Let me start off by apologizing for the lack of updates over the summer. I know it seems silly that an artist's blog isn't updated as often as his other ...online endeavors, however it can only make sense if you give me a chance. So, the summer is over and today marks nearly the end of my second week of this semester. Classes are...iffy, however, that's only because of my lack of involvement in any animation classes. I have senior project and that's all - the rest are silly gen-eds like Chemistry, Economics, etc. But overall, it's going well. I will say Economics has me worried simply because of how aloof the class itself is. There's nothing really to...grasp - it's mostly theories and concepts rather than practical knowledge to bank.
Aside from that, I will get to the more important topic of discussion. Mourou started out as a team between four men and has since dwindled to myself. Being the founder of the group, I am not going to let it die. I have a new vision for a storytelling team that I surely hope will come into view very soon. I am looking for animators and storytellers with a similar...vision (sorry for the redundancy) as myself who can come together with specific roles and actually put out a production. I have been talking with a few friends to see what they think about it and hopefully we can make something of it. It shall not die, but live on! I've invested into this by purchasing our own domain. So! With that said, you may now find your way to this blog by simply searching mourou.net. Pretty fancy, eh?
To go back to what exactly happened this summer, I will say that I spent 13 weeks out of town. 1 week of that was simply on the road in the midst of travel. The 12 weeks I spent at my internship were used on a single production that I single-handedly animated in Toon-Boom Animate 2. It was quite a task, especially since 4 of the 12 weeks were spent on storyboarding, research, ideation, etc. Anyways, by the end of it all, I certainly had a piece worth taking a look at. I am currently waiting on word of whether or not I can post the animation on my blog here, but once I get the "ok-to-go", I'll be sure to share it. For now, perhaps I can interest you with a few little test animations that didn't make it into the final piece:
Choppy, yes. But fun. The internship was a fantastic opportunity. The sad thing is that I've been instantly thrown back into school without so much as a day or two to reminisce on what exactly I did this summer. I haven't been too good on meditating on my memories, recently, as life has been moving so fast. I need it to slow down and actually digest what happened to me this summer.
Lastly, I want to say that my recent interests have been in Scott Pilgrim and Bayonetta. I picked up both games last week, as well as the books, and actually took a sweet young lady to see the movie as well. It's definitely started to influence me, mentally. I have a feeling it will alter my art style a little bit. But there's nothing wrong with that! It has inspired me and I can't seem to get either out of my head. As for influences, I figured I would do the popular deviantART Influence Map meme. You can see mine below. Click for a larger image!
If you would like to see my description for what each influence is, click the title of this blog post to be redirected! And if you are at all curious what the other two images are of at the top of this post, they are of my two characters, Harbie (the fish guy, short for Harbinger) and Pincho (the guy that looks like me with a severed unicorn head attached over his own head). More on them later! Tootles!
