Four-Eyed Carbuncle

My entry for Helpful Bear's Creature Design contest: www.facebook.com/events/452193…

My enchanted little creation is the four eyed carbuncle, a creature sited in Latin America that can bring luck to those who catch one. With its multiple eyes, it has a broad vision and able to spot enemies quickly so it can use its wings to make a quick escape. It has an affinity to sneak into people's homes to take gold and jewelry.

Fouette Zoetrope Animation

I created a zoetrope of a ballerina performing a fouette. A fouette (French for "Whipped") is a ballet term for a twirl where the dancer has keep one leg in a passe pose while they spin and must use that leg to whip their body around to maintain the speed of the spin without that leg touching the ground. In the Swan Lake ballet, the ballerina playing Odette must perform 32 fouettes in a row!

I cut out 16 2" squares and drew the dancer using a mechanical pencil, after inking it with a blue 005 micron pen I used blue, silver, and aqua glitter gel pens. I taped them onto a poster board that I created the wheel, and placed it onto a lazy susan. I had to thin the small pictures and make the viewing windows wider because the windows were too narrow.

Myotis The Bat Scholar

Please vote, go to the most recent entries to find it! insidefilms.com

 My entry for Dell's What Lives Inside contest. The first creature that came to mind was a bat, most people view bats as creatures of horror and scares, so I began looking into various cultures to find more positive views of bats. In Chinese culture, bats are considered lucky because the word for lucky (Fu) and the word for bat (Fu) are homophones. In certain Native American cultures, bats are symbols of rebirth, dreams, and enchantment, hence the feather decorations and the dreamcatcher earring and rings on his left hand. The idea of sloths also came into mind in the form of how they move so slow that moss grows on their backs.

Myotis is a bat character who is one with nature to the point where he lost his ability to fly. Due to his long lifespan, he has an extensive knowledge of magic and nature. But he is a gentleman character who help those who are lost.

Done in Photoshop.

Why Was The Lego Movie Snubbed?

The Lego Movie was considered one of the best movies released in 2014, and was expected to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In mid-January, the nominees were announced, once they got to the animated film category, I was excited and nervous to hear who were chosen. After Big Hero 6, The Boxtrolls, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 were announced, people were ready for them to say The Lego Movie. But after the fourth nomination was revealed to be Song of the Sea, there were gasps and shocked expressions from viewers, the fifth nomination was given to The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. After the announcement, fans and critics were ranting about the snub as it looked like that The Lego Movie was guaranteed a nomination.

I myself was shocked, and wondering how this could have happened, this is just my opinion but this seems to make sense in my eyes. Then it hit me after I told my father he should see this movie, but was uninterested by saying "It looks stupid, it's just a marketing tactic, they are just trying to get you to buy toys!" Was it the fact that it was a famous toy line as the subject that cost it? Most of the oscar voters are around the age of 60, and some say that the Academy does not take the oscar category seriously. Most adults find the idea of watching cartoons too childish, regardless of the target demographic, and that the main focus of The Lego Movie was a real life popular toy product made it a double whammy! Unlike the Toy Story movies where they made their own original toys as the main characters.

Recently people complained about wanting to diversifying the Oscar voters based on race, nationality, and ethnicity, I think we also need to diversify the voters based on age. If we add more younger voters, at least 18 years old, I think we can look at the animated feature category and animation more seriously, and gain a more current perspective on other films.

Sources:http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/oscar-voters-94-white-76-men-and-an-average-of-63-years-old/284163/
http://variety.com/2013/film/awards/oscars-should-end-prejudice-against-animation-and-its-crafts-1200919732/

Team Oscar Entry 2015

My entry for the Team Oscar contest for the 87th Academy Awards.

Ayden and Gwendoline's Enchanted Wedding

Fireworks Bomber Goblin