My plan

I am still waiting for my 3 months to be up so I can apply for the career loan again but in the mean time I have been saving and come up with a new plan. I was going to do Animation Mentor and then a course with Animationateam.com to help me with becoming a Creature Animator but I have decided that I will do it the other way round. I have decided to do the 5 day course that should be on at the end of March. My theory is that in doing so it will teach me more about animating animals so in my spare time I can practice what I've been taught while waiting to start Animation Mentor. I think this way works better time wise as because I have to wait for the loan to go through it will mean I can't start Animation Mentor till the Summer Term, starting on the 25 June 2012 so why not in the mean time build up my animal animations and practise what I have learned :)

My new Showreel

As I have finished Maya Springboard I decided to update my showreel with the stuff I did on the course and also change some of the old stuff I had on it to show my process of animating in 2D. I think its loads better and what I've learned with Animation Mentor has improved my reel loads! I am so happy that I decided to do Animation Mentor and take the Maya Springboard course, I'd recommend it to anyone. It's good even for learning your way around Animation Mentor and how to do things right.

Kittywood Studios

A fellow AM student posted this and I had to share it. For anyone who knows me they will know I love cats and this video mixes studio life with cats! It made me smile and laugh so much. So even though this isn't relevant to my course or anything I thought you would all enjoy it.

Shading and Lighting Assignment

Our next assignment was to add shading.ie. colour, which as you know I did last week. Looks like I took my assignment to the next level last week by accident but meant I had less to do this week. I did put the room into a box and gave it windows and a door hole. I also fixed the 180 degree rule I broke but I am still having a problem where the eyes are just white, will check with Said as to why that is but at least the Mental Ray fixed the crazy pink head problem.

The other half of the assignment was lighting. I've never been very good at lighting so I found this hard. I can make lights and I know which type of light is best for representing a certain thing. Such as Point Lights as lightbulbs or Directional Lights as the sun. I put 2 Directional Lights outside the windows to be the sun shining through and a Point Light for the ceiling light.

I also made a Rocket shape floor lamp and put a blue Point Light inside it. I thought it would give a bit of interest to the scene. Just for fun I made it dark in the room with just the rocket light too. Oh and you will notice I re-positioned the baby. I just imagined it in the crib trying to reach for the rocket.

Said also kindly used me as an example to show how different light will effect a person as I was sat in my mums kitchen the was a window behind me and the door to the garden was open on my right so me on webcam was a good example. I just had to stay very still as he drew on me to explain what he meant. He then got a bit carried away and gave me a moustache and glasses. As you can see below.

Taking Notes

I've been taking notes to record everything we are being taught but I've realised how long it takes me as I am writing in so much detail, 24 A5 pages for 3 lessons... bit much. Funnily enough in my last Q&A with my Mentor I was caught out taking notes. I was just writing away writing what he had just said when I heard my name so I looked up and I had been put on cam. Made me jump and everyone laugh though. For those that don't know; whoever is taking the lesson, coffee talk or Q&A can turn your webcam on and show you to everyone in the session. One of the reasons the is a rule that you must always wear clothes to them :p

Any way, my note taking has been helpful as I have a system thats very organised so I can quickly find a bit that I wanted to remember how to do but I have now decided to dumb down my notes so I can be quicker at it but with the main bits still there. That way I can spend more time on my assignments. I was just trying to do what I did for my CAD lessons, my notebook for that was amazing, people were always asking to borrow it; think I even made copies for my friends who were struggling too. Always made me smile when I saw people looking up how to do something in my notes. Maybe one day I will type all my notes up and make it into a book along with tips I learn about animating during my life. Wish I could of done that with CAD notes but they mysteriously vanished :(

2nd Springboard Assignment!

This week is split into 2 sessions. I wasn't expecting that but its fine :)
The first session is about modelling and teaching us how to do it so we can make a basic character. I'm actually really enjoying messing with it to make a character that appeals to me. I've never really gone into modelling with Maya before so learning new things. My fellow classmates have set a challenge too. To see who can make the cutest character, my original plan has now changed slightly... I love challenges!

The 2nd session is to build a set for my character and place 2 or 3 cameras in different angles. Then put my character in the scene. I reckon this part will be quite simple as I already know what it discussed in this tutorial but should still be fun.

When I've finished it I will post a few images to see what you think and so you can see what I came up with.

Oh and also found out something... We don't get grades in Springboard! Gutted but not going to stop me doing my best :D

Also, here is a picture of me brought up on webcam during our Q&A :) They are so enjoyable and fun I can't help but grin!

1 Week to go!

I've been put through another 3 weeks of orientation and it was killing me as I am really excited about it but as I've been kept so busy for most of that time its distracted me from the waiting! I have heard from my mentor though! His name is Said Abdul Ghafoor and his website is www.saeedag.com I have also found out that my Q&As are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm GMT (10am PST) and that my first lecture is next week.
I'm actually really nervous now but I'm sure I'll be fine and its just my excitement. I want to work harder than I have ever worked before, I want to be one of the best and most committed students Animation Mentor has ever had and I will blog what I do as soon as I've done it.

Please give feedback on my work; good or bad... don't worry about what you'll say, I can take it and I'd rather know if anything looks wrong or could be better so I can learn but please give a reason, don't just say 'its rubbish', please say 'its rubbish because...' or something along those lines. I'd really appreciate it :)

Been busy but kept me distracted

Apologies for not posting for ages. It was my uni bike clubs rally and as I've been in London I had been kept in the dark about the organising but with 2 weeks to go I found out that they had no bands booked! So I quickly searched for bands and luckily next day I found 'Storm' and then a mate pulled through and found the other a few days later... talk about cutting it fine. The rally did go brilliantly although I was pretty exhausted after it, I did enjoy it.

I marshalled from 11am on Friday until 1am Saturday then got woken with a start at 8.30am by someone sneaking their hand in my tent and pulling my ankle so I slid across my airbed, think I yelled "Ahhh! Somethings got me!" Really scared me at the time and for some reason my first thought was an animal. Any way, that got me up and I marshalled again until 9am on Sunday, watching the sunrise in-front of a huge bonfire, the bands, the entertainment and seeing everyone enjoying themselves made up for it though. I did get an hours nap at 9am on Sunday too but it was scorching in the tent an hour later so I woke up and I was surprised again but this time because I was surrounded by balloons and a space hopper! Must of been over 50 balloons in my tent, was very colourful but surprising to wake up to. Wish I'd taken a photo now.

After all that I'm still not home as I went to visit my mum and saw she was very stressed because she had run a deal with Groupon and couldn't cope with all the bookings and phone calls so I decided to help her by answering the phone and taking bookings and card payments. Been doing that for nearly 2 weeks now and seems a bit silly going back to London when I'm meant to be going to Red Bull's Flugtag in Roundhay Park, Leeds this weekend and then a welcome back party in Sheffield for my friend who's been travelling for about 6 months. I do miss having a bed and my own space though, my drawing suffers when I'm at my mums as I have many siblings and its busy all the time. Good thing I have a good laptop and my mum and boyfriend have good internet or I'd be spending a lot of time in coffee shops for my springboard course. Although coffee shops would be more relaxing... mmm will have rethink my plan.

UPDATE

I went to the Red Bull Flugtag in Leeds. I loved it although it was really slow and I think poorly arranged in some areas, it also rained so I got really muddy and wet but it was just so interesting and I was always curious how each team would do and what performance they would do. Oh and something awesome! One of the teams was called To Infinity and the Pond and they had come as characters of Toy Story and their craft was Buzz's wings and RC! Below is a picture I took of them and one I found on the internet. Even better... they won! Got tons of points for creativity and performance, didn't fly that far though, was only a few feet. Silly way of doing it in my opinion as I think the distance should be more important but still entertaining.

I won the Scavenger Hunt!

Woo hoo! I won the Scavenger Hunt along with Alyssa Lee. Alyssa and I have won an Animation Mentor t-shirt each so when it arrives I will take a picture of me in it to show you all. I can't wait!
Being brave, working hard and doing something that scares you is always worth it plus you may find you actually enjoy it! :D To get the courage to do stuff like the video I did, I just think Carpe Diem (Sieze the day).

Why I've chosen to be a Character Animator

I've always been a fan of animation and grew up watching cartoons and animated films, especially the Disney classics. I've also been a big drawer, I even stopped talking when I was 1 and started to draw anything I wanted to say and when I was 8 I was told that I was an art prodigy as I drew a stuffed bird on an art course and it was an amazing life drawing even for an adult. I remember it and somewhere I have a clipping from a newspaper article, if I find it I will post it on here.

Well, that was the start and during high school my thoughts of a career changed a few times and at one point I was thinking of designing motorbikes but I wasn't in Higher Maths so I wasn't allowed to do it for A-level. So I decided to just do subjects I enjoy and hope my path comes to me. I took Art, Design Technology, Drama and started CAD (Computer Aided Design).

It was CAD that really struck me and I was found in the CAD room in most of my free time and my teacher even had to push me to go to lunch! I was great at CAD and was praised as the best student at it but I missed the creativity. I was basically given a drawing and I draw it on the computer or given a drawing that is missing dimensions and work out how to add them. Thats when my teacher suggested looking at animation. Thats when it all clicked and I realised it was just what I'd been looking for. I looked into the different types of animation and animating and Character Animation was what really grabbed me.

I have also decided that I want to specalise in animating creatures. This is because I've always loved animals. I watch films and documentaries about them, research them, draw them and find working out their movement really interesting and enjoyable.