The Head Shake of Shame.

I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of last Wednesday’s night from a horrible dream: My entire class was critiqued, including myself and I went to watch my critique. Michelle appeared as usual. Then it turned nightmare: She frowned at the camera, shook her head in shame, and cut the video feed. I woke up frantically going over my assignment in my head, and forming an emergency plan of action. I know, scary! Nobody ever wants to get the "head shake of shame."

This class is fun, and I can only imagine how much fun shall be had when I reach the Intro to Acting class. The lectures are getting longer and more advanced. Body mechanics are slowly starting to make more sense. For our first assignment, we were given a few options as to what type of action we would ultimately produce. We could choose between a side-step, a ball kick, or a 180 degree turn. I decided to give a 180 degree turn a whirl. (Pun intended.) Here's an UNREFINED version of the turn.

Web class with Michelle Meeker is really great. I love the fact that she lets our time run far over the hour allotment. Sometimes I really feel that an hour isn't enough, and apparently she feels the same. I have, however, had to make a few adjustments in my workflow, since she gives critiques later in the week than my last mentor. I understand the mentors are really busy in their own lives, but the first week, I'll admit, I was a bit panicked, hence the nightmare!

Learning the Grease Pencil Tool

You: "Hey Lauren, when did you really fall in love with animation?"

Me: "Well, you know, it's funny you asked, because it was just last night, when I tried out Jason Schleifer's Grease Pencil for the 1st time in my life."

You: "Really? Last night? that's pretty cool!"

Me: "Yes, it was awesome. You see, I thought I loved animation before, but NOW! Now it's all changed. Before last night, I was scared of the Grease Pencil Tool. It seemed to be too sophisticated for students, which is simply silly, because it's shockingly simple.


OK, that's enough non-sense.
I did a couple tests of a 180* turn using Ballie as the character. I know that Ballie swings his leg way too far back on the first leg swing... I think he'd fall over in reality, so I'll post this for now, revise, and repost!
I can't wait to apply the key poses to my actual character. Fun times ahead!

>>>>>GREASE PENCIL TOOL TEST.<<<<<

Michelle Meeker, Week 1, Term 2

Michelle Meeker shall be my mentor for this term entitled "Body Mechanics." We had a nice 1st Question and Answer session last night. I seem to have a bunch of really cool new classmates from all over the world: Malaysia, India, London, Denmark, France, Seattle and California. (and 3 out of 15 of us are from San Diego!) Michelle is an energetic yet relaxed, easy to talk to person who has traveled and worked all over the world. She's worked at (including, but not limited to) Pixar, PDI, and Weta in New Zealand. Also, you know when you go to the movies and before the movie they play that sound system logo animation where a rotund little man shakes a cow moooo-maker? Then the sound plays and you feel like you're amongst a heard of cattle on the range? Yes, she animated all of that too. She worked on Tree-Beard on Lord of the Rings and so, so, yes so much more! I think that this is going to be a great term. (**I've included an image of serenity to compliment this post, so please, feel free to go ahead and enjoy.* *)

Break's over! Now back to the fun part... School!

Yesterday I joyously opened a package that had arrived upon my doorstep: A brand new Wacom Graphire4 tablet (6x8)! I've never used one of these before, but I had a great time testing it out. I can tell that the two of us are destined to be the best of friends.

As for cleaning up the side-step, I've received some generous feedback from fellow classmates Chad, Anthea, and Albert. After an attempt to heed their warnings about keeping a definite center of balance and making the timing a bit more interesting by focusing on the beginning and end of the step and speeding up the middle, the following result, has resulted. ;)