It's that time again!

New semester, new challenges, new animation! Here is a portion of my dance scene.

The backstory of my animation is a little kid with big dreams who wants to hit the big dancing scene. He learned how to move to the beat of music since he was a toddler. Now, he wants to show the world that he can keep up with the big guys and showcase his gifted talent and be recognized as a dancing prodigy.

Playing with background and sound...

I still need to do various holds and composite the background so the composition of the whole scene ties together.

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85% done!

There still needs to be a few more in-betweens. I still need to work on the hold after the quick run. There needs to be more emotion of the character right before she removes her hoody. There are a few more scenes that need to be cleaned up. I also need to composite the backgrounds to the final scenes.

I've decided to create my own music via Garageband and possibly add sound effects. The ending is near!

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Homeless scene added

I worked a lot on the homeless scene, trying to get facial expressions right. The most difficult part was trying to portray how insensitive people are when it comes to these people. So I decided to animate an example of cruel punishment these people endure every single day. I'm still working on the run cycle right after the kick where she attempts to chase after the cup one last time before she realizes it's no use and gives up. This scene is what connects to her last emotions.

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Bittersweet plus animatic

So far, I've tested out a few items to composite. I still need to animate the "asking for change" scene and add the last bit of the film. I'm also working on the final background to add to the scene to make the composition look more intriguing. More updates later.
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Let's just say...Spring Break wasn't good to me.

There comes a time in our lives where we hit an all-time low. For Spring Break, I had it all planned out where I would set deadlines to finish scenes of my film. I had key frames down for particular scenes and I wanted to finish majority of it by the end of break. Then these plans came to a screeching halt.

I found out my grandmother was in the hospital with the doctor only giving her a few weeks to live. So everyday during the break, I've been caring for my grandma in the hospital. I'm grateful for great family and friends who supported and comforted my family during these rough times. Thankfully, she is slowly recovering. However, I lost the motivation to continue anything academically because of concerns for my family. And that's what troubles me.

I'm in desperate need to get that drive back. I really want to finish this film, but I feel like with my current state of mind, I won't be able to execute and produce work that's quality under my own standards. I just need to recuperate. Maybe going back to school will allow me to focus more.

I sure wish we have class time to work on our projects so we could get more feedback and get more work done. Not to mention the environment in class seems fitting to accomplishing more towards our goals.

Update: I couldn't figure out why my Pencil Check Pro is malfunctioning. However, I did manage to figure out how to time the framing on Final Cut. WHOO! So far, I edited the timing so the animation runs a little more smoothly. I noticed during the character's push up, there is a skipped frame and she holds herself up.

As of today, I animated the character putting on her necklace. I'm still working on the follow-through of the hair and more in-betweens for places where the holds should be. I also redrew the character's last few poses to make it a more appealing composition.


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Bittersweet_update

Except for a couple in-betweens, I've completed the most difficult scene in my animation. It still needs a little bit of tweaking for parts where the character pushes up from the floor and a little more holds. The last 3 seconds are the keys for the final part of the film where she puts the necklace on, holds it as if it were a sentimental value, and looks up and prays.

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Bittersweet Scenes 1 and 2

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Scene 1: Keyframes

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"Bittersweet" Animatic

It's been a while...

So it's been a month and a half since my last post so I felt I had to update this blog with some new ish. New semester, new stories and much more animation ahead! WHOO! Anyway, I printed out a sample of my poster but it looked very unnoticeable. This is why I decided to post it to this blog as well so people could get a greater look at it.



I stuck with almost neutral colors to give a feel of sadness, depression, and the feeling of having nothing left in life.

Animation idea: To showcase the hardships of the lives of those with no homes and open the eyes of viewers to see a whole other world in which we would never even think about being in.

Inspiration: In my area in Kapolei, there are many homeless people who have nowhere to go, salvaging everything they can to survive. Our family restaurant donates food every week to some of these people who ask for food.

What to accomplish: I hope people gain a sense of humanitarianism, especially towards these human beings. Ironically, the situation in Haiti is an eye-opener for those living here. So, in a way, the tragic events that led many to live their lives without any family members and without homes seem relevant. This seems like a real stretch but hopefully I will be able to animate the things these homeless people have to go through everyday and ultimately, the audience will gain a better understanding of the way they live.