A Holiday 2017 Comic from Smiley Guy Studios

By Rossi Gifford

Chien Ying Yu - A 2017 Sheridan Intern

Hello there!

My name is Chien Ying Yu, but feel free to call me Chien! I’m an upcoming fourth year from Sheridan College, really nervous about starting the school semester but still excited!

I’ve been interning/working at Smiley Guys since mid-May and today was actually my last day. This is my first job within the animation industry and I’m so grateful for them to have hired me. I feel a bit sad that it’s come to an end but overall the experience I had here was great! The people who work here are all amazingly nice and friendly! As proof, they even got me a goodbye dessert!!

Erin has been really great with helping me feel comfortable when I first started interning. Joel and Joe has been so patient with me when they taught me about building flash assets and cleaning up, its helped me become more efficient and understand how rigging a character works. Last but not least, shout out to Brad, Michael, and Darien for helping fix the technical difficulties I’ve encountered. You’re the real MVP.

It’s difficult to express what I feel about my time at Smiley Guys but thank you so much for letting me be a part of this team!

Eila Espinoza - 2017 Sheridan Intern

Hey ya'll!

Welp, today was my last day here at Smiley Guy and its pretty bittersweet.  My time here went by insanely quick and I learned so so much! During my time here I learned how to navigate through Flash (which was super intimidating at first but practice makes perfect!) and managed to help out doing builds and animation clean up. Both came with their challenges but I'm super grateful for them because they allowed me to really think about how I'm going to approach my fourth year film! 

In addition to having incredibly talented and patient supervisors, I'm happy to say that everyone I've met here is SO charming and made this entire experience the best! I mean, GEEZ, the free food is pretty darn great! Everyone is so encouraging, willing to help and all around great to be around. I couldn't have asked for a better experience and am forever grateful. I'm really going to miss everyone here and I'm extremely proud to have been a part of a really cool project! 

With everything I've learned, I definitely feel way more prepared to tackle my fourth year film with confidence and I can't wait to put my new skills to the test!

I wish everyone here the best and can't express my gratitude towards everyone! Thank you for a wonderful experience and for making me feel right at home! Kick ass guys!! 

Hasta luego!!

Rae's Last Week

Hi! It's almost the end of my internship, I only have about a week left here, and to finish my film!

I'm sad for my time here to end, but I'm excited about almost finally finishing my film. So far I have completed about nine shots, I still have a lot to go, and not a lot of time to do it, but I'm having a lot of fun putting it together and I'm determined to finish it somewhat within my deadline. I decided to use a mix of Flash, and Anime Studio Pro to animate my characters. I felt it would be the fastest and easiest way to do the easy and fast shots in flash, and the more complicated shots in Anime. I just started learning how to use Anime Studio Pro, and so far I love it. I rigged my main character for a few shots for the first time, there were a lot of technical difficulties and it took a while, but I finally figured out how to do it, and I'm pretty happy about the way it turned out. I'm trying not to be a perfectionist, and just focus on getting it finished. I have quite a lot more to do, but it's the only thing that I'm doing on my spare time, so hopefully I'll have it done sometime by next week, and I'll be able to show it!

- Rae

Welcome Eila!

Hola, 

my name is Eila and I am a new intern here at Smiley Guy! I am a third year student from Sheridan but I am actually from Texas. Its been three weeks since I have started my internship and it has been nothing but wonderful! Everyone here is incredibly warm and so so nice (and super talented, geez)! I was extremely nervous starting out (partially because I started commuting on my own for the first time) but Erin made sure I was comfortable and I would like to think that I finally got a good handle on things. I have also been reintroduced to flash and I am happy to say that I am finally getting the hang of it (thank goodness for Joel or I would be a lost mess)! So far I have done a walk cycle with flash and built a few rigs as practice and it is a lot of fun! While its not too different from Toon Boom, it definitely took a bit of adjusting to but it is getting there! Having constant feedback definitely helps and I have noticed some improvements in terms of speed with the rig building process and the program. I was invited to go grab a drink with some of the members here in the studio and I am really excited about that since the Mexican in me can never say no to a drink. It has only been three weeks but I feel extremely lucky to have a landed a such a nice studio. I look forward to keeping up the hard work and learning as much as I can.

Rae Dabbles in After Effects

Hi! 

 

I only have about a month left to finish my film, I'm a little behind schedule, but I really want to complete the whole thing by my original deadline. I've been working on backgrounds for the past few weeks, as well as starting to put together some shots at home. I just started learning how to use After Effects to composite my shots, It's a really cool program, and I'm really excited to try out a bunch of effects on my film as I put it together. I started doing the first shot, and it was really cool to see all the elements I had done separately come together to bring the shot to life. I'm still working out the timing, but it's getting me more excited to finish the rest of my shots! Here is one of the unfinished backgrounds that I am working on! I'll have more finished backgrounds and stills to show next week!

 

 

-Rae"

Rae Explores Photoshop

Hi! 

It's been a while since my last blog post, I've finished my animatic, and it's given me a better grasp on what I want to do. I've hit a little bit of a wall, where I haven't been able to get much done, or spend as much time on it. So far I've just been working on my backgrounds and further developing the style I want for my film. I've been exploring with different ways to paint and use texture in Photoshop, and I've learned some new tricks and tips from some of the people here.  I don't have much time left, but I'm still determined to finish it! I set up a system to organize my shots, so I know exactly what I have to do for each one and when I should get it done, and which ones need to be done first. There are a few complicated shots that I am going to try and get done first. I'm really looking forward to everything coming together in the end, and hopefully I can pull it off! Here is an updated version of the opening shot and the background for the second shot that I am currently working on. I'll have more to show next time!

-Rae

Rae Previews Her Animatic

Hi! This week I completed more of my animatic. I brought it into the studio and previewed it for Rich and some other animators for their thoughts and feedback. Overall they really liked the look and feel to it, but my timing and pacing still isn’t where it needs to be. I’m almost at the end of completely finishing my animatic, and moving on to the next stage of production. Once I figure out the last sequence I am going to go back and re time everything to fix the pacing, as well as to trim it a bit, cause I went a little overboard with the length. I’m getting a bit anxious to move on to the next stage, but I know that if I don’t take the time to fix any of the mistakes now, it will be a problem later on. While finishing my animatic, I've also started to do the final version of the opening shot for my film. It’s helping me develop a workflow for my shots, so I know what to do for each one. Hopefully by my next post the first shot will be done! Here is the updated layout for my opening pan shot, based off of the concept art and layout I posted last week.

-Rae

Rae Gets Perspective.

I’m almost done my animatic! I've been working on it for the past few weeks, and this week I showed it to Rich for him to review it. He gave me some really good ideas, and advice about which shots don't need to be there,  and how to make things clearer. It’s hard to see what doesn't work when you’ve seen it too many times, so it was nice to see it from a fresh perspective. There are a lot of things that need tweaking, and the timing needs to be fixed, but i’m almost ready to move onto the next step! I’ve already done a few backgrounds, and began planning out my layouts for each shot. It's a little overwhelming to think about how much needs to be done to finish it, but i'm having a lot of fun making it, and it's really cool seeing it sort of come together. Here is the concept art for my opening shot, and the layout that I did after, I'll have more to show next week!

-Rae 

Rae Gets Back on Track and Makes Really Cool Concepts!

It's my second week back from my winter break, and it's been great! I'm having a lot of fun working on my short film. It took me a while to get going, and I was stuck for a while, but now I'm back on track, and I know exactly what I want to do. I'm just a little behind schedule, so I have to catch up a bit. I've redone my storyboards, and changed a few things from what I had planned before, based on the concept art and designs I did. On Friday I pitched my boards to some of the guys for their feedback and suggestions. I really enjoyed getting to pitch my idea, and get their feedback, and discuss new ideas. They had some really good suggestions and made me think more about how to convey character and mood through storyboards, and make things easier to read visually. After I took their notes, I started making my animatic. It's cool to see my storyboards come to life by making them move, and adding sound. There's a lot more to think about, and I'm realizing some things may not be as easy as they seemed in my head. Today, I am going to try and finish my animatic, and get some feedback so I can move onto the next stage of production! Here is one of my concept paintings for my film, and the storyboards I did, I'll have more to show next week!

-Rae