15 minutes to doodle...

Final(ish) design...

Thanks for the comments. I've gotten some feedback from some other friends too. So without further ado- two very slight variations of a theme...

#6

#7

The header image will rotate randomly much like my current site. Also, for those of you looking for cool tools for sites, I think I'm going to use this flash portfolio thingy which I learned of from my very talented friend's portfolio. Now, to just find some time to actaully make a site...

Great Cg Look and Fun Animation:)

This guy (Manu Jarvinen) has some talent. Check out his work.

Need to waste some time?

Lots of fun opportunities here from the gang at Aardman:) Click the vid to go to youTube to see googles more. ...pun intended.

Website design drafts...

So, when my hard drive died last fall, I lost all of my source files for...well, most of the past 5 years (sans 3d work). That included my site which is why I've not updated anything but the blog in some time.

This weekend I decided to start playing with some new designs (more a variation on a theme than a radical departure of what I got now). Oh yeah, my logo will be in there, I gotta rebuild it...lost that too...dangit..any thoughts?

Number 3

Number 4

Number 5 - On a buddy's suggestion

The blue looks completely different on two of my monitors (yay color calibration!)...which is one reason I've gone with gray for a few years now. Toodles.

Energizer Bunny...

Wonder what he’s thinking bout'...carrots...ski bunny?

Ratatouille Clip

Take a look before it gets yanked offline!

Icontastic!

A sampling from the year...

So one of my favorite little tasks at work is making icons for the mel scripts we use and create. Scottie is the brains behind our little mel factory here (check his site, he has some goodies up there) and I..well...I make the picturesque little buttons. But I'm learning. I did complete my first major mel script last week that makes captures a thumbnail of a character's face, adds custom text in to label it and render it off to an input location which then became a very small part of Scott's current opus mel project which is gonna be very sweet when finished. One of my goals for the year was learning more mel and I'm slowly chipping away at it. Next on the list is UI Mel creation which my compatriot tells me is "lots of fun." Giddyap.

Tax time

Trying to follow Jesus' advice...Matthew 17:27

I did the annual limbo with the 1040's, w2s, 1099MISC's and itemization of deductible expenses this weekend. Tax time is a good annual test of integrity. I imagine that cheating on taxes is a fairly common practice. I know for a fact that, even wanting to be honest, it can be nigh to impossible to know beyond a shadow of doubt that you've done everything correctly when, as a call to the IRS last year illustrated, even the IRS doesn't necessarily certify their own advice. I think the government does an abysmal job for the most part making good use of our tax dollars. When businesses can be held accountable to their stock holders for being negligent in properly running a company, why is it the citizens of a nation get so little traction in holding their their leaders to account? Throwing money at every issue that raises it's head doesn't necessarily ring with the sound of wisdom - there are such things in life as money pits. I really don't wanna go on a political rant at present, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. Even believing the government grossly incompetent in much of it's spending expenditures, much less being honest what the actual ledger is, I'll do my part, pay my 15-20% (whatever it ends up being) and keep looking for people I can actually vote for. After all taxes do a lot. In the words of the great Ned Flanders of Simpson's renown:

Taxes pay for everything! Policemen, trees, sunshine. And let's not forget the folks who just don't feel like workin', God bless 'em!

It could always be worse...:)

Lunch Doodles...

Slow day...and I need to practice:)

"Particularly" Blessed...

Had a few minutes, so I sketched up a little self expression. This about sums up how I feel today. And no, it isn't because the new flavor in the company slushy machine is Pina Colada... ...though that is pretty tasty...:)

Another Weekend

Another weekend finds me with a list of things to complete and little desire to do so. I'd rather sit and read a book, work on some animation or be having an engaging conversation with a "particular friend." Could be awhile... High on the priority list was a revision of my syllabus again. There was just still too little animation and I'd rather my students have some nice animation for their reels than a rudimentary rigged character and little animation to show. I'm still gonna teach facial rigging, but a basic leg rig and stretchy spine can be done following any multitude of tutorials to be found online. It also happens to be something I've been able to specialize in, so might as well let them learn from the mistakes I've made and learned from. The course is a "lil" different than the syllabus I was handed, but I'm still hitting all the "core competencies." All I really care about is getting my students to a point of having work that might get them a second look at a studio when they graduate. If deviation is an issue, I've got a day job. I finally got a hold of a buddy yesterday who's been dodging my calls (yeah, I know you've been avoiding me, Keith;). He's a fantastic animator and an instructor at Ringling which consistently puts out excellent story tellers. Anyway, he told me to do another check on Keith Lango who's been doing some pretty honest sharing about the animation industry. He's going on my daily blog stop list. Great tutorials and thoughts there as well. It was a balmy seven degrees this morning as I walked over to hit the elliptical at the clubhouse. Prolly hovering in the negatives with the wind chill. It was kinda nice. Not that I have any pretense of desire to stay for long periods of time out in temperatures like that, but for a brief moment it's nice to have the chill nip at your ears and nose, to feel the wind bite and feel very much alive. If I was having to live in it, I think my tune would change rather quickly. Watch "The Little Match Girl"... I've got some serious thoughts on a couple of books I've been reading but don't have time to delve into them at present. You'd be surprised how much in similarity there is to be found between the insights of a scholar of sociology and the last meditations of a priest who served in India. One of my buddy's websites I was transferring this weekend is down, back to it...

The Little Match Girl...

Disney recently did a traditional piece of animation. YAY! This short is titled "The Little Match Girl". It is beautiful both visually, musically and well...I don't wanna ruin it so I'll leave it at that.Today's world isn't very far removed from the one represented and it does us good to remember that every now and then. ...I was fixing to post a link to it, but it looks like Disney told YouTube.com to pull it. If it pops up again, I'll post it. But if you get a chance to see it, do. Update - You can find the short on The Little Mermaid DVD (most recent release)

What I'm working on at work...

Here's the latest trailer for the game I'm working on - Stranglehold. Shows off some new schtuff.

Disclaimer: The implied policy of solving problems with guns is not necessarily endorsed by the author of this site:)

Shmoo kitty...

Today I had a few minutes between tasks with nothing to do, so I decided to doodle a little. I recently met someone who has a cat named "Shmoo," so...

When Traffic is a Blessing...

This morning I wanted to get into work early because I had some stuff for my class tonight I wanted to take care of. With a typical departure time of 9:00am and an average ETA of 10:00am (+/- 10 minutes), I did a little mathematics in my head...

ntt (normal travel time) = 1 hour 9am + ntt = 10am Nice and easy, so ... 8am + ntt = 9am

So as I rolled into work at 10:00am having left at 8:00am wondering what had happened to my ironclad calculations I realized something - I had forgotten a few hidden variables...

(8am + ntt) * (inclimate weather quotient + the accident caused by the guy drinking coffee, talking on the phone, lighting a cigarrette and checking out the girl in the next car) = you'll get there when you get there

I didn't get in as early as I wanted to but commuting isn't all that bad. I believe the time we're given here is a gift so if my Maker has ordained things that I should be sitting in my little Civic a couple hours a day, might as well make the most of it. It gives you time to stop and think before the day begins, to laugh at the guy next to you going ballistic because someone cut them off while we're doing 2mph and laugh at yourself when "that guy" is you, to step outside of the narcisim of our imediate gratification lives we Americans live so well. By default most of us are insufferably selfish though we don't want to admit it. It's a good thing for us to not always get what we want when we want it - to reminds us that the world doesn't revolve around us. Sometimes it's nice to turn off the music and just let your thoughts wander. This morning was crisp and cold with a light dusting of snow tinting the urban sprawl. The sky was cloudless for the most part save a solid band of purple clouds low on the horizon that towered over the flatlands like mountains. I love the mountains; I miss them. I hope to live near them some day. That got me thinking back to a trip to Montana with my grandparents I took as a kid where my grandfather taught me to fish for salmon with corn, how a good place for finding worms is in cow paddies, and countless other things that grandfathers teach their grandsons. It was a glorious summer. I'm glad I was able to slow down enough today to remember. Traffic can be a good thing when it slows us down. Not our cars, mind you, but we who sit behind the wheel. ...however, I could stand to shave a few miles off my commute:)

Weekends Rock...

It's been a good week and weekend for the most part...

• Moms are awesome - It usually goes without saying that when I go home, I end up forgetting something. This time it was my extra camera battery and charger. So, she sent it in the mail and happened to pack some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in there with a little note. My mom is awesome.

My awesome mom and I

• Finished my Syllabus - I finally got a good handle on my syllabus for this semester. There wasn't quite enough animation exercises in it initially for my liking so I added a few more exercises. My goal is to get the students doing as much animation as possible. I don't remember what animator it was who said, "You've got 10,000 bad drawings in you, so you might was well get through them as fast as you can." It applies in 3d as well, we learn by making mistakes and the more work we do, the more we'll grow. I'm gonna do my darndest to do all the exercises with my students cause, frankly, I don't get to do a whole lot of full body keyframe animation at work and I miss it. It'll be a good reason to finish Olaf as well (I'm trying Cory!)
• "The Brothers Karamazov" - The beast is completed. I started this behemoth of a book about six months ago and have been struggling through it since. It was an absolutely fantastic read though a bit verbose. You could easily split it into a trilogy and still have three complete books. The book follows a very screwed up family of a dysfunctional hedonistic father and his three sons. There's a murder, and fantastic trial and more insanity than one would think could be crammed into a novel...yet crammed it is.
• My Cousin's Improv Show - Thursday night, I went to an improv show's opening night that my cousin is spearheading with another improv friend of his. There were four improv troupes for two hours of comedy for the low low price of $5. It was a lot of fun. If you live in Chitown and want good comedy for not a lot of money, check it out. It meets in a little arts center at Western and North, but you can check the site for more info. There going to have different groups each week so it won't be the same show if you wanna try it a couple of times.
• "The Office" is Back - There was a new episode of The Office this week and....wow...just wow...no show makes me cringe one moment and then roll over laughing the next like this one.
• New Year Resolutions - So, I need to make some resolutions, so here they are:
• Visit the following:
• My best friend Ryan in Oregon to do some fly fishing
• My uncle in Colorado for some horseback riding, hiking and, frankly, cause I don't see him enough
• My brother and ragamuffinephews cause I don't see them nearly enough
• Come up with another Short film and get it AT LEAST through the story board phase
• To finish Olaf
• To do at least 30 seconds of reel worthy full body hand key animation
• To get more involved in volunteering somewhere
• To kick the snot out of my student loans

That is all.

Free Rig Call!

So, I'm going to be teaching Advanced Animation at an art college in town starting next week. I've been working on prep for a while now and one of those things I'm doing is looking for good free rigs I can glean through to point my students to. Here's my current list, if you've got more, please send em my way. Thanks! Rigs

• Ollie
• Lowman
• LowDog and LowBall
• Generi
• Mikey
• PackageMan
• IK Joe
• Basic Guy and Flour Sack
• Elvis and Monkey
• Super Theo
• Alfred

AutoRiggers

• Final Rig
• The Setup Machine

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

Wow...lots to catch up on, here we go. It's been a busy couple of weeks... A week ago Friday, my Chicago transplant comedian cousin, Jon, and I climbed in my car at 7:30pm to drive home for the holidays. Jon seemed to think the drive was gonna take somewhere between 16 and 20 hours. I thought he was nuts. Google said 12 and I put my chip in the Google column. I took the first shift and we headed on south on interstate 55 through the black abyss of a barren Illinois landscape. Our conversation covered a wide variety of topics through the night and the wackiness of said topics seemed to increase with the the steady march of the hours. Some examples of our memorable topics include the craziness of women (some, not all mind you), why both the democrats and republicans suck at present, and concluding with if ghosts are possibly simply temporal displacements run amok. At that point it was 2:30 in the morning and Jon needed some sleep to prep for his last leg of the drive. So, I put an audio book on and let my headache grow from a soft tap to a nice solid pounding sensation by the time my shift was complete. At 4:30 or so I passed the baton and got some much needed rest. 7:30 found us pulling into my mom's driveway grateful to get out of the car. Jon got some hot chocolate and headed on down to Dallas to see his fam and I went to sleep and didn't wake up till 4:30 in the afternoon. Sunday, I met an old friend for coffee before church and then headed over to the church I spent the first 17 years of my life attending. It's a bit more traditional than I prefer nowadays, but it was a good to be there all the same. After that, I picked up some food at Johnnies Charcoal Grill and took it over to my uncle and grandmother. After visiting a little while I started feeling pretty crappy and laid on the couch for the next 3 hours hoping my head would just explode rather than continue to pound incessantly. When I finally mustered the strength to leave, I got back to my mom's and went to bed (sadly having to skip the Candlelight Service which is one of my favorites, ah well) The next day, we headed down to Dallas for the big fam shindig and I pounded as much Advil and vitamins as possible. Christmas dinner was great eats as always and my sickness was kept at bay for the most part. After dinner, some cousins and I decided to catch a movie and went to see Casino Royale which was absolutely fantastic. I had had serious reservations about seeing it from the trailers and a James Bond who looked nothing like the ones in the past. However, he was great and the action was non stop. Highly recommended. On Tuesday, my brother showed up with my nephews and we had a family breakfast (eggs cooked in bacon grease, good bacon and sausage, biscuits, fresh fruit, juice...the works). One of my cousins downed 7 eggs...nutso. I spent the rest of the day nursing my headache and hanging with my bro and the nephews. At the end of the day we headed back to Oklahoma and I was feeling crummy enough to decided to try to find a doctor the next day.

One of my nephews, my brother, and I

And so I did. I went in, he told me to open my mouth and say "Ah" and two seconds later diagnosed me with Strep throat and prescribed some antibiotics. A couple of days later I was feeling much, much better. Spent the rest of my time in OK hanging with my family and eating way too much chex mix and candy. However, it's the holidays so we let that slide. Saturday, I climbed back in the car for the solo drive back to Chitown (my cousin had already gotten a plane ticket cause I wasn't sure when I was coming back). For being solo, it really wasn't that bad. I had filled up my iPod with some talks of one of my favorite authors who happens to pastor a church up in Michigan. So, it was a nice 12 hours of introspection and some seriously challenging thinking. The message on Christianity and America was especially stretching. It added some substance to a lot of what I've been personally thinking about as to how Christians might be "missing it." I've got a lot more stewing to do on it, but it was a much needed kickstart in some new avenues of thought. Oh, and my computer died again. One thing's for certain, I've learned the art of detachment when it comes to technology:) I also learned another lesson. When you pay 12.95 for a hair cut, you really shouldn't get too upset when you say trim the top and you end up with a semi buzz cut. May be time for a new barber shop. Ah, well...it'll grow back. I've got some thoughts for the New Year, but no time to write. I'll get around to it. Lata.

Site Transfer in progress...

I'm changing servers...my site might be a little wonky for a few days.

Where the Wild Things Are Animation Test!

I've been looking for this animation test for a long long time. Many thanks to Kushal Ruia for finding it.

Andrew Peterson Concert

Saturday night, a buddy and I headed to Northern Chicago to see Andrew Peterson and friend's Behold the Lamb of God Concert. It was a amazing. Andrew has some talented friends who "accompanied" him for the concert - Derek Webb, Andy Gullahorn, Jill Phillips, Sandra McCracken, and Eric Peters. They're all a part of a consortium/collaboration/whatever of artists called Square Peg Alliance. The first half of the concert was a round robin of the group of talented friends taking turns singing a song from their individual albums accompanying eachother and telling funny stories between songs. It was the first time I'd really heard Eric Peters and I really liked his stuff. I was already a fan of the rest so it was nice to find another artist to listen to and I picked up one of his CD's at the intermission. After the break, they went straight into the Behold the Lamb of God set without any talk between songs- just one majestic anthem after another. They had some very talented other artists supporting them and, of course, one of my favorite instruments - hammer dulcimer baby! If you can catch him another time, I highly recommend it.

Poetic...

About a month ago I was talking to a friend about the moon and had a poetic moment... She walks across the azure field; Behind a vaporous veil she moves- Cycled grace tinting her shroud with light; Peering though a vapored veil, She breaks forth in glorious display- Pearl of the night, Watcher of day; She considers, she reflects Light not her own, She shines with glory rebounding- The light of fiery King of watchful space, Whose vivid rays trace earth’s rim to find her face and in love, un-dim.

Milt Kahl Pencil Test

Found both of these through Victor Navone as well...

Animator Glen Keane lecture part 1

17 parts! Thanks Victor Navone!

Tiko Project is on sale for preorder!

Holy moly and I'm behind on writing stuff on here. Lots been going on, thus I've not had time to write about it:) I'll try and catch up when I get some time. However, the important thing here is that the Tiko project that I worked on for FAR TOO LONG is about ready to ship and is on presale. My college debt fund gets a little help everytime Tiko gets invited to a new home and even more so with those "custom invites" (hint...hint). One of my other animator friends Keith Osborn helped out on the animation portion for Tiko and my buddy from college and fellow facial animator at work Scott Englert did a piece that'll be on the DVD called "Bassimator." It was a lot of fun to make but I'm very glad it's done. Check it out and see if you might like a copy.... ...Tiko will thank you (quite literally if you happen you get a custom message version and have him thank you on it...;)

Here's the LINK

Out.

Pixar's New Short - "Lifted"

This is a backdated post...sorry...

A bunch of guys from work and I went to Colombia university downtown last night for a little screening of a short from a certain company we all know and love. It's the Chicago film festival this weekend and will be screened on Saturday there. The seed of the story is alien's driver's ed and Pixar quality hilarity ensues. The director of the short was there for a Q&A, short talk and to screen it. The director was really funny and showed us a lot of stuff. The shaders they used for the "gel" bodies are deceptively amazing. You don't even notice how sweet it is while you're watching it, but seeing a turn around on the characters made the complexity amazing. Another sweet tech thing was the jiggle factor. They've got some sort of tech for pretty much impacting a character and seeing how the jiggle cascades through the body. HOLY CRAP I loved this short. I think it is my favorite short to come from the studio. It was absolutely hysterical, the timing was perfect, the design was beautiful...I can't wait to see it again when it screens with Ratatoulie next June. If you can find a way to see it before then... GO!

Grateful...

No art updates today, but just wanted to drop a note to say that I'm so thankful for this gift we're given called "life". A year ago about this time life sucked. There's no nice way to put it. There's probably some more descriptive non-G ways, but we'll just say it sucked. However, it's amazing the differences a year can bring. Andrew Peterson's words come to mind:

What's that on the ground? It's what's left of my heart Somebody named Jesus Broke it to pieces And planted the shards And they're coming up green They're coming in bloom I can hardly believe This is all coming true Just as I am and just as I was Just as I will be He loves me, He does He showed me the day that He shed His own blood He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does All of my life I've held on to this fear Its thistles and vines Ensnare and entwine What flowers appeared It's the fear that I'll fall One too many times It's the fear that His love Is no better than mine (but He says that) Just as I am and just as I was Just as I will be He loves me, He does He showed me the day that He shed His own blood He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does He loves me, oh, He loves me, He does It's time now to harvest What little that grew This man they call Jesus Who planted the seeds Has come for the fruit And the best that I've got Isn't nearly enough He's glad for the crop But it's me that He loves

The seasons of life have changed a bit more slowly than those of the earth in the past year, but they're changing all the same. The winds are shifting, the leaves are changing, and I sense in the air that a time of harvest is near. We don't know how many trips around the merrigoround we're going to have. Life can seem so concrete in one moment then in the next as dust being blown by the wind sifting through our fingers as we try to hold on to just one more speck. In the words of a missionary who lost his life attempting to share his life, "Wherever you are, be all there." Life can be so wasted in deadend thoughts of wishing we were somewhere else, wanting to be someone else, doing something else. There is no one on earth nor has there been anyone quite like you. That is what my faith teaches. Our lives are gifts and each moment is precious. So, here I sit grateful at the life I've been given. It's not what I expected but it's an adventure all the same. In the vallies we crawl and grow. On the mountains we stand in awe. I've been coming out a long valley and climbing a tough road with more than a few helping hands along the way. The crest of this hill is in sight and I can't wait to see what lies ahead. Grateful for the journey- a trail marked out by wounded feet and a wounded hand on my shoulder to guide. Thankful for a God who gave His Son to adopt me as His own.

Olaf needed a body

So I spent this evening on giving him one...much to do still, but making good progress. It was a good excuse to play with the new Silo 2 beta which, I must say, rocks the Casbah!

Three B's

Why no updates? Well, there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot going on. However for my family's sake, I'll try and provide at least a rudimentary update.

• Beards - Some of the guys at work and I have decided to grow beards. I'm pretty sure Randy is gonna have the biggest. The fall is coming and might as well have a bit of fur on the face. I had a goatee for about 5 years and have been clean shaven for about a year now. After I shaved my goatee last fall I happened to be in California visiting my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. My nephew who had always known me with a goatee grabbed my face, rubbed my bare cheek, looked me in the eye and said, "I like you like this. You look like my dad." I think I'm heading back there for Turkey time this year again. I reckon I'll have shaved again by then - wouldn't wanna disappoint the nephew.
• Biking - I've been riding my bike a lot. I really dig the trails around my place. Been doing around 30 mile rides at least one day on the weekends on my trail bike. I don't think I'd wanna go much further off roading. The weather has been starting to cool off, so I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to ride during the cool mornings that will soon be more cold then cool. However, I'm looking forward to the spring when I think a road bike purchase might be in order for some long distance riding.
• Buffoons - Sorry, wanted to keep the "B" motif:) This one is actually on The Office which is barnone the best comedy on television right now. The humor is a little dark and episodes can be squirmingly uncomfortable, but that's what makes it great. I picked up season two on DVD last week and thoroughly enjoyed the deleted scenes and commentaries in prep of the season opener tonight. Tonight's episode was expectedly unexpected. SPOILER ALERT......SPOILER ALERT....Jim took a stand at the end of last season and now the results are being reaped. Pam called off the wedding. Who'd have thunk she'd have had the courage for that. Roy wants to win her back (I actually felt a bit of compassion for Roy tonight for the first time in the series as he's pretty much just been a tool for for the past two seasons). His DUI photo was pathetic. He seems to actually have some genuine idea of what he's lost and wants a second chance. Michael came through this episode with remarkably inept leadership which, of course, inadvertently led to much hilarity. Buffoonery at it's pinacle.

I'm tired, time for bed.

Portland Studios T-Shirts...

My friends over at Portland Studios opened their T-Shirt Store. Check em out and buy this little one above for one of your hairy friends.

Book Thoughts : Oliver Twist

By some cruel twist of fate, I was never properly aquainted with Mr. Charles Dickens in my high school reading. This is strange because while back home recently I discovered a list from my high school senior english class and "A Tale of Two Cities" is smack on the list. I don't remember a word of it. I wanna say that we never got to it, but anyone who knows me knows that my memory isn't my best feature and it's highly possible that the book simply took no hold on me at the time. Regardless, it's back on my list. I finished Oliver Twist last night and it was excellent. It's a bitter sweet tale of loss and bliss at the same time. From the stupid introduction I learned that it's one of his earliest books and not thought to be one of his best. It also annoyingly revealed a major plot point which then caused me to cease reading said intro. Lesson - Don't read the introductions to classics before reading the book. I read some Jane Austin last spring and enjoyed it immensely, however Dickens paints the victorian world in decidedly different hues. I don't know enough of the era to know all of the facts, but I don't think I'd have wanted to have been a pauper in those days. He is a master of illuminating description even in this early work; I can't wait to see what he does in his later ones. Here's one of my more favorite passages in which someone is calling to his mind faces from the past:

He wandered over them again. He had called them into view and it was not easy to replace the shroud that had so long concealed them. There were the faces of friends, and foes, and of many that had been almost strangers peering intrusively from the crowd; there were the faces of young and blooming girls that were now old women; there were faces that the grave had changed and closed upon, but which the mind, superior to its power, still dressed in their old freshness and beauty, calling back the lustre of the eyes, the brightness of the smile, and beaming of the soul through its mask of clay, and whispering of beauty beyond the tomb, changed but to be heightened, and taken from the earth only to be set up as a light, to shed a soft and gentle glow upon the path to Heaven.

Beautiful. Writing like this reminds me why I love books so much.

A trip to Oklahoma and a reunion...

Currently Reading - Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens Friday, I headed down to the heated plains of Oklahoma City. Dadgum, it's hot down there. Friday, I think it was 106. That's not heat index, my Chicago friends who think 92 is unbearable, but actual temp. I'm not even sure what the heat index was. The day was pretty good, my step dad picked up from the airport and I went and picked up some burgers at Johnnies (you must get a burger there if you are ever in town) and took them over to my uncle and grandmother for a visit. That evening it turned out that my cousin was coming in town to visit his girlfriend at OU and so I went out to get a bite to eat with them for dinner. We wanted to hit Zeo's (which is a pretty good Italian place I hear), but didn't have time for the wait so headed next door for some soup and sandwiches from Panera Bread. So, it's been 10 years since I graduated high school. That just seems nuts to me, but they had this reunion thing this weekend and lots of people from my class showed up so I guess it's true. Friday night, we met at a bar in downtown OKC - Bricktown as it's called now and is pretty sweet. It started a little slow, but more folk mingled in as time went on. It's funny how little some people changed and how much others did. Interesting, eyes don't seem to change much at all and most people I could recognize without too much difficulty and some of them I hadn't seen since graduation. Saturday, we had a little picnic where there was rather low attendance due to the hell-on-earth heat. However, many of those that did come brought their kids which was cool to see. More than a few kids coming out of the class of '96 so far, but I imagine the 20 year will show an even more plentiful bounty. That night, we had the banquet which was pretty cool. I snagged a table with some old friends and had a good time chatting the night away with all kind of folk. Some people I really wanted to see didn't make it - Amanda, Russell and Trevor from art and Rusty (though I'm told he prefers Russ now). Overall, it was a lot of fun - hearing where everyone had been and what they'd done. I'm glad everyone is so well. Good times.

Heather, Caren, me

One of my friends, Scott, finally tipped the scale on my disdain for Myspace. He informed me that one of my good friends I'd not seen in a long long time was on there. So, I signed up Sunday and heard back from him Monday. Very cool indeed. I've even found a few more on there. I seriously doubt I'll succumb to the flashy onslaught insanity of cut-and-paste-happy-design. However, if that floats your boat, why not? If I can keep in touch with some old friends. That's good enough for me.

Heather and her husband Bobby DR. Scott (Congrats, my friend) and his wife Lauren

Clean Slates...

In the year 1914, Thomas Edison's "invention factory" (as he called it) burned to the ground. Of that disaster, he is quoted as saying, "All of our mistakes have been destroyed. In a new factory we can start our experiments with a clean slate." Several years ago, I had a hard drive die and I lost a good bit of work for a horrific few weeks. However, I had a good backup and at most lost a month of work. I've actually thought that my back up system I've been following for years now has been pretty sound. I usually have two back up drives backing up my main work drive. That seemed like a pretty good method. Well, after I finished school I let one of my back ups go and only had one. I thought that would still be plenty. Two months ago, I had a hard drive fail. My main work drive that is. I worked about a week on the main drive trying to get it back and it just wouldn't respond. I tried absolutely every diagnostic app I could find (windows or bootable) to no avail. I was in the middle of my freelance gig and didn't have time to mess with it, so put it aside thinking I'd get backup drive and be up and running when I had some time. So, when the project was done, I tried that. Come to find out, the back up drive didn't seem to wanna respond either. I figured I'd be able to fix em...prolly just a bad sector or something. This past weekend, I finally got a replacement drive and installed it and took a hard look at my backup. I ran some diagnostics and.... Dead as a doornail. Uh oh. So, it appears that I've lost the past 6 years of freelance, reference, school and personal work. The only things I have are my most recent project, The Potter and an assortment of 3d projects. Where this mainly sucks is that I've lost all the source files for all of the websites I've done. So, the next update to my site other than the blog is going to be a complete redesign. That's not such a bad thing, it's been a while. However, I did lose a few things I'd have rather not have. Now, I could pay some outlandish $1k or more to try and have a company recover the data, but I'm not gonna do that. It's just stuff and that's a lot of moola. So, like Edison (and pretty much only in this way as he was an absolute genius), I've got a clean slate. Not really all that bad of a place to be when you really think about it.

The Ca...troll..ogre-thingy in the Hat

His hat is pretty close to done (sans texturing). I've been staying late at work late the past week cause my carpool friend has had to be around. It's been good time to focus on Olaf here. Next, I think I'm gonna start blocking out his body. However, this weekend, I've gotta do another promotional thing with Tiko. For that, a Hawaiian shirt is in order...Aloha. Other than that, this weekend will be comprised of getting ready for a trip to OKC next week and my cousin and his girlfriend are coming over for dinner on Sunday. For that, I'm making some of my creamy pesto pasta and some home made ice cream. Should be fun. Out.

Not as much progress as I wanted...

But still got a good ways in. More importantly, I learned how to properly use Silo's topology brush...wow. Talk about sweet. Here's Olaf's template hat. I wanna get some feed back from Cory before I really get into details. Hopefully we can touch base later today (it's almost 1am now). Today was a pretty good day, I got up and went for a nice little 4 mile jog in some nasty humidity. After I worked out, I headed to church, then headed to Texas Roadhouse for lunch cause I felt like some steak. I used to eat at one in Savannah, and they just put one in about 3 blocks from my apartment complex, so I thought I'd give this one a shot to see if it was as good as I remembered. It was. After that I headed to the bike store cause my buddy said they were having a sale. We've been riding bikes together some and he'd been harping on me to get some real biker shorts. Now, as I was growing up, biker shorts just meant spandex. However, he told me that they have actual padding in the shorts (kinda like a mini pillow woven into the tight-tastic material). So, I picked up a pair and some shades on sale (half off, baby!) and headed to the grocery store. When I finally got home, I decided my new shorts needed a trial run and listened to that stupid little voice again for another 17 mile trek. The humidity was gone by then and it was actually a really nice ride. This evening has pretty much been hanging out with Olaf and my attempted "sewing" attempts for his hat. Much to do. But for now, it's bed time.

Time for bed Olaf....

After I got in this evening, I spent a bit of time relaxing, then got back to working on getting Olaf some bug protection for those speedy motorcycle rides. For the most part, I think they're there (but there's always room for improvements). Tomorrow...or later today rather....I'm gonna work on his hat so he doesn't get sunburned!

Good day so far...

Started off this mornin' with at 17 mile ride. I had no intention of going that far, that stupid little voice just kept saying, "Just a little bit further before you turn around....just a little more." Ah, well. Beautiful weather out. Did a few tweaks on Olaf this afternoon and did a quick planning concept from which to do his hat and goggles. I love this character, he's gonna be so much fun to animate. Gotta head out...

Little update...

Worked till about 2 last night on Olaf trying to really capture Cory's tweaks. I think it's alot closer but still have some tweaking to do. However, it's a beautiful day out, and time for a bike ride... Be back later.

Minor Olaf Updateage...

Cory was kind enough to take a look at the latest tweaks and do a paint over with this fixes. Hopefully this weekend will see his head done intact with hat and goggles...can't wait to get started:)

With news like this...

So I ran across this little gem of an article today. Thankfully, this one isn't about politics. Looks like neither side is telling the truth. If I ran my finances like this, I'd be in bankruptcy court or collections...who exactly runs collections on the Feds? Makes it understandable why lots'a folk wanna just have a beer and sit in front of the tube and pretend everything is just dandy.

Potter bus...

I forgot about this. I had heard about this bus last year after I left school but never saw it. A buddy from college sent me this pic a few months ago and I just found it on my iconrific desktop. This should probably be the end of The Potter stuff...that is until "The Potter 2: Revenge of the clay!" Just kidding. We've been very blessed with how folk have taken to it. My continual thanks go to my good friends who helped bring it about - Scott Englert, Ben Willis, Scott Spencer, Jon Campbell, Will Atkin, David Bokser , Hunter Curra, and Matthew Parrot. You can see what everyone did here.

Olaf Day 2

Made some good progress tonight...just plucking along. I hope to have the head at least rudimentary done by this weekend. Time for bed...

Starting Olaf...

First things first, I started Olaf this weekend. I started off by installing Lightwave 9 since I hadn't had a chance to play with it while I was finishing the last gig (done in 8.5 and didn't wanna jinx things). I'm enjoying it. The new edge tools are great and I love the new 4+point sub-d's. Bout time. I think I'm still gonna pick up Silo which I've been playing with at work in my downtime. It's a great mix of Maya and Lightwave modeling to me and is hard to beat for $100. Anyways...so, on Saturday afternoon, I started by taking a hard look at Cory's drawings and trying to get a feel for what that would look like in 3d. Illustrators tend to not worry so much about staying "on model" when they do their illustrations. They're more concerned with the single image then a consistent moving one, so I tried to pick out the key facial landmarks I could. I did some of my own quick studies to try and get a hand on it, drew some quick modeling images and started up. I spent most of last night on starting to model while also refamiliarizing myself with modeling again. I've not really done any serious modeling in some time...especially character modeling. I looked at it this morning before heading to church and saw the utter crap that it was and decided to start over when I got home. After church, I picked up some modeling clay and spent a good bit of this afternoon experimenting with Olaf's head "in the round". When I was satisfied I had a better understanding (and convinced of the feableness of my sculpting abilities), I started again. The above image is where I'm at. LONG way to go, but can't wait to have this character ready to move around. He's gonna be a ball to animate. Many thanks again to Cory for letting me give him a CG breath of life:)

Fantastico!

Holy cheerios, Batman! I'm DONE with my freelance gig. I'm burning the DVD's for the client now. Whoo hoo! It'll be a bit till I can update my site cause well, that hard drive crash I had a few weeks back took out all of my web source work. So, now that this is done, I have to get another hard drive to start unpacking my backups onto to see if what I've lost forever, and what I've got sitting in an archive somewhere. Good times. As soon as the client get's the DVD ready for sale, I'll post a link cause I know you'll wanna help Tiko pay for his pear eating addiction;)

Portland Studios Blog

My friends over at Portland Studios have started a blog. They're a great bunch of phenomenally talented artists that I love to work with any chance I can. In fact, my next personal project is a collaboration with Cory to take one of his great characters into the THIRD DIMENSION MWAAA HAA HAAA... ...err...something like that;) Sorry for stealing the pic Cory;)

A Sigh and a Movie...

First, the sigh - My freelance gig is completely rendered, composited and template setup for the client. All I have to do now is a few promotional things for the DVD cover, advertising, behind the scenes, etc. Holy moly am I ready to be done. Now for the movie. Earlier this week, one of the guys invited us to see The Ant Bully at the IMAX. His girlfriend had a lead on getting premiere passes through her work. Very little arm twisting was necessary to get me on board. So, Tuesday after work we headed to the Navy Pier and got a bite to eat at healthy and wholesome McDonald's. A 10 pack of chicken nuggets, fries and a diet coke later I was lethargically rarin' to go. I don't eat fast food very often at all anymore. Something in my system decided a few years ago to punish me every time I surrendered to the greasy caloric gluttony. Punish me it does. We then headed to the movie and received our swank 3d shades...

Jae, me, Randy

Jae's girlfriend likes to take pics and was kind enough to share. The movie was a lot better than I thought it would be. The animation was very good - a lot higher quality than Jimmy Neutron and was a pleasant surprise. The lighting, sets and art direction were nice takes on themes that had been done before. Two other ant movies done before covered a lot of ground but this film was able to stay out of their wakes for the most part. The 3d effect was very cool as they actually rendered the shots twice (one for each eye). When I saw Chicken Little in 3d last fall I was a bit disappointed by their implementation. It felt more like a children's story book pop up book in motion then true 3d perspective. Another nice surprise was that the director of the film was at the premiere and the kids and parents asked some funny questions. There were one or two more technical questions but for the most part it was just fun stuff. Good fun.

Book Thoughts : The Da Vinci Code

Short of it - Good writing, interesting characters, and exciting ride. Long of it - So, apparently this is a pretty well known book, eh?....;) I decided to see what all the hype was about. I actually started with Angels and Demons which was a great novel and was glad I did for some of the allusions to that story found in The Da Vinci Code. However, having finished the second and first books, I have to say that it seems pretty apparent that Mr. Brown has some major issues with the Catholic church. I'm not Catholic and didn't really take offense, but it's pretty blatent. That being said, he is a very talented author who weaves a pretty engaging fictional tale. I really enjoyed both books. There was quite an uproar right before the movie came out (I didn't see it cause I hadn't read the book) from some Christians who wanted the movie censored. As someone who tries to follow Jesus, I gotta say that I don't think that was a good way to go about it. Yes, there's some pretty wild claims put forth by Mr. Brown, but if someones faith can be rocked by a "historical" piece of fiction, they need it to be shaken so that they can figure out exactly what it is they believe. The "fact page" of the book really doesn't go so far as to claim (in as much as I can see) that Mr. Brown is purporting his theories as fact. The details of the "fact page" are intentionally narrow in scope. In particular,

All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.

I imagine the descriptions are quite accurate. His interpretations and theories are very much open to debate- as is painfully obvious by the uproar:) I'm not gonna go into detail on why I disagree with certain theories. I don't know that I have a good enough memory nor the knowledge to write intelligently to that, but I've read many of "extra" gospels he refers to in the book. He doesnt' refer to all of them - there are quite a few and he does a fair bit of cherry-pickin'. In my early 20's I went through a phase of questioning my faith and I read a lot of texts that are beyond the "cannon" of the Protestent Bible and in doing so, it was painfully obvious why many of the texts didn't make the cut. However, the Catholics have a few more books that the protestants (namely, the Apocrypha), and the Eastern Orthodox others still. As far as I know, most of those have to do with the Old Testatment. In regards to the "lost gospels", if we suddenly found a document that claimed to be a testament of the life of Abraham Lincoln and it said that Abe in fact led an invasion of western China we might just pause a moment to compare that to what we already knew before just accepting it at face value. I'm comfortable with the idea the Bible I have is the one I have for a reason. I imagine that most people will believe what they want to believe as the character, Robert Landon, himself points out in the book. If you want to believe that Jesus was just a man and has no claim on your heart and are willing to accept fiction as fact, this book is a very entertaining way to get you there. If you want to find out actual facts, perhaps starting in the non-fiction aisle is a better place to begin.

Lots O' Nothin!

• Never ending rendering - So my never ending project is about at an end. I really can't thank the client enough for being patient. Let's just say that rendering at HD res adds just a "wee" bit of render time AND Lightwave doesn't render the hypervoxels so fast at that res. I'm pretty tired of not having my main computer. That and losing a hard drive a few weeks back makes me ready to give my computer a little break. About 30 frames to go!
• Running after being sick - I was sick for about 3 weeks. Not too bad of sickness - tired all the time, headaches, etc. So for about that much time I didn't really jog. So last week, I tried to start up again. Wow did I lose a lot of my runnin' mojo. Before I got sick, I was running 6 miles most days and close to 10 every other weekend. This week, I started at completing 2 of my 4 mile circuit and after a week of it, I'm only barely back at 4. The funny thing is I lost nothing on the lifting front....strange.
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Saw this last weekend with some friends. To get ready for it, I watched the first one the night before. The movie was a fantastic popcorn flick...just a whole lot of fun. It was a little long, but not too bad. On the special effects front I just have to say, "Wow!" Davy Jones is the most amazing cg character I have yet seen on the screen. The greatness of Golum has been eclipsed and my mind is still reeling at the how's of it. It was a special effects smorgasborg and I can't wait to pick up the DVD to see the behind the scenes.

Sweet Interview with Pixar's Ralph Eggleston

Check it!

Delays in posting...

I have been under the weather for a few days and in and out of town with guests the last few weeks AND trying to get my gig rendered (should be done in the next week and a half or so!). I will try to get caught up soon:) In the meantime, here is a sweet little link with production art from one of the best animated shows currently on television.

One Heck of a Rainbow...

This is a quickie. I had a great week last week and wanna jot down a bit about it when I get some time, but right now I'm a bit short on that commodity. However, I saw this pic and thought it was pretty darn sweet so wanted to pass it a long. Check the article!

Up for air...

Here's a little test render for the final lighting of one of the shots from my freelance gig. It's almost done! Another week and animation will be done! Couple of things:

• Keith Lango is moving to Brazil! He's gonna set up shop so he can animate and help people too. I think that's just pretty awesome.
• God has been kind enough to give me some small windows of rainless time to run outside as He knows my disdain for treadmills....thanks, God:)
• I'm heading to Oklahoma City next week to see my mom and some of my fam AND my aspiring comedian cousin is moving to Chicago in two weeks so it'll be great having some family local as well. He's a very talented guy and I'm sure he'll do great.
• Stranglehold (my main project at work now) showed very well at E3 and is looking pretty amazing. I think it's gonna be a pretty sweet game when it's done.

That's all she wrote...or he wrote...I wrote? Back to work, I might not surface again till animation is done on my gig, so...lata!

Singing in the Rain...

err...actually, there will be time to do anything and everything in the rain with this forecast. Guess no outside running for Josh for a while:(

Important Research...

This is my kind of research. What do YOU call it?! I wonder if this was someones thesis for a graduate degree....:)

Minor Updateage...

Here's a test render of Tiko last night from my freelance gig that should (crosses fingers, knocks on wood, prays intensely) be done this month. This particular shot is being animated by my good friend Keith Osborn who was kind enough to help me out in getting this gig done. In other news:

• By buddy Keith (from above) started a new company - Lasso the Moon Animation. I can't wait to see what he does.
• My brother started a blog. He has a passion for writing as well and is a very talented guy.
• Started reading another by C.S. Lewis and am continually amazed at his ability to communicate the most complex of concepts in laymen's terms
• My workload at work for E3 has slowed down after the big push last week. I can't wait till this game is done. It's looking absolutely amazing. So, with some down time Scott and I are fixing to start on some R&D for facial rigging for a new game. Fun stuff. Scottie is a scripting genius though he doesn't like to admit it;)
• Vonage is rocking!

Disney efficiency?

Someone did some pretty cool little comparison of animation reuse in Disney films. I didn't notice any but maybe one of these but had just chopped it up to perhaps to some Deja Vu'. This is prolly pretty uninteresting to any but a fellow animation nut. Reusing work seems to make pretty good sense to me. Good animation is good animation.

Vonage, Allergies and Crazy Weather

So, yesterday was around 70 degrees in the Chicago metropolitan area. This morning I woke up hoping for an outside run when I checked the weather. Mid 30's and likely rain. Ug. So I headed to the gym and spent a bit of time with the treadmill. On the drive in to work, it went from rain to frozen rain to snow flakes in as I crawled through the morning commute. Wacky. So far, I'm really liking Vonage. The fact that it emails me when I have messages and I can listen to those message from anywhere I have net access is just sweet. It transferred my old number over just fine and so far the service has ben more than I'd hoped for. I think I can give it a probationary two thumbs up. Last week was misreable. If you don't have allergies, I don't know if you can quite understand. We allergic folk approach spring with mixed emotions. There is usually about at one or two week window whem lots of trees and flowers are filling the air with their watery-eyes, nose running, violent sneeze inducing pollen. Every year I think I'm over them, but every year they come back and hit me like a mack truck. I'm going to the doc tomorrow to get some meds. Thankfully, it looks like the botanical air party is about over and I can get back outdoors. Work has been a bit busy as of late with the march up to E3, but nothing too crazy. Other than that, Life is good. Very good:)

Of Jackalopes and Apple's Brilliance

I had the great pleasure this week of enlighting a friend to the amazing world of the Jackalope. Growing up in the midwest, I am, of course, aware of one of the great treasures of fly-over-country-America. Drive I-40 or I-35, and you're sure to find countless novelty shops and gas stations selling stuffed Jackalopes. Though I'm sad to see the little critters there and not bounding across the fruited plains like some miniature balls of antlered energy. They must be plentiful for them to be so readily available for purchase. Some people might claim that it's just a rabbit with antelope horns glued to it's head, but those folk just don't have a clue...I've not seen any zoological studies on the natural habitat of this imaginative little critter, but I'm sure it'll be published soon. Next time you're driving across the great plains, sure you might see some buffalo, antelope, prairie dogs and other such average creatures, but you make sure you keep an eye out for our beloved little Jackalopes... ...seriously, you'll puncture a tire on those horns if you're not paying attention. So it's been another week of fun at work and I've been spending a good deal of time on the phone talking to the great state of Pennsylvania. So much so that I picked up a Vonage this weekend. I'll post some thoughts when I've used it a bit. One of the coolest bits of news from the week is that Apple is making it so the new intel macs can dual boot to Apple's OS (a thing of simple elegance that I am coming more and more around to) and Windows XP (brute force that works...most of the time). My next computer purchase may just have to be....*gasp*....a mac workstation. My brother will be proud - he's a machead.

Wrapping up...

Song of the day - "Even Rats" - The Slip I'm a bit tardy in wrapping up my L.A trip, though I don't imagine there's too many people waiting for the close (except maybe my mom, "Hey, Mom!":). For her sake I'll close it off. Monday, I went for another nice jog in the morning and took a dip to swim a few (very few) laps. Then I headed down to meet up with Dave and some old SCAD friends at their studio. I hung out for a bit and Tracy made me draw her a caricature to put next to Daves over her desk (Dave's was better). It's funny what a small world it is. I got to talking to another of the animators there and he was a good friend of my art director on the project I'm on at Midway. Go figure. We decided to go out for a bite and I had cuban for the first time. It was a awesome. I got the Vegetariono (awful spelling I'm sure) that had blackbeans over white rice, carmelized plaintains and some interesting (but tasty) potatoes. To close it off, I had a bit of mango cheesecake which was incredible. I LOVE cheescake. We split up on the way back and I headed back to the hotel and took a little rest - processed some pictures and wrote a couple of emails. My mentor came to get me and we headed to North Hollywood for the film festival part and got there early on my bad intel so decided to get a bite to eat at Pizza place across the road. There was a nice cold drizzle with a rather warm temp (compared to Chicago evenings). It felt nice - I actually like a little cool mist in the air every now and then. When we finished up the meal and chatting we headed back over and saw the festival. There were some amazing films. I especially enjoyed "Tycho's Nova" and "Love Letter" (whose site doesn't appear to be up quite yet). They only showed the first place winners, I'd have liked to have seen the rest. I'm gonna try and track em down on the web when I get some down time. Tuesday, I went for a walk on Sunset Blvd and picked up a couple more books. I was also able to snag an "In and Out" Burger which, though tasty, had nothing on a OKC Johnnie's burger. The flight out was great with a breathtaking view of sunset over eastern California mountains and the Mojave desert. The rest of the week at work was cool. Nothing too crazy. However, Friday the game team went out for some Whirlyball fun. Nothing special this weekend except some freelance and running (both errands and the physical type). Hopefully my brother and I can hook up some iSight video chat so I can see him and the muchkin nephews. Good times. (Disclaimer: Sentimental babbling follows) I had a hard conversation with a friend today. It was hard, but it was good one. A lot of things are like that. Life doesn't have a handbook that makes finding your way easy. Heck, God didn't even really provide one in the Bible - most of it is stories of people stumbing through life just like us, meeting God along the way, and finding what life is like after that. Life is meant to be hard, it's meant to make us who we're supposed to be. I imagine that an easy life wouldn't be that much fun - like playing a video game on easy mode or going back to reading See Spot Run after having worked through Shakespeare. Growth is implied in our existence - we see it in the world around us in plants, animals, even celestial bodies. There's times that God is silent to me and there's times He's as real as my own skin. He's been very real lately and that's a blessing, but I know a time will come when I'll cry to the heavens and only hear the answer of my own echoing voice. I've been there before and I'll be there again. Life seems to be less about stoically marching along some certain path than stumbling through it together - sometimes you lean on another and sometimes they lean on you. The time comes when you find yourself on the precipice again and you don't know exactly will happen if you take that step - will you be dashed against the rocks or plunge into the sea? Only one way to find out. But for now, I've gotta wait.