Session 312

Sooo, this is it for Class 3. It's been a fantastic quarter. Great class and a great mentor. I've never done any acting before AM, and making a complete fool of myself thru video reference was a bit scary, but I did it and I'm proud of it :)

My respect for actors has grown enormously during this quarter. The amount of work that goes into an acting part is a lot more than what we eventually see on the screen. I feel that I've scratched the surface of what acting is, but it will probably take a lifetime to master it, which is cool - always something new to learn :)

The first assignment this quarter, the letter-shot, was a tough experience. It was a 4-week struggle from start to end. A lot of frustration, trial and errors (mostly errors) and I was on the edge of giving up a few times. But, ironically, when looking back, it was probably during that time I learned the most and even if that shot still doesn't work as well as I wish, it made the next assignment a lot easier to do. I was able to avoid all the pitfalls from the previous assignment when I started the Zues-shot. I went back to my old workflow and was able to refine it further. I felt that I had much more control over the shot. It was still frustrating at times and a bit of a struggle, but much much more fun! So all in all, this has been the toughest quarter so far, but then again, equally rewarding in the end :)

Michelle was a perfect mentor for this term. She's tough (in a good way), honest and went straight to the point, always respectful, kind and supercool. The q&a's was well prepared with tons of awesome tips and tricks related to the specific lecture and lots of cool stories about her experience in the industry that ranges from high-footage environments like The Sims to high-quality work like Gollum and Princess Fiona.

Next term is Advanced Acting. Class 4 is the last quarter before we begin our short film in Class 5 and then finish it in Class 6. It's scary to think about that it's only three months away, but at the same time I feel a lot more "ready" now, than I did three months ago.

A huge thanks to Michelle and to all my fellow classmates! It's been awesome!!

Here's my rendered assignments from Class 3:



And the revision of the Zues-Shot:

Session 311

Phew!! The final assignment in class 3 is turned in. It's been superduper hard, many many long hours, but most of all FUN!! We're about to finish up the 9th month at Animation Mentor. It's really unbelivable, 9 months ago we struggeled for a week with a bouncing ball and now we're animating a fully rigged character to dialogue. This school rocks big time!!

Disney-animator Mark Henn (supervising animator: Jasmine, Mulan, Belle, Pocahontas, Young Simba and more) hosted this weeks lecture about sincerity. How to get the audience to believe in the character. It's soooo cool to get his thoughts about this concept, that I believe is the core of what creates the magic of Disney, from one the most experienced animators in the industry.

Here's the final of my "Zeus"-shot:

Session 310

I've continued to refine my "Zeus"-shot. I re-did the hands after watching the awesome lecture about hands this week. I also tried to umph it up a little bit more by tweaking the timing/spacing here and there.

Here's the 2nd refining-pass:

Session 309

I went from blocking to refining this week. Except from some workflow problems in the beginning of the week, its been a pretty good week. Again I have to make a reference to Mentor Schleifers blog :). He has a very very good post about going past blocking, The fear of moving past blocking.

In the last couple of weeks, some awesome videos/documentarys about Richard Williams has popped up at YouTube. This is simply awesome inspirational stuff. Check out 'I drew Roger Rabbit' (4 parts) and 'The thief who never gave up' (6 parts). There's also lots of pencil test uploaded. Take a look at this Beaty and the Beast test. More pencil tests from this user. Great stuff.

Here's my refining pass of the "Zeus's"-shot: