quotidian

Today was Tuesday. I spent the day at the Japan America Society of Minnesota. It's the first week of the new month, which means its time to send renewal invoices to all the members who are set to renew this month. I organized all the information in the database, found everyone set to renew in February, and prepared their invoice and letter. Gave the letters to the Executive Director, who signed them. Then came packaging and shipping. Everything went as planned, no hitches, no out of the ordinary occurrences. I hope we get many of these renewals returned.

Came home and made leftover pasta. It was good. Watched TV while working on a couple Animation Mentor assignments.

Tuesdays suck.

Animation Mentor: Class 1 Week 4

Redo of last weeks assignment after my mentor gave me a critique:


Ball Bounce Redo from Alex Harms on Vimeo.

And this weeks assignment, which is two bouncing balls. I went with a bowling ball and a beach ball. I'm sure I'll need to do a redo on this for next week.


Class 1 Week 4: 2 Balls Bouncing from Alex Harms on Vimeo.

Anticipation Vs. No Anticipation

This was the first animated short that I ever did. I made it in November 2006 for my introduction to animation class. I hope you enjoy it, it was a lot of fun to make:


Anticipation Vs. No Anticipation from Alex Harms on Vimeo.

Animation Mentor: Class 1 Week 3

Here's some more cool stuff! I should have a critique form my mentor within the next day or so! The assignments this week were, sketch out plans for animating a bouncing ball, animate a bouncing ball, sketch out poses that portray "excitement" and then take one of those poses and make it look pretty :D




Bouncing Ball from Alex Harms on Vimeo.







Here's to another great week!

The Bloop

Sorry if this is old news, I just find it so intriguing.

In the summer of 1997, off the coast of Southwest South America, a sound was picked up several times by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The profile of this sound matches that of an animal, for example a whale. But the big difference is, given the amplitude of the sound, there is no way a whale could have made the sound, because whales are too small. So, if it was indeed an animal that made this sound, it would have to be many times larger than even a blue whale.

I think that's really exciting and I wish there was more news on it in the past 12 years. But what could the sound have come from?? I would like to offer some suggestions:





For more information, please consult your local Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop

On a semi-related note, I have decided that one of my lifelong dreams will be to one day swim with a whale. This is a bigger dream than it sounds, since currently I have nowhere near enough courage to do this. But one day I hope to be able to swim with a whale. Probably humpback. Though this is left to be determined.

Happy New Year!!

Hi! It's 2009 now which is cool. I started taking online classes at the school Animation Mentor, so I thought it would be a interesting to throw all my assignments up on this website so few my progress or something.

So, here was our first assignment: Sketch a bunch of interesting poses and then recreate one of them in higher quality. I did mine in 3D...like pretty much everyone else! Here ya go:





I got a really good critique and comments from my mentor and classmates, so I really look forward to improving a lot for this weeks assignment!

おれ、未来からきたって言ったら、笑う？

In October of 2007, I attended a special reception for the Chicago Film Festival, which was following a "Japanese animation" theme. The main thing they were celebrating was the release of the Japanese film "The Girl who Leapt Through Time" I went with my classmates Michael Eurek and David Jacobs, as well as met with my professor, Matsugu-sensei, who at the time I didn't really know that well.

Anyways, this movie has had a kind of special meaning with me since before this reception. The previous summer, I was studying abroad in Hakodate, Japan, I believe it was a Saturday night, and this movie aired on television. My host family spent most of their time watching television, so all of us crowding around the glowing box on a Saturday night was not in any way unusual, but watching this movie together began to turn into something really special. My host mother, sister, and creepy yakuza host dad were all completely engrossed by the movie, and none of us could take our eyes off until the very end. Even I, who didn't really understand much of the Japanese, was completely sucked into the story and at the end of it, somehow felt a little closer to the people I was sitting there watching with.

This is why, back in Chicago, attending the reception, meeting the director, Hosoda Mamoru, was such a huge honor for me. I got the pleasure to chat with him in Japanese, and he also gave me advice on my animated short, Track and Failed, which I was just starting at the time. I remember him saying that putting yourself, your feelings, your experiences, emotions, etc into your stories is one of the most important things you can do when making a story. This is something I had been told numerous times in various classes, but it was still great to hear it from someone who has actually directed some fantastic animated films, and also to hear it in Japanese...and understand it.

Anyways, it was just released recently on DVD, so I picked it up and watched it again last night, this time with subtitles to make sure I got everything...and yeah. It's still wonderful. Brought back a lot of memories for me too. Just thought I'd like to share some of them here! Check out the movie if you haven't seen it, I think it's great.