No Sleep Till Brooklyn March 28, 2008

Don’t ask me about the heading of this blog. I know it’s really random. It’s 5:30am and I just got back from working on some projects at school. I’m tired and I haven’t been getting any sleep this week and when I think of NO SLEEP…..I think of the line “till Brooklyn” right after it because of the Beastie Boys Song. I was listening to quite a bit of old school Beastie Boys today too. Nevermind that, my eyes are barely open and yet I find myself having an urge to blog. Strange.

My attitude has completely changed from the start of this Animation program to now. At the beginning, I was overwhelmed with all the information we were suppose to absorb and I felt intimidated and unmotivated. Now I’m almost the exact opposite. I am enjoying what I’m learning and feel excited at the same time. Earlier in the semester all I wanted to do is sleep and not have to worry about projects. Now, I’m hardly getting any sleep because I’m working on my projects. I guess its a good thing. I’m getting excited about my demo reel idea as well. I haven’t planned everything out exactly, but I was able to roughly sketch something out today. I think I am going to model a character like this:

One head is suppose to look innocent and the other one is the evil twin. I’m planning on having the camera start from one side of the twin and have it pan up, so you slowly see the sexy body of this woman. Then the camera will pan to the right or zoom out to reveal the other twin and then the entire body. It’s going to be creepy sexy cool! hopefully!

rockin’ it out..contd… March 25, 2008

So I was introduced to Rock Band on Saturday night, chipped in with my boyfriend, his cousin and his girlfriend to buy the game the next day, and just finished my 3rd straight night playing it. I haven’t touched my homework since I first played the game. This does not bode well for me and my school work. I was pretty productive before the weekend though. Finished by cover letter and research paper for Career Prep class and now I just need to get my storyboard done for Project Portfolio.

I never really played a lot of video games. The last system I owned was a Super Nintendo and it’s still sitting somewhere in my room. Super Mario World and Zombie Ate My Neighbors were my favourite games at the time. However, when I do get into a game, I can get completely engulfed and obsessed with the game. I have been told I have a obsessive personality. If I like something I can’t get enough of it. For instance, if I like a song I’ll play it everyday, every hour until I get sick of it. If I like a certain food, I’ll eat it everyday till I’m sick of it. Except for french fries, I can have french fries everday for the rest of my life and not get sick of it. I will most likely GET sick though. Anyways, I did play the odd computer game here and there. I was obsessed with Counterstrike and would play it any free moment I had. When the newer version came out, I prohibited myself from downloading the game because I new I would not be getting any kind of work done. That was 6 years ago and from then on, I have been pretty good. But now that I’ve played Rock Band, the obssessive part of my personality has kicked in. My voice is sore from singing. I was at work all day singing to myself as well and the only thing I was thinking about was “I can’t wait untill I’m off work to go play Rock Band”. So sad. Hopefully I can play enough of it this week so I can get Rock Band out of my system. There was a time when I was obsessed with bingo. I was at Planet Bingo everyday for one week, then I got sick of it. I did manage to buy a Nintendo DS and downloaded a few games. That took up a lot of time one summer and I haven’t put any new games on there yet because I know it’ll be trouble. Well, I finished blogging for this week so I’ve been a little productive. But now I am all rocked out and headed to bed.

Rock Band…um….ROCKS! March 24, 2008

So it is the start of yet, another busy week. But before this presumably chaotic week starts, I needed to relax and I did so by playing ROCK BAND! This video game has been all the rage since it came out last winter and I’ve always wanted to play it. When I was in Nanjing two summers ago, I discovered this interactive drum game at the arcades and was literally obsessed with it. I am obsessed with any interactive rhythm video game. Rock Band comes with a drum set, guitar, bass guitar and a microphone. It is the epitome of FUN rolled into one game. It just so happened that a friend of a friend bought the game and invited some people over to play. I was mainly on mic the whole night because I was the only one whonknew the lyrics to some of the rocks songs. The best had to be my rendition of the Beastie Boy’s “Sabotage”.  My voice never sounded so high and whiny before.  I think I strained by voice because of that song, but it brought on a few laughs.  All day at work today, I caught myself singing all the songs me and “my band” performed.  I just want to go out and buy the game right now. The opening screen title was pretty amazing as well. If only I can make a demo reel as eye catching and creative as this one. Check it out.

I would love to work for a gaming company where I can play the game and tell people even something like “I modeled that bush over there.”

Lars and the Real Girl March 18, 2008

I am a big fan of independent films and the other day I watched Lars and the Real Girl. This movie definitely tops my list as being one of my favourite movies of 2007. It is smart, quirky, funny, unique and just an incredibly enjoyable film. Ryan Gosling is such a talented actor and his portrayal of Lars, a shy, socially awkward, but amiable young man is the most convincing and amusing. Lars is a extremely lonely individual, but he continues to isolate himself despite the encouragement of his loving sister-in -law Karin played by Emily Mortimer. Karin’s husband who is also Lar’s brother, Gus played by Paul Schneider is not as encouraging and hasn’t been bothered that Lars has been living in their garage for the past several years. Lars begins to come out of his shell, after he orders an anatomically correct doll off the internet that becomes his new girlfriend. His family is mortified, but is advised by the town doctor that Lars’s delusion is his way of dealing with his deeper issues and that everyone should play along until he has resolved them. The residents of their small town were disturbed at first, but they slowly adjust and accept Lars’s situation. The love and support from the entire community is remarkably touching. You know a movie is good when you are able to go through a whirlwind of emotions within a 2hr time frame. I was able to laugh till my stomach hurt and weep at both the joyous and sad moments throughout the film.

Inspirational Art March 8, 2008

So it’s the end of the week and TGIF! I’ve picked Friday as a day to relax, or at least half the day because I have a evening class tonight. Right now, I have the tv turned on with America’s Best Dance Crew playing in the background. Go Kaba Modern! I know, I am a sucker for reality TV. America’s Next Top Model, Girlicious, Project Runway, you name it, I watch it. The only show I’m watching right now that isn’t a reality show is LOST. I am completely obsessed with it.

So I was browsing online and stumbled upon two unbelievable and talented artists. One is a traditional artist and the other is a digital artist.

The first artist is Julian Beever who creates pastel masterpieces on pavement. He make his drawings extremely realistic by using a special distortion where it looks 3 dimensional at a certain angle. Here is an example of his work:

You can find more of his work at http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

My art background consists mainly of traditional fine art. I have a diploma in Fine Arts and have always enjoyed painting and drawing since an early age. Digital art has peeked my interest and I decided to give it a shot.

At school, we watch a lot of student demo reels from past graduates both good and bad. Some of them were impressive, but I was blown away one day when I was browsing YouTube and just typed out “animation demo reel” and found Eric Provan’s digital work. I love his style and the level of detail is amazing. His characters are so imaginative and unique.

To see more of his work go to www.ericprovan.com

After watching his demo reel, it really inspired me to work hard to produce a top quality demo reel at the end of the year.

Busy busy bee, Voodoo dolls and Conan O’brien March 4, 2008

The start of this week has been busy non-stop work and I know nearing the end of the month it will be even more chaotic. It is 12:45am and this is usually the time where I can unwind, surf the internet, and blog while Late Night with Conan O’brien is running in the background. This is one of my favourite parts of the day. Just laying in bed with my laptop and dozing off to the sounds and comedic antics of the one and only Conan O’brien.

Spring is around the corner. Today, I finished creating some Spring and Easter themed chalkboard art for the local coffee shop Uprising Breads on Commercial Drive. I started working for the company last October, designing chalkboards and signage for the holiday seasons. Here are some snapshots of the work I have done for them :

If anyone needs any chalkboard art for their business, feel free to contact me at myuan83@gmail.com!

Also, semi-related..or maybe not…I have a small side business I started a couple of years ago, importing and selling goods from overseas, so if anyone needs some cool voodoo doll keychains please visit www.voodoods.com or email me at mona@voodoods.com!

Besides chalkboards, I also make hand-painted posters for advertisements and Uprising Breads needs 3 finished by the end of this week for Women’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter.  Also, two of my co-workers are putting on a comedy sketch mid April and they want me to help them design their flyer.  I helped them take their publicity photos and just finished editing them in photoshop.  They need within the next two weeks. It’s going to be a busy week for me.  On top of all that, and more importantly, I have a gazillion projects due in the coming weeks.  Hopefully I will stay sane by the end of the month.