AM Semester 1 start-up 10 days and counting

One small step for this year, one giant leap toward the rest of my life (over dramatic I know). I'm trying to learn how to move convincingly, there's a world of range in which I can fall from Tex Avery's slapstick style to National Geographic dry documentary. The second clip I am aiming for slightly angst, disinterested teenager being told he need so to do/change something. It's the feeling I want to avoid throughout my life. Why block myself off from learning more, growing, or accomplishing something; if I ever want those things sooner or later I will have to do/change something.



More soon, I'm trying a crouch to runcycle. It's winning so far. :{

Exercising the Arm

Here is an assignment from the Springboard class I finished in November. This taught me a ton real fast. All of a sudden I was using motion with an inorganic object. I wasn't shooting for overlap or follow through on this, just the arc of the motions.

I hope ya dig. Getting the block to settle after was a particularly hard thing since I had to deconstrain in then animate it independently.

I start the full blown coarse work for Animation Mentor in 19 days! I'll post up a couple more before then.

A First for Everything

Hey world I'm animating in Maya! This is my very FIRST attempt at animating excluding sketches on the corner of books and post-it stack. Traditional and digital painting are the areas where I have some experience so this is new ground.

I had under 100 frames to "move a ball", so I chose to make some ink act in a peculiar fashion.

Of course I can see room for improvement, but that's the fun part. I can and will improve tons over the next few months, so watch for exciting milestones.

First steps on new soil

My first comment needs to be, Animation Mentor is great. They've put together a concise and specific method to bring students from 0-capable in an incredibly brief timeframe, giving them the framework for further development.

Here is my first attempt at modeling and lighting. Yes, I know it's still VERY rough, but this really is my first modeling/lighting experiment. There are immediately things I want to correct, detail, and re-texture. But the focus of Animation Mentor is to prepare student to be character animators, not riggers, modelers, or the like.

I start animating Tuesday if I can't get a preclass experiment in before then.

BTW I'll be attending CTN-expo in Burbank in two weeks. I'll be up to my neck in uber-talent and experience. It will be a humbling week for sure.

Animation Mentor begins Sept 9th

As a few of you know, I've been accepted into the Animation Mentor program. I'll be taking a Maya workshop this fall and starting my first term in the Winter.

I'm excited and terrified of the prospects. Although I have been involved in broadcast media for around 5 years (3.5 television and +/- 2 years 2D animation), I feel like I am starting from the basement since I'll be adding 3D software to the mix.

Here's to a fantastic and grueling 2 years. Bonzai!