Quote of the Month:
"Your money is so well spent at Animation Mentor... I would say go for it. You will learn more than you ever dreamed in that time. Just make sure that you go ALL IN. Don't sluff off. Be fierce about it."
Aaron Reid
Coverage is the term we use in the film business to describe the choices we make in the positioning of the camera - choices we make in each setup. These choices include basic framing, composition, lens choice, camera height, shot size, screen direction, matching of shots between two people, continuity, camera movement and all the other elements which go into choosing "where we are" for the shot and WHY.
My ultimate dream job would be to someday work on characters and leave lasting impressions on the people that are entertained by them, whether it's film, video games, etc. To get people to care for a character that you animated and helped create would be a dream come true for me.
I had been interested in drawing and figured that I would do my acting with a pencil. I didn't really know the work that was involved in being an animator. I just thought it sounded like a cool career option. Soon after that I sent away for the CalArts catalog. I looked through the admission catalog like it was the Holy Grail (attending was a long shot since I was growing up in a small town in Ohio). I just couldn't imagine a place where other people loved animation like I did.
There's probably no more important facet of your animation for the audience to immediately "read" and clearly understand than the facial performance. The first thing an audience is going to see is your character's eyes. The second thing is the character's overall face. The third might be the overall pose of the character, or, if the character is pointedly looking at something (or someone) in the scene, they'll probably look immediately from the character's eyes/face over to whatever has that character's interest.
Consistently forcing myself to draw new and different faces helped me grow as an artist. Soon I realized though that one image of one face did not give me all the reference I needed for drawing an individual from several angles, showing a broad range of facial expressions.
