Abominabababable.

The commercials I got to work on for Bing are out there and being shown on tv!  You can see all four of them HERE.

I showed up for an internship and instead got hired as the rigger.  My job included wrangling puppets, building rigs, tying things down, and various other MacGuyver-esque things.  Good times.  I also got to hang out with a couple of the animators who worked on Jingle, and it was a blast.  It was particularly awesome because I got to work with puppets based on the old Rankin & Bass Christmas specials that I'd seen as a kid.  The art department did a fantastic job on them; they look just like they should.

In other news, Jingle All the Way is out on DVD; you can get one at any hallmark store.  It's very cute and I had a blast working on it.  I snagged a copy today so I could see the behind the scenes bit (which has a couple of appearances by my good friend Teresa), and so I could have it for myself.  It's possible my hands make an entrance, but I didn't watch it real hard to make sure.  Woo!  It'll always be remembered as my first paid animation gig.  In fact, something I animated made it in!  Yay!  I've officially been paid to animate.  Let's hope it continues. :)

I'm finishing up my animation demo reel and have some snazzy cases for them... graduation is in 2.5 weeks and I'm both ready and dreading being done.  Go figure.

Jingle and Bing!

Bent Image Lab hired me a while back to work as an assistant animator on a stop motion holiday special called Jingle All the Way; it aired on the hallmark channel tonight and should be found online somewhere tomorrow hopefully.  It's ridiculously cute and I really had a blast working on it.  I also got hired as a rigger for some commercials they did for Bing a month or two ago; they can be seen here:

Bing Holiday Ads

Happy!  It was a total childhood fantasy to work with those puppets.  Seriously. Awesome.

Woo!

So alas, the animation studio job ended the other day, so now I find myself with some homework time. I was trying to finish an 11 second club entry for my independent study class so now I should have enough time to slip it under the wire. I know I won't win but this has given me some valuable practice.

I also have to get my animation reel put together for my senior portfolio class... My mentor is meeting with me for lunch to go over some of my stuff to help me get a decent graduation reel set up. I graduate December 16th and am pretty excited. It also helps that the boyfriend will be visiting then too... It'll have been 6 months since I saw him last at that point.

Tonight I went to a Halloween cupcake pah-tay dressed as a sim. Since I'll be working a total of 14 hours on Halloween day and I expect they won't let me wear anything other than my uniform, I figured that was the easiest thing to get away with. EA handed out these sim diamond headbands at e3 a couple years ago, so that'll do nicely for a simple yet funny costume. Saw someone dressed as the Doctor, too which was pretty cool. It was lame I had to leave early to go to work but at least I got to go.

Back to animating I go.

That was unexpected...

I took the summer off school so I could go work on a professional stop motion project, and when it was over I talked to the producers individually to tell them I had a blast working with them on the project, and I was really glad they brought me on board.  One of them, upon finding out that I had one quarter of school left, offered me an internship.

So last week I called Trevor and asked if the offer was still open.  He said it was and I should show up the following Tuesday.  When I arrived Tuesday, they told me that they'd rather just hire me, and had me write my availability down, and from now 'till the end of whenever I am working there in every scrap of free time I had.  My next day off is Thanksgiving.  This is okay though, for in December I graduate, and will be launched into my career.  In theory.

Webcomic!

I've finally had a little extra time to get that webcomic going that I've been wanting to do for the last decade or so.  I'm getting the page all set up so it's snazzy looking, working on thumbnails and pages, and once I have a decent start going, I'll update the main site to link to it and vice-versa.

In other news, I have one quarter left of school and am all registered... graduation will happen in December!  I'm excited.  Part of me is ready to be done, and the other part remembers I have student loans looming on the horizon.  ...Master's degree anyone?  Anyone? heheh.

80 hour weeks...

So this is what they're like.  Bleehhhhh.

I've had my hours cut down at the hotel to about 28, because they're awesome and know that I need to do this animation gig.  I love this job; the people are great, and they've been ridiculously flexible for me and I appreciate it to no end.  What does one do for their bosses to show their appreciation that doesn't seem like sucking up?  I'll think of something.

The animation studio has us all on 50 hour work week schedules, which is cool because the days go by pretty quickly.  I'm still having fun, which is good, because I had the silly idea I wanted to do this with myself.  I've been rigging and maintaining/fixing/organizing puppets for the last two weeks, and getting a tiny bit of animating in.  I've not done as well at that as I would like, but I should get several more chances this coming week to improve on that.  My cohort, Becky, is doing all sorts of awesome in that department, however, including animating the main character a bit.  One of the animators is really good at finding ways of animating without using visible rigging, and when it comes to the powdered sugar snow we're using, that can be a blessing.  He showed us a genius way of animating the main character this way, and we were pretty giddy about it.  Nerdy.

Several of the animators worked on Coraline and the Nightmare Before Christmas, along with other really familiar and awesome films, and Teresa suggested we bring in any behind the scenes books we had to have them sign them... so I took in my copy of Coraline and had a bunch of them sign it...  I totally fangirled.  It was silly.  It makes me happy that they're all really nice people though.  So far all of the animators I've met save one have been really sweet and approachable, and willing to show you things they've learned over the years.

I'm very tired these days, since I work a back to back grave and day shift on both friday and monday, but this coming week is the last one I have to worry about it, alas.  I'm both relieved and bummed, but I did get my first animation paycheck, so woo!  I'm starting to get a bit irritable with the lack of sleep... I think another week of this is about all I can stand.  Thank God I took the summer quarter off from school; between that and the random freelance work that keeps popping up, I'd go completely mad instead of slightly.  This last Friday, I worked from 11-10 at the studio, then 11 pm to 7 am at the hotel, then 8:30 am to 3 pm at the studio before crashing.  I was only supposed to get 3.5 hours in on saturday, but Trever came to me and bribed me to stay 'till 3 with sushi.  Mmm.  I loves sushi.  They say everyone has their price, and apparently that is mine.

But still... one more step on the road to become a professional animator. Happy.

First paid animation gig!

So yeah. I started my first animation gig yesterday. My good friend Becky showed me around yesterday and I got my feet wet rather gently. Today, though, I was in charge of rigging all by myself. Woo! Whirlwind second day...

So far all the animators are awesome. Kate, the puppet hospital person reminds me so much of Nancy, the one in Burbank, it's uncanny. Also, Dick is like them too. The three of them are very fun to talk to once you show them how interested you are in what they're doing. They're very eager to teach and share things.

Everyone has been very approachable and helpful. Which is good because I haven't hit the ground running as fast as I wanted to. It's still going well though and I'm happy to be there. Luckily I don't have to work the hotel job tomorrow too. My first couple of days at the animation studio included three shifts at the hotel. Luckily my schedule will change now to accommodate this job.

Now to get a little sleep. Bluh. Perhaps I'll get a normal amount of food tomorrow. I've been eating very little, because I keep not having time and preferring to sleep when I get a chance instead. It's all been a challenge, but I'm still having a blast.

Duuude...

I got my first professional animation gig!  I'm going to be a rigger/assistant animator on a stop motion production.  YES!

...now to figure out when I'm going to sleep.

Summer...

So I was supposed to graduate this quarter, but I decided to take the term off.  This is in part because I did an animation test at a Portland studio... but haven't heard anything.  I figured if they needed me I'd have the time this way, considering I have to keep my hotel job.  Worst case, I get a break. It was funny; I was soooo nervous for the test for 24 hours before, but once I got in there and started animating, I felt all relaxed and mellow.

In the mean time, I'm filling my "spare" time with video game work.  This is sometimes successful, and other times not; for when the client hates what I do it just makes me cranky.  I end up in the "I suck" mode that all artists go through periodically.  It never lasts too long though, since I have a pretty good support system in place.  I'm working on a project I think is really cool though, and would like to play once it's finished, so that's a good thing too.

I've taken a few moments here and there to thumbnail my comic.  I'll publish it on the web somewhere... once I get some pages drawn and can keep some kind of schedule.  There's always a lot going on, it seems, but I don't think I'd have it any other way.  It seems that's the life of an animator... animate when you can, and work like crazy on everything else when you can't.  I seem to be happy most days though, so that's probably a good thing.  In my "me" time, I played a little Fallout: New Vegas, too... which I like, in spite of everything (bugs, the 'not as coolness' as its predecessor that people talk about, etc.).

And here I should get back to work.  Deadlines don't meet themselves.

Finals!

 So the webpage updating has gone well.  Good thing, since it's due tomorrow for my portfolio and professional development class.  Granted, it's been done all term, but I did pick up some sweet dreamweaver knowledge.  

Met Justin Rasch at the Northwest Animation Festival, and he had some nice things to say about our film.  He's a sweet guy and is up here working for a while.  His blog is here.  He came and spoke to one of Teresa's classes, too, and a bunch of us from The Box Game crashed to listen.  He had a lot of good things to say about being an animator, and while his story is a dream come true kind of thing, it gives me hope for the future.  Just have to keep truckin' along...

Now for sleep.  The term's almost over... phew.  

Work work work...

First off, I'm not complaining. I have a full time job that gives me pretty decent insurance, and out of the woodwork the video game company called me up and offered me a bunch of work. Woo! Then, tonight, my old security boss called me and offered me some freelance work. On top of everything, I've applied for a couple of stop motion jobs.

Webpage updates!

Finally getting the site updated to the way I want it.  Yay for dreamweaver.  iWeb is cool and all, but dreamweaver has much more functionality.  Sweet.