Slash and Burn

Like Shermans march to the sea I hacked 60 seconds out of a 120 second animatic leaving all of the flavor and non of the fat. PRAISE GOD that Animation Mentor added a peer buddy program. Now the peer buddies (mostly AM Grads)offered some good suggestions, some that will be implimented, but mostly what I got was support in knowing that I could confidently take a chainsaw to it (as my mentor ,Cal Brunker, succinctly put it). I felt it was running long but I would have tentativley shaved seconds off of it, if left to my own devices. One suggestion that I'm resisting is to reduce the number of characters. I need to suggest a yoga class so having 2 characters would feel like cheating to me. I'de have to close in a a placecard in the scene saying 'private lessons' or some other excuse for the low turnout. I'm relying on the fact that in a classroom situation, everyone will be doing the same thing. Copying animation and adding in variation later is my saving grace. For my first layout I loaded a file with all of the characters in position and the cameras for my first 7 shot cameras. I used the lighting and camera controls from th class 5 toolbar and I must say it looks pretty sweet. Can't wait to dig in. Thank you peer buddies.