AAU - Class update

Hello again,

sorry for the hiatus. I finished working on "Transformers" this week, which looks great btw. (sweet renders, the robots look so real, sometimes they look like well animated animatronics - just like Davy Jones had you guessing if it is make up or not, this time you will wonder, is that real or not? Obviously the action will give it away that it absolutely can't be an animatronic...). I started working on "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and switching shows had me busy for a while, finishing Transformer shots and making sure that the files are clean and getting prepped on the doings of the new show.

But everything transitioned fine and overtime work seems to be scheduled for Saturday instead of during the week AND Saturday while on Transformers. So critique and updates should appear either during the day, but most definitely after 7pm if I didn't get to it at work.

I hope you guys are not completely crushed after my "reality check" ramble on Monday :-) But as I said, I won't sugar coat the current state of the industry nor your work. Better you hear the good and bads news now than later. I will post more specific dos and don'ts at a later point for demo reel creations, rig usage, how to get a foot in the industry, etc. etc.

Speaking of ramble. It's really unfortunate that this class is so big. You guys are great, it's not that, it's the difficulty of combining lectures and critique. Both are important, so every now and then I will lean more on one than the other. If you feel that you didn't get enough feedback for your shot, please let me know. Drop me an email with your work and I'll embelish on what I said in class. Last class lasted til 10.45pm which is crazy. Thanks for those who were waiting for the feedback. If you need to go home, again, just write me an email and I'll look at your animation later that night or the next day.

What you guys need to do is complain, or politely suggest, to the Academy that classes need to be smaller. I mentioned it already and will defninitely continue to do so. I don't see the benefit of doing a lecture for 30 to 90 mins and then critiquing your work for a few minutes. Last week I think it worked well when I combined the lectures with the critique, and we all finished at 10. But the moment I focus on something (like last time on the reality of how much work and dedication is needed in this field), there is just not enough time. I'll work on focusing on the most important things in my critique during class (even though I LOVE detail stuff), but let the school know that classes just can't be too big and that JD sucks. :-)

Now that it has been around 7 weeks into this semester, don't be shy in telling me what sucks about my class and what doesn't. I want to make sure that you guys get the most out of it, so speak up when something is not working or if you feel that I'm not covering certain things you'd like to know.

Midterm is coming up and the grading hammer will slam down. Most of you guys are doing good, so no need to worry. My grading will depend on your work and how creative you are with it, not just the technical side.

[ Wow. I started writing this in the morning, then had to go to a client transmission, then lunch, then an animation meeting, then back to work, than a Harry Potter "it's a wrap." celebration, then back to work and now it's suddenly 6:30pm.]

Uhm... totally lost my train of thought after all those hours. ... Uh... Yeah...

I'm gonna go home now and work on other posts that will pop up later tonight. A few handy tools while animating in Maya, good sites for help and probably some critiques.

Cheers
Jean-Denis