Rodney

Here's a 30 minute portion from the 7 hour course. They call it a sneak peak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2zInISt0lY I've watched all the videos encountered no surprises. That might be bad or good. Definitely worth the $30. I don't have access to some of the reference books he refers to in the video (How not to write a script, Save the Cat, etc.) There is only so much money available to go into this kind of R&D. It would be interesting if one of the future contributors would would be able to focus on the financial aspect of producing films (short films or otherwise). The distribution and financing of is a big area of concern these days... and to some degree almost everyone is guessing... but there are specific concerns to address and those with experience can outline what approaches have (historically) worked and what others have not. At any rate, check out the (sneak peak) video... it contains some useful information and words of encouragement. And as you find the time.. check out Aaron's other free videos. It's not every day you can learn from a Disney animator. In some ways this is the next best thing to getting lessons from Glenn Keane... as Aaron was his assistant on several films.

Nicely done. That repetition angle (doppelgangers, clones, after images, etc) never gets old. They used it quite effectively in the latest Star Wars with Rey. More please!

I was thinking the same thing. I'm not a fan of the idea of paying $10K for the opportunity to try out on a film though. Regarding Dragon's Lair... I know they've finished the pitch... I've seen it! Now I'm guessing they are shopping around for someone who will create the film. They did state that there is no guarantee a film (if one is made) will be 2D. There'd be a lot of groaning but It could be CG. There is a resurgence in hand drawn/digital works in TV animation and I see job listing for those pretty regularly. Regarless, it is a good opportunity for someone that wants to break in and hasn't had the training. One could argue that it might be one of the best ways because Don has a unique approach... has trained 100s of animators and also understand the music, layout, storyboarding, directing, producing... the list goes on and on. I haven't followed everyone that was in the Masterclass with me but most of them are working in the industry in some capacity... some already were of course. One attendee is now working for Don Bluth and was hired specifically for the Dragon's Lair project. I must assume he is still going t be there helping with the courses and a film (if any). I'm happy to see anyone and everyone achieve successful in animation.

Breakdown of Course Class 01: Draftsmanship Class 02: Intro to Animation Class 03: Animation Timing Class 04: The Art of Storyboarding Class 05: The Art of Layout Class 06: Principles of Acting Class 07: Script Writing for Animation Class 08: Orchestration of Color Class 09: Producing A Short Class 10: Masterclass in Arizona

If you have an extra $10K laying around and want to set yourself up for the next golden age of hand drawn animation blockbusters... Don Bluth has announced his online course that covers a year of instruction. Having attended a week long animation masterclass with Don I can attest that he is the real deal. (and that one week was not long enough!) I was also fortunate to have subscribed to his weekly seminars when they were live and got to interact with him during a few workshops. $10K is well outside my budget so I won't be attending. A portfolio review is conducted before acceptance into the program as well. This is a wise decision because while it would be great as youngster with minimal experience to have the opportunity the learning curve is steep and even experienced artist and illustrators may find themselves overwhelmed. Screening students is a good way to make sure they get the absolute best experience and return on the investment. But having said all of this, one need not spend a great deal of money these days to get the basics down and do dive deeply into animation. What is represented here is the opportunity to learn from a rare individual who has more experience with animation production (and every aspect of it) than others in the industry. And even after all these years the man can draw and teach. There is a promotional video of Don drawing to promote the University here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/donbluth/dragons-lair-the-movie/posts/2074044?ref=email The University site: http://www.donbluthuniversity.com/ Added: I see that a one week masterclass in Arizona is planned at the end of the year (and included in the registration). This is a good idea because projects worked on online over the course of the year can be personally attended to with Don at the master class. Having a full year to gear up to that in person session is a nice way to focus on exactly what is needed to cement what has been learned into place. I hope Don can be successful in this endeavor and envy those that will spend a year learning from him. There won't be many more opportunities like this. I hope the Don Bluth University occassionally throws those of us that cannot attend a bone or two of educational information along the way.

Fun stuff John.

The advertisements for these classes is appearing all over youtube and other places. That may be mostly just for me because of targeted advertising but... I can imagine more than a few people will be taking these courses.

Please do. I'm leaning heavily toward a purchase but if I do purchase that will be a big distraction* in the coming year. My biggest concern would be the assignments (which I assume may be some form of the same educational/safety courses where the primary goal is to track whether the student has exposed themselves to the material... not necessarily understood or put it into practice. It's important to put these things into practice or else... why take the course? . RE: Scoring I tend to be the opposite of musically inclined but Scoring... I see that as so important to what we do in animation. I've been circling the thing for years but never dived into it nor put it practice. *a good distraction as distractions go but also one that to gain any benefit requires a level of commitment beyond just taking the masterclasses. The masterclasses (to me) represent a starting point. Added: I've been thinking of taking some classes at the local college but my experience there the last time left me a bit out in the cold. It wasn't worthless but the primary thing I was learning is that we can (to a large degree) teach ourselves a lot of the same material. The college is the gatekeeper that puts an official stamp on the students exposure. Interacting with other students was certainly a plus but often can be discouraging when the majority just wants the grade so they can get the diploma. I'm there (spending money) because I want to understand the material presented in the course!

The issue there may be intersections/pass throughs if you have the particles dieing on impact. If that is the case you *could* set all your objects to transparent (perhaps not an easy task) and then render the particles pass that way. If you aren't concerned with passthroughs you could save two copies of your Project file. One with everything but the particles turned off. The other with only the particles turned off. There are a lot of different ways you can do this... but since time is of the essence I won't suggest things that have a higher learning curve. Okay, I lie. You could render the scene (to image sequence!) and generate the snow in a program like Blackmagic Fusion. Import the sequence into Fusion and your scene will appear to be in front or behind the snow depending on where you place your images. Render different parts of the scene and place those images where you want them. Or... do the same thing in A:M! Render out as many elements as separate passes (will significantly lower the hit on memory)... then bring all the images back into A:M as Layers. You could run a pass of the particles separately and bring that in too or render the particles live along with the Layers. Too much info right? Or... Email me the project file as I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment and I'll render and composite it together for you.

They had some fun with that while giving the fans who hate the cute stuff a few moments to call their own didn't they? I'm specifically talking about the scene with Chewy.

Yes, the new computer will require a new activation code so an email to Jason is the proper route.

I've been hesitant to post a link to this site but the reasons for doing so get more compelling every day. There are a lot of these masterclasses now online and as with most things certain themes and areas pique my interest. The most compelling masterclass at this exact moment for me personally is Ron Howard's Directing masterclass. Of the many others Steve Martin's masterclass intrigues me as I'm very interested in comedic timing and the setup, pacing and payoff of jokes. Hans Zimmer's masterclass on film scoring surely must touch on some areas I feel a need to explore. And on and on and on. It seems to me the primary business model behind masterclass.com is one of volume. By keeping the courses reasonably priced more people are apt to sign on to a class. One could argue that most if not all the material in these course could be discovered for free online and through research. A benefit to these courses would be that the information is collected for you. And of course the 'master' that is teaching the class is the primary draw. Taking the courses individually is reasonably priced ($90 or so). What is more interesting is the annual pass ($180) that grants access to ALL of the courses. In a world where most masterclasses might cost $1000 I find this model very compelling. Not having taken one of the courses I don't know the extent of how deep each master class goes. I'd love to gift an annual pass to someone but I'm currently job hunting so... maybe in 2018. I'm tempted to gift this to myself and make studying these courses my primary job going forward. Focus is important so I can see where targeting one course exclusively might be best but this isn't as financially if one plans to take several of the other course to feed that fund of mental knowledge required by kitchen table animators. If anyone takes one of these courses (or signs up for the annual pass) please let us know more. From the site: If gift giving, incremental amounts (gift card-like) can be given as well. https://www.masterclass.com/gift

I just returned from the theater and enjoyed the film a lot. Well worth the price of admission. (no surprise there) This felt like (at least) three movies in one as the various stories of the characters played out on the screen. I'm glad Disney doesn't break them down into three movies but they certainly could be and... it may be that they are playing to the idea of serials even more with logical drop off points where one story ends and others continue on. The storytelling is very well done with lots of little surprises along the way. This is (to me) especially interesting given that there seemed to be a limited way forward and yet the writers managed to build upon what has gone before even as they chart the way forward. The writers earned their paychecks here. Importantly, as the story was playing out it was very difficult to predict what was ahead and this is even with those potential milestones teased in the trailers... which this time unlike the trailer for the last film... continuously hit their mark. There were a few moments where distraction was used to highlight those moments even more which makes me think someone very smart was working on/with those trailers. Lots and lots of great moments for subsequent viewings.

Agreed. I hope they bring it back. Looks like Bob Iger has managed to extend his presence as well: As I recall he was expected to leave in 2019. Some reports suggest the purchase price to be higher than other reports. A Variety article states: 13.7 billion in debt. Hmmmm..... Perhaps that is the motivation that kicked Rupurt Murdock into high gear to greenlight the sale.

In a crazy alternate universe my doppleganger is smiling because as a teenager he struggled with whether to pursue a job with Disney or Marvel. Decisions. Decisions. I'm glad to see it worked out so well for him.

Most excellent! Don't look now but your comedic timing is showing. (and that is a very good thing)

It appears to be official. https://www.awn.com/news/disney-buys-fox-52-billion-deal For Fox's part this seems like a new way of splitting shares while maximizing profits as just prior to the merger Fox will split the parts of Fox that cannot be merged into a newly branded company. On the comics and cartoon front it would appear that X-Men are now back in the fold with Marvel/Disney... so look for cross overs in the future... once the legal dust has settled. And now Mickey can hang out with Homer Simpson.

For those that have the annual subscription to Aaron's Courses *I believe* this course is included in that.

Aaron Blaise is branching out to offer some additional courses via his site. I'm posting this here... now... because the introductory pricing of $29 ends 14 hours from the time of this post. For those pinching pennies... that makes a big difference. I've purchased and have started watching the videos. I anticipate that much of what will be presented won't be new but will help to solidify what is already known. The underlying theme is.. Writers write. Directors direct. "Go out and do it!" That's the best way to learn. Here's the link:https://creatureartteacher.com/product/story-course-film-and-animation/ Here's the write up of the course. Here's a overview from Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spaQ9rYR57c

If this isn't a simple setting such as SSE2/SSE4 it would be a good issue to report to A:M Reports as Steffen can give it a good look... especially given that you are able to demonstrate the difference between v18 and v19. That should help narrow things down considerably.

A downside of the Decal Edtitor is that it won't re-decal patches that aren't already decaled. So this might not meet your immediate need.

They do indeed. I'm sure it's a lot of work being out there on the cutting edge. I'm a bit surprised it even works. Most people who work with 'nightlies' are into bug testing and working out all the rough spots. The bugs definitely come out at night. Gotta love tech watches... lots of waiting and watching. And by the time the thing arrives... most folks have already moved on.

More progress being made toward the pending release of the AV1 video format (targeted for 2018). Although the standard itself is still not fully set, Firefox is the first to release a browser that can play AV1. For the latest from Mozilla and Bitmovin: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2017/11/dash-playback-of-av1-video/ From the article: For those that have the latest Firefox nightly installed a demo page can be found here: https://demo.bitmovin.com/public/firefox/av1/ The demo film is 'Tears of Steel' which is a tip of the hat to open source, patent free and similar movements in the tech world.

Fun stuff. This falls into that category of... now why didn't I think of that! You've been making good progress on this and it looks like you are right on schedule. If you need to get some extra footage out of this you could have a second... third... fourth...runthrough where the camera zooms in closer to specific areas. Assuming that would fit into the over all experience the onlookers could then experience the show over and over again but with subtle differences and emphasis. I have a tiny projector that I've barely used since I bought it and it might work well for something like this. What type of screen are you projecting onto? An actual back projection screen or some form of stand in? .

I'm not sure if I posted anything related to this or not... it seems familiar. I ran across a few random project files and it reminded me of the foray into madness that I call... Poor Man's Pixel Painter The basic idea Create a grid or series of grids that acts as a canvas and 'draw' Groups into them, giving each group/shape a color I'm using grids of 100x100 with a 1cm interval in the attached imagery. Using larger grid will increase the 'resolution' of the drawn imagery but will likely result in considerable lag especially on systems with little RAM. The drawing (with a pen/stylus) is made easier by using the Lasso tool (Shift G) to get a feel more like that of drawing. Use the Shift key to add to the groups as the color only needs to be added at the beginning and then 'pixels' are added to the shapes via holding the shift key down. Other Tools such as basic selection, Lasso Line and Patch Group can also be used. It can help to work from back to front but if something is drawn out of order (and therefore hiding behind another group) simply drag and drop the group to the desired location. For instance, in the attached the red border around the orange lightning bolt was drawn after the orange lightning bolt... obscuring it behind the red. Moving the red group up in the heirarchy of the PWS sends it backward on the canvas. Care must be taken not to move any of the grid squares (unless an embossed effect is desired). Groups can also be copy/pasted and the resulting grid square geometry placed anywhere in 3D space. Just make sure the shapes are in front of other objects and the canvas. I must have been bored when I was doing this as it's a whole lot easier just to draw something in a dedicated paint program but someone must have posted something that inspired the exploration and thought that we could 'paint' directly in A:M.