Books I Like

Was thumbing through one of my reference books today. Elegant Stitches by Judith Baker Montano. Lovely photographs, clear and useful diagrams and sweet illustrations. Was inspired to write a review on my website. Get the book if you like working with embroidery:

What They Say

AnimationMentor.com promotional video
During my graduation at Animation Mentor in San Francisco various interviews were given by family members of students. David was put in the hot seat. Doesn't he look handsome......!

Ballie Climbing Stairs - Part 2

Been working on refining Ballie. Now I will go to polishing him. There's no doubt this animating game is practice, practice, practice and more practice.

Hedgehog In The Fog

I found this gorgeous short film on Keith Lango's blog -



It's just so lovely to watch. The hedgehog character is very appealing and the story is delightful.

Ballie Climbing Stairs

No sooner said than done - first pass blocking on Ballie. Will work on layering in breakdowns.

Getting Back to Animating

Finally started blocking out a little body mechanics exercise with Ballie. Following the assignments and lectures in Animation Mentor Class 2. One of the perks of being a peer buddy!

Am enjoying getting back to bringing an inanimate object to life. Am working on having Ballie climb stairs. Not something I would have attempted when I was taking the course but am willing to try now.

Will post an early version soon.

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The trailer for Tim Burton's "9" is out. Very atmospheric.

Chris Landreth

Went to hear a lecture from Chris Landreth, the creator of several animated short films including Ryan, Bingo the Clown and now Spine. He was speaking at the University of Tampa.

Great to see his work, his thought process and.... be the first to see his new short. We will be seeing it on the festival circuit in due course.



ALSO..... Animation Mentor is everywhere! While I was talking to Chris after the lecture, who should stand next to me but David Andrade from Graduating Class 1. So of course, I was ridiculous and jabbered excitably to him.

Quite a network.

Blog After My Own Heart

This man - Ian Sanders - does what I like doing. All the things I love; work and play are harmonious...... and financially profitable.

Graduation

It's finally over. I graduated!

We spent last weekend in San Francisco. Flew out Thursday, went to the Animation Mentor job fair on Friday - very interesting. Graduation ceremony on Saturday.

Sunday - worn out. Sat on a bench at Fisherman's Wharf, people watched and ate ice cream.

Monday, traveled around the city on a cable car, ate Chinese in a tiny restaurant off the main drag, bought Chinese souvenirs.

Will write about all the above in more depth when I have recovered from the whole event......!

And put up pictures.

What a special weekend - thank you Animation Mentor. And thanks for the Student Award everyone.

Final

Do you remember what it was like to work up to finals? I'm there now - every minute of the day working or thinking about my short film.

Don't talk to me, don't email me, don't expect anything from me. I eat when I remember to, I sleep when I have to, I exercise when I realise my body is aching and yes, I do wash!

Very exciting and scary doing this rundown to the deadline.

The short is almost all splined out which means most of it is now out of stepped. Oh okay - that means it is not jumping from pose to pose, the animation curves in the graph editor actually join up.

But then what happens is what is commonly known as 'spline mess' and all your hard work goes out of the window. You watch the characters float around and slide gently across the floor with waving, jittery arms and legs.

It's nasty.

So here's the last version of my short Long Flight. It is nearly all out of stepped mode and I am now working on polishing this baby into submission.