Who Am I and What Am I Doing?

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Here's a little splurg about me, my classes and other cool things      

        I've never really introduced myself!!, I realized I started this blog and never really told you anything about who I am. I just started typing post and dishing out knowledge like a stranger giving out free candy to kids. If you haven't noticed I have been taking a break from this blog because I have been traveling and teaching on the side ALL WHILE working crunch time here at Walt Disney Animation Studios. I have a grand wealth of new posts and will try to post all of them out every 3-4 days. But let me start of this blitz off post with a long over due introduction of me.

ME:

       My name is Daniel but my friends call me Danny (I wonder if this means I'm going to start meeting random people who call me Danny at conventions now...) I grew up in a corner of San Diego, California where it wasn't the best of neighborhoods. I had a single mom, one brother (that I knew about) and grandparents that didn't speak English. I knew more people who have been to prison than had been to college (or even rarer: had college degrees!) Typical for my part of town but I loved it because it was all I knew.
        I never knew I wanted to draw as a living but it was something I did as a hobby. I think I drew more because people wanted to see me draw rather than the act of drawing actually interesting me. But soon I began to like it. I soon found out, "oh my gawd, I CAN EXPRESS MYSELF (which usually happens around 2nd grade and you keep drawing hearts and stick figures of girl you like on the margins of your homework) :) At one point around Jr. High I believe I even did flip books out of sticky notes and eventually I liked that so much I would duck tape multiple sticky notes together to make epic sticky-note flip books.(most which were of toilet humor and other atrocities which would star my friends. I hope they never see the light of day!)
          If it wasn't for my art teachers that DROVE me to Laguna College of Art and Design for a portfolio day I would of never went to college. While growing up I could never imagine how one could make a living off drawing. I thought all cartoon shows were lone projects made by one artist in their basement. I believed movies and animated films weren't art, they were just things that would mysteriously appeared at theaters for all to see. College was never a REAL possibility  it was a void because I didn't know what college was or meant, it was a big "Question Mark". Because of the extra care my teachers gave me I ended up at California College of the Arts were I was exposed to so much. Soon I switched majors from Painting to Animation. You should of seen my face when I figured out that those flip books I did in Jr. High, were the same way animated movies were made. I wasn't amazed or surprised, I was thunder struck! (Hahaha At one point I asked, "Whats animation paper, why can't you just use computer paper?")
         Soon I landed an Internship at Pixar where I learned computer animation for the first time and a few years later I found myself at Walt Disney Animation Studios. When I first started working I will be the first to admit I had no perspective. I had no perspective that I was at Pixar, what Pixar was or even meant, I had no idea who was who, I even didn't have a clue what was a blog! I was a very, very, VERY green young kid (19-20 years old). I had some growing pains adjusting to Pixar and finding out what studio life meant and how one was expected to act and perform. Thank fully I had amazing mentors such as Mark Walsh, Andrew Gordon and Andy Beal who never gave up on me and gave me the best introduction to animation one could ask for. Disney was a fresh start, a chance to learn from a different style and I'm loving it. I left a lot of friends back north in Oakland and San Francisco that I miss a lot and hope to return one day.
         I found myself pursuing teaching on the side because I was amazed at how much knowledge there is out here and how inaccessible it is! Especially for kids that come from my sort of back ground. I'm always amazed at how much is not taught in schools and how many bad habits are taught. I don't hope to change the world, but at least I can  do my part in giving a little back and helping who I can just like those who helped me. Right now I keep busy with this blog, teaching on Skillshare.com and by working at Walt Disney Animation Studios. I consistently work on my own work (don't ask me when bc I don't know how I find the time!!). I paint when I can, I love to write stories and do story boards, I always try to collaborate with other artist when I can. And of course I go out and act a fool like everyone my age should :) .

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So there! A little bit about who's been writing all these post! Below is information about what I teach and a little insight of my trips abroad. 
TRAVELING:
 Its always nice to travel! I went down to mexico and landed in Guadalajara and road tripped to the coast for a while, Traveling gives you perspective of who you are and the world around you. here are some photos I took while down there
 


MY CLASS:

My class is called CONSTRUCTING A STORY: Advanced Visual Storytelling. Any one can sign up and it's $20 for a lot of goodness. And even if you don't have time for the class, you get access to the material and lectures for life (please return upon in case of death, I'M KIDDING) Email me for a discount code or just to say hi @ daniel.gonzales.3rd@gmail.com

I've taught on this sight before and had over 700 students in my last class! I was floored by the enthusiasm and the eagerness to learn by all of them .I look super forward to teaching this class that starts MAY 27th. Find out more about the class through the link below or just email me!

CLASS LINK:

http://skl.sh/ZrZUla

Animation Schools: Looking for Them?

Animation Schools... There are tons,
There are the The Art Institutes, up north is Sheridan College, Westwood, Academy of Art University right across the bay, Savannah College of Art and Design, ITT Tech for the gamers, for the eager Animation Mentor, and the big one with a lot of weight to throw around: California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts)

But I want to Talk about one: California College of the Arts

     I went four years through their animation program and now I'm animating at Pixar. Yes I am 23 years old.. If you haven't guessed what this post is by now, get ready, I'm about make THE CASE of why you should go to California College of the Arts for animation. And since this is my school, hell yea I'ma go ahead and say this school is one of thee best, this will be hard-core juiced, ultra favorably biased, and VERY VERY DETAILED, the good the better and the best of CCA.

California College of the Arts: Is it The best Animation School?
     -Danny explain yourself..

     First I'd like to get to the point, It is unbearably close to Pixar :) I leave the parking lot of Pixar and can get to California College of the Arts in 5 minutes, Mapquest.com says it's seven minutes, but what do they know.
     And the consequences of being so close to pixar..  a lot of our animation faculty who work here lead double lives.. Pixar Animators by day, teachers by night. The student to teacher ratio is TINY. An animator teacher rarely has more than 12 students in their classes. They like the intimate face-to-face time, it seems to help the students learn more and develop better. Revolutionary.. I know..
  
Who's Teaching now at CCA? 

     We've got story artists, animators, directors, art and design... To throw a few names out there can tell you that Andrew Gordon is amiably teaching animation, director of future Pixar film Mark Andrews is teaching his brutal Visual Story Telling class, Anthony Cristov amazing drawing skills are also at work here, Brett Parker teaches in experimental animation and as well as Film based classes, Don Crum is on top of good old traditional animation and making sure the students are exposed early in their curriculum to the basics (His class I can say was AMAZING) I can not leave out Stop Motion! Doug Sheppeck is busy in those trenches teaching this fascinating style of animation and keeping it alive. I can go on and on with our faculty and the classes CCA offers.
      Do not get me wrong, Pixar is great but we also have other faculty that are also worth boasting about. They hail from Tippet Studios (awesome place) and other Animation studios that conveniently in the area CLOSE to California College of the Arts. (Tippet is located just up the street from CCA towards Berkeley as well.) We even have teachers who worked at Disney in their Second Golden Age that work here now. Yes CCA is spoiled when it comes to faculty... but it doesn't stop there. Connections baby..
      You want complete connection to professionals who still have their feet wet from the business, This is the place to be. With the small class sizes they are not only your teachers, they end up being your friends. I was going to save this juice 'till the end but I'll just spit it out now. -

Monday April 25th, Pete Doctor will be giving a talk at California College of the Arts. Why?

       Because he can. He's a boss. He can talk where ever he wants, and he wants to talk at CCA. (He was originally just going to talk to just a lucky class of students, but he ended up choosing to talk in our lecture hall.)
       This is open to the Public. And will be either around 6:30 pm or 7pm in NALL HALL (Right around the corner to the animation department) Be there, you know I will. *cough *cough.. It's only 5 minutes away.. Are you applying to CCA yet? Fine, ok here's some info on the Anim Department..

The Animation Department: 

       Has a lot of good things going for it. The Department is still in it's infancy (only barely on it's 3rd graduating class) and it's growing exponentially every year. CCA will supply you with anything you need. You need Down-shooters for your 2D short? We have a whole room for them. Animating on maya? They have rows and rows of spanking new powerfull imacs for you, each one with a Wacom tablet. Have you ever animated on a Cintique? Well you will here, tons of new Cintiques to use for animation (seniors get priority on these.. nice..), there's nothing like Animating 2D directly on a screen and pressing the arrow key for a new blank page..

      The facility got a make over with a new lay out that include new classrooms and a new sound recording studio included. The thing I always repeat about CCA is that they don't have any other agenda other than to make you the best artist YOU want to be. You just want to be a modeler or story boarder, go ahead, you only want to do experimental animation, fine! Character animation is your interest, CCA will help you be what you want to be. This is no cookie cutter Art College, these teachers will FAIL your ass if you suck garbage, or maybe they'll just let you know that your work is bad and then tell you how to fix it. But ultimately you are your own person and the Medium of animation is at your mercy. You will not be FORCED to changed, but you will be showed how to become great. 

     With all the improvements to the department, you are missing out on a great experience if you pass this school up. The sweetest addition to the department in my opinion was the Light Table bar that lines both sides of the whole entrance way to the animation department. It is open 24/7 you will always find some one flipping their animation there. 

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California College of the Arts:  

     CCA is over a hundred years old (1907). It didn't start out as an animation school but was founded during the Arts and Crafts movement. So this school is ARTSY. It has a very, very, VERY broad range of disciplines here. Here's a few:

Painting,

Sculpture,

Drawing,

Glass blowing,

Ceramics,

Printmaking,

Photography,

Furniture,

Stuff we don't even have names for!

        As well as.. Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Architecture, Illustration, Industrial Design, Jewelry and Metal Working, Tons of Drawing classes,Visual Studies, Writing and Literature, Fine Arts, Film, Community Arts, and more.

-CCA is an ART SCHOOL,

   ..no more no less. It's not just filled will tech heads or JUST animation students, you get EVERY possible kind of artist you could think of! (Fine art, Abstract, Impressionist, psycho, emo, hipster, introverted, bubbly, troubled, conscientious, yoga enthusiast, urban, B-boy/girls, activist, face value type, passivist, too serious, partyer that always has a funnel, the stoner, the straight edge, the coke fiend, the zen master, the liberal, the conservative (Very rare) the rocker, the gay the straight the in-between, black shades beat poet, promiscuous, nerdy, and All the internationality's you can think of..etc etc I can go on)
     Being an art school so close to University of California, Berkeley has history of being involved in social issues. Being so close to San Francisco and hippie lifestyle Oaksterdam University it comes kinda expected that The Princeton Review would name CCA one of the most 'Green Schools of 2011'. The bottom line is that CCA has a diverse population of artists. And you constantly get to see their work and mingle such as Spring fair help on campus for selling and trading art.

     HOLD UP. Don't think it's all fun and games. This school is accredited. You do earn a REAL bachelors that can be used to get a job other than animation or art.. you WILL have to to take english and science still. And being right next to Berkeley, one of the best universities of the world, we do get teachers from Berkeley teaching at CCA. (Art school producing well rounded artist?  whaaAA!?!?)

-CCA has two campuses,
     One San Francisco and one in Oakland (animation is in Oakland) There is a shuttle between the two campuses. Sometimes you might have a morning Life Drawing class in Oakland  and then Philosophy class on San Francisco campus. :) San Francisco offers the urban modern feel while Oakland keeps it Old school and full of nature.

 






Student Life:
       Hands down what CCA is good for is scholarships.. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for those scholarships. California College of the Arts might not be the biggest school on the map nor the most famous one, but it is one of the best. CCA has tons to offer. Your experience there will be one of a kind. Your first year you will most likely be in the Dorms.

 

     Dorm life IS the business..

 ..for like only a year. You could only handle so many dorm room parties haha, and with Berkeley down the street and San Francisco 15 minutes away, you will never run out of fun things to do. And Oakland has some fun spots as well. I've been here 4 years and am still finding new spots here in the bay. You can go hiking, bomb fire on the beach, drive to the snow, visit one of countless museums here, be a tourist, I can go on for a while and this post is already quite long.
    
      So I hope I made my case of why you should pick CCA as your animation school or just as your art school in general. I came from no where, a slummy, run down, druged out, hood banging neighborhood, single parent mom making under 25,000 a YEAR and Look at me now. You would of never known. Maybe it was CCA, maybe it's because I worked my ass off, maybe it's no ones credit and it's the way the cookie crumbles...

Either way, California College of the Arts a bad ass school and it's waiting for you.

-Daniel Gonzales