The next movies looking pretty cool :D

The recent release of Coraline in DVD, Coraline was the best movie ever ! I can't wait to go get a copy !

Cloudy with a chance of Meatball (US - sept 18, 2009)
I was not so excited about the concept but I am heating up to the idea slowly but surely, I guess I'll be ready by September. Having my first AM mentor working on it helped also :)

The return of 2D animation with The Princess and the Frog (LA, November, 25th 2009), I am very excited to see that one, I really like the look of the environment and colors in the effects.

Alice in Wonderland (March 5th 2010)

How to train your Dragon (March 2010)

Shrek 4 (May 21th, 2010)

Despicable me (July 9, 2010)

The trilogy of The legend of Santa Claus (XMas 2010) by Lumenas Studios

Of course later on, Toy Story 3... I am probably missing some major one but theses will be sooo awesome !!!

End of Class 2, start on Class 3

I was wondering back in the days why I was looking so many Animation Mentor Blogs stop after Class 1... I know why now !!!

I started working full time last April 2009 at MorningStar Entertainment as an Animator/CG Generalist and was pretty stoke to see my first shot on TV a few weeks later :D
http://www.spike.com/full-episode/william-wallace-vs/32222
the elephant shot (elephant all CG), I made the animation, integration and compositing in about 3 days.
Also I switched from Fusion to Nuke and it took about an hour to get used to

the interface, both software are extremely similar.
I also worked on
http://www.spike.com/full-episode/ir-vs-taliban/32259
and did all the rotomation for all guyz in fire + the tank shot (animation, integration, compositing).

I also start seeing my name appear on IMDB, and that was kinda cool :D
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3401930/

Working full time had it's toll on my Animation Mentor assignments and I saw my first (and hopefully last) C ever. In short, it kinda kicked my butt and after the Deadliest Warrior Show was over, I decided I will keep going on working just 3 days a week instead and the formula have been successfull since.
I still wish I would have more time for my assignments and push them further but working have also its advantage financially and to build some local experience in the industry.

I am running short of time to update my reel and website but will do by the end of the year I guess :S

Some more advice for current and future AM students:
- Figure out a backup system, I used to use Mozy Backup which is about $50 a year for online backup but with the amount of essential Data I carry around (250+ gig + another 350 gig) it was too slow. I do recommand it for anyone having smaller data.
I really did appreciate that when I decided to close my account they gave me a refund without me even asking for it. To me it's a sign of good business practice, taking care of their clients.

At the time I was also working with a RAID1 through my motherboard (allows you to have 2 HD as an exact mirror) and it ended up extremely usefull when I got a HD crash no so long ago.
Since then I didn't re-did my raid but I started at least doing backup on an external NAS Raid5 which have plenty of space.
I am still working around my setup to make it the best for the kind of use I have for it.

I really can't wait to start the acting and dialog classes (Class 4/5) !
That will be awesome !!!

Advices for All New Animation Mentor students // End of Class 1

Here comes the end of Class 1
I feel like I did great (Straight A's through the term, but... It didn't came by Magic, I worked my a%& off and had some initial knowledge through my Centre NAD education!).

It went superfast and for the last week, everyone have to put all their assignments in the same video to see the progress and have an idea.

During the terms I did a couple of revision of the work I really liked but didn't always did all of them. At the end tho, when the time came to put everything together I really wanted to go over it all. I feel like I made some progress when I checked my first assignments curves and still found many places where they could be improved. All and all it's a cool exercise to do.
I feel like giving a few advices to all new and prospective students.

- Read the Illusion of life and The Animator Survival Kit before you start
- Start to work early in the week ! In general I try to see the lecture and Assignment guidelines on sundays or early Monday
- Try to get your assignment of the week started and put up in your PR Tuesday/Wednesday (In all case before your Q&A (So you can ask questions about the issues you had)
- Don't skip your planning (somehow I found that incredibly hard to stick on)
- Comment the work of others early and another time on friday night or saturday morning before the last week end rush (Assignments are due sunday 12pm Pacific Time)
- Do the best you can in all assignments and Revise the last one the week after, after you get your critique
- For folks having english as their second language (as I am), make sure to really understand people talking english fast or with accents.
- And of course, don't forget to have fun !

Class 1 Assignments and Misc. Talk

Instead of posting all my assignments so far, Feel free to check them out at:
http:www.chloedo.com/gallery/

Enjoy !!

I am having a lot of fun doing it all, My Mentor, Chad Sellers is super great and gives the time (In his crazily busy schedule) to suggest a little change here and there even if it looks already good.
The school in general is well organized and the various Q&A are great.... I definitely would recommend it.

I also discovered this week a new school, animation mentor like but for Technical Directors (TD's). They apparently just starting but the program to come looks pretty cool for Technical Geeks (Which I am a part of also...) http://www.td-college.com/

Of course, another good learning reference... Digital Tutors, I am currently starting to grasp some rigging skills in Maya.

Also my 2 cents about Maya vs XSI...
Even if by now, there is not much competition but... from the end user point of view....
I am starting to realize that XSI is quite Kickass compared to Maya and bring (or at least used to) new awesome features earlier in time.
I will still pursue my XSI to Maya Switch (Because after all, I didn't discovered everything yet !) and it's also the software norm. in the area where I live now but will definely keep XSI around to see what it's up to !

A Wonderful Tool !

I spent part of yesterday seeking free tools (if possible) to make a good/professional looking gallery for my website.

I feel like I need to make a little bit of advertisement here because I feel like I found THE tool.
First, I turned to my favorite webhoster http://www.webhost4life.com and checked if they already have some script and tools installed (Great webhoster, about $4.95 a month (basic windows hosting), very reliable, great service) (If you decide to go with them, add chloedo as your referrer).
They had two different tools to create galleries : plogger and zenphoto with autoinstall available through their system.

I first try plogger (because it was version 3 when zenphoto was version 1 something). Great tool but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. A little too big (I don't need 3 level of albums) and after fighting with it for a few hours, integrating the gallery system with my actual website was not nicely possible.

I then turned around and checked out zenphoto, and it was... perfect !
I did fight with it the whole rest of the day to integrate it seamlessly but I am very happy with the result (and I am in general hard to please, this is what happens when you have a perfectionnist tendency). Go check it out and tell me what you think !! http://www.chloedo.com
I could also include the ability for others to make comments directly in the page and to do slideshows. Since I am a strong believer in Keep it simple, I will just keep it as it is for now.

Have a great week !

1st day at Animation Mentor !!

Tooottoooddoooo !!!!
Ok I have officially access again to the AM website :D

Beeing a little bit of a gadget woman, I was amazed at all the tools available ! We were even able to download our First AM posing Character and watch videos explaining it all.
We have access to multiple movie references, and videos training on various subjects, to the forum and all.

Anyway Cool Cool Cool !!

I also got the name of My mentor !! Elliott Roberts, who worked on various great productions ! The only thing is that my Q&A is the only Q&A in.. the morning !!
So I guess I will have to deal with that fact while looking for a job (and if my Q&A switch is not possible).

Also loads of students welcoming the newbie that we are into the great AM community.
Knowing a couple of person through Facebook or other schools in my past, I already had a few saying Hi plus the various welcome emails and everything ! I was happy to get the Maya Springboard... It avoided me to feel totally overwhelmed with the multiple sections and goodies of the website :D

Warner and Springboard done !

The Short Gig at Warner Bros is successfully done and at the same time the Maya Springboard is done as well !
Animation Mentor is starting in January. I just have to enjoy a couple of weeks off while looking for a job as well.

For the curious, The project I worked on at Warner
http://hivfreegeneration.warnerbros.com/
I did the XSI support for the animation team (Ultra skilled/experience animators) as well as some shot setup and correcting interpenetrations to pass over to lighting.

Doing the AM Springboard (2 QA + 2 homeworks a week) + working 50/60hrs a week was a little challenging...but do-able ultimately.I am quite happy to have been able to deal some time off on site with warner in order to do my Q&A's at night and to go back to work right after.

As of right now, I am still reading the Illusion of Life (p. 327 slowly but surely getting there) It's a great book, explaining the history but also all the process and steps they had to go through at Disney and what they learned along the way.

Another thing i thought was funny (and you probably experienced it if you have a website with some kind of stats) is the keyword some use to end up in your website....I have had...
what do C.H.L.O.E.
how do you say "adventure" in french?
"Robin Linn" animation
Procedural fracturing and debris generation for Kung-Fu Panda
and of course, more usual ones with my name etc.

Feel free to ask questions !

So Many news !

My last article was the 16 of October..... 15 days later the dynamics changed a bit.

First, The Maya Classes Started ! The Basics of Maya, Always useful, the community is great and the interaction between everyone very friendly. We had some basic exercise to do, building a character, set and cameras. Quite simple and a great start for the students who never touched a 3D Software before. Personally, it's quite easy for me so far, and it's great that way because....

I started working at the Warner Bros Studios as a TD/XSI generalist 2 weeks ago !!. While doing some other tasks, I am helping the team of ultra skilled Maya Animators switch to XSI for the project we are working on, some of them, AM Mentors !! .
It's a little contract of a few weeks and will not add anything to my portfolio but it's definitely a great way to start in the Industry.
Of course, short contract means crush time and juggling between 2 Maya classes, 2 Assignments and 60+ hours a week is not the easiest thing to manage... We'll see how it goes.

Finally, Big Industry News.... Autodesk bought Softimage....
Crazy News. They are now owning the 3 Major 3D Software...No more competition.

Can't wait !!

The Maya Springboard will finally start getting some action next week !

We are still waiting to know what days and with who even tho so far it seems like we will have our Live Q&A starting at 7 PM, 2 days a week.
The name of our Maya Mentors should also be told today.

Out from that, work wise, i first targeted some companies having a preference for online reel.
I didn't sent to a lot of places because the ratio of Answers/Interest i received went bigger than my expectations in a very short period of time.
I also had the surprise of my life when talking with someone in the industry here in Los Angeles... He knew my Montreal School (Centre NAD) and even some of my teachers ! That was great and quite unexpected ! I felt the planet being very small all of a sudden !

On another Subject, i downloaded the XSI7 trial to play with the New Ice nodes. It really sound exciting ! It kinda allows you to have the same effects than some scripting without actually scripting... I will play with it the whole week end to test it more !

and it was a pleasure to play in XSI again after those last couples of weeks being more about learning Maya.

Woohoohoo.... i found the AM shop by wandering through the Newsletters !

The start of Animation Mentor, Immigration and Work Seeking

Lots happened in that last week ! And it's awesome !
First I received my Advance Parole the 27th which basically allow me to travel and leave the country for whatever reason i want. Free again ! Yey !

Then Animation Mentor, Maya Springboard started the 29th
Not much to say about it now except that we are discovering the website and had our first Live Question and answer. I would recommend to everyone interested in Animation Mentor (out from putting my name [Chloe Do] in the referred section) to get yourself on Facebook and join the Animation Mentor Group.
Another thing, Animation Mentor just updated their website and there is a lot of new info so go check it out ! www.animationmentor.com

Then 3 days later i actually received my work authorization, which is an awesome awesome news !
Time to get ready a couple of demo reels on dvd who will hopefully work without any problems.
Like Robin Linn says.... Test it on at least 7 different dvd player/computer... not 6..7 !!
I also updated my website a tiny bit www.chloedo.com

For the one who would wonder what is this work authorization ?
Basically, it allows me to work while waiting to receive my GreenCard (Permanent Resident). My Green Card is actually processing for 2 months but with the backlog of those last years, i will most probably receive it mid-march 09.

I can't wait to work! Finally !

Great Immigration news !

In, now, less than a week, the Animation Springboard will start !
Now that my computer work all good again, I am getting ready 100% of the time...

And i also got a great news today i wanted to share ....suspense....
My Advance Parole (able to leave the country, travel) and Work authorization had been approved !! I just now need to wait for the actual paper to kick in before actively looking for a job !

Woohooo !

Like we say in french... the calm before the storm :P

I got a couple of cool news recently, i finally received another, new, motherboard and sent the other one for repair. This new one have less gizmo's than my old one but i believe it will do the work enough... I also invested in two new 1TB HD (soon to be setup as raid) to take care of backup and failure issues. On my days at centre NAD we had a great system of backup behind our back but with AM, i will need to be self reliant.

I started to re-install everything, maya and quicktime pro were no problems. XSI is as usual always a little painful, need to contact licensing folks etc., same with adobe. As a rule of ethic i do my best to actually get the license of my softwares (at least the student one for study/personal purpose) .

Also, our AM access has been disabled... no more AM website camp :P
I got the link for the archive forums and i need to admit it was quite cool to see what was going on, what had been said about various subjects etc.
It will all of a sudden feel quite calm before it starts in a little more than a week.

The plan for now is just to finish installing software during the week end, clean the area so it's actually fun to work in with more space to think and get back to focus by Monday on animation related subjects and work seeking objectives. I can't wait to have more to tell !

A little trick in AM Student website

I don't know if I was supposed to end up there but by clicking on my town in my profile i ended up in the cruise the Campus section and can check out who is online, check their profile, send private message etc (seem to be just the teachers and the AM staff tho)... Somehow i felt the nerdy side in me coming to life...

Account Setup Finally !

As part of the September 08, Maya Springboard Folks. I was able to setup my AM account so it's all ready for the start in 2 weeks !

Nothing much much to see but some video orientation about the overall website, the different tools we will soon be able to use and different policies.
I went over the whole orientation and the overall website sound awesome !!
I am still on reading the little lines of the different terms of agreements as we speak.

It might, overall, limit what i could say about the program and the whole experience in general.
I also wanted to be able to download the video lectures for future reference but it doesn't seem to be allowed or even possible... it's good and bad, bad because i would not be able to go back on a specific lecture weeks later and good because, after all, i will just have to take notes !

My exercises and what i will come up with is, from what i understood so far, shareable.

I also keep contact with Urwin, a new student for the springboard, who sound like an electrified Spike ! As excited as i am ! lol

In terms of computer news, i bought a new motherboard who should come here in a couple of days and will send my old one for repairs soon for a backup as well....

2 little weeks....sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet !

And of course.... the Drama... right before starting....

In all traditional story, there is a point when the hero reach the bottom and is crushed (before of course succeeding)...
Well..... my.. it's the end of the world (well, never really but for the sake of the story i will call it that way) moment happened yesterday night when all of a sudden windows asked me to reactivate itself... uh ?? then i realized that my onboard network card was dead... ok, so i have another network card somewhere.....plug it in.... and there... at that exact moment.... my computer (understand motherboard) was DEAD.... DEAD... DEAD... Ultra DEAD (even still this morning).
So here is the official announcement....

I am very sorry to announce the death of my beloved friend Asus-P5B-E, partner in those night of work and render. He passed away peacefully in the night of the 6th of September.
Funeral service were held Sunday, 7 of September at 8 am.

If you desire, I encourage you to leave your condolences in the comments of this article and will of course accept paypal donation to help the comitee "go get a new motherboard" at subscribe@chloedo.com

Ok... so... no computer now... what are the options.....
1 - Contact my reseller in Montreal, try to get a copy of the invoice and send the motherboard back to Asus since it should still be under warranty and wait forever for a replacement. (Free but long)

2 - Buy a new Motherboard who fit the specs of that one (LGA775/Intel core 2 CPU ready, DDR2 800, a couple of SATA, PCI-Express slot/up to 10 USB) (About 100$ i believe)

3 - Buy a kickass new computer 2xQuad, 4Go de ram etc. (About 2.5k)

I went through all options while trying to fall asleep last night....went to the excitement of the prospective of a new computer... then had to realize it was just waaaay too expensive for the actual budget.
To the Fine ! I'm gonna wait for the warranty
To the.... If i get another motherboard it will just go faster (but the budget doesn't really allow it either)

The crazy thing is that the same thing happened last year in my first month at the NAD Center... except that the slot for my processor was no t made anymore etc etc.. had to change everything...

In a way, when you think about it, i'll rather have it happening right now than in the middle of AM. Let see the positive of it.

September is here !!

September/October are my favorite months of the year (at least in Canada and i will so totally miss Autumn there)... Lots of things are happening this month...

First ! The Maya springboard ! (yey !)
I can't wait !
In 9 little days we will be able to start setting up our account for AM and the Maya Springboard, I am thrilled !

Then my parents coming (We didn't see each other for the last 4 years)

And Hopefully by the end of the month my work authorization !!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While waiting, I am reading a couple of books and doing a couple of tutorial learning Maya.







The most recent book i am reading is Simplified drawing for planning animation by Wayne Gilbert. It's a book not printed anymore but you can still get a copy at www.anamie.com.
From what i saw on different AM blogs here and there it's a book to read so here it is !I just started and it's overall quite interesting...

I also started the first few chapters of Ideas for the Animated Short, great to get started in general storytelling.

I also got on Netflix and i am watching movies and movies and movies to find a couple of cool dialog lines for some future AM and personal acting exercises. That's far from beeing easy to get something feeling just right and interesting in a limited time.
I got two so far i am quite interested to work with but i am sure i can find better ones !

Also and Overall, i need to get some focus to avoid starting a billion thing and leaving it just as a big work in progress ! So i would share this advice i have been told once (and it seems pretty obvious.. but sometime it's just good to have a reminder)...
Make a list !!
Then do priorities !!
Then go for it ! one thing after another !

AM - Student Showcase - Summer 2008

Awesome work !
It seams like more and more the students are making it fancy (decor, simulations, textures, lighting and all), Stories quite creative as well !
I particularly liked the showed work of .. well i started a list but i ended up with way too many names :P Awesome ! Awesome ! Awesome ! Can't wait to start myself !

Change in AM program

Am is changing it's program.
I have some questions about it but will patiently wait to get more infos about it :)

1st Siggraph Experience !!

I have been crazy busy thoses last couple of day, saw many things, made a bunch of contact, and officialy started some work contact, sharing a couple of demo reel.

I learned a lot about networking, new technologies coming up, rigging tendances, new version of this or that software etc.

Here is what it looked like :)

DAY 0
Pre registration
Got a couple of magazines, the pass for the week, nothing special.

Softimage production challenge
Was quite fun, i brought with me someone who doesn't know nothing about 3d and he did enjoyed it and got to understand the principles. They did a scene as a homage of George melies 1902 movie "a trip to the moon". I didn't saw the result yet but to see theses guyz work was quite cool and extremely close to the way we were working in school at Centre NAD. Learned a bit about the new particule system in XSI 7 (quite logical the way it works).

CGTalk Meeting













Was great to see the folks from the forums, made a few contacts and got some input as about working in the area.

---

DAY 1
How to attend siggraph
This was a heartbreaking choice between this presentation and another one (but still overall smart, i need to admit), learned a couple of tricks about siggraph in general and how to organize because it can soon become overwhelming. I felt already quite organized but to hear other ways to do so was interesting as well.

Great Failed Idea in production
True that most studios prefer to talk about what they did good instead of what they did bad. I saw half of it, the presentation of John Knoll about Pirates of the Carribean and water simulations, Apurva Shah talking about a steaming system for Ratatouille and Rob Bredow talking about little Stuart and some graphic testing for Polar Express.

Featured speaker : Ed Catmull
The longuest line ever :) Felt like all Siggraph folks where waiting to get in. His speach was awesome ! he talked about work re-organization within pixar, the nightmare of Toy Story 2 and what they learned from it, the merge and adaptation with disney.

I got surpised of how "young"/or "still alive" the fathers/heros of our industry are... this felt just amazing !

Book Signing "To infinity and Beyond": Ed Catmull
I dropped most of the making of Kung Fu Panda to get it but i did get it ! (And saw Mr Blinn while waiting :P)

A bit of the Making of "Kung Fu Panda"

Autodesk Party
I didn't stay for the Party part of it but saw the 3hr presentation about the new maya coming up and it's stereoscopic possibilities, some very cool presentation of Muddbox (they added the cool tools of ZBrush) and the stereoscopic tweaking possibilities in compositing later on. Cool Stuff.

---

DAY 2
Get the job you want in CG
Got a part of it, it was fun but talked about the artistic and technical kind of jobs so it soon went a little long.




I took the opportunity to leave early and was able to see the Job Fair and exhibition level for a while then of course... since AM will be my next big thing....

Getting a Job in Animation presented by Animation Mentor
Animators from most of the major companies were there and it was very instructive to hear their advice about demo reels, their points of view about the Animation Mentor program itself and job seeking in general.

Job Seeking
Started to share a couple of demo reel on selected companies

Facial Animation presented by Animation Mentor
Tips about Facial Animation, once again ... awesome ! I re-iter what i was saying.... Carlos Baena is an animation reference on his own ! The energy was great and the subject awesome !

End of Technical Papers: characters

Alright... this was my...total amazement moment (and not in a good way). A technical Paper, as they say is... Technical... more for software developper/mathematician etc...
Ok they were this guy from Pixar who was explaining to the amazed crowd in front of him a concept of spline to get a character to wiggle (the big green extra terrestrial guy in lifted) and said to the presentator that animators call the effect Overlap. (wich was totally true as for what was doing the spline). The comment that killed me came from the presentator saying almost with a certain amount of doubt or i don't know exactly how to interpret it and refer to Overlap puting the terms with a quote gesture as if it was not the real word or the right concept.
I felt for that very minute that the gap between 3d artists folks and tools developper was sometime SOOO huge.
And finally saw an exemple of real time dynamic skinning who was a little to jiggly to my taste and honnestly too technical to fully get it.

XSI Party

Did some fast appearance and left early in order to be able to wake up the next day !

---

DAY 3
Women in Animation
The saving kit made me smile (was full of candies and chocolate) and The best networking event overall. I will most probably join them once i'll become a student again.


A tribute to the life and work of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston presented by Animation Mentor

Got My reel reviewed by Disney Animation with a mentor from AM :P
Great Review, cool advices as well.... i was happy !

Part of the production session, The secrets behind Cloverfield and iron man

How to create your Elevator speech, networking in Animation presented by Animation Mentor
The main presenter was a recruiter from sony imageworks, very interesting person, driven with humor and energy. Once again i felt even more convinced to join AM (not that i needed to be more than i already was lol). Couple of goodies for some lucky ones aswell. The energy between the 3 guyz was amazing.

A bit of the new short from Pixar and how they changed their story to get to the point to go in production. Made me feel the need to start planning my next short anytime soon... this is the beauty to be a generalist. And through it i'll go through the different tools and functionnalities of Maya.

And here and there through the day exhibitions/job fair.

---

DAY 4
Making Horton Hears a Who into a new kind of classic
Super interesting ! from design to production... excellent !

Future of Character Animation, from stop motion to flash, from keyframe to Puppetry, Industry Animators

Lighting for feature animation
Lighting is a subject i do like even if it's not my main focus so it was overall interesting

---

DAY 5
I got 3 presentations about rigging from major studios, quite neat to see (and hopefully mostly understand) the mechanic behind some of the feature films heros.

The first one was Lions + Whos + Hulks, Oh My !

About The Lion in Madagascar, got some explanation about the hair system (within a shell) and an unified bi/quadriped built to be able to change within the shot...impressive stuff!

The Whos was more about creating some kind of system and procedures to manage/update all different (but similar) who's rigs going through automatic rigging... quite interesting for the geek in me (out from the fact that the rig itself quicked ass of course)

The Hulk one was more about how they drove the transformation in Hulk, couple of animated/controllable textures to animate bloodFlow, muscle system etc...
Awesome!

The second one was rigging outside the box
Great stuff as for animating with simulation on Wall E and beard Setup for Shrek the Halls.
Large Scale Foliage Animation for "The Ruins" (out from beeing a little too technical)was... let say... not so convincing
The Offset Curve Deformation From Imageworks was quite interesting but proprietary for now.

The last Bend Me, Break Me

Was Amazing on the work they did for the rope bridge animation system in "Kung Fu Panda"
The last two procedural fracturing debris generation for Kung Fu Panda and the Mummy 3 was a little too technical to either apply/try it. I would need to turn as a scripting/developper geek :)

---

Overall the experience was Amazing ! AND exhausting ! And will definitely be repeated again in 2 years. I missed with regrets big parts of the Animation Festival so i will need to catch it up next time :)

Getting ready for Siggraph :)

My first Siggraph ever.... No need to say i am super excited about it :P

I have a couple of Reel DVD ready using the tips of the demo reel do's and don't from carlos baena webinar , couple of business cards, and loads of energy !

I started doing some planning as of all the events i would like to attend, classes, party's, event, talks, billions of stuff ! I can't wait to start posting about it !

A new Reel and a new Website :)

It still quite a WIP as for the mini website as itself but
Go check it out !
and leave your comment on this blog !

I can't wait to hear your comments and suggestions!!!






















My goal with this reel is to find a job mostly in animation in the los angeles/san francisco area starting in october 08 (need to wait for this work authorization paper or else i would be able to start right away).

I will officially start looking for a job at siggraph :)

Reel..... Soon !!!!!!

I am really happy about the day today, my reel is aaaalllmmooossst done !!

Actually i could use it as is but the little perfectionist in me still want to tweak some color here, eventually re-do part of an animation.... but for now I'm quite happy with the result.

I have so far 2 min 40 with music and all...
It still might get a little longer if i decide to tweak one of my past anim... might add a couple of seconds... wich wouldn't be a big issue musicwise either.....

I will soon request all your constructive comments about it ! Get ready ! :P

Papers, Immigration and Reel progress

It doesn't have to do much with AM but ! Actually somehow it does :P

I sent this morning all the documents requested to adjust my status here (= receive a green card (probably by the end of the year or early January), to get my work authorization (= allow me to work by most probably the end of September) and some travel documents (so i can leave the country if i need to between now and the GC reception (with my family in France, i can be useful).
So as we say in Quebec (Canada) Tigidou ! (mean.. all done, all good !)

As in the result of it... it should look like...
Sept 08 : Starting the AM Maya workshop
October 08 : allowed to work (which is still cool after siggraph)
Dec 08/Jan 09 : GC received

We'll see what it's gonna look like for the loan... I guess my husband will probably need to apply for me (without me even be on the contract since i am not a GC holder yet)...but i really want that loan to be at my name with him as a co-sponsor so we'll see.

Of course, all thoses papers things to get ready, pass some medical etc took some time off last week and this week but my reel is slowly but surely progressing.
I have to still figure out a couple of bugs with a tail, caching and geometry turning dead in XSI....not pretty ! Also, note to self... boosting a material by color correct is waaayyyy less expensive in render time than boosting a light to achieve the same effect :P

I also finished the design of my soon to be business cards ! Can't wait to share thoses !
And from there, will adapt Resume, DVD cover, Web Banner etc...

I can't wait to start AM !! and going to Siggraph !!

Render time... i forgot how long it is sometime....

I kinda pushed the moment to the last minute(well, not really coz i still have plenty of time) but i wanted to get a couple of run cycle i did for my cowboy project wich include going deep in my last year archives, get the good run cycle and set it up properly so it keep its overall style.

I have been spoiled at my recent school NAD centre to have at my disposition a bunch of dual quad computers to make renders at night or when nobody where using them (my record was 30 machines one night) wich was quite convenient with transparent water kinda crazy stuff.
Ok, i don't need that much for my little ..i want to put my run cycle render... no textures and decors but 300 frames took about 1h30.... wich mean if i calculate everything, i will end up with 13h30 in renders for 3 cycle (with 3 view each).

This where i felt smart to actually have started sooner than initially planed.

So let say for the next 3 night i render the shot i prepared during the day...
with about 4h30 of render each night + extra if needed.. it's all good !

wich mean all together i expect to have a first version of my quite newbie reel to come around the end of next week.
I can't wait to start looking for a job !!!

Need some Focus

So many things to do (and i can't honestly say .. and so little time)...
I used to be a pro in time managing/organizing priorities but as i find myself in some kind of forced vacation [immigration, waiting for work authorization etc) i temporarily became kind of loose about it.

I feel super excited by my million of projects, thinking of a pose for this or that, a story for my class 5 and 6 (and for others), a line from movies to animate, improving my drawing skills, learn maya then going through the stop staring book, read illusion of life and the animator survival kit, make a new reel to share at siggraph, have a fast overview of what is possible with after effects, learn combustion, make business cards and CGTalk banner, start modeling a couple of items for my future project to come [in maya... good training], cleaning and organizing the content of my HD + backups.

I really need to re-order my priorities first then go for it one thing after the next...

Workstation

I always thought it was cool to share our workstation lookalike, so here it is !

Demo Reel Do's and Dont's by Carlos Baena

A third AM webinar yesterday night, more than 400 people attended it from all around the world.

It was the first time i saw Carlos Live, with video and sound and not only he is a great animator, cute and sexy as a guy and last but not least ! an animation model on his own ! you see him react to things and it's just plain cartoony... a great video reference !

http://www.animationmentor.com/webinar/past.html

I already read a couple of demo reel do's and dont's but to see it in video with a couple of examples and all... it just make things easier and easier to remember as well, add some little tips etc...

Quite motivated by the webinar, i decided i would start working today on my demo reel, a little earlier than expected but better have a little extra time to do it. I do not plan to add any new material between now and siggraph anyway.
I do improve my skills but it's nothing to be put on my work seeking reel.

So far, i am tweaking some old XSI scenes and making my editing in the XSI compositing layout. Not the best but it's the only tool i have at my disposition i know... a little tedious but do-able.

I hope to have a first version to share here asap so you can give me your comments !

Starting to learn Maya

Ok, here is how i am starting...
I didn't spend as much time as i wanted on it and got delayed by external reason but it should be all good now. I am a couple of days late on my schedule (wich i made quite busy).
The time i took for each lesson so far
(time for taking notes and figuring out bugs included)
Lesson 1 - 1 hr
Lesson 2 - 10 h 30

The book is well made and i am happy of my choice. The first chapters are about polygon modeling (kinda box modeling way to go) and i never really worked in box modeling so it's cool. I am getting used with a couple of shortcuts and where are the different tools.

I didn't seriously start to read Illusion of Life yet but will start anytime soon.

But i did start drawing for a couple of hours and did some work for my soon to be business card.

I also read a couple of AM blogs and got a little more used to the first couple of exercise i will probably go through in AM. I feel like i want to start some of thoses now, at least the drawing/poses one. I am gonna seriously do something about it at the end of August/early September or if i have some free time in between.

July - Getting ready :) for AM and siggraph

Ok... i spent the last days of June getting our place organized... we are still living in the boxes but it's "livable". I decided i would take advantage of the month of July (since i cannot work yet, do not have a car or anything) to do a couple of things i'll need to get a job and to get me AM ready as well.

Things i will work on:
Learn Maya (i got the student unlimited 2008 edition) + a cool book about it
Draw (it's been a long time i didn't take the time to do it, so i am a little rusty)
Read Illusion of Life (+ take notes)
Do a couple of business cards to share at siggraph 2008
Learn combustion (in order to do a new reel for siggraph)
Make my CG talk banner

Then... what happened ?

So, the 18th of June, the BIG move.

The 20, i received the email from AM explaining a little more about a new learning possibility...the new Maya Springboard Workshop !

It will start by the end of september wich mean i will become a AM winter 2009 student after all. Somehow it's cool because it will give us more time to get a loan (and to try to boost our credit score)... with a little luck, i might even get my greencard in time and apply for the loan myself... we will see.

I initially copied/paste the program but after reading the terms of agreement of AM, i guess i don't really have the right to do so.
So Overall it goes through the different tools of Animation Mentor and the Basics of Maya for 12 weeks total.

It's not very expensive and will give me the opportunity to learn more about maya and be more confident overall. It will also help me a little extra (at least the maya part) while i'll look for a job here.

I can't wait to start !

How everything started...

All started the 9th of June 2008, when i finally decided to send my application for AM without beeing prepared at all... it just felt right. It's been a while i was checking AM website, around early 2007. I found the school through Carlos Baena website wich was cited as a good reference by my animation teacher in Centre NAD. The same day i received my permanent visa wich allowed me to move from Montreal to Los Angeles where my bf live.

So i did the application essay on the fly as well as the wonderlic test.
While waiting for an answer, i contacted Sally Mae (the loan company) to see what was the possibilities of me requesting a loan. Sadly, as long as i will not have received my green card (wich will take a couple of months)... this will not be possible but ! (ha ah! My soon to be husband could apply for me since he is a US citizen) wich was a cool thing to know.

Then, the 14th, day of my birthday.... i got an acceptation email from AM !!! I was soo totally happy !

And finally, after spending 9 years in Canada, i made the big move on the 18th from Montreal to Los Angeles !