Due to server issues we get another crack at week 9. In short week 9 is a DO OVER. This gives everyone a chance to get an extra week of work done or AM said we can hand in the same assignment we handed in on the real week 9, last week. I made some changes to my assignment from the great crit I got from Anthony Wong, our sub. I am not sure if it is totally working but I think I am heading in the right direction. I am going to have to move into linear this week. That is a very scary step for me, things seem to get all messed up when you move out of blocking and into linear and then splined. We will see how it goes!
So I broke down and textured Bishop. I just couldn't stand looking at his alien face anymore so I made him into a pretty girl. I was so inspired by Fernanda's makeup session w Bishop, she was able to change the waist, add a really cool outfit and even earings. I didn't go that far, just slapped some textures on but it is reading better. I really like Fernanda's animation too, it is coming out really well, another neurotic girl, a clip from Eternal Sunshine one of my favorite movies. Another student who is totally rocking it is Brandon Beckstead, with yet another Scrubs audio, this guy is obsessed! But his animation is so great, he is sooo talented! There is so much inspiration running around the halls of AM.
The reason why I had some free time last night was because our Q and A was cancelled due to internet problems. The AM site was down for hours last night, there was no getting into the main site, forums or player page. Becky emailed us the news that our Q and A had to be rescheduled but just in case she gave us a link to try...it was the new V2!! So we got a sneak peak at what AM is going to look like there are going be a lot of ne features too. I can't wait to see more!
Seems like somehow I got my wires crossed and we actually have 2 more weeks for this second dialogue shot, it is due on Sunday Dec 4th!!! I don't know how I screwed that one up, I even wrote the wrong date on the dry erase board, and we all know the dry erase board does not lie!!
Now that I have some extra time, I am thinking of all the extra things I can add to my assignment and the old demons creep up, I should add blend shapes, I should add clothes, hair textures etc etc into non animation oblivion. This is a dangerous path since you want to add some fine touches that make your Bishop look different and individual yet you don't want to waste all your time on the non-animating stuff. I might just play around and see what I can come up with in less than an hour, if it takes more time than that, then it's not worth it.
This week Jason Ryan is on vacation and we had a sub, Anthony Wong formerly of Disney, now at Pixar. it was so great to hear a new fresh take on my assignment. I really like all of the suggestions Anthony had, and am definetely going to change some things, including the entire ending. He is also going to be our sub for the Q and A tonight,and I can't wait to hear more about him.
I also came across this post on Seward St where Alex, an AM student shares some Wong wisdom: SEWARD ST POST
New apartment near "the hills" Missing the slackers of Venice and our neighboor who knows karate No lights come with you here in either room No fridge as well? At least there's a dishwasher caddy this time...
Boxes Moving Pushing Pulling again and again
Elevators that need a key and a password to open up and down a million times key in key out
Second hand smoke coming through my bedroom window
I realized I was a week behind on my assignment progress due to the move across town. Last week I wasn't able to get as much work done as I wanted to and had to try to catch up this week. I am still not very happy with it but don't want to rush it and mess it up. I spent a lot of time getting the original blocking poses to work before moving on to the breakdowns. The linear pass is looking ok I guess, I just know it needs a lot more TLC, like 3 weeks more! But since we only have one more week for this assignment so it looks like my whole Thanksgiving is going to be spent in front of the computer. After this semester ends I am looking forward to a much needed vacation break. Of course I will still be at my full time job, but most of the time that doesn't feel like work anyways! A lot of students are planning on working on extra assignments during the break, to get in some extra practice before acting 2 starts. I know Aja did that last semester and ended up with her great delimbing piece which totally rocked! Maybe one day I will have time to do that too. Right now I have to go catch up on the lectures, can you believe I have not even had a chance to watch this week's lecture on quadrapeds!! I have been so totally busy, plus at work we are on linux boxes and they aren't working with the new flashplayer 8 that the AM site is using now. Since we just moved in I only got the internet hook up yesterday so there is tons to catch up on.
EDIT: I think I may have messed up! I think we actually have 2 more weeks instead of 1 week after today!! This is great news, I may actually be able to finish this one on time!
Time management skills.. well I have none!!! Having a full time job and doing animation mentor is going to be tricky. My hat goes off to all the students who have been doing this all along, not to mention those with families, it is truly an amazing feat. How do you do it? When do you sleep? For me it is going to take some getting used to. So to compensate I am trying to keep my animation idea to a manageable size, I even choose a shorter clip. I am staging my character sitting down, that should help a little since I won't have to worry about animating legs and feet, although I will have to pay closer attention to the eyes and fingers, a trade off I guess. I still haven't revised my grease pencil test to a level I feel good about. I need to fix that up before moving onto the 3D Bishop, the trouble is I am never home! Looks like Saturday will be my only animating day again this week, we are moving on Sunday, so much is going on. I guess time management is one of the skills we are going to need to develop to make in this industry.
This week's lecture on Eyes and Blinks was taught my my mentor, Jason Ryan!! He really went in depth to a lot of different types of eye moves and blinks and why you would use them. great stuff. I hopefully can incorporate some of these ideas into my assignment.
On a similar not a bunch of great blocking pieces from the students this week. Wow, they are all getting so much better at an alarming rate. I think will all the excitement that has been happening around campus, some people have taken a look at their workflow and really ramped up their routine. Great job everyone!
Well this week I was running low on time. Had a lot of new things going on, plus a pretty long commute to my new job. I live in Venice but work in Burbank and for those of you that have not had the pleasure of commuting in LA, lemme tell ya, it sucks!! SO taking steps to fix this, we are moving to West Hollywood, a fair middle ground betw Burbank, where I work and Culver, where my boyfriend works. So hopefully this will buy me some more time to do homework on the weekday nights after work. Otherwise I am going to be stuck trying to fit it all in on Saturday and Sunday. This week it was ok since I only needed to hand in a 2d rough version of my new dialogue assignment since my mentor is away on a business trip for Chicken Little. Next week the real maya work will start, and I can't wait to try out the new GUI Bishop picker we got, although I can't seem to install it yet, I keep getting errors.
I went to see Chicken Little last night and got to mmet up with some AM students, that was so great to meet some of the new students. And Chicken Little in 3D was an experience like no other, how cool. And we all looked very fashionable in those green 3D glasses!
