AM Class One Progress Reel

Hey Everybody... things are fabulous for me... and I hope that they are fabulous for you too!
So I have recently finished up class one at AM... as you may have noticed with the posting of many of AM'ers recently to YouTube and the like.

So this posting is all about Progress... I recently, just this past weekend on my break from AM, have gone through a lot of my old photographs and videos, etc.... and I came upon Gold, pure Gold!!! I found some of my old animations that I had done when I was at SCAD... and they are soooo crappy.... it's just some amazing fun!!! I totally wouldn't want to post this stuff normally... but ... it will give all y'all out there a great comparison... and let you know just how great AM really is... and remember... this is only with the completion of class one for me :D



I did get a very small bit, I'm talking small amount here... better by the time that I left SCAD. My reel ended up looking better than this playblast because I learned a little about modeling and lighting... and I know enough about composition and editing to hide my mistakes... at least some of them *grin*... so here again was my final reel from SCAD...




And now... what you've been waiting for.... my reel from AM!!!




Now as a disclaimer... of course there are mistakes,

(and of course YouTube adds in it's own new mistakes...I've noticed this a lot with the bouncing ball assignments... often it will look like the animators never let the ball hit the ground in some spots... but it's just bad YouTube... I think that by the end of time at AM I will figure out how to post better quality video to my own site... for sure!!! But I guess that YouTube will do for now...)

And of course these samples have not been lit, or rendered... they are just a string of playblasts linked together...nothing fancy... but the animation itself... tons better... tons better *grin*

It's Week 9 already!!!!

Wow... I can't believe that it's week Nine already. Time has been passing by quickly... like a task that you love... like playing outside in the summer... you don't want the day to come to an end!
It's been a lot of hard work... but I think that I have been reaping the rewards. I'm getting a little better with each assignment. Getting a little bit more comfortable with the flow of things.
I wouldn't say that I've gotten the flow absolutely figured out yet... That's my big challenge at the present... and really for the upcoming assignment this week. We are on the 2nd week of trying to get Ballie to walk(the character that looks like a ball with legs, no arms or face) So just this previous week we had to make him walk 48 frames, 2 full cycles, just in stepped mode.
So you may be wondering what 'Stepped Mode' is... well, I'm trying to figure all of tis out too *grin* A pretty good internet resource on the topic is http://www.navone.org/ This would be the website of Victor Navone... who works at a small company you may have heard of, Pixar :D... and he teaches at AM!!! I have to admit... I've really enjoyed watching his critiques... he's really, really good at it... very thorough... He was one of the first mentors to give an e-critique for the 11 second club... you can check them out here.
My time spent in the blogging world has slowed tremendously as many others before me... if I have extra time, I'v been spending it within the virtual walls of AM... it's a great place... there are forums to check out, chat rooms, and buddy lists, e-critiques to watch, workspaces to visit, and critiques for me to give on friends Public Review spaces. It is very immersive... and it's to the degree that you want it to be... So I am sure that you will understand my lack of frequent posts... I am soaking up as much AM as I possible can... while I have the time to bask in it's glory *grin* (Actually, Alumni get to hang out there on the AM site in their own area as well...and in the forum areas too... but I'll still drop into the blog once and a while in the future... when I'm a rich and famous alumni of AM that is *grin*) I will post up some of my work as soon as I can... but most likely not until after week 11 or 12 of the class one that I'm in now.
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Shawn Kelly, co-founder of AM and awesome ILM animator, on a VES award! And the Pixar family for taking home the Oscar this time! Go Team!
And I'd like to thank all of the AM community for helping me in my journey to become an animator... your help has been priceless! As we say in the south... Y'all ROCK!!!

take care of yourselves!!!... till next time

Cheers!

~Net

What's been going on Update!

Okay...
So here it is the beginning of week 5 here on my journey at Animation Mentor...
I have finally caught up with my posts for the individual classes...but I thought that I would go ahead and share a little bit more...generalities if you will :D

So... First things first... I should take this opportunity to remind you and inform you... So... remember...
it's the top of the month... and that means that good things abound
1.) the AM newsletter will be out really soon (it is already for the AM students...) So be sure and sign up on the Animation Mentor website for your monthly newsletter.
2.) It's time to get to voting on your favorite animation over at the 11 second club...and soon there will be another e-critique up for the viewing.

Also I wanted to mention a very interesting new product that is out by a company called http://www.funhouseinteractive.biz/



It's intended to help in your 3d animation workflow so that you can spend less time in the graph editor...Nice! So I plan on checking this new tool out... so you'll probably hear more about it from me later on.

Now... on with the other stuff!

I thought that I would take a moment and mention some of my thoughts about AM now that it's been a few weeks...

This place really is great. I feel more connected with the gang here than I ever did taking 'live' classes at SCAD. The community really does embrace everyone with open arms... and they continue to embrace as well...it's not just a bunch of hype. I can't begin to explain how cool this is for me... Not only is it nice from the stand point of animation...cause you always need somebody to look at your stuff and give you feedback... but it's much more than that... it' one big huge warm fuzzy feeling... it's Great! And I really have seen my animation skills grow... and it's all because of the community... I've have gotten so many tips, and tricks, and helpful advice... and awesome motivating pep talks... it's great... especially when things get hard and you're asking yourself...'what am I doing here, am I crazy, maybe I made a mistake...blah, blah, blah'


So... I hope to keep up with the whole blogging thing... but better folks than I have gone under.... so we'll see *grin*

I have been pondering my schedule a lot since starting... and I do thing that it's a never ending process of refinement. So far we have had 2 character posing's (can that be a word:D) I drew out my sketches each time...but then when I got into Maya I went insane moving Stu around and adjusting the pose. Now granted... it's why I like 3d.... I can think of a pose better than I can draw it out... but... I've decided that this will just have to change. I've been spending too much time horsing around with Stu...(boy that sounds scandalous) Really though... it was great at first... it gave me some time to get to know Stu and all of his controls... but now I think that I need to utilize my time more efficiently...the way I would in the 'real' world. So I have already drawn a few poses for Stu .... 'Devastation' is the theme this time around. But once I get a pose that I like... or maybe two or three... I will try my best to push the pose like crazy before I ever go into Maya with it...

I have also discovered that whenever possible, it's best to get your planning stages up as soon as possible for the PR (public review)... so that you can get as much feedback as possible early... giving yourself plenty of time to animate on the project later on in the week. So in this spirit I have posted my planning images for the obstacle course... and I will rough out my sketches for Stu's pose while those images are up in the PR.

The first week at AM is suppose to be so that you surf around the site and figure out where everything is... I also discovered that it was a great time to go around and meet new people... some of the 'older' classmates .... and folks that are just starting out also...but in different classes. I met some AWESOME folks the first week out that are still my buddies today :D and some of the people that I've met... I actually already had hooked up with through the blog world... so it was a great chance to go around and find all the people that I had been reading up on for weeks and months already.... pretty cool. I've also realized that there are way more people blogging in the AM world than I had originally realized... it's truly amazing... My Awesome new friend Alexiss has actually started a forum post on the AM site to see who all has been blogging. When it's completed I'll see about posting it here.

So this post should hopefully make up for my lack of posting for the past few weeks... I'm off to make more Stu sketches and to check out TradigiTools...till next time... Cheers!

class 104

Okay... trying to get all caught up with my posts here :D
The 4th week at AM is all about Timing... so this week we animated 2 bouncing balls... one heavy and one is light... here's what my planning looks like...




We luckily didn't have a Stu pose this week... just concentrating on the animation~

Here's what the animation ended up looking like...