Animation Mentor Blog

2010-08-11T03:01:00.002-04:00

A thought occurred to me tonight. What is the difference between a hobbyist and a professional? Yea, a professional gets paid for the work he does whereas a hobbyist doesn't. Aside from that though, what's the difference? A hobbyist is only doing what he's doing for the fun he finds in it. A professional also does what he does for the fun it brings but when it gets tiring, hard, and even at times boring, he still completes the job in front of him because he also views it as work and not just purely for fun sake. A hobbyist though has the freedom to simply stop his hobby whenever it poses difficulty or too much work for him. A professional is obligated to finish his work because two things lie at the end of what he does: satisfaction from his craft and a paycheck to feed his family. I know that was a bit much to take in but hopefully it made sense! Very philosophical, I know ;D

2010-08-02T03:43:00.003-04:00

Just finished watching a two hour lecture on polishing by Pixar animator, Michal Makarewicz. Learned a lot of new tricks to make my shots that much better. He surree can animate ;)

Managed to turn my assignment in and await my mentor's critique. Oh, and the drumsticks were out of this world! Anyways, got to wake up for the pizza job in the morning, so I best be getting to bed soon.

Signing off now, later.

2010-07-31T21:34:00.002-04:00

The rice pudding turned out alright. What's on the menu tonight you ask? Drumsticks, mashed potatoes, and green beans...Yummm. Oh and rootbeer. Man, I got to turn this blog into a food blog. Food is so good. Anyways,

Today was the 8th Animation Mentor graduation ceremony. Was cool to hear that the director of Toy Story 3 gave the graduates their commencement speech. Oh, how I so wish I coulda been their! Seven more weeks and I'll officially be an alumni too! Can't wait :)

So we covered the dinner menu for tonight, what's on the activity list for tonight you ask? Well, got to work on one of my shots tonight, get Bishop 2.0 running on my machine, and do an animation transfer. That'll keep me busy for awhile I think. I love what I do~!

Hopefully I have enough snacks to last me. Oh, am going to make some delicious acorn squash desert type thingy. So that'll be good enough for dessert.

Well...animate on!

Seeya

2010-07-29T06:10:00.002-04:00

With the advent of Bishop 2.0, their are so many possibilities! I wish I could post the awesome video that was debuted at Siggraph. I'm sure it'll start to appear on the internet elsewhere as the days progress. Basically, Bishop 2.0 gives Animation Mentor students and alumni the ability to have a completely customizable character. Now when I say "completely customizable," I mean that to the fullest meaning possible. If you can visualize a character in your head, you can probably create it with Bishop 2.0...It's that amazing!

So as I was say, with the advent of Bishop 2.0, it got me thinking of all the great stories I can tell with all these characters at my finger tips. This morning as I'm waking up, I had this funny idea for a shot. Just a little background: over the past few weeks, we've started to see spiders in our apartment. We never see spiders in our apartment! So I've been figuring that somehow they must have traveled with us from Arkansas. Anyways, as I'm laying their this morning, I thought that dreadful thought of "what would happen if a spider crawled into my mouth while I was sleeping."

Pretty gross and frightening at the same time! So I thought it'd be funny to animate something like that with the new Bishop 2.0. I can't wait, I'm pretty excited. Not sure when I'm going to get around to it...probably closer to the end of the term. (Lot's of work to be done with my other shots.) But I'll probably do some planning before then.

Anyways, am making some rice pudding this morning. Will tell you how it turns out. :D

Catch ya later

Paul

2010-07-28T00:27:00.002-04:00

Bishop 2.0 has arrived! Wow, I'm completely blown away with this.

2010-07-26T03:44:00.002-04:00

Probably made the worst wonton soup EVER tonight. Tasted so bad! It tasted a cross between spicey/raw vegetables. I think I added way too much ginger root. Regardless, I made sure to wash it down with some organic Oreo's and milk. :D Nuff ranting for now.

Tonight I watched a super inspiring lecture by none other than my class two mentor, Mike Walling! Have been anticipating this lecture for awhile now. Was so cool to see his workflow again.

Not much news other than that. In the meantime, I'm going to look for some more Oreo's and grab another glass of milk.

2010-07-24T03:57:00.002-04:00

Wow......It's been some time since my last post. I have to admit...a lot and I mean A LOT has gone on since a year ago. I'm not an excuse person (well, maybe I am) but one of the big reasons I stopped blogging so much was because animation actually turned out to be harder than I was expecting! Yep...Animation isn't no piece of cake. It's freaking HARDDDDDDD!!! Well, I found that out first hand while attending AM. But I ain't complaining. I've pushed through and continue to. It's all apart of the process. Animation is an art and it takes time and lots of hard work to become an animation master (not to be confused with animation master).

I actually ought to be on my way to graduation, the AM BBQ, and SIGGRAPH but due to somethings that came up, I had to take a term off. I'm kinda saddened that I won't get a chance to meet all my awesome classmates. I'm finishing my last last class at Animation Mentor though (class 6). I'm roughly 8 weeks from being finished. It's been one long journey and have learned SO much! I'm pretty excited though to be graduating this term. I look forward to joining my classmates in the industry which is even better! Who knows, we may end up working side by side on some amazing project.

So, you ask why I had to take a term off? Well, to make this long story short, we wanted to get out of Florida to see the country. We stayed with some friends up in Arkansas and also in Texas. It was the first time I ever took a road trip like this. I don't regret my decision to take a term off to travel. It refreshed me. I got to see new places and do new things that I've never done before. It was an adventure. It broadened my horizons :) (haha) But yeah, I'm really happy we went. After about a month from home We decided to come back so I could continue pursuing my goal of working as an animator one day.

So, boy...there's a lot of catching up to do with this blog! I really hope to keep updating it more often now....seriously! I mean it!

Oh! I checked out a lecture by Dan Nguyren on advanced spacing. The shot he animated in that lecture was super nice! But then again, I guess that should be expected seeing that he is a Pixar animator. Pixar just has this unique style to their stuff. It's really hard to put into words but if you've watched a lot of animation, you probaby know what I'm talking about. Maybe it's "amazing awesomeness" that I'm referring too? Anyways, check out Dan Nguyen (super animating ninja)!

Sooo...lets talk about films...Recently saw The Book of Eli. Was a pretty good movie. Don't think I'd watch it again. Mainly watched it because Mr. Washington is one of my favorite actors and like to catch his flicks. Speaking of Denzel Washington, if you haven't seen Man on Fire, you've got to see it! That's one of my favorite movies. I'll try to post the trailer for it one of these days. That film is amazing. I've watched it so many times!

But...speaking of favorite movies...dun dun dun...

I know I haven't posted any trailers lately, so I'm going to do that right now. May I present unto you what looks like will be my favorite of all time animated film....ILM's first ever animated feature.............you guessed it.................RANGO!

Here's the trail:

Does that look awesome or what?!?!

This post is getting a bit long so I'm going to have to cut it short but I'll catch you later! cya!

2009-04-06T22:44:00.003-04:00

So...I hope I'm not going to be hated too bad. I know, I know...I haven't posted for awhile. That's a good thing though! That means I've been BUSAY! Have a look at my first progress reel from Animation Mentor:

I hope all my hard work pays off! I'm in class 2 at the moment. My mentor this term is Mike Walling. You can look him up on Internet Movie Database but he's worked on Ice Age 3 and Horton Hears a Who!

Pretty cool if you ask me!

I found out about a local game studio that I'd love to work for. I spoke with them and hopefully something good comes out of this.

Now, I really must go. Please don't get upset! I took care of you, see? I gave you a decent sized update :)

2009-03-06T16:33:00.006-05:00

Check it out, an actual animation & job fair conference in sunny south Florida! Amazing O_0! Anyways, I'm thinking about going on the 18th of April with my 1st class progress reel with an assignment or two from class two. I'm still thinking about this though but it would be awsome if I could land a job. Oh man, that would be super awsome. Anyways, I'm close to finishing up class 1. I should have a progress reel up here too.

2009-02-07T04:42:00.003-05:00

Hey gang,

I haven't posted yet again in awhile. I just haven't felt up to it. I've been locked away in my animation study/vault. Trying to become the best animator I can be and land a job in the near future. I haven't given the news yet but I will now. Our daughter was born on January 30th. Yep! I'd post a picture of her but again, I don't feel up to it. Yeah, I'm becoming a lazy blogger. One of those guys, yep. So next time you see me walking down the street, make sure you throw a pebble at me.

Anyways, enough said. So from now on, if I feel up to posting something, I will. If not, well you'll just have to wait to see what's new! Or you can just write me an email at paulmcgrade@yahoo.com and say, "Yo! Homie! I've been checkin out jo blog daWg! It's me, home boy!" Then I'll know it's one of my crazy fans and I'll say hello back. Comprehenday? Ok, great!

Anyways, yet again. So...I'm sure I'll post something soon. I just don't know when. I've done some other assignments since I've last posted. Maybe I'll post a big update at the end of class 1 with my progress reel. Maybe sooner, I don't know, we'll see. For now,

BUH BYE
Laterz yall

2009-01-26T13:29:00.007-05:00

I haven't posted for awhile but here's the work I turned in for this past week:

2009-01-18T22:52:00.004-05:00

Earlier tonight I took a look at what I'm suppose to do this week at Animation Mentor. As I consider what I'll be doing in the coming weeks, the excitement builds up. This week I get to actually animate! Basically our assignment is to animate a bouncing ball. We also have to upload our thumbnail drawings which show our thought process while we're planning our bouncing ball. I already have an idea of what I want to do. So I quickly drew it up:

I don't know if you'll be able to make sense of it but I quickly drew it up in like 5-10 minutes just to help me think through how I'm going to animate this shot.

2009-01-17T23:02:00.008-05:00

So my wife thinks she might go into labor tonight and this past week I got a $200 ticket. There's some news for you! I'll keep the blog updated as far as my wife going into labor. Woman are the strangest things when they're close to giving birth. Anyways, you must be wondering where the updates are for Animation Mentor. Basically, all we've done so far is sketches and a pose with Stu (Now you'll finally be able to meet Stu...Yes...Your about to see who Stu is). As I said in a previous post, Stu is one of Animation Mentor's characters.

Here's my sketches:

Here's Stu posed like one of my sketches:

Now I get to wait until my mentor (Joe Mandia) gives me an e-critique which will help me to improve this assignment. Tomorrow I'll be able to access next weeks lecture and begin working on the assignment.

2009-01-09T16:24:00.005-05:00

Thus far my time at Animation Mentor has been very cool. I finally have some time to write. So let me tell you.

This past Tuesday I had the chance to meet my Mentor. His name is Joe Mandia. He currently works for Sony Picture Imageworks. He's worked on Ice Age: The Meltdown and Chicken Little just to name but two. You can see his IMDb page at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0541798/. I also had a chance to meet my classmates. This all took place in a Q&A. Incase you don't know what a Q&A is at Animation Mentor, here's what it is:

"Mentors meet with their students once a week in live web conference sessions. These one-hour sessions allow students to have more detailed back-and-forth discussions about their work, the assignments, and the video lecture content. These sessions allow students to get to know their mentor more personally, and make a professional contact in the industry."

On January 6th, I had my first Q&A out of my car! I think alot of my classmates found it funny, as did I. I was hoping no cops would come by and wonder why I was parked outside at 12AM (which they did). Joe made a funny comment and said we were about to see a live episode of cops in our Q&A. I found that pretty funny. It was great being able to meet my mentor and classmates.

This first week is an easy week. All we pretty much are suppose to do is to become acquainted with the online campus. Next week I start sketching and posing Stu (Stu is one of Animation Mentor's 3d characters...you'll see who he is soon).

All in all, very exciting to be apart of Animation Mentor. Now, I need to take a 15 minute nap before I have to go back to work!

2009-01-05T20:31:00.002-05:00

So yes, it's January 5th, 2009 already. At the moment, I'm sitting in The Whole Foods Market, connected to their wireless network. Our internet won't be connected until January 8th so this will have to do. I already logged into Animation Mentor and I'm completely blown away. That's all I'll say for now.

2009-01-01T23:07:00.002-05:00

If you've been wondering where I've been, I've been quite busy. Animation Mentor is closer than ever. I'm so happy. Three days until class begins. Just three days! I've been complaining all the way up until this point but finally the time as come.

I said I've been busy.

"What have you been doing Mr. Mcgrade?"

To which, I'll reply:

I've been delivering those pizzas! Yeah, you got it right. I've been working.

This Saturday, we're going to be moving into our first apartment! This is why I've been working hard. Hopefully, once I'm finished at Animation Mentor, I won't ever need to deliver a pizza again. Instead, I can animate for a living. That will be something!

Now that Animation Mentor is just three days away, I'll be starting to post more frequently. Good riddens.

2008-12-22T00:22:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted yesterday, I thought I'd give my millions and millions of readers a break since I've posted everyday since I started this blog. I mean, no need to post so much since I haven't started Animation Mentor yet, right?

Well, lately here's what's been going on. I'm sitting here with my wife listening to my playlist (Jimmy Durante just to be specific)(Romance, uh huh). Um...I delivered more pizza tonight. If you want to place an order, you can call 1-800-707-1111. If you don't want pizza, maybe I can slip you some chinese food. Three days until Christmas and still 14 days until Animation Mentor. Two weeks until the best school ever! Just two weeks! Man, two weeks is long.

Oh, I'm also adding more music to the playlist.

2008-12-19T13:39:00.007-05:00

Well here's some possibly exciting content for you. I've added some more of my favorite music. The music is from The Notebook. Sadly, I can't find all of the soundtrack but I've added what I could find. I'd suggest renting it and poppin it into the DVD player. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen. Here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure.

2008-12-18T23:30:00.002-05:00

Tonight I delivered pizza for the first time. I'm sorry but I don't have any pictures of me and my uniform. Maybe some other time. Besides that, for some strange reason Autodesk decided to give me copies of not only Maya 2009 but also Mudbox, Motionbuilder, Toxik, and Cleaner. I'm pretty happy about that. Other than this everyday-same-ol-same-ol stuff, nothing really new has been going on. I wish I could post some exciting content like "Today, my first day at Animation Mentor was da bomb!" Or, "Here's my progress reel from class three at Animation Mentor." It's coming though. In the meantime, I'm going to have a look at my new software. Seventeen more days to go!

2008-12-17T17:39:00.005-05:00

Today my wife and I took a walk to Polo Tropical. On the way, I saw this huge stick. I thought I could use it to film some reference footage of me pole jumping with it (or stick jumping in this case). So I exercised some patience and waited to pick it up. Since I'm so brilliant, I didn't think it'd be a good idea to bring this stick to Polo Tropical. On our way back, it was still there. So I carried that thing for like a half a mile (boy, it weighed a ton). Now I have some footage I can use for future reference.

Anyways,
Aidos Amigos...Until next time.

2008-12-17T07:32:00.004-05:00

Well, you might be wondering how it went in my interview for pizza boy...I mean...delivery driver. Thankfully I got the job. Tomorrow I should be receiving Maya. In nineteen long days from now, the best school in the world starts for me. Animation Mentor!!! I haven't had a chance to do anymore work on the pole jumping animation. Maybe I'll work on it in a bit.

2008-12-16T10:12:00.004-05:00

Here you go. All I've pretty much done is added in-betweens so it looks more smoother. I've also started to work on the pole. (Don't forget to play it a few times because it's still fast)

2008-12-16T06:24:00.002-05:00

It's 6:24 in the morning. I'm just about to continue working on my animation I posted yesterday. Today I have an interview with a local pizza place. I'll leave you to guess what position I'm applying for:

A)Sauce Inventor
B)Chimney Scraper
C)Freezer Cleaner
D)None Of The Above And Simply Delivery Driver

I'll let you know what happens. Stay tuned.

2008-12-15T20:27:00.003-05:00

I should be receiving Maya Unlimited 2009 on December 18th. Pretty cool. Today I used The Gimp to animate. Believe it or not! Yeah, that's even more cool. What's coolest is that I'm about to unveil what I practiced today. (Play it a few times because it's really fast)

Ok, so maybe it's not super cool but it's a start. It's my first pass of just the body and arms. I've never animated in 2d before. It's really fun, I enjoyed doing it. At least its keeping me busy while I'm waiting for Animation Mentor to start. It's alot of work to draw each frame. I found that to be the hard part. The fun part was figuring out how I'd want to position the arm or body and then watching it come to come to life (animation). In total, there's 18 unique frames. I'm planning on adding more to make it smooth.

Anyways, the dinner bell is ringing. Mmmm, I smell shephards pie.

2008-12-14T11:53:00.004-05:00

I haven't even started Animation Mentor yet and I'm already wondering if I'm going to be able to create original and entertaining animation. My fear is that when the time comes for me to produce something that is unique, I'll draw a blank. As a result of that, when it comes time to graduate Animation Mentor, I'll have a stale demo reel and won't be able to find a job.

I shouldn't worry though. That's something I always find myself doing but I really shouldn't.

Anyways, my original intent of making this post was to say that I actually have come up with a really good idea. Last night, at about 1AM, it just came to me. It just one of those ideas that are funny, reasonable, and just fits perfect. Oh and I can vividly see it in my mind and I'm also interested in it. Enough of my rambling for now.

Sadly, I probably won't be doing this idea until class two or three but I'm going to start planning this shot in-depth so I'll be ready when the time comes. I really love this idea and I wish I could post what it is but this will have to wait until class two or three.

The good news is that I have something good!

All this gibberish isn't probably interesting so let me pull up something from the hat that will at least be worth you reading this post. Oh, speaking of pulling something from the hat, here's Pixar's latest short film, Presto!

Presto from Drojdie.info on Vimeo.

2008-12-13T08:26:00.003-05:00

It's morning time on Saturday December 13th. Thankfully, I was able to sleep closer to normal last night and woke up around 5AM today. Incase you haven't noticed, yesterday I've put a music player on this blog. It's a really cool feature to have. Have a listen whenever you stop by. I'll be adding more of my favorite music in the future.

2008-12-12T09:31:00.005-05:00

I just finished watching a webinar that I overlooked in the past but wound up to be pretty cool. It was the one with Bobby Beck and Aja Bogdanoff (It Can Be Seen Here). I really hope that as I get closer to graduating Animation Mentor that my skills will begin to develop and I'll be able to find work as an animator very quickly. I really want to be the best animator I can possibly be. I'm determined to work harder than I've ever worked to do this.

Twenty-four more days before I start Animation Mentor. It's such a long way away! Come sooner AM! Come sooner! Well, apart from whining to my wife about how I wish It was January 5th and just basically being overwhelmed by everything that's going on at this time, thankfully I was able to purchased Maya this morning.

Man, I'm so anxious...

2008-12-11T05:53:00.000-05:00

Last night, my wife and I watched The Dark Night for the third time (I dragged her along the first two times to the theater). That is the best Batman movie I've ever seen. Heath Ledger really played the Joker amazingly cool. You can't forget the soundtrack either.

Well, that was yesterday, tonight we returned The Dark Night and rented Horton Hears A Who. I liked the story. It's about an Elephant named Horton who finds out about people living on a speck of dust called "Whos." You best just watch it because your probably like, "What in the world are you talking about?"

With animation, your able to stories that only could be imagined. I remember seeing this quoted from Walt Disney; "Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive." Anyways, if you can, I'd suggest checking both of those movies out.

Also, this Friday I'm hoping to purchase Maya now that I have my proof of education from Animation Mentor and here's the funniest short from an Animation Mentor student I've seen. It's by Hichem Arfaoui. Until next time, over and out.

2008-12-10T18:45:00.000-05:00

Woohoo is all I can say! I just created my student account on Animation Mentor and I'm so happy. That's my webspace on Animation Mentor! See my name! I haven't even started looking at anything yet but I just wanted to make this post to express my excitement over this moment. It's really cool to be apart of the Animation Mentor community. My journey begins on January 5th.

2008-12-09T19:04:00.000-05:00

Whenever I'm searching through Animation Mentor blogs, I always love coming accross the blogs that actually shows their entire progress through Animation Mentor onto working as a professional in some studio. One of those blogs I found was by Shahbaaz Shah (http://bigtimeanimation.com/shahblog/). His story is really encouraging to me.

I also wanted to mark a progress reel from Animation Mentor. There's alot of good ones out there but I like this one alot and am choosing to just store it away as one of my favorites because I want my animation to look like this. It has so much vitality and personality in it. Not only does he know how to animate but it's also entertaining. It's by Tomas Hrebicek. It's just from classes one and two! Pretty impressive. I hope to be this good, I need to be this good. Look out for this guy! He's good.

2008-12-08T19:30:00.001-05:00

Today I received Simplified Drawing For Planning Animation and it looks like it's going to be a really good book. It's only 81 pages which is suprising. I thought it would be much larger. I'm glad it isnt because with the Illusion of Life being 500+ pages or so, that's going to take some time to get through. I plan to flip through this book when I get back from eating at Panera Bread. It should be fun. For now, here's a look at Pixar's new movie called UP. Man the story is really great. I love the orchestra horns in the music. I'd love to work for Pixar one day because they consider story to be key.

2008-12-07T02:16:00.000-05:00

Wow is all I have to say. The webinar with Jason Ryan was really good. Jason seems really cool too! I'd love to work with him one day. Well, the webinar went through the whole process of creating a shot from storyboards to final animation. Most of the time was spent showing how we can save time by planning our shot out in 2d before ever even touching 3d. Then he jumped into 3d and showed the different passes in he'd do to get a final animation. I think I need to practice planning my shot out in 2d before touching 3d. It's hard for me because Im always itching to jump right into 3d. If Im going to be a professional, I think I need to make good use of 2d. I was really glad to sit there and watch him. I thought that in Animation Mentor, I'll be able to receive this type of teaching daily! I can't say much more. There was alot covered and it was really great.

Also, this is by far the best fake Pixar animation I've seen. Had me laughing the first time I saw it.

2008-12-06T07:19:00.000-05:00

It's 7:19AM and I can't sleep. I'm thinking about alot of things. I look at my wife sleeping and think about our daughter who'll be born in about eight weeks from now. I'm also thinking about Jason Ryan's webinar later today and how cool that will be. Also about an idea I have for my motion graphics/vfx compilation. I haven't had any sleep all night but I think I'm just going to stay up the rest of the day, it's already morning time.

Here's a short film by yet another Animation Mentor student, Alli Sadegiani. I thought about posting it while I was attempting to sleep. Without further ado.

GREED from Alli Sadegiani on Vimeo.

2008-12-05T22:23:00.000-05:00

There's been no news lately around here other than I just ordered two stromboli's. Tomorrow is the webinar with Jason Ryan.

Here's another short that I recognized from Animation Mentor's showcase. It's by Eric Luhta. I just love to see a film start with "Animation Mentor Presents." I know I'm about to watch something good. Here you go, it's called Prospective Student.

Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

2008-12-04T00:07:00.001-05:00

Today I received The Illusion of Life and the book looks beautiful. I'm excited to get to it. Animation Mentor also sent me a code for the webinar by Jason Ryan, I can't wait for this Saturday. I also received word that my other book should arrive next week, Simplified Drawing For Planning Animation. These things should keep me busy for quite some time. So much to learn just with these books.

I found a great little short today by Ales Mav. It's called Daphne's New Broom. Ales Mav was a student at Animation Mentor.

2008-12-03T13:40:00.000-05:00

You know what's really cool? To think that one day I'll be working in a studio as an animator!

2008-12-02T22:43:00.000-05:00

I came across this short called Defective by Rani Naamani. I remember watching it a few years ago and loving it, especially the ending. So much animation on the web doesn't have a good story. This short though has a decent story to it. It's really funny too!

2008-12-01T18:05:00.000-05:00

I'm starting up this blog because as I go through Animation Mentor, I want to have a place to keep what I learn organized. My first day of class is on January 5th, 2009. I'm super excited! Some important dates are just up the road:

December 6th - Jason Ryan's Webinar (Free of charge thanks to Animation Mentor!)
December 10th - Animation Mentor Orientation

I've placed my order for The Illusion of Life and Simplified Drawing For Planning Animation (since my drawing skills aren't the best in my opinion). I've been reading through The Animators Survival Kit for awhile now. I'm enjoying it and learning alot.

Well, this concludes my first post. For now, if you haven't seen the trailer for Ice Age 3, check out some amazing animation.