#ctnx2015

HELLO FRIENDS It’s been two weeks since CTNx but I’m going to write my recap anyways since I just really want to talk about it u.u

Warning: Long, incoherent reminiscing below the cut haha

.CTNx 2015. Burbank

The Road To CTN2015

 Featuring: The Three Best Friends: Samantha Leggatt, Carmelo Badia, and Alex Leonis


General Themes: Barfing Rainbows, Animation, California, Disney

I will try to keep this as short and to the point as possible. This is our trip to CTN in a nutshell.

The Week Leading up to the Flight:

 Excitement levels were high.  The three of us had been planning this trip for 9 months.  Alex was obviously the most prepared. I think the week leading up to our trip she sent us weather updates every morning for Burbank.



Carmelo and Alex were busy drawing, getting shit together, (business cards, sketchbooks, you know the bare necessities - (see what I did there))  Anyways! I was scrambling to catch up at work and finish all my animation scenes before take off! I spent the week leading up to CTN at work late every night!

 

Twas the night before take off, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even an Alex (because she’s cute like a mouse)  So I worked till 10 and then Carmelo and Alex picked me up and we did one last Walmart trip for supplies! It was all coming together and I could start getting excited for real. 



Carmelo’s parents put Alex and I up for the night because we were departing at 4.am.  Carmelo’s mother made us home made pizza (Italian lady style so it was basically the best thing I ever had) We slept for a good three hours and then were off…



Day One - Travels & Excitement:



On the drive to the airport I warned my friends, security hates me.  I don’t know what it is. My sinister looks. Sneaky demeanour.  Or perhaps, a combination of both.  So of course while in line for security my boarding pass got taken away “randomly” so I could be screened and what have you.  No big deal. Called it. 



We got through all that jazz and just patiently waited.  I would say that first flight was all of us dozing off and trying to catch up on some sleep.. Well Carmelo and I, Alex was wide awake watching Amy Schumer. 

 

At last we landed in Chicago. That airport is something special I will tell you that. Good ol’ O’ Hare.  We grabbed some coffees and waited for plane number two!  Also, going to pay for that first coffee, let me tell you. I hate american money. I didn’t know where my bills were, the idea of a penny was foreign to me, it was just horrible. 



The leg of the trip from Chicago to San Fran(sisco) (I’m told they don’t like to be called San Fran) was the longest.  We luckily got our seats next to each other for that one. We all sketched a bit - using Stephen Silver’s Character Design Shuffle app.  Carmelo and I dipped into the rye and gingers - Vacation had officially begun. 



Touch down in San Fransisco! We grabbed some grub before our last connection, and let me tell you - I’m glad we did!  Alex and Carm got A Clam chowder that was amazing! (in a bread bowl no less!)  I had fish tacos - because, well, that’s just what I do. And I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the best fish taco of my life!! 



Our last plane was smalllll… We boarded it from the tarmack.  Excitement levels peaking.  The flight was short. A basic up and down. 



FINALLY, we made it to Burbank! The mother land! We took an airporter to the hotel, which ended up being literally across the street.  We checked in and then did the smart thing and got our CTN passes right away.  All of the event occurred at the hotel so we really didn’t need to move anywhere! All very central! 



After getting our passes and hitting up Starbucks to get our wifi fix we were going to go to Stephen Silvers drawing party at his studio… but let’s be honest. We’d spent 14 hours or more travelling, we were pretty tired.  So instead, we crossed off one our bucket list items: visiting “In N’ Out” for burgers. Verdict : meh.  They were cheap. (But if Carmelo’s brother is reading this - THEY WERE THE BEST YOU WERE RIGHT!)



We went back to the hotel, threw on Nick at Nite, and crashed pretty hard.

Day Two - CTN day one:



The festivities had a later start day one, so the first event we wanted to go to wasn’t until 11:30.  We were on Ontario time still so we were up fairly early.  We explored the grounds, wandered over to a post office so Alex could send the boyfriend some stuff for cheap.

 

The first event we tried to go to was for tips on portfolios.  The VIP and fast pass holders filled up the event before we could get in.  This was our first sign of how the weekend would go.  You gotta line up early and be prepared to use a fast pass or you aren’t going in. (our package came with six fast passes) 



So with time to kill we wandered into the big art exhibitors tent.  We wandered along leisurely only to realize later it wasn’t open yet. We got a sneak peak before all the crowds!

The rest of the afternoon was spent spending. (see what I did there?) We visited the Bancroft Brothers, Trent Correy, Brittney Lee. All talented people that we threw our money at.  It was very surreal seeing the Bancroft bros. Hearing them really. We all listen to their podcast and they’re just such personable people. 

 

After blowing some dough we parked ourself at the traditional animation table. That was the spot to be for the weekend. No lines, personal talks, it was great.  We saw Ron Husband there first. He just drew away and kind of talked timidly like he always does (we saw him at Algonquin a month or two before) Super talented guy. We spot him around the grounds sketching everywhere all weekend.  Carmelo showed him his sketchbook and got pointers, he did new drawings for him. Really amazing.

After Ron we had a sweet spot for Andreas Deja, which Alex basically died over. I’m surprised we got her back after that really.  He sat and drew every character he ever animated. It was so great to hear his stories and experiences with each drawing.  Talking and drawing both come so naturally to that guy.  He told us a story about one of his scenes that got cut from Lilo and Stitch. He thought it was some of the best work he ever did. We watched it in our hotel room later and I cried.  

I can’t stress enough how amazing animation is… portraying that much feeling through drawings… It’s just an unbelievable art that I’m so happy to have in my life. 

 He explained that the day they told him “the snow queen” was going to be CG, he quit disney. Ron Husband left when everything went 3D as well.

 After Andreas’ talk he told the crowd he was going to leave his drawings at his desk and whatever happens happens - cruel.  Alex managed to get Gaston and get him to sign it. So she cried and died and whatever, like I said, she’s alive.  Carm told him he was doing a traditional student film. Anyways, this was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  


That night we heard buzz of this party.  We finally decided to go. We ubered there but then got to the suburbs far away and thought it looked sketchy.  I saw this little house with some people inside, but not alot.  We decided to turn around and go home.  In hindsight, 9:30 was probably too early to hit up a party. The next day some of the people we met told us it was a good party but oh well! Again, we were pretty tired. 


We went back to the hotel, threw on Nick at Nite, and crashed pretty hard.

Day Two - Pixar, Rats Nest, Animation

:

We were more prepared for the event lines on day two.  We woke up two hours early to make it into the “Inside Out Animation” talk by Pixar.  After two hours in line. we were the LAST three let in to the talk!!! Holy cow were we scared when it started filling up!  



The talk was really great.  It was so cool to see the process and animation tests on the characters. Art Of books are great but rarely do you get to see the animation side of movie development.  It’s so cool to see the pixar animators doing the same things we do at work really. Pose it out, get revisions, animate it, get revisions.  Obviously on a higher level of quality but still.  It was really really interesting! I’m so glad we got into that one.

After that we shopped around some more and did lunch.  During the weekend we tried all the food options across the street (fish place, sushi place, subway, daily grill restaurant in the hotel - where I also got fish tacos) 



We bought more art - which of course was hard not too. There was just so much talent all selling art. Unbelievable. 



We caught Andreas Deja’s talk at noon about the Nine Old Men and their animation. He did a short presentation. I had a glass of wine and watched Andreas talk about animation. One of the highlights of life? Yep. 

That night we met THE Glenn Villpu. He had to change his hearing aid to talk to us. So cute.  And he scrolled through his iPad type thing to show us all his art progressions.  Surreal…

We went to another talk at the traditional animation table.  A crowd of us sat cross legged and just listened to Floyd Norman tell stories. So insane. He started story boarding on the Jungle Book.  The previous storyboard artist made the film too dark for Walt Disney’s liking, he said it felt like Batman (lol, oh Walt).  

Floyd, with a twinkle in his eye, that upon remembering is making me well up all over again, told us that he thought Walt knew the end was coming.  (I believe he died during the Jungle Book)  Floyd said that he thinks Walt wanted to go out on a fun film… As I sat cross legged staring up at Floyd, examining his face as he told this story, I had to choke back a few tears. It was really a special moment that I will never forget.

Then we lined up that evening for Two hours to ensure we got a spot on “The Rats Nest Reunion”  A group of Cal Arts animators who started on Fox and the Hound did a panel on their time at Disney at the beginning. It was absolutely insane. They talked for two hours and it zoomed by. I could have listened for hours more.  The gossip, the hardships. It was all just so interesting. On the panel was John Musker, Brad Bird, Henry Sellick, Jerry Rees, Dan Haskett and Bill Kroyer.  So much talent on one stage. This was the first time they’d all been back together in 30 years.  I could go on about this talk for another page in itself but this post is getting to be an epic so I’ll just say…barfing rainbows. 

Ok - if you want to hear me nerd about about animation junk just ask. anytime. Preferably over coffee or beer.

We went for dinner and then we went back to the hotel, threw on Nick at Nite, and crashed pretty hard.

Day Three: The Final Day at CTN

:

Day Three we slept in and didn’t go to any event in the morning. When Alex was in the shower Carmelo received an email and started FLIPPING out.  He got invited to the Disney Studio Lot for the closing ceremonies that night.  I checked my email.  I also got invited. We prayed to god Alex got it too (we all entered a raffle) - She did!!! So we all squee’d over that for the morning!! 


We went to see Sergio Pablos at the animation table but he got too much attention and they moved him to the big tent and it was full.  That was a disappointment. Later that day we went to Eric Goldberg though and he did an EXCELLENT demonstration on breakdowns in animation.  It was probably the most technical and useful of the chats. 

 We just kind of hung out all day for our last day. Meeting new friends. Shoutout to Jess and Ruchika! Animation Mentor students. Jess works at Nickelodeon as an intern and my friend Tom told me to go meet her!  She fit in with our best friends crew and partied hard with us that night! 



We met Sam Youssef and Trent for drinks after the exhibitors closed up that day.  Carmelo, Alex and I had to run after a few to get to the Disney Studio Lot for closing ceremonies!! We were all basically dying hard… It was AMAZING being on the home turf!! We got to go into the theater and see previews of Zootopia, Moana and Disney TV shows (Which are done in Ottawa so that was less of a thrill :P )  But omg. The Moana clip we saw….breath taking. I cannot wait for that film…. I think it’s going to be something special. John and Ron directing. gah. 



We went back to the hotel after our crazy disney night and met up with Quinn. A friend of Carmelo and I’s from Pre-Animation who is not going to school in California! Jess met us at the hotel lobby too. We drank…. we drank a lot…. why did we wait till the LAST night to drink that hard? I don’t know. We had to be up at 4.am. to fly. I had yet to pack.  We were doing “scooby snack” shots all night. Partying with other animators. Living the dream…

until…



Day Four: Going Home

We woke up. I think.  Alex played mother hen. Carmelo and I were…hungover…or still drunk.  I had to pack and then we all made it to the airport somehow? We slept waiting for plane one, slept on plane one as well, slash Carmelo felt sick.  Plane two we all just kind of crashed on each other and slept for four hours? Then we were finally feeling not like death by plane three. It was a LOOOONG day. Travelling hungover is the worst. But. No regrets.

Now we are all freshly inspired and back to work / reality!
We want to go again every year. It’s such a breath of fresh air to be around so many passionate like minded people.