Kyle Balda Master Class in 3D World Magazine

Check out 3D World magazine, June & July 2009. There is a great Kyle Balda masterclass on animating a 2 person dialogue shot, that has been passed around the labs quite a bit lately.

The lecture is called "Learn to animate the Hollywood way".

It is a two-part video masterclass. The videos have been posted on 3D World Magazine's website and are free for download: June Issue videos and July Issue videos

The magazine lecture notes are really concise and very insightful, especially for students experimenting with 3D work flow and looking for a clean way to layer in and build up animation.

The magazine is worth the purchase since it gives you the lecture notes and a CD with the Maya files containing the 2 characters, as well as individual Maya files showing you Kyle's separate animation passes. You can go right into the graph editor and see exactly what he did in his passes. What great learning material!

Look out for the Flyer around campus!

Reference and Motivation post: Cameron Fielding

Check out Cameron Fielding's reel



You may already be familiar with his Turok animation, but check it out again along with his girl acting clip and other great shots. JD talks about what he really likes about the Girl Acting shot over at his blog Spungella and we thought we aught to re-post it here to make sure you'd seen it too.

Great Stuff!

Norman Mod. Library Discussion

Hi All,

Now that we've got a bit of a following, it seems like a good time to create a discussion post for those who want to share their thoughts on contributing to a Norman Mod. Library at the Academy.

Please post all "Norman Mod Library" related comments here.

The main idea behind the discussion is this:

Whether or not Academy of Art students would like to have a shared library of Norman Mods.

We have set up a poll to gauge interest in starting a library, based on whether or not students think they would benefit by having the extra resources for their assignments.

This mod library would exist to give students a variety of characters to use and further modify, for personal projects and class assignments.

Students are not obligated to share their mods.

Many students spend a great deal of time modding and consider their mods a piece of personal art that they have created to make their reel stand out. It is perfectly understandable if someone does not want to share this kind of work in a public library.


The library would be available to any Academy student who wishes to use it as a resource, whether or not they choose to contribute to the library's collection.


That said, please post any questions, concerns or general comments on the subject here for all to read.

Thanks!