The Past, and Reawakening

This is my first real venture into the world of blogging, so bear with me, folks.

I'm a bit of an oddball, to say the least. And my life in the past has been kind of crazy, in many ways, due to lots of circumstances out of my control (and later, some that probably were). But here are the important bits related to this blog...

I wanted to be an animator as soon as I knew the correct term for the job. When I was 12, my dad took me to see Nightmare Before Christmas. I left the theater wide-eyed, and saying to myself, "I'm going to do that kind of animation. And I'm going to do it with those people." Fast-forward a few years later, when I got my first computer that had a modem and AOL was what everybody considered "the internet." I got this insane idea that if I wrote down the names of people on the credits of Nightmare, I might be able to look them up and pick their brains. Much to my surprise, it actually worked to some extent. Some thought I was completely nuts (rightly so). Some did give me advice. I've been in touch with many of them, on and off, ever since.

Fast-forward again, and I'd just gotten my first apartment, and turned 21. Mall jobs, as a career, suck. I started thinking of ways I could get involved with studios. Growing up in Austin, Texas was great, but there's always been quite a shortage of stop-motion studios there, and I simply didn't have the money at the time to even buy a camera. I decided that I could be just as broke elsewhere as I was in Austin, and asked Justin Kohn if he would mind recommending a few studios to try and get an internship at. He hooked me up with the wonderful Chiodo Bros., and my mission began.

All I really had was my dog, a hopped up moped-class scooter, and about $400. Other local scooterists gave me some extra gear, maps, and rode out to the edge of town with me. Over the next 2 weeks, I rode mostly solo to the California border, stopping for a few days to rest and recoup in Phoenix. Mike Frankovich of NoHo Scooters picked me and my scooter up for the last leg of the trip. I showed up on the Chiodos' doorstep, and earned myself an internship.

The 3 years I spent out in Hollyweird were a strange time for me, but I did enjoy it, and wouldn't give it up for anything. I got to see Ray Harryhausen get his star on the Walk of Fame, chat with Phil Tippet, and work with countless other animation legends and pros I saw replays of Nightmare at the El Capitan Theater with some of the crew. I put Elf, Green Screen Show, Disaster!, and Robot Chicken on my resume. I even got a tattoo of Jack Skellington holding a banner that says "I [heart] stop-motion."

Unfortunately, the rest of life was hitting me pretty hard, and I realize now that I needed a bit more stability to do some more growing-up. At the end of 2005, I moved in with a previous roommate-turned boyfriend (now fiance) Dan in upstate NY. We moved to Colorado for a few years, and just recently returned to NY. And we've both recently come to the conclusion that I seriously need to get back into "the biz." And whether it takes me temporarily relocating for studio jobs, or us moving around a lot more, he's behind me 100%.

The first step in my renewed journey is a bit more preparation than last time. I've really been out of the animation loop, so to speak, for quite a while. And I'd been using one of Dan's old computers after my laptop gave up the ghost. While the Sony Vaio tower was still functioning just fine, it was purchased in 2001, and simply couldn't be upgraded any more. We just purchased a new Vaio S series that can currently run circles around almost any other laptop out there, so that should do me well for capture and editing for quite a while. Probably by the beginning of the year, Dan hopes to upgrade to a new SLR, so he'll give me his current one to play with. In the meantime, I'll be brainstorming, story boarding, playing around with different capture software demos, and doing tests. I've currently got my eye on Stop Motion Pro, but nothing is set in stone.

Today I quit one of my two part-time jobs to devote more time to working on animation projects. We're not exactly swimming in money (far from it), but we're not completely drowning in debt, either. We can go out to eat on occasion without breaking the bank, we just don't spend our weekends in NYC. We did a little creative accounting--yes, all legal, just rearranging things--and the new laptop is paid for. We'll be fine with me just having the one job, and I'll make very good use of the time I'm not at work. Between the two part-time positions, I just finished a 32 day long stint with zero days off. I'll never get a reel even started if I keep doing that (not to mention the lack of sleep).

I am extremely excited to be taking this journey once again. I think I'm a lot better prepared, mentally and otherwise, this time around. I got an excellent taste of things already. So hold onto your demo reels, folks. Mine's going to start pre-production soon, and it's going to be awesome.