Almost have a job...!

Hey everybody, I hope your past two months went well. I'm staying on a couple extra days because I took a couple days off for grad. I'm coming home on Wednesday, not sure how long I'm going to be back though. My practicum host has asked me if I would be interested in working there, and their trying to create a position for me. It might be right away or might not be for another month or so. Anyways, anyone still kicking around Brandon when I get back we'll have to hang for a bit, I got a couple stories of some real shit projects to tell you about. Anyway good luck everybody!

The End of an Era

The final day of practicum, these two months have gone by so fast. I hear some of you got jobs already, congrats on that. And for those who havent, good luck in the future.

The last day was good, they got a cake for me! My boss gave a little speech which was pretty cool. So ya today was good, I finished updating The Den's site and working on some ads for Google.

So I'm not sure if you all heard, but I am moving to Winnipeg on Wednesday. I'm leaving Saskatoon on Saturday to my hometown, Killarney to see everyone. I MAY have a place lined up in Winnipeg, my friend has a house and in need of a roommate but another guy might be takin it. So I might be living with my sister for two months, during that time I'll be searching for my own place...and a place of work! I've sent out my resumes and portfolio to a bunch of firms in the peg so hopefully I get some positive responses.

Don't give me wrong, Saskatoon is a great place. It was hard not knowing anyone in Saskatoon, but I guess I don't like change haha! On my last weekend in Toon Town, I went down Broadway again and found this kickass record store, I bought 3 records; The Doors self titled album, Rolling Stones Let It Bleed, and Beatles Rubber Soul.

So I got huge plans coming up, I've been planning my europe trip. Going in order, I'm heading to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Czech, Austria, Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, England, and Ireland. So ya I did my research, the only problem is the moola! I got student loans to pay off soon but I figure I should plan it now before I settle down. I'm planning next year in September (hit up Oktoberfest!). I'll keep you all posted on the details.

So hope everyone had a good last day and good luck in the future with your new work placements or finding a new one.

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Jeff
(aka Joey Joe Joe)

T-minus 2.5 days

Hello Hello,

Well it seems like June has just flown by and my practicum is now coming to an end. There is so much that I have learned, so much that I have seen and yet it feels like the learning will never end.

There is a lot I can say about the West Coast...but I'm not gonna. I think everyone should make it out here and experience it for themselves.

Places of interest are Tofino, amazing beaches, amazing mountains, amazing people, amazing surfers and just an awesome place to go see.

Sooke Potholes... jump off the cliffs into the FREEZING cold water. This place I think is my favourite. Never before have I seen such beautiful places.

Here is wishing you guys the best of luck in all your future adventures, and maybe I will get to see some of you in Brandon on Monday. Going to pick up the last of my life and header overseas!

Cheers,

Olivia

Last Week and a Half!!!

First off,
WE'VE ALL GRADUATED!!! WHOO-HOOO!!!!

Second, happy Tuesday! The past few weeks have been very busy; I've been working on a lot of animated sequences with After Effects and also developing an ad campaign for a local client with the studio designer and one of the partners of the company. The only programs I've been using my whole time here have been After Effects CS4 and CS5, Photoshop CS4 and Avid Editing Suite. Basecamp, online, is used to organize who does what shots, and what still needs to be finished for a completed animation. There has been talk of using Flash to develop a site for a client, but since a decent photo gallery can also be achieved with JQuery, so the whole Flash idea might be avoided all together.

I have really enjoyed working in a studio setting, under a director and learning from other animators. I have also enjoyed getting to work with After Effects to create animated sequences using character and effects animation. It's AWESOME!!!

FOR ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ANIMATION AND WOULD LIKE TO PURSUE IT.

First of all, you have to be able to take direction. WHOLE SEQUENCES can be scraped, sometimes in a ruthless and insensitive manner, after you spent DAYS working on it. And there is NOTHING you can do about it. Your work will be critiqued beyond what it's tiny 2D lines can withstand, and then you'll have to take it back, add changes, and submit it to be critiqued again. And after all that, the final shot can still be cut entirely if it weighs the story down, fits awkwardly, etc. etc. That's just the way it is. Ego has no place here.

Second, there are many jobs in the animation industry. Concept artists, storyboard artists, modelers, character and set designers, riggers, lighting and render artists are just a few. The animators job is to make things move in a realistic manner appropriate to the characters, environment, etc. The only drawing I have done is to add a bit to characters to extend the art, THAT'S IT. If you like drawing, then you are probably looking at classical animation. But remember, you will probably not be designing the characters, especially at first, and it will be repeating the same character A LOT with minute changes. Just because you're a good artist, doesn't mean you can make things move or act convincingly either. A theater background helps, so will an understanding of anatomy and a wide range of art styles (ART HISTORY and CLASSICAL ANIMATION; who would have thought, huh?). You can't jump into 3D without doing classical; I've even heard people say that here.

Third, competition is STEEP. And I mean it. Once you're in the industry, you're up against Pixar-quality animators for jobs. And in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto are where the industry peaks are. I'm not trying to scare you; I'm just trying to spout facts that scared the hell out of me, but it's best to get used to them early. The best thing to work on (besides motion), is storytelling through motion (hence the theater thing; see?). This is one of the things Pixar looks for in a demo reel, and probably a lot of other studios too.

Fourth, you really have to be able to work on a team. Everyone works together and helps each other out. If you are a bit of a loner, a studio job may not be for you. No one is more important than everyone else; everyone has a role in finishing a production.

So if you want to be an animator (or bring stories to life through movement), then put in the extra effort! Digital video was very important, because you NEED to understand scripts and storyboards! These give you your direction when the director is not available. Understanding shooting with the camera is important too, because this teaches you framing, camera angles and continuity with positioning. Classical animation and 3D animation are also very important; art history helps knowing different eras and styles. But if you really want to do this you have to put in extra hours too. Sometimes A LOT of extra hours. And remember; medium isn't important if you can do something awesome and demonstrate that you know what you're doing (Amelia animated a stop-motion short using lego men last year; CHECK IT OUT if you can, it was awesome). But really, if it moves and expresses itself well, it doesn't matter what you animate (also sorry for pimping you out a bit Amelia!)!

I know I made it sound rough, and it can be, but the animation industry is awesome. I love it; I would love to spend all my time doing it!!! But you do have to be highly self-motivated, able to take rejection and criticism and sometimes have to work irregular hours (or a LOT of hours) to meet a deadline. Animation is part of the film industry after all; and Hollywood is brutal!!!

Apparently Owen Wilson biked by the building the other day. I didn't see him.

I'm sorry this is so long, but if anyone is interested in animation as a career and has any questions, feel free to email me! I'll answer as best I can; I'm very friendly!!

Have a good rest of the week!!!

Speed Mentoring Quotes

Hi guys,

I am glad you guys are doing well! Are you guys excited about your practicum being almost done!!! What are your next plans?

Anyways, I had a request for all of you guys. I would like if you can post a quote or something memorable of your experience during the Speed Mentoring Session in Winnipeg.

Kathy, the Speed Mentoring Coordinator, is applying for government funds to expand our speed mentoring and continue this exercise. One of her requests is some quotes about this experience.

Could you be able to post in the blog a few ideas or experiences that you remember from speed mentoring.

Also, as an fyi note, Katy Driscoll from New Media Manitoba may contact you in the future to talk a bit further about your experience.

Thanks again!!!!
Malena

Had to Happen Some Time

Hey everybody, I've finally gotten around to writing on this thing! Everything's going real great so far, I've put up a few Joomla sites and I've finally been given a Flash project that I have been working on for the past week. I myself have a few Firefox add-on suggestions as well as some really cool Joomla! extensions.

Firebug (two recommendations now) - This is a really great add-on, it allows you to select specific elements of your page, while giving you a look at the html. It also shows you which CSS rules are influencing that specific element, it tells you which stylesheet it's coming from and what line the rule is on!

MeasureIt - This is a really nice ruler add-on that does a lot better job then the one in the web developer toolbar.

ColorZilla - This is a handy little eye dropper tool for your browser, just click on the page and it gives you the hex code for whatever colour it is. You can also double click the icon and it will bring up a colour picker very similar to photoshop.

I'm sure there's more but I use these every day and they come in real handy.

Alright now Joomla! extensions, I've been working on nothing but Joomla! sites this whole time so I've got quite a few.

JCE - This is a free wysiwyg editor to replace the default Joomla! editor. You not only get more text editing options, but it makes it a lot easier to create links and use photos on your Joomla! site.

Simple Image Gallery - This is a plugin produced by joomlaworks.gr. It's really simple to use all you do is put your images in a folder inside your templates images/stories folder. Then you create an article and enter {gallery}myfoldername{/gallery}. It creates thumbnails of all your images and displays the full sized ones in a lightbox.

(all the ones I'm going to tell you about in detail are free btw)

UCD (Ultimate Content Display) - This is also produced by joomlaworks, I came across it while working on my current project. I was having an issue displaying content because there's very little space for articles. The template is mostly made up of little module boxes. I couldn't get the control over the content I wanted so I installed this extension. Basically it lets you display and article in a module.

PluginInModule - This does exactly what is suggests. It enable you to run a plugin through one of your modules... It comes in handy for Simple Image Gallery.

All Videos Reloaded - This is a cool component, it gives you two different options, you can go to the extension manager and add videos that way as well as create play lists, or you can add videos right to an article by using the AVR button at the bottom of the editor. You get the same core options but going into the main component gives you a couple of other options.

This next one is not free but I recommend it if your ever doing a project where you need a simple light weight flash image gallery.

JPhoto like I said is a small flash gallery. It has several different styles you can apply to it and a few different display modes. Now I'll warn you the documentation isn't very good and it doesn't mention the file size limitation. There is a file size limit and you'll need to be aware of that even if the files are small enough they might take time to load (it is flash after all). You should be able to load pretty much any file you'd have to given that it's properly optimized.


Anyway I think that's enough for me, it was really nice seeing most of you last week at grad. I hope everyone is having a good time and good luck!

Some Recommendations From Your Old Pal Kelly

Hey everyone! Hope your all doing well and enjoyed the grad festivities last week (You lucky buggers)! Wish I could have been there!

Any who, this week, I thought I'd talk less about what I've been doing here at Fjord West, and more about what I've learnt during my time here, and what I'd suggest/recommend for the rest of you doing practicum, or even those who are in Year 1 (Just finished), or next years Year 1's.

Let's start of with one great informational nugget of recommendation. If someone tasks you with creating a Flash Banner, by god, don't do the animation in code. I was originally asked to edit another persons ads for the creation of a new set of ads similar to the originals.

He had done everything in code, which was fine in the case of the original set of ads and mine, as all the code was doing was pulling in 3 pictures at random, in between a defined start and end picture. But when I was tasked with creating another set of ads that had actual animation in it, I never thought anything of it, and created the new ones using the first set I created as a base. Since all the animation was done in code, this took much longer then it would have to animate the ad on the timeline in Flash.

When I was finished, I felt smarter for doing it all in code (Lot's of x and y coordinate definitons, GreenSock tweens, alpha transitions, etc.), but dumber for wasting Fjords time with what could have been done much quicker, and much faster had I done all the animation on the timeline.

So with out of the way, it's now time for me to recommend some programs for everyone to use, or the teachers to get for next year! (That means you Derek!)

• Adobe Flex Builder 3
  Adobe Flex Builder is basically a Dreamweaver for ActionScript. You can set up multiple projects, with each keeping track of every file within your Flash applications. The best feature I've found so far is the ability to press the "Ctrl" button while hovering over variable names and other crazy AS code, and by clicking on said code, it will automatically take you to the location of the define variable, be it within the same .as file, or within any .as file inside your define project folder! (Derek, you seriously need to get the school to buy this if there's ever any really heavy ActionScript coding in the course.)
• EditPlus 3
  This is just a simple "everything" editor like Notepad++. Not really a recommendation, but just a suggestion if your looking for something else. It's all I've really used here at Fjord to edit anything code wise, excluding ActionScript code.
• Firebug (With the Google Page Speed plugin)
  Basically, Firebug is another awesome Web Development tool for Firefox, but all I use it for is Google's Page Speed plugin which scores your site's download speed based upon a range of different tests, such as file size optimization, tag usage, document combination (Combining multiple CSS/JS files into one file reduces the amount of requests to the server, resulting in a faster loading site for the end user), etc. I've been able to reduce the file size of some of my HTML, CSS, and JS documents by up to 50% of their original size, resulting in faster download times for visitors to my site.
• Google Chrome
  Yes, I drank the Kool-Aid, and it was damn tasty! :P

Well, that's all for this week. Sorry for pushing everyone else's posts below the proverbial "fold"! Hope to hear from everyone soon!