My Pixar Animation Internship Reel

Nicole Ridgwell Pixar Animation Internship Reel 2014 from Nicole Ridgwell on Vimeo.

Pixar pictures

This past summer I got the chance to participate in Pixar's animation internship. I thought I'd share a few memories with you! Here we are in our office window.
Every Friday we rocked '80s costumes.

Here we are with our instructor Aaron Hartline. He was incredible- he really brought out the best in each of us. Not only did he help us grow as animators, but he helped us grow as professionals, showing us how to be a part of Pixar's culture and how to work in a studio environment.

If you'd like to check out the other intern's reels, here they are in order from left to right:
Youri Dekker, Sikand Srinivas, Mike Bidinger, Sani Spectra, Regina Donovan
We also had five amazing story interns this year!
Christina Chang, Hannah Cho, Zachary Shore, Yon Hui Lee, and Vitaliy Strokous.

Each animation intern was assigned a personal mentor. I was lucky enough to get Ken Kim as mine. He was one of the most talented, patient, funny guys I've met, and he taught me a ton- I think the most important thing I learned from him was to improve my poses and make sure they are appealing and clear.

I learned so much this summer! I learned to improve my workflow and speed, I learned to make sure my poses are appealing before showing blocking, I learned to be confident in my ideas, and I learned to make sure my choices are clear and simple. But what will stay with me forever is the amazing people I got to share this adventure with. They inspired me to become a better artist, and a better person.

Thanks for the memories, cupcakes! I'll miss you all!

Interview with Women in Animation

I'm incredibly honored to be interviewed by Women in Animation! You can check the interview out here:

Intern Fridays: Disney Intern Nicole Ridgwell

For more info on Women in Animation San Francisco visit their Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/wiasf
and Twitter at: https://twitter.com/WIASanFrancisco

Guitar Shot Progression

Guitar Shot Progression from Nicole Ridgwell on Vimeo.

Since I had always wanted to do a piece involving music, I was super excited about starting this shot. I found the dialogue clip on youtube from a girl named Marie Digby. I spent about a week trying to find the character and did a few different reference takes. The setting was a girl talking to a fellow band-mate that she has a crush on. I had a lot of personal experience in this department to draw from, I've been playing in bands since I was in grade school.

Once I was happy with my reference I did a stepped blocking pass then moved into spline pretty quickly. I like to block stepped but switch to splines early and animate the rest of the shot layered, especially with a close-up shot like this one.

Of course there's lots of room to improve, but this shot was a labor of love and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Special thanks to my teacher Victor Navone and The Animation Collaborative :)