Search form

AnimationMentor.com Student Reel (Summer '06)

20 posts / 0 new
Last post
AnimationMentor.com Student Reel (Summer '06)

Excellent work all way round. Congrats to students and teachers alike.

Alan

Get some "Good Advice" at http://www.decksawash.net

Wow! You can learn so much just by watching them.
Really nice.

Outstanding!!

The future in animation is assured…
Congratulations to all….

Carlos

I just wish I has Quicktime Pro, so that I could have save this reel. An excellent reel for sure.

Animation Mentor should allow some originality in them demo reels. Right now it is the never-ending story of the same/similar characer. How about a chicken for a biped?

Animation Mentor should allow some originality in them demo reels. Right now it is the never-ending story of the same/similar characer. How about a chicken for a biped?

That is how the school is set up Sabrisa. It's an animation school so they provide all the characters and models already set up and rigged. If you are able to model and rig your own characters, you are welcome to animate those, but since most students want to focus on the animation they use the provided models. It's not untill the fifth and sixth classes that different models are provided for the student short films. We are just now finishing up the first class six, so none of the animation from the short films are in the AM demo.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Lol, I dont see AAU students complaining about seeing Norman/Hogan all the time. :p

"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane

oh man, that stuff is great. I am sure i will be watching this over and over as inspiration on my animations.

i need to get me a simple rig like that.

"who wouldn't want to make stuff for me? I'm awesome." -Bloo

WOW, very impressive!!!

So basically your guys are being trained as puppeteers?

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

What makes you say that Phacker? :confused:

"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane

Well everyone is moving the same characters around. Did I miss something?

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Well everyone is moving the same characters around. Did I miss something?

Does the same hold true for the traditional animators that only animated Ariel in the Little Mermaid? They only animated one character. Are you a puppetter Phacker? You only animate a few characters.

Not that I hate puppets. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the Muppets, and other Jim Henson creations. But "puppetter" is been used as an insult here and I don't like it. Phacker, AnimationMentor is designed to teach feature film quality animation. They go about animation the same way as the major studios go about it. Animators don't model and rig, they animate. So the student, just like real studio animators are given pre-rigged and modeled characters and assignments and are let loose to see what they come up with. If students know how to model and rig characters, and can do that and animate their assignments in the time given, then all the more power to them. Unless you are only working on your own personal projects or are a big enough bigwig, you don't design, animate and write your own story in any animation medium.

Personally, I like the approach of everyone using the same bland model. This encourages people to really be creative. The only way you are going to get the model to look like an angry woman, or a frail old man, or a shy little boy is to animate the model that way.

One of the main reasons they set the school up this way is because many of the studios were seeing students graduating art and animation schools being able to model and rig and light, a scene, but their character animation was sub-par. This is mainly due to most schools teaching modeling, rigging, lighting in the first three years of school, and only animation in the last year. Sure you're going to see several hundred AM students all with the same characters, but if they animate right, the acting will seperate one from another.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Actually I was a Puppeteer of America for about five years. And I don't feel it's an insult, but neither do I think moving someone else's creation around makes you an animator. When I was a puppeteer I created my own puppets, I did use some that were created by others but the main characters were always my own. But then I've never aspired to tweening for a big studio.

I think the lessons were set up to teach people to move the set models in the methods the studios want. Doesn't necessarily make them phenomenal or outstanding. It just accomplishes a goal and trains a work force.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

Someday when I am brave I'll go open my trunk and take some pictures, if the rats haven't eaten my puppets. I hate varmits.

Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.

And I don't feel it's an insult, but neither do I think moving someone else's creation around makes you an animator.

So all of the animators who work at large studios shouldn't really be called animators since they're moving someone else's character around. I dont want to argue, but that doesn't really make sense Phacker.

"Animation isn't about how well you draw, but how much to believe." -Glen Keane

I think the lessons were set up to teach people to move the set models in the methods the studios want.

How do you know what the purpose of the lessons are if you have never taken them?

It just accomplishes a goal and trains a work force.

The goal of the school is to teach character animation. If the students want to work at a studio and make a living animating, that's up to the student and how driven they are.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

The goal of the animator is almost the same as an actor. Not a CG artist.

With that comparison, real life actors are pretty much stuck with the same model. Sure, plastic surgery, make up, hairstyles, fat suits can alter the appearance slightly, but Robert De Niro will always be Robert De Niro. The phenomenal or outstanding thing about an actor is in the performance. How versatile and believable it is and how it demands a reaction from the audience. A Good animator can achieve all that and more regardless of the model.

I found the demo quite entertaining. I have watched it many times now. I didnt know that the artists were provided with prefab'd models, but at a cost of $14k, working from home, and over a span of 18 months, would it even be possible to learn to model. rig, set your cam work, light a scene, utilize sound, and learn to animate to a high degree? I don't think so. By concentrating on one aspect it results in instant gratification and at least by concentrating on the act of animation it strengthens a person's resolve to improve the rest. These days the studios seem to want someone who can be masterful of all aspects and at least a master of one. Hence you have people who model, light, and animate. The student is still going to have to go back after the course is done and work on the other concerns in order to provide the best portfolio.

...as for me, I better get back to drawing...I suck at it...