Greetings!

and a happy new year to everyone stopping by. I'm certain 2012 has a whole lot of excitement and wonderful experiences in store for us all individually and collectively.

Some resolutions that I'm going to keep in mind this year:

• Go outside more. Ride my bike,swim, go for a walk and just feel the sun and air (I was much like a vampire last year ^_^)

• Read more books, and not just fiction

• Be more in tune to current events and news

• Stress less about things out of my control and just work hard and have fun

But anyway, back to my adventure!
This week I found out who my mentor is and had my first Q&A with Bryan Engram, who is Director of Studio Animation at Reel FX in Dallas, Texas. He introduced himself and gave his backstory of how he got into the craft and the industry, and myself and the other students had the chance to do the same over webcam. He seems very down to earth and easy to talk to and most of all loves,cares and takes animation seriously. So I'll be doing my best to tap into his experience and knowledge as much as possible. If you want to check out Bryan's site here, there's some great content of what he and Reel FX have worked on.

This weeks assignment was just to set up my profile on the site and introduce myself to Bryan, so nothing too pressing yet. Next week however I will be getting into sketching out some poses and picking out a favorite. So get ready for some drawings.

My first lecture was also very inspiring and was a great introduction to the life of animation by Shawn Kelley (one of the three founders of AM) and a whole bunch of other great animators.

I think the biggest thing that I took away this week from both the lecture and the Q&A was that when working in animation no past experience is a wasted one, as you are always going to find yourself applying certain things that you've done and internalized at one time or another. From the same vein as this fact it's also good to know that you can use each of your personality traits to your advantage to create something that is unique and conveys something that is real and human when bringing a character to life. No need to be ashamed of who you are and what you're about! And so observing and taking note of life around me is what I am going to use to inspire and drive my work.

Thanks for stopping by once more,
Here's a short that Reel FX did for Warner Bros. It should look familiar:)



Looney Tunes - Coyote Falls [HD 720P] by Mister3ZE