Signs

I moved to LA from Manhattan...Brooklyn to be exact. And it's taken me a long time to adjust to this place. I'll never stop loving NYC, and probably never love LA, but I have found a few things around that I do like. One of those things would be Signs. Maybe it's because I grew up in a small town, or maybe I just didn't notice too much when I was younger, but LA seems to have a plethora of old Signs. I guess I like them so much because of their individuality.....they're from a time before large franchise chains had taken over the landscape of the US. Signs that were around before the neighborhoods started getting stripmalls that have a uniform stucco look, but a fedex next to a panda express. I think as time goes by these signs will be no more, but for the moment they're still sparsely spread throughout the greater Los Angeles area. I'm going to try and get around to shoot as many as I can.....So this will be the first post of many.

Here's a link to another site with more photos of LA signs:

http://www.publicartinla.com/neon_signs/

The first photo is from a hotel on Sepulveda Blvd. just south of Venice Blvd. It's part of about 5 motels that line that stretch, each has a pretty cool sign. I'll post the rest later.


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Monthly Rotations

What I'm listening to:

Bang for the Buck, Ugly Duckling

Secret Herbs and Spices, MF Doom

Cut Chemist vs. Shortkut, Live at the Future Primitive Sessions Vol.1

Livin' It Up!, Jimmy Smith

Live, Built To Spill

And as always, a generous amount of KPOO over the internet.




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First Observations

I guess I can get this blog off to a start by directing you to one of my friend's blogs. Here.
In her Jan 26th entry she puts up for discussion "What is entertainment and how can you achieve it in animation". Now I know there's probably an unlimited number of answers and alot of the people who left comments had some valid points, but one comment got me thinking about something I've just started noticing in animation. In movies, little acting tests on the internet and even my own animation. Now who knows how much credibility I have, I know I don't think my opinion's worth a grain of salt, but maybe this will stimulate some brains out there. One of the comments was about "artificial animation" that is, animation that's just put in a shot for no real reason. It doesn't push the story or "define" the character. VM (I assume it's a he...the doodle next to his name looks like a man) goes on to point out the tried and true butt scratch. I've seen it many times in all kinds of animations, heck, I've even thought of putting it into an animation or two. It's a nice gag, I guess, but it is "artificial". How many times a day do you scratch your butt when you're standing around? I try not to, myself. VM states that We as humans do alot of scratching, but usually in others places. And he's right, count how many times you go to scratch you eye, or neck, then how many times you go to scratch your butt. My guess is you'll never do the latter while people are around. So part of his comment was based on "boring, natural animation" and "interesting, artificial" animation. I'm sure both have their place, but it really made me think about the the second choice alot more. About how often I go straight to the obvious gag, or gesture in my own work......and how it's usually the not-so-obvious that grabs my and other people's attention. I know I say it to myself when I see co-workers shots, "gee, I never would have thought of having the character act like that" Those are the shots that stand out for me, and that's what I find entertaining. True sometimes I'll laugh at the "artificial" stuff, I can't help it I love to laugh, but I guess it takes all kinds. There's no one way to entertain in animation, and there's no one way to animate. Anyway, great discussion Rebecca, it's definitely going to effect how I go about my next shot.

Getting Started

I'm not quite sure what exactly will be going on with this page. I started it in the hopes that it would encourage me to do a little more work....outside of work. More sketching, more reading, more learning about animation. That's the beauty of animation, no matter how many years I work there's always something new to learn, and an infinite amount of inspiration to pull from. So hopefully this blog will help motivate me to do more and push myself as an animator and an artist .

Welcome to my new blog.