A Fond Farewell to Humphrey!

Wow, has it really been 13 weeks?  About 3 months?  A quarter of a year?

It's amazing how time flies when you're spending it in an awesome studio amongst skilled and talented artists.  I haven't had this much excitement and sense of fulfillment since I was in The Animation Workshop (which wasn't too long ago but still).

My Flash skills are superb now.  Not on the level of the pros here but if I were to gauge my level of improvement I'd say my quality has risen by 300%, and that's no hyperbole.  I look forward to using everything I've learned to create my own characters builds and animations using the pipeline introduced here.

If there is one thing that I'm disappointed with is how Smiley Guy Studios has spoiled me for the industry.  I arrived expecting long hours and unpaid overtime, something that I thought was the norm in the industry.  Not so, as I can't recall seeing anyone stay behind after 18:00 or coming in on weekends (to my knowledge).  Having experienced this as my first job, even as an intern, I can only assume future employment will be a bit of a disappointment in comparison.

I'll be leaving the country on Monday, giving me a weekend to check out the Toronto sights and go to Niagara Falls.  Though the best landmark was of course Smiley Guy Studios.

Thank you all who work here and I hope to see you all again, whether as friends or professionals, it will be a delight!

A Humphrey Update

Long time no see internet dwellers!

I'm nearing the end of my internship here with the lovely people of Smiley Guy Studios.  In one more week I'll be leaving the country and be on my way back to Europe, Germany to be precise.  Events that I haven't touched on since October here have been a delightful pumpkin carving contest, a messy but fun ordeal though I opted for a classic look while others went a bit more extravagant (my favorite and I believe the winner was a portrait of Michael Jackson).

I've been to a few lectures, screenings and get togethers while I've been here, all worthwhile.  The creative director from Tinman Studios explained to us in great detail about the hardships of running your own small studio and what to watch out for, I got to see the Dick Figures movie in theaters and take part of the TAAFI holiday party where I met friendly interesting people and handed out my business card to plenty of them.

I'm assuming this will be my second to last blog post so I'll save my sappy goodbyes til the last one.  Either way, having so much fun here!

Lucas' Blog and New Video Game

It seems as though I haven’t put up a blog here in awhile. It may in fact be because Julie hasn’t been on my case about it. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing though. Over the last two or three weeks a lot has happened. So now I can write about all of in a huge blog. How exiting! Well first of all, anyone who reads these would probably know that I’ve been learning Java and Javascript. Well, I’ve been finally putting those skills to work. A few weeks ago I started building a small platformer game with a friend of mine.  I’ve also been doing one on my own but I’ll talk about that later. I’m having a really good time at it. They're not super fancy now but it's a start.

            I’ve been going to some game-related events and been meeting some really cool people.  Some of them have made games that I actually played and so I enjoyed meeting the minds behind them, it was fantastic. I got a twitter account so I could connect with all these people. If I learned anything from these events, it’s than networking is everything. Everyone likes to follow each other’s projects and I need a way to tell people about what I’m working on so I started the “LUCAS TENNEN DOES STUFF” blog. There isn’t much there yet but there is definitely more to come: http://lucastennen.blogspot.ca/

            Over the last week and a half or so I have been working by myself on a small puzzle game called “AM I REAL?” I actually just put it up two days ago (can be found on my blog). A bunch of the work was done at Smiley Guy and I’m happy about how it turned out. It's really short, only takes about 10 minutes to get through but its my first one, so cut me some slack.  I’ve been watching the number of plays go up, refreshing the page every hour or so and I’m exited to see that over 200 people have played it! It’s a pretty big deal considering that the number before was zero. Overall the last few weeks have been busy and amazing and hopefully there will be many more like them. I should also throw out some random co-op related blurb like I usually do... I can do that next blog...

Am I Real

Cavemen Joint Linl

More Ramblings from Lucas

This is a very exiting blog. I have news of the utmost importance. For the first time ever, I am going to have a consistent reader. Yesterday I half-hazzardly told my friend Hilary about what I do here and she insisted on reading all of the blog posts. Now I can write knowing that someone is reading which is nice. Now these may be more than me sitting and spamming the keys on my laptop and autocorrecting each segment of random letters until they make a little sense. This is going to be a turning point on blog quality. Not to say that they were bad before. They were pretty decent, but now they can be incredible. They will take on a life of their own and cross over into whole new virtues of though. It will be like that episode of Futurama where bender becomes so smart that he IS the universe. It’ll be like that. Except with my blogs.  

Now, knowing that there’s a reader I feel like this is one-sided conversation. I like conversations, which are two ways. So I may say “How are you doing today?” Right now at this moment there will be no response. It would be odd if there was, because I’m currently alone in my house. (On a side note: I just had the strangest though. What if I posted this then I hear from behind me in a slithering voice “I’m doing fine.” That would scare the shit out of me. Like honestly if nobody hears from me in the next 24 hours, you know what happened.) So for the sake of making this more conversation-like, if you read this get in contact with me. I’m completely serious. Call me up and say “Hello Lucas, I just read your blog and wanted to let you know that I am having an absolutely wonderful day because I just read your blog and it just puts me in the best spirits.” If that is not the response then the call is not really needed. For the sake of saving time, I’ll just say here; “Thank you for the call. My day is fantastic too. I already know how good my blog is but its nice to hear it said out loud.” I don’t think more would need to be said on the subject but if you feel the need to go on flattering me with praise of my writing style then nobody is stopping you. 

         

Java’s coming along well too. I started making GUI’s (Graphic user interfaces) and it's neat to see someone interact with something I make.  Maybe I should make a GUI to organize all the calls that I get from people who want to praise my blogging skillz. I’ll put it on my to-do list.

Lucas Learns about Code and the Rock Horror Picture Show

I feel accomplished! I feel inspired! although I also feel like taking a nap... Last night was Halloween! It was a ton of fun. I went with a few friends to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre. I can easily say, it was the strangest thing I have ever seen and the most fun I've had in awhile. What really baffled me about it, was that most people knew all the lines. Not just the lines, They  were shouting things in-between the lines. There was a ton of dialogue that was just the crowd shouting at the screen in unison. Whats so great about this is you can't learn and memorize these lines from watching the movie. Yes, most of the people had been there before. many, many times. Oh, did I mention what I dressed up as? I had a lampshade on my head and an alarm clock on my shoulder. I was a one night stand. needless to say I would have been the coolest kid at any party.

Earlier in the week, I started making a text-based game in java. Its pretty exiting to see something that I made actually work. Its fairly simple and the cove is very disorganized but it runs and one could actually sit down and play it. It only takes about 30 seconds to get through, but its a start. More on that later though.

Halloween at Smiley Guy Studios!

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year.  Left to Right credit: "Michael Jackson" by Aaron Hong, "Jackolantern" by Humphrey Erm, "Jack" by Julie Otten.  Front Row: "Motley Crew" by Stephanie Ramon

Julie Otten as a Ninja Turtle, Al Jerek Torrijas as Odd Job Jack, and Stephanie Ramon as Robin Thicke

Internal Musings from Lucas

Bloggedy Bloggers? Yes, That was the only contents of an email I just received from Julie. Sometimes I feel she’s too nice. Ill be just about to carry on with my Friday night when I get such an email. I almost feel as though she should just let me forget. Then I would have to deal with the consequences of not putting up a blog. I couldn't imagine what it would be though. I'm sure the people at SGS would find some form of hilarious punishment. Make me wear a dunce hat or something like that. 

      This week to be honest has been fairly uneventful. I've been having to do an obscene amount of writing for school. Essays, reflection papers and yes... blogs. I find that Smiley Guy is a nice break from that though. Not that its a break! I still do work! Just the change in environment is relaxing. Instead of running from class to class stressed about the work that is due or the quiz coming up. I just get to sit down and immerse myself in something for a few hours. The best is I walk away and on the streetcar I have a sort of revelation. I tend to say to myself "Huh, I know something that I didn't know two hours ago." I find that this doesn't tend to happen often in every day life. Its a nice feeling. Also I get strange looks from people wondering why I'm talking to myself. 

Anyways, next week is Halloween so I'm sure there will be more to talk about. Just a heads up though, my costume is going to be awesome.

Humphrey Takes to Flash

Been animating now for the last two weeks and boy oh boy do I love it!

Animating in Flash is a pure delight, something I know a lot of my classmates and colleagues would disagree with.  While it certainly isn't as hands on or immediate as traditional animation or computer animation it allows me to focus on the timing and posing of the characters rather than whether the characters are drawn on model and whatnot.  Notes from the director also tend to be easy to implement since it doesn't require me to erase and redraw a character from scratch.  That along with Flash skipping the cleanup phase makes it a joy to work with.

Hoping to get to work on the other show being worked on here at some point since it has more complex Flash builds that I wish to try out.

Lucas Switches Focus and Discuss' Eye Strain

Something about this week seems shorter. It may be because is was...

      Near the end of last week I had been working a bit on some java code and really enjoyed it. So that is what I have devoted this week to. Java, Java, and more java. I even took up drinking coffee for the occasion. On Tuesday a friend of mine sent me a program that he was having troubles with. In between some of the strangest conversation I have ever witnesses, Brad was able to help me to correct it. It was my first "bug-fixing" experience and I can fairly say that it was quite satisfying when the program worked. All it did was calculate interest in a bank account for a certain amount of years, but it's a start. 

 

      On a side note; since its the beginning of the year, my co-op instructor has had a plethora of questions concerning our workplace. Every time we are asked about the conditions, I am ever so tempted to start rambling about how they "let me out of the cage every now and then" and how "The slave labor isn't as bad as it's made out to seem." Of course that would cause other problems so I'm forced to bite my lip and answer honestly. believe me, It's difficult. We had to fill out a sheet on safety in our workplace and little to none of it applied to me since I sit at a desk for the majority of my placement. I don't see myself getting injured unless I get a compulsive urge to put my head through one of the brick walls. Anyways, I got all ready to write about all the fire-breathing dragon in the back room of Smiley Guy Studios when Mr. Rowell pointed out that this was for legitimate marks. So instead I spoke about the dangers of carpal tunnel and eye strain. The power of good posture and taking small breaks to make sure your eyes don't explode. There may have been a few lines thrown in about how steep the stairs are too.

Flash and Toronto Grow on Humphrey

I've been busy setting up several characters in Flash, something I have done before but never at this scale or level of quality.  The short time being here (ending the third week today) has led me to learning incredible skills regarding the software, be it basic or mere novelty.  Slowly but surely I have understood some key concepts to keep in mind when transforming a conceptual drawing into a ready to animate Flash figure.

I've grown to really like the city of Toronto as well, not seeing it as merely a place of temporary residency but rather a fine place to move about in.  I take the streetcar every morning to make sure I arrive on time at the studio but I always walk home, observing the culture and diversity present here.  Its quite a treat and I'm really enjoying the cultural exchange as part of my internship.

Three weeks down, ten more to go.  Hopefully it won't be too quick!

Introducing Lucas, Our Newest Highschool Student

Wooh! First blog!

For those of you who are reading this; I am Lucas Tennen the Smiley Guy Studio Co-op student for the year. I enjoy Adele and long walks on the beach. Not really, although I find it's usually a good ice breaker. 

    

So you could sort of say that this was like my first full week at SGS, although it was a bit of a rocky start. Last weekend my computer went through a series of crashes (both physical and software related) which resulted in some programs and files being unable to reach in my computer. One of them was flash. When I tried re-installing I was greeted with the ever so frustrating "Unable to download software." So I did my best to not let my time go to waste by reading about and watching many flash tutorials as I could. Although I haven't actually gotten into the program, I do feel well informed.

On a side note; I got a desk! It may not seem like a big deal, but it's my first so I'm pretty exited. It's relatively plain so I want to bring in a figurine or something somewhat representing of me. Now this next bit may need some explanation: I have a bit of an odd uncle. For my bar-mitzvah he gave me a figure of a dancing Jewish man. I keep it on a shelf near my bed. It seemed harmless at first, but it's starting to freak me out. I swear it's eyes follow me sometimes. So, I figured my desk would be a perfect place for it. It may not be well received, but if one person walks by and gets a kick out of it then it will have served a better purpose then it does in my room. Which pretty much is watching me sleep.

Thanks (sorry about the lack of animation I'm able to upload this week)

Welcome Humphrey! Our First International Intern!

Alright, here's my blog entry:

Humphrey Erm here, I'm a Swedish animation student from The Animation Workshop in Denmark.  From what I have understood I am the first international intern that Smiley Guy Studios has ever had, so I have by nature of my geographic location made history here.

I've been here a workweek now and am so far simply impressed and pleased with my internship.  The studio itself is nice and large, capable of housing quite a few professionals.  There's a comfortable meeting room and even a rec room with a ping pong table and table football which I'm looking forward to trying out.  I even get my own desk and computer to do all my work at which is much appreciated.

The people here are also really cool.  Everyone is working hard on separate tasks but they have all had time to give me some pointers or simply showing me what they're up to.  They have done a good job making me feel welcome in this studio and I for one appreciate that.

The work so far has been manageable, starting off with a tutorial on how to create a Flash puppet.  Working through that I got many great tips from Joe Lague regarding how to better organize the symbols as well as subtle changes to the design that makes the character look more dimensional and volumetric without sacrificing the ease of use for animation.  I'm now placed on Flashifying (taking a bitmap picture and translating it into Flash vectors and symbols) character concepts for the online show Teleporting Fat Guy.  It's working out really well so far thanks to the amazing feedback I've gotten previously, though there are still improvements here and there that I can do.

That's it for now I think, I'm looking forward to 12 more weeks of this in the beautiful city of Toronto!  Have a good one everyone!

~Humphrey Erm

Eden Wraps it Up

What a crazy beginning to start the week in Toronto! Power outages and floods, what a mess! Some trapped in the GO train, subways, and floating cars! Super grateful that my fellow interns, co-workers and myself got home safely.

Currently working on Warren prop designs! Last week it was weird to come back into Flash after using Photoshop for the while with Captain Canuck.  Sometimes I forget how detailed some of these props can get!  But sometimes I spend too much time on detail and not consider the time that it actually gets on screen.  I learned a lot from designing the vase for the July and Mascot episode. The prop in the end becomes almost like building a character; preparing it for the animator to work his/her magic.

Looks like this will be my last blog entry for Smiley Guy! My experience here has been awesome. Everyone has been friendly and super helpful with any problems that we have encountered, really awesome mentors. I've learned a lot, and my time here has put me in the right direction for the future.

Take care everyone!! Have an amazing summer! (Hopefully no more floods!)

David's Stages of Design Grief

Dear diary, 

The past week I've been doing the design thing still. While one might complain that it seems I do this a lot and is thus repetitive, I'm finding it pretty interesting.  Each new task in designing an object or character always starts with how the hell am I going to do this, then it's followed by despair with a bit of bargaining thrown in. Eventually it is followed by acceptance, and then I get to work.  It definitely keeps me on my toes. This past week I've been struggling with the task of when to keep or let go of design elements on a prop that have been previously worked on by someone else. It's tricky, as when you design something on your own you start from a blank slate, with a redesign you have a precedent to work from which can colour your approach to the object. Not something I ever thought could happen, but that's why this internship has been helpful. I'm learning how to deal with situations they can't quite show you in school because it's more of an individual experience thing. Pretty cool

David

P.S. here is a wet cat because its been raining a lot the past week. ( I only made him look wet, I didn't do the overall design of the cat)

Lea Admires Smiley Guy Meetings

I just noticed I never introduce myself in my blog posts. Good thing Julie covers that in the titles. Titles are important. How else would you know what To Kill a Mockingbird was about?


Anyway, what I'm going to talk about today: Meetings. I've had the privilege of attending a few meetings regarding Warren. Not only do these allow me see how the show has been progressing, they give me hope.

Yes, that is right. Hope. Let me explain:

Over the past school year I worked with a number of other students to create a film. My group was amazing - we managed to complete a good piece of work on time with little drama between members. However there were still bouts if indecision, squabbling and chaos that irked me. Sometimes things would go offtrack and issues wouldn't get resolved, or there would be arguments over details that no one could agree on. I was vaguely worried that this is what it would be like in an actual work environment.

Meetings for Warren have been different. Julie comes in with notes and a list of all the assets that have been completed written down. Just with that these meetings have structure. Everyone sees the score, and what needs to be addressed gets addressed.  People still discuss things amongst themselves and give suggestions and input, but the ones in charge are the ones who make the calls. I feel these things give meetings at Smiley Guy a different dynamic than the meetings I had at school. In a lot of ways my experience with both has been similar, but in these ways they are not.

This makes me glad. Overall the group film meetings were great, but for awhile I was fearful that actual studios had those problems. I'm sure they do. I've only actually been to three meetings at SGS - for all I know everyone is just behaving in front of the interns. Maybe it's different at various stages of production. Maybe they do crop up, but so far so good. I'm sure I will see for myself someday!

Jordan's Week: From Super Hero's to Popcorn Makers

Hello again! Jordan here.

So I just wrapped up on colouring animation for Captain Canuck, which was a lot of fun! You can view the finished episode right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsTuqytpC84&feature=youtu.be

It's so cool seeing the progression, the end result looks really fantastic and I'm glad I was able to play a small part in making it happen. :)  I just love what they did at the compositing stage, the effects and shadows really add a nice polish.

Next I was moved onto props and character builds for Warren like all the other folks. I wasn't able to work on them very much, so I've slowly been playing catch-up, getting used to building stuff in flash.


I sort of jumped into character builds right off the bat and was a little daunted before my fellow pals here recommended I just start with props. When building things in flash, I learned that it's not at all about doing lineart, but rather literally "building" these props out of solid shapes and then adding details after. It's fun and looks a lot better too this way.

Here is a popcorn maker I made as a first pass:

Erica's Last Day at Smiley

Alas, my time is finally up. I have had so much fun at Smiley Guys and have learned so much.  For a girl who came in here with NO IDEA what flash even was to almost completing her very own animation. I got as far as to do the actual animation, not completed, including lip syncing.  I am very sad that I was not able to finish a complete product but I will keep working on it so that I could at least have something to show, even if it’s just shots, they are still good enough, it’s like the animation but not put together and without effects, still good right?

So this will be my last blog, sadly, I wish I could stay longer.  I had such an interesting co-op opportunity and I am certain that it will help me throughout my future. I am very grateful and happy for the help from everyone.

Thank you and goodbye!

The picture below is one from my shots. In the time line you could see like a blue-ish purple bar. That’s a motion tween (^_^) Keith blew my mind away teaching me all about it, t’was a fun time.

David Does Design

Hey everyone David again,

I can't believe that its almost been 2 months since my first day interning at Smiley Guy. Time definitely flies by! So this past week I've still been designing props, but have also been given the chance to design some characters as well! I was super excited about getting a chance to do this ever since I got to spend time here. A week into do this I'm still excited! Even despite another learning curve I'm going through with it. There's a lot of little things you need to keep track of while doing character design for flash animation that my brain was just not looking for when I started out.  Luckily Joel and Joe (who are the design crew here at Smiley Guy) have been kindly setting me straight at each pass on a character I take. So thanks to their patience I'm getting better....slowly. 

Also at this moment the the National is interviewing people about Captain Canuck behind me. Maybe if I'm luck the back of my head will get on camera and I can finally do my mom proud!

I mustache you a question...

Eden Finds her Patriotism

Here comes the final stretch for Captain Canuck! The team has been working vigorously to meet the deadline this Friday. I saw the composites of some of the shots post After Effects that Peter and Keith have been working on. The result is fantastic! The quality that AE puts on animation is incredible, it really goes to show how much of the subtle details can really bring out the best in each shot.
Every day I'm learning something new and I can't wait till the episode is complete!

(Note to self: Learn more AE!)

I think its really great that we finally have a super hero to call our own. I feel that Canada isn't respected enough by our Canadian citizens. Canada Day is already next Monday, and I've been having a hard time finding any Canadian spirit items for the long weekend. Captain Canuck! Come save our Canadian Spirit!

Happy Canada Day Everyone!!

Jordan's Take on Captain Canuck

Hello folks. Jordan here!

So these days I've been on colouring animation for Captain Canuck, the upcoming new web series. Honestly, I was super excited when I heard that I was going to get to do some work for it. Ever since I saw that teaser trailer it was stuck in my mind, and it's been a real treat getting to stare at all of these beautiful scenes. Everything is just solid, it looks like a proper superhero cartoon and I hope I can absorb some of it via osmosis.

When colouring a character with so many details you come to realize the importance of flipping your animation. Even though I'm only filling in gaps and colouring, there are so many little gaps that I wouldn't have caught had I just focused on each frame. So I've just been spending time trying to make it as neat as possible.

When I first heard the words 'CAPTAIN CANUCK', I didn't expect to see someone as cool as that. I pictured some toque-wearing, hapless doofus, apologizing to everyone in sight.

And then I started wondering, why is that? Why was my initial reaction to laugh and mock? Isn't Canada as deserving of a proper superhero as any other country?

 

According to "Flump787234,"  the answer is no.

 

 

Also here is a drawing of what I pictured. Drawn in Flash to demonstrate my newfound comfort with this program. I am not afraid of it anymore (I actually have no idea how people draw in this)

 

"Some toque-wearing, hapless doofus, apologizing to everyone in sight"

 

Lea Prefers the Bling

We finally did it!

We finally started design!

... Only to be immediately taken off that and put onto more pressing projects - but we're back at it again!

Here are a couple of props I've designed so far:

A weed whacker and a rich person's remote. When I heard "rich person remote" I imagined jewel encrusted, but apparently Joe meant technologically fancy. I'm thinking I made it a little too cellphone-y but we shall see what the supervisors think! Maaaaaybe lining it with diamond studs would be an improvement...???

Eden Pulls Up her Socks

It's Darien's birthday today! Some birthday cake and a little bit of early beer drinking to kick off the Father's day weekend.

It's been busy, busy, busy at SGS. The pressure is on to get my productivity up.  Designing characters for Warren was a bit of a learning curve, but after I got the hang of it (and some motivation to get my work done on time) they got completed. I've caught up with my work and have moved on to Captain Canuck. I am super excited to be working on backgrounds and help out the team to get this project done.

Watch out guys, Captain Canuck is coming for you!

Oh and happy father's day!!!

A Fairwell from Adam Roberts

Hello fellow future interns and the staff of Smiley Guy Studios,

I would like to let everyone know that my time at the studio was a memorable experience that not only developed my skills in animation and design, but it helped me meet awesome and talented people that were able to share a bit of their knowledge with me over the past year. The team also took me out for breakfast at the local restaurant named KOS (I believe). We sat, ate food and had a good time. Unfortunately, my contacts were irritated during the subway ride, so I had to consequently take them out. I was almost blind for the entire meal, but I still managed to interact and have fun at the table. 

Kurt Scott was an unbelievable mentor for myself as he guided me through every important stage of creating a short animation and our friendship also became quite strong near the end of the year. I'm happy that my Co-op teacher found such a talented studio to help me understand so many things.

I had a wonderful year, and I'd love to keep in touch with the people from the studio.

STAY AWESOME AND I HOPE THE STUDIO'S FUTURE ENDEAVORS ARE BRIGHT! 

Sincerely, 

Adam Roberts

David Updates His Bucket List

Hey it's David again,

Well the past week or so have been fun. I recently did some graphic design work on a new I.P being develop by Smiley Guy Studios, while I just did work on a pitch book; the I.P itself looks really cool. I'm excited to see how the project develops. It was really cool to be able to work on something like that.

I've also started on prop design! This stuff is really fun, I like the researching and then designing random objects that will some how make it on to a T.V show. I have on my list of props to do a pot and spoon, a bicycle and a picture of a cock fight. Yeah! I have to draw a picture of a cock fight. I'm going to add that to the list things I never thought I'd do in my life.

Also, to appease the picture gods here is a picture the a pot and spoon I'm currently working on. Look at it in all its majestic glory:

An offering to the picture gods

An Important PSA Video from Lalo

Well, I'm sad to say this but my time here at Smiley Guy Studios is up. When I first started out here, I was just some guy who was going to learn how to do sound design. Then as the weeks went by, I started to learn how to do dialogue editing and recording.

It seems it was just yesterday where on my first day I was being introduced and would do some work on "Teleporting Fat Guy", and then I would do some work on other shows such as "Hair and Mole", "Beethoven's Wig", "Warren" and more. I even got a chance to make some videos of my own.

One of my favourite things I did at work was record guitar parts for "Warren". Now that my time is up, I can say that not only did I learn about Sound-Design editing, I learned how to get along and interact with other people in the studio. And I like to thank everyone for being cool and fun to talk to. I had a great time here and I was happy to be apart of Smiley Guy. I'm hoping to learn more about audio recording in the future.

My final video: here is a PSA I made, Enjoy!

Jordan's on the Case!

HELLO AGAIN. It is I, Jordan, and I am delivering the going on's here at Smiley Guy.

So I've been spending my time colouring a leica reel for DETECTIVE DOCTOR ATTORNEY AT LAW. I love colour and it was pretty fun once I grew used to the idea that Flash's "fill bucket" and "close-large-gaps" tool does not work.

I actually really love the fact that I was able to work on a leica reel of any sort! I'd love to be able to do more stuff like that, like board cleanup or something.

Just getting to poke around the file in general and see how it was done really showed me how useful flash is for animatics.

PICTURED IS what a typical day looked like for me. Lots of linetooling going on to get the shapes to close.

Also word of advice: do not engage the fake monks that walk around Toronto. I was too nice to say no and now he has my subway fare. 

Lea's Observations: SGS vs Sheridan, and Joel's Plant

Flash seems to be crashing on me, so this is as good a time as any to write a blog post!

It's been an exciting two weeks - David killed the internet, the beer store leaked gas. I'm sure the others have covered these events in their own posts so I'm going to talk about something new. Something fresh! Something even more exciting!

School.

Haha, fooled you. That isn't exciting. I am going to talk about it though. See, I have noted some similarities and differences between my experiences at Sheridan and my experiences here at SGS.  Take lip sync for example. In school it was drilled into our heads to do lip sync last. Do the poses, animate the body, and only - ONLY - when you have that down do you draw in the mouth.

But at Smiley Guy it's backwards! For the past couple of weeks I have been mostly animating one character, and like I was taught in school I started out with animating the body. Then Chris advised to start with lip sync. I was skeptical at first, but I took his advise. Much to my surprise, once you get the mouth and jaw moving the character pretty much animates itself! Well no, not really, but it does add some preemptive life that makes it easier to visualize poses and such. I realize now that symbol animation allows you to do that. Unlike when you are drawing, if you want to change a pose or timing you end up moving/scrapping a lot of frames, but even when you do that with symbols the lip sync animation will still be there. Neat!

Before I sign off I feel I need to pay tribute to a lost member of the studio. I am of course talking about Joel's plant. From my vantage point it appears to be very dead. In its memory I will share with the world a quick painting I did my first week here when I was too shy and uncomfortable to leave my seat during breaks.

Rest In Peace little guy. You will be missed.

(Also Rest In Peace my crashing flash file, which does not seem to be recovering)

Eden Negotiates Curtains, Meetings, and Explosions

Never a dull day at SGS!

Another fulfilling week at SGS and some interesting events to report. But before I get into that, an update on my third week here. We are continuing work on Beethoven's Wig and got to experience a group meeting with the whole team. It was awesome to see the animatic for Warren. It reminds me of a UK version of the “King of the Hill”. Some really funny stuff! Sharing my thoughts with everyone was also a great experience. I love group meetings!

Da na na naaaaa! Beethoven's Wiiiiiiig! Is very biiiiiiiiig!
I can't stop singing it! It's everywhere!!

I was having some troubles with my scene, as much as I hate to admit. Those gosh darn curtains! Of course I made it more complicated than it really should be. Thankfully, Chris and Mat were super helpful and patient enough to understand what nonsense I was trying to explain.

Bomb threat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well not a bomb, but it potentially could have been! The Beer Store next to the studio had a gas leak! Firemen and police officers blocked off the sector and evacuated everyone out of the buildings that were inside the perimeter. Lea and I were actually coming back from lunch. We asked a couple questions to one of the Police officers in the area and told us they couldn't let us go back to work.

 

Every week a new adventure is out there! Stay tuned for my next episode! 

David Takes Out the Internet Then Saves the Office

Hey its David again.

This past week while short because of the long weekend was still full of interesting events. For starters we really got into animating on some scenes for a Beethoven short. With the help of Chris shepherding us from chaos on daily basis, its been a really fun experience. Also on Wednesday while trying to fix my internet, the internet for the whole studio went out. I probably made a few enemies In that moment.... I'll have to try my best to smooth things over the next few days. 

Then while on my lunch break the Beer Store next to us had a gas leak. I really don't think the two are co-related, well...at least I hope not. We then had to evacuate the building and the whole street was closed off for more than an hour while the fire department dealt with the gas leak. After that it was business as usual.

The lesson of the week is working at Smiley Guy definitely keeps you on your toes.

Lalo's Audio Mix Project

All Co-op students at Northern had to do a presentation to explain what we have learned at our placements. I decided to do a clip from The Empire Strikes Back with new sound to show what I've learned working with sound designer, Paul O'Brien. I had fun designing, recording and editing my soundtrack. The best part of the process was experimenting with different sound effects. Thanks to Paul for mentoring me, and to Jeremy Diamond for being Darth Father.

Cody's Final Animation Project

After months of slaving at Smiley Guy Studios, here is what Cody has to show for it - a really great short!

Jordan Gets Thrown in the Deep End

Hello hello hello. So my name is Jordan Shereck and I am Sheridan Animation Intern Number 3 at Smiley Guy studios this summer.

So I've been here for two weeks this far and it's been a lot of learning and funtimes. Getting put on productions right off the bat was a tad daunting for someone who hasn't had any experience with puppet animation before, but I guess if you sit in front of something long enough it slowly starts making sense. Slowly.

It's super nice having other fellow interns to pester, and the folks who work here are just incredibly helpful. I find that it's so much better to have a specific question to talk about, so actually having things to work on that actually need to get done have proven themselves an excellent gateway to questions and learnimation.  I've always been more of a "drawing type" than an animator, but working on flash animation has given me this very sudden hyper-awareness of the concept of timing and spacing, as evidenced in these panels detailing my recent late night breakthrough:

 

 

At this rate I might actually get my walk cycle done some time this century.

Jordan's creative file names

Adam Wraps it Up

With my Co-op year coming to a close, it was a good idea to begin doing these animation and design tests created by the company. After constantly putting small tweaks into my main "Metal-Head" animation, it was a good end-of-the-year change that has been teaching me and helping me learn advanced animation.

The first test I did was to re-create a character with Joel's tutorial. The tutorial was definitely not the easiest task as it taught me not only how to design a character, but it showed me how to create a character that is actually formatted to be animated properly. The next tutorial focused on animating certain elements from a scene from the show 'Warren". This was much more difficult as it forced me to animate a whole body composition opposed to one figure. 

The final animation tests (which are my favorite) are the simple object animation. From a flower-sack to a bouncy ball, Kurt asked me to animate them how ever I wanted to. This really tested how much I knew and I was forced to ask Kurt for some aid as it was deceivingly difficult. Learning the "eases" and "ease-outs" was also great because that little extra amount of animation makes the biggest difference.

With the Co-op year almost complete, its great to realize how much I've learned.

Lea Loves Exclaimations

Hello!  I'm Lea. I don't usually talk much but I will try to muster up some excitement and enthusiasm for this blog post. I think this calls for a liberal application of exclamation marks!!!!!!

Over the first couple of weeks I have become acquainted with some of the staff at Smiley Guy. Julie is the one who gives us direction overall. If Smiley Guy Studios were a secret organization and us interns were special agents, Julie would be the mysterious person who shows up in a black car and takes us to a parking garage, where she then hands us manila envelopes with all the details we need to complete our mission. But instead of leaving the building and completing our assignment with finesse like competent special agents, we interns just start walking into walls and getting caught in the furniture. This is where the supervisors come in - Darien, Matt and Chris have picked us up, dusted us off, and pointed us towards the door with a pat on the head. We then proceed to run into traffic and board street cars going in the wrong direction.

Yes, animating puppets in flash has been quite the adventure with many a wacky shenanigan. I honestly thought there would be some kind of rigging to those badboys, but nope! Just pose and tween and hope limbs don't go flying across the screen. I am proud to say I know how to prevent that from happening now! Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erica Learns Scene Planning

So this week I worked on my scene planning. It’s basically your storyboarding but with the background and characters all in it. So yea like a final storyboard. At first it was a bit hard to do because with the pictures being one layer and my character needing to go behind certain objects it was hard to do that.

But Darien taught me to mask it so I’ll be able to get what I want to see. So yea I hope to finish soon.

Haha it’s a much longer process than I thought.

Here are some pics of my scene planning first scene:

We Had David at the Door Buzzer

Hi my name's David Schut, I'll be writing on this blog on a bi-weekly basis.  Let's start off with I have no idea how to write a blog, so bare with me and I'll try my best to make this entertaining for everyone.

Okay lets do a quick recap of my first week of being an intern at Smiley Guy Studios:  The first day was fun getting shown around the place (I enjoy the door buzzer, it makes me feel like I'm part of a secret organization) and meeting everyone was really fun.  The next few days is when the learning curve came....We were give a chance to do a walk cycle test. My first crack at the walk cycle was spectacular mess of a thing. If anyone ever said puppet animation is easy, they lied. Lied through their teeth. It is hard stuff. Though luckily everyone at Smiley Guy has been really kind and helpful throughout the week, because of their patience, I'm starting to figure it out the subtle trickery that is flash.

At the end of the week we started to do small animation scenes on Beethoven's Kids. I'm excited to see what I can learn from the scenes I get.

Well that's one week down.

Eden Checks out the Garden of Kensington

    Hey everyone!

Just a little about myself... My name is Eden and I have just completed 3 years of the BAA-Animation degree program at Sheridan College. Currently, I am completing my co-op here at SGS!  I have a tendency to ramble, so hopefully I can make this not so “texty” (but more importantly: entertaining)

So far it has already been a great learning experience. I'm learning a lot about Flash that I never knew you could do before. Learning these new techniques has been opening up new possibilities for my fourth year thesis film.

Everyone at SGS have been super friendly and very helpful. I'm really grateful that they encourage us to ask questions; definitely makes the learning experience that much easier.

We've been familiarizing ourselves with Flash through scene planning and attempted a walk cycle with SGS character Warren. Turned out to be a bit more tedious than I had anticipated. But it was a nice crash course to experiment with the software.


SGS area... Where are we?
I commute from Hamilton, so I'm not very familiar with the Toronto area. My fellow interns and I have been have been going on little adventures on our lunch break to get an idea what's around here. There are lots of interesting and very unique shops around the College and Bathurst area.

Coffee is accessible every where!!! Starbucks, Coffee Culture, McDees, Tim Horton's, you name it! But the best are probably the local cafes that they have around Little Italy and the Kensington Market.

Down in the Kensington Market, I feel has the most interesting little shops. Plus, lots of variety of culture and food!! Oh the delicious food!!

We have been favouring this particular burger joint called “Burgernator”. All the food is from local produce and their meat never sees a freezer! They get it fresh and cook it right away for their hungry fans. Prices are affordable, meals are a good size, AND they don't make you feel like you're dying after! (Like gross McDees hamburgers would)

I think I'll end it there... Hopefully I can get some moving pictures into my entries as well!

That's all folks!

Cody: That's a Wrap!

It's hard to believe it's my last day at Smiley Guys. Four months went by so fast.

I ended up finishing my animated short "Magic Pen", and although it didn't quite turn out the way I had hoped I feel like I've learned a lot in the process.  Starting with the concept, writing a script and storyboarding before heading into animation was a good way to understand how an animation can go from an idea to a finished product.  At each phase there was always someone willing to explain things to me and to help me get started with what I was doing.  Everyone had some very good advice to share and ways of improving upon what I was trying to accomplish and I'd like to thank everyone for all the help with my project. 

It was an awesome experience to be able to work with such talented people and a privilege to have done my placement here. Here's a picture of what my animation started as and a picture from the finished animation.

Original Concepts

Final Designs

Erica Needs Her Ogres To Be Ugly

Well I am finally finished my scene planning, which I am currently working on now.  I did my props which were just some doors opening and I did all of those in flash. There was also one more the bed sheets on the girls bed.  They said that we should do it while animating so we can get a better idea of how it is going to look, the way she grabs it and etc…which I totally agree on. 

So I also finally finished my characters YAY! The giant I had to do over because I didn’t like the way she looked, not ugly enough.  So yes now I am currently working on the scene planning.  Darien split it up for me into 4 or 5 parts can’t remember hahaa :P anywayys these are the pictures I got for you today.

My new characters:

Lalo's Cool Project Tease

For the past two weeks I've been working on a project for school that shows what I do at work.  For my project, I've taken the scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" where Darth Vader tempts Luke to join the dark side after revealing the he is his father.  For this clip, I've changed the dialogue making it seem like it's about a boy reuniting with his father.  This clip has Barry White music which changes the mood of the scene, different sounds and the voices of the characters are different (I voice Luke and Jeremy voices Vader).  Once the video is done, I look forward to posting it.

Adam Reflects

As the end of my co-op experience is coming in the next few months, I think it’s time to think
about what I’ve learned and what I would like to do with all the tools and abilities I’ve gained from
working at this great studio.

Prior to working here, I’ve had minimal drawing experience.  I didn’t know how to design
characters and I had absolutely no idea what properties make a character look pleasing to the eye.
 After being here for 8 months, I can gladly say that I’ve grown as a designer and a director.  Most co-op placements would usually ask you to simply join on in their projects; at Smiley Guy Studios, they have allowed me to actually be the creative director of a short film that I created.  And that’s exactly what makes this great studio unique.  The employees are always happy to help me out (I’m a little shy, so I don’t ask too much), but in perspective, I’ve truly enjoyed my compelling experience here.

The only real medium of design that I was familiar with before being at SGS was with 3D
modeling and animation.  Now I am extremely comfortable with 2D modeling and animation because of the help of Kurt Scott.  He’s been assuming the role as my manager/supervisor of the project and he’s been doing a hell of a job with getting me to up to par with the roles of animation.  I plan to make short and quick YouTube videos in the future with Flash animation as I feel very comfortable with the skills I have gained. 

Here are the images of both backgrounds of my short film.

Erica's Approaching Animation

I finally started my animatic and finished it quite quickly too. All that was left was the music or the voice over for the characters. I finally finished it for good! I started the backgrounds in photoshop and at first they were really confusing to do because it’s something new to me, I have always done my work in flash, but after a little more review I got the hang of it and managed to finish all of my backgrounds. YAY!! So now that is left to do is the character designs and then I’m onto making the props and finally the ANIMATION!!! IM SO EXCITED!!!

Well here are some/most of my background designs IN COLOR! :

Lalo Wins An Emmy for Intern of the Year!

Lalo holds the Emmy that Guidestones just won in Cannes

Cody Approaching the Finish Line...

Over the past couple of weeks I've begun to animate and I've got my first few shots done.
Initially I had a hard time figuring out where things go and what things do in Flash.
Nothing seemed to want to do what I thought it was going to, but the more time I spend in the program the more it's starting to make more sense to me.

Now that Iv'e straightened out some of the issues I was having I think I could speed up my process.
There's still a lot of work to do but I look forward to continuing and finishing on schedule.

Here's a frame from the opening scene.