Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Geez, are American animators scared of details?



已經好幾個人,同學,老師,跟我講我的人物細節太多 (耶利米細節太多?!你還沒看到無-None哩!)
這聽多了反而不像稱讚.
有些同學的人物做的很好很精緻,我想鼓勵他們做那人物的動畫時,他們也以太複雜為由推掉...
只有亞裔的同學不怕畫的很複雜...
讓我覺得:天哪~你們不是嚇大的八?!


Several people have already told me my character designs are very complicated, almost too complicated for animation. (even Jeremy, geez! They haven't seen none yet!) That kind of comment starts to feel like a dumb down than a compliment.

Sometimes to my disappointment, even though some of my classmates have great characters they already made, they wouldn't animate them because it's "too complicated"


All in all, this trend of thought makes me feel: "Gosh, are you all scardy cats?! Did you grow up being scared?"


American animators pay a lot of attention to little subtle movements, it's great! But can't they tap into the details of the illustration of it too?! I have seen Jp people being able to achieve both, I don't believe our students here can't do it.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

One thing that drives me


There has been one kind of feedback that drives me all my life....

This probably applies only to art..... as I suck at other things:

If a third person tells me "You can't do this______" and I will be going all my way out to prove it wrong.

=_= it's sort of a strange way to inspire myself....

Of course I will learn why they say "you can't _______" (insert whatever) along the way, I will learn it, it doesn't mean I will give up easily.


So far my list of "you can't" I went up against are:

"Girls can't draw robot" - a stereotype I decided to undo in my life

"You can't use pencil with ink on manga pages" - for printing reasons, I found the balance after some trial and error.



"You shouldn't do anime while you are in US animation industry"
- I am not changing my style and the passion for my stories for this, my style is this way, my story is this way; take it or leave it, but I do plan to expand my range of styles adopted, and I have confidence in my work.



"You shouldn't have more than one main character for a story"
- only partially true, this is actually what my storyboard teacher told me, which I completely disagree.


"2D animation is dying" - blah, I love 2D, so I will die with it if I have to. I am doing my animations in 2D, 3D is a consideration though.


Of course... I still can't lift weight very well~ lol~

Friday, September 19, 2008

Talking about my friend's styles in 3 words

Dagriz:
whould u describe my style in 3 words? o_o

mayshing- says:
hmmmmmm
just drawing wise~
soft, pure, uncertain


Dagriz:
ohh o.o
ha ha...uncertain?


mayshing- says:
because you are always trying to find that line, that right pose
some knows their mistake, but they go ahead anyway
some are clueless
you know what's right, but you can't make up your mind how to go about it
that's what i see when i look at your drawings
you are also conversative in some way, your drawing content is not out there to challenge the world
it's just learning to be yourself.
i think that's one major scene i feel from your work.
yours is pretty much self-improvement focused


Dagriz:
ohhh! o.o


mayshing- says:
if I am to describe Erics...
it would be variety, life, innovation.
he always aim to have variety cuz he's a designer
his work is full of all ranges of life.
and innovation because he keeps trying new things


Dagriz:
o.o..ohh


mayshing- says:
perhaps i can make this a journal post. Make my friends feel good. ;D (or bad?)


Dagriz:
that would be nice!


mayshing- says:
Ann's..... it would be...
determination, dark, solid
because she has to go through a lot of ups and downs for her art,
the very long period of development shows her determination, at the same time, some uncertainty, but the determination element is much stronger.
and most of her story covers the dark side of life
and her style currently, is solid, she's focused on the foundation.


Dagriz:
o.o..ohh


Mayshing:
Kevin's style is still growing rapidly, I prefer to see it mature first.

David Han's style is... strong, determined, (dare I say...) confident
I don't know much about David's process, but from the finished work I have seen so far, a lot of his work shows a good level of confidence in himself, confidence in his decision making, if there's uncertainty, it's only temporary.


Tikal's style is..... concern, self-satisfying, pleasing

At first I wanted to use "strong" to describe her style, but that does not fit her, she has far more range than strength or beauty.

Tikal's work content stands out strongly, a concerned citizen about her home country with a strong voice, consistently try to use her work as a tool to communicate her opinion, a self satisfying artist who does, and go about her own way to satisfy herself in her work; and in the end, still come back and try to please the viewers who look at her stuff.


Shufan's style.... beauty, pattern, admiration

Shufan's style is beautiful, bright and soft by nature, she has patience for patterns, love for complicated decorative challenges, and I somehow feel that, in her work, she's always try to catch up to something.


Nainsoo's style.... pleasing, self discovery, developing

Nainsoo's style development gives me a sense that he's trying to please a lot of people, not too much himself, it is also a road to self discovery, as he's trying to find a balance of pleasing others and himself.


Naomi's style, humble, gentle, patience (or laid back)
Her style has colors, mostly soft colors, a kind of humbleness and gentleness can be felt within her drawing, and her lines are the slow kind which require patience to complete. There's a kind of laid back quality in her work, taking a break from the world kind of feel. It's probably what she feel when she creates her work.


I will stop here with my blunt honesty. :P

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Joy

I have never felt the joy from the support of people who are working with me to bring my vision to reality.

Sure I got the mental support from my family and friends, the respect from others... but there's nothing like this, where a team of people coming together because they like my work and want to help me to bring it to life, for more to enjoy.

It's a really good feeling, it pumps me up, gets me excited about my vision.


Trying to write up loglines for my story, that took quite a bit of thinking, it's so hard to word all of my content into one sentence. XP I managed to squeeze Edepth into one run-down sentence.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Screen play

http://www.screenwriting.info/14.php

Studying....



School just started.
Originally I really wanted to drop my painting class, but now after attending the first class, I can't drop it anymore. I feel I will learn a lot from the teacher, I know I have learned important points already that I missed while self-studying on the first day, after the professor's near 6 hours painting demo. It was long.... omg.... but he's damn good. At first I thought he would be kind of stuck-up, but he's not. He's just.... very specific, and very scientific to his painting approach.

So scientific I would call it kind of "crazy".... everything is in numbers and percentages. Well~~~ I am just a few steps under him since I like using percentages too for my work, but he's just nuts. I am not surprised that his son went into numbers.


1. Paint the background to the value of the overall shadow

2. The value of the subject that's similar to the value of the shadow should have blurred edges

3. The process of under painting is similar to the process of charcoal drawing, more lifting than adding, I have been doing it wrong.


4. It's ideal to use more angles at the start up if one wants to achieve classical painting structure. The method of using your arm and pencil to measure is less accurate, rather, extend the angles you observed and cross those lines of measurements and establish their relationships.

5. A kneading needle is great for measuring tool.


7. The reason why classical painters used raw umber a lot for under painting was.... because it dries the fastest. TA DA.


8. The reason not to start painting with a white canvas but a toned canvas is: If you paint on white surface, anything will look too dark, and you may easily end up with a picture that's too light, so it's better to start with a toned canvas.



Thanks to him I have a lot of shopping to do this weekend.... A LOT of it.