Class One Progress Reel

So I made it though class one, still in one piece... It was by no means easy to say the least. I had a great time, learned so much from a very talented mentor named Anthony Wong. The man is a wealth of knowledge and very fun to learn from! I couldn't have hand picked a better mentor seriously!

During the quarter we had two special Q and A's! The first was with two animators from Dreamworks How to Train Your Dragon! Insane! I know! And if that wasn't good enough... The second was with two animators from ILM that worked on Iron Man 2! Both of these Q and A's presented a wealth of knowledge, it was crazy!

With AM the learning doesn't stop at your Mentor. Because you can watch any students ECritique at any time, the amount of information you can soak up is truly endless. I've learned as much from other students ECritiques as I have from my mentor. And your not just limited to the class your in, you can watch crit's from class 6 if you want.

If you are a student interested in animation, I'd say there's no question... AM is the place to be! I want to stress animation. If you want to be a generalist this isn't the place for you sorry say. If you want to be an animator and want to be taught be some of the best in the world... AM is the only option... If you are new to 3d, haven't taken class of any kind I would recommend the Spring Board Class AM offers. Or at very least go grab some beginner DVD's from gnomon digital or a subscription to Digital Tutors.

I'm so pumped for class two!

-Nick

Weeks 10 and 11 Character Walk, Exhausted and Balance

Great last two weeks! Serious a Great end to an ever greater experience! The last assignment was a character walk that shows personality in the character. We were give a week to block and a week to polish the shot. Along with each week there were was a Stu pose, Exhausted and Balance.









Exhausted poses







Balance Poses












-Nick

Weeks 8 and 9 Vanilla Walk, Devastation and Concern

This the first assignment a AM student does with Ballie. He's a very fun character to work with and the rig is very nice as well!

Also we were to convey physical strength in our Stu pose, which was kinda difficult for me... Not gonna lye...

















The Vanilla Walk took several attempts but I've got something I like pretty well, this is probable the assignments I'm leas happy with.









Great times!

- Nick

Week 7..... TAILOR!!!!!

So this weeks assignment was super special cause we gained access to Tailor! Tailor is one of the characters that tells viewers the difference between an AM student demo and everything else. Well besides the quality of animation, Tailor is one of the icons on all AM student demos, along with Bishop, Stu, Stewie and Ballie.... Wait, that's all the characters.... Anywho! here he or she is!








This was a very fun assignment, I actually think this was easier then the pendulum assignment. Great week!

- Nick

Week 6 Overlapping Action

The assignment this week was the awesome yet deadly.... PENDULUM!!!! This was probable the hardest assignment of class one but I finally got something that I'm proud of... I present to you... My Pendulum!







There wasn't a Stu pose for this week but the pendulum and the planning kept me more then busy.

-Nick

Week 5 Squash and Stretch

The assignment for week 5 was the famous obstacle course. Every AM students demo has one and now so does mine! Also this weeks Stu pose was to communicate devastation. This week was very fun and I learned tons of stuff!







The devastation poses!












This was a great! Really had a great time posing Stu in different poses and working out the issues that come with each!

-Nick

Week 4 Heavy vs Light

The assignment for week 4 was to animate two balls, each with a different weight. So I chose a beach ball type and a bowling ball. Here are the results... The planning and the shot.







This week there wasn't a Stu pose.


-Nick

Bouncing Ball Final

My first animation for AM is none and in the books!




-Nick

Excitement Pose Update

Excitement Stu Poses

These are the two versions of Excitement that I'm playing with. I like the second one better, but I dunno?






- Nick

Week 3 Excitement! and The Bouncing Ball

This week we are to bust out the old sketch book and draw poses that convey Excitement! Most of the poses I did were sports related celebratory type poses. The first image is a compilation of the all the sketchbook pages.




For the next part of the assignment we are to plan our bouncing ball animation out. And these are the sketches I have for that. I would like to push it and give the animation a little twist/ extra goodness but at the same time I don't want to lose sight of the goal here.



- Nick

Week 2 Assignment 1 and Re Visions

So today I got my first ECritique, and man what a difference the feedback makes. I dunno if it looks any better but I sure like it a lot more.

This is what I turned in for the first assignment. We were to go out and sketch people, it could be any where, I went to Starbucks. A lot of the poses were the same, but I liked this one of a woman pointing at the menu board.




This is the Re Vision, I like it much better!




-Nick

Week One Q & A

Yesterday we had our first Question and Answer for Class One: Basic Foundations. At AM the the Q & A rooms open and hr in advance, as each of my classmates trickled in you could feel the energy. I know that is hard to understand sense its an online school and until your there you won't really know what its like. We were asking each other questions and getting to know one another then the time finally came. I felt like I was waiting for the headliner of a major concert to take stage. It sounds crazy but when your mentor is someone that has hand in producing some of greatest animated features you've seen, it really is on that level, maybe even bigger.

Anthony introduced himself and gave a brief rundown of his professional history. Went over how the class will be structured, what he will do on his part and what he expects from us. He then took some questions and showed us some examples of more complex things that are strongly rooted in the basics. I'm quickly learning that this class will set the pace for the next five classes. If we get the basics down everything else will come natural.

Needless to say, I feel like I'm in great hands!


- Nick

AM + How to Train Your Dragon = Awesome Day - Part 2

After watching How to Train Your Dragon I came home and "went to school". Or I guess I logged on to school? Yeah, anyway today was the first day we gained access to the full website, found out our Q & A time and who our mentor was... Drum roll... My mentor is Anthony Wong! Anthony worked for ten years as a Disney feature animator and is now working at Pixar! He's worked on such great films as Mulan, Hunchback, Hercules, Tarzan and many more! I do believe I hit the jack pot! Yes sir!

Also I watch the Basic Foundations Lecture One, which was amazing! It was basically an over view of the first class. It ran a little over an hour long, and was packed full of nothing but great things! The hr lecture took me about 3hrs due to note taking, re-winding and re-listening. I love being able to re-watch these lectures and not have to ask the teacher to repeat themselves. That alone is great!

Also I watch a few of the training videos designed to get students familiar with maya, even those are cool! They touched on what an animator needs and that is it! Cut the fluff! This is gonna be a great experience!


- Nick

AM + How to Train Your Dragon = Awesome Day - Part 1

I started the day of by watching How to Train Your Dragon, saying movie was awesome could be an understatement. I didn't get to see it in 3d, but WHO CARES! When Dreamworks released Kung Fu Panda I was in awe, but they may have topped themselves with this one.

All of the characters both humans and the dragons look amazing. Honestly I wasn't to crazy about the character design of Toothless and I'm still really not that into him, but he did grow on me. All the main characters are unique in there own way and have their own sense of humor. If you'd like to see more of the character and set concepts I highly recommend The Art of How to Train Your Dragon, its a beautiful book indeed.

The story is very relate-able from multiple stand points. The biggest being the desire to be accepted for who you are by your friends and family and not being for forced into a mold you just aren't meant to fit in. Jay Baruchel is a perfect fit for the character of Hiccup and the animators did a great job of translating his mannerisms to the screen. Hiccup is pretty much the same character he plays in all the movies I've seen him in. Which isn't bad, I guess I just need to see more of his work.

The animation in this movie was all around amazing. I thought the animators did a great job tieing all the personalities and emotions in this film together. The silent acting of Toothless was very nice. The twins were funny and played off each other very nicely, which was new. Astrid is the very strong, independent female that eventually softens up. Christopher Mintz-Plasse does a very nice job as Fishlegs.

Anywho, I could sit and ramble, but that would be boring. Just go watch it! You'll Love it!


- Nick

The Illusion of Life - Part Two

As I continue to read the Illusion of Life I want to write about the things that stand out to me and make think a little further. I'm only on page twenty one so this could be a very long blog...

"Audience Involvement" is the latest thing to really catch my attention. Movies, both live action and animated that I can really relate to really strike a cord with me. It could be anything from a particular character that reminds me of someone in my life, past or present. Or if a character reminds me of myself in a certain way, personally or professionally. These types of movies are rare, but when they come around it can be an amazing thing for the viewer.

Its kinda funny in a way how people like movies or even love them, but another person could say that it was stupid or they hated it. I guess if it doesn't have something for you, then you might think it is stupid or feel like you have wasted your time and money. Not all movies are gonna make you think and dig a little deeper or realize something about yourself. Not all of them are going to speak to you directly, but the ones that do are the best kind, that is "Audience Involvement" like no other. I hope everyone has had that moment at some point, hopefully multiple times.


-Nick

The Illusion of Life - Part One

Today I starting reading The Illusion of Life, I'm not far into it but a quote by Vladimir (Bill) Tytla really struck me... I mean the whole book so far has my chin on the ground but this one thing really popped. This is directly from the book...

Bill was speaking to a group of young animators who had been asking how he achieved his wonderful results on screen. He answered simply, "To me it's as much a mystery as ever before - sometimes I get it - sometimes I don't. I wish I knew, then I'd do it more often.

-Vladimir (Bill) Tytla

I believe this to be so true, I find I do my best work when "my brain is off". Meaning, there is no real thought process, there is no magical recipe. I'm having fun, I'm enjoying what I'm working on and I'm thinking just enough to know what I want to accomplish. After I'm done I set back and ask myself, "Well, how did that happen?" And the answer is "I don't know, but I wish it happened more often."


-Nick

AM Orientation

So this is actually happening! Animation Mentor! WOW, I've sat and watched from afar with my jaw on the ground for so long and finally the day has come! Today we gained access to the student orientation videos and a limited version of the site. Man! Its alot to take in, its so cool!

The videos range from how to format your videos for E Critique to the importance of getting out there and making new friends and commenting on other students work. The site is very user friendly, the web cam setup was a breeze, much more simple then I originally expected.

One video/ interactive exercise I found of great use was the Bridge Program. This exercise was super helpful in actually getting a major goal down on paper and setting a date you'd like to accomplish it. It definitely feels good to write down what you want, when you want it by and the steps needed to get it accomplished. Great stuff!

Tomorrow I'm going to re watch the orientation videos and take a few notes! March 29 can't come soon enough!


-Nick