Just when you think....

you're getting the hang of animating... Blammo-whammo! I received a very in depth, detailed eCritique this week for my dialogue assignment (that is posted below). Very insightful, and some what discouraging (okay, not really, just being dramatic) on how my acting choices were too similar, even though I thought that I was breaking it up and avoiding symmetry... looking at it now, he's totally right on. I'm going to regroup and redeploy my animation troops all over that assignment this week, so check back for an update.

I think the hardest part about learning animation is the back and forth. You're trying to learn something, that is ridiculously hard to begin with, then you have to be original and creative based on your limitations and animation abilities that are holding you back. It's frustrating and can be down right discouraging at times. But I guess that's all part of the learning process of the coolest art forms around. I do feel that with every assignment I'm gaining some sort of knowledge and becoming a better animator. I definitely feel more confident when coming up with ideas, so that's a plus.

That's it for now.....

Week 8 already... Only 4 more to go in class 3.

I can't believe how fast my time is going at Animation Mentor, it's week 8 today, that means I'm done with first acting class. Overall I'm learning so much this class it's insane. The entire 12 week class consists of 2 assignments, the Pantomime assignment and then a dialogue assignment. The character they give you for the dialogue assignment is the Bishop rig, which is super rad. However, it's a limited rig, with now facial controllers, so you're not able to do facial expressions, that comes next class.

I feel like I'm getting the hang of this whole animation world, now I want to go back and redo all of my assignments, I guess that means that I'm learning something. More and more with each assignment. For some extra practice I'm entering in the 11 Second Club monthly animation competition. Lately it seems like I want to do more and more animations for practice, because I learn so much from each animation that I do, and they get easier and easier. So it's true what they say 'practice makes perfect'.

Maddon's doing good, he's six months now, and has gained over 10 pounds. I can't believe how small he was when he was born, looking back at pictures is creepy. He's getting big and has a really big melon. I started call him 'Bobblehead'.... He laughs when I call him that. Other than, it's fall now and it was 70 degrees today. The basement's coming along slowly, I hung the cabinet bases today so we have tons of storage down here, it's so nice to start getting organized again!

Wall-E comes out on DVD and I'm super excited to buy the special edition. That movie was amazing, and I loved the sound effects all the robots make... Super cool, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it.

Here's my first pass for my dialogue shot:

Finally feeling comfortable....

Well it's week 3 of class 3... weird eh? Anyway, I spent a lot more time planning out my pantomime assignment than I have will all other previous assignments. And holy crap, what a difference it makes. I started by brainstorming 5 different ideas, once I narrowed them down to one idea I started thinking about what and how I want to show it. Acting and thumbnailing out ideas and poses. After I felt comfortable with my movements I filmed the video reference. After that I thumbnailed the video reference to get a better sense of the timing. Thennnnn, I cleaned up the thumbnails as best I could in Photoshop and brought them into a program called Monkey Jam, which basically helps you with the timing of your shot, bringing in the rough poses and using only the main key frames I timed out the shot, which was a little more work, but made blocking so much easier. After getting my first critique from my mentor Jay Jackson (who's been in the animation industry for 25+ years now, and worked on some of my favorite movies) I made some changes, added and took away from it.

My point is this, after living, breathing and learning animation over the past six months, I still have a long journey ahead of me, but I'm finally feeling comfortable and confident when doing animation. The school is great, everyone is so supportive and helpful, between that and my eCritiques it's a wonderful learning environment!

Tah tah for now...
Oh, I finally saw Ironman... very cool movie, I recommend it.

Week 2, class 3....

Man oh man, how time flies... I started working on my pantomime shot and am really excited. I feel like I'm learning a lot about animating and that I still have so much to go. Looking back to the beginning of class 2, I've learned so much since. I feel a lot more confident that I'm able to animate more and have it be successful and entertaining. For this assignment we're supposed to show two contrasting emotions in with no dialog what so ever. I had five options and went with the one where my character Stewie has a pet 'Tailor' in a crate that he adores. He picks it up and holds/hug it, and then hears something behind him and puts Tailor back in the crate, as he's turned away Tailor makes a run for it and hops out of the crate and runs away. When Stewie turns back around he notices that Tailor is gone, he panics, looks in all direction, see him and runs after it. It sounds simple, and that's the point, pretty much since the first week AM has been saying keep it simple, and that's what I'm doing, with a lot more planning. I took my sketches into Monkey Jam and timed everything out, to get a good sense of timing, to make sure that everything reads and is entertaining. It worked, they were right, the more planning that you do the easier it is once you get into the computer. Definitely a milestone for me and my animation world.

So that's about it for now. Busy as heck, I think Maddon's getting some teeth coming in... he's drooling everywhere. But overall he's a pretty happy little dude and a lot of fun to be around. He's rolling over, so we had to get him a 'baby-wedge' for when he's sleeping.

Till next time.

On break yo.

I finished class two, and my mentor recommended that I move onto class 3, Introduction to Acting.... so right on! I'm trying not to do any animation (other than work) on my time off. I know that I have soooo much that I need to learn and need to practice as much as I can to get better, but I also don't want to get burned out. I said when I started Animation Mentor that I wasn't going to compare myself to the other students, which is hard because there are so many great animators there. I guess that it's become my motivation to get better. I just have to keep working at it and getting better. It will take time and it's all about patience. I'm getting excited for the next class to start and like going to class 2 I'm a bit nervous. I've been animating at work for the past week or so, and it made me realize that this is it for me, it's what I want to do for money for the rest of my life! I guess I sort of knew that when I started the Art Institute back in 2001, but didn't realize how much fun it is. The case that I'm working involves a man being reckless and losing both feet, I'm animating what he did based on his injuries and what not. Working with a Bio Mechanical Engineer, two attorneys and an expert. So needless to say it's interesting.

I just ordered Eric Goldberg's new book Character Animation Crash Course, my buddy at work bought in and brought it in.... I looked at it for 2 minutes and went on Amazon and ordered one for myself. If you're thinking about getting into animation, or wanted to learn animation the 3 must haves are: the Animator's Survival Kit, The Illusion of Life and Crash Course.... there are a lot other out there that are great too, but those are the trifecta of learning books. So like I said, if you want to learn how to animate get those and read, read and reread them! I'm not saying that Animation Mentor isn't great because it, I've learned so much. But in getting started reading those books is a great first start.

Maddon's doing great, getting bigger. He's smiling now, it's such a cool feeling when I go into his room in the morning and as soon as he sees me he gets a giant smile on his face (unless he's hungry, then there massive screaming), but for the most part he's a happy little baby and I can pretty much always make him smile!

That's about it for now, I'm posting my progress reel, newest work to oldest work at Animation Mentor, so check it out, and please leave me any feedback that you want!

Later.

Inspiring Animations...

Here is some work that keeps me inspired when I start running out of steam.

This animation called Oktipodi won best student work at Siggraph this year, so it now has the potential of winning an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.... When you see it you'll think to yourself 'Wow! There's no way this is student work'. But I assure you, it is....


This piece is called Sigg Jones, it reminds me why I love animation so much, there really are no rules or limitations with reality, just creative genius.....


Enjoy, I hope they will inspire you too.

Class 2 coming to an end!

Well, summer's officially over and my 2nd class at Animation Mentor is coming to an end (coincidence? I think not). I've learned a lot about body mechanics and realized how hard it is to convince your audience what you want to show with your animation. For my final assignment I chose the baseball pitch option, to tie into my first turn around assignment with the Yankee outfielder turning around to watch the ball go over the fence for a homerun. I have a new found appreciation for all animation now, I was pretty naive before not realizing how much work actually went into it. I feel like I'm grasping the concepts that I'm learning this quarter, the lectures are very intense and insightful and there's a lot to digest in each one. In the past I would watch the lecture twice in the week, one of the times taking notes on it and the 2nd time was just to pick up what I missed from watching it the first time. My new technique is to watch the lecture early in the week and take notes on it, then go back and watch the lecture from the prior week as well as review the notes. That seems to help not ingest soooo much in one week and make for a nice review after applying the lecture to the current assignment. I feel like as all I want to do is practice, practice practice animation. The lack of patience that I have makes it really hard to want to become a great animator right NOW! I know that it's going to take a lot of time, and it's something that I'm never going to master (back to my whole golf comparison). Every great animator till the day they die always talk about how they're always learning something new, or how they always struggle with their shots. It's kind of intimidating and exciting to know that I picked a career that will always challenge me and will always have new obstacles to overcome. Anyway, this post is all over the place, I'm not a very good writer, I'm just sort of writing as thoughts enter my mind. My pitch animation final is due on Sunday this week and then next week is a short one, basically making a progress reel of my body mechanics animations. So I'm going to have to go back in and adjust/revise my animations that I've already turned in, but with more of the knowledge that I've gained this class, hopefully it's not going to be too bad.... who knows though. Then light 'em and render 'em off..... sounds like a nice final week... Let's hope it is!!