Merry Christmas everybody!!

I must have been a very good boy this year because Santa (Papai Noel here in Brazil) brought me a nice little stocking stuffer.

A Cintiq 21 UX tablet/monitor doo-dad. Hmm. Tasty. Here’s my first really cruddy doodle I did with it. And I do mean really cruddy. Kinda a ‘Pictures for Patrick” in technicolor. (I miss Patrick. *sniff*)

I gotta get used to drawing big now. I was a little too precious with the line at points. That and it will take me a while to settle into drawing on a monitor thingamabob. I did this doodle with the Cintiq kinda upright in the stand. I discovered that I don’t like that, so for doodles and such now I kinda plop it in my lap like a sketchbook. Much better. Not that the results will be any good. I can’t draw to save my skin. But I enjoy my doodles.

I got the Cintiq to help me create richer feedback sessions for my APT students. This Cintiq 21UX combined with Anotate Pro screen doodling software and Techsmith’s Camtasia Pro screen recording software will allow me to doodle right on student’s work, even in their CG or Maya files, and capture all of that as a feedback movie. Tres chic, no? And I gotta say that animating in Maya with this thing is fun and intuitive. For years I’ve wished that animating on the computer could be as direct and simple as animating stop motion. Grab and pose the puppet kind of simple. At last I feel like I’m getting close to that.

Speaking of the APT, the next session starts taking enrollment in a few weeks. Keep your eye on the countdown mcbobby thing on the side bar. And in a day or so I’ll post a recap on APT session #1 that will feature some student feedback and a few before & after clips from some students. But first I’ll be spending some much needed time off with the family.
May you all have a joyous, peaceful and safe Christmas. God bless & all the best for you in this special season!