Tony Ross's Blog

Do you realize that 30 minutes a day turns into about 15 hours every month – but what the heck can you do in only 30 minutes?

1. Post in your Blog


2. Start reading that book you've been putting off for two years


3. Start writing that book you've been putting off for two years


4. Learn to juggle, or learn to juggle better
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6366713757585864298&hl=en

5. Learn to draw, or learn to draw better
"But I can't draw, not even a straight line!"
Well skippy, you can't do what you don't do, so instead of spending the next 30 minutes convincing yourself why you shouldn't learn to draw that straight line, pick up pencil and paper and just do it!


6. Learn at least three new words from a different language (or your own language ).


7. Start learning to play an instrument… no instrument handy? Sit down, get your hands on the table, feet on the floor, and learn to play drums.
http://www.studydrums.com/dapp01.html


8. Learn to build a web page. Use HTML, CSS, Flash, php, MySQL, whatever it is, do something new, or polish up on the stuff you've forgotten about.


9. Exercise


10. Spend 30 minutes writing down 30 reasons why you don't have 30 minutes to do something.

NOTE: If it took you less than 30 minutes to read this… GO DO SOMETHING :)

I believe that we all are the sum of both the positive and negative experiences, and people, in our past and present lives. As an instructor, I know that both my good teachers and bad teachers helped to shape my teaching styles and methods. In some cases, one of my teachers would do or say something, and I would think, wow, I gotta use that when I teach! Other teachers, I would make a note to do the exact opposite. It is with this in mind that I would like to publicly share what I feel was the defining moment in my style of giving direct, brutally honest, critiques. It was my senior year at the Atlanta College of Art, and as custom before graduation I had to have several members of the faculty, as well as my department head, give final critiques (an exit review) of my portfolio. My reviews were going well, and if memory serves me correctly, I only had one review left, my department head. I had this gentleman as an instructor once or twice, and to be fair, I was not a fan of his teaching, or his lack of knowledge on what he was teaching, either that, or I was a typical, arrogant, slack student at the time, aspiring to be a professor—anyway, back to the review. I presented my work, and his critiques and suggestions for improvement were good, better than good, they were awesome! So much so that it led me to say to this gentleman… "I would like to thank you, this has been one of the best critiques you've ever given me." He replied, "Well it's a lot easier to critique you now, because you're not a student in my class. I mean, lets face it, you're a big guy." As a side note, my department head was an average height, average build kind of guy, I on the other hand, am 6 foot 4, 300+ pounds. It then occurred to me that this gentleman had never given me an honest critique before because he was afraid of me. Ironically, I had never wished to cause this man any bodily harm, until he had uttered those words. I would like to take you now years later, to my 1st day of class opening lecture. "I am going to call roll now, this will be the last time you hear your name from me until you've earned it. If by the end of the semester I am not calling you by name, it's not that I'm bad with names, it's that your work sucked, it's not my fault. At times I may appear friendly, but I am not here to be your friend, I am here to teach you. In fact if you can't stand me, it makes grading you a lot easier. If you ask for a critique from me, I may ask you for "permission to be blunt", if you feel that is something you can not handle, do not give me permission… We will now take a 30 minute break so those of you that feel you need to drop this class may do so" So this is all to say that telling someone that their work is OK, when you really think its sub par, or even worse, utter crap, it does more harm than good. Equally, if the work is good, even if you hate it, especially if you hate it – even if you hate the fact that the very sight of the work singes your cornea, and sucks your will to live! If it's good, tell them its good! I believe it is far better to simply be honest, or simply be quiet.

I think time has passed enough that I can share a story from my teaching experience. A funny story (now) of when circumstances stopped being a coincidence, and, even from the outside looking in, seemed to have the hand of God involved. OK, so here goes. A few years back I was teaching at ACA. One of my former students asked if I would teach him in what was called an Independent Study, a one-on-one course of a unique curriculum not offered in a normal class. The assignment was simple, take the entire semester (14 weeks) and create 1 3D/2D animated video 30 seconds to 1 minute long. I requested that by the end of this project I wanted to be blown away by the result, this piece alone should be strong enough for them to get a job. As the semester progressed, the student presented storyboards, rough sketches, and screen shots, and we discussed possible directions for the piece. The student even discussed with me how their grandmother would handcraft puppets to be mixed in with CG animated parts of the video. The semester was drawing to a close and the student was almost done with the project. They felt it didn't need sound, my response was "even silent movies were presented with sound, add some music or something, maybe sound effects". The student complied. The last day of the class was here, and I brought my colleagues over to help me critique the piece. We all agreed, it was a stellar piece, well worthy of the A I turned in for their grade. One week after the grades are turned in, a rather supernatural turn of events occurs: Friday: My friend and mentor, the late & great Lou Hertz, was telling me a former ACA student, M., was working at ILM on the Yoda team. Saturday: I was telling a friend of mine, K. – another ACA grad and Star Wars geek, the news about M. Sunday: K. sends me a text saying " Hey I think I found M. on IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). I think, "I wonder is MN., another grad that worked at ILM, on IMDB." So I look him up, no luck. I then go to MN.'s web site to see what he is up to, but the site is under construction. I decide to click around the front page to find a way into the site. A small button hidden on the page lets me in to the old site. I went to the site's Links page and found a curiously named site called Massive Black. Thinking it was MN. joking about his size and stature, I decide to investigate the site. I find that Massive Black is a portfolio site for the entertainment industry. It is on this site that I found my student's final video that was turned in. Upon further investigation (only 7 days) I found that the video was taken from part of a larger music video, from the Australian group 1200 Techniques , that had one the ARIA Award for best music video 2 years prior. The video was worked by several artists and studios. Ironically, the song is called Karma. The artist that worked on the section turned in by my student was, at that moment, unreachable because he had just finished working on Lord of the Rings, and was now busy working on King Kong. I reported the matter to the proper channels at ACA, alas, the student transferred before any administrative action could be taken. I wonder if karma caught up with them anyway.

Want to be creative on your computer? No budget for software? Provided you follow some simple rules, here are some very powerful programs that only cost you the time it takes to download. FREE: Use this software as you please Open Source: Use this software as you please, add to it (help program it with the community of users), distribute it… or just simply enjoy it. Personal Learning Editions (PLE): This software is usually a limited version of a commercial product from a company. There may be a size, or time limitation for projects you create, or even a watermark added onto your final files. PLEs are aimed at students and teachers, and people who just want to try out a program without a 30 day demo limitation. You cannot use PLE software for profit. With that being said, enjoy the list. Thanks-Tony Ross Film-Quality 2D Vector Animation http://www.synfig.com/ Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation with fewer people and resources. Synfig: Open Source/ FREE 3D software http://www.blender.org/ Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. Blender: Open Source/ FREE http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html Google SketchUp is a deceptively simple, amazingly powerful tool for creating, viewing, and modifying 3D ideas quickly and easily. Google SketchUp was developed to combine the elegance and spontaneity of pencil sketching with the speed and flexibility of today's digital media. Google SketchUp 6 : FREE Sound software http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Audacity: Open Source/ FREE Graphic software http://www.gimp.org/ GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages. GIMP: Open Source/ FREE Painting software http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html ArtRage is the easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up. You can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. ArtRage Starter Edition: FREE Personal Learning Editions 3D natural environment software http://www.e-onsoftware.com/try/vue_6_ple/ Vue 6 is the most efficient and advanced solution for creating, animating and rendering natural 3D environments. Vue 6 PLE: FREE/PLE paperless animation software http://www.toonboom.com/products/digitalpro/eLearning/ple.php The Toon Boom Digital Pro Personal Learning Edition is a special version that provides free access to Toon Boom Digital Pro for non-commercial use. This allows 2D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of 2D Animation an opportunity to explore many aspects of the award-winning Toon Boom technology. Toon Boom Digital Pro PLE: FREE/PLE Professional 3D software http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525 Maya Personal Learning Edition is a special version of Autodesk® Maya® software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore most aspects of the award-winning Autodesk® Maya® Complete software in a non-commercial capacity. Maya PLE: FREE/PLE

omG! So I was up at about 1am randomly searching Google for stuff, as I do that from time to time, and found a piece of Open Source and or FREE 2D animation software, Pencil. It ROCKS! Enough talk, check it out. http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/pencil/index.php?id=Home