Marc Godfrey Animator

Friday 29 June 2012

Well, that knocked the wind out of my sails...

I started my course in Maya Core last Tuesday (26/06/12), and had my second session last night. I'm not going to lie, I'm finding it challenging (but I have only been on the software for a total of 6 hours, so far!) I can work my way round what we've done so far, but the pace of the class is very fast.

The biggest struggle I'm finding, is getting used to the teaching style. We're working our way round introductions to the elements that make up the Maya software...but I find that I need a bit of time to reflect on my notes, to work out how to do something (...such as showing a cube's vertices)...I'm getting there - but feel just as I get to the point of "right, I know where we are, now", the tutor has moved on to something else! Argh!

I'm answering a lot of questions (correctly too, I'm proud to report). Some people say I like the sound of my own voice, so I like answering questions (especially if I'm right, lol). I struggled a bit last night on pivots (stupid pivots, tsk) and snapping a pivot to a vertex (don't you hate it when that happens?). The tutor helped me out, but perhaps he thought I was slow...because that's the only thing I can think of that inspired a comment along the lines of...

"Doing this course, and another course in Animation is a lot of work...if you're struggling with this...how are you going to 3D Animation as well" ...Nothing like a bit of support, right? (...and that's nothing like a bit of support!)

I could be paraphrasing, and I could be being over sensitive, but honestly, I felt devastated. Firstly, because by that time, I had only been on the course for 4 hours of contact time (about 4 minutes of which have been 121, helping me)...and secondly because it's encouragement I'm after, not criticism...yet! By all means criticise the creative work I produce, but not my ability, without some sort of proper assessment first.

Anyway, he seems like a nice guy, so I'm reserving all judgement until we get a few weeks into the course. A little voice in the back of my head did say "You're paying all that money, to be told THIS?"...anywaaaay - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and all that jazz. I'll be catching up with my Animation tutor later today, who will hopefully make me feel a bit better about what I'm doing and reignite some enthusiasm, spirit and confidence in me again.

Starting the Journey into 3D Animation

I've taken the plunge and decided I'm going to train in 3D Animation. For lots of reasons that I'll probably cover at various intervals throughout this blog. Primarily, to fulfil a childhood ambition that went dormant, and reignited 3 years ago at EuroDisney (of course!).

Initially, I was going to enrol on a 12 week intensive course, at Escape Studios. But after they pulled the plug on the course, I endeavoured to find my own route to get trained up. Upon advice from the studios, I am enrolling on Escape Studios 30 week, part time evening course, to train in Maya (the key software that people in VFX and Animation use) as well as a 30 week part time course in 3D Animation itself.

I'm very nervous, as I'm not technical (my background is in Theatre, Art and Marketing). Excited about the unknown...but most importantly, I'm up for it!