Frame by Frame

Its official I’m AM Alumni. I’m still recovering from last semester!

I dont have much else to say about it at the moment. Other than i’m happy its done and I’m looking forward to the next goals and chapters of my life.

Graduation is in January. Hopefully i can go.

On other news  i’m fighting a cold. Sitting in bed all day. Groggy. But inside i wanna get up and dance!

This time in Toronto has renewed my view on life. Yes things can and will suck from time to time. So what!!! Its like that for everyone.  And everything I hear a good song. I can’t help but cheer Up! Like this katie perry song. Hopefully i can get to the gym tommorrow. The one thing in life i can control is my health. I would like to drop another 20 pounds if possible… ok 10 for now

Also been doing a lot of self learning. Tutorials, reading and stuff. Today it was Global Illumination and some Css and Wordpress.

So hopefully I can get this website redesigned soon.

I had yet to announce to the world that in less than a month I will be competing in the 2nd annual Fjorg Iron man competition at Siggraph 2008 in LA! How exciting!

My team is called Digital Shamans, and we are 3 , me, Francine Mangin and Kevin Scott.

This is a 32 hour straight competition where we are asked to make a short film and we only will know that themes the morning of the 11th of August.

I will be keeping a photo/video blog of Fjorg and siggraph and will be posting them on flickr and on the Digital Apprentice Worshop website.

See you there!!!

I am finding out making a short film isn’t as easy as I thought.

Ok, I never thought it was easy. But now i know its not even kinda hard…. its more akin to some hellish dimension where an animator spends months of sleepless evenings toiling over small details. A place where the of fiery doom of deadlines looms over my head like a Guillotine hanging heavy over the neck of a French bourgeoisie.

Oh yes it is quite hellish. Enough to make one go mad. Such as listening to one song repetitiously for an hour straight ( that’s somewhat silly you say?).But i rather like my insanity. No one ever say a good dose of insanity isn’t good for the soul. Maybe I should write a book. Insanity soup for the Animator’s soul, I might actually make some money!

I still have 9 weeks left which gives me some small measure of hope that the end will come. I probably will not be quite done in that time but if i can tackle the harder shots then I will be quite satisfied with myself.

ANd next time i do many a short it will definitely be with a small crew. That is the realistic approach. Although finding people to commit is hard, unless you pay them. That’s an idea for another time

So what short am I working on?

Ok here is my original animatic

and my rough blocking
http://www.nataschaevans.com/pages/blog/wp-content/603_All_Final.mov

merci buckets

p.s. so what am i listening to right now over and over again? USHER baby! Moving mountains. Check it out fool!

Well I am pleased to say that Journey 3d was amazing. I really did not expect anything much but was rather surprised. I went with my mom and my best friend Partha. Who you can see with me and crazy 3d glasses.

I had worked on Snakes on a plane and 300 but was not credited on either on. Of course this time i was afraid it might happen again.

As the credits started to roll i started breathing quicker and quicker. Partha said ” you arent having a baby!”

ANyways i was overjoyed and shocked when i did see my name! Spelled corectly as well. Whaat!

Anyways the 3d was cool. At times the movements close up or in the camera was a bit blurry and i had trouble focusing.

I enjoyed the fx and the audience in the cinema was very fun and excited. They really really got into the film and enjoyed it throroughly.

My mom really got into it when she threw her popcorn in the air!!

I was really impressed with the Mine Ride sequence that was done at Meteor studios( now defunct). Those shots really made you feel like being on a rollercoaster!!!

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I always was able to remember the pain our animation team went through to roto Brendan, Josh and Anita. For me it was at least 3 months. for some longer! … ah Fun times

But i am really happy with how the project came out.and proud of how the entire team at Meteor was able to get this out and do it well! Congrats everyone

I feel like dancing. Its always around 2 am when I am working in front of the computer, when no one in the house is awake but me that i feel like dancing. I put on my large headphones and crank up the music. Ohya shake shake. So what am i listening to tonight. I’m sure this will make it to one of those great late summer hits on the radio.

This song is on my running playlist for the gym which i have actually been going to a few times a few pretty religiously since January! I’m pretty proud of myself. I have 9-10 more pounds to loose to be at my ideal weight. I think i need to do more crunches and lift more weight. I am happy with my hips and bust but need to tighten my abs more. I have stopped eating late at night, and no junk and if i do eat chocolate its only a piece or 2 and its nice dark chocolate. Also i have moved onto many organic products and have cut my consumption of alcohol and my salt intake . Working out it the best. Whatever company i go to next i definitely need a gym very close by!!!!!

In 3d we sit too many hours in front of a computer and many of us fall into the habit of eating the wrong foods and not sleeping many hours too!

So quickly I will note that I just finished my first QA for Class 6! I got 3 more months and by jebus I’m gonna be done! End of September I am officially gonna be a graduate! Watch out world!

This term i got Greg Whittaker. He is a super nice guy! He currently works at Dreamworks and had been working there for several years. You can check out his filmography on IMDB.

So the next few weeks i will be re-blocking ( more solid block), splining and polishing my short film. I haven’t found a title yet. Hopefully some of my AMers and other friends might be able to suggest something catchy and fun!

Now on that note time to sleep!

June is out! July is in! Long live the queen! Oye!

Anyways i’m super excited. July, summer its all so amazing. I love summer. The smell of grass, green trees and fresh air.

I spent most of the day moving stuff around the house but found some time this evening to make a little quick animation in Digicel’s Flipbook. Its a lot of fun. 2d makes you think, makes you see what poses you are missing etc. I want to continue to play with flipbook and highly recommend it. ( that or Plastic animation paper or PAP)

Anyways i love Canada from sea to shining sea!

While doing a little surfing I found some interesting animation I had not seen before.

First i found this on the National Film Board of Canada Website. They recently opened a screening room on Youtube with several selections of their shorts you can watch at your leisure. This one i choose is called Love and War. The music is very beautiful and if you just let yourself go and not worry about the puppet mouths not really saying the words then you will find that this is a spectacular piece of animation

This second clip i’ve chosen not for its animation quality but for the style and overall imagination of the imagery. I find it very interesting to look at even if there are some issues with the technical aspects of the animation. Its an ad for Prada called Trembled Blossom.

Enjoy!

Last night I rushed to my local Rogers video store, walked right in and picked up Persepolis. Yes i had seen the trailer and hear good things about it, after all it did win Best Animated Feature Film at the 2007 Oscar Awards. But i usually try to avoid going with the general hype and make up my own mind about a film.

I stayed up late but was wide eyed and awake through every moment of the film. The creativity and the visual style was a breath of fresh air. The film is so different from North American films. Its an autobiographical story of Marjane Satrapi

It starts from the time she is a child to where she is about 21 years of age. I really never knew the history behind the war between Iraq and Iran. And i did not know how the Shah and his ruling and departure from the throne had impacted life for women and life in general in Iran. It was an eye opener to say the least and gave me a whole new understanding and respect for the culture and the people there.

Its an amazing movie so rent, or buy it today!

I cannot imagine that I alone in this universe wakes up one day and realizes that somehow time was flown by. Its tiny wings have fluttered at breakneck speeds and in the blink of an eye hours, minutes and months have vanished into thin air.

This is what is has felt for me since my last post. How could it be December 2007 I think to myself, blankly staring at my laptop screen. I thus start to count the months in my head, December, January, February….. June!

Well then … What exactly have I, Miss Evans been up to the last few months. Devilish schemes of world domination most certainly. But while away from my lair, away from my dastardly plans of ruling the earth i sit in front my computer and look at strange squiggly lines in 3 peculiar colours. Green, Red and blue.

To some this might mean nothing but for other who dream in spline we know this means looking at a graph editor. Once my sworn enemy, the Graph editor and I warmed up to each other, each taking a step towards an understanding. GE ( i will call him that for now) is very stubborn. There is no way around it. GE threw me some a few loops, some Gimble lock and some crazy tangents but with some smoothing and some love things started to go in my direction.

Ge and I are almost on honest terms. Each of us accepting each other for what we are. I the animator and creator and it the tool aiding me in my creations. So thus now in the last short and fleeting months, through the quality time we both have spent together I can honestly say there is a vast improvement. Of course it was hard and there is still some way to go. I can look back now and laugh at the entire situation but knowing what i know now and learning from it has added strength and character to my being. Thanks Ge. For more information about Ge check out Victore Navone’s Spline Hygiene.

In the long run i have been animating long and hard. Awake longer than reasonably possible and working until all energy is depleted from my body. But its all worth it isn’t it? A goal? A dream. A possibility of making that dream reality. Yes.

So i keep moving forward, key after key. And with me each Animator is doing the same. To his or her own rhythm. Learning and striving to be better.

So that is what i have been up to. Animations, animations and more animations. What else could a girl every want

And as i think about that I listen to the dripping sound of my leaky bathroom faucet, drip drip, drip drip i see its splash echoes the time that ticks on by. Time like water has an uncanny ability to slip through ones fingers.

So Let me close the faucet tighter that should slow things down for a while.

Old man winter has arrived. While the idea of winter brings thoughts of hot chocolate goodness, the harsh reality is heavy shoveling centimeters of snow from my driveway. The upside to this is buns and abs of steel. What a workout. And of course there is the obligatory cup hot chocolate to balance out the calories burnt.

Nevertheless, things have been rather busy on my end. My contract ended at Meteor studios at the end of October and I returned to my home town (aka the base) to save on cash while I concentrate on my school.

Ohhh what school do you say? Well Animation Mentor of course. Well I have been taking the class since April 07 and now I am into the acting phase of the program! Whoohoo. I am enjoying it tremedously. The mentors are amazing and make you learn and push yourself. And i look forward to getting better and better in my creative field.

Next is to expand my horizons in the field of 3d, Learn some basic modeling, hair, and fx, and some texturing. I will post some stuff up soon!