Every now and then, we’ll catch her knocking something around the apartment or chasing after Keymaster but it doesn’t happen very often.

Introduce catnip into the equation and it’s a pretty different story. She gets all nuts and her pupils get really huge and she just gets REALLY into whatever she’s doing.

When I brought that cardboard scratcher home, after rubbing herself on it for a good while, she then spent about 30 minute licking the exact same spot on it. She managed to put a pretty good dent into it from all the licking.

And yes, that’s Parappa the Rapper in the background!

So what is it about catnip that makes most cats go nuts? Well, here’s a Wikipedia article on Nepeta, the class of plants that is generally called catnip.

“nepeta pleasantly stimulates cats’ pheromonic receptors, typically resulting in temporary euphoria.”

“Catnip has nepetalactone, a terpene… the nepetalactone binds to one or more olfactory receptors where it probably mimics a cat pheromone”

This was actually really exciting to make. I like the way it turned out and I think it does a great job at letting people know where I’m at in after effects.

I got to hang out with them for a good bit today and I took some video to show everyone how they’re doing and what they look like as of now.

The video is a little over 4 minutes long..which some people might consider too long to just look at kittens. But then again, some people are freaks who obviously don’t know how freakin’ cute kittens are!

I wish I could work at College Humor

I made this one purely to be put into my senior show up on the projector that I’ll be able to use for the duration of the exhibition. I kind of see it being a replacement for my artists’s statement as it pretty much sums up what I would say..only it does it in motion and visuals.

I did some pretty heavy effects on this one and learned great deal about the inner workings of After Effects (yet there is still so much more to learn…). It also felt good to create one of these again. I haven’t done anything involving motion graphics since i worked on the DVD for my independent study last November. I could definitely tell I was a little rusty.

Well, anyways, without further adieu, here it is! (don’t forget to view it fullscreen!)

For digital photography, we were supposed to do an assignment where we touched up a photo. It was supposed to me something like removing blemishes or making someone look younger but i decided that I wanted to make someone look old/uglier instead.

I used Alec and the result is pretty scary, if you ask me. He looks like he smoked about 30 packs a day and quite possibly spent too many years abusing hordes of substances.

Goose skewered me!

One night I was playing with goose while I was laying in bed. I couldn’t sleep so it was like 4:30 in the morning and I guess I got a little too rough with him cause one of his claws got completely stuck in my skin after he pierced the crap out of it. It surprisingly didn’t bleed that much but I got 2 cool pictures from it.

2 new posters!

These next 2 posters for this semester’s independent study were done in the style of Futurism. I chose to emulate 2 different styles from 2 different artists. The first artist is Filippo Marinetti, a Futurist artist who basically started the Futurist movement. Many of his works are done in a collage format utilizing type as his main imagery. They don’t always spell things out, sometimes he just concentrates on the letterforms to create movement and composition.

Song is: 5 to 4 – Kraak and Smaak

The second poster is done in the style of Fortunato Depero, a Futurist painter and graphic designer from Italy. His work can be noted by his use of basic shapes and flat colors. This poster mainly emulates his Vanity Fair cover from 1930.

Song is: Spilled Milk – Magic Bullets

This is for JP

JP requests and JP shall receive!

Oh yeah. One more thing

LOOK AT THIS GIANT BURGER I MADE LAST NIGHT!

So it’s really 2009 already, huh? It’s kind of hard to believe that a whole year has already gone by. Then again, it feels like that every year when you think about it. “whoa, I can’t believe it’s been a year!”…but really take the time to just think about 2008. A lot happened, didn’t it?

In a way, I’m really glad to see 2008 go. I’ve had some amazing things come out of 2008 and I’ve learned an immense amount of things. I wouldn’t go back and do it any differently but my overall feeling on the year is “meh“. 2008 feels like one of my least favorite years…if you could even begin to have some sort of rating system.

Good Riddance? Not quite but I can’t say that I was content or happy more than I was busy or stressed or depressed, etc. That all comes with growing and learning things about yourself, though.

2009 is going to be a really big year for me. I’m graduating and I have no idea what’s going to happen after that. I don’t know what I want to do or where I’m going to end up but I can say right now that I know I don’t want to leave what I have here in Savannah.

In addition to graduation I’m going to continue to expand my skills in graphic design. I’m doing another independent study this semester and I’m also going to do my best to give myself more motion graphics projects to keep myself learning new techniques.

I also bought and electronic drum kit a little less than a week ago.

We’ve been having our LAN party so I haven’t been able to really sit down with it for more than 10 minutes at a time but I really plan on learning how to use it proper. I really want to commit to it and I’ve downloaded a heap of lesson sets that go from absolute beginner to advanced techniques in all styles. Hopefully this time next year I’ll have something to show for it.

So, to all of you, I hope your 2009 is a really good one filled with things and experiences you’ll remember forever. Don’t ever be quick to dismiss memories…

Here’s to 2009

This one focuses on Marcus and his ability to make pretty much anything and also centers a bit on his totally awesome moustache.

It’s been a hell of a ride with this Study and with the semester coming to a close, I feel incredibly fulfilled… exhausted, but fulfilled.

I still have to animate all the menus for the DVD but I have ideas in the pipes and it shouldn’t take too long. It’s going to be great. Once I complete it, I’ll put an .ISO up here for anybody to download and burn to enjoy on their own DVD players.

anyways, I hope you guys have enjoyed watching them as much as I’ve enjoyed making them.

After messing around a bit and brainstorming techniques, I came up with this short test. Keep in mind that the subject matter is totally random and it in no way reflects the DVD or the independent study

The idea is a bunch of paper with moving sketches on it. All the text on each menu screen will b handwritten and animated by me and I’ll overlay a picture of each person involved in the study as it pertains to each menu screen. I have visions of what it’s going to look like and they’re awesome.

Stay tuned for Marcus’s. I plan to knock it out this weekend.

This project I decided to do something a little different. Up until now, all of my study projects have told a story in some form or fashion…in a very comic strip kind o f way.

This project centers on Alex and, being the audiophile that he is , I figured the best way to do that would be through a music video type animation. Instead of telling a story, I tried to come up with clever ways to sync animation to audio.

The song is “Shut Up and Let Me Go” by The Ting Tings.

Am I happy with the end result? Yes. Do I think I could have done it better? Definitely. It wasn’t a lack of trying or anything. I just did something new…something I had no experience with and I just need to build up on those skills

All that’s left is Marcus and then DVD-portfolio creation. These are going to take some time so it’s not over yet!