Animation Mentor Student
Week 8 at Animation Mentor kept me very busy. It featured a sampling of virtually every type of assignment I’d had thus far. Not only did I have to complete the semi-regular sketches and Stu pose, but I also had to plan out a walk cycle and even do the initial blocking. Let’s not forget [...]
In many ways, the Week 7 assignment was an extension of the previous week’s assignment. Last week had me animating a pendulum with overlapping action of the tail. It also had me procrastinating way too much for my own good. I made certain to get a head start on my work for Week 7, and [...]
This week was the polar opposite of last week for me, and not in a good way. Whereas last week, I had plenty of work to keep me busy, this week I only had one assignment to do. This should have allowed me to get it done and out of the way quickly, right? Unfortunately, [...]
This past week was a busy one for the Animation Mentor community. SIGGRAPH, the annual computer graphics conference took place in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, the Animation Mentor offices in Emeryville, CA hosted an open house complete with tour groups, meet and greets with professional animators, and an outdoor BBQ. These exciting events found [...]
The workload at Animation Mentor has definitely been stepping up, but it’s still perfectly manageable. Unfortunately though, it has caused me to fall a bit behind on my blogging. So over the next few days, I’m going to be playing catchup. Today’s Animation Mentor journal entry is in response to Week 4 of classes, even [...]
This week I got my first crack at animating. The assignment for this week included, among other things, animating a simple bouncing ball. For most people, the classic bouncing ball exercise is the first thing they ever animate, whether it be at Animation Mentor or elsewhere. I have done several bouncing ball animations prior to [...]
Getting custom ringtones for the iPhone can be an annoying process. Many laymen may end up buying ringtones on iTunes simply to save trouble, but its simply not worth it to have to pay to let iTunes do the relatively simple work of converting it to a ringtone. You supposedly own the song after paying [...]
Another week at Animation Mentor has ended, and I’m starting to get the hang of things. Week 2 marked the first true homework assignments. We had to go out into a public area and sketch people in a natural situation and then select one of those sketches to apply to a character model, Stu. The [...]
Video embedded from PotterNews at http://vimeo.com/12941127. Greetings, Potterheads. A little over a week ago, the new trailer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released on the web. Despite the fact that the actual film will be split into two parts (Part I will be released on 19 November 2010 and Part II on 15 July [...]
iPhone OS 4.0 released just around two weeks ago. For many who follow Apple’s products, and for iPhone owners in particular, this was a highly-anticipated update, which promised to add many key features to the cell phone’s operating system, including multitasking, application folders, and more. While I have had a full two weeks to acquaint myself with [...]
This past week has been an exciting one for me as an animator. It was then that I officially began my schooling at Animation Mentor, the online character animation school. The story leading up to this is a lengthy one, but can be summarized adequately in this opening paragraph. Upon my final semester at Purdue [...]
I have to admit, when I first heard that Toy Story 3 was being made, I was pretty apprehensive of the idea. A third film seemed entirely unnecessary and would simply retread the rescue-mission formula in a different scenario. And it is a rescue-mission…but it is also so, so much more. Having finally seen the [...]
Benjamin Franklin once wrote, “Nothing in this world can be said to be certain, except death and taxes….and Armond White will critically trash a Pixar film.” Ok, I admit I made up that last part. Nevertheless, it does appear to be a constant truth. As I, along with the majority of the film review community [...]
Now that E3 2010 has come and gone, it’s time to take a look at how things went down. This year’s E3 was remarkable for several reasons. Motion control is now the name of the game, as if it wasn’t already with the popularity of the Nintendo Wii. This year both Microsoft and Sony brought [...]
Video games, SWAG, and booth babes, galore. Tomorrow will mark the official start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which takes place from June 15-17 in the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 is an annual trade show for the video game industry, put on by the Entertainment Software Association. It is the world’s largest regular [...]
In 1995, Toy Story changed everything. It was the first fully computer-generated feature film. It was the film that made my area of study in computer animation possible. It was the film that various authors have likened both to a brilliant interpretation of Don Quixote and as an homage to humanism. Being but a 7-year-old [...]
Hello World (or more likely “hello” to the 2 or 3 people who may actually come to view this)! As of this day, I have decided to add a blog section to my website. While first and foremost, this site remains a place to store and show-off my animation portfolio, I may also at times [...]
