Bring. It!(How can you not throw it down after looking at that album cover? Rope chains? Track suits? Awkward stacking? It has everything except for the quirky Asian DJ on the wheels of steel in the background. *swoon*)
So, for all intents and purposes today is my first official date of being an accepted Student at Animation Mentor. The past 12 weeks I've been going through some Maya training, also provided by AM, since it had been, quite literally, years since the last time I had even touched the Maya interface. Figured it may be a good idea to brush up. :)
With that "Maya reload" out of the way now, I get to begin my journey into "Class 1: Basic Foundations" this evening with 13 other individuals under the supervision of Scott Lemmer. Upon "e-stalking" Scott, I realized that he has possibly worked with a couple acquaintances of mine that I just may happen to have embarrassing stories about. Methinkst this could be fun. :)
"No!! Don't pull that back! I don't have my face on yet!!" *puts arm over face Lugosi-style and hisses*
Greetings! If you've found your way here you're probably either a fan of animation, a fellow animator or a friend who's feeling bad about my low traffic and decided to throw me a bone. Regardless, welcome.
I decided to ramp up this blog to catalog my travails during the training that I'm currently going through at Animation Mentor. I also figured it'd give me a place to evacuate my brain droppings on anything else in the creative vein I feel the urge to "wax poetic" about. (I will try and keep it as PG-13 as possible.....but I'm not making any promises. You have been warned. :) )
A brief history of me: I've been a 3D pro for about 8 years now, primarily for the gaming industry as a modeler and texture artist(I was a graphic designer for about 10 years prior to that). I've done my fair share of animation as well, and some of its offshoots(rigging, etc.) Here's a(somewhat dated) reel with some of my game stuff if you feel like perusing(or you can check out the full-sized version here):
If I'm being 100% honest though, I feel like I'm a "generalist." That's what I was trained to be, even though my primary goal and reason for entering the industry was to become an animator. What skills as an animator that I do posses have pretty much been self-taught or gleaned from the brainpans of friends, supervisors, fellow employees, et al.
Which is pretty much the reason I decided to actually take the plunge back into full-time studies again. I have not lost the focus of wanting to animate, and even though I technically wear an "animator" hat where I currently work I want to get better. A lot better. I feel that if I continue to try and piecemeal together my knowledge that I'm doing my career, and myself, a disservice. I have ideas and stories in my head that I want to bring outside of it, but I'm honest enough to admit I can't do them justice quite yet. So that's the goal: Feature-quality animation skills so "justice can be served", so to speak.
Anyway, this has gone on long enough for Post #0001. Thanks for shuffling past and I'll see you next time. Mind the dip on your way out.
