Here I come.. Session101 !

WooHoo ! :)
It was an amazing week, very busy though.. A week I was waiting for quite some time.
Finally it has started. I am in the Spring 2008 term for class1:Basic Foundations at AM!

The week was really packed with a lot of things to do. First thing to suprise me, the very first time I logged into AM, I had more than 10 welcome messages from AM students on my workspace ! The community is sooo cooperative. I took a lot of time to go around and check out the school. I watched the Lecture the next day which was amazingly inspiring and had a lot of working tips about animation.
Then I took all the basic Maya Training which was the best animation focused training I've seen. Man, this place can be soo overwhelming! This week we are supposed to go around and check out different things at AM. AM is a truly global school. My classmates come from Germany, Moscow, Israel, Italy, Dubai, UK, India, Nigeria and Lebanon ! Also I get a chance to talk to students from all over the world ,let it be someone near in Mumbai or say on the other side of the world in California !

Then came the first Q&A ! My mentor for the class is Jalil Sadool. He has worked as an animator on “Chronicles of Narnia”, “Garfield 2”, “Charlotte’s Web”, and “A Night at the Museum”. He is currently an animator at Weta Digital and is working on James Cameron's "Avatar" and A. Adamson’s “Prince Caspian”. The Q&A was great where we did the introduction. We could ask him anything about animation and about the industry. Jalil is amazingly energetic and inspiring. It was So amazing talking to a real animator face to face and we got to talk to him for two hours!


The best thing about the AM and its community is that they are so passionate about the art of animation. You can always go to other's workspaces and comment on their work. They will do the same for you. In animation, feedback and critiques are extremely crucial. AM fosters this sense of community. Everyone out there is always ready to help you out. This is the first time ever that I am completely around people who just love animation! Its great to be able to to talk to some person about animation and movies and comics and drawing without losing his/her interest within first five seconds :D . AM makes me feel at home! Just love AM!

Next week there will be more to come .. My first assignment and some great addition to my workstation I have been waiting for :) ! That was a looong post, next time will keep it short :D