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.
