I am an artist, of sorts. I am certainly not a professional, yet. I tend to dabble in one medium or another before moving on – but I find my inspirations come in the form of stories. I also find I always return the ideas of stories in motion. I love movies. I love animation. Far too long ago, I started dabbling in 3D Animation. I got bogged down in all of the technical aspects of trying to do everything myself: Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Lighting, etc. I never got to a place where I could start animating. My motivation waxed and waned over the years, and eventually I took a long break to explore other things. But I still thought about animating. In 2016, I decided that I needed to stop dabbling and either focus – or give up on the idea of becoming an animator. I enrolled in the Animation Basics workshop at AnimationMentor.com – I had never used Maya at this point. I figured it was a good test to see a) if I could learn the program, b) if I could learn the concepts of animation, & c) if I could stick with the program through completion. Animation Basics was a safe way to get my feet wet.

Fast forward a few years (and several breaks) and I completed the core Character Animation Courses. It’s a good program, with good mentors. At some point I expect I will return for their other workshops. This is not intended as a detailed review, but if character animation is something you aspire to do, go check them out.

I think it is fair to point out that I will be using several of their student rigs in this project.

I am not a professional animator. I have a regular full-time job outside of the creative industry. I’m not sure if I will try to become a professional animator, if I’m being honest. I’m not sure if I’m cut out for an industry where even successful animators might find themselves moving companies every 1 to 3 years, some more, some less. I prefer the illusion of stability (for it is still just an illusion) that my office provides. So instead, I choose to animate on the side, on personal projects.