Update!

Woah, long time no update. Things have been a little bit crazy here, what with family commitments, Other university commitments, and of course, fighting to keep my job from the looming threat of insolvency (eep). That said, I've been plodding on with work and research, and just need to start updating again. I have a run of 5 days off work coming up, so prepare to be bombarded by many, many, dizzying updates. Here's how things are looking as of tonight (March 23rd). Mime animation - after receiving feedback in class before spring break, I needed to add in a couple of small gestures, just to make the on screen action that little bit clearer. I have done so, and am adding more and more breakdowns, heading towards moving to spline by the end of next week. Life Drawing - I've got plenty of life drawing waiting to be scanned, expect lots of weekly updates. Research - At the moment, I'm looking for examples of mimes performing the classic "box" routine, as my animation segment is pretty much built around it. In other news, I held a guest lecture at Teesside Uni's annual "Girls and Gadgets" conference, along with final year, and ex Disney placement student, Ty Davis, on our journey into the games/animation industry thus far. The aim was to try and drum up interest within the female student community, as only 10% of all people who work within the computing sector are women. The talk was very well received, we even managed to convert one would be law student into a would be animator! To give the talk a little bit of extra clout, and a cracker to end on, I took a stab in the dark and tweeted Animation Director Brenda Chapman, of Prince of Egypt and Brave fame. I asked if she had any words of encouragement for any young, female students, thinking about a career in animation. The next morning, there was a reply waiting for me, from Brenda, she wrote... "there's no genitalia requirement to be great artists/filmmakers, despite what anyone may say to the contrary!" It was a great note to end on. So thank you Brenda Chapman, for taking the time to respond, and for inspiring more young animators! See you all next time.