HUH!...I'm all Shook Up!

Today at Postage was great! I got there super early, which didn't do me any good because Allen was on time. Joe was at another studio today, so I was Allen's intern and we got to do some awesome amount of editing.

The first two hours or so were dedicated to digitizing Dutch Apple's "All Shook Up" show. About 40 minutes in when I realized that it was a modern musical addaptation of Shakespeare's "12th Night" I stopped taking it seriously and enjoyed it. It got pretty funny at the end with the mix and match love stories, though I was sorta hoping for the tom boy to finally turn around and proclaim love for the geek boy. Then, with three clips, Allen showed me how to mix and match video to audio and levels and such to make a quick, 20-30 second clip of a song. But really, Allen did the first one and I did the second two. It was still fun though. It was all Elivs music, by the way.

Then, using the same footage that Allen had us practicing with in class yesterday, a lady came from ShurFine grocery stores and I got to create a new HD donut commercial for them. I think I'm going in tomorrow too to continue with that. There was some AfterEffects and some FinalCut for that, but it was ver similar to what we'd done in class, and that made it alright. Allen (and the lady) told me that this was really what editing was. There there was an "Editor" and a "Technical Editor". The first tells the second what clips to use, where, etc. and the second does the physical pushing of the buttons. I'd seen some of the behind-the-scenes stuff for LOTR:RotK and they showed that and I was so happy that I got to be the Technical Editor even for this small, local commercial. Allen said to enjoy it while it lasts, because it doesn't always stay fun. I told him that if I'm still actually doing this same kind of thing in 30 years and I'm still having fun, that I've picked the right path.

I hope I'm right.

[Hours: 10-6]
[Total Hours: 82]

Finish Line in Sight

Sorry I didn't post about yesterday, but I got to go in again today and finish up what I was working on, so it's all good.

I finally got to do some animating, but it was only the Greenfield Puppies website that I'd created a few weeks ago. It wasn't alot, but I had to go back in to Illustrator and Photoshop to make it look right, so that took a while. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. So I did that, then I got to color in shadows on a keyboard, mouse, and moniters that the puppy is looking for a family with. That took a while because I'm not so good with shapes of colors and gradients in Illustrator; I tend to just use Live Paint Groups. The keyboard was the worst, but the moniters were really easy.

After I got all those done I was given the skin of the Puppy Car to paint so that it could go over the 3D model. That took me to almost the end of the day today and Allen was very pleased with it. I still think there could've been better bits, but if they're happy and it's due Friday and I'm helping, I won't complain.

[Hours: 10-5.30]
[Hours: 2.30-6]
[Total Hours: 74]

Little bit at a Time

Went in yesterday after I was deserted on Tuesday. Joe hadn't really drawn anything for me to vectorize yet, so I started with some simple Photoshoping of the Greenfield Puppies car, wheel, and a paw. There was another intern who came in to do some coloring for Atomic Robot and another someone, didn't catch who he was, came in to talk to Joe about his portfolio and getting references for a new job, so I still was sitting around alot not doing anything. It feels like I only did a tiny bit of work and it wasn't overly significant.

I think I should start keeping track of total hourage now, cause I'm up to a quarter of the way done and it will just be a pain to have to keep going back and back and adding up my hours.

[Hours: 1-5]
[Total Hours: 62]

CUPCAKE!!

So, lucky me, I got to come in two days in a row. Get me out of the aparment! Continued to work on the Greenfield puppy thing. My job was to set up few pages of a mock website for a dog to go searching for his family on. I got to use their website as the base and copy some of the elements. The main difference is the first page where, on the real site it just pulls the site up, the puppy will see a screen that asks if you're a puppy or a person. Now, each of those names needed a pretty icon, so I sketched out in Illustrator a dog bone treat and a human silhouette. They were just placeholders until Joe sketch out his version and they decied that a cupcake would be best for the person icon. So then I got to vectorize Joe's drawings. Luckly, for at least the cupcake, he gave me another sketch with where the shadows were to go and I got it all done in a couple hours. It looks so cute!!!! The dog bones, not so much, but I like cupcakes more than bones, myself. I was so concentrated on doing the work too, that I didn't eat lunch until nearly 3. Then afterwards, I didn't really have anything to do, so that was the end of the day.

[Hours: 10-3.30]

Smoke Out My Ears

I had off for two weeks or so for Christmas break, but now it's a new year and I'm finally back to work! I was quite happy when I called in yesterday and Allen said I could come in today and that they had alot of things that they were going to be working on. That means there's lots for me to do and I'm not stuck just doing picture moves for Chameleon Club. Though, speaking of which, I had to photoshop a picture of the extension onto the club that Allen took. Actually, I had to cut two and make them in to one whol image. Also, had to paint out some wires that were in front of it. It took me a while, but it wasn't as bad as compositing was for Joe.

Then, there was another set of images for the game that Joe's working on that had an elephant's run cycle. That wasn't too bad because it was only the one cycle and it only had 6 images.

Then, I got to check out some cute puppies pictures looking for possible puppy stars of a commercial that they'll be doing for Greenfield Puppies. Cute puppy pictures are much prefered to depressed women pictures which they still might get that job. They're one of two finalists for it and I think they might find out by the end of January. I actually hope they get that because I'll be able to go on another commercial shoot of it works out on a day I don't have class. Same with the puppy one. I'd REALLY like to go to the puppy one!

Finally, we digitized a revival Christian musical that Dutch Apple put on. I got to watch through the whole thing because I might be helping out with a promotional commercial about it. Honestly, that kind of "Yay, Jesus" music scares me a little. But mostly, it was the southern accents that got to me sooner. I don't know if they did it on purpose or what, but it seemed stereotypical to me. However, I was really impressed taht of all 7 performers, only one of them could only play one instrument, and that was an acordian! All the others could play at least 2, if not 3 or 4. Granted, most of the multiples were strings like guitar and banjo and those kinds of instruments, but the two women could also play piano and they could all sing. Very impressive. I wonder how they cast it.

Don't know if I'm coming in tomorrow, but I'll at least be back on a schedule of coming in on Tuesdays. Hurray and Happy New Year! May it be a good year for us.

[Hours: 10-4.30]