Graduation Blues? Hardly

Well Graduation just happened this last weekend and the only word for it really is... speechless! So many elements of it was fantastic and surreal it's hard to know where to start. The actual ceremony itself was creative and entertaining, done in the style that only Animation Mentor could pull off, but on top of that, meeting most people for the first time that I've only met before through webcam or even text was an amazing experience. Especially being harnessed as such a global community and knowing how far people travelled, just... wow! There was also a career fair the day before in which I was able to introduce myself to numerous recruiters, I consider that to be the most important element rather than simply prospects of finding work, though that plays into it as well. And being able to do all the touristy things that San Francisco offers with friends from literally around the world was just as exciting. 5 days was not long enough.

Although I was nominated for 2 student choice awards, I didn't end up winning either, but I wasn't disappointed, as both people who won them were entirely deserving of those awards. I did however, get to meet up with my last mentor, Kenny Roy who's an awe inspiring individual, but having won his class award, I received a 3D maquette of one of my film characters. All I had to do was send him a pose in a maya file and the rest was his; I plan on painting it, but it was an honor to receive it.

So I guess it's official, I'm now a full fledged alumni, but the work doesn't stop there. After graduation, a group of us got tours of ILM and PDI Dreamworks and both places were just amazing. So many good vibes that I definitely feel rejuvenated on finishing my short film, even sooner than later. So I've begun work on that as well as continued to bust away work for the Age of Chivalry mod I'm part of now. Mostly working on Sprint cycles at the moment, and I'm realizing how challenging cycles can actually be. It is definitely a good test of... well darn near everything and a really good learning experience. Hopefully I'll post something soon.

Also, one of my shots for the new Mass Animation contest was chosen as a finalist and I had a skype call with the director Yair Landau earlier today. Offering me some feedback on how to improve it and getting me set up for working with ReelFX to push it up to finalized production quality. It's a very exciting prospect and I can't wait to start to finish it (sounds ironic I know). I've decided to do one more entry for the DCUO contest, this time a game cycle. If it gets chosen, it would be an interesting sense of achievement seeing some of my animation in game being used by players and NPCs alike.

So all in all, even tho becoming alumni would seem like a bit of a denouement, the animation wheel keeps on turning, and I'm glad I have enough to keep my plate full until the next studio job comes my way. :D

A Whole Decade Later

Huzzah! It's a new year, new decade even, and even better than that, I can proudly display this awesome new logo! That's right, I've graduated, and I am officially an Animation Mentor alumni woohoo! Well, to be fair, the actual graduation ceremony is next week, but barring some absurd technicality, I'm feeling pretty confident I'm a graduate. It was a pretty mad push up to the end, but well worth it's weight in learning and goldness. Though my short film is not complete, I'm feeling happy with the shots I worked on and feel now I have something far more competitive than I did in the past. Plus the relationships I've nurtured over the last year and a half are practically worth it on it's own, socially and otherwise.
The Xmas break was good, but ultimately too short as per usual. I got to go home to see family and also use that time to enter the new Mass Animation DC Universe Online contest. I wanted to challenge myself with one shot, a hard one at that to prevent getting rusty and really, it was the only time I would be able to work on it, as I have quite a full plate going on at the moment. Anyways, working on a laptop for a change was quite the experience, and though I don't feel my shot was complete or as good as it could have possibly been, I gave myself a time restriction and handed it in. I'm not hell-bent on winning, I just wanted to participate as it was a chance to animate Batman, that in itself was worth it to me.
On another front, my work with the Age of Chivalry dev team is ramping up and I'm busy creating cycles for them as well. It's a very exciting project and a fun crew to boot. Already I'm learning alot, including quickly mastering (I'd like to think) 3DS Max, so even another piece of software under my belt. Not sure if I'm allowed to post animations from that, I imagine it's ok, but I'm going to check first.
If you haven't noticed, also I've manage to compile a new reel together on the main page, updated to the max! Unrendered as of yet, but I'll get around to it; I've also had some dynamics simulation problems, mostly with the software crashing, but I'll overcome that hurdle as well.
So in the very least, I guess I can say I'm glad I'm keeping busy in the new year and not allowing myself too much downtime; one resolution I've stuck to so far hehe. Now if I can just keep up more regular blog postings. THE FUTURE IS NOW! :D

I'm Not Dead I swear

I realize it's been a while since my last post. This is largely due to the Class 5/6 phenomenom I've noticed, that most students choose not to publish short film works in progress in a public domain and I'm adhering to that as well. It may come back to haunt me in terms of film festivals if it actually does become a festival piece who knows. With that said, it's been an amazing learning experience, that is absolutely no lie. As of now there is only 2 1/2 weeks left of class 7, then I will be ready for the almighty and scary class 7! (Class 7 being a colourful euphemism for the real world industry). Exciting and a bit scary at the same time, but mostly exciting.

Against my original plan but not against my better judgement, I will not complete my short film this term. At the start of class I made a verbal contract with my mentor that I would only tackle 30 seconds of my short film, so I can make those 30 seconds as best as I possibly can, instead of 1 minute 17 seconds of less-than-awesomeness. At most CG film studios where 3 seconds / week is expected, that's about right on par, plus I'm still a student learning and more than polishing out my animation also polishing out my workflow mistakes. That has been the real power of this class so far, I've really developed my workflow into something very functional through experimentation and trial and error. On top of that, I've also increasingly developed my eye into seeing finessing on an even more detailed level as well as a series of "aha!" moments, which are so gratifying.

Sooo much more to learn I feel incredibly humbled by how much there is yet to know, but that's also the very exciting part of the whole industry as well, I will keep growing and learning and pushing myself, and I freakin' love that! With the end of AM so nigh, I will gratefully look forward to my xmas downtime, but much work to be done before the actual graduation in mid January; namely polishing up other shots and compiling a new and improved demo reel. I don't want to jinx anything too much but many new extracurricular projects coming up as well; namely Mass Animation 2, 11 Seconds Club and some Crysis game modding so much to stay busy with.

Also, this week marks the 26th issue of Andy-Mated, my webcomic I'm doing for www.vancouveranimation.ca. In other words, that's 6 months of drawing a web comic and everything that entails. Not only has it been a great commitment but a great way to keep my creativity flowing and improve my artistic and photochopping abilities. Each week it grows slightly stronger so I hope to keep this up.

Musings From Within the Time Cube

First day of Class 6! I just found out my mentor is the wonderfully inspirational Kenny Roy and I'm quite pleased. He's got a great enthusiasm about him and seems quite knowledgable of cartoony style as well, which will be unbelievably helpful for me this term in particular. Woo! Pre-production and layout of my short film is complete, and you can see the more final version below:


In other updates, PAX was great, although I caught the infamous PAX flu, and at least was able to poke fun of it with my webcomic. There is a very real possibility that it was H1N1, but I was advised not to get tested and stay away from public unless it starts to affect my respiratory system in a serious way. Regardless, it surely knocked me down on the floor and recovery was slow. Well over it now, so that's great and now I can go forward out into the world with my super-human immunity.

I finally was able to get my Art page on my website pseudo-functional, tho the proportions are still funky and I apoligize for that. At Siggraph, I had the privelage of having Disney review my reel and they're predominant suggestion was that I plaster my website with drawings of all sorts. And thusly I've been trying to draw with a passion, including weekly life drawing classes. One of the most amazing things is that life drawing has become substantially more enjoyable than before. Anyways, examples can now be seen under my art section, and I hope to categorize them soon appropriately (ie. Quick Sketches, Creative, Longer Studies, etc). Nonetheless, content should be progressively added. Right now though, it's all about getting into the grind, Class 6 goes by fast I'm told, the first day's not over but it's going fast already!

Gimme Sum PAX Plox

Another week and another update. Short film pre-production continues smoothly and relatively unabated so far. I've progressed from the 2D animatic to the 3D layout and am just beginning some first pass blocking. Ahead of schedule but my film's a bit ambitious, so I want to try to get what I can done early to give me more time for polish in Class 6 when it starts. Here's my 2nd revision of my 3D Layout for your viewing enjoyment; poses are rough and I combined some of the shots, but it tells the story, more to come soon. It's missing the AM logo, but the rigs are property of AnimationMentor.com so I'm not taking credit for that. Possibly unnecessary but just in case.



Also, the Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend and I've had the good fortune of attaining tickets for Saturday and Sunday before they sold out. With 50,000 expected people in attendance, it should be a gamer/geeker's paradise. I'm not 100% sure what to expect, but I'm very excited and it should be a fantastic amount of fun. I should be meeting up with other AMers on the Sunday, so hopefully I'll have pictures to update with shortly thereafter. PAX ho!!

Siggraph was a Fulfillment of my Nerdlinging Wishes

Well as I've suggestively indicated, Siggraph was amazing! Got to see the amazing town of N'Awlins to begin with but on top of that, the conference itself was simply mind blowing. I think one of the most prominent events that transpired for me was the Gamejam! competition, a 24 hour video game asset creation challenge, and challenging was an understatement. This was the first year running of this event, so it had it's bumps in the road, but I'm grateful to have been a part of it, completed it and have a Siggraph themed video game to show for it. Specifically, the challenger was to design, model, texture, rig and animate a character with an idle, walk, jump and Special cycle. I created whom I have dubbed Zorgath, a Pikachu-esque slug creature with unknown backstory (little time to develop one) that uses his clawes and "slugness" to crawl up walls. If I do this challenge again next year, I'll be sure to avoid a special power that involves interaction with the environment, this proved to be an extra added difficulty on top of an already packed and complex itinerary. Anyways, there were some drastic rule changes throughout the contest, but as I said, basically bugs being ironed out. If you, the reader, has any inkling to waste endless hours playing this groundbreaking sidescrolling machinima you can download it at this link http://www.megaftp.com/92122 (PC only, sry).

Recently, AM came out with these wonderful badges to show our school pride. I am in full endorsement of this, as I've made obvious numerous times this school's one of the most exciting and amazing communities I've been fortunate to be involved with, and the learning is unparalleled. I'll figure out how to properly append this onto my website shortly but in the meantime it's here for all to see. A bit behind the ball on this one, they came out with the badges about a day after my last post.

And speaking of school, shortfilm preproduction is well under way. 2D storyboard finalized and 3D layout beginning as we speak. I'm trying to get ahead of the curve here, as my story is getting longer than I intended, but necessary to be sure. I think I'm running at about 43 seconds right now and it will be a wee longer, tho most of that is just to let the acting breathe. Very exciting stuff, I forgot how nerve wracking working on a short film could be, as it's all form the inner depths of my mind. And with that, I decided to go bizarre and hopefully not offensive in the religious context. A light hearted story of God babysitting Satan's child. I've heard someone say that I am not held responsible for what my mind comes up with; at a glance that seems totally false, but I'm inclined to believe it :D With that said, here's the 2D animatic in all it's embarassing glory (no sound yet).

Birds of a Feather Flock in Relative Proximity of Each Other

Another quick update. I attended CG Con this weekend and it was simply fantastic! The animation masterclasses were full of gold nuggets that I am looking very forward to implementing. I was also able to have my reel professionally reviewed by Matthew Russel of Valve and Charles Alleneck of ILM. Both experiences were humbling but positive; some definite tweaks to make, so much more to learn but overall they thought it was rather strong, which is a good sign as I certainly can't judge my own worth. One thing they both mentioned was that I could use a full body, body mechanics shot and so I have started one. It's only in the blocking phase and a short test, but hopefully I can get it polished up by Siggraph.



I've essentially finished the subtle acting piece I've been working on, and decided to cut off the ending, I felt it drag on a bit too long for the purpose it was trying to serve, which was to demonstrate a context between text and subtext. It was understood at the reel review so that's a good sign to be sure. I've compiled it all together in what is now my current reel, but only for a couple more weeks, as I have to go back and tweak other shots. But here it is for the time being:



CG Con is planning on coming to Vancouver in the next few months for a smaller road show, they've asked for my assistance so I'm seeing what I can do to make that a reality, not much mind you. It will be great if they come, a lot of local talent and interest to be sure. So yea, it's largely just the mad rush to get ready for Siggraph, GameJam, and mostly just finish tweaking my reel as many studios this year it seems requires a pre-submission to be talked to; rather smart but kind of annoying hehe. A test of endurance, can't stop now! :D