"First Date" Animatic

(EDIT: Just in case you are new to blogs, just click on image above to see the "First Date" animatic play.)

I just finished having an intense week of work over at Stardust (nyc location) and its not over yet. After getting a moment to breath, I quickly realized that the beginning of my last class at AnimationMentor.com was coming fast. Less than 2 weeks until I start full production on my animated short "First Date"!

For the first time (post high school), I am going to take off 3 months to completely focus on my school work. During my time at AnimationMentor and School of Visual Arts I have always been working and going to school full time. This lead to a lot of complaining on my part regarding the quality of work (or more like lack of quality work) that I produced while going to school. I always felt that every instructor/mentor I have had, has only seen a fraction of what I can do. They never see my full potential. Well this is it. The "time to put money where my mouth is". This is the time to challenge myself. Thanks to my wonderful and supportive wife, we have managed to save enough money to allow me to do what I have always wanted. It's not going to be easy. I really want to show my upcoming mentor and the AnimationMentor community what I'm made of. To add to this all, I decided that I wanted to use my own character "Simon" to tell my story. Most students opt for the characters provided by AM, but I want to finish this short and submit "First Date" to film festivals. I want the short to be entirely my own conceptual content. At this moment I have an awesome friend who helping this happen by modeling Simon. Caius Wong is this talented modeler who is giving me a helping hand in bringing Simon to life.

In light of my upcoming class, I thought it would be cool for anyone reading this to get a look at my animatic that was created while under the amazing guidance of Shawn Colbeck over at House of Cool. Its a simple story with a modern twist. One important note, the character in the animatic is property of AnimationMentor.com and is not Simon. He was simply used as a stand in. I am sure the short will change somewhat when I start to actually animate it. Some shots will probably need more time and maybe others will get cut down. I am really trying to stay well under a minute in order to finish in time. For those of you new to animation and reading...you did read that correctly. It will take me 3 months to finish LESS than 1 minute of animation.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.
Rick