I've posted some sketches from last week's Drawing Club over on "The DakotaKid Corral". Check the post out here.
Until laterz!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
The Drawing Club x2
I've posted some sketches from last week's Drawing Club over on "The DakotaKid Corral". Check the post out here.
Until laterz!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
School Daze!!
What a great day! I came home from a night of coaching up in Pasadena. To say the least, tonight's classes went WAY better then last night's, but that's another post. I come home and jump on my lovely Apple to check my email because I was waiting for a response from a friend about a project we talked about earlier, yet again, another post. As I'm reading and deleting emails, I come upon one from my future alma mater, Animation Mentor (an yes..I probably misspelled alma mater!! It's a school for animators, not future spelling bee contestants!).
I was super stoked! I quickly opened up the email and find it is time to have student orientation!! WHOO HOO! I finally get to "go onto" the Animation Mentor campus, even if it's just a small part of what is a huge virtual campus. Once my first quarter starts at the end of this month I'll have access to so much more. I at once, well, okay not at once. I actually finished up checking the other mail for junk mail and any time sensitive stuff and THEN clicked the link that would take me to my new place of higher education. Over the last few weeks, I'd been constantly checking out the AM website hoping there would be something to tide me over until Sept. 29th, the first day of the rest of my life!! With this I can now feel that much closer! I have just begun viewing the orientation videos that show the lay of the campus and how things work and everything. I will be trying to soak in all I can now, so I can jump directly into creating the foundation of my Animation Mentor schooling! Soon, I'll be posting more about the actual classes and like so many others in the past, trying to keep weekly updates going. Unfortunatly, around Class 3 or 4 those posts drop off in part to the numbers of hours students have to spend on the actual work. But I'm hoping to at least give quick updates through my whole schooling..but time will tell!
Until laterz!
I was super stoked! I quickly opened up the email and find it is time to have student orientation!! WHOO HOO! I finally get to "go onto" the Animation Mentor campus, even if it's just a small part of what is a huge virtual campus. Once my first quarter starts at the end of this month I'll have access to so much more. I at once, well, okay not at once. I actually finished up checking the other mail for junk mail and any time sensitive stuff and THEN clicked the link that would take me to my new place of higher education. Over the last few weeks, I'd been constantly checking out the AM website hoping there would be something to tide me over until Sept. 29th, the first day of the rest of my life!! With this I can now feel that much closer! I have just begun viewing the orientation videos that show the lay of the campus and how things work and everything. I will be trying to soak in all I can now, so I can jump directly into creating the foundation of my Animation Mentor schooling! Soon, I'll be posting more about the actual classes and like so many others in the past, trying to keep weekly updates going. Unfortunatly, around Class 3 or 4 those posts drop off in part to the numbers of hours students have to spend on the actual work. But I'm hoping to at least give quick updates through my whole schooling..but time will tell!
Until laterz!
Friday, September 5, 2008
Terra Nova 2008 (part 2)
This continues where my last post left off, so if you are just joining us...check out Terra Nova 2008 (part 1)!
Besides our area of discipline groups, we had sessions of worship and talks, free time of water games and sports, pretty decent food and just enjoying God's great creation.
I finally saw and felt rain again! I was in heaven (even though it was during one of our "exploring the arts" times). I saw stars..which I didn't really realize I'd been missing! It was wonderful to just see another part of California that reminds me more of back home.
I mentioned the "exploring the arts" times. These were two sessions of trying areas of art that we might not have ever tried or experienced. I chose Stunts for my first session.
We learned more of what stunt men do and how that area of films were created. We also got to flip around..which is why I wanted to do it!! It was fun being someone that had no fear of jumping off a mini trampoline and flipping. The only issue was I had to change from going for perfection to not being as clean when I did the flips. Not as easy as it seems.
The second session I took was HIP-HOP Dance!!! This was my first dance class EVER (besides the dance lesson on the "Honey" DVD I tried out with Angie). I was anxious about trying this out, even though I've always wanted to let out my inner hip-hopper! A buddy of mine was in the session with me and that helped a ton. What I realized was that we all were trying something new and even though I was sweating up a storm, I had a blast...and it just makes me want to go clubbin'! ha! I even got picked out to do the routine with a few other people at the end of the session. This was both exciting and totally freaky...but can I just say I nailed those steps, boyeee!
I mentioned before about this cool water "toy" we called "the Blob". It's this huge floating inflated blue and yellow thing. You swim out to the dock and climb up a high dive platform of sorts. Then one person jumps down and crawls to the far end of the floating pillow. The second person (preferably a larger person) jumps straight down from the platform and onto the close end of the Blob. This action will cause a reaction of launching the small, stick of a person on the far end up into the air and then, hopefully after some amazing acrobatic tricks, they plunge into the water. A few of the friends that drove out with me enjoyed this activity, especially Josh who is a large boy. Everyone was requesting him to "blob them", which he happily did.
Here's another person getting launched. One person went straight up, did like two back flips and then landed back on the blob before bouncing into the water. It was SAHWEEEET!!!
After the full morning and afternoon of Saturday, we all met at the beach for a lakeside bonfire. I just loved this photo. One of the people leading in the worship music was sitting in front of the flames. Incidentally, she's a really talented songwriter and is the daughter of Mosaic's main pastor.
After the bonfire, we had s'mores and then headed back to the meeting hall to enjoy a musical Improv by Rebecca and David. It was based on the love story of two people in the audience. These guys are truly talented improvers and actors. I really wish it'd been recorded just to listen to the songs they came up with. HALARIOUS!!!
Rebecca gets some details from a couple in the audience about how they met. All I can say is the couple had one heck of a story behind there relationship/marriage! A story David and Rebecca used to the fullest.
After the Improv show, a few things went on. Of course, I totally forgot to take photos of this part of the fun. The main thing was the mass group game of "Mafia". It's a wonderful game of lying and sleuthing. This game was the reason I didn't get to bed until about 1:30am-ish on Friday night. Saturday night wasn't any better...more like 3am. But most of you that know me know that I'm a night owl who enjoys group games. So I was in heaven! And it's a great game to see people's true colors! During the games of Mafia, there was also a rave/dance party going on in one of the rooms. Some of you might remember me talking about the DJ that spins during the offering down at the Mayan. Well, he was spinning for the dancing fools at the rave Saturday night. It looked like they had a great time and a few people including a friend of mine, Chad, came outta the place with the sweat to prove it! Some people hit the sack early, but most of us hard core night owls stayed up till even for us it was late. Although, there were still a few people that were raring to start another game of Mafia.
Well, that completes the Saturday happenings. I'll continue with the third and final part of my Terra Nova adventure (the results of the weekend's creative explotion) in the near future.
Until laterz!
Besides our area of discipline groups, we had sessions of worship and talks, free time of water games and sports, pretty decent food and just enjoying God's great creation.
I finally saw and felt rain again! I was in heaven (even though it was during one of our "exploring the arts" times). I saw stars..which I didn't really realize I'd been missing! It was wonderful to just see another part of California that reminds me more of back home.
I mentioned the "exploring the arts" times. These were two sessions of trying areas of art that we might not have ever tried or experienced. I chose Stunts for my first session.
We learned more of what stunt men do and how that area of films were created. We also got to flip around..which is why I wanted to do it!! It was fun being someone that had no fear of jumping off a mini trampoline and flipping. The only issue was I had to change from going for perfection to not being as clean when I did the flips. Not as easy as it seems.
The second session I took was HIP-HOP Dance!!! This was my first dance class EVER (besides the dance lesson on the "Honey" DVD I tried out with Angie). I was anxious about trying this out, even though I've always wanted to let out my inner hip-hopper! A buddy of mine was in the session with me and that helped a ton. What I realized was that we all were trying something new and even though I was sweating up a storm, I had a blast...and it just makes me want to go clubbin'! ha! I even got picked out to do the routine with a few other people at the end of the session. This was both exciting and totally freaky...but can I just say I nailed those steps, boyeee!
I mentioned before about this cool water "toy" we called "the Blob". It's this huge floating inflated blue and yellow thing. You swim out to the dock and climb up a high dive platform of sorts. Then one person jumps down and crawls to the far end of the floating pillow. The second person (preferably a larger person) jumps straight down from the platform and onto the close end of the Blob. This action will cause a reaction of launching the small, stick of a person on the far end up into the air and then, hopefully after some amazing acrobatic tricks, they plunge into the water. A few of the friends that drove out with me enjoyed this activity, especially Josh who is a large boy. Everyone was requesting him to "blob them", which he happily did.
Here's another person getting launched. One person went straight up, did like two back flips and then landed back on the blob before bouncing into the water. It was SAHWEEEET!!!
After the full morning and afternoon of Saturday, we all met at the beach for a lakeside bonfire. I just loved this photo. One of the people leading in the worship music was sitting in front of the flames. Incidentally, she's a really talented songwriter and is the daughter of Mosaic's main pastor.
After the bonfire, we had s'mores and then headed back to the meeting hall to enjoy a musical Improv by Rebecca and David. It was based on the love story of two people in the audience. These guys are truly talented improvers and actors. I really wish it'd been recorded just to listen to the songs they came up with. HALARIOUS!!!
Rebecca gets some details from a couple in the audience about how they met. All I can say is the couple had one heck of a story behind there relationship/marriage! A story David and Rebecca used to the fullest.
After the Improv show, a few things went on. Of course, I totally forgot to take photos of this part of the fun. The main thing was the mass group game of "Mafia". It's a wonderful game of lying and sleuthing. This game was the reason I didn't get to bed until about 1:30am-ish on Friday night. Saturday night wasn't any better...more like 3am. But most of you that know me know that I'm a night owl who enjoys group games. So I was in heaven! And it's a great game to see people's true colors! During the games of Mafia, there was also a rave/dance party going on in one of the rooms. Some of you might remember me talking about the DJ that spins during the offering down at the Mayan. Well, he was spinning for the dancing fools at the rave Saturday night. It looked like they had a great time and a few people including a friend of mine, Chad, came outta the place with the sweat to prove it! Some people hit the sack early, but most of us hard core night owls stayed up till even for us it was late. Although, there were still a few people that were raring to start another game of Mafia.
Well, that completes the Saturday happenings. I'll continue with the third and final part of my Terra Nova adventure (the results of the weekend's creative explotion) in the near future.
Until laterz!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Terra Nova 2008 (part 1)
Since I moved out to California, I've been going to church at Mosaic here in LA. Mosaic has a heart for the artists and creative people. They have a few sites around LA which has different service times throughout day on Sundays. The site I usually attend is downtown at the Mayan night club. Every Labor Day, Mosaic has a retreat for artists called Terra Nova.
The cost of the weekend was part of why I almost didn't go. But after several people told me how I should attend, I felt like this was worth the cost. I've had a hard time really finding connection here in LA and at Mosaic. It's a big city and pretty big church. I felt this weekend could help me meet a ton of new people...creative people...artistic people!
Here are some photos of the camp. There was a huge man-made lake that had some fun activities, including a huge water slide and a thing called the "Blob". And there were plenty of volleyball courts and a huge field that one could find people playing Ultimate Frisbee on. There was also a rock wall and a zip line, but I never saw them. But I'm told they were a blast, too!
Here's a view of the cabin I was in. I wasn't there much, and actually didn't really meet most of my roommates until Saturday morning, since I crept in late on Friday night. Notice the car parked really close to the cabin. Parking was kinda funny and people tried to make anything work in the way of parking places.
This was the chapel at the camp. I actually never got into it, since none of my meetings were held here, but I just thought this was a gorgeous photo to take.
The whole weekend was centered around the artist and the art. We were split into areas of interest (ie: dance, music, spoken word, film, drama, etc.) and then within each discipline we were split into Mosaic sites. This was so that you could work with the people that attend the same location as you do. I joined the film group, but we didn't split into locations, we split into what we wanted to do (either, production, writing, or directing). I joined the production group and we decided to split again into two groups to work on two short films. My group (which was lead by one of my current roommates, Kevin) brainstormed and came up with a short narrative. In the end, we created, wrote, cast, and shot the short in 24 hours. Here's our director (and my roommate, Kevin) in action!
It was amazing to go through this process. I loved shooting the film and our actors were amazing! Our story called for us to ducktape the lead in a cocoon of sorts.
CJ, our lead actor, waiting to be driving to the next shooting location. He was really unable to move very much or do anything for himself...which was a big part of the story.
CJ rests while we are prepping the final scene.
Our other main actor gets her makeup done for the final scene.
After getting put into the duct tape straight jacket at about 3:00pm, CJ finally is cut free from his "bondage" at about 7:00pm. He was pure sweat and heat. At one point we cut open a hole for his hands to come free and so he could sit at the table. As I was cutting the hole, a sauna came rushing out from the cocoon. CJ said he would never forget our faces as this happened. We were amazed and directly started warming our hands in the heat. I'm still amazed how much of a trooper CJ was through all this. I just hope the film comes out as good as we all pictured it in the creation time!
CJ is finally free!!
I'd try to explain the short, but it'll just be easier to see it for yourself when we get it edited together. That'll be later.
Here's the short film team and cast after the final shot was in the can! What an amazing feeling it was. I have to admit, when we were planning this piece of art, I wasn't sure it would get done. But we were done with plenty of time for the rest of the evening's activities and fun!
That's it for part one...more of my Terra Nova adventure to come in part two!!!
Until laterz!
The cost of the weekend was part of why I almost didn't go. But after several people told me how I should attend, I felt like this was worth the cost. I've had a hard time really finding connection here in LA and at Mosaic. It's a big city and pretty big church. I felt this weekend could help me meet a ton of new people...creative people...artistic people!
Here are some photos of the camp. There was a huge man-made lake that had some fun activities, including a huge water slide and a thing called the "Blob". And there were plenty of volleyball courts and a huge field that one could find people playing Ultimate Frisbee on. There was also a rock wall and a zip line, but I never saw them. But I'm told they were a blast, too!
Here's a view of the cabin I was in. I wasn't there much, and actually didn't really meet most of my roommates until Saturday morning, since I crept in late on Friday night. Notice the car parked really close to the cabin. Parking was kinda funny and people tried to make anything work in the way of parking places.
This was the chapel at the camp. I actually never got into it, since none of my meetings were held here, but I just thought this was a gorgeous photo to take.
The whole weekend was centered around the artist and the art. We were split into areas of interest (ie: dance, music, spoken word, film, drama, etc.) and then within each discipline we were split into Mosaic sites. This was so that you could work with the people that attend the same location as you do. I joined the film group, but we didn't split into locations, we split into what we wanted to do (either, production, writing, or directing). I joined the production group and we decided to split again into two groups to work on two short films. My group (which was lead by one of my current roommates, Kevin) brainstormed and came up with a short narrative. In the end, we created, wrote, cast, and shot the short in 24 hours. Here's our director (and my roommate, Kevin) in action!
It was amazing to go through this process. I loved shooting the film and our actors were amazing! Our story called for us to ducktape the lead in a cocoon of sorts.
CJ, our lead actor, waiting to be driving to the next shooting location. He was really unable to move very much or do anything for himself...which was a big part of the story.
CJ rests while we are prepping the final scene.
Our other main actor gets her makeup done for the final scene.
After getting put into the duct tape straight jacket at about 3:00pm, CJ finally is cut free from his "bondage" at about 7:00pm. He was pure sweat and heat. At one point we cut open a hole for his hands to come free and so he could sit at the table. As I was cutting the hole, a sauna came rushing out from the cocoon. CJ said he would never forget our faces as this happened. We were amazed and directly started warming our hands in the heat. I'm still amazed how much of a trooper CJ was through all this. I just hope the film comes out as good as we all pictured it in the creation time!
CJ is finally free!!
I'd try to explain the short, but it'll just be easier to see it for yourself when we get it edited together. That'll be later.
Here's the short film team and cast after the final shot was in the can! What an amazing feeling it was. I have to admit, when we were planning this piece of art, I wasn't sure it would get done. But we were done with plenty of time for the rest of the evening's activities and fun!
That's it for part one...more of my Terra Nova adventure to come in part two!!!
Until laterz!
The Drawing Club - Aug. 28th
I've posted some sketches from last week's Drawing Club over on "The DakotaKid Corral". Check the post out here.
Until laterz!
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