Now that I've returned from gallivanting around the globe, it's time to figure out how I'm going to support myself as a working artist. The above image pretty much sums up how I feel about that. I found that creepy little doll in my room and have no idea where she came from. Clearly she is a harbinger of DOOM.

Win!

I'm in Thailand right now. If you want to know what I've been up to go to tuktuksanuk.blogspot.com

The weekend after I left on this trip my film ECT: The Story of Two Women screened in NYC's animation block party festival. I was really excited to be accepted because its the biggest animation festival in nyc, and I think I'd eventually like to find a job a there. I found out from a post by my on my other blog (from my buddy kara) that I won Best Documentary short. Yay! I wish I could have been there. Check out the link: http://www.animationblockparty.com/about.html

Work Work

Bakery extraordinaire by day and freelance animator by night.... Its all work and no play until I leave for Thailand next Thursday. At least I'll have a 22 hour flight to catch up on sleep!

Happy Birthday USA

Happy 4th of July! from Laura Piraino on Vimeo.

I got a new camera (Panasonic Lumix fz50)! Last night I finally got a chance to play with it at the Marblehead fireworks. good times.

School's out forever

A LOT has happened since I last bothered to write on this thing.
Here are some of the highlights:

1. I graduated from MassArt! Class of 2008!

2. I won the 2008 MassArt Godine travel grant! This summer I will spend an entire month volunteering and adventuring touring in Thailand! July 24- August 23 :)

3. My degree project "ECT: The Story of Two Women" got into two film festivals!

The Chicago Film Brigade
Du Festival du Court Métrage d’animation de Neufchâteau

4. I was hired for my first freelance animation job (along with the amazing Susan Chien and Brian Duffy). We will create 10-15 second animations and title sequences for this documentary:

Herskovits: A Jew at the Heart of Darkness

Some less than exciting news includes moving back to my parent's house in Beverly Ma, and working a crappy part time job at the local supermarket. Hopefully when I get back from my trip I can find some sort of full time work that doesn't involve fry-o-laters.

ECT: The Story of Two Women

ECT: The Story of Two Women from Laura Piraino on Vimeo.

World Premier!

I finally finished my degree project! It screened on Friday at the Mass Art animation show. I was a bit nervous because the women whose personal stories I portrayed in the film were both in the audience seeing it for the first time. It went over really well and I had an awesome time celebrating all of the great films that my classmates have made this year. To the right is a picture of me with some of the people I interviewed for my film. My grandmother as well as Kitty and Mike Dukakis.   

:)

Into the light......

I'm finally in the end stages of my degree project!! Sound, Titles, and nit picky editing. I haven't posted in awhile because I decided to reshoot the entire project. It wasn't exactly fun but I'm glad I did it. The colors look way better this time. I also spent some time messing around with watercolors under the camera and came up with this for the shock scene and titles.

Animator for hire!

My degree project is due in all too the near future, graduation is rapidly approaching, and I'm getting ready to apply for jobs. In portfolio class, we're working on business cards, postcards,and DVD's to give out. My teacher Dave Schlafman helped me pimp out my designs with some textures and fun fonts. I like.  

Over the weekend I convinced my dad to help me paint this scene. 

I'm not quite sure how I feel about it

Spring Break

While other college students are running around drunk on the warm sandy beaches of places like Cancun and Key west.. I've spent the majority of my spring break deep inside Massart tower, locked up in the cold windowless animation classroom. woe is me. 

I'm incredibly close to finishing the flash animation for my Degree Project. I've started to print, cut out, punch holes, etc so I can start painting..no small task as my animation is 

5 minutes long = 3,600 frames. Even though I have some amazing underclassmen that have signed up to help me I'm still wondering how I'm going to pull it all off.

Heres a clip of some of the flash animation (for your viewing pleasure)

Cards

        

I've been working on my business card designs for my shameless self promotion campaign (aka portfolio). I think these are ok. I like the chickadee because it matches my montage, but I'm thinking I might color it with real art supplies instead of on the computer. Same with the animated intro I made. Although its a major pain,  I think I'll probably print it out, color it (with colored pencils?) and shoot it. 

Chickadee

Today was a snow day! My class was cancelled so I spent the entire day curled up on the couch animating on my laptop. I made this intro for my montage.  I think it needs color, but I have sooo much other work to do (degree project.. blegh) there probably won't be time. 

Happy President's Day!

I really have nothing to say....

Well I guess its good we're required to write on this thing. If we weren't it may have already landed up like one of the diaries I attempted to keep as a kid. I would write in it for about 2 days and then totally forget about it or lose the key. I was probably too busy trying to eat gummy worms with a mouth full of braces.

Montage (1st Draft)

Bits and pieces of all the animations I've made at MassArt.
Set to the tune of "coffee in the pot" by Supergrass.

Eww I hate how Blogger makes my work look all fuzzy.

work work work

So I'm in my last semester at Mass Art and this blog is a requirement for the portfolio class I'm taking. It's a good class - all about finding work as animators. I often find myself feeling really unsure about my work and lack the ego and confidence to show it off. Unfortunately it seems finding success in the animation world involves a lot of shameless self promotion and networking eeeeek!  

Anyways... I posted the PSA I made last semester for Food Not Bombs. I had a lot fun animating two of my favorite things: bug eyed creatures and delicious food. Soon it will be up on their website!

My degree project is completely different in every way. Its a serious documentary style animation on the subject of Electroconvulsive therapy. I've spent the past few months interviewing people and editing 4 hours of audio into 4 minutes.  Now I'm creating the visuals in flash, printing out the frames, and painting them with watercolor. It's really wearing me down especially since absurdist  humor and bug eyed characters are off limits with this type subject matter. oh well... there's no turning back now. Heres a clip:

 

Food Not Bombs!