What's Been Happening?!

'Howdy' (as they say in the South)... just thought I would shout out to everybody since it's been so long since I have posted. I have been trying to keep up with my self imposed reading list... it's been quite hard though... why you ask????

Well it's the fault of those AnimationMentor.com folks and their continued barrage of helpful resources! *grin*... and well, I've been going to the movies as well...Being that I live in the burbs of a major US city, Atlanta..... I was one of the most fortunate ones to be able to go see the new documentary by Leslie Iwerks entitled "The Pixar Story"... actually, I went to see it twice... it was that good! *grin*

And of course, I had to go see the "Bee Movie" as well *grin* I think that you can tell that Jerry Seinfeld was behind the ideas for the script... with observations of life...but from a bee's point of view...very much like his TV show I think.

And of course there is the DVD of "Ratatouille" that has recently arrived in stores in the US. I think that it has moved to the exalted position as being my most favorite animated picture of all time. Everything was great about it... the story, the pacing, the look, the animation (of course!).... just everything!


Now, about those AnimationMentor.com folks~~~~ and their Barrage of Information!
So... I don't know if you are aware of it yet... but they have been posting a newsletter each month since back in 2005. You can subscribe to it for free by going to their website at www.animationmentor.com although... you have to have cookies enabled for it to work.



AnimationMentor.com has recently joined forces with a couple of other web education outlets. They are now official sponsors for "The Animation Podcast" and "The 11secondclub" And if you sign up for the AM newsletter you'll get the added benefit of one more podcast from The Animation Podcast folks especially made just for AnimationMentor readers.


As a sponsor, AM will be giving critiques to the contest winner of the 11secondclub each month... but better yet... mere mortals can see the critiques as well... THAT ROCKS~
After seeing the first critique on line... I feel like the luckiest person in the world... The critiques look even better than I had imagined!!!!

I can't wait till my classes start in January! *grin*

Proudly! I say, "I am caught up on my reading!"

It may be a struggle for me... but I am current now with my reading schedule. And hopefully it will stay this way (crossing my fingers, *grin*)
I started off reading The Illusion of Life. What an awesome read... I've been taking some handwritten notes from my reading in hopes of 'hammering-in' the details into my brain.

The book not only outlines, in detailed information, the 12 principals of animation... but it also, so far, has offered up some other lists that were used by some of the other animators there at Disney as well. For instance, Fred Moore had a list with 14 points on it, and Bill Tytla had a list of points to remember as well. In a broad generalization, I suppose you could say that Fred Moore's list was strong towards the idea of 'staging' and that Bill Tytla's list was geared strongly towards the idea of the character possessing inner feelings and showing strong emotions.

There was a mention in the book about things being 'plastic'... as they use the term...it means 'pliable'. I don't know about y'all but I had to stop and think about that word for a moment. In the modern since of the word, I don't think of 'pliable'... I actually think of the opposite. I think of plastic surgery... and folks like Joan Rivers... and how they have shot up with so much Botox that they don't have any movement in their face anymore.

On a side note, one of the reasons why I began to fall behind on my reading a little bit was because I got to go to a one day seminar on Photoshop. It was given by the very awesome!... master of Photoshop... Bert Monroy
He's got some great video tutorials up on the web at http://www.revision3.com/pixelperfect

Till the next Post... Cheers!
~Net

My Self Imposed Reading Schedule

Wow! Who would have thought that I would end up having trouble keeping up with my reading schedule, with only 10 pages of required reading a day!... Well, me actually... he,he,he... after all, that's why I made the lite daily schedule for myself to follow *grin* My problem isn't that they material is boring... far from it!... but I am terrible about getting off track sometimes. I am often plain guilty of trying to fit too many tasks into one day and not having enough time to finish everything. I really need to work on this issue of time management now though... before classes even actually start. I will have to accept the fact that sometimes the need to prioritize my day will have to outweigh my incredibly strong desire to compulsively work on projects that are of greater fascination to me at a given moment in time.

If I think about a given subject for a while... it pumps up my excitement... and I want to work incessantly on it till I drop (aka get too sleepy to function) I'm not sure that in the long run that this is a good way to work... but I'm not sure that it's a terrible way to work either...It's nice to work while the excitement is blazing... it's not nice to keep procrastinating important tasks...It's nice to be filled with so much energy and excitement that you can't go to sleep... it's not nice to drag yourself down in the long run because you aren't getting enough sleep(my mind can grow foggy... and I make poor decisions... at least after a while of getting very little sleep)

Balance... I think it's a very important thing to have... for all animated characters... including myself, he he he!~

Thinking about the Future

I've been thinking lately... Especially after seeing the latest AM reel...
about what I'd like for my short to maybe be like, and about all of the assignments along the way.

I know from previous experience at SCAD how easy it is to get caught up working on the wrong things when you are working on a project...getting caught up in making too many props, scenery and lighting such that you loose valuable time that you really need to spend animating.

I've noticed that with AM's new reel, just about every shot has a very finished/polished look to it. There are props, and backdrops, and fabulous lighting... it really does make it tempting to want to put the 'pazzaz' of all the 'extras' into ones shots.

And even regardless of all the pretty polish of the lighting and props... the animation, it's awesome... and the clever story ideas... not just for the shorts but for the assignments too... WOW!

It all makes me feel a little competitive, a little nervous... but I don't want to be either of these... I don't think it's a good idea to dwell to much on comparing oneself to others...

I need to stay focused... stay focused on what I can do... and how I can grow... and appreciate what progress I can make... Breathe Netty! Breathe!

AM's Student Showcase: Fall 2007

Completely Awesome work!

Have you noticed that with each new Showcase reel that AM produces the 'awesome' bar gets set higher and higher!

What an inspiration...

I hope I do well too...crossing my fingers, and my toes... and my ears... :P

Reading Up on Animation!

So I have decided to get a jump on things and read these two books that AnimationMentor.com will be requiring that I read starting in January.

Actually I've had the books already but never had the time to really sit down and read them. I've used "The Animator's Survival Kit" as a reference book before, but I'll definitely be getting more out of it now that I can sit down and really absorb the material.

I haven't really been planning on posting a lot of stuff until classes start in January. Although I am now pondering posting comments based on my reading. It would be a good way for me to review the material... and I've got some notes in Googles Notebook that I've set aside for reading up before January also.

I read my first 10 pages from my book reading schedule last night... :))
10 pages a night of books and at least 2 of my saved internet notes a week... and I'll be ready for January classes!

Cheers! and Good Luck with Life! Till the next post...

~Net

Sony Pictures Imageworks Selects Animation Mentor for Academic Excellence Program

Have you heard the great news yet?... Check it out!

Sony Pictures Imageworks Selects Animation Mentor for Academic Excellence Program

+ Berkeley, CA – July, 2007 — AnimationMentor.com, the online animation school® where all of the teachers are working studio animators, has been granted membership into Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Professional Academic Excellence Program, IPAX. Animation Mentor joins a select group of top-tier educational institutions accepted into the program, which is a wide-ranging knowledge exchange between the Academy Award®-winning digital production studio and the academic community.

“Animation students attend our school with the dream of working on a film as big and inventive as Imageworks’ SPIDER-MAN® films,” said Animation Mentor CEO/president Bobby S. Beck. “This is a great day for our program.”
"Animation Mentor has a unique program that offers real world expertise to animation students around the globe," said Sande Scoredos, executive director of training and artist development at Imageworks and the chair of IPAX. "Several of our top animators are already teaching at Animation Mentor, and it is impressive how well this innovative approach to teaching works for both faculty and student.” Scoredos continued, “Animation Mentor will benefit from IPAX membership and we look forward to what this
animation program will offer our other schools in the IPAX community."

Sony Pictures Imageworks created IPAX to nurture a strong relationship with established academic organizations and cultivate future generations of high-level animation and visual effects artists. With IPAX membership, faculty at member schools gain access to several formal programs including in-house training, curriculum reviews, guest lectures and guided tours, all designed to enhance faculty and student knowledge of real-time production activities and issues. The other IPAX member schools include: Carnegie Mellon, DePaul University Computer Graphics and Animation Program, Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Otis College of Art + Design, Pratt Institute School of Art & Design, Ringling School of Art & Design, Stanford University, University of New Mexico and University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

ABOUT AnimationMentor.Com
Based in Berkeley, California, AnimationMentor.com is an online school at which top working professionals teach character animation to students worldwide. Opened March 2005, the school offers an eighteen-month program built from the ground up by its founders, Bobby Beck, Shawn Kelly and Carlos Baena whose combined credits include RATATOUILLE, FINDING NEMO and TRANSFORMERS. Animation Mentor’s California-certified curriculum includes professional mentoring; expert audio/video rich media lectures; live, real-time, interactive Q&A sessions (web classes); eCritiques™ and 24/7 online creative community. More information at: www.AnimationMentor.com


Check out the website http://www.cgindia.org for other cool updates on industry news

My Current Demo Reel (from SCAD)

I've finally finished tagging my latest demo reel for YouTube... This is from my days at SCAD(Savannah College of Art and Design)

It's kinda blisteringly(new word-just created!) obvious why I want to take the AM classes for animation.*grin*

If anyone out there has any suggestions for making the video look better than it does on YouTube, give me a holler... (I used Premiere Pro's media encoder to make a .wmv 1024k streaming file with a constant bit rate)

It looked so much better before the final processing at YouTube. I've just realized that YouTube looks pretty good until you down-grade your own work*grin*... just producer syndrome(the love of looking at your own work*grin*)I guess... You always want your stuff to look its best.

YouTube is still pretty cool in my book though...

Hope you like it!...

About WebRing...

WebRing, as I alluded to earlier, is a collection of blogs and websites.
It's been created as a way to connect similar topical journals into one community. WebRing does have other topics, aka other 'rings', of interest other than just animation. I, of course, have joined the particular one that is associated with AnimationMentor.com
Each community, or 'ring', has a main area, aka 'hub', for their community. At the hub folks can check out the details for that community via the tabs...hub page, sites, traffic stats, etc. Each member of the ring gets their own personal navigation bar (usually located at the bottom of their blog page or website). This navigation helps internet surfers get to the ring hub or surf to the next or previous blog in the community. (go ahead...check out my navigation bar at the bottom of the page *grin*)
Another way to check out the sites in the community would be to check out the tab 'sites' from the ring hub. Choosing this will give you lists of blogs in the community. Once you click on any of these blogs specifically, you are taken to a new page where the chosen site is brought up in a special navigational window. The folks browsing at this point have more options to check out that particular site or to speed surf to the next or previous site in the ring.
The blogs at the Animation Mentor ring are very unique. For the student members, each blog is an online journal chronicling their progress at AM. There are a also few mentors that are apart of the ring. They like to throw out tips and tricks for lucky would be animators. Of course all of this means that there is plenty of animation to see... some of it very rough... and some of it polished to perfection!

Thanks Jason Schleifer!

Thanks Jason Schleifer, webmaster to the collection of Animation Mentor Blogs over at WebRing.com, and animation god...

You can learn more about him at http://www.jonhandhisdog.com/

*I have been officially accepted into the fold of animation blogs!*... SAAAWEEET~~~

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!

"Dear Annette,
After careful consideration by our admissions committee, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into the Winter 2008 term for the Advanced Studies in Character Animation program at AnimationMentor.com!"

passed the test

So I just got the news today that I have passed the "Cali" Assessment test. That means that my application to AM will now go to a review committee... keeping the old fingers crossed:)

my first post...

I just applied last night to AnimationMentor.com
It's an online Animation school taught by professional animators in the film industry!
The founders are Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena and Shawn Kelly... All with super credentials... just google them! So I sit here... waiting, and hoping that I get accepted!

And when I do... I'll post my animation progress here on this blog so that everyone can share in my experience the way that I have been doing with present AM students on Webring.com

So Cheers~ until the next post~