Latest demo reel and new blog

For those of you that have wondered what has happened to me the last months..well, I've been working hard on trying to get myself into the animation studios. Still job hunting, but if you wanna see my latest reel check out here: www.aliengraphicx.com

ALSO, I have started another blog to track a personal challenge I have started. it's called "Lamont's Project 365" and it's basically me doing a drawing every day for a year. Check it out here: http://lamontsproject365.blogspot.com/

thanks for checking in!

Until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Done..AGAIN!!

SO..those followers who might still be checking in on me may realize that it's been about three months since I've posted anything on my blogs. Well..in those three months, I have been working on learning how to get my work to a feature film polish stage, along with trying to get the best demo reel I can at this point in my career. It was an added three months past my graduation and was even tougher at times then any other time of my AM time, but in the end...it was well worth it. Sean Sexton was an amazing mentor and he truly helped me realize what POLISH really is. My job is to now take that knowledge and keep working on my film, as well as working on new acting/dialogue shots, as I continue to push towards feature film character animation!

but for now..here's the demo reel I ended the class with. Because some of the shots aren't fully polished, I'll edit this down to a more solid reel adding to it as I finish shots or create new ones. But for now..here ya go:



Thanks for all the support the last two years from my followers and I hope to make the blog a little more active as more "LIFE" happens to me!

until laterz!

Animation Mentor: REFRESHER!!!

Well, I know some of you thought I was done and finished with Animation Mentor. But you were WRONG!! Yes, I finished up last Friday with the 18 month course, but I am now taking a Polish and Portfolio class which was not part of my track. My plan is to get work more on my film, yes, but also to get my other AM shots demo reel ready. Some things I work on this term might not be noticeable to many of you viewers, but to the people that might hire me, they will see it. SO, this begins my FINAL, final push at AM. Nothing NEW will be created this term, but much of my previous stuff shall be pushed to new heights (hopefully).


My new mentor (fourth one who is working at Dreamworks and third one who worked on "How to train your Dragon") is the AMAZING Sean Sexton!!! (click here for his film bio) I had my first Q&A with him tonight and besides having MASSIVE issues with the internet and the stupid AM site, it's gonna be a GREAT term!! More to come...

until laterz!

Animation Mentor DONE!!!...kinda

I'm an ALUMNI!!! FINALLY!

The last 18 months have been so many things. Amazing, exciting, long, educational, long, fast, long...so many things. I haven't seen much of this thing called the "outside world", But now it's come to a close. Well, it's not fully closed. I have decided to take an extra class and do the new POLISH/DEMO REEL class. Many of my AM friends have taken this class and their work shows amazing polish. I'm hoping I can have that same level of polish in my demo reel when the class finishes in three months.

Thank you to all of you loyal viewers. I'll try to keep updating with my work both in and out of AM. But for now, FREEDOM!!!! well..at least until Monday at noon.

until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 612

Week 612

Part of our final assignment for Class 6 is to post our progress reel from our time at Animation Mentor. We needed to compile all our work from Class 2-6. As you might be able to tell, I have really enjoyed putting together my work. My actual demo reel won't be this crazy, but I have fun with this progress reel. Each term, I've taken the AM "Spike" logo and created a version from the film each mentor was working on (or recently had worked on) when I had them in class:

Victor Navone: "Alien Song"


Rebecca Perez: "Bolt"


Marek Kockout: "Shrek 4"


Jon Collins: "Toy Story 3"


Mark Pudleiner: "Meet the Robinsons"


Greg Whittaker: "How to Train Your Dragon"


You won't see the Class 1 icon, because we weren't to put that class on this reel. But the rest are present. I kinda had a blast designing these icon's and love this style of design. It's leaning towards the Mary Blair style, which I love. I wish I was trained better in color like Mary Blair. Still gotta work on learning more. Google "Mary Blair" if you wanna know more about her.

But back to my progress reel. Not much to say, so I should just show you. Here's my latest AM progress reel:



if you want to see a larger version click HERE

until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 611

Week 611

well...it's finally arrived. The LAST assignment upload of Class 6 and my Animation Mentor course. It's been a crazy, hectic, LONG six months. My film has gone through some major changes, but still manages to stay true to the film ideas I started out with. It's not finished, not even close. I have tons of technically issues that haven't been addressed, let alone finishing up the animation and doing some major polish on the shots. But I am really happy with where it's at. I wasn't always feeling good about it, but after some time to digest it all, I feel it's a good point.

Here's the latest version of my short film:



until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 610

Week 610

so yeah...the last couple weeks has been CRAZY. In week 8, I was laid up sick all week and had to furiously get my work done and handed in a couple days late. Then I was still recovering in week 9, but got my work done. Now that week 10 was semi normal, I could get some major work done. This week we were suppose to be working on the first HALF. This is probably the last time we'll get any feedback on this part of our film. I worked my TAIL off to get stuff as far as I could, but still feel like I didn't get anything done. I know that I took on a HUGE task with this film. I have this love/hate relationship with it. But mostly, I love where the film is at. Unfortunately I won't have a fully finished animated short at the end of this class. But I'll have the makings of some awesome shots for my reel, I hope!

anyways..here's the latest version. ENJOY!!:

Animation Mentor: Week 607

Week 607

This week brought us back to the first third of our films. If you've been following, you'll notice that my film has changed quite a bit from where I started. I'm sure it's not done changing, but I do think it's pretty close to being locked down...at least in the area of the shot numbers and length.

I combined all three of the shots from this third into one, per my mentors suggestion. I really feel like it's working better and am happy to not have to deal with all the cuts and the hook ups and just simplier is better, I find. Not sure why I can't remember that point when i START these things. I'm learning!

The color parts of the film are the parts I've worked on this week. The b/w parts haven't changed from the previous weeks. So..without further adue...here's the latest version of my film:

Animation Mentor: Week 606

Week 606

Well, it's three weeks later and I'm halfway through my final class at AM. The last few weeks we've been taking our films to the "Blocking Plus" pass. Basically that's just continuing to push the animation forward, making sure the mechanics are working, along with all the acting beats and timing. You'll notice there have been some big changes, and the next time you see the film, it'll have changed more. that's life! but it's all for the best. Now, without any further ta do..here's the Blocking Plus pass of my film:



Thanks for continuing to follow my progress. Next SHOULD be the spline pass. Time will see!!

until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 603

Week 603

okay..if you are following, you'll see I'm not posting every week. That's in part because I'm swamped with my film, but also because we are working on thirds at a time. I decided I'd just post the full film after each full pass of each third is done. So, here's the first blocking pass of my film:



I'll be back in a few weeks with the next pass of the film.

Until laterz!

Animation Mentor: Week 601

Week 601

Well..I've made it to the final Class of Animation Mentor! WHOO HOO! This week means the start of the last push on my short film. I started the week with discovering who my final mentor was going to be. And the winner is...GREG WHITTAKER!!! He's an animator who has been at Dreamworks from the start, I believe. I'm super excited to get on with this term and to learn from this fantastic mentor.

This week we needed to take the first third of our film and get it blocked out. Since my previous mentor had pushed us to really get our films blocked out during Class 5, I had most of my ideas in there. I really had to work on the entrance of the boy character, as well as him walking through the shot in the second shot. I also fixed some issues from my final Class 5 notes on shot 3. This was the first time our new mentors had see our films. Greg told us in our first Q&A that he didn't want to know anything about our films before he gave us our crits, that way he would have a fresh view of them.

here's what I handed in for the blocking of the first third: