My friend Gina taught me how to knit yesterday... AND IT WAS AWESOME. Darn it all if I wasn't so confused for the first half hour though. She may have had to explain things a ridiculous amount of times. BUT MY FIRST CREATION WAS A COMPLETE SUCCESS. No holes. Take that, girl side.

Just an update on the happenings and magic.

As of right now, I'm continuing to finish up my film "Silica" which is slotted at roughly 3 minutes even. The film will probably get slightly longer, with better credits and a few tweaks to timing between shots, to give some breathing room.

I'm ready to wash my hands of it and move on, but I will stick with it, and the film is scheduled to be finished in its entirety come December 2010.

That being said, I've placed it that far back because I am starting pre-production on my next film, my thesis film, already. This is an idea I've been keen about doing for years, and is my first film that I've not just "thought up on the spot". Therefore, I want to devote as much time as possible to this baby, but I know I've got commitments to finish "Silica" first.

She's got about 16 shots left to color, and two shots to tweak for better timing. That's a little less than half the film to color. Eek.

She'll get done. For now, hang in there with this very tiny, insignificant teaser scene.


Scene2 Shot 4 from Vanessa Buldowski on Vimeo.

Ehhhhh

So. I could update with some stuff from my film.
BUT INSTEAD I AM GOING TO DENY YOU THAT.
Because I'm more interested in this chap here.

Say hello to Grant, the heroin-addict drug-overdose ghost who towers over Logan at 6 foot 5 inches. He's got a penchant for schemes involving anything with hamsters and has a bit of a paranoid side.
He's very touchy-feely. Logan does not approve.

great friends

Birthday rendering

Slowly. But surely. I am conquering understanding Maya.

I've still only got down animating in the program, but I'm finding it easier to do things I want to do, and navigate to certain aspects in order to fix the hooza-whatsits with the thing-a-ma-bobs.

Hobnoberry.

FlourSack from Vanessa Buldowski on Vimeo.

I have 31 minutes left to my birthday. =) It has been an amazing day, unlike any I have had in a very long time. THANK YOU EVERYONE! for being so wonderfully kind and sweet to me, and giving me loads of hugs! Good bye, April 13th! =) Come again next year! haha.

HTTYD

GO SEE IT NOW.

(edit) Okay. So I have been dying to review this film for a couple months now. Then I got home, my mind buzzing, and breathless from spewing out a stream of incessant praises to a more than patient friend on the car-ride home at quarter to 12 in the morning. Finally I sat down to write a review, and nothing but the above statement could be written. Nothing. So, upon calming my geek-freak-out down a bit, I have returned to reiterate this:

GO SEE IT NOW.

Folks. I can sit here and tell you the finer points of why the lightning and atmosphere is wonderful, about the moments in this film which ensnare you, but no matter what I say, whether you go see it or not is up to you. But this is one film, that if you go see, you will never want your money back.

I will relay this, however. I had a moment, well several, but one in particular that I found myself just clutching at my mouth, astonished, fear-ridden, hopeful, and immersed entirely in this film. And around me most of the audience, adults and children alike, held that same expression. And that is exactly what a film should do: Capture its audience.

Some Links for you folks.

I just wanted to drop a quick word about a few websites that I'm adding to my sidebar because of their downright usefulness.

Animationmeat, ThinkingAnimation, and Don Bluths Animation Academy all have really, really wonderful pdf's (except the Bluth one, copy-paste, folks) on just so many topics regarding the more technical aspects of animation. The Nine Old Men series featured on both Thinking Animation and AnimationMeat is one of those gold mines you don't want to miss!

They've even got a great pdf on Planning and Timing your animation by Glen Keane- not that I have the seven essentials taped to my desk, or anything *ahem*

Also- DON GRAHAM NOTES! His Action Analysis classes were a huge factor behind Disney's characters becoming more solid, more believable in weight and volume.

I might be a little bit on the late train in posting these up, I usually am the last one to realize what great resources are available, but better late than never!!!

Feel free to send any more interesting finds to me, I'm always looking for more of these great tidbits!

<3
Vee