Let It Begin!

First class of the official Class 1 at Animation Mentor is complete! It was great "seeing" and meeting everyone for the first time, including our awesome mentor Travis Tohill ! This is actually his first class too (as a mentor!) so it will be a fun learning process for all of us :D I'm very excited to be on the way! I know it's going to feel and sound like a loooong time until the "end" of this journey but I have an optimistic feeling that everything will be working out :) I cannot be more excited to get this party started!

Excelsior!

One Day Before It's Official!

June 27th is fast approaching! ...and by fast approaching I mean it's tomorrow!! This means the start of the classes at Animation Mentor and the start of my first official classes :D I'm terribly excited to start this most epic of journey's.  I'm ready to learn and absorb and see everyone's work and be inspired! I'm going to be so very tired by the end of this first class but it will all be worth it :) It's always worth it when you work for something you've wanted for a very long time and I have wanted this for a very long time :) I've been happier now than I have been in quite awhile and get a sense of completion in my life. I'm working towards my goal!! A goal I didn't think I could or would ever achieve! And while this is barely Class 1, I really have faith in myself to do the best darn job that I can do that will hopefully lead me to inner peace (which = a kick ass job that I love!). On we go fellow AM'ers! To our destiny!!

Excelsior!

Gotta Keep Busy Somehow!

All right! In an effort to not forget all I've learned in Maya Springboard, I've been doing random little animations. They are by no means pretty but they help me exercise and refine what little skill I have so far :) Pirate Pete is still Pirate Pete and below are his two latest adventures! Enjoy and comment!

 

*Pirate Pete Gets Into A Sticky Situation*

*Pirate Pete Learns of Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust*

What To Do With 23 Days ...

 Even though this section is complete, there is always work to be done :) I'm going ahead and tweaking (when I can) my Pirate Pete jump to try and clean it up more and more. Leave comments! It isn't 100% yet, but I feel it's starting to smooth out :)

ps: my mentor and my classmates were all fantastic! thank you all for the comments and inspiration! can't wait to see everyone next class!

So Sad ...

Today was my last day of Maya Springboard :( It's very bittersweet to say the least .... The good news is most of the people in my class are either going on to Class 1 this summer or are coming back in the fall :) So I shall torment them evermore ! MUHUHAHA! ...So anyway, the last class assignment was to make a one legged creature (I'm going to call him Pirate Pete ....because I can) do a jump! It was simple enough, although I haven't cleaned up the animation yet.  Pirate Pete let me practice the powers of the graph editor ...I'm slowly starting to feel more at ease with it. And now, my last animation for Springboard: Pirate Pete!

With That Out Of The Way ...

Tackling constraints will be an ongoing battle, I can tell already :/ But all in all, the more practice I force myself to do, the better things are coming along.  Maya Springboard is coming to an end and I have to say I'm both excited and scared.  Granted there are a few more weeks left but June 27th is approaching fast and I'm just not sure if I'm ready for it (ready for it in the "do I understand Maya" sense).  But like most things I decide to take on in life, I like to just jump in and see what happens :) So we shall see what happens! I am excited to be able to expand to the bigger AM community (Class people get to chat/see more than Springboard people) so I can be in awe of other peoples work and be inspired by them also! I'm also excited to be continuing this journey with some of my springboard classmates. This will make that transition easier I think!! Anyways, below is my "cleaned up" robot arm (version 3). I'm quite proud of it! I'm excited to see how much I grow as an animator with this school :) The people I've met that go to the school have all been really helpful and encouraging.  Everyone seems really genuine and I feel very fortunate to have found a "school" as unique as AnimationMentor.com !

The Beast That Is Constraints

This weeks assignment was to actually make our little robot arm pick up the green can/cylinder and move it over to the platform.  This also involved using constraints to allow the can to move with the claw of the robot arm ....and then allow it to be dropped onto the platform.  It was a task to get it (as choppy and unpolished as it is) to this point. I'm happy I got the darn thing to go over to the platform but I hate the process to do it ....a lot lol But it's necessary to know and I get that, I just hope it will get easier with time and practice! Enjoy my little robot arm :) ((ps: I changed up the robot arm as I had lost the ability to move the claw in my previous model :/ so this little guy is sleepy instead of scared :) ))