Will Kistler’s AnimationMentor.com Experience

Last night was our second time seeing Scott Lemmer in our live Q&A group. Scott’s still cool, but we got to see a different side of him last evening. Instead of meets, greets, and “getting to know you” intros, he went back over the 12 principles, stopping along the way for any questions we had.

Now, I’ve been exposed to the principals before, and read about the in The Illusion of Life and the Animator’s Survival Kit, but it was a totally different experience to hear about them from someone whose work is ingrained with all of them day in and day out. Scott happily fielded all of our questions and only ever seemed to be at a loss when confronted with conveying some of the things he was saying through the post-it sized webcam window. He did a terrific job, even with this limitation, and I think we all left feeling like we’d learned something.

Last night there was a question and answer session with three of the animators who worked on the recent Star Wars films, with occasional question answering by Shawn Kelly. All were cool, which was to be expected, and all seemed to love their jobs. It was more entertaining than anything, but it certainly was that. It’s nice to see AM going out of it’s way to do some nice things for the students.

I watched my first real online class today, taught by Carlos Baena. He started with the basics of animation: the 12 principles.

It’s extremely nice to see these principles brought up so early. Back at university’s program, I didn’t hear of the principles until second semester of my junior year. The fact that they are touched on in this first lesson gives me a lot of confidence in the program.

So anyway, It’ll be nice to get more aquainted with the principles from professional viewpoints. It’s got me excited. I’m going to bust open The Illusion of Life in a few and go back over some things.

This past weekend I made it up to Louisville to see Howl’s Moving Castle, the latest offering from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. I’m a big fan of the other Miyazaki films, and Spirited Away is one of my favorite movies of all time, so I had pretty high expectations going into the film. Coming out I only had one thing to say:
Howl’s Moving Castle = Amazing!!
The animation is incredibly well done, the visuals are all beautifully weird and the imagination throughout the film is phenomenal. I took a girl who isn’t really into animation, and who doesn’t have any real interest in anything anime related, and even she liked it. It’s a strong movie, regardless of whether you’re an animation fan, and I recommend it, if you can get to it.

This past Monday I was first able to log into the site. All last week my anticipation had been building at the thought of diving straight into serious animation study. On Monday morning as soon as I woke up, I ran straight to the computer, logged in and found that my first assignment was…to enter my personal info and familiarize myself with the way the site worked. Anti-climactic, to be sure.

I spent all day Monday watching the videos that were available to me. They didn’t immediately share all the secrets to becoming a bad-ass animator, but they were all very well done. In fact, the whole site runs smoothly and is very professional looking, which tends to give me confidence that I’m part of a well thought-out, well developed program.

Monday night I sat in on a question and answer session with the three school founders. It was fun, but a lot of what they had to say I had already heard. The fun came mostly from Bobby “Boom” Beck and Shawn Kelly being so hyper, though Carlos Baena was cool as well.

Earlier tonight (weds) I actually got a chance to meet my mentor: Scott Lemmer. Here is is picture, and what the AM site had to say about him:

BIO: Scott Lemmer was trained in 3D computer animation at VFS (the Vancouver Film School). Upon completion he was picked up by DNA Productions in Texas. He has been at DNA for the last several years and worked on the “Jimmy Neutron” TV series and is currently working on the second feature film from DNA Productions, “The Ant Bully.”

Turns out, Scott’s a cool guy, although this was to be expected. He’s young, but has 3 years of experience in the industry. My first impression of his overall demeanor is that he seems ready, willing and able to lend a helping hand. Also, this is his first quarter with AM, so this may be a learning experience for him as well. I couldn’t have asked for a better first impression. I think he’s going to be great.

Speaking of great, the other people in Scott’s class are also amazing. They seem extremely fun-loving, supportive, and open to new things: a perfect combination for people I want to work and grow with. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post links to stuff they are producing before too long.

I can’t wait to really get started.

Welcome to my blog. Here I will chronicle my journey through the AnimationMentor.com program. I’m extremely excited about AM, and have been since I heard about it back around Christmas time, ’04. I just graduated in May ’05 with a degree in Computer Graphics Technology, with a focus in animation, from Purdue University. They turned me out as a marginally skilled graphics generalist. The few animation classes that I took were enough to whet my appetite for more, but, alas, they were not enough to turn me into a highly skilled, much-sought-after animator. I think AM fits perfectly with my goal of one day being a professional character animator.

To see my pre-AM work, check out my current portfolio site, willk.com.