The Many Faces of Stu

I thought I'd give a quick update on my studies.

Animation Mentor has exceeded all my expectations. Class 1 is going great so far. I've got an awesome mentor and an enthusiastic class, so it's all good. I'm amazed at how much we've learned in such a short time. Hard to believe we're almost half-way through the first term. It's really flying by!

Our weekly assignments have consisted of a brief animation with a simple rig (bouncing ball, etc.) as well as single poses of a character called Stu to get us comfortable working with more complex rigs. The poses, of course, serve another purpose--good poses are the key to good animation.

I'll probably hold off posting any of my animation until the end-of-term progress reel, but in the meantime here are some of my Stu poses from class.

Al Williamson

My first exposure to Al Williamson's artwork was his adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back for Marvel's Star Wars comics. I was instantly blown away. The man was truly an illustrator in the greatest sense of the word.

Here's a small sampling of Williamson's work. The sumptuous artwork speaks for itself.

I only recently discovered Williamson's work from the Flash Gordon film released in 1980. It's absolutely beautiful. Unlike the campy tone of the movie, the comic book adaptation played it straight. I highly recommend the book Al Williamson's Flash Gordon: A Lifelong Vision of the Heroic, edited by Mark Schultz, which gorgeously reprints the Flash Gordon adaptation in its entirety.

Sketchbook 6 - final batch