It's Official

... I am terrible at keeping this blog going!!!
This is the last week of class 5. Where has all of the time gone.
I would show you the layout for my new short ;) but alas... those files are on a different computer. They really aren't that pretty to look at right now anyway... wouldn't want you to be all disappointed, heheehee ;)
It's very interesting to go around AM this week and check up on everyone... see how their shorts are coming along... both in this layout type of form... and from the senior class above me, class 6 that is... It's really neat to see everyone's shorts taking shape. Check out Chris Waltner's blog... it turned out really nice. http://chriswaltner.blogspot.com/2009/03/its-wrap-almost.html
Well... guess I'll check back in next week... I'll have a new mentor already...
there's really no break for us this time... unless you want to count the weekend...
till then...
Cheers!
~Net

Well, It's here... class 5... the story production class at AM. This is where we develop our story ideas that will eventually become our animated short. We basically use all of this class to flesh out a proper/entertaining story idea... and we take that idea... plan the shots... the camera angles... make a layout... and make a story reel. Then in class 6... we will use the entire time to animate.

It's pretty hard to come up with the ideas for the short... AM has shrunk down the time for the short... I think that it used to be at least a minute... now it's only 30 seconds... It's really hard to come up with a traditional beginning, middle and end kind of format.

I've luckily come up with my required 3 ideas to start off with... and now this week we are supposed to narrow it down to 2 choices... and then do a video/acting/story pitch for those... and then next week... I suppose we'll be down to just one... OH.. but which one?????

Class 5 at Animation Mentor

So I found out today that my new mentor for class 5 is none other than Mark Pudleiner... YEAH!!!
He's got a really Awesome Blog at http://markpudleiner.blogspot.com/

Class 5 is all about the Short Film Pre-Production... developing your story that is... and turning it into a layout to be used for animating in Class 6. AM has changed there rules a bit in regards to the making of the short film since they first opened their doors... for us it is now only 30 seconds long... that is a Max 30 seconds... you can evidently go shorter. And I'm thinking about going shorter... at least it would be nice... if I can only come up with something that is a good story that fits into such a tight little space... aaarrgh... hard stuff to do... But it's gonna be even harder to animate it... especially if you let it get too long and with too many characters. As for right now I've only got a couple of very rough ideas.... so I'm just a wee bit nervous... like anybody else too.. I want it to be a good story... with a beginning, middle and end.
I'm going to try and be better about blogging this term.... I'm very excited about the New Year and all of it's prospects and opportunities that lay ahead...
I'm going to go back and polish up my past animations... I never got to them over the busy holiday break... but I'm looking forward to digging in and polishing them up...2009 is going to be an Awesome year!!!

The Power of the Movie Critic

Hey Y'all,
I just wanted to share some of my thoughts on a movie I caught a couple of weeks ago. The movie's name was "Delgo"... and I caught it on it's opening weekend with a couple of friends. Now you may have heard... "Delgo" bombed at the box office... and critics were definitely not kind in regards to their reviews... I was really surprised to see that the critics had given the movie an average score of a "D"
Granted, the movie wasn't a Pixar flick in it's quality... not in animation, or story... but I really dug the artistic look of the movie... and for animation... well, okay... it' wasn't that great... especially in the lip sync area... but I've definitely seen worse. The story wasn't really terrible... but it did feel a little long in some places. In my opinion though, the movie was made for the 8-12 year old crowd... or at least that's who they should have marketed it to... if they had any money to spend on marketing that is... which it looks like they didn't have any money to spend on that at all...

Overall I think that I would have given the movie a C+... a very nice effort for a first movie effort for Fathom Studios that was evidently plagued with many difficulties. I would give this rating of a C+ only because of my new artistic eyes for animation... but I think that the average public would have rated the movie a B.

I can't lie... I really wish that the movie had done better in the theaters... as if trying to distribute a movie independently wasn't difficult enough... I think the crappy reviews by the critics didn't help the situation at all... and I personally think that they even stole something from Fathom Studios... 'a chance'...
a chance to be seen by the public... I don't think that the general public would have given the movie such a crappy rating... and I think that many of them... would have really enjoyed it.