I'm an Official Poser!

Assignment #2: Pose Stu based on your sketches from assignment #1. (OK, so I just threw the water polo one in there for kicks!) These poses are not exact copies of my sketches, but they were more...inspired by them. I thought posing would be easy, but it has definitely been a challange. Critiques appriciated. Which one works the best/worst?

San Diego Dash

Last night, in a race against the clock to get to my 2nd Q+A session, I frantically peddled my bike around Pacific Beach, roommate at toe and lap top on back, in attempt to locate a wireless hot spot. Coffee shops: Closed, closed, closed, OPEN! Starbucks was open and I'd heard they had free wifi. Not true. Not true, 'tall. Oh boy do they make you pay. Their cheapest deal was $6 per hour and 10 cents a minute thereafter. Annoying, but do-able. So with 4 minutes left to spare until the session began, I attempted to pay... Couldn't log into the pay site. Of course. So I grabbed my roommate, who was just coming back to our table with her steaming chai tea and scone, and dragged her out the door. She had to come with me because her bike is co-dependent on my bike and can't be left alone. Hers doesn't have a lock or a kickstand, so it constantly leans on mine and shares my lock, making it feel claustrophobic and smothered. (Nothing personal Katherine!) We hightailed it to my boyfriends house (Katherine chucks her new delicious chai into a can) where he, in the meantime, had logged into the Q+A session for me using a neighbor's unsecured connection. And as Bret was taking roll, he flew out of view of the camera just as Bret clicked on my name to reveal nothing but empty space. I was only 5 blocks or so away at this point. I finally got there, and met a choppy, angry wireless connection, which is why throughout the entire session I kept getting kicked off!!!

The session itself was good. Bret went over the 12 basic principles of animation, and then we had room for questions/comments. I liked some of the comments Paul K. and Chad made about the fact that humans can easily detect the tiniest thing wrong with a walk cycle, for example, but it is hard to put your finger on what exactly to fix.

Public Freak, or Artist?

So our first assignment is to go out in public and sketch people. I mean really observe everything about them. Give them a cold, hard, icy stare for a prolonged period of time, if you will....then frantically scribble in a little black book. Repeat. Now, this may make some people uncomfortable, for whatever reason, but it's a necessary part of animation. Here are a few tips to help lessen the awkward moment that is accidental eye-contact with an unhappy face.

1. Pretend you were looking at their food (if applicable). If in ear-shot, mumble something about being hungry and quickly walk into nearest fast food restaurant. DO NOT, repeat, DO NOT! ask for a bite of theirs.

2. Immediately relax your eyeballs as if you are looking into one of those "magic-eye" posters. Then smile and wave. Hopefully the subject waves back at you in a confused, reflex reaction. At this point, pretend you didn't see them wave, and walk directly past them in the direction of your original wave. They'll be so embarrassed for intercepting a wave not intended for them, that they'll forget about the whole staring/scribbling thing. Now who's the freak!?? Haha!

3. (This is more of a preventative measure.) If you have a dog, bring her with you and adorn her with a lovely little jacket that says "Seeing eye dog," after all, blind people can't stare... or can they?

EPIC TIMES at AnimationMentor!

I finally started at AnimationMentor! I've just started the second week of the first quarter, and I must say, I simply LOVE it! AM is the best, most innovative school I've heard of, let alone been a part of.

My mentor for this quarter is Bret Parker! I can already tell she's going to be a great mentor. During our 1st Question and Answer session, I was very nervous to meet her, seeing how she's a celebrity and all. She's been at Pixar and worked on all the movies since "A Bug's Life!" Plus she animated and was the voice of Kari, the babysitter, from the Incredibles. Amazing.

I'm such a dork! You see, to me, professional animators are celebrities. All of the mentors at AM are professional animators. I am a dork who gets star-struck. I place them on a pedestal so high, it could only be CG. I need to remember: Professional animators are people too!