Alex M. Lehmann - Character Animator

Finally... my directorial debut =)

2010-07-13T18:27:00.004+02:00

Hi all,

I've been waiting a long time to be able to show this to people and we now finally released the official season 1 trailer for "league of legends". We also announced a $100,000 tournament, so make sure to check out our free-to-play game here: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

So, here it finally is, my directorial debut which I've been working on for the last 9 months (watch above or click the link below):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMnCv_lPxI&feature=channel

Have fun!

Lx

Awards everywhere...

2010-01-14T21:30:00.003+01:00

Well, not only is "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" nominated for a Golden Globe (yay!) but also "League of Legends" received a bunch of awards.

We just got the IGN reader's choice award in the categories multiplayer and best PC strategy game!

http://bestof.ign.com/2009/pc/best-multiplayer-game.html

http://bestof.ign.com/2009/pc/best-strategy-game.html

Gamespy's readers even made us Game of the year! So, keep it coming... the Oscar is still around and I really hope Cloudy gets a nomination =)

Kodu in action - and for free on PC!

2010-01-14T19:14:00.001+01:00

You can now get the game for free on PC!
http://community.research.microsoft.com/blogs/kodu/default.aspx

Newsupdate

2009-10-03T19:54:00.005+02:00

Hi all,

Well, Cloudy is out for three weeks now and still going strong. I think that Sony is really happy with how good Cloudy is performing. It's always a privilege to be called to work on a movie like this one and I'm extremely thankful and happy to have been a part of it.

At RIOT games we are constantly improving the existing animations and animation system. It's great coming into a company with an existing pipeline and helping to make it even better. In the last few weeks we made some major improvements and the game clearly shows. What's more important is that the beta users are noticing even without us telling them what we did... so, all the hard work pays off. And talking about a challenge. Most of our animation clips are under 1 sec. Animating a believable kick, backflip, punch etc. in under 1 sec is a challenge in of itself, and I'm constantly learning how to find shortcuts to make the motion look believable while maintaining the speed.

Now for something completely different. There are two things I encountered a lot lately that I wanted to share with you. I noticed how important these things are to an animator's career and would like to pass them on. Both of these I would qualify as "recommended skills" before even touching a mouse/pen and starting animating. If you feel like you've never worked on these skills, now is the time:

1.) Say "Thank You" and be polite. What? What kind of animation tip is this???

Well, in my role as a senior animator I've been dealing more and more with people sending us/me emails about job offers or questions of how to get into the industry. I always answer those emails and sometimes take the time to explain things for 30min or more to help our applicants in their career. And you wouldn't believe how many people forget to send a Thank You-email afterwards, or lack the overall skills to write a polite email in the first place. I know for a fact that time and time again people are not being taken for a job since their social skills lack the easiest things like saying "Thank you" or using a "please" in their sentence... If a company takes the time to answer your email (which happens rarely enough in this busy industry) then you should immediately write them back, say Thank You, listen to their advice, and make sure to follow up on what's written in the reply... Some great talent never gets an opportunity to animate because of this. There is a reason why this is the first skill that Student Volunteers get reminded of when coming to SIGGRAPH...

2.) Have confidence before you animate!

Ever had those moments thinking: "A 360 degree backflip kick followed by a heartfelt monologue about a character's misery, and all of it animated in 3 days - I can never do this!"?
If you are thinking like that, I can almost guarantee you, that you're right and you won't be able to do it. The more I animate, I realize how incredibly important confidence is in our daily job. Believe in yourself and you'll become a better animator. It's that simple. Don't shy away from tough scenes and deadlines. Embrace them. Let me explain this a bit.

Ever heard of Alexander Fleming? This famous Scott "invented" penicillin. It took him over 200 tries to get there. A reporter once asked him how he feels about his 199 failures. Fleming answered: "Oh no, Sir, I did not fail 199 times. I just found 199 ways how not to make penicillin".
He was confident that he would solve this puzzle no matter how long or much effort it takes. Failure is not a fact but a personal view of things. If I ran 100m in under 10 secs people would applaud me and write about it in the newspapers.
Tyson Gay ran 100m in under 10 seconds and had a new personal best time, but in the shadow of Bolt running even faster that day people regarded Gay's time as a failure. You see? Failures are not "happening" they are just being "called" into existence... and this lies within your own power.
If you can't animate a 360 degree backflip today, then this should not keep you from trying it, learning how "not" to do it, and get better at it for the next time. If you ever want to work at a big animation house this confidence, this optimistic view of "I can tackle this", will help you become a better animator. It's not about being cocky but rather about not to doubt yourself before even trying. The best animators I've met in my career are humble and confident at the same time, not shying away from a challenge but embracing it.

I hope this helps somebody out there, struggling with either. You can know everything there is to know about animation, but if you can't write a polite email or have confidence in yourself, you'll never animate to your full potential - or never get the chance to show it.

Have a great week, everyone, God bless,

Lx

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs honestly rocks

2009-09-15T09:44:00.003+02:00

Wow, it's really that good...

My wife and I just returned from the "Cast&Crew" premiere of "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs"... and we loved it. It turned out to become such a great, fun, entertaining movie. Go and watch it this weekend and decide for yourself. I'm sure you will have a good time. Despite the really funny humor, the great style, and the entertaining story, I was especially happy about the great job Mark Mothersbaugh did on the music. Yeah, I know, I'm too involved for a more objective view on the movie, but I honestly think that you will like it a lot. All the attending people that never watched it before liked it just as much as the crew did.

Thank you, Sony, for an amazing time working on this wonderful movie... and thanks to the crew (and esp. Pete Nash) for letting me be a part of it. All the hard work paid off, fellows. So, now go and get a ticket and then spread the word - it's a movie for all ages and it's worth every penny!

Lx

"Phil Lord (one of the directors of Cloudy): In animation, you make the movie backwards. First you edit it, then you shoot it, and if you’re lucky, by the time the movie comes out, you’ve finished writing it."

Becoming a legend - RIOT games

2009-08-30T06:15:00.005+02:00

Hi all,

It's been a while since I posted and I wanted to let you know what I've been up to lately. I started my senior animation position at RIOT games, a great game company located in Culver City, LA. They have been working hard for the last 4 years on a game called League of Legends. If you have ever heard of one of the most successful user generated contents of all times "DOTA" (WarCraft III) then you should listen closely. The people behind RIOT are the people that created DOTA.

Now, here is the best news: the game will be completely free. Yes, you read correctly, completely free. You can financially support the game by buying cool accessories or more champions to play with (but it's possible to unlock everything by playing, too). But wait, we talk about a multi-million dollar AAA-title here!

So, how does my job now look like? Just picture a multitude of characters, all completely different, from bipeds, to quadrupeds, up to spider-like creatures that have a wide variety of different moves (emotions to actions)... I currently skim through the sheer endless list of animations to help polish some of them before the game ships (they've done a great job so far) and I will help define how future characters are being created and implemented (streamlining the current process). Finally, later down the road I hope to animate on completely new characters.

The best part is the job is a lot of fun and the team is awesome. We have an artist's section where all the art is being created and all the guys are extremely nice, talented, and helpful whenever I have question. And man, do they know the game well. I haven't found a magic spell or special move that they wouldn't know by name and character. If you think that chess is complicated, try to balance 30+ different characters! It's really cool... but they still beat me with one hand tied behind their back, haha.

So, check out the game when it hits open beta this late September (estimated) and let me know what you think. It's easy to learn and difficult to master and won't let go of you easily... It was voted "Best strategy game of E3" and if you see how hard we are working then you know exactly why!

Have fun,

Lx

New website and demoreel are finally online

2009-07-31T09:56:00.001+02:00

Hi all,

It's done, my new website and showreel are both finally online. It has been quite a ride getting to know CSS, HTML and PHP enough and installing a "professional" server-based blogging software on my private server - but I'm happy with the result and the future ability to make changes to this website and potentially integrating the blog to this website now. Please feel free to go to the website and click on the various buttons, check out the new reel, and overall let me know what you think. I hope that the site shows up fine on your browser and system. If not, please let me know.

The link has not changed. It is still: http://www.alexmlehmann.com/

Comments are always welcome, thank you very much,

Lx

Dog revisited...

2009-07-28T06:21:00.003+02:00

I often find that my cycles get better polish if I move them through actual space instead of animating them on spot... it helps me to see the arcs of the feet a bit better. I also had to speed it up a bit - it was too slow, imho.

So, here is the new version...

Who let the dogs out???

2009-07-07T00:58:00.003+02:00

Well, I've been busy lately doing some tests and working on my reel. I'm starting on a test for a really great game company today but wanted to show you my latest run cycle (click here for a quicktime). I had never worked with quadrupeds before and really wanted to get into this. It's a lot of fun (and twice the amount of legs to take care of =)...

Now, onto something completely different =)

Have fun, everyone,

Lx

Gulliver's Travels

2009-06-24T02:10:00.005+02:00

Hi all,

After leaving Chew and Swallow my next stop will be Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black. We already started on some work even though they are still shooting and I have a blast. The company I'm working for is great and I get to dig my teeth into some heavy, cool, fun stuff. I can't wait to see this coming along. I'm still looking for a full-time position but will have a blast in the mean time. This is a great project at a great company. Let's hope that they have more work they will need from me since I thoroughly enjoy working there.

Have fun, God bless,

Lx

Sunny future due to Cloudy

2009-04-29T03:42:00.003+02:00

This is "Jayson Price's team" - just one of 6 animation teams on the movie.

Hi all,

Since even the best times have to come to an end some day I'm wrapping up on Cloudy May 8th. I had such a blast working on this movie and feel privileged to have been part of this amazing team. The movie is coming along great and I'm going to be the first in line to see it. I can't wait until everyone gets to see the "real" trailer and sees how fun and exciting this movie is going to be.

With Cloudy coming September 18th I'm sure that Sony's future is bright as the sun, and not cloudy at all. Today they announced that they are going to produce Pirates! and Arthur Christmas with Aardman which we all are very excited about. I hope that I can work for Sony on either of them or on the fantastic looking Hotel T or Smurfs... and more is to come: Alice in Wonderland and Cats & Dogs 2... so many more cool projects down the road.

So, here is hoping my leave is temporary and doesn't last long. Every day I felt privileged to work with people like Pete Nash (anim. director), Jayson Price, Derek Friesenborg, Chris Williams, Alan Hawkins, James Crossley and Brian Scott as our leads. I learned a heck of a lot about holds and subtle keep alive and feel to have become a more well-rounded animator - knowing more about how much I still have to learn (esp. since Microsoft was all about Squash and Stretch).

Finally, I met some incredible animators and 70 wonderful people, many of whom I want to stay in contact with, if not even become friends. Here's to Zach, Kim, Nathan, Blake, Alex, Alan, Matt, Ray, Eric, Rebecca, Chad, Anthea, David, David, Dave, Ben, Ben, Joe, Ron, and all the many other people I can't name here since there is not enough room for it. Thanks for helping me becoming a better animator, guys, and you know - you always meet twice. At least!

Anthea's and Rebecca's reels were the reason for me to start Animation Mentor and as such I'm especially thankful to them! Rock on, ladies.

For now I start looking to find a new job as soon as possible. Let's see what God has in mind for me... I'm excited about it.

Keep animating and love every minute of it,

Lx

p.s. I'll post a picture of our team lunch here later. Thanks, Sony, for everything.

AML Demo Reel Spring 2009

2009-03-31T10:28:00.002+02:00

Hi all,

Here is my latest reel featuring a fraction of what I'm currently animating on (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sony Imageworks) and some development footage from the XBOX30 game "Kodu" for Microsoft. I was lucky that two Cloudy-shots that I animated ended up in the trailer and was allowed to put them in my reel. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to contact me about questions or potential job positions since the animation on this feature film will wrap up end of May and I'm starting to look for my next project already.

Have a great day,

Lx

Teaser trailer: Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

2009-03-23T02:01:00.003+01:00

Yay, we released our teaser trailer for Cloudy. It only shows about 2 mins of the movie and won't represent everything the movie has to offer but I personally like the trailer. Everyone that loved the book should check out the references that the movie has to it... even one already in the trailer.

Have fun, Lx

You can find better qualities on other pages but this one fits on my blog =)

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T02:18:00.003+01:00

(click on the picture for a link to another website reporting about Cloudy)

Yeah, I know, I didn't blog for a looong time. Believe me, moving to LA and getting up to speed here at Sony took my every minute. So, where do I start? Well, first of all... Sony is amazing. What a great place to work at. It's full of amazingly talented people and a wonderful environment to be an artist.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs turned out to have a great great and hilarious script - and two incredibly talented directors. The kind that knows exactly what they want and give (most of the time) clear instructions.

Here is a first picture of the movie - in my humble opinion not the best one to show the quality of the movie and of the characters. You should see it in motion... but hey, you might have a different opinion.

Anyway, I wanted to wish to all of you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. See you all in 2009!

Lx

Animation Mentor getting more expensive...

2008-08-23T04:07:00.002+02:00

Hey guys,

I just read the following article on the AM page. If you want to be part of AM then do it now and save about $1000! I can't recommend this program enough. If you register for it you can even drop my name as a reference with my email...

So, if you need one more reason to sign up for animation mentor, then watch their student summer showcase...

Anyway, better do it now, than being sorry later =)

Lx

"Want to help your friends and family save some green? Let them in our little secret.

Tuition prices for Animation Mentor’s new curriculum will be going up for new students starting next year. But if they’ve been thinking about joining the program, they can still get this year’s rates, if they act now!

If they apply and are accepted for Winter Term 2009, and pay a $500 deposit before 12 PM Pacific Standard Time on Oct. 31, 2008, they can get our brand new curriculum at old curriculum prices. That's a savings of $1,075 for our entire 18-month program. This offer is only applicable to Winter Term 2009 which starts on Jan. 5, 2009. Payment information will be sent upon acceptance into the program.

Please spread the word!! Thank you!

The Animation Mentor Staff"

No country for old men...

2008-08-19T17:38:00.004+02:00

As I mentioned before, some AM alumni are currently cooking up a little shortfilm, just for kicks. I had to be done early with my part of it and here it is. I might have time to do one more revision at the end August, to get rid of some intersections with the floor, double check the arcs etc... but in general I had little time to animate on this. In total I would say it was about 2-3 days (next to work)... hard to gauge since it was always at night and on the weekends.

Our story (which is just part of a "bigger" story) is about an old man that tries to cross a street but gets hit by a ball over and over again... finally the man gets really angry and wants to hit the ball... then this is what happens which "concludes" our part of the shortfilm. I'm lucky to work with really talented people in my shortfilm group: Alexiss Memmot (now at BlueSky), Alex Zemke, David Andrade, and Alejandro Chavero Sousa... so it's going to be a lot of fun seeing it all come together...

720p no motion blur
NTSC no motion blur

720p with motion blur
NTSC with motion blur

Happy animating, Lx

Have fun,

Lx

Cloudy with a chance for animators

2008-07-26T05:47:00.005+02:00

Hi all,

I can finally talk about this, and man, was it hard not to tell anyone. I just got hired as a full-time animator on "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" for Sony Imageworks, starting this October right after finishing my contract with Microsoft!

In case you don't know too much about this American children's book, check it out here. I received the offer on Tuesday and Sara and I decided to go to Los Angeles - Culver City, here we come!

This is just exciting. The animation supervisor/lead on this show is Peter Nash who has worked at Pixar, BlueSky, and at Sony. He has worked on some of my all-time favorite movies like Monster's Inc. and Surf's Up.

Finally, production on Animation Mentor's first alumni project has started and this is a very early preview of the shot I'm working on...

Happy animating... I'm off to celebrate now!

Lx

Microsoft and responsibility...

2008-06-30T03:38:00.003+02:00

Hi all,

Long time no blog, I guess, but here I am again. Well, what is new in animation land over here in Seattle/Redmond? First of all, the job is a looot of fun. At first I was sceptical whether I could enjoy working in game animation since I've only done commercial and feature work before that. But let me tell you, since we are a small team and I'm completely in charge of animation I really do enjoy every single minute of it. I basically define how we approach things, and I get to try out different versions of the same animation. Are trees really cheerful and bouncy or are they realistic and tight? The cool thing is that I get to animate both versions which really helps to broaden my animation skills.

I do miss acting but this really strengthens my basics. I've done so many bouncing balls lately and played around with overlap and squash and stretch, that this experience will help me a lot in later works. Not only that, I learn a lot about company policies, too, and how to work in a team of only 7 people. This is stuff you can't find in books and have to experience first hand. Microsoft is a great company with tons of opportunities and even though I look forward to animate acting shots sooner or later again I'm really happy about being given this amazing opportunity.

Game animation has tons of restrictions (even the amount of bones is limited!) and I have to work within those means and still get a great performance out of the characters. What a challenge! I will make the most of it and learn as much as I can. I hope I can show some of the work I'm doing at the end of this year...

Next thing, AM is doing a shortfilm project for alumni (organized by students) and I'm stoked about being part of the team. I will most likely miss Siggraph this year but working on the shortfilm will balance that out, I hope. And finally, if you haven't seen Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda yet, please do. Both of them are very enjoyable and Wall-E is a class of its own.

Happy animating, everyone,

Lx

Geek alert!

2008-04-07T01:18:00.001+02:00

Moving to Redmond - Job at Microsoft's Boku project

2008-03-10T18:11:00.005+01:00

Hi all,

I have exciting news. Today I received confirmation that I will be working on Microsoft's XBOX360/PC project "Boku". The project is still somewhat secret but here are two pictures you can find on other people's blogs.

This is Boku as it was shown a while ago

Project Lead Matthew MacLaurin demonstrating Boku with the old interface

Starting this April I will be in charge of the whole animation and character creation for the project - from the characters, to any object, even up to the menus. It will be a wonderful challenge and I am extremely excited to work with an extremely professional team on Boku. We all share the same vision and know that Boku really is something unique out there - I can't wait to show the people out there what we are doing later this year.

I'll be working in building number 99, part of a 1 billion $ complex Microsoft is building on the other side of the highway - and believe me, it's beautiful. Here you can find some info and pictures about it (link). Let's say it is a playground for grown-ups.

Well, so much for now, now I have tons of things to do and take care of.

Have a great week,

Lx

Leap day update

2008-02-29T19:01:00.002+01:00

February 29th, 2008... what? February 29th? How cool is that? An extra day where I can animate! For free! Life is good... well, I just wanted to give you a short heads up on what's going on in my job life. I'm animating a 20 second shot for Walsh Family Media and it is coming along well - with three characters acting you have to make sure to hit the acting and direct the viewer's eye, and that takes some time to master. I feel comfortable with the rigs now even though I have to write all scripts myself to use them (selection lists, I love you!)...

Other than that I was offered to animate a test for one of my favorite game companies (can't tell =) and I am super excited about that. I love their games and I know that they are on of the companies that push what's been possible in game animation until now - how much I would love to be part of that. So, I will give it my best.

Anyway, have a great extra day! Enjoy it, God bless,

Lx

Demoreel 2008 finally online

2008-02-12T21:40:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Yes, I finally uploaded the new and updated demoreel. You can find it on my personal website: www.alexmlehmann.com. Feel free to use the comment area to post what you think about it. What's good, what's not? I will constantly work on it to get it better but for now I feel this is ready to send out. Next thing is to finish up on the short film - make some tweaks, render it out nicely, add some water... and maybe even send it out to festivals around the planet. We will see. Once again, thank you for reading my blog, checking out my new reel, and letting me know what you think about it!

Thanks,

Lx

Fun Animation Exercises

2008-01-25T20:20:00.000+01:00

Like the spline doctors suggested I started doing simple animation tests like this 15 minute one:

(click the image to watch)

Animation is ongoing learning and I know that I will do bouncing balls, overlaps, and training exercises all my life. It's amazing how much you can learn from such a simple animation test... so, read the spline doctor post and do the same =)

Lx

I finished my study at AnimationMentor.com

2008-01-03T00:44:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

I know that I am not very good at keeping this blog alive but the idea of letting people know how "AM" works and why you should consider getting into it is still the same. So I thought I'd let you know that I just finished AnimationMentor.com and will go to my graduation in 6 days (San Francisco). I am really excited to see some of my fellow classmates after all that time, again.

Finally I also updated my demoreel on my main website. Feel free to check it out and send me some comments about it. I will sit down in the coming days and weeks to refine the shots and polish the reel, hopefully.

(please click on the image to follow the link to my website)

So, what did I do in the last two terms? I was working on a short film, the final project for our AM study. I started out with working on a blocking and making the story "work" in a layout (thanks to my mentor Elliot M. Bour), then took a break to move over to the US and get married to my beloved wife (I love you!). After that I continued AM with the fabulous mentor Brett Parker who helped me beyond my hopes to turn this into a movie. And while I am still working on it (rendering, some animation, adding water etc.) you can watch a preview here:

(please click on the image to see the preview)

If this is interesting to you I also uploaded my old, really bad blocking which I had to cut and edit after the break once I had some fresh eyes on it. You can watch that here - but beware, it is really long and not really good. I only upload it for you to see how much I had to change to make the movie work. The music is from the fabulous game series "Monkey Island" composed by the incredibly talented "Michael Land" and was only used for layout reasons.

(click on image)

Well, now about AnimationMentor.com. This has been the educational experience of my life. I can't praise this school highly enough. If you consider going into animation there is NO better place to be. If you are international or from the US, even if you live in San Francisco, I'd recommend to check out AM and give it a try. This school has an amazing spirit going on and compared to many other schools actually IS quite cheap, meaning affordable.

Like with all things, even AM.com depends on what you make out of it... if you don't invest time on the forums, or check out and critique other's peoples work then you won't get the whole AM experience. But if you do I just KNOW that you will become a better animator in the end.

AM is a full animation course - a true university so to say. There is no need to study AM and something else. Actually, it's sad that AM hasn't been out there when I started out. I would have saved tons of money and time on not studying at a normal university, like I did. So, if your parents resist the idea of paying for online schooling, if you work full time like I did, if you have a wife and kids, or if there is anything that keeps you from starting AM, but animation is your passion and you want to become an animator, then talk to your parents/family, find the time, invest the money, because in the end you will be highly rewarded with the knowledge that you can animate and bring dead things to life.

To sum it up: Thanks from the bottom of my heart to the whole AM crew, especially Bobby, Carlos and Shawn. This has been an incredible experience and I was truly blessed by your school!

I might post some pics of the graduation next week, once I am back. Meanwhile I am starting to apply for jobs over here in the US which is very exciting. It's a completely new ball game and I have no idea where I might end up.

God bless and happy new year 2008 to all of you,

Lx

Fincher Fanatics

2007-04-27T15:13:00.000+02:00

While I personally do not like the movies of David Fincher (way too brutal for my taste) one of my best friends created a great block for everyone who does. So, in case you like Fight Club, Seven or even the new Zodiac, here is where you can talk about it:

http://fincherfanatic.blogspot.com/

Alex

AM04 progress reel

2007-03-29T00:14:00.000+02:00

Oh boy, oh boy! Another AM term is over and I am about to start with AM 05! Story class approaching fast. Just to let you know what I was recently working on. And as always: I had too little time =) Well, honestly, this is still not finished and I can't wait to polish my animations later so they become much better. But for now this has to do... so, here you go.

All the best, keep animating,

Alex

AM is still the best...

2007-02-19T10:32:00.000+01:00

In case you were wondering why I didn't post anything... I was spending every second I have into AM since Brett Coderre (PIXAR) is my mentor right now and he helps us all to make big steps forward into becoming better animators... So, sorry to not keep you guys updated, but yes this blog is somewhat still alive =)

Alex

Animation Mentor Class 3 progress reel

2006-12-22T00:40:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I know, I didn't blog at all. But, at least, I give you the latest AM progress reel.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!

Alex

p.s. CHECK THIS XMAS CARD we did for animoto!

The Ugly Duckling And Me Trailer

2006-09-27T12:27:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

finally Ugly Duckling has been released to some territories around the world (Germany in December). So, feel free to have a look at the trailer:

http://www.uglyandme.com/

This European feature was the first feature film I have been working on (animating around 1 minute of animation with three characters). I had such a blast during that time and can't wait to go on with feature animation again.

Have fun,

Alex

I'll be back... err, I am, already =)

2006-09-25T16:50:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

can you believe it? Six months have passed since I left AM to take a little rest. And guess what? That was a very good decision. During that time I could deepen the learned principles and also get a life next to animation. That was very important and now I'm feeling like going on with AM again.

After having met all those fantastic AM people at Siggraph I knew I had to continue. Funny enough, some of my former classmates take a break this term so I won't see them again. Since I'm working full time I guess I will have to take another break sooner or later but currently the plan is still to continue with the study at AM until I get my degree =)

So, currently the site is still under maintenance and I will have to wait some more hours before I can get online. Until then, have a great day, everybody and whohooo!

- Alex

New website is online, too!

2006-07-22T18:22:00.000+02:00

Yes, I did it - my new website is finally online and running. Well, I reduced the 4-pages website to a 2-pages website, so you get half the amount of website for the same price!!! Incredible. Well, I tried to make it "easier" and straight to the point.

Tell me what you think and have fun with it!

- Alex

New demoreel/showreel - Siggraph is coming!

2006-07-14T18:21:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

I finally re-edited my showreel for Siggraph. Unfortunately, since Ugly Duckling & Me is not out in cinemas yet I am not allowed to show animations I did for that feature movie. So I have to stick to other stuff and be patient. Anyway, you can find my demoreel here: http://www.alexmlehmann.com/work.html - there you can choose between two sizes and QT and WMV. So, it would be great if you take a look at it and send me some comments - love to hear what you think.

The weeks before Siggraph are always soo stressfull... phew. But I can't wait anymore!

Have a great weekend,

Alex

World Cup in Germany...

2006-07-09T12:17:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

in case you didn't know... Germany just won the "small final" yesterday night versus Portugal and got third. After the match thousands and tenthousands of people went to famous places all over Germany as I did when I got to Leopoldstraße here in Munich. To give you a little impression of how cheerful people were I put some pictures on my blog. Normally this is one of the 'heavy traffic' streets in Munich - but not yesterday night =)

As for know many Germans cheer for France to win against Italy (though Italy is better, I assume) to avenge our loss in the semi-finals. So, allez les bleus and viva Italia!

- Alex

Alive again...

2006-07-03T17:50:00.000+02:00

Hi everybody!

I cannot believe that 3 months have passed already... and that I didn't write anything on this blog during this time. Taking some time off was heavily needed and I now know that this was the right decision. With Siggraph coming up this month and several projects coming up I used my time wisely to gain some strength for the upcoming months.

Well, what should I start with? How about some information about "The ugly duckling and me"? First of all, as many of you may know, there is a teaser-trailer on aFilms-homepage (CLICK HERE). Secondly, there is a German article about the project featuring Rick Cavanian as the main character (a quite famous German comedian which I really like). You can find the article here.

Other than that... I'm still struggeling whether I can afford to go on with AM. Yes, it is a harsh reality that this costs money =) and I still have to pay tax this year - we will see after I did my tax stuff this year and then I will decide.

A lot has happenend in the last 3 months. I visited Annecy for instance which was a terrific experience... I think, everyone who likes animation should come there at least once in his lifetime.

Anyway, just wanted to say: I'm back and alive again!!! And things haven't changed: animation is the best thing one can do for earning a living!

TTYL and God bless to all of you,

Alex

AM 02 - Week 12 ... a whole lot of sleep to come ...

2006-04-02T00:33:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

this is it, AM Class 02 is over and I'll be having a break for the next term. There are some people who decided to do so but (almost) all of them are going to come back sooner or later. Some of them have to spare some money and some of them just have to take a rest. I'll count into the later, I suppose.

Anyway, as you all know I didn't have much time to work on the AM stuff this term. Because of that I'm not very proud of what I did (although I'm happy I did make it to the end =). Have a look at the compilation by clicking on the picture above to see my final class 02 reel.

And have fun at what you are doing right now! Whatever it is, it will contribute to your experience which will lead into becoming a better animator!

Hugz,

- Alex

AM2 - Week 11 - the final stretch

2006-03-28T11:35:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

here is the latest version of my assignment. I tried to integrate some more polish stuff and get nicer arcs in the arms. But I guess I have to invest more time. Anyway, check it out, it is not that long =)

CLICK ME

- Alex

The ugly duckling & me

2006-03-23T05:17:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

finally, the first teaser and pictures of "The ugly duckling & me" are out to be shown to the public. Check out the a.film-website. You can watch a small Quicktime trailer here as well. AM colleagues told me that they found this link on 10secondsclub.

animoto joined the board of animators relatively late in the production which is why we were working for 'only' three months of it. That means that each of us animators had to animate around 1 minute of the whole movie (containing 1-3 characters per scene). Today I'm finishing my last scene for the movie and will continue with a different project after my holidays next week No feature work, currently, but it will be fun to do something completely new for a while, too.

I hope you like the pictures, I will keep you updated,

- Alex

Continuing on a mid-regular basis with the blog

2006-03-22T10:19:00.000+01:00

Like a Yugoslavian proverb says: A good rest is half the work

Hi everyone,

I'm always astonished to see and hear who and what kind of people all over the world read this blog. I love that. It makes me continue these posts. If you would like to share your thoughts and ideas and maybe even wishes with me, shoot me an email to mail@alexmlehmann.com. I'd love to hear from you if this was/is helpful for you or you would like to know more about something in specific.

So, to clear things up. Since I am still working full-time on a regular basis and I will continue learning some stuff during the break. That also means: I will try to continue blogging here, too. There is so much knowledge out there in the world wide web that it would take years reading all that and listening to all the animation podcasts etc. But from time to time I will blog down what I am doing and maybe those links are interesting for you as well.

Having said that: shoot me an email with what you'd like to hear more about. And don't forget: there is nothing like the "real" thing (www.animationmentor.com). So, go there and sign up! It is worth every penny.

- Alex

AM week 10 - and finally taking a break

2006-03-21T13:11:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

as you may have notived I haven't been blogging for almost two weeks now. You can find my newest assignment by clicking on the picture above. It is just 600kb big. For all of you with little time: sad to say, but I have to take a break before going on with my studies at animation mentor. This school is awesome, the best that happened to me so far, and I hope I can continue my study anytime soon.

Lately I've been working a lot. Like many of you do. I was given the chance to work on a small European feature film called "the ugly duckling and me" which will be coming out late August in Germany. It was a terrific experience and an honour to participate. Though we have been working on this for only three month I had a 60h+ workweek. Doing AM in the evening times and on the weekends my world consisted of nothing else but animation from the moment I got up from bed until I went to sleep again. So work and study ended up with more than 80-100h a week.

I have been working like this for the last 12 months, maybe even longer switching into a job while finishing my first study last year already. In those 12 months I had no time to hang out with my friends, make sports or even go to church. Now, after a strong reaction in my health I realised that this is not what it should be like.

I wish I had the money to study AM full-time straight ahead to the end. But I have to earn money to pay my bills and (luckily) I am also doing animation 10 hours a day. So, I am going to take a break trying to get some time to breathe again. This was a tough decision since I already signed up for the next term. It's also hard to see everyone go on and making progress while I will wait a while but I know that this is the right decision.

So? I just wanted to express my deepest thanks to all of you. You are all becoming great animators and I hope to work with many of you anytime soon. For now, I will take a break, let's see how long it will last. But you guys: keep on swimming! It is worth it. The first "real" acting shot I did I felt incredible happy.

If your body tells you you can't go on, take it seriously and don't be ashamed to take a rest. It is not the distance that kills you but the speed.

So, God bless you, your families and your study, hugz to all of you, there is nothing like AM out there! I may blog from time to time and tell you what I do. I will draw a lot and read books and articles on the web that I didn't have time for before for sure.

- Alex

... still working ...

2006-03-11T20:11:00.000+01:00

AM2 - Week 08 Blocking

2006-03-03T20:48:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

as promised I finished working on the blocking today, on Friday (video 1 MB approx). No work for me on the weekend - I promised the doc, so I get better (still fighting the flu). For now, check it out, and have fun with it.

- Alex

AM2 - Week 07 Assignment

2006-03-03T12:46:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

being sick has one advantage: I have time to upload. The last days I was working a lot and when coming home falling back into bed because of a flu. Now I put myself on hold for three days, trying to get fine again in a rush with some pills and juices the doctor gave me. And now I have time to write some more stuff on the blog.

Well, the last weeks assignment was to finalize our shot. That was a tedious thing. Since I only find the time to animate on the weekend I loose the opportunity of "fresh eyes". That means that you should take at least 2-3 hours off doing something else (planning your new scene etc.) to get a fresh glimpse at your own work.

Then, and this is very important, watch it once - and once only - and write down everything that you know about the shot which does not work. Everything.
Don't watch it twice or more often - you will loose the advantage of having "fresh eyes". Well, the animation didn't turn out 100% imho. I like the second part of it but the beginning still sucks.

But I don't have time to redo it because I am already blocking on the next shot: a baseball player throwing a ball... (see picture). So, check my 1MB "final" version of the last assignment and I will try to upload my first blocking asap.

Have fun,

Alex

Learning Animation

2006-02-22T10:17:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I love animation, I love the internet and I love blogging. You get to know so many people- that is really awesome. Bala, a young animation aspirant from India, just wrote me asking me how I would learn animation. Well, my first answer would certainly be animation mentor, since this is the best program I know and have heard of so far. Many of my friends studied at various university all over the world and the more I know the more comfortable I feel investing my money into AM.

But that also means that I am in the lucky position of having a job that allows me to pay for this education. And there are many talented people out there that can't afford any animation university - maybe currently, maybe never. So, what to do, where to start?

Well, this is difficult to answer. Actually, it is funny that Bala has asked me that question since I found one of the most complete link lists to animation tutorials I have ever seen on his blog. And that is more than anyone can read to start into animation. But what exactly would I do to start into animation without spending very little or any money at all? Here is a quick sketch (but remember, there is no ONE way, there are many out there to become a freaking animation ninja):

1.) Get a copy of "Illusion of Life" of Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.
2.) Read it. When you are done then read chapter 3 again.
3.) Draw every single day. Start with circles and lines. Every day. And do life drawings. If you have no money: draw people on the street or (a little easier at the beginning) draw people from photos... they are 2D already. Try to join a life drawing class at arts schools for free. Just ask the professor if you may sit in the backrow. He might help you.
4.) Read every tutorial over at Keith Langos website.
5.) If you want to join the 3D animation community, get Maya PLE or XSI Exp. I personally recommend XSI Exp since I think the program is better but really, that doesn't matter much. A good starting point for 3D animation is Jeff Lew. I really can recommend that DVD. It was a turning point for me for sure. Download a character someone else has build for you. And then animate with that one. Don't model, don't rig, don't render. Just animate.
6.) Start with "boring" bouncing balls. Don't skip the "boring" parts - not in animation and not in drawing. They are the fundamentals and they make the difference in the end.
7.) Read many blogs of animators and try to do what they did: a sidestep, lifting a box, a bouncing ball, a jumping squirrel, a guy falling.... whatever. Take reference and study the heck out of it.
8.) Be patient. Every kind of art takes time to master. Some are faster at the beginning and some are slower. But eventually you will make it. So don't get discouraged. And please, don't start with a "Two people jumping off a helicopter being chased by 20 police men"-scenario.

9.) And finally when your love for animation has grown: If possible, get into an animation school. Once again, there is a reason why I chose Animation Mentor. And I didn't regret that decision a single day since then. Certainly there are hundreds of great schools out there in the world. But I also heard a many complaints. In my humble opinion, AM is the best program out there at the moment and I would take the same route again and again.

So, animation is no Abrakadabra-magic spell... it is a fine art and a craftsmenship. You can learn it and master it. Start with the basics, set yourself deadlines and then keep on going. You decide the course and you will make it eventually.

I hope that helps you. This is what I would do and in some sort did. Sometimes maybe late but that was my way. So, start right now, animation is an incredible experience. Everytime I watch a scene that I have animated myself after hours and hours of work I look at it and say: "Did I do that? How come they are alive but were dead 7 days ago?"...

I love animation!

- Alex

AM02 - week 06 - Assignment - Re-blocking

2006-02-19T18:00:00.000+01:00

This was my original idea but I won't find the time to realise this.

Hi everyone,

this week was re-blocking time. I had the brilliant idea of taking 30 frames each day and polish them so I like them better. So, on Monday I came home at around 10pm after 12h+ of work... and I fell into my bed. The same on Tuesday... and Wednesday... and the rest of the week. Great plan, still lacks the ability to do it, right? My idea is to do the same this week - except for not finding the time to animate 30 frames a day.

Okay, without further adue here is the file - it is 1.6 MB big and a Quicktime 7 h264. I sometimes think that the h264 doesn't run 100% smoothly and studders but that might just be me or my 3Ghz PC =)

Tell me what you think, still one more week to finally nail this animation.

- Alex

San Francisco Video Report

2006-02-16T11:24:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

as promised here it is: my video report of San Francisco. Well, before I post the links please remember the following: whenever a camera is put on me a misterious 'bad-English' virus suddenly takes over and I start to studder and make bad grammar mistakes. Then again, I didn't do any rehearsals (which I should have done and will do next time). And finally, I didn't take a tripod with me so the camera is really, really shaky. Nonetheless the video hopefully gives you

- a good impression about Animation Mentor Headquarters
- a funny glimpse of ILM (?!)
- and a look at Pixar's entrance and their main hall

Whatever, I hope you have fun watching it. If for nothing else, then at least for fun, right?

You can find a WMV 10 version here: http://am.alexmlehmann.de/SF06_AML.zip (38MB)
For all Mac users I also have a H264 version http://am.alexmlehmann.de/SF06_AML_h264.zip (42MB)

Tell me whether that was a good idea and I should create a better one next time I am there (and then take a tripod, hundred English classes and Steven Spielberg as director).

Well, animate on,

- Alex

Pixar, ILM, Siggraph - a normal week in San Francisco

2006-02-12T22:04:00.000+01:00

Yes, my friends, San Francisco in winter time... well, not always like that, but once in a while... ahh, beautiful!

Hi everyone,

here it is, finally, my blog entry about the travelling to San Francisco, February 2006. Originally I was traveling there because I got the chance of working as ex-student volunteer (XSV) in the Siggraph courses committee which had to decide on the course that are going to be represented this August in Boston. Just click here to get some more information about Siggraph.

That is the Boston Convention Center where Siggraph 2006 will be held.

The process for creating the program was full of fun and getting to know many 'famous' people among the CGI-industry (CGI = computer generated images). Next to working all Saturday there were also times when we went to a restaurant and had the famous 'earthquake' ice which had 20 scoops of ice. Yummy!

In the middle you can see this incredible 20 scoops of icecream earthquake!

In the end we got a nice courses program which will have interesting courses for everyone - on every single day of the conference. I'm really happy that it turned out that way because it is difficult to get everone's interests in one convention. I hope we did succeed.

I got to San Francisco early to meet some awesome people from the animation industry. Among them were Bobby Beck (Pixar, now CEO of Animation Mentor), Rick o'Conner (lead animator at ILM), Shawn Kelly (Ninja animator at ILM), Doug Dooley (my current mentor and body mechanics master at Pixar), Anthony Wong (former Disney 2D artist, now at Pixar) and Michelle Meeker (currently working as a freelance artist, animated on Lord of the rings, Bug's life, Antz etc.). I was pumped just knowing I would meet them and in the end my expectations were all fullfilled and even more than that.

The first day (Monday) I went to Animation Mentor headquarters, located in lovely Berkely not a 5 min. drive away from Pixar - but actually, 1h 20min away from Mountain View where I stayed at Dave Shreiner's house. I had a great car (a 8 people Hertz Gold member Van) which I was given for no other reason than asking kindly - well, maybe asking for a Hummer was a littlebit frank but in the end I got this awesome car for the price of a Honda Civic. Anyway, I drove all the way around the Bay up to Berkely and eventually made it to:

Many of you should know this sign by now due to our weekly videos

Meeting Bobby, Jay, Taylor, Becky, Rosie and all the others was totally fun. I came right on time for lunchtime and so we had pizza together while chatting. I could talk to Bobby about the school and how we as students could spread the word (blogging for instance?) and was able to take a closer look at his office and all the toys he collects there (whoot!).

One of hundreds of awesome toys Bobby has in his office.

Later this week I will be able to release that video to this blog and the AM forum but more on that later.

Bobby right before getting some pizza...

Not only AM is fun online but the headquarters as well. People are as nice as they appear on the video and the overall feeling is relaxed and open. Should you ever feel like going there, do it. The staff is just amazing and they have some awesome stuff to show, too. In the end I made it to the video news to demonstrate people the meaning of timezones and that people from Germany (like me) would sleep at the time we were shooting the video:

timezone demonstration visually expressed

AM HQ was fun and so the week had started off... AWESOME (you are going to hear that word a lot from now on - Shawn Kelly infected me there!). Talking about Shawn. Shawn works at ILM together with Rick o'Conner. Rick is a lead animator currently on a very interesting show. I look forward to it. I was able to visit both and see how they work and what ILM is like. Let me say this: ILM is one of the coolest places to work at - that is for sure.

Yoda fountain - "Me you must seek, ILM you will find"

It was funny to also meet some of the people featured in the videos like Kevin (Martel?) and Charles Alleneck who (btw) has the biggest Lego Star Wars collection on EARTH! Well, that was my impression, at least. At ILM Rick showed me a lot of very, very cool stuff: How they work, which tools they use, how the animators sink into their chairs behind their desk, hundreds of maquettes and photos and pictures and models and Star Wars props... and also their lunch area.

While having lunch in this terrific building (you can see the Golden Gate bridge to the left, Alcatraz inside the Bay and Downtown to your left) we had a question and answer session where I kept bugging Rick and Shawn to the extreme about age limitations, VISA questions or moral issues. It was awesome, totally honest and extremely interesting and the discussion went on in emails even after I left ILM (thanks again, Shawn). Unfortunately I wasn't able to film inside ILM but you just have to believe me that you are feeling like walking through the history of computer animation.

The place is huge, the building awesome but foremost are the people cool and friendly guys creating some incredible work there. Definitely still the top notch place to work at when you are aiming for CG work in live action films!!!

I also met many AM students who were cool enough to leave their seats for one day and come down to the Cha Cha Cha in San Francisco downtown. We had a great time and I tried to talk to as many as possible there. Hopefully I didn't miss too many - in the end, I had a wonderful time just seeing all of them.

One of the few pictures where you can see anything. The ChaChaCha was quite dark....

Thursday was the day were I visited Doug Dooley and Anthony Wong and that way: Pixar. I've been there once for the geeky fact of just shooting a foto of me in front of Pixar but now I was able to turn into the drive way and get into the building as registered guest.

I got into the hallway where people are being picked up by employes. The entrance hall is huge and full of cool stuff. There are a lot of toys around, 4 giant statues of the Incredibles and a brand new car for Daytona racing (for those who don't know yet, Pixar is releasing Cars this year in cinemas). The place is - like ILM - packed with drawings from the movies Pixar has created (remember, together with Cars that are 'only' 6 so far) and walking there you feel like walking through a big version of the making of art books.

Doug and Anthony showed me the cinema they have (wow, that is a bigger one) and the rendering hardware - it is big, loud and has millions of blue and green lamps. I guess it is fast, but that is mostly all I can say about it. Then we turned into the animation "hall" where every single animator has his own little building to live in. And I mean building. They have alleys and walkways and verandas and a huge kitchen, some have a couch and a TV, others a castle made out of bricks, some are pink, some are plain white, some animate while standing... this place was full of creativity.

Doug showed me some cool figures they found on eBay from a carousel. They hadn't been plugged in yet but they are supposed to still work... amazing. The whole place had so much life going on you really have to know where to go to first before starting. Well, I was lucky and got to meet Carlos Baena too and we talked a littlebit about AM and Europe, too. All in all it was great meeting him and he certainly has the same energy that he shows in the videos every week. His office too was awesome. All Pixar animators have a huge 40"(inch) display that is just huge big (well, I guess some 'just' got 23" ones but I'm not sure).

Doug's office was especially cool since it had two levels (one on top of the other) where the second one had a couch and a tv. He was even able to build a staircase into that 3x3m big office... way cool. Anthony has a more convenient office together with Nancy K! Also, a very impressive mentor mostly working as campus mentor there! It was super cool meeting her.

As at ILM I just couldn't resist to buy some way cool stuff (two shirts, the Moma-book and some toys at Pixar, two shirts and a mug at ILM)... and the best thing is: no one cares if you act geeky - everyone is. I mean, even Pixar employees buy their own stuff. Totally amazing.

Then Doug, Anthony and me had an AWESOME discussion about AM and this term. We talked about story and personality and I got to know Doug better which was super cool. I also had a glimpse into how keen Pixar is about story and how well things have to be thought off before animating on them. They teached me a mini-10-min lecture there. Whoot!

I could film some of the entrance hall and you can see that in my video later this week.

Well, that's it for now. The whole trip was more than exciting, mind-blowing, awesome, enormous, captivating... whatever you can say. I'm super thankful to have been able to meet all those people. They were kind enough to show me far more than I had thought of. And San Francisco is a wonderful place to live in, too. So, I will be working hard on getting there some day when I can't stand Munich anymore. For now, I better start animating seriously good stuff to be able to show it around.

Feel free to shoot me some questions. Though I tried not to harm any legal issues I hope I still could tell some interesting stories.

- Alex

AM02 - week 05 - Assignment

2006-02-12T21:45:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

today I hope to find the time to write some interesting blog entries about my traveling as well as the last weeks assignment. For now, let me start with the assignment first. Well, we could choose between four different assignments each of varying difficulty. I tried the assignment where Stewie (with no arms) is supposed to jump from post to post. This sounded like a fun assignment though I and Doug (my mentor) didn't like the character with no arms attached.

Therefore I tried to make him look like his hands are put in his pockets and Stewie is just totally cool while jumping over this deadly canyon. Quite surprisingly my sister came for a visit which took some time (it was great, though) but I was able to finish the first rough blocking right on time. So, I will definitely work more on the contrast in timing and might as well add some more inbetweens before going into refinement but the overall motion and idea is already put into Maya.

So, check this video file (click on the picture above) - it is just 1MB big - which also means that I had to switch to a new codec called H264. For those of you who never heard of that: it is the new codec that will also be used for HD-video files. It is a very powerful codec able to minimize filesize drastically but you will need the free Apple Quicktime 7.0 player (Quicktime with iTunes - Quicktime Standalone Installer). I totally recommend those programs and even more to go PRO - which means to pay 30$ for a full unlocked version. It has some nice features like creating H264 video streams etc. From now on, Quicktime 7.0 is a must for AM-students which I find a good decision. That way all files stay small and people won't have to wait forever to see the assignment of someone.

Anyway, I hope you like the new assignment. These coming weeks are all about personality in the character and won't focus on story. I will try to put as much personality in the jump as possible. Have fun,

- Alex

Back from SF - AM week 04

2006-02-08T00:56:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I am back from San Francisco and jet lagged. It is 1am and I am still awake even though I worked all day and stood up at 6:30am... well, anyway, it was AWESOME! And I mean that kind of Shawn Kelly AWESOME! This huge AWESOME! Well, awesome...

I will try to edit a little video about this travel to SF later but for now I just submitted some late planning for last week. Check it out and I will try to get some sleep!

- Alex

San Francisco is absolutely awesome

2006-02-01T04:19:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I've been here before and I tend to think that I know the streets here better than in Munich - weird isn't it? At my first visit I was driving around a lot and found several nice places to stay at. This time I stay in Mountain View which is a really nice place 1h away from SF - depending on traffic.

Staying at Dave Shreiner's house (the chair of the courses committee) I have the opportunity to find out how it is living in the States. I can tell you - I really like it. Even though I catched a cold/flu and I have to take some medicine to stay at it I really like the way they are living here. And if 10°C is the worst that SF gets during winter time then bring it on.

Anway, I will drink some more of this bad tasting Vitamin C tea and then work some more.

Hugz,

- Alex

High above the clouds

2006-01-29T22:17:00.000+01:00

Technologically advance is an astounding thing nowadays. After watching Chicken Little in 3D with great CL-glasses on my glasses I jumped aboard the Lufthansa LH 458 today - the world's first airline that brings internet to their guests. You basically pay 10$ per hour and I did get a coupon for 30 min off and 50% of the price so it is really cheap for me.

Right now we are somewhere above the northpole - but though I was looking thoroughly I couldn't see the Polar Express. I guess, Tom has one day off...

Anyway, isn't it great to go online when you are on your way to San Francisco? I can check my emails, my new critique (Doug finally likes the idea) and even download the new lecture. Man, that is awesome.

So, this blog entry is kind of unique I guess. It was written high above the clouds and also uploaded there. I really like this airline...

Hugz from da clouds,

- Alex

AM02 - week 03 - Assignment

2006-01-29T04:46:00.000+01:00

It is 5am... the sun is almost coming up again. Though I should be tired I am not... maybe the idea of flying to San Francisco keeps me awake. I don't know.

Today I had to make a tough decision: either follow Doug's mentoring suggestion to animate "Ballie stepping into a bucket - which has to stand on the ground" or creating a totally new story three weeks into this term already which Doug never heard of... Since I couldn't come up with any idea of Ballie turning around and stepping into a bucket which wouldn't look silly or not unbelievable I decided to create a complete new story once again - the forth time this week.

Well, and now it is finished... and I don't feel too happy. Actually I think that the other ideas would have been much stronger and more funny - which is why I still integrated them into the movie file. I understand Doug's criticism about those stories and he is right about it - but I tried to concentrate on the body mechanics and didn't want to tell a whole feature film in 8 seconds.

Well, the new idea is clear and simple - yet - maybe even boring. I shouldn't use the cycling in the air and I didn't but I think that even the new story would have been better if the vase crashes to the floor and Ballie jumps away like a maniac.

Anyway... I was trapped and there was barely a way out. Hopefully Doug likes the new story at least. I couldn't talk about it earlier and I felt really uncomfortable going against his suggestion. The animation had to be done really quickly and is somewhere between a blocking stage and some refinement. There is still a lot missing but those four stories took their tribute... so, sorry for such a crappy animation...

But you better just check that yourself. You can find the animation here - it is 10MB big.

Everyone, now it is time for me to go to bed. My plane will leave Munich at around 4pm tomorrow and then it will be one week of pure San Francisco visiting... I look forward to that and all the people I am going to see there.

God bless you,

- Alex

AM - one week of almost getting nowhere...

2006-01-25T00:05:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

for everyone who is interested in my workflow...I just wanted to show two versions of ideas that I won't be taking in the end (one from yesterday)... so, they are very, very rough and I couldn't finish them since I'm working on something more KISS still... I was very tired and did this test after work... it is bad, I know... but just for you to see that everything is a process involving a lot of work... sometimes I just show the results and not the many failures =) so, here it is:

2.5MB MOVIE of WIP

- Alex

AM02 - week 03 - public review process

2006-01-23T22:20:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

Doug's the fastest mentor in AM, I suppose. He critiqued my work superfast and told me that he didn't like the overall story elements since Ballie must have seen the Bug he was stepping on in the old version. Since I'm travelling to San Francisco next week I have to finish the second phase of blocking and the refinement process this week already... phew.

So, I roughed my new idea into the computer to show Doug what I was going for - and here is the process. I hope he will make it in time and give me greenlight or direction where I should be heading to.

Feel free to send me your thoughts about this new roughed in blocking. The poses overall are awfull and off balance and I'm going to change that as soon as Doug agrees with the story line.

Here we go (please click on the picture, 3.5MB):

Be brave and click the picture, young hero!

Till later,

- Alex

AM02 - week 02 - Assignment

2006-01-22T16:08:00.000+01:00

Tachchen auch...

Hi everyone and welcome to the end of week 02!

I'm glad you joined me once again on my trip to animation land. This week we had to start blocking in our shots. Since I submitted two ideas Doug narrowed this down to one decision: skip the ball animation I suggested and go for the 180 degree turn. So, I worked on that and did some thorough planning.

Guys, AM is true... I did plan more as I did work on the computer in the end. Because I had a good idea of what I wanted to do in the computer in the end I just needed around 3 hours to put everything in... I mean, just three hours... that is nothing. I know that Rick'O'Conner does animate a whole shot in 3 hours (a senior ILM animator who totally rocks) but for me 3 hours is blazingly fast. I wish I could animate like that at animoto and get such results...

Speaking of, this is just roughed in and it is just blocking. But following the rules KISS (keep it simple, stupid) and "show early show often" I wanted to show Doug this version before I go on and start to refine things. I think there is a lot of work to do on it still but you will get the idea I'm sure. So, here is the movie - it is just 5MB big... just click on the picture to load it =)

yes, click on the picture right away =)

Well, I'd love to know what you think about it, so shoot me an email if you feel like it.

Now, onto AM features. The AM feature of the week is the new lecture/assignment site. It features various changing videos every week for the lecture and the assignment, as well as the keypoints we have to stick to each week. Also we have some kind of a definition list to animation terms there, so if you feel helpless if someone is saying KISS all the time you can go there and check what it means...

So much for now, ttyl and God bless you all,

- Alex

AM02 - week 01 - Assignment

2006-01-16T20:16:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

I'm still exploring this new insanely cool AM website... man, it got huge and we have soo many new awesome features. Next to that I finally got started with my work and I seem to have overcome the artist's blocking... so, it seems like things are moving finally, now I just have to turn that into animation =)

I currently hear some music from a fellow animentee called mc chris. Chris, if you read this, pretty neat stuff. Oh, before I talk about my this week's assignment just another thing: I finally booked my flight to San Francisco in just two weeks!!! This is oh so cool, I can't believe it! Man, I will visit many great people over there and if I'm lucky I can stay at the house of the courses chair.

Well, the new AM feature of the week I want to talk about is: our new orientation videos. To explain the new features of the website AM has created over 30 minutes of videos explaining how it works. Bobby is showing all buttons and shortcuts and stuff and believe me, it is awesome. I mean, it is not complicated but it has hundreds of cool features. So many, that you have to show it in different videos.

Well, I will talk about new features from now on as often as I find time for it. About my new assignment. We could choose between different assignments and I offered two things to my mentor: a heel kick (believe me, no KISS - keep it simple, stupid - story) and a turnaround 180°. The incredible fast mentor Doug Dooley did his critique yesterday (yack!) already and explained me, why he like the 180° version better which is totally fine with me, I like it too.

He then changed my - step into a gum - into something like a bucket and I'm currently discussing with him whether to choose a flower to step on. But enough said, for this week this is my planning.

Rick'o'Conner was giving this week's lecture and was discussing on how he handles a shot. This wasn't only one of the most fun lectures I've seen so far but full of cool stuff, too. So adopted a lot of his work method into my workflow and my planning, check it out:

I still have to change the second part since Ballie won't step into a gum anymore but I will do that once I've discussed this with Doug. For now I think that the planning is pretty solid and the animation will be fun, I am sure.

So, enough for this week's assignment, I have to plan a flight to San Francisco, yehaa!

- Alex

AM02 - week 01 - AM has gone incredible...

2006-01-12T12:52:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

I'm very, very sorry for NOT having written anything during the whole holiday season. I was busy like crazy doing an After Effects job for a company in Stuttgart and I also visited many friends in good ol' Hamburg. But for all those curious fellas out there I have tons of things to tell because soo much has happened. I don't know where to start and I will definitely tell it over the weeks.

First of all: AM has gone V2! What does that mean? It means that the best has become the perfect. They created a totally new website system in HTML taking 9 month of suggestions from mentors and students into account. What they created is the most incredible online school system I can think of. Chats, better video quality, orientation guides, direct buddy list, sort by mentor, integrated forum... it would and will take some time until I can write all that down into my blog.

Anyhow, AM02 has started and it also has been reworked completely. What does that mean? Well, students from higher semesters said that there was a big gap between AM01 and 02 and it was difficult for most people to follow. Now they changed the syllabus and it looks great. We are the lucky first ones to be part of the new syllabus. I will start with a Ballie and his heel kicking a ball... you will see a lot about this the coming days and weeks here.

Now for the big news: I have a new mentor and he is called: DOUG DOOLEY! This guy is freaking awesome. He worked on Ice Age (Blue Sky) and went over to Pixar for Monster's Inc., Finding Nemo, Incredibles and Cars... I guess right now he works on Ratatouille... but I'm not sure. This awesome animator is not only MR.BODYMECHANICS himself (he is mainly assigned to heavy body mechanic shots at Pixar) but also an incredible teacher. He loves teaching and thinks a lot before he goes online.

He is said to be a tough grader which is good for us. Being patted on the back all the time doesn't help me at all - though I sometimes NEED that. His grades are A for extra-terrestrial work that just kicks butt, B for production quality, C for work on it, D for you need more time and E for no way.... don't want to talk about F...

The Q&A with Doug tonight at 5am (German time) was incredible and he told us many important things already.

One last thing: I was accepted as one of five first XSVs for the Siggraph ever. XSV stands for ex student volunteer and you have to apply for it as well as being promoted by others (thanks Mk, Sacha and Mr. Keppler). Now things are coming along. I had to find 5 tertiary reviewers to help me with the review process and I'm honoured with an incredible team:

Michelle Meeker (Pixar, PDI, Weta, EA), Shawn Kelly (ILM), Tony Longson (CalState LA), Jürgen Richter (Amblimation, Munich Animation, animoto) and Anthony Wong (Disney, Pixar).

If everything works out I'm going to visit some of them this coming February in San Francisco. This heavily depends on how much work we will have to do each week for the 'secret' job I am currently working on. I hope they let me go for one week though I love every minute working here =)

Anyhow, so much for now. Animoto, AM, Siggraph and the trip to San Francisco... there is a lot to talk and blog about and I hope to see you here often. I try to update as much as I can. Spread the word and lure some people here. I hope that I can transfer the excitement of AM to this blog and answer many unasked questions that are out there.

God bless you all,

- Alex

Animation Mentor 1st. term conclusion

2005-12-12T14:00:00.000+01:00

First things first: here is the final version of my demoreel AM 01 and it got a littlebit bigger (28MB, QT6, soerensen 3). You can also download it as a H.264 version with 18MB QT7 but I personally prefer the Soerensen version because it runs smoother =)

Well, AM01 (Fall 05) is almost over. This week we will be getting a final Q&A with Bobby, Shawn and Carlos (whootwhoot!) and see a video that sums up everything we have learned so far. I can't wait to see that, really.

I'm totally excited about AM. Applying to the program was one of my best decisions I've ever made. AM is animation syrup. AM is all about animation excitement. AM is a strong online community. AM is an ongoing learning experience. AM is pure animation - no modeling, no rendering, no things besides animation.

There were some times where I could barely finish my assignments because of the full time job I have... and some times where I thought I couldn't pull it of. But now, after the first term, with many encouraging words from my fellow animation ninjas aspirants I feel like going on forever...

So, to sum things up: if you think about joining AM or any other learning experience out there? I would choose AM. Though I don't know anything about specific programs at other art schools etc. I have studied 4 1/2 years myself to become a 'audiovisual engineer'. I haven't learned 10% about animation at my university from what I've learned in the first three months at AM. And the community is strong.

If you have any questions regarding AM, send me an email at mail[at]alexmlehmann.com - I will gladly answer them. And no, no one's paying me or others for that. It is just by heart that all AM-students love their school so much.

Okay, I will keep on posting over the next weeks, AM02 is going to start on the 9th of January 2006 for me. Then my preparations for Siggraph 2006 will also take place. And some nice jobs at animoto.

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog. We have reached 1000 hits finally and I am glad that there are some people out there who are interested in what I and AM are doing.

Merry Christmas everyone and God bless you,

- Alex

Animation Mentor Week 11

2005-12-11T20:30:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

more later, just for everyone to see early, here is my latest assignment (20MB).

God bless you,

Alex

Animation Mentor Complete Round-Up

2005-12-07T00:43:00.000+01:00

"Exciting" news this week... Animation Mentor Class 01 comes to an end next week and I am going to have my last Q&A with Michelle tomorrow. Well, that is sad and I am going to miss her! The good thing about the end of the first term is: rest, sleep, doze... and find out what I did all those weeks.

So Bobby asked us to put together a video showing all of our works for this term. The editing alone needed one evening but it was worth it... so, without further adue here is the final 20MB version of term01 of my works:

PICK ME, PICK ME (takes a while, 20 MB Quicktime 6.0 Soer.3 Video, Music Danny Elfman, Men in Black 2, Worm Lounge #1)

So, I would love to hear some comments about what you think... whether you see any improvement over those weeks or whether you like that stuff. Just shoot me an email or take a look at that incredible comment button below. Gee, fantastic those PC-whatevers...

Anyway, some more stuff I feel like writing here... I got a very nice email from Micha who decided to join AM. Hooorray! for Micha. Good decision, you won't regret it. Just to make sure: if anyone of you has questions - shoot me an email! I'll gladly answer them, if I can... to be more specific. I live in Germany, I work full-time and do AM, I work on XSI at work and on Maya for AM and I am 27 years old. So, if any of that interests you, send me one of those package of 01011001's that are called emails...

Last but certainly not least, I got accepted as XSV for next year's Siggraph 2006 in Boston. Yehaa, cheerio and boom..! I still don't know how much time will be involved in being an XSV but I can't wait to get to Boston asap... if you think about going or not going to Siggraph 2006? GO! It is worth every minute of it. And since it is in Boston it will be cheaper for Europeans than LA last year...

Okay, so much for now, enjoy the show, press the comment button down below and don't forget to do your good deed for the day to make the world a better place. God bless you,

- Alex

p.s. I am still going to post the next weeks but maybe a little less than usual =)

Animation Mentor Week 10

2005-12-04T22:25:00.000+01:00

(new version of the exhausted pose)

Hi everyone!

Well, in case you didn't notice... it 'still' is week 10 since AM had a server crash and had to restart week 10. Those guys are pros and know how to handle difficult situations. Anyway, next to a great live Q&A with Jason Ryan (yes, Mr.Animation Supervisor for Chicken Little) yesterday and meeting the awesome Clay from Animation Podcast live (same Q&A - thanks Clay, you rock!) we had this nice assignment this week: "create a character walk with a character that has character"... sounds great, huh?

I dived into the mind of a sneaky animation ninja ball that sneaks up to his animation skills and came up with this:

Since we just had one week (actually because of the crash it were two - but one was eaten up by my full-time work) from planning to final animation I'm quite happy with what came out of it. There is still sooo much to work on (knee flapping, hard drop of knees, sqash&stretch for the body) but the character is in there already what I really like. I hope to have some time to put that stuff into revision because I really like the character walking like that.

Oh, I forgot to post the final assignment for last week: Week 09 new

And this is the most recent one: Week 10

Feel free to drop me some comments on these (better on week 10 though =) You all be blessed and have a wonderful upcoming christmas time!!!

- Alex

Laila, Andy and Marcel

2005-12-01T23:22:00.000+01:00

Hello! It's been a while since I was able to post something here. AM server was down for two days which threw us all back one week. Believe me: that was really helping me out! I could tweak my walk at least a littlebit more and upload the newer version. It still has some minor spacing problems and the push-up of the leg doesn't work but it runs smoothly at least =)

Currently I'm experiencing the feeling on missing too much of the good stuff out of AM... I can't sit full-time on AM... hey, I can't even sit more than 2 days on AM plus those nights I spend. But there is soo much information I want to read and threads I want to participate... Carlos was talking 2 hours in a Q&A (which was only for students that missed their Q&A, I think) and a nice guy wrote down notes... others are talking about Chicken Little and we got two featured mentors I couldn't even READ about... But work is demanding right now. I was finishing two different projects and already hopped on other jobs. I even missed out the second part of the Eric Goldberg interview because I thought I still had time.

Well, that teaches me one thing: if 80 hours aren't enough for work AND Animation Mentor why don't I spend 100h? At least the week has 168 hours, right? I'm still searching for the leak in my time schedule that drives me crazy... but I think that leak is called 'life'... Anyway, I attached a picture of my current exhausted pose... and no, it is not a photo of my current life situation =) but I really knew what I wanted to create. Tell me, what you think, still got 3 days for this assignment and creating a personality walk. I will do a sneaky walk which i can't wait to see myself (I hope the weekend is good to me timewise =).

But... as you may have noticed this blog-entry is called Laila, Andy and Marcel - there are three persons I'd like to introduce you to.

Midget no.1: Laila is a very talented drawing artist that has worked on the 'big project' in our studio. Next to being one of the happiest persons on earth, having a wonderful talent in drawing and kicking serious b... in Capoeira, she also has a talent of dropping things on the floor (I really miss that sound these days while she is on holidays!) and getting lost while turning more than 180 degree on a spot. She currently travels through Costa Rica (will she ever find the way home?) and specializes on storyboarding. Check her work at: http://www.lailart.dk/

The next upcoming talent is Marcel. Marcel has worked on hundreds of projects as sound artist and composer and speaking about him like this he would wave aside like 'no big deal'. He is a very humble person but his talent is outstanding and I am sure that he will bring the world some wonderful art in sound and music. Next to providing the sound for all of my short films he worked on Bloodrayne and German radio dramas. He is one of the few people showcasing a hear-reel and I recommend listening to it at: http://www.audiosexual.de/ (even though the website is German =)...

Finally let me introduce you to Andy. This ambitious fella is a very special and dear friend to me - one of my best. Since my opinion about him may appear subjective I let his work speak for himself: being an assistant director for more than 12 German (and international) broadcasted music video clips he also worked as a director and screenwriter. He is currently developing childrens TV series' for international release and earns his money with proofreading and consulting screenplays for TV and cinema. After finishing his diploma about developing, creating and financing a 27 episode children TV show he got a job for writing short stories for a German TV show. His variety is broad and his insight covers many if not all of the necessary aspects for creating visual story content and media - a rare talent from writing to directing to producing ... check his website: www.dramaconsult.de.

So much for now, next episode I will talk about Timo and Thomas... until then, back to my Wacom and the computer!

- Alex

New walk cycle

2005-11-22T01:32:00.000+01:00

Sometimes the easiest things seem difficult... popping knees for example. Not that a walk cycle or popping knees are easy in itself but there are some handy tricks the dumbest animator should know about: animation ghosting for instance... or if you want a grease pencil on your monitor...

But working this crazy I forgot about this while animating the walk... and that is why it sucks! So, today I read about animation ghosting, hit my forehead, hit it again... and worked 15 minutes to fix the worst popping...

Now you are right when you say that his legs aren't straight (totally) anymore and that would be another thing to address... but for now, check out this much smoother and more beautiful walk cycle... still there is much to be done though.

walk cycle animation 500kb

You know the good thing about animation is that you never stop learning... I think I will learn on walk cycles even when I'm 85 and still animating... so much about my lack of ability this week... I work hard on getting better and I hope to present better work each week...

For those of you who are interested I also uploaded some sketches I did with my new wacom. They show my thought process of this weeks assignment and are still in developement... just to let you know how I work =)

At least I still have faith =),

- Alex

Week 09 - Animation Mentor

2005-11-20T21:36:00.000+01:00

Hiyaa! Kazaam!

Hi everyone,

I am at full training! No time for talking! Great animation ninja style to fight! So, here is my latest assignment. Hiyaa! Check... it ... out! Boom. I do not like it though... still much needs to be done. Animoto is full of work and AM assignments get bigger... so, check this out. New strong pose:

And this, new "concerned" pose:

And finally, the masterblow, this: http://am.alexmlehmann.de/am01w09/w09_full.mov (12mb, download fully first)... the knees are still popping and I have some issues regarding arcs... feel free to rail against me and my lack of ability... I will humbly accept your beating...

Now, onto the training... I need to get better!!!! Ahhhhhhhhahhhh! Hiyaaa!

God bless you all,

- Alex

Bug amuck!

2005-11-16T21:01:00.000+01:00

Ahhh! I could scream. Do you know the feeling when you are excited about an idea and run around like "Isn't that beautiful?" or "Take a look at this!"... and everyone you show it to just shrugs his shoulders and says "Yeah, it's alright..."? Or even worse: "Nah, I don't get it"... that is the tough part about being in a creative field. You sometimes get carried away with your own ideas hiding them in the closets and once you show it people aren't that nuts about what you did the way you are... (see the old pic one blog-entry below)

This recently happened to my strong pose assignment. I was thinking like crazy of a creative way to show strength without showing heavy lifting or buldging muscles... and I came up with the Mr. Incredible pulls of his water tap without wanting... and know what? 30% liked the idea and 70% said it misses the point of a strong pose. Now the downside: they are absolutely right! This has nothing to do with a "strong" pose... but more with a "strong" gag in a pose... Ben said that and really nailed it. This bugged me all day and I really had to concentrate at work not to re-do the pose right away. Coming home I sat down at the PC without eating until this has been changed...

And there I was again with my problem: how to show strength without adjusting the muscles or lifting heavy weights? I looked at body builders and their pose is dull because it just works through showing their muscles and skin... I finally (in my "anger") found a way that I think works out quite well. You could call it "tough" or "angry" also but I think there barely is one pose that just shows one thing. So, after working it in the PC here it is. Let me know what you think and whether this works. I'm really happy that it doesn't use any props at all... but if this is better you have to decide. If not, let me know. Feel free to ruin my day!!! I want to know it! So, no holding back there!

Oh, one sidenote. I finally ordered a Wacom tablet which is arriving tomorrow and I'm really excited about it... we'll see what's happening with my drawing abilities...

God bless you all,

- Alex

Week 08 - full version Animation Mentor

2005-11-13T20:34:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I just uploaded my final version of the assignment for this week. There is a pose assignment ("strong") and an animation (both in 2D and 3D) and th revision of last week. Well, you won't see all too much difference between the revised and the new version. Both Michelle and Ethan liked it but wanted it to be a littlebit quicker at leaving the ground and landing... I did that and now the jump feels a littlebit more dynamic.

Next there was this pose assignment about a strong character. Bulging muscles or lifting weights are surely and easy way to show this but I thought about a normal situation in which you need strength (or not =). I hope one gets the gag in the end.

The animation hasn't changed since the last post but I added a 2D version of the walk. First of all: it is of model and that isn't good but hey, I'm not a drawing artist (yet?). Second there is this huge mistake in frame 3 and 15 that slides the pushing leg back... I think I'm going to change that soon but I had so much to work on this week that I barely made my assignments in time. Well, anyway, feel free to comment on anything you like.

Oh, there is an ongoing discussion about using personal notes on AM where you could say something about one week's assignment. I think that this would add even more to this wonderful community. This is why I added a little test-PN this week on my new server. It is kind of weird to see my own face talking and I get nervous not to forget anything in a short period of time... but maybe you like the idea as well. If more and more people start doing this it may be integrated in the web-system of AM soon (see my own personal video week 08 here, still in testing phase) and watch the assignment video week 08 here (16MB, loads completely first before showing up on screen).

God bless you all,

- Alex

Week 08 - Animation Mentor - Walks

2005-11-12T16:35:00.000+01:00

Phew... walks? I mean, isn't that one of the most nasty things to animate at all? I think it is so difficult because we as humans are able to tell a persons name just by her/his walk from a far distance even. Body language is nearly as well developed among people as reading once face. We recognize even the slightest mistake in a walk and think that this looks weird or wrong. This is why I encourage you to tell me what could be changed about this one: you are an expert already =) by walking for more than 10 years over this planet. - children under the age of 10 should be acompanied by an eligible adult -

Anyway, check this one out. It is just blocked out which is why it looks a littlebit jiggy but finishing is next week so... anyway, it is just 263kb and comes right out of my new(!) virtual 5GB-server! Yehaa, enjoy.

God bless you all,

- Alex

WEEK 08 ANIMTEST (263kb, yes, click here... it is working, did I thank Lindsay already?)

Lindsay...

2005-11-07T12:47:00.000+01:00

Isn't that a wonderful community where you post your stuff, someone drops by, sees you're having issues and helps you to stand up again? I don't know why Lindsay dropped by and what made her take the time of writing (heck, most of my friends don't take the time to comment ;) ... but... I'm more than thankful! She was absolutely right about her suggestions and all IE-users should be able to read my blog without having issues anymore. Lindsay, wherever you are right now: thank you.

Oh, about your blog... man, 20 that is still soo young. Being 27 I feel like an old owl already... but 20 - life is just starting =) I hope you'll always meet friendly people from somewhere around the world trying to help you when you're in need - may it be virtual or in real life.

God is great. I love my life.

- Alex

Display issues on Internet Explorer

2005-11-07T11:31:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I seem to experience some display issues on IE with my blog and can't figure out why. If you read this with FireFox or an RSS-reader things might look correctly but IE is making problems. Please open this once in IE and send me an email whether you can see the sidebar next to the text (it seems to be shown below the threads). I'm working on this and I'm really sorry for this happening... hope I can fix this really quickly,

- Alex

Week 07 - Animation Mentor

2005-11-06T20:06:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

How is life? My one is wonderful. One of my dearest friends has finally found work again after being unemployed for two months, projects in company turn out nicely and I'm still able to study at this incredible online school... so, I'm more than thankful. Let me us this space to introduce you to two friends and coworkers both of incredible talent: Greg Manwaring (http://manwaring.blogspot.com/), has been working for Disney and Amblin amongst others on Lion King, Pocahontas, Iron Giant etc.

Second there is Boris Hiestand (http://borishiestand.blogspot.com/ still a young one but with remarkable animation talent). I recommend both blogs since Greg posts tricks of a trade once in a while (how cool is that?) and Boris shows some of his artwork. I'm sure to meet this guy at different companies all around the world and wait for some animations to be shown on his blog.

To conclude this list let me also introduce Bodil Heinemeier (http://bodilbangheinemeier.blogspot.com/ an incredible young woman with extraordinary talent). Man, I wish I could show you her box of drawings next to her desk. It is full of beautiful drawings varying strongly in their content: space marines, indian women, old people, young kids, fantasy stuff... she really is talented and I'm lucky to have a fairy drawing of her on my wall at home.

There are more people to show you in the next days... so stay curious =)

Anyway, let's talk about this weeks assignment. It was our job to create a jump animation with a one legged ball within 120 frames only. This really helped me to stick with the assignment only. So, I think about going more KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) the next weeks. Here is my planning:

And here is my animation (13MB) - this is exactly the version I upload to AM this week which explains the written explanations in the movie, hopefully. http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w07_an03.mov

Feel free to post some comments. I hereby greet Ndy, Thomas, Franzi, Laila and Kay especially for dropping by, I know you sometimes do =)

God bless you,

- Alex

p.s. If you haven't done yet, go and watch "Corpse bride" and especially listen to the wonderful score of Danny Elfman. You can listen for free to the whole soundtrack at http://www.mp3.com/albums/20061669/summary.html just click on STREAM IT and there you'll go. I recommend especially minutes 0-2, 6-9, 20-24, 27-30 and 40-47. The rest ist good as well but I love this theme (did I ever mention that I just love little musical clocks?)

Official eyes&ears award press release

2005-11-03T12:39:00.000+01:00

Well, I think it is kind of funny to see Disney put out a press release about work you have done (indirectly) for them, so I wanted to share this with you. Unfortunately it is in German but maybe you'll understand it anyway.

The commercial was all about brother bear characters (the mooses) that are talking about easter. They had easter egss all around their antlers. And they featured their original German voice cast which was hilariously funny for Germans (they had a wonderful swedish-faked accent here full of bad German grammar). I was responsible for creating the 3D animated eggs in their antlers and had a wonderful time doing this.

I was working with the toonshader so that the animation blended in more seemlessly and I also worked on twos so you don't see any difference between 3D and 2D in the animation. It worked pretty well but I think seeing it today I would spot hundreds of mistakes in there. Anyway, here is the press release:

Later =),

- Alex

Week 07 - early feedback welcome

2005-11-02T12:18:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

this is an early test on this weeks assignment which features 120 frames of an one-legged character jumping... feel free to send me some comments and ideas about it =)

- Alex

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w07_an01_small.mov

Animoto - a dream job in Germany

2005-10-31T14:17:00.000+01:00

Well, I promised to talk a littlebit about my job here in Germany. Imagine a company small enough so that your voice is heard and big enough to get wonderful projects - that is animoto, a great 2D/3D animation company in southern Germany - Munich. I started here in March 2005 while finishing my final exam in university. Animoto called me for a job that actually never happened but since I already got there they put me on another project:

A spot for Disneychannel Germany featuring the elks of brother bear. This was just plain awesome! I had the priviledge of creating 3D effects on a 2D background layer working with an actual ex-Disney-artist right here in Germany. This was like a dream come true. The spot turned out quite well and was very funny if you speak German. Last Friday it won a price for 'best integrated special commercial' from the eyes&ears award (link) which makes me even more happy.

Animoto is small, as I already said, and is changing size every month. Since we were working on a bigger project we had up to 15 2D artist on the spot. I've finished working on animations for Nickelodeon characters playing chess in a flash game last Friday. And we always have some nice character animation going on I'm not able to talk about yet.

this is the desk I'm working on featuring my own laptop and a XSI/Maya-workstation

So, to sum it up, animoto is a dream job. It is not Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks, but is full of fun, good projects, wonderful colleagues and packed with learning experience. Making a mistake is being handled by a team that doesn't blame you... and believe me, this helped me a lot already. Fellow artists here have worked at Dreamworks and Disney on projects from 'Help! I'm a fish' and 'Balto' up to 'Pocahontas', 'Roger Rabbit' and 'Lion King'.

I'm sure that I'm going to go to the States for some time sometime but for now I congratulate myself every single day for being able to work here and even earn money. God has given me this wonderful opportunity here and I hope that I'm going to be a blessing to this company that has given me so much. After all, they even encourage me to do AM... what else could a company do =)

So much for now, their website is http://www.animoto.de/ - like hundreds of other pages we are working so much we barely are able to update the site. We are always watching demoreels so feel free to send in your stuff. From time to time jobs come up that need more artist in a short period of time... so, why don't you just send your reel?

Have fun,

- Alex

Week 06 - Animation Mentor - animation assignment

2005-10-30T16:18:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

this week could be titled... "catching up". Well, at least I try to. This was a great day today because we got one hour more. Couldn't every day just have 25 hours? I can sleep one hour longer and this way create more quality work during the day.

Anyway, I'm going to read all those hundreds of post I missed during the last week and I have to upload my stuff still. This weeks assignment was a blast and I really enjoyed it a bunch. Finally we got to animate Tailor. You can't imagine how much story you can tell with a ball and a tail. I've seen some awesome animations out there already and it gets more and more difficult to keep up with the good guys.

Ben, our 2D guy, did an awesome animation on paper and talking about KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) - he doesn't seem to know what it means. Haha! Amazing stuff, really. And his animation keeps going on and on. And Martin (my roommate) was a blast, too. He is never satisfied with my work. I think he is never satisfied with his own work as well. So he keeps on pushing me and telling me where my animation just lacks quality. And even though I hate it when he nags on my work... he still is right and after getting over it my animations get better. Thanks, Martin.

Anyway, talking about Tailor. I wanted to animate him soo much and really thought about what to do. I decided on this:

Yes, quite a bunch, I think. And the 180 degree turn almost killed me because you have to overlap in at least 2 directions at a time (talking about "muting" one channel which makes this easier). Well, after hours of planning, animation and tweaking I finished with this version:

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w06_an01.mov (6MB - plays after loading fully)

Since I'm currently animating full time on two 30 seconds spots for television I really had to stick to this assignment only and did not have the time to do any revisions. Michelle told us that revision is just a plus for us and that we first should finish the assignment before starting any revisions. After all, that is what I did.

Feel free to post some comments about whether you like it and whether it looks cartoony. AM is getting better each week and I'd love to have more time to practise... but working is great as well and I love my job at animoto. More about that in the next blog entry coming soon =)

Have fun and God bless you all,

- Alex

Awesome Q&A @ animation mentor

2005-10-28T07:15:00.000+02:00

For all of you out there wondering how Q&As at animation mentor look I made a small screenshot. This was actually the end of the whole thing and the frames freezed in - that explains the sour looks on our faces. We had a great Q&A this time without any lags or anything. It just worked and everyone could talk and ask and discuss without delays. Taylor did a great job of cleaning up our queue. Hopefully from now on things will stay like this.

Have fun,

- Alex

Week 05 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-23T19:53:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

My animation assignment was a lot of work this week (if you can't work on it 7 days)... there is a lot happening and it takes some time until things look believable. I'm fine to the point to upload it but I know that I won't like it tomorrow anymore... ahh, animation is so frustrating due to the fact you have to finish it at a certain point and still could work on it twice as much...

Well, anyway, here is it:

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w05_an04.mov

Critique is welcome as ever. Have fun,

- Alex

Week 05 - Animation Mentor - devastated

2005-10-22T12:38:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

I finished my 'devastation' pose for STU today and put it into a movie file which you can find here: http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w05_STU01.mov (5MB - pleae be patient) - critique is always welcome even though I won't have the time to change anything due to the large amount of work on the bouncing ball assignment. But I'll stick to the comments for next weeks revision.

Oh, here are my sketches for this week, too.

Have fun,

- Alex

Week 05 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-19T22:47:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

well, I'm back. I'm certainly interested in how many people read this, so if you'd like to do me a favour and just drop a note below this message saying something like "I do" or whatever... it takes you a minute and that way I know how often I should update this blog... like more daily or once a week. Anyway, for the latest assignment we have quite a lot to do:

1. create a planning sketch on your animation that shows a ball jumping up (it decides to do so) and then be part of a weird obstacle course it is bouncing through.
2. Animate that shot. (This feels like the one million dollar sentence in a script saying: "The house implodes.")
3. Doodle some dynamic poses.
4. Create a pose with Stu that shows "devastation".

Tough enough, I say... and production in my company is getting heavier again... so, whootwhoot! Well, to start at the beginning I started doing some sketches about dynamic poses (mostly sports) and the planning thing for the ball. Have a look!

And I played around with the ball model we got and took a look at some of the controls. This is just a 10 minute animation and it does look that way, I know. Anyway, comments are already and always welcome.

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w05_an01.mov

So much for now, looking forward to hear some comments.

- Alex

Michelle and Week 03 Revision - Animation Mentor

2005-10-16T19:20:00.000+02:00

Did I ever mention that Maya is a pain? Man, this program bugs me... I wouldn't complain if I wouldn't know about the 101.562 things that other software packages DO better... but I KNOW ABOUT THOSE! Ahhhh!

Maya even crashes with three bouncing balls on a newly installed 3,2GH AMD with 1 GB RAM and a GeForce graphics card! I mean, it is just three bouncing balls! Enough complaining... I better get my pills... (maybe there is something good about this Alias-Autodesk thing and the earth will be freed one day of Maya...)

Here are my revised poses of last week's assignments. I checked the incredible tutorial on how to setup lights in Maya (thaaaaanks, man!) someone at AM did at 4am to help us non-Maya users... and yes, he did. So, here is my new lighting as well.

Talking about revision I realize I did not write much about Michelle yet. Well, what shall I say? She is awesome and really trying to push us. She is open minded for suggestions and is trying to make this a wonderful experience for everyone (like changing her mic until everybody feels comfy etc.). Someone suggested she might use a grease pencil ON her monitor and she agreed on the idea so her revision get even better!

And though she missed "this hand shows a fist with just two parts" until now she really has an eye on what is missing in your scene. Not only does she try to push our poses even more but she tells us how to do it. And her suggestions are understandable. Well, I hope that people on our live Q&A start to flood her with questions any time soon... because she wants to teach a lesson every Q&A! So much about Michelle... I'm going to write more about her sometimes later...

God bless you all,

- Alex

Week 04 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-16T19:03:00.000+02:00

Remember, remember... the fifth of November... just saw the Vendetta trailer at my favourite cinema yesterday night and it features the incredible music of James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer of Batman Begins... the sound system there is awesome and just listening to this music in a big cinema gives me the shivers... uh, aren't movies just awesome?

Well, before I forget it: check out Wallace and Gromit if you haven't yet... it is worth every second. Wonderful humor. We just watched the new movie and all shorts at once in the cinema and it was great. Had a wonderful time. Cheeeeeese!

Back to what the title suggests to find here, my this' weeks assignment: create two bouncing balls of different weights. Yep, that sounds like fun to me =) So, I started with planning something like this:

Well, whoever came up with the idea of KISS ("keep it simple stupid") was a genius... and without AM constantly reminding of this rule and heavy time pressure I would certainly miss this rule everytime I switch on the computer (heck, nowadays, take out a pencil, too!). So, realizing that the sad story of three bouncing balls doing the boogey (s.a.) wouldn't be such a bright idea to finish in time I changed my planning to this:

That's more like it! I liked the idea of making things "believable" and creating little plates for the balls to sit on. So I checked some footage other guys did and there was one fellow mentee that sacrificed his bowling ball and let it drop several times on a street. Man, I'm thankful. If you are wondering why your ball always drifts to the side remember you did these videos, mate!

Anyway, I started timing his movie out and checked the extremes but when I put it into Maya it just looked wrong and way to fast. Took me a second thought to realize that he filmed in 30fps and I work in 24 fps. This is why I created such a chart to retime the action:

Guess what? It worked. Without further ado you can see my this week's assignment here, please be patient since the file is bigger - the revision of last weeks poses is in there too:

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w04_an05.mov (10MB)

Have fun and send me some comments if you like,

- Alex

Week 04 first pass - Animation Mentor

2005-10-13T00:17:00.000+02:00

Well... this pass is definitely just rushed in and that is just the way it looks. I'm looking forward to the weekend to do some serious planning and research on both balls. But I think this version already shows where I'm headed =)

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w04_an01.mov

- Alex

James R. Hull - a 2D AND 3D animation ninja...

2005-10-12T17:26:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

you can't imagine my face when I just dropped by one of my favourite animation blogs on the web: www.sewardstreet.com. James R. Hull, an animator that has worked on Pocahontas, Hunchback, Hercules, Tarzan, Spirit, Sinbad, Shrek 2, Madagascar and now Over the hedge, quoted me about 'mentioning his struggle between 2D and 3D' in an earlier post (http://alexmlehmann.blogspot.com/2005/10/link-01-keith-lango-animation-podcast.html).

Actually this could start a wonderful discussion about 2D and 3D finally joining each other after years of 'cold war' between those both sides. It did in my heart, at last. Every animator I know has started in one of both art forms and has begun to like it. There are hundreds of prejudices about the other side whether you are 3D or 2D, doesn't matter. The picture of the 'West Side Story' or 'Romeo&Juliet' came into my mind and I remembered all those different posts that either tell '2D is dead, long live 3D' or '2D is the only true animation art form'. I sometimes get the picture that among animators stop-motion is much better spoken of than 3D will ever experience it. And it is like if something is appreciated by the mass there have to be those 'knowledgeable' and 'different ones' that speak against it.

For me I finally found a solution for this battle to finally end. It seems like I was feeling like this all the time but never saw what was right before my eyes: 2D and 3D have to find peace not in the media, not in the big companies, not in blogs, not out there, but in each and every one of us animators. I for myself finally decided to master 2D after years of working in 3D. Heck, I might even try stop-motion and realtime-hand-puppets! I always loved 2D movies. I watched hours and hours of cartoons every day. And the first time I saw 3D I loved it as well. Knick Knack hit me right in the face and I loved it.

Just because I chose to start with 3D doesn't mean to pick on 2D! No, far from that! That is why I love working in this small studio in Germany consolidating 2D and 3D in one room. Everyone here is so open-minded. I teach the 2D-artists 3D and they teach me 2D. We go to every single animation that's out there and we just love it for the medium it is: animation. Telling stories. Making people laugh. Or cry. Or both. I'm tired of all this fighting and I stopped it where it has to be stopped: in me. Now I approach 2D with a free mind, free of the fear that I could fail in it. And I start to feel complete..!

Once more Jim's website made my day. I love being an animator and becoming one each day more. Period.

- Alex

Week 04 animation sketch - Animation Mentor

2005-10-12T00:22:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

If there is something I learned during the last weeks it is this: you can not plan too much. This is true as it can be. The funniest thing actually is that all things in life that sound easy and self-explanatory are the most true - the real learning experience is to understand that what the first thing was somebody experienced told you.

"Before you start animate, plan, because in the end you will be faster!" is one of the most said and written wisdoms out there I know. I heard it hundred times... and then there comes a day when you just understand that it is true. I mean, you just get it. To explain the difference between "Yeah, I got you" and "Now I got it" is nearly impossible - it is a simple yet difficult wisdom to master in itself. It is like what Keith Lango says about "How to learn timing": "Figure it out!". Yeah, right, Keith. But actually that is true. He is absolutely right about this: "Figure it out, that is how you learn timing, I cannot teach it to you..."

Well, even though I understood the importance of planning I still tend to start right away. But I force myself to sit at the table and get my pencils out and draw. To conclude this I planned my next animation assignment on paper first. It shows a basketball and a bowling ball hitting each other. Finally I added an extra balloon that I would integrate in my animation if I still have time. It would first jump up when the bowling ball hits the ground (because of the floor distributing the force from the ball unto the balloon) and would later be thrown of by the bowling ball again... this time directly.

The basketball and the bowling ball are self-explanatory, hopefully. So, planning is king. I must feel the need for planning as much as for breathing or eating... then my animations will improve without me working MORE hours but in the end LESS... =)

Pure wisdom, Keith, Bob, Shawn, Cameron, Ollie, Thomas, Andreas and you other great animation ninjas out there... pure wisdom.

- Alex

A special greeting for friends of mine that just moved to Raccine (USA)

2005-10-10T21:44:00.000+02:00

Hi, meine Schnells!

Nun seid Ihr also angekommen und findet Euch im urbanen Dschungel von Raccine zurecht. An knallsüssen Bonbons und grossen Portionen vorbei zum Schwarzbrot in die Unwegbarkeiten fremder Arbeitsverhältnisse. Euch sei gesagt, ich bin ein wenig neidisch und freue mich schon sehr, Euch besuchen zu kommen. Bis dahin, seid tapfer und freut Euch über das Abenteuer, das Amerika heisst.

Euer Alex!

Week 02 REVISION

2005-10-09T14:00:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

I just finished revising my poses. After a lot of trouble rendering the stuff out in Maya I decided to leave those poses in XSI for the revision part. From now on I will stick with Maya only for AM assignments which is difficult because throughout the week I work with XSI... I definitely consider working with the Maya-in-XSI hotkeys of XSI 5.0 so I don't have to think about my hotkeys all the time... man, I really liked the XSI keys...

Anyway, take a look at what I did after Michelle and Nancy K. and other reviewed my stuff and if you want to, tell me whether it is better than before =)

Have fun,

- Alex

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w02_an01_rev.mov

Some more pictures

2005-10-09T03:18:00.000+02:00

Here are some more pictures of my assignment for this week... have fun!

- Alex

Week 03 Part II - Animation Mentor

2005-10-09T03:08:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

I finished my assignment for this week tonight. Feel free to take a look at it and send me some comments... right after the bouncing balls you will find my excitement poses of Stu... and yes, Maya is a pain! Give me back my XSI!!!

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w03_an02.mov

Tomorrow when I'm alive again I'm going to redo my poses from last week... so not much sleep for me.

- Alex

Week 03 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-08T17:46:00.000+02:00

This week we finally start animating and boy... it gets complicated right away. Not that I haven't animated a bouncing ball a hundred times... but make it look photo-realistic? Make it believable? I don't talk about moving it up and down... anyone can do it. In fact yesterday I read this quote 'I think this is the first time animators are able to make something move without even working...' which was talking about the computer doing all the work (and that is just the way it looks like).

Have look at my planning it out:

Man, Rick'O'Connor, animation ninja at ILM, flattered me this week as announcing me to be his 'hero of the day' for starting with planning and not just animating it... Thanks Rick, you're my man!

If you're interested to see some really nice reference footage on this, have a look here:

http://www.sabudesign.com/reference01.html

And finally at my first go this week...:

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w03_an01.mov (don't be afraid, just click on it =)

If you have time, tell me what you think =)

- Alex

Making things easier - learning about RSS

2005-10-08T17:34:00.000+02:00

Hi all,

if you are new to blogs and RSS like I was two weeks ago you probably won't have any idea of how many blogs are out there at the moment. There must be Brazillions out there... I'm sorry... bazillions about cooking, stitching, animation, politics, music, musicals... I don't know what...

This can definitely overwhelm you - like it did me. So, yesterday I read about RSS which is a way of keeping up to date with all those blogs out there. Generally speaking RSS keeps you informed about what happens. You just need a free RSS-reader like http://www.awasu.com/ Awasu (nice program). Awasu keeps podcasts and blog up-to-date and tells them when there is something new on the website. It really works and helped me a bunch.

If you need to know more about RSS, check this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm?rss=/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/technology/rss.xml (I found this on www.sewardstreet.com in the August-section btw)

This is thrilling me! I hope it will help you, too.

Have fun and stay animated...

- Alex

Link 01 - Keith Lango, Animation Podcast and sewardstreet

2005-10-08T17:08:00.000+02:00

Hi,

from time to time things overwhelm me... I just found out how many wonderful sites are out there I just HAVE to read. I will post them here sometimes to give you guys an opportunity to check whether you know this site as well.

To mention some sites in specific let me talk about Keith Lango. Keith is an animator who's name accompanied my career since the very first day at ramjac Images in Hamburg. He was one of the few other guys working with Electric Image. He did work on the Veggitales, Mickey's twice upon a christmas and for blur and is currently an animation supervisor for DNA productions working on "Ant Bully". I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, he has a tremendous website with an awesome blog to read. You'll find the almighty "Pose to Pose"-tutorial there as well as a very affordable and great Video Tutorial Service charging 15$/month.

This VTS service does not only pay his rent but also goes out to charitable causes to fight hunger and suffering for the less fortunate. Yep, Keith is a Christian and as such taking on his responsibility to help the world. The VTS is great, not competing with AM, but running along with it sharing some insights about how Keith is animating. I just got into it and bought all videos at once. It is worth every penny though Keith surely talks about animation and we are still in posing section at AM. Anyway, check it out! (www.keithlango.com)

If you don't happen to know Podcasts you should start with this one: www.animationpodcast.com - podcasts are recorded radio programs you can listen to any time you want to. I personally upload them to my Sony Ericsson K750i and listen to them while driving to work. Animation Podcast is all about animation and tries to grab all those freakin' animation ninjas out there still alive. The first one was the very famous (German) animator Andreas Dejá. He is, so to say, the last remaining 2D artist working at Disney (since Glen Keane and others went over to 3D) claiming that he can't work with a computer and so he's not going to do 3D ever =) He animated characters like Scar, Hercules, Lilo and Dschafar, so go to animation podcast and check out this marvellous interview.

Finally I stumbeled upon the sewardstreet which I really would like to recommend. This is a wonderful blog created by an animator from PDI (working on Over The Hedge www.overthehedgemovie.com currently). His insights on animation are awesome and you can really see him struggeling between 2D and 3D... check it out on www.sewardstreet.com.

Well, here are more links you should know about:

www.animationmeat.com - this is THE resource when talking about classical animation theory, there are many great insights and the knowledge of the masters...

www.animationmentor.com - if you want to become and animator and you can't afford CalArts or live in Germany (like me) you have to study here... it is definitely THE place to study animation currently

www.carlosbaena.com - Carlos Baena is not only an animator at Pixar (just finished on Cars) but also one of the founders of animation mentor. His website features some of the biggest collection on links and book recommendations I know... this is always a good starting point if you are looking for some information between render times... (go to the MISC-section of his website)

www.awn.com - This is the website animation world network... though it sometimes seems a littlebit dull to read this is THE information website in this business of all..

www.cgchar.com - Do I have to mention this one? On CGCHAR you will find all those brilliant minds like Keith Lango, Carlos Baena, Mark Behm and even many 2D animators talking about one thing only: character animation...

So much for today, I'll update this list frequently. Check it out =)

- Alex

Week 02 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-08T16:49:00.000+02:00

Hi-Yahh! Things start to move... or at least we got our first lesson. Week 02 began with the almighty 12 principles of animation about which I actually wrote my diploma ("Klassische Animationstheorie und die Bewegungsanalyse Rudolf Laban's").

Man, this is seriously good stuff and very important. I heard this many times already and still can't hear it often enough. The 12 principles of animation refer to chapter 3 in the "Illusion of Life" by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston which was written 25 years ago. Those guys were 2 people of the famous 9 old men of Disney and could be also named as the "godfathers of animation".

Without them we would have no animation... they invented it... or better they unearthed it since it was there all the time. They had no reference, they were about to become the reference. Today Ollie Johnston is the only one still alive. He is 95 years as far as I know.

Anyhow, we rushed through those 12 principles for once and will hear them over and over again with many examples in the coming weeks and months. Man, this is golden. Hopefully one day those principles will run through my veins like honey...

Furthermore we had our first two assignments: creating poses both in pencil as well as in 3D. This was harder for me than it sounds since I'm no DaVinci and never really pushed my drawing abilities. But hey, that will change definitely since I'm drawing daily now (or at least try to).

Take a look at some of my poses:

Now the next challenge was to bring them into 3D. Since I was still waiting for my copy of Maya I worked with XSI and a rig someone created to XSI. So, here is what I did:

http://am.alexmlehmann.com/w01_an01.mov

I'm waiting for my mentor to critique me and tell me how to enhance those poses...

We'll see,

- Alex

Week 01 - Animation Mentor

2005-10-08T16:39:00.000+02:00

Week 01 - meeting Michelle Meeker

Hi, all!

This week was the first week of the 18 month program at Animation Mentor (www.animationmentor.com). I finally got the information about my first mentor and it will be.... Michelle Meeker! Yikes! That rocks. Michelle is a very diverse experienced animation ninja, so to say, and animated at many different companies on many different projects:

Pixar: Geri"s Game, A bug's life
PDI: Antz, Shrek
Weta: Lord of the rings 2+3

and many more... She also worked on different things like animated flash e-cards and games like "The Sims". Currently she is living in the bay area working for www.stormfront.com which is a small game company (responsible for the Lord of the rings two towers-game among others).

Well, I'm thrilled and look forward about the things she is going to teach us. Week No.1 was all about getting used to the AM-website, the player, the forum and get in contact with other fellow students.

We are the upcoming European-animation-ninja group (around 15 people) coming from Italy, Slowenia, Norway, England, Spain, Greece, Scotland and Germany (which is where I'm from). It is exciting to meet those guys every week on Friday morning (most times 5-6am).

So much for week 01... stay animated, folks!

- Alex

Long time...

2005-10-08T16:36:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone!

Thank you for being patient. Whoa! The last few weeks have been a blast and I try to sum things up in different post that relate to different topics. I'm going to create a new blog for each and every week at AM and also keep you informed about my adventure about becoming an animation ninja!

So, I hope to be able to blog more often from now on,

- Alex

Birthday present

2005-09-21T22:02:00.000+02:00

Hi guys,

Today is my birthday and many of you guys actually noticed it! How come? Are you magicians? Anyway, my biggest birthday present is (next to be a healthy believer) certainly Animation Mentor which I made from me to myself =) lol.

I can't wait until the next week because today I got another birthday present: one week off next week!!! Yehaa! That mean's I'm going to have all the time I need to read all of those hundreds and thousands of interesting threads at AM!

And that is exactly what I'm going to do. Oh, one final thing: I changed my username from IronGiant to "Alex M Lehmann" to help you with my real name. I'm still a big IronGiant-fan and I'm lucky enough to work with one of the supervisors of IG currently at the animation studio I work for.

So much for now, stay animated!

- Alex

For all AM students who want to know more about me...

2005-09-20T08:22:00.000+02:00

Take a look at the AM forum where you'll find some more information about me:

http://www.animationmentor.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3288

My mentor this term will be Michelle Meeker... whoot! She animated on Gerry's Game, Shrek and Lord of the rings... to name some. I'm really looking forward to having a female mentor and I can't await starting to animate to get some serious critiques!

- Alex

Welcome, everyone!

2005-09-20T07:56:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone,

Finally I started my first blog. Today Animation Mentor, Fall Term 2005, started and we just had an awesome opening Q&A session... it was sometimes laggy but nonetheless veeery interesting. AM is overwhelming at the beginning and I sincerely think about taking some days off to get accustomed with all those features it offers... we'll see.

Anyway, welcome to my site. I'll try to write once a week to give you guys out there an inside view of what AM is all about and how I am developing my skills. Since I'm working full time that could be a littlebit difficult but I will try nonetheless.

Thanks for surfing by and have fun with the blog,

Alex =)