Wow, it's been forever!

So I wanted to make a blog just to say how TOTALLY excited I am to see 9! I keep watching the trailer and I am just in love! It looks so amazing!

Anyway I have been working pretty hard the last few months on my Sunshine Day Animation. It is coming along pretty well. You can view a few pictures here, www.sunshinedayanimation.blogspot.com

School is going well. 4 Classes this quarter sure did make things much easier! I have 4 next quarter as well, with one of them being online so it is only 5 weeks long. Then I only have 2 for my last quarter. Yay :)

Thats about all for now.

My website!

So it is up and running with a great new look. I would have done pink but I thought it might not be so appealing for all the pink haters out there.. lol Purple is still pretty enough for me. Anyhow, I just finished week 8 of classes today. Only 3 more weeks of these classes. Man time flies lately.

Oh great new news! My sister and I just decided to collaborate on a project. She is directing a short that I am going to animate in 3D. I will need to model and rig 4 characters, build a couple scenes and then animate it in the next 9 months or so. I want to use it for my CalArts application! (yay!) So I am stocked to get started as soon as she gives me some direction and I make her some storyboards.

Not too much else is new here. Have a good day!

Oh man, I am bad about the updating! lol

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks I have had.
Midterms went really well, and the grades were excellent. I have been working very hard on my animation pieces for my production team class, which I feel are looking pretty good. I think everything will turn out pretty well in that class.
I redid my dad's website recently and I am actually very happy with the results of the makeover. www.DavidMeeks.com <-- Check it out! I wanted to learn ActionScript 3.0 a little better and so I revamped my dad's site in the process. Although I have barely even dented AS3.. hehe
I want to write more but I have about 6 hours of Lynda.com tutorials I want to watch and play with so I will write more later :)

Coraline, Corpe Bride and Nightmare Before Christmas!

I have been watching all of the previews for Coraline and I just have to say I am sooo excited! I think it looks great! I watched one of the previews last night and then watched Corpse Bride and NBC right after. I LOVE the look and feel of these movies and it just makes me even more excited to see Coraline! I hope one day I can make something so visually stunning!

Light - Linking in Maya

So the other day I came up with this great idea for a animation I wanted to do. But I needed to have certain lights focus on certain objects. I havnt been taught yet how to link lights but I figured it could be too hard. So I google searched for a tutorial and came across this one which I just wanted to post because it really helped me out :)

http://web.alfredstate.edu/ciat/tutorials/LightLinking.htm

-Anna

Okay so the stress is kicking in!

3 weeks in so far for these classes. A little stressed! lol All classes are going extremely well, I just feel like I cant get much else besides homework done! I hate having so many projects in my head I would love to spend some time on and then not having that time for any of it. I suppose thats how the rest of my life will be though.

Anyhow small update, my castle is really coming along. I have spent about 40 or so hours on it already and still need about 10-15 more to have it complete. Here is an updated picture.


Anyhow of course the draw bridge and much more needs work. I would like to build a little garden type area in the "courtyard" inside the castle walls. As well as something beautiful to go around the outside. I am having so much fun on this project!

Well I need to get up early tomarrow and get to school to work on my production team homework so I am off to bed. Hopefully I can update some more later!

Prayers for Bobby

Wow.. I have not cried so much in a long time. What a tragic story, with such an emotional subject. I think this movie was simply amazing! Sigourney Weavers performance was .. beyond amazing.. and I recommend this movie to anyone. I just needed to say that!

School sure does lower my blogging ability!

Well, almost 2 full weeks in and already I am feeling the stress of the 6 classes. Although not too much work homework wise I have alot on my mind. With 2 more quarters until I hopefully am done, thoughts of moving, getting a job, paying student loans and getting my work out there flood my mind.

We had Monday off due to the holiday which was great. I have pretty much finished my midterm for my Hard Surfaces class, which is great :) I just need a tiny bit more modeling and painting textures and UVs. It will look great! I need to get some more done with my team class. I am ahead of the schedule but I want to do very well so the extra time will allow me to perfect and fine tune. Rigging is going well, its complicated but I feel like I can get the procedure down. Tomarrow I have Team production and Materials and Lighting. I like Wednesdays, pretty good classes :)

I am off to sleep..

-Anna

Almost done with the first week... wheeew

Okay, so yeah, the class schedule is a little rough and tiresome, but very doable. Homework this week (so far, still have a Saturday class) consists of a resume, business card, 4 week continuous project of building a Castle in Maya, rigging 2 legs on a character, At least one of 4 animations for my team project, and 6 maya shader/textures. Not too bad. I assume I will have a speech to write in Speech class saturday but hopefully that wont be too bad.

I am babysitting today but only for 4 hours. I also have my 2nd year portfolio review class later today from 5-5:50. Long drive to school just for that but oh well, gotta do what I gotta do. I may head down early and just work on some stuff for a while to be ahead :)

Not too much to write.. just working on homework :)
Have a good day!

-Anna

School starts today!

Ahh, gotta love those extremely long days of work and then school. I am babysitting at the moment from 9:30-5:30 and then off to school from 6-10:20. Long day.. But at least the next 2 are only 1-10 days with school. I need to get enrolled in my 2 online classes as well. So I finally decided I was going to go ahead and apply for the Fall at Cal Arts with just what I have at the moment but unfortunately their application deadline was January 5th. I guess I will have at least a year off. Which is fine actually because I would like to have a much strong animation portfolio upon applying.

I will just move with my sister as soon as I graduate and try to work until I can get into grad school :) I hope the work world changes some before I graduate.. I sure would hate to have those student loans start kicking my ass and not be able to find a job. Anyhow I am back to works :)

-Anna

Next Quarters Scedule!

Soooo, I was just finishing up making my new schedule for next quarter. It will be pretty stressful to say the least! lol So I am thinking I will cram 7 classes into 3 months. 22 credits. That way my last 2 quarters can have 6 classes and then 4. Hopefully I can pull off a miracle and graduate on time! This is how it will go...

Mondays : Hard Surfaces and Organic Modeling (6-10:20)
Tuesdays: Character Rigging (1-4:50) Career Development (6-9:50)
Wednesday: Animation Production Team (1-4:50) Materials and Lighting (6-9:50)
Thursday: Portfolio Review (Demo Reel stuff) (5-5:50) *not counted as actual class

Then I will be taking 2 online classes. They each last a month and a half rather then 3.. so one right after the other.. That way I only have 6 classes at all times but complete 7 overall. I want to do Speech and Communication online as well as Project Management.

Luckily though I wont be working long since the people I babysit for are moving to LA early February. Hopefully my AD will approve it and I pull it off! Gonna get some sleep.. Night Night

-Anna

Cooking!

Okay so I go to the Art Institute which is connected to the Culinary Institute. Some of our general education classes are mixed with students from both so we meet a few of the students. I had several in my French class this last quarter. For our final projects many of them cooked and brought in french foods they had made. I have to say I was so completely impressed with the fact that people my age or younger were cooking such amazing things, so I decided I needed to learn to at least cook a few things. In fact I think it is like a new year resolution.. to cook more. So my little sister and I went and bought some stuff to cook last night. Kung Pao Chicken and Chicken Fried Rice.. it was REALLY good! I suggest to everyone to pick out one of your favorite meals and cook it! It was really a great surprise to find that I could actually cook!

My new blog!

Okay this time I intend to stick with this! lol Here is my new blog. I am on break from school at the moment. When I say break I mean 3 weeks to breath and get all your work in order for another 6 classes!

I just finished 6 classes 2 weeks ago and I can truely say it was INTENSE! I was in Character Modeling, Camera and Lighting, Pre Production Team, Algebra, French and Advanced Traditional Animation. My finals came down to the final minutes and I literally stayed up for about 80 hours with no sleep. I want to do better this quarter! lol

I want to go through and post all my finals over the next couple days because I worked way too hard! lol I am currently working on my website www.bananagrafx.com , my dad and sisters websites, modeling my little brother and a few life drawings. Its kinda nice to have a little time to actually do a few things I wanna do.

I have been looking further into Cal Arts (my dream Gradschool) and have been trying to find some alumni. I want to make friends with some and try to learn from them. They are sooooo talented! I would love to have like a mentor that was in the experimental animation program. That school is amazing.

Anyhow I know this is a little bit of a mess for a first post but hey.. I will work on it! haha

-Anna