Akasaka Sacas Media Stairs

My first animation for the Akasaka Sacas media stairs is now up! I created this in 2 weeks in the CG department at TBS (Tokyo Broadcast Systems). The animation is among a group of short films that loop in the staircase. Each stair contains a series of LEDs. I was given the theme of 'Natsu' (summer). I wanted to show the transition between the rainy season of early summer to the Hanabi (fireworks) that follow. It was a great honor to work on the project! My second animation, Semi (Cicada) will be finished next week and installed later in the Fall.

Kasa

4th of July

Based on a Japanese Children's Book Catalogue

東京のスケッチ

Cat Chat! キャットチャット!

For the past week I have been in Tokyo!

I'm keeping another blog of exclusively Tokyo and Japan related encounters and inspirations here: tokyo-mo.blogspot.com.

But I'll keep updating Cutting Board with animation and design related projects.

I'm here for a two month internship at TBS television studios. For the first 3 weeks I will work on the program Cat Chat with fellow USC classmate Jovanna. We will be producing 4 minutes of flash animation in the next two weeks. The show teaches Japanese children English through song and dance.  I think I will mostly be handling character animation in Flash.

On Friday we recorded voices for the intro to the program. I voiced Richie the cat and somehow it turned out pretty decent. Thanks to Jovanna for this inside shot of the studio:

In July I will begin working on the media stairs that I previously mentioned here.

Adobe Design Acheivement Awards

Much to my surprise, two of my entries to the Adobe Design Achievement Awards have been selected for the Semifinal Round! Adobe First Frame Opening is nominated for Motion Graphics and Moe's Musical Morning. The awards take place in October in Los Angeles and I will know in August if I've made the final round. All the semifinalists can be seen here.