:30 Short Film—Part 7: GRADUATION!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's finally happened! The first class of Bill Plympton's University of Animation (we started as a school and ended as a university. How's that for progress!) has graduated. Don't believe me? My diploma's below:



Some may not consider this to be much of an accomplishment but those people never made a funny, 30 sec. film in 14 weeks while holding down a day job! About five of the fifteen students had completed films (completed meaning fully animated, color, sound and music) for the final class with several more in various stages of production.

I can say without hesitation that I found Bill's class to be immensely helpful. Since he's doing exactly what I want to do—making a living from independent animated films—the class was full of vital information. I feel more confident pursuing this path as a result of this class. And I even got an original Bill Plympton drawing:



Bill did this in front of the class as a demonstration of drawing purely with shadows, no lines. Everyone in the class left with some sort of Plympton drawing. There were jokes about selling them on eBay but I doubt that's going to happen. We're all too much in awe of Bill's talents to part with our precious drawings.

I'm satisfied with my film although I felt I crammed a little too much story into 30 seconds. I just need to tweak a few things—a character's arm is wonky; credits need to be properly phrased—and then I'm going to enter it into film festivals, starting with the Red Stick Animation Festival. Their deadline is Jan. 4, 2010 so I need to get the film completed and entered by then.

Tomorrow—more about my festival plans…and my next film!

:30 Short Film—Part 6: Final Animation


Wow, it's been two weeks since I last shared. Sorry, folks! At least I have evidence of working.




I could also show photos of my ridiculously messy apartment (even Mom was horrified when she came by during Thanksgiving) but then you'd just think I'm a dirty artist girl.

So it's the last big push for me to finish my BPAS (Bill Plympton Animation School) project. I told myself when I started that I wanted to complete it by December 16, the last day of class. And, darn it, that's EXACTLY what I'm gonna do!

As of this writing, the first 19 of 30 seconds of the film are complete. I basically made the pencil test into the final. I have only one more scene of the hunters to animate and color, then it's on to the ending. I'm still not sure how long the end will take but at this late stage, I want that scene to be as simply staged as possible. I've already decided to cut back on drawing the figures in their entirety in the interest of time. It just needs to be planned.

Below is the latest.