It’s been a busy week, back on track with getting the movie done. Since the last weekly update, I’ve managed to get at least one shot done per night. On Friday, I had 33 shots done. Friday itself consisted of: day job until 5, poker tournament at day job until 7 (I came in 8th, unlike the last tournament where I came in 1st), finish off shot #34, then go see Jaws at a midnight screening in Melbourne.

As a side note, I must take my fedora off for Mr. Steven Spielberg. I’ve seen Jaws a dozen times, probably, but always on a small screen. I’d always heard the story about how seeing Ben Gardner’s head come out of the boat was a huge scare, but on the small screen, it never startled me. On the big screen, knowing full well it was coming, it gave me the biggest scare I’ve ever gotten from a movie. 32 years after it’s debut, and it can still fill a fairly large theatre, and it had the audience by the short hairs for the entire second half. It’s interesting, too: my study of animation has really helped me out in terms of how I see scenes unfolding, and use of screen space. It was like watching Jaws with new eyes — some of Spielberg’s compositions were astounding. He deserves all the praise he gets.

Anyway, two more shots done today, and one almost done. That leaves 8 to finish before Tuesday to make my goal of finishing Wendell by Labor Day.

Lastly, Jim finished animating the hardest Giacomo shot in the film. Still needs to be composited, but I’m holding off on that until after Wendell is done. Also, congrats to Jim for being accepted in the AnimationMentor.com program. It’s expensive, but it looks amazing. Jim’s work is already good, so I can’t wait to see how awesome he’ll be after going through that training.