#class projects

Tumblweeds with Joseph Gordon-Levitt

We got into the weeds with actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitrecordjoe) about HITRECORD Class Projects, creating a character based on himself for Mr. Corman, and memories from the making of 10 Things I Hate About You and Inception.

Alcohol ink page for a book spread

I made this story for my digital storytelling class. It’s certainly rough, but it’s the first video I ever made like this, and I’m pretty proud of it.

Hey yall! It’s the end of the semester and that means it’s time to post my final projects for art class, because somehow I decided tumblr is a good academic medium. I was in a figure drawing class this semester, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in art. Our final portfolio includes six creative drawings- basically, we could hand in anything that involves a figure. I decided to do six short animations- one per week- using dancing and gymnastics for reference and challenge myself to capture the sheer power and distortion the human body is capable of.

It was really strange seeing how my ability changed over the course of six weeks. I knew I wanted a fast and loose style- I absolutely adore watching pencil tests from old animated movies and I wanted to emulate that look. However my first couple attempts were... rough. It took me way too long to do too few frames. I used too much pressure and made everything come out blocky and stiff. I had to do a lot of fixing to keep a consistent size. It took me way too long to discover the benefits of guiding lines. 

But over time I started being able to do more complex movements, even throwing in some more challenging perspectives. I started pushing 30 frames while also improving my speed. It really shows how much artistic ability comes from practice not innate skill. 

Split Personality Disorder