Marc Godfrey Animator

Wednesday 30 January 2013

Draw!

Alex, my tutor at Animation Apprentice, is a very inspirational guy. He, along with many other animators, are passionate about drawing. Which as an apprentice, passionate about drawing too, is a very affirming thing to know; that your tutor trusts the very core skills of an animator, drawing, especially as a creative outlet. It doesn't matter if you're not very good at drawing, the most important thing is that you do it.

This blog, which he added recently solidifies this idea brilliantly: In Praise of Sketchbooks


Monday 28 January 2013

I'm famous!

I forgot to mention...I'm famous! Well, that is, my tutor Alex has blogged about me.

A few years ago, I got a job working on the West End musical, Rent. I told Alex about it, and he was so impressed by how I got the job, he blogged about it.

You can read the article here: The animation student who created his own job



...I'm also celebrating 7 years with my other-half today...so hurrahs all round :)

Saturday 26 January 2013

How's the Animation Training going?

Me, where the Animation dream got
reawakened, back in 2009.
Things have been moving on for me at a nice pace! I must say though, being honest, for anyone that doesn't have a lot of experience in VFX, doing the Maya course with Escape Studios and doing another course with Animation Apprentice is a lot of work...especially juggling a regular job at the same time.

I've nearly finished with Escape Studios now (it's flown by), only 4 weeks left, but still have a good few weeks left with Alex at Animation Apprentice. If I had to do it all again, I would probably start off with Animation Apprentice, and maybe do a self-learning online Maya course, in my own time to up my skills.

The tutors at Escape are really lovely, and incredibly talented. However, some classes at Escape were, dare I say, I tad boring as we were learning things that bared no resemblance to anything I actually wanted to do with my career (of course, they were useful things to know about, but felt like teaching a drummer how to play the guitar)...but more recently, at Escape, we've been looking at Animation, it's not a patch on what I'm doing with Animation Apprentice. I recommend the course with Alex at AA, 100%!

I'm not phased by what the future holds...yet. I know jobs are few and far between in Animation, but I'm positive and optimistic. I really enjoy Animation, and feel that I'm being true to myself by taking the bull by the horns and retraining to do a completely different career in something I longed for as a child.

I'm leaving work in a few weeks...eeeek...although I will be back and forth, and doing some hours to tide me over, until a job opportunity comes up... I need to take the step and spend more time on my animation and show reel and really focus on landing that dream job! Very exciting! Kinda nerve-racking! Definitely fulfilling!

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Books for Animators

I hear all the time, from friends and colleagues, which are the best books for Animators?

The response tends to lean towards a response of "just google what you're looking for" - this is especially the prevalent answer, when asked for the best books to help understand Maya. Maya gets updated every year, so it makes sense to steer away from buying specific books to help with why-won't-keyframes-move-in-the-graph-editor questions.

There are LOADS of great books out there, that become like bibles for animators. Everything from Disney sketchbooks, to the ultimate Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams. So...I made a page especially for them. Take a peek and let me know what you think: Books and Gifts for Animators

Monday 21 January 2013

I love this Show Reel!

Whilst browsing show reels online, I came across this gem by animator, Erica Pinto. It was really the first scene that caught my attention, as I'm a massive fan of TV show, 30Rock. I think Erica has captured the characters beautifully - I love the attention to detail, such as the little glasses bounce.



One day, I hope to be as gifted as Erica. Check out more of her work here.

Friday 18 January 2013

Happy New Year - Happy New Animations!

Happy New Year! Hope 2013 brings you all you need!

So far, as well the animation training still going well, I've been busy inspiring myself with interviews from professional animators on Schoolism. These are my favourites: Interview with Disney Legend, Tom Bancroft,  Interview with Pixar Artist, Daniel Arriaga and Interview with Pixar Animator, Michal Makarewicz - inspiring indeed!

Here's one of my latest pieces of animation, so you can see how I'm getting on and developing...


Still got a bit of work to do, slippery feet and timing issues to be ironed out...so not yet show reel worthy...but it will be!

Escape Studios is going well too, nearly finished the evening course, but the project is taking me longer than I hoped. It's been a difficult work load to manage, and if I could do it all again, I would have held off the Maya course and just focus on the Animation tutoring with Alex, but hey.

...Note to self: Keep up the Blog!!