Class 5:Week 1

Guess what? I got Jay Davis again!!! :D Which is great cause he's such a cool guy, and he's got a great eye for animation. I feel like he's being punished though...having to see my shot for another 3 weeks :D

I know I know...2 days in to 2011 and I've given up on the whole "sketching everyday" thing. It just hit me, on the Monday I'd worked in my job for about 15 hours that day, and I was sat there for 2 hours trying to focus properly to continue sketching. It made me feel exhausted the next day so I figured it wasn't a great idea. It just wasn't feasible for me to do that every day. I'll continue drawing, but under a less regimented...um...regime :) Anyway...it's best for me right now to focus on AM. With that said...week 1 baby!!! Yeah. Lip sync. We had an awesome lecture by Jason Schleifer which opened my eyes up to things I'd never even considered before. I've only ever tried lip sync once before, years ago when I first bought Animation:Master and was working my way through their exercise book. I just watched it now and it's pretty embarressing, but I feel it's important to show it here next to my blocking for my current shot, because I think it highlights the amazing job that Animation Mentor do, how much they've taught me and how far I've come since those old days :) So here they are. Enjoy

Happy New Year!!! :D

I know I'm one day late, buy Happy New Year everyone!!! I don't generally make new years resolutions, but I saw on my friend Leon Gittens' blog that he decided to sketch every day, and post the results up. I thought this was an awesome idea. I need the practice for sure...as you'll see ;) and I'm hoping it'll show some progress. Trying to get inspiration yesterday I came across this blog by Kendra Melton who was doing a gesture drawing class held by Mark McDonnell, who I mentioned in an earlier post. I just thought..."This is how I wanna draw!" I love the looseness and quality of the lines. The character of each person is totally caught, and the poses are excellent. I think it's awesome training for animation. In fact, if I'm thinking right, Mark McDonnell is an artist for Disney. Sweet! :) So here's my first sketches. I found it hard to find something I wanted to draw. Perhaps I shouldn't be so choosey :P Afterall, the point of me doing this isn't to produce a masterpiece every time. It's an attempt to improve my drawing skills and be able to improve my planning...and to have fun :)

Other exciting news is that I start back to AM tomorrow!!! Woot :D I can't wait to get stuck into animating the face and mouth of my last assignment. AND finding out who my mentor is and my classmates. Exciting times!!! :D It's funny...having just looked at the video of my shot, it's not as bad as I remember :) haha. It's amazing how a bit of time away from your shot can change your perception. There's still some work I wanna do. I need to up the ease-ins to some poses, and I'm thinking the arm needs to speed up as he's picking the glass up, but I'm glad to have had a bit of time away from it :D Here it is...