Demo Reel 2011

This is what I consider my strongest work after a year of learning classical animation. I am trying to learn Toon Boom / Animate Pro now and perhaps eventually some Flash, and will update accordingly. In the meantime, for non-Hellenes, the hand gesture made by one of the characters at the end of the reel is not dirty, merely rude. The line written in Greek is pronounced "KRA ta ta psee LA"; I opted not to overlay the recorded line as it didn't mix well with the music, but it is technically a lip sync scene.

I started out with a fairly ambitious storyline for the final piece presented on the reel, and would like to thank my instructors, Wayne Gilbert, Charles Phillips, and especially Mark Pudleiner for reigning in my 'even-the-kitchen-sink' narrative predilections and helping me decide where to judiciously apply limited animation techniques so that I could actually have a good finished piece at the end of 11 weeks. It may not be 100% classical animation, but it is 100% neo-classical, or at least Greco-classical. ('Cuz no one can reign in my predilection for bad puns).

And as for the 'crazy camera angles' - yes, I now realize that a film/video background does not always translate directly to hand drawn animation in terms of mis-en-scene and dynamic camera (unless you're James Baxter).  But that doesn't mean the envelope shouldn't be pushed - it just means I need to work even harder. Although it doesn't really feel like work.... I love animating! 

Sophia Vassilakidis Character Animation Reel 2011 from Sophia Vassilakidis on Vimeo.