I love this!!! That's all.

Each time I hear this song I get inspired!!!

Vulnerable... but it's alright

Yeah, so I swore I wouldn't post anything about Valentine's Day. I generally as a rule of thumb dislike it with a fervor and not for the reasons most people would assume. I generally dislike it because the nature of what it represents to the male population. I would wager large sums of money that 90% of the male population view as the one day of the year that they have do something for their significant others. Where as I tend to look at it as what is wrong with the other 364 days of the year?

Now that is out of the way. A rundown of the day's events. I went to work. worked worked and worked some more. Which is really just the short of it all. ******************************************
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The consistent string of stars is a representation of something I started typing, realized I was getting more personal for my liking and put the stars there to just remind myself of what I was typing.

So let's get on with things that due to what day it was besides anything involving other people. What do I love? I love animation. I love talking about with people who have no idea what I'm talking about. When a person starts throwing around terms like graph editor, tangents, splines, rigs, and Inverse Kinematics and when the response is "you may as well be speaking another language" is always priceless. I can't even begin to smile about the number of times I discuss the 12 principles of animation with someone and I get a look like I'm crazy. 

I do admit that it would be really nice to have a conversation with another animator from time to time, but alas such is life.

I would double bounce walk my way to the next topic except I don't have one....  Oh wait, yes I do. My new Wacom tablet will be delivered soon. My own V-day gift to myself. Upgrade from the Bamboo to the Intuos 4. Can't wait to get it. Less than 14 hours.  So now on to other things as there is animating to be done!!

Oh and I am now possibly completely free from wisdom teeth pain. The impacted tooth has broken entirely through the old one shattering it to nothing and it's possible the nerve may have died from the numerous infections and exposure. I'm still considering having them removed but as it stands now I have a choice, either have them removed or go to SIGGRAPH this year. Can't afford both. I choose SIGGRAPH. Also on other health news, I'm going to really attempt to treat my tmj disorder. I've been through the process before and all the treatment options. The treatment options all include facial exercises to correct the positioning of the joint and yoga to stretch the muscles in the rest of the body that are effected by the joint. This would be helpful as the constant back pain would be nice to at least get a bit of relief from. Also the stabbing sharp muscle spasms would be nice to eliminate. There is also getting the 5000 dollar custom mouth guard to realign the joints to the proper position which I would still have to wear for the rest of my life. At least while I sleep anyway. Who really ever would have thought that such a small joint/disc in the jaw could be so troublesome. So I'll see how that goes and if stick to any exercises I should do. The mouth guard thing not really feasible at this point financially.

So now a little song I like that is really sweet love song when you think about it!!

Yay for schol starting again... and the icy fun

So the next semester started and I'm already enjoying it. I was seriously going through brain drain during the month off. First up. Character Animation 1. I love and will continue to love this class. Two years of learning modeling and dealing with rigid characters and very basic rigging set ups and I'm finally getting to the meat and potatoes of learning animation. All I have to say is yippee. The first assignment was animating bouncing balls. My first thought was 'whoa, wait a minute, I want to animate characters'. But I fully understand the reason for the assignment and it was quite a bit of fun. Really who would have thought making balls bounce would be fun. Next assignment is animating two nurbs primitives and having them interact  and give them personality. I think this assignment is going to be lots of fun.

Then there is Fundamentals of Texturing and Lighting. I am going to enjoy this class as well. I find texturing models to be very enjoyable except for that whole UV mapping part, but oh well. Why will I like this class? because I am going to do something I have not done before and that is photograph my own textures. Until now, I have just used images found on the interwebs and worked with them in Photoshop.

Next up, Perpesctive. Now I will say that these Foundations classes are often a pain in the ass. I don't like taking them, I want nothing to do with them and the work load is usually 3 times that of the other classes. This one is no different, except that I think I will actually enjoy this class. Oh and it's the last one I have to take!! But also more so, this class feels much less arbitrary than the others. Why? Because I actually feel like it has something to do with my major. During the class, we will get to draw real storyboards, comic books, illustrations and environments in various perspectives. Pretty much most of the things needed to pitch a film idea with the exception of a treatment and a script, I already had that class. Cinematic Storytelling. Which taught me how to be DP, how to direct, edit, oh and write scripts.

Now onto the Ice storm that caused havoc for a  large portion of the country. I would like to say how much of the country, but I honestly don't know. I just know it was a good heaping spoonful that's for sure. Really all I kept thinking was don't let there be a power outage. I'm the type of person who doesn't turn my computer off in lightning storms. I've even played my guitar in lightning storms. I come from a family of crazy ass storm chasers who drive towards tornadoes while everyone else is getting to safety so let's just say scary weather doesn't really bother me much. But I was really worried that the power would go out. I just kept thinking while I'm at my computer with Maya running and animating something, this is when the power will be lost along with any work I was doing. Thankfully, it didn't happen. So here's to the ice storm of 2011, starting school again, animation, and to having no social life (if I ever had one anyway) for the next few months. Cheers!


and yes this whole thing pretty much is me talking to myself. lol

Animation Critiques / Venting

I pride myself on receiving constructive criticism, but there is a fine line between that and saying that a person obviously needs to study something. I wanted constructive criticism on a lip sync animation and a person responded. Some of the points were valid while I also quite offended. I am unfortunately a passive aggressive person so I shy away from conflict and vent about it later as I'm doing now and not usually to the person who offended me to start with. (in most cases anyway) 

First off the person starts with how they can't do anything I can do in 3D. Then they go on to say that I obviously need to study anatomy of humans facial movement. They then say that because they can draw well that they believe they will be very good at animation. That sounds a little like someone trying to hard to pat themselves on the back and also somewhat self-absorbed.  So here is what I think of this critique I was given by this person.

1. If you can't do anything I can do in 3D animation, then you aren't the person to be offering constructive criticism. Unless you know animation, the 12 principles, and have actually done it, then you aren't in a position to critique.


2. Don't say I obviously need to study anatomy of facial movement. I read every book I can find on the matter, been through classes about it, and studied myself in the mirror for hours on end. Also, watching the scene over and over again for 4 hours straight to really see what was going on.  Also, it's worthy to note that different lines of dialogue require different kinds of movement. Stiff more stoic dialogue requires stiff and stoic movement. 

3.Just because you can draw well does not mean that you will be able to do animation. Drawing is a nice skill to have, but animation is a completely different animal. If this is a way of thinking, you are in for a rude awakening. Also, there is a flip side to that coin. Just because a person can do animation well does not mean they can draw. There are many talented animators out there who can't draw to save there life.

Now it could be argued that I should not be offended, but I do think I am right in my taking offense. It just seemed to me that this person didn't want to offer critique, but rather be insulting instead. If he really wanted to offer a critique he would not have said that I obviously need to study human facial anatomy, but rather would have said "that's good, you are on the right track." Maybe some closer examination of facial movement would help but what you've done looks good.

I mean really, Am I wrong to ask that much?

I wanna animate you!!!

So, I joined the 11 second club and they have lots of ready made character rigs for download ranging from stretchy to morphy rigs and I'm just having lots of fun with them. :-)

The Art of Chivalry

Okay, so I pretty much observe everything around me. I tend to watch the behavior and mannerisms of people quite a bit. A person's body language says more than words will ever say. One particular action that isn't really seen much anymore is chivalry. Granted, I'm sure there are women out there who would rather be independent and not have a guy open a door for them and that's cool. I also think women tend to be suspicious of this behavior because they may view it as a veiled way to get into their pants. And this would also be true in most cases. What I find interesting is that some women are surprised by an act of chivalry that they don't know what to do. As happened to me recently.

Yesterday at work I went on my break to a small room with only one chair. A room I jokingly call the "outcast's corner". I walk into the room and one of the girls I work with is sitting in the chair. We banter about nothing for a minute and she mentions how her feet are killing her. I say I know how you feel, my back is killing me. I work a job where I do a lot of heavy lifting for extended periods of time. So she then apologizes and gets out of the chair and says I can sit down. I tell her it's alright, you don't have to let me sit in the chair. She insists. I then tell her, "you just mentioned that your feet are killing you and you've also been sick recently so please sit in the chair, I'm fine where I"m at." She sits back down and then we have a conversation about chivalry. I said to her that I will defy anyone who says that chivalry is dead. I then mention how I held the door open for another girl at work and she just sort of stared at me in disbelief and it wasn't until I gestured with my hand for her to walk through that it hit her that I was holding the door open for her. I find it to be quite sad that chivalry is rarely seen anymore that a girl would stare at me in disbelief as though she wasn't sure what to do.

I am person who feels that chivalry is a very simple courtesy to be extended and it's quite disturbing that it has fallen so far out of practice that some women can't even recognize it anymore. No wonder they seem to view men as insensitive, self-absorbed jerks.  But this just my opinion.

Squirrel Animation

So I've really been wanting to do an animation involving animals for a long time and finally had the idea hit me about doing a little amusing love story between two squirrels. I'm really going for a cartoon type look and feel and think I may be on the right track. This is what I have so far and I'm hoping it looks cartoony even though I know it does, but I've never done anything this cartoon like before so just want to get it right. This of course is just the first render with simple textures. The final animation will look cartoony but more 3d dimensional than it does right now. *crosses fingers*