First Week Report!

Well the second semester is under way, so far it has been a bit bumpy and exceedingly wet(several storms have been hitting the SoCal area since Sunday and will continue until the weekend.) This is my schedule, which I couldn't be happier with.

Advanced Animation III	Wright, Scott	T Th 7pm to 10pm
Film Workshop	Kelly, Morgan	M 7pm to 10pm
Directing for Animators	Petkov, Rumen	F 9:30am to 12 Noon

This year the department is trying something new with the third and fourth year classes, we're getting credit for our films(which was never done before). That's what the "Film Workshop" class will be focused on. The whole point is to have more time for our films. Also, we're getting a lot of one-on-one time with the faculty/visiting industry people. I'm getting the feeling that this semester is going to serve quite the jolt to my animation. Both Scott(who I had last semester and already did a really great job of kicking the classes' animation butt) and Morgan are animators and the department is working on scheduling other artists from the industry to sit down and critique our work. Character designers, story artist, animators, etc. Seems to be a really great plan, hopefully will mean an awesome semester for everyone.

I've been working out a schedule, getting a list together of the scenes in my film, etc. and during an average week(weekly zoo trip included)--I'll be spending about 40-45 hours per week just on my film. I'll be starting official film animation this weekend...34 scenes to do. 96 days remain until it's all due(April 26th by 4pm to be exact)--I'm aiming to have a first pass on all my animation done by mid-March so I can spend the rest of the time going back and finessing certain scenes. Anyways, it's going to be an intense semester, but I'm ready to dive back into the madness.

Also, to kick off the semester in style and really get everyone into "animation mode" Glen Keane is scheduled for a visit this Friday night! Here are some of my favorite pencil tests that I love to watch:
An animation test of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast:

Glen Keane - rough penciltest - BEAST from Alex Petreski on Vimeo.

And a surprising find---a pencil test from Treasure Planet that was also animated by Glen Keane:



Real quickly--going to share this scene from Rescuers Down Under, which was(at least some parts, I don't think he did the whole thing) story boarded by Glen and then the eagle was Glen's character on this film: