Film history project.

I have this problem chatting with my american friends.  I can understand every word they are saying, but I can't get the joke!

To me, language is much simpler than culture.  A lot of these jokes come from the movies that were popular before I am here.  So I got this idea of going through all time favorite films in US, or in film history.  Maybe by the end of this project, I will be able to understand more of my friends' jokes, also be able to use these films for my own animation reference.

This is already day 3 into my film history project.

I have watched Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino on day 1.  I now understand the reason a few years back my friend Cory made a huge deal when he got his bad mother f****r wallet.  I imagine this film is very innovative when it first came out.  The non-linear story structure still hooked me in after many years. And Uma Thurman is hot~~

Day 2, I watched The 400 Blows by François Truffaut, the defining film for the french new wave, a new way of telling story in a non linear form.  Directors have become the author of the story.  Yup, a lot of directors nowadays are influenced by this movement,  such as Quentin Tarantino, Wong Kar-wai.  Also last month when I was in Pixar master class, this film was mentioned for its acting.  A lot of the lines are improvised.  I guess that's one reason why it looked natural.  This movie is a character study film.  Later on Francois Truffaut made more films about this character, how he grew up, how he fell in love, got married.  I watched it on a rainy day, good mood setting, lol.

Today's menu~ Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick.

Trip to LA

This past month I was in LA working.  The weather there is beautiful!  Now back in NY, these drizzling days make me miss LA's sunshine even more...

A lot of thanks goes to my good friend Dony on this trip.  He made this thing possible!  Met me the first night for dinner.  Took me and the ppl in the studio to ramen every friday.  Introduced me to his friends.

I was living on Sawtelle and Santa Monica, sharing a place with my awesome roommate, Chris.  He offered to pick me up from the airport.  He seemed very nervous with a stranger in his car.  But he's still very considerate, asked me if I had lunch or not.  We went to In-And-Out burger for lunch!  LOL  Right off the plane I got a taste of LA, nice!  I met his girlfriend, had dinner with his friends, met his twin brother, met his parents, met his dog.  Haha, I missed you all.  Before I left, Chris bought me a goodbye dinner with his gf and friends.  All you can eat Korean bbq, meat lovers heaven!  Thinking about it now makes me really hungry haha.

Roger's friend Ed lent me his awesome electric bike, my yellow iron horse lol.  This babe took me around LA most of the time.  I love her.  I rode all the way to the beach, 30 minutes on electric.  I got lost mid way and went inside a gas station to ask for a map.  The guy was nice enough to point out the direction, saved me the money to buy a map.  He started flirting with me in the end,  "it's so far, u are going to get exhausted, how about I take you there? "  LOL, my bike is electric, I am sure I can get there without a drop of sweat.  Ed and his wife Debbi took me out for dinner several times. Tofuya, Brazilian cafe.  Yum!

Shawn is another guy I need to say thank you million times.  Regardless how far he lives from Santa Monica, he picked me up every weekend, and showed me around LA.  It was really fun hanging out with him.  We caught up a lot of things. Blizzard, Night market stinky tofu, Indian beer house with hot waitresses, Optimus Prime's footprint on the wall of Observatory (lol), Kodak Theater, Venice Canal,  Balbo Island with 5 million dollar houses.  I regret I didn't bring a camera..T_T

Jan is another guy I have to say thanks.  He made this working experience really fun.  He's also the one that I ask for places to go.  I really enjoy working and chatting with him.

All other friends I met, Mark, Joe, Jean, Michelle, Thanks!  Hopefully I would have the chance to work with you guys again in the future.

Because all the ppl I mentioned above, LA is so awesome.

another painting. Pin up girl

This definitely got out of control when I finished sketching her.  The painting got more and more interesting to me to a point that I feel if i don't finish it, it is a shame.  

so here it is, 

painting. CLOWN

Draping is so hard to paint!  I remember since I was a kid, I hated painting draping.  In elementary school six grade, I took Beauty and the Beast poster and copied it.   I remember how tired and frustrated I was when I got to Belle's dress. I guess this is still the same for me.  lol, I never really know how to paint draping.

I forgot to post the most recent JUMP!

so , I never posted the final version of my jump over the gap.  But it was done a while ago!

and one little note here, I haven't change the shoulder when he's in the air. need to do that.

here it is,

Lifting Weight!!

Yay! I have my models and props ready now! Now the fun part! Animate!

Here's how it looks like,

Heavy Lifting!

Lifting weight that is!
I thought I had an awesome idea in the beginning, but after a few days test, I think I have to abandon that idea.  It focuses way too much on acting that's not weight lifting.  It will look cool, but doesn't serve my purpose.

Luckily, I have another idea in my mind.  Excited.  Have to test it out too.  But I have a feeling this is going to work way better than the first idea.  Fingers cross!

So many things have happened recently.

Globally or personally.

Feeling weak about moving on with my animation...

Interview of Pixar President, Ed Catmull

Sunday in American Museum Of Natural History

I went to AMNH this past Sunday.  I was supposed to meet up with a group, but got there late and couldn't find anyone.  So I decided since I was already there, might as well start to draw!  

Animals. They are hard!!  Plus it was weekend, a lot of people and kids around, I couldn't get into the mood of drawing realistically.  So I just drew whatever please me at the moment, and ended up with these messed up drawings.  

As I was drawing my gemsbok, a little girl came over and looked at my sketch book.  She paused , and turned to the display window quickly, then turned to look at my sketch book again.  She ran off , and yell to her dad, "Daddy! what is she drawing?!"    Her dad said to her calmly, "We have to be respectful..." as they walked away slowly.  I wonder how her dad would think when he saw my sketch book...  "OOh! thats a Gemsbok being shot!"

Blocking is done!

First blocking of Tobe jumping is done! Yesss!  Now I can move on to the next stage!  :D
Comments? Suggestions? Very welcomed!

* so Roger just brought up this good point, he can't tell the width of the gap!  I am a bit concerned about that when I was blocking too...  Any idea to fix that?  I need the camera to stay still though...