Sunday 20 March 2011

Final Animation Mentor Reel

Hello!

Unbelievably, I've reached the end of the Animation Mentor course!

So here's my final reel. Still a few things that I want to sort out (especially on the final shot), but this is what I've uploaded as my final assignment.

Hope you like it!

Spring 2011 Demo Reel from Sarah Knight on Vimeo.

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Life at the business end of AM

Hi everyone,

Thank you for continuing to read this blog, despite the lack of posts. I see my number of followers has gone up - thanks for adding me!

Life is busy at the moment, with the day job taking up a lot of time and energy and it's a struggle keeping up with the animation in the evenings and weekends. However, I've stuck with it, and plodded through, and nearly have a demo reel!
Just 2 weeks to go before I've finished at Animation Mentor!

Well ... sort of.

They've just added a couple of new modules to their offering, and as I'm slightly addicted to Animation Mentor I've signed up for another 3 months of animation goodness - Animals and Creatures!
Quadrupeds - oh yeah!
(And even if I turn out to be not very good at animating them, at least I've finally learnt to spell the word "quadruped" - I could've sworn there was an o in there...)

So once I finish THAT course, I'll be done.
... Until I decide to do the 2nd 3 months of Animals and Creatures ... but no! I mustn't! I'm going to start applying for jobs first, and see how that goes before I do any more studying. I owe it to my bank account. And my friends and family. And my sanity.

The demo reel's looking ok - sometimes I think it's pretty good, considering how far I've come since those spinning cellos ... and then other times I think it's terrible and that I need to keep studying for at least another 2 years before I'll be approaching anything remotely close to a decent professional standard!
I'm assured that this is a natural feeling and that everyone hates their own work and doesn't think it's good enough. But still.

The shots that have made it onto my reel are:
- Monologue "gone forever"
- Monkey bars
- Weightlifting
- Pantomime with Tailor
- Monologue "would you like to resign?"

Short and hopefully sweet.

It was with great sadness that I decided to drop chicken lady, but in the end I decided the amount of work required to get that polished up wasn't worth the effort as it would have taken up most of the term. Focussing on the shorter shots meant that I was able to get through more, and I think ultimately benefit more from the wisdom of my mentor - Jason Taylor.
It's been a great term, and I've learned loads from him.
Definitely feeling like this whole animation thing is starting to click - finally!
2 years of studying, and I'm beginning to feel like maybe I'm starting to get it!

So I'll save the finished reel until it's all completely polished up - still a few more tweaks - and then I'll post it up for you to enjoy/judge/rip to pieces.

Stay posted!