Something neat from an old teacher...

Larry Lauria was my first traditional animation teacher at SCAD and grounded me in the basics. He's just releasing a new set of classes partnering with Digicel Flipbook (which still finds a place on my desktop). It looks like the basis of the Introduction to Animation I had with him back in the day and it was a great class then. Check it out if it floats your boat (not too pricey either).

Squirrels...

....I like them. :)

Flash drawing with substance...

Dan Paladin (what a sweet name, eh?) is an amazing illustrator and animator for that matter and I can't wait for Castle Crasher's to release. In the meantime here's some great workflow vid from him.


Comic-Con 2008 Flag Design from The Behemoth on Vimeo.

Scripts, Podcasts and MacGuffins!

Been working some on Bokser's film and enjoying that. I can't wait to get past blocking and into animating after the assets are finaled. In the meantime, I think it's time to get some back to the basics exercises going.

• Updated jbExportQss - Got some insight from a poster on Cgtalk and adds some new abilities and squashed some bugs. Still available here. After this one, I think I'm done mel scripting for a while...my brain hurts.
  
  
• Andrew Stanton Podcast - A nice long interview with the director of Wall-E and Finding Nemo.
  
  
• Big MacGuffins - I had never heard this term but this was a great introduction to it and an insightful pose. My meager education in storytelling continues.
  
  
• Another Episode of Simon's Cat - I love these.
  
  
  
• Some amazing concepts - Check out the work of Harald Siepermann.
  
  

jbExportQSS

Quick selection sets are something I use a lot. And I got tired of setting the same ones up repeatedly for work and home projects. There's lots of scripts out there to make working with selection sets easier but I couldn't find one that exported them to use in other scenes, so I rolled up my sleeves...

Download here

TITLE: jbExportQSS
VERSION: 1.5
AUTHOR:Josh Burton
www.joshburton.com

DESCRIPTION:
Script to aid in the redundancy of setting up quick selection sets all the time
for the same assets but in different files. Exports a mel script that will set up
the identical quick selection set in another scene.

Exporting:
1) Select a quick selection sets in the outliner to be exported
2) Run script - it will export a mel file to recreate the sets

Importing:
1) Run the mel in your new file you want to set up the quick selection sets in
2) It will ask you want to add a prefix. If you're using a referenced asset
put in the prefix. If not, leave it blank:)

Features:
1) Checks for referencing data and removes it in the exported selection set
2) Can do multiple selection sets at once
3) Will account for prefixes on import if desired
4) Reports if set members aren't found in imported sets

Thanks:
To David Bokser for answering my many questions and Scott Englert for my picking apart some of his scripts

History
v1.5 - July 14, 2008 - Added the ability to export multiple sets at once into a single mel file, making importing easier. Also,
little quick selection window doesnt' pop up any more due to a flag on the "sets" command I hadn't known about. Several bug fixes
as well
v1.0 - July 3, 2008 - Initial realease

Bolt Trailer!

Not sure what to think yet, but it's looking promising. Some of the animation looks great and I dig the little hamster (giving me some inspiration for a character I've been thinking about). Part of my still prefers the old character design (aka American Dog) by Chris Sanders, but it looks like the story has gone through several re-evolutions since then...

New link, embed link was removed. Thanks Ale!

Keane, Koch and... K..adobe?

• Glen Keane is my hero - The title has little to do with this vid, but just thought you should know. Watch it anyway - great stuff. A buddy at work pointed it out. It's Glen talking about Ollie -
  
  
  
• Another great animation blog - Kevin Koch has some great experience working in both traditional and cg animation. He also has a great animation blog. Thanks to Kyle for my finding it.
  
  
• More flash goodness - Here's a great little piece done for some sort of Adobe competition. The animation in particular is a good example of seemingly simple design handled exceptionally well. Oh, and here's some behind the scenes stuff on it.
  
  
  

Out of this world pictures...

...get it? :)

Here are some absolutely amazing pictures of and from our little sister planet- Check em out!

Pixar and Snipers!

• Not sure how long this one will last on the net, so enjoy it while you can. Fantastic animation there - the texture of the swift against the still is magical. Can't wait to see the whole thing!
  
  
  
• Here comes the sniper - yet another fantastic little shot into the life of a character of the insanely popular Team Fortress by Valve.
  
  

He can write too!?

Buy it if you like

"Oh, yes, the people of Skree were quite free, as long as they were in their homes by midnight. And as long as they bore no weapons, and they didn't complain when their fellow Skreeans were occasionally taken away across the sea, never to be seen again. But other than the cruel Fangs and the constant threat of death and torture, there wasn't much to fear in Skree." -excerpt from above book:)

So Andrew Peterson is one of my favorite musicians mainly cause I think his lyrics are fantastic. So much so that I've quoted them more than once in my blog here. Couple of weeks ago I was looking to see if his new album was out yet and it was not, but my search uncovered a book he'd written. So, I went on Amazon and took a look and it got some pretty good reviews so I ordered it.

And consumed it.

It was a fantastic tale for the young and young at heart. Witty, humorous and with more than a twist or two along they road- A wacky ex-pirate grandfather, dangerous Toothy Cows, the Fangs of Dang, Peet the Sock Man and three kids bound for mischief. I was impressed on all fronts and can't wait for the next installment.

My nephews will be getting a copy.

And, my friends over at Portland Studios did the art and cover design for it. Nice job, guys:)

Some Great Video Game Cinemas...

One of my favorite series of games is the Oddworld series. Fantastic art, comedic, good gameplay. The last outing in the series, Stranger's Wrath, had some particularly beautiful cinemas. I wouldn't mind playing through it again but I don't have my original Xbox anymore and its sadly not on the backwards compatibility list for the 360. You lose a little context just watching them back to back but you can surely appreciate the cinematography and design seeing them. Don't watch them if you might get a chance to play through it as you don't wanna ruin the surprise.



I hear they're working on a game again and I can't wait to see what they brew up. The First 10 Years Art of book has a special place in my collection.