Intro To Acting Class 4 COMPLETED!

Whew, just finished this week with my 4th class at Animation Mentor, Intro To Acting. My mentor for my Intro To Acting was Mike Stern. First off, let me say that if you are fortunate enough to enroll in Animation Mentor and dedicate the time needed to begin to become a great animator then you are lucky and extremely hardworking. So far my time at AM has been a really rewarding experience. There are up's and down's, times when you feel you're not learning and then times when you rocket up. When you think you have it, then your legs are swept out from you because your classmate just did some really great work. Classmates work is both inspiring and motivating. But realizing that we are all on separate unique paths is key. With each class I am learning that there is so much more to animation then just controls. We are at the base, storytellers. And we hopefully are able to use a myriad of tools to convey our story to an audience in a symphony of layers that emotes a desired reaction from the viewer. Clearly and Personally we do this, stepping lightly or tromping through all the while respecting this art form and giving respect to those who have laid the ground before us. Thank you. And with that thanks I would like to say thank you to my mentor Mike Stern. Being Mike Stern's student I have had the great pleasure of gaining a unique insight of what a great animator is. His devotion and respect for the art was evident in all classes. But never was there a doubt that he wasn't having a blast while doing it. It's cool when you can relate to this, I do know animation is difficult, tedious, technical - definitely not at his level, but i do know but whats more important I know that I love to animate and that at the end of the day I'm still having fun. So thanks Mike for opening my eyes to cool and wonderful tools - from workflow to resources it's been a really great ride this term for my intro to acting. And for keeping my love for animation burning. So onward and upward, yeh yeh there will be plateaus and maybe a valley or two but in the end I will have climbed.

Intro To Acting Final Animation Week 11

Here is my turned in week 11 final assignment for the term. Still need to revise based on my mentor's final crit but its come a long way from its beginning. What do you think?

Animator Quote of the Day

When artists try to make art that is universal and not personal they always fail. It is being personal which makes it universal in the end.

~Sebastian Horsley

INSPIRO AWARD Winner Olivier Staphylas!

And the Winner for December 2011, INSPIRO AWARD goes to Olivier Staphylas working at Dreamworks Animation. Olivier is a 30 year old native of France. (His Bio) Olivier Staphylas is a 30 year old native of France who has been living in Los Angeles for the last 5 years. In 2003 Olivier graduated from Supinfocom with honors and a degree in Computer Graphics. The following year, in 2004, he entered directly into the third year of studies at the prestigious Gobelins L'Ecole De L'Image in Paris where he graduated first in his class and with a degree in Character Animation. Olivier was not only the first to graduate from two of France's finest visual arts universities, but was also the first, and to date, the only student to accomplish the feat with both honors from Supinfocom and first in his class at Gobelins. Olivier just finished lending a technical and creative hand to the recently released, How to Train Your Dragon (2010), and is the Supervising Animator of Puss on the Dreamworks Animation movie Puss In Boots (2011). He is also the onset photographer for an independent sci-fi film in production as well as concurrently pursuing personal endeavors on a variety of projects ranging from photography to music video art direction to short films.

Whats really inspiring is that Olivier went from character animator on Kung Fu Panda to Supervising Animator on Puss In Boots. Amazing.

He is a multifaceted artist and clearly has a magic eye for storytelling. From photography, design and Animation all show a unique and clear sense of narrative. Thanks for inspiring me and I hope this might reach others who aspire on day to be where you are now. See you soon Animators!

Please click on award image to read more about Olivier Staphylas on his web page.