The physucks tests!

I was trying to post my animation earlier, but the blogger video kept taking forever to do anything so I think they might be having a problem right now. I will try again tomorrow. However, I did do some extra credit for my physics class. My teacher said to just draw something physics related, so I decided to draw this. A little violent yes, but I hate cats...and so does he!! = ) So i'm sure that he'll like this and i'll get my 10 points. If not, at least I had fun drawing it.
I also took my 3rd physics test on Thurs. There are only 4 tests in the class and each one is 20% of the grade, so there's a little bit of pressure to do good on your tests or else you fail rather easily. My first test I got an 81% (not bad), my second test I made a bunch of little mistakes and I got a 47% on it (ouch!!). The 3rd test that I just recently took, I'm pretty sure I made between a 96-99% (amazing) and then on Tues I will have the final (dramatic drum sound). Hopefully I will do ok on the final. (Notice I didn't say great, I just want to pass = ))..) I really don't want to repeat this class!! So I will be studying a lot this weekend as well as finishing up my flipbook for my animation class.
As far as everything else goes, it's ok. Just lots of pressure at the end of each month since you have so much to do in so little time. I of course want an A in animation so I tried to put as much as I could into what I was doing, so we'll see what I get. As far as physics goes, I feel i've been doing fairly well. I remember for the most part what I studied and I can honestly say that these past 3 months of math courses have been the best that I have ever done since the 6th grade!! (I kid you not!) Math has never interested me in the least bit, but these past couple of months I have taken interest in bits and pieces of it and I find that I learn the most when I complain about it! LOL.

So I came up with a style of learning that helped myself study and could possibly help others study as well. So here's my method for people out there who have always had problems with math and studying for it. Just complain about it! Through complaining you'll come to realize how much has actually been retained in your mind and it's easier to remember the things you hate....honestly....just think of any song your entire life that you just couldn't stand to hear no matter what...then think of the lyrics for that song...more likely then not, you will remember the lyrics because you hate it so bad that you can't help but mock the living crap out of it. So anyways I'm going to call my style of learning...The Fuller Method...*copyright* (you read it here first)

Now the only reason I did so bad on the 2nd test is that according to my method, I didn't complain enough. So this weekend there will be a lot of complaining by me!! lol. But, you also have to remember that you need to look at what you're complaining about as well. There has to be some visual or auditory part of what you're studying in order for it to sink in. Because if you're just complaining about nothing and not knowing what you complain about, then it doesn't work. = ) Simple enough. "Wow...that sounds great, tell me more" "well, glad you asked, for a small price, I can teach you this method and send you many dvds on how to complain and learn through complaining, like a pro. However there is no money back guarantee, because I can't help you if you can't complain good enough.... and if you can't complain good enough, then you're retarded!"

Well that's about it for now, if you read this whole thing, then good for you, you're making me proud to write this and are a great friend, etc. If you didn't read it all the way through, then I hate you and you're not a true friend!!! j/k (but really, go kill yourself) = P

Light is Right!

So here's another fun update! I built myself a lightbox for my animation class and future individual animation studies that I want to work on. I was going to head over to my friends house yesterday to use his computer table which is glass. What is convenient about that is you can put a light underneath it so you can see through your pages (so it resembles an animation light table). However, the only problem with going to his place is that I didn't want to drive half an hour out to Universal Studios which is what he lives by, so instead, I went to target and started figuring out what I would need. I found a really good cheap picture frame, that uses a cardboard backing for 5$. The frame is plastic or something, but it is thick and sturdy so I figured it would be useful since i'm going to be resting my arm on it. The next thing I needed were lights. I found a package for 10$ which had 4 LED lights and they used AAA batteries (which i already had) so i picked that up thinking it would be enough light. However it wasn't and since Target didn't have the right size florescent light, I went to Walmart to buy it for 8$. It works great and I have no complaints. I spent 20$ on something that normally costs about 160$, so anyone interested in building one, this is the better way. I might later on go to home depot and have them cut some thin pieces of wood so I can make a deeper box, but for now, this is excellent. Here are some pics.

This is what it comes out to look like, there is a place on the side where I will need to cut a part of the frame out so it will lay flat, but depending on how soon I get to home depot, I think i can settle for not cutting anything right now. On the very bottom you'll see some tape and a rectangular strip with some pegs coming out. This is what I use to hold my animation paper in place. you'll see further down.

This is what it looks like with 1 page over it, you can obviously see a lot so there's no eyestrain whatsoever, plus I think it looks kind of cool for a crude design = ) I tested it and it can hold over 8 pages that you can see through, which is really good. normally i just work with 2-6 pages depending on what I need to see. When i'm flipping the pages, I don't use the light since it will make it harder to see my movement.

This is one of the things I did in class today. As part of our anticipation project, we are to make a character that's sitting down, stand up. Sounds simple, but it takes some planning, so I drew out some thumbnail sketches to test how I wanted to stand and this seemed to work for me. I will show you the rough and finished results by Friday or Saturday so you can see the animation = ). when it comes to these key poses, you really want to exaggerate the curves because when animation moves fast, you need more time to show that your character has life and dimension. I felt really proud when the teachers told me that I have good artwork. It means a lot coming from professional animators. The arrows on the pic describe my plan of action, and the arrows on his face were just to give me an idea of where I want him to look so I can draw it out better when i'm working on my scene. Friday will be our "Finesse" day which is where i'll get to finish my animation and fine tune my drawings so that they can be the best that I can make them in the 8 hours that we're givin in the day.

Well, that's all for this update, til tomorrow or Friday. I have a physics test tomorrow, so wish me luck!!

School update

ok I'm going to try and post the pics that I said i was going to post yesterday and I hope that you like them, i will explain what each picture is by describing what you're looking at below the picture so that way you're not lost.

This is the wall that is in front of my classroom for 2d Animation. The door on the left is where I would walk into class and the port holes are where people who are walking by can look in and see what we are working on. The Plaques that are on the wall are movies, games, etc, that are projects graduated students have worked on in the professional field, like the Matrix, King Kong, Call of Duty 2, etc etc.


This is the desk where I work on my 2d Animation projects (which is what i'm taking right now). It's a great desk and it is pretty pricey if you wanted to buy one for yourself. If you don't believe me look it up!

This is me working at my desk. I really love this class!! I will be posting my work by this friday so that everyone can see what i've been working on.



If you remember the very first picture with the plaques, this is the wall that's to the right of it. So if you were to turn your head, or whole body to the right, you would be facing this wall. What's special about this wall is that one of my past projects from OPE (object perspective...AKA Art class) was hung up for all of the students and passing visitors on a tour of the campus to see and admire. My work takes up the whole right side. you'll see in the next picture.

We had to create an original character and then build a Maquette (not in pictures) of the character we drew. This is different types of staging that we used. The silhouette is just to see if your poses would be noticeable to an audience if they couldn't see the full character, ex. a shadow. The very top picture in this picture was a drawing of the front, side, and back view of my character (a dragon). This was to help when it came to building the Maquette since I was building it off of the reference that I drew for myself so I could make it look how it should. Last but not least was the very middle picture. This is a demographic that we had to do for our character. I made him a baby dragon, isn't he cute? lol.


This picture is right below the one above on the same wall. The top 5 faces are different expressions that my character has. I can't remember what they all are (except for the middle which is WTF?!), but if you want me to tell you, i'll write them down next time i pass by. The bottom set of 5 faces are what's called canon changes; meaning what my character looks like having similar traits but different features, eyes, head, snout, etc, etc.


This is the same hallway but looking to the left from the very first picture. If you look all the way to the back wall, you'll see the pictures of my dragon, hanging there. Anyways, back to this wall. It leads into my OPE class which i had a couple of months back. If you don't remember what OPE means, then i suggest you read the above captions!! What is cool about this wall is that it displays another piece that I did for that class. If you look at the very bottom closest to you, that is where this next picture below is hanging.



This picture was my perspective drawing for OPE. I really like the way it came out and a lot of other people were very happy about it as well. The teachers really liked a lot of my art, and since they're fine arts majors, it was very hard to please them, so when I did, it meant a lot to me. With all of my pieces, they never complained about any of them, so I guess I was doing something right in class. They did make suggestions however on what I could do to make it stand out more = )

So there you have it, a pretty good update for you to look at (whoever you are). I hope that you have liked my little showcase for today = ) Thanks for looking!

Scissor me Timbers

I know the title has nothing to do with the post, it was just something I watched the other day on Southpark that had that line in it and me and my friend Mike were joking about it.

Anwyas, I was going to upload some of the pictures that I took today, but blogspot seems to be having some errors so i'll have to post them tomorrow (saying that everything is working correctly). As far as everything else is going, 2d animation is a blast, physics still sucks and school is still the same....busy and stressful at times! I'm sad that this month is already ending because 2d is a lot of fun and i've learned a lot from that class. I feel that i'm definately in the right field and i'm in the right spot in my life right now as far as following my dreams and passions. If things get me down, I have a little saying that helps me out "Keep Moving Forward!" I know it's from Meet the Robinsons, but it's such a great saying and is always truly inspiring me to keep my head up and continue through the obstacles that are in my life. Plus, it's part of a quote by Walt Disney who is someone I have always looked up to and admired. Here's the quote "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." I'm sure he wouldn't have made such an impact on our world if he didn't challenge himself and push himself to do greater things in his life and for others.

One thing I would suggest to anyone who ever feels down or gets unmotivated is to find things that inspire you, whether it be sayings, or pictures, etc and put them in a place where you will always be reminded of why you get up in the morning, or do the things you do (what gives your life meaning and a feeling of satisfaction). My personal preference is on my bathroom mirror. I found a bunch of quotes from people I truly admired that I felt were most fitting to me and I placed them on my mirror so that everyday I know why I don't give up and I continue to do what I do. I seriously suggest it, it has been a great help and a constant reminder that people only achieve greatness through trying over and over again. As Albert Einstein says "A person who never made a mistake has never tried anything new." I'm sure Einstein didn't get to where he was because he gave up, so I don't give up either.

Another great idea is to start a blog and post whatever you want, that's certainly been helping me out the past couple of days when I feel upset or need to get some things off of my chest. I'm surprised I haven't kept up with it, it's also fun and only takes about an hour to do (depending on what you want to say).

Since no one is here for me (even though they say they are) I have to look to myself to keep myself going. It's been tough, but certainly a learning experience and an eye opening experience. Another quote from Walt Disney is "All the adversity i've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me....You may no realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." This is such a great quote and it reminds me that everyone is human and no one goes through life without some sort of struggle or obstacles. My obstacles may be minimal compared to others' obstacles, but its nice to take time and realize that others share the same struggles that you do from day to day so maybe it's not worth getting all upset about those little things in life.

I don't plan on anyone reading this, but if you did, thanks for taking the time out of your life to listen to me = ) it means a lot!

WOW what a serious post, lol. I better counter-balance it with the episode that relates to the title of this post -

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/1106/D-Yikes.html

hope you find this entertaining. If you get easily offended, don't watch it. If you watch it and get offended, don't say I didn't warn you! If you watch it and laughed, then i'm glad that you have a sense of humor!

SPARE SOME CHANGE?!!

So I was talking to my brother on the phone today and I was walking to the gas station to buy some gum and a redbull when all of the sudden I see this guy riding a bike and he's looking right at me like he wants to ask me a question. I glanced at him for a moment then tried to pay him no mind, but he decided to ride his bike right up to me and says "can I ask a favor from you?" and I replied "what is it?" he continues "Do you have $1.30 so I can go and buy myself a donut or can you go inside and buy me a donut and a drink?" I stared at him for a minute, looked straight into his eyes, and with disgust, I said "NO, I don't think so!!" He gave me a dirty look and I went back to my conversation paying him no mind and left him there confused because he thought I would give him money and be nice. I say F#$^ That!! I'm tired of giving homeless people money when they don't deserve it. Its so annoying to give someone like that money, then they go right to the next person and ask them for the same thing!
Another thing that i want to comment on about this situation. He's riding up to me on a bike! Where did he get the bike? If he has a bike, that means he can bike a couple of miles down the road and go to the company that hires out homeless people each day. It's seriously not that far. Another thing is that he asked me for a specific amount: 1.30$ jeez buddy, must've asked that question to others before me because you seem to know how much it would cost.
The way that I view homeless people is that they are pathetic worthless people! There are ways to getting around being homeless and if you stand on the side of a curb and make 20$ from 1 person and 5$ from the next, that gives you enough money to go and clean yourself off, buy a razor and some shaving cream, look into a mirror at a mcdonalds bathroom and shave your face and if you have more money than that, buy some soap, go to the closest store and buy some shoes, socks, etc. Things are not that expensive if you watch how many people give a homeless person money per day on the side of the freeway (easy money if you ask me, you just have to deal w/ standing there w/ a cardboard sign in the heat and cold) With all of the money that homeless people make i'm sure they could buy themselves a decent wardrobe and get themselves back onto their feet in no time. The only problem I see is lazyness, or they're just plain crazy, have no common sense. or have a drug problem, some are truly handicapped as well, but don't let that fool you, looks can be deceiving!
I see homeless people as predators. I'm not making the bold statement that all homeless people are like this, i'm sure there are people who just ran into bad luck or just had really bad things happen to them in their lives, but are trying to get back on their feet (those ones i respect but i'm not really interested in their life or how they got there because they could give a crap about me as much as I do them so it balances out from that standpoint). The reason I call them predators is that they are looking for suckers that will give them money. "sir can you spare some change?" "here you go, here's 1$" - then no thanks or anything, sometimes you'll get a godbless, then all of the sudden while you're walking away "spare some change mister" all over again. you hear them ask the next person like they just forgot that they got some money. How many suckers give their money to homeless people? that's a good question, here are some stats, stories and other sites.....

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbegprofit.html (income of homeless)

http://www.blogaboutmoneyonline.blogspot.com/2007/05/5-things-homeless-people-can-teach-you.html (different pics of strategies that homeless people use to make money)

http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/07/15/the-most-expensive-photograph-of-a-homeless-person-ever-taken/
(someone's story of an encounter with a homeless person who got greedy)

http://www.sparesomechange.com/ (a site dedicated to helping the homeless and their situations...there are many organizations out there)

http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/1107/Night-of-the-Living-Homeless.html
(a very funny southpark episode about the homeless...must see)

well, i'm done ranting for the day, take care everyone.....and can you spare some change? i'm a college student who is going to owe a lot of money when i graduate....spare some change?