I am now an Animation Mentor Alumni!

After 18 months of study, focus, weekend sacrafice, and amazing growth, I have finished all 6 classes at animationmentor.com!

I have made many new friends, industry contacts, and memories that I will never forget! My time at AM has been way better than I ever imagined it would be and I am so proud to have been a part of such an amazing school, and to now be part of an exclusive group: Animation Mentor Alumni!

Take a lot of my progress reel that shows all of my work from Class 2, to Class 6, including a WIP look at my short film "Superdumb" which I hope to finish by the end of the year. I now move on to the Alumni site and will continue to be involved with the school as much as I can.

I now have a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Character Animation! This is an awesome addition to my Bachelor of Fine Arts focused on Animation and Digital Media.

AM Grad videos

Since I won't be able to attend Animation Mentor Graduation in July due to the birth of my first child, I was asked to make a short video to thank and congratulate everyone at the ceremony. I was told to keep it under 30 seconds and make it fun, but I had a hard time doing that. So I made two videos, one serious and meaningful, and another that is just me impersonating the three founders of Animation Mentor, Bobby Beck, Sean Kelly, and Carlos Baena.

I'm torn about which one to send... maybe both? I'm thinking I might need to work on the impressions a bit more as it was my first shot at it, and I'm affraid of getting blacklisted in the industry for poking fun:) I think they all probably have a good sense of humor... right?!

AM Short Film: Blocking Plus

Here is an update on my animated short "Superdumb". While some shots are basic layout animation, most have been taken to the "blocking plus" stage and are ready to be splined out and polished. I won't have the whole film finished by Animation Mentor graduation this June, but just about half the shots should be final by then.

I am still playing with timing and making adjustments to help things read better. Let me know if you see anything that is unclear on first viewing.

Thanks!
-Mark

AM Short Film: Final Layout

Here is my final layout for my Animation Mentor short film "Superdumb". I've got all the camera angles, action, and timing layed out with a temporary sound track. Now I am onto Class 6, the final term at Animation Mentor where I will animate at least 30 seconds of this short. Unfortunately since my film is clocking in over one minute long I may have to finish this short after I graduate but thats ok.

Let me know what you think and if anything is unclear or timed wrong!

Thanks!

Superdumb Animatic

Here is my rough animatic for my Animation Mentor Short Film: Superdumb. About a kid who wont give up trying to fly like his favorite superhero no matter what. Music is temp and not pacing well with the visuals at all just yet, but I'm at the very beginning of this process.

AM Class 5: Short Film Video Pitch

This is my final video pitch for my Animation Mentor short film. It's about a boy who tries to fly like favorite superhero and fails quite a bit. Loosely based on a true story from my childhood... loosely.

I am now boarding the short and making an anamatic which I will post next. Stay tuned!

AM Class 4 Progress Reel

Here is everything I have created at Animation Mentor up until now! I am working on my short story ideas now. Stay tuned to video pitches and animatics!

AM Class 5 has begun! Short Story Pre-Production

I am back after a 1 term hiatus that was needed in order to focus on a few things that popped up in my life that required all of my attention.

And it's great to be back! I do have some great news... I am going to be a father in July! Heidi and I are super excited and counting down the days. Lucky for me I should be done with AM just in the nick of time as I graduate in June :)

My new mentor is Kenny Roy, who has worked at several studios including ILM. So far I'm really enjoying the class and still trying to come up with some ideas for my short film. I am trying to keep it simple this time and keep it around 30 seconds.

Check in later for more developments. I will post more now that things are back to normal!

AM class 4 Assignment: "Big Damn Joke"

Sorry for the long delay in AM assignment postings. Here is my final animation for my dialog assignment with all the bells and whistles. This is a line from the tv show "Friday Night Lights". I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but I see now that some movements are too similar.

I am now working on my multi-character dialog shot which is pretty challenging. More on that one soon!

And my Class 4 AM Mentor is...

PETE PAQUETTE!

Pete is another Blue Sky Character Animator and has worked there since Robots. Currently working on Ice Age 3. He is another tough mentor who doesn't hold back. My last Mentor, James Chiang was a real tuffy! And apparently James Mentored Pete. And Pete is an ex-Marine! So I'm in for another strong semester and sure to grow leaps and bounds which is exciting!

Stay tuned for more work! This is the fun class... Advanced Acting.

AM Class 3 Progress Reel

Well, another term has come and gone and I am officially half way through the Animation Mentor program.... and loving every minute of it! I feel I have improved a bunch this term and feel more confident approaching a shot. My process is honing in.

Check out the progress reel to see my latest assignment all the way down to my very first bouncing ball at AM. Keep in mind that this latest assignment with the dialog has yet to get any facial animation beyond the jaw flapping and eye movement. They wanted us to focus on the body performance and then next term will be all about facial animation. Can't wait!

AM Class 3 Assignment: Dialogue Shot (refining)

It's been a while since I have posted some of my Animation Mentor work because I've been pretty preoccupied with severe weather! But I've been working on my dialog shot in the background and ready to post some progress. Here is where I am currently at. I am in the refining stage and there are a lot of issues still. Hands and fingers are choppy and intersect, much of the ins-and-outs are very rough, and the timing could improve in the end.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We do not have access to the facial controls yet! Thats why he looks stone-faced. They want us to focus on the body and head movement first. Once that is working, then we will work on the face. For now, it is just eyes, lids and jaws.

This line is from the tv show "Friday Night Lights". Lots of great natural acting in that show. I highly recommend watching the first season on DVD!

AM Class 3 Assignment: The Fan - Final

I have finally finished my first assignment (had 5 weeks thankfully) for Class 3 of Animation Mentor. I only focused on the fan holding the sign. The star is limited animation and I will one day sweeten him up as well. The goal was to animate a pantomime scenario where a character has an attitude change. I animated a guy who is looking forward to meeting his idol and gets snubbed but tries to stay cool.

Next up DIALOGUE!

In other news: My buddy Bruce Spike has been accepted to Animation Mentor and starts in the Summer term! Keep an eye out for this guy, he's gonna be huge! ;) Will post link to his blog when he gets one.

AM Class 3 Assignment: The Fan - Part 1 (blocking)

So here it is! The blocking for my first Class 3 AM assignment. The task was to create a pantomimed animation of a character showing some sort of shift in attitude (ie. happy to sad). I chose a character waiting desperately for his idol only to get blown off.

This is based on a true event when my buddy Bruce and I were waiting to talk to Pixar's John Lasseter after a speaking event here in the motor city. When we finally got his attention I shook his hand and blurted out something stupid to which he replied with a puzzled look and then quickly noticed someone cooler to talk to. "Carol Shelby!", and off he went.

Anyhow this is only the first pass of blocking. I already have a ton of changes in order from my mentor. Let me know what YOU think!

AM Class 3 begins today!

And my new Mentor is ...

James Chiang!

Bio:
"James has been a professional animator since 1999. He has worked on such films as Robots, Ice Age 2, (at BlueSky Studios) Open Season, and Surf's Up (at Sony Pictures Imageworks). He has also spent time at the Lucas companies and recieved his formal training at Walt Disney Feature Animation."

AM Class 2 Progress Reel

Well Class 2 has come and gone, and I have learned a lot! Its now on to Class 3 Intro to Acting, and I find out who my new mentor is Monday. Looking forward to it!

Here is my Progress reel for Class 2. Let me know what you think!

NOTE: The video seems to pause in the beginning... let the whole video load and then play it again if it pauses on you.

AM Class 2 Assignment: Horsing Around

The third and final assignment for Class 2 was to animate a character in a push/pull situation. For this assignment I went with a guy whose foot gets stepped on by a horse. Once again I had to make sure I didn't go over 250 frames which is why this animation may feel a little tight. Regardless I hope it reads. Next week I start Class 3 which is intro to acting. This has been a great class and I feel I have grown A LOT!

AM Class 2 Assignment: Pole Jumping

It's been 4 weeks since my last post and I've finished my latest Animation Mentor assignment: Pole Jumping. The assignment called for the character to jump from one beam to another balancing to keep on the pole. Below is what I came up with. This was a very difficult assignment! I'm now onto the push/pull assignment which you can see my reference for in the post below this one.

Horsing Around

Last night I short reference for my next Animation Mentor assignment at the Spikes house. With Bruces help, we acted out a guy getting his foot stuck under a horse who won't budge. The assignment is supposed to be focused on pushing and/or pulling an object. Post comments to let me know what you think!

AM Class 2 Assignment: 180-turn

It's been a while since I last posted and for Animation Mentor, my posts may come less frequent as assignments go from being a week long, to 4 weeks long. I am so far liking this extra time to refine our animations! I'm in my 4th week now and putting the finishing touches on my 180 degree turn. Here is where I am at so far:

Here is a look at the reference I shot to help me out:

And here is a look at the planning I have done to visualize this animation:



Planning has helped a ton! And so have the wonderful critiques and comments from fellow AM students as well as my Mentor who is VERY knowledgeable.