I often think my life is just one big dream! Then I wonder whose it is and are they enjoying it?

JUST FOR FUN...

2008-12-04T02:19:00.000-08:00

and to further my animation education!

Here is my first entry in the 11 Second Club contest. This is a great way for any animator to add new content to their demo reels, just have fun or brush up on those animating skills. The monthly contest supplies a soundbite which you then have to produce a character animation to. It's super fun and if you win, you get an Animation Mentor Ecritique from a seasoned animator who'll probably have worked for a major studio.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2008-10-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

Season of the Witch inspired sketch...

MY DEMO REEL

2008-10-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

Short Film, AM Work, Web Animations and Dabblings!

Well here is my first real demo reel since graduating AM. I'm still working on polishing the rest of my short and I've done one real freelance job (The Cloth Pull) which is very short and sweet but it kinda makes me feel like a real animator and I muust say that is one great feeling.

OFF TOPIC BUT WORTH A LOOK...

2008-07-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Frank Darabont's REJECTED Indy 4 script!!!

Okay I didn't like the new Indiana Jones movie one bit and although this script by Green Mile writer, Darabont, still contains some silly bits, but is far superior to what was finally put to celluloid.

Apparently Speilberg loved it and Lucas didn't. What on earth was Lucas thinking? I therefore think anyone who paid good money and came out of the fourth Indy installment feeling angry and cheated, like I did, have a right to be able to read a far superior script that at least puts Indy in the action at the end and gives him similar hard decisions to make, just like he did in Raiders, Temple and Last Crusade....oh...and it has no Mutt!

To get the PDF file click on the banner above!

AND NOW THE END IS NEAR...

2008-06-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

...where did the last 21 months go?

Well that's almost it! 18 months of pure Animation Mentor and a break for the birth of my son. Time does fly when you're having fun!

I managed to get around 40 seconds of my 75 second short polished. It still needs more work on those 40 seconds I think and the remaining 35 seconds needs polishing.
I will now have a week break before I can join the Alumni site (as long as I graduate).

This site won't die but updates may be a bit sporadic. I do intend to post my full animation here soon and my full demo reel. So in a few months I'll start looking for work within the animation industry.

A big thank you to Bobby, Carlos and Shawn. Also a huge thanks to all their support staff at AM HQ who manage to solve any problems I had and calm my nerves during some difficult personal periods (birth of my son and moving house all in the same month).

Thanks to all who've left me great feedback!

RENDER BENDER!

2008-06-10T06:31:00.000-07:00

Only one week to go!

Here is a still from my short with some better textures and rendered at 720P. Sorry I can't post more due to my festival entries. I may be able to show a small part of it when completed, still waiting to here about this! CLICK ON IMAGE FOR 720P VERSION

INDIAN GIVER!

2008-05-23T02:21:00.000-07:00

I know what I said...but...

Only four-and-a-bit weeks until AM ends. I'm progressing well with my short (which isn't that short) and I'm currently in the polishing stage.

Okay I know I said I'd post my full progress here each week but after receiving some advice from Michelle, my current mentor at AM, I've decided not to post my animation here for a while. The reason behind this U-turn is due to the fact I'm entering my short into an animation festival in November and I found that I can't enter it into most festivals if it's been posted online.

I'm dissapointed I can't share this with you just yet but I will put it up here as soon as it's finished being screen at festivals.

What I will start to post here is my progress at the AM Alumni site and the production of my first demo reel!

For now then, it's so long and thanks for all the Lasagne!!!! See you all very soon!

Found this and had to post it...being a huge fan!

BLOCK BY BLOCK - PART 4/5

2008-05-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

Semester 6 - Short film - Full blocking plus

A bit late posting this but here is my blocking-plus phase. This part of the process helps smooth out some of the motion an involves going from stepped mode in maya to flat tangents. This makes the animation look a little less jerky.

My Ecritique for week 4 came back with some timing issues and Michelle gave me some great advice on her animation workflow. She does all her blocking in flat tangents using copied pairs (This is where you middle mouse click and drag a key to create a hold). This method helps you see your timing working straight away and also makes it easy to shift and adjust the keys. So I took a step back and cleaned things up using this method. It's now much more managable but still some problems with my constraints.

There's now the big polishing push in which I'll start to go through all the controls for the character and smooth out the splines, adjust timing, add more overlapping action...it's a really time consuming process but essential to getting a better and natural performance...It's all about those 12 principals of animation that I'm still trying to get my head around.

NEXT TIME: POLISHING FIRST PASS

BLOCK BY BLOCK - PART 3

2008-04-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Semester 6 - Short Film - Full Initial Blocking

Had to get this done by last Thursday due to family commitments and I think it may have suffered in the process. One thing I've found out since last semester is you need total concentration while animating, otherwise it can suffer. Luckily I got my Ecritique this morning and Michelle thought the shots weren't as strong as they were in the previous two thirds and gave me a few bits to play around with to bring it back to the same quality as my previous posts.

Other than that, I still managed a good grade and am really enjoying this semester. I'm trying to treat it as something enjoyable and not get too bogged down in technical aspects of the short. Like I've mentioned previously my brother is helping with modeling my designs and my set is very basic. Once the animation is done I'll look to replace the proxy set with something a bit better. It's the animation that matters the most at this stage so I'll just concentrate on that for now!

COMING SOON: BLOCKING PHASE 2

JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE...

2008-04-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

selling the gag!

After my last Live Q&A session on Tuesday the subject of selling the joke in my short came up and that it needed an extra bit to really push the jokes point home. I had initialy had the idea of having somebody paste a job wanted notice for another janitor during the credits but this would require additional animation on top of, what is already, a long short!

Michelle's idea was to have me push-in on the toy box of the transformed "Curious Janitor" and then cross dissolve that scene so the background environment changes but the box doesn't move. At first you don't realise where the box is until the camera pulls out to reveal the box surrounded by other boxes of toys from the same line in the window of a small toy store. A simple pull-out will be much easier to accomplish and will sell the joke much better.

This was a quick visual sketch for my brother who will again provide the model!

BLOCK BY BLOCK - PART 2

2008-04-16T03:20:00.000-07:00

Semester 6 - Short Film - Blocking Second 3rd

Making great progress here and I'm pretty happy with my poses and camera work so far. I thought I'd wait until this assignment was critiqued before posting. I got some great feedback from Michelle in another fantastic Ecritique. The pace of some of the shots needs speeding up and there are a couple of shots that need trimming slighlty to avoid repetition. All-in-all she liked my rough blocking and poses and choice of camera angles.

I've also started to think about sounds in my movie too. I think I have a good idea on the feel I'm after but no idea how to accomplish it. If anyone fancies doing the sound for my short let me know by adding a comment to this post!

So this week I will be trying to complete my final 3rd of blocking by Thursday as we have friends coming to stay over the weekend. TO BE CONTINUED....

SETTING THE SCENE...

2008-04-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

...more props and texture artwork!

My brother did the BUTTON MACHINE model last night and I've knocked together some artwork that will eventualy be rendered on the toy boxes. My set design is very basic at the moment and will probably stay that way until the animation is more or less complete, after all it's the animation that's important not the rendering. That said these few bits I've done will help sell the story and make it easier to understand what's going on in the scene.

GO ON...PUSH IT...

2008-04-09T02:51:00.000-07:00

...you know you want to!

Here is a revised design for my "BUTTON MACHINE". I decided the original design shown in my animatic was too big and the button was lost. This should make an appearance in my first blocking...if my brother models it in time!!!

BLOCK BY BLOCK...

2008-04-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

Semester 6 - Short Film - Blocking First 3rd

As promised here is my first bit of blocking for my short film at Animation Mentor. For those not in-the-know about character animation...lol...the blocking phase consists getting the main poses and in-betweens for the animation set up first. This gives a rather steppy look to the animation at first but as the next stages of re-blocking and then going to spline (I'll explain splines when I start that phase) will really start to smooth out the motion...well that's the plan!

THE JASON RYAN WAY...

2008-04-03T05:11:00.000-07:00

...even more ways to learn animation online!

Ex Animation Mentor...erm....mentor and Disney....yes Disney! supervising animator, Jason Ryan, is putting together his own tutorials on the principals of animation. He has his own unique style and way of working and is a hugh supporter of Animation Mentor's teaching methods.

The site isn't up and running just yet but you can sign up for his "Ramp-Up" newsletter, which will give you details on when the site will go live and also some neat freebie tutorials. Don't worry you can also access all the past newsletters if you missed them. The site won't be free but from what I've had in the past newsletters it's pretty good value for money.

CLICK THE BANNER ABOVE TO VISIT HIS SITE!

THE MEEKER WAY...

2008-04-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

PIXAR...DREAMWORKS...WETA....

I'm back at AM and now in the process of completing my short film in around 11 weeks. I had my first Q&A with my new, and final mentor, Michelle Meeker on Tuesday. She seems to be a fun mentor with lots of experience in the animation industry and has worked for quite a few of the major studios on some of my favourite movies (PIXAR - Geri's Game, WETA - Lord of the Rings and DREAMWORKS - Shrek). So as you can imagine I'm a pretty happy bunny!

The first Q&A had a technical glitch so I didn't get chance to speak to her directly but I will hopefully be top of the list this Tuesday at 7:30 - 8:30pm.

I am now just starting to block out the first third of my short. I fully intend to show the whole process this time, so I will show you my blocking, re-blocking, polishing and final polishing as it gets done and critiqued.

PIXAR WALL-E TRAILER

2008-03-27T16:32:00.000-07:00

...Short Circuit 3 this isn't...okay!!!

This looks like another PIXAR crowd pleaser! I liked Ratatouille and thought the attention to detail on the animation was amazing but I was a bit let down by one or two story elements that didn't quite work for me. I think The Incredibles will take some beating!

THREE DAYS TO GO!!!

2008-03-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

Animatic for my short film "Don't Push It!"

At last, here is my animatic which I completed during Semester 5 at Animation Mentor. It's very rough and a bit too long and it was produced while under extreme stress during the weeks surrounding the birth of my baby boy and also a house move. Many thanks to Chris Derochie for his understanding and helping me get a pass grade to continue to Semester 6...in three days time!

SHOW THE WORLD YOUR ANIMATIONS

2008-03-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

...and WIN an Animation Mentor E-Critique

"The 11 Second Club" is a great site to showcase your animations and you may be lucky enough to win an AM E-Critique from one of AM's mentors.

AM mentors are industry professionals working at many of the leading animation and visual effects studios and will help you take your animations the next level.

Yeah, you may all remember that I tried to start something similar to this a few months ago and failed. I should be bitter and twisted but "The 11 Second Club" is superbly executed and easy to use. Drop by and grab the latest sound file and get animating! If you can't animate just drop by and vote for your favourite animation.

CLICK THE BANNER ABOVE TO GO TO THE SITE!!!

I WAS ALWAYS TAUGHT TO SHARE...

2008-03-27T06:02:00.000-07:00

...so here I am, sharing!
I've copied this directly from Bobby "Boom" Beck's Blogsite (I hope he doesn't mind, but he did say spread it around) and Bobby is just spot-on with his comments on this "11 Second Club" "AM" E-Critique. Dave Burgess is a fabulous animator and a funny guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him very briefly at the Bradford Animation Festival, UK. If we were allowed to choose our mentors at AM, he'd be at the top of my list (Maybe just under Victor Navone)

Here's what Bobby had to say....
So you want to see what Animation Mentor is all about? Or, you want to see how to take a shot from “good” to “great” then check out this fantastic eCritique from Dave Burgess for the February winner of the 11 Second Club!

This eCritique is 33 minutes of pure animation gold! It’s a “mini animation lecture” for the whole world to see for FREE! I hope you pass this link around to your friends and fellow animators as this is what it’s all about, spreading the knowledge and sharing in the art. Animation Mentor wants to give a HUGE thanks to Dave Burgess for doing a fantastic job on this crit!
Taken from Bobby "Boom" Beck's Blogsite
Bobby is the co-founder of Animation Mentor - The online Animation School

CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE THE E-CRITIQUE

MY LOVELY LITTLE-ISH LAPTOP

2008-03-25T06:57:00.000-07:00

Delightful DELL...

While on my break from AM I decided to get shut of my huge hulking Tower PC system and get a nice compact laptop. This is something I've been after for a while, but a decent notebook that would have the power of a desktop PC was out of my price range two years ago when I began Animation Mentor.

This little thing of beauty (do you think I'm getting a bit carried away!) runs MAYA better than my old PC and comes with lots of great built in extras and Windows VISTA, which I love! It's just great that I can now stuff this into a bag and animate anywhere.

Hopefully, AM are all geared up for VISTA!!!! Fingers crossed!

IT'S A MODEL AND IT'S LOOKING GOOD...

2008-03-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've missed Animation Mentor!

Phew! I can't believe how fast the past 12 weeks have flown by. Only one week to go and I'm back at Animation Mentor for my final semester. I had intended to get my whole animation blocked out while I was on a break but things never quite pan out like that.

I also realised the other day that I still haven't posted my Animatic for my "Don't Push It!" story. I will rectify this soon! I've managed to do some video reference and my brother is kindly modelling my scene and props from my designs, which are looking great (picture below of the ray gun).

So here's to getting back to animating and back to regular updates of this AM Blog!

OUT TO LUNCH...BACK IN 3 MONTHS

2008-02-11T02:38:00.000-08:00

Taking a well earned break!

This post is a wee bit late but I've been really busy with the birth of my first child on November 12 and a house move on December 17 (Yes I must be mad!).

I just about managed to get through my 5th Semester during all this and then decided to sit back and relax for a few months. When I say sit back and relax, I mean unpack lots of boxes, move furniture, decorate the nursery and do copious amounts of DIY!

Semester 5 was fabulous and I just wish i'd been able to attend more of my live Q&A sessions with Chris Derochie. I must thank him for his support and he kept me hanging in their with his enthusiasm for my short story idea. I'll post my animatic in the next few days and I'll be restarting, and completing, my final Semester on March 31, 2008.

So with only about six weeks to go until I'm back at Animation Mentor and then 12 more weeks of hard work what are my plans once I've completed the AM course? you may ask!
Well I've started designing a website that will eventually hold my demo reel and some info about me. I'd like to see if it's possible to get some freelance animation work to begin with. I've got a few irons in the fire on the freelance front but we'll see how it goes nearer the time of course completion.

I'll hopefully graduate and move to the AM Alumni site where we can showcase our work and still get valuable hint and tips from within the industry. I'd also like to either enter my AM short into the Bradford Animation Festival (BAF!) this year or create something new and fresh!

Of course I'd love to try and get a job in the animation industry! At present the games industry appeals! It's on a high at the moment and with the next gen. consoles the line between film and computer game animation is blurring a bit. That said, I've always had a passion for movies and special effects so it's a bit of a tricky decision.

Okay, I'm off to change a nappy and burp my little boy! See you soon!

MY SON!

2007-11-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Jake Oliver Scott - 7lb 4oz - 12/11/07

Everybody I know with children always told me that the experience of becoming a father was beyond words. All I can say is, they were so right!

MOVING PICTURES

2007-11-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

"Don't Push it!" Animatic - Part 1

This is the first half of my short film, in animatic form. This started out as a series of still storyboards taken into Adobe Photoshop in sequence. I then used Photoshop's animation tool to do simple cut outs which you can be manipulated to form basic animations.

The idea of an animatic is to get my shot ideas locked down for when we move to 3D. In the next few weeks at Animation Mentor I'll create the second half of this animatic and then move on to doing a 3D version of this.

Animatic Part 2 - Next Week

AM STUDENT SHOWCASE - FALL 2007

2007-10-17T15:32:00.000-07:00

Best of the best!

ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY?

2007-10-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

...Then I'll begin

Here are my short story ideas for Semester 5 at AM...

“DON’T PUSH IT!”
Setting – Toy factory
Time of Day – Evening
Characters – Janitor Jake and his broom

We open with Jake, a young man taking a job as a janitor at “MADLAB TOYS”. On his very first day he enters the main toy production room, flicks on the lights and is surprised to find no machinery just shelves upon shelves of boxed action figures and in the centre of the room an octagonal plinth with a big shiny red button on it! And then… he begins to sweep and clean the room but his gaze is constantly drawn by the plinth and the big shiny red button. His curiosity eventually gets the better of him and he approaches the plinth. He slowly puts out a hand to press the button....but has second thoughts and withdraws. He now paces around the plinth staring at the shiny red button, rubbing his chin. Now and then he stretches out a hand, again tempted to press the button! He eventually decides to leave and the lights go out...blackness! And then…a few seconds later the lights are back on and Jake’s racing towards the plinth and instantly presses the shiny red button. He is totally oblivious to a trap door that opens behind him, from which quickly unfolds a spectacularly large and futuristic looking ray gun. The gun is aimed directly at him but he just stares at the shiny red button wondering why nothing has happened. Lights start to sequentially illuminate on the side of the gun as it begins to charge up, ready to FIRE! Jake, still wondering why the button’s not working, gives it another push. As quickly as the gun appeared it powers down and vanishes back into the trap door. He presses the button again and out pops the gun which starts to charge. The gun begins to shake as it reaches full charge and recoils ready to FIRE!…Jake hits the button again. The gun vanishes once again! And then…frustrated, Jake beings hitting the button in quick succession. As he does the gun pops in and out of the trap door at high speed. Jake stops and the gun has gone once more. In a rage he lets go of his broom and stamps across the room angrily, but his broom begins to fall and taps the shiny red button! Until finally…Jake is now face to face with the charging gun. He’s horrified and screams! The gun charges, shakes and recoils. He tries to run but… there’s a sudden blast of purple light and smoke. The smoke clears and Jake has vanished! A small spinning cardboard box drops to the floor. We close-in on the box as it lands, spins, rattles back and forth and settles. It’s a toy box similar to the ones on the shelves. The front reads “MADLAB ACTION FIGURES – VERY CURIOUS JANITOR, WITH POSABLE ARMS AND LEGS. INCLUDES BROOM AND CLEANING KIT!” there’s a cartoon style picture of Jake on the side panel. CLICK! The lights go out! Blackness! THE END!

Moral: To make the audience laugh, smile and be afraid for Jake… and to show that curiosity proverb doesn’t just apply to cats!

-----------------------

“BIG MONEY”
Setting – Agrahbar…City of mystery…City of Enchantment (Copyright Disney)
Time of Day – Morning
Characters – Jacob and his two gold coins Market stall holder

We open with Jacob, a skinny young man walking the dusty streets of Agrahbar City! He enters the city gates and spots a sign pointing him in the direction of the market square. He pauses for a moment and glances down at his hands, he holds in his palm two gold coins. He continues to walk along the city street as the sun beats down. And then… Through the heat haze he spots something! As he approaches he sees it’s a lone market stall. A makeshift sign above the stall sign reads “FRAGRANCES” and the stall holder is slumped over the counter looking sad and bored. As Jacob approaches the stall holder’s spirits suddenly lift and he greets Jacob with a big smile and gestures to his wares. There are two bottles of perfume, one pink bottle labeled “MINIATURE MUSK” and the other blue, labeled “BIG BOUQUET”. Jacob thinks for a while and looks down at the coins in his hand again. The stall holder gestures to another makeshift sign that reads “ONLY ONE GOLD COIN – VERY CHEAP!” Jacob notices the stall holder’s empty money pot. And then…Jacob points to the pink bottle. The stall holder nods and rubs his fingers, gesturing for payment. Jacob hands him a gold coin which the stall holder bites and drops into the money pot. The stall holder picks up the pink bottle of perfume and sprays Jacob with a cloud of pink sparkling vapor. Jacob sniffs at himself but doesn’t look impressed. And then…Suddenly Jacob begins to shrink and shrink! Jacob is now a tenth of his size and is looking up at the store holder angrily jumping up and down waving his fist. The store holder gestures to the blue bottle labeled “BIG BOUQUET”. Jacob nods and the store holder sprays small Jacob with a cloud of blue sparkling vapor! Jake begins to grow and grow….and grow. Now Jacob is ten times his normal size! Until finally…The store holder gestures for payment. A giant hand passes down a huge gold coin to the store holder who smiles and nods as he tries to keep his balance holding the giant coin. We see Jacob’s huge hand take the pink bottle. The market stall holder rolls the huge coin round the back of the stall and down a back alley where there are piles of giant gold coins. THE END! Moral: To make the audience curious and wonder to what the outcome will be!

-----------------------

“ROLLER ROVER”
Setting – At the park
Time of Day – Sunny Afternoon
Characters – Sarah and her dog Daisy

We open with Sarah walking her lovely and obedient dog Daisy through her local park. Sarah is carrying a pair of roller skates. They stop at a park bench and Sarah ties Daisy’s lead to the leg of the bench. Sarah sits down on the bench and puts on her roller skates. Daisy watches, looking puzzled. And then… Sarah tries to stand up but instantly her feet slip from under her. She catches herself on the bench and tries again. We have a quick montage of Sarah’s attempts to stand up in her skates. Each time she ends up in an awkward and funny pose. Eventually she manages to stay upright, legs trembling. Daisy is very amused, wagging her tail and grinning! And then…Sarah now makes various attempts to start moving by wiggling her hips, throwing her arms forward, nodding her head and many more. Daisy is now rolling on the ground in hysterics tail wagging furiously! And then…Sarah slumps down on the bench defeated and looking sad! Daisy stops laughing and realizes that Sarah is really upset. Daisy ponders and then glances back at her, now, slowly wagging tale. Daisy slowly walks to Sarah turns and wags her tail at Sarah. Sarah brushes it away and looks even sadder. Daisy tries again and again… Sarah and Daisy suddenly look at each other and then at Daisy’s wagging tale. They both smile at each other. Until finally… We now see Sarah on her skates holding onto Daisy’s tale being dragged around the park. Both are smiling and having fun! THE END! Moral: To make the audience laugh at Sarah, feel sad for Sarah and have mixed emotions about Daisy! To make the audience smile at the end!
-----------------------

“FLAT-PACK SCHMATPACK”
Setting – At Home
Time of Day – Afternoon
Characters – Big Jim and flat-pack furniture

We open with Jim an expectant father and self proclaimed DIY expert, who’s just taken delivery of his nursery furniture. Jim struggles with the big heavy boxes up the stairs and onto the landing just outside the nursery. We have a swift montage of Jim rolling up his sleeves and checking his tools, ready to put together the furniture. And then… Jim examines the instructions! He looks puzzled and keeps flipping the instructions back and forth, grabbing bits of furniture and comparing them to the diagrams. And then…We now see Jim in a montage of slotting sections of furniture together, bending parts hammering and hitting his thumb! Screwing in screws and nailing nails. He’s finally finished and stands back to admire his work…It’s a jumbled mess of cot parts that hangs together for a few seconds and fall apart. Jim looks angry and dives back in. This time he’ll get it right! And then…Another montage of Jim bending, hammering, screwing and gluing, even faster! Now completed, Jim smiles once more and stands back to admire his second attempt. This time we have a beautiful cot. Jim lifts the cot and tries to get it through the door from the landing into the nursery but it won’t fit. Jim tries many combinations but it just won’t go through the door. Jim is furious at this point, but suddenly spots a saw in his tool box. He glances back at the cot and back at the saw. Until finally… We now see Jim sliding the cot in place into the corner of the nursery! He smiles and looks happy with himself. He walks from the room back onto the landing, we see that Jim has cut two huge, cot shaped, sections out of either side of the door frame. A chunk of door frame falls to the floor…Jim winces slightly. THE END!

Moral: To make the audience connect with the character as most will have had to put together flat-pack at one time! To make them laugh and smile or roll their eyes at the outcome!

-----------------------

“MOVIE BUFFED”
Setting – Very Small Bedsit / Apartment / Hi-Fi Store
Time of Day – Evening and Morning
Characters – Mike and the Shop Assistant plus other Customer.

We open with Mike having an evening in, doing what he loves best...watching a movie on his very out of date Home Cinema System. Mike has his Pizza a large coke and a big tub of popcorn. He flips through his large laserdisc collection, picks a movie and pops it into the laserdisc player. He settles in his lazy boy and hits the play button on the remote. The picture comes on the TV screen but it’s very distorted and rolling! Mike tries the remote again but there’s no change. He’s now at the TV using that age old technical system of banging the top and sides. He hits the sound button on the remote and the super large speakers start to vibrate...the speakers start to smoke and spark and the fronts pop off...seconds later the TV burst in to flames! And Then...Jake looks sad, but he suddenly spots an advert in a magazine lying on his coffee table which reads...”IS YOUR HOME CINEMA OUT OF DATE!”...Mike nods to himself and continues to read the ad...”UPGRADE TO THAT TRUE CINEMA FEELING...ONLY AT CUSTOMHOUSE AV!”...Mike smiles! And then…The next day Mike gets a big box in the post! We then see Mike in his flat opening the box. On the side of the box it reads...”CUSTOMHOUSE – THAT TRUE CINEMA FEELING – IN A BOX!” We then have a montage of Mike slotting parts together, screwing things, drilling things, bending things and sewing and gluing things. And then…3 hours later, we are close on Mike, who is now sat back in his chair. He smiles and looks around at his handiwork. He hits the power button on his remote. We are now close-up on the TV screen which now works perfectly...but as we pull out we see it not a TV, it’s a full-size cinema screen and Mike is in the centre of a full-blown theatre auditorium. A caption appears that reads “CUSTOMHOUSE AV – SOUND ADVICE!” Until finally…We pull out again to reveal we are watching an advert on a TV in a CUSTOMHOUSE store. A shop assistant looks like he’s trying to sell the TV to a customer. THE END

Moral: Just to make the audience smile, laugh and show that nothing is as it seems!

THE DEROCHIE WAY!

2007-10-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

My new mentor is...

Mr Chris Derochie! Well I'm actually 3 weeks into Semester 5 (I can't believe it's been 12 months since I began this little adventure into animation). Chris is a very passionate guy and from my live Q&A sessions to date he's hell bent on getting the best out of us. Chris worked for Don Bluth studios in Ireland and Disney in Australia. He's taught animation around the world and has his own animation company!

This term is all about finding and planning our short story ideas so it will be ready to animate in the final semester. I may be very barve and post my short story pitches here...we'll see! Anyhow here's to another great 12 weeks at AM.

LATE TALK!

2007-10-12T17:20:00.000-07:00

Soooooo much to do...sooooooo little time!

Apologies to any regular readers of this blog for my lack of updates! With our baby on the way in less than nine weeks plus a possible house move, AM studies and my full-time job at the T&A, it's been really hard to find time to get this bit done.

So here is the final submission for Class 4 which ended about 4 weeks ago. It still need some major polishing and a good look at my arcs, splines and lipsync. I'll go back to it at some point.

Right now I've just started Class 5 - Short Story Planning with Chris Derochie as my new mentor. Again he's got real passion and looks like he'll be a great teacher! Not loving the fact I have to get up at 4am every Wednesday for the next 12 weeks though!

EVERYBODY'S TALKING...

2007-08-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

Part 2 - Blocking the shot

Here is my first pass of blocking on my new dual dialogue shot. It took me a while to find out how to do live camera cuts in Maya. At one point I had the camera flying all over the shop! Managed to sort it out in the end for a nice pan-in and a shot over Brussels (the green guy, Bishop is biege). I tried to get the gestures and had poses down now! I'll try and get some emmotion in the face in the next pass but i think the body needs to be done first. TO BE CONTINUED!

EVERYBODY'S TALKING!

2007-08-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Part 1 - choices, choices, choices...

Here are the dialogue lines I've chosen for my next assignment. This will be dual dailogue with two characters on-screen together and will involve 2-3 camera cuts. From these three lines I need to choose just one to animate to!

Talking Loud 'N Clear

2007-07-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

THE END...

Wow this little assignment felt to go on and on, but this is the final of my first dialogue shot at AM. I've tweaked and adjusted this one to death and while I feel it's pretty competant there's a few bits and bats that still need more tinkering with at a later date! That later date pile sure is getting pretty big!

I didn't think it was worth posting my two shots running up to this so I'm sorry for the couple of weeks where I had no AM work up to view. Now I'm starting on my totally new assignment that will feature two characters interacting and maybe some camera direction. So for the next eight weeks I'll keep more up-to-date by posting my week-by-week progress!

THE BARRETT WAY!

2007-07-04T01:03:00.000-07:00

My new mentor is...

Yeah I'm back at AM this week for Semester 4 and I have a brand new Mentor, Justin Barrett. Just had my first Q&A session with him last night, but due to a power failure and technical issues I missed the first 20 mins. He had some great insight into acting in animation and getting into the emotion of the character.

Justin has some awesome work on his website, so it's looking like I have a very good new mentor here, and from testimonials I've had from his past students, it looks like this should be a fantastic fourth term.

Visit Justin's website and BLOG at: http://www.justinanimator.com/

POINTS MEAN PRIZES!

2007-06-28T01:38:00.000-07:00

Well actually, animating means prizes!!!

Our PERSISTENCE OF VISION animation contest website is now out of BETA and due to popular demand has had a bit of a facelift to make it brighter, plus we've added a direct link on the mainpage to the competition forum. I will be adding some more quick links to make it easier to get to the sections that matter. I'm in negotiations to get some better prizes for future competitions. Please drop by and help support the site and if you fancy entering, all the better! Please spread the word!

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT US NOW!

TALKING LOUD 'N CLEAR

2007-06-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Assignment 2 - Almost done!

This is almost complete, just two more weeks to go and it's on to Semester 4. This means I'm almost half way through the whole 18 month course. I can see my improvements week on week and I'm still really enjoying my time at AM. Great students who are always willing to help and great staff. Can't wait to see who my next mentor will be!

SHOW THE WORLD YOUR ANIMATIONS!

2007-06-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

Like TTSC only different!

Like most budding animators I loved dropping by the "Ten Second Club" Website. Then one sad day it vanished. Anything similar to TTSC are hard to find, I think only www.strutyourreel.com is close but seem to be struggling to get up-and-running!

I've tried to get something going that I hope will fill that gap. "Persistence of Vison" is a simple free NING forum that I'll host a monthly 10 second animation contest on. Just download the monthly audio file and create an animation in any medium and post it on the site.

There will be a monthly prize which will hopefully get better as the months progress.
For July the prize is a copy of "The Animator's Survival Kit - by Richard Williams"

TALKING LOUD 'N CLEAR...

2007-05-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

Part 2
Okay, this is my first pass blocking of my dialogue shot. Still need to sort out the scene with props and stuff. My mentor likes to see the first pass blocking in linear mode rather than just stepped. I must admit I do prefer this to stepped. I think you see the holds better and it's easier to tweak before going to full on spline!

Part 3
Now we move on to my second pass at blocking, well it's actually splined quite alot here. I kinda got carried away with it and maybe went too far. I'm pretty happy with the outcome though at this stage. I've still got three more weeks on this to really refine and polish the animation. I must say things are starting to click! I'm understanding the 12 fundementals of animation more and more and with help from my mentor (Raquel's been just superb!) I'm learning more of the subtleties or performance animation. TO BE CONTINUED!

TALKING LOUD 'N CLEAR!

2007-05-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

Animation with dialouge...Part 1

With my last assignment finished (I have a few tweaks to make before I post my final render) it's time to move onto my next assignment. This will be acting again, but this time using an audio clip! Here are my three choices, of which I need to pick just one!
TO BE CONTINUED!

ASSIGNMENT 1 WEEK 4

2007-05-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

Move your bloomin' arse - Part 4

Only a week left to polish! This is my first refining stage and I got some great feedback today from my mentor Raquel. The start is a little too slow so I need to take out a few frames and keep the nail biting gesture in there longer which should be both pretty easy to sort. There's a bit of stiffness in Stewie's left arm with the IK which needs attention.

I really like how the rendering turned out with the flickering TV. This was my first venture into a proper render using Mental Ray in Maya. The only problem is the counter on the Animation Mentor shot mask (Where my name is at the bottom of the animation) doesn't render correctly in MR but it's fine in Maya's Software Render! If anyone can help with this please let men know via the comments section for this post.

The best thing I've learnt this week is that refining and smoothing those splines in Maya takes a long time. I think it could be as much as 70-80% of my total time on this animation has been spent on refining! It's laborious and tedious work but once done and done right it really pays off...so stick with it! TO BE CONCLUDED

SHE'S HAVING A BABY!

2007-05-02T01:38:00.000-07:00

Life will never be the same again...!

It's early days but our new addition to the Scott family will arrive early December! We're soooooooooooooooooo happy!

PIXAR LOGO OUTTAKES!!!

2007-04-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

Luxo takes a tumble...

www.suponix.com have created three parodies on the PIXAR opening logo. This one's my favourite of the three. Head over to their website to see the rest plus some other neat animations for other organisations!

Assignment 1 Week 3

2007-04-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Move your bloomin arse! - part 2

I got some great feedback from my mentor and fellow students this week! This is what Animation Mentor is all about, it's a great community of like-minded people who help each other out. I was a bit sceptical at first wether this would feel like a proper college or university, but even though I'm thousands of miles away from most students (USA, India, France, China, Canada, Iceland...et cetera) it does feel like a real learning environment! I've kept up my promise to myself of giving feedback on other students animations (many of which can be found on other Blogs) and I seem to be getting more in return.

Things have advanced further this week! My mentor gave me great pointers on framing the shot and set dressing, so I've tweaked the animation and added an environment that I hope helps sell the acting! TO BE CONTINUED!

MOVE YOUR BLOOMIN' ARSE!

2007-04-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Stewie has a flutter...

Here's my blocking for my first assignment of Semester 3. For this we had to do pantomine acting (no dialouge). Yes there's video reference for this that I acted out myself, and yes you're not going to see it here! Only a privaleged few get to see me make a total idiot of myself. This is the blocking stage, well actually it's taken a little bit further than my previous blockings. This came about after reading Victor Navone's Spline tutorial and great guidance from my mentor Raquel in last weeks Q&A.

SAY CHEESE!

2007-04-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

Animation Mentor on FLICKR!

Many of you may already know about this but I stumbled upon it when I found an Animation Mentor MySpace page. That page had a link to http://www.flickr.com/groups/animationmentor. I live a few thousand miles from AM HQ so it's great to see these candid behind the scenes photos. There's also alot of Graduation Dinner and event pics too.

THE STORY SO FAR...

2007-03-30T01:50:00.000-07:00

Part 2

Here's my reel of all three Semester 2 animations together. I think my favourite is the post to post jump! I was able to put alot more time into that shot. I'm gonna go back and do another pass on the sticky door when I've got some spare time!

AT A THEATRE NEAR YOU...

2007-03-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

PIXAR & Disney's RATATOUILLE!

Take a look at the new trailer for the new PIXAR movie. This looks great! Great story, great look and as per usual wonderful animation. I'm like a big kid when these things come out! Can't wait!

AM STUDENT SHOWCASE

2007-03-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Winter 2007

The best of the best, the cream of the crop, the cherries on the cakes! You get the picture! ENJOY!!!

AND NOW!

2007-03-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

the end is near

Okay that's almost it for semester 2. Just a week left to get all my past work archived. It's been a tough 12 weeks but a great learning experience, which should stand me in good stead for Semester 3 with my new mentor Raquel Coelho. Thanks to all who've given me some encouraging feedback and I hope all those who've asked me questions about joining the AM programme, have taken the plunge! You won't regret it...AM is awesome!

THE COELHO WAY!!!

2007-03-26T02:55:00.000-07:00

New Semester...New Mentor!!!

My new Semester starts on April 1st with a brand spanking new mentor. Brazillian born, Raquel Coelho has worked on numerous projects but her most high profile are Son of Mask, Charlotte's Web and Oscar winning Happy Feet! Here's to a great new semester with my new mentor.

TOON TIME!!!

2007-03-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

My Competition Entry

This quick little piece was done for a competition over at GNOMON WORKSHOP. The subject was "PET ALIEN" so I kinda flipped it around and thought about a rabbit that was a test subject for NASA Teleportation in the future who's zipped to a distant planet where it becomes the pet for these two aliens!!! Well I'll let you know if I don't win...there's some talented artists over at their forum!

PULL IT REAL GOOD!

2007-03-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

From Start to finish!!!

Thought I'd show a full progression of my latest Animation Mentor Assignment. From blocking out the shot to re-blocking and then onto refining and final polishing! below are the Blocking and re-blocking stages. After the initial blocking I realised it would be hard to get from pose to pose without cheating and using Daffy Duck style pose jumps so the re-block shows my re-thinking and subsequent changes to my original ideas!

ONE GOOD TURN!

2007-02-26T00:19:00.000-08:00

Well an Okay turn...

Ooops! in all the excitement I forgot to post my final 180 deg turn! This was just the final polished version with a few bits still wrong with it but hell you could work on these for days and there would still be "stuff wrong" ....NEXT WEEK - Opening a Sticky Door!

JUMP AROUND, JUMP AROUND!!!

2007-02-26T00:07:00.000-08:00

A jumping from post to post...post!

This is my final render of my second assignment from Semester 2 at Animation Mentor. We had to have this guy jumping from post to post and show weight and balance! This was very hard but I'm quite happy with my progression. The extra bits and bobs I added to give it some kinda gag/story. All it needs now is the Indiana Jones music!

RENDER BENDER

2007-02-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

be afraid!

These are some really bad bits of test animation I've dug out! The first one was done in 2005 while I was dabbling with Cinema 4D and the Cinema Lobby was done way back in 1995 (modelled by me in StrataVision 3D on a first generation Mac clone!

TURN, TURN, TURN

2007-01-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

Feelin' Dizzy!!!!

Class 2: Assignment 1 - Blocking

Class 2: Assignment 1 - Refining

Really enjoyed getting to grips with this assignment! Right from the planning stage to the blocking and then refining. It was a bit frustrating at first but this has helped enormously with getting used to the graph editor and how powerful it can be. There's still stuff to fix here I'm sure and next week will be the final version plus the start of assignment 2!

I'M BACK!!!

2007-01-15T03:11:00.000-08:00

The Lessard way!

The Christmas cobwebs are all cleared out and I'm back and raring to go on my second semester at Animation Mentor. My second mentor is Eric Lessard, I think he's French Canadian and he's worked on Madagascar, Shrek 1,2 and 3, Antz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Mimic. Sorry it's a bit vague but I've no profile on him at present. That said he seem very enthusiastic and a plesant guy all round (Based on my first live Q&A session last week).

it's been a tricky week though! Firstly all my inhibitions have had to go out of the window as I had to take some video reference of myself doing my chosen animation. I won't say what it is yet and I won't be posting my video reference here! letting 200 students see me online is bad enough! Then I had to plan out my animation in thumnails with timing, also very tricky!!! NEXT: Blocking my chosen animation

THE STORY SO FAR...

2007-01-03T00:49:00.000-08:00

All critiques welcome!

This is my progress reel for my first semester at Animation Mentor. The AOL Video seems to have slowed it down a tad. I would be grateful for any critiques. Please leave any critiques in the comments section for this post! Cheers to all the people who've visited my site and left me some great messages of support and guidance.

I start Semester 2 on January 8, 2007 so check back for more new posting in a week or two! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

ALL THAT GLITTERS MUST BE TINSEL!

2006-12-18T02:55:00.000-08:00

A time to relax at last...

At last I can kick back and relax for a few weeks! I've crossed the i's and dotted the t's over at Animation Mentor and the site is now officialy down for the holiday period. Thank you to everyone who's visited my site and given me over 1400 hits to date! Thanks go out to all my classmates who helped me through this first term at AM and I look forward to seeing you all again next semester. It's also very sad that during my first semester a couple of students dropped out and won't be returning on January 8th! Also a big thank you to my first mentor Mr Dimos Vrysellas. He was a fabulously enthusiastic mentor who gave us all invaluable advice and guidance! But my biggest thanks go to my wife, Sarah, for all her support! Have a great holiday everyone...drink and be merry and I'll see you all back here in the 2007 for part 2 of my ongoing quest to become a character animator!

BE CAREFUL BALLIE!

2006-12-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

Week:11 - Assignment:11

This is it my last animation assignment for Semester 1. We had to take our character walk into a perspective view and add some hip action to give it better timing and weight! It's all in the hips!

STU'S GOT THE MOVES!

2006-12-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

The main man...in balance

And here's my final Stu pose for this semester!

JUST MESSING WITH MAYA!

2006-12-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

In the spotlight...

Seeing as I managed to get my character walk done with time to spare, I thought I'd have a mess about in Maya and add some lighting and have a dabble rendering the scene using Mental Ray. This was just for my amusement and to get a hang of Maya's powerful rendering tools!

WITH CHARACTER!

2006-12-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

Week10: Assignment 10

This is my walk cycle with character ( a sneak). I think I'm getting the hang of it and seem to be improving week on week! I'm loving this course and can't believe the first term is coming to an end. Watch this space for my final assignment next week when we go from side views to perspective!

I'M SO TIRED!

2006-12-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

Exhausted Stu...

I made a big mistake and submitted the wrong pose last week! I won't go into details of how I spent hours and hours trying to perfect my vanilla walk to such an extent that i was exhausted myslef and looked at the wrong page of my syllabus and posted this pose instead of the concerned pose! because that would be just silly and boring! Anyhow here's my week 9 pose...enjoy!

I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS!

2006-12-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

Concerned Stu...

Part two of our week 10 assignment was to pos my mate Stu into a concerned pose. This was my revision pose as the first pose I created made him look scared!

IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE?

2006-11-27T13:19:00.000-08:00

No, it's Stu-perman!

This was a revision to my original post for Strong Stu! This is my favourite pose to date! Anyhow I'm trying my best to keep up with my blog and as you may have noticed I've ditched my pose sketches and I'm keeping it short and sweet-ish!

Only another two full assignments to go for this term! This first term has flown by and my life seems to be doing the same. Myself and my wife both had birthdays in this period and I'm not sure what happened on both! Hope all of you who keep looking in are enjoying my musings and will keep following my progress. Don't be afraid to give me comments on my work...I'm here to learn from anybody!

A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE!

2006-11-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

Week 8/9 - Assignment 108/9

This was a right royal pain to complete! I messed with it for so many hours I think I may have gone too far. Too much bounce and many other things are wrong with this. I'm gonna try it again before I do Assignment 110 as I need to get it right! Stay tuned!

TINKERING WITH TAILOR!

2006-11-11T14:55:00.000-08:00

Week 7: Assignment 107

Okay, this was, in my opinion, the hardest assignment to date! A ball with a tail with character and arcs and overlapping action and squash & stretch...the insanity!!!!

KING OF THE SWINGERS!

2006-11-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Week 6: Assignment 106

What more can I say?...This was my overlapping action assignment!

SEE HOW HE SOARS!

2006-10-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Week 5: Assignment 105

This week looked like being a very daunting task! Send a ball round an obstacle course and use squash-and-stretch! Here's my submission. They'll be another Stu pose to follow plus my previous weeks video (I'm revising it at the moment!).

ALL THE FUN OF THE...

2006-10-20T05:01:00.000-07:00

...Festival!

November sees the return of The Bradford Animation Festival(BAF). It's the UK's biggest animation festival that screens commercial, professional and student animation from around the world. This year is no exception as renowned animator Dave Burgess with be giving a talk and Q&A session on November 18th. Dave worked for Disney in it's second hayday on films like Aladdin, The Lion King and Tarzan. He's also worked on Shrek 2 at Dreamworks and more recently Over The Hedge (which will screen after Dave's talk). Dave is also a mentor at Animation Mentor! Luckily I work in Bradford and have my ticket in hand!

ON A HIGH!

2006-10-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Week 2: Assignment 103 - Part 2

For Assignmet 103 - Part 2 I had to do some quick sketches of people looking excited and then take my new pal Stu and put him into my favourite pose (highlighted).

I got some great early feedback from mentors and students, thanks guys! So here's my submission for this week!

HANG TIME!

2006-10-14T19:02:00.000-07:00

Week 2: Assignment 103 - Part 1

This was so cool. We actualy got to animate something! Don't get me wrong, I love posing Stu, but to get into Maya and have a mess with the Graph editor and learn about Slow-ins and Slow-outs and Hang Time...I'm having so much fun!

The assignment was to animate a bouncing ball with the weight and timing of a football / basket ball. It really opened my eyes to the power of Maya's graph editor and I must have produced about twenty different bounce animations...can you tell I'm hooked?

WEEK ONE

2006-10-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

The start of something great!

Here's my first week assignment...well it's my second week actually as the first assignment was to attend the Q&A and fill in my online profile. The first Q&A was really good and Dimos is a very enthusiastic chap and a lot of fun! I missed the second Q&A being on holiday in Ireland so I'm itching to get back to it tomorrow for number three.

So here's my second assignment which was to get out and about and sketch people in basic stick figure form and then download and pose the pre-rigged character "STU" into my favourite sketch (highlighted). I did an original pose and then revised it to my final pose after a few early critiques. Thanks to all for their comments. This is where AM realy works!

MY FIRST MENTOR!

2006-09-23T02:02:00.000-07:00

The Dimos Way!

Just found out two things from my AM diary! Number one, Dimos Vrysellas will be my first mentor. he's worked on numerous Dreamworks projects including Shark Tale, Road to El Dorado, Sinbad and Spirit. He's also worked more recently on The Wild. You can visit his website by going to my mentors link.

Secondly, I have my first live Q&A on Wednesday, 27 September at 7pm-8pm GMT. To help me keep track of the California - UK time difference I've added a couple of world clocks to my blog. No excuses now for being late for class!

THE WRITE STUFF!

2006-09-20T16:07:00.000-07:00

Mentor memories

I've been asked by 3DWorld magazine's editor Jim Thacker to put together a monthly or maybe fortnightly diary on my AM experiences over the next 18-months. It will only be on their website (not in the magazine) and will probably mirror the stuff that appears here in my Blog.

Visit this fab mags site at...
http://www.3dworldmag.com/

A LIGHT READ?

2006-09-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

In order of heaviness...

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, The Animator's Survival Kit, The Art of Hercules, Maya Rendering, Maya Modelling and Animation Handbook, Maya Foundation, Art of Animation, Dynamic Anatomy,The Making of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Glaxy, Dynamic Light and Shade, Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery, The Art of Maya, Maya Unlimited Features, Cinema 4D R8 Handbook, Cinema 4D, Maya Killer Tips, The Art of The Lion King (mini book), The Art of Toy Story (mini book),

I think the first two books are the really important ones. I've been reading them since I applied for AM and they are just so inspiring! GET THEM AND READ THEM!

OKAY TO GO!

2006-09-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

I've got the essentials...I think!

Okay I got my AM log in details today! I was so excited to get online and have a look through the site. My first session begins on September 24th!

Here's a picture of my computer set-up and all the essential items (and some that probably won't get used very much over the next 18-months).

I'VE SEEN THE FUTURE...

2006-08-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

...and it's Z-shaped!

I've been dabbling with a program called Zbrush for a few months now. If you're into 3D modelling you probably know what it is! For those of you who don't let me enlighten you to the future of 3D modelling!

IMAGINE BEING ABLE TO SCULPT YOUR MODEL OUT OF DIGITAL CLAY!

Okay, maya has a simplified version of this idea but Zbrush takes it about 1000 steps further.

Pop over to www.pixologic.com and see what the fuss is about. Version 2.5 is hopefully just around the corner.

For those in the know why not join in my ZBrush Callenge at
OLY'S ZBRUSH CHALLENGE

...and it's Z shaped!

WONDERUL WORLD OF AM!

2006-08-22T04:58:00.000-07:00

Mind at rest..!

Rang AM yesterday and spoke to the wonderfully helpful Suzanne. I'm all sorted with regards to the previous post! I won't bore your with all the details, safe to say I've just posted my 2 sets of registration papers and paid my Class 1 tuition fee! BIG GRIN :-]

So in a week or two I'll be a fully fledged Animation Mentor student! This will take a lot of work on my part as I'll be working full-time and doing the AM stuff in the evenings and weekends. Also, I haven't been in a learning environment for 20 years....scary!

Okay I'm off to buy a sketchbook and Webcam this afternoon!

DAMN! HIT A BUMP IN THE ROAD TO AM!

2006-08-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

Note to self...must plan better!

Just got my registration papers for AM but will need to wait 28 days before I get my "Statement of results" ( I lost my UK exam certificates in 1992 during a house move...strike that...my Dad threw them out!). AM require all documentation by September 1.

May have to wait until the Winter term (Jan 1, 2007). Waiting to here back from AM!

Wish me luck!

NOT SO SUPER!!!

2006-08-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

And I was SO looking forward to this!

Saw Superman Returns at the weekend and had to vent my dissapointment at what I believe was a very poor movie. To sum up I thought the story was poor, the characters were too weak and too young, and Supes' himself was very monosylabic and looked IMHO, weedy!

I therefore decided to vent my anger in Photoshop and put together a tweaked version of how a superhero should look. I think Bryan Singer needs to dig out a copy of the book "How to draw comics the Marvel way" and pay paticular attention to the term "exagerate".

On a plus note I must say the SFX for the shuttle plane sequence were breathtaking but some of the flying scenes with Lois were poor.

Okay rant over!

KINDA OFF THE SUBJECT!!!

2006-06-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

Just got myself on of these beauties!

It's a Creative ZEN Vision M Personal Media Player and it's awesome. It's 30GB and I've easily managed to rip quite a few of my animated DVDs to this plus Jeff Lew's character animation DVD which I purchased a while ago. I hope watching my favourite movies on the way to work will help me with the course :-). In fact this now has every PIXAR movie and every PIXAR short on it and some other of my favourite animated movies! I'd recommend one of these to anyone!!!

Went down to the PIXAR Exhibit in London a few weeks ago which was uber cool (a bit small) but well worth the admission. The PIXAR Zeotrope (a collection of Toy Story models in slightly different poses spin round on a huge disc. It looks all blurry but they switch on some strobe lights and they look to move like stop motion animation) was worth the admission price alone!

Not much to say really regarding AM! I'm slowly getting to grips with Maya 7 with some simple modelling and a bit of key-frame animation. May set myself a task to complete before I start in September. Really looking forward to the start and meeting new people with similar interests!

NEED TO GET UP TO SPEED...

2006-04-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

Practice makes perfect!
I think it's now time to dig out all my Maya books and actually learn something. After E-mailing a few UK Animation Mentor blogs and asking their advice on AM, the concensus seems to be...
1) Get used to modelling simple props
2) Get used to rigging (just so you understand the concept)
3) Get used to Maya's timeline and FCurves
4) The more you know about Maya and animation before you start AM the better!
It all sounds very daunting but I've got just short of 5 months before term one!

I'M IN...FANTASTIC!!!

2006-04-20T14:57:00.000-07:00

I'VE BEEN ACCEPTED ONTO THE ANIMATION MENTOR COURSE!!!
Did my apptitude test a couple of hours ago and just got my e-mail to say I've got a place reserved for the course which starts on September 25th.

APPLICATION TO ANIMATION MENTOR

2006-04-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

FIRST STEP!
Just sent in my application for Animation Mentor today. Not sure about the 500 word essay. It's been 20 years since I last studied so this is pretty scary. Just waiting now for the link to the apptitude test. I hope I get in! Watch this space.