Simply Robotix

Happy New Year! When I think about 2019 the first things that come to mind are the various challenges I kept submitting myself to and then the emotional lows as I tried to find a new full-time job within the animation industry.

In 2019 I was working at Michaels (arts & crafts store) as a cashier, at the same time I worked at a VR pop-up as a tech docent, I spent the summer being a teaching artist teaching 3rd-5th graders stop motion animation. After that, I hit a lull and ran back to my old job and started working in the box office a movie theater to lastly getting the call for the job I currently have as an assistant on another animated feature film here in NYC. 

All too often the as creatives, and people in general, we don't always share the things we were doing or had to do to get where we are now. 

In 2019, I watched the most scripted non-animated content ever. I got back into animation,  developed a practical blogging and social media strategy, gained new followers, did 12 days of consistent podcasting, made 50 stop motion clips and wrote 15 super short stories to eventually develop. I became a Women In Animation Mentor for their 2019- 2020 cycle.

2019 was the year of trial and error and more trial and more error. For this year I want to be even more intentional about my creative projects and the community I'm not only a part of but the one I am creating as well.

My words for 2020 are

KNOW

CREATE

ANIMATE

You will be seeing them around here a lot.

Santa's clumsy grandson, Arthur gets put on a mission with St. Nick's father to give out a present they misplaced to a young girl in less than 2 hours. Today we're talking about 2011's Arthur Christmas!

* Correction* I did not watch this on Amazon Prime but through Freeform using my cable provider login info. 

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tk-WZSqIGQ

-----

#Simplyrobotixpod

Twitter / Instagram @Simplyrobotix

“Save the Cat” is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying, including: The four elements of every winning logline The seven immutable laws of screenplay physics The 10 genres that every movie ever made can be categorized by ― and why they’re important to your script Why your Hero must serve your Idea Mastering the 15 Beats Creating the “Perfect Beast” by using The Board to map 40 scenes with conflict and emotional change How to get back on track with proven rules for script repair This ultimate insider’s guide reveals the secrets that none dare admit, told by a showbiz veteran who’s proven that you can sell your script if you can save the cat. - Amazon

This book is consists of 8 chapters that walk you through successfully writing your first movie script. Snyder talks about being able to pitch your movie in one to two sentences and the significance of a good title.He categorizes movies outside of the standard genres we are all familiar with and encourages the reader to place their film in one of these categories to see if it follows the rules of that category. He talks about the importance of having a clear and definitive subject for the  audience to follow and identify with.He then gets technical with breaking down the story into a fixed number of beats to be played out over three acts. He shares “the beat board” and how to essentially convert your script to the board and keep it concise. He then closes out with screenwriting “rules” and how to fix your script when it falls flat.

That’s it! That’s the book!  No I’m kidding. I basically gave you my version of his table of contents, trust me I did NOT spoil the book for you.

My favorite part of the book was chapter four where he shares “ The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (aka BS2)” This resonated with me because though I was introduced to “beats” my junior year of college while working on my thesis film, it wasn’t until I started working as a PA in the Story department at Blue Sky Studios that I was able to see that in practice. I was able to see the directors, the story lead(s), the writer(s) and the script coordinator arrange and rearrange the story beats on the beat board to make the story, the film “work”. Personally, I never understood really what made a “beat” so reading Snyder’s take allowed me to call back on my experience and make some correlations.

I would definitely recommend this book to those starting out and could use a nudge in the right direction. When I first announced that I was reading this book I received a few mixed messages and I was confused. After reading it, I can understand a bit more why people had their reservations. This book should be a starter and then you continue reading and learning. It isn’t the holy grail and should not be the last book you read on screenwriting. I don’t think it is a bad as people made it seem however it was my first book on screenwriting and that’s why I probably feel this way. I’m probably going to flip through it again because he provides A LOT of exercises that I actually want to do.

In short, if you have never read anything about screenwriting then start here. If you’ve read a lot about screenwriting then you may want to skip this OR just borrow it (hard copy or ebook) from a library.

It was announced by then Mayor Bloomberg back in 2013 that my favorite museum, The Museum of Moving Image will become the home of a permanent Jim Henson exhibit.

In my “about” section I share how pivotal a class trip to MoMI was for me deciding to want to work in the animation industry. Any and every opportunity I have to visit this museum, I take it.

The Jim Henson exhibit was originally scheduled to open in the winter of 2014/2015. I’m not sure what happened however the exhibit was delayed, so much so that the museum ended up launching a kickstarter campaign in April of 2017 to help fund the project.

As mentioned on wiki:

The exhibition is divided into several sections focusing on different aspects of Henson's career, from his early, experimental works to the inception of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The exhibition features puppets from various productions, as well as several archival items from the Jim Henson Legacy, such as scripts, props, design sketches and models.

The exhibit finally opened in July of 2017. Most of the items on display were donated by Jim Henson’s family. There are nearly 500 various  artifacts including about 47 puppets, costumes, licensed materials, and production design work such as character sketches and storyboards as well.

It was important for me to go to be reminded that all of “the greats” had humble beginnings. As a creative I think it is important to see the various stages, the trials, the errors, the planning and the breakthroughs that lead to the final results that we love.

I loved seeing some of the Sesame Street crew as well as Kermit, Miss Piggy and a few others from the Muppet Show.

You can learn more about the exhibit and how to get tickets at MoMI’s website

Watch my very short and partial walk through below.

In April of this year TAIKO studios debuted the trailer for their short film “One Small Step”. Although I was not aware of the trailer there was no missing the many retweets and reposts of the film itself a few days ago on Sept 20th.

TAIKO is an award winning animation studio that believes in the power of story.

TAIKO Studios was founded in 2017 by CEO Shaofu Zhang in both Los Angeles and Wuhan, China. As a truly international company, the studio endeavors to bridge eastern and western cultures together to create memorable stories with universal appeal.

I felt that this film was worth sharing because I’m a

sap for father / daughter narratives and I LOVE the toon shaders and the light treatment. Please watch the film before reading any further because *SPOILER ALERT*

Luna is a young girl with an obsessive passion for space. She is so consumed by her multiple defeats in trying to get into a space program that she distances herself from her dad only for him to pass away. Through his death she regains the drive to try again and succeeds in graduating and getting into the space program.

This short film  hit entirely too close to home. This month makes 10 years since the unexpected passing of my father. Much like Luna, I was consumed with my own passion, animation. My father did not get to see me graduate from SVA with my degree in computer animation or get to see my first feature film credit in Blue Sky Studio’s 2016 Ice Age: Collision Course.

I really resonated with this film much more than I anticipated. The story telling was perfect. Saying more by saying less is my favorite. I feel like this film was just the encouragement I needed in this moment where I, like Luna, am falling short a bit more often than I would like. I know the next job for me is on the horizon and I will not give up until I’m in another studio being a part of the production team of the next animated project.

I deeply thank TAIKO studios for creating such a beautiful and heartfelt film.

Directed by Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas Produced by Shaofu Zhang CG Supervisor Joy Johnson Head of Pipeline Andrew Jennings Music Steve Horner

Un Conte was uploaded to Vimeo 5 years ago but has recently been making its rounds on social media. I wanted to share this short first because I enjoyed the animation style and the muted color palettes.The lines are a bit more on the rough side and very sketchy. The subject matter however is not as light. 

Credits

French

Réalisé par :  Guillaume Arantes vimeo.com/guillaumearantes Facebook facebook.com/unconte

Contact production : GOBELINS, l'école de l'image, Moïra Marguin : [email protected]

Contact festival :  [email protected]

Contact Distribution : La distribution des films produits par GOBELINS, l'école de l'image est assurée par L'Agence du court métrage. Contact : [email protected].

English

Realized by : Guillaume Arantes vimeo.com/guillaumearantes Facebook facebook.com/unconte

Production contact: GOBELINS, the school of the image, Moïra Marguin: [email protected]

Festival contact: [email protected]

A couple of weeks ago I came across this video. After watching it I instantly knew it was one I had to share. 

The animation style...

The music...

Breakbot and Ruckazoid merge, creating Breakazoid, a cosmic pimp, who distributes his love to humans by taking them across the galaxy on the planet love.

Credits

How have you changed over the last 2 years?

In this video I recap some of my professional and personal growth and development as I illustrate a unicorn lady

This illustration was created using Daisy Ein's tutorial on Envatotuts+ "How to Draw & Paint a Starry Unicorn Portrait in Adobe Photoshop"

Program used: Adobe Photoshop CS5

"The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is an annual event dedicated to showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. Founded by Jeff Friday, it supports emerging artists to foster a wider range of images, stories and storytellers represented in the entertainment industry.  (http://www.abff.com/about-abff)

Preview Screenings

This year ABFF celebrated its 22nd year from Jun 13th - June 17th in Miami Florida. I was granted the opportunity to attend the festival on the strength of my aunt who has a local radio station in South Florida. 

ABFF kicked off it's unofficial first night with the screening of Director X's Superfly. Founder of the festival Jeff Friday introduced the festival and the film and the entire cast came out to support. 

Brand Ambassadors

ABFF had had a Ambassador Program as a part of their #WEAREABFF platform that gives social media followers the chance to be included in the festival. Here are this year’s ambassadors via abff.com/weareabffambassador

ABFF Festival App

One great part of the festival was the ABFF App, powered by Attendify I’ve been to a few festivals that had an app component to them and this by far has been my favorite. The app was very much a social media network of its own.

People were updating the length of lines for events and panel availability. They reviewed panels, shared pictures at the parties, networking events and with celebrities and industry professional sightings.

People seemed to be really connecting with one another. Sharing food recommendations and more.

Hot in Hollywood Panel

I attended the Hot in Hollywood Panel. This panel was about he state of the industry and highlighted upc and coming stars and their impact in the industry. The panel was moderated by Dondre Whitfield and the panelists were Ashley Blaine Featherson & Bresha WEbb (Marlon) of Dear White People, Kofi Siriboe of Queen Sugar and Jacob Latimore of The Chi.

A Conversation with Ryan Coogler

Marvel sponsored a talk with Ryan Coogler hosted by Nischelle Turner. In this conversation Ryan covered attending USC, gaining attention with his film Fig at the 2011 ABFF to directing Fruitville Station, Creed and Black Panther.

He talked a lot about support, networking, inspiration, work ethic and more.

Networking

I ran into a few familiar faces over the course of the festival. I ran into a girl from high school that is a produce for the Jerry Springer show, a former classmate from School of Visual Arts and a coworker from Blue Sky as well as a few people from Twitter and Instagram.

Next Year

I was only able to experience but so much of the festival this year. I’m now working on being able to work the festival or find some way to bring Simply Robotix to the festival itself.

via one of my favorite sites Flooby Nooby.  I was impressed to learn that this was created by a team of 3rd year students. I love the fluid style. The textures, the music. 

In a barren and cold world, a lone knight travels toward a sole beacon of hope; a beautiful, golden city. When the knight’s way is blocked by an infallible monster, the knight must fight to reach his goal; but can they defeat the monster from within the heavy armour without facing the memories that haunt? WITHIN, WITHOUT was made by a team of 3rd year Character Animation & CG Art students at The Animation Workshop/VIA University College in Viborg, Denmark. Check out the individual students blogs (links below) to learn more about the talent behind the film and check out the project blog: http://withinwithoutmovie.tumblr.com/

Credits: Patrycja Cmak - Director (http://paticmak.portfoliobox.net/)

Ariel Ries - Story Lead (http://arielries.tumblr.com/) Marie Post Riggelsen - Production Manager (http://mariepost.strikingly.com/) Maria Madelaire Forná - Art Director (https://vimeo.com/mariamadelaire) Morten Solgaard Pedersen - Art Director &Technical Director (https://vimeo.com/user49880104) Auriane Laïly - Animation Lead (https://vimeo.com/user25960198) Marta Milczarek - Pipeline Manager & Environment lead (http://mkmilczarek.portfoliobox.net/) Henrik Langergaard Jepsen - CG Generalist Carl Otto Moesgård Jørgensen - CG Generalist (https://vimeo.com/user32471977)

Additional Animation: Myra Hild Pauline Champetier Kristine Behrmann Larsen Linda Chuu Bjurhager Leena Lecklin Louis Kynd Joel Stenbäck

Additional Cleanup and Colour: Søren Sparre Jowanna Barvizi Federico Pirovano Kristina Silkjær Pernille Flyvholm Philip Rodrigues Sarah Rothernberger Mariyam Aulbekova Charly Katrin Mårtensson Cora Mckenna Karoline Lie Monica Antonie Meineche Sofya Baychuk

Want to know more about The Animation Workshop/VIA University College?

Website: animationworkshop.via.dk Facebook: facebook.com/pages/The-Animation-Workshop-Official-Page/10452541819

Tumblr: theanimationworkshop.tumblr.com/

Twitter: twitter.com/TAW_Denmark

Follow influencers, people you admire & people who make work you like.

 I spend more time on social media than I'd like to admit. Due to this, I try to make sure my feed, the images and tweets that come across my timeline are in alignment with where I'm going professionally and as an artist.

I highly suggest that you try to be mindful as to not over saturate your social media feed to the point where what you consume becomes blatant and evident in the work that you create

I suggest you follow people that you admire and that do work that you aspire to do as a reminder to keep going. Also by following these people or  studios or companies you can see who they follow, what books they are reading, podcasts they are listening to, movies they have watched and more.

Engage with them.

Like their posts or tweets. Comment on their stuff every now and then. Whether they post on Facebook, on their site, Twitter or Instagram, pick your favorite platform and comment. I am subscribed to quite a few newsletter and when I really enjoy something I go to social media and tell them that I appreciated this tidbit, their newsletter. I’d quote something from their post or podcast or video.

All of this engagement as time consuming as it can be is ultimately helpful for you to start getting on their radar. Do not flood their notifications as that will probably get you blocked.

I’d also suggest checking out who they follow, you may find some gems but don’t be creepy and follow their family or coworkers etc

Join online challenges & group challenges.

This will help you to start building a community, a network. You’re going to encounter tough times, tougher times if life has already knocked you on your but a few times.

By joining these communities you create the space for you to get feedback on your work. You can bounce ideas off of people. They / the challenge can help you remain accountable for the moments when you’d rather not do anything.

Share your work and use hashtags.

I’ll be the first one to tell you that there can be a lot of self doubt when it comes to sharing your work online. It is like your mind goes into hyper drive criticizing everything in your piece. You have to let go and release to the world. Also as a person who has viral artwork, watermarking your stuff is EXTREMELY important. People will do all sorts of things to remove it but still watermark anyway, You never know who may come across your work and want to reach out to you and that watermark is usually their way back to you.

When sharing your work use hashtags. You can create one with your name, your business, your art name, website, blog but start building your work up with hashtags.

If people do decide to reshare or post your work this will be something they add to their post thus adding another layer of ease for people to discover all of the greatness that is you.

Until next time,

Three years ago I dedicated a Women's History post to Black women in animation. In this post I expressed how challenging it was to find Black women in the industry (here's the link to the post). I wrote about Jackie Ormes (a cartoonist), Brenda Banks (animator), Dr. Ayoka Chenzira (animator, director) and Carole Holliday (animator, writer, director).

Now, as I have finally entered the animation industry as a professional, I was reminded throughout my experience that I was essentially a unicorn. More often than not I was either the only Black person in the room or non-white male when it came to meetings, pitches and kick offs. Thankfully I did not have many moments that specifically reminded me of this fact. 

Black women work in various positions in the industry. They are in the finance department, editorial, render, story and marketing. At least that's where they were in Blue Sky. That's not even one Black woman per department if I'm being honest and most of them were in management positions. 

I've continued to reflect on in other ways Black women work in the industry and I thought of the incredible Cree Summer who has voiced most Black animated characters as well as singer Estelle who voices Garnet on Steven Universe. Besides them and Regina King, I can not think of other Black women voice actresses. 

I bring this up because it is my aspiration for the animation to have its own Ava Duvernay, Shonda Rhimes, Issa Rae and many more names that will become household names. Many of us can rattle off at least five Black men in the animation industry but struggle to name two Black women. 

None of the women mentioned in this post, regardless of the industry that they work in arrived overnight and neither will the names we in the future. 

In this video I talk about why I turned to blogging, how I started and what I am working towards for Simply Robotix.

This illustration was created using Yulia Sokolova's tutorial on Envatotuts+ "How to Paint a Spring Lady Floral Portrait in Adobe Photoshop"

Program used: Adobe Photoshop CS5

"Being a bald man sucks.

Knowing you'll become one is worse."

I wanted to share this short film because I really enjoy the animation style. This was a very entertaining way to highlight a genuine concern. Lastly the colors are so vivid 

Directed by Paul Cabon | website | Twitter

Production: Yann legay, Wag Prod

This illustration was created using Yulia Sokolova's tutorial on Envatotuts+ "How to Create Cinderella’s Pumpkin Carriage in Affinity Designer"

Program used: Adobe Illustrator CS5