look what i forgot to post until just now....

luckily, it's good, so it stays fresh.

i really, really dig this song.

given the subject matter and the fact that it was a more quick-paced, looser set, it yielded some amusing behind-the-scenes moments.

Enjoy.

Song: Pierced & Tattooed by Jimmy Pizzitola

switching gears (not really)

While i may continue animating on the side, i remain more focused on "live-action" film production overall. So, instead of never updating this page, the production side will hostile-takeover this site instead.

here's the info dump on the salients - hyperlinks go to the imdb page for all the crew & cast info:




The Ninth Level (2013)
Music: Two Star Symphony

This Neighborhood (2013)
Music: Two Star Symphony
 NSFW

Touch (2014)
Music: Glass the Sky

Whole Other World (2015)
Music: The Wheel Workers 

And first, but not least, the trailer for the full length feature that was my first co-production with director Jerry Ochoa. It will be on HULU soon, in all it's ridiculous glory. Or, for the collectors, hit me up for a DVD, complete with outtakes, (drunken) Director's Commentary, and for a few pennies more, I'll even throw in 3 variant-cover postcards! (the 90s will be hip again by 2019 - get ahead of the hipster herd and buy my dvds! ....Please?)

Hardball: All Balls Don't Bounce (2008)
NSFW

It's a COMbination of things that each needs a seperate POST - it's COMPOST!

We entered the "Ninth Level" video into film festivals, and it screened at the RIP Film fest over the Nov.8th weekend in LA.

We had so much fun making Ninth Level, that Jerry (Ochoa, director) wrote and was awarded grant funds through Houston's SouthWest Alternative Media Project (SWAMP) to produce another film featuring a brand new Two Star Symphony score - it was our first project using a RedCam, but we had a fantastic cast and crew and it turned out beautifully. Not only did This Neighborhood get a great response when it premiered at the 2013 Houston CinemaArts Festival presentation of the Short Filmmakers' showcase, it was also accepted to and screened at:

2014 Action On Film Festival  in Monrovia, California
2014 Unreal Film Festival  in Memphis, Tennessee
2014 New York City Independent Film Festival in NYC 
2014 Molins de Rei in Barcelona, Catalonia, where it was nominated for 6 awards in the short films competition, and received a Judges' Special Selection!

We will release This Neighborhood online soon - but while you wait impatiently for its release, another local Houston band - Glass the Sky - liked Jerry's previous directorial efforts so much they asked him to make them a video.  So we produced and Jerry directed Touch, which. is. GORGEOUS. thanks to the heroic efforts of our talented cast and crew. You can peruse pictures of said crew and talent looking like epic set deities behind the scenes here. Or not. But you have the choice.

Holy Flaming @%$#*^!!!! An update!

The incredible Two Star Symphony finally has a full fledged music video for their fantastic arrangements!   Not only did I get to PA on an amazing set with a great group of talented professionals (and a psychotic insomniac donkey), but I got to animate the haunted illustration that appears in The Book In the Library.

As you will see from the whopping 3.5 second run time, all four members of the quartet writhe in flaming agony. Considering they are really cool people, it was a little odd and disconcerting planning and enacting their gruesome pain and suffering. (Well.... except for Jerry, the director. It was kind of disappointing not being able to push his gruesome demise further).

 In addition to animating all four members of the quartet, this was my first attempt at animating fire;  I would have liked to tinker with the flame animation looping a bit more, but deadlines.....

Here is the full 4 frames of animation as I submitted it (I think they had to trim about 12 frames from the beginning).    It needs to be viewed in HD mode, or it looks like fuzzy cubism. The full video for The 9th Level can be found on the Two Star Symphony site - it is gorgeous (I did mention that the entire cast and crew are BAD-ASS, right?)

the 9th Level Animation from Sophia Vassilakidis on Vimeo.

this is going to be bats@!% cool!

Two Star Symphony, Houston's awesome local string quartet extraordinaire, needed a poster for their awesome upcoming live performance at the awesome Discovery Green venue of their awesome original score for the awesome public-domain-footage film "Silent Shadow of the Batman" by awesome writer/director/editor Andre Perkowski.

So, I came up with this poster for them. People seem to think it's cool. If you think the poster is cool, or even if you don't, you should go to the screening. I got off of work just so I could attend (it's going to be bats*&% awesome!)

back from the dead....

not really. yes it has been ages since i have posted. no, i have not been a complete and total slacker in that time period, although the "day job" (which is currently a late shift) is certainly giving me less time to focus on animation.

I did several short scenes for an independent, classically animated short film, none of which I can post for confidentiality reasons. I am attempting to do a full 4 minute short as a music video in conjunction with a local band, although after months of getting nowhere with cobbled together software, camera set-ups, etc, I am going to have to start from almost square one now that I have a way to actually test and export my frames. I can't get any less efficient, anyway.

In the meantime, i checked myself into a couple of classes for busy (or in my case, distracted) adults at the Glassell School, which is affiliated with the Houston Museum of fine Arts. Seth Mittag was instructor for both my Flash and stop motion classes, and deserves props for putting with me and my weird ability to cause computer crashes, system errors, and file corruptions without even touching the computer.

Seth Mittag also deserves props for MAD stop-motion animation, and I encourage anyone in the Houston area to see his current installation/ short-film presentation at the Lawndale Art Center.

I'm not really happy with my output for the Flash class, and I will continue struggling with (mortally combating) the program until i have something that's actually portfolio worthy. On the other hand, stop-motion is a blast, and even though we had only a single 3-hour class period to animate in once the hours of character crafting and rigging were complete, i'm pretty happy with how my first attempt turned out. Nearly 9 seconds of animation after just 2.5 hours or work!!!!!  Eventually, I would like to complete this, when next i get a big enough chunk of time off from the day job.

while i should have been sketching....

i'm leaving Vancouver for an extended period of time (hopefully not forever), and the last week of beautiful weather afforded too much temptation to run around basking in all the green spaces and green architecture. i should have taken my sketchbook, but.... what can i say? like every other child of the Age of Tech-uarias,  i love taking photos.

i wish i could say i knew what i was doing with the camera, but alas, my beloved Nikon FM film camera is on its last legs, and i have not had the time nor money to "go digital". so i was stuck with my parents' little digi-snapshot camera, and it's total lack of focal or aperture control, and can't claim any responsibility for my dilettante attempts at photography turning out well. Vancouver is just that innately photogenic.

still, i cannot believe i managed to get some of these pictures. hooray for serendipity!

the best:

the rest:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117515615573331607859/Vancouver20102011#

i'm going to have to start saving up for a real camera.....

Character Illustration

I recently completed a concept illustration commission of the main character in author Brant Forseng's upcoming fantasy novel. Mr. Forseng provided me with world and plot description, as well as detailed notes on Lady Merreth's character and appearance. Mr. Forseng gave me exact guidelines about how he wanted Merreth to look (so helpful!), but I otherwise had total creative control over the image elements, and it was a blast to work on the image.

This was my first commission as an artist and I wanted to do a really good job! I'd like to thank my previous digital concept instructor, Stephen Pearce, for all his input, advice, and encouragement.

Both the story and figure of Lady Merreth are extremely intriguing to me, and I'm looking forward to being able to read the book when it's published.  I hope I've done the character justice! Mr. Forseng doesn't have a site up yet for the book, but I will link it as soon as there is for my fellow fantasy bookworms.

keeping the sketch-ability fit as a fiddle....

On a recent trip home to Houston, I caught a performance by Two Star Symphony, the string quartet who agreed to grace my final animation piece with their amazing music.

 

 

The sun agreed to grace Vancouver recently, so here are some sketches (best excuse to go outside on a great day!)

 And speaking of great days, if only I was always as 'on' as I was in my most recent life drawing class (I'm especially happy with the drawing on the right - it has the dynamism I struggle to get in longer poses).

Happy Easter

Easter was traditionally the biggest holiday in Greece, until the advent of trans-global consumerism and Santa.  The halo - the perfect circle - represented life eternal, and 'Oon' and the letters *omega*omicron*ni* are often inscribed in the halos on the icons of Christ in Greek Orthodox churches. 'Oon' was the ancient word for egg (hence Ova, OOcyte, etc, in modern biological terms), and it's traditional to eat eggs dyed dark red to symbolize the blood of Christ.

On the other hand, the original Germanic story of little Red Riding Hood was all about death, or at least the perils of reproduction. Upon meeting Riding Hood in the forest, the wolf inquires whether she will go to Grandmother's house via the 'path of pins or needles'. Some say that the 'path of needles' is a medieval metaphor for prostitution, the path of pins a metaphor for a girl's coming of age, and the Wolf a metaphor for the deadliness of STDs and childbirth.

So two very asymmetric influences on the image below, which works, since it was originally a Visual Narrative class assignment on the use of balance or asymmetry to convey mood.

Either way, it reminds me of what's really important this time of year - Cadbury cream-filled eggs.  Yum.

Happy BP-day!

So, apparently BP wrote off the clean-up costs of the Gulf Coast devastation as a $32 billion tax liability, and are now receiving a $13 Billion tax break from the U.S. government. I remember when the oil tankers spilled off of Galveston and we used to come back from the beach covered in tar for years. We rubbed on sunscreen before we got in the water, and turpentine after we got out. Of course, Galveston has been so overbuilt that it's literally sinking into the ocean and they actively pump sand up from the sea bed to keep any beach at all. Now, BP isn't actively responsible for Galveston's crud, but they did have two fatal refinery accidents within the space of two or three years in the Houston suburbs, and the second was so loud we heard it in the center of town.

This is from a term I Visual narrative assignment to design a monster or zombie, a cute character, and a hero character for a video game.  It's a whole year old, but somehow it still feels fresh to me. Is it summer yet? I'm hitting the beach. Please pass the turpentine.

storyboards

Storyboarding for animation was a very 'unlearn bad habits' process for me. I used to storyboard live action projects of mine all the time prior to shooting and editing, but the nature of the beast never required me to draw out every glance, head swivel, phase of a reaction, flick of an elbow, etc. It was mainly a way for me to mentally orchestrate the actors and sets with the dynamic moving camera shots I love to employ.

So, I had to learn to be rigorous when showing my animated character's thoughts and actions.... Now if only I can force myself not to add the rack-focus-backwards-dolly shot or the high-angle close up to low-medium-wide shot, at least not while the characters are moving.....

long poses

sketchy.....

I don't have a great attachment to reality, and sketching is initially a bit like pulling teeth for me because I have to pay attention to the world outside of my own little one. but eventually the whole game of pencil spying on people becomes kind of addictive.

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.

ZOMG!

This is perhaps one of my favorite projects. I really wish I could put it on my reel, but as is there are some volume issues in Granny's head that should be fixed, and a couple of my instructors insist that my Munch homage throws the acting. But I like my spry little butt-burying biddy, and really.....

ZOMG! from Sophia Vassilakidis on Vimeo.


..... you can't argue with Zombie Elvis.

Although it would be nice if flipbook didn't composite more than 2 levels into visual mud. 

Resume

      Sophia Vassilakidis          evil.i.konographics@gmail.com      832-244-7000                                                       

Education

Spring 2010 – Spring 2011:  Vancouver Institute of Media Arts (VanArts) :

·          2D Character Animation Diploma

Spring 1998 – Spring 2001: University of Texas at Austin

·          B.S. in Radio-TV-Film with Honors - University of Texas at Austin

·          Inducted into the UT Junior Fellows Program, 2000

·          Radio-TV-Film coursework included short Fish Out of Water,

           screened at Rotterdam International Film Festival, 2001

Fall 1997 - Fall 1998: Reed College, Portland, Oregon

Fall 1993 – Spring 1997: Houstons High School for the Performing & Visual Arts, Visual major

·          National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist

Relevant Experience

As an independent film co-producer, Hardball: All Balls Dont Bounce,  2006 - 2011

·          Helped raise $70,000 from private investors to fund independent feature film

·          Scouted and negotiated the use of locations, including high-security shipping ports, Texas     

           monuments, and high-customer restaurants

·          Issued casting calls and auditions for over 90 actors; maintained cast, crew, and vendor contacts and spearheaded production email blasts

·          scheduled and coordinated on-location shoots involving multiple actors and crew,  and oversaw 

           wardrobe, props, and equipment

·          Planned scene budgets and tracked production finances

·          Created promotional materials and maintained film website

·          Substitute Boom,  2^nd camera, assistant editor

·          Created & Designed DVD menus, packaging, and content

Producer/writer/editor

·          2009 DarHart Screenplay Awards, 1^st Place feature winner for Rose Marie's Egg

·          Lucky Strike, DV short, 2003. Vassily Fedyaev Digital Filmmaking Workshop.

                 Director, 2nd camera operator, assistant editor

·          F***, 16mm short, 2000. UT Austin Film Program, producer & script editing

·          Fish Out of Water, 16mm short, 2000. UT Austin, producer & script editor

·          Tension, 16mm short, 1999. UT Austin. Scripting, storyboards, editing

·          Five Seconds, DV short documentary, 1999. UT Austin. Camera, boom, editing, scripting

·          A Doll's House, in studio 3-camera short, 1999. UT Austin. Director  

Production Assistant

·          RWJF Public Health “Tobacco Policy Change”,  2009. DeSantis Breindel

·          Foreman Family, Reality Series, 2006. Zoe & Sammy Productions, Inc.

·          The Whisperers, HD feature, 2005. Excalibur Pictures, Producer Ashok Rao

·          Vassily Fedyaev Digital Fimmaking Studio, 2005. assistant videographer

·          Einstein Scribbles, DV short, 2004. Marjo Productions

·          Family Portrait, 35mm feature, 2004. Chadda Productions

·          Mr. Hell, 35mm feature, 2004. Jack Rhodes Productions

·          After Twilight, 35mm short, 2004. Roadster Productions

·          Manhood is Dead, DV feature, 2002. Dizzystick Films 

Interim Post Production Manager, Locke Bryan Productions, 2005

·          assigned projects to editors and scheduled editing sessions with clients

·          maintained a comfortable work environment for visiting clients and guest editors

·          prepared client request reports for the billing department and ensured on-time project  delivery

·          maintained editing equipment stock levels and dubbed client requests

·          assisted with basic editing on AVID equipment

Local News Volunteer Reporter, KPFT Pacifica Radio 90.1 FM, March 2004 – 06

·          Interviewed story subjects, scripted story copy, edited and recorded story and quotes

·          Converted and edited press news stories for on-air format and contacted related local officials for pertinent quotes on same day basis

Other Work Experience

Continental Airlines – Ticketing & Gate Agent, 2007 - present

·          assist a high volume of customers from all social backgrounds, including non-English speakers,    disabled and special needs, and unescorted minors

·          maintain the ability to think on one's feet and coordinate with other operational  divisions in a 

           time sensitive, high security environment

Talent Agent, Pam Francis Photography/ Real People Models, 2006-2007

·          Scouted individuals for Real People Models Agency

·          collected and maintained talent and client contact information and permission waivers

·          edited images and information for Real People Models online database

·          received client requests, scripted casting calls, and contacted applicable models 

Assistant Manager, Planet Anime 2002 – 2005

·          Provided customer service, product inventory and ordering, arranged store layout, 

           created customer promotions and incentives

·          Editor to store's online product review site - creator of store web comic

·          Related skills: able to read Japanese Hiragana/Katakana

   

Other Knowledge and Skills:

         Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Vegas Sound Editor

         Greek: daily conversational level, able to read and write 

References: 

Jerry Ochoa, Producer

Street Legal Productions

jerryochoa@gmail.com

Wayne Gilbert,  Head of Animation

VanArts

wayne@vanarts.com

Mark Pudleiner, Animation Instructor

VanArts

mark@vanarts.com

crude gestures

gesture is one of my favorite drawing exercises, because the looser, faster, rougher, and more vigorous i draw, the better the stuff looks. gesturing is kind of like independent film-production, where your brain just kicks into 'go, go, go, go!' problem solving in real-time mode. (look ma, it's a shameless plug for the movie i produced in my past life! if you like DIY cinema, action, hot chicks, and tongue in cheek humor, please buy our movie! our actors really need the love, and we really need the return on our life savings).

these are from early term II.

 

term III .

term IV. didn't realize it, but i actually have improved.

how to smash a roach

one of the first exercises i consider really successful. i should probably put a roach in there and squash it when the mallet comes down, just for entertainment value, but as a native Houstonian.....i really, really, really hate roaches. i can't even bring myself to draw them. 

kids love robots!

1st term drawing project - design a robot with an actual function, using basic shapes. apparently the UN is having trouble eradicating polio in some regions because parents believe the inoculations are a sterilization conspiracy. i bet if you made the innoculator a big, lovable robot, kids would sneak away from home and school to get a shot.