My blog exploded

I was just adding some links when I accidentally deleted some code which made my blog explode into an array of words.
It was quite frightening. I made a new blog and compared the code to find out what happened and I managed to fix it. This incident only reminds me why I didn't continue on with Computer Science at University.

Aaron on the radio?

Aaron is going to be interviewed on the CBC radio tomorrow, talking about the music video we did for Elliott Brood this past summer. Cool!!!

Sally Jenkins!!!!

Prissy little Sally Jenkins.

Little Big on Youtube

Our 3rd Year Animation group film project Little Big is now up on Youtube. The orignal concept was thought up by Anna Gopin. We worked long and hard on this film, but there's still a glitch or 2 here and there, but we got the whole thing coloured and composited. It turned out to be over 6 min and we just about died making it...but in the end I think all the struggles were worth it.

I have to thank Aaron White for teaching us how to colour and composite it and Chantelle Tokarz for doing the sound.




There's still a couple of glitches that we should get around to fixing at some point.

Guild Wars action

Some pics of Aaron's and my characters in Guild Wars. Somehow...my character's top provides armour while defying the laws of gravity. Ah well.....



























































































Our characters just chattin up a storm. Aaron is "Sassy Swashbuckler" and I'm "Elrica of Pomerania". So geeky....but so much fun. Edit... his character's name is Zombie Swashbuckler. haha

Rosenpig Version 2 now at Occupied

Here are some pics of the new Rosenpigs in the shop Occupied, in Vancouver.
Soooo cool.
If you want to see the other awesome things for sale check out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/occupied/

The Big Apple

We saw this giant apple on our way to Ottawa for the Animation Festival. We had to stop and check it out. I found it very inspirational!!!

Some more Concept

A couple more layout concepts for my film. I'm trying out a new style so it might take a few trys to get it looking right. I need to work out some textures and overlay effects to them as well to make it look all nice and...texture-ish! But yeah, I did these in photoshop.
The Peach will also look much better hand drawn. I did this one when my tablet was acting up, so I had to switch over to the mouse (uuuug). But at least I don't hate layout right now like I sometimes do.

I'm trying to get all my layouts worked out really quick in photoshop so I can put them into my leica right away. I want to be animating before Xmas. I remember what it was like doing a minute and a half in the 2nd semester last year PLUS cleanup, PLUS scanning and colouring and compositing. So yeah...before Xmas.

A Peach for the Teach

That's the title for my film I'm making at school.
I threw this layout together as part of some concept design work. The story will take place in an elementary school classroom. I will put up more art as it gets done, and eventually put the best stuff on my website.

Makeover Sunday!!!

So...my sister found this website where you can upload your photo and try out new hairstyles and colours, so she forwarded it to me, not knowing what I was going to do with it.

I decided I wasn't happy with just doing one version, so I did a bunch and with the power of print screen and photoshop I came up with these beauties:




























One for me and one for Aaron. Pretty scary stuff, but it was entertaining enough for a few hours.

If you'd like to try out this hideousness youself, here's the webpage:

clairol canada

Elliott Brood Video

Cooooool,
Aaron sent a link to the music video blog and the person has been getting some good comments on it. Woo woo.

http://badtemperedzombie.blogspot.com/2006/09/oh-yes-they-did-elliott-brood-have.html

the blog for the video is here though:

http://broodsbridge.blogspot.com/

Art Show

Aaron and I sent off 4 of our new "flat" Rosenpig stuffed animals to an art show in Baltimore, Maryland. The show is taking place here:
http://www.ccspace.org/

They will have some info on the show up soon. WOO!

I hope the little guys do well. I wish I had had time to do some of the other "Fat" Rosenpigs too, but they do take time to make because they're hand sewn from start to finish, and have a hand painted adventure that Aaron does for each one.

Hooray for the Art Show though!

Back in Oakville

So I'm back in Oakville now, getting ready to start 4th year.

Aaron and I made 14 Rosenpigs of a new flat design (machine sewn so they take less time than the fat log type which is all by hand) and he should be taking then to the Occupied shop pretty soon. They will be cheaper since they are far easier to make (but they still took some time).
We made another 4 to send to an art show in Baltimore, Maryland. They might not get there in time for the opening but we'll see. Gotta spread the Rosenpig love!

I should finish unpacking now...but I will try to post stuff frequently about my film because I will be starting that up pretty quickly. I love youtube!!! So easy.

Guild Wars loves Blue Oyster Cult

How much do I love Guild Wars right now...

there's a quest called "More Cowbell". A guy has dropped his blessed Cowbell into a bed of Blue Oysters, and you have to retrieve it for him.

Some of you may know my obsession with the "I gotta have more Cowbell, baby" skit on Saturday Night Live starring Christopher Walken and Will Farrel, where Will Farrel plays the cowbell to the Blue Oyster Cult song Don't Fear the Reaper. This game just made me smile!!!

More Zombie pics!!!

More pics of us looking gross!!!

Can't wait for Zombie Walk 2007. Check out Zombie Charlotte and Zombie Kyle..."Just Burried"

Zombie Walk 2006 - Vancouver

So...we participated in Zombie Walk 2006 today, and what craziness it was.

We started off at the art gallery, and got lots of funny looks on our way down there. It seemed not everyone in the city knew about this event. One woman looked very dissaproving at us, but everyone else was pretty cool. Those who were very intrigued asked us what the deal was so we told them...

When we got there, we joined the gaggle of Zombies. We took a few pics then headed out on the journey. We stuck to the sidewalk for the first couple blocks on Robson St. There was even a plainclothes police officer directing traffic when we came to the first set of lights.

As we got further down Robson however the zombies started to spill out onto the street, but just into the lane on our side; not into the oncoming traffic. I wasn't sure if we should be on the street or not so I stuck to the sidewalk. I'm pretty glad I did, because I heard a loud smash behind me a few blocks further. I turned around and about 12 feet behind me, someone had been hit by a car coming from behind. The front windshield was smashed, and by the time I turned to look, the guy who had been hit was already on the ground. He looked pretty hurt, but I don't think it was life threatening. But he still didn't look too Ok.

I don't know what had transpired between the zombies and that car because my back was to them, but I don't think running down a slow walking person was the smartest decision that driver could have made. But it sure pissed off the zombies. Pretty soon there were zombies going at the car. The car was in the process of trying to get away, and he managed to, but not before it took a bit more damage.

I heard later that the side mirrors had been kicked off, but man...that really shook a lot of us up.
If anyone knows the guy who was hit, and you manage to find this blog, could you please post a message if he's ok?

But the zombies kept on trucking. Nothing was gonna stop us, not even some dink in a car with a road rage problem. We're going to post the rest of our photos on our flickr site

http://www.flickr.com/photos/designerwhite/

crazy crazy day!

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron "Forever Free"

So I picked up another horse adventure game a few weeks ago. You might have heard of the movie, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

The first time I saw the movie was when me and a bunch of animation students were trying to finish our walk/run cycles in 2nd year in the animation room, and we put it on as background entertainment.
The animation was pretty great, but I was having trouble sitting through the Bryan Adams songs every 10 minutes. I don't really have anything against him; I like a few songs here and there, but not a song every 10 minutes. And they all sound like the same song. But whatever....I still liked the film, so when I saw the game for 10 bucks at the same Toys R Us I picked up the gem, Champion Dreams, I couldn't refuse buying it.

The cashier asked me if I needed a gift receipt (I assume she thought I was buying the game for someone else. Perhaps someone a lot younger). So I said no, but I didn't elaborate and say it was for me.
I started it when I got home on my laptop...I think Aaon has had enough horse games on his computer, and I wanted to see if the ol' lappy 3000 was buff enough to handle this game.

The Game:
You play as Spirit, and you and your horse friends have been captured by various people and are put to work. So, when you start you are in a pen with another horse who wants to escape as well, but he's too old to jump the fence. The fence is pretty annoying too, cause you have to be lined up exactly, and be clicking on the left mouse button to make sure you're going fast enough to get over it.

So once you get out of there (you can come back to help the other horse later) you go around to the different areas freeing your horse friends AND taking care of your girlfriend horse Rain. You have to collect some arrowheads and trade them to the trader to get a water pouch, so everytime she's all like "Yo, I need some water." you have to dunk it in the stream and take it to her. Sometimes she needs food too, so you can find random apples on the ground, or buy them from that trader dude.
In order to get faster you have to chase this rabbit around. Once you catch him, he gives you a carrot. The more carrots you get the faster you go, but it wears off after a bit...so you're constantly clicking the mouse to keep running.

And when you get enough carrots to run somewhat fast, you can race the eagle. I can't remember what you get for beating him, it's probably not worth remembering.
I'm sure there's lots of kids that will like this game, but since I'm 25 now, it was pretty easy. I finished the whole game in 3 days...but it shouldn't have taken that long.
The first time I had to stop playing after a couple hours because my computer froze up. The next day I didn't play because I was busy doing other things, and then the third day I finished it.

That being said...it's not quite as involving as Champion Dreams!!! but, it's probably something easy enough for kids to pick up and have fun with. It was only 10 bucks. I do like the fact you can kick things too (like barrels. They usually have bunch of arrowheads hiding inside)
So yeah, I'm probably not going to play it again, but maybe I'll save it for my future kid(s).

Fun Summer

Woo!!! The summer of fun. An update of things from the past little while.
We got 6 Rosenpigs in the store "Occupied" here in Vancouver:















Got a great job offer but had to turn it down unfortunately because I'm going back to school in September for my final year. Can't wait to finish my film next year.

Just got back from a wedding yesterday in London Ontario which was super awesome. I love weddings, and this one was superb.

Working more on the music video, getting that done for the end of August. I can't wait to see it on TV.

I think I need more horse games to critique though.

More Champion Dreams pics

More Pics, including Spike calling me a Wombat. Sooo good!

Awesome pics!!!!!!!!!!

Check out these awesome screen caps from my Girly Horsie Adventure game.
Dirty, dirty horse:














Showjumping:














Apparently he was bored, so I gave him a tire? And then a hug: