My Two Cents

Lookie! New stuff in the sidebar!

(If you’re reading this in a feed reader, head on over here and take a peek.)

I’m starting a little club.

The Storyboard Club.

At this point, it’s just a free mailing list. But it will turn into more.

With this list, I will occasionally keep in touch with you by email. I might send out a monthly ‘blog round-up’ of the month’s posts with some extra insights. Or a newsletter-ish thingy. Or give you a link to something cool I won’t necessarily post on the blog.

When I make an eBook or host a webinar, you will hear about it first. And you will get it for less money than the general public. First dibs, baby.

Because when you’re part of my ‘club’, you’re all special and stuff.

If this appeals to you at all, I’d love you to sign up!

To top it off, you get a cool free thing when you do. A big ol’ Storyboard Template Pack and Short Film Tip Sheet.

If you like the free templates I already offer, you will love this thing. Head on over to the Download Page for all the juicy details.

Read moreA Few Announcements and Processing the Process

© 2009 Laika Entertainment.

I took my little ten year-old companion to see ‘Coraline‘ last weekend.

So why not give my two cents about it? (Plus, I didn’t know what else to write about this week.)

Much like my little review of ‘Igor‘, I won’t be going the normal ‘movie review’ route. As in, no story synopsis and naming all the people involved and all that. You can search that stuff on Google.

I prefer to talk about the experience of seeing the movie. First impressions. My impressions. Story stuff.

But not give it all away or anything.

I have not read the book or the graphic novel. I went in cold with no expectations.

And I have only seen it once. When I watch a movie for the first time, I’m all in ‘viewer mode’ and not thinking too much like a storyboard artist or industry person. I like to let that go and just watch.

And hopefully enjoy.

I enjoyed.

While I can name a whole whack of things that stink about going to a matinee full of kids with a kid, sometimes it’s a delight.

This time was a delight. Yippee.

Read moreThe ‘Coraline’ Effect

Whoa! What happened here?

We interrupt the Feature Favorites posts to bring you this important announcement:

Today my little storyboard blog turns one year old. Yay!

So it got a make-over and a face-lift. (It will soon buy a Porche and start dating younger men.)

Now things aren’t perfect. I’ve already found some stuff I need to tweak, so it’s still a work in progress. (In other words…Gaa! I don’t know how to fix it!!!)

Like as I write this, the whole site has shrunk from my test version, so the type (and everything!) is smaller than it should be. I don’t know what that’s all about. *pulls on hair* (Update: OK, that’s fixed. I was just a techno-idiot. Many thanks to Nathan. )

But I’ll give you a few highlights to show you around.

As you can see, the banner at the top is basically the same (and click-able). I didn’t want to totally disorient you. But the page navigation is under the banner and there are a few sub headers as well. Do a little hovering and you’ll see them.

One big change is that the sidebar links now are in the Resources page. It’s got cool tabs and I’ll be adding to them as time goes on. You can contact me for any link suggestions. I welcome it!

And one of the biggest changes is the Work With Karen page. I am offering storyboard mentoring and visual story consulting services now. Wee! I just have some primary information right now, but rates and much more information about the services are coming very soon.

Read moreIs Blogiversary Even A Word?

Remember ‘Hell Week‘?

That was when I was up to my ears with storyboard work and barely had time to breath.

Ahh, the memories.

I would post some links to some other cool stuff because I had no time to write. It’s good to spread some link love once in a while (that’s from Blogging 101) so I think I’m due.

I’m still an unemployed bum at the moment, so there is no ‘Hell Week’. I am busy doing stuff for myself, not for money. In due time, in due time.

But read this first.

Read moreSome Non-Hell Week Links

Well, it has become evident to me that writing posts about storyboard labeling does not incite much dialogue in the comment department.

See? Told you it was boring stuff.

Good thing that’s over with.

So I shall move on to what I do best, though not often enough: sarcasm.

During my stint as an animation student and as an instructor, I came across many interesting characters. And some I came across more than once. Call it a ‘type’. Call it a fluke. Whatever.

This is not a complete list, but here’s a summary of some of the various types of colorful animation students I have seen over the years. If you are in animation school now, see if you recognize any of them.

See if you *are* one of them.

And if you’re a former student of mine and think I’m talking about you…don’t flatter yourself. Guaranteed there was more than one of you over the years.

But…yeah, I might be talking about you.  So enjoy the limelight!

THE FAN-BOY

Much like ‘the keener’ below, they are super excited to be there because they love animation so damn much. They know all the shows, movies and games and are always asking you if you’ve “seen this one…” (uh, no I haven’t). They paste up tons of posters and have the biggest toy collection of anyone else in class.

And they probably can’t draw.

They don’t quite know the difference between being a fan and doing the job. They soon find out that the job isn’t quite as fun as being a fan. They may quit the program. Or they stick it out and never do anything with their education.

And end up working in a comic book shop.

THE KNOW-IT-ALL

These people probably have a lot of talent. With the ego to match.

And are irritating as all hell.

Read moreWhich Animation Student Are You?

UPDATE: This offer is now off the table. Many thanks to those who took me up on it.

I threw up that little banner on the side a few days ago and it led to a page with some info on it. I don’t think too many people checked it out because, well…it kinda looked like a nasty *ad* or something.

I was going to change it and then I got some major computer hullaballoo over the weekend (don’t even ask…but my external hard drive just paid for itself). So I’m changing it now and making it a real post.

But first, a technical notice: It has come to my attention (during my computer hullaballoo) that my blog is looking pretty wonky in Internet Explorer 6 (and maybe earlier). The right sidebar has decided to disappear to the very bottom of the blog and is being quite naughty.

All is well and good in Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 (at least for me). So if my blog looks screwy to you, what are you waiting for? Get Firefox already! It’s better, it’s free and has some really cool add-ons. And if you don’t want that, then update to Internet Explorer 7. Or stick with the wonky version. I’d go to the trouble of fixing it, but frankly I’m afraid of making it worse.

Plus I want to change the look of the blog soon, so I think it can wait.

Hope that’s cool. 🙂

On with my neat little offer!

Well at least I think it’s a neat offer.

For just the month of August, I am offering *free* visual story consulting to a certain number of people. (I just haven’t figured out quite how many that will be). I first want to see what kind of response I get.

If any.

Why? Why would I do that?

Read moreWant Some Free Story Consulting?