justin owens

I’m just about done with finals week, I’m finishing up my perspective piece tonight (a three page comic) and then I’ll be done!

I turned in my animation project on Monday and got some nice feedback. It’s still far from finished, I unfortunately got way distracted by Lord of the Rings Online. I like where it’s going though and I’ll be finishing it up over the next week. In fact I’ll be working to have all the animations I did over this semester polished by June 30th, the deadline to submit demo reels for the Fall ‘08 Pixar Class.

 

 Online Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The premise for this animation is a businessman sits down at a park bench to eat his lunch, when he notices a group of pigeons watching him. He gets nervous and transfers to another bench, for a moment feeling safe, until he realizes there are even more birds in that area.

I have the first section blocked out, I need to add in the second bench section and then refine all the keys (as well as adding the pigeons and lunch box).

On Monday Kimi and I drove over to the Compusa in Emeryville, they’re closing down and we wanted to see what sort of deals they might have. As it turns out, not a lot at that point. We’ll check again in a few days and see what we can score.

A half block away we saw the Pixar Animation studio. It was pretty grand looking with a big archway and everything, I felt chills. I’ve always been so impressed with their storytelling and seeing how close they were to where I live really made the place seem approachable. I’m thinking of trying to get a job there. I do have some qualms about working for such a large company, but I’ll talk about that at another point.

I’ve always had a hard time disciplining myself and it has hurt my progress in the arts. I want to get better at drawing and animation, but I don’t put serious time into working on those skills. Instead I sit at my desk and think how much I want to be drawing, but I don’t draw. I have a mental wall that keeps me from getting started.

If I want to have any chance at working for a company such as Pixar I really need to focus. And so I’m going to try and do that. I have some story ideas I’ve had percolating in my mind that I’ll use as a training ground.