Home › CharacterDesign › Y1W13 “Fantastically Fishy” and #acmidreamworks Adventuuures Recap

Y1W13 “Fantastically Fishy” and #acmidreamworks Adventuuures Recap

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Leonie’s small blog island says hullo! (:
In this post: ACMIDreamworks events! And drawing of course. Does that need saying…? (:

Let’s go! Journal Time.

Save My Tribe Character Sheet: Well. Still not going to explain this project. Nope.
Kudos to Bashcorpo’s paper texture!

Year 1, Week 13 (9th to 15th Apr)

  • Position: Vacant festival entry: I’m mailing something off! Thanks to the team’s funding help too. Finally letting social media know about the AIAF and MIAF screenings too.
  • Dreamworks talks fun times: Went for talks and left with some interesting takeaways!
    • “You have not learned to live if you have not learned to give.” – Kirk Douglas
    • Strive to exceed expectations in all aspects of your life
    • Believe in yourself or who else would believe in you
  • Arm strain; well. The exercise and breaks and making things much better for me. Time will tell.
  • Save My Tribe: Here’s page two for this guy. What is this guy:
Save My Tribe Character Sheet: He might need more tweaking in design and his anatomy needs work so consider this version 1 as I redesign it over from scratch next time. Really need to work harder on anatomy but his face was fun to draw. Eventually I will reach the standard I want in my mind!
Kudos to Bashcorpo’s paper texture!
  • Dreamworks Masterclass: Kristy and I just went for the front row. Hoho. I saw some familiar friendly faces too which was a surprise delight to be able to exchange some enthusiasm (never sure who was coming until the day)! I was probably more silly than usual due to the mixture of my tired, quiet, excited nervousness but some fun was had.

Was happy to be able to talk to the four of them in person (Kendal – very cool edgy name, Christophe, Doug and Jason), even if it’s just giving a thank you thing at the least. And whoa! I am actually approaching people! What is this sorcery. I got to talk about girl power too haha.

And then days later [after catching up on more sleep] I realise that I said something really ignorant without thinking to one of them (but they were kind enough to not correct me even after I repeated the Derp misplaced compliment twice!) I knew I said something wrong as I was taking notes throughout the day but at the moment I blurted the dumb thing out and forgot it all out of nervous excitement. Ah well, that’s okay. Feelings of embarrassing shame is fine as we all learn and move on anyway. (:
Getting them is greatly encouraging and heartwarming but I guess I’m the kind of person who doesn’t actually purposely crave signatures. Still, the drawings they did for Kristy are wonderful! The messages she got were so encouraging too! I don’t really want “art of …” books enough to buy them either as flipping through them and absorbing it that way suffices for me (aside from the fact that I need to watch my dwindling budget).
Masterclass panel:
Such a terribly enthused, friendly, hard working, skilled, down to earth and inspiring bunch! (:
And then I just had to leave all my pages of notes at the place. Ah, great. ):
Loads of glorious process in regards to production design and research especially behind the Croods, Madagascar franchise and Kung Fu Panda, how the Dragon Flight exhibit was miraculously done over in a couple of months (though not relevant in terms of making Dreamworks movies) and the fun, challenging animation process behind Mr. Peabody and Sherman. The video reference compilation was hilarious (as to be expected).

I didn’t want to see any of the How to Train your Dragon 2 trailers though but curiosity got the better of me; I don’t feel engaged with the story they presented as a result of feeling like I was spoiled with the whole gist of the story since the other full trailer came out.The first, shortest trailer that revealed how old Hiccup was in this movie (it was released earlier this year) was certainly enough to pique interest. I didn’t need the other trailers.

Am saddened at this as a few other friends have pointed this out.
On a lighter note, masterclass was certainly was a wonderful treat! I felt like an awestruck kid again.

Lost my notes. I found my notes by checking back lost and found.

But what I got from memory and what stood out to me was this:
Just do what you love (draw, paint, animate, experience life and so on). 
Refocus constantly. Get to the bottom of everything. 
Research and don’t be precious with your work. Stay open minded.
Surround yourself with wonderful and highly skilled, passionate people who will tell you things like it is. Feedback loops and collaboration are vital for improvement in the industry. (I would add that you should usually give honest feedback and advice only if they seek it else you’ll just overwhelm someone and it’ll fall onto deaf ears).
Stay flexible, thorough and non destructive in your workflow. 
Nothing worth doing is easy (most cliche of the bunch perhaps)
Your passion will drive you to fight your way through. 
You must fight your way through. It is not about you. But fight for the story/purpose and your belief in it. Ensure that you did what you could so you don’t look back and regret it. 
Change what you can control, not what you can’t. Put your own flair on things.
Have fun and enjoy the process too. That’s why you’re doing it right? It’s a long journey and what good is life if you end up trapped in a vicious cycle?
Nothing new in particular but these were the encouraging vibes I was feeling. (:

That and I need to attend the actual exhibit when there’s less people around, watch both Kung Fu Panda movies again and some other Dreamworks movies eventually. Eventually…!I name Kung Fu Panda as my Chinese heritage renders me incredibly biased! I also melt, brimming with contentment when I watch it as it is so thoroughly researched, resurfacing my childhood exposure to Chinese TV series and it is a world I can fully immerse myself in and forget all else. I was not surprised that it’s doing incredibly well in China. To think that they’d be 6 of these movies planned and the third will actually be co produced with Oriental Dreamworks.

In terms of other Dreamworks movies, I haven’t watched a lot of them but at this stage, I do remember enjoying the first Shrek movie, The Prince of Egypt, Chicken Run, How to Train your Dragon and Megamind. I shall try to catch up with the others someday.

  • Finished a best wishes doodle page for a friend and sending it off. Shall post it here sometime.
  • Anatomy studies: enjoying it to the fullest. If only life doesn’t get in the way! I didn’t get much done this week.

 

  • People Drawing/a few of Derp’s Doodle Collection: …Hello. I’m calling it Derp Doodles instead of “Derp’s doodle for the day” now. Too long and time restricted, the name.
I’m crazily addicted to drawing from life now I suppose but in short bursts. If it was early last year I would be shaking my head at being this level of sneaky and I wouldn’t have drawn this much at all (I still need to draw more though)!
I used to use something similar to sunglasses to conceal the fact I was drawing a person last year (how dodgy looking am I!) but now I don’t even bother. If you were to ask me if I was drawing you I won’t deny it. I usually won’t tell you upfront if I did but there are special exceptions.
I do try to converse more little by little but I draw when I don’t know what else to do in a social situation. Probably why I don’t have many friends that last long enough to hang around with haha but I have my special study buddy, Kristy! I am learning bit by bit to open myself more as a person thanks to her; very comforting as we push each other to get better. (:
Busy people running away in the rain
Power girl. Not happy with these.
Please
ignore the mathematics worksheet remnants below. You’ll see plenty of
these; just a heads up. I used to be a maths teacher after all (yes, I’m not shying away from talking about it now these days; win!)
I have all these unused worksheets and maths puzzles that most people tend to avoid. I’m rusty now but I see them as brain game puzzles at the least that require consistent practice to do. I am incredibly amused when people see it and accuse me of creating a Time Machine or that I’m handing out scores for their imaginary Mathematics exams. I think I’m too lenient though as they all get 100% scores.
Hello; I didn’t finish…
He looked like he was pouting. What.
  Still I ran out of room as her feet are cut off. This is double the size of my glossy pad!
It’s A5! The indignity!
Horrible train doodles roughed up by train travel on my glossy pad. Why are they sleepy looking.
Her nose is a huge blot of ink explosion there. Uh…surgery can fix that?
Sketch meet doodling! I kind of…avoided drawing things that are not people. Hoho
What was that young girl doing on her phone, darting her eyes left and right like that!
A smiley 40 year old lady came over to our table and saw us fun drawing people as she sat next to us to eat. I did the quiet “shh” signal smiling back in amusement and pretended that we were perfectly normal. Yes. Normal. Not creepy or sneaky. Don’t you spread lies.
That “GRRRRR” gentleman was amazing fun to observe. And then some sleepy train passengers. An old gentleman made himself home and snored very loudly across 4 chairs. I was actually falling asleep also and kept making unintended marks on my page before catching myself awake again. Can you tell? I was so spent that I forgot to do something! Ah well. I had a great time doodling with peeps!
I don’t know what’s going on with the two faced being. Apparently I am a hippie for using my Mathematical Copy Paper. I’ll have disposable income for as much sketchbooks as I like someday! But it is not today! Tis’ a time for practice and going through heaps of paper anyway. Been debating whether I should throw these that are shown on the blog. Hm.
Mixed bag of creatures
She has three feet, you know?
Witness how I live with my mistakes as I stick with ballpoint pen.
I made her forearm too long; why.
Suddenly I gave her an evil face. What am I doing.
Had heaps of fun though!

Other Adventures: 

  • Games (watching): Yakuza 4, Garry’s Mod Prop Hunt/Murder/Trouble in Terrorist Town, The Wolf Among Us Episode 3, Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut (why this interestingly bad game again?!), Dark Souls II (summoning other players was interesting), Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Call of Duty: Predators, the Last Tinker: City of Colors, Life goes On, Fable Anniversary
  • Admin catch up and decluttering.
  • Armello Game: Hey. Back this on Kickstarter or support it some other way. Shall be chipping in with my brother on this eventually via his workstation. Shall make time to play it somehow.
  • Got asked this: Hey do you actually play games? Yes I do play games (I document it here with “played” next to it when I do) but I can hardly call it “gaming” as the sessions are only 1-2 hour spurts at impromptu moments. So I answer, not really. I know once I start watching a long series, or novel or game, I will want to give it my full or most of my focus until I finish it. I like to focus on one thing at a time. And a lot of time is needed to do that. So I’ve been avoiding those temptations aside from the shorter games. At least for now. Hence my backlog.
  • Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct: WHOA. I am speechless and how it’s so full of insane spontaneity! Oh Japan. Oh it’s wonderfully puzzling and amusing.
  • Change your passwords! Security Breach (look up heartbleed). Took me several attempts as I forgot a few of my passwords and retrieving them was not straightforward.
  • Puzzle Retreat (played): sneaked in a level on my tablet. Brain training; my excuse that is.
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Reflection for the Week



Instagram, we meet again
Well. I’ve been trying to use Instagram more; going to have another go at it. I changed the link to http://instagram.com/leonieyueart as well. I’m so behind the times with mobile phone apps and tech (I don’t have a smart phone and the only way I was able to use Instagram at all was through my tablet; cue in horrified looks of surprise!)Well, surprise! I still use my “dumb” normal phone…just as a phone and texting device. It does seem bad that I can’t support any mobile game developers but it does cut out an avenue of distraction altogether. If you saw me trying to text someone, I would be stabbing a letter at a time every several seconds as it struggles to register my stubby fingers. That’s how bad it is.I’m not putting everything there at Instagram though (it makes everything square and I don’t want to spend too much time there either!) But it’s going to be more timely there, at twitter and my sketch tumblr with a few of my rough doodles. It won’t be too many as I’m minimising social media in general as I can.

Stressing that this main blog here is the home for all of it with some extra commentary! So you don’t need to go any other place at all. Stay with this blog if you like. It’s really for peeps who don’t have time for wordy blogs like mine and who just want to see a few Derp Doodles. (:

Journey so Far

Dreamworks packed events this week along with other things getting in the way! Generally feeling encouraged and eager to get things rolling again with learning and projects.I was inspired by someone to try some other creative, fun things but I realise that I want to focus on developing my art skills first before anything. I don’t have the disposable income to learn something else right now either. I have already experienced other things through teaching, tutoring and volunteering previously and I want to establish my career for the long haul. I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s great when someone’s lifestyle challenges you to think over your focus though!

Had to clear off all the clutter on my browser and I plan to minimise my use of social media even more. People will know how to contact me if they need to anyway.

My outings quota has been close to maximum in the past week and I do feel unaccustomed to being in social situations for too long (as you know, it does drain my brain energy to the point with so much stimulation that I tend to fall asleep and brain dead on the way home; thanks to my introverted way in gaining energy! I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this.)

So I was glad to get back to my hermit cave and to attempt to get my sleeping patterns re-adjusted again. Life isn’t perfect and uncertain but I am content and sleepy I guess? Loads of things to tackle!

Quote I came across:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal — it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

Continue. Or change direction. Just know that the real failure is giving up.

Hope that pumps you up for the weekend!

Until next time, Leonie
(UUUinfinity/TripleUinfinity)