So I was surfing around the other day when I ran into some blog posts concerning last year’s DC Independent Film Festival. It reminded me that I have a backlog of festival photos I never really showed anyone (on or offline). I figured I might as well share some of my (limited) film festival experiences, starting with last year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival.

After graduating, I contemplated the idea of submitting my senior project animation to a bunch of festivals, but I wasn’t nearly confident enough in the final product to justify potentially wasting a large amount of money and time on entrance fees/shipping costs/DVD reproductions, etc.do so. I did, however, want to see if it could make it into at least one film festival.

At night, the SDAFF logo was projected on the ground in front of the theatre 

Luckily, Glimmer did make it into SDAFF. I was pretty excited (with it being my first film festival and all), so I decided to fly out there, check it out, and visit a few friends I know in the area. I felt rather clumsy getting around, not exactly knowing where to go, who to ask, etc., but the volunteers were pretty nice and helpful, so things turned out well in the end.

I must say, there’s something really uncomfortable about having to get around with a giant tag that says “Director” on it. I felt rather pretentious

I didn’t know anyone there, so it was a little uncomfortable twiddling my thumbs waiting for the screening to begin. With the overall high quality level of work there, I was also starting to get a little embarrassed about my animation. But when my work started playing, I finally saw the result of a year and a half’s worth of work. Despite Glimmer’s numerous shortcomings, there was something special about seeing it on the big screen.

The screening was followed by brief introductions of those filmmakers who were able to attend the event. We all introduced ourselves, talked a little bit about our animations and our influences; and then questions were opened to the floor.

Following the discussion, all the filmmakers reported back to the lounge area, where we chatted and socialized a bit. I wasn’t able to stick around too long, since my friends, whom I have not seen in quite some time were waiting for me. I regret not having taken advantage of that time more and gotten to know the other filmmakers, especially since I got to meet Sam Chen. I even completely forgot to take pictures! I must not have been thinking too clearly that day!

From left to right: Yorico Murakami, Will Kim, Andy Huang, James Kim, Youngwoong Jang, me, and Sam Chen
Photo by Tak Asanuma

I finally got to visit the West Coast for the first time, I met some very nice people, saw some really cool animations, and met up with friends. All in all, I had a great time there. Looking back, I do wish I had submitted to more festivals (if nothing else, I may have been able to cling to the bare minimum standards of quality), but this was one festival  I was glad I it to.

Some links:

San Diego Asian Film Foundation
SDAFF 06: Illusion of Life Program Information
Twitch – SDAFF Report (I’m mentioned here! )

I haven’t done much figure drawing….though I really should. I picked a pose off of Hong Ly’s Character Designs site and decided to do a (relatively) quick copy for practice. I took some liberties with the anatomy that I probably shouldn’t have

I also tried to experiment a little with custom brushes (something I rarely do), and ended up creating something that behaves a little more like a marker.

So all that excitement I had over the announcement of Street Fighter 4 has pretty much been extinguished after finding out the game isn’t being developed by Capcom Japan.

http://www.gpara.com/article/cms_show.php?c_id=5127&c_num=14

I guess there’s still good ol’ 3rd Strike…

ArenaNet art team is busy posting the uber cool stuff they’ve done for GWEN over at the ConceptArt Forums.

Concept Art

Obviously I have nothing to contribute

I really can’t figure out why I can’t embed the trailer without screwing the format up, so I’ll just link it:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26535.html

I swear I am not going to get any work done today. It’s Street Fighter!!! 4!!!*Edit: My frothing fanboy-ism haste to post this resulted in me breaking the Blog format. Can’t seem to fix it (Must be my frothing fanboy-ness)*

*Click Image for larger image*

Some small fanart of Lance Corporal Giroro from Keroro Gunsou. I felt the simplicity behind the character designs would make for nice, low stress mini paintings, so expect to see some more Gunsou fanart

Another face experiment. Not based on anyone in particular, but I did use an assortment of photo reference to get some ideas for lighting and basic forms. I don’t know if this was successful or not, but I kind of threw in the towel on this one since it was taking an uncomfortably long time to do.