There's an hour left of class today and I'm sort of at a loss for how to spend it. You see, we're rendering our animation, my group that is, or at least the bits that I worked on. Miyagi still did some wacky hand things, but apparently we're just going to deal with it. I was all for trying to fix it, but the concensus was that it would take way too long and it's okay if he looks like he has the palsy.

The fellow who teaches us character design and (soon) storyboarding, Brian Lemay, was in today and we had a fun time. We had to work with a character that we'd already created (I hadn't, so I used one from a previous class - my mafia man, if you must know) and create a sequence of poses for it. We had to concentrate on where the lines of action were within each pose, and the clarity. Basically, if the picture were flattened out and made into a silouette, would the viewer still be able to understand what is taking place? Anyway, I did a very Film Noir sequence for my mafia man, who ended up looking like a Rat Pack member with a hideously broken nose. It was pretty basic, just him lighting a cigarette. First, he's shown reaching into his coat, then he's shown standing, lighting his smoke, one hand cupped around the match. In the third pose he's shown holding out his hand as it starts to rain, cigarette hanging from his mouth, and finally, he's seen pulling up his collar, hunching over as he walks off in the rain. See? Very Film Noir. Well, no, you can't see, but I'll ask Nick how to input images into this thing and I'll scan it. THEN you can see.

After that, we all got to take turns striking poses to do quick sketching. You could tell the serious artists in the group because when a particulary complex pose was struck, they'd ooh and ahh. It was nice. I got that reaction for one of mine because I gave my body a wicked twist. One fellow came up and struck martial arts poses and they were very impressive. We all liked them a lot and he was trained, obviously, so his muscles didn't shake as he held them. He also didn't even slightly wobble off balance like so many of us. Excellent stuff.

My Hallowe'en was a bit of a bust, I must say. I did the costume party on Realms of Despair, and naturally, Rhyl and Vernese did not win the contest. The judge didn't even look at our descriptions. Roleplayers are always overlooked. Following that, there was a quest specially designed so that our characters could 'trick or treat' in the haunted forest. I think it would have been better if the quest was doable, and after an hour of losing our loot to the unkillable bully, and getting caught all too often in the trap, we bailed. Still, 5 glory points is nothing to sneeze at, and next time I participate in a quest I will earn enough to get another rename.

Deanna was supposed to come into Toronto last night and we were supposed to go out. It's good that I didn't bother with make-up or even a costume, actually, because she was waylaid due to technical difficulties (whatever that means) as I found out when she phoned me before I left for school. The poor woman slept in her car after finally arriving at 4am. I told her she should have come by and crashed chez moi, but I guess it was too late by the time I was talking to her. Anyway, in that I had to go to school, she decided to head up to the Petes to visit Lindsay, and we've rescheduled Monday. Maybe we can go to the Lord of the Rings exhibit at Casa Loma, though I did promise to do that with Rick. I don't know, I don't know. Anyway, her not arriving gave me time to work on the article I promised to write for The MUD Companion. Nothing too exciting, just a basic discussion of the importance of description in roleplay.

Monsters Inc. opens tomorrow ! I'm going with hopefully lots of people. Tracy and maybe her friends, Rick, perhaps Nick (did I remember to invite him?), and maybe Al and Carrie. Also, we got permission from Larry at school to go as a class to see it on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully it will be good enough to see twice, otherwise I'll just go home again and sleep. There are just so many new movies that I really must see ! Monsters Inc. and Harry Potter, and One, and Iron Monkey, and Fellowship of the Ring... and those are just the mainstream movies ! Nick and I have a whole other list for independent movies. All these exciting movies, though, make me think that I might prefer a future in film art rather than video games, but I'm not ready for that decision, yet.