Javier's Animation Mentor Blog

Creature Animation

2009-04-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I've been very busy working with Animation Mentor assignments, but I thought it could be a good idea to get some extra practice and exercise what I've learned during classes so far. Currently I have Nick Bruno from Blue Sky for the Intro to Acting Class. What better way to learn intro to acting with a such a talented animator.

So, here is a quick animation of one of the monsters used for the TV Series "Gabriel" on Mega TV. In this animation I wanted to focus more in the body mechanics. Enjoy! :) Walk cycle with the same monster coming soon! :D

-Javi

New Update!

2009-03-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Added a couple more breakdowns and fixed the timing.

New Update! 03/03

Acting to a dialogue clip!

2009-02-24T14:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in awhile and for the small amount of people that follow this blog, here is a quick update of my recent work.

This is the first past of blocking. I know it's not showing as much acting at the moment, but before I get all the good stuff that will give him even more life, I wanted to get this poses strong and clear.

So here it is! No more excuses! hehe :P The clip is from the movie "A Christmas Story".

Finally!!! Back to AM!

2008-11-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Wow!!! So happy to say that I will be back to AM this Winter Term. I really look forward to meet a lot friends and get to animating. Thanks to my awesome Grandfather for always been there for me and for supporting me in my animation career.

I'm ready to start animating!!

Later,

-Javi

iPhone FlipBook Animations!

2008-08-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello!!

First, I want to say that I love animation! Old news, but I just wanted to say it again! hehehe Ok so... You would think... That was random! Well, not if you can animate from anywhere you go using your smart phone. That sounds better right?

Recently, I downloaded an application called FlipBook for my new iPhone. The application lets you draw frame by frame, it has options to duplicate frames and add breakdowns, favoring poses and even copy and paste frames. You can check it out here if you're interested and love animation as much as I do! :) Ohhh! And you need an iPhone of course!

So here are two quick animations I animated to get the hang of the program. Ohhh and this application is great to plan out your animation on the go and then take what you did and apply it to your 3d software of choice.

So here they are:

Bouncing Ball

Bouncing Ballie

Laters!

-Javi

Eric Goldberg's New Animation Book!

2008-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I just got my copy of "Character Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg. This is one of the books that it's a "MUST HAVE" book for anybody that it's really into character animation. After a two week wait, I finally got the book and without thinking went straight to read it.

The book reminds me of the book "The Animators Survival kit" by Richard Williams. I think this book goes perfect with the survival kit book. I haven't been able to sit down and read chapter by chapter yet, but before I went to work I flipped through the pages and got supper excited to see so much great information. It also reminded me of Animation Terms used by Mentors at Animation Mentor that are also mentioned on this book.

After flipping a couple of pages, I just wanted to grab some paper and pencil and start the planning for a quick animation. hehehe! Such a great feeling!!! :)

Ohh and forgot to mention that it also has a DVD full of animation goodies!!!

I'm glad I bought a copy! :) Great book! Go get yourself a copy right now!! I mean it! NOW! :P

Later,

-Javi

Animators can also Skateboard!

2008-07-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show a pic of the bottom of my skateboard with the AM
sticker.

Animation + Skateboarding = My life!

Long time no BLOG! :)

2008-07-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a long time I posted something here! But the important part of it is that I'm now posting something after after almost 3 months. hehehe :)

Let me first start by talking about my AM education. Right now It's been a little bit hard for me to come up with the funds for me to get back into AM, so at the moment I'm taking longer break from AM that I was not expecting. I know it's for a good reason that I had to take a break from it and to do other things for then to come back stronger and reach for my goals.

And YES!!! I'm coming back to AM and can't wait!!!

During my break from AM, I've been some how busy with other opportunities that opened for me recently. Not so long ago I had the opportunity to join a team of artist as an Intern, helping them with some modeling and animations for a Tv Series at a Local channel here in Miami. I'm very happy that I found a good opportunity for me to practice what I learned during my time in AM and apply it to the job. So, I'm very happy right now that this is happening and could open doors for me in the future.

Lastly, I've been checking out a lot blogs specially Shawn's www.animationtipsandtricks.com , Carlos Baenas, Spline Doctors, AnimationPodcast.com , and many other animation sites and blogs. I've also been studying my notes from class 1 and 2 that have been very helpful and practicing on my own with the AM characters.

Ok so... I'll be posting some more stuff and updating the blog with some animation tests and hopefully I can later show what I've been working as an Intern.

Have a great day and God Bless!

-Javi

Another Update! Closer to then end!

2008-05-02T22:43:00.000-07:00

Hello!

So here is another update of my 180 turn animation. I'm getting really close to finish this piece and call it done. I just need to add the final breakdowns and favoring poses, tweak the timing and spacing and finally the cleaning of any overshoots and unwanted pops that most of the time we get when taking the animation to splines.

OMG! I've been having some much fun working on this assignment again and I'm glad and taking this break to practice and to understand further how body mechanics works.

One of the subjects that I got into it the most for this assignment was the "Texture" of the animation. I never thought or saw how important is to have texture in your animation. Just like sculpture or painting, it has to have contrast and texture to it. I can't be all smooth and smudged out. hehehe!

Anyways... Before I continue with my speech! hehehe! Here is my latest update!

Let me explain really quick whats happening in the animation. Ballie is trying to step on a dollar bill he saw on the floor, but the dollar bill keeps moving away. Finally, he makes the 180 to give it a one more chance, but the dollar bill makes a move and hits ballie on the face making him fall to the ground. Still need to add the dollar bill!! It will make more sense after I add the dollar bill! I promise! :)

Thanks for looking and have a nice day! :)

-Javi

Update on my 180 Turn!

2008-04-27T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Here is a quick update on my 180 turn I've been working on to practice what I learned back in class 2. It's has been a lot of fun to work again on this assignment and to continue staying warmed up animating.

The other day I had this great conversation with a good friend about "Texture" in animation. Even though that I already did the assignment in my previous Term, I did get to see the assignment different and learn more in detail of what I learned before during the class for the first time. It was so exciting and a feeling of "I can't wait to start sketching the poses and then transferring them into Maya to finally see the character coming alive and to be able to see the texture of the animation planned right there on the screen". It's a great feeling though!

But anyways... Here is a quick playblast with a rough timing and main keys. I'm missing a couple keys, breakdowns and favoring poses here and there, but I wanted to post an update and share my progress. So here it is!

Small Update! 4/28/08

Any feedback or advice would be great! :D Thanks!

-Javi

180 Turn Sketches and Reference!

2008-04-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hello!

So yeah... I wanted to share the process of the 180 turn assignment that I'm redoing to practice more body mechanics. I think this is a great opportunity for me to understand more about body mechanics before I get into more in depth acting.

So here I have the sketches for the idea I have and also the video reference I'm using to guide my self through the first pass of blocking and most important. THE MAIN KEYS or GOLDEN POSES!

The idea is that ballie sees a dollar bill and tries to stop it by step in on it, but the dollar bill keeps flying and moving around. The dollar bill ends up getting stuck on ballie's face and makes ballie loose balance and falls to the ground. What you guys think? Any thoughts?

Have a great day!

-Javi

Taking a break from AM!

2008-03-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hello hello! :)

Wow! What a great second Term! So many things learned, so much fun and so much hard work! Even though that I had some difficulties by the end of term with technical stuff, I still enjoyed every minute and every second spent working in my animation and sharing with the Animation Mentor community. I had such a great class with amazing classmates. They were all very helpful, inspiring and always looking after you or sharing their knowledge with everybody. My mentor, wow... I learned so much from my mentor this term! I learned a new workflow to animate faster and more efficient and very important, helped me get my skills to another level that I'm very happy with.

So the tittle of the post is "Taking a break from AM"! Let me explain it! hehe :)

Unfortunately, I will not be attending next Term (Spring Term) due to financial reasons. During this three month of Spring Term, I will be working and saving money to come back for the Summer Term. I will also take this three months as a period for practicing body mechanics by going over every assignment as if I was taking the second class again. I think I feel that I can still practice a little bit more before I start the Intro to Acting class or Class 3.

I will be uploading soon my latest assignment as soon as I finish polishing and adding the final tweaks.

Have a great day everybody! Stay positive and keep animating! :D

-Javi

Ice Age part 3!

2008-03-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hey!

I was so excited when I saw the poster for the upcoming and third part of the Ice Age movies, that I need to share here with all of you.

I think this movie it's going to be full of great animation, very funny dialogues, and great story. I wonder if the T-Rex is going to be as funny as the one in the movie "Meet the Robinsons"! We'll have to wait! Enjoy!

Later's!

-Javi

Long time no post! :D Week 11 is here!

2008-03-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

Hello hello!

Just like the tittle... It's been while since I posted some of my progress, so I wanted to post some of my progress for my last assignment of Class 2.

Today, week 11 starts and also is the final week before I hand in our animation cleaned up and nicely smoothed. I will also get the chance to put together my final Progress Reel for class 2 and add it to the class one animations.

How can I start? OK! This last three weeks have been a little bit tough on me, due to tech problems that occurred during the first passes of animation. This was my first time animating with constrains, so I started animating without having too much knowledge using them and lots of small problems started to happen. The good news is, that thanks to a lot of my classmates and mentors, I got to fix the problem and concentrate more in the animation and less in the technical problems Maya can bring to the table. hehehe :)

The animation right now, it's close to the blocking plus pass. There is still a few things to add and tweak like breakdowns, favoring poses, tweaking the timing, hands, shoulders, overlapping and tweaking the weight. I should be in good shape by next week after some hard work and adding all this notes I've been gathering from classmates and mentors.

So, here it is!

Thanks to everybody that has been helping me and supporting all this time! :) Have a great day and keep animating! :)

-Javi

Week 8 First Post Sketch!

2008-02-26T09:06:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody!

Here is a quick sketch I made with the same characters I've been using for all the first post sketches. One of the topics for this weeks lecture is Clear Timing and Contrast and Rhythm. I wanted to make an illustration of this character using one of the topics from the lecture.

So, here it is!

Final Assignment of the term! :D

2008-02-24T18:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! :)

Finally, week 8! In week 8, I get to start the planning and blocking of my last assignment for the term. The assignment it's pretty much a combination of everything learned throw the first 7 weeks. For this assignment, I will be using the character called "Stewie". He'll be picking up a heavy object and try to balance with the heavy object in his arms. At some point he'll lose the balance completely and fall dropping the box.

I also wanted to share my animation done for week 7. Right now the animation it's pretty much done, but I want to get my final critique for this assignment, so I can refine it and post for my revision with all the comments and suggestion from my mentor Dimos.

So here it is:

Ok everybody... Have a nice day and enjoy! :D

-Javi

Finishing Blocking and Starting Polishing!

2008-02-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hello hello!!!

Just wanted to share my Blocking Plus Pass and some drawings I made for the first post in my Workspace I do every week.

It has been a lot of hard work this Term! Like I mentioned in a previous post, the second class is one of the most important classes you can take here in Animation Mentor. Not only very important, but very essential to be able to do well in the rest of the classes. Pretty much it means a lot work! hehehe :D

I'm so happy with my new animation work flow! So far it has been very helpful and I've been concentrating more in my animation, poses and how to apply the principles, rather than letting Maya or any other animation software, think for me and control my animation. The animator is the one that should be in charged and to have control of keys, poses and spacing of the animation.

I made this sketch today for my first post in my weekly first post sketch. The reason why he's happy to have arms, is because we've been using a character that has no arms and for next we'll be using the same character but with arms.

Here is my Blocking Plus Pass:

First Post Sketch for week five!

2008-02-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hello! :D

Here is a quick sketch a made today to post in my Animation Mentor workspace first post. I try to sketch something related to a topic from the assignment for that week and create a cartoony sketch of it. Thanks to Frank and Ghaydaa from Animation Mentor for their inspirational sketches!

This week we get to animate a character that has no arms, so I wanted to sketch something that represents that character in a funny way. Here it's character with no arms wondering how he's going to move and keep his balance with no arms. hehehe :) Enjoy!

Ok guys... What can I say? I'm loving animation more every day! Stay positive and always push harder! ;)

-Javi

Teaser Poster for my next Assignment! :)

2008-02-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! :D

I wanted to share something I really had a lot fun making and makes me more excited to start in my new assignment. This is a simple poster I created based on the idea for my next assignment. In my next assignment, I'll have the character "Stewie No Arms" rolling on his skateboard to jump onto a box and jump off the box onto the skateboard that will go under the box. After that, he'll realize that the skateboard got stuck under the box and he thought he landed on the skateboard. He looks down confused of what happened, he looks under the box and sees the skateboard, so he tries to pull it off like if nothing happened and landing without the skateboard under was the trick. hehehe :)

Edit: Planning sketches for the animation. I'll post more detailed sketches with a rough timing and poses.

I know that we should concentrate completely on the body mechanics and understand well how the body works, weight shifts, line of balance and physicality, but I thought that adding a small meaning behind it, could make the assignment funner and more exciting. :)

The small message I wanted to to incorporate in the assignment, is that when you're so confident about something, but for some reason it doesn't come out the way you want. So, the best thing to do is to stay confident and positive and make the best out of what you've done.

I hope you guys like it! Enjoy!

-Javi

Bye Week 4 and Hello Week 5! :D

2008-02-03T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Today is the end of week 4 and the start of week 5! It has been very tough the past two weeks, I've worked very hard in my latest assignment and learned a ton of new tricks, workflows and methods to create my animation faster and better.

Thanks to my mentor Dimos and all the great classmates that always are pushing, inspiring and helping through all this weeks of tough work. I think the learning curve it's stronger when you have a community this good that always are there for everything. You have question? For sure there will be somebody to help you out with any question you have. The fact that the community gets stronger every term, the easier is to learn and the more progress you'll see in your work.

For this assignment, I was working with a new workflow that was started from 2d animators and incorporated by 3d animators into their worflows to treat 3d character animation almost the same as if it was 2d character animation. Each pose and every control of the character, it's treated like a drawing on a paper. Since there is no Graph Editor in 2d, this workflow push us to focus more in the poses and less on the tech part of the process. I worked for 3 weeks on this animation since blocking to the final polishing and right at the end of the last week, 3 days before the fourth week, was when I got use the graph editor and fix minor problems. The good thing about this workflow, is that you have to worry too much about clean up when your poses are working well, they have good timeing and spacing, and very important, read well.

Here is my final polishing version of my 180 degree turn around. I worked very hard on this and I'm very proud of the final product. I know that there is a lot things that could be tweaked, but sometimes as you animate, you have move on and continue producing and practicing new work, that would also help you learn more and will let you see your progress from the last project to the current project.

So here it is! Enjoy! :)

I will be uploading soon the blocking for my next assignment, which is a character jumping onto a box and jumping off from the other side of the box. I added a little bit of twist to it by adding a skateboard for the character to interact with. Stay tuned for more animation and cool stuff!

One more thing... I try to remind my self everyday when I work on my animation this quote: "I NEED TO PUSH HARDER" Think about it when you're working with something involves your career, because that would make you to keep pushing more and more towards that goal or dream that you might have.

Ok guys, stay positive and always keep working hard in whatever is that you love! Take care!

-Javi

Friday of Week 3!

2008-01-25T05:37:00.000-08:00

Friday Morning!

I'm getting close to the end of week three, that means I will be done pretty soon with my last pass of blocking for my 180 turn around. This project is based on 4 passes! The first pass is the most important, which is planning and research. The second pass is blocking pass. The third is blocking plus pass and the last pass is the final version in splines. I will be posting very soon an update of my blocking plus pass once I make final tweaks.

So far, I haven't touched the Graph Editor at all!

I think it's very important to focus more in having in mind what really makes a good animation without having in mind all this tech stuff like the Graph Editor, curves or extra tools that "help" your animation. From learning all this stuff from the "Pro's" here in AM, it's very important to work and spend most of the time in your "Golden Poses", how those poses transitions from and another, and very important the timing of those poses. Always having in mind the 12 Principles of Animation when you start your shot and for the the final tweaks of the shot.

So many things learned this past 3 weeks! It has been some tough weeks, but I have to say that I've learned so much about animation. Things keep getting more and more interesting and as well even tougher. I will putting a lot work to this class, that is the KEY class of all the classes here in Animation Mentor. It's one of the most important classes and the classes that you'll learn most of the foundation for the rest of the other classes.

Well guys, I'll get back to the blocking of my animation and I'll be posting soon with some updates. Stay strong, positive and keep animating! :)

-Javi

Week 2 almost done! :)

2008-01-18T12:08:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

I wanted to share here in my blog a little bit of what I'm currently working on and some of the process prior to 3d animation blocking of "Ballie"(Ballie is the sphere with two legs 3d character).
I have to say thanks to my talented mentor Dimos Crysellas and the awesome classmates for class 2 Body Mechanics. I've been learning lot from my classmates, my mentor has so much knowledge about animation that it's none stop learning and even students from other classes take the time to leave comments and help you with whatever they can.

In my last QA(Live chat class), I learned a few couple of new work flows and techniques on how to approach 3d animation in a 2d animation way. If people think that 2d animation it's history, then people are thinking wrong! hehehe :) 2D animation it's base and structure of what is now 3d animation. The only thing that changes is the medium in what we create the animation for the audience to enjoy.

The main thing about the work flow, is that we treat our 3d environment as our blank piece of paper and the poses that make for the character that is inside the 3d environment, are pretty our drawings and keys for the animation. It gives the animator total control of the medium, which in this case is Maya, and doesn't let the program make decision for you. So far I'm loving the new work flow for me, but old school work flow that started back with the "Disney's Nine Old Men"!

To summarize my experience in week two, all I have to say is that there is much to learn in animation and everyday that spend animating, it gives chance to learn something new and progress with my skills.

Just to show a few things created during this week! Here is my first pass of blocking, sketches and a quick pencil test. Enjoy!

Class 2 Week 2!

2008-01-14T07:33:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody! :P

Week two of class two it's already here!
So far I met a lot of great new classmates and got to see previous classmates from Term one. Everybody has been so helpful and very supportive in my first week. My class it's full of very helpful people and very talented artist. What better than that?

Week two starts today and I will be working on my blocking for my first 180 degree turn I ever tryed in animation. I will be using the character "Ballie" the sphere with two legs, so wish me good luck! hehehe :P I will be posting my blocking on next Sunday, after submitting for my assignment.

Ok everybody, I hope everybody has a great day and lets keep everybody energized! Keep animating and don't stop learning! Very important... Stay positive and happy! :)

See you guys in my next Post! :)

I also added something that I sketched out for this week related to this weeks lecture subject! Enjoy! Thanks to my buddy Juan "Aka" Dune for the character inspiration!

-Javi

Happy New Year and Happy Class 2!

2008-01-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

I'm so excited to say that I'm very very happy to be back and to start again making some animation. Monday was my first day of Class 2 Winter Term. Today is Tuesday and I have my first QA with my mentor Dimos Vrysellas.
Dimos have been a 2d animator for many years and now he applies does 2d animation principles to the 3d animation medium. He worked for studios making feature films and now he works in his own studio. How cool right???

I have my first assignment already and I will be starting this week working on my video reference and sketches for my planning. In the assignment, I will be using "Ballie" which is the sphere with two legs and I have to pick from him kicking a ball, doing a big step to the side or doing a 180 turn for the final animation. I will be posting as soon as I have some update here in my blog.

I also wanted to share my Progress Reel from class 1 here in my blog. Please feel free to leave me any comments or suggestions!

So here it is!

Week 11 is HERE! One more week to go!

2007-12-09T15:25:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

Wow!! I can't believe that it has been almost three months since I started Animation Mentor.

Today week eleven starts and leaves us with one more week to go in our first Term. We'll have two week of Christmas break before we start our Winter Term. I have to say that it has been lots and lots of fun!!! I've learned so much about everything in animation. I'm very grateful and I have to say thanks to Bobby, Carlos, Shawn, Mentors and fellow classmates for all this great knowledge shared through all this weeks.

It has been a lot of hard work and hours spent into the assignments. One of the most important things of learning anything, it's to actually understand it well, know how it works, practice and very important to start from the very basic step.

This week, I'll be starting the polishing shot for the blocking of my walk-cycle with personality. I will be consentrating in most part into the rotation and movement of "Ballies" hips. Another thing that will be new to us for this week, is that our walk for this week, will be in perspective 3/4 view. The reason for having the character to walk in a perspective 3/4 view, it's for better visibility of the movement and rotation of the hips.

Let me pause here and upload the assignment before I end up writing a 10 page essay! lol :)

Ok, have a great week everybody and for AM students, have a great week 11!!!

Keep animating!! :)

Javi.

Week 10!!! Almost done with "Term One"!

2007-12-02T17:07:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

What a week 9!!!! Lots and lots of great knowledge learned during this two weeks of hard work with the walk cycle.

I have to say, that when somebody tells you that the walk cycle is one of the hardest exercises to animate, you better believe it! Not only the walk cycle show how a character moves from point A to point B, but it shows everything you will need and work as a character animator. Most or pretty much all the principles of animation, are used in order to execute a well animated walk cycle.

Here is a quick image of a couple of sketches for my Stu Pose showing concerned.

Here I have the polishing version of my walk cycle.

Week 9 is HERE!

2007-11-25T13:43:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! :)

Today we start week 9 and second part of a two week of walk cycles. It's been so much fun and so many things learned this past week. I've learned how to work with walk cycles, understand how they work, and even watching my mentor breaking down his shots from the movie Ratatouillie. It's an experience that I get so excited and so into it. A feeling that it just makes me work harder for one day get to the position where my mentor is and more!

Here is the first blocking stage of my walk cycle.

Here is the Stu pose showing Strength! Stu with the Munchies! hehe

Week 8 starts today!

2007-11-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!

Like I mentioned before, week 8 started today, Sunday, and I'm very excited to get into to more in depth animation techniques and continue learning everything about character animation. It's been a lot of fun and hard work this passed weeks. I've been learning so much from students and professional mentors. I've been getting critiques from top industry animators, and I also have to say that everybody and AM Staff has been very supportive all this weeks.

In the past weeks, we've been going over and still are with the principles of animation. I've been using very simple primitive shapes like spheres for the bouncing balls and also I used a rectangle for the base of the pendulum which was a ton of fun and hard work to animate. We first started with a simple bouncing ball. After the first bouncing ball we did another bouncing ball with squash and stretch and we also did a obstacle course with the bouncing ball including squash ans stretch as well. We practice in those assignments how to get good timing, how work with arcs and how to apply principles like squash and stretch. We also did a pendulum and a ball with a tail. Those two assignments were very important because they are great exercise to learn how work with arcs, overlapping, timing and ease in and ease out.

In week 8, we will be working with a character named "Ballie". Ballie it's composed of a sphere with squash and stretch and two legs. We will be studying walk cycles and working in out first pass of blocking of the walk-cycle. We also have to go out and sketch for later pick one of the sketches and pose with biped character "Stu".

I will be posting very soon the bouncing balls and the animation of the Tailor, which is a character that looks like a small animal with a tail like a squirrel.

Good luck to CLASS FALL 07' and the everybody in AM!

Have a good one and God bless!

F. Javier Loredo.

Third week almost over!

2007-10-19T07:01:00.001-07:00

Hello everybody!

Here is a quick update with week two assignments! I will be posting this weekend week three assignmnets, our first animation and more poses and sketches of Stu.

As always, I would like to say thanks to everybody from AM and friends that visit my blog and leave great comments. I probably said it before in other posts, but I have to say that I'm in love with this Animation School. Since I started I've learned so much from my class mates and mentors. Everybody here it's always with the mood of helping each other and to make a great environment for animation.

I will post for now a few images that show poses using the character provided by AM done for week two and for practice. The name of the character or rig is Stu. I had a ton of fun and learned so much from that character. AM specialy made that character for you learn how to move controls, practice FK and IK handle mode, and to practice how to pose the right for later on be comfortable posing the character for future animations.

Here is the sketch of the pose for assignment one.

This images were made just for extra practice on how to use Stu and the body contro

Week 2 alsmost over!

2007-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Hello classmates and friends!

I have to do a small recap for those who are just looking at my blog. This is almost the end of my second week. It has been an honor and great experience to be here in this great school sharing my knowledge with awesome classmates and artists.

Week 1 pretty much was a more relaxed week, is the first week when you are getting to know the website and how it works, meeting your classmates and students from other classes as well. Pretty much was a week of getting comfortable with their tools and everything they have to offer you.

Week 2 has been a great combination of warming up your skills and learning a lot from students and mentors. During our second week, I've been working in my first assignment that requires to do sketches and studies of poses for then to apply them into the 3d world. It has been a great week because I had the chance to give my fellow classmates critiques on their work and they also had the chance to comment and critique on my work as well. I even had the opportunity to post my open model session drawings on the forums. Right now I'm in the process of working more in my assignment before I hand it in, doing the final touches, and practicing on posing characters.

On Wednesday, later on that day, I had a surprise message from somebody so important in this industry of animation that I really was not expecting at all! I was working on my stuff and giving out critiques to my classmates, when I look to side to check who was in my AMim,(Animation Mentor instant messenger) I see a message from Bobby Beck. (Former Pixar Animator and CEO of AnimationMentor.com) For a second I didn't know what to say!!! It was so cool that he actually was cruising around the campus and talking to the students and getting to know them. It was really motivating to see that you have some much inspiration from everybody and that your not alone in this school. Everybody even the CEO is there to help you progress and to one day break into the industry and make awesome work.

Last night I had my second class with my mentor Brett Coderre from Pixar Animation Studios. We talked about the principles of animation, work flows when applying this principles and a lot of tips and tricks when working in an animation. I took a lot of notes on how Brett work with his shots, his work flow when animating scenes for movies and he even showed us reference videos he used for his animations in the movie Ratatouille. I was a great and awesome class! I've learned so much in that hour in a half that it's not even funny! hehehhe :)

Ok everybody, I will try by best to keep the blog updated and have a wonderful day! Back to work in my assignment!

Q&A with Carlos Baena!

2007-10-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

It was a great Friday night having a Q&A with one of the co-founders of Animation Mentor Carlos Baena. We talked about everything related to animation, Animation Mentor, the industry of animation and we also had the chance to know a little bit more about Carlos and his career in animation.

It was really nice that we had the chance to meet the rest of the students that started this Fall 07'. The chat was crazy! Everybody was talking about everything, making jokes, and of course talking about animation. I had a great time meeting everybody and having the pleasure to meet Carlos for the first time.

The Q&A's is something that the most you get involved with, the more you get hooked with it! It's amazing how much you can learn and meet friends that have the same passion as I have for animation.

It was great meeting you all and hope to see you all in future Q&A's

See you guys later!

How COOL is the Q&A? RIght?

2007-10-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! Today is another day in my journey at Animation Mentor and I'm really happy with what I've experienced and learned so far. I have a great class with awesome classmates. Everybody is so energetic and always trying to come up with new ways of doing something cool with animation or as simple as an advice to help you get better.

Last night I had my first Q&A with my mentor Brett Coderre from Pixar Animation Studios. For those who doesn't know what Q&A means, Q&A is like having a real class and everybody is hanging out in the classroom talking to each other. When the mentor logs in or enters the Q&A section, he starts talk to the class through the webcam and we can you use the chat or the Ask a Question section to talk to him or to ask question. There is a very cool feature that only the mentor himself can use or activate. This feature allows the teacher to pick any student from the class and gives the student the opportunity for the class to see him and to also speak live through the webcam to everybody including the mentor. Very, very cool feature! It's the same experience if a teacher in a regular college ask you to come up front to speak with your whole classroom.

My class and I, learned so much last night in our Q&A from everybody and from our mentor that is a SUPER awesome person and very talented artist. Our mentor Brett Coderre was giving us the class from his office at Pixar. How cool is that? It's like studying law and your teacher is giving the class from his office at the Court House. I don't think it's the same right? Anyhow, it was so cool that he was able to show us his office where he works, his computer desk he uses to create beautiful animation and some of his toys he has from the movie "Cars". What better than getting inspired and to learn from somebody that works in one of the best animation studios in the world? Think about it!

I look forward to learn as much as I can and to put my heart and soul to this program. I will also try my best to create great animation and to help my fellow classmates as much as I can. For those who are attending the program, good luck to everyone and always stay positive. For my friends and the rest of the people, I will try to keep you guys updated as best as I can with everything I learn and experience here at Animation Mentor.

Have a great day and God Bless!

First Day of Class!

2007-10-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well guys, the time that everybody has been waiting, it's finally here! Today is my first day of class at Animation Mentor. I had the chance to cruise the website and check out everything the website has to offer me and it was really good experience. I am also very happy to have such an inspiring and energetic community and with such much people looking forward to learn and help others.

I have to say that one of the coolest things that the website has, is how easy you can communicate with your fellow classmates and with the Animation Mentor Staff. Also, the lectures, tools, reference, tutorials and everything there is to help us get better, it's really well done and very easy to use.

I had the chance to to meet with the friends I already meet at CGtalk, and also to meet new classmates that I didn't know they were in my class until I saw them in my Classroom Page. Really great people, awesome environment to learn animation and a great place to get inspired and with no limits of learning.

Right now, I will be start to get ready for my first class and I hope to see you guys in class. For the people and friends that are not attending Animation Mentor, I will try my best to keep you updated with my progress and experience here at Animation Mentor.

Thank you and have a great day!

F. Javier Loredo

I have a Mentor assigned!!

2007-09-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

Hello guys!

I have to say that I am really really happy and even more excited than ever to start Animation Mentor. Today I went and checked my orientation calendar and I noticed that something on the page changed, and so when I look up on the top of the page and says: You are currently assigned to mentor Brett Coderre for the Fall 2007 Term. OMG! I started calling people and calling my animator friends to tell them who my mentor was going to be and how excited I was about it.

I'm so excited as I write this right now! :)

I feel right now very grateful to know that I will be learning from the best of the industry. The reason why I say this because I had to go through other colleges and teachers that they only pretended to know or love animation. Now, I am learning from somebody that works in a studio that people dream to work there, it's just an amazing feeling that me as a young artist, it makes me very happy and very grateful to have this great opportunity.

One more day, only one more day!

Have a good day guys!

F. Javier Loredo

Welcome!

2007-09-26T08:39:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to Welcome everybody to my new Animation Mentor Blog. I'm very excited to start Animation Mentor this Fall 07. I'm also glad to have cool blog like this to share my experience at AM and the progress of my work.

I can't believe that in a few more days I will be starting a part of my education that I've never been so excited about. Like the rest of my classmates waiting to start, I'm very excited about the AM website and how inspiring and easy it is to get involved and learn animation.

I look forward to learn a lot of animation and to meet awesome friends!

I wonder who my Mentor will be...

Thanks!

F. Javier Loredo.