Money well spent:

So Animex is over for another year, along with some souvenirs I've picked up a lot of helpful tips and tricks! Mainly from the Ed Hooks workshop I attended on Wednesday but also from a few of the guest speakers. Aardman attended with a model from their latest film Pirates, though I havent seen the film, I was very interested to see the processes that went into the film, especially seeing the Pirate captain model in person, they are brilliant! I found myself wanting to make some more models of my own again, unfortunately I already have enough on my to do list. But thats the beauty of these festivals, you find yourself inspired to have a crack at everything after seeing them on screen. For now id be best of pushing one discipline if Im gonna make myself a saleable asset.

One thing I will definitely do is draw more, one of the quotes that was mentioned went something like this " It takes an artist to produce 1000 bad drawings before he produces anything good" So what have I taken this quite literally and decided to crank out these 1000 pictures numbering them as I go. These will be no masterpieces but I need to get them done and preferably at faster rate then 1 a day unless I want to take 2+ years over it.

I'll share more on Animex and my workshop with Ed Hooks later!

Paul Out.

"Im gonna Wreck it!"

Woop! just met Rob Dressel of Disney animation studios, Lead Layout guru on the new Wreck-It Ralph movie! Pleased to say hes a really friendly guy to speak to. After wading through the atmosphere of fellow nerds orbiting him I snatched the earliest opportunity to ask for a signature, it was luck that Forbidden Planet happened to be present and selling the book and it just iced it off having one of the artist around to sign it.

I usually dont have anything to say to most of the industry experts at Animex, but I found myself asking about production roles in the industry and how to go about getting one. Lets face it there isn't a hole lot you can put on a showreel to show off your producing skills ... anyhoo, he told me it was best to email them directly and ask to speak to someone for help. Disney are offering internships for the summer, so i'm going to apply, unfortunately the deadline is 1st of March and with no showreel for to provide for the animation side of the application , my failing hardware has provided me with another kick to the ribs. There is always next year, but its got me thinking to apply to Disney! which I've never done before. Rest assured they shall be first on my pester for a job list.
The internship programme offers a choice of three disciplines, so I think i'll be choosing Layout artist, animator and production assistant. Even if nothing comes of it, I've got another year to develop and apply again!

A while ago I found myself thinking of the quickest way into the industry so that I could then train in what I wanted to do. But now I have seen so many things I would love to do and find myself positively less picky about what I would or wouldn't do. I figured it cant hurt to ask for a little advice form them. I've already emailed them..twice.

Stuff the PC "I'm a Mac"

Well it's long overdue, my pc has been limping along for far too long. So I've liberated any files that may have value and condemned the tower to a dusty corner awaiting a time when I see fit to harvest its useful pieces.

Fair well old friend, it was interesting. Welcome to my new mac, no more cumbersome, vibrating virus magnet of a tower for me... No just 27inches of awesome sauce.

Animex 2013

Its that time of year again and for the first time since 2010 I can actually attend Animex. Technically I was there 2 years ago but sneaking into the social, stuffing your face with free food and promptly leaving hardly counts.
This time round I was that excited in anticipation that I booked my ticket back in November. I see some familiar names on the speakers list and some i havent seen before, will have to wait till closer to the date to get the confirmed final list.
Already on there is Ed Hooks though and i have missed opportunities to see his lectures before. He is doing a Workshop on "acting for animators" which will do me nicely! Another name I recognise is Stuart Sumida, I saw his online seminar on the anatomy of a fight last year so it will be interesting to see him in person again. He did a talk in 2010 on the Disney film "Bolt".
Stuart Sumida's talks are usually on anatomy of characters, how characters should be built and how they would move, considering my past years experience in rigging it would have been brilliant to go to his workshop of anatomy of characters but sadly its on at the same time as the one im already going to. Now that Im focussing on animation its best i doubt miss out on the workshop best suited to me.