Summer GIFs

May 20, 2013: GIF Animation

After running across this website the other day, I've decided it would be cool to make 1 GIF a day all summer, in between my prep for the summer animation project I'm working on and my 2 summer jobs. 

This is my first one, just getting the hang of creating an animation in photoshop. I do not own or have experience with flash, so I've decided to create these short GIF animations in photoshop under its "animation" feature. 

Look for more GIFs to come! Hopefully they will be a bit more complex than this one.

May 16, 2013: Summer Inspiration

Lately I've been doing a lot of research on animators whose style really speaks to me. I've come with with a pretty solid inspirational list of animators whose aesthetic I really want to harness in my own work over the summer when I make the transition back from motion graphics to experimental animation.

Here is a list of animators who I have really been into lately:

• Ryan Larkin
• Caleb Wood
• Michèle Cournoyer
• Laurent Coderre
• Erica Russell
• Juan Camilo González

 The following films are animated shorts that I really enjoy their simplistic, yet interesting and visual method of storytelling. There are many common themes throughout these pieces, like the use of little to no background yet strong depth and environment in each piece. Also, just by looking at each thumbnail you can immediately tell that there is a constant use of strong line and contrast in each piece, making gesture and timing very important in each animation. I hope to continue to watch these animations and find more formal similarities between them so I can reinterpret these techniques in my own summer animation with our team of students.

Walking - Ryan Larkin from zazie on Vimeo.

Stay Home from caleb wood on Vimeo.

                       

Accordion by Michèle Cournoyer, National Film Board of Canada

Les fleurs de macadam by Laurent Coderre, National Film Board of Canada

                           SiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSiSi (2011) from Juan Camilo González on Vimeo.

STAMMER (2013) from Shen Jie on Vimeo.

Summer Collaboration Announcement

Its official - summer has started for me and I'm ready to get to work on my summer projects!   

I've got a handful of things to do this summer already, starting off with balancing two jobs: my job working as a summer mentor and office assistant for CCS's youth summer program and my freelance position as a motion graphics artist at The Park (Team Detroit). 

In addition to those two day jobs, I am the main initiator of a group of animators/ illustrators at CCS to create a 3-5 minute short experimental film over the summer that we hope to submit to many film festivals in the area. So far I have 3 very talented, dedicated, and successful students that are part of the team: 

• Grace Millard
• Sarah Visel
• Patricia Lentini

If anyone else would like to help out with our production, feel free to add me on facebook and  talk to me about what you would like to help with! The most difficult part about this entire voyage will be getting together in person to discuss ideas. With people living all across lower Michigan, we will be doing most of our idea brainstorming via facebook and dropbox.

So far it looks like May is going to be our set-up month - to collect ideas, to storyboard, to build a solid team and gain insight from each team member, and to come up with a defined and sturdy idea by the end of the month. June and July will be huge work months, where we will all be hard at work on animating and coming up with a proof of concept by the end of June. As August rolls around, I hope to have a very good direction with where we are heading, perhaps a 1-3 minutes of animation we are happy with. August into early September will be the wrap-up months, since I don't want this project to leak too far into the start of our school semester.

I'm confident we can make this work and that in a matter of 4 months or so we will have something new to add to our portfolios! We have a lot of support from our friends and faculty members here at CCS, and I'm really happy to be working with the people I am working with.

Keep the good vibes coming ~ its going to be a successful summer!

May 6, 2013: Short Logo Animation

Created a short animation of my
logo for my site and updated reel

May 1, 2013: Animation Finished!

After my big hard drive crash this past weekend, I worked for 72 hours day and night on catching up on creating a new motion graphics piece by today. Thankfully, last night at about 5:30 a.m. I finished everything, with stereo sound design and all.

I'm hoping to submit this to a few Michigan websites, such as the National Parks Association and the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore in hopes that they will display it commercially.

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore | 2013 Infographic from Melissa Oakley on Vimeo.