For Starters: An Animatic for Life

by Noelle BrandmierHi! Welcome to my very first entry for the Trading Eights blog! My name is Noelle, and I’m an animator/artist. I’m 21 and entering my senior year at the Rochester Institute of Technology. That means I get to do my senior thesis this year—a whole three-quarters devoted to creating a short animation. As usual, I’m working by myself on this project, so it’ll be a really busy year. My plan is to animate apartment tenants dancing, cooking, and cleaning in their own apartments in sync with a piece of music. At the end, they’ll all come together in one apartment for a gathering of sorts. The idea behind it was to create a kind of ode to people’s favorite mundane tasks. Mine is cleaning.Whenever I finish something that can be shown, I’ll post it up here along with my blog. I might link to other animators in my class who are posting their stuff on the Internet as well. I’ve always found it fascinating to watch an animation go through the whole process, so I think it would be nice to share it with readers.Because of the stage I’m at right now (being a rising senior and getting closer to the real world every day), I just started the search for graduate schools that offer a MFA in animation. Thankfully, I have Professor Tom Gasek to help me in this search.  He’s the best animation professor at RIT right now. He’s done a few really neat commercials, he’s worked on “Creature Comforts”, and recently he worked on “Coraline”. He did the shot where the snapdragon flowers are biting at her feet. Which is why I’m pretty excited that he’s my advisor for my senior thesis.I will eventually write more about the in’s and out’s of animation, but if anyone wants me to talk specifically about animation programs, the process of animation, the difference between 2D, 3D, and stop-motion or anything else, feel free to comment and say so!For now, welcome to my colorful world of computers, doodles, and lots of coffee!