Week One: My leap into a new world is off to a great start

In 15 minutes, week one will officially come to a close (12PM PST). Turning back to look at my life just one year ago, I was miserable. I had a "great" career some would say. I was one of three executives running a software company that was growing so fast that investors paid a lot of attention to us. And we had business pouring in faster than we could handle. But my life changed and here I am a student in 3D character animation. I made the right choice.

Week one was pretty fun, we didn't have any real assignments, but we had our first Q&A time with our mentor and I got to meet my other 15 classmates. AM gave the first class students a scavenger hunt, with some unknown prize, that turned out to be pretty fun. It really made sure you had explored all the site has to offer (which is a lot).

At this point I want to note that I will not be sharing a lot of details or any of the material covered in the lectures. This is part of our student agreement and a way to protect AM's intellectual property. I am completely onboard with that, so my postings will offer you glimpses into what I produced and my impressions of my own progress and experiences.

This week gave me an opportunity to explore some of the things we will be doing with Maya and I got to play with my first rigged character. That was harder than I expected, but after trying 2 or 3 poses over a couple of days, I feel a little more confident, but not quick. A lot of it has to do with knowing how to control something in IK and something in FK without being able to switch back and forth.

It is fun. And I am more excited to get into the next lesson in just a little while.

My next entry will cover the dilemma I faced after I was accepted about whether or not to take Maya Springboard (a semester long class on intro to Maya) or start in class 1. I chose to start in class 1.