Dude! A ton. I’m catching up on some important technical reading involving 3D digital lighting technique that I’m sure we’ll be using more of next quarter. It involves inserting the right types of lights into a scene to illuminate the characters and the set appropriately. The book also explains how to cast shadows correctly. I’m reading a chapter a day of Jeremy Birn’s [digital] Lighting & Rendering. On chapter 6 today and should be done by the end of next week.

I’m also scheduling time to revise some of my projects from the just ended quarter with stuff like better lighting rigs (thus the need for Birn’s book), animating some of the still models we created in MAYA like masks and shoes and hopefully adding audio which I hear is difficult in MAYA. It may have to be imported into some other program for more post production editing to add sound. I’ll just have to research it.

I’ve also been adding audio to my animation final film this week and I’m considering editing the ending graphics while I’m tweaking it. In fact here’s the latest with audio tracks added in to complement the graphics. What do you think?

Next week I want to make one or two more short films just to get more comfortable with the Photoshop and After Effects packages. There are some really cool tutorials on YouTube and other sites that teach advanced special effects techniques in After Effects. It is a really impressive package. I want to put some time in with Illustrator as well. I heard about this one a few times during the quarter so I want to get my feet wet with the program over the next couple of weeks. I’ll brainstorm a couple of ideas and see where it all lands before the Christmas holiday kicks in.

So, what are you guys doing with yourselves over the end of year holiday breaks?