Project in Progress

Hello all. Here is a work in progress for my Editing class. Its an interview where Jake is pretending to be a firefighter who was denied an autograph by Richard Simmons. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff :)

Cardinal Creek Logo

Oh and here's a logo I designed for the rental company that Jake's mom works for.  She asked if I wanted to try my hand at it, and I said yes.  The development that it is for is Cardinal Creek Crossings. 

Finally! (I know, right?)

So, does Darah have time for anything anymore?  No, not really.  Haha.  But really, I've been very very busy lately.  No days off.  Its tiring to be a college student with classes, homework, a part time job and an attempt at a social life.  Sigh.  Enough for the self-pity and on to the blog.

So, the last major post I had was before I went to Chicago.  It seems like it was eons ago.  Let me reassure you though, it was fantastic.  A bunch of my friends and I went to the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.  We saw some great films and some decent films.  We saw how accessible it is for even us, mere students, to take the festival circuit by storm.  Jake and I are going to try to put together a short film during J-Term and the spring semester, and we would like to submit it to some festivals.  You can read more about our plans at Jake's blog. 

My favorite feature film from the festival (look at that alliteration!) was "Stella and the Star of the Orient," which was a German film about a curious girl named Stella who stepped through her closet into the same house 100 years earlier and meeting her grandmother, who was a child at the time.  They go on a quest to find a treasure to save their house.  It won Best of the Fest, which is an award voted on by children alone.  Kudos kinderfilm for a great piece.  Also, the entire film was put together for about $2 Million.  This is a lot of money, but in the entertainment industry, its chump change.  This means that filmmakers who make films inexpensively, are given more artistic freedom and the opportunities to make more films, because of the lesser risk and the lesser amount of return required.  Here is a shot from the movie:

My very favorite at the whole fest though, was one entitled "The Sparrow and the Boll" which was an Iranian film done in stop motion using only textiles.  Visually and narratively, the film was stunning.  It was all about helping others and the golden rule.  It was wonderful, simply wonderful.  Here is a shot from that film.

Okay, I've geeked out enough :)  On to other things.

In school right now I am building a robot in Maya for my 3D animation class.  Its turning out a lot cleaner than my snowman.  Its funny how much easier something comes once you've done it once. (Not that I'm good, just a little faster, haha) That will be my final project in this class.  I am also working on my final project for Animation II and my Storyboard class.  For Animation II we are making PSA's with the theme "Thank you For not Smoking."  I am going to leave you all in suspense for that, because I think it is turning out really well right now, and I want you guys to see the lovely finished project.  So, wait for it. It'll be good.  In my storyboard class we are putting together a professional storyboard with a story bible.  This means we will have all the actions worked out in the storyboard panels, all of the story written and the character designs and mock-ups done.  My story is about a guy who's mom died in an accidental shooting by a gang member.  He was a kid when it happened, so he was put in foster care, and is now grown and heading back to his old city to take it back and make it what it once was.  I'm digging it. :) 

So, Thanksgiving is just 9 days away, and I am excited to be spending it with Jake and his family.  Every other year they head to southern Illinois, where Jake's dad, Jim is from, and have Thanksgiving with Jim's family, none of whom I have met yet.  So, we'll see if they like me.  Haha.  Or as my Grammie Morin said earlier about the Thanksgiving situation, "Hey, what's not to love?" Amen.  That's what I'm talking about.  

So you all may be wondering when you get to know this Jake of fabled tales.  Well, my friends, the day nears.  Jake will be coming to Maine for the first week of our winter break to meet all of you.  So, be ready :)  We're both looking forward to coming to Maine and to see all of you!  If you would really like to spend time with Jake and I together, let me know, and I'll work out a time for us to meet.  He'll be available from the 12th to the 16th.  

Fun Fact: I am already listening to Christmas music.  All you Scrooge's out there can just deal with it :D

Okay.  Well that's all I've got for now.  Keep me in your prayers for the busy week ahead of me, and I'll see you all soon!

Love, Darah

A frog preview.

Here is a short promo for our frog animation. We are done shooting and are now in the post production stage. We hired some live-action students to do the editing, but for now, you can see what it was like to animate foam core frogs across campus.


Frog Animation from Ryan Barger on Vimeo.

Snowman Scene

I'm a beast.  Just so you know.

I designed everything in this scene.

Illustrations

Here are my submission for drawergeeksjr.blogspot.com under the themes "James Bond" and "Giant Monsters."  You can check out some sweet illustrations done by my friends and professors there too.  Enjoy!

3D Snowman

Oooo, multimedia

Hey All,

Here I am again. This time I come bearing gifts of multimedia delight. You can now see what my room looks like. (I was waiting until I got some pictures in to put up before I showed you all) I am also posting a Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog knockoff, coming from, you guessed it: my boyfriend Jake. Note: Jake does not have a shrunken head, a high pitched voice, nor does he moonlight as a boy band wanna-be. But he is a very funny guy, and that makes things super entertaining and super fun. That being said, laugh at it, because its funny. Also, check out Dr. Horrible's sing along blog, the real one that is. It is pretty hilarious. Its all the rage here at HU. Here is the link for that: http://www.drhorrible.com/

Also I am posting a sneak peek at a new stop motion movie called Coraline (and for those of you with name lists, I've already dibs-ed it. So don't even think about it. :) Coraline will be released in 3D in February. Get ready for it! Also, do not be disturbed by the image that shows up on the video window for the Coraline sneak peek. Its not some horror movie or something. Its just when she finds out this nice woman is actually a witch, and that's what she looks like as a witch. That doesn't give anything away, because it says it in the clip. Okay? Okay.

And while I'm at it, how about a quick update on the schooling, eh? Well, this new project in animation with the frogs that I told you all about, well, I think its deserves the world record for "Most Fun one can have with Foam Core." One of the frames (a singular image in an animation or live action film) is a picture of my frog stretched way out. This is done for a illusion effect to make it seem like he lands faster. Well anyway, in order to get the frame of my frog sitting to be larger than a hamster, I need to make this stretch image about 80 inches long. Yes, that is well over 6 feet in length, I am aware. It is going to be both insane and exhilirating animating these. Check back for more updates and pictures. :D

Okay, time for you all to be entertained. Here is your eye candy.

Love you guys!

Yep. If I had thought of it first, I would have done it. Either way, it shows we make a good pair, even if he does have a shrunken head. Haha

You know you want to see it

Colleen's space and Ol' Smokey (0ur couch) now prettified with IKEA pillows :D

My bed and the entrance

Bedspreads and leaves: IKEA.
Pretty much everything else in the room: also IKEA.
Did I mention that we love IKEA?










Big, giant leaf over Colleen's bed along with a "Be Kind Rewind" poster.














Colleen's Bed (Blue) My Bed (Magenta) We sectioned off our desks, dressers etc. so that we each had our own space. It works out nicely.
















Our door with my trivia fact of the week and a picture of Colleen and I from our vacation in West Virginia this summer.













My desk















My bookshelf, dresser, desk and decorations














Close-up of photo arrangement

Lookin' Good

Hey All,
As you can probably tell, I've updated my blog layout. Like it? Good. Here are some housekeeping things to keep in mind to make it easier to read and respond to this glorious update blog. First of all, you can now subscribe to my blog posts. There's a white button that says "Subscribe." This will work best for those of you who use google or yahoo as your homepage. (For all you iGoogle homepagers, like me, just make it a widget, its the coolest. It'll be bold when I've updated my blog.)
For those of you who think I just typed out something in a foreign language, we can also notify you. What you'll need to do is send me an email (darahmorin@gmail.com) and say that you want to be added to the list, and then I'll make sure that you get notified every time I post something.
Also, you can now send my blog posts to other people. Click the small envelope icon at the bottom of the blog post, and soon, Darah's update will reach them as well. This would be great to do if you know people who want to be in the loop, but are not on the email list.

Okay, we're done with that. I encourage you to check out my other blog (There is a link on the side of this page for it now) at darahcj.blogspot.com. This is my class blog and I put my comics up every week. I am especially pumped about this week's comic. It takes place at night, and I think the shading is spectacular if I do say so myself. Check it out.

Also, keep commenting and sending e-mails. Its super encouraging to me, and gives me some cool and fun things to read besides textbooks.

Well guys, that's all for now! I hope you're all having great lives right now!
Lovez.

Vote. The End.

Brain Leakage

Greetings friends.

I write to you nearly halfway through the fall semester of my junior year. Isn't it crazy to see how time flies. I'm sure most of you would have stories like "I remember when she was a young whippersnapper. Look at her now!" Yep. Its true. Many of you remember my younger years. Oh, memories. Sigh.

Let's start my update with academics. Classes are going well. I feel quite proud of my frog animation which you can see in the post just below this. The plan to have foam-core frogs jump around campus is still a go, and we are nearing the stage when we can begin to build them. I think that comes next week. Stay tuned for pictures and hopefully the animation :)

I am realizing that I am just not cut out for the 3D world. In my 3D animation class, I cannot seem to find a way to get my creative juices to leak out into my 3D models. The interface is not something that comes intuitively to me. That being said, my models are coming out a little basic, meeting requirements, but without frills. Maybe I'll post a picture of my 3D snowman when its done (assuming I'm not too embarrassed to show it...haha) This was a similar problem that I faced last semester in my 3D design class. I was incapable of making cubes that were both mathematically accurate and aesthetically pleasing. Least common denominator: 3D. I guess this girl has found her artistic achilles' heel. I guess I can't be good at everything. Haha.

My Storyboard class remains among my favorites. Keep checking out my comic journal for the class by clicking the link: http://www.darahcj.blogspot.com/

We have just finished a couple of weeks of very interesting chapel series on campus. Last week we had a Huntington alumna and her friend present their film on human trafficking, which as the film showed, is occurring both domestically and abroad. The talk was challenging, to see how girls even within the US are being kidnapped for use as sexual slaves and prostitutes. It was disgusting and heartbreaking. Their film "Branded" which was named for the dehumanizing practice where pimps brand their prostitutes to show ownership. They presented statistics that show that there are more women in sexual slavery today than there were plantation slaves in the US in the 18th and 19th centuries. It created a lot of discussion, but we felt a little hopeless, not knowing how we can help out, other than our prayers. The issue is being exposed, and this is making a difference, including creating rescue centers in areas like Phoenix where this is a growing problem. This was encouraging, and I continue to think of these women and girls.

This week, our speaker was a man by the name of Craig Gross. He is the founder of the website XXXChurch.com As a young pastor, Craig saw a problem with pornography, both within the church as well as in the mainstream culture. Before long people were noticing this radical ministry, and he and his team started getting invited to porn shows. They set up with their Bibles and just stood around and talked to people. They were open and told them they were pastors and that they loved the Lord, and believe it or not, people came over to their booth and talked to them. They brought Bibles, and quickly ran out. They weren't picketing outside, they were helping on the inside, getting to know the people and loving them the way Jesus loves them. I was inspired by this, not that I think I will end up helping out with XXXChurch or handing out Bibles at the porn shows, but I was inspired by a ministry that loves on people. He has met a lot of interesting people and has talked on a lot of topics. He is good friends with the man who started "To Write Love on Her Arms" which is an organization that was born out of an experience where the founder of that organization, Jamie, went to a concert with some of his friends and met this girl that was high on drugs. She went to the bathroom and came back with wounds, having cut herself. Jamie and his friends took her to a treatment facility and they said they couldn't take her in with open wounds and that they would have to bring her back in a few days. So for the next 5 days, Jamie and his friends took care of this girl, fed her and talked to her and listened to her story. When she cut herself, she carved a degrading word that someone had told her when she was younger. Jamie asked her if he could write a story about her. She agreed and he posted the story. The rest is history, Jamie started "To Write Love on Her Arms" as a non-profit that has resources for people who are depressed, suicidal and who are involved in self-injury. One of Craig's big points is that you don't have to be in a Billy Graham type ministry to make a difference, just show up. Be willing to be used by God to reach the unreachable. Learn to love like Jesus and share that with those who don't know what love is. Fix bikes for kids, adopt a compassion child. Just do something. And to that I say, Amen. As you can see, I get a lot out of chapel. :)

So, I recently got hired at the Eddie Bauer store in Fort Wayne. This is a little bittersweet for me. Its good for me to be earning money again, but I feel like the commute and the hours may not be the best fit for my schedule. Because of this, I am going to be applying at some places in Huntington to try to alleviate some of those troubles, while still earning money. If you guys would pray for me, that would be great.

Well, that's all the time we have, until next time, I'm Darah, and this is WILD AMERICA. Haha, bye guys.

A Couple Animations :)

Hey Everyone,

Here are a couple of animations I've done recently.  I hope you like them!

 Walk Sequence with Personality

 Frog Jump

Poor Jake

Here's a sad story about my boyfriend.

Jake and I had plans to hang out in his hometown this weekend and to go to the Johnny Appleseed festival in Fort Wayne. All these plans were changed today though. Jake and I were planning on leaving at 8:00am, so when I got a call early this morning, when I was still in bed, I thought it was him calling to make sure I didn't sleep through my alarm. I answered and said "Hey, what time is it?" and he said "Hey, oh, its early. I'm not feeling too good." and I thought, oh he must be cancelling the plans, okay. and then he continued, "I think I need to go the the hospital." Without question, I got dressed and told him I'd pick him up in 5 minutes. We drove to the hospital, and he told me that he just had felt really sick all night and thought it would be better to be safe than sorry. His parents met us there. Jake went in with his mom to get checked out. He texted me later to tell me that he needed bloodwork, and about 15 minutes later he sent another text to say that they ordered a CT scan and an x-ray. I started to get nervous. His mom came out and said the bloodwork said his white blood cell count was high and that they thought he might have appendicitis. The CT scan confirmed this, and they cancelled the x-ray and just moved ahead. They contacted the on-call surgeon who came in after about 4 hours. As soon as he was in it was a quick turnaround to get him into the OR. I was concerned. I didn't (and don't) want anything to happen to him. The procedure lasted about 50 minutes, and then it took a little while to help him recover from the anesthesia. When we first saw him, he was white as a ghost with bruised looking eyelids. He slept for the first time since he got up yesterday morning. While he was resting, Jake's dad, Jim, the twins and I went back to HU to get the things that we needed, since we both had to leave so fast this morning. When we got back, he was feeling a little more chipper but was still in a lot of pain, so they decided to keep him overnight. After we got back to the hospital, I wanted to be right there with him, so I pulled up a chair and sat with him all afternoon and up until I left tonight. It looks like he'll be down for about a week. Luckily his house is about 2 minutes away from the hospital, and he'll be able to recover there at home. Things are looking better now, but please pray that he heals well. Thanks everyone! I love you!

Remember, remember the... end of September

Hello All!

As usual, my week has been busy, but not too busy to keep you all updated. Like last time, I'll address some housekeeping stuff up front, and then we'll get to the good stuff. I heard that you all were unable to comment on the blog itself. Worry not, I fixed the problem. For inquiring minds, blogger automatically defaults to only allowing registered blogger users to comment, but I opened it up to the public (i.e., you) so that you all can just read and respond. Okay? Okay.


Alright, lets start with classes. After the first few weeks I am settling right back into my student routine, with some improvements with time management and organization (insert pat on back here.) Animation II has proven itself to be the hardest of my classes right now, because it is animation bootcamp right now. Leeper (the professor and also just plain cool) said that he knows its tedious work, so he is going to try to inject some fun back into the class. His plan? Create a replacement animation of frogs leaping, in honor of World Animation Day. (October 28th, mark your calendars!) The look we're going for is similar to what Tom Gasek (a well known stop-motion animator) was able to achieve in this Sony Bravia ad with the jumping bunnies. Our animation will probably be a lot simpler but still very fun. I'll keep you posted on the frog plague :)

My favorite class right now is Storyboard and Concept. I feel that I have a knack for planning stories and making words into images, so I am well suited for this class. You can see my comic journal here: darahcj.blogspot.com. It is updated every Monday. I really like the pre-production process and like planning things out and playing with ideas. I also like the concept art that goes in to animation. If I was to end up doing pre-production stuff for my career, I think I would be very happy.

That's all for now!

River Fall Comic

Here is a comic I made for my Storyboard class. I chose the hilarious event to illustrate. I took a little artistic license here, but I hope you like it :)

Animation II Exercises

Head Turn


Character Splat

and so it begins

Hello to all of you who wish me well. It is I, Darah, here to update you on my life at my home away from home, Huntington University. Before I get into some stories about my first week and vacation, I would like to address some administrative information. My updates will no longer be coming to you via e-mail, for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: small storage space on my school e-mail account, loss of many e-mail addresses, as well as limited multimedia enhancements to my wonderful stories :) So from now on, come check me out at darahmorin.blogspot.com. Feel free to comment or e-mail me, its a great way to stay in touch with everyone.

Okay, now that that is taken care of, let's get to the good stuff. As most of you know, on the 23rd my dad and I set out for Indiana, with much less in the trunk of my car this time, than when I came home in the spring (funny how you pack less the second time around.) It was a good trip full of singing and funny stories, and my envy at how my brother would get to see the Red Sox play, and as it turned out, win the game against the Chicago White Sox, atop the Green Monster at Fenway Park. Once my skin faded back from green, the trip was enjoyable again. :) We got to Huntington at 1:30am and slept. I moved my stuff in the next day with help from my dad and my boyfriend, Jake. (For inquiring minds, there is more about him later in the post, so patience my dears, patience :) I am living in one of the best dorms on campus Meadows Hall (just one of the perks of being an upperclassman) I am rooming with my hand-picked roommate from last year, Colleen King, and we adjusted to being roomies again in like, 30 seconds. She is a great kid and I love her to pieces. This year, we went with an IKEA theme. If any of you are unfamiliar, IKEA is a swedish based home furnishings store that is ideal for young people and college students who need furniature that is durable and cool, without costing a fortune. We have some cool globe lights and brightly colored bedspreads and a cool rug. I will include some pics in my next post, once we've had time to vacuum...

Classes are great this year, here is my schedule:

Monday: 8:00-8:50am Biblical Archaeology

11:00-11:50am Intro to Editing and Media Management

6:00-9:00pm Storyboard and Concept

Tuesday: 9:00-9:50am Intro to Art

10:00-10:50am Chapel (its not a class, but I go anyway)

1:00-1:50pm Beginning Tennis (1/2 semester course, I will be done in October)

2:00-4:50pm Animation II

6:00-9:00pm 3D Computer Foundations

Wednesday: 8:00-8:50am Biblical Archaeology

6:00-9:00pm Storyboard and Concept

Thursday: Same as Tuesday

Friday: 8:00-8:50am Biblical Archaeology

9:00-9:50am Beginning Modern Dance



Yep, that's the spread. Not too shabby if you ask me. The most challenging one will likely be Modern Dance because I am not coordinated, nor am I good at recording how my daily movements fit into my "dance lifestyle." Um, I'm just taking this class for credit, not to acquire a dance lifestyle. Thanks though. :)

Okay, I know what you are all thinking "When is she going to tell us more about this boy?"

Well, when I was in West Virginia this summer visiting my friends, including Jake, he invited me to this Labor Day weekend trip to Gatlinburg with his family. I gladly accepted. We rented a cabin in the Smokies. Here is the link for the cabin that we stayed in, Black Bear Lodge: http://www.jacksonmountain.com/content/house/su/3blackb

We were there with Jake's whole family: his parents, Jim and Cindy and his twin siblings Ben and Megan who are high school freshmen this year. His Aunt Cheri and Uncle Stan were there too, with their 4 year old son, Trent. Jake's Grandma Bonnie was also there. So, it was a full house, both in occupancy and laughs. They are very warm and welcoming people and loved poking fun and playing games. Some highlights of the trip: Ben's bio project where he needed to collect insects, so we all spotted and help capture these critters. I pointed them out and freaked out a little. Me no touchy bugs. We saw a waterfall, had a picnic lunch near a river, the same river that Jake fell in to. Yep, that part was real funny. We went to a pottery place, watched some Illini football and went go carting. We saw a bear and then quickly ran to the cars whenever we left, after that sighting. Jake and I went on our first back to school date, and we took the skylift to see Gatlinburg from the top of the mountain.

Jake is a really great guy. We have been dating for 4 months and everyone thinks we are a good match. He is a born and raised Hoosier, though he is an Illini fan. He's a youth ministry major who is very involved at his church in hometown Decatur, The Bridge. He frequently leads worship for the elementary aged kids. If you could not infer from the previous statement, he is a good singer. Many of you have heard his rewrite of the Plain White Ts "Hey There Delilah" to his cell phone voicemail message. He's a big disney fan and is very creative. He designed the "bio badge" that is above. He loves animation and does a lot with Adobe flash. He hopes that he will be able to merge both his calling for youth ministry and his passion and skills for animation in his future career. Jake and I have lots of fun together. He treats me well and loves me a lot. We're really excited to see where this relationship is headed, but thoroughly enjoying being here and now. We are both really happy and lucky :)

Thanks for reading guys! Stay in touch. OH! Also, feel free to write me via snail mail. Nice notes are way nicer to get than bills :)

My address at school is:

Darah Morin

Huntington University

2303 College Ave.

Drawer# 340

Huntington, IN 46750

Okay, here are the pictures! Love you guys!

Jake after falling into the river, pictured with his Uncle StanJake's dad Jim, picking a turtle up off the trail. Between the turtles and the massive amounts of bugs he picked up for Ben's project, he got the nickname "Jim Dundee."

Gatlinburg TN