Holy Cow!

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've posted something. I don't have blog updating on my schedule so I guess that makes it one of those damn 'out of sight, out of mind' things. Specially since I've never really done one before. So today, I'm looking at a couple of things to add here, I'll post up last weeks assignment as I have it hosted outside of my skule workspace (which I can't share publicly) and I'm sure I can figure out how to do it. ;P

So what's been happening the last month? Well we've had a few great assignments, and a few not so great assignments. Last week was a bit of extended 'overlap' and 'successive breaking of joints' with a little character named Tailor. Basically a ball with a fluffy tail. Entertaining and fun I'd say. I had a great time coming up with something and then racing like a madman to get it done. Last week was a bit rough for me, not only did I have to move a yard and a half of dirt solo (that's roughly 4 pickup truck loads and a LOT of shoveling) but there were a number of small family emergencies with my 2 yr old daughter getting her thumb slammed in front door and breaking it on Saturday to make for one helluva week. So having little time during the week to work on my assignment due to life dropping a whole lot of life on me, I spent the entirety of Saturday refining my shot. This is what I posted up.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Overall I was pretty happy with it, but knew it needed somethings done to it. My mentor Martin 'Martman' Hopkins threw down a seriously killer critique and gave me some great direction to take the revision in which I'll post up when it's done. Here's a shot of Martman though doing some video Q and A action.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

I'm super impressed with this guy and could not have gotten a better guy to introduce me to the horrors of animation.

Through the coarse of the last month though, I've continued to meet some great people, and find and use new tools and techniques. I'm still struggling with Maya but have a few Digital Tutors disks to go through, and a pal from AM who's a stellar resource to help me through it. One of the things I totally dig though is called Jing. It's a video capture protocol that allows us to critique other students work to help them (and us) see and learn faster and better. You can find more info on it at www.jingproject.com I highly recommend jumping there and playing around with it, it's killer. Below is the first 'video crit' I did for a classmate of mine Fouad 'FU' Jeniani. It's pretty sweet, check it out!



All in all I'm digging the AM action soooo damn much it's killing me. But I've got to look at how I approach my week and make some adjustments I think. I'm not taking quite enough time to get in some personal time for myself and I think my work will end up suffering in the long run. So I'll revisit my weekly plan I think this weekend and see where I can make some adjustments and changes.

Til next time...live an animated life!!!

Oz