Saturday February 14th

They planned an outing tonight, we're supposed to go see a movie. I guess i'll go just to be part of the team. I kind of want to make a good impression. At the same time it's useful to know. And I don't want to be an outcast or anything.

Real animation will start next week so i have to be ready. I heard the teacher will be consulted about jobs, so I have to get more involved in the team work.

From this point on I need to complete two animations a month. So by the end of the week Friday night before I sleep, I need to have my references, and my main key poses.

during the week I'll do my breakdowns.

then I'll do the timing over the course of the rest of the week.

Then i'll have the weekend to do the finishing.

I hope this works or I'll do only four animations three weeks each and use older animations as well.

Thursday January 12 2008

This week was unproductive so far.

We rearranged the teams after realizing there was a mistake in how the first set of teams were created. They are more balanced now. My last team had a lot of strong personalities so I stepped back from most discussions so as to not prolong the debate that most of the time proved fairly useless.

I decided not to be the lead or the lead technical because I suspected it might take a lot out of my time. I was right, because they spend all day in meetings which i heard were unproductive. However there's a loss in motivation when the teacher just hands out an assignment to keep us busy. We don't know if he'll follow up on the assignment or anything, if it's worth anything or if it will help my portfolio. So I spent most of the day wednesday half-concentrated. This could be a plus if I apply myself while others feel unmotivated.

Most of the leads are the top students, I'm guessing they're trying to network. This takes away from their own animation work, so it might be to my advantage. But then again maybe their networking and involvement will get them recognition... who knows.

I have a short list of animations i'm thinking about now.

right now for sure I want one fight scene and one basketball scene.
I might just go with that, and allow myself to brainstorm as i go on for additional animations.

I'm also way ahead in Motionbuilder right now and I want it to stay like that, so this weekend, i'll finish the technical tutorial I have and order some books about motion capture. that might give me an edge in that field or at least open some doors for other jobs. I heard that motionbuilder is being used a lot more on next generation games so we'll see.

I also have to leave time for CV and interview preparation. That's a big weak point for me.

I jogged this morning for 20 minutes
I forgot to train yesterday so I'll make up for it this morning.

I ate junk food yesterday out of boredom.

only 3 months left.

Monday February 9 2008

I slept 8 hours

I ran for twenty minutes this morning

Preparing my stuff the night before between 10 and 10:30 helps me get a head start the next morning

Today we're going to learn the Source SDK engine a little bit more.
Tomorrow we'll have our first Motionbuilder class for which i should have a good lead

I think I'll start weight training in the morning now to get it out of the way and allow myself to stay at school later. My routine:

50 jumping jacks
stretch
run
weight train

I should add more jumping jacks during the day and exercise with the medecine ball at school

I have to find a faster way to prepare lunches in the morning.
things that are quick to make:

-sandwhiches
-fruits
-vegetables
-salads?

Goals for the week:

- have six animation ideas
- excel in the next assignment
- train every day
- finish tidying my appartment
- groceries
- get cats

Weekend 1

I caught up on sleep from thursday's sleepless night. I spent the first part of the week not taking it seriously, probably because I'm on a good team and I'm with some people with the same sense of humor as me. As a result my first assignment wasn't strong. I was hoping to make a big impression on the teacher but I'll have to do that on the second project.

I started cleaning my appartment and rearranging it for the most practical setup. Now i have a lot of light while i work on the computer because of the big bay windows. And my bedroom doesn't have any light in it whatsoever.

I started jogging everyday as well it helps.

I'm learning a program called motionbuilder and i believe that i'm ahead of everyone on that so i have to keep my lead.

I also have to catch up with the SourceSDK engine. I wasn't part of the core tech team that had training onit, but i could catch up, it's fairly easy.

I watched a few movies this weekend.

13 weeks left