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I uploaded onto my FTP a clip made by a former student of mine at Penn. She currently works as a sign painter for a Grocery store in New York City and in her spare time practices her animation skills on her student issue Mirage 1.5. After seeing this clip I hired her as a full time assistant on my next film, starting at the end of this year.

Painting signs in the city all day, every day (Trader Joe's) is hard work -- at least as hard as waiting on tables. This is proof that anyone with talent and the desire to succeed can become an animator while working hard every day of the week doing boring work.

Unfortunately I had trouble uploading here so I had to put it on my FTP again (it's only an 8 MB WMV !?!).

www.video.paulfierlinger.com/Wasp/

My father was a decorator for a big clothing shop all his life, and a painter in his spare time (now he's a retired decorator and a busy painter). We had some books at home from his apprenticeship time. One of the first things I learnt from him was to letter properly, with a flat pen and india ink, or with a paintbrush called "Schlepper" (like a rigger, but with a rounded tip). For some years, starting during my school time, I made money from decorating bookshop windows and painting signs for it, as well as designing newspaper ads.

From the photographs I know the art of sign painting seems to be much more honoured in the US than in Germany. Here they scribble with Eddings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edding) on cardboard, knowing nothing about ortho- nor typography. Or they get some inkjet-printed transparent plastic signs which never show any good taste in design, choice of font or colour. Ugly ugly ugly.

Wow. and Wow again. I'm so glad you found her. What wonderful wonderful work! She will be a great addition to your team.

Such fluid storytelling.

Sierra, you made my day. You hit the nail on the head; such fluid storytelling. I like several things about that clip besides the editing of the story.

I like the way MariJaye is an excellent observer and adherer to real life motion -- she's an actor and she's a keen observer of nature.

I like how she chose for her exercise two of the hardest things to tackle in flat, 2D animation: close-ups of hands and close ups of a face that actually reflects emotions.

I like her steadiness of stylus on tablet. I also know from classes that she is fast at drawing.

I like her interesting compositions and that she doesn't waste a frame on fluff -- each frame serves a clear purpose and each scene has a clear purpose to lead into the following scene. Her timing is so filmic, which means that she understands when to follow real life timing and when to abandon that to play along with a film viewer's perception of time.

There is a hidden story in all of this too. The woman/girl is a very accurate self portrait. It's an adult brought down to the size of a child who treats wasps with the mean streak of a child. She starts off with a cute, pretty birdie to accentuate the telling of a simple nasty story.

Of course, she needs to practice drawing hands more, learn to get a little looser with her lines in places -- in some instances they show how much she had to sweat the shapes out. She also needs to learn a few more things about creating smooth camera moves with TVP's KeyFramer.

She has rare talent for animation (especially surprising since her major was fine arts painting and her canvases were huge, painted upon with large dabs and strokes -- the furthest one can get from drawing) and she comes with the proper balance of adventure and humility.

Yes I was just watching it again and I loved the timing of the wasp entering just when the branch moved from the bird's flight. I LOVED feeling like a wasp when the glass came at me full screen. I love the soothing zen-type meditation music behind the mean streak....so much to love in such a short film. I agree about some of the drawing (hands) and the camera moves, but that is all an easy fix...I know for sure how much progress with that stuff can happen in a short time.

She is a treasure of an animator. I look forward to seeing more of her work for sure. She fits you and Sandra too. What happy fortune for everyone.

Paul, you can directly display your video with the new commands in the editor.
[ wmv ]http://www.video.paulfierlinger.com/Wasp/Wasp.wmv[ /wmv ] Edit: WMV doesn't work on my firefox, but quicktime work fine.

Thanks, Herve. I wish I knew how to do that too.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:Thanks, Herve. I wish I knew how to do that too.

For WMV file: use this line ( without italic )
[wmv]http://www.video.paulfierlinger.com/Wasp/Wasp.wmv[/wmv]
I doesn't recommand wmv, because many of us use a Mac or Firefox.
For Quicktime
[qt]640,480,http://tvpaint.free.fr/tvpaint/Chen.m4v[/qt]

When you say use this, do you mean I should type that directly into this space, like this?

EDIT: I tried it and it works. Thanks for the lesson.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:When you say use this, do you mean I should type that directly into this space, like this?
EDIT: I tried it and it works. Thanks for the lesson.

Please PLEASE, use WMV only if you don't have any choice.

I have seen this clip a few month ago and now looking at it once again I like this one even more.
Well, I am still thinking that the color-atmosphere doesn't match with summer (unless it's a desert-summer) - but it gives a surrealistic timeless touch and it works fine with the music, so I think it is well done.
Concerning the fluid storytelling, editing and motions I agree with what was said here.
I like the homogeneous setup it's a closed little world and also a part of a bigger world (the starting bird is recalling it) . That's what I felt when the first wasp is directing the viewer to the table.
I don't mind the issues with some proportions (e.g. head/table - wide angle) because there are also many technical refinements and smart shortcuts.

Concerning the content:
It's true, it's a simple nasty story of a child woman or woman child - for sure it makes me wanting to know more about that character (why does she acts that way ?) and I feel that I won't get more information from that tight-as-a-clam girl. Seems as she has jumped out of the Boomtown Rats' "I don't like Mondays".


I would be happy if MariJaye would join the TVP-forums, - any chance ??? Paul could you be so kind to invent her ?

"This is proof that anyone with talent and the desire to succeed can become an animator while working hard every day of the week doing boring work."

That's a broad and sweeping generalization. Paul, as the French would say - Vous êtes plein de la merde !

I work 70 hours a week as a robotics programmer/precision mechanical inspector and I have neither the time nor the energy to produce animation right now.

However, my day is coming.

-Cathy

Cathy, the operative words were:

doing boring work.

Einstein developed his theory of relativity while working every day as a medium level clerk in the patent office in Zürich.

Franz Kafka wrote all his books after working every day as a medium level clerk at an insurance company in Prague.

There are hundreds of examples of successful artists who have done their best works while working dull, mundane day jobs.

I have yet to see someone who has to wait on tables all day long make a good animated film, all though I won't be surprised if someone proves it can be done.

I taught 3 days a week for a year and a half while working on my current film and gave it up because it became very tiring, but I never fell behind with my work and am about to finish it on time -- I am also over 70 years old and didn't have to teach because I needed the money so I knew I can give it up if it becomes unproductive work.

It seems to me that it is more a matter of physical strength that can make it possible to work and complete interesting projects after a day job. Waiting on tables can be not only physically draining but also mentally exhausting. It all depends on what kind of work one is forced into by life's circumstances.

Nevertheless, I still believe that "Yes, I can" is a basic attribute. All the people who have succeeded have that in common.

Cathy, it sounds like you are working the equivalent of two jobs. 70 hours a week....whoa. No wonder you have no time left.

For the past 4 years I worked at drawing on that kind of schedule and now that I have cut it down to about 6 hours a day, I find myself still very busy. Looking back, I wonder how I could have devoted so many hours to drawing. "Where did I ever find the time?" I find myself asking.

You make trade-offs that begin to seem normal (house not as clean, simplified cooking, reduced social life, etc.)

I think time perception is elastic, shaped by our consciousness. You get into a time pattern and cease to be aware of the dynamics of a different one until you change your life style again and then you get used to the new one.

Wow! I hadn't paid enough attention to the 70 hours! That would make it impossible to work on your animation; the equivalent to working 3 jobs --- then you have to give something up.