I got the chance to go with the family to St Thomas. All my wife and I had to do was supply the air fare. Good deal? Damn skippy! One of the big obstacles for this trip was being able to still turn in my homework and attend my Animation Mentor class. I figured I could just tell my mentor an iguana ate my homework as they are pretty common.

I went with getting a lap top instead. I loaded it with all the necessary programs needed. Worked out pretty good.

The week of the trip was the start of the dialogue test. We had to pick a line of audio that we will animate the model Bishop to. I selected three audio clips and narrowed it down to one. I chose one from Joe vs. the Volcano with Tom Hanks. The clip can be heard here . Try hearing that a few hundred times!

"Brain cloud! I knew it! Well, I didn't know it, but... I knew it!"

The next step was to film myself acting out body gestures. while it is called dialogue test we are not lip syncing. This assignment is about eyes and body gestures. This version of Bishop lacks the detailed mouth controls. We can only open and close the mouth. Class 5 we will take the final version of this test and add in the controls to create proper syncing. Below are the sketches I did while viewing the video reference. I Then used my camera to take a picture instead of a scanner. Not as good but got the job done.

I have to admit at one point when watching the class lectures I had to stop and take a moment to realize I was on the balcony overlooking a tropical bay in St. Thomas! If you have to do homework, This is a pretty good way to do it. Below I thought I would share some photos.