www.animationmentor.com

[mikefeil]

sweet jozvex, thanx alot. Thats really good about the time aswell, I had visions of me at 3 am trying either to wake up or stay up to watch a Q and A.

Can't wait

[Jozvex]

We're getting our grades for the first three weeks! I got mine today, how scary. Luckily they're good so I don't need to panic just yet. My avatar is none other than...............

http://www.jozvex.com/temp/merlin.jpg

Merlin from Sword in the Stone! It took me ages to pick. At first I randomly decided I'd be the cricket from Mulan, but there were no good images of him online. Then Sword in the Stone came on TV one night and I remembered how much I used to love it!! It was a toss up between Merlin and Archimedes but there were better pictures of Merlin around the place.

[harmonic01]

WoooHoooo. Just got my "Congratulations!" e-mail. I'm accepted. :bounce: SSShhhhhweeeeet. :thumbsup:

[My Fault]

Congrats!

So since we are the senior class are we supposed to haze the new guys/gals? :scream:

[Marty15]

We're getting our grades for the first three weeks! I got mine today, how scary. Luckily they're good so I don't need to panic just yet.

Hey Josvex, did you get them through E-Mail? I'm very nervous :eek:

Congrats Harmonic01! :thumbsup:

[stewartjones]

Congrats!

So since we are the senior class are we supposed to haze the new guys/gals? :scream:

YEAH! We are the learned ones, so we can give them some er... stick! :thumbsup: LOL

[kees]

congrats Harmonic,


I know you will do great in the program.

-Kees

[harmonic01]

Hey Kees. Thanks :-) I saw your site is up again. Not as it used to be, but looks like you continue working on PuppetShop. I seriously miss it. Will we see it available for public again? :)

[Jozvex]

Hey Josvex, did you get them through E-Mail? I'm very nervous :eek:

Yep through an email from Luis, one of the administration guys. It might depend on your mentor finalizing the grades and passing them on or something.

[My Fault]

Mine too but it came from Francis. I'm sure you will get it soon.

[Marty15]

Thanks guys, yea i just got mine.

[Jozvex]

What about norton... I got Norton Internet security what are the settings for the firewall or wherever to set up??

I disable it to log in, but is a pain in the ass do it each time!

someone?

I just posted the answer to this on the support forums on AM!! Thank goodness I finally figured it out because just like you said it's a major pain having to disable NIS everytime you want to logon.

:thumbsup:

[andy_maxman]

are we (students) provided with webspace to upload old and current works? if so, what is the space limit?
thanks!

[polymath]

no official webspace so far, I think. They're working on the ability to view your old assignments and postings though, which should be great for future students. But I don't think there is an outright limit on the size of videos you can upload ie into public review, I haven't seen it written anywhere atleast. But you have to upload using the cinepak codec which = small file sizes most of the time (and really nasty image quality).

[Nitefyre]

They just updated it so that we can go back and view our past week assignments (also the comments for each week) and see the progress we've made. I'm sure as time goes on we will be able to go back and see our revisions and sketchbooks that we upload every week.

[andy_maxman]

They just updated it so that we can go back and view our past week assignments (also the comments for each week)

you mean the mentor critiques too?

[darkefire]

yeppers. i can view both my critiques now. which is nice, cuz i wasnt able to view either of my critiques for the last couple days. i forgot to take notes on my second critique (thinking it would be available any time), so i hope touched on all the revisions i was pointed out. Luckily all the student crits i got said basically all the things my mentor iterrated, and we can still see all of those.

Progress! what a wonderful mistress!:thumbsup:

[Nitefyre]

There is a spot in your workspace for fellow students to comment on your any work you have up (kind of like a personal thread), the window gets cleared every week. We can now go back and see what was posted for that week.

darkefire - you can see both of your crits? i can only see my latest :sad:

[AjaBogdanoff]

This week's video news shows off the t-shirts, including a lovely blue girlie-T version! How freaking cool is that? :thumbsup:

Says the girl with about 30 different kinds of Apple t-shirts in her closet. ;) This is different! :D

[3FnD]

Seems like every week they plus the coolness factor! There are improvements coming to the campus site that are going to make the QnAs even better. The weekly AnimationMentor News video now has a couple of outtakes tacked onto the end and we're starting to see animated Spikes.

I'll repeat what I already said in the AM forums, wish I had double the money I'd take this course twice! It's like I'm riding my favorite themepark ride and I just don't want to get off!

[My Fault]

Yeah, every week brings something new. You summer students are in for some bigtime fun!

[SheepFactory]

Yeah i can only imagine how much fun we'll have with more advanced topics especially after building a solid foundation here. This semester totally rocks though and I hope all of us will see it through to graduation together :)

[andy_maxman]

this summer peep is feeling like ' sitting on the launcher of a catapult and you guys are only increasing the tension in its aniticipation'......:scream:

[Bentagon]

Ah man... I can't believe it's another 5 months for me! You guys seriously do an amazing job keeping us excited! I'm having a lot of fun just watching animated movies, studying them, looking at people, etc and I can't wait to get started... atm I'm trying to combine as much drawing as possible with a lot of work for school, but in only 2 months, I'll have soo much time to practice practice and practice some more. I can't believe how many things inspire me nowadays: just people walking down the street, watching amazing footage of the BBC Motion Library, a 3-day trip to Paris last weekend, reading the drawing notes of Walt Stenchfield, watching the animations and thumbs of you guys... the list goes on and on and on. I want to do sooo much and can only do so little it almost hurts!

- Benjamin

[Metro-Digital]

eeek. Im sooo excited. Just got my letter of acceptance into the summer class. I can't wait. Finally I can start heading my life in the right direction. Thanks guys for keeping us updated on whats been happening on AM. You guys rock :thumbsup:

[3FnD]

Congratulations Dylan, hehe another freshman for us to mess with soon! :P

Benjamin, you later students actually do have one advantage...much more time to prepare for class. We're giving you guys little tidbits of what our experiences are and in some ways you can use those to give you ideas what things you might do to "get ready". Drawing a lot is a big one, as we are asked each week to upload more sketches of stuff along with the main part of our assignments.

Also, really think about how you're gonna manage your time...watching the mentor critiques for your own plus other students' work, reading the forums, checking out links to good animation info, it's truly a full-time thing plus...and the assignments are going to get more challenging now!

[FUG1T1VE]

would an AM crew member be so kind as to send me a PM. I would call the office, but the only times I have available, the office is closed or I'm far away from a phone.

Thank you kindly.

[SheepFactory]

would an AM crew member be so kind as to send me a PM. I would call the office, but the only times I have available, the office is closed or I'm far away from a phone.

Thank you kindly.

They have e-mail contacts listed on their site you should send em an e-mail instead of waiting for them to check this thread , they are quite busy.

[andy_maxman]

Also, really think about how you're gonna manage your time...watching the mentor critiques for your own plus other students' work, reading the forums, checking out links to good animation info, it's truly a full-time thing

that's going to be a BIG one for me to pull off....time-management....and i'm excited to see how its all going to unfold....

and did you say 'full-time thing'?! Boy! you gonna scare the daylights out of folks who got a 9-6/7/8/9 job, wife and kid......but it's the excitement which is gonna get us all the energy.....

[3FnD]

yeah, andy. It's really helpful to watch as many of the mentor critiques as possible. some of them are just funny, like jason and victor's for ex., but there are nuggets of info in many of them, but you have to watch to find them! It takes some serious time.

I wound up checking out ppl under M today. I've been watching off and on for 3hrs+ and I'm almost thru them all!! I suppose you have to be methodical about it all, make a plan, try to get thru as much of it all as possible.

Just was chatting with some classmate who works on a cartoon and are going back to work next week after hiatus...long days on top of animation mentor! Scary!

But you gotta figure, this is what you have to do to get to the level you want to achieve. You gotta do what you have to do. Fortunately all the ppl at AM, maybe even fellow students, are interested in helping each person succeed.

[longorshort]

How long is each term for AM? (in weeks)

[TheOtherEmerald]

Too bad you need to be 18 ..?


This forum looks like a gaze with endless starting points.

[jschleifer]

yeah, andy. It's really helpful to watch as many of the mentor critiques as possible. some of them are just funny, like jason and victor's for ex., but there are nuggets of info in many of them, but you have to watch to find them! It takes some serious time.


hopefully ours are more than just funny, but full of brilliant information about the awesomely difficult job of animation!

booyeah! :)
-jas

[Shreds]

Quote:Jason Schleifer
hopefully ours are more than just funny, but full of brilliant information about the awesomely difficult job of animation!

Jason, I'm sure you don't have to worry about not being able to provide useful information in your critiques! The same goes for Victor. I guess I'll find out this summer for myself! Hope to chat with you sometime in the near future!!!

Adam.
my blog (http://adamstrick.myblogsite.com)

[stewartjones]

I assure you that there is some damn good information in your critiques dude, but they are totally funny! :thumbsup:

The Q&A's are awesome too!!! :bounce:


-Stu

[SheepFactory]

Jason your crits kick ass man and they are superfun to watch.

[jschleifer]

aw shucks.. thanks fellows! :)

don't worry, I was just kiddin 'bout the "hope they're not just funny!!" bit.. if we can be entertaining and informative, then gosh durn it, we're doin our jobs!

you're right tho.. victors crits are friggin awesome!!!

and hilarious!!

he's a master! :)

-jason

[tredeger]

hopefully ours are more than just funny, but full of brilliant information about the awesomely difficult job of animation!

booyeah! :)
-jas


OK, here's the lowdown on Jason Schlieffer. He's got this crazy little characitured avatar with 5 o'clock shadow, a squint and a cup of coffee (definitely leaded). And it looks nothing like the sunny smiling avatar he masquarades with on cgtalk. No siree.
So i sit down to watch one of his first critiques and there's nearly a full 20 seconds where he's just a shaky blur (like a dog or cat swinging it's head about to shake something off) and he informs us he hasn't yet caffinated at the time of filming. And as the image comes into focus you're thinking OMG, he looks exactly like his avatar! I thought it was impossible! (actually most of the other mentors don't really resemble their avatars at all).
You're next thought is that this man needs a caffine I.V. drip. STAT. Yet, strangely, he seems to exude an inhuman level of energy for all that grog (he has at this point started his critique). Say hypothetically that he's critiquing someone's pose and the pose is of a baby in a diaper reaching out from it's crib. His advice sounds something along the lines of "Here you want the arms to be more like 'goo gaaa... mama!' " To make what could be a very long story short, a text transcript of the crit makes no sense at all because he's gone all onomonapoetic and is making baby sounds. And you have to watch it twice because you're laughing your glutes off. But then you realize that if you watch the screen as he draws adjustments to the pose using the crit tool, that he's just shown you how to make arms that are "goo gaaa...mama!"
It's scary cool how good these guys are at conveying knowledge in a manner that is engaging and makes an impression.

The student critiques are between 4-6 minutes in length and you'd be amazed at how much information these guys convey in that amount of time. Given the class size, the crits alone are worth the tuition - about 20 hours a week of mentor feedback - more than anyone can actually view. And classmate feedback takes at least as long to view and process. So "Cruising the campus" is a full time job.

And the assignments are so well structured to take a beginning animator through all kinds of truly fundamental lessons. I feel i'm being taught more than the techniques of animation and the process of animating. I feel like i'm being taught to think like an animator. After cruising the campus, I compiled a round up of some of the lessons the mentors were trying to teach and it was all stuff *in addition* to the material in the books and lectures. The knowledge base in the informal channels is enormous after just a few weeks and without question the best part of the program. And we're still "only" on bouncing balls. BTW, for any of you AMer's here, my round up can be found in the AM forums under Character Animation Talk > Animation Muscle Memory.

I haven't been posting much to this thread lately because I've been busy at AM, but for all the people following the thread I assume it's because you're probably considering signing up. I can totally assure you that the experience is worth any inconvience and expense you might have to endure. Everyone involved truly cares about your education and their dedication shows in everything they do (don't even get me started on how well they are adjusting and adapting the operation based on us guinea pigs)! And your classmates... well they're just cool. And inspiring to the point of intimidation. Anyway, I'll report more about my experience when I can come up for air, for now, I've got balls to animate. next week we get a tail! Mwahahahaha!

cheers,
Jazz

[My Fault]

aw shucks.. thanks fellows! :)

don't worry, I was just kiddin 'bout the "hope they're not just funny!!" bit.. if we can be entertaining and informative, then gosh durn it, we're doin our jobs!

you're right tho.. victors crits are friggin awesome!!!

and hilarious!!

he's a master! :)

-jason

The first thing I thought of when I watched one of Jason's crits... best eyebrows ever! :)

Seriously man, all the mentors kick insane amount of butt. It's so cool getting to see everyones critiques. So many different ideas but the thing that holds true for all of them is huge amounts of energy and a geniune passion for the medium. Awesome!

[stewartjones]

The first thing I thought of when I watched one of Jason's crits... best eyebrows ever! :)

Seriously man, all the mentors kick insane amount of butt. It's so cool getting to see everyones critiques. So many different ideas but the thing that holds true for all of them is huge amounts of energy and a geniune passion for the medium. Awesome!

Haha! That's how he explains the arcs of the bouncing ball for me. With his 'm' arced eyebrows! :thumbsup:

[AjaBogdanoff]

I feel like i'm being taught to think like an animator.

Thanks Jazz, I've been trying to nail down that back-of-my-mind feeling for the last couple of weeks. You've got it. I feel like, in just over a month, I've gone from motivated-but-hopeless-wannabe to someone who's actually starting to GET this thing. The mentors and founders seem a little more human now. ;) I have a much better understanding of how they got to where they are, and I think we're all going to be able to follow this amazing trail of breadcrumbs they've left for us.

And if we don't all find ourselves baked into a pie at the end, we'll be set.

:D

[Bentagon]

Now that it's been about a month since launch date, when's the first featured artist coming? Really looking forward to that!

- Benjamin

[My Fault]

Now that it's been about a month since launch date, when's the first featured artist coming? Really looking forward to that!

- Benjamin

Hopefully soon as they are definitely pushing us to rate each other more. It's tough though because it's near impossible to get to everyone. I know who I voted for and though I won't reveal his name he is definitely someone who has been around awhile, whose work I respect and who has been very helpful on AM.

Like I said, it's tough because there are so many great people!

[seasterling]

Sounds like you guys are having a bouncing ball :bounce: Got my acceptance notice this week. See you in June :D

[Kimotion]

Sounds like you guys are having a bouncing ball :bounce: Got my acceptance notice this week. See you in June :D

Quote Anakin Skywalker who would later turn into the greatest, most feared villain the galaxy has ever known: "Yippeeeeeee!"

[FUG1T1VE]

They have e-mail contacts listed on their site you should send em an e-mail instead of waiting for them to check this thread , they are quite busy.

yah, I got an alternate way to contact them. It was late at the time I posted it and was running out of ideas.

peace out....

[Mechis]

Is there any place where students are posting their work for the public to see?-- (ie. maybe a thread on cgtalk or any one doing it on their website?) I'm interested in AM, but I want to see the exercises and what kind of work the students are producing.
Thanks!
~Mechis

[3FnD]

don't worry, I was just kiddin 'bout the "hope they're not just funny!!" bit.. if we can be entertaining and informative, then gosh durn it, we're doin our jobs!


Net service is down for half a day and look wut I miss!

Yeah, Jason "sorry" (since you were just kidding), my original post was supposed to say "just plain funny"! hehe.

Yeah, these guys, have so many great things...Jeremy asked for our Maya files in addition to uploading the playblasts and he's actually showing us--on camera(!!)--how to tweak our fCurves for improvements...holy ess!

Yeah, you guys are doing your jobs alright, that's for sure.

[mikefeil]

Is there any place where students are posting their work for the public to see?--

Hey Mechis, there are so many am blogs going on where fresh AMer's are posting (http://www.animationbrad.com/) there (http://animaja.blogspot.com/) work (http://www.freewebs.com/jimmyanimation/amdiary.htm), what I did was just go to jason's site (daily visit for me btw, the dude always makes me laugh some how :D) and just play the link game.

http://jonhandhisdog.com/shh-life-er/


have fun :thumbsup:

[mgarward]

Is there any place where students are posting their work for the public to see?-- (ie. maybe a thread on cgtalk or any one doing it on their website?) I'm interested in AM, but I want to see the exercises and what kind of work the students are producing.
~Mechis
Well I have stuff up at my blog site at http://mattg.weavo.net and there is the AM Blog ring at http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=animationmentorb as well. The main thing is... the excercises are pretty basic animation stuff so far (bouncing balls. Oh how I hate them.). But makes them so valuable is the constant feedback and the the critiques. It really is an amazing school and well worth the money if you want to be an animator. :)

[Mechis]

nice. Thanks for the links, guys. I hope you'll keep posting your work up in the future :)
~Mechis

[mmkelly011881]

sproink! im lovin it... back to bouncing ball!... CURSE YOU RAMPY!!!

[My Fault]

Haha, but rampy is your friend Matt! :)

[stewartjones]

New character tomorrow guys! :bounce: :D

Oh, almost forgot;

*NIP & PUNCH TO EVERYONE READING* (first of the month!):scream:


How come the excitement of this thing hasn't worn off yet?:shrug: :)

[Kimotion]

New character tomorrow guys! :bounce: :D

Oh, almost forgot;

*NIP & PUNCH TO EVERYONE READING* (first of the month!):scream:


How come the excitement of this thing hasn't worn off yet?:shrug: :)

Hey it's animation: excitement should never wear off!

Today I just realized that there are still Mentees whose work and crits have never been viewed by me. I'm still pleasantly overwhelmed.

Can't wait for Tailer (is that what' "it" is called? The ball with the raccoon tail?).

[hqgamer]

hey guys is it possible to post any of your recent work here ?

plz:bounce:

[Modus]

here's mine for this week but I will tweak it more this afternoon before uploading
http://www.youladesign.com/downloads/public_review.mov

Cheers :)

[stewartjones]

Hey it's animation: excitement should never wear off!

Today I just realized that there are still Mentees whose work and crits have never been viewed by me. I'm still pleasantly overwhelmed.

Can't wait for Tailer (is that what' "it" is called? The ball with the raccoon tail?).


Tailor is his name, bouncing and flicking his tail is his game... Yeah, I best not persue a career in poetry! haha!!! :thumbsup:

[My Fault]

hey guys is it possible to post any of your recent work here ?

plz:bounce:

Certainly! :)

Here's my week 5 assignment
Rampys Revenge (http://www.briannicolucci.com/animation/Week5FinalVersion_small.avi)

and my pose and revision of last weeks assignment heavy and light ball
Devestation and Destruction (http://www.briannicolucci.com/animation/Week5PoseRevision_small.avi)

Fun stuff!

[harmonic01]

Hey Brian.

Rampy's Revenge is freak'n sweet. I'd be very curiouse to see what critique your mentor will give you. Heh heh, oh man, can't wait for the summer session.

[Slurry]

MyFault, I love how you have him "spinning his wheels" as he atics the jump.

Great work!

art

[My Fault]

Haha, thanks all. Can you tell I watch way too much Warner Bros? :)

[SheepFactory]

Thats kick ass Brian!

[fluffybunny]

Haha, thanks all. Can you tell I watch way too much Warner Bros? :)

too...much...Warner Bros?

I'm confused, how is that possible?


eric (licensed to sell hair tonic to bald eagles in.....*all together now*...)

[Bentagon]

anyone checked this out yet?
www.animationpodcast.com

Andreas Deja! Goodie goodie goodie, can't wait to listen to it!

- Benjamin

[agreenster]

Yep--I checked it out this morning. It was interersting, but not extremely deep. A lot of personal info and what he did as a kid trying to get into Disney. (basically, he focused on becoming the best artist he could be, duh)

The next several "episodes" are doing to be deeper, more about Disney and his relationship with some of the old men, and also about animation itself--giving his insights and commentaries on the state of animation

[Shreds]

Yeah man, I checked it out also. I thought it was very inspirational considering I'm trying to get into the CalArts animation program, of course after Animation Mentor, so I'm trying to do life and figure drawings everyday. After hearing him say that is what he did, which ended up getting him into Disney, it really gave me another push of inspiration to keep improving my figure drawings. Everyone should really give it a listen. Of course I'm the type that always sees the cup half full!

Shreds.

[Kimotion]

Ou current assignment is the ball with a raccoon tail (Tailor). Is it just me or is this assignment really intimidating? I never animated so many successive joints with overlap before. Should be really fun and nervewracking!

[My Fault]

Ou current assignment is the ball with a raccoon tail (Tailor). Is it just me or is this assignment really intimidating? I never animated so many successive joints with overlap before. Should be really fun and nervewracking!

Well I hear our last character will have 17 legs, 3 tails, a hat and will be on rollerskates. Should be a tough week :twisted:

[SheepFactory]

hahahaha :D , as long as its not to animate a drunk caterpillar i am fine.

[jschleifer]

Well I hear our last character will have 17 legs, 3 tails, a hat and will be on rollerskates. Should be a tough week :twisted:

hah! that sounds like what it was like to animate the Watcher in the Water.. 12 tentacles, 3 fingers each, grabbing and fighting and ...

ugh!

[heathenPagan]

WooHoo. Just got my acceptance for the Fall term.

I realise what I'm about to ask has been covered on this thread but the thought of going through 10 billion posts (approx) to find the info, is, to say the least mind numbing...anyway, here goes....

Now that you've all been using them for a while, what have you guys found to be good webcams for use with AM?

[stewartjones]

WooHoo. Just got my acceptance for the Fall term.

I realise what I'm about to ask has been covered on this thread but the thought of going through 10 billion posts (approx) to find the info, is, to say the least mind numbing...anyway, here goes....

Now that you've all been using them for a while, what have you guys found to be good webcams for use with AM?

AM stated the Logitech Quickcam Messenger is descent enough. A lot of the peeps I chat with (including myself too) have went with a Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000. They are a bit more pricey, but the quality is awesome for a webby-cammy! :D

Cheers

-Stu

[tredeger]

Pagan,


AM is just about to launch a new Q&A chat tool and the beta test yesterday was killer. You see both the mentor and the mentee who's question is being answered at the same time. So if you are prone to bad hair days or like to pick your nose at your computer (as someone at the chat yesterday joked), I'd suggest getting a really poor quality webcam. But if you are looking for a high quality cam, the Logitech Pro 4000 that everyone keeps talking about is a very good deal. I'm pretty happy with mine. Monarch computers had a great deal on the OEM version.

One complaint--the cord that goes to the back of the 'puter is heavy and keeps pulling the cam out of place. I think this is a problem with most cams, as they have really puny stands.

Luckily, I discovered that the screw that slots into the stand has the same thread diameter as a standard tripod mounting bracket. So invest in the cheapest little camera tripod you can find at S-Mart and you'll be very happy with your cam. You'll be able to fix the height to eye level, point it where you want, and make nice smooth pans that amaze your webcam friends and make them jealous. Of course, you have some mentors like Jason Schlieffer who are from the Barry Levinson school of television directing.

(OK, I'll explain: Levinson was pretty revolutionary at the time when he really pushed the handheld "shaky cam" look of the first season of Homicide:Life on the Street. It has since become a standard part of television vocabulary.)

[heathenPagan]

Hey,
Thanks Tredeger and Vyntax.
I'll prob'ly go with the pro 4000. I'd rather have better quality than save a few bucks I think.

I hope everyone's enjoying AM. I can't wait....
Cheers.

[My Fault]

Woo, another beta test of the new Q&A tool today and it kicked so much butt. Heck, we even got Shawn (and a few other people) to dance. Now if we can find that ninja in the wig we can make him dance too! :)

It was great to be able to see and hear people from as far away as Iceland and Taiwan. Much easier for everyone to understand the questions as well since you could hear and see the person who was asking it. Awesome.

[Kimotion]

any word on when the new tool will be officially launched? Next week perhaps?

*pimping up and putting on contact lens for the ladies*

[stewartjones]

I might just buy a Brad Pitt doll or something, and put that in my place wen i ask the questions! :scream:

I say bring on the new system! It's gonna be mega funny, my Q&A's are at 6am... Not that bad of a time, but damn, it hurts your eyes on the computer that early!:D

[Modus]

any word on when the new tool will be officially launched? Next week perhaps?

*pimping up and putting on contact lens for the ladies*

This morning Delio told us we should be able to get the new QA tool :-) so wash your face, put some clothes, and dont make sexual things during the QA :-)

[mgarward]

I might just buy a Brad Pitt doll or something, and put that in my place wen i ask the questions! :scream:
My sock puppets are ready to go.:)

[havoc21]

yeah the bad hair, and the fact that i have this crazy headphone microphone thing strapped to my head. now i will have to rearrange my living room as well to make sure that all of the background elements are pleasing to the eye. lol.

[sinbad]

Hey All!

Today I got my 2mbit broadband connection, AND I posted off my registration docs by registered mail to Suite 12.

I also bumped up my pixar collection by purchasing the incredicles and nemo dvd sets (wow Brad Bird and Mr Incredible have the same eyes!)

OK next... a webcam, oh yeah.....and a week laying on a sunny beach in spain before I start the course!:applause:

Just 45 days to go yeee haaar! How are the other Summer guys doing? Oh and you spring guys, no pulling rank on the AM forums. Ouch, I can already feel the sting of a wedgy!:D

[stewartjones]

Hey All!

Today I got my 2mbit broadband connection, AND I posted off my registration docs by registered mail to Suite 12.

I also bumped up my pixar collection by purchasing the incredicles and nemo dvd sets (wow Brad Bird and Mr Incredible have the same eyes!)

OK next... a webcam, oh yeah.....and a week laying on a sunny beach in spain before I start the course!:applause:

Just 45 days to go yeee haaar! How are the other Summer guys doing? Oh and you spring guys, no pulling rank on the AM forums. Ouch, I can already feel the sting of a wedgy!:D


Do ya not think that Syndrome looks a lot like Brad B?!?! I just can't watch the movie without thinking of him... Oh, and he does Edna's voice too, I would never have thought! :)

It's gonna be awesome having more peeps on campus. More crits! :D :thumbsup: ... But we gotta pull rank a little, just to feel... err.. ... ... 'cool'?!?! HAHA!:shrug: :D

Oh, and 2mb is awesome for viewing the site! :applause:

[jschleifer]

he does!

actually, I met brad the other day when coming out of seeing Sin City.. I was all nervous 'cuz I didn't want to "disturb" him, but my wife turned to him and said "excuse me, are you brad bird?"

he said "yes..."

then she goes "I'd like to introduce my husband, jason schleifer. he's a big fan of your work."

and he goes "hi!"

so we chatted for a bit about new zealand and peter jackson and incredibles.

and I lost about 200 pounds of sweat from nervousness.

what an incredibly (haw haw) nice guy!

-jas

[sinbad]

jschleifer originally wrote:
and I lost about 200 pounds of sweat from nervousness.


Yeah, Jason I can imagine he could be quite imposing/ intimidating, in the dvd he is very animated (in the other context of the word) and confident. Lord if I ever was in that situation I would probably faint, and dissolve into green mush.

Well according to the dvd, aspects of both Mr Incredible and Syndrome characters were based on him. Sometimes Brad Bird looks like a teenager with his baseball cap on, but he sure commands respect!

paul

[king21]

Hello all!

I just have one important question. Those of you who have chose term wich starts in september. Did anyone get a mail from AM that he is in or out.

Why i am asking this is i still didn't get anything from them :(((.

Thx for answer i really need it because if you have recieved something i will have to caontact them.

King

[Bentagon]

king: when others were receiving their notices, I was worried too, so I mailed them. 20 minutes later I got a mail back from Rosie they were going to evaluate me right away, and less then 2 hours later I was in! Great helpful people. They might not do that now, though, because I'm not sure they're evaluating anyone now. When I mailed them it was somewhere in the first couple of weeks after the launch for applying.

About Bird looking like Syndrome... I actually read somewhere (can't remember the exact place though) that the character designers designed Syndrome with Brad in mind, but didn't tell him that until the film was too far in production to change it :D

- Benjamin

[Kimotion]

About Bird looking like Syndrome... I actually read somewhere (can't remember the exact place though) that the character designers designed Syndrome with Brad in mind, but didn't tell him that until the film was too far in production to change it :D

- Benjamin

That is so funny. I too thought he was intimidating on the commentaries cus he's so sure and confident in what he wanted to see and get out from the employees. It was probably an inside joke to design Syndrome after him. Heck, that's what I would do!

I met Brad Bird at a signing for the Incredibles DVD. I had absolutely no clue as to what to say. What can you possibly say to this guy that would be remotely interesting to him? I just shook his hand, said "It's an honor to meet you," and he looked up and looked genuinely grateful. Even after all those people on line and a long way to go.

[king21]

huha haula i am in yeah.

see you on fall

[ravvy]

Do you still get to view the training videos for stop motion / traditional animation if you are taking the 3d animation route of the course?

[andy_maxman]

Just 45 days to go yeee haaar! How are the other Summer guys doing? :D

oiling the gear and boosting some more power on to the machine.......looking forward mate.....its jamming time this summer....:thumbsup:

[Jozvex]

Do you still get to view the training videos for stop motion / traditional animation if you are taking the 3d animation route of the course?

Well, there are actually only introduction videos (1 each) to the traditional and stop motion methods. They pretty much explain the whole process, so then you could just use those techniques to do all the 3D assignments. In the assignments they sometimes have a note or two for those doing traditional animation.

Even though there aren't specific lectures for traditional and stop motion, in the '3D lectures' it's all just about the general art of motion and animation, so it applies to all the mediums. They don't really say anything like "so in Maya you would.." etc. The only Maya bits are when they introduce the next character model and they go over the controls. And of course there's a 3 part Maya intro for people new to it.

During the guest speaker videos you can pick up quite a few traditional animation tips, because people like Eric Goldberg and the current guests, are/were traditional animators. So they talk about smear drawings and some of the other 2D oriented techniques.

[sinbad]

Originally posted by andy_maxman
oiling the gear and boosting some more power on to the machine.......looking forward mate.....its jamming time this summer....:thumbsup:

Thats what I like to hear! I also ordered a webcam last night, a Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000. I spent some time looking at various reviews, and this one seemed to get some good ratings. The last thing I want is my mentor saying "Hey Paul I can't quite make you out on the webcam, could you try turning the lights on?".

Good, everything is in place now. The good thing about working for a university is that I can order any books I want, so I have several copies of "The illusion of life" to borrow from the library, plus we have 10 educational seats of Maya unlimited I can play with, cool!
Speaking of books, I just read Shamus Culhane's "from script to screen" which is brilliant. I've been reading about animation for 8 years, but there is always something new to learn, plus I was lucky enough to have worked with a couple of pro's this year, Hilary Audus (worked on The Snowman) and Malcolm Draper who worked on Yellow Submarine, the Pink Panther and loads of old toon classics over in California. Inspirational!
Anyway enough rambling... Just wish I could log into AM already!

p

[ravvy]

I've applied for the summer course now but... will have to wait and see if I'm accepted I guess

I finished the "test" they email over on friday and submitted it then so will just have wait now with fingers crossed - anyone know roughly how long they take to get back to you? :)

[sinbad]

Originally posted by ravvy
I finished the "test" they email over on friday and submitted it then so will just have wait now with fingers crossed - anyone know roughly how long they take to get back to you? :)


For me it was two agonizing weeks, but they were on the cusp of launching the spring term, so hopefully you won't need to wait too long. Don't worry we've all been there, you'll be ok.:)

[anthea]

HI EVERYONE

I CANT BELIEVE I NEVER KNEW ABT THIS!!
why didn't anyone tell me.

-anthea

[My Fault]

Alright, Anthea is here! Be careful as CGTalk can be addictive. Just ask Ali and he will teach you the secret CGTalk handshake :)

[sternio]

HI EVERYONE

I CANT BELIEVE I NEVER KNEW ABT THIS!!
why didn't anyone tell me.

-anthea

'cause you are moving to LA,
NYC represent!

[bentllama]

Alright, Anthea is here! Be careful as CGTalk can be addictive. Just ask Ali and he will teach you the secret CGTalk handshake :)

don't do it. don't trust Ali for nuttin! ;)

Ali is da devil.

[3FnD]

Wait, there's a handshake?! I miss everything!

[Kimotion]

Welcome aboard Anthea! It's Jeff, your fellow Behmster. Mark Behm's group rules over all!

Still recovering from the Tailor assignment.

For those who are waiting for the next session, be prepared to work your tailor off! hehe.

Seriously, I've been learning so much. I'm at another school for animation (for about 2 yrs) and have been applying what I've learned from AnimationMentor to my current assignments and have noticed drastic improvements in terms of posing, anticipation and overlap. It's shocking to see how crucial the fundamentals are and the bouncing ball is EVERYTHING! People always ask me about how it's going and when I mention bouncing ball, they roll their eyes. And of course, thanks to AM, I've noticed how the eye roll travels in an arc! And everytime I see a ball, I think of the ball assignments.

[mgarward]

People always ask me about how it's going and when I mention bouncing ball, they roll their eyes.
They can roll their eyes all they want, but I'll bet your 'Basics Training' from AM is going to bllow them all away soon enough.:)

[bentllama]

They can roll their eyes all they want, but I'll bet your 'Basics Training' from AM is going to bllow them all away soon enough.:)

funny how when a school appraoches the basisc properly and drills them into a students head the reels coming from grads of that school are collectively some of the best in the industry. cal arts and sheridan do not have a good reputation for nothing, and now we have AM in the mix.

i just hope good news spreads fast and people will stop wasting thier money on 'revolving door' schools that just rubber stamp diplommas for a quick buck at the students expense.

if they roll thier eyes at the bouncing ball, don't worry, you can 'anticipate' 'overlapping' them in salary and quality of work. :)

[sinbad]

Hey guys, (and welcome Anthea!)

As I start AM next month, I thought I would do some prep work etc. I just found the Steve Roberts book "Character Animation in 3D" in the library, and wondered if it was worth going through, or should I start the course after having read "The illusion of life" & "Animator Survival Kit" several dozen times?
Do you think preparation makes any difference considering the plethora of ball bouncing excercises to come?

I agree about the revolving door thing, it is a symptom in the UK of Tony Blair's desire to have 50% of 19 year olds attending university by two thousand and whatever. Therefore the intake at many universities in this country are highly unrealistic, and as a result, the courses tend to be manifested in order to absorb growing numbers (Of course this is just my personal opinion and not that of my employer or the government:)). A crowded course is not a good thing anywhere in the world, and neither is a cohort generally bereft of any visual or creative talent, stuffed with students who learned to spell phonetically (badly), and who grew up on a passive diet of rubbish television and violent games...Kids don't seem to read books anymore (rant rant etc..) Anyway thank goodness for animationmentor. Stuffed with goodness it is.

[jugger]

Hey guys, (and welcome Anthea!)
through, or should I start the course after having read "The illusion of life" & "Animator Survival Kit" several dozen times?
Do you think preparation makes any difference considering the plethora of ball bouncing excercises to come?


hey sindbad, welcome soon then :)
about reading the books. i can only highle recommend that! you will read each one later on and with different eyes anyway. and, it will help you quite a bit with your assignments. after 7 weeks at AM i can savely say that reading the book and attending the course are different worlds. i read the book, but NOW i understand and USE what i read and heard in the course. its just true; a teacher cant teach you anything new, they just can help you remembering whats already there ;)

PS: wow.. my second post in this thread ;)

[liquidik]

Well guys, I don't know what you think, but what I think is keeping the stamina up with us is that there's a really creative and inspiring atmosphere in the campus!!
Before starting I thought that feeling a certain atmoshere was going to be really difficult, but now that I'm on ohhh man I will want to have double time just to go and check all other works and critiques and learn from them...it's wonderful

And to you summer guys, you'll be amazed!

Gianmichele

[jugger]

yep, gianmichele :)
it just lurks me every day there, and i wished i didnt needed to do something else to fund the next class ;)
Am for sure changed quite some thing in my head, and darn, its just a "webpage" ... but all the folks there are supercool minded.

did you ever thought about the poor newbies then in summer? will they have to go throught our forum? reading billions of postings? ;) i would be quite overwhelmed after my first login!
one thing that will be gone i think is all our work for the first class.
when we are in the second one you cant jump back to week2 and laugh about the bouncing balls ;)

[mmkelly011881]

Anthea.. last day?

[3FnD]

if they roll thier eyes at the bouncing ball, don't worry, you can 'anticipate' 'overlapping' them in salary and quality of work. :)

okay nathan, that was funny and lame at the same time.

I definitely second the notion of reading the books before starting! I felt much better when those things came up in lessons having gone over them at least once already.

Another thing to do in preparation could be to start practicing sketching. We have side-assignments to sketch every week and upload a couple of scans from our sketches along with our main assignments. Not that you have to be an uber drawist and be able to do photorealistic drawings, but if you're out of practice like me and/or never had life-drawing classes (like me) you could get frustrated. But if you get a head start practicing you might enjoy it more. Plus it's just so valuable to do that.

[My Fault]

Hey guys, (and welcome Anthea!)

As I start AM next month, I thought I would do some prep work etc. I just found the Steve Roberts book "Character Animation in 3D" in the library, and wondered if it was worth going through, or should I start the course after having read "The illusion of life" & "Animator Survival Kit" several dozen times?
Do you think preparation makes any difference considering the plethora of ball bouncing excercises to come?

Definitely Illusion of Life and Animator Survival Kit. Would also recommend Timing for Animation and Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation. Both great books.

We do a lot of pose sketching to really find why and what sells a particular mood or feeling for a character. So sketch, sketch, sketch. Would also recommend you start playing with a basic bouncing ball right now. That will put you way ahead when you start class.

And I am soooo glad for them starting with the basics. They are forcing us to go real indepth here and it is making everyones work that much stronger. Watching the improvement of even the seasoned pros is inspiring!

[My Fault]

Welcome aboard Anthea! It's Jeff, your fellow Behmster. Mark Behm's group rules over all!

Dood, the Freisenborgers are the biggest bunch of butt kickers man. We lean and mean and full of caffeine! :buttrock:

[Kimotion]

funny how when a school appraoches the basisc properly and drills them into a students head the reels coming from grads of that school are collectively some of the best in the industry. cal arts and sheridan do not have a good reputation for nothing, and now we have AM in the mix.

i just hope good news spreads fast and people will stop wasting thier money on 'revolving door' schools that just rubber stamp diplommas for a quick buck at the students expense.

if they roll thier eyes at the bouncing ball, don't worry, you can 'anticipate' 'overlapping' them in salary and quality of work. :)

HAHA, the last line was so cheesy I really had to laugh! :twisted:

When I was taught the bouncing ball :bounce: it was for about one week. And later I considered a bouncing ball just a demonstration on how to use the graph editor in Maya. Now that's really sad. And yes, just a few months ago, I too was one of those who rolled their eyes whenever I heard AM starts you off on the bouncing ball :rolleyes:

AM just shocked me into finding out how little I really knew all along about Animation. Actually, I did know the principles: just didn't know HOW important they were and how useful they were when applied. My current school started us off with story, camera angles, and then dialogue.

Right now my very upper level animation class is really lacking in their foundations (12 principles) and some don't even know what I'm talking about when I mention the 12 principles. One guy thought there were 5: exposition, composition, color, and something else. I really hope he misinterpreted what I meant by the 12 principles. And he's graduating. I $hit you not. And another girl said, "If there's 12 weeks in a semester, then why the hell don't they freaken teach at least one principle a week!? I think I'll take AnimationMentor now." :buttrock:

[My Fault]

And another girl said, "If there's 12 weeks in a semester, then why the hell don't they freaken teach at least one principle a week!? I think I'll take AnimationMentor now." :buttrock:
<sarcasm on>
Of course, shouldn't you be able to master them all in 12 weeks. If only I had realized that before I couldv'e been a pro years ago!
</sarcasm off>

How you put up with that stuff on a daily basis Jeff is beyond me. I'm glad to have someone like you as a fellow student in AM man!

[Kimotion]

<sarcasm on>
Of course, shouldn't you be able to master them all in 12 weeks. If only I had realized that before I couldv'e been a pro years ago!
</sarcasm off>

How you put up with that stuff on a daily basis Jeff is beyond me. I'm glad to have someone like you as a fellow student in AM man!

HAHAHA, that girl I spoke with had a very good point. She suggested that our school's Anim.1 class should go over the 12 principles in a 12 week semester (actually I think it's 14 weeks a semester). Then on Anim.2, instead of dialogue only, we should apply those 12 principles on more challenging animation like a character acting, or lifting, etc.

[sarcasm on]
Gee this sounds familiar....sounds just like the AnimationMentor cirriculum!
[sacasm off]

Brian, every time I look in an AM student's workspace, I notice that you are the first person posted for this week. Did you have a script set to go off on 11pm pst last sunday, that automatically posted on people's workspaces? And are we stalking the same exact people?

[fluffybunny]

Wow! Somebody must have been reading my mind. I was just thinking about asking you guys that are midway through Spring what I should be doing to prep (based on your impression of what you wish you would have done more of before hand).
And Voila! Somebody already asked it mere moments ago.

So I guess the consensus has been "Sketch! Sketch! Sketch!".

I've been thinking of buying that "Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation" as someone had recommended before. Guess I'll definitely get it now.

My drawing skills are primordial at the moment, but I spent a good hour today at lunch copying. Sounds like I really need to make that something I do everyday...maybe several hours.
It's starting to get fun to look back through my sketchbook and even though everything is copied, some of it actually looks cool. It's all just cartoon animals right now, but I do plan to move on to other things.

If there's anything else you Spring Peeps wish you would have done to better prepare, us summer people would be thankful for the advice :bowdown: Especially us wannabees :arteest:
I'll admit to being a wannabe, but I also wanna get in shape. I biked 50 miles last weekend, 20 today, I'm doing 70 this weekend, and I also ran almost 3 miles this morning :thumbsup: I figure that says something about dedication.

eric

[Kimotion]

Wow! Somebody must have been reading my mind. I was just thinking about asking you guys that are midway through Spring what I should be doing to prep (based on your impression of what you wish you would have done more of before hand).
And Voila! Somebody already asked it mere moments ago.

So I guess the consensus has been "Sketch! Sketch! Sketch!".

I've been thinking of buying that "Simplified Drawing for Planning Animation" as someone had recommended before. Guess I'll definitely get it now.

My drawing skills are primordial at the moment, but I spent a good hour today at lunch copying. Sounds like I really need to make that something I do everyday...maybe several hours.
It's starting to get fun to look back through my sketchbook and even though everything is copied, some of it actually looks cool. It's all just cartoon animals right now, but I do plan to move on to other things.

If there's anything else you Spring Peeps wish you would have done to better prepare, us summer people would be thankful for the advice :bowdown: Especially us wannabees :arteest:
I'll admit to being a wannabe, but I also wanna get in shape. I biked 50 miles last weekend, 20 today, I'm doing 70 this weekend, and I also ran almost 3 miles this morning :thumbsup: I figure that says something about dedication.

eric


Draw from LIFE! It's what the co-founders said they wanted us to do in the first lecture. Because subjects are always moving around, this trains your eyes and your brain to take mental "snapshots" of poses before they move away. Now this is really hard to get used to. Also you learn how to not be so self-conscious drawing in public. I still have a bit of trouble getting rid of the embarrassment.

And they expect us to upload at least 2 pages of our sketchbooks per week.

They also emphasized how important it is to draw fast to get the poses and line of action down, and later to communicate those sketches to other people (like your future Director). One thing you'll learn is that stick figures are not easy!

And welcome aboard Eric!

[rkv]

awesome site!
maybe u could make it cheaper for students who dont want the webcam interaction instead just irc and online videos?

[Nitefyre]

Just got done with our first Q and A with new interface...I just have to say 'wicked!' You can now see and hear your fellow students conversing back and forth with the mentor. Now there's still a little lag and kind fun to get used to but still works great! More surprises every week at AM!

And yes! Sketch! Sketch everywhere. malls, parks, airports, arcades, bus stations....

[bobbyc]

So I guess the consensus has been "Sketch! Sketch! Sketch!".



yes, train the eyes!

there's a fellow student, adrian, who dedicates 2 hours a day drawing, and has it up in his blog. http://www.ngarte.com/blogs/

there is amazing talent in there, and already the beginners and experienced peeps are vibin' off eachother and learning from everyone's mistakes.

congrats to all that got in for summer and fall... you're gonna have a blast.

- robert

[stewartjones]

awesome site!
maybe u could make it cheaper for students who dont want the webcam interaction instead just irc and online videos?

Dude, you aren't paying for an online chat room with webcams. You are paying to get taught by some animation ninjas.

[mikefeil]

yes, train the eyes!

there's a fellow student, adrian, who dedicates 2 hours a day drawing, and has it up in his blog. http://www.ngarte.com/blogs/


sweeeet..looks like the best blog so far...lots of people havent updated theres since the start of the bouncy balls..I guess its just really, crazy busy.

Anyway,

moo

[sinbad]

Ok thanks for the advice everyone! I know this thread has pretty turned into a novel, but it is the only place to go for information...Ultra valuable! Thanks to CG talk for allowing it to run and run. (I wonder if there will ever be a limit? When the servers are full I guess...:shrug: )

BY the way, do any Summer Peeps want to test out their webcam equipment sometime? I've never used one, and I pick it up tomorrow. I know it can be used through MSN Messenger, but does AM have their own software/ interface for this?

[rab]

People always ask me about how it's going and when I mention bouncing ball, they roll their eyes. And of course, thanks to AM, I've noticed how the eye roll travels in an arc!

I almost shot coffee out of my nose when i read that.

[stewartjones]

Ok thanks for the advice everyone! I know this thread has pretty turned into a novel, but it is the only place to go for information...Ultra valuable! Thanks to CG talk for allowing it to run and run. (I wonder if there will ever be a limit? When the servers are full I guess...:shrug: )

BY the way, do any Summer Peeps want to test out their webcam equipment sometime? I've never used one, and I pick it up tomorrow. I know it can be used through MSN Messenger, but does AM have their own software/ interface for this?

AM is all done through a version of Flash. So maybe get yourself a free trial of Macromedia Breeze, and you can test it out in there. It's just about the exact same sorta thing! :thumbsup:

[brit]

I’ve just been accepted into the summer term, I can’t wait.:bounce:



Some great advice on this site for prepping for the course, I’ve been practicing the bouncing ball exercise, but i thought i would keep it to myself until i get some profession help!! (this is not easy guys!)



Sinbad- It would be great to test the webcams, I have never used them either. I have just ordered mineit is going to take about 2-3 day to arrive so if you can wait that would be good.

[ravvy]

Cool I've been accepted into the Summer intake

I now need to get proof of completing my GCSE's to send in but dont have any certification for this - does anyone know what counts as proof? Do I need to try and get certificates or will a letter from my old highschool be sufficient?

I've looked for the phone number for AM as well and have one attached to the application email I sent but I've no idea of how to dial to a different country (apologies for being dumb)

Any ideas? :)

[stewartjones]

Cool I've been accepted into the Summer intake

I now need to get proof of completing my GCSE's to send in but dont have any certification for this - does anyone know what counts as proof? Do I need to try and get certificates or will a letter from my old highschool be sufficient?

I've looked for the phone number for AM as well and have one attached to the application email I sent but I've no idea of how to dial to a different country (apologies for being dumb)

Any ideas? :)

getting a letter from your old school is fine, and there is a sheet attached with your enrollment papers that can be used for this. u may get the papers closer to the time!

to call AM put a '+1' or '011'(i think) before the number! :thumbsup: Alternatively you could always mail 'em! :)

[brit]

I work full time, this is the reason i picked AM so i can study around work, and of course for all the talented mentors

You guys that are already on AM, how are you dealing with your time? if you are working or otherwise?

[immerzeelpictures]

It takes a lot of planning, for me personally. I just have a hard time running my own little studio and having a normal life next to it.
Enter AM course and things get a bit messier. I have to replan my schedule to fit enough time in to get the AM assignments done.

The assignments are pretty basic right now, but there will be more demanding and time consuming animations coming.
I will have to roll with the punches and get better and faster in using Maya.

I have read the same situation I describe here on the AM forum. Even some having new-born kiddies at the same time their doing AM. Very little time left to sleep for them I guess.

[SkyZero]

OH MY GAWD! :eek:
My significant other has offered to help me pay for Animation Mentor classes! She said we would do whatever it takes to help me achieve my dreams of becoming an animator and that I have her full support. I've been scraping money together so that I could attend sometime next year. With her help, we decided that it would be best to start in the fall term of this year (I'd start earlier but we're getting married first weekend of Sept. of this year :thumbsup: )!

This is great, so freakin' awesome, etc. with the occassional WAAAHHHhhhooo! :scream: Can you tell I'm excited?

[sinbad]

Originally posted by Skyzero
OH MY GAWD! :eek:
My significant other has offered to help me pay for Animation Mentor classes! She said we would do whatever it takes to help me achieve my dreams of becoming an animator and that I have her full support. I've been scraping money together so that I could attend sometime next year. With her help, we decided that it would be best to start in the fall term of this year (I'd start earlier but we're getting married first weekend of Sept. of this year :thumbsup: )!

This is great, so freakin' awesome, etc. with the occassional WAAAHHHhhhooo! :scream: Can you tell I'm excited?

Good on you.... The money thing is an issue, I'm already up to my neck in student debts from uni, both from a BA and Masters. (I wish I had saved the money from doing the wishy-washy academic stuff.) Never mind, AM wasn't around then so no regrets. I'll just have to pick up some more freelance stuff to suppliment the full time wages. Or wash dishes..
I'd be willing to work night and day to pay for this, I feel it would be such an investment. AM graduates surely would have a reasonable chance of getting work somewhere, of course nothing is guaranteed!

Originally posted by brit
Sinbad- It would be great to test the webcams, I have never used them either. I have just ordered mineit is going to take about 2-3 day to arrive so if you can wait that would be good.


Sure that would be good. Drop me an e-mail (psinclair@lincoln.ac.uk), maybe we can have a link up this weekend.

[SkyZero]

The money thing is an issue, I'm already up to my neck in student debts from uni, both from a BA and Masters.

That's the same situation I'm in except for the Masters.

[rab]

I work full time, this is the reason i picked AM so i can study around work, and of course for all the talented mentors

You guys that are already on AM, how are you dealing with your time? if you are working or otherwise?


For me, full time job, freelance work, wife, 9 month old boy (that took his first 4 steps yesterday!), and AM. I just don't sleep anymore. I am trying to keep a schedule of when to work on AM stuff and when to work on freelance stuff. But the baby and wife come first.

I tell you what though, it's totally worth it to be attending a school like this. This is the first time in my life that the words "I love school" have come out of my mouth.

[SkyZero]

For me, full time job, freelance work, wife, 9 month old boy (that took his first 4 steps yesterday!), and AM. I just don't sleep anymore. I am trying to keep a schedule of when to work on AM stuff and when to work on freelance stuff. But the baby and wife come first.

I tell you what though, it's totally worth it to be attending a school like this. This is the first time in my life that the words "I love school" have come out of my mouth.

Congratulations on your boy taking his first steps!

For me it's a full-time job (5 am to 2 pm), fiance, and planning for our wedding. I suspect after our wedding we'll have more free time until we start having kids. So we figure do what we want education-wise (AM for me and finishing her bachelor's) before we have kids.

I don't think I'll have too much trouble managing my time when I start AM classes. I respect the people (like yourself) that have jobs, families with kids, etc. and still manage to add AM to that list! That is an awesome feat of time management! :applause:

[SkyZero]

Does you guys know if you're supposed to receive a confirmation e-mail or any type of e-mail as soon as you submit the application and essay? I hit the submit button and was wondering if I was supposed to receive anything like a confirmation.

[SheepFactory]

wow they just posted vids of Bobby animating the assignments so far. You get to see how he blocks his scene and everything , its SUPER COOL!

[My Fault]

I know, it's fantastic, and Bobby's voice is so soothing. They should do a meditation tape, say "Bobby Explains the 12 Priniciples" with a whale song in the background.... it would be fantastic! :scream:

[SkyZero]

Can anyone tell me if you're supposed to receive a confirmation e-mail when you submit your application?

I'm stuck wondering if I should sit and wait or apply again because I might've mistyped my e-mail address. (i know that's why the 'confirm e-mail' is there so it seems highly unlikely that i typed it incorrectly the same way twice, but stranger things have happened :shrug: )

[Slurry]

wow they just posted vids of Bobby animating the assignments so far. You get to see how he blocks his scene and everything , its SUPER COOL!

Ok, I am now officially jealous.

Art "Green with Envy" Curry

[My Fault]

Can anyone tell me if you're supposed to receive a confirmation e-mail when you submit your application?

I'm stuck wondering if I should sit and wait or apply again because I might've mistyped my e-mail address. (i know that's why the 'confirm e-mail' is there so it seems highly unlikely that i typed it incorrectly the same way twice, but stranger things have happened :shrug: )

You can try emailing AnimationMentor directly but as I recall the email took a few days. Remember it is not automatic there are real people emailing back.

Looking forward to seeing your work when you start!

[SkyZero]

You can try emailing AnimationMentor directly but as I recall the email took a few days. Remember it is not automatic there are real people emailing back.

Looking forward to seeing your work when you start!

Thanks for the reply.

I thought you would get an automatic confirmation going something "like we received your application, please wait..." and got nervous when nothing came.

Can't wait to get started learning, meeting all of you guys, and seeing your work too! :thumbsup:

[andy_maxman]

BY the way, do any Summer Peeps want to test out their webcam equipment sometime? I've never used one, and I pick it up tomorrow. I know it can be used through MSN Messenger, but does AM have their own software/ interface for this?

havn't been around in here for a long time now....had been busy with relocating to a different city. i have been away from the pc for 10+ days.

hey paul,
i plan to format my pc and make it clean before i get started out. it will be while though before the dust of adjusting to a new place settles down. will webcam-chat then.

and thanks guys for tipping us summer peeps with valuable suggestions....:thumbsup:

lookingUp_andBeyond!!

ps- any news on who the mentors to the summer classes are going to be? what about 'boom?

[Bentagon]

Skyzero: I've kept all my e-mails from animationmentor, since I've got enough space with gmail anyhow, and it seems that the first reply I got was the one with the general knowledge test in, and it took a couple of days to get that.

- Benjamin

[ArneK]

I signed up for the fall semester a couple of days ago, and did the general knowledge test yesterday. It totally stressed me out! In the browser window there's a clock counting down from 8 minutes to zero... Didn't feel I got enough time to answer, and the clock freaked me out... I'd be mighty disappointed if a "silly test" like that would stop me from being admitted.. *lol* Now I just have to wait patiently for an email from AM to see if I'm getting a spot :)

[mmkelly011881]

i can't believe Bnic has time to post up here with the great stuff he's been doin over on AM:Online.. you'd think the animation would take up all of his time...

[SheepFactory]

i can't believe Bnic has time to post up here with the great stuff he's been doin over on AM:Online.. you'd think the animation would take up all of his time...

seriously :D

Brian will be a mentor in two semesters at this rate.

[SkyZero]

Thanx for your confirmation Bentagon and ArneK!

Now all I gotta do is wait for that test to be sent to me. Hope I do well, i'll let you guys know how it goes.

[sinbad]

Originally posted my andy_maxman:
hey paul,i plan to format my pc and make it clean before i get started out. it will be while though before the dust of adjusting to a new place settles down. will webcam-chat then.



Cool, Let me know when.

Paul

[sternio]

seriously :D

Brian will be a mentor in two semesters at this rate.

No joke, that tailor in the hand kicked everyone in the ass.

[andy_maxman]

just received a newsletter from AM......

so Brian's all over the place now......goodLuck with everything mate....:thumbsup:

finally i get to see a picture of the crew....i wonder which one would be Rosie...???! ;)

what about the t-shirts???!!:scream:

[Bentagon]

Wicked newsletter! I was hoping to see a featured artist, though :)
I'm still so excited to do this!

- Benjamin

[stewartjones]

Wicked newsletter! I was hoping to see a featured artist, though :)
I'm still so excited to do this!

- Benjamin

No featured artist for the first quarter I've been told. Things are still getting settled, and imporvements being made. Oh, and we are also gonna get some guidlines on actually rating fellow students, so maybe soon! :D :applause:

[fluffybunny]

When did you guys get the newsletter email?

I purge my SPAM on Sunday evenings and I'm worried I accidentally deleted it :-/

Oh well, that would just be one more thing to get me overexcited for Summer to start :)


eric

[Bentagon]

I got it 5 hours ago...

- Benjamin

[ravvy]

Damn - I havent had a newsletter come through from them, anyone fancy sending me a pm with the contents in? :)

[SkyZero]

I just took the online assessment. Jeez that timer makes a person real nervous real quick! :argh:

[Ejecta]

No joke, that tailor in the hand kicked everyone in the ass.

Yes was very cool!!

:)

[ArneK]

SkyZero, I know... Crazy... Made me kinda nervous alright...

But I didn't have to, 'cause I just got GRRREAT news one hour ago:
I'm in for the fall semester! Hiii-haa!!! :bounce: :applause: :bounce:

And I got all summer to prepare :thumbsup:

[SkyZero]

Congrats ArneK! :thumbsup: That's the term I'm applying for! Hopefully I did okay on the test...:shrug:

When did you take your test?

[My Fault]

I wonder if BOOM will let us haze all the incoming new students? :)

You guys will absolutely love it. Watching the amazing progress of some and the already insane skills of some more established students (yo Bungie Crew, Fosters, Lost Pencil and others) is inspiring as all get out. Woo!

[Kimotion]

I wonder if BOOM will let us haze all the incoming new students? :)

You guys will absolutely love it. Watching the amazing progress of some and the already insane skills of some more established students (yo Bungie Crew, Fosters, Lost Pencil and others) is inspiring as all get out. Woo!

Yet AGAIN, Brian is the first one to post a comment about this week's work in my workspace. I am CONVINCED that he has a secret script that generates comments on Sunday 11pm pst. :twisted:

[Roger Eberhart]

I'm going to be doing what I can to get the site (and iSight) to work on Mac. I'll let you know how I get on when the site's back :)

Any luck with the iSight?

[SkyZero]

It's amazing the number of times one checks their e-mail after applying at AM and finishing the online assessment! :eek: The level of excitement is intense! :buttrock:

The way it sounds AM is doing a great job! :applause:

[stewartjones]

It's amazing the number of times one checks their e-mail after applying at AM and finishing the online assessment! :eek:

HAHA, no doubt!

Man, open day was crazy, 200+ of us all hammering the F5 key! :D I still get excited thinking about it... Oh, and the fact that it's flippin' AWESOME!!! :bounce:

[AjaBogdanoff]

Any luck with the iSight?

I know several of us are using iSights just fine in the Q&As. Remember, though, Macs aren't officially supported at the moment, so use one at your own risk. :)

[ArneK]

I'm on Mac OSX/iSight as well and I've been told there's currently very few problems related to Mac, and that most "Mac bugs" should be sorted out by the start of the fall semester.

Anyway, if there are other AM iSightsers out there, feel free to PM me :)

[My Fault]

Woo, went down to visit AM headquarters today and it was a blast. Once I snuck past the hundreds of ninjas, the robotic sentry's and a machine gun armed security guard that looked suspiciously like Gary Coleman I entered the heart of AM. It was fantastic to finally meet folks I have chatted with online and tell them in person how much I think they are kickin butt with AM! From the CFO to the video editors to the tech support to customer service to programmers they are all just such fantastic people. Also got to meet an incoming Summer student (Yo Mike!) and hang out for an hour with the main man, the always moving, hip hoppin but never stoppin, Bobby BOOM Beck. My wife was in awe of the sheer energy he puts out and was nearly on the floor in hysterics when Bobby acted out Mary Gibbs (Boo from Monsters, Inc) twisting on the ground. Hysterical! Always fun to hear Bobby tell stories of working at places like Tippett and Pixar and how much he is loving the whole AM experience. As pumped a I have been lately I came home even more psyched and am so happy I am part of this first group of AM students!! Can't wait to go back and spend more time with the AM gang!

And maybe next time I will actually remember my freakin camera! :)

[Moonblood]

we hope so

[SkyZero]

Anybody have an idea of how long it takes before AM gets back to you after you take the online assessment? I just want to get an idea of how long I should wait before e-mailing them about it.

[Moonblood]

how long ure waiing for now?

[SkyZero]

I completed the online assessment on Monday. :D I was thinking it might take a few days, just thought I'd get an idea of when I should start to worry.

[ArneK]

I had to wait for a few days for a reply after I did the online assessment. Remember the tutors need time to evaluate your application. I know, it is a hard wait. I was checking my email every two hours... ;)

[droidzlander]

I'm waiting too. I did the test on tuesday but not this week, the last one, so more than ten days have past. I was applying for the summer term. Maybe it's time to write an email. Ten days are too much, I think that I'm gonna be rejected.

[SkyZero]

I had to wait for a few days for a reply after I did the online assessment. Remember the tutors need time to evaluate your application. I know, it is a hard wait. I was checking my email every two hours... ;)

I imagine they'd be very busy. The funny thing about it is the hard part is trying not to check your mail too often. :surprised

I don't think anything has ever made me check my mail as often as applying to AM! There should be a little applet similar to the one that tells you how many types you click your mouse and the distance you moved it, but instead tracks how many times you check your mail since applying to AM. I bet we'd get some very interesting numbers from everybody here. :thumbsup:

[mmkelly011881]

go back to check? go back?

just sit staring at your email page... never leave... no eating.. no sleeping

f5
f5
f5
f5
f5
f5
f5
...

[AKS]

I think they said in the begining to give them about 2 weeks before you start emailing & calling & such, but I don't know if that time-frame still stands now. Good luck to everyone applying!

[droidzlander]

I think they said in the begining to give them about 2 weeks before you start emailing & calling & such, but I don't know if that time-frame still stands now. Good luck to everyone applying!

Thanks for the info. So i'm gonna wait 'til the beginning of the next week.
Now everything gets a different time perspective. :)

[SkyZero]

I'M IN!!! :scream: :buttrock:
Just got an e-mail from Rosie that I was accepted into the Fall Term! :applause:

I'm going to go order those two books so I can start reading up and per the advice on earlier posts I'm going to pick up a sketch pad and get to practicing. Any idea on what exactly I should practice drawing or sketching and how detailed do they have to be?

THIS IS FREAKIN' AWESOME! :thumbsup: See you guys in the fall! :D

[Bentagon]

Some good advice about what to do to prepare is on Ask The Animation Mentor! at www.cgw.com (http://www.cgw.com), and some SUPER advice on drawing and how detailed etc, read the Walt Stenchfield notes on www.animationmeat.com (http://www.animationmeat.com). Walt is just unbelievably good, and his notes are a-ma-zing.

See you in fall!

- Benjamin

[SkyZero]

Some good advice about what to do to prepare is on Ask The Animation Mentor! at www.cgw.com (http://www.cgw.com/), and some SUPER advice on drawing and how detailed etc, read the Walt Stenchfield notes on www.animationmeat.com (http://www.animationmeat.com/). Walt is just unbelievably good, and his notes are a-ma-zing.

See you in fall!

- Benjamin

Thanks for the links! :thumbsup: I'll read through them after I get home from work today.

[droidzlander]

Yiiiiipppiiiiiiiieeeee!! I'm in too!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

From what I've read this last months so far it will be such an unforgettable experience that will change my life and will make my dreams a lot closer to me.

I'm soooooo excited. :buttrock:
See you guys in the summer term in the AM campus.

Andrea

[mmkelly011881]

Congratulations Guys and Gals...
Cant wait to have some underclassmen


*gets paddles and pool full of mud ready*

[olioli]

hello,

i'm another AM hopefull. but i was wondering if anyone would know where to get one of these rigs that the students use. what i'm looking for is that mr ball guy with legs. i'm trying to practice some walk stuff but don't have a "simplified" rig.

The rigs posted on cgtalk are way to complex and advanced for what i just want to learn at the moment.

any help would be awesome thanks.

i am running maya 6.5....

[My Fault]

Congrats to all the new blood coming in this summer. We will be happy to greet you all with a big pat on the back and a nice "Kick Me I'm New" sign! :)

Seriously though, you are all gonna love this and I look forward to new folks to chat and critique back and forth with.

We are not allowed to share any of the AM rigs so can't help you there but I wouldn't be surprised if someone hasn't built some similar rigs. And man I can't stress enough starting with the bouncing ball. I know folks always want to go bigger and better but I would say when you think you have outgrown it you should probably keep going. I was skeptical at first as well but now I am so glad I relented and trusted in their plan.

[SkyZero]

I can't wait to get started. The fall term seems so far away! I already ordered both books and at least one of them is arriving today so I can start reading through it. :love:

[droidzlander]

Congrats to all the new blood coming in this summer. We will be happy to greet you all with a big pat on the back and a nice "Kick Me I'm New" sign! :)

I'm going to wear a greased plastic film t-shirt so everything you're going to attach on me will slip away immediately. :)

Wow! Just a month and I'll be inside AM!

[ttesla]

heyya people!
the summer troops are congregating in large numbers. hmm... nice to see goin' on this is. ;)

ah, i've just came from the cinema watching ep3 so i'm still under strong impressions. :P animation? everything is P-E-R-F-E-C-T-L-Y done! gg ilm!

having in mind that people who worked on this movie are affiliated with AM give me even more anxiety boost while waiting for that famous june 20th.:scream:

@spring guys&gals:
thank you very much for sharing all of these info with us.:thumbsup:

[andy_maxman]

And maybe next time I will actually remember my freakin camera! :)

hard to believe you forgot your cam, Brian....i'm sure you would have said to yourself 'its all My Fault"... ;)

[Rabid pitbull]

I can say that this will blow your socks off! I have learned so much in these last weeks, it really is going by very fast though. One hint for you is to get yourself some dry erase markers.

[My Fault]

hard to believe you forgot your cam, Brian....i'm sure you would have said to yourself 'its all My Fault"... ;)

Haha, plus I think BOOM may move around too much to be captured by a still frame camera. You'd probably just see a blur! :scream:

[Jozvex]

I just have to say (for the second time I think?) that the new weekly Q&A part of AM is SO fantastic now!! (It was upgraded recently) I literally couldn't believe how well it works now.

Yesterday I had a substitute mentor for the Q&A (Keith Roberts of Rhythm & Hues). He was really great and seriously.........I'm only on a 256k connection and the video feed of the mentor is so realtime that it's practically TV! Only live! Then, the mentor can click on a student and if the student has a webcam its like a second TV from another country joins in. With sound of course.

Seeing two people in different countries talking in realtime with only a slight delay (you know, like on satellite interviews only not as bad) is just amazing. And the people not being broadcast at the time can contribute via text chat and "the videoing people" can talk back instantly.

I might be easily impressed but before we only had 1 video feed of the mentor, and it was kinda choppy for me, so I thought that two video feeds constantly switching between people, plus text chat, plus the questions queue system (that's cool too!) would TOTALLY kill it for me. But it runs way better than it ever did before!

Ok sorry, I think I need to lie down after that post of excitementedness.

:thumbsup:

[hqgamer]

can you guys post any work that you ve done with am ?



yeah my english are bad:P

[Kimotion]

can you guys post any work that you ve done with am ?



yeah my english are bad:P

I think a lot of the blogs have assignments from AM. I think I'll jump on the bandwagon myself and start doing that as well.

AnimationMentor Web Ring (http://p.webring.com/hub?ring=animationmentorb)

[clockwerkz]

Hey you ppl starting the summer and the fall..let me just add my name to the list of students who think this program absolutely ROCKS!

I haven't posted on cgtalk in awhile, been extremely busy with the family, work and AM. Just wanted to wave to my peeps coming in the summer program. They're just doing a kick ass job with the whole school. We have floating mentors who review their own list of students, an incredible new Q and A tool which is a blast, and more.

Anyhow, I'm off to make sure my assignment is completed uploading!

cW

[Mojo Rizen]

It everything goes as planned I should be able to make the Fall class. I’m trying to get everything lined up for expenses, hard ware etc. It sounds like things are going great for the first class.

I’ll start growing my own coffee beans to cut expenses for the late night work.

[mgarward]

I’ll start growing my own coffee beans to cut expenses for the late night work.
Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?? I can save a FORTUNE!

Seriously, they should have that in the required materials: broadband connection, coffee, The Illusion Of Life, coffee, The Animators Survival Kit, sketchbook, coffee, coffee, dry-erase markers, coffee...

[Bentagon]

Mmmh... and what if you don't like coffee? Coke has more caffeine then coffee, but I'm not sure whether it's just the caffeine or the combination of certain things that keep you awake. Guess I'll just have to prepare a huge change of biorythmn. As in starting to be an insomniac. :D

- Benjamin

[SkyZero]

A few posts I've read references to dry erase markers, is this part of the required materials? I don't remember reading in the catalog that dry erase markers were part of the required materials or did I read it wrong? :shrug:

Sounds like I should pick up a set before class starts! :thumbsup:

I just received both books in the mail and love 'em both. Now all I need to pick up is a webcam and some dry erase markers. :)

[Kimotion]

Mmmh... and what if you don't like coffee? Coke has more caffeine then coffee, but I'm not sure whether it's just the caffeine or the combination of certain things that keep you awake. Guess I'll just have to prepare a huge change of biorythmn. As in starting to be an insomniac. :D

- Benjamin

That's really not true Benjamin! :)

Coffee has twice the amount of caffeine than both soda and tea. However, soda is unhealthier because of so much monoscaharide sugars, or something like that. Coffee is just more natural caffeine.

I shouldn't lecture because I am addicted to all three. Gross.

[Kimotion]

Oh, some advice for summer and fall people:

When you create your logon ID, try using your real name, or at least have a logon ID where it's the same as the first letter of your real name.

The reason is that the campus is ordered by logonID. So if I want to see Jane Smith's workspace, and her logon ID is Kisses4U, then I will have a hard time finding her on campus.

Also, I think during the Q&A's the mentor sees the question que list according to logonID. So you mentor might have to say, "Hi, this next question is from...uhm....Kisses4U."

[Bentagon]

Mmmh... my brother assured me that there was more caffeine in coca cola than in coffee. I guess insomnia it is then. Or drugs :D

- Benjamin

[My Fault]

Oh, some advice for summer and fall people:

When you create your logon ID, try using your real name, or at least have a logon ID where it's the same as the first letter of your real name.

The reason is that the campus is ordered by logonID. So if I want to see Jane Smith's workspace, and her logon ID is Kisses4U, then I will have a hard time finding her on campus.

Also, I think during the Q&A's the mentor sees the question que list according to logonID. So you mentor might have to say, "Hi, this next question is from...uhm....Kisses4U."

Jeff knows this because his orignal screen name was Kisses4U. I still have a hard time remembering to call him Jeff now! :)

And as for caffeine, check the chart!
http://wilstar.com/caffeine.htm
Most coffee is between 80-135mg so soda just don't cut it for us diehards!

[mmkelly011881]

And when you run out of coffee... theres always crack cocaine!









DISCLAIMER: MATT, ANIMATION MENTOR and CGTALK DO NOT CONDONE THE USE OF CRACK COCAINE

[vanlicht]

for required materials i think essential:
1. dry marker:
it is a must....it helps u drawing out/ tracking the motion path....and can draw no the monitor if u are bored, haha.

2. video camcorder:
Also I'd suggest get a DV, D8, V8, or Digi-Cam with video recording func (though that might not be good as expected) if possible. I find it extremely useful, and essential to shoot video references, e.g. walk cycle, performance etc. I even video a rubber bouncing ball in order to observe the spacing and the way it bounces and the angle of action-reaction etc. it'd be helpful to caputre the sutlle movements frame by frame.

3. ball (singular or plural)....

4. a set of color pencils...helps to draw thumnails

5. and of course as mentioned before, Animators Survival Kit, Illusion of Life....better read them over once before AM starts.

6. earphone....to avoid echoing in QA conference.

7. Alarm Clock: to wake u up 3 in the morning if u are in different part of the world.

[ArneK]

When I attended Richard Williams' workshop a few years ago he strongly suggested a dry marker to draw motion paths on screen - though I find it a bit difficult now as I have a LCD... The screen would get ruined pretty quickly. Maybe if I tape overhead transparents on top and draw on that? Maybe not a bad idea. Must try :)

Alarm clock? 3am? Probably not in bed by that time anyway... lol
When are the Q & A sessions normally? There's a 6 hour time difference between New York and here, and 2-3 hours(?) more between here and Cali.

[SheepFactory]

yes arne that works fine. get a 2d CEL paper and put that on top of the monitor and you can sketch on that without damaging the lcd.

[polymath]

For EST, the Hour-Long Q&As run around 10pm-1am with some going over or before that range -
which is like 7-10pm PST.

Use Qlock to compare or some handy googlable time convertor ;).

[My Fault]

Remember though, LCD screens HATE pressure. So be careful if you draw on them. If you are heavy handed then get a thin piece of plexiglass from Lowe's (or someplace like it). Or use someones else LCD when they aren't looking :D

[ArneK]

Just checked and found out there's a 9 hour time difference between Norway and California. So I'll have to get up early and be ready by 7 AM if the Q&A session starts at 10 PM Cali-time... Me getting up at 7 AM -- that's gonna be a struggle. I rarely go to bed before 3 AM so I'll need to reset my human clock. But for Animation Mentor I'll do anything -- even getting up early :thumbsup:

Yup, I guess I'll have to get a big piece of plexiglass or something to cover my large 30" screen. Or as you say My Fault, borrow someone elses screen... hehe :D

[polymath]

You won't be the only one up at 7AM, there are many others from around the same area going through the same ordeal week after week! See ya inside ;)!

[SkyZero]

Thanks for answering my question regarding the dry erase markers guys! :D

I take it the thin-tipped markers would be best instead of those huge blunt ones for drawing motion paths on my screen? Am I correct in assuming that drawing on a CRT won't damage the monitor (never thought of doing it before)?

Right now I'm reading through the books so hopefully by the time classes start I get a general idea of the material.

[clockwerkz]

Also, I think during the Q&A's the mentor sees the question que list according to logonID. So you mentor might have to say, "Hi, this next question is from...uhm....Kisses4U."

Dude how long have you been holding that little gem? I know you've been dying to spring out a comment just to use that "Kisses4U" example. lol

cW

[ArneK]

Sky, your screen will be damaged by the markers eventually. Just like a whiteboard used for a long time, color stains will be hard to get totally rid of. Taping 2D cel or overhead transparencies on top of your screen should work great on a CRT.

[SkyZero]

Sky, your screen will be damaged by the markers eventually. Just like a whiteboard used for a long time, color stains will be hard to get totally rid of. Taping 2D cel or overhead transparencies on top of your screen should work great on a CRT.

That was I was curious about, I think I'll spring for a 2D cel or something similar. Thanks ArneK! :thumbsup:

[My Fault]

Dude how long have you been holding that little gem? I know you've been dying to spring out a comment just to use that "Kisses4U" example. lol

cW

You should talk Carlos, I remember day one of AM when your screen name was "OfficerStud" :D

[clockwerkz]

Point well taken, Mr. ROBIN HOOD. :buttrock:

cW

[mikefeil]

Thanks for answering my question regarding the dry erase markers guys! :D


get a peg bar, stick it to the top of your monitor (the bezel part, or whatever its called). Then u can just throw pieces of paper on the pegs when you need to trace.

*ripped from incredibles, animators commentary*


I think thats what I might do, don't really want to destory my screen.

[sternio]

can you guys post any work that you ve done with am ?



yeah my english are bad:P

Got it all blogged up http://www.sternio.com/am/
Also at the top of the page is a navigator that links to a bunch of other students work as well as some mentor blogs.

Honestly, I really can't say enough good things about this program. Since I have started I have totally refocused my life, met tons of new people and learned crazy amounts about animation.

A point of advice, go in very humble and take your time with each exercise. You will be suprised at how difficult it is to make bouncing ball with a tail move across the screen.

[coop]

brian-

are you still bitter you couldn't choose 'officer stud' as your screenname.

[My Fault]

brian-

are you still bitter you couldn't choose 'officer stud' as your screenname.

I know, first Jeff takes "Kisses4U" and then Carlos takes "Officer Stud"...... as long as no one takes my third choice of "Coop"..... dang it! :D

[Kimotion]

WOW, we just had an AWESOME 2 hr QA with Bobby regarding spacing. Great to see more people who are not in my group (Behm's group rules over all as always).

Very informative, and we learned so much just from the questions from others.

He didn't get to mine, though :cry:

But for revenge I found a way to sneak my presence onto an unsuspecting host's cam at the end, hehe.

[My Fault]

Yeah, some guy broke in to Ali's room while he was talking and streaked. I swear he had "Kisses4U" tattooed on his butt.

It was a great Q&A, hopefully they do more in the future.

And for the record, the Borg's assimilate all! :scream:

[Bulldog]

you guys are having fun :)

[sternio]

I made the mistake of getting snacks when my webcam was on the QA.

DOH :)

[Rabid pitbull]

!@#$%

Missed the boom Q&A tonight totally zoned it out. CRAPOLA.. :sad:

[SheepFactory]

that Q&A was so awesome , i learned more in that q&a than I did in a whole semester i took at the school.

I see you guys got a taste of jeff's crazy dancing skills

[My Fault]

that Q&A was so awesome , i learned more in that q&a than I did in a whole semester i took at the school.

I see you guys got a taste of jeff's crazy dancing skills

Funniest thing was Ali had a question and Bobby wanted to answer it but had to take a quick break so Ali did as well. Only problem was that Bobby got back quicker then we thought and his first question was to Ali. So we all got to stare at Ali's empty chair for 2 minutes. It was very funny and in the end Ali got his question answered and we got to see Jeff doing the dance of the 7 veils behind him. It's great that we get tons of information, inspiration and insanity all at the same time! :thumbsup:

[Kimotion]

Funniest thing was Ali had a question and Bobby wanted to answer it but had to take a quick break so Ali did as well. Only problem was that Bobby got back quicker then we thought and his first question was to Ali. So we all got to stare at Ali's empty chair for 2 minutes. It was very funny and in the end Ali got his question answered and we got to see Jeff doing the dance of the 7 veils behind him. It's great that we get tons of information, inspiration and insanity all at the same time! :thumbsup:

Have you noticed how hard Bobby tried to fix his eyes on Ali, trying desperately hard to ignore my sexy dance? The guy has a lot of focus. And so does Ali. i hope I didn't draw too much attention away from Ali's question about using stepped keys for really short spaces, and how that may or may not fix the issue of wieghted tangents interfering with the curves of adjacent keyframes.

And how funny was Kenny trying hard to not look at the chatroom? Kenny, for next time, there is a [close chatroom] button. Hehe.

But seriously, I never expected the Spacing lecture to be so jam packed with info. Each question led to other questions and it was a domino effect. Aside from how important spacing is, examples from cartoons were shown, examined it frame by frame, and we even got to see under the hood in the graph editor. He even showed us on what NOT to do, which is very valuable.

I was so happy by the end that I just had to do the happy-sexy dance of the 7 veils. Have you noticed my perfect spacing on my arm waving?

[SheepFactory]

Have you noticed how hard Bobby tried to fix his eyes on Ali, trying desperately hard to ignore my sexy dance? The guy has a lot of focus. And so does Ali. i hope I didn't draw too much attention away from Ali's question about using stepped keys for really short spaces, and how that may or may not fix the issue of wieghted tangents interfering with the curves of adjacent keyframes.

.

If only i could have phrased the question as clearly. :cry:

[Kimotion]

If only i could have phrased the question as clearly. :cry:

I do find it hard to focus my questions when on the cam...I'm still in the 90's when it comes to communication technology.

For the new upcoming students, I suggest you get into the habit of writing down or sketching out your questions. I didn't do that and I even forgot my question one time when I was on cam.

Duuuuuuuhh...err

[Kimotion]

I made the mistake of getting snacks when my webcam was on the QA.

DOH :)

HA! That was funny. Don't worry, it was only for about 10 seconds. After seeing that guy trying to explain his question about keys on the curve using m&m's I understand why you got hungry. oh wait didn't you come one before that m&m's guy?

[rab]

I made the mistake of getting snacks when my webcam was on the QA.

DOH :)

Na dude, you recovered very well.

And on the Jeff dance....I thought you guys were kidding when you were saying you were roomies. That really made me laugh out loud. I can't believe Bobby didn't die laughing.

Glad I didn't miss that Q&A. I never thought a BB could be so damn deep.

[jedijrmax]

Hey everyone!


This isn't a specific response to anybody's recent post, but I know people were asking who was in the summer session. I'm not entirely positive that I'm in, but I just took the test last night, and I don't see any reason that I wouldn't get in. I was wondering if anybody is kind of leading the 'bonding' of some of the people in the summer group? But, my email address is jedijr88@aol.com and I'd love to make a list of email addresses/screen names of some of the people that I'll probably be working alongside so we can start getting to know each other a little earlier!

Awesome!
~Jeff

[jedijrmax]

Oh! Hey! And also just to make some more conversation, if there were something that you could change about animation mentor (assuming that you aren't changing the base of its existence, for example saying that you would like it to not be online or something like that) what would it be?

Peace!!!
Jeff

[Nitefyre]

you guys are having fun :)

Yes, yes we are. :D Thats the beauty of it!

[AKS]

Yeah I have to say the spacing q&a was by far the best q&a that I've been to yet. It really opened my eyes to places where I could push my work and add alot of character and life to just "normal" animation. Really really nice!

And cute dance btw :)

[Mojo Rizen]

It’s great to hear the program is going well.

I posted sometime back about if anyone is running on a Mac, I was wondering how things are going.

I’m interested in what people are using with the program hardware wise. I may be picking up a laptop if I have to run windows for the interface, but I’m a Mac user.

I’ve looked at the hardware requirements, and now that things are rolling, I am also wondering if people have found configurations that work well, or present problems with the program.

Thanks for any feedback.

[sternio]

I had to leave at 10 for the QA with Jason, did I miss anything good?
The last thing I saw was right before Bobbys browser crashed.

[AKS]

Sternio, I'm going to post my notes from the q&a in the AM forums later today. Actually here I'll do it now while I'm thinking of it....

[jedijrmax]

[QUOTE=Mojo Rizen]I posted sometime back about if anyone is running on a Mac, I was wondering how things are going.

As far as I knew, Animation Mentor doesn't work on a Mac at all for now, or at least that is what is says on their site..

[My Fault]

I had to leave at 10 for the QA with Jason, did I miss anything good?
The last thing I saw was right before Bobbys browser crashed.

Hey Mike, you did miss one thing. Bobby perfromed an interpretive dance based on the 12 principles of animation. Was it just me or did anyone else cry during the "Arcs" part of the performance. Dang it, I'm welling up just thinking about it now! :scream:

[jedijrmax]

One thing about Animation Mentor, that I still don't understand is... right now you guys have all of these sessions... question and answer... interviews,etc... but what about the people that are starting in the summer? How will they deal with that? Because then they'd essentially be redoing all of the q and a's and interviews and stuff with our group, but then needing to do a whole bunch of new stuff for the second session people (the ones that started in spring). But then what about when it gets far enough into it when there are FOUR groups all at different points in the program. Will we all just be watching the old stuff that you guys have already seen and experienced? Or are they going to keep doing as many brand new things over and over. I don't see how they would be able to manage that all.

[mgarward]

One thing about Animation Mentor, that I still don't understand is... right now you guys have all of these sessions... question and answer... interviews,etc... but what about the people that are starting in the summer? How will they deal with that? Because then they'd essentially be redoing all of the q and a's and interviews and stuff with our group, but then needing to do a whole bunch of new stuff for the second session people (the ones that started in spring). But then what about when it gets far enough into it when there are FOUR groups all at different points in the program. Will we all just be watching the old stuff that you guys have already seen and experienced? Or are they going to keep doing as many brand new things over and over. I don't see how they would be able to manage that all.
The Q&A's each week are with your mentor... webcams, live chat, they answer your questions. So in essense there is no 'redoing' because it is your questions with your mentor. (which is good and bad... you have a more direct classroom-like setting, but each Q&A is different so I always feel like we've missed lots of other great tips each week.:) ) The classes themselves are pre-recorded so there's no isse with re-playing them in order for each session's classes. And the big Q&A last night, which was more like a lesson, was apparently recorded and will be available as a video lecture type thing.

My logistics question was with the mentors' workload... how will they cope with another 250 people coming on board? And the answer is that they are getting some more mentors to cope. So my only remaining question is: with even more ecritiques to watch each week, will I ever sleep? :D

[stewartjones]

will I ever sleep? :D

You sleep now? :eek: heeeheee!

[mmkelly011881]

tangental is a real word.. i swear!

[jedijrmax]

Yes Matt, it is. Indeed.

[Kimotion]

tangental is a real word.. i swear!

I concur, only because mmkelly011881 provided this link for the definition of tangental:

tangental from dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=tangental)

[SheepFactory]

I think the highlight of the day was the shark fin curve :D

[mmkelly011881]

5000th post!