Animation is about Possibilities and the Choices

We are all profoundly connected.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Carlos Baena in 3D Word Magazine

This months 3D World Magazine has a blurb from Carlor Baena on page 20. Carlos and Animation Mentor go head to head with James Huggins from Escape Studios. Carlos is defending the Online learning experience. James Huggins is from their marketing department. Nuff said. Go Carlos Go!
My assignment this week was a real train wreck. I feel like I am told what to do without being shown exactly how to do it. Is there a basic 'how to animate' instruction that I'm missing? I've been shown how to animate a walk cycle, so that is what I did. If that's the hard stuff (walk cycles) then how the hell do I do the 'easy' stuff? I have all of the tools. I know what I want to animate and I've found a little reference and I videoed myself doing the action. But if I was a surgeon, given all of the right tools, the patient is still dead. Where is that spleen?
Well, I'm going back in. Gather Stu's family and loved ones.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Doug Dooley: QnA numero uno

Clear Staging. If I stopped right there those two words could, on some Zen level, have a profound impact on someone desiring the masterful influence of Doug Dooley. I hope it's me. (do you capitalize 'zen'?) This genuine and humble fellow was most emphatic "It's all about the poses" he said. He also stated that our 'Avars' must "...communicate your idea.". Who are these Avars? Are they like lawyers? =P The subject of acting came up again. Am I serious enough to take an acting class? AM I serious if I don't? Ah shit. That's all I need. Anthea, AM mentee, shared with the group info about a mime class on the West side. (mime's don't get caps...they're French!) What a better way could there be to learn staging and acting. I hate mimes. They mock me. Doug Dooley admired the work of Doug Sweetland, I'll have to check out his work. When talking about Art Directors looking over demo reels, DD felt that it was important to entertain them, but not necessarily with a narrative in the reel. He felt the at the staging of the characters should be engaging enough to hold the AD's attention for the duration of the reel. Drop any 'filler' shots. A+ only. InkTank, mentee from Medford, asked about storyboards as a side door into the company, feeling that one could transfer over to the animation department later on. Super question right after my own heart. Man, I could work the rest of my LIFE in their storyboard department.
It was really great to see all of the mentees from last semester. I'm planning my weekend around meeting some mentees on Saturday somewhere in Venice. Brian Nicolucci, mentee Antioch, will be simulcasting his AM mentee Bay Area BBQ! I traded tickets to the Disney Music Hall from Sat to Friday. (my first time, I'm stoked). I'm going to watch a the Onidance dance troupe that I referred to in a previous post.
I've been doing some sketches for the next assignment, but I really haven't jumped right into the mix. Hmmm,What about now... ?

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Sunday, June 19, 2005

Class 2 Week 1, AM is the drug of choice

In 'When a Man Loves a Woman', Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan's seemingly perfect marriage shatters like porcelin as they both struggle through the consequences of her alcoholism. Straining to hold onto something tangible and genuine, Meg Ryan tearfully relays the tale of her lifes lesson to the understanding faces of her fellow alcolhics and enablers at her 3 month meeting. She gushes, "At least I have this chip". I think that there was silence. Then one person clapped, then another, until everyone goes berzerk with sympathetic hysteria. Then they all went out for a smoke. Oh, and oh yea...AM is like that. It's the chip that I hang onto when I try to get clients to call back. If I get flipped off on the 405, I go home and pour myself a tall glass of AM. No checks in the mailbox, Sour words with the family, I retreat to my AM hidey hole. When Shaq missed the championship this year, AM was the fair mistress who offered her supple shoulder for me to...uh, right. Okay then, AM.
The first semster has ended and I'm about to open the first week of the second class. My new mentor is Doug Dooley. Lets Rock!!

Sunday, June 12, 2005

If ignorance is bliss then this is paradise!

I was speaking to my good friend Gilgamesh, and we were commenting about the amazing improvements that everyone has made over this first semester. Looking forward to what the next semester holds she asked, "How deep does the rabbit hole go?" It occurred to me that I didn't know how little I knew. And I can't wait to see what I don't know next semester! I work on the homework until the wee hours, as I'm sure most do. I try to NOT do anything cutsy with the assignments as 1. I think that the mentors find it annoying, and 2. if the work isn't spot on then I'll just look foolish. The ultimate goal is not only to entertain, but to learn a trade and provide a service to clients. Te effort has to be in the lesson, not in the fluff (because I'm not that good). But god bless those that can do both. I completely changed the spacing and timing of Hoochie Mama. I've learned plenty, and out characters don't even have arms or faces.
Jeremy Cantor’s is back online doing QnA’s and I’m glad. I think that because we’re relatively close in age I missed his demeanor, professional attitude, and no nonsense approach. But it was good to get some training from Bobby about spacing. It's when he actually takes the reigns and turns the camera on his screen that I seem to 'get it'.
I’ve reuploaded the latest Hoochie mama. I need to go bathe, start a BBQ, kiss the loved ones, and do some other stuff that keeps me from doing my real passion. (just kidding guys)


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Sunday, June 05, 2005

Harsh Mistress

I added a new category for the accumulating animations for the various AM lessons. I would like to add more Stu Poses a little later. 'Posing' is the key to expressive extremes.
I went to a rehersal for a professional dance troupe performing at the Disney Music Hall next month. I was there to draw the dancers and man those guys can't sit still for a minute! It was good practice to help develope a 'photographic eye'. I remember Glenn Vilppu saying, "It's okay to make sketchy motions with your pencil as you search for the form, but you don't have to touch the pencil to the paper". If I was to put down just one line to represent a torso or a limb, I wanted it to carry all of the intention of the movement, with no superfulous scratching on the page. Just the 'right' line. Plus I knew that eventually the dancers would come over to see how I was doing and I didn't want to embarra myself. This was a modern dance piece and it was an intimate peek into another world. I guess it went okay because I was invited to draw at a ballet class where several train. I would be so Honored.
This week I animated the assigned Character Walk. My girlfriend suggested that I do a Hoochie Mama walk for the fun of it. I wanted to do a standard cliche character ie. Brute, Smart Aleck, Hero, Heroine, so a Hoochie Mama was copecetic. I thought I planned it out pretty good but HOLY SCHMOKES...what the hell was that on the screen? All of the paper planning didn't yield the expected result and I ended up with a convulsing, gyrating creature from The Thing! I really had to reel it back to what is at least passable as a, well...first pass. Yikes!

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Friday, June 03, 2005

Email the Important stuff

I think that we can all agree that we could sit at home without AM and do this stuff and it won't mean squat without the Mentors. Yes, I'm psyched, yes it's totally (gulp) awesome. (Okay, I have a problem with the word awesome. The school is amazing, unique, stupendous, exciting, etc...but genuine 'awe' leaves one speechless. Yet people who utter the word are usually behaving just the opposite, they're...well, animated) Mentors are the heart and soul of the school. They are why we come from around the world to be here. And I love the message that the word 'mentor' conjures. Lincoln said that, " A man is never so tall as when he stoops to help a child." So with that understanding in mind, I cannot comprehend why is it that I' have to scour the forums to find out where and when my mentor is having a QnA. I re-listened to the latest Video News and there was mention that there was a new forum but it didn't know that it was to be on the player page. Yea, I see the button up there, now. My QnA was on Tuesday. And I missed it. I'm so desperately afraid that I missed an epiphany inspiring moment or that a lack of QnA involvement affects my grade. So pleeze, email the Important stuff.

I've spent hours drawing and redrawing the timing for my character walk. I did the same thing with the Vanilla Walk assignment. But this is different. I could just copy what was taught in the lectures and do it over and over until I memorized the poses and timing. But this new assignment requires research. I video taped myself, my girlfriend and I looked at movies for my sexy girl walk. (I looked marvelous). I also looked through animation books. I wanted to do a character walk that was challenging and a definable, useable, cliche. On a goofey walk there is more room for error. I think that women are more difficult to animate because there is so much more subtley to their movement than say in a 'brute' or a wiseguy character. All characters pose their own set of challenges, but I'm here to challenge myself and to learn.