Class1 Project Reel

I'm done with Class 1!!! I made it! Lol

Week 11, My final assignment for Class 1 finished!

Here is my final assignment for Class 1. A Character Walk, a walk with personality shown in 3/4 view! This one was alot of work, aLOT of time spent refining and in "splining"*.



It's so crazy that here I am at the end of my 3 months of Class 1. To think, that just a few months ago, I was highly intimidated by the software program Maya, and I thought I would NEEEVER be able to get a handle on it by myself. Outside of a classroom where a professor could walk over to my desk and show me how to fix a problem I may be having. Or outside of an animation studio, where if a technical problem arose, I coudl roll my chair over to my neighboring co worker, or get someone from tech support over to my desk to help me.

But I did it! Here I am, with a working knowledge of Maya (albeit...there's alot more I need to learn about it), but also with a new found confidience in myself, in myself as an animator & my abilities to actually be able to not only make a living, but thrive as a CG animator! Who'd a thunk?!
Who'd a thunk that years ago, when I got my first taste of 3D animating at college in SCAD, when I SWORE I would NEVER do it...it wasnt for me....and I hated it with a passion-- that'd I'd be here right now. I was 2D all the way! (And STILL love it....sadly the industry doesn't seem to at the moment, lol)

GO FIGURE....lol!

*Splining- is an animation term referring to tweaking & twiddling with a graph in a graph editor in Maya to help smooth out and polish an animation you have done. Very tedious, veeerry technical...ugh.

Week 10!!!

I just finished week 10. I revised my Vanilla walk and started blocking out my Walk with personality (Character Walk). Here's my Vanilla Walk, I'll post the Character Walk when its done. ---No revision for me! I'm gonna knock it out of the park, 1st try!!!!

Week 7 & Week 9

Week 9 we had a Vanilla Walk. Which is a walk with no personality, just simple mechanics*. It was a 2 week project, our first one! We had to "block it out" Week 8 & then refine and polish it during Week 9.



*Ahh, I got my first encounter with a common frustration on many-an-animator; "popping" joints!! Comment if you would like further elaboration on this, lol.

Week 7 was almost a carry-over from Week 6's assignment of follow thru/ overlap. Although this time we used a character called Tailor( because he has a "tail"). Awww, how precious.

Week 6 & My Revision from Week 5 (still needs work)

Heya guys,

Here's my most recent stuff. I am really proud of the pendulum one (lol, for now...) I got to spend a decent amount of time, tweaking and working on it. But I could have spend more time...
I can always do more.
I MUST always do more!

Week 6 Bayyybee!

Next up, a platform with a hanging Pendulum, to show Follow-thru & Overlapping action! WOOHOO!

Week 5- Obstacle course!!!

Here are some sketches for the newest assignment.

I have to go out of town at the end of the week, so I'm going to have to do this GUERILLA STYLE!!! lol

Weeks 3& 4 complete!!!

Heeey guys!

I know it's been a while since I posted & I'm sure you guys* (*lol, the ONE of you) are all dyiiiiing to know what is happening so here are my assignments for week 3 & week 4 respectively.

The first is a basketball/soccerball bouncing



And these are TWO balls ( one heavy, one light) bouncing. The blue one is a handball & the other is a pool cue



So far Animation Mentor has been WONDERFUL! I feel as tho I'm learning so much and gaining confidence in my abilities every week. And THAT is what I truly hope to gain from all this, confidence in my abilities. Knowing that I can be released into the industry and not have to worry about not "being good enough".
And when you are learning from professionals, and you know that, YOU KNOW what they know. Then how could you not feel confident?!

Step 2 & 3. Complete!!

Alritey, well I eSigned my application & paid First term's tuition (ouch* lol). So now I'm good to go!

Let the adventure begin. 'My name in the credits of an animated movie' here I come!!

Sucha nice layydee.

Rosie Varela, the student loan officer from AnimationMentor.com, is such a nice woman. I just spoke to her on the phone & she was very helpful. Its so nice to know that Animation Mentor doesn't just appear to be a friendly environment to attract more money & students. But the faculty and everyone there REALLY are nice. thaaaank goodness.

Step One

Ahhh... first things first.

Before all the fun & animating & moving-one-step-closer-to-getting-my-dream-job can begin, I must meet the requirements.

I have already applied & been accepted, woo hoo! Now one of the first things I gotta do is get them a copy of my college transcripts*. I made a few calls..., thought I had to pay, realized I didn't- (sweeet) & it has officially been sent to whom it needed it to be sent to. "Transcripts?---check!"

Hmmm... now whats next?...

*If anyone cares what college I went to, here ya go!

Birth to the Animation Mentor blog!

Hello out there anyone who cares,

Today this becomes a blog documenting my progress through the...(deep breath innnn) Advanced Studies in Character Animation Program at AnimationMentor.com! Phew, what a mouthful :)

This will give people out there a chance to see what I go through as I get my certificate in Character Animation.

"What is AnimationMentor.com?" you might ask... well see for yourself, www.animationmentor.com