October Update

Hello to anyone who may be reading this. I haven't been posting much this year as I'm not really the journal type. However, a lot has happened, and I figure I should get this blog up to speed.

Well, firstly, I'm working 3 days a week as a junior 3D generalist at PushPull Medical in Sydney CBD - http://www.pushpullmedical.com.au/. I dominantly use Lightwave for work, and do all sorts of odd little tasks. My colleagues are really nice, and overall I enjoy working there.

Next up on the cards, I've officially scheduled my start date with Animation Mentor - http://www.animationmentor.com/. I'm starting on January 4 2010, and this blog will be used regularly from that date to keep my AM mates and mentors up to date with my class work. AM has weekly assignments, so it'll be a busy time.

If all goes well, I'll be continuing my 3 days of work during AM. I need to work, as AM was only made possible by my being able to secure a loan, which I need to keep repaying. I'm cool with it, as I think 3 days off will help me come to each AM week with a fresh mind.

Other things I've made a part of my life, is music and driving. I'm a third of the way through my driving hours, and I've started to learn guitar, piano and singing. I think I may not continue with guitar (still figuring that out), but I'll definitely stick to piano as I've already ordered one. I love music, and my musical goals include:
-being able to play songs I like - especially The Beatles and Disney
-composing my own songs (including with a family band), later down the track once I'm more confident with my abilities.

I used to make songs with my available resources when I was younger, and it's something I'd be keen to get back to.

I've also taken steps to push my animation and drawing skills. I have a number of drawing books which I'm working through and learning from. Some teach cartoony drawing, some figure drawing and anatomy. I'm attending life drawing sessions, and hope to order some Don Bluth DVDs to learn from his proferssional 2d drawing career - http://www.donbluthanimation.com/.

So basically I'm trying to get more regular drawing practice, to the point where I draw a little at least every day. At the very least, on my off days.

With animation, I've taken myself back to square one to try to get my head around developing a good work practice, and truly understanding the animation principles. I've found a professsional animator who I really like in terms of his work flow and his clear teaching (plus his Irish accent, hehe.) Jason Ryan (http://www.jasonryananimation.com/ and http://www.jrawebinar.com/) has worked in animation for about 20 years - beginning in hand-drawn 2d, and then moving into 3d. The fact that he comes from a traditional animation background, helps his 3d work flow. He plans in 2d - using stick figures in Digicel Flipbook (http://www.digicelinc.com/), exports the images into Maya, and keys the maya puppet from there. In other words, he solves his animation first in 2d, such that he knows exactly what he'll do in 3d.

I really like his work flow because it's so clear, and I hadn't yet developed an effective 3d animation work flow myself. I used to open up Maya and sorta think - now what? JR's approach eliminates that.

His other strength is that rather than book, he used videos to teach. Both tutorials, and webinars. Animation principles were so much easier to understand when seen, no just read. So thanks Jason Ryan. Much appreciated!

So basically I'm back to the bouncing ball. Step 1. I want to experiment heaps, and gradually sophisticate my characters as I get more confident with the principles. I have digicel flipbook and a cinitiq, and am doing 2d mostly for now. Once I get onto hard-core character stuff, I'll also recreate the 2d as polished 3d. But baby steps first.

The journey is long, and I'm just at the beginning. But I'm hoping to really enjoy it. My course will be 2 years, and the plan from there is to basically work, save travel, work, save travel....well into my late 20s, only to consider property and such once I've blown my youth with life experiences. So, off I go - zoooooooM!