to think
about what I’ve learned and what I would like to do with all the tools and abilities I’ve gained from
working at this great studio.

Prior to working here, I’ve had minimal drawing experience.  I didn’t know how to design
characters and I had absolutely no idea what properties make a character look pleasing to the eye.
 After being here for 8 months, I can gladly say that I’ve grown as a designer and a director.  Most co-op placements would usually ask you to simply join on in their projects; at Smiley Guy Studios, they have allowed me to actually be the creative director of a short film that I created.  And that’s exactly what makes this great studio unique.  The employees are always happy to help me out (I’m a little shy, so I don’t ask too much), but in perspective, I’ve truly enjoyed my compelling experience here.

The only real medium of design that I was familiar with before being at SGS was with 3D
modeling and animation.  Now I am extremely comfortable with 2D modeling and animation because of the help of Kurt Scott.  He’s been assuming the role as my manager/supervisor of the project and he’s been doing a hell of a job with getting me to up to par with the roles of animation.  I plan to make short and quick YouTube videos in the future with Flash animation as I feel very comfortable with the skills I have gained. 

Here are the images of both backgrounds of my short film.

Adam's New Project

In the past few weeks, my supervisor Kurtis and I decided that it would be a good idea to temporarily try out a new project. The new project will be a 10 second short about a knight who is battling his mentor. This small exercise will help me understand animation more deeply as it will involve full body movements. I'm excited to try something new! This project also is testing out my creative ability as I finally get to use what I've learn't from the past 4 months I've been here!

Adam Roberts, ready to cut his teeth in animation!

It's been a few months since my last post and a lot has changed during my project. First thing aside, I have grown so much as a designer and story teller while I've been at Smiley Guy! My supervisor, Kurtis, has been a joy to work with (as usual) and he's been constantly showing me tricks and tips for Flash design and animation. In the past few weeks, I've been finalizing my backgrounds for my classroom scene and I finally recorded the audio for the short. Presently, I am touching up my scenes as we approach the actual animation portion of the project. The next few weeks will be tough as I dive into animation, but I am ready!

Here is a screen grab from my upcoming animation!