Waiting for the rain to stop

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As the 2-D Animation class wound down, I heard thunder and the distinct sound of rain hitting the building’s flat roof. I didn’t have my umbrella. Kathy Blackmore, the Course Director, suggested I could dash out a little early but I didn’t want to get drenched. More importantly, I didn’t want my tablet PC or sketchbooks to get drenched. I lingered after class straightening up the classroom at a leisurely pace. When I finally got out to the lobby, I stopped in my tracks.

Looking out the large glass doors was a view of a cascading, torrential waterfall. I couldn’t even see the nearest cars in the parking lot. I always park at the furthest parking spot away from the building under a shady tree. I like the walk and I always know where I parked. Now that was a problem. I decided to sit on the floor and sketch. There were quite a few students who waited along with me. Occasionally a student would run in soaking wet and laughing. one particularly wet girl followed a classmate around offering a hug. Kathy decided to make a run for it.

As I finished up the sketch the rain began to slow. I walked out to my truck in the faintest drizzle just having to avoid the lake sized puddles in the parking lot.

Christmas Tree Tent

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Sometimes I spend so much time researching possible subjects, I loose sight of the quirky things that pop up around me every day. Driving into the Full Sail parking lot I noticed a large Christmas Tree Tent had been erected. An inflatable Homer Simpson offered D’0H NUTS to the incessant and furious 436 traffic. I passed this tent for a solid week before finally deciding I had to sketch it. I sat in a roadside drainage ditch to get the proper vantage point.

I had been sent on an assignment to sketch a banking CEO’s home but when I got to the street, I discovered it was a gated community. I made several calls, but never got the gate code. I started to drive home when I remembered what Homer would say in such a situation, “D’OH!” I decided to make the drive over to the Christmas tent. I never realized that this tent had the best quality prices and selection! Why would people get their trees anywhere else? People must travel hundreds of miles, making the pilgrimage to this sales mecca. I had stumbled upon the Best Christmas tree sales tent in Central Florida!

The parking lot directly behind the tent was empty. I only saw one person. He came out with a gas can to fill the electric generator. The billboard was for a rape help center designed in delicate purples and pinks.

Florida Film Festival – Filmmaker Welcome Party

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Right after the animated shorts screening, I rushed downtown to go to the film maker’s welcome party at Ember. The bar inside wasn’t very crowded, but I noticed on of the large glowing Orbs that Full Sail uses to advertise. Ember has a large outdoor area with three different bars. The woman at the entry asked if I was there for the Florida Film Festival party and when I said I was, she gave me a leather trinket which was good for one Peroni beer and a red rubber wrist band which was good for Macker’s mark which is a brand of Bourbon. I immediately stepped up to one of the bars and asked for a Peroni. I then wandered around wondering what I should draw. I rather liked the tall arched architecture of this bar in the corner, so I sat at a wrought iron table and got to work.
It would be nice to say that I networked with some high powered Hollywood types but that didn’t happen. There was a brightly lit area where a photographer shot pictures of people. Rather than rather than doing any high powered networking, I just sipped my beer and watched the crowd. As I was sketching in the people, I realized that I recognized a local theater producer, so I stopped sketching for a moment and wandered over to shake his hand. One of the owners of the Plaza theater also spoke to me for a while and that contact might result in my covering more musical acts at that venue.
Once my sketch was finished, I packed up my art supplies and headed home. I didn’t cash in my free Bourbon, I’m not even sure I would have liked a Bourbon, I never tasted one. I will have to leave that life experience for another day.

Tulgey Wood – Sound Stage Shoot

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Tulgey Wood is a Full Sail student short film loosely built around the Lewis Carol poem “Jabberwocky“.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the Tulgey Wood,
And burbled as it came!
The film follows a young girl named Jose who discovers her parents are about to get divorced. Unable to face this harsh truth the girl runs from her home and wanders into the woods where she is transformed into a girl that looks just like Alice in Wonderland. She finds a small red camping tent and wanders in. The interior is much bigger than expected with paper lanterns, mounds of pillows and candles everywhere. Inside is a fortune teller who looks into a crystal ball summoning insights into the challenges that Jose faces. “Thus my child, it does not do to dwell on that which we have lost. For certainly, we are given more than we could ever hope to loose.”
Leander Suleiman the actress who played the fortune teller, was the one who suggested I come to the sound stage and do this sketch. When I arrived people were rushing around taking measurements and checking for lighting levels. One fellow took his time lighting all the candles and a fire extinguisher was on hand at all times. Between shots several set pieces had to be moved and twice candles were knocked over causing a flurry of activity as they tried to pick up the candle before any pillows or fabrics caught fire. A long track was set up in front of the set allowing the camera to follow the actresses movements with the candles looming large in the foreground.
Leander is a frequent guest artist at a Full Sail class that helps teach students how to direct actors. She read the part of the fortune teller and then auditions were held. The director couldn’t find anyone else that was right for the role so he tracked her down. She had just finished playing a gypsy (Madame Zeroni) in the stage production of “Holes”. So jumping into the role was easy. Leander loves both theater and film but the stage is where her heart truly sings.

Emperors New Groove

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For the last class of the month in 2D Animation, the students get to choose a film to watch from a selection of about 10 animated feature films. This month they chose to see “The Emperors New Groove”. I did some drawings in that film of the character Pacha and Kuzco. The Florida studios contribution to that film was just to assist the California studio on scenes that needed an army of extra hands to get the film finished.
Some students watch the film intently while others are trying to finish the final drawings in one of there assignments which is a flip book. The students in this class did some really amazing work over the course of the month.

Full Sail Sketch Class

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Kathy was kind enough to let me spend some time next door to test my tablet doing some sketches from a model. A number of students walked up to me between poses to find out what I was drawing with. Even the model was curious about the tablet. He is now considering getting one for his brother in law who he says, “has to have the latest gadgets.” I am finding the ability to add large flat tones behind the initial gestural sketch to be a real advantage. A brush size of 2.5 is about right for how I think the line should feel. I am slowly adjusting to this new way of working, but I still feel a bit retarded scratching away on a computer screen.

2D Animation Class

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It felt good to be back at Full Sail after spending a few days wasting away on my living room couch. Kathy, the Course Director, showed the documentary called Frank and Ollie about two of the nine old men of Disney lore. It is inspiring to see how these two artists inspired and provoked each other to produce work that might not have been as good if they had not supported each other. This sketch is a reminder that the animation disks have to compete with students laptops for attention. I am experimenting to see if I can come up with a way to get my digital sketches to read with a few sepia tones.

Animation Class

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I work part time at Full Sail as a Studio Artiste’. This means I help out in the lab as students are working on animation assignments. I like that this gets me out of my studio to meet young enthusiastic students just discovering this amazing medium. Here is a typical view of the Full Sail students at work doing traditional animation. On the left are the work tables with disks where the animation drawings are produced. On the right students are sitting at stations where they shoot the drawings which are then digitized and played back in sequence on computers. This allows the students to quickly see the animation play at 24 frames per second.