kenshi's Animation Adventures

Bishop As You've Never Seen Him Before

2006-10-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

I hadn't envisioned Bishop for his new co-starring role as anything other than the E.T.-looking alien he is, which is no particular race, but it suddenly struck me that instead of coming up with yet another shade of pale I could delve into some more interesting hues (after I gave him proper ears).He could be black, he could be India-Indian, he could be from Trinidad, he could be from anywhere. It

New Storyboards!

2006-10-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

These boards probably won't make sense until you see the current pass of the film with the storyboards inserted, since what you're seeing here doesn't all happen in sequence. But I wanted to show them all together, so you can get an idea of how my boarding skills have been developing.I must admit that having a set, even though it's a temporary set, and poseable character rigs makes things a lot

The Devil Wears Prada

2006-09-28T21:39:00.000-07:00

I finally went and saw the movie The Devil Wears Prada starring the amazing Meryl Streep. I had listened to the audiobook a year or two ago so I was interested to see what Ms. Streep would do with the role. I had heard some comments from friends before it came out, wondering if she was perhaps too old for the part, but I knew she would be stellar. And I was right.I don't think I have ever seen

Broken Links

2006-09-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm still not sure what the problem is, but my site is still down, and all but one of the animation file links were on that site, so please forgive me. I'm looking into the matter and hope to have it resolved soon. Just wanted to let you know why so little was available.- The Management

Leave of Absence

2006-09-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. I haven't gone fishin', but I have decided to take a leave of absence from AnimationMentor for the last two weeks of Class 6, the final class, and then come back full force for another 3 months in order to finish my film properly.There are big sections of the film that need some re-working, and if i'm going to do something, i want to do it right, so even though the prospects are

New Musical Score

2006-09-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot to mention another exciting bit of news! You will probably notice that the music in my film has changed. Well, I got back in touch with a good friend of mine, Michael Brennan, and learned that he was wanting to get into film scoring. So when I told him I was working on a short film myself, he wanted to try his hand at scoring my piece. I am very happy with the work he did and

Short Film Polish: Pass 1

2006-08-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to download the rough cut of the film after two rounds of blocking and into the polish pass on the first two-thirds (to download, just click the "free" button towards the bottom of the page - you'll be required to wait a minute or so, enter the password, and you'll be able to download. Sorry about the hassle, but my website host is down at the moment.)Things are starting to shape up a

Promotional Poster

2006-08-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

"Sole Searching" Rough Blocking - Third Third

2006-08-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to view the final third blocking of the film.Of all of the blocking I have done so far, I am probably happiest with this "chunk".It was great to start to flesh out these performances. This marks the first time I have had characters actually interacting -- touching. KISSING no less! It really took things to a new level for me -- they seemed more real. They felt more alive. They are

"Sole Searching" Rough Blocking - Second Third

2006-07-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to view the blocking of the second third of the short.I added on the rough blocking on the second third of the film. Got some great feedback from David Breaux last week - animator at Rhythm & Hues. But the drill is for us to take one third of the film at a time, get it to a certain point, and then not touch it til the "next round". Not that I would get in trouble for making the

Some sketches...

2006-07-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any sketches from my sketchbook in a while, so here you go. Hope you like them. Click on the image to see it enlarged. **Sidenote: the very bottom drawing on the last page of drawings is of a man that must have driven his Harley across the country several times over for the past 30 years. His shoulders were so hunched forward, it looked almost comical. Talk about form following

"Sole Searching" Rough Blocking - First Third

2006-07-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Click HERE to see the first pass of blocking on the first 800 frames of the short.So things are starting to take shape a bit. Kind of feels like first day of rehearsals of a play, doing rough blocking. You're working with these digital actors that have never done this role, that have never interacted with each other before. And as an animator, I sit there and push their faces all over the place

Story vs. Acting

2006-07-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

There's a big difference between what happens in story and what happens in animation that I think is really great.In the story process, you have to make sure everything is clear and reads well onscreen, but it's not the writer's job to tell the actor what the character is thinking, or every bit of backstory. In fact, it's better to leave that work to the actor. The story should contain all the

"Sole Searching" Layout

2006-07-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

So I came up with a title for my short film: "Sole Searching". I always like a good pun (though most I find moronic -- sorry, Dad)... I'm thinking I'll animate the titles somehow if I have time - kind of like the stylistic way the titles were done in "Monsters, Inc."Anyhow, at the end of last term, we worked on a layout, which is the first step of production in the computer. It's where you take

Short Film Animatic

2006-07-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

So, for all of you wanting to know what I've been working on for the past three months, here it is...Last term was all about story. It was a challenging experience to say the least. We had to work within a lot of limitations, which a lot of students seemed to really hate, but I think it was kind of freeing.It reminded me of when I was shooting my music video back in 2001. Trying to come up with

Salt Lake City or Bust

2006-05-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

So after a 4 month stint in the Bay Area, I am back in Salt Lake City. The timing wasn't right and although it was a great experience, continuing on out there was not in my best interests - financially and otherwise.I apologize for being so negligent in my updates. Look for many more posts to be coming soon...I'm just starting into full production on my short film, which has come a long way in

"Microhell!"Abandoned for New (Better) Story Idea

2006-04-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

So Microhell! has gone the way of most story ideas - all the way to the back-back-burner. Probably never to see the light of day, but hey - c'est la vie.The primary catalyst for this idea was the shoes the lady sitting next to me was wearing on Southwest Flight 2665 from Oakland, California to Salt Lake City, Utah last Tuesday morning, but looking back there were several things that also

Micro-hell!: Fleshed Out Treatment

2006-04-17T19:03:00.000-07:00

Kitchen – morningEmpty dog bowl with the name Moses written on the side. Dog with cross on his collar runs around in circles waiting for whatever his master is frying on the stove. We see that his master is a priest (Father Melton) and that he is frying a burrito in the pan. We can see the street outside the kitchen window.We hear a car stopping and zooming off and then we see a microwave sitting

Microhell!: Synopsis Update

2006-04-16T15:20:00.000-07:00

So I've read it aloud and it clocks in under a minute, so I think I'm okay. I'll just have to see what my mentor thinks of the idea...“Microhell!” by Kenshi Westover v.4 Synopsis: A priest named Charley is cooking his breakfast on the stove with his dog, Moses, waiting expectantly for his share of the food, when he sees a car dropping off a microwave by the side of the road in a hurry. He

Short Film Idea Update: Microhell!

2006-04-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

So, I made a few changes, trying to streamline a few things. Let me know what you think.“Microhell!” by Kenshi Westover v.3 (Changed: microwave from white to black, had Charley getting the morning paper instead of taking Moses for a walk, Synopsis: A priest named Charley finds a microwave on the side of the street. The microwave is possessed and ends up acting very strangely. He gets scared

Short Story Ideas for my Short Film

2006-04-14T02:04:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Stockley (www.improvlady.com) held an improv workshop for AnimationMentor Class 5 students this week and it was just what I needed! She taught us lots of games to help get our creative juices flowing. I had been experiencing horrible writer's block because I was frantically trying to come up with incredibly witty and funny and smart stories for my short film, but all that was coming out

Things I Have Learned This Term (Through The Most Brutal Teacher: Experience)

2006-03-31T15:06:00.000-08:00

1. You're not good enough to NOT use (video) reference. 2. Animating using a layering method makes more sense after rough pose-to-pose blocking. Otherwise, GOOD LUCK getting any kind of flow in your work.3. Work clean with clarity and purpose.4. Just sitting down and animating on the computer is not the best way to explore different acting choices. Acting it out (video reference) and thumbnailing

"Denial" Acting Test for Class 4 - Advanced Acting

2006-03-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here's the animation I've spent the last 8 weeks on, but is still only about 60% done, I would say. It's roughly 15 seconds long and is yet another serious piece. I'm drawn to these emotional exchanges, and though I love comedy, I haven't found the right audio clip or idea to go down that road yet. Plus one of my long term goals is to push the medium into deeper dramatic territory...but I

Working to Camera and Other Excuses for Bad Animation

2006-03-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is something I wrote up back at the end of March and though that specific moment is past, it's not a lesson I want to forget:So I did something really scary today. The term is over and we're moving onto other things, so I am "free" to sit back and take a look at my sequence of shots and make further improvements.And as you may or may not have noticed, all of my shots are medium shots (

Animation Is Like A Science Experiment

2006-03-26T14:13:00.000-08:00

I've decided that animation is just like a science experiment. Instead of throwing a bunch of ingredients into a test tube and trying to figure out what exactly made it turn green, you have to take it step by step in a logical way.You want to isolate the variables as much as possible. Take it one step at a time.Of course with enough time and practice, we may get to the point where we can see a

MIA

2006-03-25T15:55:00.000-08:00

I know my blog has been MIA for a while, and for that I apologize. The past three months have been full of both personal and professional change and I'm barely starting to get my head above water.There is a lot I want to blog about and share, and after this week, I think I will have much more time to reflect and process what has happened, what I have learned, where I want to go from here, and how

Think About Mechanics From the Beginning

2006-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

Something I'm learning is that it's never too soon to think about mechanics. It's tempting to think, "Oh, I'll make sure my mechanics are working once i get into breaking the poses down. I'll put the weight shifts in later. Right now I'm just 'roughing' things in."Wrong.I tend to think of building an shot like I would approach a sculpture, rough to smooth, general to specific, but this is an area

PAE: Wrangling IK Arms

2005-12-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

No, PAE is not an abbreviation for "paella" -- it stands for Personal Animation Epiphany, and I had one in the hot tub today as I soaked away my sore muscles. I saw someone resting his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hands, and then he started to bounce his knees and (of course) the elbows responded. And that's when it hit me...This has been giving a lot of students problems when

Second Dialogue Test: Final Blocking & Rough Primary Pass

2005-11-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE to view animation.There are some weight shift problems in the middle of the shot and something funny going on with the hips in the beginning section, too.The main things I addressed were a) what to do with the legs and b) what to do with the ending.I needed to draw more attention to the legs in the middle section, but in a subtle way, so after trying out a lot of things that just

Time Management

2005-11-17T12:20:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of new students starting at AnimationMentor in January that have asked about time management, especially where they have jobs and families, so I wanted to go into what has worked for me, and what I plan to do to balance the demands of fulltime work, fulltime school, family, social, and personal life.Many students have quit their jobs to devote 100% of their time to AM studies, but

Second Dialogue Test Blocking

2005-11-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE to see the animation.Here's rough blocking with quite a few breakdowns. I think I need to get into this character's head a little more. I know she's fishing for a compliment but I haven't decided why. It's easy to overlook that kind of stuff when it's a single shot with no context, but I do believe that the more real the character is to you, the more you will be able to convey that in

Thumbnails For My Next Shot

2005-11-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

The dialogue for this next shot goes like this: (another female character by the way)You've got to work with what you've got, well we...we all do. I mean, you know I,I...I wish I had the legs so I could wear short skirts, but... (Offscreen male: Your legs are beautiful!) No they're notIt'll be a really understated piece, if I do it right. I'm having the character mixing up a batch of brownies

Intro to Acting - First Dialogue Test Polishing

2005-11-08T20:27:00.000-08:00

So here's my almost final, but not nearly done first dialogue test. CLICK HERE to see the animation (no more of this self-loading movie nonsense that takes forever):I'm not super happy with it. I feel like I took some steps backwards in a lot of ways with this, but I blame most of that on not blocking in stepped mode (which treats the poses more like still, held drawings with no smooth

Class 3 - Week 3: Second Pass

2005-10-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Mark had a lot of good changes for me. All in all, he really liked my acting choices. The main things he had me look at were 1) focus (where the character was directing her attention) which has to do with 2) amount of confrontation with the offscreen character, and 3) the nuances of mood to create a truer performance that matched the tone of the dialogue better.After getting some distance on the

Improving Your Work

2005-10-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

A fellow student at AM has commented to me a few times now that I have seemed to make some big strides in Maya since the bouncing ball exercises, so I thought I'd talk a little about that.I really don't think it has much to do with Maya at all. I think I would have floundered there at the beginning no matter what software I was using.I think what he was seeing and responding to is a gradual

Class 3 - Week 2: Rough Blocking

2005-10-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well, here's my first stab at my shot. My mentor, Mark Behm, emphasized to us last week to plan very, very well. To overplan. To explore all the possibilities and to draw all that out and to definitely not go with our first thumbnails. As you can see from my thumbnails, they got successively clearer and (hopefully) better.I thumbnailed before I did my reference, except for that third page. Those

First dialogue test clips

2005-09-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

So I didn't end up submitting either of the two clips I had posted earlier from Six Feet Under. Here are my three submissions: two from Bullets Over Broadway and one from Angels in America:I'm leaning towards the second clip of Mary-Louise Parker from Angels in America. Her character, Harper, is a very neurotic and depressed Mormon housewife, but in a very comical, truthtelling sort of way.I like

"Variety" Interview

2005-09-27T17:16:00.000-07:00

My first interview in a national magazine. <-- click here to be directed to the article. Kind of an intimidating experience. The interviewer got sick the day we were supposed to do it over the phone so it ended up being via email, but I'm actually glad about that, since I wasn't having to answer on the fly and had more time to think things out a little more.Here's the full interview:Q: How did

Glen Keane

2005-09-20T12:52:00.000-07:00

What can I say? Meeting Glen Keane at Siggraph was such an amazing experience. First hearing how he has made the transition from traditional animation to computer animation and seeing the progression of his work from an early Where the Wild Things Are test where he animated the character on top of moving 3D backgrounds to what he's working on now, as director of Disney Feature Animation's

Bishop!

2005-09-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Finally, our first character with a face! Ain't he cute? Kind of limited in range when it comes to facial expressions - but I think they want us to keep it simple before we go full blown with "f"ricative lips shapes and such. This will already be too robust for a lot of people, and it will probably take a while to get the hang of him. Would have been nice to move the eyebrows independently. But

Class 2: Session 11

2005-09-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

When you're viewing, keep the following in mind -Assignment: Transition 2 contrasting emotions in 100 frames (which equals roughly 4 seconds).**Refined Version (as opposed to stepped blocking).**Originally, I had him transition from there to mad, and then kick the thing and hurt his leg, with cuts to show the gumball stopping on the little slide, but I had to take out the camera movement and

Class 2 - Session 1

2005-08-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

(Read image left to right, top to bottom.)These are my planning sketches for my first assignment. He's tripping on a sidewalk. It was my first heavy duty reference session. I had a friend videotape me with me holding my arms behind my back. Had I read ahead, I would have known that I would be adding arms the next week and should have filmed myself with arms and all, but oh well. It worked well

Class 2 Mentor: Victor Navone!

2005-08-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is Victor Navone, heavy with child... good thing there's room at the inn for little animation younglings like myself (Victor's pet name for his mentees) at AnimationMentor.com.I was very, very excited to find out that the Victor Navone would be my second term mentor. This man is actually how I found out about AnimationMentor.com in the first place, come to think of it and has been an

Class 1 - Week 12

2005-08-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

Well, there was no assignment for this week. Just a end of term Q&A with Charles where he kind of went through everybody and gave some final advice. Charles was a good mentor - super nice guy and a very talented animator. He emphasized that animation isn't an exact science, so it was interesting to see how he tackled problems, and how his workflow was different from other animators (like how he

All you ever wanted to know about AM.com...

2005-08-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

So check out the Bobby Beck interview at Renderosity. If you're interested in the school and want to find out more about how it all came about, what kinds of things are offered, and why it's such a revolutionary thing, read this. It will give you a very good idea about why AnimationMentor.com is stirring the kind of commotion it has.I think it's also a good read for current AM students, to hear

Class 1 - Week 11

2005-08-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

It's all about balance... Tuk & Rol is my little tribute to those cute little pill pugs in A Bug's Life. Speaking of that movie, Pixar giant Joe Ranft passed away last week. He was the voice of the caterpillar Heimlich and was one of the head of story people there at the studio. It's a great loss to the animation world, not to mention his family and friends.Victor Navone (my mentor) said the mood

Class 1 - Week 10

2005-08-16T16:15:00.000-07:00

For this week's assignment, i tried killing three birds with one stone. 1) walk with personality 2) 180 degree turn (overachiever suggestion from last week and continued into this week and 3) overlapping action revision. I never revised the Tailor animation from weeks ago that sucked so bad, so I came up with a little scenario to address all three issues. Tailor's tail became a ponytail for

Class 1 - Session 9

2005-08-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

Let's see if I can remember these assignments from oh, so long ago. We got to do a "vanilla walk". Walks are tough! I practically burned a hole through my Animator's Survival Kit studying contacts, breakdowns, and passing positions. I remember going from stepped mode to splines and just freaking out a bit on how much time it took to clean this stuff up. I try to find ways to express my sense of

Siggraph 2005

2005-08-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know i'm way behind on my blog here, but bear with me. I will catch up. In the meantime, I just have to report on my first Siggraph experience - Los Angeles, California - Convention Center - July 31 to August 4.First of all, I have never been on a trip that long by myself. Getting all the arrangements made was a bit daunting, but I pulled through, trying not to think about how much all

Week 8

2005-07-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

No animation assignment this week. Just posing. Something "strong". Some mentors aren't letting their students utilize any props, but thankfully, Charles (Alleneck) is not so ascetic. I didn't actually get a critique from my mentor on it though, because they don't really have the capabilities for some reason to pull up our sketchbook materials in the eCritique tool. Hopefully that will be worked

Week 7: 1-Leg

2005-06-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

View the final, revised animation here.I started this session out by doing a test jump with our new character: 1-Leg. It was simple, and fairly successful, I thought. It was basically a copying exercise, which I think is an important skill to have: See it, break it down, and re-create it. No need to reinvent the wheel...yet.I saved that for the day my assignment was due. Just kidding. But really,

Gavin Moran Q&A Session

2005-06-06T00:21:00.000-07:00

This was an eye-opener.But first, an introduction: Gavin has been a character animator for 10 years. He was born in the Republic of Ireland where he attended college til he didn't. He came to the United States in 1994 to pursue his dream of animating or at least finding some other way of not working for a living. He has worked in various different studios including Disney, Wildbrain, Sony

Week 6: Overlapping Action

2005-05-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

View animation HERE.This has definitely been the hardest assignment for me thus far. Up to this point I was thinking, "This animation thing isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be." Suffice it to say I ate those words for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day that week.Our assignment was to animate 'Tailor' - the little bouncing ball with a squirrel tail - doing at least 3 jumps. I didn't

Week 5 Revisions

2005-05-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

View animation HERE.So according to my mentor, Charles Alleneck at ILM,'s suggestions, I made my revisions. In my Stu pose, he recommended making the arms heavier, rotating the headstone to get a better silhouette and putting slightly more distance between the figures. Pretty minor changes really, but what a difference they make. I already commented on the things that neeed changing n my

2005-05-04T18:02:00.001-07:00

Week 5 sketches - page 1

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Week 5 sketches - page 2

Week 5 sketches - page 3

2005-05-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

So there's a farm right down the street from my work - in the middle of Utah suburbia. Historical Wheeler Farm. Never paid it much attention, til now.... Now that I'm a fledgling animator, I go there all the time; during my lunch breaks, on the weekends. I'm not used to drawing animals other than humans, and it just tickles me that the same forces and rhythms you employ to sketch humans applies

Week 5: Anticipation

2005-05-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you wouldn't know it from my previous week 5 planning sketch, but this assignment was actually about anticipation followed by a realistically moving bouncing ball, not "how to get a ball through a fancy obstacle course". So, I pulled way back and just went about the animation the way Bobby suggested I do it, which is to layer the animation. Do the basic timing first. Just up and down with

Week 4 sketches - page 2

2005-05-04T14:56:00.001-07:00

Week 4 sketches - page 1

2005-05-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

The figure on the left I sketched 6 times. Only posted the most successful ones, going from general and gestural to more specific and stylized. The couple upper center was at Red Rock, a popular restaurant in downtown Salt Lake. I am having fun taking people's characteristics and exaggerating them; something I didn't allow myself the privilege of much before.Bottom right corner is from our weekly

Squash & Stretch Contact Positions Sketch

2005-05-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

Week 4: Squash and Stretch

2005-05-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Week 4 AssignmentThis is a little late in coming, but I wanted this to kind of be a repository for all my assignments and what I learned from them. The assignment here was to take the bouncing ball from the previous week and add squash and stretch to it. I tried several different approaches. In Richard Williams' book "The Animator's Survival Kit", he talks about stretching into the contact with

Week 5 Assignment: Devastation

2005-05-01T00:07:00.000-07:00

Pose #4So, the assignment this week is to do a pose best expressing "devastation" with the Stu character. I have to turn this in tomorrow, so I would really like to hear from all you lurkers which one you like best and why. Look at body language, look at design, look at pose readibility, look at the strength of the silhouette - but most importantly, which image evokes the strongest emotional

2005-05-01T00:06:00.002-07:00

Pose #3

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Pose #2

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Pose #1

Week 5: Obstacle Course

2005-04-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Planning, planning, planning...Well, apparently the best way to get critiques from fellow students and campus mentors is to post a thread in the critique forums. That's where everybody seems to be going these days. I'm finding that not many students are online. I don't know if it's a technical glitch, where they are really there and I just can't see them for some reason or what.Anyhow, I posted

Elizabeth's Kenyan

2005-04-18T01:38:00.000-07:00

After a long hiatus from the figure, I returned with renewed vengeance to the age-old practice last Saturday at the University of Utah (because they have a real art department with nude models - what a concept). It was my mainstay in college. How a person can get a BA in Visual Arts taking primarily only figure classes, I'll never know, but I didn't have any complaints (other than the creative

Modern Dance Sketching

2005-04-18T01:24:00.000-07:00

Class 1 - Session 3 - sketchbookThese sketches were all done last Friday (the 15th) at the University of Utah Modern Dance Senior Recital. I enjoyed drawing these dancers much more than the ones at Ballet West last week. I find that the poses and movements in modern dance are so much more expressive and raw. They aren't so concerned with how pretty they look or how elegant and dainty everything

2005-04-18T01:23:00.001-07:00

Class 1 - Session 3 - sketchbook

2005-04-18T01:23:00.000-07:00

Class 1 - Session 3 - sketchbook

Week 3: Evolution of a Shot

2005-04-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

This was my first animation assignment, the first time I had to make something move. Getting up the courage to do it took longer than actually doing it. I didn't do my first draft til Wednesday, and it was horrible - really floaty, the timing and spacing were all way off. I went ahead and posted it on the AM site with a disclaimer, but people critiqued it anyway. Lesson learned: Don't put up sh*

Lend Me a Hand...or Your Arm

2005-04-17T21:29:00.000-07:00

Assignment: ExcitementNow, one of the assignments this week was to take Stu (this simple biped character) and capture the emotion of excitement in one pose. I really wanted to steer clear of cliche, but I also wanted a very strong line of action and really solid posing. My first sketches (on the right) were the obvious choices, with the lower sketch being too internal to be clear and the upper

Revisions, Revisions

2005-04-15T11:12:00.000-07:00

Assignment RevisionWell, the third Q&A with Charles Alleneck worked for me. It was great to finally "meet" my mentor. Uploading my first assignment, however, was a bit of a nightmare and I was pretty much a basket case, trying in vain to get everything to work right. Ended up staying up til 4am that night - well, morning - and sending Charles an email that was 7 paragraphs too long... Uggghh. It

2005-04-11T02:18:00.001-07:00

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Pushing Pose

Live Jam Session with the BOOM

2005-04-01T19:38:00.000-08:00

Bobby "BOOM" Beck So, since I had technical problems with my first Q&A with my Charles Alleneck, I got to participate in a makeup session with Bobby Beck today. He is such a positive, energetic guy - so awesome to be interacting with these amazingly talented guys that have no ego at all and are really just there to train up the next generation of animators.I got to ask him some questions live.

Get Up and Act It Out

2005-04-01T10:03:00.000-08:00

Stu in Manet's Olympia. I got more feedback from a mentor on my workspace, this time from Doug Dooley at Pixar. (He worked on the Academy Award winning short film Bunny back at Blue Sky Studios before going to Pixar). He said: HEY KENSHI, GREAT JOB! WHAT'S GREAT ABOUT YOUR POSES IS THEY TELL A CLEAR STORY EVERYONE CAN INSTANTLY READ. So I sent him a quick note to thank him for the helpful

Second Day of Class

2005-03-29T16:37:00.000-08:00

First Live Q&A with Bobby Beck (l), Shawn Kelly (r), and Carlos Baena (not visible). So, you can imagine my surprise when this morning, I go to the AM site where I had posted the 3 poses I did late last night (see last entry) to see some comments made by passerbys - and one was from Bobby Beck!! He had this to say: LOVE THE POSES. THE HAAHAA YOUR FUNNY POSE INTHE FIRST SKETCHBOOK IMAGE IS REALLY

My First Day of School

2005-03-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

Stu in action. Well, today was the first day of "class". The only assignments I have are to read the first three chapters of The Illusion of Life and get oriented with the site. I have had that book since I was twelve years old, or so, and i read it like it was holy writ. I even underlined key points lightly in pencil. So it's nice to revisit that classic material.The actual site has had a few

My First Mentor

2005-03-28T10:13:00.000-08:00

Charles Alleneck So, I have been assigned a mentor for my first class at AnimationMentor.com: Charles Alleneck.BIO: 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 Simpson’s before coming to ILM to learn CG animation. Charles has

Incredibles DVD, Sutdent ID, and Bobby "Boom" Beck live chat

2005-03-16T18:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it's a been a big animation day for me. I got my AM Student ID in an email today, so I'm officially logged into the system. Cant' access the website til the 28th though (classes got pushed back a week). At work I've been listening to the director/producer and animators' commentaries on The Incredibles DVD. Lots of great information there. I was encouraged by something Brad Bird said; that

Flying logos are not beneath me (yet)...

2005-03-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

All work done in Maya 6.0 by kenshi. So I just finished my first animation for a film. No character animation involved, but it was a good chance to put my modeling, lighting, shading, rendering, and animating skills to use. It's for my friends' newly formed film company and they needed it tonight because they are showing their documentary film "Pariahs" tonight at a fundraiser and wanted a slick

I've been accepted!

2005-03-07T16:19:00.000-08:00

AnimationMentor.com's newest student. I just found out late Friday night that I have been accepted into AnimationMentor.com 's program for Spring 2005. I can hardly remember the last time I felt so nervous and excited about something. Kind of odd to be feeling those emotions. I guess I've been coasting a little too long in my comfort zone.Anyhow, classes start Monday, March 21st and go for a year