Isang Bagsak! Barely made it, but still made it!

Just started Fall Term today, and while I still had a blast Summer Term, that last animation assignment almost did me in. There’s a reason why I discontinued the Ron Antonio Dance Project posts, and that reason was because my animation plain sucked! Now why did it suck? It was a combination of things, I got busy with work and training for the Portland Marathon, and my priorities just got all screwed up. And honestly, I didn’t put as much time and effort into that animation as I should have. Suffice to say that that was one of the main reasons I have decided to leave my job and focus on school. That’s right, as of October 16. I will no longer be working at the Wing Luke Asian Museum (well at least full-time, I’ll probably still have to train the new person). Anyway, take a look at my progress reel from last class… looking back its not that impressive, and it shows that I have to step it up.

But still, I made it. We may not finish the way we like, but sometimes all that matters is that we finish. I’ve learned that lesson in the ND movement, in marathons, and now in animation. It’s a good lesson, but I want to do more than just finish…

Isang Bagsak!

I’m Back! MTV’s ABDC: Constructive Criticism

What’s up beautiful folks! Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a minute, an explanation is in order, but before that, here’s a fun little comic strip I came up with.

Here’s the backstory. I don’t watch a lot MTV ever since they stopped playing music videos. I have been watching on occasion America’s Best Dance Crew. The first 3 seasons we’re pretty good. I still think Jabawockeez were the most unique and best crew they’ve had, but I’ve enjoyed Beat Freaks, Quest Crew, Sup3r Cr3w, and Kaba as well. This season, season 4, Massive Monkees (from Seattle) was one of the crews. Even though I thought Massive didn’t need to do the show since they were already world renowned, and former world b-boy champions, I was still excited nonetheless. However, the crap that was put out this season was terrible!!! I think it was easy to see from the outset that the two best crews were Rhythm City and Massive, yet those two are nowhere near the finals. The most unique was Vogue Evolution, and the rest, well, they were ok, but nothing memorable. The dancing was eh, the mixes were bleh, and for some reason the judges comments were reduced to this…

Oh, and even though I think what Kanye did was disrespectful and messed up, I have to applaud him on the fact that a) he spoke his mind and didn’t a fuck what anybody thought and b) made the this year’s VMA’s somewhat memorable. If not for Kanye, all we probably would’ve remembered is what the fuck was Lady Gaga wearing and why did she start bleeding.

One last note: How does MTV still have a Video Music Awards when they hardly play videos?

From Concept to Completion: The Cherry & Daps Wedding Painting

Happy One Year Anniversary to Cherry and Daps! For their wedding gift last year, I decided to do a painting inspired by the happy couple (actually its a thing I do for most wedding presents). Here is the finished product:

Not only to celebrate the one year anniversary of this happy couple, but also to give readers an insight into how I take an art piece from concept to finished product, I present the first, in hopefully many, From Concept to Completion segments. Hit the Jump to find out how I went from concept to completion…

The Ron Antonio Dance Project Part II: Blocking…

Here’s part II of the Ron Antonio Dance Project. You can either scroll or head here for Part I. Anyways, my final animation assignment this quarter is going alright, after careful planning I now attempt to block out my animation, Keep in mind, these are only the key poses and a couple of breakdowns, so its not going to be smooth. Check it out:

Anyway, I had to change a couple of things. Some of the poses had to be polished, and I needed a better beginning and ending, here’s my next attempt:

Stay Tuned for Part III: My initial pass into adding the inbetweens and smoothing everything out…

Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D/ dir. Carlos Saldanha/ 2009

I enjoyed the original Ice Age. The story of a rag tag group trying to reunite a baby with his human parents during the Ice Age was at the very least, entertaining. Plus in 2002, CG animated films were just starting to trickle in, so there was still a little novelty in the CG animated movie. The sequel, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, yeah I watched it, but to be completely honest, I can not recall what the plot of that movie was. All I remember was that Queen Latifah played the female wooly mammoth. So that pretty much explains my experiences with the Ice Age franchise. So when I decided to make Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D (Ice Age 3) my early Sunday morning movie, I really had no expectations. I did hear some comments from animation students and teachers saying that it was “the best of the 3 Ice Age movies,” but my response was “eh, we’ll see…”

Well, to my pleasant surprise, Ice Age 3 delivered an entertaining movie with some great comedic moments. I still give the nod to the OG Ice Age film, since it was, you know, the ORIGINAL, but Ice Age 3 is a good family/ children’s flick that I’m pretty sure the kids will enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, Ice Age 3 was mostly family kid-friendly fluff, but it was entertaining family fluff and I’m pretty sure that was the point.

The Ron Antonio Dance Project Part 1: Planning…

What’s good! I know I haven’t been blogging as much as usual. Between work, training for marathons, and school, it’s tough to regularly write something. Don’t worry though, I have something extra good this time. I thought I would give everyone a glimpse into my world as an animation student. For my final animation project this summer term, I have decided to tackle the fun, but difficult task of animating a unique dance that a kasama of mine has. What you’re about to see is video reference I shot one night out in the middle of the street…

Yes, that’s the Ron Antonio Dance, feel free to take another look really quick. Done? Hit the jump to see my planning for this tough but oh so hilarious animation…

Dear Hollywood…

I’m back with another video.

I’ve noticed that many studios are plundering the past and making our nostalgic cartoons of the past into big-budget  movies. I want to chime in on this trend. So this week I write a letter to Hollywood.

Bootleg Classics: The Iron Giant

10 years ago, one of the finest animated movies ever to grace the bigscreen debuted in theaters. The Iron Giant was the breakout movie that put Brad Bird’s (The Incredibles, Ratatouille)  name out there among the elite animation directors. Even though it underperformed in theaters  and was  a box office failure because many felt Warner Bros. didn’t properly market the film, The Iron Giant was praised by critics and is still seen as one of the better examples of storytelling in animation. See the original trailer here:

(Hit the jump to read more about this Bootleg Classic)

X-Men anime intro (w/ commentary)

Wsup… Here’s my week 6 summer term video:

Iron Man Anime Trailer

I was requested to blog about this, so here we go. Here is the trailer for the new Iron Man anime series:

I’m impressed. What else can I write? (Hit the jump to see what else I wrote)