Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Class!

Well, the whole reason I came to Vancouver has finally started. Monday was my first day of classes. Since this program is only a year long, I have one real break during the end of December for only two weeks. Besides that, I have school continually for the next year. Because of this, the classes are set up different from normal semester based schools. I have a series of terms, each about 7 or 8 weeks long. The first three or four terms are used to build skills such as life drawing, composition, animation concepts, and more fine-art related courses instead of computer animation. This is mainly because an animator must understand how things move and be able to apply those mechanics to any media.

Monday, I had a basic intro "meeting" in order to learn about the school, meet my program managers, and get a tour of the building where most of my classes are. After this, I had classical animation. Finally, I had a sculpture course. The day started at 10 and ended at about 8:30 or so.

The classical animation class is quite interesting. My teacher is great. Besides being completely passoinate about animation, he is also able to remember 30+ people's names he meets for the very first time (Many of them with difficult to pronounce names too)! We learned basic concepts in animation (many I had known from previous courses at DePaul) and applied them to the standard "Bouncing Ball" exercise. This assignment is one that pretty much every animator does. All it is, is an animation of a ball bouncing. Whats great about it, is that a circle is quite simple to draw, and it teaches many animation concepts.

The next class was sculpture. Here, our goal is to sculpt a bust of basically any human or human like form we can imagine. We are using super sculpey because it is clean and easy to work with. This class is to help us get used to translating a drawing into the 3D world.

Today, I had only two classes. The first was Character Design, followed by Life Drawing. Character design is exactly what it sounds like. Its a great class. Our first assignment is to create 10 "characters" out of simple shapes. There will not be any details. I have a greater respect for cartoonists after starting this project. In the case of human characters, they have to have a great understanding of the body and how it is proportioned, as well as how it moves. They are able to take that knowledge and exaggerate it (both in design and how it moves) which really is quite amazing. I will show work if I have anything worth seeing...

Life drawing was also great. Its a 3 hour long class. Wanda, our model, came a few minutes late, but when she did, the instructor made us draw her for about 30 mins. We had 30 second poses, 2 min poses, a five minitue, and a 20 min pose. Our instructor wanted to see everyone's skill level. After this, he jumped right into giving techniques. He slowly divulged information througout the class, and each time he did, it seemed like my drawings became a little better (at least my understanding did). What I like about this teacher is that he explains a techniqe for drawing and looking. He told us to not be so concerned with what we think we see, but what we actually see. Ive heard this from every art teacher, but he really explained it well. By the end of the class, I felt a lot looser and more comfortable with my drawing. This is definitely noticable in the quality of my drawings. I am excited to see where I end up after several weeks.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Granville Island

So, I went to Granville Island on Sunday to see the Public Market. Granville Island is well, a small island, connected to Vancouver's West End by the Granville Bridge. There are many shops and restaurants on this small island, but its main attraction (besides the brewery) is the Public Market. Its basically a farmers market carrying just about anything (but good prosciutto).












I have made some frieds from school, so thats pretty cool. Since orientation, I have been hanging out with my roommate, Caio (from Brazil), and Andrej (from Hungary). I know I will get to know more people, its just been a rough week for everyone. So anyway, Caio and Andrej met Justin and I at the Granville Public Market on Sunday. It was fun. I have to say that the highlight of my day, was learning a new English word. Yes, English. Andrej kept using this word which sounded like this, fa-cool-tuh-tively. I just thought it was him saying a word and I couldnt understand his accent. Caio then mentioned that that word is also in portugese; "Facultativo". So, I looked it up online. Turns out, Facultatively is an English word... (they were using it as in the second example) Its sort of embarrasing when non-native speakers of my own language are teaching me new words. I did learn some Portugese after that, but no Hungarian yet though.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Last weekend before school...

Ok, so this weekend was the last weekend before school starts. On Saturday, I met up with Caio and Andrej at Stanley Park. Justin and I left pretty early and caught a bus up to the island park. We all walked around for a couple hours and as we were about to leave, we met Daniel. That was unfortunate, but in that two + hours, we ended up only touring the very eastern tip of the island. So, we will most definitely head back again. We all went to get cheap (really cheap) pizza for lunch, then hung out at a cafe, discussing 3D and animation related stuff for a couple of hours. It was a good time to get to know everyone and basically create a network of animators! In the long run, these people are going to be potential co-workers, or even potential business partners. Its great that everyone was from a different country too. After the cafe, Daniel went to his apartment, and Caio, Justin, Andrej and I traveled to the Beach, and then got some dinner. I can't wait to see what the beach is like during the summer time. Its beautiful, but it was quite chilly. I am finally uploading some pictures. All of the ones here are from Stanley Park and the beach.

This appears to be some sort of refinery.


This is a replica of the end of a ship that delivered supplies to and from Japan.








The area in the center is known as Dead man's Island. It was a burial place form the native people of this area. It was taken over by the Canadian Government and has become a military base.


This is a totem from the First Nations people of Vancouver. (First Nations is the term Canadians use for what we call Natives, i.e. Native Americans)


This is right by the beach. A building with a huge tree on top!!!!








So, something interesting about Vancouver's First Nations people: There seems to be a lot of work done to promote their existence in the area. For instance, Vancouver's hockey team (the Canucks...) uses a whale in this art style. I have also seen many shops and art galleries around town. I even found a beautiful mural under the Granville bridge in that same style. Pretty interesting.

I have more pictures from today to upload still, but that is a different story. Ill let you know tomorrow possibly. Oh, speaking of tomorrow, I am going to have a class late in the day with the director of EDIT: Animation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit! Sorry for the confusion Alex.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Insight into Vancouver

I've been noticing a few things here in Vancouver. The population is 1/4 Chinese. That is quite a large amount. In the area where I live, there are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, European, and South Asians, well, a little of everything it seems. When I walk around town, I hear many different languages. English is not clearly dominant among the crowds of people. When I do hear English, it tends to be from someone speaking it as a second language. Its quite interesting to see how all of these different cultures interact with each other. In Chicago, there are definitely different cultures all thrown together. In fact, I'd say that there is even more variety in Chicago. The thing is, the west end is not very large, so the different communities cant be too separated. There is lots of overlapping. To me, it seems like there is less prejudice between the groups (although, there is always prejudice no matter where you are).

Interestingly, I did notice quite a few racially mixed couples here. There are many European Canadians with Asians. Its not always the oh so common Caucasian male with Asian female either, I have seen many Caucasian females with Asian males. Also, I have noticed South Asians with Hispanic, Caucasian and Afro-Canadian, and many other combinations. Its quite a good thing in my opinion.

One other thing I noticed about this area, and its not good at all, is the amount of homeless people. Every city has its homeless people, but there is an unsettling amount here. Many of them clearly have drug problems as well. There is a large China Town as well as a trendy area called Gastown; however, the surroundings of both areas get seedier as the sunlight wanes. It is unfortunately not uncommon to see people with needles in their arms around those parts.

More Vancouver

Its been taking a little while to get used to everything. I have been doing a lot of walking around the West End just to get an idea of the area and figure out where I can buy cheap stuff. I opened my bank account with TD Canada Trust the other day, and the woman that created the account went beyond customer service and printed out maps for me highlighting both areas of interest and places to go shopping at reasonable prices. So, as of now, we actually have some food in our fridge!

On Tuesday, there was another orientation, but this was for foreign students. I accidentally missed an hour of it due to getting an e-mail and handout with different times for the event. It was nothing special. I went with my roommate to get Ramen that night at 7, and we sent a mass e-mail to the students in our program. About 3 students actually replied, so I was happy. We got there and had about 6 people eating with us. After we ordered, about 6 more students came in. It was good to get together with them before school starts. After eating we all headed to a bar and had some drinks. It was a good night overall.

Yesterday was also good. I did more walking and exploring and found some pretty cool places. There is a Japanese market nearby the apartment, so that will fill all of my Japanese goods needs. I also found a Beard Papa! http://www.muginohousa.com/ I discovered Beard Papa in Hiroshima, so its pretty cool to see it here. Also, the location of Beard Papa was pretty cool. I can see both the ocean and mountains, so its really cool coming from flat Illinois.

School still doesn't start for several days and I'm getting nervous in anticipation. I just want it to start so I have something to do. Also, the orientation made it seem like our lives will end once school starts. Basically, everyone at the School (faculty and current students) say that we will be working our asses off. That is a good thing. Its just that when I hear how extreme it is, my imagination goes a little crazy and I keep thinking its near impossible to complete the year. I know it won't be easy, but once I start, theres no stopping. I'm already trying to come up with ideas for my final project, so Ill let you know about that later. OK, I will post more later, and maybe take some pictures too!

Monday, October 20, 2008

School Orientation

It went well today. I woke up at around 7 am, and Justin and I left around 8 for a quick walk to the Vancouver film center. We met our program advisors and received some paperwork to complete. We headed into the theatre area and had a brief presentation about what we can expect from the school. The man presenting stressed how the year will be a challenge for us. It won't be an easy year. But, I am looking forward to where I will end up after this.

After the presentation, we watched some student work and then met up with our program classmates and program advisors. After that we headed out to speak with vendors from various places. I spoke with a woman from a bank, so I am going to go tomorrow to set up an account. At this time, we also had a chance to mingle with the students and write our emails down. Its quite an interesting group it seems. People from all over he world. For example, theres some people from South Korea, Thailand, india, Pakistan, germany, Poland, Hungary, Spain, Mexico, Iceland, and probably more. This is just in the 3d animation program, of which there are only 30 students. Interestingly, there are at least 4 students in the incoming programs from Houston TX! (my roommate included.. hah) The Polish guy is from Worsaw, but before coming to Vancouver, he went to, suprise, Chicago to stay with his aunt for 2 weeks! Pretty cool I think.

After all the school junk, Justin and I went to find a microwave, and we will pick it up on sale tomorrow after more orientation. I got a cell phone too! Pretty exciting stuff. So I may or may not go to an Irish pub in a few to meet up with some people from the school, we'll see. Ill let you all know how everything goes.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Vancouver

Hey.

I made it to Vancouver! I had an interesting day yesterday. I hate flying. Not because I fear airplanes or anything like that, but because I always feel extremely rushed at the airports. Its like, once you get your boarding pass and get into security, bam, you better move as fast as possible. Oh well. So the flight itself was pretty ok. I was tired as hell though. It was about 4 hours from Chicago to Seattle. I sat at the window seat, the seat next to me was empty, and the one next to that a really nice grandpa sat. Everything was good, but, there was an annoying kid behind me that occasionally kicked my seat.

I made it to Seattle, and navigated the airport fairly easily. I had to wait in line at customer service at United for literally 1 to 1.5 hours. It sucked. I finally got my boarding pass and headed to the correct gate. The plane from Seattle to Vancouver was realllly tiny. It had propellers! The flight was 30 mins.

Arriving in Vancouver was easy. I had to go to Customs and they quickly showed me where to go next. I had to go to immigration after getting my bags, and by chance, saw my roommate. He got there about 1 and a half hours before me, but was stuck at agriculture forever because he had some plums... hah At immigration, the workers were kind of pushy, to the point of assholishness. The guy and girl helping me were pretty nice, and funny too. They told me that most people hate immigration officers and that they rank somewhere between meter-maids and lawyers. So i paid for my study visa and Justin mentioned the date his was good until, and I checked mine. It said I had to be out of Canada by Oct. 17th 2009. School doesn't end until Oct. 23 of 2009. So, i went back to immigration and they fixed it after some confusion.

We got a taxi to the apartment and passed through some very nice looking residential areas. Its cool to see the ocean and mountains too. I met my landlord, a very personable woman who is very welcoming. We got food after putting our stuff down. We walked around the city for a while, looking at stuff and buying some essentials. At one point, as we were walking down the street, i noticed that the English I heard being spoken gradually changed to Japanese, and Korean. Then I noticed I was the only white person.. it was strange, but cool.

There are tons of Asians here. Most are Chinese (from Hong Kong), Japanese, and Korean. I heard quite a bit of Spanish too, suprisingly. I read that Vancouver has a pretty sizable Peruvian population too. Oh, and if Mahasti is reading this, I met a Persian woman too!

So today, I walked around some more. We went to get more stuff for the apartment and walked all the way to near china town. The area went from upscale stores like Gucci, versace and whatnot, to crackhead filled street! Yea... China town was huge.

We went back home, and on the way, saw a little hot dog stand on the street corner. what was interesting is that it had like 20 people waiting in line. So, we had to see what was up. It was this http://www.japadog.com/en/ Its Japanese hot dogs, if that makes any sense. The guy taking the orders had a laminated sign over his shirt that said "I apologize, my English is very poor." or something like that. It was funny. As for the hot dogs, I had a miso mayo hot dog. It was on a toasted sesame bun, and the hot dog itself was called Kurobuta (meaning black pig in Japanese. Kurobuta is 100% pure all-natural Berkshire pork. Its the so-called "Kobe beef" of pork. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_beef

It was one of, if not the most, delicious hot dogs Ive ever had. I cant even call it a hot dog, because the meat was actually meat. The miso added an interesting sweetness to it all and it was topped of with sprouts. I will definitely be going here again.

So, that was the excitement of my 2 days. I have orientation at school tomorrow, so I will get to meet all of my classmates. I'm pretty excited.