Farmer to Light Table

Sometimes I’ll try the assignments I give my students so I can see where they might get hung up.  Here’s a rough test of a farmer slipping around in mud, in perspective.  I got hung up on the timing and arm movements, so I made a point of discussing both again in class. My favorite part of teaching is how much I get to learn!

Zombie Boyfriend Lip Synch

Made a sample recording for my Dynamics class, and though I cringe at the sound of my own voice, I felt it important that they see the audio all the way through to the lip-synch, so I gave it a shot.  Disclaimer…this audio may or may not be true…

 

Shining a Light on Arcs…

I noticed students were having a bit of trouble following arcs in their last assignment, so today I handed them flashlights and asked them to act out a simple action.  We took long exposures of four seconds of movement to see that every action was filled with traceable arcs…I was pleasantly surprised at the results!

PREtty Impressive!

Spent my third summer teaching the Summer PreCollege Animation Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and these high school students never cease to amaze me!  For two weeks we covered the entire production pipeline, from the principles of animation and story creation to storyboarding and animation production.  They completed the films below in only five days! An incredible feat by any standard.

Give a dog a bone…

Created this clip to show how the skeleton of a human figure lines up with the skeleton of a dog.  Not entirely anatomically correct, but it certainly helps in the conversation of where the dog’s “knees” actually are!

Third Year’s a Charm!

Just spent another two weeks in New York City with some fabulously focused and hard-working high school students!  I could go on and on about how much they accomplished in five days of production, but their work speaks for itself!

Putting the “Pre” in Unprecedented!

For the second year in a row, I spent two weeks in NYC with some incredibly talented, dedicated high school students as part of SVA’s PreCollege Animation Program.  And, for the second year in a row, I was blown away by the determination and work ethic displayed by each and every one of them.  We worked together from 9 in the morning until 4 in the evening, five days each week, and I swear to you they got up from their Cintiq tablets all of three times in ten days. ;)  Congratulations to all of my Summer 2016 students, the world awaits your talents!