Class 6: Advanced Short Film

This week begins my final class at Animation Mentor. It's been an amazing place to be and I can't believe it will soon be coming to an end. This school brought me from having never animated before, to landing an animation job in less than a year. It really is that good and I'd recommend it to anybody looking to learn the true foundations and principles of animation.

My new mentor is Don Crum. He's currently at Pixar working on Wall-E, and is from what I hear a pretty rad guy. I'm looking forward to class 6 a lot. Lots of things have changed for me in the last month or so and I think I'm finally going to be able to give this short my full attention. Keep checking back for news on my short, "Kunren!".

I also love my girlfriend Emily very much. Thanks to her I'm an animator. =)

Mickey Sketches

I started doing some practice sketches this week. Trying to learn the shapes and lines of a couple of characters so that I can improve my drawing skill, and thus my animation. You'll probably get to see lots of these in the coming weeks. =)

Anthony Rizzo has been giving me some super good tips on how I can improve. Check out his blog if you have some time. There is some really nice stuff there.

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."

A rose for the girl I love. Thank you for everything, I'd never be where I am now without you and I owe you so much more than I could ever hope to repay in a lifetime. You have my eternal gratitude, as well as all the love I could ever give.

An Epic Day, Feature Animation!

Today was an ultimately epic day: my very first day animating on a feature film. It's heart-pounding to think only a year ago I was learning how to animate a bouncing ball, now I'm working on a feature. I'm still not quite sure how that happened...if I figure it out I'll post the algorithm straight away.

I've always believed that hard work will get you where you're going. Perhaps that's why I enjoy Rock Lee so much from Naruto. His character is based of the premise that he was born unable to perform at the same level as his peers, but becomes a "Genius of hard work" and proves to everyone that he can still be an awesome ninja even with his terrible handicap. I don't necessarily believe I was "born" unable to animate, or unable to do anything for that matter, but it's certainly been a long and bumpy road trying to get here from little old Brewster. I've gotten A LOT of help from A LOT of GREAT people of whom I'll be forever thankful for, it's because of those people that I was able to work so hard and persevere to get to this point.

Generally speaking I'm not a very confident guy, it takes a lot for me to except or admit that I can do something well. This is one of those rare times where I can sit back, relax for a minute, take a deep breath, and be proud of myself.

This is only the beginning!

Last Drop Falls

When I'm looking in your eyes,
Everything seems to fade away.
After all these years we had do I know you now?
Have I trusted blindly in your love, too many times..

God damn it I love this band, they have taken over my soul.

Pyrats!

I stumbled upon pretty much the most awesome animation I've ever seen this morning. It was made at Gobelins (what a surprise...those guys never put out anything that isn't pure awesome), and features some pirates doing what pirates do best.

http://www.pyrats.net/watch-movie.html

Ricardo Curtis and Class 5

I had my first QnA tonight with my new mentor Ricardo Curtis. He's basically worked everywhere under the sun (Warner Bros., Pixar, Blue Sky, Dreamworks, to name a few) and is going to attempt to bestow upon my fellow classmates and I the glorious art of creating a story. I'm super stoked to learn how it works and get my short film under way.

Ricardo's IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0193484/