Live from LA...

Things have been either crazy busy or crazy slow the last few months. Had a good holiday with the family and January 1st found my wife dropping me off at the airport for a month in Cali for some work at Psyop/Mass Market. A good friend of mine is letting me crash on his couch so I can repeat the get up, jog, work, sleep routine for a couple fortnight (such a cool term...shame it's not used more). Working on some very cool projects and excited to get a pinky toe in the door of the commercial houses. It's been a lot of fun wearing so many hats (animating, rigging, minor modeling), and I'm learning a lot of new tools in maya I'd never messed with before.

The internets have unleashed all kinds of cool and odd in the weeks since my last but I'll do my best to gather some morsels here. So, tuck your napkin in your shirt and bon appetite.

• Margarita - A beautiful whimsical film from Spain (I think).
  
  
  
• Alma - This one has been making the rounds but in case you missed it I'll drop it here. Great set designs - especially liked the subtle gaping mouth of a shop front.
  
  
  
• Fun little viking greeting card animation.
  
  
  
• And another "Voila" from Spain
  
  
  

And for some quickies:

• Cool iphone app sketch books from some amazing artists
• Fantastic blog on the principles of drawing with a bent toward animation/boarding

Fall 2009 Reel...it's right here....

Updated the reel with polished Garden City stuff along with some Lobster shots. Lots of sprouts of opportunities shooting up, hoping to see one blossom soon:)

Another week in the world of the animation (through myopic lense)...

• This week in amazing student films courtesy of Sheridan...
  
  
  
• Lasseter is involved in a Christmas special that is looking mighty sweet (props to my buddy Rocky for the tip via im)...
  
  
  
• How to Train Your Dragon is looking sweet. Have several friends working on it and the animation is looking pretty awesome. Hadn't known Chris Sanders was involved with it till this week and I'm a fan of his so it's stock when up even more on Burton Exchange. I think you can see a bit of Sanders' look in the main dragon design and feel.
  
  

Reading for the week....

• Another great Cloudy with a Chance of Meatyinformation post...
• Nice little lighting tutorial
• Nice production post on a short that Keith Lango posted about. Here's the post.
  

Lobster gig is a wrap...

So here's the final Lobster work (at least for my reel stuff). As I said, the client ended up doing the animation in house so I just used the audio and shot framing (with permission) for my reel. I threw a temp texture on him and set up the shaders and lighting as well. Wasn't able to get the background plates so I made some temp ones that felt similar to the vids. You can find more info about the project on this page. Some of the shots make more sense with the vid (i.e. the empty plate is actually a live action plate of food...and the last shot has text up on the hold at the end).

All told, it was a very enjoyable and rewarding project and I'm looking forward to the next!

Things are going along fine here in Houston, gonna update the reel this week with Lobster here as well as a lot more polished Garden City stuff.

Back to reel editing...

A Lobster, a lighthouse, and...an animated Jesus

• Lobster - I made this character last summer for a client who was doing a commercial. They liked Squirrely and wanted a "lobster-Squirrely" character - hence" Lobstery" (Yes I should probably come up with a more imaginative naming convention). The client ended up doing the animation in house for various reasons but were cool with my taking a stab at it for the old reel. The shots make more sense with the live-action plates:)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Great stuff to watch...
  
  First up, fantastic mood in this piece. I'm a big "playing-with-light" fan so this is just a beautiful piece. Care to guess which amazing French school it came from?...guess I gave it away there
  
  
  
  Next up is a pixelated take on animation. Love some of the poses and the look is something I've not seen since the old King's Quest days and it didn't move like this:)
  
  
  
  Another fun one from across the pond...
  
  
  
  If you're offended by non-kosher* use of the image of Jesus, avert your eyes. Not sure I understand the film but whatcha gonna do? Enjoy the visuals, that's what! There's some sweet animation in this and great timing.
  
  
  
  * "non-kosher" - Yes, I'm aware that using the term with Jesus might appear to be ironical. However, He being a Jew, God incarnate and originator of a whole new faith I'd hope would both understand the complication created and appreciate the attempt at humor.

No Sound for you!

Blogs are funny things. You start to feel guilty when you don't post on them for awhile - kinda like a journal or a sketchpad. Ah well. Let's see what this belated (or timely) post brings...

• Garden City - So in keeping with not revealing the entire story of Garden City there will be no more audio with the shots I show from it.Here's the latest:
  
  Henry is none too chipper at the moment...
  
  
  
• I want to learn! - There are a lot of absolutely amazing resources out there now for animators wanting to hone their skills. I've been watching Jason Ryan' seminars lately and they've been great. Also, recently Keith Lango started a YouTube channel with some of his lessons on there which is also a great source of info and frankly inspiration as well.
  
  
• Inspired - Here's some great work I've my rss net has gleaned from the internets...
  
  This one is a little dark, but very good...
  
  
  A fun one from a buddy and his pals...
  
  
  Great layouts and so much done with limited animation. Check out the site for more info. Gorgeous designs as well.
  
  
  
  

Updates and tidbits...

Garden City is still chugging along. Just finished a large sequence and starting another. Here's the blocking from the first new shot. I shot some vid reference for this one (still experimenting with workflows)



Personal life has been busy and been reading a tome of a book - Les Mis. What an amazing study in character development.

Lots of neat stuffs on the internets:

• Pencil Test Blog - If you're an animator, you should subscribe to this the rss feed here.
• Need an idea for a doodle? - Check it out or the Worms of the Ensnaring Messiah might get you (Worms courtesy of the Dark Minion Generator on said site)
• Amazing Paper-cutout/Illustrations - Love this piece.
• Animator Tools - Some neat ones listed on a great blog for things to add to the toolbox
• Nice Post on the 180 Degree Rule of Filmaking - Interesting read.
  

Couple of things...

• The shot that will not end. I've been polishing on and off on this shot forever. Most recently because I got the final mop and an updated facial rig that warrented a rework so hopefully it's looking better and DONE. :)
  
  
  
• Nice post on character design can be found here.
  
  
• Heading to Dallas tomorrow to seem some friends at ReelFX and for my cousin's going away party. He's heading to England for a year to study some more acting/writing/improv. Hope he has a great time but I'll miss him feeding me odd asian candies whenever I crash his pad for an Austin trip.
  
  
• Beautiful short film here:
  
  

Lots of stuff and not so much...

• Animals Shmamimals - Squirrely has worked overtime on getting attention and I appreciate his efforts. Been busy the last few weeks working on a commercial project for some folks "down under". The character and rig are ready to roll, just waiting for what I need to animate. He was a fun character to design and model. Bokser helped me out with body rigging and cloth and I took care of the facial. Learned some new stuff along the way as well. Really looking forward to how that's shaping up and can't wait to show it
  
  
• Love the look of this show - Been following it's production art at the great blog they have set up.
  
  
  
  
• Jason Ryan Classes - Signed up for Jason's seminar and enjoying catching up on the classes very much.
  
  
• Great post on "dirtying" up animation - Read it. You won't regret it.
  

Gobelins makes me wish I was European...

...And had gone to school there. A couple of more from the champs of student films. Enjoy.



Making of...



And another...

Some ok work, some amazing work, and some learning...

• Another Garden City shot done:
  
  Pulled out the "school girl laugh" and added a good bit of polish.
  
  
• Please look at this if you're an animator - Some phenomenal workflow vids from animator Jeff Gabor. The first is a comparison reel and the second is an evolution reel. Do yourself a favor and check em out.
  
  
• Blender - Started a gig this week where I'm learning blender. It reminds me of a slightly more complicated Lightwave. I will say that for being free, it has a lot of features however from just an animator workflow perspective I'm not finding a lot of my perferred tools. I know some nice shorts have come out of it, I'm just trying to figure out what kind of workflow they must have used. Time shall tell...