An early MIMI AND GACK
Life on the road can be challenging! As the Studio headed into the its last week a familiar cadence ensued. It began with me awakening each morning at 5:30 am – grabbing a shower, a few stretches, and listening to the banter of Miko and Joe on the MORNING JOE program on MSNBC. Let me just say that Mika has the patience of saint to put up with Joe at that hour of the day. After a ½ hour to catch on the news, I was off to breakfast.
RE-THINKING THE CHARACTERS
In 2009, it was Donut Thursdays, this time around it was Donut Tuesdays. I arrived at the college usually around 8:00-15 am. The Studio began at 9:00 am. We kept the students accountable- this was their job and they were to treat it that way.
We were there from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm – with an hour for lunch.
After the Studio, I developed a practice of heading to a Panera Bread in Fairlawn, NJ to have a “Pick-Two” (sandwich and salad) for dinner and review on my computer the animation work of the day.
The whole concept of being able to sit in a café and draw or animate or write or review work has always been one of the perks of being an director/animator. So… I would do ALL of the above - each night. First do some drawing to relax, jolt down any ideas, sketch out a few thumbnails if needed and run pencil test files of the student’s work and make notes.
Early boards of MIMI AND GACK
For this Studio we again utilized the FLIPBOOK 2D software by Digicel.
Kent Braun, president of Digicelinc. has been very supportive of the Incubator Studio projects. He is very aware of how beneficial they have been for the participants.
After dinner, I would repair to the hotel and review a few more files
Before bedtime - which was usually around 12:30 am. – then, at 5:30 am it began all over again.
The commute to from work on the Garden State Parkway (GSP)can be very VERY challenging. New Jersey drivers tend to drift right - I am use to guiding to the center or left of the lane. There seems to be no real speed limit other than to NOT get caught. So when in Rome…
One funny story about the GSP, on a commute home we were all cruising along at an ungodly fast speed when all of a sudden traffic came to a screeching halt. We crept along at a snail’s pace for 10 minutes – when I discovered the reason for the back up – was a gander and her goslings were crossing the GSP and had stopped 4 lanes of traffic.
The conclusion to the Incubator Studio project next time.
Always Animated!