Category Archives: Life/Thoughts

C.A.T

Posted on by
Reply



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 🙂

‘Unlocked’ Festivals!

Posted on by
1

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

Corny Cole

Posted on by
1



“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?

 

NYC :: 2011

Posted on by
Reply

My personal top photo pics from the trip! The album can be found here. Everything was so TALL!
Here’s what I learned in New York.

  • Stand clear of the closing doors, please!
  • Every day is trash day.
  • East Coast water is DELICIOUS!
  • Sometimes people who look like they’re talking to themselves aren’t on Bluetooth– they ARE talking to themselves (or pigeons).
  • When it pours, it POURS.
  • When it’s windy, it’s WINDY.
  • Smells completely change from one block to the next.
  • The street vendors speak in an undocumented language (Especially the ice cream vendors).
  • Those that DO speak English are rare and hold angry cell phone conversations.
  • There is no 2-ply toilet paper.
  • Don’t step in puddles! Your feet will never come clean!
  • Dunkin’ Donuts needs to infest California.
  • Taxis don’t stop for you in the rain.
  • Taxis especially don’t stop for you in the rain if you’re standing at a bus stop.
  • Taxis don’t stop for you at bus stops, period.


Guggenheim

Power-Up!

Posted on by
Reply

There’s noticeably been long spans of time between recent posts– not on my behalf of being lazy! The blame’s on my old computer (circa mid-2000’s), which is too lazy to boot up these days.
Not for much longer!
Let’s play a game: which part of this picture makes me excited?

20110623-045130.jpg
VERY GOOD! D. All of the Above!
Let’s cross our fingers that nothing’s DOA and the shiny quad-core can keep up with me 😀

I AM NANCY!

Posted on by
Reply

Actually, my name’s not Nancy, but we’ve all got a little Nancy inside of us! I was fortunate enough to animate on the documentary I Am Nancy, a film that reaches out to fans of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Much of the hype for the series is directed at Freddy– hey, so what about the good guys? What about Nancy, the strong female lead role that fights her fears? Heather Langenkamp (Nancy) speaks to her fans at horror movie conventions and learns that the attention isn’t just on the thrill of of the baddies– but rather how Nancy helped people find their own inner strengths to go out and conquer their “Freddy” in life.

Check out the site, get a Nancy tat, order a DVD!
http://www.iamnancy.net/

EAST COAST!

Posted on by
2

HI WORLD! So I ended up going on an epic journey to the (northern) East Coast with Dimitri— in fact I’m still here! Here’s a really quick selection of photos taken in New York, Cambridge and Boston.

I was super-excited on my first plane that I would have an edge seat, meaning… A WINDOW! But lo, when I sit down, this was the incredible “window” seat I got. Pffft! A WALL!

…Fortunately my connecting flight let me stare out over fields and growing cities, into the largest city of them all, as I flew into New York’s La Guardia airport at night. Though you can’t really see the stars in NYC, looking down over the city while flying gave me the sensation of flying through space, all the city lights as stars!

Act one, scene one: THE GOOGLEHEIM! Errm– Guggenheim! A+ for the Kandinsky exhibit!

A panorama from Top of the Rock (Rockefeller building). Photosynth is this incredible (and free!) iPhone app that allows you to snap a 360 panorama, like this!

Some white on white at the MoMA– probably my favorite museum so far.

A wishing tree! People wrote their wishes down and hung them from the branches.

Looking up at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue!

Central Park! I had this crazy idea that NYC was going to be smelly and grungy. Central Park, despite the occasional homeless person, was crispy-clean, with a side feature of ice cream vendors that didn’t speak any known language. AAHHBLAHBLABLA!

Going up the Empire State Building! It had been pouring and lightning was a-lightninging, leading to a closed outer Observation Deck… hence a VERY short line! We were able to watch not only the thunderstorm but also fireworks from the 86th floor.

Choo chooooo! CHUGGAchuggaCHUGGAchugga…

EPIC KINETIC SCULPTURES BY ARTHUR GANSON!!!!!! The MIT Museum is EPIIIIIC! Lotsa these whirlygigs were flittering about, and the holograms were being very bright and 3D and holography and everything sounded a lot more intelligent than this dorky sentence.

Newbury Street, where places could be bought for only a mere 3 million dollars.

Aaaaand here’s us in Central Park!

This was just an appetizer– there will be many more photos soon!