Their howls are sending chills down my spine…

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Nilah

I’m really into Within Temptation right now… well, just the one song. But it’s a good song.

It’s Render Week here in the Computer Animation department: seniors are rendering final versions of their films. We’re almost done!

When I come home at night, I’ve been trying to work on a longish sequence of storyboards that I developed for Independent Study last semester. My hope was to get some revisions in in time for recruiter visits (Nickelodeon comes next week…), but tonight my head’s just not in it. I’m not sure I’ll be done in time.

Rather than trying for a second wind, here’s some drawrin’s.


Don’t mind Travis’s dialogue. He’s a country kid.


Can that boy’s mouth get any bigger…


This panel’s kinda fun to me, for some reason… though a bit busy.


A couple of these shots didn’t make it into the final. Here’s one of them.


In some cases I have trouble settling on staging, or hitting it just the way I want it. So I’ll try a few variations until I get something I like.


Still trying.


That horse’s neck bothers me… I really don’t know why I drew it like that.

All right, shower, then bed. I’m really tired of going to the labs at 9 a.m….

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Formation of an Artist

Posted on February 7, 2010 by Nilah

Thesis Render

So lighting critique is over, and the beat goes on.

I’m a notoriously light sleeper (thanks to an incident at my first college). Thus, just a tiny bit of sound at 3:30 in the morning has me awake and unable to fall back asleep.

I’m taking a Creative Writing class this semester, in which we’re reading Stephen King’s On Writing. He starts the book in an unconventional way; not with his thoughts on how to become a writer, but with a short memoir of the events that led to him being a writer. At 3:30 in the morning, I found myself thinking about some of the moments I remember when I think about my path to art. Continue reading →

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“That doesn’t even rhyme!”

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Nilah

This video is insanely hypnotic.

So last week I was cleaning out my Hood College e-mail account – Hood being my second college, for those who don’t know (yep, Ringling’s my third!). I don’t open it often; it’s the account I use for Facebook, so mostly it’s full of notifications. But in cleaning it up, I found an e-mail from October, from my old art professor. This is the woman who got me to apply to Ringling. She wanted to know how I was doing. I don’t think I’ve spoken to her since I enrolled at Ringling.

After graduating Hood in 2005, and while struggling to find steady work, I thought maybe it was a good time to start looking at animation programs. Animation was what I’d always wanted to do, since I was a teenager, but life doesn’t always work out the way you intend.

My art professor had been demanding and pushed me hard while I was at Hood, and I didn’t always see eye to eye with her. But she’s the first person I went to when I needed advice on putting together my portfolio. I told her I was considering CalArts as my first choice.

She said, “You have to go to Ringling.”

I have a history of running away from challenges. Often I’m presented with great opportunities, and too often I say “no.” It’s only in the last few years that I’ve been encouraging myself to say “yes” more and more.

So this past semester, I’ve been looking back on the last few years with something very close to disbelief. I said these words in a blog post nearly three whole years ago:

The most important thing is that now I can tell my boss that yes, I will be leaving near the end of July.

Yes, I’m moving to Florida.

Yes, I’m going to art school… again.

I’m deliriously happy and scared out of my mind, all at once.

I don’t think the reality of what I’m doing really hit me until this year. Sometimes I have to say it in my head, just to assure myself it’s true. Yes, I did move to Florida. Yes, I did go to art school. Yes, after fifteen years of longing, I’m pursuing my dream. I didn’t just say I’d do it and then chicken out this time.

And it’s pretty cool to think about it. All the times I thought maybe I’d made a mistake in enrolling at Ringling. That maybe I wasn’t cut out for animation. That maybe I was wasting my money and my time, and I’d be more comfortable if I’d stayed where I was.

In four months, I will be graduating from Ringling College of Art and Design. No clue what I’m going to do just yet. But now, at least, I’m facing the future with one less mystery. Yes, I can animate. And I can survive as a creative. That’s one door that’s no longer locked to me.

I don’t have to live the rest of my life wondering “what if”. Three years of intense pain and suffering at the unfeeling hands of the Ringling CA curriculum are worth it just for that.

Happy New Year’s, all.

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Ho ho ho, merry everyone!

Posted on December 27, 2009 by Nilah

Some drawings from Independent Study over fall semester. This is just from my last assignment. I should really stop being lazy and post everything, sometime.

Some storyboards.

And… playing with werewolves. Okay well this one’s since I came home from winter break.

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God help the outcasts

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Nilah

Blog update! I’ve updated the pages to the right with permanent links to my internship portfolio and my old Ringling admissions portfolio. It’s that time of year again for the Ringling prospectives, so I’m thinking I’ll update the portfolio in the next few days with some explanation on my choices, and tips for planning your own portfolio. :)

Also, I wanna give a quick shot-out to my homey (and roommate) Yezi who’s also got some concept art up, as well as photos of our annual Mandatory Fun Time outings!

The senior class load is a little lighter than previous years, with only nine required credits. To stay full-time, I needed another class. Rather than taking another liberal arts course (my last degree was in liberal arts, I have a ton of those credits), I decided I wanted a class that would benefit my spring portfolio and my future career. So I got with one of the CA teachers and constructed an Independent Study course in story and visual development.

The class is organized into three-week-long story development assignments. I’m onto my second assignment – all about vespas and motorcycles. I noticed as I was gathering reference photos, and in discussing the idea with my teacher on Tuesday, just how into it I was. I was coming up with really strong ideas for all the characters – including the vehicles, who are characters as well. I was getting a sense of their personalities and their motivations without much effort. I was eager to start exploring their designs, to come up with ways to show character through the design, to tie everything together in one cohesive visual style. I was so excited about getting started.

Not so with my first assignment. That story had been a struggle. The concept was a criminal who enters a church for the first time. There was only one character, and he was bland, without much appeal, IMO. Even when I sat down and tried to devise an interesting design, I just couldn’t come up with anything unique.

Designing the church was even worse. I’ve never been very good with environments, or how to make them interesting. My teacher and I agreed that my final image just didn’t carry the story as well as my exploratory sketches did.

Well, I knew exactly why the second assignment seemed more appealing. It was all about the characters. It was totally a character piece, driven by interaction, by relationships. That was the whole story; and that’s what I like to focus on in my work. But hey, the first story had a character too, so why wasn’t I as excited about him as I am about vespas and motorcyles?

And that’s when it hit me. Because the criminal story wasn’t just about the criminal. There was another character I completely left out.

The church.

Okay, so I’ve heard this idea before. Environments and props need to show personality in their designs, too. I always think about it when I’m designing, but sometimes it takes a while for a concept to really sink in. This was totally an environment piece – but the environment was a character. Much like Notre Dame served as a character in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. And it’s the idea of what this church is, and what it is to the criminal, that I wasn’t pushing in my final piece.

I’ll need to revisit the piece later before I call the assignment complete. I’ve got some new reference pieces that I think will help me capture the moment. But for now, it’s on to vespas and motorcycles.

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Thesis Character Designs

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Nilah

Mr. Yates requested that I post my flat thesis character designs :) they’re also in my portfolio post from a few months ago, but here they are again so you don’t have to scroll. I ended up staying very close to the designs I finalized in Drawing for Animators last year.


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I don’t understand fishing metaphors!

Posted on September 20, 2009 by Nilah

Thanks for the encouragement guys. :) Much to my own shock, I am back at Ringling! Yeah, I could’ve posted to let everyone know sooner, but I thought I’d wait until I had something to show.

Thesis time has begun. The first three weeks of the semester were devoted to character modeling.

Here is the baker.

Photoshop makes my baker look like poo.

And here is the little visitor who disrupts his work.

This is why you should keep your windows shut at night.

Still making minor adjustments to each, but they’re coming along. Soon I will post the kitchen! (Which also needs a bit more work, ha ha…)

Thesis is keeping me busy – there never seems to be time for a break! But I do manage to take one now and then.

Friday I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Sony Pictures Animation was wrapping up this movie while I was there this summer. I caught some clips during dailies and I’ve been anxious to see the film in its entirety. Let me say, it does not disappoint! Cloudy is a never-ending barrage of gags, but somehow you never get tired of laughing. If you haven’t seen it yet, then go! And take your kids – if you don’t have kids, take someone else’s!

And now it’s back to work. Blendshapes and layout due in four weeks. So much to do!

Posted in Art, Ringling, animation | 4 Comments

Her diamonds bring me down….

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Nilah

Wow.  Don’t listen to Rob Thomas when you’re depressed.

So my internship is through and I returned home on Saturday, now to focus on my return to Ringling.  And boy did I just get the shock of my life.

My student loan application was declined.

I’d applied for the same loan since my enrollment at Ringling without a problem.  The school had been telling us since last year that the economy had taken a dive and students were having trouble getting their loans, but so far I had lucked out, so I didn’t think much of it.

I applied for two more private loans, with no luck.  Two lenders said they’d consider my application with a cosigner… which I hate to do, as my parents are both retired.  But if I want to go back to Ringling, I have no choice.

If that doesn’t work, well… so long senior year.

Strangely it makes me mad.  I’m mad at the economy.  I’m mad at the government for turning a blind eye to higher education.  I’m mad at Ringling for being so damn expensive, because in all truth, I could never afford to go there anyway.  I’m mad that I put myself through hell last year, working myself into the ground and enduring all manner of criticism to keep up my grades and get through the year with a working thesis… only to find out I’ll probably have to turn my back on it all.

And what am I supposed to do now?  The economy sucks right now, we’ve established.  And I’m supposed to find a job?

Well, we’ll see how the week goes.  But if I don’t get approval by Friday, I’ll be contacting the Registrar to announce my withdrawal.

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At the SPA: Week 1

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Nilah


Artist’s note: Wow, I totally look like a boy in these doodles.

Ahhh, such is the effect that good company and good food can have.

This marks the beginning of week two in L.A., and I’m still alive! My first week at Sony Pictures Animation is over. Boy, the start of the week was killer… but not really because SPA was so terrible. It was dealing with the rental car and navigating my way from Westwood to Culver City. I always left one destination wondering if I’d be able to find parking at the next… because, the legends are true, parking is nearly non-existent here.


Thursday evening rush hour.

But as it turns out L.A. has a pretty extensive bus system. So the rental car has been returned (I hope… I really never saw if the company retrieved it or not…), I’ve found a route that takes me from Westwood practically to the front of my building, and all is right with the world.

So, SPA has been pretty darn amazing. After a couple hours of the usual new employee business – paperwork, getting the ID badge, meeting the team, a quick tour – I was off and running. My work station was set up just before lunch and by the afternoon I was drawing. I wasn’t quite sure how a Cintiq worked before now… it’s not bad, let me tell you….

On Monday night I got sent home with homework: watch a movie. I’m living my dream.

I’m also getting to see a ton of production art. The hallways are lined with huge boards of pinned up storyboards, visual development art, and reference photos that the artists look to for inspiration. On Tuesday, I got to see my first dailies, for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It looks amazing, and I can’t wait to see the final product.

In the meantime, I’ve been thrown onto SPA’s latest movie, which is pretty early in the storyboard stage. The story team is small and super nice. They leave their office doors open and allow me to drag them away for feedback whenever I need it. I won’t lie, when I first started I had no clue what the heck I should be doing. But I did my best anyway, studying model sheets and sketching ideas to get to know the characters and the story. Jack comes by occasionally to give me the thumbs up, and say, “Hey, wanna see what I’m working on?”

Of course I do! So I’d go next door to his office… where he pretty much had the whole friggin’ movie boarded. Seriously, Jack?

Lesson #1: I have a lot to learn about being an artist.

I saw SPA’s talent at work in March, when they put on a storyboarding workshop for Ringling. We were blown away by how fast Jack could lay down a detailed storyboard panel, in dynamic perspective, full of action. In just a few seconds he whipped out a whole sequence of Spider-man (he boarded for Spider-man 2). These are guys who have been drawing 40 hours a week for 5+ years… and here’s little old me, who has drawn for fun up till now.

After seeing Jack’s work, I sat down at my desk, stared at the Cintiq screen, and thought: “I need to draw faster.”

And it actually helped. The next day my whole approach changed. I shrank the image window and forced myself to focus on full body gestures so I wouldn’t get caught up in details. I tried to get back to how I’d begun drawing at the end of last semester – after weeks of gesture classes and redrawing storyboards for thesis. By Friday I’d begun to loosen up.

Which was perfect timing, because we had a pitch meeting. My very first professional pitch.

I even had my own work to show to the producer. Oh crap.

But it helped that my team has been so friendly and accommodating. They are all pretty casual and have off-beat senses of humor (which you’ll all get to see when Cloudy hits the theaters). We’ve gone out to lunch a few times, and I get to talk to them away from work, on a more personal level.

Lesson #2: L.A. is totally worth visiting, just for the food.


Mmmm… Korean BBQ….

Between work and several excursions out with friends, I’ve eaten out nearly once a day and never at the same place. And almost always never at a national chain – some are places I’ve seen on TV or read about in news articles, but have never had access to.

But I’ve yet to try In-n-Out Burger. Maybe this week.

Posted in Sony, animation | 5 Comments

An update from the little old lady from Pasadena!

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Nilah

Over the last few days, my mom has taken every opportunity during our many phone calls to remind me of how long I’ve wanted to move out to California. I’m just going to trust her memory on that – hell, I know I’ve been obsessed with working in the film industry since I was a teenager. But amusingly enough, I had just started to wean myself of the idea. Oh, I wouldn’t like it in L.A. Too big, too flashy. I’m a small-town girl. And these days animation studios are springing up everywhere – why go to L.A.?

And, surprise surprise, here I am.

I arrived after a very smooth five-hour Airtran flight on Thursday – the only blemish was a trio of men who couldn’t sit still behind me and disrupted my every attempt to sleep my way to our destination. No matter, the flight was over quick enough and I was on my way into the city! And dammit, what a big city it is. I feel lost and confused… and envious of everyone who has reserved parking. Street parking around here is no fun. At least I’ll be rid of the rental in a few days.

All in all, it’s rather a surreal experience to be in a city I’ve dreamt of living in all my life, but have never once set foot into until now. The place where some of my favorite films and TV shows were conceived.

I’m subletting a friend’s apartment (she’ll be graduating from UCLA at the end of the week), just ten minutes from Sony. And my internship officially starts in ten hours. Mostly I’m trying not to think too much about it. The first week at a new job is always the scariest, when you’re trying to learn the ropes and hoping your coworkers don’t discover you’re a moron. :p No clue what I’ll be doing yet, but I’m sure it’ll be fun!

And hopefully within the next coupla weeks I’ll get a hold of my camera cable so I can start posting some pictures.

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