One Thing Every Day - Week 3

Hello from Riverside California!

Monday April 8th
I got my office set up in the room and put in a full day of work. I taught my Body Acting class for AnimSchool, and finished up a new picker for Scout, our dog character.

After class was over we headed out to have some lunch. We found this really cool restaurant called, Farrel's Ice Cream Parlour. It was themed out with turn of the century Americana. I liked the environment, but the food was bland and expensive. They weren't very busy, but it seemed like every 5 minutes they were banging a drum and singing happy birthday to somebody. Part of me wonders if they were just making up birthdays to have something to do.

After lunch, I finished up my work day and that evening we went to a local drive-in theater. I haven't been to one since I was a kid. The last movie I remember watching at a drive-in was the live-action Popeye movie (1980). It had to be a re-release because I can't possibly be that old. We took the whole family to see "The Croods". I wish we had one of these close to home. It was one of the most fun movie-going experiences we've had in years, and the first time we've all been able to go to the movies together without worrying about one of the girls chewing through a seat cushion.

 You have to wait for the sun to go down before the movie can start.

The concessions were reasonably priced and they had some really good mexican food that they actually cook right in front of your eyes. We spent under $20 for the whole family which basically fed us for the night. We enjoyed this theater food more than the burgers at Farrel's which cost us over twice as much

The Monsters University trailer looked great.

Tuesday April 9th
Tuesdays are my long days. I teach three classes for a total of 7 hours of class in one day. In between I worked on future lectures. I try to incorporate slides, videos, and live demonstrations into my lectures to better illustrate ideas, and to keep it interesting for my students with short attention spans. You know who you are!

Here's an example of one of my slides.

Wednesday April 10th 
Disneyland!
We set aside certain days as vacation days during this trip. We spent the entire day at Disneyland.

It's been over 6 years since we've been to this park.

Kyra saw so many people driving around in little motorized carts, and for a short moment she thought she found her very own. She was ready to take Kaylie on leisurely tour of the park, but quickly discovered that Mr. Toad had forgot to fill the tank with gas.

Come on Kaylie let's go check out the churro stand!

Kaylie decided to fall asleep before the Tiki birds starting singing, so we both rested outside while Leslie, Kyra, and Anthony watched the show. It was a nice break.

Nobody holds me when I want a nap!

Sure play in the dirt, daddy only put a second mortgage on the house to bring you here.

558,502

My score on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters! Zurg has put a bounty on my head.

We don't like to wait in lines to see characters, so we scheduled a character meal at Goofy's Kitchen located in the Disneyland Hotel.

The meal was buffet style, and had a nice selection. I was happy with the food, but we spent nearly $200. I don't understand how Disney can feel justified in this price point for a buffet meal with a few characters walking around. I won't be doing this again unless we get the free dining plan included in a vacation package. Also, the server, who is only responsible for bringing us drinks, got an automatic 18% gratuity. I quickly realized that I shouldn't aspire to animate for Disney, but to wait tables instead!

 I felt completey justified when I picked Goofy's pocket.

We sat in traffic on the way home. It took nearly 2 hours to get back to the hotel. But at least we had hard-wired internet! : /


Thursday April 11th
Disneyland again!
I woke up with a sore back but the kids cracked the whip shouting, "Disneyland!", so we headed back to the costliest place... er I mean happiest place on earth.

Right from the start I knew we were in for trouble when I saw these storm troopers harassing an innocent girl. I would have helped her, but I didn't want to lose my place in line for Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters.

Kyra kept sticking her tongue out at the troopers which eventually scared them away.

Leslie and Anthony used nifty fastpasses I got for the Indian Jones Adventure ride and I took the girls to the nearest pile of dirt. Apparently there's something magical about the dirt in Disneyland.

After a long romp in the dirt, Kyra passed out. She kept mumbling gimme more dirt, which I thought was a little unusual.

Wake me up when you find a new pile of dirt.

We eventually made it to Toontown. I decided to go straight to City Hall to request an investigation on the contents of the magical Disneyland dirt, but they swore it was normal dirt. I guess even Disneyland isn't exempt from political cover-ups.

My only recourse was to take it to the big cheese himself. He gave me the silent treatment. This conspiracy must run deep if even Mickey is too afraid to talk about it.

On my way out the masses gathered, obviously there to support me on my quest to uncover the dirty truth about the shrouded soil. They literally erupted into applause as I perused the overly sanitized streets. If the Disney dirt was on the up and up, then why, suddenly was there none to be found!

Friday April 12th
Lunch at the Disney animation studios.
I joined several friends at the Disney Animation Studio for lunch on Friday. It was definitely fun to see all of my friends making another awesome movie (Frozen), but I was also there to shoot some video of our instructors for AnimSchool. These videos should be appearing on the school website soon.

The new animation building named after Roy E. Disney, Walt's nephew.

I wish I had more pictures to share, but I get so distracted with catching up with my friends that I literally have this one lonely photo as proof this day ever happened.

Saturday April 13th
AnimSchool, the beach, and friends!
Most of the day was spent teaching 2 classes and getting caught up on work, but the last fleeting hours of the day were spent at the Aliso beach park with our good friends, Jarrod and Laurell Showers. They brought along three tiny people they called their children.

This is Jarrod. He has a wife and 3 kids, but I'm too absent-minded to take pictures of people.

I hadn't eaten a meal at all that day and it was already dinner time. I ended up driving up and down the PCH for nearly an hour searching for food. I finally found Ruby's Auto Diner. I went in hoping there was a slight chance they served people. I was fully prepared to use my acting skills and fool them into thinking I was a Ford Mustang if they didn't.

When I got back to the beach with food for everyone I noticed this nosy pest eying my burger. I grabbed one of the kid's sand shovels just in case something went down.

Just moments after we finished eating, Leslie and I stopped for a quick photo on the beach. And wouldn't you know it, that little punk photo bombed me!

You win this round seagull... well played.

We stopped off at the Showers' house for some AnimSchool business. Jarrod needed some video for a little instruction piece he is making, so we decided to meet up at Disneyland the next day and shoot it.


Sunday April 14th
California Adventure!
We skipped breakfast at the hotel and sped to meet up with Florian Perret at California Adventure. He got 3 of us in with his Silver pass, and Brien Hindman gave us two passes so the entire family got into the park for free!

We rushed to get our fastpasses for  Radiator Springs Racers, and then settled down for breakfast at Flo's V8 Cafe. The Brioche French Toast was amazing! If happiness had a flavor it would taste like this.

Brioche French Toast
Baked and served with Salted Caramel Sauce and Bananas. $7.99

We scurried over to the Bug's Land and rode some rides and eventually met up with our good friends, the Showers. Jarrod was way too excited so the man in the dark glasses came over to put a stop to it.

 Excuse me sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to stop having fun until the ride has started.

We rode several rides, but then headed over to the Pier to have lunch and shoot the video for Jarrod.

After the video was complete Jarrod and family headed back home and we headed back to Cars Land. We met some celebrities as we walked the streets.

Kaylie swears that Red farted, but I just thought she was passing blame.

Time to use our fastpasses on Radiator Springs Racers!

Anthony and Kyra are ready to race!

Why am I shouting?!!

This is my new favorite Disney attraction. This includes all attractions across Disneyland and Walt Disney World. My hats off to the Imagineers that pulled off this themed land, and especially this attraction.

Leslie and Anthony got to use the last two fastpasses while I watched the girls. Kaylie passed out and Kyra photo bombed her while she slept.

I wasn't sure if Kaylie fell asleep, or was "put" to sleep.

I was so proud of her stealthy technique, I bought her some ice cream. Yum!

meh

The next thing I know Red drives by, I hear what I thought was a horn blast, and suddenly Kyra's ice cream started melting. I began to wonder if Kaylie had been telling the truth all along!

What's happening daddy?

We tried to ride Soarin', but it was closed. I can't be sure, but I bet Red had something to do with it. So we decided to park hop over to the Magic Kingdom.

Leslie and Anthony decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean so I got some snacks for me and the girls. Instead of eating the snacks they decided to play in the dirt with random children.

Hey kid you like dirt? Then chase me around this tree!

Kaylie dropped all pretense and showed her addiction to the Disney magic dust.

It's like candy!

Mmmm... i'm lick some is my favritish... 

And of course when she crashed and I told her what she did, she was ashamed.

I have ashamed.

This wasn't the only addictive substance Disney exposed my poor innocent children to.

 Quick while daddy's not looking!

To end the day we dined at Pinocchio's Village Haus. We were here nearly 7 years ago with Anthony.

And they're still looking for Monstro.

That about wraps up this week. Come back soon to see the second week of our vacation!

One Thing Every Day - Week 2

This is the worst follow up week to a great 1st week with my One Thing Every Day goal. This will basically highlight our trip to Los Angeles. Enjoy!


Monday - Thursday
I started off this week with my 13 year anniversary, so Monday was devoted to my lovely wife. And yes, our anniversary is on April 1st. No foolin'! We celebrated with a date night where we shopped for new swimsuits for her. She lost over 55 pounds so it was time to get a reward.

The rest of the week was a compacted work week so I could get ready for a long working vacation in Los Angeles.

Friday April 5th
We left our house early in the morning and headed west. This day's drive was roughly 8 hours long, not including stops.

Texas has some really cool rest stops with fun playgrounds, and amazing restrooms that double as storm shelters, so while I stood there at the urinal I felt so safe. Then I remembered my kids were outside playing, so I ran out shouting for them to get to the shelter like Bill Paxton did in the movie Twister.

Can you believe this is a restroom at a rest stop?!!

Walking in, a peace set over me knowing I'd be relieving myself in safety.

Once my wife convinced me that there weren't any storms around, I soon discovered another threat.

No Pets!!!

Oh by the way there are snakes everywhere.

This wasn't nearly as scary to me though, because I'm sure the snakes would read the sign that says there isn't any food or drink inside the playground, lose interest, and leave. So we let the kids play in a vain attempt to drain their infinite supply of energy.

We ended the drive in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and stayed at a nice Holiday Inn Express.

Notice the large bug I just smashed on my windshield on the left.

Saturday April 6th
We left the hotel before 7am with Arizona in our sights. Today's drive would be slightly over 8 hours, not including stops.

We spontaneously decided to add a detour to our trip to see the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The most petrified wood I saw was in the gift shop, and at pretty hefty prices. Also, you are not allowed to take any souvenir petrified wood pieces from the actual park. So I left behind a souvenir for them!

So if the sudden 1,000 foot drop doesn't keep you at a safe distance

this rotting fence and sign will surely do the trick.

No sweetie don't go that way, cuz you will fall to a tragic and horribly painful death.

We were making great time, but then we got stuck behind this slowpoke that hogged the road.

He was swerving all over the road... I think he was drunk.

We diverted through the Tonto National Forest and the view was fantastic.

We ended the drive in Pheonix, Arizona, and stayed at a musty Super 8 motel. I can't believe Leslie and I decided to stay there, but we will never make that mistake again.


Sunday April 7th
We got up bright and early and headed for California around 7am. This was the shortest leg of the journey clocking in at roughly 4.5 hours without stops.

Almost there!

Finally we made it to our destination in Riverside, California. We decided to stay here because I still had to teach classes, and this was the closest we could get to Los Angeles with a confirmed hard-wired internet connection. Unfortunately, the connection was horrible which left us stuck an hour away from everything. On the bright side, the room was quite large and in the end, we loved the community.

 Can you find Wreck-it-Ralph?

I still have two more weeks to catch up with this, but they will be pointing out how badly I kept to my goal during this working vacation. But, you'll get to see some cool pictures!

One Thing Every Day - Week 1

Ah... my first post of accountability. Let's see what I did this past week to better myself as animator.

Monday
1. I joined a Visual Storytelling class last week. Today I chose a pose from my personal test animation to upload as an example to be potentially critiqued. I posted 5 variations of the same pose as I updated my shot. I'll post them here to make this a little more visually interesting.

 First pass blocking

Second pass blocking with a supporting background.

First Polish Pass 

As I worked through the animation this pose got some updates.

Second Polish Pass

I wasn't satisfied with my shot so I overhauled some of the acting and the posing.

I also re-staged the shot to get a more appealing angle on the character.

I changed some of the proportions on the character's head, shoulders, chest, and arms.

I actually did some slight modeling to the pectoral area where they meet the arms.

Final Pass

As I changed the first portion of the shot, it called for some minor tweaks to blend properly.

Here's the result of the blending on the final pose in this shot.

2. Added new slides for my Body Mechanics classes at AnimSchool, which required some research on Lines, Shapes, and Form.

3. Watched Hotel Transylvania and captured some shots to demonstrate animation concepts to my students.

4. Read chapter 3 of "A Challenge for the Actor" by Uta Hagen.


Tuesday
1. Dissected live action films to collect images for instruction material. Focused on Framing and Composition.

Here's some examples of the images I grabbed for my students.

 Good framing and clear focal point.

There is no doubt who we should be looking at here. I like the framing elements behind Saito (Ken Watanabe). They are asymmetrical since they aren't centered around him, but there are also design elements (brown branches) that point toward his face. Both familiar characters are looking at Saito giving him even more importance in the shot. I interpret the complexity of the lamps above and in the reflection on the table to mirror the complexity of the situation in this scene, or even just another way to emphasize that they are in a world that is merely a reflection of reality.

I feel that Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) is framed a little too far to the right. But as I watch the scene, this awkward framing fits the mood of the shot. There is tension in here, and the slightly off-balance framing supports this tension. They do a great job with the diagonals to pull you into the focal point, and Cutter (Michael Cane) is directing us to Angier with his gaze as well. I like the white cuffs popping out against his jacket causing contrast that keeps us looking at Angier.

 Using the Rule of 3

This is a simple yet elegant example of the rule of 3. We have a clear hierarchy.

1. Agent in the center

2. Agent on the left

3. Agent on the right

Their attire unifies them in purpose, and the sunglasses remove their humanity.

Unclear Focal Point

I feel there are two competing focal points in this shot causing it to be unclear what should draw my attention. The high contrast of the octopus pulls me into the shot, but everyone is looking at Ken, and all of the dynamic lines point to Ken as well.

Where is the Power

Great example of dynamic framing, and it is very clear that one of these characters is in control and the other is definitely in trouble. There is a story in this one single frame. I love it!

Organizing Chaos

This is a marketing image that I don't think was actually in the film. There are so many characters in this shot, but it is crafted well.Woody is definitely the focal point. Then they use the rule of 3 to group side characters.

Woody, Jessie, and Hamm

Rex, Slinky, and Buzz

Bullseye, Mr. Potato Head, and Mrs. Potato Head

Story

Without ever seeing this movie you could show this image to somebody and they will immediately know that Morgan Freeman's character is a convict. Somebody is exerting authority over him, and he is rejecting their exertion.

 Contrast

Notice Mel Gibson has the most blue paint, and it is on his face, an area that draws our eyes immediately. Also notice how everyone else who has their face in the shot, has their eyes squinted tightly shut, so we are drawn to William Wallace alone.

2. Read chapter 4 of "A Challenge for the Actor" by Uta Hagen.

Wednesday
1. Completed a new hybrid version of my personal shot where I cut the original beginning back in by request of a respected peer. I did three versions of this shot. The first was in dire need of plussing, so the second and final versions are much stronger, in my opinion.

Original Version

Second Version

"I'm Not Gonna Do That Anymore"

 

(click image to see most recent version)

2. Read chapter 5 of "A Challenge for the Actor" by Uta Hagen.

Thursday
1. The Visual Storytelling class had critiques of multiple student drawings and photos uploaded. I watched 8 of them for a total of 2 hours of video critiques.


Friday
1. Watched 1 more 15 minute video critique for the Visual Storytelling class.

2. Watched The Dark Knight Rises. Focused on use of composition, and camera cuts.


Saturday
1. Read chapter 6 of "A Challenge for the Actor" by Uta Hagen.


Sunday
1. Read chapter 7 of "A Challenge for the Actor" by Uta Hagen.

My weekends will probably be mostly "low impact" work, but I do want to accomplish something each day, so reading will suffice for Easter weekend. This week we start a new term at AnimSchool, and on Friday I start a 3 day drive to Los Angeles. Let's see what I am able to accomplish this busy week!

One Thing Every Day

Last year around September I decided that I wanted to at least one thing every day that will improve me as an animator, performer, and storyteller. I feel like these all work well together, and I enjoy all three of them very much.

I'm going to start holding myself accountable by posting what I have done each week on my blog. Hopefully, it won't get stale and boring. Either way the goal isn't to write compelling posts to entice a readership, but to keep myself focused, and working on my personal goals.

The cool thing is that, by being an animator, and animation instructor, I actually get paid to improve in these areas. Since I don't currently work at a studio, I am not animating nearly as much as my peers, so I do need to stay in practice, and keep improving in all of these areas to become a more well-rounded animator.

My first update will be this Friday.