Class 2 Progress Reel.

Wow, it’s been ages since I last updated my blog, sorry about that! I have just finished class 2, I now have a 10 week break and then I’m going straight back into class 3. It’s weird to think that I’m a third of the way through my training already!
I had a great term 2. My mentor, Leigh Rens was brilliant and my class was once again awesome. I’m very much looking forward to class 3, AM just keeps getting better!
Here is my progress reel from class 2, I sure feel like I have learnt a lot.

Class 1 Progress Reel.

My first term at AM is over already! I can’t believe how quickly it went. This is a compilation of all of my work so far. I’ve still got a long way to go.

Up Shoes.

I finished painting these yesterday. I love the film Up, it is so beautiful in so many ways. Should have won the Oscar – just saying…
Anywhoo, here they are.

New House!!!

How exciting! Today I found out that everything has fallen into place and gone unconditional so we’re moving! It’s all going to happen really fast, but that’s the way I want it, I am really sick of where I live right now. The best thing about the new place is that there will be a lot more space, which means a study for me and finally a bedroom which will fit a bigger bed! – There is no way I’m getting rid of my Pocahontas Duvet though. I’m going to hold on to that even if it won’t fit my new bed!

It’s also my dad’s birthday today. (A bigger mortgage, what a present huh?) Happy Birthday Dad, even though there is almost no chance you will ever read this.

New Monitor!

I finally have a second monitor, and it’s beautiful! I can’t wait to put it to use, but first I have to figure out how to plug it in!

Week 2.

We have some real work to do this week! No animation yet, but that’s ok. We have to go out and draw some people and then re-create one of the strongest poses in Maya. Should be fun! I’m just a little worried of coming off a little ‘creepy stalker’ sitting in a cafe or the mall drawing people… hmmmm. I’ll take my sunnies.

I met another Animation Mentor student two days ago. It was so awesome meeting him, I had no idea that there would be another Aucklander on AM, let alone someone who lives so close to me! We had a great long chat. Turns out he went to the same animation school that I was at last year! It really is a small world. I’m sure the staff at Paper moon were a little annoyed that we stayed that long and only had 1 glass of apple juice and a complimentary water. Oh well.

So I’m off to draw some people today, I think I might try the beach. I’ll take note of where I need to catch the bus to come home this time. Last time I walked home and it was a bit of a disaster as its all uphill and I’m not as fit as I used to be. I guess thats what happens when the most exercise you get is walking up and down the stairs. I need to get out more.

Beauty and the Beast Shoes.

A while ago I had the crazy idea to paint myself a pair of customised shoes. Being a Disney fan, it was obvious that the images I used would be from a Disney film. I had seen people do this before, putting characters on shoes, but I wanted my first pair to be a little different. The stain glass window scenes in Beauty and the Beast always amazed me as a kid, so I decided to try put that on a pair of canvas shoes.

Scared I’d stuff them up, I bought a cheap $10 pair from Kmart and with a black sharpie and some of my old acrylic paints from my school days I set to work painting my shoes.

It took me 3 days in total, I’m quite proud that I didn’t stuff up! (not terribly anyway.) Here are the finished shoes. I had never expected them to be so popular! As of today they’ve had almost 1500 views on DevianART and they have been posted on Tumblr and the custom shoe blog Paint or Thread. I am quite overwhelmed!

How to Train Your Dragon.

What can I say? I thought this film was brilliant!

The story was good, the animation was great, I loved the colours and textures, it’s the best example of 3D that I think I’ve ever seen (yes, Avatar included.) I really loved the way the film ended, I won’t spoil it, but I though it was a perfect ending and a film this good deserved that. They could have easily made it into a ‘cheese-fest.’ Toothless was adorable! He did remind me a little of Stitch, I’ve only just heard that the film was made by the same directors, but It didn’t really bother me. I’ve seen it twice now, and I cried both times. That could just be because I’m a wuss, but the film did have a pretty emotional ending. There was a real sense of danger for the characters in the end of the film, and I was genuinely worried about their safety which is a though thing to pull off in an animated family film when everyone goes in expecting a ‘happily ever after.’ So, go see it, I suggest in 3D it is thoroughly worth the extra cost the 3D really enhanced the experience.

This is now my favourite Dreamworks film, even over Shrek. Good job guys!

Class 1. Day 1.

I’ve now officially started training at Animation Mentor! I’m only a day in and the school has completely surpassed my expectations. My mentor is wonderful, her name is Alison Sanders and she currently works for Tippett Studios. She has animated on The Golden Compass, Prince Caspian and The Tale of Despereaux. (I adored ‘Despereaux’!) My class is fantastic too. In fact, all the students are. I was overwhelemed by the amount of friendly welcomes I received on the first day! These people are awesome, I can see already why everyone raves about the AM community.

It was a very pleasant surprise to find some other Kiwis on AM! One of them lives close by, and we’re planning to meet soon. I never would have imagined this happening, I thought I’d be the only one!

We haven’t been given any work to do yet. They’ve given us a week to set up our Profiles and get familiar with the site, but they have given us the ‘Stu’ character so I plan to have a mess around with that as well as check out the schools forums and maybe watch a dvd or two while I still have the time.

Maya Springboard.

Well, this is it! I’ve finished the Maya Springboard training program at Animation Mentor and I’m set to start class one in 2 days time! I’m hoping to keep this blog updated with my work as I go through my training so I’ll make a start by showing you some of the animation I have done over the last 12 weeks.