"So I've finished Animation Mentor..." I keep repeating it to myself, but it still feels really bizarre! It's incredibly surreal to think that this eighteen month endeavour is finally finished - it's been such a constant part of my life for such a long time now, that I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself now that it's finished. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - being able to do whatever I like at weekends and not stressing about the coming assignment during the week is a luxury I cannot even begin to describe!

I'm now sat in a very swanky hotel room in downtown LA, preparing for SIGGRAPH and for Animation Mentor graduation later this week. I'm really looking forward to meeting all my classmates in the flesh for the first time actually. It all feels a lot more "special" than graduating from University did. I mean, the ceremony at uni was cool and all, but when all is said and done it was little more than a "day out" in Bournemouth, and since we were graduating with so many other different courses, it all felt a bit.... hmm, what's the word... "generic", I suppose. Having to travel halfway round the world to graduate adds something special all of its own (and that's before meeting Bobby Beck and co, too!).

Anyway, my musings aren't why you're here, dear reader! You're here to see the results of my travails, and to pick them to pieces! And I'd expect nothing less. So, here it is - the complete results of the last eighteen months, in reverse-chronological order (most recent piece first, oldest last):

My showreel has now been updated too with a few select shots from AM. I may later post up before-and-after comparisons here of the two most recent entries following my polishing in class 6, because to me the improvement is nothing short of astounding. James Chiang's tuition has been stellar - I feel like I learnt more this class than in all the others put together (and that's really saying something, because the other classes were all big eye-openers for me too). But for now, I'm off to SIGGRAPH! I hope you all enjoy my work. Please keep comments and crit's coming to the usual places. Take care!

So, here's an update on my latest shot and how it's progressing. This is a strong contender for the most difficult sequence I've worked on - I think almost every part has been blocked out at least twice now (sometimes three times in tricky places!). It's only now after several rounds of feedback and many weeks of polishing in class 6 that I'm slowly (slowly!) starting to feel like I might be on the right track... Partly this is because it's an emotional performance, but also because there's a lot of technical things to keep an eye on - hugs in particular are very, very tricky to get right.

Anyway, enjoy! And of course, let me know what you think!

In other news, I'm now in class 6 under the excellent tutelage of James Chiang. This class is dedicated entirely to polishing the shots that we've done so far (no new shots this class) - this class is all about getting us ready to enter the big wide world as fully grown-up animators. It's a bit hard to believe that I'm now barely seven weeks from finishing at Animation Mentor, after having had it take up such a large part of the last sixteen months of my life... It'll be a tremendous relief to be finished though, and to get back to having a normal life again!

Grr, so my webhosts suddenly completely changed my FTP security arrangements to cut down on password sniffing. Which would normally be fine, except that they also neglected the minor detail of telling me!! Suffice to say I'm mildly peeved, but at least it means I haven't been hacked, which is what I initially feared...

Anyways, I'm back in business! So, what's new? I'm currently working on a multi-character sequence (at least two characters, spread over at least 3 shots, which must be 12-15 seconds long, and feature lip-sync). It's been a great challenge (not to mention emotionally draining!), but it's different from my normal animated fare, and it's been a lot of fun so far. It's certainly got a long way to go, but here's how it looks as of this evening:

Huzzah! This shot is finally finished! (disclaimer: nothing is ever finished in animation, here "finished" is a relative term that should be taken to mean that no further handins are needed. This animation may also contain trace amounts of nuts. No animals were harmed in the making of this production. Your statutory rights are not affected by this nonsense rambling. In case of doubt, please seek legal advice).