I can do this!!!

Yep, I'm rather happy now that I finally landed an A in my character animation class. Granted B+ grades are not bad, but I'm one of these people that when it comes to what I want to do for the rest of my life, I must get an A. A little neurotic sure, but what can you do. He is also a tough instructor, and he has been hard on everyone in that class. That is to be understood since he was a character animator for Pixar. This guy has probably seen it all, and is likely not easily impressed. So I figure getting an A on an assignment with him is something to be proud of. Honestly, I was reaching the point where I was thinking 'crap, what if this was a bad decision and I don't have what it takes to be an animator?'

I think I'm getting it now though. I'm really beginning to fully understand the graph editor and how I make it work for what I want. I also think the instructor for my animation workshop is totally awesome as well. He gives me some of the best ideas with what I'm doing, and helps me to get the most out of what I'm doing. He also complimented my scene and saying he really liked it and the story. In a way with him, I feel like I'm in a collaborative project because he helps me so much. He's pretty damned cool.

So now I will continue onward, and keep myself learning so I can go down this road towards my passion. At this point, I am a bit on cloud 9 and really feel like someday when others go through animation classes, maybe, just maybe, my name will be mentioned as one of the greats. In the words of Rapunzel, "I've got a dream" :-)

Something else and this is entirely Tangled related. I admit I work in retail. It pays my way through school, so I can't complain too much. (even though it sucks) Anyway, where I work has several Tangled displays and they all have little Rapunzel dolls, and even Belle and Aurora dolls, and little Disney Princess dresses for little girls and all that. I keep looking at them and thinking to myself, man if only I had a daughter, I could buy her all these things that would probably make her so happy. Kind of a scary thought!!

Midterm grades are in....

Character Animation. B+
The instructor for this class is a tough one. But I figure hey if I walk away from this class with an A- which I'm confident I can do, I'll be happy.

Fundamentals of Texturing and Lighting. A

I'm not really surprised by that. If there is anything I know it is texturing and lighting. I could probably do it blind. Really not trying to sound arrogant there.


Perspective. C

This will get better now that we can use Photoshop for our drawings. Give me a pencil and I'm like what does this do?

Give me a Wacom tablet and I'm a drawing badass. lol

Putting things in perspective

My 2 point light and shadow drawing assignment. The instructor is letting us use Photoshop now. Give me the choice between markers and my Intuos 4. I choose the Intuos 4!! :-)

Once before I sleep....

I've completed half of my animation blocking and that was the easy part. Making one of the characters fall down a flight of stairs will be the interesting part and now post more music from this kick ass album before I head off to sleep.

A fave band... new music

Yep, so this Dutch band that I've been listening to for quite some time just released a new album and I'm excited. It's a concept album based on a graphic novel. Art plus music....  yes please!!!!

 

Procedura... what?

Yep. In texturing class we have moved beyond the photos for textures and are now only using procedural textures that we convert into .psd files and add a little more stuff in PS and then bring back into Maya. We had to make 5 different textures. I made peanut butter, a shirt fabric, banana, sand paper, and marble. The marble one I don't really like because the conversion process made it look weird but here they are.

Kingdom Dance... YAY!!!

So I'm pretty much just having a blast now that I have Tangled. It certainly has to be my fave Disney movie since Beauty and the Beast and I love this scene.