Kanzashi.

Doodle of the day.

My girlfriend told me I always draw a girl in a sad mood.

My thoughts on Rigging.

As I proposed before, One Japanese company wanted to see my rigging skill. So I have been working on rigging last 2 weeks. It's been a while since I haven't done much of rigging these days, so I felt rusty. At the same time, I'd learned some of new techniques, so that was really exciting, too.

As my process goes, I just felt my rig sucks. I thought it's pretty cool at some point, but next morning I just feel so bad. It's like drawing or animation. And my presentation is not that good like my friend told me. It was a bit fast fowarded. I sent them a link already, so I hope the company can see what I'm capable of.

Some ppl might see my strong influence on Disney type of rig and GUI. That's true. Since I've been having strong interests on both Technical side and Artistic side of Animation, I have been always searching the way that advances this new medium, in both ways. Then I turned out really positive on the concept of Broken Rig and Bendbow.

It was just a puppet while back when I was in Japan 4 years ago. 3D animator had only ability to rotate some joints, and some IK. But what 2D animators have been doing is not just rotating the joints. They do whatever things to get the shape on the paper. So compared to 2D environment, 3D animator had a huge restriction.

New techniques like Broken Hierarchy or Bendbow has been introduced a while back. And I think this is really great advancement for 3D animation. Althought I haven't broke my rig that much yet, in a good Broken Rig, Animator can easily have the shape that he/she has in their mind. It's more like pencil than puppet. Animator can apply what they know easily, such as Line of Action, Squash and Stretch and Successive Breaking of Joints. I even think Bendbow brings some life into the model.

I think same thing would happen, In next 3 years, we probably see totally different rig. I'm sure that rig would have much less restrictions. As technologies progress, Animator can have more controls, in another word, Animator will have more responsibility to design things on the screen more than now. It's getting close to the pencil IMHO.


Anyways, here goes my reels. for those who haven't checked my latest Animation Reel, I will post it here as well. I noticed things I need to improve, both on Rigging and Animation. So I'm working on it, but always comments are welcome.

Rigging Reel. 46MB Quicktime Sorenson3
Animation Reel. 17MB Quicktime Sorenson3


Sorry for geeky post. I'm tired now. wanna do some Animations, and yeah, drawings!

Sweet Talkin' Woman.

I went to outside, get some lunch, then I heard the song. I knew the line and lyrics because I thought that's the song of my fav band, Five Iron Frenzy. But I got to know that was cover song of ELO. Shame on me. What a beautiful song! I can listen to this whole day!

I'm done with my rigging now. Compiling into a reel right now. I think I can sleep well tonight.

Going back to Japan.

Sorry I've been inactive on this blog lately. I have something to tell you, but if you don't wanna waste your time, don't read all of this below. It's all of my excuses.

I got some companies who really wants me as an Animator. But always my degree has been problem. well, actually my degree is not problem for companies but it is problem for U.S. government. Government needs me to have a Bachelor or higher degree in order to get H-1B visa (working visa). It was okay to get H-1B with Associates degree before 911.

I got a previous job at Gateway Japan, right after my graduation of highschool, because I was really crazy about computer and programming at that time. (well, I'm still crazy as you probably know :) So I've never been in a college in Japan. Then I came here but only degree I got at AAU was Associates degree, just because of my budget.

I talked with some lawyer personally, and companies also talked with their lawyer, if there's any way that I could get working permission here. But there seems no way around. I still have OPT, which is 1 year permission to work here legally, but companies don't want to hire the person who will quit in a year.

So now, I'm going back to Japan.

It hurts, actually. Probably it wouldn't hurt as much if company said my skill is not qualified. Personally I don't really care about degree. What I can do is the most important thing for me. But I also know this is how it is. So I'm planning to go back to Japan now, and work/save money, then will come back here in 3 years to finish my Bachelor. I'm 27 years old now. So I guess this will be my last chance.

I really appreciate my family and friends who understand my situation and decided to support me. All of my friends I met in this school is my treasure. Some of them are already kicking ass in the industry. So I don't feel bad at all. I'm sure I will come back. Luckily, one Japanese company is having interest on me as a Rigger. So I'm making my Rigging Reel right now. I'm sure I will post here pretty soon.

For those who is wondering bout existence of this blog, don't worry I won't quit this blog, and I will never stop being drawing junkie :D

Cheers, Boston!

1.1Boston was so cute! Every building is in some sort of style. People are nice and gentle. Girls are so cute! Unfortunately weather was really hot and humid. But I like the city none the less.

Being in Siggraph was really great experience for me. I was freaked out in the Job Fair a bit, but I dropped my reels to companies. I also faced the fact of working in U.S. I'm now thinking some things about my future. I will tell you here when time has come.

I got some of free T-shirt. Laika is my favorite one, they are so cool, so their T-shirt is. I bought some books and most importantly, I got signed on my copy of Thinking Animation2! Meeting 2 of great talent was great experience, after all I had been big fan of Spicy Cricket3 for a long time. I was just happy to be there.

I'm loving Animation right now more than ever. I don't know why. I felt stuck when I was taking Pixar 2 class last semester in Academy. But now I'm feeling like my head is flooding with Animation.