An Overwhelming Last Few Months

 Hey everyone. Jonathan Yip on the line here writing before I hit the hay for the night. These last 2 months have been a rollercoaster ride, with its ups and downs. 

    Earlier this month, I participated in the worldwide 24-Hour Animation Contest for students. In this annual contest, you get into teams of 5 and create a 30-second film within 24 hours based on the theme given. With most teams staying up the entire 24 hours straight with little to no sleep, it is very intensive, kind of like a very rushed animated film at the end, but on the bright side, one can make everlasting connections with potential future studio co-workers and gain experience working with other animators. Unfortunately, as a result of staying up basically all night but 2 hours, I got a major headache towards the end of the contest.  Now, participating in this contest for 3 straight years, with myself not feeling very well after the last 2 contests, I am starting to question the worth of doing 24 hours every year. Yes, I have met so many hard-working and friendly artists and animators along the way and received the experience of working in a team. But is this worth sacrificing my health, especially having a need for more sleep due to my special needs, especially that this lack of sleep gave me a major headache that took at least 2 days to fully recover? After asking myself these questions, most likely, as a result of my need for 9+ hours of sleep daily to function well the next day, participating in this contest for 3 consecutive years, most likely, I will probably skip out on 24 Hours next year. Anyway, my team, this year put in a lot of hard work and thought into the creation of this film on COVID, our theme for year's 24 Hour Contest. I helped out with some of the animation and character sketches. A big thank you to everyone on my team for our hard work and to everyone, including Aubry and the CSULB faculty, who made this contest possible. This is our film we made together: 

Many of my peers on Discord like to talk about their favorite popular games they play and all of that. People have asked me if I play games like Roblox or Minecraft. I feel awkward often when I tell them I'm not too big of a fan of most video games, that I don't have time to play video games, and would rather spend my time drawing and planning for my future. Honestly, unlike most people, I tend to not follow popular trends. As a kid growing up with autism and other learning challenges, I'm also not the type of person that needs to fit in with the status quo. Growing up, I have been made fun of for not fitting in and having significantly different interests. While many people live in the moment, I live for tomorrow and the future, always dreaming about what my future will look like and worrying about the potential obstacles or downsides I could be facing soon. 

That being said, I have also been doing a lot of sketching in my free time. I love to sketch animals and am thinking of more anthropomorphic characters to bring to life in the future. Here are some of my recent works:

Also, allergies have been a concern on my end lately, Growing up with allergies is a unique experience. On the dark side, I can't eat certain foods like peanuts and cow's milk, which drastically limits the number of foods I can eat and limits the number of places I can travel to. On the bright side, it made me very aware to look at the ingredients on a food package insert and to always tell others around me about my food allergies. My allergies have gotten better in recent years, I can now eat eggs and certain tree nuts. I participated in the Stanford Peanut Trial back in late-11th grade and am now ingesting 1 peanut every day. However, I still do get minor reactions from time to time, such as an itchy tongue. Usually, right after I ingest my peanut for the day, I rush to eat my regular dinner food to flush the peanut down to avoid any major reaction to the peanut.

Also as a result of COVID, I have been staying with my parents up in the Bay Area for the past few months. I usually go on night walks with them every night. What's unusual is that during certain night walks, I would come back to my parent's house having an allergic reaction, usually with a very itchy throat. Even more unusual, I have only had these reactions in the Bay Area. I have noticed these minor reactions happen spontaneously several times in high school before I left the Bay Area to pursue my dreams at CSULB, and also during the times I visited them up in the Bay Area, like the reaction a few days ago. I've never witnessed a reaction like this walking during the night back home in Los Feliz/Silverlake or at school in Long Beach. 

A friend of mine from CSULB who travels to the Bay Area often to visit family has environmental allergies as well and told me his allergies are worst in the Bay Area than they are back in Southern California. I am definitely feeling the same way right now, noticing this with my nose a lot the past 2 years, especially during the winter in the Bay Area, and now with the occasional reactions after night walks. Winters in the Bay Area are literally freezing cold most of the time that I have to wear at least 2 jackets with a beanie and a scarf. This is what a lot of times, causes my nose to get very stuffy. As with the walks, my parents and I are thinking that it may be due to the specific trees and the increased number of trees overall around Redwood Shores and the Bay Area. I'm praying that we find answers soon with my allergist tomorrow.

Anyway, that is all I have for now! Hope you guys are all having a wonderful week! Stay tuned for more animation and life posts, coming soon.

First Blog in A Long While, My First Two Years at CSULB, Where I am in Times of COVID

 Hey everyone. I have been very busy for the last year or two that I didn't have the time to post. 

Life has been really tough lately. I am currently stuck up north at my parent's house in the SF Bay Area due to the COVID pandemic and online classes. 

So far, before COVID struck us all, CSULB has been a fantastic experience. I finally got to meet my first actual friends and be part of several actual friends groups where we all met outside of our classes. Working in the art and animation studios on campus, I got to experience what studio life was like in terms of the equipment we used. I am blessed to have had several fantastic professors and mentors, especially Marian, Alex, and Tom. All of my professors have helped me a lot by giving me very helpful tips to create better drawings, characters, and animation. 

Marian was very special. She is very strict and upfront about every drawing she critiques. I didn't really like her after the first 2 or 3 classes. But as I continued moving forward on my drawings and always going to get help during her office hours, I realized that she was a professor who really cared about her students and did everything she could to make sure they succeed.  From her, I picked up a lot of new techniques and tips to becoming a better draftsman that I didn't know before I came into CSULB, especially tips to make clear, crisp, clean lines. Without her, I probably wouldn't have been able to succeed in my animation and painting classes today.

Alex, one of my current mentors I met through the SoSIA, the animation club on campus, worked in the industry for over 30 years, including 25+ years at the Walt Disney Studios as an animator and as a clean-up lead. He further helped me to strengthen my timing and drawings through showing me new approaches, like straights against curves and cleanup tips, and telling me more about the artistic lifestyle in the industry. Like Marian, he is very upfront about every critique he gives and really cares about everyone he works with. His animation workshop so far has helped me to strengthen my timing, my animation skills, and to keep my drawings more consistent with one another when animating. One tip from him I will always cherish is this: "Remember to FLIP and FLIP OFTEN." 

Tom, my Animation 1 professor, also has many years of industry experience at Warner Bros. He really encouraged me to have fun with animation and to cherish every moment of it. He also inspired me to appreciate traditional hand-drawn animation more and the natural organic movements that come with the form. With his class, I developed my sense of timing, began to separate my timings, and really push my squash-and-stretch. I can't wait to have him again for Animation 2 once we return to campus! Here's my final animation for his class I did last May:

I am also very grateful to have joined SoSIA (Society of Student Illustrators and Animators), the illustration/animation club on campus. Being a part of SoSIA, I made new friends with many other animators and those who shared similar interests. Together, we worked together on the 24 Hour Animation Contest and went to the CTN Expo in Burbank. I met many professionals who are currently working in the industry and some who have worked in traditional animation studios in the past, including my current mentor and the animation workshop I'm a part of back in Burbank. 

As a club, we also had our first art gallery this spring, where we all drew our own versions of a character we came up with as a club. It was a great experience working with many others in the art gallery for the first time because we all got to bring our ideas and techniques to the table with Aisos.

    Ever since COVID kicked in and ever since classes switched online, school and life have not been the same. My animation and perspective classes were especially different, with basically fewer critiques, fewer connections with other students, and loss of access to studio equipment. It was also much more difficult to get in contact with all my professors since we weren't seeing each other in-person. I also really discovered that learning for me is much more effective in person than online and that communication with my professors is key, especially growing up as a special needs kid. Being stuck at my parents' house, it feels much more like community college 2.0 than an actual university. 

COVID has changed my life a lot.

    On the dark side, it has made me very homesick. Being away from home in Hollywood/Burbank for around almost 5 months now, I am really missing the diversity that L.A. has to offer, life in the artistic communities of Los Feliz and Silverlake, walking in Griffith Park, going shopping at the Americana, and every trip up to the animation workshop and the studios in Burbank. 

   

    I also really miss seeing people every day, especially those I am really close to. Miss going to CTN and other animation festivals together. Just remembering all those good memories I made with my friends.

    On the bright side, with COVID putting me stuck indoors at my parents' house most of the day, I have been able to focus a lot more on my art and animation, getting more acquainted with ToonBoom Harmony, the industry-standard 2D animation software, as well as the hand-drawn animation process. I have also been able to connect with others virtually during the Riseup Disney Animation week. I have also become more self-aware and am praying more often.

    Now that Fall is online, I am taking only 2 GE classes this Fall, waiting for CSULB to resume in-person classes or at least open the art studios on campus, before taking any more studio classes. With animation usually being a 5-year program, graduation has been postponed to 2024 at the earliest. During my free time, I will continue to do more sketching and work more on my personal animated clips, as well as with the animation workshop. 

While I am praying for COVID to end soon, the best I feel I can do is to not give up, continue to work hard in animation, have faith in myself and my dreams, and to continue to pray and build my relationship with God.

Anyway, that is it for now. Thank you to everyone who have been kind and supportive the last few years. Stay tuned for future posts. Feel free to comment or contact me with any shout outs or questions. Stay tuned for my art pieces on my Instagram @yipanimation_55.