Snowboarding Madness!

We originally planned on going snowboarding with my bro and a bunch of friends on Friday night, but due to scheduling conflicts we ended up going on Saturday night. My bro still came up later that night which was pretty cool of him.

Fell down so many times I lost count, heard from my wifey that some of those times it looked like I really hurt myself. Sorry no pictures or videos making an ass out of myself or eating snow! It's funny how you're out snowboarding having good time and you don't know you're sore till the next day....

Despite the aches and paines, we're definitely looking foward to going again. Probably around the middle or the end of February.

Keith Lango and more AM press!

I was recently told about Keith Lango's site and it came highly recommended by my fellow students. He offer's a monthly video training series on different aspects of animation. I've watched a bit of the first video and I have to say they are full of useful information. It's the perfect supplement to our main studies at AM.

On another note, a classmate posted a link to another article on AM. Read it here.

Snoowbooaarding!

We're going snowboarding this weekend! My brother came by and visited us this weekend and told us of a snowboarding trip that thay planned for the weekend. We are so there! =)

Never been, but always wanted to go. We had to go out and buy a bunch of the gear. We went to the local Big 5 sports store and bought our outer gear and some goggles. Turns out there was a pretty big sale on some of the stuff we bought so we saved some money. Cool deal! ;)

We're going to Mountain High. Seems they got a deal going on for $18.75 for a night pass, which is like 5 hours. Not too bad heh?

Hopefully I don't come back too banged up to do my homework though! At least I'll come away with a lot of reference of people falling on their butts, since most of us haven't gone before! =p

The new AM main site.

The AM main site has been completely revamped. If you haven't yet, you should stop by. The new design is great and works awesome. They have testimonials from students, the numerous articles the school's been featured in, an all-new trailer, etc. I got excited for the school again after viewing the trailer and I'm already enrolled! ;)

They also have numerous products for sale such as mugs, journals, shirts, etc. I bought a bunch of stuff and am excitingly awaiting its arrival.

Animation Mentor

Animation Mentor Online Store

An observation

This week we had some thumbnails due and I came upon an observation as I was doing this assignment. I can not draw well and that's a fact. I need much practice in order to better communicate my ideas. Well enough about my lack of drawing skills (rest assured that I am going to continue practicing and developing those skills)and on to my observation. I, not being able to draw every well, was working on my thumbnails and leaving the necessary notes to describe the actions taking place when it hit me. I was leaving a good number of written notes. I looked at other students submitted work, especially ones that draw pretty well and noticed they didn't have as much notes as I did. I have then come to the observation that the less you know how to draw, the more information you need to notate in order to clearly communicate what's happening. The more you can draw, the less notes you need to leave because it is apparent what is happening in your thumbnails. Now I know this isn't a 100% true all the time for everybody, but I thought it was an interesting observation and I needed to fill up some of this empty blog space... ;)

Another observation I made is absolutely mind-bending! I don't know if I should post it here, but I feel I should share it with all of you....

It's.............how cute our puppy is!!! =)
(the second pic is of her making the toy squeak all by herself!) ;)




Her name is Lexy and is about 3 months or so old. My wife has been wanting a puppy ever since her two dogs passed away a couple of years ago. So we got Lexy, ain't she a cutie? ;)

Class 2: First QA Session.

We just had our QA session with Charles Alleneck last night and it was a great time had by all. Since it was the first QA for this class, it was centered on getting to know our classmates and our mentor. Believe it or not, one of our classmates should actually be in the 4th class, but he took a step back and realized he needed more experience in the body mechanics class so he's taking that class again. That's pretty amazing stuff! To be able to be that self-analytical and actually do something about it is a trait of a truly determined person if you take into account the cost, time, and effort involved with taking a class again. Good job I say! It was a pleasure to meet all of my classmates and I can tell this term is going to be awesome!

As for the mentor, all I gotta say is I am very impressed. He seems to be quite friendly and happens to know quite a bit. I can't wait to pick his brain the next QA (hopefully I can think of something useful to ask him). We all expressed to Charles a unanimous vote to have our work critiqued as harsh and brutal as possible to which he agreed to try his best. Awesome heh? He actually went over the scheduled QA time by like 40 mintues! That was cool of him to stay and finish answering questions.

This class is gonna ROCK! ;)

Version 2 ROCKS!

We get to play with a new version of the AM site this term and it just plainly ROCKS! Last term the site worked good, but this new version just blew my mind! They thought of a bunch of stuff, listened to our suggestions, etc. and now the site is just amazing! The functionality is mind-boggling and it works great! All those tweaks, extra features, etc. really do work well in promoting a stronger community. Awesome I tell yah!

It's a whole new term!

*WHEW*

Back from an awesome break for more animation goodness! This term is going to be on body mechanics and let me tell you that I'm feeling a bit intimidated by this term. It seems like such a huuuuuuge topic to cover and hopefully I'll be able to absorb it all!

As luck would have it, there are a couple of classmates this term that I had last term so I'm super excited to see how they improve and grow as animators. They do outstanding work so I'm looking foward to that. My other classmates are pretty cool as well, I've seen their work on a few occasions and am very much looking foward to how they grow as well.

This term my mentor is none other than - Charles Alleneck! Can't wait to meet him in our first QA session! Here's a tad bit of info on him:

Charles is a graduate of the CalArts Character Animation Department, with a BFA in Character Animation and several short films under his belt. He worked briefly as a traditional animator on the television show The Simpsons before coming to ILM to learn CG animation. Charles has worked at ILM for almost five years, with credit on seven feature films including The Mummy Returns, Hulk, and Star Wars: Episodes II and III. He has served as a Directed Study Mentor, and has lectured on animation both in the U.S. and abroad.


Awesome heh? Can't wait to get started! Take a seat and strap in yourself in, it's gonna be a helluva ride!