The Crazy Monkeys were hosted by Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co. last Friday and now you can watch all the games we played thanks to Vimeo. It was one of our best short form shows. Our audience was a record size that translated into great energy and also high temperatures. Because of all those bodies it was hot on stage, the inspiration for my Deaf Interp character was hardly improv when I was patting the sweat off my head.
Thanks to all the fans who came out! The Monkeys will put on a long form show in Matthews 210 (where you'll be guaranteed to have a seat) on February 19, 2010 and you can watch the shows on the Crazy Monkey's Vimeo page here.
On my last night in Minneapolis my sister and I decided to make 48 mini cupcakes, each with their own color of icing. Well, since it was fun and artistic, here is the result. We probably consumed all the calories we needed for the weekend in those 2 hours, but hey, we had to be sure we were making beautiful treats that were tasty too.
If you're into photography then you may find this interesting, it concerns the picture of the cupcakes in a row. Don't they look like they are floating? The cupcakes are resting on a table with a glass top on it and I rotated the original image 180 degrees to get the effect you see now. If you orient the picture back to its original position then you'll instantly pick up on where the end of the table is.
In the picture below, the line of the table crosses the bottom row (the pseudo-reflection row) so your brain ignores it because if this picture was authentic then the cupcakes really would be floating in the air! I thought it was a pretty neat trick. Click on the picture to see the comparison and view more pictures of the fun on my facebook.
My first post of 2010! I finished another poster for the Monkeys. This one is for our January 22 show at Greyhouse. Late into production I realized that the poster might be associated with climate change as it is pretty ironic that a chameleon is in a subzero setting. Hopefully no one gets confused and still comes out to Greyhouse for a debatably equal cause. Download the poster or enjoy a beautiful desktop that is a bit cropped.
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It took many hours, but here is the ultra sweet water colored auditions poster! I hand drew everything then scanned it into photoshop and arranged it the way I liked. Then I printed that out on to two 8.5x11 sheets that I taped together so I could paint the real 11x17 sheet. It was a pretty fun project and it reversed my negative perception of painting. Years ago I developed the prejudice that I would never be able to control the brush as well as I could a pencil for those super fine detailed areas. It turned me off to the medium altogether! That is until I was at Office Max and I bought nice linen paper and a 16 color Crayola water color set. Now I am a little hooked. How interesting. The poster is available for download and also as a desktop.
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I am on a role! This desktop is my first experiment with watercolors and it reflects the future style of Monkey posters to come. I want the posters to be part of a set so hopefully they will be more collectable. The new style is heavily influenced by Marc Johns. When I first saw his illustrations they reminded me of Eric Anderson's drawings from The Royal Tenenbaums and so I was instantly attracted to them. The Monkey posters won't have captions, I don't think. Enjoy the wallpaper and look forward to seeing more watercolor illustrations to come!
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I took this photograph nearly a year ago when it was 20 below at Purdue! Just like the Mall of America, Greyhouse is heated only by body heat and so the windows froze everyone's breath pretty fast. You might think it would be pretty chilly in the cafe, but fortunately it isn't. Download the desktop in your resolution if you'd like and have a great winter this year!
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I weighed the pros and cons and determined that relying on Vimeo to host my videos instead of embedding Quicktime MOVs, is the better option. Now, the web savvy may say to themselves, 'Well no kidding! This kid must be an idiot' allow me to defend Quicktime and why it is so cool.
Quicktime can compress videos that were 650MB down into a 7MB file. Flash Video Encoder can do that, but I can also drive an F1 car. The quality that I get when I compress my files with Flash might as well only let me make shorts about checkerboards or ceiling tiles. Somehow, Vimeo uses Flash like a pro and their quality and service beat queuing up all my videos and leaving my computer run for the next 10 hours.
I originally chose Quicktime over Flash because I wanted for people to be able to look at my shorts frame by frame and appreciate the details. I doubt anyone has ever scrolled through one of my shorts on purpose, but it was nice to know that someone out there could. One would also have the ability to download the file if you had Quicktime Pro. I realize that not a lot of people do though.
Mainly, I am switching to Vimeo because it is more attractive, has full screen capabilities, and now Shauvon, you can finally watch my stuff without having to give into anything Apple.
What started as an idea about a boy running from hunters into the uncertain protection of a dark and mysterious forest, turned into the abridged version of my first act about the most powerful element in the universe. The entire story in a snapshot is about an illegal mining spacecraft that was looking for the Vera Crystal to abuse its power. The spacecraft was discovered and destroyed by authorities hundreds of years ago and light years away from earth. The fragments fly through space faster than light until some of them eventually make it to earth and unfortunately one strikes down Sonyeah as he and he sister are sprinting back to the safety of their home. The impact kills him and his sister Lisa is there to watch helplessly. That is until the Vera Crystal rains down next to the couple and its powers heal Sonyeah to health enough for his sister to help him home.
The action starts in act II when the evil Tarmon who commissioned the illegal mining for the element finally catches up to the crystal and destroys everything in his path to retrieve the crystal. View preproduction material and more at The Vera Crystal's webpage.
Today the Crazy Monkeys continued our Secret Santa tradition and this year I made Tom a notebook. I was bored while The Vera Crystal was rendering and so I started folding up paper and made a note of how lovely the length to width ratio is of hamburger folder letter sized paper. Yum, I folded two signatures into 6 total text blocks. There are a little more than 72 pages because when I was gluing on the cover I made it flip out for more writing space. To bind all of the signatures I hand threaded them to a single piece of paper that wrapped around the six text blocks. Then I taped the excess thread to the side and used rubber cement to bind everything to the cover which was adapted from the first poster of the year. Tom liked it a lot and hopefully it will be put to good use.
Hey fans of improv! I hope you enjoyed The Crazy Monkey's short form show last night. If for some reason you couldn't make it to the show then you'll be happy to know that while you're recovering from Swine Flu you can watch the shows online! Below is Square Game. It features Matt Van Noy, Logan Lampton, Lauren Kohl, and myself. All of the videos from last night's show are there to watch and you can look forward to seeing more content as we record all of our shows from now on!
Hello all! The Crazy Monkeys have a show this Friday! It is in Matthews Hall room 210 and we think you should come out for it. What better idea for a date than a free improvised comedy show that is guaranteed to be super funny. It is the last show of the semester so at least come out for sentimental reasons. We hope to see you there! Also, I believe you should download the poster and help us spread them around campus before the week is over.
This is super cool, and as I don't believe in coincidences, you can see evidence of cool stuff happening by reading my post 'Thank you Passion Pit' from October 29, 2009. Allow me to explain, last Friday I was supposed to go to this amazing concert in Chicago with a friend, but at the last moment was unable to go. In the post I wondered if maybe I was not supposed to go and it became very clear to me that I stayed home for a very good reason.
At 4:17 PM on Friday I got a call from a company that I applied for an internship with on the night before! They said they really liked my stuff and that I can come there as soon as summer starts! You see, at 3:30 I was scheduled to leave for Chicago so I most likely would have put my phone in my bag and subsequently missed the call. The Wednesday before I emailed the professor I have from 3:30 - 4:20 explaining that I would not be in class as I would be traveling to the concert. She excused my absence, however when I learned that I would not be able to go to Chicago I decided to still skip class because I already was excused and the assignment was to make this website (interesting).
Because all of those loose threads tied up to me getting an excellent internship I would consider myself super blessed, they only take on 3 interns and they kept saying that I had excellent timing. I was apparently the first of usually around 300 creatives to apply for the position. I expected the hunt for an internship to be a long and exhausting task that would yield only a rabbit or squirrel, but that shows what I know, I stumbled upon a hippopotamus! The company is called Moxie Sozo and they are out in Boulder Colorado. Look at the picture below, it will be just like I am living in West Lafayette this summer because there is a town called Lafayette just east of Boulder. The company is super amazing and I have been told by friends that they can picture me riding my bicycle around Boulder.
Moxie Sozo specializes in design and branding, but Leif Steiner told me they need a specialist in animation. It was super great when he asked me how well I knew Flash and I was able to say that I made an animated short entirely with the application. Thanks Tyler! I found Moxie Sozo through Computer Arts Magazine and they are the first design/ad agency to be completely energy sustainable which makes them super great. I am looking forward to having a great summer and wow, iTunes is playing 'Swimming in the Flood' life is super.
We've been working really hard to perfect our Harold skills and we still have a way to go before our show at Greyhouse on November 13, 2009. Last Saturday we received formal long form training from John Colby of ComedySportz Indianapolis. We mainly worked on characters who emote realistically, yet interestingly. The key to long form is realism so that people can relate to the characters and then wait for the threads to come together at the end when the audience enjoys the show the most.
Exactly like a Wes Anderson movie, long form is my favorite type of improv. Short form forces the performer to make quick witty jokes that are just for a laugh, but long form engages the audience in a real situation. The Harold is extremely advanced compared to our usual long form game style because the beats leave the performers on the stage doing a scene and if it starts to bomb then things can get ugly fast. The risk is worth the reward though, and I am confident in our group mind so we should have an amazing show this Friday. Hope to see you there! Download this sweet hiRes poster that I made and hang it up in your room!
This week has been full of highs and lows to the most extreme. With the most serious tone I can say that I have been in a sort of spark depression this week and for the weirdest reasons. I have a huge animation project hanging over my head and everything is up to me. The fact that the other group in my class has 6 times as many workers yet I am still out performing them strangely discourages me. I don't know, I am still going to make an amazing movie that will be on time. But the motivation is harder to come by when you're on top of Kilimanjaro and the bar was set by a waiter on the beaches of Cancun.
The other and more stressful corner of my life of course has to do with a girl. Not just some girl though, this Miss is so amazing. She is just like me in so many ways and I really am upset that I waited so long to seriously pursue her. I met her over a year ago, but I was busy being stupid and I never really thought I could date this girl. Not that I think I could now, I have no idea what she thinks about the idea, but she is way cool, I have to try man. I think I am too thick because we have been hanging out more than ever, but I still don't know if she feels the same way I do. I am a senior in college and I am acting like an eighth grader!
This weekend we were supposed to go see Crystal Castles and it was going to be amazing, but because life is crazy, our plans were cancelled. I really wanted to see them, but I am not bitter. In fact the more I think about it, I determine that maybe I wasn't supposed to go. Staying in Lafayette does dramatically decrease my risk for being accidentally stabbed with a heroin needle while everyone is dancing crazily at the Congress Theatre, so that is a super positive. Even though we aren't going to the show, I hope that I can still hang out with her this weekend.
The emotions I've experienced this week have been super intense and thankfully I have music to remind me that everything is already taken care of and so I don't need to worry about anything. 'Swimming in the Flood' by Passion Pit. That is the key. When my brain is over analyzing what the girl said or how to animate the next shot, I just lay on top of my bed, close my eyes and accept Michael Angelakos' super soprano vocals and that is when every endorphin rushes through my body and things are alright.
As you may know, The Crazy Monkeys are not alone in this dense black hole of comedy known as Purdue University. The Ship of Fools are our one of our allies against the mundane and so we are teaming up for a joint show to benefit The War on Hunger and Eta Sigma Phi's canned food drive! Bring about $3 and some canned food so that you can donate them. The format for tonight's show will be an hour of short form with Ship and then a few joint games and after that, The Monkeys will come on for an hour of long form. It should be a great show and it is for charity so everybody wins!
At the time that I made the original poster I did not know that the show was going to be for charity and I printed out 50 of them so I decided to hang them up along with the new poster that I made with the correct information. So download the new poster and if you want you can download the super cool original poster. Hang some up, give them as presents, I don't know do whatever.
I have been neglecting the fact that this website is purely flash and super slow. Dear Pixar, don't judge me because I am not a master of web development. I am still a really good animator/technical director. (I hope) The thing is that I have just been super focused on The Vera Crystal that I haven't been doing much else.
Ironically if it was not for my english professor taking time in class to show us how cool and easy CSS is then I would still be completely unmotivated to fix a site that already works, sort of. Anyway, I have been working at least 8 hours a day setting up the rig for Sophia and it is so cool! Problems and frustrations that I consistently encounter in Maya are all brushed away by the end results!
It is October break here and the goal is to start animating Sophia tomorrow. I still have to complete the other three characters, but I foresee minor complications as I am going to steamroll through and make my best short yet!
Hi there Monkey Fans! Did you think our first show of the year was great? Do you crave more comedy? Well perfect because the Monkeys are going to wow and amaze audiences again, this time with a short form format. Although it is not my preference, short form is what the Monkeys were founded on and so I will respect that and still give an excellent performance, I hope. Download the poster because it is space themed and because I made it.
What up loyal fans of the Monkeys! After a super long summer of zero comedy the Crazy Monkeys have been practicing everyday this week to bring you guys a high quality comedy packed show! We are going to do a long form clap in just like the best show ever. Remember that show? It was April 3, 2009 and it was so good. Well this show will be like that one. Just wait! You may as well come, you're probably not doing anything tonight. And be sure to download this super great poster that I designed.
Today the Monkeys rescued this cat from the rough streets of West Lafayette. We were all coming out of practice and there was Wendy just laying in a corner looking pretty shabby. She had gum stuck to her foot and hardly any hair on her hind quarters. We took her home and tried to give her a bath, but those claws are meant for scratching! Right now she is living in tuna paradise and I think John and I are going to keep her.
The vet said she has a hernia that needs operating, but this cat isn't going to any shelter if I have anything to say about it. She is a doll, I named her Wendy Moira Angela Darling because the character took in orphans and the irony was too perfect. Also I love the movie Hook. If you honestly can say you have never cried during that movie then I think you need to see a doctor because that movie could get a rock to emote. At the end! When Jack and Maggie fly in through the window and they pretend to be asleep, come on! Steven and John, you too are geniuses! Anyway, that is my cat. I found her, I think she is pretty cool.
Since I joined The Crazy Monkeys in September '08 I have taken over 6,000 pictures of just us hanging out. That is incredible because my iPhoto library had about 1,000 pictures before I joined. I decided to make a movie of all the pictures sliced together thanks to iPhoto's downloading dialogue screen. It shows each picture you are downloading for a split second and it was so cool I had to make one. So here it is, you are looking at over 6,000 pictures of my best friends. The music that I used was 'We Are Your Friends' by Justice Vs. Simian and 'Girl and The Sea' by The Presets.
I saw my favorite band up close and they were amazing! Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw, Joules Scott Key, and Josh Winstead all just four rows in front of me in the romantically small Metro Theatre off Clark in Chicago. I discovered Metric when they played 'Monster Hospital' on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the summer of 2006. Since then Metric has been my favorite talent, they surprise me with every song.
The show was amazing, it started with 'Twilight Galaxy' and as soon as I heard the opening drums I faded away into a musical euphoria. It was excellent and the best part about the experience was that it was the culmination of a week long vacation my sister Kate took to visit me from Minneapolis. I can't wait for Metric to visit Chicago again, they were fantastic live! Here are a few of the pictures I took with my point-and-shoot.
Have I got a movie pitch for you! I am not quite sure what its purpose is, but I do know that it is about ancient space politics, 16th century France, and a mysterious crystal that enables its possessor to have super natural abilities. All the coolest things I could think of! The movie is going to be called The Vinesdid Crystal and is in the extreme infant stages of preproduction... meaning I drew some concept sketches for the girl protagonist and started the treatment. I ran into a technical dilemma that needs to be addressed before I start drawing storyboards. The aspect ratio: I really want to upgrade from the odd frame of Peabo (720x390) so maybe 1280x640 will do. I know it is not conventional, but 1280 will look pretty nice on most TVs and besides, all my movies will mainly just be viewed on my website, which only goes out to 960. Maybe 1280 will just frustrate me when my computer renders for 20 hours a day. This is a really big decision if it is going to effect my sleep schedule.
Oh yeah, and today Shauvon McGill and I watched John Schuster smash a desk with a tire and then we beat up some old kitchen cabinets from the apartment complex that was being remodeled next door. As to be ecofriendly we smashed everything in the direction of the trash dumpster and eventually restored the parking lot to its original cementiness.
Come back to the site on June 15th to see awesome pictures of Emily Haines when I go see Metric at the Metro in Chicago this Sunday!
Before when I said this website was all done, that was a lie because man talk about being buggy. I made this whole thing in Flash! What am I thinking? It is going to be impossible to manage and it isn't even searchable. Seriously, here is Google. Type in ofelias.tv and nothing comes up that is relevant. That is the cheesing URL for this thing and it doesn't even work! But man, I do have to admit that this site totally looks cool and considering the fact that I hate Dreamweaver and don't know any other way to make a website, I'd say this one is pretty good for what I need. So yeah, today is the official debut of ofelias.tv.
It also coincidentally is a celebration for the healing of my 8 month old wrist wound! Yup, I was walking with Jess Pesut to her car when we ran into Whitney Walker on a warm September evening. For some reason I attracted every mosquito in the proximity and was bitten on my right wrist. I guess it could be viewed as heroic since I sacrificed my personal comfort to avoid the mosquitoes from attacking the two talkative girls preventing me from the shelter of Jess's pickup truck. A day later I had a bump on my wrist and because I have a complex that forces me to pick all of my scabs the wound got slightly infected. That is pretty gross, but yeah. Anyway I am positive it would have healed in a week, however the placement of my computer mouse, the sharp right angleness of my desk, and the fact that I am allergic to the metal it is made out of lead my wrist to always get irritated and so it had a hard time healing. The good news is that I discovered the healing power of band-aids two days ago and I didn't have to go to the doctor! Hooray for being way awesome or otherwise completely naive!
Well yeah man! So right now I am listening to Courtship Dating by Crystal Castles as I make the finishing touches to my first fully functional flash website. I hope you like it! It can show off all of my movies and all of the other sweet things that I decide to put on here. Maybe there will be comics, maybe beautiful pictures of bicycles, well actually yes. There probably will be a lot of sweet references to stuff I like on here because it's my website, woah cool!
I should tell you some stuff about myself so you like this website a lot more. Will that work? Well... ok. Did you know that I really enjoy making movies? You can see them when you click on the library link or you can also check out my Vimeo page for the exact same experience with a slightly better user interface! I also really enjoy a hot cup of chai tea from the sweetest place to buy it (and my main employer) Greyhouse Coffee & Supply Co. Man, they are the coolest! I am working there full-time this summer which is pretty sweet. I'll actually have cash next semester and I get to work with super cool people. Also, I bet you didn't know I do improv comedy as a member of The Crazy Monkeys. Ever since September 2008 I have been learning sweet techniques for how to be a better actor/funny dude. We do shows every three weeks or so for crowds of up to 200 people. That reminds me I need to get on the horn with the people at BGR so the monkeys can do shows for thousands of freshmen.
Well, there isn't much more about me besides the fact that I love bicycles and own a candy brown 1971 Schwinn Suburban that I converted to a fixed gear. It is such a pleasure to ride and when I am older I want to drive a car as little as possible. So yeah! I am surprised you got here since this flash site is highly ungooglable, but congratulations and I hope you return!
During Winter Break I picked up Computer Arts Projects No. 117 The Motion Graphics Issue and saw their Designers Challenge. The brief was to make a 5 second countdown that ended with 'Welcome to Computer Arts Projects.' In the article they said if you think you can do better send us a video and so I did. Kate Evans, the editor, sent me an email confirming that my video would be in the magazine while I was sleeping in a convent with people from Campus House. It was great news and I am super thankful that my work was published. Watch the full movie through the library.
