CTN Expo report
Phew...finally back from CTN Expo over the weekend! Which of course means it's time for a con report...
Friday
I ended up getting to the con really early, under the impression that the hall had already opened by the time I got there. Guess what! IT WAS NOT. I ended up sitting around for another three hours or so before the exhibit hall finally opened up, and in that time I hung out and got lunch and a few other things. Of course, the exhibit hall is full of so many amazing artists and their incredible art that it both serves as really inspiring and terribly depressing, since I go around everywhere going HOLY COW I WISH I COULD DRAW/PAINT/SCULPT LIKE THAT SOOOOOB. I of course stopped by the tables of people I knew or had met before, including David Coleman, Pascal Campion, Cheeks and everyone at the Gnomon Booth. I didn't buy any of those lovely books and sketchbooks though, and that's because I stopped by the Wacom booth, tried out the Cintiq again, and decided to go through with getting one for myself. I didn't buy it on Friday however...
In the middle of the floor and other stuff, I met up with Ryune, who I haven't seen since last CTN! We were gonna exchange some BBS and Coded stuff, but unfortunately it didn't work out. XD We hung out for a bit, and I headed off to the first half of the Sony Animation panel, which was pretty good for the part I saw. I left early to actually go to my interview with Sony, although it ended up being more portfolio review than actual interview. It was helpful, since they said I am pretty much almost there, just need to improve on one thing (and that was pretty much the feedback I got from everyone I talked to). But man, it's frustrating being in that no-man's land of almost there but not quite. It feels like forever. T_T
There was a bit more wandering around there before we went to pretty much the most awesome panel of the whole con: the Andreas Deja panel. He was really cool, talking about how he went about designing different characters and showing off some of his drawings, particularly his development for Mama Odie. His original sketches for her were pretty awesome! After his talk, he did something really special and brought out Richard Sherman, one of the songwriters of a ton of Disney songs, including Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book. He shared all these stories of his songwriting experience and sang/played songs from the movies on the piano for everyone...this guy was old, but he totally had this amazing life and spirit about him. He ended with a story and a rendition of "Feed the Birds," and I swear everyone in the panel room was tearing up there at the end.
Ended up having a late-night dinner at Denny's with Ryune and her friends, then headed home and crashed!
Saturday
Saturday was a very busy day, which makes sense since Saturday tends to be the busiest day! I went to the Wacom booth and again asked about the Cintiq, although they didn't physically have them in yet. I then headed over to my second interview, with Illumination Studios (the people who did Despicable Me.) This interview went a little better, probably in part because it was one-on-one instead of three-on-one, and was a little more conversation between us. At least he was open to the idea of assist or cleanup work if it came up in the future. And hopefully at least having these two interviews means I can get some more next year, if I really improve on my stuff this year...of course, this means that I really need to come up with a good boarding idea, and work super hard at it. @_@
I got some lunch since I was starving, then went and stood in line for the Ron and John panel. That also ended up being pretty fun! They talked a bunch about their movies, particular PATF and Hercules, and I lol'd a lot since they made a huge MST3K reference in a wrap party they showed at the end.
Since I had a little bit of time then, I also stopped by the Disney booth and got some critique on my boards there. It was suggested that I try a complete board from beginning to end with no dialogue, which is a really daunting task, but would be good practice...
Ryune and I also barely got in on the martial arts in animation panel, which was REALLY awesome and almost freaky to watch. They had a couple teams of martial arts masters and students, including karate, tae kwon do and more. They demonstrated the proper way to throw someone and to roll when knocked to the ground, and how to effectively defend yourself against someone attacking you, whether they grab your throat, arms or hands. And they were really throwing each other around hard; there were two little kids part of the groups and even they were getting treated with that same level of roughness. But since they'd learned to fall correctly, they just got back up and went on with the show. It was pretty eye-opening!
Went out with Ryune and friends across the street for Japanese for dinner, and we ended up getting a really epic and awesome bit of serendipity! We ate dinner with Tony Bancroft, the supervising animator for Pumbaa! He was super nice, and we just talked with him about the industry in general, Disney movies, and what he was working on now. We then got a picture with him when we were done! YAY FOR AWESOME ARTISTS WILLING TO EAT DINNER WITH YOU \o/
Our final panel for the night was one that Tony was also attending (but not participating in), with a bunch of The Lion King story artists and animators. It was pretty dang awesome, with just them discussing how they worked on the movie (having to send tapes through the mail and compare animation over the phone...HOW DID ANYONE WORK BEFORE SKYPE?!) and their experiences with it. Definitely a good way to end the day!
Sunday
Unfortunately, today is when the rain finally decided to show up, and by the end of the day I was cold and soaking wet. Actually, was like that most of the day. But that was made up for by many other awesome things! I tried to get into the Pixar gesture drawing panel, but that proved fruitless, and just left me wet from rain. So instead, I went to the "Line Kings" panel, which was about keeping inspiration up with drawing and designing. It was actually a bit meh compared to everything else; I left before the Q&A session was over. The fun part of that was meeting another KH fan in line and just chatting about the games. XD
Once done with that, I finally took the plunge, went over to the Wacom booth, and bought that Cintiq. @___@ MY WALLET NOW HATES ME FOREVER AND EVER. I REALLY HOPE IT'S WORTH THE PRICE OF ALL THAT, BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE FUN TO USE. However, I apparently need an adapter to get it to work with my iMac. Everyone at the booth insisted that it would work, so I hope they are right on that front. But considering that Cintiq is probably the most I have paid for, well...anything for myself that wasn't student loans, it was my only purchase for the weekend. And the Wacom guy was nice enough to load it into my car even in the pouring rain!
After that, I went and got lunch for myself and Ryune, which is where I pretty much got soaked and stayed wet for the whole day. Wet shoes and socks, bleeegh. :P Came back and went with Ryune to the creature design panel, which had some really cool artists there and was awesome except for one particular detail, which was seeing Jar Jar Binks naked. D: It was offset by the funness of the guys who designed the Ratchet and Clank monsters explaining their process and such.
There was a bit more wandering around the dealer's hall before they closed as well, where I said bye to Pascal and the Gnomon booth people. Then headed over again to get Panda Express, and bid farewell to Ryune as she headed back with her friends northwards.
Aaaand finally, after a lot of extra driving around and stopping at the Starbucks and other things, finally got in to the Disney end-of-show screening! 8D This was similar to the thing they did with Tangled last year, where we got to watch everything in the theater on the studio lot, except this time they gave us four short films. We saw the Pixie Hollow Games, the new Phineas and Ferb Christmas special, the new Prep and Landing short, and then a short by one of the artists there called "Lorenzo."
The Pixie Hollow Games one was pretty fun, even though it didn't seem to concentrate on Tinker Bell at all so much as it was about other fairies. So I was probably missing some characterization/continuity there. |D Phineas and Ferb was totally hilarious for both episodes: one which was a Christmas special in the style of the Bing Crosby specials and included Kelly Clarkson (no really), and the second one in which Phineas and Ferb make a new season with a mountain of snow in their backyard. XD The Prep and Landing short was also a lot of fun (I think it'll be released in a few weeks), with some really lovely animation. I kinda wish I'd seen the first one first. And man, I just loved the Lorenzo short. It was a Fantasia-style short about a cat whose tail gets cursed and takes on a life of its own. Beautiful painting-style animation with a black comedy story; I really need to do fanart of Lorenzo and his tail. XD And they need to release it on DVD, since I don't think it's on anything yet.
Also, while in the theater, they handed out a bunch of prizes based on the colors of stickies found beneath our theater seats. I found an off-white stickie, so I ended up winning a Blu-Ray of Cars 2! Not a bad prize if I say so myself! And if you're about to bring up my long rant on Cars 2, this is the part where I bring up that the Toy Story Hawaii short is also on that Blu-Ray, and all is right with the world again.
After all that, I headed home and heated up in a hot bath, which was desperately needed! And tomorrow, I'll be going to get that adapter for the tablet...WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS FROM THAT.
So yeah, all in all, another great con! Here is hoping next year goes even better for me.
Drawing: Commission work mostly, plus other things
Writing: Taggles again
Friday
I ended up getting to the con really early, under the impression that the hall had already opened by the time I got there. Guess what! IT WAS NOT. I ended up sitting around for another three hours or so before the exhibit hall finally opened up, and in that time I hung out and got lunch and a few other things. Of course, the exhibit hall is full of so many amazing artists and their incredible art that it both serves as really inspiring and terribly depressing, since I go around everywhere going HOLY COW I WISH I COULD DRAW/PAINT/SCULPT LIKE THAT SOOOOOB. I of course stopped by the tables of people I knew or had met before, including David Coleman, Pascal Campion, Cheeks and everyone at the Gnomon Booth. I didn't buy any of those lovely books and sketchbooks though, and that's because I stopped by the Wacom booth, tried out the Cintiq again, and decided to go through with getting one for myself. I didn't buy it on Friday however...
In the middle of the floor and other stuff, I met up with Ryune, who I haven't seen since last CTN! We were gonna exchange some BBS and Coded stuff, but unfortunately it didn't work out. XD We hung out for a bit, and I headed off to the first half of the Sony Animation panel, which was pretty good for the part I saw. I left early to actually go to my interview with Sony, although it ended up being more portfolio review than actual interview. It was helpful, since they said I am pretty much almost there, just need to improve on one thing (and that was pretty much the feedback I got from everyone I talked to). But man, it's frustrating being in that no-man's land of almost there but not quite. It feels like forever. T_T
There was a bit more wandering around there before we went to pretty much the most awesome panel of the whole con: the Andreas Deja panel. He was really cool, talking about how he went about designing different characters and showing off some of his drawings, particularly his development for Mama Odie. His original sketches for her were pretty awesome! After his talk, he did something really special and brought out Richard Sherman, one of the songwriters of a ton of Disney songs, including Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book. He shared all these stories of his songwriting experience and sang/played songs from the movies on the piano for everyone...this guy was old, but he totally had this amazing life and spirit about him. He ended with a story and a rendition of "Feed the Birds," and I swear everyone in the panel room was tearing up there at the end.
Ended up having a late-night dinner at Denny's with Ryune and her friends, then headed home and crashed!
Saturday
Saturday was a very busy day, which makes sense since Saturday tends to be the busiest day! I went to the Wacom booth and again asked about the Cintiq, although they didn't physically have them in yet. I then headed over to my second interview, with Illumination Studios (the people who did Despicable Me.) This interview went a little better, probably in part because it was one-on-one instead of three-on-one, and was a little more conversation between us. At least he was open to the idea of assist or cleanup work if it came up in the future. And hopefully at least having these two interviews means I can get some more next year, if I really improve on my stuff this year...of course, this means that I really need to come up with a good boarding idea, and work super hard at it. @_@
I got some lunch since I was starving, then went and stood in line for the Ron and John panel. That also ended up being pretty fun! They talked a bunch about their movies, particular PATF and Hercules, and I lol'd a lot since they made a huge MST3K reference in a wrap party they showed at the end.
Since I had a little bit of time then, I also stopped by the Disney booth and got some critique on my boards there. It was suggested that I try a complete board from beginning to end with no dialogue, which is a really daunting task, but would be good practice...
Ryune and I also barely got in on the martial arts in animation panel, which was REALLY awesome and almost freaky to watch. They had a couple teams of martial arts masters and students, including karate, tae kwon do and more. They demonstrated the proper way to throw someone and to roll when knocked to the ground, and how to effectively defend yourself against someone attacking you, whether they grab your throat, arms or hands. And they were really throwing each other around hard; there were two little kids part of the groups and even they were getting treated with that same level of roughness. But since they'd learned to fall correctly, they just got back up and went on with the show. It was pretty eye-opening!
Went out with Ryune and friends across the street for Japanese for dinner, and we ended up getting a really epic and awesome bit of serendipity! We ate dinner with Tony Bancroft, the supervising animator for Pumbaa! He was super nice, and we just talked with him about the industry in general, Disney movies, and what he was working on now. We then got a picture with him when we were done! YAY FOR AWESOME ARTISTS WILLING TO EAT DINNER WITH YOU \o/
Our final panel for the night was one that Tony was also attending (but not participating in), with a bunch of The Lion King story artists and animators. It was pretty dang awesome, with just them discussing how they worked on the movie (having to send tapes through the mail and compare animation over the phone...HOW DID ANYONE WORK BEFORE SKYPE?!) and their experiences with it. Definitely a good way to end the day!
Sunday
Unfortunately, today is when the rain finally decided to show up, and by the end of the day I was cold and soaking wet. Actually, was like that most of the day. But that was made up for by many other awesome things! I tried to get into the Pixar gesture drawing panel, but that proved fruitless, and just left me wet from rain. So instead, I went to the "Line Kings" panel, which was about keeping inspiration up with drawing and designing. It was actually a bit meh compared to everything else; I left before the Q&A session was over. The fun part of that was meeting another KH fan in line and just chatting about the games. XD
Once done with that, I finally took the plunge, went over to the Wacom booth, and bought that Cintiq. @___@ MY WALLET NOW HATES ME FOREVER AND EVER. I REALLY HOPE IT'S WORTH THE PRICE OF ALL THAT, BECAUSE IT SHOULD BE FUN TO USE. However, I apparently need an adapter to get it to work with my iMac. Everyone at the booth insisted that it would work, so I hope they are right on that front. But considering that Cintiq is probably the most I have paid for, well...anything for myself that wasn't student loans, it was my only purchase for the weekend. And the Wacom guy was nice enough to load it into my car even in the pouring rain!
After that, I went and got lunch for myself and Ryune, which is where I pretty much got soaked and stayed wet for the whole day. Wet shoes and socks, bleeegh. :P Came back and went with Ryune to the creature design panel, which had some really cool artists there and was awesome except for one particular detail, which was seeing Jar Jar Binks naked. D: It was offset by the funness of the guys who designed the Ratchet and Clank monsters explaining their process and such.
There was a bit more wandering around the dealer's hall before they closed as well, where I said bye to Pascal and the Gnomon booth people. Then headed over again to get Panda Express, and bid farewell to Ryune as she headed back with her friends northwards.
Aaaand finally, after a lot of extra driving around and stopping at the Starbucks and other things, finally got in to the Disney end-of-show screening! 8D This was similar to the thing they did with Tangled last year, where we got to watch everything in the theater on the studio lot, except this time they gave us four short films. We saw the Pixie Hollow Games, the new Phineas and Ferb Christmas special, the new Prep and Landing short, and then a short by one of the artists there called "Lorenzo."
The Pixie Hollow Games one was pretty fun, even though it didn't seem to concentrate on Tinker Bell at all so much as it was about other fairies. So I was probably missing some characterization/continuity there. |D Phineas and Ferb was totally hilarious for both episodes: one which was a Christmas special in the style of the Bing Crosby specials and included Kelly Clarkson (no really), and the second one in which Phineas and Ferb make a new season with a mountain of snow in their backyard. XD The Prep and Landing short was also a lot of fun (I think it'll be released in a few weeks), with some really lovely animation. I kinda wish I'd seen the first one first. And man, I just loved the Lorenzo short. It was a Fantasia-style short about a cat whose tail gets cursed and takes on a life of its own. Beautiful painting-style animation with a black comedy story; I really need to do fanart of Lorenzo and his tail. XD And they need to release it on DVD, since I don't think it's on anything yet.
Also, while in the theater, they handed out a bunch of prizes based on the colors of stickies found beneath our theater seats. I found an off-white stickie, so I ended up winning a Blu-Ray of Cars 2! Not a bad prize if I say so myself! And if you're about to bring up my long rant on Cars 2, this is the part where I bring up that the Toy Story Hawaii short is also on that Blu-Ray, and all is right with the world again.
After all that, I headed home and heated up in a hot bath, which was desperately needed! And tomorrow, I'll be going to get that adapter for the tablet...WE'LL SEE WHAT HAPPENS FROM THAT.
So yeah, all in all, another great con! Here is hoping next year goes even better for me.
Drawing: Commission work mostly, plus other things
Writing: Taggles again