Designing and animating!

Hey everybody! Well, probably by now the only person who's reading the blog is my mom. Can always count on ya mom!
It is COLD up here in Portland man! Seriously, snow and everything, and then rain, and then snow, and then ummm, rain. It was crazy this morning coming out of the hotel, there was a thick thick fog out but the sun was shinning through it intensely. It was blinding and beautful--
It really has been a great experience up here so far. Tough, but good. There is a ton of talent working on this film (Coraline). I kinda feel like eventually someones gonna find out I've been faking it this whole time. I'm really out of my comfort zone, which has been so healthy for me. I have been animating yes, but really focusing on design. Like, way more than I've ever been given the opportunaty to. Oh yeah, before you ask the drawing at the top is just one of my own, not from Coraline. So I feel as though design is beginning to click with me in a way that it never has before. Animation has always seemed natural to my thought process, and drawing has always been fun, but design is definately a learned discipline for me. The more i animate though the more i realize that you have been at least understand everything, if not be great at everything. Some might think that's dumb, i know i used too, but my favorite guys are very well rounded artists. Art/Animation is cyclical, everything influences and informs everything else. The better you know design, the better your poses will be. The better you understand locomotion the more you'll understand what your design needs to be able to do. The better you understand story the better character related questions you'll be able to ask before you start a shot. So i am really enjoying it and like i said learning tons!
The film looks gorgeous! It's a stop motion film but it feels very graphic and flat. They really are going through a lot to maintain that graphic feeling of a drawing. It's very beautiful. They are going to be doing some stuff that you will have never ever seen before in stop motion. I can't talk about them, but you will be stunned when you see it. The story has a lot of potential too, still very much in the works though.
Have an awesome Christmas and rad New Year everyone, thanks for stopping by... Mom.