Meeting Recap, 10/26/12

Hello hello!

Thank you all for attending our Halloween party! It was so much fun!! We were so excited to see everyone in costume -- so many awesome ones. Our members are THE BEST! :D

We watched some classic Halloween episodes from shows like Rugrats, Spongebob and Gravity Falls while eating candy and cupcakes! We also took a ton of pictures. ;)

We hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween weekend! We'll see you next week where we'll be handing out our November schedules!

Link of the Week

Bekah here with a link of the week! This one is a super cool opportunity -- take advantage of it if you can!!

We know this is short notice, but if you have time, it's DEFINITELY worth entering. Fantastic prize and very good experience!!

Toon Boom's 2012 Halloween Animation Contest
Toon Boom is hosting its annual Halloween Animation Contest. Using a free copy of Flip Boom Doodle, animators of all skill levels and ages are invited to create their own dancing Pumpkin! Winners will receive an iPad or a copy of Toon Boom Studio. The contest closes soon on October 31, 2012, so get those submissions into Facebook today! Click to enter: http://on.fb.me/RJgarE


Go to the link to enter!!

Meeting Recap, 10/19/12

Hello all! 

A few announcements:

1. Cafe Sketch is an incredibly popular Animation class at CCAD. It's so popular that it's already filled up! If enough people still would like to register for Cafe Sketch, the faculty may add another section for Spring 2013. The sign-up sheet is in the Media Studies office, on Charlotte's desk. They need at least 10-15 people to think about adding another section, so be sure to sign up if you're interested!

2. On Friday, November 7th, from 6-7PM at ACCAD (Bale Theatre), an OSU alumni will be giving an informational talk about Pixar Internships! This could be a really cool networking opportunity. Be sure to check it out if you can!

3. The CCAD Internship Fair is fast approaching! It happens on November 9th and the deadline for Juniors and Seniors to register is October 26th! This is a fantastic opportunity to make connections and find internships so DO IT. :)

We hope you enjoyed the fantastic presentation by Kevin Harkness on Friday. Kevin is currently a Senior TD at Fivestone Studios. He's had a ton of industry experience and we're glad he was able to share some of his infinite wisdom! :) Keep in mind that this is all one person's experience: there's no definitive right or wrong answer in the industry, so get out there and create your own experiences!

His presentation was incredibly informative, especially for those of us looking to do freelance work, or work for smaller studios. We talked about the industry workload; how much you should expect to be paid; specialists vs generalists; the importance of deadlines, online presence, and internships; demo reel dos and don'ts; and contracts! If you'd like a copy of the Powerpoint, PLEASE contact a leader! It was jam packed with critical information, so be sure to grab a copy!

If you'd like to follow up with Kevin, or ask him any questions, feel free to contact him through Facebook!

See you next week for our HALLOWEEN PARTY! Come in costume! There will be themed movies and snacks, and be sure to bring your sketchbooks!!

Link of the Week

For this week's Link of the Week, it is actually going to be quite a few links. I have found some of the best online applications that can be used for school. All these applications are online only (no downloading necessary!) and are great if you like to work without carrying around a massive backpack everywhere. So without further explaining, let the links begin
 

 



http://notebook.zoho.com/

This first thing is something that everyone should have: a notebook. Here is a fancy online notebook that enables you to have multiple notebooks, with pages, sections, and the ability to drag notes around. You can add text, HTML, RSS, audio, video, and images into your notes as well. It just got out of the beta stages so it might not be perfect, but it definitely can be very useful!

https://drive.google.com

Piggybacking off of Zoho, comes Google Drive. This can be a very good note-taking app, but it can also do a host of other things. It can sync with your phone very easily and is a great way to keep your files attached to your email for everyday use.








http://dropbox.com/

Next up is a place to put all these big files you are accumulating on your harddrive. There is nothing better than Dropbox for this. You can use it on your computer, tablet, or phone, and it is an easy yet powerful file storage system . You can share whole folders, or just keep it all to yourself.











https://www.google.com/calendar/

Up next is one of the best ways to keep your schedule organized with all your homework and personal events. Google Calendar allows you to create events which sync seamlessly to your smartphone or tablet instantly, and vice versa. It lets the user create reminders from the computer that will only affect your smartphone and many, many other things. I, personally, would be forgetting things left and right without this.

http://wunderlist.com/

Wunderlist is an awesome application that can help keep all your tasks in check. It allows for different categories of tasks, so even if you have 1000 tasks, you can still keep organized with this app.



 



http://prezi.com/

If you are being forced to make a presentation for a class (woohoo...) you might as well spice it up a bit with a Prezi. It is an presentation tool that can do things a powerpoint only dreams about at night. It creates awesome panning and zooming effects that break up the monotony of a powerpoint. Check out their intro video here.


 




http://www.aviary.com/web

We are moving a bit away from the academic side of school and into the creative aspect (finally)! Aviary is an awesome image editing application that allows for a wide variety of features. It is no Photoshop, but you are in a pinch and are on a computer without Adobe products, this is just the thing for you!

Other online image editors you can use are Splashup and there is always an online Photoshop Elements, but it is not as powerful as the full Photoshop CS6.

Next and final category is the video editors. There are a bunch to choose from, but these two are the ones that I think are the best:









http://www.youtube.com/editor/

Youtube actually has an editor built into their website for use. I haven't tried it myself, but it looks legit!








 http://www.videotoolbox.com/

Next one the list is VideoToolBox. It doesn't look as it would be as powerful as the youtube editor, but it is still a nice little tool to use!


Now that you are all equiped for school, sit back and relax with some new music using one of the best music discovery site out there. Enjoy!





 








http://songza.com/

Meeting Recap, 10/12/12

Hello again!

General reminders:

1. We're still working on a day that we can all go to the zoo! It will probably be either November 2nd or November 16th -- Keep an eye on the Facebook page!

2. DragonFrame is now available on the two computers in the back of 308!

3. On Friday, November 7th, from 6-7PM at ACCAD (Bale Theatre), an OSU alumni will be giving an informational talk about Pixar Internships! This could be a really cool networking opportunity. Be sure to check it out if you can!

4. The CCAD Internship Fair is fast approaching! It happens on November 9th and the deadline for Juniors and Seniors to register is October 26th! This is a fantastic opportunity to make connections and find internships so DO IT. :)

We also had a super cool visit from Margaret Hardy! She currently works at BLT Communications, which is part of the Key Art Industry. Key Art is the art of movie marketing campaigns, including movie posters, trailers, television spots and advertising. It's essentially branding the whole package of a film, show or project. Everyone should definitely check it out, and thank Margaret for stopping by and talking to us!

And finally, our feature presentation:

We have to say -- that was a really fun and intense game of Jeopardy! We played two rounds, with AWESOME representation from our three teams: Team Howl, Team Swagsquatch, and Team Boomshakazebra.

In the end, Team Howl pulled ahead and defeated the other two teams! Congratulations! Prizes will be coming soon. :)

Here were our categories for those who couldn't attend:

We'll see you at next week's meeting! Kevin Harkness will be giving a talk on resumes, demo reels and how to get a job in the industry!

Meeting Recap, 10/05/12

Wow! Thank you guys for coming to our meeting this week. We think it was one of our best ones yet!! As I'm sure you know, we had a Skype call with Chris Oatley!

We had a really great turnout and even had a surprise appearance by Lora Innes who was in town for the Mix 2012 Comics Symposium. It was like a Paper Wings reunion right here at CCAD. :D

Chris talked about his journey from CCAD to where he is now with Disney Toon Studios and Oatley Academy. He gave advice on everything from how to maximize your education, portfolio tips, networking and many books/article/podcast recommendations!

We didn't have a ton of people ask questions (thank you Ben, Brandon and Don!) so if you'd like to follow up with Chris and ask some questions you didn't quite get up the nerve to ask on Friday, be sure to email him!! He definitely wants to hear from us, so utilize this opportunity! As Chris mentioned in his talk, we all need to own our own education and take control of all opportunities that we can!

If you weren't able to attend on Friday (we know there were quite a few conflicting events happening) and would like a full copy of our notes, please come to our meeting on Friday, October 12th. Contact a leader and we'll get you a copy ASAP. :)

See you on Friday for Animation Jeopardy! Come prepared and brush up on all your animation facts and trivia. ;)

Links of the Week

Hey everybody! It's Tyler's turn for Link(s) of the Week!

 

 Gamasutra Job Board

This week I bring the Gamasutra Job Board. For those interested in a job in the videogame industry, I'd highly recommend checking Gamasutra out. I've never been a huge fan of their editorial content, but their job board and listings are fairly comprehensive.

The Art of STODOE

My Featured Artist this week is David Stodolny, an animator who has worked for Sony Pictures Animation and currently works for Dreamworks as a senior character animator.

some samples of his 2D and 3D work include:

I recommend checking out his site, he's got a large variety of work, and gives good examples for designing characters and backgrounds, with posts dedicated to each step of background design from rough sketch to color key to final piece


That's all for now, see you all next time

-Tyler

Link of the week!!!!

  

Pete Emslie

 One of my all time favorite caricature artists, Pete Emsile is a master of his craft. He's worked in the art industry for well over 30 years and is currently freelancing. His caricatures are stunning and he always captures his prey with such beauty and accuracy, and he's super fast at it too. Anyway, go ahead and visit his site by clicking on his name above or the image below and be prepared to be blown awayyyy yyy yy       y!

 

Good character design derives a lot of qualities from caricatures.


                With love,
                                           Rico Jackson