The first week of school has completed! Like any good travel show knows, you skip the part of the travel that wouldn’t be very interesting and you get right onto the meat and potatoes even though my travel through the mountains was far more interesting than I had anticipated. With the threat of avalanche, mountain goat, caribou, deer and semi I had a lot to keep my eye out for. I will note though that the drive from Kamloops to Vancouver was like driving through a dream. A beautiful 4 hour long end to a full 12 hour drive. Now let’s never speak of this again.
As I said, the first week of school is done! I have been oriented to the wonderful world of the Think Tank and I am a believer. Monday was our orientation. Scott Thompson (Owner), Joseph Bullock (Co-owner) and Angela Gielen (Knower of all things not art) gave us the rundown of how this school works and how it will work for you. I could go on forever about how dedicated they are to their students success but I will just say this; If you work hard this is your chance to follow a dream while being backed by a superhero league of industry professionals who are there to make sure you gain the powers needed to land that sweet job you’ve always wanted.
Let me introduce you to the “Superhero League of Industry Pros” in order of class appearance.
First class we had was Modeling 100 with Joseph Bullock. Joseph has the power of creation. From his brain to his fingers to the computer, he can create, and teach you to create, worlds, characters and everything in between. Of course he has more experience than just modeling but the League has chosen him to pass his knowledge on to the worlds next generation of superheroes. So far he is a wonderful instructor and I look forward to learning more from him. Joe’s first assignment to the “Semester One Heroes” was to give shape to an elephant while channelling the power of Softimage. A low poly representation to get used to the tools and hot keys that Softimage has to offer. I am partial to Maya but wielding all powers is much better than only using one. It is fairly similar to Maya so if you have experience in Maya it will cross over. I ended up modeling my Elephant along with a Brontosaurus and a Triceratops. Triceratops didn’t end up how I wanted it but I will show off the other two.
For our next Superhero we have Brett Vanderkist. He has the power to give life in the 2D realm as well as the power to travel back in time. Classical Animation 100 and Flash Animation 100 is what he was chosen for. He loves 2D animation and it shows. His first lesson to us was a trip back in time when animation was done on a thing called “paper”. A wonderful lesson indeed and out of it came the challenge of giving life to a rubber ball. I have seen many videos of an old school pencil drawings coming to life but I found a certain satisfaction in being the one that gave it. We each hand drew our bouncing ball on every odd frame and then captured our images with a webcam so that we could play them back in a program called Flipbook. It is nice to know how easy we have it these days but I look forward to stepping back in time again to give my rubber ball even more life. You will see what I mean next week. Check out my bouncing ball video! Make sure you have it on loop.
Next up is the essential Superman of the “Superhero League of Industry pros”. Scott Thompson was next up to pass his knowledge on to our small band of up-and-comers. Although I am not sure what his kryptonite may be, I did get a good understanding of all the things he has to offer and that is what matters. Scott has had his hand in many different aspects of the industry and certainly knows what he is talking about. He also has some awesome stories about the industry and what we can come to expect. Scott is in charge of 3D Animation 100 and Production 100 in this first semester. His first challenge to us was to slide a box down a ramp and into another box that was to tumble and fall and eventually come to a rest. We were to use Softimage which I found easier to animate in then Maya was, but the last time I animated in Maya was in Maya 8. It was an easy enough project when it came to simply animating the boxes but it was a bit harder to make them move realistically. This video is really small but I didn’t want to wait 20 mins while it uploaded. I think my powers of giving life in the 3D realm still need some work but it can only get better!
Our next hero is Chad Fox. He has been chosen to pass his knowledge of Softimage on to us. He has the power to see inside programs to help us better understand how they work. I would be afraid to see what he could make a program of his choosing do……or would I? Chad is a wonderful instructor and I look forward to learning all I can from him about Softimage. My powers in it grow almost every day!
Next is Digital Imaging with our Photoshop hero Peter Hogan. Photoshop has always been a fun program to use. Peter has the power to manipulate reality and he is very good at passing that on while keeping it fun. His first project to us was to create a fictional CD cover for fictional band. He told us to go a bit crazy with it so here is a digital representation of my crazy.
Last but not least is Sarita Baker. She is our Life Drawing 100 instructor. She has the power to simulate real life in the blink of an eye. She is a wonderful artist and I can only hope I learn enough to be able to simulate the simplest of life. We had a female, nude model as our subject and we were to draw her in many different styles. Squiggles, figure 8’s, scribbles, sharp curves and soft flowing lines were all represented. Many different styles that I had a lot of trouble with. I certainly do not have the speed or skill yet required to produce a drawing I would be proud of but I can hope that this class will get me there.
So that is it! I also started a project of my own based off of some Mass Effect 2 concept art. I wanted something to do if I got my projects done quickly enough. We have Saturdays and Mondays as our work days and Sundays as our days of rest. Superheroes in the making need time to adjust to our new found powers. I enjoy the other young heroes in my class and I think this will be a good year. The school atmosphere is amazing and all the instructors are dedicated to delivering a program that will benefit us beyond what I could imagine. I want to quickly thank the Xaviers of this school, Scott and Joe. I look forward to learning how to better use my powers. Alright, more to come next week!
My leaving quip is that is has been positive temperatures every day since I have arrived in Vancouver. My parents informed me that that hasn’t been the case back home. That’s Vancouver 1, Saskatchewan zip.
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