Learning Animation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

"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

(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

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

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