Oh yeah, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

To you and yours, a turkey...

...maybe I'll have chicken, no beef, no pork... no, spam.  I'll have spam... after drawing... that...

Please, take time to love your family tonight, as well as all the time, my friends!

(In all truth, tonight I'm having meatcake patties for Thanksgiving... mmm... :D)

In The Aftermath of the CTN....

Pencils were thrown asunder... artists came and went... but the massive monolith of the hotel still stood... as the palm trees swayed in the faint breeze...

Okay, so it wasn't THAT dramatic, but for a guy like me, who had never gone to LA before, let alone to a convention, LET ALONE on a PLANE, let's just say things were a bit more life-changing than most.

And what did I think?  Oh boy, what didn't I think would be an easier answer!

Over the next few posts I'll be recounting what happened on this great trip.  Now, I bet you have no idea what I'm talking about.  So, let me recap!

Also, if you have no idea what this CTN thing is, I'd suggest looking at this: http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/  Prepare to have your mind blown, just saying.

-Edinboro University, if you didn't know, has a fantastic animation program, and I've been enrolled in it for four years, this semester will be my last.  I've made brilliant friends with both the professors and my peers, but I wasn't exactly sure how to approach that faraway thing called LA, which had much of the animation world contained mostly in an even smaller place in LA.

-Luckily, the CTN project was started, by Mike Genz and Jordan Koch.  Together they tested the waters, and found not only a fantastic environment of creativity and friendship, but also an essential experience for n00bs like me.

-After the selection process was finished, the group was picked, and since then, constant planning for the hotel rooms, CTN passes, rent-a-car preparations, studio visits, SGA meetings, and portfolio maintenance were occuring over top of each other right up until the final days leading to the trip in November.

Since the CTN, I've felt different.  In a darn good way.  I have a much better idea of how to present myself and my work, and how to focus more exactly on what I want to do in the film and television industries, and how the work needs to differ, and I had an unforgetable time with my friends from Edinboro University.

So for people interested in a view of LA's CTN and it's amazing animation studios, be sure to pop in for some words and some photos!  Thanks!

PS:  Oh yeah, and I caricatured Andreas Deja, and Tom and Tony Bancroft.  If you don't know who these amazing men are, YOU NEED TO, IMMEDIATELY.

These guys of course have blogs, so please stop by theirs, a whirlwind of experience awaits you!

Andreas Deja's blog:  http://andreasdeja.blogspot.com/

Tom Bancroft's blog: http://tombancroft.blogspot.com/

Tony Bancroft's blog/website: http://www.tonybancroft.com/home.php

The biggest thing I got from these guys were how unbelievably humble they were about their own characters and artwork, and this translated to all of the other artists I met. It's a really loving and creative environment. So again, feel free to stop by and look at some experiences! Thanks!

Welding a sketch!

Hey everyone, here's a quicky, took some inspiration from my Sculpture class from Edinboro University!  Enjoy!

SHORT FILMS: Lost Bear, Spring 2012

Here's the second of the two films:

LOST BEAR: Spring 2012



Enjoy, comment and be sure to take a look at PfarrisAnimation and MrKillzo on Youtube!  Thanks!

SHORT FILMS: Canada Bear, Fall 2011

For today I thought I should post two specific items: SHORT FILMS!  These tiny, itsy bitsy 3 minute films took up most, if not every single day, of the specific semesters they inhabited as projects... and how awesome a time I had on them!

I'll post a more wordy recounting of my time at Edinboro doing these short films and the collaborations and friendships I made in that glorious process, but right now, just sit back and enjoy these two films, and please, don't hesitate to constructively critique them!  Also, please comment or subscribe to PfarrisAnimation and MrKillzo, they're the fantastic artists I collaborated with on these films!

Here's the first film:

CANADA BEAR, Fall 2011

One of my guilty pleasures: FANTASY!

Hey all!  After a new coat of paint on this here blog, here's some quickies, some medieval-esque fantasy characters that have been bumbling about in my head.  Enjoy!

Ah, that new blog smell... smells like... air. :P

Wow, a blog.

Well, hello there, giant encapsulating technological advancement we call the internet!

I'm Matthew Critchfield, and as you may have guessed from the title and url of this here blog,
I am an animator, which is pretty cool, considering how my whole childhood was surrounded by these imaginative things we call "cartoons", and where I dreamed and hoped and prayed that I'd become one of those brilliant people that created worlds beyond our wildest dreams, and relished every moment of that creative process.

We are dreammakers, storytellers, we feel and see the world around us with different eyes every time we start sketching a new sketch, or flipping three pages to simulate a sort of life in the nebulous void between the papers.

Right now I'm currently in my final semester at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a degree in Cinema Animation, and was mentored under brilliant men who tackled this artform in their own, distinctive ways:  Jeremy Galante and his mesmerizing Flash and After Effects spectacles; Steve Carpenter and his steely sensibilities of computer graphics and animation; Brad Pattullo and his incredible tales of stop motion puppets that animate stop motion puppets, or frogs that pray to false gods; and Michael Genz and his rich, valuable experience of working for Walt Disney Animation for nearly two decades.  I owe much to my early animation learning to these talented and accomplished men.

But there's this world, I'm told, right outside, that I've yet to really fully appreciate, and that after college, this world would come far too quickly for even the most prepared.  That's a reason behind this blog.

My art is very much like the veins in my body, as many artists will agree, and I'm very excited to share them with you -- the art, not my veins... because, you know that'd be gross.

So please stop by when you can, if you're at all interested in what's going on in my head or hands, or both, and enjoy!

--

A real quick one today, these are a series of caricatures that I did of my fellow animation classmates, during two different animation classes at Edinboro University of PA, exploring different shapes conforming to the head and shoulders.  I believe they are nearly a year apart from each other!  Enjoy!

-PS: The disgruntled bearded one on the first page is a delightful version of our teacher Brad!

11-2-2012