Resume

Colin Hill
(901) 581-2178
Cmhill0110@gmail.com


I wish to obtain full time employment in the field of animation.


Education:

Currently Enrolled at Memphis College of Art.
Aug 2009-present
Candidate for Bachelor in Digital Media with a Concentration in Animation

Technical Skills:

Software Proficiency
Design/Illustration- Photoshop, Illustrator
Animation- After Effects, Animate Pro, Maya

Conceptual Skills
Storyboarding, Character Design and Development

Awards:
First Place Accolade, Bartlett High School Art Contest, for Charcoal Drawing

Demo Reel

European Traveling Fellowship

As an animator, my work is mostly centered around storytelling. This is not to say aesthetics are not important, but my primary goal is telling a story of some sort. As a beginner of my art, I have not perfected my storytelling skills by any means. It is because of this I have chosen to visit a country that is not necessarily booming with art(although it is not entirely lacking) but a country that can inspire me toward my storytelling goals. So I have chosen Ireland.

I have wanted to visit Ireland for some time now, for it’s beautiful geography and it’s history, as well as family genealogy ties. Basically I want to travel all over the country and absorb as much of the landscape and culture I can that will inspire me in my future work. I will visit museums and historic landmarks, I also want to meet and talk to people and learn more about the country’s cultural past and present.

My end project will be an animation. It will represent everything that I learned and that inspired me. I will bring a project dedicated sketchbook, as well as a camera. I will sketch what I see and document what I hear. While I am there I will constantly be investigating storytelling ideas and character motives. By the time I depart I should have everything I need to start a project.

Budget:

Round Trip- $1,146

Irishtourism.com-
Best of Ireland Tour 7 Night
Accommodation with car rental pricing-
Jan-Mar & Nov-Dec $823
April & October $ 853
May-June $ 911
July- September $ 1000

Food and other expenses- $400

Final animation- schedule

Tuesday-29
All assets finished

Thursday-1
First half animated, beginning- turtles hatch

Tuesday-5
Second half animated, turtles hatch-to end

Thursday-8
Final animation completed, tues-thurs, work on tweaking from critique

Final storyboard wright-up

I have changed my Animation topic again. I am now going to animate the beginning of a sea turtle's life. It interests me because they have such hard and brutal first steps. It is a very simple narrative, one that I think is feasible for the time I have to finish. The theme is, overcoming incredible odds and a view from the eyes of an animal much lower down the food chain.

Final Storyboard

After Effects Tutorial Super Opening Title

Tutorial link

Early Final Ideas

For my Final, I want to explore z space more in after effects. Much like I did the Bi plane earlier this week, I am going to animate a semi 3D bird. It will be a continuous shot, focusing on the bird itself. The bird will be seperated layers utilizing z space. There will not be much story involved, I want to focus on creating a good 3Dish model and creating a realistic depth of field. I have not started the storyboard at this moment so I do not know exactly what will happen throughout the animation, but I have ideas.

Tutorial Wrightup

For my tutorial, I decided to do a title sequence for my midterm animation. I found a tutorial on youtube that showed how to do the stretchy letters from the old superman movie. It was a very easy effect to create and I like how it came out. I also came up with a new title, "Robonaut." Like I said, it was a short and easy tutorial. I found a lot of other live action tutorials that I would like to explore next year when I take digital cinema.

Z-Space wrightup

I really enjoyed this assignment. I think After Effects handles Z space very well. I animated a Bi-plane model that used layers seperated in z space. I like how it turned out and I want to continue this technique.

midterm revision write up

I finished My midterm. I have fixed everything that was said in critique. Like I said last time I am satisfied where it is at.

midterm final wright-up

I have finally finished my animation, I am very satisfied with how it turned out. I still need to come up with a better title, and maybe a few tweaks here and there. I am excited to add sound. I am more comfortable in after effects, but I still prefer Toon Boom. After Effects is a good program but I don't think it is best for character animation.

midterm final wright-up

Although I still did not get a clear ending, I am proud of the new shots I have. I like my new backgrounds and my character rigs move very well, despite my awkward walk cycle I need to tweak. I think with more work this could be a good demo reel piece

Assignment write up

I did not finish my entire animation, but i got a good portion completed. I spent a lot of time on backgrounds and character angles. They took a lot longer than i thought, which set me back a bit when i got to animating. I am more comfortable in after effects now, but it is still somewhat new to me. Juggling the different programs can definitely get hectic. Overall I am satisfied with what I got done. I wish I had finished and had the time to polish everything, but I can always finish it up later.

European Traveling Fellowship

This sounds like a great opportunity and a lot of fun. I do not have a high enough GPA at the moment but maybe next time I will. Germany is where I would choose, due to the independent animation scene there. Germany remains one of the largest audiovisual markets, with a very high portion of independent distributors. German animation has always produced innovation, Emile Cohl, J. Stuart Blackton, Oskar Fischinger, with an emphasis on abstract imagery and a distinct German flavor. Although their influence has made it to America, it is not very prominent in the U.S. film scene. Due to the high amount of independent films, there is a wide range of ideas and innovations that circulate the industry. Because of this, I am very interested in delving in firsthand.

Gadsby Visit

After my visit with Gadsby, I was given a few more internship possibilities that are closer to home and a bit more realistically in grasp.

I also need to come up with a good resume to send out. I am currently working on that, I hope to have it completed soon.

These are a few local memphis internships.
Archer Malmo
Enigma Games
Inferno
Medtronic
WREG-TV Channel 3

I don't necessarily have to internship in Memphis, but these would be much closer and cheaper possibilities that I am considering

I am not sure yet If I want to pursue animation, 2D or 3D, or if I want to get into 3D modeling for video games. Either would be a fitting job for me, so I am looking into internships for both right now.

internship possibilities

Radical axis

Located in Atlanta, they specialize in animation and design including traditional cell animation, Flash animation, and 3D. They do animation on many of my favorite animated shows, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Archer Sealab 2021, and Squidbillies. Radical axis does a wide range of excellent work, based on their range and quality, even their website, they appear to me as a very professional studio. One that I would really enjoy working for

Soup 2 Nuts

Soup 2 Nuts is a digital animation studio, best known for smart humor and their unique “squiggle-vision” style. Tv shows include Dr. Katz and Home Movies. I watched both Dr. Katz and Home Movies a lot growing up, I like their style, even though it has changed a lot over the years, and I respect that they mostly seek out new and original styles of animation for their work.


Rockstar

I have one video game company on my list, Rockstar Games is probably my favorite game studio out there. They are also one of the most successful. Responsible for the Grand theft Auto franchise and many more, they are known for their attention to detail. I love and respect their work and I would love to be a part of their future projects

Midterm Concept

"Elevator" Line- A robot leaves his highly advanced homeworld to an uncivilized planet to live with an unadvanced alien species.

Synopsis- My character is a robot created by an advanced species. Their planet is running out of resources, so they create robots and send them into space to find rich planets for mining. The robot finds a planet but crash lands. He comes across an unadvanced but intelligent alien species. The aliens saw the robot's ship crash and think he is a god of sorts. They welcome the robot into their village. After living with the aliens for a while, the robot decides abandon his mission and live with the aliens.

Theme- The robot represents a person in today's society(mostly city dwellers), the aliens represent ancient humans that lived without advanced society( without money, government, or social status). The theme, Advanced society as an unnatural habitat for our species.

Central Point- The robot realizes that the aliens see him as one of their own and not just another number or robot(literally and figuratively speaking). It also speaks about society and technology as a whole and where it is headed, alienating us from the natural world.

Premise- The robot must decide whether to continue on in his mission or stay with the aliens and their quaint living.

Goal- To ask the question, is technology and society the only way for us to exist?

Background animations

New character

Character Portrait

My character is a robot. He was created by an highly advanced alien species. Their home world is running out of resources and to keep up their civilization, they must mine distant planets. To survey these distant planets, they created robots and sent them out on small space pods. After finding a planet, they are to report back to the home world so a mining operation can begin. These robots were created for this one sole purpose and mission. My character is one of these robots. For now, I am just calling him Bot but the name will probably change.
Although Bot has only one purpose, he is still intelligent, he can think for himself and problem solve on his own, AI needed for his long and intensive mission. But he is not an evil machine, he can even feel basic emotion, a flaw his creators overlooked. As the story begins, Bot has spent his entire existence in his space pod. The only species he has ever know are his creators. After years in space, Bot comes across a fertile planet that fits his mission. The planet holds no advanced species. Bot enter the atmosphere but crashes upon landing. With his ship damaged, he surveys the area. He comes across an intelligent species but they are not advanced( basically alien cave-men, not humans). For now I will just call them Natives. The natives saw Bot’s ship crash land and they think he is a god of sorts and they welcome him into their village. At this point, Bot knows the planet is rich with resources essential to his mission, but his ship is busted and he can not report back until he fixes it. For a while Bot lives with the natives and helps them with their everyday tasks, farming, building huts, hunting etc. After a while Bot develops a life with the natives and Bot forgets about his mission and decides to live with Natives.
The Natives do not see Bot as a robot or a tool but as an equal, one of them. Bot realizes this and embraces it, he decides he wants to continue his life as an equal among an organic species.

Project 1: Diorama

Project 1: Diorama

The first project, create a digital diorama by using layered photoshop or illustrator files. I chose an underwater scene. I used digitally painted layers, no photos, in photoshop. To create a deep under water feel, I used a lot of black and dark blues for the color palette. I messed with the opacity settings and hardness of my brush to give it a murky look. I animated a submarine, that comes into frame and drops a diver, and a school of fish that passes through the shot. For a background layer, I painted a sunken ship, it does not move. I decided upon an underwater setting because the first thing I thought of when I was told a moving diorama, was a fish tank. I used to have a fish tank as a child, and at the bottom I had plastic rocks and a little sunken pirate ship, much like a diorama.