Over at Parka Blogs, he have a whole list of art blogs on the internet that he compiled. Very useful links for character design references and inspirations for doodling your own stuff.
http://parkablogs.com/content/art-blogs-of-note-2011
Also more importantly, he reviews art books! Lots of them. And most of the ones you want, I bet he have already reviewed!
Also is this really useful one for more character design. If you have any more links, pls post them below. Thanks.
http://characterdesign.blogspot.com/
hilscreate.blogspot.com
February 28, 2011
February 27, 2011
Student's attitude part 1
A student really tested my patience last weekend with a really shitty attitude. Whinging why does she have to come in to school on a Saturday to attend a animation masterclass and why must she have so much work to do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
My 1st reaction was "How ungrateful is that? We arranged for a senior animator from a huge
animation studio to come in and give a master class in animation. Do you know how impossible it was during my time for that to happen?"
She sulked through the whole masterclass falling asleep dozen of time before taking her bag and walked off deliberating showing us that she is going off. She is not the only one, some other students sneaked off or didn't even bother showing up. I even have students not showing up the while semester and not even producing any work at all. I even caught them torrenting on school comps.
I love students like this. I really do.
Choosing a local animation school and the problems. part 1
DISCLAIMER (not the movie) : Most of these thoughts are gathered from my personal working/teaching experiences as well as talking to students, ex students, friends who run studios as well as friends who work in small and big studios as well as friends who have lectured. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own. No names of schools or companies are mentioned because I do not want a lawsuit and frankly I cannot be arsed to be sued.
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
How to choose an animation school if you are interested in going for animation? (Can I convince you to pick up accounting/banking/law/property development instead?)
February 24, 2011
Thoughts on the local animation industry in Singapore - Short courses
Previously on this post, I talked about the problems with the education model for animation in Singapore.
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
"The most critical flaw with the current model of having specialised courses just so that the students can get into Lucasfilm, D Neg is heavily flawed. Because all you are churning out students who are one trick pony following tutorials and step by step in doing a prescribed way of working. They are severely limited by the skillsets that they have. "
I want to add that the problems actually go down deeper.
vished posted a link from the online citizen website last year.
The part that stood out was "An individual whom I know on a professional basis recently graduated from a private animation school in Singapore under a government-funded diploma program. He was scathing of the standard of teaching (by a former graduate of the same course). It’s easy for me to criticize competitors but a specific claim this school makes is its faculties are current industry professionals. Clearly this is not the case but who’s going to complain?
The person I know said everyone passed their course and received a diploma when some clearly deserved not to. One of the reasons I believe what I have heard from this individual is because I know how the scheme providing the grants works. If the student doesn’t pass the course, the school doesn’t receive their fees from the government. If that happens, it’s bad for business."
Incidentally, this was a post written by the boss of another animated school in Singapore who also happens to run their own production studio. (loads of animation schools in Singapore eh?)
February 21, 2011
Cost of living and salary in Animation in Singapore.
DISCLAIMER : Most of these notes are gathered from my personal experiences as well as observation and talking to students, ex students and friends. It is not based on published facts or figures. All comments are my own rough gauge. I will not be responsible for you do not land a job here or you end up giving up a comfy job overseas because overquote or underquote a starting pay because of what I posted here.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
In recent months I saw a rise in the number of people from Malaysia, Indonesia and the States on the blog looking at this post.
I bet this is a interesting topic for some people who are thinking of working in Singapore. Especially students from nearby countries who want to consider working in Singapore after graduation.
Also I have talked to some guys who came over from the States and also UK to work locally. And the most shocking aspect of it was how expensive it was to live in Singapore compared to the States or UK.
February 17, 2011
Children transform relative to their parents in Maya.
Simple but Awesome revelation from Malcom Gustave from www.ikfk.com who gave a masterclass in rigging.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
It completely makes me see things in Maya so much simpler and helps understand offset groups and zeroing out groups so much easier to explain.
When an object in Maya is created, you can consider it to be parented to the world because it is taking its transformation relative to world coordinates 0,0,0.
So when a child is parented, its transformation values will be then relative to the parent and no longer the world.
THIS is the key to offset or zeroed out groups.
sweet.
February 16, 2011
Parent vs Constraint Differences in Maya
From CG talk.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-739070.html
parent object
An object or other item that controls the attributes of one or more child objects. A parent can also be the child of another parent.
parent constraint
A constraint relating the position (translation and rotation) of one object to another object, so that they behave as if part of a parent-child relationship.
The parent constraint allows you to keep elements within their own hierarchy and not have them contained within a larger and hard to understand hierarchy.
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