Seattle I'm back.

After spending roughly 4 years in San Fran area, I finally decided to move back to Seattle. The lay-off was timed perfectly since it's right before X-mas and my family just happen to celebrate xmas down in SF with us. I pretty much packed my things by the end of Xmas and drove back with my parents to Seattle.

The trip was pretty rough for a first-timer, but I made it through alive. Note to self: Driving through a snow storm on the moutain roads is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY. DON'T DO IT EVER AGAIN. Anyway, it's nice seeing Seattle again since there are many old friends to visit and hang out with. It's definitely nice to spend some time with my family once again before I set out to who knows where to hunt for jobs.

I'll be moving into a single bedroom in couple days because it's just insane to live with my parents plus 2 cousins in a relatively small 2 bedroom unit. I'll post up pictures of the place once I finish moving.

Good bye SF, and hello to Seattle :) Speaking of SF, I would like to take this time and thank Walter and Sevonne for taking care of me while living with them for the past years. I'm very grateful for what you two have done for me.

Quick Photo Update: I'm still alive~

In case if anyone thought I dropped off the face of the earth or I have been vegetating in my own bedroom...I'm still here and alive (and exposed to the sun once in a while.)

I'm just going to post some of the highlights here from the house party and the BBQ we had during the month of August. These photos were taken by Leo Lee and his uber camera. Enjoy~ (The rest are in the web album, just follow the link on the photos.)

House Party:

From House Party

From House Party

From House Party

BBQ:

From Castro Valley BBQ

From Castro Valley BBQ

From Castro Valley BBQ

From Castro Valley BBQ

Leo took a lot more photos than what I have in my web album (i was too lazy to grab them all.), so if you really want to see the rest, you'll have to go on to my facebook profile and view the photos from there....I think.

Work Life...

The current project that I'm involved in: Dante's Inferno

Video Games Dante's Inferno Cinematic Trailer

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

So I'm currently working in EA Game (Electronic Art) as Development Team Quality Assurance. Yes it's a mouthful, but it's really just game testing for the development team. The difference between my job and regular game testing is that I get more tasks that involve script reading, making flow charts, white box testing, and documenting various elements in the game.
It's a pretty laid back job and I get paid a little more compare to regular game testers. So I'm happy with it for now.

The best thing is that there are six very experienced animators not far from where I sit. They are very friendly and constantly encouraging me to show them more of my work so they can give me good feedbacks. Essentially, it's like going to an animation class with six teachers and only one student...me! On top of that, I get paid. Pretty sweet deal I must say.

My life style has drastically changed too in a sense that... I'm becoming health conscious. I used to sleep around 2am and wake up between 10-11am. I had brunch instead of two regular meals. My weight was stuck at 128-130. (...after a meal. cuz I didn't have the courage to stand on the scale before I eat anything.) Now that I have to work, I pretty much sleep around 11:30pm and wake up at 8:15am. 3 regular meals plus snacks in between. I also work out with my co-worker friend 3 times a week. I now weight 132.5 lbs! And THAT was measured BEFORE I ate anything in the morning. So in 4 weeks, I gained roughly 5-6 lbs.

So yeah, all in all, I'm loving my work life. :)

So out of practice...

The last time I touched my color pencils was back in...highschool? That's about 8 years ago. But since Aunt Maria and Uncle Ian have been so good to us for the past 3 years, I wanted to draw them something as a appreciation.

From Artworks

And this is it~ Their family picture. The lotus are the parents and the hummingbirds are their daughters. One of them is flying because she just graduated while the other one is still in their care.

I'm surprised that my skill isn't as bad as I anticipated, so that was good. Hopefully they'll like it too.

2009 AAU Graduation Commencement

The commencement was basically 2 hours of standing hell and another 2 hours of sitting hell. It was extremely entertaining for graduates who did not show up and extremely leg-busting-fun for the rest of us who did attend.

This event marks the end of the 19 years of education for me (excluding kindergarten). I got my MFA and I deserve the right to say I'M DONE. NO MORE SCHOOL. It's time to start working finally.

Anyway, here are the pics:

From 2009 Academy of Art University Graduation Commencement

From 2009 Academy of Art University Graduation Commencement

From 2009 Academy of Art University Graduation Commencement

The rest you can find on the links under the pictures. Enjoy~

Thesis Final Review - PASSED

I would like to thank all my friends and family for the support. It has been a tough 3 years and I finally finally passed my thesis final review. Now I just need to wait for my diploma to be mailed in and I'll be officially graduated!

Anyhow, here is the final version of my thesis that I presented this morning:

http://www.willhuanganimator.com/videos/thesisfinal.mov (quicktime file, 54.3mb)

Right click on the link and click on "save target as.." to download the file.

Be sure to have Quick Time installed to watch.

Basically, after the presentation, the commitee told me that they loved the idea and story and it will definitely win in festivals. BUT! I will have to redesign the characters to make them more appealing and the sequences need to be tighter and faster pace.... so that means pretty much do everything ALL OVER.

Yeah...we'll see about that....sounds like another year of work for me ugh... but i'll worry about that later. Now, I'm just going to kick back and relax for couple days before I focus on producing my animation for my demo reel.


....I'M DONE WITH SCHOOL!!! HELL YAHHHHH!!!

Thesis Work in Progress

I'm finally done rendering and started on the sound effects. Here is a sample with one background music loop and other sounds that aren't quite finalized yet. However, the animation and lighting are final.

DOWNLOAD LINK (29 mb)

require Quicktime to play
to download - right click and then choose "save target as.."

The final version will be done in a week. Just wanted to update my current progress.

Our new home in Foster City, CA

Yeah we moved...AGAIN. Walter finally bought a town house in Foster City and we spent the last four days moving. JOY...

Same nightmare happened again as if it's a curse on me whenever I move. I caught a mysterious cold and some sorta crazy allergy just when we were about to move. In the past four days, I slept about 2 hours every night while spending the rest of the night coughing and wiping my tears and nasal discharge that was coming out like waterfall. (disgusting...I know, sorry.) Now that I'm finally done moving, my condition is getting a lot better.

Anyway, about the new house: I initially disliked my room because it is way smaller, but after putting everything in, I actually like it a lot better than what I had back in the old apartment. Everything magically fits! I especially like my ceiling fan :)

From New home in Foster City (after)

From New home in Foster City (after)

From New home in Foster City (after)

As for the rest of the house, they're just huge -_- it seems like beside my room and the guest room, all the other rooms are about 3-5 times bigger. It's so spacious that after we moved everything in, it still look so empty.

Here are rest of the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/huangrkul/NewHomeInFosterCityBefore# (before we moved in. Photos by Leo Lee)

http://picasaweb.google.com/huangrkul/NewHomeInFosterCityAfter# (after we moved in)

Demo Reel Website!

The website is finally up! (thanks to Irvin for all the codings.)

http://www.willhuanganimator.com/

Now...it's job hunting time!

New Year, Birthday, and Chinese New year photos

So I know it's not my bday yet, but since my parents always celebrate my bday in lunar year, that's why I celebrated my 26th bday on the 18th. (different every year....but I never bother to keep track of it since my parents will hehe. ) It's suppose to be 12/25/82 in Lunar Year.

Here is me murdering the cake:

From New Year, Birthday, and Chinese New Year

Follow the link to the rest of the photos.
Enjoy!

11 secounds club entry Jan 2009

This is my first entry in 11 seconds club. I've seen a lot of WIP out there for this month's contest and I really look forward to seeing how they turn out.

Enjoy

Bus Stop - Work in Progress

A little girl is imitating the guy standing next to her while her mom is looking away.





Since this might end up on my demo reel, I would appreciate any critique from anyone.

Enjoy~

Snowboard Trip

I felt like a soccer mom today...babysitting, taking pictures, guarding all their belongings from 9am to 4pm.

Woot~~

http://picasaweb.google.com/huangrkul/StevensSnowboardingTrip

Pictures pictures~ most of them are my brother, sister in law, and the cousins.

Merry Xmas!

Rendered still images from thesis.

This is what you will probably see in the final version of my thesis. However, the colors are still a bit too saturated so I'll tone it down when I get into final rendering.


Tomorrow...a final review that I know I won't pass...woot?

Finish blocking all shots!

Finally...I'm done with all my shots. Even though most of them are still in blocking stage, but the rest is just tweaking to make their actions fluid. Again, the facial expressions aren't added yet except Rose can now blink, woohoo!




Well, monday is my final review and I'll just have to go in and tell them I can't finish it until next semester. Meanwhile, get some feedbacks from the directors.

Shot 4-23 Work in Progress

Again, no facial expressions on Rose or Caterpillar. However, major cuts and edits have been done on this version to make it look more interesting and increase the pacing.

Happy Thanksgiving~

New Update Shot 1-7

Shot 7 is no where near completion, but it gives the audience a pretty good idea where shot 6 is heading.... (i hope?)

Ok...I need sleep...

Shot 1-4 Update

So finally....let there be facial expressions!

This is what I've done two days ago. There have been much more fixed now. I shall post the updated version as soon as I can.

....4 more weeks before the final review......nightmare....