Hip Hip Hooray!

Today was absolutely wonderful. I turned in my papers for my English class and officially ended my second year of college. At the awards ceremony, I found out that my one scholarship was renewed, and I earned two more! And to celebrate all my hard work, I went to CIA's annual end of the year party, the Pink Pig, where they had two moon bounces! I think I was on there with a few of my friends for at least a half hour. It was absolutely fantastic. College kids should have access to these kinds of things more often.

So now that I have no need to be at my studio until 2am, I'm not sure what to do with myself. It's such a weird feeling to work so hard until the very end, and then have everything.just.stop. I still feel like there's more to do. Tonight, I'm planning on watching a movie, probably something Disney, and going to bed early! Then sleeping in tomorrow as late as I possibly can. Sure, I have to get ready to move, but I think tomorrow should be a nice relaxing day.

And since everything has stopped, I've been trying to write down all of my ideas for future projects. My brain is just overflowing with ideas involving bears on motorcycles and unicorns on unicycles and trees with butterflies for leaves and yarn letters and pop-up sets...

I've also realized recently that for a vegetarian, I eat an awful lot of animal crackers. In my kitchen cabinets, I have 2 kinds of animal crackers, a tub of Cat Cookies (heck yes, Trader Joe's!), some Bunny Grahams, Market Pantry Chickadees, and Goldfish.

Now for some pretties I've come across lately:

Enjoy your evening! I know I will!

Almost done!

Have you had a chance to watch my new animation? Or is it animations? I'll explain more about that later. Right now, I wanna keep you guessing. So, are you curious?

I had my last studio critique for the semester today. Now I just need to get together some papers to hand in for my English final tomorrow. And then...I will be free! Granted, I'll be sticking around for another week to attend the BFA reviews, but after 12pm tomorrow, I will be officially done with the spring semester!

I'll also be working on getting some more of my new animations online. I'm thinking about upgrading to a Vimeo Plus account. What do you think? It might just be worth it just to avoid the hassel of rendering and re-rendering with different compressions.

By the way, I am in love with the illustrations and pattern designs of Alyssa Nassner lately. They're so quirky! I think I'll have to do a whole post just about her amazing illustrations shown on her blog!

Not to mention, her color palette is absolutely charming!

Alright, time for me to finish up getting grant proposals and exhibition reviews together. Hooray. Haha, hope your night is a little more exciting than mine!

Semester Long Animation ONLINE!

Curiouser:

Curiouser from Michaela Lynch on Vimeo.

And Curiouser:

Curiouser from Michaela Lynch on Vimeo.

And Curiouser:

Curiouser from Michaela Lynch on Vimeo.

Should I explain? Maybe later. I'll leave you wondering.

On Wednesdays,

I think I'll wear pink today. Time for bed. The goal was to be at my studio by 10am tomorrow to finish up some things. Of course, that's in 5 hours and 7 minutes. I need to take a nap.

KoriARTica

First off, check out CIA's website before they change it... If you look to the left, you'll see a still from my animation. And just in case they change it before you see, check it out here:

They even have some info about our show on the blog:

I was really excited when I came across that this morning. It's been one of my goals to get my work on the home page before I graduate.

Anyway, the show, which [animation machine & TIME professor] Kasumi & [Mather Dance Center art director] Gary named "koriARTica" went amazing. Considering all of the mayhem that has been going on, I was very pleased. The video worked. Our projection looked awesome. Rachel danced beautifully. And Josh, the composer of our music, was there to see it! 

It was really great in the end, to know that 3 students from 3 different institutions (The Cleveland Institute of Art, The Cleveland Institute of Music, and Case Western Reserve University) were all able to contribute. And we all got great feedback! I was pleased with my animation. Rachel is an amazing dancer. And Josh is incredibly talented.

Whew!

Now back to work to get ready for two final critiques tomorrow.

Animals That Make Me Smile

This awesome bear cub.

Real life Lion King.

Beebee kittehs.

My Little Pony.

Obnoxious seals.

Flying hippos.

Teddy bear.

Fantastic Mr. Fox.

This elephant artist.

Peek-a-boo playing polar bear.

PUGS. (I need one.)

This giant walrus.

Bunny love.

Woodland creatures.

Unicorn. IRL.

Sphinx kitten.

Hipster puppy.

And, of course, owls!

Today I

• ate two soft pretzels and raw cookie dough for breakfast,
• competed for a scholarship (like my nice dvd cover?),
• fixed a problem area of my documentary,
• interviewed a psychologist,
• worked in my studio,
• picked up the last of the music for my big animation,
• met with the dancer,
• cut my thumb,
• made my sister laugh,
• made a new life goal,
• watched a YouTube video of a snoring duck,
• rendered,
• and am still working in my studio.

No worries, our school has Late Night Breakfast tonight, which means free food. I don't even have to leave the building.

Five more days until I can sleep in. For serious.

Happy Bunny Sunday!

The making of one of my favorite commercials (aka: my dream job). 

In Cleveland,

April showers don't bring May flowers. April torrential downpours and floods sometimes bring a few blooms that will live for a short time until the snow sets in.

I really do like thunderstorms. Even if the streets are flooding. Besides, I've got my floral print rain boots by Liberty of London to cheer me up!

It would just be nice if we didn't have to lose power...right when my file was a minute away from finishing rendering. I wasn't so pleased when that happened. At least rendering each file is taking under an hour. That's always nice.

I'll be back later to post Bunny Sunday. Right now, I've gotta get ready to swim over to the library to work, then meet up with the dancer for our project, then trudge back to my studio.

By the way, I think it's pretty bad when you start to hear that wonderful bell sound After Effects plays when it finishes rendering. And you're not anywhere near a computer. Goodbye sanity. I didn't know you that long anyway.

Rainy afternoon.

After Effects should come with a warning message. Every time you open the program, you should see a yellow box that says

"WARNING! RENDERING IS HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH. MAY CAUSE TEMPORARY LOSS OF SANITY." 

Or maybe 

"WARNING! THIS PROGRAM AND WHAT YOU CREATE WITH IT WILL SLOWLY STEAL YOUR SOUL." 

Or even, 

"WARNING! MAY CAUSE PALE SKIN DUE TO TOO MUCH TIME SPENT INDOORS IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER SCREEN YELLING 'WHY, GOD? WHY?'"  

But it doesn't. You have to learn that the hard way. And it doesn't help that I'm already a very hard worker. One of the hardest workers you'll ever meet, probably. I put my entire heart and soul into every project. I try to go above and beyond and always learn more. And then when it's done, I die. Actually, it's more like a mini hibernation stage where I attempt to recover from all of my work.

So today I am finishing up editing my documentary. I am adding music to two-thirds of my big animation. I am rendering until I die. And I am designing dvd jackets and inserts and menus. I'd like to fit some sleep in there, but we'll see. That might have to be put off until May 1st.

Even so, I am very proud of how far I have come this year. I'm still learning, but I hope I'm still learning til the day I die. It'll be nice once everything's done. It will be nicer if people like my projects. I love making people happy.

Enough rambling. Here are some pretty pictures to make this dreary Cleveland afternoon seem a bit more magical.

Clutchy Hopkins - Verbal Headlock from Ubiquity Records on Vimeo.

Wanna see something awesome?

Well, at least I think it is. Behold! A still from my dance animation.

I have been killing myself to finish everything, and this one especially has been a bit of a headache. But as of right now, the animation is done, minus possible minor tweaking. It is currently rendering out at 1280x720, Apple Pro Res compression, and I am praying that After Effects doesn't crash on me (again). And at 7:30, I will be giving the file to the dancer.

I feel like skipping every time I finish a huge project. Or finish a big part, anyway.

20 Things I Am Looking Forward To

1. Finishing my animation for this dance collaboration.

2. Seeing my big semester long animation playing in Aitken tomorrow, better known as the Cinematheque theater.

3. Having everything rendered in HD.

4. Burning DVDs.

5. Being done with so many projects.

6. Not working on any websites for a good while.

7. Owning the Adobe CS5 Production Premium.

8. Being all moved into my new apartment.

9. Playing with Mia all summer.

10. Working in a flower shop again.

11. Going to the zoo.

12. Seeing Nicholas!

13. Tanning on the beach and lightening my hair.

14. Sailing.

15. Picnics.

16. Making more animation sketches over the summer.

17. Making more animations with Mia.

18. Making an animation with Nicholas.

19. Having a sleep schedule. It doesn't even have to be normal. Just some sort of schedule will do.

20. Sewing dresses.

Let's start with #1.

Off with their heads.

I'm still working on my paper. But I've got a good start, and I'm at the point where I talk about the formal aspects of specific stop motion animations. So I've been watching a good amount of Svankmajer. I recommend you do the same. Here is part of his film Alice from 1988. Unfortunately, I don't own a copy of it and have only seen what is available on YouTube. And yet, I am certain that it is the best take on Wonderland out there.

Bunny Sunday!

I'm a little busy right now, so a video will have to suffice this week. At least it's totally awesome! I'll post the making-of video some other time. It's incredible. They had flocks of stop motion animators running around with colorful rabbits throughout New York City. Can you say dream job?

My biggest To Do lately has been finishing this paper on stop motion Surrealism. I really do enjoy the topic; it would just go better if I had a little more caffeine in my system. I'm trying to do as much as my brain will let me tonight. It really isn't due until Tuesday. And hey, last semester, I wrote 14 pages in less than 12 hours. I think that takes talent.

Today,

I put on a dress.
I packed a suitcase.
My mom picked me up.
We drove 3.5 hours.
I did some little stop motion experiments on the car ride.
I had a French toast bagel with raspberry cream cheese for brunch.
We arrived in metro Detroit.
I walked into a flower shop.
I talked to the owner.
I had a mighty fine interview.
I got a job for the summer!
I went home.
I gave Mia a giant hug.
I played Polly Pocket.
I drew pictures of Alice in Wonderland with Mia.
I had a delicious dinner.
I watched iCarly iBloopers.
(I love that show.)
I watched Disney's Alice in Wonderland with Mia.
We watched some special features about the animation process.
I got her to fall asleep around 10pm.
I went into the kitchen.
I've been working on my research paper.

Tomorrow,
I will go with Mia to Sunday School to help her make a rosary.
I will go get my haircut (after over a year).
I will make an animation with Mia.
I will go back to Cleveland with my mom.
I will read some more books for my paper on the way.
I will work on my paper until I die.
I will go to the Cleveland Institute of Art Design Spring Show for a little while.
I will work on my paper until I die.
I will go to mass.
I will work on my paper until I die.

I really don't mind writing papers. In fact, I usually enjoy them...when I actually have time to work on them. Especially the papers I've written at CIA. So far, I've written one about unicorns, and another about self-portraits and Facebook. This one is about surrealism in the medium of stop motion animation, so I feel like I can spend hours on Youtube watching everything by Svankmajer, and claim that it's homework. It's rather tempting. Here, check out his version of Alice in Wonderland. His take on the caterpillar is amazing.

Now,

I am getting back to work.

Notes to self.

\

Images by Fadedfilmstrips & Recovering Lazyholic. (Click photos to go directly to them.)

I  have a few little reminders hanging around my apartment right now. I've been wanting to make more, but I think that will be a summer project for my new apartment! I'm still incredibly excited that everything worked out. You have no idea how much lighter I feel right now. I still giddy!

I think my reminders would be something along the lines of these:

• Rise & Shine (by my bed)
• Check Your Ego (This is currently on our bathroom door.)
• Second Star to the Right (above my animation table)
• Make Up Your Mind (by my mirror)
• Smell the Roses (by my window)
• Make Something (in my studio)
• Eat More Greens (somewhere kitcheny maybe)
• Play That Funky Music (by my record player)

What sorts of reminders would you make for yourself?

Ps. In a surprising turn of events, I will be heading home to Detroit tomorrow for a job interview! Let's hope it goes well. If not, at least I get to see Miss Mia. She already told me that she wants to make an animation and play Alice in Wonderland. I was thinking it might be fun for us to make some necklaces out of Sculpey. Oh, and I have a paper to crank out this weekend as well.