Had a great time today. Nova instructor Keyah Steele brought her acting skllls and her sultry Welsh/Bristolian accent over to my humble abode, where we laid down some voice tracks for my ongoing animation project. It helped that Keyah and I were both really into it, and had already gotten together in August for some rehearsal time.

She showed up early with the script I had given her, and we chatted about Hitchcock's cinematography, classic horror movie taglines and Keyah's new favorite, Love Actually, which she somehow got me to agree to watch with her sometime. Finally we got down to business—a 90-second, two-character scene I'll be using as the first test of my animation abilities.

Things got off to a slow start, as neither one of us had ever really done this before, but thanks to Keyah's boundless patience and some truly demented method-acting techniques (for the record: Keyah is a very trusting person), we built up a quarter-gig of sound files for me to work with. I'm really happy with the results, and can't wait to start mixing (though I've still got a lot of 3D modeling left to do).

This was, for all intents and purposes, my first real directing work in five years. In the time since I stood on the set of Ashes To Ashes, my previous directorial effort, I've tried my hand at editing, screenwriting, a whole lot of web design, and now animation, but I haven't gotten to work one-on-one with an actor in over half a decade. It felt good, which was no surprise to me, though I give much of the credit to Ms. Steele's luminous enthusiasm.

I know, I really should do this sort of thing more often. If this project turns out well, I just might. Wish me luck...