Shot Update

Hey guys. I've updated the shot from my short for my reel. I've changed the last pose, animated Taylor's hair, and adjusted the timing of his second look back. Next I want to try having the feet slip during the scrambling backwards.

Nooooooooo

I was checking out the release dates for some of my fav games (Zelda, Smash bros, Mario, Final Fantasy etc.) when I came to a sad conclusion. It seems like I'm going to have to get a PS3. =( Usually I get all of the new consoles and this is the first time I've gone without one of them. I feel like I had a legit reason seeing as how there aren't any games that I like on it right now. It would be sitting here collecting dust. Sadly, I just found out Ratchet and Clank, Assassin's Creed, and FFXIII are trying to get me to buy s PS3. I was told Assassin's Creed and FFXIII were also coming out on the 360. I thought that was weird for FF since most of their games have been on the playstation.

I think it's better to wait another year so that hopefully the price on the console will drop another $100. I don't have a lot of time for video games these days anyway. Plus I'll have three all time favorites to keep be busy from October through Dec. I already have Zelda: Phantom Hourglass reserved and I'm going to reserve Smash Bros Brawl before I leave for SCAD. Once I get to GA I'll reserve Mario Galaxy. Hopefully those will be enough to distract me from my PS3 woes. I can go without Ratchet and Clank and Assassin's Creed. Final Fantasy is another matter though. =(

I really suck at cel shading. The fact that I colored this while listening to tonights fantastic Transformers Q&A session probably didn't help, lol. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't show any cool behind the scenes videos though. Who else can tell I was tired of this picture by the time I got to doing the background? XD

Lack of Funds

I really need a source of income. I wanted apply to BlueSky's animator position but I can't afford to do so. When I move I need to have a contract/position that will last for more than a couple of months or be in an area where I can get to different studios without having to spend a bunch of money. I can barely afford to move once, since literally all of my money will be spent getting to whatever state the job is in and reserving an apartment. One of my friends said I should have at least $5k saved up to successfully move to Cali or New York, I don't even have half of that. Right now I'd have to go hungry for however many weeks it takes for me to get my first pay check since I wouldn't have any money for food or anything else.

I obviously need to find a source of income, so I wont have to continue to miss potential job opportunities. I've been on guru.com for a year now and haven't been able to get any projects. I was selected for one job but the employer never followed through and the project expired. I'll continue to bid on jobs there throughout the rest of this year. If I am unable to get accepted for an internship or apprenticeship this summer I'll come home and get a normal (>_<) summer job. I wanted to take summer classes at SCAD to push my graduation date up sooner, but having money is more important. Whats the point of graduating early if I still don't have enough money to move anywhere?

Anyway, once I get a source of income I'll be straight. I don't have a problem with saving money, lol. It's actually quite the opposite! I enjoy hoarding money away in the bank and refusing to spend it on things that I don't absolutely need. The reason why I have so little money is because I don't have a job. All the money I have now is the result of saving birthday, Christmas, and graduation presents for over five years. XD

Unfortunate

Unfortunately, things have ground to a halt as far as working on short and reel goes. Every day this week has been/ will be taken up by family issues. Helping my stepfather load my sister's college stuff into his truck, taking my sister to work, transporting my grandparents around, driving my sister to the airport since my aunt hasn't left yet to drive her to college, helping my other aunt with computer issues, and more grandparent transportation. >_< I hope these set backs don't cost me a job opportunity. I know Disney was hiring at Siggraph but their CreativeHeads call for animators was posted way back in July. I hope they're still looking for animators since I REALLY want to start out there. Working with Glen Keane, Jason Ryan, Andreas Deja, Nik Raneri and all the other Disney masters is invaluable! Simply inbetweening for them will seriously boost my 2d skills.

It's not the end of the world though. If I've missed my chance, I'll just apply for their internship or apprenticeship program. Hopefully I'll be able to get in through there.

Fantastic!

We asked for it and we got it! We're having a Transformers Q&A on the AM alumni site next week!!!!!!!! I can't wait! I actually have questions this time, lol. I usually sit on the sidelines and listen/watch but this time I can participate. =D

Shot from my Short

Hey guys. I finally finished a shot from my short to use for my demo reel. Please feel free to critique it as I'm sending it to the big studios in a couple of weeks. Thanks a bunch!

Dragon Sketch

I drew this during one of my 10 min rest breaks while working on my short. I really like it and would like to color it sometime. I wanted to jump right into Photoshop or Painter as soon as it was done and had a hard time returning to Maya, lol.

Tweaking!

I just wanted to say I LOVE being anal about details. Whether its in a shot or in a drawing, adding details is just plain fun. There is a catch though. Adding details usually takes quite a bit of time and the fun is sucked out of it if you don't have the proper amount of time to get it right. Luckily, I have nothing but time right now. I'm going through and preparing a couple of shots for my demo reel. I got some awesome feedback from Bobby Beck at one of the AM events at Siggraph and am working on applying his suggested changes to my counseling shot and to some shots from my short. I'm being so anal that I have ten whole pages of nit-picky details to adjust for the two shots from my short, lol. I'm loving every moment of it though since I'm really trying to get into one of my dream studios this year.

I still don't feel good enough for Pixar yet, but I'm going to apply anyway. I'm really hoping to get into Disney since they'd started up their 2d department again. I love 2d animation and would jump at a chance to work under Glen Keane, Nik Ranieri, Andreas Deja, Jason Ryan or any of the other Disney masters. Simply watching them draw over their shoulder would be massively informative. Plus 2d Disney animation is what got me into this field anyway. I figure I can work there for a while to improve my 2d and 3d skills, then I can move on to PDI/DreamWorks and finally to Pixar. I also wouldn't mind spending a few years at James Baxter Animation Studios either. I'd have to go there after Disney though since he only works in 2d and right now my 2d animation isn't good enough to get me in. XD

Graduation Pictures

Man, I got back to the hotel much later than I expected. Here are some of the pictures that were taken at the graduation and rooftop beach reception courtesy of my mother.





The reception was held at the super cool W hotel. I've never been to a hotel like the W and enjoyed every moment of it. I love contemporary furniture and the W was nothing but that. Every aspect of the hotel was beautiful and very stylish. I hope to some day have a house that looks like the interior of the W. Their rooftop beach area was really cool as well. I loved their hanging basket chairs and "bent up" umbrellas.

Yesterday I went to the Birds of a Feather meeting and met even more people there and afterwards. I dont think I'm allowed to talk about the new features on the AM site but I can say they're all amazing! After the recruiter's panel the founders raffeled away cool stuff. Signed copies of the Art of Ratatouillie, Shrek, Surfs Up, and Meet the Robinsons, Pixar t shirts and hats, Transformers t shirts and hats, a Cars iPod Nano cover, and a Remy action figure. I didn't win anything though. My number was 7026 and they called 7016 and 7036. XD I got to meet two recruiters so that made up for it. I met Robin Linn from Sony and Kim Mackey from Dreamworks. I was very pleasantly surprised that she remembered me and was glad to meet me in person, lol. Shawn Kelly remembered me too.

I had a nice time at Siggraph even though all I did was go to a few AM events. It was really fun to meet my classmates and legendary animators from some of the top studios. I look forward to attending the next Siggraph so I can hang out with my friends again. =D

Graduation/Siggraph

Hey guys,

The AM graduation was awesome! It was really nice to meet my classmates in person. I think I did alright as far as talking to people goes, despite my shyness lol. I met the founders, Bobby, Shawn and Carlos as well as my class two mentor Doug Dooley. At the finale Spike (AM's mascot) ran out and knocked a huge beach ball into the crowd. All of the graduates then grabbed their beach balls and had an awesome beach ball bashing party, lol. I'd like to send a huge congrats to the grads who won awards at the program. Congrats to Mario Pochat and John Slowsky for winning the Walk with the Most Personality award, Peter Devlin and Ryan Sluman for Best Dialogue Acting, Heath Pagram and Patricia Ross for Most EntertainingVideo Reference, Jace Bandalin and Arne Kaupang for Best Personality in a Live Q&A, Justin Weg and Eric Luhta for Forum Ninja, Jay Epperheart and Taylor Mahony for Most Supportive Student, Elaine Wu and Kate Forrest for Most Improved Student, Kira Lehtomaki, and Kenny Music for Best Silent Acting, and last but not least Jure Prek and Peter Devlin for the Mentor Choice Award! Congrats guys!

Yesterday I met the famous Jason Schleifer on the way to dinner. I'm still extremely thankful for his help with finding someone to rig my short film character and was sure to let him know. Before leaving Jason gave me his super cool PDI/Dreamworks business card. =D I went to the AM Birds of a Feather meeting and met recruiters Kim Mackey and Robin Linn. Bobby, Shawn and Carlos gave away cool Pixar, Cars, Ratatoullie, Transformers, Meet the Robinsons, Shrek, and Surfs Up stuff. I didn't win anything though. XD

I've gotta go. I'm being fussed at to hurry up and get dressed, lol. There's much more to come later!

Tomorrow

The AnimationMentor graduation is tomorrow! =D Lol, with my luck (and lack of grace) I'll probably end up falling up the stairs to the stage to get my certificate. It's hard to believe I've finished AM and its also pretty disappointing. I wish I could be an AM student forever! I'm extremely thankful that I was able to go through their program. I owe everything I know to them and seriously feel like I'll be able to achieve my dream goal. I've still got a year and two quarters to go at SCAD though so I'll have to wait to see if I'm right or not.

In the meantime I've been hanging out in San Diego and working on my short. The weather here is really nice and the scenery is beautiful. I wasn't too thrilled about having to pay $26 to go to the zoo (the DC zoo is free) but I think it was worth it. I got to watch a very cool underwater show put on by the polar bears today. It's a shame I couldn't draw anything though. I went with my family and they didn't want to stand around while I took the time to draw things, lol. I enjoyed the trip anyway though. My mother and stepsisters wanted to go shopping yesterday and I ended up finding a really cool furniture store called Hold It Contemporary Home. I love contemporary furniture and am now really excited about when I move to Cali and get an apartment. Unfortunately I can't really see myself being able to afford that furniture though, especially after what I saw today. I checked out some nice condominiums and found out they were going for $200k. That's completely insane, thats how much my mother paid for our five bedroom house back home. Lol, I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'm going to have to live in a hole in the wall when I move out here.

One Shot at a Time

Hey guys,

As promised, here's an up to date look at one of the shots in my short. I just "finished" it a few minutes ago and am pretty happy with the animation so far. It's not a money shot so it doesn't have a bunch of complex actions or emotion. It's just the simple opening shot of Taylor laying in bed asleep. The next thing I'd like to do is set up the bed and pillows so they're affected by his weight. I'd also like to redo Taylor's hair so its animate-able. There's a part in the shot where his fingers go through his hair as he rolls over. I want to be able to animate his hair so it reacts to the fingers during his turn. I've seen a few shots where students have added movable hair to Bishop. I'll have to ask them how they did that.

As usual, all comments and crits are greatly appreciated! =D

Siggraph is Coming

It's hard to believe I leave for San Diego on Saturday. I don't feel excited about Siggraph at all. I guess it's because most of the events I've heard about don't interest me, and that only reason why I'm going is for the AM graduation. I used to say I was going for the job fair as well, but that's no longer true. I've been advised against submitting my reel since I haven't graduated from SCAD. I called the studios I would have submitted my work to and asked if it was too early to apply for their summer 2008 programs and they said yes. Even if it wasn't, I like to think I'll have new work for my demo reel by the time spring rolls around. AM is having two demo reel critique sections. I'm not excited about those either since whatever I show them wont be the reel I send out for internships anyway.

I'll bring a few copies of my summer 2007 reel anyway, because I know I'd wish I had them if I don't bring any lol. I guess I'll burn 3-5 copies. I don't want to waste DVDs since I'm not expecting to give them to anyone right now. I'll save the mass DVD burning for the spring. XD

Anyway, I'll go to some of the AM events and will more than likely try to spend the rest of my time in San Diego working on my short. We'll see how that goes though since my stepfather has decided to turn my one day long stay in Cali into a week long vacation. -_- As far as my short goes, I've failed to reach my goal of finishing the animation by Siggraph. Now I see that it doesn't matter too much since I was told not to apply for any jobs yet anyway, lol. I have been working on it though and have two new shots that I like so far. ^-^ I'll post my progress one of these days. My laptop's wireless card has decided to freeze my comp each time the internet goes down (which is @ least once every 5-7 min) so I cant get online with my work computer. In a way that's a good thing since I can't be distracted by msn messenger and checking my email every time I get a new one, lol.

Overlap Video Tutorial

Hey guys. I just finished watching Jason Ryan's overlap video tutorial. I'm really looking forward to applying to his tutorial service. Everything is simple, clear, and easy to understand. The fact that he spends more time in the camera view than the graph editor is helpful too. It feels like he's animating almost exactly like he would in 2d, only he's rotating and translating controls instead of drawing. Jason really simplified the concept of overlap and gave a step by step walk through of four different overlap situations in just 12 minutes. I'm really glad I watched it since I know I'd probably have over complicated problems if I had to animate a wagging tail or a really cartoony stagger in 3d. Jason's video made me realise how much I tend to over think concepts and end up spending way more time on a shot than I should have to. I highly recommend everyone to check it out and subscribe to his newsletter.

Here's the video's url: http://www.screencast.com/users/JasonRyan/folders/freebies/media/e611cc3d-9759-47db-a1b5-bdec0b336276

You'll need the techsmith screen capture codec which can be downloaded here: http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp

Enjoy!

On a side note, I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. Rowling is in my opinion, one of the best authors in the world. I have never felt for a character in a book as much as I did with the characters in Deathy Hallows. That alone is an achievement since my friends always talk about my supposed lack of empathy for anything. All of the people who wont read the books and are watching for the movie are really missing out. There's no way the Deathly Hallows film will be as gripping as the book, unless they make it at least six hours long lol.

Platinum Edition

AM just launched their platinum membership for the alumni site. It sounds really awesome since we'll have access to lectures, guest speakers, special Q&A sessions, and will be able to view each other's critiques. In fact there's a Ratatouille Q&A coming up soon. The thing is platinum membership costs $100 a year. Normally that wouldn't be a problem but I just found out that my bank account has under $1k. Seeing as how I don't have a job and thus no real source of income it's not easy to get my finances back up again. Lol, I've never even had $2k in my account and I've been saving my money since summer of 2003. XD

I hate to have to turn to my parents (again) and ask them for money, but it seems I don't really have a choice. Luckily my birthday is on Saturday so I can just ask for the platinum membership for my birthday. What could be better than AM platinum membership and the release of the last Harry Potter book for a 21st birthday? Sadly, I will be in Ocean City this weekend and there isn't a Borders anywhere near there. I'll have to wait until I get back to find out what happens to Harry and crew. Until then, I will ban myself from the internet and my friends who will have already gotten/read the book so I dont end up running into any spoilers.

Finished

After a total of about 14 hours I've finally come to a stopping point on my painting. I've learned a TON about digital painting and painting period. I eagerly await the next time I get a chance to paint again. Lol, in fact I think I just found a new hobby. I still want to be able to render fur much more believably so I think my next exercise should be a painting from life. I'll find a picture of a paw or something and try to paint that. I think I'll learn a lot about rendering fur and more about the flow of fur over the animal's body. As far as this picture goes, I think some parts are more successful than others. I really like how I rendered his tongue and feel like that's the best part of the image. I think the weakest part (aside from the lack of background) is the gold earrings. I still suck at rendering metal. That's enough of that though. On to bed and then to animating in the morning! =D

Up date

I worked on my picture some more. I like how its coming out so far. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it today so I can get back to animating. To be honest I'm getting tired of painting right now and I feel like my eyes have blisters on them, lol.

Learning

Hey guys,

I decided to take a break from animating today and once again tried to teach myself how to paint. I don't practice digital painting very often now that I know a little bit about animation. I used to color my drawings in photoshop all the time back in high school. I remember looking up tutorials on how to make rain, fire, smoke etc. Needless to say I don't remember anything about making those things. Anyway, I got a copy of Painter IX a while ago and decided to try to learn how to use it as well. I really like the sketch I did of Fetch and figured I might as well take a stab at painting it. After spending about 10 hours doing a lot of Painter research and trail and error, this is what I came up with. It obviously isn't finished and I hope to complete it tomorrow. I need to find a tutorial on painting scales and metal. Lol, I tried to paint his nose ring without the aid of a tutorial and its obvious that I need help.

Being an Almost Graduate

I've been checking around the AM alumni site and looking at my classmate's demo reels and I've realized something. AM produces some seriously nice animators. I've seen a lot of really good work and its hard to believe most of the students were animating for the first time. I've watched my classmates grow and now get jobs/internships at Disney, Dreamworks, Blue Sky, Pixar, ILM, and Rhythm&Hues. I'm really glad to be a part of the AM community and to have had the chance to learn from some of the top animators from various studios. I wish the program was longer, as I still have so much to learn. I've watched people in my class grow from having never animated in their life to working at Disney and such, while I am still sitting here at home collecting rejection letters.

All I can do is tell myself these letters are a good thing since my parents want me to finish my time at SCAD. I don't think I'd feel bad if I got hired before I finished up there. Isn't the whole point in going to college is to learn and develop your skills so you can get a job? I'm going to a couple of events at Siggraph since my graduation from AM is being held there. I've never been there before but I've heard about how great it is. All I wanted to do was go to the animation theater and the job fair. Now I'm debating whether I should bother bringing my reel, since I still have five more quarters to take a SCAD. I'm still working on my short and am working on adding a few shots from it to my reel. We'll see if I'm fast enough to accomplish that by the end of the month.

I would really like to get an internship more so than a job right now because of the SCAD dilemma. That way I can get experience from a bunch of studios and continue to move towards finally being finished so I can apply for jobs for real. I think I should have taken summer classes to push my graduation date closer to the original time. I didn't find out about my acceptance and then rejection from R&H soon enough to apply for summer classes though. This time I'll try calling HR at all the studios I send a reel to when it gets close to registration time. Hopefully then I'll be able to find out whether or not I got in and then register for summer classes based on their answer.

Anyway, watching all of my peers get jobs where I hope to someday work makes me feel like a little kid trying to hang out with the big kids. AM gives us all this information about resumes, reels, interviews, contact info/connection with various studios and says "Now take this information and go get a job! =D". All of the AM grads shout "Yeah!!!!!" and they rush out to get hired at all these cool studios. I see myself trying to run out with them when a teacher grabs me by the shirt and says "Not so fast young lady! You've got to finish your schooling!". The teacher plops me down at a desk in an empty classroom and I sit there like -______- and =(. Then my classmates start streaming in excitedly telling the teacher where they've gotten a job. I get excited each time one of my classmates comes in with news of working at *insert dream studio here*, but a stern look from the omnipresent teacher forces me to sit back down at my desk.

Lol, maybe I could animate a scene like that. I have a really clear vision of how that would look in my head right now and I think it would be rather amusing. The only bad thing is the number of characters I'd have to use and the fact that I have to finish my short first, lol.

Fetch

I just finished Downfall by Jean Rabe and really wanted to try to draw one of the characters from the story. His name is Ilbreth aka Fetch and he's a kobold thief who is a part of Dhamon Grimwulf's party for most of the book. I tend to like the more creature/animal-like characters of fantasy stories more so than their human/elven/dwarven counterparts. Once I read a description of Fetch I was hooked on him for the rest of the book. Previously all of the descriptions I've read of kobolds presented them as being very lizard-like and I pictured then as being somewhat similar to a race in FFXII and FFTA called bangaa's.

Rabe decided to go another way and made kobolds much more appealing in my opinion. Fetch was described as having a rat like face and tail, bat ears to suggest his goblin ancestry, scale intermingled with his brown fur, small clawed hands and feet, and red beady eyes with small white horns above them. I instantly liked his design better and he quickly became my favorite character in the story. Sadly Rabe thought it would be best to kill him towards the second half of the book. =(

Zoo Sketches

I finally got around to going to the zoo on Friday. I wanted to get there once a week but things kept popping up and preventing me to do so. I hope I'll get to go again this week, as I had a lot of fun once I shook off the shyness of drawing in front of so many people. I stayed for about three hours and got five pages of sketches done. I think I did well with the elephant shrew and the degu. I seem to have gotten their body structure down nicely. I need to work on moneys and reptiles though. I'll probably return to the small mammal house the next time I go since monkeys are really fun.

Jason Ryan Animation

Hey guys. I just got my first newsletter from Jason Ryan Animation. I'm really excited about his new tutorial service. Jason is one of the original legendary AM mentors from when the program first started. There were tons of threads about him and his workflow in the forum. He also provided excellent animated demonstrations to help teach his classes. Sadly, Jason Ryan left AM before I could take a class with him. I was really disappointed since I had heard so much about him and have learned a lot from his videos. Plus Larry Lauria, my favorite animation teacher at SCAD taught Jason back before he got hired at Disney. He told me how enthusiastic Jason was and how quickly his work improved over his courses.

I really can't wait until Jason starts his services! The newsletter says he wants to keep everything affordable, so hopefully I'll be able to afford it. I am still pondering whether I should participate or not though. I really want to since I know I have so much more to learn about animation and don't want to let a great opportunity pass me by. At the same time, I've just gone through AnimationMentor so many people would argue I've already received a fantastic animation education. I agree with them, since AM is astounding and I owe pretty much everything I know to them. I guess I'm just afraid of missing out on some really valuable knowledge. Plus Jason is a 2d guy at heart and I know I have a ton of stuff to learn about 2d animation. I guess it all depends on how much his service will cost...

All Good Things...

Sadly, my time at AnimationMentor is coming to an end. Tomorrow is the last day of my last term and I will roll over to the alumni website after the break on July 2nd. I'm really going to miss everyone on the main site. I hope the alumni site is just like the school. I keep hearing great things about it so thats encouraging. I also hear we'll be able to watch all of the new lectures AM comes up with in the future. I think that's really awesome! I know I have so much more to learn about animation and want to watch all the lectures I possibly can. I hear we'll still have the ability to get critiques from mentors as well. It sounds like I don't have anything to worry about, but it's still somewhat disappointing to have to leave. I'm going to miss everyone!!!!!!!!!

Ratatouille(no spoilers) and My Thoughts

I just got back from the Ratatouille sneak peak and can't wait to see it again when its released officially! Everything was superbly done and extremely inspiring. I'd go right into animating if it wasn't after 11pm, lol. I can't wait to get started tomorrow though! Those of you who weren't able to get to one of the sneak peak theaters missed out on a real treat. I'm going to try to stop talking about the film since I don't want to give out any spoilers. On to my thoughts...

Ok, as I said Ratatouille was extremely inspiring. During the drive home I kept thinking "Man, I can't wait until I can animate characters with strong and well defined personalities like Anton Ego's!" He's my favorite character in the film since his personality is so distinctive. I can't wait until I get a job and get to work on characters like him! After saying that I thought for a while and realised I don't have to wait until I'm hired to be able to work on characters with different personalities. Sure I wont be able to work with characters who are defined over the course of a feature length story on my own, but I don't have the characters in my short to work with. I've lost track of how many times I've found myself imagining a scenario with characters from different movies and determining how they'd act/react based on their persona's in their own films.

I asked myself why I can't take that imagination and apply it to my short. Of course it seems like the obvious thing to do, but I don't think I had been doing it for some reason. I told myself I don't have to wait for a job to get the chance to animate fun, imaginary characters. I can do it right now with my short! I think this goes back to my previous post about being so focused on trying to get an internship and trying to hurry and finish my short. I've been so caught up with those things that I haven't really allowed myself to truly imagine what my characters are really like.

Sure I've come up with things for them to do but so far the process has been just that and lacks any creative/imaginative elements if that makes sense. I think that's a large reason why I'm so unhappy with the progress of my short and my work as a whole. I think that might be the spark of life that my work is lacking. I've been so caught up with the technical aspects of animation and trying to get things to look correct that I've forgotten to really imagine how my characters would act.


I went through the usual process of writing down qualities of my characters and using those as a guide when choosing what they'd do in every shot, but I didn't really imagine them doing those things. It was more or a list of things to do rather than an actual performance in my head. I hope all of this makes sense, by the way lol. I know I have the ability to imagine characters doing various things since I do it all the time with characters from other animated films. I just need to apply that to my own work. This seems like an obvious no brainer and I know I've known to do that in the back of my mind, I've just never actually done it. I think I might have lost touch with that element because I was learning how to animate in general...learning about the principles, how to apply them to my work, elements of acting, developing a workflow etc. I'm hoping I now know enough about animation in general to be able to use that knowledge to get the characters in my head on screen for everyone to see. We'll see how that goes. Lol, at this rate my short will never be finished though. I essentially end up redoing every shot I've revisited since blocking it out in the original class 6. I tell myself I can do better and end up changing what I had into something new.

Tomorrow I'll sit down and try to imagine my short as a whole. I'll imagine the character's actual performances, take notes and draw new thumbnails. Hopefully I'll end up with more genuine and lifelike acting and won't have to change my shots anymore after that.

Sneak Peak

I'm going to see a sneak peak of Ratatouille tonight!!!!!!!!!! =D I seriously can't wait! My friends at SCAD berate me for watching all of the Ratatouille clips online, claiming it'll spoil the movie. It might for them, but not for me. I'm even more excited about the film after watching all of those trailers and featurettes!

Some Thoughts

I've been thinking of a few things over the last few months. A little while ago I read a blog entry about James Baxter that caught my attention. It said one of the reasons why he's so great is because he animates for himself. He doesn't start a shot thinking "I'm doing this so I can get a job at *insert studio here*". Instead he animates simply to make himself happy. I've been thinking of that ever since I read it.

I seem to have forgotten that aspect of animation. Ever since AM told us about what different kinds of studios look for in demo reels, I've been focusing on creating shots that Disney, DreamWorks, and Pixar would like. I've been so caught up with trying to hurry and finish my short film while doing my best on my SCAD assignments that I seem to have forgotten about how fun animation is. Rather than concentrating on getting a job, I should focus on bettering myself as an artist on a whole. I'm starting to think a truly happy animator doesn't really care where he or she works. To them, a job is pretty much just that, a job. A means of paying the bills. They don't animate simply to get into a certain studio. They animate because they love it. They're passionate about bringing characters to life and don't really care about where they do it.

I'm in the process of completely converting myself to that mindset. I've stopped worrying about getting a job or internship at one of my dream studios as much and I think I've become more productive. Now I'm just focusing on the thrill of animating my very own short film and trying to bring those characters to life as best as I can. I think my work overall will be much better once I achieve that state of mind...

I'm sorry if this rambles, it's kinda late and I'm pretty tired. I hope all of that makes sense.

Pixar

A super HUGE congrats goes out to Stephen Melagrano, the first AM student to get an internship at Pixar! Congrats man, your work is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're an inspiration to us all! =D

Another Chance

Hey guys,

Now that I have another acting shot for my reel, I've decided to apply to BlueSky. They still have the position of animator in the now hiring section of their website, so hopefully they still need a few people. I'm preparing my materials now and will send off my reel in the morning. I hope I get in! =D

Summer Student Showcase

The Summer Student Showcase is coming! I think it will be out sometime after August and the submission deadline is July 6th. I wont be submitting anything this time. I don't have any new AM work worth submitting. My short has barely been creeping along. I think it was a bad idea to retake class 6 while I was at SCAD. It's too late now though. I'm going to spend the summer working on it. Hopefully I'll have everything animated by Siggraph.

I'm having some problems with the Twitch rig at the moment though. That's slowing me down somewhat. I've decided to just work on Taylor while I'm waiting for the Twitch rig to be fixed. I really look forward to watching all of the excellent animation that they'll feature on the new showcase though. I wish everyone who's submitting the best of luck!

Summer Status

It looks like there has been a change of plans. I lost my position in the Rhythm&Hues apprenticeship program since I haven't graduated from SCAD. I'm somewhat disappointed since my chance for industry exp is gone. On the other hand, I'll be able to work on my AM short full time again. Either way I'll be spending the summer animating. I feel bad for taking a slot that an actual graduate should have gotten. Sorry!

Animation II Final

Hey guys,

Here's my final project for animation II class. I still can't believe I actually finished a whole dialogue shot in just two weeks! I guess I'm finally starting to get faster...

More 2d

I'm in the process of polishing my 3d shot for my Animation II final and animating my 2d shot for my Studies in Motion final. I'm really glad to get back to 2d, but I'm also very unhappy with my assignment. I'm doing the animation in Mirage and it's a constant reminder of how much I dislike doing 2d animation in the computer. Having instant playback is a huge advantage but I just cant draw nearly as well with a tablet as I can with a pencil and paper. I really wish I had an animation disk so I could practice traditional animation at home. There's an animation light box at SCAD's school store that comes with a peg bar and a turnable plastic disc for $349.99. I wish I could buy it but I've been advised to save my money for any trouble I may run into once I arrive in Cali on Monday. That was good advice but I still regret not buying the disc.

I have 2d character animation next term at SCAD. Hopefully the disc will still be in stock. Speaking of 2d character, I am highly upset with SCAD. The original 2d character animation professor Phil Young, is leaving this term. He was the only Disney guy at SCAD and I never got a chance to take a class with him. I was so excited about finally being able to learn from him and now he's gone. To make things worse, I've been reading the blogs of a few CalArts students. They have a bunch of posts about Mark Henn and Glene Keanne lectures and how amazing they are. They also talk about how much their teachers help them by going over their work drawing by drawing. I wish there were teachers like that here. I don't think Glene Keanne has ever even been to SCAD, let alone lecture. I feel like I'm missing out on so much valuable information and its extremely frustrating. I really want to get better with 2d animation but I don't have anyone to help me.

I find myself wishing I had ignored my mother and gone to CalArts anyway. They have access to the best animators in the world and get to pick their brains on multiple occasions. SCAD doesn't have anything like that at all and I feel like I'm being cheated. Sure people say "well, you took AnimationMentor!" and I agree. AM is a fantastic program, and I owe everything I know to those guys. They've helped me improve my knowledge of animation and the 3d medium by leaps and bounds. I am extremely grateful for having the chance to learn from all of the excellent animators in the program. I still want to be able to animate in 2d though. AM has a few 2d animators but I need someone to physically be here to help me with that. I need someone who can draw over my drawings and show me in real time how to do things. I wish there was a way to transfer to CalArts. I'd go at the drop of a hat if it was possible. I hate to seem like I'm bashing SCAD but I really feel like I'm wasting my time here.

Pixar Just Responded

...and they said no, lol. I'm not surprised though. I didn't expect to make it there right off the bat and my expectations became even lower after being rejected from Disney and Dreamworks. If my work isn't good enough for them then there's no way its good enough for Pixar. I'll try again next year and see what happens.

Intern Badge

Does anyone know how to make a scanner stop producing the blue coloration around the edges of images?

Studies in Movement

Here's a very quickly done walk for my studies in movement class. There are a bunch of issues with it that I want to address but don't have time. I have two more shots to animate, a term paper to write and I need to continue working on my AM short. >_<

Kitten Walk Animation

Got that Call

Hey guys, I've got some great news! I just received a phone call informing me that I've been accepted into Rhythm&Hues apprenticeship program! This will be my first chance to get some industry experience and I'm super excited about it. Lol, it looks like working in 2d will have to wait a few more weeks. I'll get home from SCAD on June 1st and will have to walk right back out of the door since the program starts on June 4th.

Summer Time!

There's only two more weeks left before summer break! I'm really excited about it because I'll be able to work on my AM short full time again. I also plan on doing some more 2d animation. I did a cat walk cycle for my studies in movement class that I will post later on. That was the first time I had done 2d animation in a year and it was great. I can't wait to go back in and draw some more! =D Lol, my friends laugh at me for this. They said everyone else is excited about being able to have fun for three months whereas I'm like "Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah!!! I can do EVEN MORE work! =D"

Medium Woes

I wish I didn't draw nearly as slow as I do. I'm planning my final project for Animation II right now and am having medium related trouble. My project will be a dialogue shot that takes place in a surgery room (or whatever it's proper name is). I need a few props to show thats where the characters are. Things like scalpels, forceps, a gurney, a tray/table for the surgical tools to sit on, and a syringe. The character will be preparing his tools for surgery while delivering his line, so the props are rather important.

The trouble is, I cant find any free models for the props that I need. I only have about two weeks to go from start to finish on my shot in addition to final projects for Survey of Animation and Studies in Motion. I don't have time to try to model all of the props that I'll need for my shot, as I need to focus on animating as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. Lately, I've been really eager to to some 2d animation and would love to try to do this shot in 2d. Sadly, I draw really slow and am afraid that if I try to do it in 2d I wont be able to finish it by the deadline. This really sucks since I could have the whole operation room in my layout if I did it in 2d. I would have everything I need and more. I could even have the character putting on his rubber gloves. I just take so long to draw that I am really unsure if I would be able to pull it off in 2d on time.

This isn't the first time I've had this dilemma and it probably won't be the last. I'm going to spend the upcoming summer animating in 2d digitally. I really prefer to animate the old fashioned way with paper and a pencil, but I don't have the proper equipment at home to pull that off. Anyway, I'm going to work on my drawing and 2d animation skills so (hopefully) speed wont be an issue when the fall quarter starts up. I still don't know what I'm going to do about my current issue though.

Two Down, Two To Go

I just got an email from Disney about the results of their animation internship. Once again I wasn't chosen to be a part of the program. I'm not surprised though. One of my friends at PDI was exceedingly kind and showed my reel to his peers and animation supervisors. They told me to work on adding details and subtlety to my work. They also requested more acting shots. I wish I hadn't been thrown off schedule during the original class 6 at AM. If I hadn't I would have had plenty of acting shots from my short in put on my reel. Now it seems like I might have to struggle to finish the whole thing by Siggraph thanks to this terms addition of SCAD work.

Anyway, I'll reapply next year. I'll have more acting shots by then and I am working on adding those details to my shots now. Maybe I'll have better luck then. Part of this process is amusing though. I'm keeping track of how many rejection letters I will receive from each feature studio before getting hired at one of them. Lol, they'll end up having a record of my work and how I've improved every year.

Subtle Gesture

Hey guys, here's my latest animation assignment from my Animation II class at SCAD. The assignment was to animate some kind of subtle gesture/action/emotion. I hope you guys like it! As usual all comments and crits are greatly appreciated!

Love Struck Dan

Tiger Life Drawings

Just a few tiger sketches. I really like the one in the center. I think I'm getting better at animal drawing and I think I'm getting faster. I drew all of those in about 20 minutes. :D

And The Answer Is...

I just spoke with human resources at DreamWorks to find out when students would be notified about the results of their outreach program. I was told the results have gone out already. Seeing as how I didn't receive anything I obviously wasn't accepted. HR was really nice about it. She kept apologizing for not having anything to offer me at the moment. Lol, she seemed more upset about it than I was. It's really nice of her to be so kind though. Then again that may be the typical response for studios when a candidate isn't accepted. Either way I think it was really nice.

I'm not really upset about not getting in yet. I have three more studios to hear from so I still have hope. One thing's certain though, DreamWorks will hear from me again next year. :D In the meantime I will simply have to work harder. Recently I've been allowing myself to have a couple hours of fun every night by playing FFXII from 10-12pm before going to bed. I'm going to have to cut that out, go to bed at 10 and wake up at 7 so I can get more work done.

More 2d!

I am even more excited about Disney after reading this article!
http://animated-views.com/2007/deja-and-henn-on-the-return-of-the-goof/

How amazing would it be to work on a short under the supervision of Andreas Deja or Mark Henn?!?!?!?!?!?! I want to work at Disney now more than ever! I would be able to jump around from 3d to 2d and back again without leaving the studio! While I aspire to work on feature films, working on a Disney short is an excellent way to get started! I think Lasseter is doing a fantastic job at Disney. It feels like he's bringing back the magic of the old days. When I finally get hired at either Disney or Pixar I will be sure to give him a heartfelt thanks for reviving WDFA. :D

First "Art of" Book!

Hey guys. I just received my first Art of book! I ordered The Art of The Lion King for my survey of animation term paper as well as The Art of Finding Nemo. I just got The Lion King book today and I kneel in awe and reverence to all of the fantastic artists who have filled the books pages with their work. Looking at the rough and cleaned up animation drawings is extremely inspiring. I seriously can't wait until I become good enough to work at Disney. I know the studio's been having a lot of hard times lately but I don't care, I want to work there anyway, lol. Even if its just a for project hire, I will do everything humanly possible to learn as much as I can form all of the Disney legends who are still there. If I'm very lucky, that opportunity might be coming along very soon. Lol despite what people tell me, I rush to check my email everyday in anticipation of receiving an email from Disney with the results of their internship reel review. I'm hoping and praying that I will be one of the lucky students who will receive the coveted letter of acceptance into the program. :D I've got my fingers crossed!

This weeks Studies in Movement life drawings

...And a cartoon sketch! I love the rabbit, but I hate the weird cat thing above him. I wanted to crop that part out but then I'd end up getting part of his foot in the image with the rabbit. I didn't want to take the time to erase his foot so I left the cat thing in the picture. Now I can finally start animating for the day!

There They Go!

Two more fantastic AM students were recently hired at Dreamworks! A HUGE congrats to Ken Fountain and Ares Deveaux! Both of you have great work and have truly earned your new positions! :D

Studies in Movement Life Drawings

Hey guys. I've decided to post some drawings that I did in class this week...



I also got another email from Disney today. This one was longer than the previous message and started off thanking me for my submission to their program. Once again I almost had a heart attack from anticipation, lol. I still have to wait though, as the message said I will be notified around the end of April as to whether or not I've been accepted into the program. In the mean time I'll have to continue to die of suspense, lol.

Anim II Thumbs

Hey guys, here are the thumbnails/notes that I did for my new Animation II assignment. We're supposed to do a run but I felt really bad about not including any acting in my last piece. As the result, I've changed my assignment from a run by itself to an acting shot with a run in it. I could always use more acting assignments! Plus our teacher wants it to be a personality run and I think this shot will have much more personality in it than my walk.


Originally I was going to do a funny shot about a guy who's trying to run a race. I abandoned that idea since it wouldn't be much of a race without competitors, even though the scene would focus on one character. I also couldn't think of how to do it without having at least one camera cut or some camera moves. I think my new idea is much simpler since it doesn't require camera animation and it's only two characters.

Such a Nerd

I almost had a heart attack over nothing today. I just checked my email and saw a message from Disney. I nearly jumped out of my skin in anticipation, lol. Sadly it was just a message saying they received my application materials and thanking me for the submission. Hopefully I will receive another message from them containing wonderful news in the near future...

Demo Reel

Hey guys. Here's the demo reel I'll be sending out this week for internships. Please let me know what you think about it if you have time. Thanks!

2007 Demo Reel

New Animation

Hey guys. I just finished my next assignment for SCADs animation II class. No, this isn't Ballie. I had to use one of the AM copy rigs for the assignment. I feel bad about having to use it but I also know that we aren't allowed to use AM characters for work from another school. That made it a little better. I would rather have used a completely different rig like Hogan, but the prof. insisted that we use either Lieutenant Dan or an awful flour sack rig for the assignment.

Limp Animation

As usual, all comments and crits are appreciated.

Updates for Internship Reel

Hey guys. I just finished updating my baseball pitch so I can use it on my reel this year. I didn't make any major changes, just tweaking things here and there to clean up the motion and to add more weight. I've updated the file in my AnimationMentor gallery as well. Here's a link to the updated pitch.

Baseball Pitch

I'm not too happy about sending out a 10 second reel, so I'm adjusting a couple of previous shots to add to my reel without loosing quality. The shots that I am choosing are ones that people already really like, but I don't feel are good enough to include. Ideally I would update my Playing with Matches scene, but I don't have the time. I still have to work on my AM short and my animation II assignment for SCAD.

Reaching Out

I have decided to apply for an internship at a few more studios than planned. While I've already applied to Disney and will still apply to Pixar, I have added ReelFx and Rhythm&Hues to the list. SCAD sent out an email about an internship opportunity at Insomniac but their deadline was around March 15th or 17th. It figured they'ed wait to inform us about it today. I dont want to work in games but Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter are two of my favorite platformers. If I have to animate cycles all day, I figure it might as well be with some cartoony characters such as those. I still really prefer to work on acting shots vs a lot of physical action though. Anyway, I'm going to apply to ReelFx and R&H later on this month. Hopefully that will improve my chances of getting an internship period. It'll be great to have professional work to put on my future job search reel. :D

Life Drawing

After drawing a cartoon cat I decided to try to do some life drawing. After doing a page of bad gesture drawings I came up with this:

I used a photo from Deviantart as reference. It can be found here.
I wish I could take another life drawing class. I need all the help I can get.

Sketch

Just a fast 2-min sketch. I liked the cat so I gave him a "background". Lol, I dont know what he's looking at or where he is.

Finished Already

Hey guys,

Today was the first day of class at SCAD. I received my first project for Animation II and finished it a few hours ago. We had to animate two bouncing balls and show that one was heavier than the other. I haven't decided whether or not I will add some subtle squash and stretch to this or not. I really need to spend as much time as possible on my AM short, so anim II is pretty much secondary to that. I'm pretty sure this is enough to give me an A as it is. It's really hard to leave the shot alone though. I can tweak things for hours on end, but I cant afford to do that on an assignment that won't even be on my reel.

I also think both balls slow down to a stop a tad too quickly but fixing that would fall under the spending-hours-tweaking-the-tiniest-things-instead-of-moving-on-to-what's-really-important category, lol.

For now I'm calling this done. Tomorrow I will resume working on my short since I only have one class. I am debating on whether or not I should just do all of the pre-mid term assignments in advance and spend the rest of my time working on my short. All of the assignments are easy, we have to do animate two emotional bouncing balls, a flour sack walk, and a run. I'm pretty sure I can knock all of those things out in a couple of days. I'm just worried about finishing them in advance only to find out that the prof. wants something really specific.

Bouncing Balls

There and Back Again

Hey guys. I've returned to SCAD to resume my studies and its good to be back. ^-^Class starts tomorrow though so we'll see how that goes. I haven't really met my new roommate either. I hope she's nice, I think she's a fashion major though. >_< Anyway, I was checking the AM forum and I found a thread with an amazing trailer for Pirates 3. I had to pick myself up from the floor after watching it and I'm sure you guys will enjoy it just as much as I did. Here you go:

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

I Maybe Down But I'm Not Out

Hey guys. I just heard back from human resources at Disney and got some wonderful news. Their internship deadline wasn't March 16th like I thought it was. I still have time to submit something to them since their correct deadline is April 6th. They've marked me as an internship candidate and all I have to do now is send them my reel. I still don't have any additional shots to send, so I'll just put some title cards on my Vacation scene and use that as my reel. I've heard a lot of talk about students with great reels lost the job because they made the mistake of putting one lower quality shot on there. I'm not going to make that mistake, lol. My reel will only be ten seconds long, but it will be ten seconds of my best work (excluding the shot I'm working on right now).

If I am able to finish my current shot by next Friday, I'll include it on there as well. I'm not going to make the same mistake and rush simply to make the deadline though. If it isn't ready now it will be ready for next year. There's no sense in sacrificing quality and ultimately messing up my chance at getting in as the result.

Oh, it seems like I haven't posted a link to the AnimationMentor Winter Student Showcase. You guys have more than likely seen it by now, but here's the url anyway: http://www.animationmentor.com/quicktime/winterShowcase/

Enjoy!

Winter Student Showcase

It's here! The AM student showcase will be released this week with the newsletter. One of the AM staff members told us in the forum that the showcase is even bigger and better than the original! I seriously can't wait to see it! :D

Quick Sketch

While sending multiple iterations of stupid ads for my stepfather, I decided to draw a turtle. I really dislike making ads for him right now. I just don't have the time to spare from working on the shots for my internship reel. He doesn't care though, he thinks it's justified because he's paying me. I don't want his money. The only form of payment I want is the return of the time I wasted on his ads. Before going to bed, he even announced "I'll send these to you while your at school so you can continue to make money!" I am quite upset about that. I am already retaking class 6 at AM while going to SCAD. I simply wont have any time to spare for his foolish projects. It will be hard enough finding the time to do my best on my assignments from both schools. -_- Anyway, here's the turtle drawing:

Still Alive

Hey guys, sorry for my long silence. I've been/am busy working on some shots to put on my internship reel. The first deadline is March 16th, so I don't have much time. Right now my reel will consist of the two shots from my short that I'm working on and my Vacation scene. I will post the shots that I'm working on when they're "done". Sorry again for the lack of posts. I just wanted to et everyone know that I'm still alive and animating.

Pixar

Hey guys! Check out what a few Pixar interns had to say about their experience: http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/jobs/uni_internships.html

The more I hear about it, the more excited I am about working there one day! I hope they still have all of the cool things Jamie mentioned when its time for me to get there. :D

Bears

Various bear faces for one of my friends...

Blocking Plus

Hey guys,

Here's my whole short in the blocking plus stage. I'm not proud of it at all. I lost way too many days of work over the last three weeks and haven't been able to get my short to the point I wanted it to be for this stage. I like shot 13 and 16, I feel like I finally remembered how to animate when I worked on those. I just wish I had enough time to make all of the other shots like that.

There isn't any sound this time. Some of the shots have gotten longer and require me to rearrange the sound effects and music again. I don't have hours to spend doing that for the third time, so I just skipped it. I'm going to leave the sound alone until the very end. I imagine you guys know what the sounds will be by now from watching my previous posts of my progress anyway. Sorry about that. It's just that I'd much rather spend my time getting shot 15 into the blocking plus stage instead of moving sound files around.

Scare Tactics-blocking plus

More Thumbnails

Here are some more thumbnails for my short...

Which Program?

It seems like I will be doing the six month program that AM is offering for their short film students. My mentor says I don't really need it, but the extra time will only help. The only issue is that I will be back at SCAD for the final three months and will have to split my time between that and AM. I don't really look forward to doing that again, but if it will improve the quality of my short, then I'll do it. My mentor said the extra time will allow me to work more leisurely on the shots that I didn't focus on during the first three months. I agree completely there. I planned on finishing the "non-money shots" regardless, but having access to a mentor will really help me push my work further. I was worried about the fact that my short will make up the bulk of my summer internship reel and that it wont be finished in time for the May deadlines. I was told not to worry about that and as long as the work is solid there's nothing wrong with including a few w.i.p shots on the reel. Lol, he told me that one of his previous students put his w.i.p short on his reel and got hired at ILM. Hopefully I'll be just as lucky. :D

Aspirations

Hey guys. I just watched one of the most beautiful clips of 3d animation that I've ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktZ5JVdDL7Y

I originally didn't want to see Rapunzel Unbraided because I don't care too much for princesses, but that clip has completely changed my mind. The movie can be as girly as it wants to be as long as it has the same high quality animation that the clip does! Whoever animated that shot truly is a master animator. Rapunzel feels more alive in that shot than any other cg character I've seen thus far. I've watched that clip at least ten times trying to absorb as much information as I can from it. One thing I noticed early on is the fact that she actually breathes. From what I hear, a lot of animators forget/don't think to actually make their characters breathe even though it can take their work to a whole new level of life. I know I'm going to try to incorporate that into my short and as much of my future shots as possible.

This clip only emphasizes what one of the Pixar recruiters said when asked why it was so hard to find good animators. She said there are lots of animators who are good at mechanics but few who are really good at acting. Performance is key in feature animation and the performance in the Rapunzel shot is spot on. Everything she does is clear and very sincere. Right now I can only dream of creating animation of that caliber, but watching that clip has pushed me to work harder at creating better performances in my shots.

At times, it upsets me that my work isn't anywhere near as good as that clip or any other feature animation for that matter. I laugh at myself for thinking I can get an internship at Disney, Dreamworks or Pixar when I see shots like this. There's no way I'll be that good any time soon. Then again, I've only been animating seriously for about a year and four months so who knows where I'll be when I graduate from SCAD...

Last Week

Last week was awful. I barely got anything done on my assignment. I wont bother to post what I have since most of it will have to be redone anyway. Sorry about that. I wish I could freeze time or something, as I'm quickly running out of it.

Animation Update

Hey everyone! It's time for an update on the progression of my short. Last week we started the blocking plus stage, so here's the blocking plus version of the first third of my short:

First 3rd Blocking Plus

First off, I apologize about the lack of ease in/out. I ran out of time and wasn't able to include that in this stage. It will definitely be there when I revisit this section of my short though! The second thing is there won't be any sound until I upload the whole short for critique again. This is because I don't have time to edit the sound each week as it takes too much time away from my animation. I already know that the sound effects for shot 3 will have to be edited since I've added two shy pauses between Twitch's scares.

Please feel free to point out anything that you feel is wrong or could be done better! All comments and critiques are greatly appreciated!

On a different note, I visited the AM site and saw another news item about sharing rigs. Appearantly someone is still sharing the AM characters despite the school's polite requests to stop. I think that's extremely disrespectful and very ungrateful of whoever is doing that. I hope the AM staff will catch the culprit quickly and expel him or her for breaching the AM contract. AM is such an excellent school, I really don't know why a student would want to hurt the people that are doing so much for him/her.