As of sunday night i finally finished my A:M handbook. Now the question is. What should my next route be. Should i tackle the A:M bootcamp. Or is it time for me to test the waters so to speak. An attempt my first ever solo still. Then i got to thinking. Should i tackle the still aspect an make myself better at it. or tackle the film aspect, An improve apon there. Or do both an slowly progress? Then i thought about it a little bit more. Maybe if i do go the route of improving my stills. Then i could aim towards the may contest..

Im just looking for advice, An personal insight as to what others done when they finished with the TaoA:M.

The way my path went, after upgrading A:M, I did maybe 4 or 5 TAoA:M lessons then dove right into making a cartoon for a song that got fame on the internet. I made the movie, without even knowing about compression; animating while totally forgetting about enticipation, exaggeration and follow thru. But just making the movie gave me confidence in what this program can do.

Then TWO came along, and that got me excited. The rule to enter TWO was, at the time, get TAoA:M certificate, graduate ABC (Animation Boot Camp) and then join the TWO team.

Now you know the rest of the story

After TaoA:M I decided to take a project and just do it. (Still doing it, as a matter of fact - probably take me years!)

This project involves everything but animation (it's a still), and I've tried to learn everything about sections as I go along. So for the modelling part I learned everything about modelling. Then I had to rig, and tried, and tried, to learn everything about rigging. Decided that I would have a nervous breakdown, so moved onto decalling, and now I'm going back to rigging again.

The only sub-forum for TaoA:M is ABC, which is animation, which I will probably get to before I die, but I find it odd that we don't have other post-graduate sections.

I guess the WIP forum is the place to go, although I never felt confident that my work really fits there - it's too newbish, especially as it is now doubling for Showcase. But I can see that too many forums gets complicated.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say, Logrus, is think of a project and run with it.

Colin's Lost World would be a great way to go with this, as you can choose something as simple as you like, and it will involve all aspects of TaoA:M (except animation). And you can critique other people, and get critiqued yourself. And you've got till June.

And Image Contests - I entered the hair one as my first image contest, and I can't describe how much I learned. I also learned that there is still far more to learn, and having a deadline each month (I've chosen bi-monthly) is a great way to perform under pressure, and then say goodbye to it.

Congrats on finishing TaoA:M (did I miss your wookie?)

You can always do still imagery. I suggest pressing hard into animation!

Congratulations for completed TaoA:M!

Thanks Dhar an Caroline. You gave me alot of stuff to think about. Mainly what my goals are, an what am looking for to get out of A:M.

Something that has stuck out in my mind is to give the May "Toon" project a go at it. To me it seems like i may just get the best out of what im looking for in A:M. Alot more understanding with modeling, rigging, an decaling. Not to mention at attempting to tell a story with a simple still. If i do go thru with it, ive already have an idea for a scene, a char, an a story to go off of...

My A:M is an older version. I didnt even know there was a "Wookie" tutorial. I have nothing in my project files, an nothing in my book after the flock project.. So im instowing the grandfather act..

So now "BRING ON" my certificate !!

Edit: I felt i had cheated the community when i failed to produce a Wookie. So i went an downloaded the zip. Then i got to work on playing with my Wookies hair. The online turt states to use the grooming button to bring up the brush. Yet the grooming button remains gray. So it will not let me use the funtion so i cant brush my Wookies hair..