Beginning Class 5 At Animation Mentor

Starting January 7th I'll be starting the next class over at www.AnimationMentor.com and starting work on my first short film! I've got quite a few ideas so I have to wait a few weeks to figure out exactly what I'll be working on, but rest assured it will be awesome. =)

Christmas and New Years were a blast. My girlfriend Emily and I traveled across the United States to the east coast of Massachusetts to visit my home town of Brewster and my family. We ate lots of great food, saw lots of good friends, and had a damn good time. We also got to visit my friend Rich Fournier who is an animator over at Turbine Studios. They are known for the LOTRO MMO, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and the Asheron's Call series. It was a pretty rad opportunity, thanks to Rich!

We also got some great gifts, one of which is the final installment of the best movie series ever, POTC! It's on now, so I've gotta get back to it. Have a good week everyone!

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life

Today was my first day at Image Metrics as an officially employed character animator.

Image Metrics does advanced facial animation for film and video games, most notably they've done almost all of the games made by Rockstar. (Grand Theft Auto Series, Bully, The Warriors, etc.) It's exciting to be working on well-known titles that I know people will actually play, so now when it's finished I can show you what I did. =)

My day started with paperwork in the front office, then I went in for the animation dailies where I finally got to see first hand the caliber of animators I'd be working with. It was really neat to see all the different facial rigs for the games, and to see what they were and were not capable of. For the film work the rigs are extremely detailed and the animation is the same, where as the game rigs have a lot more limitations and the animation can't be as complex. After dailies they got me set up with a computer and I got started on my first shot.

My first obstacle was that the scene files for the game I'm on are all in 3D Studio Max. For those who don't know, there are a few different programs you can use to animate in and they all sort of do the same thing but have different buttons and ways of doing them. So in theory if you know the core principles of animation then you can animate on any software, but there is still the hump of learning the buttons. Took me about half the day before I felt like I was doing anything productive. Still though, to learn a new 3d application in half a day made me feel smRt.

After I got it (pretty much) figured out I was able to start workin' on the shot. We do all facial animation, so I have to polish this one long sequence of facial work on the shot I'm given. My current shot is 3641 frames long, which is....a lot! There is a lot of time where he isn't speaking since someone is talking to him, so that's a nice save at least. It's great though, my first professional shot. I'll remember this forever.

Spent the rest of the day working on that and around 3pm we had a studio meeting with one of our guys talking about FACS (Facial Action Coding System) this crazy system that Pyschologists use to analyze facial expressions. Neat stuff! I continued working on the shot until about 6:30pm and realized I forgot to take a lunch break and was starving, so I picked up and headed home.

It's so awesome. So, so, so awesome. Finally.

Here is my list of thanks to people who have helped me:

Emily Grossman
Ken Robkin
Dan Edwards
Karna Nelson
Sean Cannon
Cedric Busse
Kevin Scott
Randy Haycock
Sean Ermey
Martin Hopkins
Dave Vallone
Mike Bahurinsky
Alexiss Memmott
Rich Fournier
Mike Wong
Bobby, Sean, and Carlos for starting AnimationMentor.com!
Tyson, Cam and all the guys and gals at SimplyCG.net
My Parents
Everyone at AM

I hope I didn't forget anyone but seriously everyone has helped me so much I could never have learned how to do all this stuff without the support of so many good people. Thanks to you all. =)

Man it feels so good for a dream to start to form into something real.

Motorcycle Permit!

I got my class M today for the second time. My Massachusetts one expired years ago. This time I plan on actually getting the license and even doing some training before I get a bike. Riding out here is a lot different than back home. Congrats to you Emily too, very nice work =)

Today was long and hot but it was fun. Spectrum is fun when it's not stressful.

Praying For Caleb

All of us in California are pullin' for ya man.

*salute*

Deoderant Expo '07

Today was awesome! I woke up at 11am and made myself some Dunkin Donuts hazelnut coffee, a bowl of frosted flakes and an egg sandwich on toasted wheat bread. I played a little Neverwinter Nights as I ate and talked to some friends about how amazingly amazing the movie Rattatouille was. It is so good, highly recommended. After eating, playing, watching and talking, I left to pick up Emily and start our adventure towards Anime Expo '07 in Long Beach. Tons of crazy dressed up Cosplayers, tons of awesome artwork, anime for sale, posters, tshirts, manga, toys, anything you can think of. It was a really awesome time. Too many smelly people though! Emily and I had hoped to dress up but we kind of slacked in costume making due to being busy with other things. Next year however, it's on. I scored some pretty neat artwork to hang above my desk. A good time, thanks Em!

And the bronze goes to....!

I so got 3rd place at the 80's workout broadway gymnastics olympics. Fear my flares suckas!

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I love my note. =)