Johnny 5 Need More Input

So if my plan goes as I expect, I should have a bunch more time pretty soon to get back into writing and talking about animation... so that basically means more time for watering the blog, more time for personal work, and more chances to create stuff for the educational community. 

I have been thinking for a long time now about creating an instructional DVD

training course for intermediate/advanced level animators. I have watched a whole bunch of these kinds of DVDs over the years, on different topics, and I have a good understanding of what makes these things useful... but most importantly I just know I could create a really good one for animation!

My main goal would be to clarify a number of issues that many training DVDs seem to gloss over; most importantly the process of how you actually generate ideas that play well on screen, and how to actually turn those ideas into structured animation. I would also like to explain a properly detailed insight into how to actually take a shot through blocking, with some different approaches and methodologies behind blocking techniques. The blocking aspect is a key thing for me, as I found it one of the hardest things to learn how to do, but once you master it, improves your ability as an animator in immeasurable ways.

I would love to animate a medium length shot, but record the whole process in its entirety from start to final, with no "so earlier I finished up this part" sections. Its always those edited out parts that seem to contain all the secrets! I want to show the real blood and guts of how a shot gets finished, including all the "that looks horrible" bits and how a professional animator would actually work through and solve those exact kind of problems.

Please comment below with the kind of things you would like to see covered in a training DVD set. Ask yourself these kind of things:

• "If I could get an animator to just sit down and explain something to me, what would it be?"
• "What seems like a stupid question, but I just can't figure it out myself?"
• "What was really annoying last time I did some animation training, because the instructor just didn't explain it properly, or just glossed right over it?"
• "What kind of format would be good to watch and learn from on a DVD?"

If I don't get many comments I'll just have to figure it all out myself, but I would really appreciate input from you.

Looking For Help with Something...

I have been thinking for a long time now about doing a regular post to Flip of recorded feedback of individual animated shots. So simply put, somebody who might want the chance to get input on their work from an industry professional, could, in theory, send me a link to their video and I could post back a video review session here on Flip, for the animator and other visitors to watch.

I'm imagining short animation tests, could be just blocking or final animation, but something I can discuss in about 10 or 20 minutes.

I want to do this for a few reasons:

• I want a bit more 'regularity' to the site, one or two of these a week could be cool.
• This kind of thing helps me filter all the crap that spins around in my head constantly.
• There is an army of animators who would destroy me in a talent fight, but I reckon I`ve worked pretty hard and my opinion is valid.
• It seems like people who are teaching themselves (like I did) could benefit from it especially.

The thing is... I think I have the setup to make this work on my laptop, but I could do with someone sending me a test so I could do a sample review and just see if it will actually work how I imagine it to. It would be good to use that as the example when I officially start this idea.

If you like this idea, drop a quick comment so I can gauge this a bit, and if you think you have something I could do the test run with, send me an email with a link to a .mov file.

Update: Thanks so much to everyone that expressed interest and took the time to send me a shot for the test run. I really appreciate that. Due to a somewhat overwhelming amount of requests, I would like to kindly ask people to no longer send clips for the test run. If I can get this going as I plan, I will setup a proper way for you to submit a shot for review through the blog.