another year at Sheridan comes to a close

Prepare for the first long post ever on brando-blogo.... 3rd year at Sheridan College animation is wrapping up, and it has been a crazy year.

First, the BIG news. I will be spending 4 months this summer at an internship with JibJab Media down in Santa Monica, California! This is huge! There some very exciting things happening at their studio right now and I going to be a part of it. And so far the conversations I've had with the people there have been great, they have helped me out so much to make this happen and I couldn't be more grateful. I fly on May 1st and I can't wait!

3rd year at Sheridan was... interesting. We went through a year that had never been done before in the program - a year dedicated to making group films. Next year is our final, personal film year, but this year we were in groups of 5-7 people taking on the task of working together to make a film. Well, as you may guess, the year wasn't perfect. A lot of the classes were confusing and not structured well. My film idea wasn't picked and I spent the year working on someone else's concept. We had plenty of problems with our group not getting together and not getting the work done as we planned. And in the end, after spending over 6 months on a single project, we didn't come close to finishing the thing on time. And yet, I learned more than I had in any other year I think. I learned about the process, from start to finish, and to respect it and devote enough time for each step. I learned about working with others on a film, which is basically what the film industry is all about. And I guess I just learned many things I can't put into words that will help me when I complete my own film next year. We made tons of mistakes, but I'm glad I made them now and they are past me. To those entering 3rd year, next year or in the future, have fun! Mwahahaha!

There's a ton of work our group did this year that will never be seen. Hundreds of sketches, concepts, boards, layouts, and animation drawings that weren't used. This is all part of the deal, and to anyone making an animated film, get used to it!

We'll have the final film finished (well, as finished as it's going to get) with sound soon. Right now I just have a copy of my own sequence on animation, and since I'm making this post now, I'll show this. Here is a sequence of animation I animated this last semester, some cleaned up, most still rough. I didn't finish close to the amount I wanted, but hey, there are only so many hours in the day:



Check the 'friend/classmates' links over the next few weeks too. For one, their work rocks, and two, they're probably going to be posting their films for the world to see. There's some awesome stuff coming out of our year.

And I guess I'll also show the one area of the year I could always rely on to work out, life drawing. Gerry is hands down the best teacher I've had and anyone coming up through the years, you better damn well hope he's teaching when you get to this stage. The class was awesome, and a great break from the rest of the hectic work we've been doing. Some of the final drawings from the year:




Perhaps I could have contributed more to the film if I spent less time on this blog. I mean, how many blogs out there have custom illustrations 2-3 times a week, made only to be displayed on the blog and nothing else? I dunno, making these pictures has become a little bit of an obsession, and I understand sometimes it got in the way of schoolwork. Do I regret it? No! This blog has been one of the greatest things I've done to help my art and let it be seen to the world. To those of you reading who are artists and haven't made one, get started! It's easy and quick and random people will stumble across it every day! Get your work out there!

So yeah. Don't expect another post this size any time soon. My blog has been working pretty well with the pictures outnumbering the words, so I'd like to keep it that way. I'm flying down to LA in just over a week and once that happens, I don't know how often I'll be updating so the summer might be a little quieter than normal. I'll definitely keep updating this blog though. Thanks to everyone for visiting this place with the great comments! And don't worry, the pictures aren't stopping anytime soon!