This is one of those proud moments where we get to step back at Animation Mentor and feel proud of what we've helped create. We had 51 mentors, students and alumni work on Ice Age 3!

I was lucky enough to catch the film opening night with several Animation Mentor students and grads, some who worked on the film. It was a special moment watching the credits roll and seeing so many familiar names. Watching the folks in the room who worked on it with their significant others so proud of them was so touching. I remembered back to seeing my name roll up in the credits on my first feature film (Virus) and feeling that sense of pride and accomplishment! Congratulations you guys!!! We couldn't be more proud of you and all your hard work!

I'm so happy that we took this tack in our lives to help people fulfill their dreams. Although I don't animate anymore, I get to live vicariously through the many successful people who go through our program. Today I'm giving thanks for being part of something that feels like magic!

Ps. Here is a great piece of animation progression from layout to final from Ice Age 3. Awesome stuff!!!!!

I had lunch today with Rebecca Stockley and Luci Napier. We were discussing the possibility of doing a live, in-person improv class for animators. Rebecca has taught improv to Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney animators. She knows her stuff and I think these classes could be a HUGE value add to people who experience "animators block." Who doesn't experience that stuff?!

She was discussing charging $250 for a 6 week training session meeting once a week for 3 hours. I wanted to put this out there to see if this is something people would be interested in. It would be a physical workshop in the Bay Area and one that we may open up to the general animation community. Please post your thoughts, suggestions and comments here. This could be the beginning of something really cool and is something that could possibly spread to other areas of the world depending on the need.

Bret Parker was at the Animation Mentor Head Quarters this past weekend doing a lecture for The New Animation Mentor Curriculum. We're finishing up the last few lectures for this program before moving on to new SUPER exciting stuff. Bret gave her best in this lecture. The cool thing is we got permission from Pixar for her to use one of her shots from Ratatouille to go over in her class! This marks the first time we've been able to use Pixar footage in our classes. More of this type of thing to come in the new curriculum and this is so freaking cool!!!


Front Row Left: Jonathan Gomez, Front Row Right: Heather McNabb
Back Row Left: Veara Suon, Back Row Right: Nicole Demas
Part of the New Curriculum format is doing classes where we invite several students to participate in the lecture. This way we get the student perspective right there inside the lecture and we're so proud of these guys as they asked some fantastic questions which really helps take the content to a whole new level! Thanks guys!

Here's an image from the shot Bret worked on and used in this class. It's so great to be at a level where studios like Sony, DreamWorks and now Pixar are recognizing the importance of allowing footage in our classes to help make for better, more relevant instruction. So cool!!!!

Part of the new stuff is letting you guys get a sneak peek into the behind the scenes world of what we do here at Animation Mentor. I hope you enjoy this super sneak peek of what's to come!

As promised, I'm proud to annouce our associate with the amazing two series books on the life and work of Walt Stanchfield! I will be hosting a FREE webinar with editor of the two books, Don Hahn. The webinar will focus on the legacy of Walt as well as talk about the power of his teachings, mentorship and lessons.

We will also be holding a panel discussion at Comic Con. I will be introducing the panel. We are SUPER proud to annouce that Glen Keane AND Eric Goldberg will be there along with Don Hahn and other Disney greats!

As I said before we really believe in these books and think they offer something fresh to the animation world. We are so VERY proud to be promoting the books in a big way and helping to spread the word. We hope you enjoy the events we have planned! WOOT!

Yesterday Animation Mentor had our annual company wide team building event! I've appropriately titled this one, "TOP CHEF." We have a small group within Animation Mentor called the EEC (Employee Event Committee) who researches events and details. We keep the details of the events "secret" to the rest of the team so that it is a surprise. Unfortunately, I was out in bed sick so I missed this event. I was torn for sure! But better to take a sick day than to get everyone else sick. Overall I've heard amazing things about the event and wanted to share photos with you guys! My thought is that an inspired team creates inspired results. There's a lot of buzz around the office today and a lot of smiling faces! WOOT WOOT!!!

We have a lot of "Foodies" in the group! I love the smiling faces and overall energy in this picture!

Boy, we've gotten big! This is a feast!!!

Mmmmm, dessert!

The Aftermath! Pure delight!

I just got my hands on these two books! OMG, they are pure gold! I have a ton of notes from Walt Stanchfield from when I worked at Disney. I thought this book (it's two BIG BOOKS) was going to be a compilation of those notes. NOT AT ALL! These two books have heart-and-soul put in to each page! I'm not just saying this to help sell them, I'm staying this because they look amazing! I have only glossed through them and read a several pages and so far I can tell this is pure genius!

I'm happy to say that we have some cool things planned around the support of these books which you will be hearing about shortly. I'm so proud to be supporting these books as they are not your typical "animation books." If you want to draw better, get better gesture and expression in to your poses (2D or 3D) these books are outstanding! Edited by Don Hahn I'm so stoked to have them in my library!

If you have them please share your thoughts. They are HUGE books, too! Damn!!!

Lately we've begun doing a series of internal trainings. One was led by Jay Epperhart, super star Tech Care guru at Animation Mentor. His talk was tiled "Animation for Non-Animators." The point of this talk was to help educate everyone in the company about what makes great animation without all the technical jargon. Our hope with this was to help increase the awareness of what we do here so that people can also log on and look at student's/alumnus's work and give comments if they'd like. Thus getting people more involved. The entire company participated in this from Finance, HR all the way to the art department and technology. Way to go Jay!!!

The second was a talk given by Super Ninja Technology Specialist, Taylor Mahony! His talk centered around all the different products and services we have for students, alumni, leave of absence students etc. Again, this is all in an effort to make sure everyone in the company is educated on the different product offerings and services we have.

[Lleslle learns about Spacing]

Our company mission is: "To provide the most personal and fulfilling learning experience on the planet" and we want to make sure we are starting internally so that these are not just words we say, but life that we breathe in to all areas of what we do here!

I attended the Success Connect 2009 conference Monday and Tuesday of this week. This was a conference about a software product we are beginning to use internally to help tie all that we do in the company to the bigger picture. Ultimately it is an internal social networking tool to line up goals to strategy. Really neat and I got a lot out of it.

Things at AM are really buzzing right now. We have some cool additions we will be launching shortly. Our new "phased roll out" is working well and we've launched several new tools in beta to people. The method allows us to really gauge people's comments and usability while allowing us to work out necessary bugs before rolling it out to the entire school and alumni communities. I'd say my inspiration at work is hovering around 1,000% right now. Just wanted to share some of the really cool things happening behind the scenes. :)