Monday at AM was our highly anticipated Star Wars Episode III Global Q&A. Close to 300 of us logged on to participate with ILM animators Delio Tramontozzi, Kevin Martel and Charles Alleneck (listed left to right as they appeared in the video chat window) and moderator Shawn Kelly. It's always great to interact directly with pro animators we admire, to get their insights and all. Delio and Charles are both mentors and though Kevin is not a mentor he appears on many of the class lecture videos we have from week to week.Speaking of the lecture videos, this week's lecture, about advanced anticipation, featured a bunch of clips of Shawn and Kevin they'd shot of themselves for reference. Some of the shots were of them starting a run, or a jump and a few were of actions that looked like they might have been painful; Shawn fell over a low fence (intentionally, for art) and backwards off a swing (it was deliberate!), and Kevin leaped several times into some shrubbery. So I asked in the Q&A if they ever injured themselves filming reference. Delio, who was apparently the mocap stuntman for a lot of shots in Ep. 3 told us he hurt his neck while doing mocap of an all out run where he gets "shot" and falls to the ground. None of them said they had any stunt training. I had thought about injury during filming of reference from watching the lecture video and doing my own reference the other day. Sometimes the shot calls for an action you just can't safely act out for reference. For example, I would have liked to film myself tripping and falling, but I had no stunt mattress to fall on.Last night I had a chance to animate for 3 hrs straight. It's been a long time since I've been able to spend that much time in one session. I was getting sorta what I wanted with this week's assignment and it felt good to be able to just sit and work on it without worrying about anything else. The shot still needs tons of work, but I made more progress than I've been able to make on any recent assignment. You can check it out with this link (AVI, about 1MB).
The party at Brian's was great. There was a great turnout and Brian and his wife Sue made some delicious eats, most notably four flavors of homemade ice cream! Woo! It was great to hang out with fellow Spring 05 mentees face to face again, and meet some who missed the last gathering at Pera in April, or who I didn't get to talk to last time. Again I felt myself wishing everyone from AM around the world could have made it! The weather turned out to be great, too. Too bad I forgot my camera...I was 30 minutes from home when I realized I didn't have it. Luckily Brian and Niem (I think) had cameras, Brian's already got some posted on his blog.Glad I was able to make it to the party in Antioch, about 70 miles from Sacramento. My niece, Darcy had agreed to stop by to check on my parents sometime in the afternoon. Another family member also agreed, but never showed up. Luckily my mom and dad made it okay with no disasters.Sunday I had to get up early to make some adjustments to my assignment and upload it. My mom had an appointment for a CT scan and mixing and scheduling the barium liquid she was required to drink for prep cut into my time. Is it really OK to drink barium? Guess so. Around the same time my brother showed up and I had to talk to him about our plans for our mother. My mom was having serious problems as well and I missed the noon assignment upload cutoff by just a minute or two. I posted it to my Public Review area instead of the Assignment slot, and also emailed it to my mentor. I hope he got it.In between the two medical appointments my mom has today I had a chance to shoot some reference footage of myself for this week's assignment. My little dog Cisco followed me along the mow strip...he doesn't like to walk in the grass anymore for some dumb, doggie reason. Check out the crappy-rez picture my digital camera does for movie files! At least it's better than my web cam. Next I'll sit down and sketch and time it all out. I needed to see some actual reference since acting it out didn't give me the whole picture. Much of what I'd done for last week's assignment was based on guesswork. The reference should help out quite a bit.Why doesn't my dog want to walk on the grass?
We're almost through the first week of the class 2 at AM, "Body Mechanics". I was at least able to get a rough blocking done for my assignment, which is better than my last two weeks. Hopefully I can get it refined by Sunday's deadline.My mom does not have Alzheimer's or dementia or anything the elderly get, but she's beginning to show symptoms of...something. Her doctors don't yet know what it is but she's scheduled for tests. She seems normal most of the time but gets upset easily and that often leads to some hyperactive, out-of-control behavior that is difficult to diagnose because it's unpredictable. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to settle her down, and lately, efforts to calm her are futile.I'm now faced with the difficult, emotional decision of placing my mom in custodial care. My mom realizes how hard it is for me to care for her, and hates herself for being a burden. She has asked repeatedly if she can go somewhere else to live and my older brother and I have tried to discourage her because we know that's a last resort. But her condition has worsened and when she stayed in the hospital a few weeks ago I was making arrangements along those lines. But when I told her what I was doing she became deeply saddened and wanted to come home instead. On the day she was discharged I had to call and notify her doctor and the discharge planner of our change of plans. By the next day my mom was crying to be placed somewhere again.As you can imagine this is affecting my studies at AM. I've had to seriously consider dropping out, and that's still up in the air. I need to take a break from caregiving duties, but that just isn't possible. You would think, since most of our family lives in the area, someone could take over for a while. But they all have families of their own to attend to, my parents and I rarely see any of them. Besides, taking care of someone like my parents is not something anyone can just do. It might even be more difficult than babysitting a child because there are medicines that have to be given and older adults have needs that most people would never realize unless they have experience or special training.The AM students from Northern California have a party planned at Brian Nicolucci's place tomorrow that shouldn't be missed. I have not been able to find someone to elder-sit and time is running out. It's a pretty long-day commitment for whoever stays with them because it takes so long just to get to and from the Bay Area from here. (When I went to the last AM meetup in SF my nephew Matt willingly stayed with my parents as long as he could but my mom freaked out before I got home.) My mom and dad could manage to get through the day on their own but there is a significant risk something could go wrong. It seems selfish and irresponsible for me to leave them without care, but at the same time I'm long overdue for a break. I'm still not sure if I should go, so I'm calling my status a "game time decision".Attitude is everything, in life and in animation. So I'm just doing whatever I can to maintain a good attitude, reminding myself this is not a permanent thing. It's a challenge, and being enrolled at AM helps, knowing I'm proactively pursuing dreams and having the support of fellow mentee classmates who all have challenges of their own.
They say time flies when you're having fun. The past 12 weeks of school at AnimationMentor.com have just zipped by and we're about to start the second class, sometimes referred to as second quarter and second semester. Whichever is correct, it starts next week and I'm ill prepared!
It's not so much I'm slow and lazy. That's true sometimes. The reality is my time is not my own. Caring for my disabled, geriatric parents is a full-time job with at least 20hrs of overtime per week--not that I actually get paid, that is (more on that in another post). Every day I am literally overwhelmed with tasks, tending to my parents' needs especially my mom who can barely walk sometimes. The last two weeks have been especially bad. I dare not go into it too much here lest this blog becomes all about the trials of being a caregiver rather than AM student as it's intended. Suffice it to say my mom has had to be taken to ER 3 times in the past 4 weeks and was in the hospital for 5 days last week. I'm currently faced with trying to get her placed in custodial care, a decision the rest of my family has left me to decide all on my own. It's not something I want to do but my mom's condition has long been beyond my ability to adequately care for her--she needs professional care. It's extremely stressful and time-consuming trying to manage it all without any help.
This leaves precious little time for myself, let alone for school. Last week (week 11, supposedly my lucky number) I wasn't even able to touch my homework. The week before I got my lowest grade so far at AM. I sent a message of explanation to my mentor and AM prez Bobby Beck, who responded with understanding and encouragement. I went ahead and paid tuition for Class 2 hoping that I will not have to cancel. Hopefully I'll be able to make it all work.
