Learning Curves

Work has slowed down in one area, and has increased in another. Currently I'm teaching two classes on Monday and Wednesdays, with a help lab for both of them on Tuesday nights. I've been trying hard to restructure my delivery of the information so the students learn better. Overall the students seem to follow me better.

The 12 principles of animation are the most important aspect of learning the art. It doesn't matter what medium you use, if you don't have a solid grasp of the principles, you'll never be a good animator. I try to convey this to my students. Along with this, I want to create some examples of how the principles help. A simple animation before and after the principle is applied. Squash & Stretch, Anticipation, and arcs are easy to demonstrate. However, timing (both physical & theatrical) and character appeal are more difficult to show without being in front of them. I need to do a little more brain storming before I figure this out.

At the studio, we are in between projects. The art department is not yet in full get in development of our next title. There's a air of discovery and growing improvement to our pipeline; at least this is how I feel. I have been given the task of creating the main player characters for this game, to which I feel humbled. I did not think I would be given the chance the model any main characters for several years. It feels great to be doing what I am best at. At the same time, I feel a huge responsibility to the project and the company. I am the first artist touching the game, and so what I do will set the bar for the rest of development. I have many more days of working on these characters, but I am challenging myself to make these the best characters I've made.

A New Day, A New Plan

At the moment I'm a little all over the place. I decided to finally...FINALLY, sit down and create a website that I've been thinking about for over a year. Not knowing anything about web, I feel restrained about the creative process. What I want and what I can do is limited. It comes down to time and knowledge. I would be putting more time into the creation of a fancy website then my actual trade, and the trade skill is paramount right now.

Regardless, the site is up. Bare bones, but running. I have a bunch of images to workout for the background/banners.

Working on this makes me realize that I need a better design for my logo. It has to read better. Some people see the jellyfish, others don't. I want to design it so you know what it is the moment you see it. It feels like poor design right now.

I need to fire off some new renders of recent work. Period. A large portion of my flat book is out dated.

A new demo reel will follow of all this. I'm delighted and terrified at this.

In the meantime I'm getting ready for all this by getting back into Twitter, CGSociety, and creating this blog. I'm hoping that if anything it'll give me other outlets for communicating my thoughts and ideas.

It's time to get rolling....