Best Individual B-Boy on the Planet

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On June 30, 2013, a lively crowd kept the energy up all evening at the Red Bull BC One Cypher Orlando at Full Sail Live, the university’s state-of-the-art performance venue located on the campus of Full Sail University. 
Terry and I got in as press to cover the event. We staked out a spot sitting at a corner of the Masonite mat on the floor.

Red Bull BC One is the only event of its kind. Sixteen B-Boys are paired
into eight, one-on-one battles and are then judged by three B-Boy
veterans. From those eight battles, the winners go on to face each other
in four new battles, and so forth, until it comes down to two
finalists.

The Red Bull BC One Cypher Orlando is one of 50 local qualification
events that are being hosted in the U.S. and around the globe.  Even before the competition began, people gathered in groups performing incredible dance moves, at times spinning on their heads. The competition was fierce with plenty of mocking street swagger. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I must say, it was a blast. It was very much like gladiators facing off and the crowd stoked the energy levels. 
It was of course a major battle to try and sketch dancers as they went through gravity defying moves.

MC Supernatural kept the crowd fired up. He gave a rap performance where he had everyone hold up items which he would grab in turn and work into the rap. He said he’s been doing this fast paced rap act since 1980. Beads of sweat dripped from MC’s brow as the rap flowed and the crowd cheered and laughed. Fists and peace signs waved in the air as everyone bobbed to the beat. At one point a white guy held up a credit card and MC Supernatural snapped it up, I don’t recall the rhyme, but he said, “This is the only place where you’d see a white guy hand his credit card to a black guy!” He gave the credit card back and moved on to the next item as everyone laughed and whooped.

3D Blitz

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At the Full Sail 3D Foundations course, Computer Animation and Game Art students get a crash course in the entire animation pipeline. Over four weeks, they learn how to do pre-production, model, rig, animate, light, and render a 3D scene. It’s a lot to do in a month, especially for students new to the Maya software. Some former students came up with the idea of doing a scene in just 24 hours to see just how far they had come.

That was the challenge of last month’s first-ever 3D Blitz event.

Computer Animation and Game Art students spent 24 hours creating a 3D character and bringing it to life in a six second animated 3D scene. Organized by Rigging Basics Lab Specialist Jennifer Conley, the event was created to get 3D Arts students working together and sharpening their skills.

“We all know as we move through the program that our skills get better, but very rarely do we take the time to really see how far we’ve come,” says Jennifer. “3D Blitz essentially takes the 3D Foundations class and turns it into a 24-hour sprint.” Steve Gold was assisting Jennifer and he gave me a run down on the event.

Minutes before the Blitz began, students were given an overall theme of prehistoric. They each then were randomly given a genre that they had to incorporate into their scene, anything from romance to action to mystery. I went in to sketch and see how many students were up to the challenge. The Auditorium was buzzing with activity. Storyboards were complete and many students were modeling characters and one student was already rigging a character to move. Alec Small, who had just taken my 2D Animation, the course, showed me his story boards. He had a caveman lifting a huge Terra dactyl egg. A baby Terra dactyl looks at him quizzically and he puts the egg down, feeling guilty. The egg then hatches. Matthew was modeling a human character basing it on Andrew Loomis, ideal proportions. He said he would add Cro-Magnon features after the ideal character was modeled.

The next 24 hours were a marathon of sketching, modeling, and animating. About half the students made it to the finish line. When the Blitz ended on Sunday afternoon, students had a pizza party and watched the 12 video projects that were submitted on the projection screen in the Entertainment Business Auditorium.

Full Sail Student Lounge

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On rare occasions, I get to Full Sail early because I’m coming from an event I sketched and it makes no sense to go home only to immediately turn around to drive to the university. This student lounge is right outside the 2D Animation studio where I work. Though I have a laptop computer, I’m not tempted to crack it open. I would rather crack open a sketchbook to observe all the students staring at  computer screens. There is some interaction as several students show each other a modeling project or a computer animation they are working on, but some students are just zoning out by watching U-Tube videos or checking their Facebook status. Perhaps this is the future, everyone interconnected but staring at screens.

The wall in the background is covered in framed DVD cases. These are apparently films that graduates had worked on.  I was talking to a doctor the other day, whose son had attended Full Sail. He asked if the school motto was still that every student who graduates in the two year accelerated program is guaranteed a job in the industry. I had never heard this before, but it seems impossible with huge visual effects houses like Rhythm and Hues going bankrupt and every movie studio wanting more for less.

The Sketchbook Project Mobile Library

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The Sketchbook Project Mobile Library rolled into Orlando on July 2nd and 3rd at The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S. Magnolia Ave.
Orlando, FL). The library was open from 5pm to 9pm. It is an interactive art exhibition on wheels, featuring a rotating selection of work from The Sketchbook Project installed in a custom-crafted library trailer filled with 4,500 sketchbooks.

The event was free to attend. Steven and Sara Peterman, co-founder of the Sketchbook Project and the director of Brooklyn Art Library were inside helping people check out sketchbooks. The sketchbooks were cataloged by theme, material, mood,  artists names, tags, city, country and more! “It’s like a taco truck but with sketchbooks.” Orlando is one of 30 cities that the Mobile Library will visit in 2013. There were three steps to participate. 1 you get a library card, 2 you check out books using a computer to pick a theme, city or artist, 3 you’re given a sketchbook to flip through.

I submitted a sketchbook to the Brooklyn Art Library in 2009. All of the sketches from that sketchbook were posted on this site. Because I visited the Sketchbook Project when it came to Full Sail and Urban ReThink in past years, I already had my library card. I just had to laser scan it and pick out some sketchbooks.

First I searched by city, looking for sketchbooks from NYC. I was given, “Into the Forest” by Lily Feng. She had precise photo real pencil renderings of women in forest settings. She had to have spent an eternity getting the wide range of values right. I was given a second, arbitrary sketchbook of sketches done in Saint Marten. This sketchbook was part collage and part sketchbook documenting an island vacation. As it grew dark more people showed up to check out sketchbooks. Part of the fun is to see what quirky sketchbook a friend is flipping through.

Patrick Greene, the new curator at Avalon Gallery interviewed TrezMark Harris as I sketched. By the time I finished my sketch, dark grey storm clouds had rolled in. The warm light inside the truck illuminated the threatening gloom. An E-Z Up pop up tent was leaned up against the truck in case it rained. I checked for a sketchbook from Orlando and was given one by Lilah Shepherd. It was full of abstract pen line drawings with light watercolor washes. A second arbitrary pick was from Kelly Zarb from Melbourne Australia. She sketched some of her favorite things like terrariums and owls. Spreads highlighted inspirational sayings like, “Don’t hide your beauty, let the world see you.” And, “See the beauty in the everyday.” I can relate to that. As I returned the sketchbooks, it began to rain. I popped up my umbrella and headed home.

Symphony in HD

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I went to an Orlando Philharmonic rehearsal for “Symphony in HD” at Full Sail University. This is the second time the symphony has joined forces with Full Sail to stage a high tech concert. The orchestra, conducted by Music Director Christopher Wilkins, will be accompanied by animation, film, lighting effects and other visual elements created by students and faculty of Full Sail University. Jay Noble, the Event producer said, “Through this dynamic collaboration, our students and staff are challenged with creating a unique and larger than life visual environment that will become an extension of selections performed by the Philharmonic.”

The concert began with a twilight set by Vilaldi‘s “Spring” from The Four Seasons. There was a bit of a challenge getting the cues straight to be sure the Orchestra and the effects were in sync. “The Flight of the Bumble Bee” by Rimsky-Korsakov had a film that tracked a bumble bee’s flight. Singer Davis Gaines came out much later in the program to sing “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera. Davis had performed as the phantom in the Broadway production by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Davis walked around the room as he sang, interacting with people who had come to the rehearsal. He glanced at my sketch and gave me a thumbs up. I felt bad because I had squeezed him in as an after thought and it didn’t look much like him.

The actual Gala concert was on Friday May 31st. Guests had drinks and hors d’oeuvres along with a silent auction on Full Sail’s Hollywood style film set on the back lot facility. They then had a three course meal in Full Sail live where the concert was held. The William Tell Overture had a guest conductor, Bryce West, who had won the opportunity in an auction. He did a bang up job. Christopher Wilkins will be stepping down as the Orlando Philharmonic conductor. His contract is not being renewed in 2014.

2D Animation

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There is a certain nostalgia seeing a new group of students each month in the 2DA Full Sail classroom. By the end of the first day it is possible to sense which students have the drive to excel. Most of my time is spend helping students navigate how to use the computer software to shoot the drawings they produce at their animation desks. For some students there is a legitimate glee that comes from seeing their drawings move for the first time.

Larry Lauria does a good job of sharing his enthusiasm for the medium. Each lunch break he shows academy award winning animated shorts, to give the students an idea of what can be achieved with a pencil, plenty of paper and imagination. On the first day, students realize the amount of work needed to create just one second of animation. They create a one second animated morph, having one object transform into another.

The students are issued plastic portfolio cases that come packed with the basic supplies needed to create hand drawn animation. They get red, blue and black Prismacolor pencils, an eraser, sharpener, a peg strip and a flip book.  The 150 page flip book is the most creative assignment the students get. They can create any type of animated scene that they like. Some students plan a whole story while others simply play with shapes and forms.

There are several animation projects in each of the ten classes each month. Some students finish with ease while others struggle to keep up. I’m always trying to encourage students to make passable animation
better or more entertaining. This is the hardest thing to pass on, the
fire in the belly, an undeniable need to create. Some sleep walk through
life trying to just get by. Some discover this drive early while others
will find it later in life. Jobs might come and go, but a life fueled with creative ambition will always be full filling.

The Anatomy of a Short Film

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As part of the Florida Film Festival, a panel discussion was held on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
between 1:30 and 3PM
in the Full Sail University in the Entertainment Business Auditorium, located next to the Full Sail Live Venue, (141 University Park Drive, Winter Park, FL).  The panel discussion featured industry experts and members of the Full Sail University Film degree program faculty as they took a closer look at the unique components of the short film genre. From story structure issues and thematic considerations, to logistical considerations and new modes of marketing and distribution, this event offered an inside look at the anatomy of the living, breathing short film making process.

The main theme that was stressed again and again was that short films need to be character driven and involve universal themes. The short film is a great place to experiment and it is a safe place to fail. It was pointed out that many beginning film makers will try to do too much in their first short. There can’t be sub plots and too much back story. Bottom line, the short needs to be, well, SHORT! Three minutes was the suggested duration. Longer films don’t get placement in film festivals because the promoters want to show as many films as possible. Students fall into the trapping of using complex camera moves and crane shots but you need to ask yourself, “is the shot really forwarding the story?” Story is king and queen.

A student walked up to the microphone and asked, how he could get backers interested in his idea. A moderator said, “First and foremost, you are selling yourself and then the movie idea.” He asked the student to give him his elevator pitch for the movie. The student began and honestly I stopped listening because the convoluted story took too long to tell. The moderator shouted,”Bing! Time is up, this is my floor.” Everyone laughed. He stressed that the student needed to trim his elevator pitch to be sure he had the person’s interest. The internet has made it so that stories need to be told quicker.

Panelists offered up films that they love that should help a film student to develop story. Films included, Touch of Evil, The Third Man, When Worlds Collide, and Some Like It Hot. That evening I went to the Enzian to see a program of animated shorts. My favorite film was, “Marcel, King of the Tervuren“. it was a great character driven story about a rooster who looses his eye and his brood of hens to his son in a cock fight. Marcel returns and then fights and kills his son. The style was painterly and bold. The Bill Plympton film, “Drunker Than a Skunk“, had it’s world premiere at the festival. It is a Western drawn entirely with ball point pen. The character designs are quirky and amazing. At the film maker talk back afterwards, Plympton said that an animated short costs him about $1000 per minute to produce. Drunker Than a Skunk cost him $5000 to produce. He traded an amplifier for someone’s work on the sound track. His wife Sandrine did all of the color work and once his son, Luca, is old enough, he’ll be part of the production team. Of course, being able to do 100 drawings a day helps. He stood on the stage holding his new born son along with his wife who helps him with each film project.

Plympton’s three rules for making a short film are…

1. Make it SHORT!

2. Keep it CHEAP!

3. Make it FUNNY!

As he said, that describes many of his past girlfriends.

Natura Coffee and Tea

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When I work till 9PM at Full Sail I tend to go out and sketch Jazz which pops up all over town. Natura Coffee and Tea is a hole in the wall coffee shop right near UCF (12078 Collegiate Way Orlando, FL). The front window proclaims, “Self expression welcome.” The place offers music, art and film. All the clientele are young college aged kids. Students smoked hookahs on a couch to the left. An older woman got a whole cup of hot coffee spilled in her lap. There was quite a commotion to get her cleaned up.

The jazz was lively but I never caught any of the musicians names. The guitarist just told me that he and Reagan on the keyboard had gotten the group together for the night.  I desperately want to return to sketch the students smoking the intricate and ornate hookahs. I may have to work late next month so I might be back.

History of Animation

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Conrad Winterlich came into the 2D Animation class at Full Sail last month to introduce students to the history of animation. He usually gives this lecture when students get to his class much later in the curriculum. This was a test to see if an earlier introduction to the history of animation might offer students more creative options as they planned their work for later classes.

It was a fun lecture going all the way back to French cave paintings and covering animation trends throughout history. After the lecture I further researched Windsor McCay who single handedly animated “The Sinking of the Lusitania.” This propaganda film helped get America involved in WWI.  Of course the first film to use synchronized sound, Steamboat Willie, was shown. Some hooded students started to nod off, but there were so many amazing animated clips that kept most students engaged. I certainly learned a few new things.

Our animation lab just got new Apple computers for shooting and testing hand drawn animation. We also got new software, called Flip book Pro for testing the timing of animation. We tested the software for several hours learning it’s quirks. We will still be getting up to speed ourselves as we introduce January’s students to the new software. I’m actually excited about the new possibilities, applying digital software to make traditional animation faster and easier.

Full Sail’s Got Talent

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After class on November 29th, I went to the Full Sail Live venue to sketch the talent show. When I got there the place was pretty empty but it quickly filled up as I blocked in the stage on my sketch. The
Student Community Association presented “Full Sail’s Got Talent,” a
showcase featuring some of the school’s most talented performers.
Students competed on stage to be crowned the winner of this annual
event. Full Sail’s Got Talent was free and open to all students and
staff. Four faculty members sat in front of the stage to act as judges. One female judge was brutally honest in her judgements and the audience full of students at times booed her.

I spent my time watching the camera operator as  he danced around with the tripod on wheels. He never stopped moving and the student responsible for feeding the electrical cord had to keep up with him. Lighting also changed constantly which made for a challenge as I painted. Evan Frazer and Brandon Mirador (Replay &
Frazer) won the Annual Full Sail’s Talent Show. They performed as a dance team to many of the most popular dance songs. It was sort of a history of dance. 0ne dancer wore a blank faced mask which added to the edgy mystique of the act. Abruptly the music stopped and the two performers stood on the stage, not sure what to do. I’m not sure if that was part of the act or a mistake.

Allison Gammill was the Runner up. She had a sweet voice and sang from the soul. Most of the other acts were fast paced rap singers, whose words were garbled and often lost. When Allison performed, standing center stage in her elegant dress, her talent shone and her stillness stood in stark contrast to all the gesturing on stage. One of the judges said he had a crush on her. That is what happens when you sing from the heart.  I don’t understand this pop-cultural obsession about standing on a stage to be judged however. The caged birdsings of freedom.