ASLN

2011-11-03T01:30:00.001-07:00

Drawing Jam - SPACE VIKINGS

2010-09-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hey ASLN members! The club is going to start having monthly drawing jams based on select themes. Members can submit their artwork for review to the ASLN e-mail at aslnorthridge@gmail.com. Winners will have their name and work featured on the blog and

may get an additional prize.

This Month's theme is for Character Design and is titled

SPACE VIKINGS.

So let's see what kind of crazy and fun characters you guys can create.

The deadline for submission is Sunday, October 31st.

Here are the general submission guidelines:

- You must be a current ASLN member or Alumni.

- Send artwork for review to the ASLN e-mail at aslnorthridge@gmail.com.

- Include your full name and e-mail address.

- All work must be submitted as a JPEG format and no more than 1MB in file size.

- Be creative!

Animation Resources

2010-04-29T00:20:00.000-07:00

Members! Here are some links to great animation resources. We hope you find them useful!

Reference - Body

xray

http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?contractUrl=2&language=en-US&assetType=film&p=B%2FW%20x-ray&src=standard

Skeletons

http://www.eskeletons.org/

CG Deformation

http://www.hippydrome.com/PageUpdates.html

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com

http://www.visiblebody.com

ColorTheory

http://www.colormatters.com/colortheory.html

Training Websites

http://www.principlesofmotion.com/motiondvds.html

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials/mayafeet/mayafeet1.asp

http://www.cgsociety.org/

Unreal ActorX

3dbuzz.com

http://www.animationrigs.com

Game Design Show & David Pritchard

2010-04-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

Friday April 16th displayed ART 368 students' art work in the West Gallery. Thank you to everyone who were present! We also had a guest speaker, David Pritchard, VFX artist and animator. Here are photos from Friday night.

Blog Update from 03/06/10

2010-03-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Owen Klatte Night

Here's an update for those who missed Owen Klatte night.

Owen first gave us a little background on what he's done in his career. In a nutshell, he worked on Gumby in the 50s and 60s (for those of us who know/remember Gumby). The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first feature film he worked on and since his job on Dinosaur in 1996, he has been focused mainly on CG.

In response to the questions and interest of students present, Owen gave us some useful technical aspects of stop motion animation. Mostly based on his experience with The Nightmare Before Christmas, he talked about aspects ranging from scripts and writing to the design of models and rigs; from the methodology of moving and securing characters to the need for elaborate rigs to create certain effects; from lip syncing to lighting.

Owen was great to have brought along some models and animatronics that he has used on the job before for us to see. They included models and exposure sheets from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

We later screened The Nightmare Before Christmas and hadgreat insight and commentary from Owen throughout the show.

Additionally, we had a special treat that night - another guest speaker made an appearance: Kevin Koch, president of The Animation Guild, labor union for creative artists, writers and technicians in the animation industry. He talked about the Animation Guild and how students like ourselves could benefit from it.

The night was long, but very educational! Thanks to both Owen Klatte and Kevin Koch for coming by. We hope those who participated had a good time.

Blog Update from 02/18/10

2010-03-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

ASLN is having their very first meeting on the 25th of February (Thursday) @ 5.30 PM @ the Purple Crit Room / AC300. There will be a screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas, guest speaker Owen Klatte will be making an appearance and he will be bringing in some awesome stop motion animatronics!

We hope to see you there!

Blog Update from 10/28/09

2010-03-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

Attention ASLN Members:

Do you need to brush up on your life drawing skills? Join Ken Jones on the following dates for an opportunity to get some constructive practice in and improve you drawings. Should be a fun time!

11/04 LA Zoo

11/18 Matador Bowl

All Events are from 10 am - 5 pm. Feel free to meet up with Ken at any time. Email the club or contact an officer to get Ken's cell phone #.

ASLN
aslnorthridge@gmail.com

Blog Update from 10/15/09

2010-03-30T10:07:00.001-07:00

Blog Update from 10/15/09

2010-03-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

Great news, guys! ASLN DVDs can now be checked out during lab hours in AC330. The purchase of these DVDs were made possible by ASLN dues and Matching Campus funds.

- DVDs cannot be taken out of the lab.

- Please note the DVD title you check out in the sign in book.

DVD List Follows:

Principles of Motion:
- Fighting Vol.1, 2 & 3
- Urban Dance
- Commando
- Contortionist
- Kids Only!
- POM!
- Male Vol. 1
- Female Vol. 1

Gnomon Workshops:
- Matchmoving: Essential Production Techniques
- Visual Effects Compositing Fundamentals
- Texture Painting: Fundamentals
- Character Texturing for Production

Stash: Vol. 46-60

Lighting & Rendering in Maya:
Lights and Shadows

Blog Update from 10/15/09

2010-03-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings!

For those of you who attended, you know that ASLN's night with Randy Haycock was a blast! For those who didn't attend, you're about to get insight on that one eventful night :) The Purple Crit Room was bursting at the seams with people who were privileged enough to get to know Randy better and receive valuable animation tips from him.

Besides showing us his previous 2-D animation work and even bringing us through a live demonstration on animating on paper, Randy Haycock provided us with some great tips on building our animation skills and portfolio. You guys who weren't there for his presentation: you're in luck because we're going to give you the tips right here. This is good stuff!

Tip #1: Take your sketchbook and bring it everywhere (that has people) with you

Tip #2: Observe, take notes & sketch what you see!

Tip #3: The power of observation is very important! When you see something interesting, write it out, draw it out or find a way of remembering it.

Tip #4: Don't just see who the people are around you... watch how they are!

Tip #5: Why is it important to be observant? Because we're trying to tell a story... a story that relates to people. All art is about communication, therefore the audience has to be able to relate to your work. This is the key to success as an artist!

We hope you guys learned something from Randy, whether or not you went to the event! Stay tuned for more guest speakers in the future!

Blog Update from 09/24/09

2010-03-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

Blog Update from 09/24/09

2010-03-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

ASLN Newsletter #2

Hello ASLN members,

Hope everything is going well for you guys! September is coming to an end as the semester rolling right along. We have a few announcements for you guys of what's to come in October.

Thursday October 8th at 6:30 pm in the Purple Crit Room

Guest Speaker: Randy Haycock
Come see the supervising animator for Disney's upcoming "Princess and the Frog" as discusses his work on films including Tarzan, Meet the Robinsons, Hercules, and many more.

Thursday Oct 22nd at 6:30 pm in the Purple Crit Room
Guest Speaker: Lennie Graves
Animation Director on the upcoming second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, come see Lennie talk about his approach to animation.

ASLN presents “The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Thursday October 29th at 6pm (location to be announced)
Come join us for a night of fun and fright as we watch Nightmare before Christmas and learn a little bit about Tim Burton. This is a night you won't want to miss.

Sign Up!
Every person who signs up for ASLN gets a free T-shirt while supplies last.

Student Work
Keep those submissions coming in! We want to show your student work and make you famous (at least in our club.) It can be anything; animations, character sheets, animatics. If you send it, we'll show it!

JOIN THE RAFFLE!
We are having a raffle to help raise money for the club! If you win, you could get a signed copy of Controlling Illusion by Charles Zembilles! Tickets to enter the raffle are 2 dollars per entry for non-members and 1 dollar per entry for members. Limit 5 tickets per person. Details to come!

Pick up your Club Cards!
If you haven't picked up your membership card yet send an email to us at aslnorthridge@gmail.com and we'll get in contact with you.

Interested in Volunteering?
Want to help out the club? We're always looking for good people to help us out. Send us an email at aslnorthridge@gmail.com if you are interested.

Blog Update from 09/21/09

2010-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Miyazaki Night went well! It was good to see new faces at the meeting and we had a fun time getting to know each other, chowing down on pizza and watching Princess Mononoke. We also now have a few new members - welcome to the club!

Here are the images from the first Club Night:

Blog Update from 09/14/09

2010-03-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Drawings from Meet the Clubs Day are up!

As promised those who drew at ASLN's stall during Meet The Clubs Day... your drawings are up! We didn't get the names of everyone who contributed, so names aren't captioned with the drawings. Hope you recognize yours though!

Blog Update from 09/07/09

2010-03-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

ASLN members!

Two weeks have gone by and we're finally getting somewhere - we'll be having our first Club Night for the semester on Friday, Sept 11th! This Friday, we'll be screening and Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke from 6PM -9PM @ AC330. Do come and join us for some Animation fun and to get to know fellow animators :)

Blog Update from 08/29/09

2010-03-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Animators!

Welcome to a new semester of Fall 2009 at CSUN! Don't worry, ASLN's still alive; in fact, we're already up and running this first week of school! If we haven't said much, it's because we're tinkering behind the scenes, preparing the stage for your entertainment and benefit. So bear with us as we tie up loose ends and you'll hear from us shortly.

Week 1 - Meet The Clubs Day
CSUN recently held a Meet The Clubs Day, giving the various clubs on campus the chance to make themselves known. Our participation in Meet The Clubs Day helped people realize that, yes, an animation club truly does exist in CSUN! We'd like to express a very big thank you to those who helped make ASLN's participation in this event happen and hats off to those who bravely endured the 100-degree heat for three hours!

A few of us and Professor Farquhar at our booth during Meet The Clubs Day. I think the temperature hit a scorching 105-110 degrees that afternoon!

Blog Update from 04/21/09

2010-03-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

Art Jeppe, Blizzard Entertainment and Snakebite, Illustrator/Designer

Animation Video Digital Portfolio Reviews from Disney, Dreamworks, Sony Imageworks, and Technicolor studios.

Blog Update from 03/30/09

2010-03-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

ANIMATION NATION NIGHT
an industry evening for students and guests of the Animation Academy and Charles Zembillas
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
at the Animation Acedemy Campus.

Blog Update from 03/30/09

2010-03-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

July Films Director Mike Nguyen Visits Northridge

Blog Update from 03/26/09

2010-03-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mike Nguyen ASLN Guest Speaker Monday 5 PM March 30th AC300 Purple Crit Room

Check out Mike's Film at www.Julyfilms.com

Blog Update from 03/17/09

2010-03-30T09:32:00.001-07:00

Animation Legend Don Bluth has recently started a new site. The seems to offer subscribers and users tips, tutorials, and a forum to communicate with Don himself.

http://www.donbluthanimation.com

For those of you unfamiliar with Bluth's work. It includes The Land Before Time, Dragons Lair, Secret of NIMH, and American Tail.

Blog Update from 03/11/09

2010-03-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting documentaries on some of the greats int he industry. Be sure to watch all parts of each documentary.

Richard Williams Documentary

Jim Henson Documentry

Blog Update from 03/11/09

2010-03-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

Recently Von Wiliams Visual Effects Superviser on the move Watchman came to give a talk at our school. Here are some photos from the event.

Blog Update from 03/08/09

2010-03-30T09:12:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, February 28, the CSUN Animation club visited the L.A. Zoo to practise animal life drawing. We had the Art Department's Anatomy Drawing professor Ken Jones joining us, and we were pretty lucky to see many animals (such the meerkats), and getting some very close up views of the giraffes. We got some very good drawings out of the whole experience, and hope to get more trips like this in the future.

Blog Update from 03/03/09

2010-03-30T09:11:00.001-07:00

Thanks to http://thepixartouch.typepad.com for the excellent link to Pixar animator Victor Navone's planning sketches. Click the link below to check them out!

http://www.navone.org/Media/AnimationThumbs/index.htm

Blog Update from 03/03/09

2010-03-30T09:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I hope you guys marked March 4 on your calendars. It's the day Von Williams comes to talk about getting into the animation industry. It will start at 5pm in the Purple Crit room. See you guys there.

- Vice President Rey E.

Blog Update from 31/01/09

2010-03-30T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

We have our first ASLN meeting of the semester coming up!!

When: Feb 4th

Where: Purple Crit Room (big purple building in the middle of the art department)

Time: 2-4pm

What: "Waltzing with Bashir" screening and discussion about animation topics!

I hope all of you can come. This will be a wonderful opportunity for everyone to hang out and make new friends:)

Feel free to e-mail about any questions or comments.

Good job! You have survived the first 2 weeks of school!

Photos From Guest Speaker Josh Scherr

2008-03-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Guest Speaker Josh Sherr - March 24

2008-03-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

Join us for an exciting evening with Character Animator Josh Sherr on March 24, 2008.

We will also be screening Persepolis at 6pm right before the main event.

See you all there!

Our First Guest Speaker Chen-Yi Chang

2008-03-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had our first guest speaker on March 7, 2008. Character Designer Chen-Yi Chang came to spend an afternoon with ASLN members and students. The event was a great success. Chen-Yi was kind enough to bring copies of his original work and passed them around for students to see. He also shared some of his experiences working at disney and abroad. Students had the chance to ask Chen-Yi all kinds of questions which gave room to great stories about his education, career and current projects. It was a great afternoon filled with knowledge and great conversation. Most students also got a change to sign up for club membership.

Here are some photos from the event...

Thanks to Annie for the pictures!

ASLN's First Official Meeting

2008-03-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

We finally had our first meeting on February 8, 2008! So many months of work and planning finally allowed us to become a university recognized club and set up our first official meeting. The turn out was great. Students were excited and ready to be part of the club.

The meeting began by the founders and officers of the club introducing themselves. Then club president Andrew Hamilton talked about the club's purpose, activities and general membership info. Professor Mark Farquhar joined the discussion and students were able to ask questions and add their suggestions. It was a great start, everyone seemed very positive, excited and committed to being a part of the club.

What a success!

Thanks to Charles Zembillas for the photos!