lucky lucky you're so lucky

[hughes]

Wooo, lalala. Finished my history quiz. I got like ten minutes to screw around with now. I think.

Put my Franz poster up. Eeee. Making icon. Soon. I miss the old Digital Design computers that actually weren't utter crap. I got their new CD and the new OUR LADY PEACE CD but I need to digest the latter first. (Still need to burn both for car due to dual disc stupidity and put 'em on ze old iPod.)

OH. Right. Went to Portfolio Day at CalArts down in Valencia. Long story. Shall tell.

So yeah, went to my Figure Drawing class on Saturday morning in Pasadena, (my teacher wanted to see three of our previous works, and she gave me some really positive feedback on mine, which I guess is good), and then my mom took me over to Valencia for CalArts' Portfolio Day, which is basically a bunch of colleges with tables set up who have people who will look at your portfolios and give you feedback and whatnot. Now, the funny thing is that CalArts is like the animation school, founded by Disney and whatnot, (though the students proclaim they hate Disney... more on that later), and a series of weird-ass coincidences have like convinced me that I'm meant to go there. No, I'm totally serious. XD

Okay, first-off, for non RL friends, I have this friend named Mado who I've known since third grade. Third grade. The only friend who I still hang out with who I've known longer is Maxine, who's also an artist. Now, although Mado isn't an artsy type herself, her mom is the Dean of Students at CalArts and Mado has therefore been trying to convince me that I should go there for like a million years.

Anyway, I get there, stand in line for the Portfolio reviewing for CalArts' Character Animation department and then I look over the little guidelines handout they gave everyone and... I freaked out. XD; Dunno why. I'm weird. My mom sort of knocked some sense back into me and took me to Islands to get something to eat. So, I went back, albeit the fact that they were close enough to closing that the guy might not look at my portfolio.

To shorten things, while we were in line, we struck up a conversation with a student at CalArts who coincidentally happened to be a Character Animation major. Omgwtf. This extremely nice young lady offered to show us around the Animation department, and we accepted. The guy up front reviewed my portfolio, (he seemed really nice), and I was happy because the stuff that he advised me to work on is the same stuff I've been working on myself. Phew.

Anyway, this girl took us into the department and it was totally awesome. (God, these people are talented...) She inadvertantly reassured me of the fact that Character Animation is basically like a Film major but harder, and that everyone there didn't really like Disney that much. XD It was also kind of freaky, because she reminded me of myself; she had wanted to be an animator for like forever but it took her three times to get into CalArts, during which she just worked and worked on improving her art and her portfolio, which is what I'm prepared to do. She said that, in the end, she felt a lot more ready, which is a good morale booster for me as well. XD;

Anyway, I was pretty much convinced at the end of it all that it looks like something I'd love to do. It's harder than Film and harder than Illustration, but in the end, I think that I'll be glad I took this route. I'm not expecting to get in this year, and maybe not the next, but I'm going to work hard.

Anyway, later that night, Mado gave me the birthday presents that she and her mom had gotten for me before this whole thing. And they were CalArts pens and a CalArts shirt that says "Character Animation" which I am wearing right now. WTF.

There are also a lot of other weird coincidences and stuff that make me think that this is the right thing to do, but, as you might be able to tell from my writing, I am a bit discombobulated. XD;

Anyway, Pebi, was it CalArts you heard about? Rofl. Anyway. Um. I began this in Gov and ended at home. Score?

I'm tired. I had such a hard time getting to sleep last night. T_T; Maybe because I somehow got twelve hours of sleep the night before...? Wtf, remind me never to oversleep that much on a weekend again. OH WAIT and I also took my medication kind of late, I just remembered... Yeah, that explains it.

Speaking of which, I should take my 20mg now. :O YAY PILLZ WTF.

Um.

........I really hope I'm making the right decision. XD; Mado asked me if I wanted her mom to put in a good word for me, and I told her: "Naw, I wanna get in on my own power."

I mean, seriously. If I'm not ready, (which I'm sure I'm not), I wanna get ready. :3

EDIT: As an afterthought, holy SHIT the new OLP album fucking ROCKS. <333333333333!!!!

....Then again, what else was I expecting? They're my favorite band ever for a reason. <333 I love how they'll totally sound like another band at first and then Raine Maida starts singing and I'm like NO WAY it's Our Lady FUCKING Peace shit yeah.

....We are so totally moshing at that concert. I don't care. We ARE.

Comments

[pebi.livejournal.com]

I don't think it was CalArts that I was talking about earlier. But they kinda sound awesome just from reading that ._.; I'd like to see more of what they do.

ExcusetogotoCalilikewuht.

[hughes]

OMG COME BE MY DORM ROOMMATE. XD XD

Dude, the girl showed me through their gallery, and the stuff was so AWESOME. @_@ The more I think about it, the more it seems like something I'd like to aspire to. According to her, they do a big emphasis on production design and the film aspects, like storyboarding and such. I'm sure the work is SO HUGELY TEDIOUS, but in the end, I think the hard work'll pay off. (If and when I get in.)

Here's the school website. All snazzy, like most art school websites feel they need to be. XD XD And here's the character animation page.

Frikkin' Tim Burton's a graduate of that program. Pretty badass. XD

[endless-abyss.livejournal.com]

Ive been looking really closly at CalArts, and I'm beefing up my portfolio for the application, but I'm stil unsure on whether I want to apply to the School of FIlm/Video or the School of Art.... At first I just wanted to go for the general art and and stuff, becuase thats what I have been looking at for other colleges... but I got this big book from my school about the courses and stuff, and I was reminded that their School of Film/Video does exparamental animation and character animation which is why I was looking at the school in the first place... but the portfolio requirements are different and I havnt done any animation type things... so all day today I've been like ><;;;; I mean I'm sure I could change to Film if I get accepted to the Art school, but like GAH!! ._. This portfolio business is too stressful.

[hughes]

Yeah, I was having the exact same dilemma. <3 I really wanted to do something that would involve writing and planning and film aspects, but I also wanted to focus on illustrated characters, and I wasn't sure if Character Animation would have enough of a creative aspect in conjunction with a technical aspect to be fulfilling. From what I've heard and what I've researched, here are some good pointers:

1) CalArts' School of Film/Video is their main focus, so you might want to take that into consideration.

2) I haven't looked into Experimental Animation as much, but that seems to be something with a lot more of an emphasis on creating your own animation techniques instead of working in established media. It seems too vague and out there for me, so I'm going for Character Animation, which is based on creating characters, stories, and production design for animated shows and features. Bottom line: Experimental is for creating new technical processes and treating animation as an art form while Character is for film production. (As far as I understand. XD; You might wanna check out the links I gave to Pebi. ::Points up.::)

3) From the horse's mouth: The girl who applied three times told me that although you're required to send in transcripts, test scores, recommendations, and a personal statement, the portfolio is basically all they look at. (Mado's been telling me that for years, but since it isn't a formal thing, I haven't believed it until now.) And, actually, the Character Animation admissions has a huge emphasis on not being too set in an animated type style. Hence; their main requirement is that you send in 20 drawings from life and observation, (mostly figure drawings), so that they can see that you have an advanced enough understanding of the real life human figure and of real life images and such that you'll be able to manipulate them with expertise. Am I making sense? XD; Anything else you submit is just supplementary, even if they're flipbooks or flash movies.

4) I was also torn about whether I wanted to focus on Illustration or Film, since Film allows you so much more of a variety of media to work with, and because--mainly--it also involves Film. However, I was wary of going with Animation, since I was worried that it basically trained you to be a mechanical frame-maker. Fortunately, though, the girl told me that the main emphasis in Character Animation actually is on Film curriculum, except, as she said, "harder." So, basically, Character Animation is like a Film major, except with much more tedious work in terms of what you have to accomplish with your own hands. It sounds really intimidating, but I feel like I need to do this instead of the alternatives because it'll give me a deeper understanding of all the aspects of character design and filmmaking in the end, and make me much more prepared for the business.

I dunno. I might be totally wrong, but that's what I know. XD;;; So... all I can say is good luck with putting your portfolio together! <333 Remember, don't be afraid if you have to wait a year. I'd rather I worked hard and kept trying for my first choice than for settling with something else. X3

The only problem with all of this... the tuition is pretty damn high. T_T;

[endless-abyss.livejournal.com]

Oh wow... ok.. Yea, I've like... go to get my butt on doing some life drawing classes... The stuff my art teacher is giving me is like... not what I need to be doing it seems like if i want to apply to the Film school.

Are you taking classes at a community college? Ive been looking for good classes since the summer, but I havnt found any that look... good.

Now I'm all worried that I wont be able to do this. ;_;

[hughes]

I'm taking a figure drawing class over at The Art Center in Pasadena because my mom wanted me to be in an art college environment... it's easier to take everything seriously that way. My opinion? Take a figure drawing class. That's what you need for Character Animation, definitely. Also pick up a book on artistic guides to human anatomy; that'll give you a better grasp as well. Luckily for me, I can already draw backgrounds well enough, so I can focus on actually drawing realistic figures now.

Hey, I'm totally prepared for (and expecting) not getting in until after a couple of tries. <3 Even if you don't get in on the first time, it's not a biggie! It's probably better to get any required liberal arts courses out of the way at a cheaper community college while you work on improving your portfolio anyway. That's what I'm going to do. :3

[endless-abyss.livejournal.com]

Yea I have to find a class that I can sign up for at this point... ::sigh:: it shouldnt be this much work and stress to get into college...

[tinted-glass.livejournal.com]

Holy fucking shit. You live, uhm, damn close to me. I mean, pretty damn close. I go to GCC, and live in Glendale. O_o

ANYWAY.

If you want to go into character animation, I say go for it. I'm currently majoring in Mass Comm, simply because I am like WHAT when it comes to picking a definite direction. So yes, it is good that you are leaning strongly in one direction. I wish I could do the same.

[hughes]

Whooaa. O___O; Yeah, I live in West LA. Dude. XD

Yeah, I feel lucky that I know what I want to do, and even if I need to work hard on actually being able to do it, I at least have an idea of what I need to work on. X3

Is Mass Comm like communication arts? Or what? XD; Then again, you'll probably have a broader choice in terms of jobs. :O

[tinted-glass.livejournal.com]

Mass Comm is, basically, understanding the nature of how humans communicate and how we use media in order to express ourselves. I wish the major wasn't so competitive though, because whoa is it hard to get into a decent school. I need a 3.6 GPA just to be CONSIDERED by UCLA. The university is like, haha you better be damn awesome or else. I'll probably be able to bring my GPA back up to that, but I don't think it really matters because UCLA is not where I want to go. XP

I kind of want to go into animation, but as I said before, I'm not completely sure yet. I'm too lackadaisical about my art. I draw when I want to, and that's about it. My animation teacher was, "AUGH BUT YOU HAVE SO MUCH POTENTIAL." Oh well.

I totally think you should go for animation. From what I've seen in your art, you are improving. Keep at it, yo. :)

[hughes]

Thanks! I really hope I can get good enough. XD

Yeah, UCLA is KUH-RAYZEE. T_T; I live like ten minutes away from Westwood Village, actually. XD

[emopocky.livejournal.com]

The new OLP album is shit. :\ I'm so disappointed.

[hughes]

;_________________________________________________________;

::Heart breaks.::