Bears don't hibernate for the summer - instead, they put their liberal arts education to use in a number of fascinating internships and work experiences. Summer Stories will highlight a few of the things Ursinus student-athletes are doing this summer.
Sydney Gonzalez (Senior - Volleyball)
I am working between two production companies in Los Angeles, as an intern of one that is working under another production company. The official company is called Ancient Order of the Wooden Skull and they were hired from Mattel to do a short YouTube series for Hot Wheels. The company was signed on and did a short, four-episode first season. Mattel liked it so much that they signed the company for a second season of ten episodes!
The show features the cars and playsets from Mattel and therefore the whole show is done in stop motion animation. This is where I come in! The characters that are in the show are an inch tall and printed from a 3D printer. I have been working on taking the character files and setting up digital print trays to send to the printer. I also clean them and cut the support strips off so they are ready to paint.
Since the characters are an inch tall, they need separate poses for each move they make. Because of that, I also go through each character (there are a lot!) and organize them by pose, character, and if they are part of a pose set. This helps everyone in the studio know what needs sculpting, what is in print, needs printing, in paint, etc. We need a whole set of every character for each animator (so every pose is printed at least four times). I have also been helping the sculptors with odd jobs like sanding, painting and fixing small buildings or creating foam backdrops.
My favorite part of the job is working in the sound booth. I get to work with the voice actors and make sure the scripts are all in order for them. On top of that, I get to do some voice records of my own, which is my absolute dream come true. I love being able to show my creativity in the booth by putting my own spin on the script. Overall, this internship is amazing because every person involved just exudes creativity and passion. They all have an amazing vision and work so seamlessly with each other to create it. It's honestly amazing!
I have family here who is involved in stop motion and writing so I reached out to them for any and all connections. I am scheduled to work here until the first week of August. Another exciting thing is that one of the voice actors for the main characters is from The Big Bang Theory and I get to work with him!
I have had an amazing time staying out here with family. My aunt writes for DreamWorks, so it is very fun seeing all of the cool ins and outs there on my off time.
Here is a link to the first season if you have any little kids in your life to show this to (or adults – I think it is very funny).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8n5cYdF4M79niMbjPzFGGMu-qi7zv-fH