Semester 8 Milestones now available

I've had a few requests from students this week for a look at next Semester's Milestones, so here they are, revised (slightly) for the 2014-15 academic year:

http://sheridan4thyear.blogspot.ca/p/4th-year-student-handbook.html

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

-------------------------------------------------

Bruno Degazio, 

Professor, 4th Year Academic Advisor

Faculty of Animation, Arts and Design,
Sheridan College, Oakville, ON

degazio@sheridancollege.ca

website: http://www-acad.sheridanc.on.ca/~degazio 

Week 8 Deadlines & Reminders

LEICA REEL SCREENING 

I'm sure few of you need to be reminded that tomorrow morning at 8 AM is the deadline for submission of your Leica Reel. There is a big penalty for not participating, so be sure to put it in the correct folder!

Note that we might have to start earlier if the running time of all the Leicas is longer than three hours so keep your eye on this blog and email list for notification of changes.  We're currently planning to start the screening at 10 am on Wednesday, S235.

MILESTONE 5 

There is also a Milestone deadline this week - Milestone 5 - which is comprised of a Production Plan, Shot Breakdown, and Production Schedule.  (Or alternatively, depending on your Mentor, using Maury's famous Excel worksheet, available here. The Milestone also includes a Design Package (ungraded.)

ZBRUSH WORKSHOP

Last but not least, tomorrow (Monday Oct. 27) there is also a special workshop for those of you interested in the latest 3D modelling and design tools. The software is ZBrush, and we're very lucky to have a resident expert in the person of Florian Jacot. He'll demonstrate some of the features of this amazing 3D sculpting software. In Lab A151 at 6 pm.

Big Week Ahead! - Senior Animation Project Week 7

A big week is ahead of us as we get our Leica Reels ready for the screening in Week 8.

GUEST CRITIQUE

This week every Mentor Group will have a special guest who has been invited to view and critique your Leica reel. This will take place during your usual Mentor Group meeting time (or by special arrangement, at another time; stay in touch with your Mentor for details.)  This event is an important step in the development of your film; be sure to take advantage of it. Note that participation in this event is required and a penalty may be applied to your grade for non-participation.

LECTURE - Maury's Production Planner and a visit from Tinman Creative Studios

The lecture this week offers two highlights.  Firstly, mentor Maury Whyte will demonstrate and distribute an updated version of his Excel "Production Planning Worksheet", a valuable tool for organizing  and scheduling your production. (Many mentors will also accept the worksheet in lieu of some of the production forms for Milestone 5- Production Plan: Asset Estimate, Shot Breakdown, Production Schedule. Talk to your mentor for details.)

Secondly we look forward to a visit from Tinman Creative Studios, specifically creative director Brett Jubinville and a recent Sheridan graduate (TBA) who has recently been working at Tinman. They will discuss, among other things, the challenges of production planning in a creative environment, and the transition from Sheridan Animation to the "real world" of Web and TV animation production.  For more information about Tinman Creative Studios, go to tinman.tv

WORKSHOP - postponed to October 27

Due to scheduling complications related to the Monday holiday there will be no workshop this week. The planned workshop - ZBrush Tutorial with Florian Jacot - will instead take place on Monday October 27 in A151.

The Trouble With Dreamworks Animation

Here's an interesting and fairly in-depth article describing the current situation at Dreamworks:

It concentrates mainly on the business situation the company finds itself in rather than on the art and craft of animated storytelling. But the two are closely connected in Dreamworks' case, because the company's business model of making only two films a year requires each one to be a box office success. 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peterlauria/the-trouble-with-dreamworks-animation#4gpcma6

This Week's Lecture & Workshop - Wed. Oct. 8 - GUERRILLA DESIGN

GUERRILLA DESIGN
This week we have two events to address the design phase of the animation pre-production process. Our guest is Peter Bielicki, whose credits include Mulan, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis. Peter will speak at the 11 am Lecture on "Guerrilla Design Workbook Development for Short Animated Films."

Peter will also be on hand to review and discuss your design work at the 2 pm Workshop,  "Animation Design & Workbook Critique", taking place as usual in A150.

Animator vs. Animation , Episode 4

Some of you may be familiar with the series of web animations by Alan Becker about an animator battling with his own creation, a stick figure called "The Chosen One."

Episode 4, the latest (and longest) in the series was released yesterday. Although the live-action portions are a little plodding,  the animation itself hilariously fun, especially to those of us who use computers a lot. The final result is oddly supportive of the art of animation.

The film is also an interesting example of a Kickstarter-funded creative venture.



You can watch it here or at the original Youtube location below:

(
original Youtube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUbKWv2x9t6u8yZoB3KcPtnw&v=VufDd-QL1c0
)

New Link for Milestone 3 (Storyboard & Script) Examples

Some of you may have been unable to download from the link in yesterday's posting about Milestone 3 - Script and Finished Storyboard.  Due to the high volume of traffic, Dropbox has  suspended Public Access to the account hosting these files.

To remedy the problem I have copied the files to a secure server here are at Sheridan. The new link is:

http://www-acad.sheridanc.on.ca/~degazio/4thYearBlog/FallMilestone3_Examples/

This should work in any browser that supports FTP.


- Bruno