DigitalDuckling

As you probably noticed this blog haven’t been updated since October last year.
The main reason for this is that I have a bowed down and subscribed to Twitter.
I now actually can keep my nonsense somewhere more suffice and instead actually tweet about me blogging if I bother to write anything interesting.
I’m planning to do some changes to this blog and eventually also open my sites. Outside of all things I’m going to try my best to do a good job at AM, as I have found out that working while doing AM really just results in bad animation in both ends (at work and at AM). It also means that I won’t have any time to spare to do things I love like gaming and hanging out with my best friends, that aren’t too much involved with the digital media scene as a before mentioned lifestyle would require them to be.
In the end and hope fully this blog will be hopefully less personal, (of course I will include my opinions on techniques and whatever,) and mostly oriented by new apps I come across Techniques and tutorials. Educationally I will still write some random posts, or maybe when I have more time on my hand I’ll run two blogs. Anyways, remember to keep your razor blades sharp as I have mentioned in a previous post, will save you a lot of money.

I’m going to go to Annecy this June and I’m really looking forward to it. Too bad that I didn’t understand their site and missed out on the pre-reservation on their events, but at least I will get to travel some and I think it has been over 3 years since last time.

My current Mentor is Jay Jackson, who has done some amazing stuff as animating Sebastian, the crab, on the Little Mermaid. How cool is that? He even got mentored by some of the Nine Old Men back in the day. He is a really kind and inspiring guy.

My last mentor was Jalil Sadol, who currently works at Weta Studios, (Avatar,) I must admit that I some times disagreed with his methods, but when I relate on the term I realize that he actually taught me a whole lot about acting and also learned me to make big changes in a small amount of time.

I personally think that I have evolved a lot since my last post and it goes to show that most people get better in time. I will of course upload a new demoreel some day in the not to distant future, but I’m happy with what I have got so far online, so I its not worth watching, I tell you that much.

Oh, and go to the theater and watch How to Train Your Dragon NOW!

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Metallica was awesome! Really disappointed with Lamb of God though. This wasn’t LoG’s fault, but the sound crew in the concert hall sucked ass!
Seriously eliminated LoG’s glory. I bet I could have done a better job with the sound even.
Anyways I’m leaving for the hove festival now! Yes, that is right, GONE for a week!. Man its pouring outside, keeping me from going to my car. Oh it just stopped. guess I’ll be going =P dammit
it started again, no wait, wait for it, wait for it… silence!

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I got a bit disappointed when I got my critique back on my Stu pose, mainly because the story didn’t get through. I have been taking my Mentors notes in consideration, but I don’t think she actually got what I was going for. So now I’m uploading a picture with some quick notes and a little revision on how one of the legs could have been to make the pose look a bit more “strained”. I don’t really know if things matter too much, but I just want to speak my mind because I felt that I got some really good critiques from my class. Anyway here goes:

Some notes on week 2

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I know this doesn’t have a lot to do with the theme of my blog but I want to write it anyway. For some time ago I got really pissed because of my razorblades getting dull after only one time use. I Googled around a bit and discovered that I was not alone! A lot of people felt like they were throwing money out the window for a brief moment of smooth skin.
I read a lot of methods everything from putting their blades in mineral oil while not using them to applying Vaseline on them. But the key point here was that the metal in the blade gets dull because of oxidation. I thought it seemed a little far-fetched at some time, but eventually I tried tapping my razor against a piece of toilet paper until it seemed dry. And then I just wrapped the paper around the blade so that anything that was left got sucked in. I also put it inside of a closet; I used to have it in the shower before.

3 days later I picked up the razor only to find the paper stuck to the aloe strip at the bottom of the blade surface. So I gently ripped of the paper and showered the blade in hot water and to my surprise both the blades and the aloe strip look as good as new!
Now 3 weeks have passed and I’m still on the first blade. No April-fools. That’s pretty cool, right?
Putting the blade in mineral oil will probably make the blades last a bit longer, but you will lose the aloe strip or whatever on the blade. The blades don’t get dull from shaving with them right away, but they get small amounts of rust on them and that matters for your skin.

No Comments | In: Life, Random, Tutorials | | #

OK, so I finally finished my to-do-list, (if I can call it that,) for getting in to Animation Mentor, so now its really official and I have a huge Master Card bill to manage

I was actually considering waiting to the last minute with my payment, but after a brief one-hour-webinar I was convinced to pay before February 27th at least; I can win a 30-minute chat with a mentor, about anything. That’s awesome!

I learned a lot of stuff that convinced me that this school is worth it. Now the most interesting thing is that there are about 65% who graduate, and out of them almost 80% get jobs. I like the fact that there is a huge amount of students that do not graduate because that really proves you’ve got to be motivated to make it through.

The school is 18 months strait. That said, I need to plan a trip back to my roots preferably before March 18th and after the Pablo Fransisco show, March 8th. This will probably be the last time I visit Ulsteinvik before autumn or even Christmas!

Hope my friends will give me time for this… and space, especially during summer. I’ll have one week, and I’ve just heard that All That Remains are coming to the Hove Festival, along with Disturbed and Slipknot as headliners. Seems like I may get to watch a whole lot of awesome bands this summer if I plan it right.

During the webinar I got informed of stuff happening prior to the school start, (March 30th.) There was some milestones at March 18th and 20th, but I don’t remember exactly what happens when. I guess I’ll get some kind of email reminding me at some point anyway. Too bad I cannot look at a recording of the webinar; could be useful to take some notes.

Not much has happened these last few days. My parents were visiting and I spent a lot of time over at my sisters, staring at the walls. Listening and sometimes participating in the endless discussions with my father. Fortunately I do not have to have him around as long as I’m studying AM.

My nephew’s birthday was also covered this Tuesday, he turned 5, and as I knew his parents was buying him a Wii I bought him the Lego StarWars Saga. It was amazing to see how the kid glued himself to the TV set. He blocked out everything, occasionally he would call on his father to get help with the puzzles, but he would be eating his food in lightning speed to play even more. Then came the time to shut it off. The kid went crazy. I know I too had an issue with my parents turning off my system before I wanted to go to bed, but this really put things in perspective; I guess I was about 11-12 when I first bought my own NES, (I’m not sure, but I know the SNES was out,) I remember my disappointment when I had carried it two kilometers only to find out that it didn’t include any game. And the other disappointment in not having the cash to get one. Kids always go crazy, but I remember being limited to Legos.

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Yes sir, I spent a whole day watching past Webinars on AnimationMentor.com and doing my first 16 frame walk cycle in PhotoShop, and now its already too late to read more in The Illusion of Life; I’m a slow reader and the book is to heavy to read on my bead. Anyway going to the Doctors Office tomorrow still seem to get unbelievably sleepy around noon so hopefully the doctor can find something out.

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I finally got the finger out of my bum and signed up for Animation Mentor.
Next thing is an 8 minute test to verify that I can study I guess.
and then its just up to Admissions. This will be awesome! Hopefully I get in
and hopefully the weather doesn’t kill me this spring and cause me sabotage.

Success!

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Well browsing the net i stumbled upon this site…
Actually very amusing, but if you don’t like what you see you can make your own with the built in “Lol Builder”.
Its quite easy to just come up with something like for instants this one

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