Garden City Update....

Pretty close to final on my last shot of Garden City. It makes a lot more sense with the music but you're just gonna have to wait to see that in the final film. Also, there're 10f heads and tails on the shot.

Gonna start getting together a new reel here with a bunch of new work to send out and there are a few projects on the verge of happening that should keep me busy for a few months.

Anyone else in Texas see the absolutely amazing lighting storm last night? It was like a strobe-a-thon for an hour lighting up the landscape clear as day at 15fps or so (that's flashes per second). Wish I had a camera capable of taking that in.

Been trying to decide what path to take for the next professional development project

• Short film I've been ruminating on for a while
• Getting into digital sculpting in Zbrush
• Delve more into the rigging side of things
• Do another free rig (the human I started last year) since people seem to like Squirrely so much

...for now need to pick up some meat for dinner tonight:)

SO MANY great films coming out this year....

They just keep coming...Best of luck to the class of '10!

• Work by Michael Rianda
  
  
• Changes in Weather by Amelia Lorenz
  
  
• The Hardest Jigsaw by Eric Anderson
  

In the end there could be only one....

Blocking (maybe a bit further along then blocking) on my FINAL Garden City shot. Can't wait to start seeing some renders. The shot is directly before the house falling a part one from a couple of weeks ago.




And here's some more goodness from the internets...

• From one of my favorite flash animators....
  
  
  
• Beautifully different looking film
  
  
  
• Fantastic webinar courtesy of Animation Mentor with some great animators
  
• Animalific film of a few years back...
  

Couple of great shorts and an update (with Controls!)

Had a guy email me asking me to post a couple of animation with controls visible in the playblast. So here they are...


First off, here's a pretty close to final pass on the last (sequential shot) in my last Garden City sequence. Still not happy with a couple of things but waiting for notes from Bokser before hitting them up.


Secondly, here's the Squirrely animation which he'd specifically requested to see with controls.

Now for some really good stuff. It's getting to be the end of the year and that means lots of great student films. Best of luck class of 2010! Here's a few:

• "Helium" by Daniele Zannone
  
  
• "Crater Face" by Skyler Page
  
  
• "A Bear Film" by Kris Anka
  

No this isn't a student film, it's a studio reel, but holy cow is this some amazing stuff...

Keane and a blue moon...

Great series of vids. Hat tip to my pal Kyle for the find.

The moon was so bright last night it was eerily awesome at 4 am. We live in the middle of nowhere now so there were NO outside lights to spoil the beautiful blue illumination. It was casting these sweet blue shadows on my back patio and the big old moon was just glowing there like a great big light bulb in the night sky. Shoulda got the pastels out.

Why was I up at 4am? Allergies, my friends. Gotta love em.

Got some good thinking done as I lay there surrounded by tissue paper on the couch (decided to not subject my wife to my sniffles if I could help it) and have some new ideas on the next project side of things to workout. This is if Garden City ever finishes.

Progress makes...progress

Sorry, still no audio

Pretty close to final on a couple of shots here. The house will have lots more going on when Bokser get's done with some sim. We also need to break up the fence a bit more and add a few more things. Bokser made some pretty cool tools to help animate the house and move pivots during animation

Been busy on a wide variety of things from this sequence above to riding lawn mower research to still combating this poison ivy/oak of 4 weeks now.

Warning! 
Fixin to talk about God and faith here so if you wanna keep to the art skip the following....

Reading a lot as well. Rereading some of the emergent thinkers lately and listening to some of their podcasts. Specifically rereading "A Generous Orthodoxy" at present and don't find it very generous in it's characterizations of some sides. "Strawman" arguments get a little old. Attended a church that leaned that way for about a year. There are many good things I saw there and in the "movement" but I can't quite seem to fully make the jump philosophically. Still not sure how I feel about some of the ideas and what not. Actually that's a part of the problem with post modern theology - it's often hard to get to point of what some of the people are saying in the midst of the the perpetual "Yes and"'s. What that means is they'll set up a yes/no question and then proceed not to answer it. On many questions of the faith (protestant Christianity) I'm in the solid "I don't know" camp which is a long long way from where I once was in high school when of course I knew everything (if my thenself met my nowself and chatted about belief I might well call myself a heretic).

One of my main issues is that it feels like much of the emergent movement seems to be wrapped up in politics and I'm just not a fan of that on either side of the aisle. In as much as the "religous right" has swung to the ride side of the fences, the emergent branch seems to swing just as hard to the left. Frankly, if a preacher starts telling me who to vote for it's time to find the exit. Had some good conversations with some atheist/agnostic buddies when I was in LA and frankly I sympathize with a lot of what they had to say about their experiences with people of faith.

I pray I'm never one of "those experiences."

Another day, another Garden City Sequence...

Been workin on my last Garden City sequence and here's the blocking for it sans audio. As I mentioned a while ago, no more audio on the GC stuff so as to keep the story mysterious. I've moved onto the the linear/spline stage but wanted to post something to kick myself into making so progress. Did my first calf sorting with some friends last night near where we live. It was an interesting and fun experience. For the uninitiated, it involves a pair or peeps on horseback sorting a number of calves in order. Something like "nine ball" on horseback. Only they have to start at whatever number the judge tells you to. I need a lot of practice. The small joys of rural life:)

Hope everyone had a nice Easter...

First things first, I have the internets at maximum warp again! Well, not maximum, but quite sufficient.

The commercial I worked on last month at Psyop finally aired and someone who worked on it posted it so I reckon it's okay to link it.

My main shots were -

• s17 - fore and mid ground Octo guys, their Squid bubbles, and the arms.
• s23 - quick shot of the fox at the Octobot controls
• s24 - foreground fox, octobot and bubble sac, and the near-midground action of the bubble sac being hit by the turtles and eaten by the sub

I'll post the playblasts when I get the project page up as there's a bit more there. I had a blast on the project and really enjoyed the team and look forward to working with them again in the future.

Had some lemons of life lately which I'm workin on making into something sweeter...maybe lemonheads...I like those. The most recent of which was discovering Poison Oak in some other vines I was clearing off of some trees. Never had it before. Don't want it again. Don't want you to have it either. Avoid this at all cost....

However, I do have a sympathetic, supportive and beautiful wife who makes the bad days not so bad.

That and the prospect of a gator hunt on a neighbor's pond sounds like a life experience that suburbia just can't offer that the rural one can:)

Also, Bokser wants to finish Garden City this decade so I best get back to that...

Me vs AT&T....

Been fighting (and losing) a long hard battle with AT&T trying to first get phone service to the new house, an internet hookup (which thankfully landed last week), and now up to a decent connection speed. Fact - large facets of the cg community's internet sites are a chore to use at sub 600kps speeds. Don't know how many hours and days I've wasted so far, but I sure hope it can be rectified before too long. The thing is my neighbors have the very same service they say is unavailable to us all.

On to better things... Things have been crazy busy because of this and more. Finished up my second stint at Psyop last week and and expect to go back next month for another. Can't wait till I can show this last spot as it's a very interestingly stylized and cartoony spot. Should air next month.

In the meantime, been doing some horse riding with the Mrs., hopping back into Garden City for a few last shots and thinking through my next short. Also, looking forward to my family coming to visit this weekend. My wife, one of my nephews and I all share birthdays within a 4 day span. Crazy.... Here's a few cool things I've come across:

• Absolutely love the look of this one. There's some elements that I'd like to try in my next short there.
• And another with awesome style:
• Behind the scenes look at a film that's been making the rounds. It's great to see how miniatures and stop motion are being played with coupled with CG.

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...