Ok, I know I said I was going to be more active this semester so let’s get cracking. First of all I’d like to just give another huge congratulations to Alexsis who is now a AM Alumni and just got hired at Blue Sky Studios! WOW…she is going to be working on ICE Age 3! How cool is that?

Check her out over at http://www.alexissdawn.com/blog/ and wish her well.

For class 2 my current mentor is David Breaux who just finished up working on Speed Racer and is now the Sacred Road TV Series: Animation Supervisor. Here is a link to his website http://www.siliconriot.com

Based on the Q&A from last night, David seems to be a real stickler for making sure you understand the mechanics of the action and nature of force. I’m really looking forward to getting a lot out of his class and seeing how I will improve. He truly enjoys the teaching the Body Mechanics class and wants to prepare us for acting. We’ve been warned in a round about way that towards the middle of the semester he will make us work to get that grade. This is good because having someone constantly pushing you is great!

This week right off the bat I’ve noticed a difference in the vibe in the work for Class 2. My first assignment is pre-planning phase to animate a 180 turn. We are required to film some video reference and start thumb nailing out “key” poses only. Emphasis, on planning as this is a four week assignment. Gotta remember so much like weight shifts, hips, center of gravity, lead and follow etc…thank God for good notes!

Later tonight I’ll try and up load my video reference just to give those interested an idea of what I’m doing…you would not believe the amount of thumbnail poses I’ve done already and I’m only half way through. Hopefully I can use the thumbnails as a jumping off point in Flipbook to see if everything is working. I’ll post the 2D animation too when I get the chance.