American Work FLow

I started doing layout for my 15 second animation about my superhero girl. Long hours at the workshop getting clocked in - so naturally we ate at campus a lot. Photo from one Ackerman trip with Mira.

I revved up my work flow on MagiCake and put in a lot of late nights. I took the time to take a few shots for portfolio/narcissistic purposes.

But yeah. My animation time was pushed to the max - I was there maybe even more than the grad students. 

And it was that time of year again - Eurovision time! I looked on in distress as Denmark did not make it to the final, and on Saturday I watched the whole thing with Maria.

 It was Lexi's birthday, but she was so busy so we ended up going for breakfast at Denny's at midnight that Wednesday. Très Americaine.

 Friday was more animation, but with a more relaxed energy in the room thanks to chit chat and a few games of Uno!

Saturday night we were officially initiated into DKA and we had a good time in James' flat, eating cake, watermelon and playing pong. 

When I woke up in the morning, I went directly to Covel Commons to eat breakfast with some DeKAs and have a Screenwriter Circle. It was good to hear some of their creative writing!

 Then it was time for baseball! More very American things. We went to the see the Dodgers Downtown - we were a pretty big group from animation!

I had mistakenly chosen to wear both blue and red, which were the colours of the opposing team. But it didn't matter much to me - and the Cardinals did end up winning.

Pretty sunset over the sea of people.

The energy of the mass of people was insane. Everyone was dressed up somehow, wearing the colours or actual team merchandise. So the atmosphere was really someting! There was a lot of waiting involved though - the most exciting part was when the Cardinals stole a base and the last 5 minutes of the game when the Dodgers fans were crazy loud in hopes of turning the game around.

Night fell and we returned to Westwood.

Costuming Fraternity

A new week began, and I spent too many hours on campus. So we went to Ackerman to eat quite a lot.

In stop motion class we had a visitor: Max Lopez. Amaturist and animator. He was so great, really enthusiastic, and he was willing to look at our stuff and provide great advice (hence him going on top of a table to show how to do a walk cycle).

Another DeKA meeting and more fabrication for the witch project. Darling little hat. 

Working in the stop mo lab until late, late at night. It is actually pretty fun. Put on some music, dance around while the shutter slowly closes and just animate away.

Thursday Women in Animation came to visit our department. It was great to hear more about the organization and to feel the support of fellow women in the field.

I went to a Michele Calpton costume panel with Mo and Mira - she was great, but I wish she would have been more in-depth with a smaller amount of costumes.

Then Friday came and we had Pledge-retreat. We hung out at Eve's!

We ate a giant pizza and tested our strenghts.

In the morning we met up for breakfast at De Neve (I am loving having these younger friends who can swipe me in) and then Arianna drove us to Santa Clarity for the DKA retreat!

We got to the house and Melissa was celebrating her birthday with smores. We played "Once Upon a Time", drew and talked.

We went to the beach, I went in the water for the first time over here (!) and we played games in the sand. We made (while singing ABBA and Queen in unison) and ate dinner back at the house, and then headed down to the pier for the sunset again.

It was so pretty - and quiet in comparison to Santa Barbara and Monica.

Back at the house we socialized and played some nice games to get to know each other more. And the hours went by so quickly.

Before we knew it, it was morning. So we went back down to the beach to see the sunrise.

It was gorgeous and we spent a good hour with the light getting stronger and stronger. We went back and slept for a few hours before packing up the house and driving back to LA. The trip back too long and I went straight to bed as soon as I found my way home.

I got up and then we headed to Hollywood to watch Captain America in the El Capitan on Hollyood Blvd!

The theatre is from 1926, so it was fun to be in a historic place like that. It is owned by Disney, so they always have nice exhibits - and this one did not disappoint. Beautiful costumes by Judianna Makovsky and some nice little pieces of memorabilia from the franchise.