Nov 16th and 17th

So last night / this morning I was too tired to write, sooo I am lumping the two days together.  haha.

Yesterday I walked to work again.  Which I really kind of enjoy.  Nice fresh air, and its great to get out and walk.  Considering I am failing at any other type of exercise lately (no, I never succeeded at running.. ugh.. hard to get a routine around here), its really nice to be walking everywhere.  I've been taking my camera around with me FINALLY now that I remembered.  Trying to keep up with that whole photo-a-day thing, though it is hard at the moment.  I want to edit the photos, some of them end up really washed out, but oh well.  At least I have them :-).  Take a look, heres some from my walk to work yesterday:

 I walk down this hill (and back up it) every day.  This is Franklin road.  BEAUTIFUL. 

 Saw these today hanging over a brick wall.  Pretty!

-This is right across the street from work.  Just noticed it today.

So yes, glad to be taking Photos :-)  Will try to make it a routine for sure.

And work was good, another 12 hour day.  Long week this week, but thats ok.  Thank goodness I love my job.  I honestly just like being in the studio.  I would rather be in the studio than at home!  But thats just how it is.  Haha.  Anyways, the work has been hard but good.  Submitted another shot, and then got to trying my hand at the dreaded Savio the Snake.  And let me tell you... he is a MESS of a rig!  SO hard to work with.  I have seen some great results with him, but I have no idea how whoever did it is achieving them!  They're not from our studio, thats for sure.

Struggled with him quite a bit, re-animated him a few times, and left at the end of the evening (around 8:45) having SOMETHING at least.  I think I have to re-do the shot though... after trying another one today, I think there may be a different / potentially better way to do it?  Not sure.  We shall see tomorrow (Thursday).  Hopefully I can get something going.

Ugh, now the crappy part.  So I got home from work to what was supposed to just be a chill BBQ that was going on at the neighbor's for someones birthday.  However, it ended up being this obnoxious party with loud music, people yelling, singing, and getting wasted.  On a TUESDAY.  Ridiculous.  So anyway, that was obnoxious, not to mention the place was kind of a mess when I got home.  Kira and Scott are just messy.  Seriously.. messy.  Everyone else seems to be ok.  Nia was annoyed at it too when I got home.  And of course, there were NO clean dishes, so I had to wash some to make my dinner, which I had carried home with me after stopping by the store around 9:00pm after work.

Anyway, the party went on until 2:00AM almost..... ugh.  I swear.  Its like no one works.. or cares about those who do.  And after a long day at work both Mon and Tues, I was not happy AT ALL.  Luckily, Nia is awesome, and she and I sat down with Alvaro and Ernesto and were goofing off in the living room, trying to avoid the loud noise outside.  Which was not easy.  But we had fun!  We were teaching them english words / phrases, and vice versa.  That was a good time.  Then Terry got home way early, and Nia and I were talking.  Apparently Terry is trying to learn Welsh (even though hes from Wales, the area he's from does not speak it), and Nia had gotten some CDs of audio for him to learn it.  She asked if I could put them on my computer, so he could possibly load them to his ipod (they dont have computers).  I said sure if it would work, and sure enough it did!  The coolest part:  I could totally learn Welsh if I wanted to!  haha.  So neat.  I have no idea what it sounds like, but Im kind of excited to try!  We shall see.  Anyway, it was nice hanging with them.  Nia and I seem to feel the same about some of the crazyness that goes on here.  So it was good to have someone to talk to.  She will be here for a while, and I just don't think that I want to be.  Its nice to have some people around, but still..... I would really like some personal alone time after work.  

Well, so once the party died down, I went to bed.  and PASSED out until waking up around 7am to get to work again.  Nia and I rode the bus, and I got into work later than normal, I figured after Monday and Tuesday that it was fine, which it was.  Today was Savio day.  ALL day.  Thats all I worked on.  Trying to figure out that rig.... ugh.  Anyways, its interesting trying to work through it, a challenge for sure.  But.. sometimes you just want something to work the first time :-).

I went from the one (possibly the hardest shot with Savio) to another one after a while.  THAT one I think I may have finally gotten down alright.  Took a while, but not terrible.  So that one I submitted for review tonight before leaving work.

Ok, I love work.  We have random nurf fights EVERY day it seems.  And its SO much fun.  I know I rave and rave about it, but I really do love it.  I love the work, even when its hard, love the people, environment, etc.  Fantastic.  :-)  So yes, work was frustrating, but good.  Kate and I had a really nice chat today too.  SO glad she finally moved into our office.  We were weary that they may not move her, but very glad they did.  She's a blast, and I am definitely looking forward to hanging out with her and everyone else a lot more.  We all actually started making a list of outings that we would like to set up to take.  Paintball, a beach trip, a skiing trip, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding..... etc.  SO excited about these possibilities.  I hope they happen! 

OH, and back to the rig for a second.......we have been trying to ask Nickelodeon what to do about Savio the past few days.  They came back today with something along the lines of: "he needs a completely new set up / re-rig, but that just isn't feasable at this point in production of the current show, so have the animators try to do the best they can until we can hopefully find a solution later down the line."  haha.  I knew that would happen.  And its true, he does need a total re-rig.  I mean, Im no rigger at all, but I just could not seem to make easy sense of that rig.  So we were animating, re-animating, asking questions back and forth... its just a time sucker really.  I could have powered through a few of those shots (more than just the two) if the rig had been more logical. 

Anyway, that aside, I feel I did alright with it for today.  Headed out around 6, which was nice, and headed up to the Pub (Albion) up the road for $10 steak night.  Nick got all the ladies a round of drinks which was nice, and we hung out and had our steaks :-).

Then, stuffed with steak, I walked home, and luckily, found the place quiet.  Everyone home, but quiet.  THANK GOODNESS.  So Nia and I hung out for a while.  She's such a sweetheart.  She doesn't want me to move out.  Thats really sweet of her.  And if it was just her and Terry I was living with, I would be perfectly happy and fine.  Its the crowd of everyone, and the parties and the nutso-ness of everyone else that I am not a fan of.  Too bad it has to happen like that.

Anyway, had a nice relaxed evening.  Took some nice photos of the sunset on the way home too, take a look:

 -Above was walking down the hill from the pub toward my office.

 -SOOO pretty.

-And this, on the left, is where I live...just I live in the lower room.   This was right outside the unit when I got back tonight.

So yes, quite the nice walk home.

And now, it is 10:30pm, and I am headed to bed.  SO excited.  I am wiped.

Goodnight!

Nov 15th

Ahhh, a bit of a rainy morning this morning.  Haha, the Sky tower looks pretty cool in the fog! 

Had a good day today.  Even though it wasn't as productive as I wish it had been.  I LOVE our studio, its awesome, but sometimes I think we all chat a bit too much ;-)  At least I have headphones now though, so I can work a little bit better.  Got a new computer yesterday. 

Managed to get two shots in yesterday.  I also stayed for like, 12 hours... haha.  Almost anyway.  These shots with Savio are what I am really worried about, so I wanted to get another of the two that don't deal with him out of the way.  Although.. we noticed some substantial issues with the Savio rig.  His IK system is exactly that of the elephants... nothing follows what it should.  So this is definitely daunting, since I have some of the more dramatic flipping / swirling scenes with him.  Im hoping that they are even possible, because from what Peter was seeing, and what we were attempting, Im not so sure...  I guess we will see.  Peter send out a note it sounds like to Nickelodeon to see if there is either something in terms of rig usage that we are missing, or if there is any way to get the rig to be modified a bit.  Its just going to take HOURS... well, in this case probably days to get that rig to cooperate... so I may be eating, sleeping, and breathing work this week.  Hopefully its solvable... otherwise I have no idea if it will get done.

On the bright side, the shots with Julien will be interesting.  Gotta keep in mind that with him, the more animated the better.  We shall see!  Looking forward to it.

Also, we have started decorating our office!  Amnon brought in some plants for his desk, and I think thats a fantastic idea, especially since we get a lot of decent sunlight in the room.  He brought in a Peace Plant, sounds like they are easy to take care of, so I think I might get one myself :-D.  We started hanging posters too.  Its starting to look great.  Its getting crowded (we have a few new animators), but still great.  I was able to nab an Avatar poster too!  Chris walked in, and noticed we were putting them up and mentioned that Bruce (managing director of Oktobor) had just gotten a poster FROM WETA of the Avatar movie, and that I should go up and introduce myself (or well, re-introduce myself since I met him at hte party) and ask him if we could hang it in our office!  Sure enough, he's awesome and handed it right over!  Its up next to my desk :-D  I will have to take some photos of our epic office.  EVERYONE has a nurf gun now too.  I got one the other day, Sushil has one now, Amnon... its AWESOME.  What a great group to put into one room together. 

Anyway, after work, I headed home, but had to stop at the store first.  I have just about no food here at the house, so I went and got at least breakfast stuff... whatever I could carry pretty much.  I'll just be going to the store in shifts I think.  Warren also mentioned that for people that stay late, there are frozen meals somewhere for the staff at the office.  Hopefully I wont be there TOO late this week, but in case I am, at least I will be able to eat.  One more awesome thing about Oktobor.  I wasn't there alone either, even when I left at 8:30, Warren and Myke were just leaving, and Rob and a few others were still there.

Fortunately when I got home too it was quiet in the house.  Wahoo!  So I got to bed a tad early.  I was SUPPOSED to get up and run again.. but I just find myself SO drained in the mornings now.  Not sure why.  I have to make it happen sometime soon, though maybe this isn't the week for it with the shots I have.  Im SORE from Big Ups too!  Didn't expect it, but i guess we were playing soccer for quite a while, and running all over the place.  Haha.  Good times.

Alright, enough for now, later!

Nov 14th continued...

So today wasn't all that bad.  Unfortunately I didnt get all done that I wanted to.  Ah, and I still have no food... darn.  But it was alright.

Got to talk to Kyle, which is ALWAYS good.  Wish we could have talked longer.  Its so hard not being around him.... its only been a month too!  Ugh.  Anyway, it was great to talk to him.  We will hear, hopefully next week about potential jobs and which kind of Visa we should pursue for him to come here.  Im going to start looking at flights for him since he said he's been too busy, and asked if I would help.  Hopefully we can find something from CA to NZ for not too expensive.  :-D  I'll start searching.

Anyway, it was amazing to talk to him AND see his face :-D.  After that, I ran into the office for a while (yes, on a Sunday) to get some work in.  I only had about an hour by the time I walked there, but thats alright.  I got one shot revised and re-submitted, and tweaked another a bit more.  I have A LOT to do this week, so hopefully I can stay on top of it. 

Then we all met up to head to this place called Big Ups. 

OMG how much fun that was!  What a great way to meet more people too.  Its seriously like a big play place for adults.  I mean, inflatable slide, inflatable jousting ring, inflatable fly wall.... EVERYTHING.  Sumo suits, a moon-bounce boxing ring, and ZORBING!  Haha.  So cool.  Kate kicked Mercedes ass at the sumo suits (sorry Mercedes), haha.  And we got a ton of stuff on tape and photos.  We all left with some bruises by the end too.  Battle wounds!  I played soccer for quite a while.  Apparently Im a bit of a "beast" at soccer.  I had a blast doing that.  There were some guys that were really REALLY good, but I was able to keep up enough.  Seriously a blast.  Then toward the end we played a Girls vs Guys game, and that was so much fun!  A tad dangerous, Mercedes and I ended up contacting foot - to - shin, and we both have some lovely injuries from that, but at least we were in socks! 

Goooooooood times.  There were 20 something of us or so, and we ran around for 3 HOURS!  There was extra money left over too from the admission people paid to get in, so Mercedes ordered pizza and "chips" (french fries) for all of us.  Ahhh pizza.  SO good.  Oh, and btw Dominoes Pizza here is SO much better than Dominoes at home.  Seriously, really good. 

So, now Im ready for bed.... bruises, rugburn, whiplash and all.  haha.  Tomorrow will be entertaining seeing everyone all beat up.  Some of the guys were really rough... with themselves!  Haha.  Javier especially... He was just all over the place!  Good times.

Bed time for now.  LONG and busy day tomorrow!

Nov 14th.

Ahhh Sunday morning.  The courtyard is full of cigarette butts and broken glass beer bottles.  Stellar.  Yea, this is not for me.  Went out to put laundry in and was very glad to be wearing sturdy sandals. 

Ugh.  Text a woman today about looking at an apartment.  She said she would let me know what day / time would work with the tenants who live there now so I can take a look at it. 

Its been quiet around this morning.. the kitchen is a MESS, but I just cleaned up some of it.  Everyone else can clean the rest, I wasn't part of it.  I've decided Im not participating in sharing toilet paper in the downstairs bathroom anymore either.  Im the only one who uses the bathroom, and since its on the main floor, when the neighbors have parties, everyone uses our downstairs bathroom... so then I wake up with no toilet paper.  Not cool.  Im keeping my own.  haha.  Sheish, I sound bitter!  I am a bit though.  This is ridiculous. 

Anyway, Im not sure what to do with myself today.  I need to go into work, but Im not sure if I can, or if anyone is there.  I also need groceries.  Im starting to gain weight I think.... which is not cool.  Ive been walking all over the city, but then again Ive had a very carb-heavy diet since its cheaper to eat pasta and sandwiches all the time.  I need to change this.  Hopefully I will be able to.  I have an extensive grocery list.  And I hate going grocery shopping.  It's just a hassle. 

Well, I guess I should do soemthing.. I did laundry, but its already 12 now, and I kind of want to go just lay in the park for a while.  But I really should go into work.  Maybe I'll check and see if anyone will be around...  though Im supposed to chat with Kyle via web cam around 1pm (my time).  At least I can do that now!  Thank goodness!!!  Oh man it feels so good to have internet again.  it will make my apartment search easier, thats for sure.

Ok, time to go be more productive.. after catching up on all my late Blog posts!! 

Nov 13th

Mk… just a touch hung over today.  Ok, a little more than a touch.  Haha.  Woke up around 6, ate some food, drank water, and headed back to bed.  Guess I had a bit TOO much fun last night (though Im not sure that is possible).  I had to get up though because Ngaire was swinging by to pick me up around 8:30 to take me to Piha beach.  I was SO excited for this, though I do wish I had been able to sleep just a tad longer.  Haha. 

Now, let me just say that since I have been here, I have not really left the city at all.  And man, do I need to leave the city more often!!!!!  Piha Beach is about 40 minutes outside of the city… and is absolutely stunning.  Its like a little beach town sitting in these huge mountains, and an enormous stretch of black-sand beach. 

Theres a massive rock called Lion Rock sitting just off the shore in the sand.  And I mean, its like a mini-mountain in itself.  Ngaire took me out there, and the two of us went wandering the beach, picking up shells (as I always do), and exploring some of the wildlife.  There are rocks down at one end of the beach where HOARDS of mussels attach to it.  So neat.  We were there at low tide, so we were able to walk through some of the rocks for a bit.  I almost got stranded though as the tide starts to roll in on some of the lower rocks.  Woops!  Haha.  The water seemed to be following me around. 

I was just flabbergasted at the scenery out there.  THIS is what I had pictured New Zealand to look like.  Ngaire took me on a little mini hike in our bare feet up this dirt trail in the trees.  Talk about a VIEW from up there.  I could spend all day in this place.  And she said there are miles of other trails to check out in the same area up in those mountains.  It’s the Waitakere Mountains.  Gorgeous.  Seriously breathtaking.  I will be returning to this place, one way or another.  I gotta find out if a bus goes out there…

The drive itself was spectacular too, it looks like a jungle, as Ngaire put it.  Narrow roads, and windy as well.  Through the mountains, and just TONS of vegetation.  Its my new favorite place.  Haha.  I was telling Ngaire I seem to find a new favorite place the more I explore.  I liked Mission Bay a lot, and then Albert Park was a favorite, and now Ive seen Piha, and that is BY FAR the favorite.  Ngaire used to live out there for a little bit… I could definitely do that.  Haha.  Beach town.  No real merchants or anything though, its about a 20 min drive to groceries and stuff, and of course 40 min to downtown, but just so beautiful.  I loved it.

So after that, we headed back, and I went out to run errands with Terry and Nia.  Needed some more stuff for the house (finally got some more pillows, a duvet, and more hangers, yeesh!), and it was just a beautiful day to be outside.  So that was productive.

Headed to the Warehouse on my own to get some last minute things, and found another discount store (my favorite!) in the city.  Then, I was contacting people about plans for the night, and I had totally forgotten about the Rugby League game that night!  Mercedes picked me up around 8:30 and we headed to the Cock and Bull pub in New Market to watch the game.  It was me, Mercedes, Cristina, and Nick.  Good times.  Kiwis won!  What a great game.  I love Rugby. 

I was supposed to go out afterward with the housemates to check out Casset, where Terry works downtown, but I was just SO tired after the game, that all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  SO badly.  Unfortunately, the house had other plans.  Mercedes dropped me off, and all I hear is loud pounding music.  Great.  Another party next door, just what I needed.  Yea, I am moving out of this place for sure, as soon as possible.  I put earplugs in, and turned on the fan and tried to go to sleep.  Its just obnoxious cause no one cares if you’re sleeping, they’re all drunk and slamming doors, helling and screaming and whatnot.  I found out later apparently I could call noise control on them after 10pm, but who wants to be the one doing that?  I don’t know.  Hopefully a good place will come up soon.

Mercedes was talking about getting a house with her boyfriend… a 4 bedroom one.  And mentioned that I could possibly rent one of the rooms from her as well.  It would be out a little ways from the office, but we could all carpool.  That might be really nice actually.  So they are going to look at houses this coming weekend, and she will let me know.  Theres another apartment I saw up that’s in Kingsland, right in my price range and furnished too, that I am hoping to look at today.  We’ll see I guess.  That place isn’t available til the 28th anyway, so really, either one of those options will just take a little bit of time.  I guess I can deal with it a few more weeks.  Its just annoying not having control over when you want to sleep or do something.  I don’t know, I love people, and I get lonely when Im alone for long periods of time, but I just don’t like living with people who like to party it up and drink heavily all the time (and they all do).

Time to get crackin on finding that place….

Nov 12th

Ok, so wow, let me just start out with: WHAT AN AWESOME DAY.  First off, I got into the office this morning, and was assigned 8 NEW SHOTS.  OMG.  That’s fantastic, but I’m still behind on just a couple.  Unfortunately too, today was not as productive as I had hoped.  But it was AWESOME all the same.

Mark Taylor walked in pretty early in the morning and sat down and had a nice chat with us.  All the animators in my office (about 6 of us).  It was awesome.  Its so funny, he treats us all like we’re friends, and just has such a way about him of instilling comfort in other people when he talks to you.  He genuinely wants to know about you, and what you’re doing.  So nice to feel that way when talking to someone of such importance (to us).  That was a really nice way to start off the day.  Then, it was time to get down to work.

So I’m working on my Idling shot with Maurice and the other characters, and trucking through that.  Then I submit it for some review from Myke before turning it in.  He has me come into the office to show me some things I need to change.  Granted, small things, which is great.  I kind of assumed if I was “called to the principal’s office” that there would be some major changes.  But no!  Awesome.  Ok, so anyway, that went over really well.  Myke and I were talking and joking back and forth cause Friday was SUCH a busy day with the Mayor coming in, and us wrapping up two shows, plus the party that night, and Nickelodeon being in the house… everything.  Anyway, then Myke mentioned to me the 8 new shots that he had handed me to get started on this coming week.  I said “yea, wow, I was NOT expecting to get any shots with Julien!!!” 

THAT’S right…you are lookin at someone who is freakin animating JULIEN, one of the harder / more fun characters, that only a few people get to animate (or so it sounded to me, not sure) AFTER MY SECOND WEEK OF WORK!  How crazy.  I was SO stunned, and flattered too, that I get to try my hand at working on him.  I also have an INSANE amount of shots with Savio the snake.  He is flopping around all over the place in the shots… wow.  SO crazy.  I seriously surprised / excited.  The coolest part was: when Myke brought it up, he said that this is to show a continuing build of trust and confidence in me, which made me feel extremely good.  I was expressing that I feel that I struggle just a little, in getting to know how far to push the characters and whatnot when animating, cause watching it is one thing: making it happen is another.  He told me that I am doing great, and to “continue with confidence.” 

Talk about a confidence boosting afternoon.  Now:  I just need to hold up to the standard I have been set at!  Haha.  We will see.  Im one shot behind though after Friday with all the crazy going on, so I will probably try to get in on the weekend to work some.  Either way, this coming week will be awesome. 

Now on to the other best part of the day:  THE LAUNCH PARTY! 
First, check out this link about the studio to get an idea of whats been going on, and what my awesome office looks like!  (they don’t show the room Im sitting in unfortunately, but its IN FRONT of the news caster woman when she’s talking): http://tvnz.co.nz//technology-news/nz-s-newest-animation-studio-open-business-3893754/video?vid=3893715

Anyway, so 5:30 comes around and Rob Difiglia and Chris Waters come around and are like “hey guys, gona come join the party?!”  We were all working, cause some people had to meet the show deadline before the party started.  But man, when everyone was ready, we headed over to the sound stage area (its literally the room we used for green screening.  It was all painted white, but it has NO corners in it… just a gradual slope upward into the wall from the floor.  Such a neat room!) to get some drinks and get the party started.  Wine, champagne, beer, whatever you wanted pretty much.  And they had decorated the room with a little stage, funky orange carpet squares in nifty patterns across the floor, as well as standing tables and a little couch sitting area.  Awesome. 

Re-cap in Photos:

-Such a cool setting!  See the carpet going up the wall?  Yea, no corners in the room!

-Check out that bar!

-Ahh some big wigs at Nickelodeon!!

 -Managing Director of Oktobor.  Really nice guy.  I got to talk to him for a little bit.

 -Rob Difiglia, one of the partners.  Cool guy!

-Oktobor!!!!

 -The writers of Penguins!

(photos courtesy of Animator Tiffany Wang, I unfortunately did not have my camera on this night. GRR)

Had a great time, talking with people and hanging out.  Then the REAL party got started.  We had to choose a song to sing for the Karaoke contest.  OH NO.. KARAOKE!!  Yes, it was the Animators vs the Assets Team, and how could I not participate?!  So we had some debate over what songs, since we had to sing two.  Fraser picked “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” to start with, which unfortunately I don’t know the words to, but they hade a huge screen with the words, thank goodness.  Fraser and Peter took over the mics, and we all danced in the background….WITH OUR NURF GUNS.  It was classi.  Fraser got really into it too!  The man has no fear!  Haha, what a show.  So we finished the song and shot off the nurf guns at the ceiling.  What better way to end a song?  We got very high ratings for our performance as well, though we did get rated a 4 out of 10 from one judge (we were judged by all the Nickelodeon people, including the founders of it, and the writers of Penguins), who we all gracefully pummeled with our nurf guns.  Thankfully he was ok with that.  Haha.  That’s the last time he will give US a 4!

So then the other teams went, and I have to say, there were some really entertaining performances.  This studio is full of awesome and fun people.  I love every minute of it!  The night was great.  I hung out with Warren, my past office-buddy, the head of Assets at Oktobor, hung out with Rob, one of the partners.  Had a really nice one-on-one conversation with him actually.  Great guy.  And just had a blast!  They had pizza for us too, which was awesome.  And then, we got ready for our next song: Living on a Prayer.  YES.  Talk about a good song to have.  We got REALLY into it!  I had to hold the mic, so Im sure I ended up belting out something badly, but whatever, at that point, I think we had all had enough to drink where it didn’t matter!  I mean… we were all so exited about the party… that we were… just so happy. :-P 

That song went over well, and we ended up WINNING THE COMPETITION!  Fantastic!  Of course, Nurf was involved here again too.  Good stuff.  Could not have asked for a better night.  Of course, after winning we had to do an encore, so we chose “We Are the Champions,” appropriately enough. 

Then Mercedes and I just hung around, participating with other people on their songs, dancing on the dance floor, and enjoying more champagne.  It was an amazing night.  I felt like I was with a huge group of friends.  Talk about a blast! 

OH, the craziest part:  I was told by the writers of the show…. That they read this blog.  HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!  I was stunned… and seriously flattered that this blog has gotten that much attention!  I had no idea people were interested in my pseudo-online-diary.  Haha.  Well, I will continue to write to the best of my abilities, and continue working as hard as I can at what I do.  I feel like I have finally made it to a place that I want to be.  I am still a very young animator, and have much to learn, but man, this is where I wanted to be.  In a job that I love being in, at an office that I want to spend time in.  SO: thanks everyone J  Talk about an amazing studio.  And its only going to get better.

The end of the night came around 11:00, and fortunately Warren lives near me in Grey Lynn, as well as Rob, so we were all going to walk home together.  We lost Rob somewhere in the mix, so Warren and I made the trek home.  Hilarious.  Haha, a walk like that doesn’t seem so far away after a fun night. 

Anyway, could not have asked for a better Friday, all around!

Nov 11th

SO, ok, a little behind, been busy lately.

Lets start off with Nov 11th, Thursday.  So I got moved into a new office on Thursday, which was pretty cool.  I get a new computer this coming Monday, which will be awesome, since the headphone jack in mine currently doesn’t work.  Haha.  Hard to hear dialogue in a busy animation studio from just your computer speakers! 

Anyway, the day went well, though it was a bit frustrating.  I was working with Burt, the Elephant rig, and editing a scene where his trunk to push a box across the floor.  SUCH a simple shot, just literally sliding the box along the floor.  You’d think it would be like, 15 minutes to get it blocked out.  Nope.  Haha, apparently the IK rig system of the trunk is like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Normally you think: ok, so I will parent the box control to the end control on the trunk (the nose), and when its in IK, if I just animate the BOX, the trunk will follow it.  Piece of cake.  Not with this rig!  So you switch it to IK… but only the joint that is parented to the box is what moves with the box.  There are like… 6 joints in the elephant trunk.. and because of this, it means I have to animate EACH individual joint on every frame as the trunk moves across the floor.  OH MY GOSH.  Talk about frustrating.  So Im sitting there, thinking, “ah, it’ll look fine, I’ll make these adjustments I got from Myke and re-submit.”  No, I ended up re-animating the trunk completely like 7 or 8 times.  No exaggeration.  I had Pete, the other Animation Director, come take a look at it (really good a technical aspects of Maya animation), and there was nothing he could do to get it to cooperate either.  Frustrating!  So, anyway, I ended up just Animating the whole trunk over again in FK, and just fudging the positioning of the box, and keying it on almost every frame to make sure it wasn’t jumpy.  I think I got it alright.  But still, for a little bit, I wanted to pull my hair out!  It took most of the day, which I didn’t expect, so I got a bit behind on some of my work, but that’s alright. 

Also, Nickelodeon was in town today!  SO cool.  So the office was all decked out, and we got to sit and talk with a bunch of important people at Nickelodeon, including Mark Taylor, head of Nickelodeon Animation Studios (SUCH an incredibly nice man), as well as with the three writers of Penguins!!!!  Omg it was so cool.  I loved that they came in and sat and talked with us in our office.  They literally just wandered in and had a chat with us about the characters, the show, if we had any questions, etc.  It was fantastic to throw things out at them, and of course to learn more about the show.  There was also a group Animator QnA with them as well toward the end of the day.  How cool!  I love it.  Its fantastic to hear about how a show came along, and where they get some of their ideas from for the show. 

So, by the end of such a good yet frustrating day, I was able to get that shot in and submitted, and then started on my next shot.  Not too bad.  A dialogue shot, and with a bunch of the other characters just kind of idling in the background.  Idling characters are HARD.  Haha.  So funny how that is.  At least I got it started though.  Then, it was onward to the Pub for some drinks.  I ended up having dinner as well, which was nice.  The apartment mates were having a Barbecue at the house, but honestly, I really really enjoy the company of my coworkers.  Nick, Kate, Cristine, Mercedes, Matt and Carla… awesome people.  And there are more too!  Anyway, I love hanging out with them, I always leave having had a good time, so I didn’t mind being late to the BBQ.

I got home and started looking at a few new apartments.  Im realizing (I know, I said it was all great and good before) that this is definitely not a place that I want to live full time.  After being here just over a week now, you start to see how people really live, and some of them are just downright messy.  I end up cleaning the counters and re-washing dishes (we have no dishwasher) pretty much daily because some of them just are not very… clean.  Heh.  So yea… Anyway, Im searching.  We will see, hopefully something good comes out of it.  I hung out with the housemates for a while, and now I am off to bed.  Going to start reading my book a little bit.  Maybe start getting into it.  More Nickelodeon things tomorrow!!!!