Artcow rcdart / Rory Cummings-Dise - Tranny Fetishist who Torpedoed a Potential Animation Career

I suspect Rory wanted to lean into her strengths, which are pushing shapes/angles but the shapes just... aren't pushed far enough, and don't move enough. The unmoving center frame really hurts what I think her vision was. It could have worked if it had been set to some boppy music for the pacing, or used different angles... it's just boring.

The grandma one was super cute but the mom and kid one is extremely strong in my opinion, and the better short to compare to Rory's because they both try to do the same thing. It succeeds because of its limited color palette and use of huge blocks of color to set tone and atmosphere. There's nothing wrong with going simple-- but you have to think about the bigger picture when you do. Rory's is simple and conveys no creativity or emotion, it's just... a finished assignment. The use of yellow as an indication a door was opened when there's not actual door in the frame? Simple, effective, allows the artist to focus energy on good character acting instead of needless prop work.
 
I see that’s she’s avoiding drawing any humans this time around.

Also when compared to her peers, I can’t help but notice that a huge difference in the end result is what they prioritize. Other students seem to focus on pushing the actual animation and/or camera angles, and are okay with having the characters and animated bits be a little sketchy or unpolished to accomplish that. Rory however seems focused on having a fully “complete” film and oversimplifies everything to the point of laziness - hence the ball hands, the lack of depth, the super flat colors, and the lack of textures in every film she’s made so far.

If she was serious about making films that’s the big thing she’d have to drop, but as of right now she’s so far in her comfort zone getting her out would be like trying to un-burrow a tick.
 
So we're coming up fast to the anniversary of Rory being BTFO'd over her caricatures of Adam Driver and John Boyega (with a touch of racism). Of all the things to get her more attention than her fuckboi Captain America, it was Star Wars. I think that's fucking incredible, but at the same time, probably should've seen that coming given how fucking rabid the nu-Star Wars fans are.

I may have said it before a year-ish ago, but it still rings true that nothing rustles my jimmies more than seeing talent going to waste, and Rory has never failed to disappoint while being simultaneously entertaining. It's probably a good thing her ego overtook her in such a way that it killed her art, but it really shouldn't have. You can still be proud of your talent without being a patronizing cunt about it. You can still show off your work without being an obnoxious braggart. You can accept critique the same way you accept praise without being passive-aggressive.

But most of all, you can show thanks to those who support you by at least acknowledging them in a short "special thanks" credit. Of all the things that Rory does that still rubs me the wrong way, it's just how thankless she comes off as. I've yet to see anything where she is thankful for something, be it for support or just the fact she managed to get this far. She'll thank CalArts, but who in CalArts should she be thanking more? Why isn't she giving special thanks to her parents? Other students have had someone to thank in each of their projects, so why doesn't Rory? That just makes me think her home life is not a happy one that she can't even be bothered to show thanks to her parents for sending her to a famous college.

Someone here said earlier they have a sister who knew Rory personally, but it didn't seem to have brought any new information. I thought they said they knew her in high school as well, but it might've just been the college. Still, though, I wonder if her high school life was no different from how it currently is at CalArts, except that she legit had good art to show off. She might've been the one art student all the kids looked to and went "Damn, I wish I had that talent!", and that could've fed into her ego, not realizing what you could "get away" with in high school doesn't apply to real life. And now she has to learn it the hard way--if she's learning at all.

Makes for a great cautionary tale, regardless.
 
She is on her third year, I think?
That new "animation" is pretty awful, especially when compared to other - both have plot and are charming. Rory tries to be... ironical?
I'm curious if she started posting her art somewhere online again, but maybe fanarts for so obscure things nobody recognized her yet? And she used to have 20k or 60k (don't remember correctly) followers on Instagram... Life is brutal and I'm almost sorry.
 
https://vimeo.com/306064214
she made an animation but it aint nothin crazy

I like the big fuck-off, Chris-chan sized straw for the diet Coke.

c46b4a5bb4e274e69cb19078a10b32c4.jpg
 
I’m really disappointed, but not surprised, I guess.
She disappeared for several months after receiving a massive backlash on Tumblr, you’d think she would take these months to forget all that agender, tranny-fetishizing BS to focus on herself and her art... Nope, she reappears only to drop that barely-decent animation (although I did like some of the drawings, it was easily forgettable).
Well I’m still excited to see how she’s drawing humans now.
 
I’m really disappointed, but not surprised, I guess.
She disappeared for several months after receiving a massive backlash on Tumblr, you’d think she would take these months to forget all that agender, tranny-fetishizing BS to focus on herself and her art... Nope, she reappears only to drop that barely-decent animation (although I did like some of the drawings, it was easily forgettable).
Well I’m still excited to see how she’s drawing humans now.
Probably with the same broken spines and hyper erect nipples as before.
 
Made the mistake of watching with headphones in and the worst part about that video for me was the awful poorly edited squelching food noises. Audio normalization? What's that?
:optimistic: perhaps, but I’m willing to give Rory the benefit of the doubt on this one and say the sound issue is a CalArts thing rather than her specifically.

Whatever it is about the animation program, it doesn’t seem to include sound mixing since so many of their student films (even 3rd and 4th years) I find have a ton of rookie mistakes when it comes to sound. It’s bizarrely common.
 
:optimistic: perhaps, but I’m willing to give Rory the benefit of the doubt on this one and say the sound issue is a CalArts thing rather than her specifically.

Whatever it is about the animation program, it doesn’t seem to include sound mixing since so many of their student films (even 3rd and 4th years) I find have a ton of rookie mistakes when it comes to sound. It’s bizarrely common.

Students in visual programs (animation, film) really screw up sound a lot of the time, especially on student sets, because the focus on what they learn and do is so heavily visual. Poor sound stands out even more, but sound is much, much harder to fudge/fix than images. It’s a combination of ignorance, laziness, and poor education.

ETA: Also, this short sucks.
 
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:optimistic: perhaps, but I’m willing to give Rory the benefit of the doubt on this one and say the sound issue is a CalArts thing rather than her specifically.

Whatever it is about the animation program, it doesn’t seem to include sound mixing since so many of their student films (even 3rd and 4th years) I find have a ton of rookie mistakes when it comes to sound. It’s bizarrely common.

Students in visual programs (animation, film) really screw up sound a lot of the time, especially on student sets, because the focus on what they learn and do is so heavily visual. Poor sound stands out even more, but sound is much, much harder to fudge/fix than images. It’s a combination of ignorance, laziness, and poor education.

Film student here. I went through the post-production route for video editing and shit (chose it for animation, which fuck me was at the very end of the four-year course and by then I was more into graphic design than animation), and I had a couple of classes in sound design and mixing. Even had the one class take place in the sweet-ass recording studio that had been built when I was there. Granted, my school had it where it made sure its students would get the full experience of their particular career choice by touching on as much as possible in the field, but before taking an animation class I at least was taught that knowledge of how to work in Pro Tools even if I wasn't going to pursue sound mixing or foley as a career. True, though, that in a previous institute I went to during high school I wasn't taught how to do audio mixing (was touched upon very briefly for Adobe Premiere and Soundbooth), but that was to be expected.

Never stepped into a full-on animation school, so I don't know what courses they take, but audio mixing and sound design really and truly should be a required course if it's not already. Hell, honestly, there should be a lot of film courses taught in animation schools given how animation and film are in bed together.
 
Students in visual programs (animation, film) really screw up sound a lot of the time, especially on student sets, because the focus on what they learn and do is so heavily visual. Poor sound stands out even more, but sound is much, much harder to fudge/fix than images. It’s a combination of ignorance, laziness, and poor education.

ETA: Also, this short sucks.
Pretty much, though I find it odd how common sound mistakes are from CalArts specifically; not only because it prides itself in its prestige, but because CalArts specifically allows and encourages students to collaborate with students in other departments for their projects - hence the poster ads for musicians, voice actors, etc. - so it should be easy to get someone from the sound department to assist.

I would say it’s a sign that maybe Rory’s antics are coming to bite her, but like I said it’s so common among all the CalArts students that it leads me think that either their sound department isn’t that strong or tht students in general don’t really think to ask for help on sound.
 
Most schools I know with a good animation program have a mandatory course on sound design early on, second year at the latest. I don’t know what the program at CalArts is like but I'm pretty sure they have courses on audio mixing and I know they have good facilities and tools for it on campus. Obviously, not every person who is good at animation is necessarily good at sound design, video editing etc., and I think a lot of them end up neglecting that since they know they won’t have to deal with it in the workforce. They will just draw and animate, someone else who studied sound design will take care of that, so there’s no need to get frustrated about it now and take their focus away from the visuals.

Of course, in the case of Rory, her sound design is bad because her entire work ethic is bad and she can’t even be bothered to animate with any sort of conviction, let alone make sure the sound isn’t terrible.
 
"This is what I ate last week!"

Hahahahaha, oh wow. This is so uninspired. Don't use your imagination or anything Rory, you might make the food have wide birthing hips! Why should I be surprised though that the only original thing Rory has ever done in her life was make Captain America a 'trans' bimbo and that boring wrestler video she did last year.
 
"This is what I ate last week!"

Hahahahaha, oh wow. This is so uninspired. Don't use your imagination or anything Rory, you might make the food have wide birthing hips! Why should I be surprised though that the only original thing Rory has ever done in her life was make Captain America a 'trans' bimbo and that boring wrestler video she did last year.
The bimbo Steve thing wasn't even that original. It was just her inserting her fetish onto headcanons that have been floating around for years.
 
Most schools I know with a good animation program have a mandatory course on sound design early on, second year at the latest. I don’t know what the program at CalArts is like but I'm pretty sure they have courses on audio mixing and I know they have good facilities and tools for it on campus. Obviously, not every person who is good at animation is necessarily good at sound design, video editing etc., and I think a lot of them end up neglecting that since they know they won’t have to deal with it in the workforce. They will just draw and animate, someone else who studied sound design will take care of that, so there’s no need to get frustrated about it now and take their focus away from the visuals.

Of course, in the case of Rory, her sound design is bad because her entire work ethic is bad and she can’t even be bothered to animate with any sort of conviction, let alone make sure the sound isn’t terrible.
In my experience, animation programs regarding audio tend to partially cover sound design, but the ultimate focus is more on syncing the sound effects and audio.

But as I said, I’m mostly confused in the case of CalArts alumni because they’re in a position where they can collaborate with someone specifically studying sound design whenever, so it baffles me when I see students who elect not to do this. It’s like having access to the film department and still recording video on your phone.
 
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