An Excuse to Post Another Earworm.

So I finally saw Wreck-It Ralph.  I can honestly say it lives up to the hype, and even my trope-savvy brain didn't see the ending coming. Though I really should've.  It's foreshadowed way ahead of time,but it's so subtle that on the first viewing it's hard to catch.  It ranks up there with Megamind on my list of "Movies I'm Impressed With".  I did not see Wreck-It Ralph in 3D, but frankly it doesn't need the 3rd dimension (unlike Megamind which certainly does).  My exposure to video game culture came in handy for this movie (a character used the Konami Code and I'm pretty sure I was the only one laughing) but even if you don't play games this movie is entertaining because it's all about the characters.  Any plot-relevant game mechanics are explained in-movie, so the audience can just sit back and get absorbed in the story line.

It also has catchy music.  Wanna hear the catchy music?

Earworm of the Day: Shut Up and Drive by Rihanna  It's in the movie.  It's been stuck in my head for days.

The Merits of Meyer's Other Book (a minor rant)

I woke up this morning and I'm all like, "I must write!!!"

Today is my last day of college.  All I have to do is show up for the figure-drawing critique and turn in my class portfolio.  Then try to maintain attention long enough while forced to analyze each student's artwork for ten minutes while having to stand up... yes standing is the hard part.  I can't take standing for long periods of time, it gets me all stressed out and cranky.  (Walking for long periods of time has the opposite effect strangely enough.)

My Hand-drawn Animation final was yesterday.  Here's how it went:


Kitchen Chaos: Pencil test stage from Elizabeth Young on Vimeo.

On a related but totally different note, movie trailers that have succeeded in making me want to see the movie:  Warm Bodies, and The Host.

A word on The Host, it is a book written by Stephanie Meyer.  I've read it, and I thought it was better than the Twilight series (for one thing, there is only one book of The Host).  Was it the writing caliber of Timothy Zahn, Anthony Horowitz, or Naomi Novik?  No.  Of course not.  This is Stephanie Meyer we're talking about.  Was The Host at least more palatable than Twilight?  Yes.  Yes it was, and for no other reason that the narrator is a space alien.  The narrator is still a Mary Sue who can do no wrong and has no depth (read: expert/victim/flaw model, implied back story, 3-dimentionality).  When she does mention a past life, it seems to come out of left field (this character can fight?  What?  This was not foreshadowed or referenced in the preceding pages!  I call shenanigans!).  But, any Mary-Sue-ishness can easily be written off because Wanderer is a space alien.  She doesn't feel human, but then again she's not human.  Disbelief remains suspended.  The story was at least decent.  I'd be willing to pay money to see how the film makers handle it (because frankly they can only improve upon it.)

Earworm of the Day:  The BG music to the video Our Story in 1 Minute.  I put the video link first because you must see the epicness that is the video, but the song itself is Our Story by melodysheep.  I am seriously considering downloading this, it would be worth every penny.

P.S. Because I promised to post when I was done...

Cll'li jogging along... and she doesn't look happy.  Safe to say someone's in big trouble.

In Which My Train of Thought Waltzes Down the Produce Aisle

I have had some very silly songs stuck in my head for the last 3 days.  But I'll get to that in the earworm section.  First...



Second...

Sketch of Cll'Li jogging along.  Color inverted in Photoshop because it looks cooler that way.

...which I am currently coloring by trying out Photoshop's various brushes.  I'll post when I'm done.

And Finally...

Earworm of the Day: Oh No What We Gonna Do? from the VeggieTales episode "Where's God When I'm S-scared?".  I recommend reading the lyrics too.  I was 3 years old when this came out and my Grandma worked at Berean Book Store, so yeah, our VHS collection was 40% VeggieTales growing up.

Looking at old VeggieTales from a distance of 19 years and a B.A. in Animation?  Well, now I get all the jokes.  And the CG is on par with a 1st year animation class, but the character design and acting (asymmetrical eyes, great voice acting) is very professional, and also just plain hilarious.  I mean, come on, cucumber singing about his lips, peas parodying Monty Python?  How can you not laugh?

--End of Babble--

Return of the "Flams"

For my animation final this quarter I've decided to pull the animatic Kitchen Chaos off the metaphorical shelf and move forward with production.  For those of you who may not have been reading that far back, this project was started in my story-boarding class last year.

So here is the first pencil test for what will soon be a fully animated video (I only have two weeks to complete everything.)  So far I'm optimistic.

Nothing gets the creative drive flowing like animating a very angry wallaby-thing running around with a butterfly net.  The character with the net is named Jimmy (thanks to an earlier project concerning a sound clip from a certain show).  His mom is a giraffaroo and his father is a very large frog, which means I'm still waffling on whether Jimmy's skin (or possibly fur) is yellow or green. The frog-clam-annoying-mouth-things are a little less puzzling, having officially been dubbed "Flams" today by my animation teacher (because "Clogs" is already a word.)

I also wrote a chunk of script in Celtx this morning for the first time in months (at the expense of homework time, but totally worth it).  I won't post it here because it's long, but let's just say Spitfire wins a fight using pacifism and parkour.

Oh, and found another cool video concerning movies. Warning: that video has some language in it, (because many good movies are not rated PG.  Sorry, fact of life.)

Earworm of the Day: Zorba's Dance what else?

Lost My Drive... No, Not That One, the Other One.

I know, I haven't posted for a whole month.  Again.

The funny thing about a gap this large in posting is that when I finally sit down to write, I have nothing interesting to post.  It's like all the interesting things that happened over the last month mash together and cancel each other out so I can't remember any of them anymore.  Hmph.

Well, ok, I have Elf the Jackalope freaking out:

That was animated on paper then lined in Toon Boom.  Ok, there's something to talk about.  Toon Boom is -- according to my teacher -- the industry standard for digital painting in animation (or something to that effect).  At least in the west (again, according to my teacher, the Japanese has better programs, but they aren't available in the U.S.)

But then again Toon Boom seems to be a pretty intuitive straight forward program and I wish I'd bought a copy when it was on sale for $150 instead of waiting too long and having the price jump.  Live and learn.

Earworm of the Day: A Whisper and a Clamor by Anberlin

I don't remember if I've posted that one already, but I've been blasting it to stave off the end-of-college-beginning-of-fall-too-long-away-from-family depression I've been wrestling with lately.  (Don't worry, I'm getting help for that.)  The artwork may be few and far between until I can relocate my creative drive.  I think I dropped it somewhere.  Maybe it's hiding in my subconscious under the philosophical inquiries, or the dismembered Motion Builder actor guy, or the 2 ton chunk of self-doubt in the corner.  I'll find my drive eventually.  Hopefully by Christmas (this Christmas will be fantastic, I can feel it.)

20 Days To Graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!