Demo Reels!

Candice Weber Motion Graphics and Compositing Demo Reel from Candice Weber on Vimeo.



Stereoscopic Rotoscope Demo Reel from Candice Weber on Vimeo.

An excerpt of my thesis project journal I felt useful enough to share:

There are two kinds of proud moments I’ve had on this project. The first is when everything works just the way I thought it would. This is the moment when my careful planning and thinking through ideas paid off. I was able to anticipate results, so all problems were basically solved during the planning process.

The second kind of moment, though less desirable than the first, is probably the most important learning experience. This is the moment when everything went horribly awry. Nothing worked out the way I thought it would and knots swell up in my stomach. I try my damndest to make it work the way I intended, but it just doesn’t look right and time is swiftly running out. This was a moment I had this weekend, after hours of attempts and the knowledge that my final review of this project could be in as little as two months.

However, it’s in this moment of defeat when minds start to break from the original plan and get into troubleshooting creative solutions. Its time to outsmart a skill you’re weak at with a better idea. Stop, take a step back, and reevaluate what minimally this shot needs in order to be successful.

It’s hard to do when you’re married to the original concept, but the judges of this piece are only going to see the results. They will not see the long, wasted hours you spend attempting a complicated matchmove, they’ll only going to see that it doesn’t look good. It doesn't matter what you were trying to do if you don't have the results to back it up. So if thats the case, get cleverer, get simpler, and use the skills you’re best at.

It’s amazing the feeling you get when a small revision changes everything; fixes all the small problems you've been desperately agonizing over and it just plain looks better and is more dynamic with the change. All the struggle to get to this point suddenly doesn’t seem to have been a waste. 

Would I have gotten the shot done faster if I had just realized this solution sooner? Of course, but I don’t dwell on it because I learned something from it. Besides, the best solution is not always obvious and the struggle is sometimes just part of to path to getting to it.

Sketchy Sketch

Random sketchy stuff:

Overlay from a shot in my thesis:

And gif experiments:

make animated gifs like this at MakeAGif

Inspiration and Keaton's Animation

So I've been recently browsing through random articles and videos for inspiration and came across this:


Late Night Work Club from Late Night Work Club on Vimeo.

 I love it. I love the idea of shared yet untethered creativity. Especially the idea of a community of independent animators. Makes me feel much less alone in the things I wish to do. Looks like this community holds lots of experimentation mixed some just plain bad-assery. Plus the tag line "In the dark, we build" is just so perfectly revolutionary sounding.

 Anyway, I told you that story to tell you this one. In looking through the videos of the various contributing artists, I came across this awesome piece by Charles Huettner:
 
I Am Sing from Charles Huettner on Vimeo.

 I was pretty inspired by this piece specifically because it seemed like a fun project that would loosen me a bit and allow me to share a project with my younger brother. This is the resulting piece:

 
Keaton's Animation from Candice Weber on Vimeo.

Background on Keaton: I recently introduced the idea of stop motion to him. My first memory of understanding the process was also a toy car chase my dad helped me make. However, Keaton chose that topic of his own accord as cars are his favorite thing ever. He was very excited about the way it turned out and my mom told me he's been counting his youtube video views. I think he enjoyed the feeling of creating something people can watch.

The collaborative nature of this type of project has me thinking of the influence that creating art with others has on children. I'd like to explore this idea more and in turn it'd be fantastic if I could cultivate an interest and understanding of art and animation making in my family and friends, particularly Keaton. I've always had an interest in animation being used for education, but I never really thought about how the hands on process has the power to teach as well as bond people.