This is an exercise I am definitely going to steal for my students. I’ve thought about a similar one before, if not for the simple exercise of forcing them to think about what they are seeing, then at least to force them to realize that you can’t tell even a simple story with 10 drawings. You need to break things down.

So this is actually a character from that graphic novel I’m sometimes hinting at. This is pretty close to his final design too. I did an illustration / more realistic version of the main characters in an assignment last quarter. But I do not want to do a big long comic with realistic figures. Too difficult, plus it doesn’t fit the story. I’m totally not working on it right now anyway.

Here is my week 2 assignment where I make him get out of a chair and stand. Pretty challenging really. I think the rise up is a tick too fast. Needs 2 – 4- maybe 6 more inbetweens. The Antics work fine to me though. Hopefully the teach agrees.

So I’m in Storyboarding and Traditional Animation II this quarter in Grad School. It’s a little weird, because unbeknownst to everyone else involved, I am teaching a storyboarding course simultaneously. So far I am a little nonplussed. It’s not the instructor’s fault, he’s very direct and is an obviously stellar artist. But he is at odds with the syllabus material, which was prepared by someone else. Some of it is outdated and references a book that is out of print, and it also starts very slowly. Our first week’s assignment was to do a rough 20 panel or less personal story, with no instruction. The ole’ water tester. Just to see how poorly everyone in class actually draws and tells stories:

I got a B+. Which was weird, because there was no instruction, and therefore no foreseen expectations. The major note was that he was confused by shot choices in 7 – 11 because he could not figure out the layout of our house as depicted. However, he then produced an overhead layout of my home, exactly as it exist, which kind of proves he was the opposite of confused.

The second week’s assignment was to do some sketches. Just some sketches of people in public. Ya know, like animators should always try to do. This is fine, but it seemed a little elementary for an entire week’s assignment, in a grad school level class. Not even a first semester grad school class. So I went to a local mall. Grades pending on these:

Perhaps I shouldn’t look these “easier” assignments in the mouth, but their apparent simplicity and the nebulous directions and expectations have me worried.

“oh. shit. I should have asked for more.”

This is my final for Grad Level Traditional Animation 1 at the Academy of Art University. There are some timing and spacing things I would like to adjust, I just want the acting to be more subtle, but that is something I have struggled with forever. The walk in is too rough (and was rushed) but overall I think it turned out well.

I’m too tired to do much more elaboration, maybe over the Christmas break I’ll do some sketching and regular “blog” like posts?

Every night Beauty and the Beast would sit by the hearth in the ornamental great hall and talk. The Beast’s stories were fascinating to Beauty and his smile was kind in the firelight. Soon she found that she was anticipating her evenings with the Beast all day long.

One, summer night the Beast dropped to one knee and looked into the eyes of his companion.

“I know I am ugly – horribly ugly – but I have to ask. Do you think that a lady as beautiful as you could ever marry a Beast?”

“Never,” Beauty said with a tear in her eye. “I love you for the honest, gentle soul you are but, no, I could never marry a Beast.”

At that, the Beast fled the hall and Beauty did not see him again for many nights.

I got an A-.

What a pleasant surprise when I took a break from working on my finals. Apparently one of my grad-school illustrations got featured on EatSleepDraw and 140 people liked or reblogged, and then a bunch of them added my tumblr. That’s pretty cool. It’s like I figured out the secret codes.

The internet. It’s really not all bad!

Looking forward to uploading these finals sometime late next week.

Apparently my clothed / background’d combat illustration was worthy of an A-. Which is a big deal because I’ve been pulling in the B’s consistently regardless of effort level so far.

In addition, the instructor has informed me that he will submit it to the Spring Show. I really don’t even know what that means, but I assume it’s some kind of a gallery thing at the school in San Fran? Maybe there is an online only component for online students, or it will be on a screen some place? Hell, maybe they’ll make a print and hang it up. I really don’t know. I’d be more excited about it, but as a Grad Student, it seems like an honor I’ve kind of….out-grown? Perhaps I am being flippant, though.