i like purdy mooovies

Glorious beautiful sleep. How I love it.

Lazed about all morning. Like a champ. Took out the trash. Showered. Sorted out my presents. Looked at my laundry and contemplated putting it away, but I didn't.

Ate some frozen stir fry. Been lazy with the cooking.

Went to Trader Joe's. They didn't have the seaweed that I favor so much.

Decided to catch the 7pm showing of The Tempest with Karen and to get some sushi before. Killed time till 6pm rolled around and she found parking. I got two hand rolls and some of the kind with shrimp on top. No cut up rolls. I gave Karen her present and we chatted about stuff. She is a good friend. We had a good conversation in the theater about more things.

I hate the trailer for Little Furniture. I don't need to see movies about rich people in their mid 20's having existential crisis. Uhhhg. But the trailer for The Illusionist was great. I can't wait to see that.

The Tempest, Julie Taymor's adaptation of the play was interesting...

The casting was great. Molina, Mirren, Winshaw, Hounsou...and some of the parts were mind bogglingly spell binding and the visuals and costumes were the right kind of modern influences. I'm not familiar with the play so I think a lot was lost on me. It was good but, as Karen said after, it will need some time to digest.

We parted ways with a hug and I went home and put my feet up. One more day in Portland and then I go home home home.

hitting hilariously close to home

fart jokes are acceptable at any age

Wednesday:

Final day of classes! Yeah! The years are just flying by now. Got up a bit early so I could get to school to try and render the video smaller and properly. The third render still wasn't so good. Talked to Anouk and learned how to render through quick time. Huzzah.

Critique lasted all class, but each one was 10 minutes and watching animations take up time. So it went fast. And I took notes because I knew I couldn't remember all we watched, no matter how awesome. And it went alphabetical, so Tibby, Zach, and I were shafted. Tibbs and I shared our pain about how teachers ALWAYS say they'll do reverse alphabet but they never do.

Tippi - hand drawn shifting animation about how the bull was revered because it looked like a uterus. Very beautiful.

Andrin - stop motion cars sliding about. He made it look like the cars were sliding left and right. He did a lot of cutting out of cars, because the shadows never changed. It was totally convincing too, totally didn't look cut out. It was great.

Alison - something really conceptual. not my cup of tea.

Chase - goddammit Chase, why you gotta be so awesome? A side scrolling animation with lots of loops and his beautiful photoshop techniques. My side scrolled as well, but totally different styles. Anyway, Chase's animation was awesome. Robots and stuff.

Amanda - cute love story but the music was insanely loud

I think this is when we broke for lunch. I rendered my video properly (meaning good quality but not a HUGE file). I felt like pizza, so I got pizza.

Emily - a stop motion tribute to Jan Svankmejer. Cute old lady. Excellent animation.

Hill - stop motion. Mostly him going in circles. It was really nice. The movements flowed really well. There was a lot of stuff that apparently didn't work out, but all in all it was nice.

Most of the animations were under a minute. Rose and Anouck wanted good animations, and wanted us to keep them short so that they were good. Not try to do too much. It was amazing. So much great work. They brought in bagels and shmear.

Jeff - stop motion shirt and pants and shoes moving that eventually ended with him in it. Titled "waking up" or something.

Jaime - an animated dog moving about. Sound could have been better. Obviously took a ton of drawing.

Kami - a stop motion doll Marjorie. Sort of referenced Amelie. Very nice and simple and silly but effective all the way through.

Matt - told a story through well executed walk cycles, animation, sound, and cuts. Simple yet excellent. Really got the movement down for it all.

Kelly - He did a longer animation about a tooth fairy. Lots of composites in AfterEffects. Obviously made with his daughter in mind. Lots of unicorns and fairies but also crude humor. Turned out he wasn't accepted as a Tooth Fairy, but a Toot Fairy. Hahaha. The final shot was a door and farting noises. Heheh. It was very well received.

Leah R - stop motion cork screw and other items. really well animated with lots of variation.

Mitch - hand drawn stuff. really created this mood. nice.

Malcolm - figure moving against something trying to burst through the door. good sense of weight.

Kebrina - animating what music looks like, in a way.

Petra - rotoscoped animation done using sharpie, but scanning the sharpie on the reverse of the paper. the bleed through, not the actual page with the marks.

TJ - stop motion bear looking for a suitcase. cute.

My critique went really well. Everyone enjoyed it. No major trifles about what I did. One person said that they would enjoy playing a side scrolling game of all the animations that utilized panning. Owls and astronauts zapping aliens. Hehehe. Hill commented that it was cool that I can go just by one name in my art. I commented that the alliteration in his name was cool.

Tibby - very tense minimal animation. I said that it reminded me of greeting cards that you give people for tragic moments "I'm sorry for your horrible disease" I think I said, which got a good laugh unintentionally. The graphic looked like it, but the sound and the subtle build up acted very counter to the art. It was good, though Tibby knows animation isn't her bag. Well she says that it isn't, I think she is better than she is giving herself credit for.

Oh, Rose also got us mini cupcakes! Awesome!

And finally Zack. Goddamn that kid, he went for it. Stop motion, exposing light sensitive plants to light and documenting that as animation, puppets, set design, 3D stuff...god that kid. He did so much and probably it was all that he worked on for the past five weeks. It blew us all away. The conversation that took place when his finished was:

"How did you do that?" asked Trillian.

"In two words," added Hill Hudson.

"Black. Magic." answered Matt in Zacks place.

It was really something spectacular, and for a 200 level final as well. That kid will do amazing things.

And class was over. We said our goodbyes and applauded a lot. We applauded after each video and then after each critique. So 40 rounds, plus a couple at the end for everyone. Yay applause!

I scanned some website sketches in for Advanced Illustration and wrote up a response to the web survey. Class started and we mostly just talked about websites a bit and looked at our portfolio books. Then we watched Ponyo! Just for fun. And ate snacks. Ponyo was cute, though I was a little disappointed by the end.

Then Dom and I went to Yur's and met up with Danny, Leo, and Beth. Illustration booth right next to a design booth. I had a beer and a shot and we chatted and drew and gabbed and it was nice. A perfect end to the semester. Hanging with the awesome people at the local faux dive.

Went home. Was tired. Went to sleep.

Thursday:

Slept in, as I rightly deserved. Showered. Had some toast. Ran some errands. Went to Fred Meyer for some more of that intense conditioner that my hair is addicted to. It feels so sooooft. Also got some mousse and nail polish and maple candy and orange juice and blistex for my chapping lips. Then went to 3 Monkeys to get some presents. And then ush-Lay for more estents-pray for oiled-spay amiliy-fay embers-may. Hehehe. I think I'm set on presents now. A good mix of handmade and bought.

Then I rode my bike down to downtown, got buzzed in, and dropped Margaret off at Rollyn's apartment. Then we walked down to Pioneer Place and caught a matinée of The Tourist. It actually was a lot cuter than I expected it to be. I wasn't expecting much but it delivered just enough. Won't be the worst movie to rent down the line. Wasn't as trick stunt or innuendo heavy. Depp was charming. I liked it well enough.

We got pizza and hung out at his place after. It wasn't a bad bike ride back either. As his place is blocks from my old one, it is familiar streets. Just cut straight down to Johnson and then up to 22nd and I'm home. Right angles are the best.

Bought my train ticket home. I return the 19th. Don't have major plans from now till then. Probably clean the place up a bit. Wrap presents...

Odd Owl - The Way Home

Odd Owl - The Way Home from Trillian Spencer on Vimeo.

Oregonado

Animation is done! Whoo! I need to figure out how to export it at high quality without it looking horrible. Because I tried putting it up on Vimeo but it doesn't look as good as it should.

Anyway. School time.

Apparently there was a tornado in Salem. Oregon tornado? What.

Dropped my bike in my studio right as the rain started. Class was in the computer lab. Martin brought us pie! Four kinds! Meringue, apple, berry, and pumpkin. I went for the meringue. We filled out course evaluations and watched a little video about marketing and being prepared for the future or something. The speaker was really boring and it was hard to be invested in what she was saying. And then we were cut loose!

I headed to the print lab to print some wrapping paper. Critique was happening in the Etching/Litho studio and silk screen was free free free. Hurray! People came and it got crowded, but never intolerable. I printed my design on many sheets of newsprint and Dom showed up and started printing his right as I finished up. I got to printing my ChrissyPressy prints. Lots of printing. Did it in one stretch. Dom also printed tons and Morgaine printed and they collaborated and Samala came in and got some tuteledge. It was a regular illustration back of the studio take over. Whoo! So from about noon to five thirty, it was print happy time. Just doesn't get better than that.

Then I realized I was hungry, and I was done printing, so I cleaned my screen and picked up my stuff and said adieu and went to Chipotle. Got a soda as well, just a little caffeine to get me through the next bit of the day.

Went to the library and got in the comfy chair. Ate half the burrito, then curled up and took a 30 rest. Listened to audio book. Then I hauled my butt to yoga. Which kicked my butt again. Lots of core work. Stuff that takes strength. And my legs were giving out. Still, I did it. Good for me, and good for my physicalness. And now yoga is done for 2010!

I hauled my tired, worn out lump of a body to 815G (or was it F? anyway: the illustration computer lab). I tooled around on the internet and then I got down to business and finished my video. Actually the whole AfterEffects project went really well. No major problems or difficulties. No sound not exporting. Nothing like that. Hurray! Escaped the lab before 10pm.

Talked to the cool crew a bit.

Oh Morgaine said I should talk about her more in my blog. Or something. Morgaine is an awesome artist. She produces so much work, and high caliber work too. It has stuck with me from the first drawing I saw of hers and she continues to soar. She has a great sense of color and the human body. Her thesis is about the body and how we represent ourselves. Should be great. Her website is: http://www.morgainefaye.com/

Went home and worked on putting my prints into frames. Finished my burrito. Queued up lots of Sons of Anarchy. Now it is late, I am very weary. One last day. Mmm.

wrapping it up

It is amazing how easy it is to forget how much time something consumes.

Mmm sleep. Last time I get to sleep in for the next two days. Waaah.

Had my standard breakfast (you guessed it: tea and oatmeal, can't be bothered to make a scramble). Cut up a piece of lasagna for lunch.

It was actually a warmer day. Just had my grey hoodie and leather jacket. No serious layers needed. Went to the library and spent about an hour and a half cutting and folding my zines. Each one took four folds and four cuts and a staple. So all that times a hundred means a lot of time spent listening to A Game of Thrones. I got right on it when it came to passing them out. Serenity, Dom, Justin, Jon....

There were sandwich fixings (PB&J) in the commons so I had one of those. Kristen locked herself out of the apartment so she came by school to get my keys. Hahah.

I then put together my CD for Proposal Documentation. I sort of half assed it though. We were not kept totally up to speed on what we were supposed to turn in. Ehh, if it is inadequate I can turn in better. But I think it is fine. How much fine tooth combing are they really going to do?

Went to studio. Met up with Dom. Photocopied. Emulsified screens. Worked on our wrapping paper. And then we realized that critique was happening in the studio in about 10 minutes. We asked to be informed when there would be a break and sat in wait in the computer lab. I colored some stuff in. Then Phil texted and off we went. Exposed and washed out one screen like a champ. The bulb is getting old so it took forever to burn the screens. We were about a minute too late and sat through Antonia's critique because we didn't want to interrupt. Though having two illustration majors looming in the background of a final printmaking critique can't be fun. We felt really bad about it. But what was done was done.

Worked on my animation a little more. I think I'm going to recolor some of the owls tomorrow. Just so they flow together a little more. Do some tweaking. So right now just have animation to finish and Advanced Illustration stuff (but no illustration specific stuff) and Christmas related stuff. I'm nearing the finish liiiine!

When I was riding home, a man on crutches with one leg crossed the street.

limit

Turns out 275 pulls is my max number in silk screen. Good to know.

Had a slow start. The type of "well I'm only doing two things, I'll put it off" thing. Had breakfast. Drew a picture. Wrote out the to do list. Stuffed a frozen meal in my purse with a bunch of other things. I rode first to the laundromat to get quarters for laundry. Then I went to Utrecht and bought some paper. The lab was packed so I went to the library. Photocopied my sketchbook. Cut the spreads up. Oh, in the store I had a revelation about my format. I kept thinking of folding the images in halves, completely forgot about the notion of thirds. So yeah, spent a lot of time planning out the new layout. And then I realized I had counted the number of spreads, not pages, so I had to do even more folding and layout. Took a lot longer than expected. Drew some other stuff for printing.

The studio was still full, but I put my stuff down and cut down paper and emulsified screens and exposed. Waiting for a table to open up. And it did! In an hour I printed one side of the screen, and in another side I printed the other side. 100 zines. 200 pulls. Ahhg. Listened to A Game of Thrones. I also worked a little on the other piece but after hours of printing and being on my feet, my body was done in. At 9:30pmish I went to the computer lab and tooled around on the animation. Got it up to speed and all that. Finally staggered home. Well stagger biked.

Put my feet up. Relieved my back. Did my laundry. Now I'm going to fold my laundry and pass out. Long day tomorrow. Longish. Wrapping paper, print, thesis CD documentation disc or something, folding zine, animation. I'll probably work on animation and zine and CD during the day and printing after five.

Can only print so much yeah....

frame up

Crawled out of bed to another rainy day. Oh well. Had my breakfast.

Bekka came over at 1:30. She was in Copenhagen for three months but couldn't stand the weather and came back, and now she works as a design assistant! Way cool! We gabbed for a few hours. Ate lasagna. It was a nice visit. Now that she is going to PSU and all that, we need to hang more. Bekka is cool cool cool.

Anyway, she left at 4 and Karen showed up for Ikea time! Treated her to meatballs in thanks for the ride. We gobbled them down, because well...meatballs are delicious! It wasn't a major Ikea trip. Didn't go through the showrooms. I picked up another towel and then went to the frames department. There was a 3 for 1.99 frame pack, but the edges were really cheap, and a simple 4 for .99 set with clips. Guess which ones I bought ten of? So yeah, giving away a bit of what I've giving for Christmas, but it won't be all that I give.

Then we went back. I chilled at home for a bit but then went to school to work on my animation. Color corrected some bits. Got it into the file. Took some tweaking but it is getting there, inch by inch. I'm not really feeling the little owl yet.

When it was nearing closing, Mel and I went to Yur's. I didn't have my wallet, but I've sat at Yur's without being checked (or ordering) before. This time they were all "no wallet, can't have you here". Boo. So I left and changed my mind and grabbed my wallet but when I got back, Mel had left. So I rode around a bit at night. It was a good night for it. A little damp, but quiet.

Then I snacked on food, planned out the next couple days, and watched The Terminator. I'm feeling tired, so I think I'll go to bed early. Get up. Draw. Get paper. Print. Animate. Go to bed. Monday is more printing (wrapping paper) and getting the proposal thesis CD stuff in order. I don't think I'll print my mailer just yet. I want to get it nice and squared away and awesome. Not somewhat decent. Tuesday is the final Professional Practices. Turn in stuff, chill. Then sketch stuff for Advanced Illustration, survey for Advanced...touch up animation and yoga. Then turn all that stuff in on Wednesday.

The thesis zine is giving me problems. Maybe I should just make it a poster. There are 11 7"x5 1/2" spreads.