I’ve uploaded a few photos from the screening. As you can see a cake fight ensued shortly after. You can view the entire album here.

Last night was the official screening of our ATAP1 students’ final projects. The event was touching. Everyone was high spirited and very receptive to their work. These kids have been working so hard. They deserve every compliment they got.

As a group, they’ve come so far. Six months ago when they first walked into the classroom, the majority of them had barely touched any animation software. Now they are better character animators that I ever was. They are passionate and absorb information quickly.

Despite the challenges of living in Beijing and teaching at a startup Institution, it’s experiences like these that make it so worth it. I can’t describe how fulfilling it has been to observe their growth and get to know each of them personally… A few weekends from now, Chris, the students, and I will be leaving Beijing for a weekend retreat. I can’t wait.

At the moment their work isn’t online. Once it is, I’ll post again with the links! For now, here are a few stills to enjoy!

Anyone involved in the creative arts should read this article. The passing of this bill would squash Independent artists of all kinds. It’s depressing that Washington might turn back the clocks on yet another progress in legislation.

An Orphaned Work is any creative work of art where the artist or copyright owner has released their copyright, whether on purpose, by passage of time, or by lack of proper registration. In the same way that an orphaned child loses the protection of his or her parents, your creative work can become an orphan for others to use without your permission.

The article in full can be found here. And an interview with Brad Holland, an artist organizing against it, can be heard here.

Here’s a piece I had been working on for a few weeks. I forced myself to explore and experiment with different software. Almost all the compositing was done in Shake and the ground texture was generated using Processing. Both of which are very new to me. The fullres composite is 1880×2816, so someday I hope to make a few 9×11 prints. Can’t wait to see how it looks on paper!

I’d love to say more now, but I’m in desperate need of some sleep. This was a very busy week, our first group of students are finishing their two month long final projects. When I have some free time this weekend I’ll post more about it and show some of my process. Goodnight!