So it's been a crazy last few months, with a new baby and learning animation. I absolutely love Animation Mentor. It's so true what Bobby 'Boom' was saying in all of the orientation videos about how you'll get out of whatever you put into the school. If anyone is considering learning animation this is the way/place to do so. The forums are great, but it's the community that makes it what it is. Their motto is 'crit 5'... which means you should go to at least 5 students workspaces each week and leave feedback on their assignment. It's amazing how by doing this not only do they benefit from stuff overlooked when created their assignment, but it helps you by analyzing the animation and looking for the principles and other factors that the school has taught. Not only is the student body completely helpful, energetic, motivating and nice, they do a series of online QnAs each week. So if you're having problems with a character rig in Maya or trouble with the assignment, any of the student body can attend these sessions and participate and ask questions, or just sit back and learn some things. They're great to attend and so insightful. Not only do they have technical support QnAs, there are also professional animator QnAs where a profession animator talks about what they do in the industry, show some of their work and answer any questions that the students have. The last one was a Mentor who was one of the lead Animators on Iron Man.
Anyway, to make a long story longer. Not only is just the bare essential of the school so great, it's the extra curricular activities that really excel your learning process for animation. It's weird how one day you just look at work you're doing for the assignment and you think 'holy shit, I'm animating!'. My eye is so much more trained to really study how things move, and why they move that way. My latest assignment is animating a baseball pitch. It's coming along really nice and it's due in a couple of weeks. The spacing is really nice for class 2. There are only 3 assignments for the 12 week class, so you really learn how create animation. I compare the process to sculpting out of clay, you start with a big lump of clay (your ideas) and fine tune it, getting more and more detail the further along you go. The wallah!
Mommy went back to work (kind of) and so I get the little dude all to myself for 3 nights a week. It's a lot fun hanging out with him. He's more alert and started smiling. He's definitely more used to Mommy, because she's been with him everyday, all day for the past 3 1/2 months. He's getting more used to me and I can finally bathe him myself, which is a challenge in itself....
I probably won't post another till this second class has come to end.... till then.
8.06.2008
Why did the 3D character throw the 3D clock out the window?
I'm halfway through the 2nd class at Animation Mentor and I can't believe it. I'm learning about body mechanics, which consists of, external/internal force, weight, timing, spacing, acting and strong poses. It's very intense, but oh so much fun. The lectures are about 3 times as long as the first class, but they fly by. The lectures now consist of individual animators going through how they would complete a shot, from shooting video reference, studying it and thumbnailing, to get the juicy poses and the timing down. They really help to break it down, but they make it look so easy, that part is a little frustrating. I feel like I want to learn as much about animation as possible as fast as I can and become an awesome animator. I don't know why that is. Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s now and feel as I've missed out on this wonderful art form for so long. Or maybe it's because I see so many great animators all around and I want to be good like them. I know that I need to just stand back, take a deep breath and enjoy the journey as all of these amazing animators have done. I have to keep thinking that they were all where I am now when they were learning animation.... One good thing is that I can look back at my work and see how I can improve it.
As far as the home front's concerned, we got moved into our basement, and I have my computer set up, with my inspirational toys all around me! We still have some work left on the basement, trim, doors and the cabinets, at least we're able to enjoy it now, we got it carpeted and tiled also. It's very cozy and I love being down there, definitely worth all of the hard work. In Denver we just went through a record 22 days of temperatures reaching in the 90s.... too damn hot for me. I recently got an iPhone and one of it's features is a weather button. You're able to put in whatever city you want to around the world and when you hit the weather button you can scroll through the cities you've entered.... anyway, I have Vancouver in there as one of my cities and their temperature seems lovely this time of year, typically right around the high 70s low 80s.... perfect!
That's all for now... till next time.
As far as the home front's concerned, we got moved into our basement, and I have my computer set up, with my inspirational toys all around me! We still have some work left on the basement, trim, doors and the cabinets, at least we're able to enjoy it now, we got it carpeted and tiled also. It's very cozy and I love being down there, definitely worth all of the hard work. In Denver we just went through a record 22 days of temperatures reaching in the 90s.... too damn hot for me. I recently got an iPhone and one of it's features is a weather button. You're able to put in whatever city you want to around the world and when you hit the weather button you can scroll through the cities you've entered.... anyway, I have Vancouver in there as one of my cities and their temperature seems lovely this time of year, typically right around the high 70s low 80s.... perfect!
That's all for now... till next time.
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