TAAFI Animation Ambassador Special Induction Night

The TAAFI Animation Ambassador Special Induction Night happened this evening at the Corus/Nelvana building on the Corus Quay in downtown Toronto. It was an opportunity for the ambassadors of the different colleges' Animation programs surrounding the Toronto area to be introduced to the organizing members of TAAFI (Toronto Animation Arts Festival International) and be treated to a great evening of swag bags, pizza, a tour of Corus, and most importantly, networking.

Mrs. Helen Lebeau, Vice President of Production, Nelvana, led the ambassadors and their coordinators through an extensive tour of the Corus building. They went through studios, saw the atrium, and, after being broken off into groups, even got to speak with Nelvana Animator Daniel Clermont who gladly showed some of the animation tricks of a kids cartoon that they produce right in the studio.

The night was organized by Mr. Barnabas Wornoff whom acts as the liaison of all the ambassadors with the TAAFI organizers as well as being on the Board of Directors. Mr. Wornoff introduced us to the rest of the TAAFI team as we ate pizza and looked through our swag bags.

Volunteer coordinator, Natali, explained the benefits and opportunities as volunteers at the TAAFI festival.

Ms. Alex Moorshead, Event Producer, spoke about a pivotal event being organized this year called the "Welcome to the Industry Party". This event is an amazing opportunity for graduating students, as well as those looking forward to graduation, to network with their peers, showcase their work, and have fun celebrating their entrance into the Animation industry.

The ambassadors and their coordinators were additionally treated to a special talk by award-winning Nelvana director Jason Groh who stressed the importance of networking and creating jobs within the industry in Toronto. "It may be nice with all those palm trees down in California but there is plenty of work right up here." Urging us to understand that we do not need to travel away from Toronto in order to find employment.

Mr. Groh also presented the first episode of an upcoming show produced inside Nelvana. It was a delightful experience for all in attendance.

The entire night was a complete success. All the ambassadors in attendance had a great time and enjoyed the opportunity to connect and be a part of the outreach of the festival.

Celebrate, Connect, Support, Showcase, and Inspire. This is the mandate of the TAAFI STAAFI (see what they did there?) and it is now the mandate of the ambassadors. The ambassadors will be seen at the upcoming TAAFI events and their profiles can be found (soon) on the TAAFI website at www.taafi.ca

The end of 3rd Year Animation is just the beginning.

I remember, long ago, as a little girl of five years of age sitting down on the floor in front of the couch in the living room and watching cartoons. The very first logo I ever remember seeing was the Nelvana polar bear. From that moment onwards I was fascinated with animation and some years later, when deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up, I decided to be an animator.

Now, as I am geared up to graduate from the three year advanced diploma Animation and New Media Production program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of pride and honour to be entering in to an industry I had dreamed of being a part of since I was a little girl.

Graduating in three months will be such an accomplishment for me and I know that I have worked my hardest to get to where I am today. I entered in to Loyalist knowing that there was no where else I wanted to be and nothing else I would rather be doing and set out to accomplish great things.

Over my three years at Loyalist I gained so many amazing friends and met so many amazing artists. I also involved myself with my peers making lasting connections with them, organizing a mixer for all years of Animation students at Loyalist that will be passed on to other generations of students to continue, talking to first year students about finding internships and what to expect in future years including what to prepare themselves for, being a part of the Animation Advisory Committee for the program, writing proposals and attending meetings for a much needed art room and overflow space to ensure that Animation students always have a place to go to do their work, attending networking events and parties and conferences, attending extra classes such as Life Drawing and the Pixar Animation and Story Masterclasses (worth every penny)... I was always trying to be a positive influence in those events and tried my hardest to make lasting connections with people.

One thing that really hit home for me tonight was hearing Mr. Jason Groh of Nelvana say: "Talent will get you in to the door, but it is networking that will get you far".

When I left for my internship three weeks ago I was so proud of myself for everything I have accomplished. I have finally made some real progress in my career path. Being an Ambassador for TAAFI and representing Loyalist on that front has made me even more proud of taking full advantage of the education I received. I will keep working in the future towards my goal and am positive that I will get there one day soon. This is just the beginning.

Still Life Assignment

We recieved a project to create a still life in 3D and model, texture, light it, and composite it. Marks are solely based on how pretty it is.

I had a number of ideas and kept bouncing around until I came across a simple photograph of a teacup and a daisy on a saucer. If you know me you'd know that I absolutely love all kinds of teas and thought there would nothing better than to model some teacups and hand that in as my still life.

I hand painted the texture on the teacups in Photoshop.. not that you can really see it but I was quite proud of it.

Anyways, here is the final result:

I love it. I hope you do too! I have been focussing on my lighting and compositing skills lately.. hoping to do that as a career when I graduate.

Architectural Assignment

Hey there!

I know this is a late post, but I wanted to post a picture of my architectural assignment. Just because I like it. I will be rendering out an animation at a far more interesting angle sometime in the future.

 

So basically this assignment was designed to allow us to show off our lighting skills in an architectural piece. I fell in love with the fan vaulted ceilings in some cathedrals and decided to make one. I modelled this after the Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, England and relied on my research of cathedrals, Google search, and surprisingly, Google street view. It took me inside the cathedral and I got details that I couldn't find on the regular Google search.

 

This was modelled, lit, and composited in Softimage.

 

Cheers!

Digifest 2012

Hey Guys!

Sorry it took so long to update. A few people have been asking about how awesome Digifest was and truth be told, it was spectacular. There were industry professionals side by side with you in each conference and you could talk to them and introduce yourself.

We only went on the Thursday but it was pretty awesome. Here are some pictures of our adventure in Toronto.

NOTE:
I did not take these pictures. These were taken by the people in the captions below the images. I will be adding my own photos later (because I'm at school right now and left them at home).

@p_melodie from Twitter

@rachesguerra from Twitter

@nympsam from Instagram

@mellybaby from Instagram

(unknown from and e-mail from Digifest)

Digifest 2012 Facebook

Digifest 2012 Facebook

 

I only grabbed pictures from other people whom had taken photos of my classmates and I. If you took this photo and would like me to take it down please don't hestitate to comment here or connect with me @karenwonderswhy.

 

Anyways, the day was super awesome. I learned a lot and I hope that the other attendees had just as much fun.

 



Life Drawing - Extra Classes

For those of you who don't know, the other 3rd years and I host life drawing classes every week in room 2L13L (the 3rd year room). Last week was the first official go at it and it was great. This week we had a special treat.

Our professor Mr. Jackson was convinced to do some break dancing poses for us to draw. We got in a lot of gesture drawings out of this class and it was an amazing experience.

With his permission and permission of those participating in the class, I snapped some pictures for you all to enjoy. Make sure to come next week! We have a lot of fun and it's great to get in as much life drawing as possible.

Action Jackson shots:

WOO! Look at him go! Kudos to him for being able to hold those poses. Lets look at the drawings:

(credits: 1. Tracy Bowley, 2. Alan Bartholomew, 3. Rebecca Bond, 4. Jean-Guy Macleod, 5. Alan Bartholomew, 6. Alan Bartholomew)

Thanks to the participants:

Tracy Bowley
Alan Bartholomew
Kelsey Baxter
Rebecca Bond
Alexander Bessin
Jean-Guy Macleod
Alicia Mouck
and that other guy that left before I got his name.
(I was there too of course...haha)

And special thanks to Mr. Jackson for some killer life drawing reportage.

Here are pictures of people in the class drawing away. Thanks to everyone for participating! It was an amazing session.

Rough Character Model

So turns out I completely forgot to post this on Monday. I posted it on Facebook but forgot to post it here. Anyways, without further adieu, this is my roughed out character. She is now fully rigged (minus the facial rigging) and I can start blocking out my poses with her.

This is my character for my final year thesis animation. She's already got some edits and I will be posting those in a few days. Like I said, she's just the rough.