Can We Be Happy Now is going to screen at the Samuel H. Goldwyn Theatre for the 2012 Producers’ Show! This is all happening at 8 pm on the 9th– just got the sound mixed and tidied up some animation and color… I’m really excited to see it on the big screen! See you there!!!

This is a zoetrope I made for the CalArts Re-Envisioning America show 2012. I had the idea of getting more mileage out of zoetrope animation by controlling the images by turning on and off different colored lights. In this one (hopefully the first of several), red, green and blue lights turn on and off to reveal three different images.
It’s a little floppy, it’s not perfect– but it was a pretty successful learning experience!
Powering everything is an Arduino Uno, Ardumoto shield, motor, and a BlinkM MaxM light. Animations were done in TVPaint.

Soooo much amazing artwork! Such amazing friends! So many caricatures were drawn! The gallery opening last night was a blast and the art’s been lovely all week. Will definitely need to come next year (and the year after, and the year after that). This year I made 15 ink drawings on scrolls, which will be uploaded within the coming weeks

Now with IRs and an LCD! Got a bit of a ways to go but it’s coming along swiftly!

CAT’s motor purrs when the petting sensor is being pet, and it meows back (in the Serial Monitor) when it hears you meowing at it!

C.A.T., or Cuddly Arduinic Therapist, is my project in Interface for Music & Media class.

What the– you’re building a cat?

Yes, an Arduino-powered one at that! One that won’t cause allergies or disgust its owner with hairballs. Petting CAT will make it react positively, purring at 50Hz (a healing frequency), giving the same benefit as a real animal. This is achieved through conductive thread/fabric and a vibrating motor. Many more surprises are to come; new Arduino shields and other fun parts will be in my mailbox soon! I’ll get some video up during the week, along with a few design/layout paintings too

NBC LA wrote an article on the Dead Man’s Ball film I made! This is really exciting, I’m so glad people are enjoying it– thank you for all your support!

Looks like a great year for film festivals! Here’s the line-up!
Readymade Film festival

Playing in LA on the 27th! :: http://www.readymadefilmfest.com/la

Clearwater Film Festival

September 22-25, Clearwater, Florida :: http://www.clearwaterfilmmusicfest.com/

REC Internationales Junges Filmfest

September 21-25, Berlin. Germany :: http://www.jugendmedienfestival.de/

Anim’est

October 7-16, Bucharest, Romania :: http://www.animest.ro/home.aspx

Videoart Festival Casablanca (FIAVC)

Casablanca

“Beep beep! I’m the slowest roadrunner you’ve ever seen!” he’d say in the Character Animation hallway at CalArts, ambling along his walker not all that long ago…

I was fortunate enough to have Corny as my freshman mentor. When I showed him the animatic for VALUE BLiND and my sketchbook, he recommended that I animate small, and gave visual suggestions for the look of the film. By gosh was he right! This man spewed advice from a long life of experience.

“Draw, dammit!” (And when you’re sick of drawing, draw some more!)

I remember one of his most charming characteristics was a goofy mind. Here’s this old man with a wispy beard– giving sage advice on drawing cartoons?! Didn’t seem to make sense, but was it ever great!

He remembered my portfolio and recognized the model out of the first life drawings I showed him. And two years later, on his visit to CalArts (many thanks to Bob Kurtz), he recognized me– and said “she’s a good animator!” I’d never felt such honor before….

Knowing that night was going to be full of fun stories and experiences, I recorded the full hour and a half, and I wanted it out there for the rest of the animation community to enjoy. I now offer you a 42-megabyte .m4a of that night!

>>Corny Cole, Feb 16th 2011 @ the Palace (CalArts)<<

This is one guy whose brain I wish could have been magically preserved, hooked up to a computer… Something like that.

He also made that drawing for me at the top of this post!

He also made Heaven and Hell, Originally for the 1981 movie Heavy Metal. He told his employers yeah, yeah, I’m working on it– it’s almost done. The film deadline passed. Twenty years later, he finishes! What a rebel!

And here’s a drawing of him. Gonna miss him– but does an animator, one who creates life, ever really die?

Hey guys! Starting a new blog, which serves no other purpose than to entertain your eyeballs with tiny cute things. (more…)