Sketchbook V

Here's this week's entry for this week's sketch blog. Figured if you have to do a theme around "too much cuteness" ... you may as well make the most of it and throw in one of the best movie deaths of all time. I present you Major Toht vs. The Double Rainbow Unicorn Bear! I could keep going on this but it's been a long week and I need to get animating.

Feed me Seymour

Week 2 of Animation Mentor is underway and I've been getting and giving as much feedback as I can. I could spend hours browsing the site reading all the feedback and watching eCritiques. That's where the real gold of this program lies I think, all of the input on your work. Your input on others' work helps train your eye which in turn makes your work better. Gold Jerry!

Class-wise we got our first assignment relating to creating good poses. I have to say that finding interesting people to draw is hit 'n miss. If I may make a small recommendation: carry a cattle-prod along with your sketchbook in order to ... encourage ... people into more dynamic and interesting poses. Another tip: always sketch with a buddy who can help make your bail.

I'm glad for the hours I put in sketching this summer. You don't have to be an amazing draftsman to be an animator, but it sure doesn't hurt. Being able to sketch an interesting pose that has some sort of attitude to it, a great line of action, and show where the weight is really really helpful though. I'm going to continue to improve my skills by hitting up the Art Museum this weekend. On a related note, the book Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation is great by the way. As are Drawn to Life I & II.

Sketchbook IV

Not much to say here. Quite frankly I apologize. This is for this week's AMSketchAquad with Iron Animator Ingredient: Villain.

One down, 71 left ...

Alrighty, the first Q&A of the first class is done. A nice little meet & greet cocktail hour if you will. Chatted up the classmates for a bit until Scott Lemmer showed up to MC the event for us. Our class has people from California to New Jersey to Canada to Brazil and even all the way over to India & Thailand. Crazy we can all come together and do this thing.

Actually not much else to tell other than it was good meeting everyone and getting to know a little about them. So anyway ... Ben, Chris, Kolby, Marc, Paul, Ted, Boat, Bob, Josue, Lucas, Mayur, Laura, and of course Scott ... great meeting you all, should be an awesome time.

Oh it's on ...

Today is the first day of the Fall 2010 and I am officially a student. My first class is Basic Foundations and my first mentor is Scott Lemmer.

Time to go surf the AM website and see what I can find.

Sketchbook III

Not really a page from my sketchbook but I'm calling it anyway. A few of us from AM have got together and are having a weekly themed sketch contest. I'm not sure if contest is the best term ... perhaps sketch event. Anyway, vote on what we want to draw and then post it to our group blog over at AMSketchSquad Blog.

This week's theme was "Worst Superhero Ever". I found the idea of a Superman who falls asleep at bad times kinda funny. So here's my Narcoleptic Man.

Locked Out

So with one week left until Animation Mentor starts, we students find ourselves locked out while they work on the site. At least that's what I'm assuming they're doing. I suppose it could be a forced "mental health" break and they're just playing foosball instead.

Can't wait to find out who my mentor for Class 1 will be. The excitement is building up again. I guess I'm already animating (working on a new shot now), but being a part of the program should be fun.

*Update - Well, we're SUPPOSED to be locked out. As of this morning I can still access the site, which is cool. I reckon at some point this week our accounts will be switched over to the full student site, which is locked up.