UCLAN Masters in Animation... Introduction to my Blog and what to expect?

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Myself and Ray back in 2005
Hello to you all,

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and hopefully you may, or may not, find some interesting posts of information based around the career of Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion animation and my own personal thoughts on how students wanting to learn stop-motion in a higher education environment can hopefully create a body of work and a portfolio that can increase their chances of employment in the stop-motion industry.

The blogs you'll see will be of the following...

- My history with my project Wildlife on Mars from 2004 till present.
- My research and self discovery's of Ray's past works.
- Designs and production stills.
- Tools to help students understand armatures and key points.
- A model makers toolkit.
- My own personal thoughts on how I think students can improve their chances of getting into the industry.

I'll also be dabbling between written and video logs, mainly because I often prefer to voice my thoughts rather than write them down (it's the curse of a dyslexic) plus it gives me the ability to show you what I'm talking about with demonstrations or clips. That is, once I can afford to purchase a new laptop and Adobe Premier software to record and edit any video diary entries I do make.

Myself for a local paper article about my storyboard prize in 2012
I hope you'll be along with the ride and learn something from my 12+ years since 2005...

See you on the other side!

Michael Tharme

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