The Home Stretch!

I'm almost finished with Class 1! Today is the start of Week 10 out of 12, I can't believe it! This week and next week's assignment is focusing on a character walk, I'm excited! I'm planning to do a ZOMBIE walk, and I'm going out on a mission today to locate Shawn of the Dead for reference material. :)

SCHOOL SO FAR

Awesome! I'm still so thrilled to be in AM, it's an AMAZING place to be. The resources there are incredible. The school is founded and taught by animators, so you are learning things about 3D animation that are being applied to movies in theaters today, and movies you've been hearing about and can't wait to see! To have that reference is mind blowing, to learn about Squash and Stretch, and have your mentor use "Open Season" as an example, as in, "In this shot of Boog I animated..." Which really leads into...

MENTORS

Mentors are current animators, and a lot of them are in production on films, which means they are already working 6 days a week, for long hours! Question and Answer Sessions are scheduled based on their availability, usually at night. This does NOT mean they don't give 100%, or that their availability limits your learning in ANY way. When you turn in your work on Sunday, you get a thorough critique by Wednesday morning.

My mentor Nicole Herr works for Sony Imageworks, most recently on "I Am Legend,"
and previously "Open Season." She has a looong and varied list of credits! I was intimidated to be taught by someone in my first class with so much experience, but she's a really comfortable and like-able person. I really admire how professional and honest she is, and her enthusiasm is contagious! Her critiques are helpful and encouraging, and her grading is always fair.

The other Class 1 mentors are great too! AM lets you look at every student's critiques, so I like to check out other mentors' critiques too. They're full of good information, and it's cool to see the other mentors, see where they do their critiques from, and get a sense of their personality.

Aside from your class mentor, there are other CAMPUS MENTORS. They're working animators too, and they give great advice on shots while they're in progress. If you ever need advice, you can drop by the forum and post a request, and a mentor will comment on your shot within 24 hours. This is just the beginning of...

THE COMMUNITY

Something new to AM is their PEER BUDDY program. Peer buddies are at least 1 class ahead of you, and each Peer Buddy has a group of students whose work he or she keeps an eye on. If you post something for review, your Peer Buddy gives suggestions, and you can ask for their help if you run into trouble.

Yesterday I sent an AMIM to my Peer Buddy Chris, and when I told him I had a cold and so everything was more difficult, his first response was, "Oh no! How can I help?" I asked him a question about our Stu rig, and he jumped right into Maya and started offering suggestions. :) That reminds me, one thing worth mentioning about AM is...

THE DEADLINE

Sunday at noon PST. No bull. No doctor's note. No vacation. No technical problems. No. Just turn your work in. On time, every week. Or get a late penalty on the WHOLE week's work.

Does this scare you? Maybe it should. :) No, it's not that bad. What it really means is, don't fall behind. You won't get feedback, everyone will see that you don't turn your work in, and it doesn't look good. Your learning is affected, and your mentor is inconvenienced at having to a separate critique. Deadlines exist in studios, and they exist at AM.

If you get sick and fall too far behind, or an emergency arises, you can take a Leave of Absence. This isn't the end of the world, as classes are only 12 weeks, and you won't have to pay the whole cost again if you have a valid excuse.

Animating while you're sick is no fun, I had my first experience with it this week. I ended up with more of a floppy walk than a vanilla walk! :) Buuut... who's to say my walk wouldn't have been floppy if I was feeling perfect? This animation thing is TOUGH! I keep saying it, and it keeps being true.

Week 6 Already!

School is going by crazy fast. I'm already almost 1/12 of the way done! :( That's right, I'm sad about it! I haven't actually liked school or felt like I was learning so much since elementary school. I only hope I can learn ENOUGH to get me job when I get done!

So far things are coming along slowly, but I can't really call it slowly, because I think I expected myself to pick everything up way too fast. This animation stuff is HARD! I can't even begin to describe... I wish I had paid attention in Physics!

My favorite assignment so far is last week's, an obstacle course! In animation, you must bounce before you can walk. :)



This week I'll be doing a revision on this assignment and a couple of my old ones, and I'll be making a pendulum swing!

Who loves short shorts?

Just heard today that Disney is making shorts again! They're bringing back the "How To" Goofy shorts and creating some new ones in various styles, chosen by the director. Awesome! They're only going to be 5 or 6 minutes, I guess the world's attention span is decreasing as YouTube's popularity is increasing. :) I would LOVE to work on something like this!

On a different note... I just finished setting up my web site! Hoorah. Now I just need some animation for it! Check it out here.

Prince Ali Fabulous He

Well, I officially withdrew from the Art Institute Online, and the finality of it all left me feeling a little taken advantage of by higher education. It's taken me a couple days worth of perspective to look back on what I learned, and find the value in it.

After almost a year at the Art Institute, I was starting to doubt that I could make an animator out of myself. I was taking Character and Object Animation, and the teacher left unexpectedly two weeks into class, and was replaced by a substitute who never introduced himself. The first time I "met" him was when he graded my first ever caricatures, a couple sketches I did of Johnny Depp. They aren't really caricatures at all, because I only managed to get his features instead of exaggerating them. I'd like to think they capture his essence fairly well for a beginner though, and I was proud of my work. The grade I got was 100%, but in the comments, I read, "Caricature is a complex and involved art form, and those who have done them professionally for years are still evolving and perfecting their technique. These drawings only slightly resemble Johnny."

Devasted by the harsh words, the obviousness of the statement about caricatures being difficult, and the lack of any suggestions at all, I seriously questioned myself for the first time about my choice of ambition. I figured I was too soft to handle the world of animation if this is what I was looking forward to as a career. I kept saying over and over in my mind, "They DO look like Johnny Depp! They just aren't exaggerated enough!" When I came to my senses, I realized a lot of valuable lessons about becoming an animator. The first is that I can't get bent out of shape if someone tells me something that I either don't agree with, or don't want to hear. The second is that my own critiques are perhaps the most valuable I can get, when I'm being honest with myself. If I had to do the assignment again now, I would have done another draft and tried to exaggerate his jaw a lot more at least, and I would have tried to laugh off what could possibly be the WORST critique.