I'm still alive!

It's been a very long time since I last posted anything on here, and I feel like it's about time I got back into it!  The past few years have been pretty crazy for me, so I thought that it might be a good idea to write a few posts about what I've been up to, if for no other reason than as a good reference for me to look back on.

 I moved out to Vancouver at the end of August 2013 to chase my dream of working as a professional animator.  I didn't really know many people in the Vancouver, and I didn't actually have a job lined up, but I knew that coming out to Vancouver would probably give me my best shot at getting into the industry.  So with the help of my fabulous parents, I packed up a (very full) van, and headed out on my way.

This is where I sat for 2.5 days.

I wasn't able to find a job in animation for the first couple of months I lived in Vancouver, so I worked part time at an arts and crafts store (where I probably spent the majority of my paycheque on art supplies myself, so it's a good thing that I wasn't there for very long...).  I was super fortunate to win an online webinar through Virtual Animators with the super talented Kathy Zielinski, which was a lot of fun and a huge source of inspiration for the short time that it lasted.  I was also going to a bunch of animation career fairs and networking events to try and get my foot in the door at the same time.

And spending a lot of time with one of my new roommates, Owen.

Around the end of October/beginning of November 2013, after applying to many different studios I finally got an interview at a studio called Nerd Corps Entertainment.  They offered me a position as an Animation PA (or basically a junior animator) working on one of their animated tv shows, and I was incredibly excited to actually get the opportunity to animate for a living.  The switch to a tv production schedule, after having a decent amount of time to work on shots in school was a bit of a shock to my system in the beginning, and I had to put in a lot of work and extra hours to stay on top of everything.  Having to do such a high quantity of animation in a short period of time really pushed me to be better and more efficient, and I got the chance to animate many different things in different shots. Nerd Corps also used Softimage XSI as their animation software, so I had the added challenge of learning a whole new program while trying to figure out how to work on an actual production.  I luckily had an incredibly talented and helpful team of people to work with and get help from, and I learned so much from them in my time there.  Over the course of the 2 years that I was at Nerd Corps (and later DHX Media after the company was acquired) I worked on 3 shows; Endangered Species, Slugterra and Kate and Mim Mim (with a very brief 2 weeks on one of the Monster High Movies).  I'll save the details about them for another post though!

Soooooo this happened...

It's been a very long time since I last posted anything here, but something pretty cool happened the other day that I feel I should probably write about.

Last Saturday I went to a book signing at the Chapters in the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby for Nick Offerman's new book Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers.  I was incredibly excited because Parks and Recreation is one of my most favorite shows and Nick Offerman's character Ron Swanson is a big reason why I love it so much.

I had seen this video from Conan O'Brian of 'leaked audition tapes' of Nick Offerman and a bunch of other celebrities auditioning for the soon to be Hugh Jackson-less role of Wolverine, and was talking to a friend at work about how Nick Offerman would make an amazing Wolverine, especially if he played it as Ron Swanson playing Wolverine.

    

My friend mentioned that he should probably be called 'WolveRon' and the name together with the picture in my head was so hilarious that I decided to draw it and give the picture to Nick Offerman at the book signing.

I went to a book signing with Nick Offerman today. I decided to draw him a picture. I think that he liked it. :) #Wolveron #nickofferman

A photo posted by @ericaanim on Jul 18, 2015 at 5:40pm PDT

Also, Indigo Events tweeted a picture of me talking to him which was pretty cool. :)

Greetings from @nick_offerman at Chapters Metrotown. pic.twitter.com/0o2fh2r61l

— Indigo Events (@indigogreenroom) July 18, 2015

I had really only hoped that the picture would maybe make him smile or even (if I was really lucky) laugh his fantastic Nick Offerman laugh (which he did), but he seemed to really like it and ended up tweeting it the next day.

Thank you Erica Miles for this splendid gift @ChaptersMetro in Vancouver! #Snikt pic.twitter.com/s53oI0ybGC

— Nick Offerman (@Nick_Offerman) July 19, 2015

That itself was pretty freaking cool, but then I started getting messages from friends saying that the tweet/drawing was showing up on Reddit and Imgur and was getting quite popular.  It showed up on The Huffington Post too!

The response to it has been pretty crazy, and I'm kind of blown away by all of it.  I'm still trying to process the fact that it's been viewed over 1.2 million times and that some people would like to have it tattooed onto their bodies...I definitely didn't expect any of this to happen or for so many people to see it (or I probably would have spent a little more time polishing it up and maybe coloring it...hahaha)

It was awesome just getting to meet Nick, shake his hand, and have him sign my copies of both of his books.  He was incredibly kind and gracious and a super cool person as well.  Also, being able to make someone who has made you laugh countless times laugh at something ridiculous that you made for them is definitely one of the coolest feelings in the world.  :)

I'm looking forward to reading his books!

Threadless-Lion King

Guess who has another Threadless design up for scoring... :)  This one is for the Lion King design contest, and I decided to do one of Timon and Pumba.  A more realistic version anyways.  You can find it here.  If you have a moment to score it (preferably a 5) I would super appreciate it!!!

I originally wanted to do the whole cast, but I was only able to get Timon and Pumba done before the contest deadline.  I did a Simba and Nala after I submitted it too.

Also, I have a TON of new stuff to post about, which I should hopefully get to over the next week or so!

Thorsday

It's been so long since I last posted something!  I still have a bunch of AM stuff to throw up here, but first I have another Threadless design contest submission!  This one is for the Thor contest.  My love of terrible puns definitely played a hand in this one.  I called it '5 Day Forecast' and realized afterwards that I could have taken it a step even farther by calling it '5 Day Thorcast'.  Oh well.  It's still up for scoring, so I would very much appreciate it if you could (hopefully) give it a 5 for me.  I also love comments and facebook likes/etc.  Thanks in advance!!!!!!  You can find it here! 

Threadless-Spongebob Squarepants

Aaaaaaaaaaand another Threadless design contest submission!  This one for the Spongebob challenge.  You can find it here.

Voting is open for 1 more day!  It has been doing decently well so far, but every vote counts!  If anyone else sees this in time to rate my design (preferably a 5) it would would make me a very happy camper.  Thanks!

Threadless-Odd Couple

I submitted a design to the Threadless 'Odd Couple' design challenge, and here it is!  I had to make sure that the title was sufficiently pun-y, so I called it A Match (Mer)maid in Heaven. 

I would be super appreciative if y'all could rate it (a 5 would be preferable) to help it get picked and printed!  If you want to like/comment on it as well it would be lovely!  I believe that voting is open for 6 more days.  You can find it here.  Thanks!

New Shots

I've been a Busy McBusy-son lately, animating up a storm.  As well as my Animals and Creatures 2 class (which I will try to remember to post about soon...) I've been working on some new dialogue tests.  One of my classmates from last term, who is a super awesome animation supervisor at Nerdcorps in Vancouver gave me some great advice about tailoring my demo reel to studios.  I asked him about applying to Nerdcorps which does a lot of work for television, and he suggested that I try animating 3 different dialogue pieces in 3 days-1 day for each shot.

I chose a fairly short clip for the first one, as it has been a while since I last animated a dialogue shot.  It turned out ok, I ended up spending a good portion of the day trying to figure out how the handcuffs were going to work though...

questions from Erica Miles on Vimeo.

For the second one I picked a longer clip, with two characters.  This one took me a bit longer because of the two characters, one of which being a dog (and a rig I had not used before as well).  This one could still use some work (and I haven't had a chance to upload it yet).

For my third shot I picked an audio clip that I've been wanting to animate for a while.  I think that this one turned out the best of the three.

Quarter from Erica Miles on Vimeo.

I've definitely noticed myself getting faster working on these shots and I'm going to work on a couple more over the next little while.

AM-Animals and Creatures 1 Week 3-6

Our post walk cycle assignment was to animate a type of quadruped locomotion be it walking. running, trotting, leaping etc.  I decided to do a smaller cat, because I thought it would be fun and the majority of the other shots being done were of bigger cats.

I watched a LOT of cat videos on youtube and found a bunch of this adorable little kitten.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYk07KFWPZ8 (the part that I referenced starts at about 2:08)

Then I did a bunch of thumbnails.

I wanted to tie in this shot and my third shot is a sort of anim-jam with the cat/kitten walking over and sniffing a sleeping ogre, then end up playing around the ogre and jumping on him-waking him up.

I blocked out the cat prancing/trotting over the ogre (which would be added later).  The tail was also hidden in this pass so that I could focus on the rest of the body.

I did a couple of more passes on it and ended up with this more refined version.  I also added in some tall grass to make the high steps the kitten is taking more believable.

Blind Contours?!

In my mountain of old life drawing I also found these ridiculous blind contour drawings.  

This first one looks like it's terrified and maybe in a strait jacket.  My friend Kendall thinks that the face looks like a mushroom cloud.

Most of my blind contours seem to end up having 'elephant feet'.

I really enjoy how this guy's fingers seem to be turning into root vegetables.  He seems totally relaxed and fine about it though.

Old Life Drawing Pt2

Here's some more of the life drawing that I found while sorting through a bunch of my old artwork.

For this one we did a bunch of continual gestures as the model moved around in one spot.  I kind of like how this one turned out.

We used ink and nib pens one week, which was very different for me.  It has a neat kind of graphic novel feel to it though.

Remember when I said that I would sometimes get bored and add 'backgrounds'...

This model was always difficult for me to draw because he had a tendency to look RIGHT INTO YOUR EYES as you were drawing him.  He looks so forlorn with his broom.

This was the same model.  He became a ninja.

And welcomed butterflies into his hands.

This model often looked down at the ground, so I decided that he was thinking about flooring samples.

This one turned out looking super sassy.

We did some anatomy studies as well.

Graphite is also something that I don't use very often, so this one was a bit of a challenge.

I really like how the last one turned out, especially in the foreground hand and the foreshortening in the face.  

I found a bunch of ridiculous looking blind contours as well, which I will try to post soon-ish!

Old life drawing Pt1

I was going through a bunch of my old artwork and found a bunch of life drawing that I did back at my old animation school and through the USCAD program.

Getting ready for the big race.

Sometimes I would get bored during class and add 'backgrounds' to my drawings...

This one turned out a lot better.

One of the very few color drawings I did.  I was using watercolor pencils, which like watercolors, are hard.  I also enjoy that she looks sassy even while sleeping.

And now for a gaggle of hands.

AM-Animals and Creatures Pt2

Our first assignment actually animating, was a basic quadruped walk cycle.  Here are the thumbnail sketches.

And the walk cycle.  

It's still a bit 'hitchy', but I learned a lot from it!

Threadless 'Original Monsters'

Hey y'all!  I recently submitted a design to the Threadless 'Original Monster' design contest, and would love it if you could score it (preferably a 5), like it, share it etc. to help it get picked!  It would be amazing if Threadless actually printed one of my designs on their shirts! Here's the link.  I think that scoring is open for the next 9 days. Thanks! :)

AM-Animals and Creatures Master Class Pt1

I started taking the first of two animals and creatures master classes from Animation Mentor at the beginning of January.  I thought that it would be a good addition to my character animation skills, and although I wasn't sure at first if it would really be my cup of tea I've found that I actually enjoy it.  I've always loved animals, and learning about their anatomy, how they move and why they move the way they do is pretty cool!  My mentor for the term is John Nguyen.  He's a pretty awesome guy, and has worked for a number of impressive studios and on some pretty awesome projects/films.  He's currently working for Disney Interactive Media Group.

Our assignment for the first week was to do a bunch sketches of different types of animals to start honing our observational skills.  I made sure to include both a teacup pig and a unicorn in mine.

We then had to take the cat rig and do two dynamic poses with it.  It was my first time ever using a quadruped rig, and it definitely took some getting used to.  Looking at both poses now I can already see a bunch of thing that I would fix.

This last one looks more than a little drugged...