yet more animation...

So all of the projects I've talked about so far involve animation for me, which is great because I want to be a character animator. I was intrigued to know what our last project (AAT2) would be. Turns out... it's animation. I couldn't be happier that all I have to do this year is animate stuff (and write and exam, but we won't talk about that). Its a bit daunting, there's a lot of animating to be done, but it's what I love, so it won't be a chore.

Anyhow, more on the AAT2 project. It's a combination of an animation assignment which we don't know any more about and an exam at the end of the year. This is a great unit as we have 3 lots of visiting practitioners teaching us for this project:

Campbell McAllister and Susannah Shaw - Cambell was Animation Director at Red Kite,
Animation Director at Axis and FX Animator at Aardman. Susannah is Director of ‘Animated Exeter’ and Director of the Bristol Animation Course supported by Aardman.

Kevan and Robyn Shorey -Kevan is an NCCA graduate and senior animator at Dreamworks. Robyn  is Department Manager for Layout, with prior experience in Lighting, Surfacing, Paint Fix and Animation from the Production Management side.

Ed Hooks - author of ‘Acting for Animators’. He presents master classes in acting theory for professional animators internationally.

We had a really good week with Campbell and Susannah a few weeks ago, and the others will be coming early next year, which I can't wait for.

For this unit we have to keep a blog/journal about what we do and how we work, and also critically evaluate our own work, both in this project and in all our other projects. This is the main reason I've set-up this blog so I can put my thoughts down somewhere. I'm looking forward to the rest of this project as it is an amazing chance to learn from and work with truly great professionals.


In other news I've recently found some of my old drawings from my foundation and first year at uni. This has inspired me to start a new sketchbook in which I will keep scribblings and thoughts for this blog. I have also decided to do a drawing a day on a stack of post-it notes it have. It's not a new idea, but it means I can practice my drawing skills and maybe come up with some new ideas and characters. I might post them up here everyday or maybe do a series and post them at the end of the week. Either way here is number 1. Enjoy!

Stu