A Fond Farewell to Humphrey!

Wow, has it really been 13 weeks?  About 3 months?  A quarter of a year?

It's amazing how time flies when you're spending it in an awesome studio amongst skilled and talented artists.  I haven't had this much excitement and sense of fulfillment since I was in The Animation Workshop (which wasn't too long ago but still).

My Flash skills are superb now.  Not on the level of the pros here but if I were to gauge my level of improvement I'd say my quality has risen by 300%, and that's no hyperbole.  I look forward to using everything I've learned to create my own characters builds and animations using the pipeline introduced here.

If there is one thing that I'm disappointed with is how Smiley Guy Studios has spoiled me for the industry.  I arrived expecting long hours and unpaid overtime, something that I thought was the norm in the industry.  Not so, as I can't recall seeing anyone stay behind after 18:00 or coming in on weekends (to my knowledge).  Having experienced this as my first job, even as an intern, I can only assume future employment will be a bit of a disappointment in comparison.

I'll be leaving the country on Monday, giving me a weekend to check out the Toronto sights and go to Niagara Falls.  Though the best landmark was of course Smiley Guy Studios.

Thank you all who work here and I hope to see you all again, whether as friends or professionals, it will be a delight!

A Humphrey Update

Long time no see internet dwellers!

I'm nearing the end of my internship here with the lovely people of Smiley Guy Studios.  In one more week I'll be leaving the country and be on my way back to Europe, Germany to be precise.  Events that I haven't touched on since October here have been a delightful pumpkin carving contest, a messy but fun ordeal though I opted for a classic look while others went a bit more extravagant (my favorite and I believe the winner was a portrait of Michael Jackson).

I've been to a few lectures, screenings and get togethers while I've been here, all worthwhile.  The creative director from Tinman Studios explained to us in great detail about the hardships of running your own small studio and what to watch out for, I got to see the Dick Figures movie in theaters and take part of the TAAFI holiday party where I met friendly interesting people and handed out my business card to plenty of them.

I'm assuming this will be my second to last blog post so I'll save my sappy goodbyes til the last one.  Either way, having so much fun here!

Lucas' Blog and New Video Game

It seems as though I haven’t put up a blog here in awhile. It may in fact be because Julie hasn’t been on my case about it. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing though. Over the last two or three weeks a lot has happened. So now I can write about all of in a huge blog. How exiting! Well first of all, anyone who reads these would probably know that I’ve been learning Java and Javascript. Well, I’ve been finally putting those skills to work. A few weeks ago I started building a small platformer game with a friend of mine.  I’ve also been doing one on my own but I’ll talk about that later. I’m having a really good time at it. They're not super fancy now but it's a start.

            I’ve been going to some game-related events and been meeting some really cool people.  Some of them have made games that I actually played and so I enjoyed meeting the minds behind them, it was fantastic. I got a twitter account so I could connect with all these people. If I learned anything from these events, it’s than networking is everything. Everyone likes to follow each other’s projects and I need a way to tell people about what I’m working on so I started the “LUCAS TENNEN DOES STUFF” blog. There isn’t much there yet but there is definitely more to come: http://lucastennen.blogspot.ca/

            Over the last week and a half or so I have been working by myself on a small puzzle game called “AM I REAL?” I actually just put it up two days ago (can be found on my blog). A bunch of the work was done at Smiley Guy and I’m happy about how it turned out. It's really short, only takes about 10 minutes to get through but its my first one, so cut me some slack.  I’ve been watching the number of plays go up, refreshing the page every hour or so and I’m exited to see that over 200 people have played it! It’s a pretty big deal considering that the number before was zero. Overall the last few weeks have been busy and amazing and hopefully there will be many more like them. I should also throw out some random co-op related blurb like I usually do... I can do that next blog...

Am I Real

Cavemen Joint Linl

More Ramblings from Lucas

This is a very exiting blog. I have news of the utmost importance. For the first time ever, I am going to have a consistent reader. Yesterday I half-hazzardly told my friend Hilary about what I do here and she insisted on reading all of the blog posts. Now I can write knowing that someone is reading which is nice. Now these may be more than me sitting and spamming the keys on my laptop and autocorrecting each segment of random letters until they make a little sense. This is going to be a turning point on blog quality. Not to say that they were bad before. They were pretty decent, but now they can be incredible. They will take on a life of their own and cross over into whole new virtues of though. It will be like that episode of Futurama where bender becomes so smart that he IS the universe. It’ll be like that. Except with my blogs.  

Now, knowing that there’s a reader I feel like this is one-sided conversation. I like conversations, which are two ways. So I may say “How are you doing today?” Right now at this moment there will be no response. It would be odd if there was, because I’m currently alone in my house. (On a side note: I just had the strangest though. What if I posted this then I hear from behind me in a slithering voice “I’m doing fine.” That would scare the shit out of me. Like honestly if nobody hears from me in the next 24 hours, you know what happened.) So for the sake of making this more conversation-like, if you read this get in contact with me. I’m completely serious. Call me up and say “Hello Lucas, I just read your blog and wanted to let you know that I am having an absolutely wonderful day because I just read your blog and it just puts me in the best spirits.” If that is not the response then the call is not really needed. For the sake of saving time, I’ll just say here; “Thank you for the call. My day is fantastic too. I already know how good my blog is but its nice to hear it said out loud.” I don’t think more would need to be said on the subject but if you feel the need to go on flattering me with praise of my writing style then nobody is stopping you. 

         

Java’s coming along well too. I started making GUI’s (Graphic user interfaces) and it's neat to see someone interact with something I make.  Maybe I should make a GUI to organize all the calls that I get from people who want to praise my blogging skillz. I’ll put it on my to-do list.

Lucas Learns about Code and the Rock Horror Picture Show

I feel accomplished! I feel inspired! although I also feel like taking a nap... Last night was Halloween! It was a ton of fun. I went with a few friends to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre. I can easily say, it was the strangest thing I have ever seen and the most fun I've had in awhile. What really baffled me about it, was that most people knew all the lines. Not just the lines, They  were shouting things in-between the lines. There was a ton of dialogue that was just the crowd shouting at the screen in unison. Whats so great about this is you can't learn and memorize these lines from watching the movie. Yes, most of the people had been there before. many, many times. Oh, did I mention what I dressed up as? I had a lampshade on my head and an alarm clock on my shoulder. I was a one night stand. needless to say I would have been the coolest kid at any party.

Earlier in the week, I started making a text-based game in java. Its pretty exiting to see something that I made actually work. Its fairly simple and the cove is very disorganized but it runs and one could actually sit down and play it. It only takes about 30 seconds to get through, but its a start. More on that later though.

Halloween at Smiley Guy Studios!

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year.  Left to Right credit: "Michael Jackson" by Aaron Hong, "Jackolantern" by Humphrey Erm, "Jack" by Julie Otten.  Front Row: "Motley Crew" by Stephanie Ramon

Julie Otten as a Ninja Turtle, Al Jerek Torrijas as Odd Job Jack, and Stephanie Ramon as Robin Thicke

Internal Musings from Lucas

Bloggedy Bloggers? Yes, That was the only contents of an email I just received from Julie. Sometimes I feel she’s too nice. Ill be just about to carry on with my Friday night when I get such an email. I almost feel as though she should just let me forget. Then I would have to deal with the consequences of not putting up a blog. I couldn't imagine what it would be though. I'm sure the people at SGS would find some form of hilarious punishment. Make me wear a dunce hat or something like that. 

      This week to be honest has been fairly uneventful. I've been having to do an obscene amount of writing for school. Essays, reflection papers and yes... blogs. I find that Smiley Guy is a nice break from that though. Not that its a break! I still do work! Just the change in environment is relaxing. Instead of running from class to class stressed about the work that is due or the quiz coming up. I just get to sit down and immerse myself in something for a few hours. The best is I walk away and on the streetcar I have a sort of revelation. I tend to say to myself "Huh, I know something that I didn't know two hours ago." I find that this doesn't tend to happen often in every day life. Its a nice feeling. Also I get strange looks from people wondering why I'm talking to myself. 

Anyways, next week is Halloween so I'm sure there will be more to talk about. Just a heads up though, my costume is going to be awesome.