Hippimation

MY NEW WEBSITE

2006-08-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

I'll now be posting on my new website:

www.DreamWells.com

Please take a peek!

New Quarter! " Advanced Acting"

2006-07-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

My new mentor is Dimos Vrysellas. Check out his rockin' portfolio! In live Q&A, he's a fun, happy guy who really know his stuff. This quarter looks promising!

We've finally been given access to the Bishop model with full facial controls! It opens up an endless range of possibilities for expression. I'd estimate that the new bishop has 150 or so new controls, which seems like a lot, but when compared to the 3600 controls that Dimos had access too on Oscar's face (from "A Shark's Tale")... I can't even begin to imagine.

To get a feel for the new facial controls, part of our assignment was to select two photos which demonstrated a clear emotion and then try to capture that emotion with Bishop. It's actually quite fun! Dimos really stressed the importance of simplifying the face. It's easy to get caught up in tiny details, but what the audience is really going to read are the larger shapes as a whole. All critiques warmly welcome! Thanks!

Intro to Acting is over

2006-06-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

Class 3 ended as of yesterday. During our last class, my mentor Dovi Anderson made an announcement that he'll be moving from Tippet to PIXAR in a week or so to work on Ratatouille. We're all very proud of him. He was an awesome mentor to have at AnimationMentor.com. He gave all of his students exceptionally long and detailed critiques and came to the Q&A sessions prepared and well organized.

My dialogue shot is still relatively unpolished. I have yet to do a spacing/arcs pass, and I need to go in and tweak the IK-FK transition on the screen left arm after he places the box. It's my first IK-FK switch, so I'm sort of winging it.

Dialogue Shot - Kleptomaniac

2006-05-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

For our Class 3 dialogue shot, I weeded and weeded like an OCD gardener to find my favorite audio clip. One film that I most certainly do care to recommend for great audio is called "Bark." This film is about a woman who has a mental breakdown and thinks she is a dog. Follow her husband's adventures in an attempt deal with this unique situation. Sound good? It is. Great characters, seriously.
Here's the criteria that I was looking for in an audio clip: 5-10 seconds; shows a change of emotion; one character reacts to another character's dialogue; the dialogue is open for me to put my own twist on it.
The final dialogue:
Dude 1: "You know why I do it..."
Dude 2: "You're a kleptomaniac!"
Dude 1: "Fine! The man wants to pay me...$5.50 an HOUR? He DESERVES to get ripped off!"

Stewie is a disgruntled employee of a large corporate retail chain, like Walmart, Target, what have you. He's working as a department store santa and is incredibly irritated at the fact that he only gets paid $5.50 an hour. His friend watches him load stolen goods (really this can be anything) into his trunk. Stewie hates people trying to pass judgment on his actions, especially when his own friend calls him a 'kleptomaniac.' When this happens he gets very defensive and tries to justify his stealing to his friend (and even himself.)

This idea, boiled down, can be applied universally. Someone feels used and taken advantage of by someone in power. They feel powerless and resentful. By stealing from the very person who is "stealing" (time/labor/whatever) from them, they feel empowered again. I may end up changing the Department Store Santa to some other type of worker. I'm not quite sure yet.

Guitar Dude en Casa.

2006-05-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

One of our assignments for Intro to Acting was to create a 2 beat simple story. This was fun to work on, but it's still not done. I'll just post it, and welcome any feedback. When I get some time, I'd like to try to make the animation a little more dynamic... Maybe he interacts with his environment a little bit more. Anyway, any suggestions on how to improve it are warmly welomed. Unpolished version, click pic, then make "view size 640":

The Baseball Pitch

2006-03-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a while since I've posted! Here's my excuse: Oops.
As of this post, I'm in the middle of the 3rd quarter at AnimationMentor.com: Introduction to Acting. I'll post my last assignment of Body Mechanics. For the last assignment for quarter 2 at AnimationMentor.com we were given a few options to choose from including a heavy push or pull, a baseball pitch, balancing on a beam, or opening a sticky door. I decided to go with the baseball pitch for fun. So I shot my reference courtesy of "Frank"
For a little while, it was starting to feel a like a shot-putter rather than a pitcher. So what I did was bring the lifted leg out a more, and have him do a bigger stride and follow through.
...And here's the pitch!!!

Nothing says Valentine's Day like a blog post

2006-02-14T12:54:00.000-08:00

Jumping from post to post across a lake brimming with a dangerous and/or unpleasant substance is the assignment I've chosen next. Although I'll have to leave the lake up to the imagination.

I'm trying to figure out which workflow works best for me. I've left my blocking in Grease Pencil mode this week. It's extremely easy to make large changes this way.

I've come fresh out of my last assignment in which I had maintained (against all professional advice) the motto of "just go with it, plans, schmans." Now for this assignment, I've made a leap to "enough planning already, throw in the real character, for cryin' out loud, Pete's sake." If there's one thing that Anna Korina has taught me, it's the delicate art of patience. You see, an animator must have the patience of a basement scientist (evil or otherwise)... Chip, chip, chip away at progress, but keep you eye on the pie. Now replace "pie" with "ultimate, fluid, life-like movement with which a mass audience can relate" and you'll get my point.

Ballarina

2006-02-10T13:53:00.000-08:00

My simple 180 turn is a slow metamorphosis. You see, Michelle mentioned that my ballie had a very "dancer-like move" which got my brain obsessed on turning this thing into Anna Korina. I've had a lot of fun doing this, but perhaps I should have stuck to PLAN A. Now my assignment sort of feels like two different project stitched together. There's casual anticipation, elegant ballet move, then a casual, clompy, non-graceful walk away. The problem was that I hadn't planned on a ballet move, so I don't have any ballet reference or thumbnails. I just kept "going with it" until I ran out of time. Ya gotta know when to hold 'um and when to fold 'um. (Random poker clichés can apply in almost any situation.) Here's another one: You could also say that I was 'pot-committed' to my ballet move.

While I was whittling away at my animation, I also completed another 90 degree, ballet-type turn. I ended up submitting both of them for my final.

Transition, I'm pretty pumped since I just ordered 6 animation/drawing related books:

"Impro; Improvisation and the Theatre"
by Keith Johnstone,
"Timing for Animation"
by Harold Whitaker
"How to Draw Animation: Learn the Art of Animation from Character Design to Storyboards and Layouts (Christopher Hart Titles)"
by Christopher Hart
"The Animator's Workbook"
by Tony White
"Resemblances, amazing faces"
by Charles Le Brun
"Body Language"
by Julius Fast

I was a book-buying fiend for an evening. Most, if not all of these were recommendations that I read from Carlos Baena's book recommendation section of his blog. He has so many recommendations, it's amazing. I think 6 books will do just fine to start me off.
I can't wait to dig into them. I'd really like to improve my quick drawing skills quite a bit. Yes, I am a drawing type of person, but the things I draw take me hours and I try to get them photo-realistic. I'm just not used to all this free-hand "gist of the idea" type sketching. Hopefully, I take some community college drawing classes, preferably gesture drawing.

The Head Shake of Shame.

2006-01-25T09:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-12T11:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-01-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

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. ;)

Winter Break Take 2

2005-12-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

I decided to do another side-step animation all together. I shot more reference footage of myself and took more time to block in the key poses. Converting to spline wasn't too painful. I got sucked into after holiday sales today during my lunch break.

WINTER BREAK

2005-12-21T15:39:00.000-08:00

This break, I'm trying to improve my gesture drawing skills as well as work on the shifting of weight of a character in a side-step. Click image for a very rough splinned version of the side step. I need to fix the popping knees (a given)) but I'd also like to make it feel a little less swimmy. Critiques very welcomed! :)

My Final Assignment for Session 1.

2005-12-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

Wow, this has really been an amazing experience... I made it through the first session of AnimationMentor. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm glad I still have 5 more sessions left! I'm looking forward to the challenges that lie in the next session: Body Mechanics. Word on the street is that this is a really difficult class. This week we were asked to add hips to the walk. I added this shifting of weight to my personality walk: Romper Stomper.

Today I was watching the "Special Features: Behind the Scenes" Finding Nemo when I caught a glimpse of our own Bobby Beck. (Is Cameron Miyasaki hidden in the mix as well? The guy on the couch playing the game is in many of our lectures, but BLAST! I can't remember his name at this exact moment.) This group of animators are all jumping and shouting around a video game. aka "working." ;) (Just jokin' here, the animators work extremely hard!) Either way, this behind the scenes was a little heavy on the cheese, but I got a chuckle out of it.

Balanced Pose

2005-12-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

Along with this weeks assignment to add or correct hip motion in one of our walk cycles (either vanilla or personality) we must create a pose of Stu "in balance." I've come up with these as my first and second tries.

The BretP Bunch!

2005-12-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

(Photo credits to Sean Dicken, Thank you Sean!)

Last night was our last Q and A with our current classmates and Bret Parker. I'm woman enough to admit I got a little misty-eyed during the "goodbyes." After all,, it was a great class, and Bret was a fantastic mentor. In fact, she was this month's featured mentor on the AM newsletter!

The awesome photo compilation above was created by Sean Dicken (bottom right square.) This current version is just the prototype as Sean is still is going to add Paul Metcalf who unfortunately was unable to attend the farewell q and a.

In order of appearance left to right, top to bottom:
Mario Pochat, BRET PARKER, Paul Kooi, John Slowsky, Brian Wyser, Lauren Wells (ahem), Eduardo Flores, Buddy, the possessed ventriloquist dummy, Fredy Burgos, Jace Bandalin, Ashley Wilson, Leo Santos, Chad Moore, John Stoll and his "Phat" hat, and el artiste, Sean Dicken!

During last night's final q and a, Bret went through each student, giving final, personalized words of wisdom to all. She suggested that my stronger area was a good sense of physics, so, hey, I'll take it.

To the sketchbook!

The Stomp of the Romper

2005-12-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Oh, hey, welcome. You're just in time for the debut of ------->

"The MINT" San Francisco student gathering.

2005-12-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

WOW! This week was so awesome mere words cannot describe. We had a student gathering at this fun karaoke bar called "The Mint." There is nothing like the feeling of finally meeting the people that you only know through type and avatars. It was a pretty good turn out. MY MENTOR came! It was awesome to talk to Bret...she's such a sweet, fun person on top of being a top animator!
Above: Me, Bret Parker (AM mentor for session 1) and Ashley Wilson, my awesome classmate.Above, is myself, my friend Casey, Ashley (Bret mentee), Sean Dicken (Bret mentee), Bryan Wyser (Bret mentee) and Taylor Mahony (AM staff and student)! Fun times.

A little later in the evening... From left to right: the nose, mouth and left eyebrow of Ashley Wilson, myself, Bryan Wyser, Carlos Baena, Casey (non-AM lizard-girl.)

For a more comprehensive view of the evening you can look at my photobucket pics at http://photobucket.com/albums/d97/santalaurita/?start=all
or for actual video footage of the wonderful karaoke voices of the AMers you can look at Taylor's link: http://taylor.mahony.org/photos/AM_mint

Splined Personality Walk

2005-11-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

So I splined my block and refined. Here's the first pass at the personaliy walk. I call it "Romper Stomper."

Revision Montage

2005-11-30T14:29:00.000-08:00

I revised quite a bit this week. The quest for perfection is a quest never fulfilled.

Refine Refine Away

2005-11-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling pretty good about this blocking of the stomp, so I'm going to convert it to spline mode and then tweak and refine to my hearts delight. Wish me luck.

Or this one... with less whip-lash.

2005-11-27T15:29:00.000-08:00

Just playing around with the timing and poses. Faaar from finished. Pay no attention to frame one, I need to adjust the negative space.

But what about this one?

2005-11-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

After some feedback from classmates and a coworker, I decided to try to solely focus on this so-called "goofy march." I'm playing around with the timing and key poses to see how I can extract some more likability. It's amazing how you can pull a few frames here and there and totally change the 'tude. After viewing this version, I think that I might try to have his head looking down even in the extreme low positions.

Personality Walks - Blocks

2005-11-24T09:12:00.000-08:00

O! Hey! Didn't see you come in, you startled me! Come here often?

I am testing out a few different personality walks, and let me just say, this ain't easy. But challenge is a great thing. Since AM is having some server issues this week I'll post my blocks here earlier and hope for feedback.

I've taken some pretty funny videos of myself acting out a plethora goofy walks. Some not so bad, but some could be used for blackmail. Needless to say, I won't be posting those. But here's a sample of the different personalities walks I'm testing.

This one's a goofy march.

And this one is going to be an ice skater. I have only the first glide. It's tricky, this one is.

This walk is fun because he's a sneaker, and sneaking is a fun pastime. Agree?Since I'm on a posting roll, I think I'll display my new emotion poses. I'm hoping for them to read as "exhausted!" Phew!

Long time no post.

2005-11-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

Oops. I haven't quite posted in quite the while, but I must excuse myself, for I have been quite busy with all these assignments! I'll be making up for the past 2 weeks. Quite.

I'm having so much fun learning and animating, and applying concepts... Woohoo!
We're learning how to create a walk. A VANILLA (no flavor, spice, nuts, or marshmallows) walk. Just a plain ol' walk. It's important to nail the vanilla walk without adding character to it. You see, a walk can tell soooo much about your character. Age, gender, mood, limp, confidence, etc. A young animator once said "A walk is like a thumbprint, unique to each body." And that young animator was me just now. I should really quit AM and become a poet. ANYWAY.

For the walk, we started out by "blocking it" (meaning setting the key poses in time and space.) Walk block directly below: Then once you nail the blockage, you can move on and add in the rest of the frames, then go into the curve editor and try to bend them to your will. Sounds easy, but no. It takes a lot a tweaking to get a walk to look right. Most of the mentors say that their least favorite thing to do is a walk cycle. In my walk, the main problem was getting the knees not to "pop." (This seemed to be all of the students biggest problem) I had only mild success fixing them. Some students changed the leg length here and there to fix their pops, and their walks ended up looking great! I'm thinking of doing that for the revision. I would have done it this time, but one student mentioned it could be cheating. I will have to ask Bret her opinion on this in the next question and answer session this Tuesday. I don't think I'd go so far as to call it cheating. But it was a learning experience to wrestle with the knees without changing their length.
To see my first edition of the "smooth vanilla walk" please click below.

Posing Stu. I've had a couple poses due in the last couple weeks. 1. Strong. and 2. Concerned.

For the strong pose, I started out attempting to have Stu seem physically strong. For example, pulling this large, non-descript box. I scrapped that idea, and decided to attempt to portray a strong attitude, for which I came up with this:

Then on my critique, Bret gave me a few pointers on how to make this stronger yet. So I revised it and then re-turned this in:

And seeing how now I've gotten another critique back from her on the revised strong pose, I shall revise again! Yes, I shall revise again.

So! Now I'll show you my concerned pose. I had a few different poses that I was trying out. I'll show a couple:

Concerned pose #1.
I did not turn this one in.
Concerned Pose #2.
I DID turn this one in.
And she said she really liked it, but gave
me a few tips to improve it, which sounded
sort of like she was describing pose #1,
so I think I should have turned in
the first one! Oh well!

OFFTOPIC notes:

I finally got a web address of my own! My URL is "DreamWells.com" Wow.
I don't know how to do anything with it yet, but still. Wow.

I'm at work right now, and the highlight of my morning was eating fruit salad and half a blueberry bran muffin. Monday morning office breakfast platters rock! It's what I work for. That and surprise pizza Fridays.

This is long enough to bore you, so I'll sign off until next time!
P.S. I'm going to Disneyland on Saturday after Thanksgiving! I've recieved some great tips from other students regarding cool animation-related things to check out at the most magical place on earth!

One-Legged Jumper - Don't call him disabled!

2005-11-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

Week 7 we have a really fun assignment! We have a ball with one leg that we need to make jump. For kicks, I threw in a few spikes to make things interesting. But I didn't have the character interact with the environment any differently than if he were jumping on a normal, non-deadly floor. The jump is still KISS. (Keep It Simple Stupid!)
I had a blast doing this assignment!... and I don't mean "playblast" nudge, nudge! (a little animation humor.) OK that'll do.

Tailor

2005-11-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

Our assignment was to animate this little ball with a tail to practice another very important principle of animation: "overlap" and successive breaking of joints, follow through, ect. I love the way these concepts work to give the animation such a smooth, life-like quality. Although, I haven't yet been able to get this quite right, I'll keep revising for as long as it takes. Poor Bret, she may get a tad tired of seeing my tailors. I love animation!

OK, before you view this, just know this: I put a lot of time and love into bringing this lil guy to life,, and although Tailor may seem a tad unstable, (as well as his pursuer), he has a heart of solid gold.

After a great critique from Bret, I did a few revisions, just focusing on the overlapping of the tail. I'd say they're better, but still need much MUCH work, so I can't wait to get another crit from Bret and improve even more! Improvement is exciting and a great excuse to celebrate. See link below for 3 revision tests. Note: The second two tail tests feel as if the tail is a bit heavy. Next time, my friend. Next time.

This week's assignment: Hypnotize yourself.

2005-10-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

As a little treat, AnimationMentor provided us with a little pendulum to animate in order to hypnotize yourself in the later hours of animation. It's not part of our assignment to animate the pendulum, however, it helps us understand the principle of "overlapping action" as well as "Successive breaking of Joints." (which it's too late and I'm too tired to explain at this point. On a side note, when I was watching this week's lecture on my lunch break at work over a microwaved veggie burrito and salsa, Darcita (name changed to protect identity), the office snorter, whom I love, looked over my shoulder to snoop. She read "Successive Breaking of Joints" in bold letters on my screen. She looked at me, started snorting, and said that she was sorry for snooping, and she didn't need to know. I tried to explain this fundamental principle of animation to her, but she just put her hands up to stop me, and snorted off, shaking her head the entire way around the corner. Come to think of it, as she sauntered off, her flappy hair exemplified the concepts of "overlapping action" as well as "follow through" and "wave action." OK, back to important matters, like my animating the pendulum. I'm feeling quite sardonic tonight, but I'll push on and post the pendi's. There's 3.
Now showing in reverse order of flexibility: Have I mentioned that this is the most awesome school I've ever been a part of? The pros outweigh the cons of not getting to sit in the same room with your classmates. (Which sometimes can also be a con, so there ya go.)

Of course this course with an obstacle course was an obstacle!

2005-10-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

That said, I came up with a couple versions of this obstacle course. I didn't think that the first version was working physically. I think that I forced the ball to go where I wanted it too, making it look unnatural, like a deranged rabbit. So my second try is a little better, but I still see areas where I need to improve. (what's new?!) The other part of this assignment was to create a devastated Stu pose. I came up with a couple of him's too. :) Just a side note, this week has definitely been the busiest yet. Unfortunately I didn't even have time to revise my heavy and light ball assignment. Bret really liked my light ball (I'm beaming with pride) but basically she alluded to the fact that the heavy ball needed some work, and gave me some great suggestions. Buuuut, this school is like the ol' mill on the river. Keeps going, and you can't stop to dabble, you've go to PUSH ON! Although I've never actually seen a real river mill, it is certainly on my to-do list after graduation.

My first try at the obstacle course: My second try:

Devastated Stu's. No, he doesn't have a migrane, nor a toothache. He is Devastated, people! With a capital "D." When people are devastated they often may look as if they have a large cavity eating away at their molar or a throbbing headache...right?

My favorite animal.

2005-10-23T14:33:00.000-07:00

Pinky. 'Nuff said.

Obstacle Course

2005-10-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Now things are starting to get interesting. We were provided with an obstacle course and a ball that has a "Squash and Stretch" tool on it. Squash and Stretch is one of the most basic and important concepts in animation. It happens everywhere, only it's usually too fast for the naked eye. Bobby Beck said in the last video assignment I watched, that "Squash and Stretch should be felt but not seen. Oooooo! Woooooaah!" But for this assignment, it is OK to see it, since we're just getting a feel for how to use it.
Click on the image of the obstacle course to see my first -very rough- "blocking pass." A blocking pass is when you only see the frame in which the key is set, and there is no information filled in between keyed-frames. (I am not used to this AT all.)

To Bounce or to Plop

2005-10-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

This weeks assignment was to animate 2 balls of differing weights. It was quite fun, but quite time consuming. One thing that I really need to work on is planning. Planning is pretty much the most important part of animating, but definitely my weakest area.

In case you were wondering, it is raining outside, and I'm stuck inside at my desk! I wish I could get out to enjoy the weather! Hopefully there will be some thunderstorms tonight.

To take a peek at my 2 animations go to

#1 #2

Bounce, Ball, Bounce!!!

2005-10-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Let's see, let's see. The assignment this week was to revise the first week's pose
(ie the water polo pose) based on Bret's comments. As I attempted to do this, I realized that it was quite harder than I thought, so I'm not entirely sure the revision I created is better than the original.

The other major assignment due for week 3 was to animate a bouncing ball with the weight of a basketball/soccer ball. Easy-squeezy you say? No. It is neither easy, nor squeezy to accomplish this task successfully. But try I did. And luckily we'll still get a shot at revision.

Take a gander at my FIRST BOUNCING BALL.

I'm excited! Now pose it.

2005-10-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

Hooray! The couple of Stu's above just won the company soft-ball championships, Yeah!

Oh, what's that Stu? You're just so excited about saving money on your car insurance that you could just skip? Why is this whole thing underlined!!!

Huge work load this week: Revise the water polo pose (still anxiously awaiting mentor's critique), create a new pose that portray's excitement, and animate a bouncing ball in a side view. Which excitement pose to turn in......?

Final Pose: Water Polo!

2005-10-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

I tweaked the polo pose a bit in attempt to give it a stronger "line of action" and more drama. Here's how it looks now, but after my mentor, Bret, critiques it, I'll have the chance to revise it again. Any suggestions?

I'm an Official Poser!

2005-09-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

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?

2005-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-09-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

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!