'12 Years a Slave'

We watched '12 Years a Slave' yesterday, it was really amazing and I think it's a possible Oscar contender. I thought it was very provoking and yet a very strong piece and seeing as it showed up in theatres as a more indie film, it has really grown in it's public appearance. Watched at the Arclight theatre and I must say the Arclight is really spoiling me even though it's $15 a ticket. I was really grateful that the audience I was with was really respectful, everyone followed the tone of the film thus allowing for a very enjoyable viewing of the piece. Lets just say my viewing of 'The Avengers' in my local cinema had a bunch of young children running around filled with a few raucous people yelling out things here and there.

*Spoiler Alert!* My favorite scene was where Chiwetel Ejiofor was hanging from a rope by his toes and that entire scene and as long as it was, was very powerful from the rhythmic squishing of his toes in the mud as he fights to stay alive and the presence of the other slaves in the background going on with their daily lives. The cinematography and editing choice in this piece were fantastic and it's a definite must see in the theatres!

Opinion on 'Dance of Dragons'

Just finished George R.R. Martin's last book last night, and I must say, he is the best fantasy writer I have read in ages! Besides Robert Jordan who I know now spans 12 books and has was unable to fully finish his last book, no other writer has gotten to me this way with his storytelling techniques. As an artist myself, what I respect in him the most (and partially detest as a reader) is his ability to handle that many main characters and be open-handed OR underhanded enough to kill them off as easily as they come into the story. It also seems to underline how the game of thrones really works in which one never knows who is a 'main' character in a story for long as it might in real life. There is something real in his stories that makes it so believable and all the more intriguing and mesmerizing. There are real emotions and real reactions, real personality and I wonder if this comes about from someone who has had a full experience with life and experience with many people, I feel that this series might be a culmination of all that experience and it is because of that, that makes it so beautiful. The cliffhanger was horrible at the end of the 5th book and knowing that the 5th book had just been released which meant that the 6th book was all the more distant from my near future made it bittersweet at finishing up this book!

I tried go into a new fantasy book today by Beth Bernobich, titled 'Passion Play', and something in a line one of the characters said in the 2nd page just got to me, and I realized that the book I was reading was not to say on a lower tier but not at the level that George Martin has achieved to date. The other book that was similar to the Game of Thrones series for me was the Kushiel's Scion series by Jacqueline Carey in which it has a deep underlying theme of kingdoms though not in the sense of fighting for thrones, everything in that series was a lot more subtle. Sigh, I think I might need to go into non-fiction for a while....

Yak, Yak, Yakity Yak

It's been a long time since a last update, and though I have been doing my stuff I've just been rather lazy to upload the stuff, what with the combination of the upload time and my arms and wrists hurting I've been slacking and might continue so for a while more.

I just really wanted to put something on here to remember, 'depending on the position that you are in, people will always talk shit about you and vice versa, and the only way is to get used to it.' There really is no way around it I suppose but to accept it, and yet somehow make it positive. I'm not too sure how it can be positive but to live happy I believe that only the opinion of the honest, kind and open-hearted to be valued. Not just that one has to be happy with the things and people around them for them to be genuinely satisfied on the inside. Determining who that is or shall be takes the test of time, at times.. I wish I would grow up faster to be able to learn to recognize the people around me. Not sure if I'm being cynical but maybe surrounding yourself with a small circle of people who can best help advance you forward is the best way, not to say that one surrounds themselves with people who will only seek to flatter or just agree with everything you say, but people who have their own opinions as you but with similar morals and ambitions thus creating an environment for yourself that allows you to move forward.

As I learned in a class of mine I really enjoyed, one can only move forward. Humans are always trying to progress and do better than what they had before and using history as a marker and learning from it. I think the best piece of advice I ever got from someone regarding experiences is, "Never say sorry, just learn from it." Not that you don't admit your mistakes but just don't let it lead your life and instead to just move on. Another thing is that, it takes a lot for a person to admit that they messed up and I think one things I really admire is when someone can go, 'ok, I'm sorry. I know I messed up, how can I fix it.' and as I say this, I think I'll strive to be to the best to my extent the values I have listed above. For good or for bad, I'm always questioning myself, and my actions and retracing to see if there was anything that could have been done better, at times, it makes me doubt myself and thus the demons of insecurity thou unleash themselves upon me. At other times I realize that some methods did work and some didn't and now know how to move forward. I really hope, that I can be a better person for myself and others without compromising who I am.

As they say, Life is a journey.

Crick-Crack

Went to the Chiropracter today for the first time, it was a wholesomely interesting experience when I had the adjustment. However, it did help to alleviate the pain I was having in my hands and arms! :) Though the neck cracking was really similar to what I would watch on TV when someones' neck gets snapped to kill them, then again, it's probably just way too much TV on my part. Might go back again as long as I'm enrolled in school, feel so much better already. Though I find out that the combination of Hoop and excessive computer use don't work out so well for my body.  

So got a bit more done.. Character designs for Advanced animation and some compositing for my capstone :) 

For some reason I really, really like this composition, it worked pretty well imo.. 

These are the designs for the 8-bit animation that I want to work on based on the music DarkSide by Diesel. Dark Vadar was a pain in the butt to color.. but I hope the film works out stylistically! lol, gotta get cracking on the background now...

Graph Drawing of Darth Vader

Darth Vader Colored 

 

Main Character Graph

Main Character Colored 

Sensei Graph

Sensei Colored

First Blog Post

So, I'm not too sure what I really plan to do with this site at the moment. However, I'm at a point where I only have 4 weeks left to me before everything comes crashing down on my shoulders. So I hope that by being able to see my progress, maybe daily or as soon as it is done it will inspire me to work harder! So here goes.. clips and snippets. :D 

Empty glass in the plane

Glass with straw 

Texture for the ground on the plane

This probably looks confusing right now, but i'll probably add my animatic on later with my film so it makes more sense on how these images get inserted into the whole picture. Not sure if I want to release my clip on here, so maybe test clips instead. Maybe.