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.

Erica's Approaching Animation

I finally started my animatic and finished it quite quickly too. All that was left was the music or the voice over for the characters. I finally finished it for good! I started the backgrounds in photoshop and at first they were really confusing to do because it’s something new to me, I have always done my work in flash, but after a little more review I got the hang of it and managed to finish all of my backgrounds. YAY!! So now that is left to do is the character designs and then I’m onto making the props and finally the ANIMATION!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!

Well here are some/most of my background designs IN COLOR! :

Lalo Wins An Emmy for Intern of the Year!

Lalo holds the Emmy that Guidestones just won in Cannes

Cody Approaching the Finish Line...

Over the past couple of weeks I've begun to animate and I've got my first few shots done.
Initially I had a hard time figuring out where things go and what things do in Flash.
Nothing seemed to want to do what I thought it was going to, but the more time I spend in the program the more it's starting to make more sense to me.

Now that Iv'e straightened out some of the issues I was having I think I could speed up my process.
There's still a lot of work to do but I look forward to continuing and finishing on schedule.

Here's a frame from the opening scene.

A Lalo Production - Part 4 of 4

The fourth and final installment of Lalo's Blog video.  *tear!

A Lalo Production - Part 3 of 4

Another highly anticipated installment of Lalo's blog video:

Cody's Ready to Animate!

This week at Smiley Guy Studios I worked on refining my animatic and finalizing my character rigs.
I've also made revisions to my backgrounds and props and I think I have all the assets I need.
Now that things are set I believe I'm ready to begin animating.

Here's a picture from the title sequence.