Class 2 -- Week 8 ... Parkour!!!

This was the hardest assignment I've done to date.  Why?  Doing the different stunts requires that you build in transitions to shift into each stunt.  That means you aren't just animating a wall run or wall flip, you have to do an animation to transition into the wall run and then into the wall flip.  It's a lot to think of and I incorporated too many stunts requiring the same number of transitions.

Class 2 -- Week 4 ... How to march

The point of this assignment was to concentrate on the hips and get the character to do a specific action.  In this case I decided to do an "about face" with a high kick march.

Random Posting! :)

Roundhouse Kick! :)

Session 1, Weeks 10 and 11 -- Walk with character :)

Man, has this been a crazy couple of weeks.  We went from a Vanilla walk to coming up with a walk that has personality or character.  I decided to do a "sneak" walk.  Along with our walk we had to do two different poses, one for exhaustion, and one for balance.

Here's the balance pose:

Here's the exhaustion (sorta looks like me in grade school) pose:

And the Sneak Walk:

When AM says "you'll be doing 20 - 40 hours per week" they were not kidding.  This was a crazy and awesome experience.  I learned a ton from the students and the mentors, and now have a clue as to what goes on in the animation industry.  I'm not going to lie, this was one of the hardest things I've ever done with academics.  I have never felt so out of place in learning in my entire life.  However, AM is there for you and will help you find the instruction you need in order to succeed.  It is entirely up to you on how much you drive your learning.  

Something else I've realized is how much I really enjoy animation.  My mentor, Anthony Wong, said this "If you do not truly love animation, you will not be successful.  Every pose, movement, and gesture you make shows your emotion towards your craft.  If you do not truly love animation, then your work will never be great."  I walked away thinking about this, and realized it's the same in the software biz.  If you really don't care for what you are working on, and really don't enjoy your job, then your work will be "quick-n-dirty" and never push you to the next level.

Aw well, enough philosomahphizing.  Hope you enjoy the work.  I sure did.  This was a very challenging assignment and I loved every minute of it.

See ya next post...

RANDOM POSTING!!!! :)

Pictures of scenery around Austin, TX and the Stevie Ray Vaughn memorial.

Enjoy!