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Part 1 - My Studies
Part 2 - The X'mas Day Itself

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Part 1 - My Studies

Hey guys, what's up?
Sorry I haven't been updating this journal for a while (not that anyone would care), but I've been busy with both work and schooling stuffs.

Been in Vancouver (Canada, British Columbia Province) for almost 4 months now, quite accustomed to the life here, though not yet completely used to the freezing cold at times.

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Things here have been great, and I'm really enjoying the course that I'm undertaking in VanArts right now (Classical Animation).
The atmosphere here is great, the instructors are really professional at what they do, their critiques so valuable an asset in helping a lot of us students improve since we first stepped into the school.
I definitely owe a great deal to my Life Drawing instructor. He changed my perspective on Life Drawing since Day 1, and really made it very enjoyeable. Its thanks to him that I am able to tackle the more difficult poses that I have in some of my drawings right now.
Overall, I've begun to appreciate art for what it is now, as compositioning and clarity of proper techniques that are to be used for the basics are well passed onto us down here.
We're recently dabbling in different body types (Ectomorphic, Endomorphic and Mesomorphic bodies) as of recently, portraits

It also helps that during class, he gives criticism on whatever mistakes we might be doing with our quick gestures/ long drawings, and do a red-line demo on how things can be made to look more correct.

Hmm... I guess that next up would be to work on the silhouettes for better clarity of communication, as a great pose is nothing without a clear communication of action to the audience.

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One other thing that I really find myself enjoying right now is background art, be it organic (Natural) or inorganic (Man-made).

I owe a great deal to my Layout instructor for what I've learnt thus far. His experience is invaluable IMO, having worked in the field of animation as a layout artist in many different works be it TV or feature Cartoons.
His most prominent ones being the 'Beetlejuice' series, 'The Carebears Adventure in Wonderland' and 'Asterix Conquers America'.

At present, he's also the one instructing us in our Storyboarding classes and the one supervising us in our Character Design class.

It was thanks to his supervision that I came up with Little Zeph's 'Urban' design, which I personally like a lot, as it reflects much of my somewhat limited hip-hop/funk style fashion sense (Hoo yeah, let's get down to the floor and DANCE! )

He is also the one who organizes the weekend sports for the students in the school, and everyone would often gather in a nearby park for soccer during Fridays (if the weather condition allows it).

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The Dean of our school, is at the same time our Head of Dept. for the Classical Animation course and our instructor for Classical Animation (And Animation History, which is a VERY enjoyeable class mind you, but extreme details would take too long) as well. He is best described as someone who is extremely proficient at his job.
His critiques are invaluable, and during our 3 or 7 hours in class (depending on the scheule for the day), he'll make sure to try his best to go through each and every individual student on a 1 to 1 critique session, pointing out with what maybe wrong with the animation that we're doing and then ->hinting<- to us, by using derivative methods and otherwise, the steps we need to take in order to steer into the right direction.
Criticism after criticism after criticism and more criticism... I'm ever so thankful, because its like every single session of criticism with him, I learnt something new, giving me the drive to push myself forward, helping me improve on my character animation.

Of all the lecturers that taught us, I feel that I've learnt most form the Dean. He was the one who taught us how to properly apply onto our works... Life.
He was the one who passed on to us - The 12 Principles of Animation - that were founded by the Nine Old Men from Disney.
It was through him that I've presently picked up the ->extreme<- level of importance of these princples.

These are the principles and what I make of them so far.
Non animators, you may wish to skip this, but for lesser artists like me in general, you might want to have a look.
I'm basically testing myself about my understanding of the principles by recalling them off my mind as I write them out.
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1. Squash and stretch
- For every single action, there will be a reactive force that will make the existing moving body distort when it is interrupted with another force.

2. Anticipation
- Prior to any action, there'll always be a preparation time to allow an animated character to do what it is going to do. The intensity of the action to be undertaken will directly affect the anticipation, unless an external force interrupts the action halfway.

3. Staging
- How a character is staged will greatly affect the clarity of communication to the audience. When planning an animated scene, it is important that animation keys be kept in a pose that's least ambiguous as possible. Clarity of communication when a character is silhouetted is of extreme importance (e.g the character isn't a gunk or goo-shaped object upon silhouetting, but raher something immediately recognizably human)

4. Straight Ahead Action and Pose to Pose
- These 2 different methods of working cannot exist without one another. Pose to Pose is my preferred method of working, but there're times where I'd deploy Straight Ahead Action after say, I've planned out a walk on both the leg and the torso, and planned all the moving actions of the arm on one sheet of paper on 1 body, afterwhich the arms will then be transferred to individual animation paper.

5. Follow Through and Overlapping Action
- Follow through as we know, is a follow up to a certain action, and its degree varies with the intensity of the action that was executed. Also, for every single action directed in a certain direction, there'll always be an action on the same body that moves in a counter-direction This in turn will either directly or indirectly lead to an overlapping action (animators, refer to the 'weed'

6. Slow In and Slow Out
- I'd tend to consider this an extension to Anticipation and Follow-through, but it can also act on its own independantly. Examples of this application on both accounts would be the swinging og an arm and the swinging of a pendulum respectively.

7. Arcs
- aka Path of action. An ever so important principle in animation that determines the natural flow of an animated character. This is something that I really need to get a proper grasp on.

8. Secondary Action
- A secondary action is best described as an action that takes place on a body that is then doing some other action (sorry for the vague desc...). An example would be an anthropomorphic canine character for example, walking, and as it walks, its tail moves back/forward or up/down depending on the intensity of the walk.
One thing important that we learnt to keep in mind is that a Secondary Action must never overpower the Main/Primary action.

9. Timing
- Points 5, 6, and 7 converge to this point, and this point itself can also exist independently from thos points as well. This point is one major factor that we have to take into account when animating distance under any circumstance.
Also noteworthy that when animating, rotorscoping reality is not a solution, as it'll more often than not end up in a very stiff looking animation.

In term's of timing, I prefer to think of things this way - 'Nature itself is a poor actor'.

10. Exaggeration
- Exaggeration really isn't what people might think of it to be. In my opinion, it complements staging though extending the features of the characters even further, right down from the character's attitude, pose, facial features and expressions.
This brings me back to point 9, where I say that rotroscoping reality is not a solution, especially when trying to come up with 'believable' animation.

11. Solid Drawing
- Oh boy, I wanna cry x_x
A solid drawing/animation basically properly convey to the audience the sense of '3 dimensionality' of the character to the audience through the use of:
* Form
* Weight
* Volume Integrity

12. Appeal
- A character has to have appeal, and this itself is highly dependant on the situation/environment that the character has been designed to face as far as I understand this.

As quoted from the 'Illusion of Life' - Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience¹s interest.

It is also noteworthy that (unlike the overused standard anime ectomorphs), it is extremely useful to base a character on one of the existing 3 body types (Ecto, Endo, Mesomorphic) depending on what/who the character is.
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Also, to bring this further, characters need to be 'believable'.

To cut things short...
The questions of - Who, When, What, Where, Why comes into mind.
This is of significant importance when making sure that a character is developing, and also helps to keep the character from going OoC (Out of Character).

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One last important thing that I picked up from him...

The extreme importance that a Dope Sheet and individual Breakdown Charts in animation.

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Part 2 - X'mas

Warning: Boring wall of text to many.

I left my home for the Ferry Terminal...
It was there that I took the Seabus (A sea ferry service) over to North Vancouver, and then a bus to a certain Valley.

As I travelled in the bus, I saw it... those white, cold things that fall from the sky... the beautiful crystalline objects we know as snow...

... A White Christmas ...

Normally, I dread the snow, but somehow, the cold, freezing snow on this day brought a warm melancholic smile to my face.

Soon, I arrived at my destination - The house where my school's Dean lives.
Inside, I was given a warm greeting by the Dean, his wife, and their pet dog.
We sat down and had a little chat with regards to my background and the pace where I lived before I came to Vancouver, Indonesia and Singapore.
The strictness of the laws in Singapore came as a surprise to them, and we went on to talk about the Michael Fay incident from years back (The American teenager who sprayed grafitti in Singapore), which in turn lead me to describe the punishments that criminals have to undergo depending on the severity of their crimes back here in Singapore.

Soon thereafter, another guest joined us, none other than the school's ex-Life Drawing Instructor, who now works in Backbone Entertainment. As of recent, he was a concept BG artist for Sonic Rivals 2 for the PSP, and a Character Concept Artist for Bomberman Live for the Xbox360.

The dinner itself is extremely noteworthy, and perhaps one of the best, if not the best, meal I've had since coming to Vancouver.
It was also the very first time that I had Turkey, smoked ham and Pumpkin pie

The turkey tasted great if anything, but I find little different between it and chicken n.n;
That's what made it thoroughly enjoyeable though

The smoked ham was absolutely fantastic. The Dean told me that his wife prepare it with 3 'secret' ingredients of sorts. Whatever they were, I really liked the end result.
The ham tasted of neutrality and saltiness blended together in a perfect fashion, added with a hint of sweetness, and graces the nose with the fragrance similar to barbequed meat, and it felt ever so juicy.
It was a joy to have sunk my teeth into these treats =3

Pumpkin pies are surprisingly tasty, and more so with cream (had vanilla cream to go with it).
The Kraft Vanilla Cream complemented the Pumpkn Pie perfectly, and I would have really wanted to have somemore of it, it I weren't already stuffed.

That was no doubt, the most filled meal I've had since coming to Vancouver *needs a diet*.

After dinner, we talked about several things, ranging from politics of Canada, to religion (all of which are too complicated for the likes of me, so I just listened), and the media industry followed by wild animals.
The Dean's wife, having worked as a coal miner before, had her colleagues attacked by coyotes before (food related business), and had a badger try to invade the little trailer office that was stationed near the mines where she worked before (Wyoming, IIRC).

We also touched on the issue of films, and its surprisingly different how the Dean and his wife would quibble about movies that they'd choose to watch in the theatres.
The Dean himself prefers love comedies, whereas his wife would prefer to watch the latest action flick that's presently out there

We also had a bit of a go on my Nintendo DS, with the 'Brain Age' game. Heehee, What went on was... fun

As the fun went on and it gets late, we had to leave, and I left thankful for all that's been done.

... ...

Looking at things, I really love it here.

My lecturers... feel like a family.
Each of them not only carry out their jobs with great proffesionalism, but they also go the extra mile to make sure that we students are satisfied customers...

The Dean, I view him as a father of sorts. Not only does he impart to us his valuable skills, knowledge and experience, but also the values of patience and humility... things that I really previously lacked.

The Layout instructor, I view him as the jovial Uncle of sorts. He speaks with a wide variety of expressions, but ironically, in a monotonous tone, creating a somewhat comical character conflict.

My life drawing instructor... I view him as an older brother of sorts. He's perhaps the only person in school who 'knows me for what I am', and is always ever so helpful in offering advice, especially when I was having a rough time managing some things rather personal.

As I got off the Seabus, I walked up the streets, and stopped by the building where my school is located in...
VanArts is perhaps one of the greatest gifts in my life, aiding me, moulding me both in skill and spirit.

I am... Thankful... So very thankful to be here, to learn and to grow as a character.

... ...

Well, I guess that's sufficient boredom for now.
Till next time I guess.
For those who read from the beginning all the way till the end, thanks for listening, and...

Happy Holidays! n.n