Third week in and another project to help with. After I was done with the hands, I asked Trish, the animator I was assisting with the hand-drawing animation, if there was anything else I could help with. She told me to speak to another animator in the other room because it was a project that was due soon.

The product is called Virtual DJ and it was the next project I was assigned to. I was to assist in drawing some of the assets for the project. It wasn’t much and luckily the person I was helping had set up a folder full of image references. I was able to do two versions of a disco ball, a crowd, a dual turntable and a digital mixer. Sadly the turntable and crowd were scrapped and replaced with someone elses as they suddenly found out the way they were going about a certain scene of the project was too time consuming for the allotted time they had left. They did use my disco ball and digital mixer which made me happy. They had nothing else for me to do so I went to go bother one of the producers.

The closest one to reach was Spencer because he was in the section of the studio I was already in and the other two producers were in the other. It was the end of the week and before I left for the day I had asked if he had anything for me to do since the previous group didn’t need my help anymore. He told me that he didn’t have anything in mind right now but to see him when I come back next week to see if he had anything then.

Second week at the internship and I’m still learning how things work around here. I was able to fix the text of the first project they assigned to me. I forgot what it was for but I do remember it was an informative ad for an internet provider and how their internet speeds compared to AT&T apparently since it was the logo they were using to represent the rival service provider. I’ve went to speak to Steve about and and he gave it an ok.

Next they put me on animating a drawing hand. It is a series of images of someone’s hand pretending to draw so it would give the illusion of something being drawn in if it was being done in a project. It was two projects, both for HGTV, a home decor network. One was how to set up a bed in a similar fashion to a fancy hotel and the other was who to set up a high class restaurant worthy dinner table. All I had to do was move the hand correctly following the drawn line to make it look like the hand was drawing it with was fun to do and watch.

I asked Steve if I were to finish a task he assigned, should I go directly to him to ask about other things to do or should I go around and ask if the other animators needed assistance myself because I know he was very busy with other things. He told me I can speak to the producers who were Paul, Brian and Spencer. In the end he stuck me with Spencer and said if he didn’t have work for me that I should go ask the other producers if anyone of them were in charge of a project they needed an extra hand in.

I am finally in! Internship here I come! Well, the director, Steve Day, told me I can stop by to introduce myself and see how things work on the first day. I did, and well, he wasn’t in, nor was the manager, Debbie, whom was the next person I should have had to talk to according to a guy named Paul who was the first person I talked to in the studio.

The studio was in an old renovated building with a neat clocktower on it. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work, but it is nice to look at considering I like mechanical clocks and such. They are located on the 3rd floor with several other companies. The Whiteboard Animation Studio took up two rooms which were connected on the inside with each section having a regular entrance of their own. The place was sort of cluttered with wires, drawings of various things pinned to the walls nearly covering up all of the wall, mismatched tables, seats and computers. I was expecting some kind of continuity but it’s not that important.They also had shelves filled with not only technical equipment but also model figurines of things from movies and hobby trains. They even had a Nerf gun.

So it was a quick five minute meet and greet with Paul before I have to leave for class. The next day I hope Steve or Debbie were there so they can show me the ropes and get me started on something. I was really excited. The next day Steve showed me to the area and sat me down at a table while introducing me to one of the animators. He put me to tweak a small part of an After Effects video which was to enlarge some text and make it stay on the screen longer than it was. It was quite simple to do, but it was annoying to work with the program since you had to pre-render it in order to watch the video with sound and the correct frame rate. You had to do this every time you adjust something then want to watch it again.

I have finally gotten a response back from a company! I’m very excited and happy, but I’m not in the clear yet. They only have responded, not accepted. It is Whiteboard Animation Studio in Brooklyn just about three blocks away from New York City College of Technology so it isn’t ridiculously far to get to. I’m not officially in yet but I hope I will get it. The email consists of brief information on what I will be doing and what is expected of me. I told them I was really interested and that I am eager and willing.

Another email later, they asked me to see some of my work on a Vimeo video. They wanted to see any flash animations, After Effects work and 3D animations I  have done. Although I told them I am currently learning the basics of Maya, a 3D program, I said I did have greater knowledge in another 3D program called Blender. They told me if I were to work with 3D it would be Maya but they agreed to look at my Blender work anyway. So I compiled a video of some of the types of work they wanted to see and sent them the link.

Now I must sit and wait for them to reply back once again to see if I got the spot. I hope they respond real soon as I initially emailed them in October and had no response so I emailed them again in the beginning of March and twenty days later I finally received a response back.

It is now the eighth week in and I still have yet to hear back from any companies I inquired about internships for. I know I still have time to make it up but the time to do so is slowly running out.If I don’t hear back soon, I will have to take the internship class again with hopefully one ready then.

Since I have nothing to write about for an internship experiance yet, we were suppose to read an article from The New Yorker, “GROUPTHINK: The brainstorming myth” by Jonah Lehrer. It explains how we think brainstorming is greatly effective but it really isn’t. Although brainstorming with a group of people is suppose to help bring a collection of ideas out for a single topic. But this is a flawed practice as some people in such brainstorming groups are afraid to have their ideas ripped apart and criticised by the others and no one like the feeling of being rejected somehow so participating members second guess their ideas and just hold them back and choose to nat say them at all limiting the potential of a possible good idea or an idea that others can bounce off of the improve. I know this feeling as I worked in groups in classes I tend to just reflect off others rather giving my own original input as I am afraid to hear someone laugh and say it was a stupid thought.

It is the seventh week, and nothing much to say about my internship. I am still hoping for the best. I am determined to get into one of these companies.

In the Rules of Thumb, I had to read a short instructional called “Apostrophes.” It was just explaining the differences of using -s, -es, -‘s, and -s’. Also when making contractions, a single word made up of two words that are used for the same purpose. For example, “you are” to “you’re”. You only use -s and -es when you make something plural or make a verb into it’s present tense. When something is being possessive you use the -‘s like “The dog’s food” and “Dave’s hat”. I used to have trouble figuring out which “it’s” or “its” to use. But now I know, “it’s” is for “it is” and “its” is possessive.

I am not sure what else to say. I am adding, removing, fixing, mixing new artwork into my portfolio. I draw at least one piece once a day or just experiment with different drawing techniques. It is what I do when I see fit. Sometimes, but very rarely, put my drawings as top priority before anything else which is bad to do sometimes as I might have something really important to do but then my urge to draw makes me procrastinate. I do not do it often but it makes things a bit hard when I do.

It is the sixth week, and again nothing. I am still resending emails, recontacting the companies, and hoping for the best. I am determined to get in.

This time in the Rules of Thumb, we were to read “Abbreviations.” This one was new for me. Although I already knew about abbreviating names and titles, I did not know that numbers follow this rule as much. For example, if a number were to be written and it was only two words or less, you have to write or type out the words rather than the number itself. If a number requires more than two words, you can just simple write the number. Unless you are doing math, then you write everything as numbers.

Another article we needed to read in The New Yorker was “Social Animal” by David Brooks. It was about how people interact and think with one another. How their mindset and what they like can affect how they live their lives and how they effect others around them. How one person dresses and/or looks can help or hinder him or her in life. It also begins when we are babies, how we were raised. We can go even further back and say it begins with our parents and how they were raised, so on and so forth. It’s a big long chain of events that let up to where we are today. What our ancestors did then, set up what we have today and what we do today will set up what our future generation will be living in.

Fifth week in, and still nothing. I am not giving up hope I have recontacted the companies, crossing my fingers and looking for new ones. I will not let myself down!

Another must read in the lesson of writing was “Capitalization” from Rules of Thumb. This one was a no brainer for me. You only capitalize a word if it is a name of some sort. Titles and names. Title of a book, class, position. Name of a person, place or thing. Plus it does get annoying when someone capitalizes every word when they are writing a normal message, more annoying, everything is in capitals.

another article we needed to read in The New Yorker was “Gross Domestic Freebie” by James Surowiecki. It started talking about Twitter and it’s millions of users and how it was used on a daily base, then suddenly it mentions an interesting point. Twitter is absolutely free. And because of it, it technically has no value. Then the article begins to mention how there are many other digital services that are used free daily and it’s users continue to frequent it. Economists say that it is hard to put a value on such services because, though a vast amount of users use it, it has no fee. No revenue. “The basic assumption is simple: the more stuff we’re producing for sale, the better off we are. In the industrial age, this was a reasonable assumption, but in the digital economy that picture gets a lot fuzzier, since so much of what’s being produced is available free.” Although, any user would despise it, if we started paying for these services, it’d boost the economy. Adding value to the service. It’s a delicate balance the provider needs to make.

It is now the fourth week, and still nothing. Again, I have emailed the companies to let them know I am very interested. I’m still looking around!

Along side this journal, we were to read “Spelling” from Rules of Thumb. It explains how words can sometimes be misspelled because of how we are used to pronouncing them. Or even because of how the English language is a bit odd. An example is the rule, “I” before “E” except after “C.” Words like “believe” and “deceive” follow that rule most do, but words like “weird” and “foreign” do not. I find it hard to misspell the majority of these things because I was taught to write it that way.

I was also suppose to read was an article in The New Yorker called “Creation Myth” by Malcolm Gladwell. It was not only about how Apple came to be but also who an ambitions person jumped onto an idea that was being toyed with privately and exposed it to the world publicly, changing the world with the idea greatly over time once the idea became a reality. Xerox had these computers they used to transfer information within the company. Steve Jobs wanted to take the idea and make it popular. He was the one that set the pavement for personal computers. Making them user friendly, cheaper and more affordable enabling more people to have access to them rather than just big corporations. I want to be like that. I want to take a good idea and make it an astounding reality for others.

Another week, and still haven’t heard any good news from the companies about internships, but I’m not giving up. I have emailed them again to let them know I am willing and serious about participating. Although my number of possibilities decreased a bit due to some of them responding back saying they are already filled or don’t have an internship program. I’m still searching!

In the mean time, I had to read some things one being “Commonly Confused Words” from Rules of Thumb. It was just a list of words side by side with the words they get confused with along with their definition and how it would be used in a sentence. I have slight dyslexia and one would think I’d make these mistakes often and not notice, but that’s not true. It is a reason why I read and write slower than average. I tend to reread things 4 to 5 times making sure I’m reading things correctly or written things grammatically right. I can understand why some of these words can be mistaken by others, but the rest baffles me. For instance, no, know, new and knew. I have seen those mistakes before and they were by someone I knew who was born and raised in the U.S. with English as their first language. Could it just be laziness by not bothering to type in another one or two letters or do they really not know?

Another thing I read was an article in The New Yorker called “Later” by James Surowiecki. It was explaining how procrastinating was part of human nature since the beginning but as years go by and humans flourish  it began to come with an undesirable price of anxiety. For instance, every year,  people waste hundreds of millions of dollars because they don’t file their taxes on time, hurting the economy and themselves. It says we can beat procrastination by just trying harder and doing things when we say we plan on doing them. I’ll admit, I procrastinate, but only to things I know I can pull off at the end. If it is something extremely important, I’ll force myself to do it as soon as possible so I won’t have to worry about it last minute.