iAnimate workshop, only two weeks left...

For the past 12 weeks I've been taking an iAnimate workshop. I've got 2 weeks left to go. The focus is body mechanics. At this point I am much more comfortable animating in Maya. I'm far braver manipulating the graph editor. I find it difficult to get all the assignments to a satisfactory point of polish while also working a full time job. I'll get there, just not when the official deadline comes around. It's fun though and challenging. Like animation bootcamp. I would suggest this course to anyone looking to dig into a great 3D animation course.

It's actually pretty fantastic to learn how to animate with 3D because you can move the camera around and see exactly what is right and wrong with a shot. Tweaking the curves in the graph editor is an education. I still think learning with 2D hand drawn animation is absolutely very helpful, but it seems to me that practising your animation skills in both mediums is quite beneficial.

Here's a screenshot of my walk to run assignment in progress:

As soon as this course ends I'm going to hop into another animation course, this time with Animsquad. It looks like a great workshop. I signed up for the Intermediate course and I think the amount of work and level of intensity is going to be even higher than I'm experiencing with iAnimate. I'm scared and excited about that.

Last Blog Post of 2013: Goals

Yesterday I was asked if I have any New Years resolutions for 2014. I used to set New Years's resolutions. Now in my life I'm constantly setting goals for myself. I keep striving to be a better artist, a healthier person and a good wife and friend. On December 10 my husband and I started eating healthier and regularly exercising together. We both have our own fitness goals and we are being realistic about them. Working on our goals together is rewarding. An ongoing goal of mine is to create honest artwork. When I create or animate a character I want to be honest about who the character is, how they feel and what actions they would take. It's the trickiest thing I think about animation. The principals can be mastered but a dishonestly animated character or story will not feel believable.

Starting next week I will be taking an iAnimate workshop on body mechanics with Jason Anastas (a fellow Sheridan grad!) that will take me until mid April. My goals related to taking this course are for me to get better at animating with Maya, and to polish my animation skills. I'm going to be crazy busy doing homework on top of my day job. I sure hope I'll be able to keep fitting in occasional workouts during the next four months but I know I'm going to have much less free time. To make things easier on myself I'm going to try to cut out time spent in other ways. For example, cooking simpler meals at home. That will take less time and there will be less dishes to wash. I'll do what I can to best balance my time. I will likely blog about my experience with iAnimate.

This picture is a meal that my husband made over the holiday break. It was one of the best meals I've ever eaten and it took him 3 hours to make. There were many dishes to wash.

See you in 2014!