Alyssa's Animation Mentor Blog » Orientation

over the shoulder Q&A

aleeCO — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:53:59 +0000

Wow, information overload! Really glad I took notes today! Had sessions with two fantastic animators. Didn’t realize who I’d have a Q&A with until they started. Didn’t get a chance to talk to them this time, but it was great to listen to their insights:

This morning we had our Q&A with Mike Gasaway — love his energy and passion! He’s a fantastic resource, fun to listen to and has experience with animation and directing. He animated at Disney, DNA Productions, and directed TV series including The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius. Got some great notes and concepts to think about. For a fun fact, he’s worked with a professor at UTD and one of my neighbors in Emeryville. Just a reminder how small of a world this

Right after was a Q&A with Kenny Roy. He’s animated at Weta and Rythym and Hues on flims such as King Kong and Garfield. He gave us some great advice about workflow, which really helped me reflect on my own. I’ll be taking time today to break it down for real. It will be a huge time savor in the future

Coffee Talk visit

aleeCO — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 01:50:24 +0000

Today was the first coffee talk I’ve visited since I’ve started class 1 at AM. Nice to see Victoria and the incoming AMers (haven’t had a coffee talk for about 3 weeks)! I’ll continue to stop by time to time because it’s always an inspiration to see where people come from and feel the hype of people who are just starting. Small group of incomers today, but it will grow

What did you do Saturday night?

aleeCO — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:13:51 +0000

Tonight we had our Q&A with Shawn Kelly! He’s currently a lead animator at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in San Fransisco and co-founded AM. He’s worked on many films that I absolutely loved including Day After Tomorrow, the three Star Wars prequels, Transformers, and Rango! He has an incredible filmography and is a passionate, energetic artist. Really enjoyed talking to him and hearing his insights

I wanted to share his demo reel, but I couldn’t find one online. I guess, you know, you can read his IMDb and just watch Rango and Transformers to see his work

First Mentor

aleeCO — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:26:02 +0000

Found out my first mentor is Peer Lemmers — He’s currently working at Dreamworks and before that he worked at Tippet Studios, Reel FX, and Microsoft Rare. To name a couple of his contributions, he animated Po in Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Furious Five and several characters/pinatas in Viva Pinata: TIP …uh, awesome! Admirable work! The Kung Fu Panda action sequences really set the films apart from others, and I enjoy the bubbly, cutesy pinata animations in VP. I’ve played VP plenty…

Scavenger Hunt!

aleeCO — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:00:06 +0000

Submitted the scavenger hunt for AM with three minutes to spare! I was waiting to see who’s favorite movie was “Blade Runner.” Finally “found” someone (thanks, Captain) so I was able to answer all of the questions. See, some of the hard questions were really specific. Another example was to find a student who sang/danced to a tv-theme song. Only a weirdo would actually do that….

Overall, it was a great way to introduce us to the site, staff, and fellow AMers. Funny thing is between Skype, Facebook, and Coffee Talks, I already know most of the people well.

So…welcome to my AM blog!

aleeCO — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:21:54 +0000

I’ll use this blog to mark my progress in Animation Mentor! I begin the summer term June 28, 2011. I won’t write long blog entries — most of what will be on here will be visual. It’s going to be a mix of AM assigned work and silly side works I do…