The End of Class One

Alright, this is the last week of Basic Foundations! I'm super excited about next quarter as well as the free time I'll have over the break. Before I get started on anything else, here are links to my final assignment as well as the video I put together of all of my assignments in the class.

Week 11 Final

Basic Foundations Overview

I think I've improved quite a bit from the time I first started animationmentor. I've learned a ton of stuff and am still trying to absorb it all. I'm very happy that I decided to take this route rather than waiting to do AM after SCAD. Sure, it's alot of work doing them both at the same time, but I'm learned so many things that its unbelieveable! I can't wait until next class! I feel like I'm closer to my goal of getting a summer internship at Dreamworks! :D

Alright, on to other things. I saw the Chronicles of Narnia this weekend and thought it was great! I love the fox, beavers, griffons, Aslan, and the queen! The lady who played the queen was excellent! She radiated evil! Her whole look and demanor during the final battle was truely intimidating! The cg was very well done, minus a few green or blue screen issues. I send a huge congradulations to my mentor, Steve Cady on a job well done with Aslan, the beavers and the griffon(s)! :D

Before Narnia came on, I saw trailers for some wonderful movies (minus Lady in the Water, some baseball and basketball movies). Pirates of the Carribean 2 looks great! I can't wait for it to come out. I'm not a Johnny Depp(sp?) fangirl, but I think he's an amazing actor! It's hard to believe Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Jack Sparrow are played by the same person.

Another movie that I am very eagerly awaiting is Open Season! I love the style of the entire film! The bear's fur is very well done and original. The animation looks amazing! My favorate part of the trailer is when the deer is throwing the rabbits against the window. The timing on that is fantastic! There were a few parts where I actally laughed, which is amazing since the Emperor's New Groove was the only 100% funny animated movie to me. I think this movie is going to rock, congrats to everyone at Sony Imageworks who worked on Open Season! If they continue to make completely animated films like that then Sony Imageworks will definatly be on my list of top places to work at.

Over the Hedge looks like it might be good as well. The story seems ok, but the characters are cute. I love films about animals! I hope to work on a few some day! Anyway, my favorite character right now is the squirrel. He's cute and rather amusing. I'm not surprised that Dreamworks went out to get well known stars for voice actors again. Although I'm quite disappointed at the fact that they picked Avril Lavigne to be one of the characters. I'm sure they could have (and should have) picked someone better. Oh well, she might surprise me and do a good job...I doubt it though, lol.

I want to see Ice Age 2, but I'm not that excited about it. I'm not sure I like what I saw of the characters. I dont know what they did to Cid, but he's especially ugly now. Manny seems like a softie, now that there's a female mammoth around. I didn't see much of Diego. I hope they didn't change him, he's my favorite character. I still love the stylistic look of the movie, though. I can watch Ice Age a million times and not get tired of its style.

I don't have much to say about Cars. I don't know what the story people were thinking about, I blame Eisner completely! They would have been much better off by doing a different movie. The story and the whole talking cars thing seems quite boring. I'll see it simply because it's Pixar, but I hope it's much better than it looks. I can't wait until they split from Disney.

Moving on, the next film I want to see is Curious George. Story wise, it seems very simple and childish, but hey, it's a kids film. I'm excited about it simply because its 2d!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so happy that someone has the courage to do a 2d movie. It's very refreshing from the constant stream of 3d films and shows there's still some hope for 2d feature animation. Congrats to everyone at Universal for pulling it off! I'll be sure to support 2d animation by going to see it.

Alright, it's 10:17pm and I think I've typed enough for today. Especially since no one reads my blog anyway, lol. Until next time! :D