A very hot week

You know it must be bad when I start posting weather conditions. Usually, the last bit of August and the beginning bits of September decide to end Summer as hot as possible. So here is Burbank, we are hit with a heat wave of about a week of 100,103 and even 107 degrees of heat.

The Animateducated YouTube channel is slowly chugging closer and closer to 1,000 subscribers and half way to the 4000 watch hours required to get annoying, but paying ads to the channel. Really not sure what to expect when we get there, but I do need to post some more videos.

Working on some ideas where I would document making a short animation which I posted here. I have a sound recording outtake from an episode of "Thundercats" which I have always wanted to add animation to. So here I am introducing you to my plans below.

I have discovered that I am currently teaching 8 animation classes this semester and so far, I'm keeping everything juggling along. I only have one in person on campus class teaching animation principles and the rest are all online. Its a full schedule for sure, but I have managed to have Saturday and Sundays, so I can't complain. 

This summer, we planted tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, corn and luffa. We discovered a few surprises like a large bush of cherry tomatoes seen above looking quite confused and angry. We also got several vines of butternut squash and one cantaloupe.

The tunnel of corn...

Here's my Scare Crow...

Have been enjoying the corn, cucumbers and tomatoes, but curious about those hanging Luffa plants. Once they grow larger and dry out, you can peel off the dry skins to reveal Loofah bath sponges! 

And you thought they only grew in the ocean...

Animateducated channel gaining!

The Animateducated YouTube channel is actually getting some viewers and audience participation! It actually looks like it might even obtain more than 1000 subscribers before 2022 ends. Here are a few things I have been posting lately that you may have missed...

An animation student of mine at CSUF recently completed her student film and we talked about the process.

You can see "Fester" by clicking this link...

That is one of the benefits of teaching, to see a student's work when it first started, how it evolves and is finally finished. Not every student can get to the completion stage, because its a lot of work and commitment.

Here are a collection of Animation Production projects where students had to come up with in my Animation Pre-Production class. Each student came up with an idea for a short animated film with a story, character(s), storyboard and animatic. The next semester, they had 16 weeks to make their animatic into a finished film.

16 weeks to make a 1 or 2 minute animated film can be done, but only if you have a figured out a solid work schedule and enough time to do it. Many students have take a lot more studio classes with other class projects which take more time and energy to do.

During Covid, students were under stress even more with the new way of life or stay at home, avoiding social situations and then having to use their own equipment to make their film. Most could not return to Campus, away from the Wacom Cintiqs and other software.

After taking the Animation Production class, sometimes that rough animatic turns into a colorful animatic instead of a completed film. I have been trying to figure out a solution to avoid this situation. I think if the student can manage to get the beginning or perhaps some sequence of their film into a final state of production, it would show an audience what the final product will look like when it is completed. Having this final production is a rough film, might even help the student continue to finish what they started after the class is over.

The worse case is when I see a student who has really great idea, but only wants to do enough work to get an "A". 

Grades are only a temporary carrot dangling for a limited time in front of a near sighted horse. 

Making a film is not about getting a good grade! Its about coming up with something you want to see, work on  and learn from the experience. And when its done, people can see it and appreciate. Enter it into film festivals, on YouTube, put it on your website. People who see it might hire you or introduce you to others and hopefully you will continue the process. It might take years, but you made something that nobody else did, something you cared about to create. And when you hear an audience reacting to your film or if someone has seen your work, that's very satisfying.  

Disney Multiplane Camera

Disney's Multiplane camera was invented by UB Iwerks, the same man responsible for design and animating the first Mickey Mouse cartoons. Here is a copy of the actual patent approved April 23, 1940.

The Multiplane camera was first used on Snow White and a short called "The Old Mill". It was used to bring depth to various scenes to get dimension to the animation and required several camera operators to shoot the complex scene.

There were only 3 multiplane cameras invented and used by the Disney studios. Here is a video with Walt Disney explaining the process and several clips of various animation scenes filmed with the Multiplane camera.

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