The Animation, Art, & Nonsense of Vanessa Appleby

New Purse!

2012-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

The last week I had off from work, so I decided to finally bunker down and do something productive like make a new purse. Voila! I think it might be my favorite I've made so far (which is really saying something since I've been making my own bags for 10 years). It's constructed out of vinyl fabric I got from a friend's sister who wanted to get rid of it- lucky for me! The interior is lined with cotton. Sewing vinyl is really hard on my machine and my hands. Pinning that stuff is a nightmare. I kept having to ice my fingertips! But I think the end result was worth it :) .

The interior has 3 accordion pockets for extra storage.

In other news I'm in the process of learning Maya finally. I've got a pretty good grip on the animating part, now I figure I'll work backwards and learn rigging, then return to learning more about modeling. Over the week of new years an ad I worked on for Samsung with Omega Darling aired on the massive jumbotron in Times Square! It was really exciting to see my work that big and to know that millions of people saw it. I also recently had to turn down a full time job on a show I really wanted to work on due to money. I don't understand how people expect animators to live on such puny salaries. It's especially mind blowing because we do a job that most people couldn't even dream of being CAPABLE of doing. It's a really hard skill to master, and thus it deserves fair wages. Sigh...

Love at First Bark

2011-10-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Hooray! After a few rather unexpected set backs, the book trailer I spent 2 months directing/designing/story boarding/character rigging/and animating is up online! The book is Love At First Bark by Julie Klam for Riverhead Books (a division of Penguin Publishing).

Credits:

Author/narrator
Julie Klam

Producer
Paul Leo

Director/Animator
Vanessa Appleby

Music and additional sound help
Roger Paul Mason

Additional voices
Isam Prado

The whole video was made in After Effects. The actual animation isn't up to the quality that I would've like it to be, but such is the case when you're on a tight schedule. Overall though, I'm very happy with it. Share this!

How to Make it in America for HBO

2011-10-01T10:29:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday I did a little motion graphic spot for my buddies over at Omega Darling/Looseworld . They gave me pretty much free reign to animate the intro motion graphics however I wanted for this here video:

I had a good time making it. Sadly the footage was sped up since I left the office, which may have been done in the edit because we didn't have sound effects, but either way, it still looks pretty nice. I'm finally amassing enough work to put together a legit motion graphics reel. Hooray! Character animation is loads of fun, but let's face it, it doesn't pay very well...

I'll be back in their studio next week for some 2d animation for an educational project. I'm excited about getting out of my house more!

I also just concluded the big long project for Riverhead Books/Penguin Books. More to come on that in the near future.

Animals Howcast Videos

2011-09-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

In July I made these two short videos for Howcast. They were really fun. The frog video only took me a day to do- a far cry from the first video I ever made for them! I had an especially good time with the rap video. It's not every day you get to animate sheep with grills.

Songs for Kids: The Color Song on Howcast

Songs for Kids: Animal Sounds on Howcast

Oh, and pardon the ads before the videos. I wish they'd get rid of those...

American Express Serve

2011-08-08T09:01:00.001-07:00

Hoorah! A few weeks ago over at Omega Darling I animated an American Express commercial/tutorial for their new service called Serve. It's now online. Finally! Something that I've worked on in the last 6 months that's been released for public viewing!

I'm currently finishing up some new Howcast videos along with directing a book trailer for the beloved Paul Leo, former creative director at Howcast. I'm quite excited about this project. I greatly enjoy the conception/boarding/design portion of production, so having that opportunity again is very exciting!

Yotel Robot Roboto Robtoz

2011-06-29T17:05:00.001-07:00

Here's a little diddy I did over at Omega Darling/Loose World a few weeks ago. I meant to post it sooner, but well, I'm lazy.

Celebrity Robot Audition - watch more funny videos

I'm about to start working for them again this week and I'm freaking PUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!! AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Squirrely Dress

2011-04-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

I realized after getting laid off that I needed to take a brief mental hiatus from searching for work, so I decided to sew. It's been FOREVER since me and my needley friend spent quality time together. Animating day in and day out can be a bit mentally taxing. Sometimes I forget that variety really is the spice of life. The dress was made from a pattern from Burdastyle, although I altered a few things to make it fit better. It's made from denim and a lovely Japanese heavyweight cotton squirrel print from Purl Soho. My dear friend Orlando Perez shot these lovely photos for me.

Me and Shnookums making out.

Next up, Dr. Shnookums will be getting a powder blue tuxedo!! He currently wears a bowtie and tux collar everyday, but I think it's time to upgrade to a full jacket. It will also be great practice for sewing on a smaller scale for puppets, as well as a good exercise in pattern drafting.

Tenticles

2011-03-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

I drew this the other night. I'm putting my feelers out. Hoping for the best. Help!

In other news I can't stop listening to Rescue Song by Mr. Little Jeans. It's so catchy!

Random Crap

2011-03-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

Some more stills from the GE spot. Still waiting on some more notes. I can't wait for this thing to be released!!

Squirrels from Vanessa Appleby on Vimeo.

This is something I did for Sean a while back. I got to design and animate the squirrels. I think they're pretty precious.

Looking for work yet again. As Winne the Pooh says, "oh bother".

More Crafty Goodness

2011-01-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

I've been positively SWAMPED! Which, actually is awesome.

Right now I'm back working on my Howcast video for GE. They unfortunately had some rather heavy notes and wanted me to redo about half of the video. This meant I needed to make some more props. Here's what's happened so far.

Here's a new still from it. The majority of this new section is just the kid cruising around in his sweet hybrid ride. And now for some more props....

fishy poo

book shelf for kid's classroom

mom's car

desk and chair for kid's classroom

elementary school

COLLEGE (regal ain't it?)

Working Girl ( no not like that you perv)

2010-12-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

Yay!!!!!! Finally! I got a real job! I'm currently animating for the Animation Collective's Jolly Rabbit cartoon! It's totally adorable, and here's a little still from their site.

HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll link to stuff in the future if I'm allowed... although I'm not 100% sure on the policy yet. But yay! Just what I've been hoping for for the last 2 years. Stability! I've even got several other jobs on the side. Life is crazy these days!

I'm currently working on revisions for my GE Howcast spot. I've got a lot to redo which is a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I think it'll turn out great. I'm so pleased with the look of it that I'm actually going to take the time to submit it to festivals next year. I believe it's set to go live in late January or February and I'll be sure to link to it obnoxiously as soon as it does!

Merry Crapsmas to me and my family who will no longer have to help me pay bills! Best present ever!!!!

Love,

The Grinch

Finger Puppets

2010-10-20T15:33:00.001-07:00

This isn't the best photo of all time, but you get the point. Today I sewed a finger puppet of myself as a promo for a puppet studio I want to work for. I'm rather fond of this, and it's going to be hard to send it... All I can say is that I hope they actually call me because if they don't I'll be incredibly sad. Puppets 4Life.

Mad Props

2010-10-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

Lately I've found myself rather busy (yet somehow still underfunded). I've been working on a prepilot for FOX with Mr. Sean Donnelly, as well as on a new Howcast video. The Howcast assignment is especially exciting. It's a break from the standard step-by-step format we usually work in. I don't want to reveal too much about the project, but my video will be in two parts, this, the "real world",

and another section which will be hand drawn with crayons on good old fashioned paper. (Just blew your mind there didn't I?) Perhaps I'm smug, but I'm very satisfied with the look of this! It's taken forever (about 3 weeks or so) to create the background elements which are all hand made out of a combination of cardboard, popsicle sticks, felt, and hot glue. The shot doesn't exactly give you a full view of the props, so I've included some of my source photos below.

This is the main house for the film, I've included photos of it before I painted so you can better see the construction. It's made out of a cardboard armature, popsicle stick siding and shingles, tin foil for the "solar panels", sculpey for the chimney bricks, and held together by hot glue. It stands approximately 18" high.

Both the car and the rocket ship are carved out of pink insulation foam, hot glued together, and painted.

Houses below are made of popsicle sticks, hot glued on a cardboard base.

These are buildings "of the FUTURE". These were primarily made the same way as the other houses, but this time I threw in some sculpey elements as well as a pinch of glitter.

The clouds and bushes/trees are sewn out of felt and embroidery floss, stuffed with tissue paper.

In the mean while I'm on that never ending quest of future employment. Got some new contacts last week, and I'm hoping to accomplish something important this week. Wish me luck.

Catchin' Some Sweet Waves Brah'

2010-09-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

So as promised, I'd be documenting a bit of the process of creating my personal film, working title Stories My Daddy Told Me. I've been painting this background FOREVER it seems. It was my first time working in painter. I'm pretty in love with that program. The brushes in Photoshop can't even begin to compare- not even in CS5. Although I've been slaving away, seemingly for years, I'm still not done with it. It still needs another 500 or so people on the beach, but you get the idea.

And a few select close ups....

I also did some little animation in the amusement park area. Check it out.

and some sweet waves that took forever to color

And all of this is for a less than 5 second shot. Ha. Such is the life of an animator I suppose.

Sneak Peek Stop Motion Extravaganza!

2010-08-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned, I'm currently working on my own film whenever I get a chance. It's a collection of short stories that my dad has told me about his childhood. The first story is in production at the moment with a run time of about one minute. It's primarily going to be hand drawn in Toon Boom 5 (soon to be Toon Boom 6 whoOooooOoOoaaaa), but there's a few small segments that are stop motion.

I've been working on compositing my stop motion footage I shot over at Asterisk Animation courtesy of Richard. I can't thank him enough for his help and generosity. It was ridiculously stressful trying to get everything to work together, but between 2 computers, 2 different stop motion programs, 2 cameras, and some ghetto lighting, it all managed to come together.

The big stop motion scene is underwater. Overall things went pretty well. I was very satisfied with the animation of the three fish characters, however I was a little disappointed with my animation of the plants. The armatures I used were made of steel wire (big mistake!) and the arms of the plants were very difficult to move in the small increments needed to create a subtle swaying underwater look. Right now they move way too fast and way too much. I may just end up taking stills of each plant arm and using the puppet tool in AE. I know that's cheating, but I want this film to look stellar.

Anyway, here's a little sneak peek of one of the characters. I haven't settled on a look for the ocean yet so there's no background at the moment, but you get the idea.

And here's a still that I created as a style frame for the underwater shot. It already looks quite a bit different, but at least you can see the look of the puppets. More to come in the next few weeks!

GLEE!!

2010-08-25T18:01:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest from Howcast. I'm busy trudging away on my personal film, as well as several freelance projects. Expect many posts in the near future!

How to Rock a Glee Club Performance on Howcast

HARDCORE HOWCAST

2010-05-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

FINALLY! My latest Howcast video is online! It paid better too! Yay! I made this whole thing in a week!

How To Save Money With BillShrink on Howcast

Also it can be seen on the front page of BillShrink's website! http://www.billshrink.com/ I also noticed this weekend when I was home that BillShrink was featured in the Morning Call. Hopefully this drums up some business for me!

Skanks

2010-05-20T14:20:00.001-07:00

I just designed this foxy lady for a webisode I've been working on. I kinda love her.

Boob jobs!

2010-03-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

Yet another Howcast video.

How To Get Breast Implants on Howcast

Over the past few weeks I've been busy assembling a bunch of packages for studios. Hopefully this will get me noticed. Even if they don't provide me with a job, I hope that at least I'll get some good feedback and/or suggestions to get me a job in the near future. Finances are tight at the moment. VERY tight.

How To Survive A Nuclear Terrorist Attack

2010-02-27T09:06:00.000-08:00

Annnnd another Howcast video-

How To Survive a Nuclear Terrorist Attack on Howcast

Bunny Plate

2010-02-20T14:00:00.000-08:00

I found myself reading a craft book the other day and got an idea. I made myself a 3d plate out of a a clear glass plate I got from Crate and Barrel for a wopping $2.95. Hopefully this holds up to several washings.

Family Portrait

2010-02-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post this for a long time now. This is an oil painting caricature I did for my parents for Christmas. It was odd painting in oils again after such a long break, but I think it eventually started coming back to me.

I was really pleased with the likenesses. I was scared that I would never be satisfied with a drawing of my parents. I've always found the better I know someone, the harder it is for me to draw a caricature of them that I'm happy with. Glad this turned out well!

Ho hum the circus man

2010-02-16T15:39:00.000-08:00

Look what I just made!

circus man! from Vanessa Appleby on Vimeo.

I decided to pull out the Animators Survival Kit and after some reading I felt compelled to make a dynamic walk. I tried futzing around with the passing position, as I have recently learned, this is key to an awesome walk. Instead of having the pass be the high point, it's actually the low, giving the whole thing a bouncier feeling. I think I may continue with this character. I'm envisioning him lit on fire by a firebreather in the background. We'll see.

Website crit and some more Howcast

2010-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

My website was just mentioned on the Asterisk Animation blog! Go read about it.
ASTERISK ASTERISK ASTERISK
Glad to know they like my new site!

Also, my last completed Howcast video is online. Go check it out as well.

How To Use Laughter To Improve Your Life on Howcast

I've been working for the designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada for the last 2 months, and I was just offered a position in Madrid in their creative department. Talk about exciting, but also terrifying! There's lots to think about in the next few weeks! I'm sure I'll write more when I have more information.

How to Overcome Your Sexual Inhibitions!

2010-01-17T11:46:00.001-08:00

Another Howcast video. But the best one yet... Go nuts! Watch it!

How To Overcome Your Sexual Inhibitions on Howcast

Holy Howcast Batman!

2010-01-05T17:54:00.001-08:00

Another Howcast vid fresh off the presses

How To Buy Celebrity Dresses on Howcast

How To Seduce A Woman

2009-12-09T17:22:00.000-08:00

So my one of my other Howcast videos went live today. Check it out!

How To Seduce a Woman on Howcast

I also FINALLY moved to NYC and am generally having a rather lovely time. I got a job working for http://www.agatharuizdelaprada.com/eng/products . I'm totally in love with everything at the store.

NBC caricatures at the Rockefeller Plaza X-mas party

2009-12-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

Much has happened in the last few weeks. I've moved to Brooklyn! WOOOOO!!!

And I just did a caricature job for NBC's Rockefeller x-mas tree lighting party. Here are my two favorite caricatures from the night, along with a lovely photo of the tree. It was a great event.

I also updated my website so be sure to take a look http://www.vanessaappleby.com/
I'm still making minor revisions to the site, so let me know if you have any sort of suggestions.

The lady who hired me at NBC was awesome and said she'd forward my resume to the motion graphics department. Hopefully something comes of that because I could really use the steady work! Wish me luck!

Howcast!

2009-09-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Life has been CRAZY. I'm working 7 days a week, 5 in NYC and two at home. I haven't had much time to update as a result. My first Howcast video went live yesterday. Go check it out!

How To Date a Millionaire on Howcast

wooooooo! I made that sheeeiiit in like 2 or 3 days. This job is awesome.

I'm currently working on another documentary at the moment. This one's about sex education. It's pretty fun all things considered.

Endless Pastabilities?

2009-07-25T16:22:00.001-07:00

I've been in Brooklyn again working on some animation for a documentary. So far it's pretty fun. Still no studio job in sight, but I'm keeping busy working on caricature and illustration projects. Here's the most recent one for a Hawaiian Luau party invitation-

I was also just potentially offered a music video project. It won't pay much, but I think it could be a fun project to work on. It'd be nice to be the director for a change. We'll see how that pans out.

Oh, and Dorney Park has left my life. I felt kinda sad about it, then I saw some stupid ad in the subway that simply said "do your best and don't look back". I suddenly felt relieved and thought, "good riddance".

Hopefully onto bigger and better things.

apple BEE

2009-07-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is a clip of the after effects puppet animation I've been slaving away on. Hopefully it looks nice. One down, 7 to go....

Again, Barf on Yourself Cuteness

2009-06-23T18:07:00.001-07:00

I just made a new dvd cover for my reel. I have an interview tomorrow at Asteriks. God I hope that goes well!!!!!!! I'm super nervous! Hopefully this is the big break I've been waiting for. Flickerlab was a good start, but I'd like to get to do some real animating this time! I'm hoping to wow them, but of course, being the incesant worrier I am, I have my doubts. Wish me luck!

Germany in 6 days!!!! WOOOO!!!!!

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You....

2009-06-18T14:33:00.000-07:00

I've been experimenting in AE like I said. I decided to go ahead and create a puppeted animation to brush up on my skillz and learn more about character rigging and effects. So far I've only had time to create some of the backgrounds and rig the characters. I am ALMOST about to start animating. I can't wait!!!

Here's the most precious still of all time.... get ready for it.... brace yourself you might puke....

OK OK JUST KIDDING!!!!

Here's the real thing-

Comments with thoughts and possible improvements would be very much appreciated! Does anyone think I need more stuff in the background or perhaps a textured sky?

An apology to Billy Joel and company

2009-06-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

I deleted my last post.

As it turns out posting those shots I worked on was a BAAAAD idea. Being relatively new to the industry, I did not know I couldn't post my shots on my blog until the movie was released. Now I know for the future that I should always ask first.

I feel really horrible about this. Any damage I caused was totally unintentional, but I can't shake the guilt. I didn't mean to get the animation director in trouble, and I certainly didn't mean to upset anyone else. I would like to apologize to anyone involved, and Billy Joel, if you're out there, I'm sorry!

Hotdog experiment

2009-06-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Since I last wrote I worked on some hand drawn animation for a Billy Joel documentary. I think it's pretty nice looking. I'll post it when I have the final composited versions. I'm hoping that'll be later this week.

So I finally decided to bite the bullet and do some After Effects tutorials. I made this little clip for the beginning of my reel. It's a hell of a lot shorter than the last opening clip I made, and hopefully funnier. Tutorials are probably the best way to learn. Everyone was right. I was just lazy until now.

Next I'm going to work on doing a puppeted animation in AE with that adorable little bear from the iPod cases I posted below. I figure it'll be good to have some puppet stuff on my reel. Perhaps that'll help me get into Little Airplane. Who knows.

One of the people at the Billy Joel project referred me to Asteriks, but I still haven't heard back and it's been nearly 2 weeks. I'm nervous. I guess it's time to send another email, but I'm always paranoid I'm going to be annoying people by doing that. Uggggggggh.

In other news, I AM MOVING IN SEPTEMBER. I'm getting a sublet and getting the hell out of here even if it means I'm just working in a grocery store. It's time for me to go. Emmaus is a dead end.

Zitman's Wallet

2009-05-06T17:25:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post these a while back, but I made my boss Zitman a wallet per request. I think it's pretty sweet.

The photo's a little blurry, but he wanted two dividing pockets, one for money, and one for receipts.

I bought a teflon presser foot for my sewing machine so I could sew vinyl more easily, however, much to my dismay, it doesn't fit on my machine! It was also a nonrefundable purchase... Gr. I guess I'm stuck ghetto sewing wallets together.

P.S. I just found out I have pneumonia! Hooray!!!

Animatic Revision

2009-05-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

After several long chats, a wee bit of soul searching, and discovering the cure for cancer, I've retooled my animatic to hopefully make it funnier, more cohesive, and generally more awesome. Let's hope I reached those goals.

Thoughts? Does the ending work? I rather like it now, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I certainly think this ending is more clever than just a big ol' explosion. That seems too obvious.

I ran into a bunch of totally nonsensical technical difficulties when working on this animatic. For whatever the reason Flash has some serious video issues. I edited some of the original animatic in Flash and worked on top of it. When I exported it, none of the scenes from the embedded video file were correct. It automatically sets each segment to play from frame 1, despite what you may have programed in the properties pallette. Very annoying indeed. So I had to then edit it together in Premiere, which of course exports huge files even when compressed. I also realized there are some weird frame rate issuses between Flash and Premeire. I don't think Flash let's you export QT's at 23.97 fps. Quicktime Pro keeps messing up and won't let me compress and export QT's from Premiere so I can post them to my blog. Nothing seems to be working right... Ugh.

I've also had some Craigslist jobs offered to me, and to be honest I'm a little confused/overwhelmed as to which ones I should/can do at the moment. It's unfortunate that I've gotten so into my animatic that all I want to do is work on this! I know if I move away from it for a while it may be a long time until I return to it again. Such is life I'm afraid...

The Animatic You've All Been Waiting For...

2009-04-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

The animatic I've been promising is finally here.... Keep in mind this is really rough, so if something isn't clear please ask. Also if something makes no sense or is totally NOT funny, please tell me before I waste hours of my life animating it. Thanks.

My dad totally didn't get the Heaven's Gate reference, so if you find it confusing as well, SHOUT OUT.

Colors?

2009-04-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

I've still been sewing like a madman, but I decided to take a break today and return to my film. I've worked more on the animatic, but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I'll post it shortly. In the mean time, I was working out an overall aesthetic for the film. Here's what I came up with. I couldn't quite decide which color variation I preferred, so opinions are encouraged.

I think I'm leaning towards the second one.

And yes, those trees are made out of bacon and gummy bears and the clouds are made of marshmallow fluff.

I have the sneaking suspicion that compositing the character and bg will be an enormous pain in the rear, but we shall see.

Gettin' Crafty

2009-04-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

So in the midst of trying to find animation employment I've been left with a lot of free time. For a few weeks I sat around and scratched my head wondering what to do next. Then it occurred to me that I should probably do what my mom always told me to do- sell purses online. This has since expanded to other things such as iPod cases, hair accessories, and now wallets. I opened an Etsy store called VAppleB (so perhaps people would associate my caricature signature with my store). Check it out HERE

Or if you're too lazy to check that out here's some photos:

interior

I sold this one to my step grandma. Ha. I was really fond of it.

interior details
the following are all hair barrettes

I also made an amazing vinyl wallet as a gift for someone, but I'll refrain from posting pictures of that until it's been received.

So BUY BUY BUY! or feel free to commission me to make something custom. The options are endless.

Some Silly Faces and The Continuing Epic Quest for Employment

2009-03-16T18:09:00.001-07:00

So it's been far too long. Apologies...

I actually had a job for a while! Hooray! I was working at Flickerlab doing clean up and a little animating here and there for Hooked on Phonics. It was AWESOMMMMEEEEEE. I made friends! Woohoo! Now that's over and I'm back to the same place I was only 2 months ago. I'm trying to resume an internship at Curious, but this time as a stop-motion intern (which is something they don't normally have). Hopefully that will pan out for me, or if I could be so lucky, perhaps I can get another real paying job in animation. Either way, it's a little disappointing but I knew this would happen eventually.

I've had a few caricature commissions here and there over the last 2 months. I just finished one today for a woman in New Jersey as a thank you gift to the groomsmen for her wedding. Check it out.

Some of the colors are oversaturated since I created it with a CMYK color profile, but you get the idea here. I spent way too long on this one, but I rather like it.

Soooooo if anyone has any potential ideas for how to go about getting another job or where I should be looking at the moment, don't hesitate to share!

The New Face of Polaroid

2009-01-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Being a long and loyal lover of traditional Polaroids, I have mixed feelings about this new advancement.

Polaroid Digital Printer Camera Doohickey

I suppose it's better than nothing, but it still isn't the same as watching that magic rectangle develop in front of your eyes. I also believe that not having the ability to pick and edit Polaroids is half of their beauty.

Brace yourselves, I'm about to rant about digital photography for a moment. Digital photography in my opinion, has greatly facilitated vanity in human beings. Think about all of the little teeny boppers on Myspace and Facebook who take hundreds of pictures of themselves looking sexy. You know they delete 8 out of 10 pictures they take because they didn't look perfect. With a Polaroid you can't do that. A picture is an investment, both monetarily and artistically. You grow to appreciate the candid nature of these shots in a way you never can with a digital image.

But now with the LCD screen and editing options you are no longer stuck with the unflattering pictures. With the click of a button they can be simply erased. There will be no more strange Polaroid finds on the side of the road. What will Found Magazine have to print? FOUND Polaroids

No one will print the awkward shots. There's something about that that doesn't sit well with me. I like the idea of not being able to erase a moment- no matter how unflattering or awkward it may have been.

A Polaroid is a piece of physical evidence of a moment, which is what makes it so awesome in the first place.

Like I said, it's better than nothing, but it's still not the same. That film won't be compatible with my SX70. :(

R.I.P. little guy.

NEW! flash player!

2008-12-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

So I'm continuing to teach myself bits of action scripting. I still don't really have a firm grasp on what I'm doing, but I'm learning a bit here and there. I'd really like to be able to take a class on it sometime. I'm sure it would be mighty helpful. Anyway, here's what I made:

FLASH AWESOMENESS!!!!

The bunnies are so damn cute I couldn't help but squeal when I was animating them.

Let me know if you have any problems with it or have suggestions to make it more user friendly!

Total Bummer

2008-12-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

So I finally heard back from Soup2Nuts:

"We have received and reviewed your test and unfortunately your skills do not coincide with our current job openings."

This was disappointing to say the least. I wonder what was so bad about my test that I didn't pass. I've always been told by people that I'm very strong in Flash, so why can't I get a Flash based job?

In ToeJam and Earl there's a present called TOTAL BUMMER. When you open it, it kills you immediately. Unfortunately I'm afraid I just opened one.

Rainbow Rabbits and the Employment Drought of 2008

2008-12-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

I illegally downloaded Toonboom (don't tell anybody!) a few weeks ago. I finally decided to give it a go. I thought it was ok, certainly a nice drawing interface, but I suppose I'm so acclimated to the Adobe setup that it took me a while to get used to it.

Then I decided I wanted to play around with some stupid effects in AE, since I had never really explored the possibilities of cheesy particle generators and such. Here is the result- strange I know.

I finally called Curious Pictures today, only to find out that they don't want me to start until MID JANUARY! OH NO!!! I was originally told I was to begin in mid December. Now I have a month of nothing to do and my parents continually breathing down my neck to get a crappy job at Target (this is not an exaggeration). At least when I'm interning my parents leave me alone because they feel like I'm doing something productive. I was so excited about starting there so soon. I can't believe I have to wait another month and a half. What the heck.

PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN TO ME:

So I've begun the never fun task of sending out rounds of emails searching desperately for paying work before I debase myself and ask for an application at another department store.

I saw another RISD friend the other week (also unemployed and living with the 'rents). It seems most everyone from my graduating class is in my shoes. Who knew 2008 would be such a bleak time for artistic opportunity?

I need a Christmas Miracle.

In some good news, a nice man whom is a friend of a friend's family found my page and referred it to a founding father of Curious. Apparently it was then sent on to the talent/development people. HOPEFULLY something good will come of this. Looks like I've got more emails to write!

Some day in the not too distant future I plan on getting back to my trampoline film. More of that to come.

But.... I am now a volunteer at a cat shelter! Kitties!!!

Acting Robots

2008-11-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7749932.stm

This is insane. I wonder how long it will be until they have animator robots. Then I really won't be able to find a paying job!

In my career news, my internship with Tiny Inventions is already over. I'll post the little clips I animated as soon as production is finished and I get a copy of it. I animated squirrels and bunnies! Too cute for words.

I supposedly begin an internship at Curious Pictures in mid December. I'm supposed to call them about it in early December. I'm just worried that they may change their minds or forget about me. I'm probably being ridiculous, but well, I haven't had much luck lately getting any sort of job at all.

I sent my work to another guy at Little Airplane at the suggestion of my Tiny Inventions employer. I still haven't heard back from them. Both times I've emailed people at that studio I haven't gotten so much as a peep back. Either they have absolutely no interest in me, or they are not hiring production assistants or animators. I wish I knew which one it was.

I'm still broke, still unemployed, and still trying to find someone to give me my first break. I really hope it comes from Curious. I just have to wow them.

I'm working on a silly little animation at the moment. I was teaching myself ToonBoom and have been fiddling around in AE to learn more about effects. It's totally cheesey and pretty stupid, but it's fun none the less. I'll post it later this week when it's done.

action scripting magic

2008-10-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

This was my first foray into the mysterious land of action scripting. I was just trying to figure out how the coding worked for simple buttons. It took me forever to figure out, but here's the result. I think it's quite funny.

http://www.vanessaappleby.com/buttontest2.html

the ball is rolling...?

2008-10-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

I didn't get hired at the jewelry store or Dick Blick. Bummer. I could've really used the money.

Despite my continuing lack of steady income, I have had some successes since I last wrote. I went to my first ASIFA open screening which can be read about here: http://asifaeast.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/asifas-open-screening/
I showed my senior film and it actually went over quite well. People laughed when they were supposed to! Hooray!

Being in New York was quite exciting. I really needed to leave the Valley for a while. I got to see some old friends from school, the Upright Citizens Brigade, and the Metropolitain Museum of Art (an old favorite). All very wonderful indeed. I can't believe how hilarious (and cheap!) the UCB was! I've got to go back there again.

As soon as I got off the bus back home, I threw my butt into my car and speeded over to Kutztown U for a lecture given by Tom Waburton-http://warburtonlabs.blogspot.com/

I was anticipating a small affair, but there were far more people than I expected. I wanted to show him some of my animation since he works at one of my dream studios, Curious Pictures. I wanted to get some feedback on how I might go about getting a job there (even if it's just removing coffee stains from desks or something). Unfortunately, despite the extended Q&A there were a lot of people who also decided they wanted to speak with him afterwards. I waited until the very end so that I could really talk with him and wouldn't interupt anyone's autograph signing. However, I got to ask him a few questions (although I wonder how succinct I was), and then the woman in charge of shutting down the auditorium kicked us out! Poo. Poo, Poo, Poo. He did tell me that if I drop by Curious I should ask for him at the desk. That sounds like a plan to me!

He, like Dave Levy, spoke of when he was first starting out, and he pounded the pavement checking out studios door to door. I mentioned that I was really nervous about doing that, but it's what ultimately landed him a job. He said some places would slam the door in my face, and some places would gladly find someone to check out my work even if they didn't have openings. I should really plan on doing this despite how invasive and terrifying it may seem to me. If it means paying work, I'm all there.

I start my internship on the 6th, and I'm very excited about that. I figured I'd make some pilgrimages to other studios around that time.

I completed my Soup2Nuts animation test, but haven't heard back from them either. I'm wondering if
A: did they get it in the mail?
B. did I do horribly?
C. do they just not have any openings and they're being lazy about telling me I did a swell job?

It makes me nervous. I was really hoping this would lead to some paying work.

Speaking of paying, it looks like my friend's parents may pay me to make a website for their business. Sounds good to me! I updated my website as well- http://www.vanessaappleby.com/

Land Ahoy!

2008-10-14T08:18:00.001-07:00

It finally looks as though I can see land from my sea of unemployment. I suppose I'm a preemptive worrier. I get worried that life if going to end when all I really have to do is wait it out a day or two. I forget that not everyone is currently unemployed and has the time to email me immediately. Oh well. I should remember this for the future.

The big news is that I was able to get in touch with Max Porter from Tiny Inventions www.tinyinventions.com. He offered me an intern position working on the next music video for They Might Be Giants. Although it's not a paying position (which is sorta a huge bummer since I'm almost broke), it's a project that I'm actually really excited about working on. I loved the last video they made for TMBG, and I'm sure this one will be equally awesome. It sounds as though it will be a collage of all different mediums: cut paper, After Effects, stop-motion, and 3d CGI. I'm really stoked about working in stop-motion again and hopefully learning more about After Effects. Not only is the project itself exciting, but finally getting my foot in the door at a New York studio is most exciting of all.

My hope is that I do well on the Soup2Nuts test (which I still haven't received in the mail thanks to Columbus Day...) and I can get some freelance paying work through them. It sounded like they do most of their work in the studio though, which I hope isn't a problem for me since I'm currently so far away from Boston.

I also applied to work at a local jewelry store which is owned and operated by an award winning jeweler. Everything in the store was made from precious stones (no synthetics!) and a lot of it was hand crafted there at the place. There was an $11,000 platinum and diamond necklace I was dying to own, but sadly, I'm sure I'll be dead before I could ever own it. I met with the owner, we talked jewelry for a while, and she seemed to like me. The position is for general help in the store ranging from sales to jewelry repairs. I have jewelry making experience, so I'm hoping that plays in my favor. It'd be a steady job, and it'd be in a creative setting. If I get it, I'm hoping to work on the TMBG video while earning bank at the diamond encrusted jewelry store and perhaps even doing stuff for Soup2Nuts at the same time. Certainly jewelry is unrelated to my field, but I've always loved it and what girl doesn't want to spend her day looking at diamonds???

I'm still twiddling my thumbs waiting for this animation test. I think I should take it before I start contacting anyone else about employment. With that said, I believe I'll spend my day cleaning the fence and going to the gym.

A Wee Bit of Progress...

2008-10-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

So I may have finally come across a small glimmer of success in the sea of dissapointments I've been experiencing lately. Looks like I have an animation test being sent my way from Soup2Nuts. Hooray! Finally! Let's hope this works out well for me. I can't bare the thought of getting a job at the mall. It's degrading. I filled out a bunch of stupid applications yesterday and realized that I appear grossly overqualified for retail jobs.

In other news, the quest to get fellow 2d character animators to converse with me via email is still going miserably. I heard back from one person so far, and they gave me a helpful tip or two, but never responded to my second email. As for everyone else, I can't say I've heard a word. Is this normal or am I doing something horribly wrong? It's really hard to tell. I get familiar with their work, ask them questions about themselves, drop the reference names, and send them a link to my reel asking for nothing more than advice. According to the How To Survive and Thrive, Your Career in Animation by Dave Levy, I seem to be doing this all right. It's a pretty simple formula, yet it's proving ineffective for me. I wish I knew why so I could change it to better suit my needs.

Perhaps the key is calling people and trying to weasel in an appointment in person? That method seems a bit invasive though, and last time I called a studio looking for a specific person they weren't even there. It's quite hard to get in touch with animators I'm finding. Maybe I really do have the worst timing in the world. It sure seems that way sometimes.

This just about sums it up:

In other totally unrelated news, I am so sore from the aerobics class from hell that I can barely walk! Getting up or down from a chair or step is excruciating. I think I'll spend my day on the computer so I don't have to get up. Ha.

Technical Education and a Rotoscoping Experiment

2008-10-08T12:33:00.001-07:00

So yesterday in a panic-stricken fit, I realized I needed to learn WAY more about After Effects than I already know. I pulled out the tutorial that Guillaume sent me about working with the filmstrip format, and I ended up rotoscoping for the first time. I found some of my old video projects from sophmore year and worked on a little chunk of Senan and me playing patty cake. I did run into some snags however. Despite what the tutorial said, filmstrips do not automatically save transparencies. You have to select your drawings and add them to the preexisting alpha channel (you can't even create a new one!!). This drove me bananans. Despite hours of searching online, I couldn't figure out what to do about it. Every filmstrip layer is exported with a white background unless it's been manually alpha channeled out by hand. BOGUS if you ask me.

Anyway, this is what happened:

Ta-Da! I kinda like it. I've got to figure out more of what After Effects is capable of. Once I have an idea of what tools I'm working with, I'll get more ideas for projects as a result. I really wish I took that After Effects class when that guy who was totally awesome taught it. Too bad stinky ol' Dennis took it over after one semester... I need some technical education...

In the beginning...

2008-10-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

I've blogged all over the internet since I was a tweenager, but now it's time I've graduated to my very own big kids blog.

I spent the last year of my life working on my senior film, Rise and Shine Recycle Time which you can see here:

http://www.vanessaappleby.com/rise%20and%20shine.html

I submitted it to the Ottawa International Animation Festival, Chicago Children's Festival, and the Animation Block Party. I didn't get into a one of them. Perhaps I was shooting for the stars with these, but I was quite discouraged. I haven't even looked into sending it to another fest since then. If nothing else, submission fees ripped a hole in my pocket. I dropped about $85 on fees and I my work didn't even get screened. For someone in the throws of post college poverty, $85 is a small fortune. My professor said I should keep trying, and he's probably right. I suppose I just need the right encouragement. My prospects for employment (or should I say, lack there of) and the rejection of my film has made me feel like I should probably go back to the drawing board.

And so I did.

I'm in the midst of creating a new personal film about a fat woman on a trampoline and the subsequent havok it causes in her surrounding area. I haven't completely boarded it out, because frankly, I haven't been able to decide how it should end. I'm completely open to suggestions from anyone who reads this.

So far I've animated the opening sequence which contains these first 7 shots:

I also animated a cycle of this little dog bouncing off the shaking ground caused by her impacts. The backgrounds are temporary at the moment. I just wanted to see how it would look with the panning and the camera shaking.

Needless to say, the damage caused in cut away scenes needs to grow as her jumping increases. I figured I should start small, probably with that dog I showed, then perhaps move in this order-

1. flowers in a garden getting uprooted. flowers like this -->

2. a baby breastfeeding. the boob flies up in the air and hits the kid in the face when it starts crying. I want to make this an infinite loop.

3. a team of professional badminton players (whom may be instrumental in the fatty's demise)

4. killer whales in their tanks at sea world

5. houses cracking and jumping off their foundations

6. earthquake on the news and shots of people picketing claiming the end of the world

If any of these don't sound potentially funny, alert me, immediately. keep me from wasting my time. Also, feel free to suggest something else. Actually, don't feel free. You're OBLIGATED to give me suggestions. I want to hear them!!!