The Jump

I've always had the greatest admiration for animators. When I was little I was in awe of them. They were the makers of magic. Now that I’ve actually had a taste of what it takes to become an animator my respect for them and what they do has grown a gazillion-fold. Good character animation is extremely hard to do.

It’s been a year now since I took my first baby steps into the world of animation and completed that first Basic Foundations class at Animation Mentor. Hard to believe I’ll be graduating in six months. I can honestly say my time at AM has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. At times it’s been a real struggle. Clearly, I still have much to learn. But slowly but surely I’m making progress.

This past term I got a chance to play in AM’s production pipeline, which was awesome.

I got to work on my first ever two-character dialogue shot, using dialogue from an existing source. My sequence involved four different shots, so it was important to maintain continuity between shots. Easier said than done. I gained a whole new appreciation for film editors and their ability to make seamless cuts from shot to shot. 

You can check out the video by clicking here:  The Jump

For our final assignment I had to film a video of myself making a story pitch for a short film.

Next term we’ll vote on our favorite pitch, develop characters and do pre-visualization in preparation for the short film we’ll be collaborating on in our final class. The production process will mirror that of a typical studio. It’s gonna be a lot of fun—I’m really looking forward to it!

A big shout-out to AM guru Bobby Beck for his unyielding commitment to the school and his desire to make it the best it can be. His enthusiasm is infectious, inspiring us to never lose sight of our dreams and to always keep pushing ourselves to grow and learn.

Thanks also to all my mentors—especially my current mentor, Jason Taylor. Super nice guy. He really helped me improve the quality of my work. Fellow comic book nerds take note that Jason worked on the cool animation test for The Goon that came out a while back. :)

And of course, a special thanks to my fellow classmates, whose amazing work and support makes me feel privileged to be part of their community.