Wow! Talk about neglect

Sooo sorry I havent updated this blog for ages, the truth is I've been so busy over the last 2 months I almost forgot I had this blog. So whats been happening? Alot. Well more specifically with animation mentor? Well today I just finished my last Q&A for the first quarter. What an amazing experience this has been. Having never animated before, and knowing 0 of the principles of animation, I feel I have learned so much in such a seemingly small space of time. I can honestly say that during 3 months I have been pushed further than I thought I could ever go with animation. I can already kind of animate a walk, (which before I started AM, I thought I would probably do in a couple of years.) I guess I just keep putting off things I dont feel confident doing, like where the hell do you start animating a walk, but with AM, it is so well broken down, and you have no excuse to not be able to do it. You just gotta get in and do it, whether you feel confident or not. Having this approach has definetly made me realise that the more you do this stuff the better you will get at it, and the more confidence you will have in animating scenes. Also the whole support from the mentors, students and general animation community has been so huge, that it is really difficult to not get fired up to give each assignment your best shot. Im definetly gonna try stick this out to the end, just gotta hope my finances allow it. I must admit tho that juggling work and these studies is no easy task, but is not impossible to do. I am definetly gonna be more organized next quarter though, now that I know what I'm in for, and judging by what I've seen the class ahead of me doing, it looks to be an amazing term ahead. Well enough rambling, I want to post up some of my assignments that I have done so far, just gotta figure out how to do that quick.
Be right back
Later

Excited Pose & Revision

Hi all. Last night I watched war of the worlds. I thought it was pretty cool. The VFX were awesome, and feel it was one of the better alien attack movies I've seen. Well done to all involved on it, it was great. I just finished up my pose for this week. We had to make Stu look excited. I also gotto do a bouncing ball (which is due i a few hours, and I still need to work a bit more on it) Here are my planning thumbnails for the pose, and Stu posed as the one circled in red. Also here is my revision for my assignment 2. I was told to add more attitude to him by exaggerating my line of action in my Stu model, to more of what I had in my thumbnail. Also tilt the shoulders and hips more, and try not use perpendicular lines for arms or legs, as they convey a static feeling.

Some more poses

Here's a couple more poses I've been messing about with. I also got my first mentor critique yesterday, and I'll be posting up my revisions to my week 2 assignmnet. My 1st bouncing ball animation is also on the way. Lata

It's week 3 already?

Wow, the time just seems to be flying past. I thought I'd be writing in this blog very often, but before I know it a couple of weeks have passed me by. Well lets fill you in on what I've been up to. I have been really busy with work, starting up the new business and everything. Work is coming in really fast now, struggling to keep up. I better start pacing myself for the months ahead. Oor assignment last week was to pose Stu (the character they give you at AM) based upon a sketch of a pose you have done. I messed about with Stu in a couple of poses, not based on sketches, and then finally did my final one of him casually leaning against a wall.

Definetly need to sketch a lot more from life though. My book, the illusion of life, also arrived 2 days ago, so I'm going to get going to begin reading that. Maya also finally came about a week ago, and its been interesting trying to get to grips with the new controls. I am a Max user, so all this alt clicking can get pretty wierd, but I've gotten used to it pretty quick. The lessons on Maya at AM are very nice, showing you everything you need to know to get started right away on animating your scenes. I'll learn a bit of modelling etc on my own, but shouldn't be a problem. Well it's week 3 now, and we have to animate our 1st bouncing ball scene, and do an excited pose for Stu. Should be interesting, and I'll post what I come up with.
See ya!

Class has started and...

Wow. AM has finally begun, and I cannot believe the attitudes of everyone involved. Everyone is so passionate and positive about AM. It's really cool. I've been so excited about whats going on, I forgot about this blog. Well I'll fill you in on the details.
My mentor is Randy Haycock for the first quarter, and he's worked on Aladdin, Pocahontas, Lion King, Treasure Planet, as an animator. He's also supervised the characters of Baby & young Hercules (Hercules), Clayton (Tarzan), & Princess Kida (Atlantis). He's currently an animator on Chicken Little, and will be supervising a few characters on the upcoming Disney film "A Day with Wilbur Robinson. He has lectured on animation at CalArts and Brigham Young University.
We had a global Q&A session with Bobby, Carlos & Shawn which was on Monday night 8pm PDT. It worked out to 5am for me in Africa. Not too bad, better than 4am. The Q&A was awesome. Started lagging a bit towards the end, but for the majority of the session it was fine. It truley opened my eyes to how dedicated and excited everyone was to be part of AM. The rest of this week we have just had to update our profiles, and introduce ourselves to our mentor.

Our Q&A with Randy was also really cool. He told us about himself, and how he got into animation, then gave each of us a turn to tell him about ourselves, and why we want to do animation. There were a few technical issues, but I'm sure they will be sorted out for next time. All I can say is that I think we are going to have an awesome term, and I can't wait to start the assignments.
Now I'm off to do some life sketching.

ADSL installed, yay

Well today was a huge relief. After spending the last 2 weeks trying to get information out of the telephone company to install my adsl line, they finally arrived today and did the installation. I thought they would never get it done on time. Wow, adsl is really fast compared to my old 56k line. Being online is actually an enjoyable process now. Not only was there much excitement because of the fast internet, but I also got my email from Rosie about student orientation. A really exciting day all round. I'm geared up now, and can't wait to begin. Its gonna be the longest weekend of my life. Well thats 'bout it.
Let the classes begin!

An exciting day

Well today has had some exciting news. Firstly I am super excited because I recieved my email from animationmentor today, to setup my account with them. I am now officailly registered with them, and am almost ready to begin classes. I just still need to get Maya, which is proving rather difficult, as most of the companies that supply it, only ship to the US. Hopefully something will turn up soon. I'm also halfway through the animators survival kit, and really enjoying it. I can't wait to read it again later during the course, when I can actually relate to most of what he is talking about. My other book, (the illusion of life) is on its way, and can't wait to begin reading that when it arrives. Well thats about all to report for today.