. Schulz'y .

Been a while.....

2010-09-14T13:51:00.001-07:00

and here's a quick shotty video I took while in Hawaii.

A Brave Little Turtle from bschulz on Vimeo.

All CG

2010-01-06T17:46:00.001-08:00

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

this is amazing. I can't believe it's all CG. Have to share.

Xray Anaylsis of Speech

2009-12-10T11:05:00.000-08:00

It's pretty interesting to see what's going on inside your mouth when you talk. At least it is if your me, though I bet some of you might like this as well. ;)

http://hundertmarkblog.de/christine-ericsdotter-x-ray-analyses-of-speech/

It's a quick 2 min time waster of the day but extremely facinating.

Inspiration

2009-12-09T09:39:00.000-08:00

I've found mine for the day. Some great blending of Stop motion animation and CGI animation from a company called Meindbender.

Really inspiring stuff. Check it out.

Cool Animated Ad

2009-12-07T13:07:00.000-08:00

I know i don't post often...but this is really nice and clean. I enjoyed it a lot. Thought i'd pass it on.

30 Rock

2009-10-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Watch it!

That's all. It's brilliant. Great writing, hillarious performances, awesome.

Marshmallow Test....

2009-09-24T10:03:00.001-07:00

PS. If you've never seen this. It's awesome. There is some AMAZING reference in here for a 'pantomime waiting assignment'

Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

AM

2009-09-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

Just got word that I'll be teaching again this coming semester. Class 2, Psychology of Body Mechanics. I'm def. looking forward to it as this is the one class at AM i haven't taught yet, should be a lot of fun!

Yay!

Once again

2009-09-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

I'm a slacker. Things get hectic at work and I don't blog. Doing a bunch of research on the wedding front. Playing a lot of fun XBLA games. Somehow I don't feel bad paying 1200 MS points for a small game that supports new developers / companies, what have you. Haven't spent much time on my figures or paintings, though I will, i still sketch little doodles / ideas out for them in my down time which WILL get used.

PS. things I've played or seen recently that I really enjoyed.

1. District 9 (movie)
2. JCVD (netflix rental)
3. Shadow Complex (xbox 360 game)
4. Braid (xbox 360 game)
5. Street Fighter 4 (xbox 360 game)
6. The Wire - (HBO series on DVD) - soooo sad this is over.

K, back to work!

Simon's Cat

2009-08-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

Random Nugget from Cartoon Brew

Sorry

2009-07-06T16:20:00.001-07:00

Got real busy these last 2 weeks. Doesn't look like it's gonna let up much but hopefully this weekend i'll be able to mess around some more with this stuff. In the meantime I sorta experimented with some paints, resurfaced and primed the mini MAD'L head cuz i didn't like the face anymore. The nose started looking like a mouth, which i didn't want any confusion on. So I resurfaced it. Anyways, still have lots and lots of testing to do because i'm not sure this is the type of paint i'm looking for. Also the tape i used bleed a little, or maybe i painted too thick in that area, either way I gotta get THAT under control a little, you can see it mostly on the edges of the arms. The paint actually even looks much better than in the pics but whatever, not exactly what i'm looking for anyways. Here's a few little pics.

Oh and to make up for some lack of Toy updates...i did some 20 min. paintings for fun. No where near done, more of like work in progress' You can tell how lazy i got, i didn't even worry about definition anywhere, or attempted to hint much at shadows and layers. Just something to start with for kicks. Here's one regardless...

Testing some paint

2009-06-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

I messed around for an hour or so last night with some paint, brushes, pens, pencils...all on the vinyl to see what kinda 'feelings' i got from all this. Meaning, how the paint, pen, pencil, etc felt on the figures. I plan to do more testing and whatnot this weekend when there's some light outside so i can test spray paints, as well as maybe walk over to some shops and grab some other types of paint. I realized that the stuff i had at home (mostly for work on canvas and wood) wasn't thinning enough and was leaving brush strokes on the figure which i in the end don't want. So I got a little more researching to do. Can't wait for the weekend!!

New Toy

2009-06-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Got one of my DIY vinyls in the mail today!

Should have a 10" MAD'L on it's way as well!
OH and i beat F.E.A.R. 2 last night. Was easy, even on the hardest setting. Ending kinda sucked too. I'll rant about it more when i have some time. Lots of work to do!

Trial and Error

2009-06-13T16:45:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I took the MAD'L i originally had painted and figured I'd try and get the head off. Well since I originally F'd up the process from the start by sanding down the original surface, then spray painted the figure with white paint (not primer like i should've) all WITH the head still on...I think i sprayed inside the head / neck joint area so when i tried to pull off the head (also without heating the area - bah) i broke the head right off. haha. I figure I'll chalk this one up to experience and use the surface to test paints and things like that since it was messed up to begin with. I then decided to draw on it with a sharpie (which i wont' do with the others I don't think). I just wanted to see how it felt to mess around on such a small surface and made it into a little emo sad boy since his head broke off. I might try and use some acrylics and paint over that design now actually, test some spray paints on the body (not dig'n those pants I drew anyways) and then super glue the head on when it's all said and done. Proly head over to the store tomorrow to check on some paint markers and other crap. Fun fun.

50% Done on my MAD'L Decision

2009-06-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a custom MAD'L. I thought i really liked those Castle Crashers characters...and I still do, but i think i'd have more fun creating something somewhat more unique and personal. I told my fiance last night that I splurged a bit on these DIY figures (bought a 10" blank MAD'L, and 4 - 4" Blank Skullys) and to my surprise she was excited about it! Yay for spending money, heh. The other awesome thing was, she wanted to do one as well, so that'll be fun to see how our styles differenciate...wait, is that how you spell that? Anyways, I plan on getting all my supplies, or at least most of them this weekend and hopefully I'll have read enough forums to feel comfortable with diving into the process.

Might see Star Trek tonight too! FINALLY! ug.
OH, and started playing Fear 2 on my xbox last night - that game is def. creepy.

Custom MAD'L

2009-06-11T09:39:00.001-07:00

So here's one of my 10 zillion projects I have going but have yet to finish. I mentioned it yesterday. My custom Mad'L figure. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE the MAD'L vinyl figures. Here's a visual a blank one.

Mine looks pretty much exactly the same, they make DIY figures now that are 10" but mine was a duplicate copy of an older MAD'L from back in the day WAY BEFORE they started making DIY figures. I slaved and slaved over it, sanding it down and primering mine with white paint until it looked almost exactly like that DIY version above. It's also only 5" tall instead of the big dog DIY 10" guy. Oh and since i've already destroyed that other figure, I've come to find out that that particular figure is in high demand now and has doubled in value, but lets not think about that. Anyways, I'm still undecided on what to do with this guy. I've been playing a game called castle crashers on xbox360 and though i'd re-create one of those characters.

but i dunno. I sorta also want to just make my own unique character. I did some sketches that i haven't uploaded to the computer yet but I'll keep y'all posted. Here's a few similar examples.

Anyways. I hope i can make something half as decent as those two examples. I did also have another thought to re-create all the pixar characters...but that'll have to come in due time. Gotta get my methods down n' stuff.

Happy Holidays Everyone

2008-12-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone safe and Happy Holidays!

Last Class - 4 hour painting

2008-11-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

I think my headless woman is still my favorite painting - just because of the abstract'ness / loose'ness of it...but i feel i accomplished some decent rendering / value in this one. I didn't worry that she's floating, I wanted to spend my time on the pose and colors, and figured i could paint in a box for her to sit on later. All in all I loved taking the class and I'll keep painting at home (got my supplies and smaller / medium canvas's all ready for free time).

My teacher taught me something i felt was super useful the last 20 min. of class that i thought I'd share. He said. Take 2 hours, paint some simple still life and get it as rendered and polished as you can. Then do the same painting in 45 min, see how it compairs. Then do the same painting again in 20 min, and then 10 min. It will help with figuring out brush strokes, and technic / processes / simplifying color. I thought that would be really fun to do and might be a good learning exercise.

Anyways, enough rambling. Here's the last 4 hour painting - wish I went a little loose'r but whatever. It was a good learning exp.

Painting 4

2008-11-06T16:36:00.000-08:00

Tried to focus on a larger portion last week...turned out 'ok' ...but still not really to my liking. I might try to paint broader next week - we have a 4 hour sitting, so i might try and stay away from the 'details' for as long as i can...I wish we just started out with black and white paints so i could really figure out how to deal with value.

meh...

paintings also not THAT red - the iphone does some weird stuff when it takes pics.

Painting 3

2008-10-23T09:41:00.000-07:00

I need to

A. Paint bigger (given the time we have to paint)
B. Use bigger brushes (see A.)
C. Get a better range of color
D. Paint bigger!!

one pic with the flash - one without. I never know what's the best way to get these onto the computer with the actual globs of paint i sometimes have in my paintings. Maybe I just need a bigger scanner, rather than using a camera. Plus side I think this ones better than my last 2, even though it has problems of it's own...i like it the best so far.

Giaco Hopper

2008-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

2 more quick DS paintings from last night while watching TV. One's Giaco - our kitty who wouldn't sit still long enough. The second was my quick tribute to Hopper from a bugs life. (minus the cool bigger / smaller discolored eye thing he had)

DS Colors! Painting

2008-10-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

oh man oh man oh man....I walked over to the mailbox at work today randomly assuming i had no mail, and whalla! My R4 Revolution for my DS was here! Super simple to get setup and I'm off! I love this Colors! program. I wish there was an undo button but whatever. Force me to 'think' about things before i paint them perhaps. Also wish it was a bit easier to draw to the edges but...Here's my first drawing tonight testing stuff out. An EYEBALL! heh.

I can't wait to take my DS everywhere! Super Sick. Best toy yet this year.

Numero Dos

2008-10-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

Here's painting number 2.

Just as bad as number one in my opinion. I was a bit pleased the way the hair turned out though - but the proportions got all wak down near her booty n' such.
Full painting time was 1 hour (not nearly enough). Next week (painting 4) i think i'm gonna concentrate on a smaller area rather than the entire figure and maybe just work more on getting good tones / more solid range of color.

....we'll see.

First Painting Revisited

2008-10-15T21:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the touch up job i did on the painting in Photoshop. I'm still even learning how to paint there but - i spent as much time as i think i wanted to on it (30 min) Just to clean up a few little things, and even still it could use a ton of work. Of course It's no master piece but it's pretty fun to start getting in the habit.

Painting number 2 coming up.

UP

2008-10-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

They just released the Teaser Poster for "UP." Releasing in May of 2008.

edit : here's a teaser for those who don't know what i've been up to.

.

First Painting. . .. EVER

2008-10-10T14:30:00.000-07:00

So as promised - and i gotta admit after seeing the painting again the following week this is a little embarrassing...but here's my first ever oil painting. Or "painting" for that matter...I think it's not too bad considering i've never dealt with 'painting' before, let alone colors or painting the human form!! Ok fine - it sucks, paints too thin - models proportions are off - it's a mess...i guess it's a good starting point =) What i plan on doing is taking these paintings into photoshop, and taking what i've learned each week and possibly push them a bit farther digitally - for fun.

So yea, we only had 45 min. to paint this - and learn about turpentine, layering, mixing colors and shapes. So it was a bit of a first crash course...but i'm happy to be learning new things so go easy on me. =P More stuff to come.

Hopefully - as embarassing as this is - i can look back on it and realize I've improved.
.

David Byrne

2008-10-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Oct. 7th. Erica's birthday....we went to see David Byrne at the Davis Symphony Hall in San Francisco. What an awesome show. That guy has his shit together. He's timeless also by the way...i couldn't tell you how old he is but he looked amazing. Maybe if i knew him personally or saw him super super close up i could gauge it better but... Anyways. It was an awesome show. We got there - first Tier up - middle of the theater. Excellent Sound...but no one around us was dancing or having fun - just sitting there watching the show. We got really jealous of the people on teh sides and in front of the stage dancing...imagine sitting in a theater with ants in your pants if you will. We saw an empty side booth close to the stage and decided - that's OUR spot!! We snuck over there through the hallways and nabbed it! No ushers stopped us or even saw us but it was fun to run through the halls like we were pulling a prank on the theatre. It was awesome. We could move around - dance - sit - sing loudly - whatever. It was a blast. Afterwards we went out for a few drinks to toast the creation of my gal and then went home. All in all it was a very fun night, even though waking up the next day wasn't so fun.

I highly recommend seeing David Byrne if you can. He puts on a great show - he's mastered his voice and is suuuuper youthful. I was worried it might be a boring show but I was obviously pleasantly surprise. High Five!

Wacom Woes

2008-10-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

So in addition the oil painting class I'm taking I was hoping that i could persuade myself to also do some photoshop / painter (if i can get my old copy working) paintings...just for fun and to keep myself busy with some arts and crafts. Turns out my wacom pens tip is busted - the eraser part works but the tip won't register to the pad when i touch it. So now i'm trying to follow this other bloggers tip to possibly fix my pen....but the dang thing won't break apart.

Fixing a Broken Wacom Pen

Frustrating to say the least. On the positive side i get to paint again tonight in class!!

Take on Me (Literal Version)

2008-10-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

This was passed around at work today. Thought i'd share. Gave me a laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HE9OQ4FnkQ

First painting coming later this week....

and obviously i can't decide on a design for this dang blog....like always

I lied

2008-10-02T13:19:00.001-07:00

Surprise surprise. Well I'm hoping i can get back into this. Though based off when my last post was posted - i'd say it won't happen BUT... I'm taking an oil painting class now and if anything maybe i can throw up some artwork as i go along. (trying to embarass myself obviously cuz i've never painted before)

Really just trying to clean house a bit, get organized, and re-focused on things. This being one of them (though a lower priority). It might not be 9 months between posts at least. We'll see.

Slacker

2008-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Yea, I got busy at work again, then caught a cold...slacked on updating here. Sorry ppl.

I don't blame you for abandoning me. However I'll be back when i de-lazy myself from updating here.

I am Legend

2007-12-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

Not TOO bad. I really liked the book a lot better. The book had way more suspense and seemed like more was at risk in a lot of cases but there's some really cool scenes in the actual movie. I recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. That's all...gotta get to work.

Horton

2007-12-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

Still working out the details on how to get my graph editor up here every now and again without doing anything that'll get me in trouble at work. So be patient with that. In the meantime, Bluesky's new trailer for Horton Hears a Who is up. Has some nice stuff in it. I love the emo style son at the beginning. Hillarious. I hope it's not too full of funny jokes all the time and there's a nice story involved. Either way it's inspired me for the day. Have a good weekend.

.

Splines

2007-12-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

I think from time to time I'll throw up some random images of my graph editor. Obviously I won't be showing anything I can't, but when I was in school I was always curious to know what graph editors from other animators at major studios looked like. I think it'll be a fun new image to put up every once in a while. Stay tuned.

New Look

2007-12-12T09:19:00.001-08:00

This setup isn't so bad after all...not too many choices out there for layouts but I think I've been happy with this one so I'm back to the old standy.....for at least a week or two. Heh. I don't even think anyone knows I'm alive over here since it's been about 12 months since i've updated this thing. Whats happened in that last 12 months...well lets see.

-- Ratatouille came out.
-- Few friends left the city. =(
-- Moved into a nice new place.
-- Started working on the Wall-E.
-- Got a few new awesome toys from Gentle Giant. Han and Chewy. Han's neck is ridiculously long but it's still cool.
-- Created an unhealthy obsession with Mocha's. That can't be good.
-- Taught a few classes at Animation Mentor
-- Got my motorcycle back up and running. Though sadly I'm considering selling it...but for a dirt bike instead.
-- Played way too much World of Warcraft
-- Got way too excited about this.

The last point I can't stress enough. Anyways, hopefully i can stay on it with updates here.

.

Fresh Start

2007-12-11T18:33:00.000-08:00

Going to try and get back on the wagon and blog it up every once in a while. Starting by trying to make a new site that's more easy on the eyes. I'd love to change that nasty beige color to the left and right of this here blog but right now it's not really cooperating.

Animation Mentor Graduation

2007-01-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while and I'm actually pretty late on this post but I appologize. I just got around to checking the Animation Mentor site and saw the show reel from the first graduating class. Great stuff! Unfortunatly I was out of town for the graduation so I had to miss it but I wanted to extend my congradulations to those who've made it through animation mentor thus far. Great great stuff. If your interested (and you should be) You can check out what people are doing these days from animation mentor. Really really great. Have I said that already?? Anyways, can't wait to see what the next graduating class has to offer!! Keep up the good work y'all. Hope everyone's doing well. Back to the grind...

First Graduating Class from Animation Mentor Reel

.

Movies to see

2006-10-31T08:09:00.000-08:00

Wha! What's this....an update! I know i've been slacking, heck slacking proly isn't even the best way to describe it, I just flat out dropped the ball on updating this thing. I'm sorry. I'll try and be better and maybe come up with at least a little something at bit more frequently to keep y'all in the loop. I don't even know if anyone even checks this thing anymore i've been slacking so much, it's kinda pathetic. However!! you shouldn't feel TOO bad, even my netflix movies have been seriously neglected over the past few months...

So yea, recently I've seen a few movies in my 'spare' time over the last few weeks so I'll give you MY rundown of them.

Monster house - boo. Ok it was interesting. The creepy bad guy living in the house was freaky man! I had fun guessing the voices of each character and I thought the camera work at times was pretty monster house'ish. I couldn't imagine little kids not being scared while watching this movie, that kinda confused me, was it supposed to scare the crap outta kids and give them nightmares, or was it supposed to be something else, like an animated movie for "kids." I mean I guess with the title monster house you should be expecting.....a monster house, but it was pretty freak'n scarey sometimes, maybe too scary? On the other hand maybe i'm just a wuss. I thought it had a really cool look to it at first but the mocap was killing it for me. Started to remind me of Final Fantasy the movie. Ok, that was rude, i'm not trying to bash the movie by any means I was just a little confused.

Little miss sunshine - best movie I've seen this year. If you haven't seen it you should check you local theatre and pray it's still being shown. Go buy the soundtrack too...freak'n awesome. I'll def. be buying this dvd.

the Departed - not as good as the original "Infernal Affairs" but jack nicholson stole the show for me. Really great acting performances in there. I mean Nicholson was amazing, but everyone else was pretty good too. I'd recommend seen this for sure.

the Science of Sleep - Another interesting movie. I liked it, didn't love it. I was ready for it to be over when it was but i wouldn't say i didn't like it. Proly won't see it again though.

Still haven't gone through all my Peru pics. ...someday.

PS. Happy Halloween!

Bad Blogger

2006-09-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

So yea, we're back...and I'm still alive!! but I'm a bad blogger. I've been back now for a little over 2 weeks and I haven't blog'd a thing. We took over 400 pictures in Peru and Bolivia and I'll try and throw a few up here soon with a semi detailed description of what we did. It was an amazing trip to say the least. More of that later though. Time for worky.

.

Vacation.

2006-08-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

I totally need it too. Feel like i've just been dragging my feet lately at work. Can't wait to get some fresh air and relaxation in so I can recharge the ol' batteries. Peru here we come!! Woohoo!! I can't wait!

.

2 in one day!

2006-07-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Crazy I know!! ...but speaking of gold.

Glen Keane artwork
.

dónde está usted?

2006-07-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while since i've been able to post anything. Things are pretty busy right now so even this will be kinda short and boring, but if you care to know why I haven't been around it's because Ratatouille is draining my brain every day and I'm planning a vacation trip to Peru next month! I've obviously got shots on my plate that i wanna get done before I take off, so all that, along with actually planning my trip and doing day to day stuff is a lot of work.

Oh - for those of you in the Bay Area - I saw a play last week that was really...well...good...but bizzare....but good! Great characters and acting, it was really entertaining and I recommend you check it out if you can. It was called Hunter Gather's. I won't say too much about it othre than it was good and you should def. check it out if your in the area.

Meanwhile these World Cup games were a great distraction from work and trip planning due to all the drama a lot of players create just to get a call. I know it's not really pertaining to animation too much...but acting in general which is obviously entertaining to me. How much drama/acting can you get into one sports event? (not including basketball - that's ridiculous). I love all the emotions that flow from the World Cup games, it's so awesome. Anyways, I'm get'n lazy again and just babbling without making any sense so I'm gonna shut up and do some work. I'm gonna leave you with a gem from youTube. Check out the reactions of an Italy announcer vs. a French announcer (radio). I love how they react (or try not to react) when ones in the others personal space. They NEVER taunt each other directly which is hillarious...cuz deep down inside they gotta keep it together as professional announcers but you can see that hatred/fire building up inside on scrn right guy throughout each goal...great stuff.

.

Funny.

2006-06-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I know exactly how you feel....

.

Annecy Short

2006-06-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

Saw this awesome short done for Annecy. Pretty sweet. Gotta love those french animators. :)

Burning Safari

.

- Cars -

2006-06-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

Friday's the day....

Cars opens in theatre's.
Go check it out. See what I've been doing for the last year and a half of my life...

Cheers
.

American Idol - Cars Commercial

2006-05-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

If your watching American Idol tonight watch out for a "Cars" commercial for State Farm Insurance, I animated the last 3 character shots of the commercial under the directing and amazing eye of Mr. Victor Navone. :) I had a blast working on this commerical with Victor and the rest of the team, AND it was my very first commercial EVER, so it was def. a great learning experience...

So yea!! ...just a heads up. ;)

.

Do yourself a favor....

2006-05-11T16:32:00.000-07:00

don't watch the latest "Cars" Trailer. Unless of course you don't want a lot of the story to be a surprise. =\ Dunno why you'd want that but...consider yourself warned....

.

Animation

2006-05-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

These animated commercials crack me up. The animation is awesome IMO. I wish they'd do a whole series with this theme. Granted I hate Star Trek (not including Shatner). I'd watch it just for some Charlie Murphy voice over and incredible animation.

more here...

Coffee House
Poolside
Karaoke

Links links links.....

Doodle

2006-05-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

just a doodle from my dailies notebook....not that cool i know...but whatever.

.

Woo Hoo!!

2006-05-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!

yessssssssss, burrito's and beer. Mmmmmmmmmm.
.

Combined Weight

2006-04-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you in the bay area, some fellow co-workers are having an art show from work they've created 'AFTER' working hours. If your around you should check it out...here's the flyer and info.

San Francisco's Canvas Gallery will host Combined Weight, a collection of work by artists from Pixar Animation Studios, "produced in their spare time to show the world through their eyes". Artists include Daniel Arriaga, Enrico Casarosa, Janet Lucroy, Jennifer Chang, Liz Holmes, Lori Klocek, Mark Holmes, Nate Stanton, Noah Klocek, Paul Topolos, Rich Quade, Robert Kondo, Robin Cooper, Ronnie Del Carmen, Simon Dunsdon, Steve Pilcher, and Steve Purcell.

LOCATION/TIME:
Opening reception: Thursday April 27th, from 7pm – 12am.
The exhibition runs from April 27 throuh May 22nd
The Canvas Gallery, 1200 9th Ave. at Lincoln, San Francisco.

.

Another nominated Short

2006-04-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

So we were lucky enough to have all the nominated short films and filmmakers come into work a while back and show their shorts over lunch. This was one of the films that was on the top of my list. I just personally liked the style and feel to the short. It was Sharon Colman's short film BADGERED. Check it out. It's a slow download but totally worth the wait.

BADGERED

Found on Cartoon Brew
.

The BIG Story

2006-04-21T12:12:00.000-07:00

In case you've never seen this Oscar nominated short it's made it's way to 'you tube.' Figured I'd share it as I think i've watched it abotu 5 times today. I wish I could frame through it. So awesome.

Great voices, great acting!! Editing, mini story. (get it...it's called big story..but i said mini...muwahahaha...uh...ah.) What more could you ask for. This is stop mo animation as well which makes me drool over it even more. So many great things in here it's hard to figure out where to begin raving.

.

Fried

2006-04-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

nothing real interesting to post about at the moment (plus I'm being a bit lazy because I do have a rant about squash and stretch in animation that I'll write up one day). So I'll leave you with a draw'ring from my last trip to the zoo instead. We don't get to draw animals enough. "I" ....don't draw enough period (as you can tell)...these things will change though. So yea, not the best drawing but it was my favorite of the bunch.

yeeeeap.

Elbow

2006-04-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Saw a band/show last weekend.

.Elbow.

If you like Coldplay, Radiohead, or the Doves I think you'll really like them. Really easy music to listen to. Amazing!! live. If you have a chance I recommend you check'm out.

ps - the latest album is the best
.

Another reason why I love Shaun of the Dead...

2006-04-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

Brilliant

The two main characters in Shaun of the Dead are in this little clip and man this had me roll'n! If you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead I recommend you run out and rent it. This just made my day.

Enjoy.

(ok so this has nothing to do really with Shaun of the Dead other than the actors in the movie but I still love Shaun of the Dead)

ah. technology
.

Russell Peters Tonight!

2006-04-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Heading to a comedy show tonight which should be pretty good. I missed Dave Chappelle a few weeks ago but this guys a decent substitute.

Yesssssssss.

His Site

One of his skits

"sommmebody gonna get-a hurt real bad!"

.

HUGE!!

2006-04-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Wow. So I've always wanted one of those cool looking macs, just never had all the applications, games, power, etc I've needed. Now I think I'll be get'n one for sure. I wish I could justify upgrading my laptop at the moment but I guess I'll have to wait a bit before I really take the plundge...however, waiting will only give me more ease of mind that they are flushing out the bugs while I'm waiting. :)

Brilliant

So not to be a link whore or anything but here's two really cool pieces of animation I've run across in the last few days. Kinda different, almost stop-mo feel, but really cool.

One is by a studio called studioAKA who've I've always admired, I fell in love with their "Pica Towers" series and really wish they'd do more of that stuff. They visited work a while ago and showed us some pretty awesome WIP pieces which made me like them even more but here's the new clip.

The Big Win

The other clip I recently found in my e-mail box, I must have liked the video and didn't want to forget about it so I e-mailed it to myself a while ago and now it's ressurected. It's a music video called At a Glance which was created by Eugene and Birg, the band is a Belgian band called Sioen.

.

sheesh

2006-04-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

ok ok. So i've slacked a TON on this blog. I've been pretty busy I swear. I just finished the first semester teaching at Animation Mentor and it was a blast. My students def. improved which was great to see. Things are getting heavier at work and so I opt'd out for teaching the next semester. I'd rather save some energy for work and not be all burned out on my students. I'd love to go back and teach again though when things slow down again. It was great remembering all the things I was taught in school and being able to relay that to the students. Heck, I even need to take my own advice sometimes. Sometimes we get caught up in deadlines that we take for granted those silly rules about spacing and things like that in animation, so it was great to have a refresher on the 'principles' of animation.

ummm...so yea, also in my absence I went to a few shows...had a birthday...went snowboarding quite a bit...had a very close friend in the hospital...got my place a bit more organized...etc. etc. boring stuff you don't really wanna hear about.

I should be able to update this more frequently now since the semester is over so I'll try and get on it more. I apologize to those of you who actually come read this thing. Maybe the easiest way to do this is to take Missy's advice about just posting my first three thoughts in the morning...haha

.

RIP Don Knotts

2006-03-01T00:48:00.000-08:00

Three Days ago (last Friday night) Don Knotts unfortunatly passed away. Man what a character. I feel obligated to mention this in my blog because he was so overly animated in most of his work. Which 9 times outta 10 lead to extreme appeal and made me laugh out loud. "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" cracks me up left and right although he's probably more known for his role as Ralph Furley from "Three's Company" and "The Andy Griffith Show" ...anyways. Just wanted to say RIP Don Knotts. Thanks for the laughs and quirky animation reference Don. ;)
.

Devil Makes Three

2006-02-18T12:54:00.000-08:00

My friend Loren introduced this band to me a little over a year ago and I went to their show before ever even hearing them and it was awesome. I got 2 cd's (which didn't do them justice compaired to how they play in concert) but I'm happy to say that they are back in town and I'm stoked to be going to the show tonight. So excited! Band is The Devil Makes Three. Check'm out if you can.

Went to beautiful Tahoe the past two weekends snowboarding so I'm looking forward to doing some work around my place and take'n it easy this weekend. Should be easy to do due to this stinky weather (although I may go snowboarding on monday - undecided). Pretty swamped at work right now. Which is a good thing, keeps me busy and in the right frame of mind (hence why no bloggy). I'll try and post up something animation related next time. I realized I haven't done that in a while. Too busy yap'n. Animation Mentor is awesome. My students are awesome. Proly better than I was when I just started....which is exciting. So you can see...busy busy. Anyways, time to shower and get this weeekend started.
.

I suck...

2006-02-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

I know....I'll post something soon.

.

Japanese Cars Trailer

2006-01-10T22:05:00.000-08:00

A little while ago the Japanese Cars Trailer came out. It's a bit different than the one that came out in the theatres with a tooootally different feel in terms of music etc. Check it out if you want. May show you a bit more than you die hards want to see (consider yourself warned) but I liked it.

.

News

2006-01-06T09:03:00.000-08:00

AH HA! I've got some news to post! Well....there's a few things actually. So you may or may not have noticed that my 'old portfolio site' went down. Basically there was lots of traffic so I took it down because my buddy hosts the site and I was kinda sick of going over my limit each month, he says it's cool but i know he's hard up for cash theses days and it's supposed to cost me money when I go over my limit, so I took it down for a bit. Reason being...and good news, is that I never liked that site anyways or that work that was on it for that matter. I couldn't stand to look at most of that stuff. I only made it really a while back for ease of job searches and things like that. However it's good to see every now and again how you've progressed and where you came from and think about what you'd change knowing now what you didn't know then. So now that it's down I can try and upgrade it a bit with semi newer stuff (and I'll proly keep the not so awesome stuff up there as well for progressions sake maybe???) oh, and finally fix buttons and such that were annoying to push, etc. etc. etc. I may throw up something in the meantime to tide people over who want to see some animation or something. Check that link every once and a while maybe? ;)

Another bit of awesome news is that I'm going to be teaching some classes at Animation Mentor which I couldn't be more excited about. For those of you who read this and don't know what that is, it's an online animation school taught by industry professionals. Check out the website. Not only will I be able to pass on stuff I've learned over the years but I'm sure I'll also learn a lot in the process from everyone else. (There's always something you can learn) So I'm pretty stoked about that.

Obviously now I'm gonna be a lot busy'r but I'll try and keep this place updated with little nuggets from time to time....meantime I can't stress how great the spline doctors blog is if your looking for blog'n animation gold. GOLD i tell you!

k bye
.

$5 Movies Through January

2006-01-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

For those of you in the San Francisco area.

http://www.nytmarketing.com/alw/images/loews_pass.pdf
Loews Cineplex (the Metreon in SF) is offering $5.00 movies for the month of January (Monday-Thursday). Happy Holidays!
In their annual act of supreme generosity, the good folks at Lowes
Theatres are offering their patrons movie tickets for only $5
Monday-Thursday all next month. Simply print out this coupon and bring
it to the Metreon (the only participating theatre in California!):

http://www.nytmarketing.com/alw/images/loews_pass.pdf

This coupon will also get you a free size upgrade when you purchase a
small or regular drink at the concession stand.

This offer is part of the New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend. More
details on that are at: http://www.nytmarketing.com/alw/index.htm

Sweeeeet. Sorry, just spread'n the news for now...
.

Lack of Updates

2005-12-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've was sick 2 weeks ago, then went visiting family the following week and am now back to a zillion e-mails and little stuff around my apt. So now I'm trying to get a bit of work done while things are quiet at work, as well as get a bit more organized at home and finish unpacking the final 2 boxes in my apt. before the New Year. Speaking of which, I may as well wish everyone who takes the time to come read my babbling comments a safe and Happy New Year!!

.

Gmail, Spam, and you

2005-12-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

I may be behind in the times but man i just found this hillarious feature that google wrote into gmail. If you go under your 'spam' section (which gmail does a really decent job of seperating spam from real e-mails) - you'll find at the top each time you refresh a new reciepe using spam (see image). Then when you click the hyperlink it takes you to a page with the full reciepe! It's hillarious if you ask me. Just brilliant. Well done google. No wonder they're so rich over there.

ie.

Ice Age 2 Teaser...

2005-12-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

Just came out. I've got a few friends over there so support is always good. Really awesome stuff here. I'm really looking forward to Ice Age 2. Schhaaaweeeeet!!

Trailer

.

Just a friendly reminder...

2005-12-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today The Chronicles of Narnia comes out in theatres (which looks great) and along with it comes the Cars teaser trailer which looks incredible on the big screen. Just a friendly reminder for things you might not wanna miss. :)

*sorry I know, also sick of the talk about something and then link you to the real source kinda blogs...but this is an exception I suppose.
.

Pixar at the MoMA

2005-12-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

Pretty sure a lot of you already know about this but for those of you who don't. Pixar is having a Pixar: 20 Years of Animation celebration exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in NY City. I've seen the presentation and most of the work they did for this and it's just incredible. You won't be dissapointed. I wish I could go but I don't have extra cash lying around for the trip. ;) Hopefully it'll tour back this way.

If your interested.....

MoMA events
.

Guess who's birthday it issssssssss......

2005-12-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

and it's not Saaaanta's.....

heheheeh, Happy Birthday Dad!! I love ya.
.

Questions Questions.....

2005-12-04T17:55:00.000-08:00

Recently I've gotten e-mails asking me a few similar questions. Mainly about the transition from games to film and how hard that is, as well as what kinda reel they should put together and IF it'll even be seen, as well as if it's even possible to get a job at a Feature Film company straight from school? Figured I'd post something in regards to these questions as it may be helpful?? *shrug*

Demo Reels -

It's my opinion that you should put your first 2-3 pieces you feel are the strongest/most appealing first, followed by some that are obviously good but not your best...i said good because otherwise they shouldn't be on your reel if they aren't even good (again, don't put space filler animation just for the sake of it). Then your final piece doesn't have to be like your second best, just has to leave them on some sort of positive note IMO.

Someone asked me about the myth of recruiters not even watching entire reels, i don't have concrete answers for that, but i'd presonally bank on the fact that it's true, if they watch the whole thing, awesome, but i'd count on them not. I've helped recruiters watch and crit'd reels myself at Lucasarts ocassionally, and sometimes I/we knew within the first min whether or not we were gonna keep watching. (You must consider how daunting this task is when you have boxes and boxes of reels sitting in front of you and you.) The key is putting a few really good pieces at the start so you can grab their attention and make them want to watch the rest of your reel.

Switching from games to film -

In terms of it being difficult getting a feature film job from games, think about it like this...At a feature film company, they most likely want to see your sense of physics...as well as your acting choices. Once your in games, all the work you do all day long isnt' gonna help get you a job in the Film industry because chances are your not gonna be doing any acting (it's a shame, but games need game animation, and some people are verrrry happy making games - thank god!!). Side note: Something that I thought was interesting to think about was when I was at Lucasarts, my art director at the time said to me (when we were talking about a friend i knew who I was mentioning would be a good hire)...he said..."we'll is he into games animation and a gamer, or does he want to do acting and be in film?" Basically what he really was saying was...his job is to hire and fire and keep everyone inbetween happy. He probably doesn't want to hire someone who's not totally into games and is looking to get into film down the line because 'down the line' that person may actually GET a job in film, or at another games company thats offering him to act. Instead he wanted someone who would stick around for a while and be happy animating in that environment, thus making his job easier because he doens't have to turn around and look for another animator to hire in a few months or more....and like i've said before, lots of people are verrry happy in games. The world doesn't revolve around film, it just so happens that's where really high quality animation and story is these days (even though games is getting much better). It's two different kinds of feelings involved, games vs. film. Both have their perks.

(Insert paragraph so this looks like a smaller less rambled post.) Working in games, perhaps you'll get some good physical animation pieces done, but acting wise, most likely not. So right outta school you have quite a bit of both on your reel most likely...that's because that's what the schools are trying to teach you, the wide range of animation. So straight from school you'll probably (if you've been gearing your portfolio for film) have more of what Film companies are looking for on the reel. If not, you need to figure out what those companies are looking for and do tests on your own time geared for that company. So basically if your working in games and dreaming of film someday, you'll proly have to do acting tests on your own outside of work because the time you spend working, most likely isn't helping gear your reel for film(unless your working on cutscenes or something like that with some substance of course) - i'm talking mostly about when your doing cycles or action animations for games - obviously won't really help you too much in getting a job at a Film company. So basically it's on you from then on. You get what you put in I always say.

- Lastly, Drew sent me this question which i thought was funny -
"do you think it is possible to get a job at a high end studio like pixar right out of school if you're not cameron miyasaki?"

I responded. nope...only cameron is possible of these things. ;) kidding, you can totally get a job at any major studio right out of school. Experience helps a TON! but internships are out there and if your work is incredibly stellar i'm sure you'd have no problem finding work in a high end studio right out of school. I mean, other people have done it right? Majority of the time they want you to have some experience, but if your work stands out that much straight from school you could totally do it."

So yea, totally possible.

*kay done*
I hope some of that helps or makes some sense, it's a bit long winded for me to proof read right now.
.

New Cars Teaser Trailer

2005-11-28T09:32:00.000-08:00

Finally, a fully rendered Cars Teaser Trailer!! No more old footage in it. If you didn't happen to catch it this weekend you can check it out on apple's site. I'm stoked.

Cars Teaser Trailer

I swear I'll post something with substance soon.....*argh*
.

"Wax oooon, Wax offfffff" :(

2005-11-25T10:59:00.000-08:00

Actor Pat Morita Dies at 73

For those of you not familiar with Pat Morita, you may recall a small little asian man who was incredibly popular after his role in The Karate Kid as Mr. Miyagi. I know this isn't as interesting as I claimed I'd get something substancial up on my blog yesterday but I read this this morning and felt I should write up something small in honor of Mr. Miyagi.

Kinda intersting was a few weeks ago at work a few friends and i took our lunch hour and watched all 3 (we excluded 4 for obvious reasons) Karate Kids in honor of their brilliance. Little did we know this would happen. A darn shame if you ask me, was still pretty young. Regardless. May he rest in peace.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T10:10:00.000-08:00

I swear, I'll update cooler stuff soon (this holiday weekend I plan on going through all my Paris pics and I'll try and post a few up and talk a bit about my trip, and hopefully some animation stuff as well - lots to do these next 4 days). For now....Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Make sure you gain some weight during the holiday. It'd be a shame if you didn't. ;P

mmmm....Turkey.

.

Schweeeet Teaser Art!

2005-11-16T15:28:00.000-08:00

Came back to this in my e-mails. So Sick!

Bigger Version
HUGE version

I had a blast in Paris. I'm still recovering so I'll post up about that when i get some rest.
.

Riots here I come

2005-11-07T16:10:00.000-08:00

I'm heading over to Paris, France for a bit. Hopefully to avoid the riots, see interesting culture, and neat stuff like that. I'll be back in a week or so. Until then read everything you can for your animation addiction over at The Spline Doctors site.

ps. anyone seen Chicken Little? What'd you think?
.

Pranksters

2005-11-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

So as i mentioned in the previous post about the insane amount of product that went into that Sony commercial, we did something similar to a buddy at work this week. Carlos thought he was coming back from vacation to a quiet office and slow transition onto another project but no. As he opened his door he found $900 (which was raised in one afternoon) worth of packing peanuts in his office (filled almost to the top) and many video cameras witnessing this prank. DOH!

needless to say...that's a lot o' peanuts.
Carlos was owned! Much love.

.

Sony Commercial

2005-11-01T15:14:00.000-08:00

Sony was just in SF recently to shoot some videos for their new displays which resulted in them dropping a quarter MILLION super balls down a couple of big boy SF hills. The final commercial (mov) was just awesome, along with that someone in SF who lived on one of the streets took a home video (mpg) while it was happening. I didn't get to see it personally but it's pretty darn cool...

I wanna know where all these super balls are now...

At work today we did something similar to a friend and well known online pimp Carlos Baena. Stay tuned for that...
.

Treasures

2005-10-31T10:16:00.000-08:00

So as I was putting books away at my new place last night (after about 3 hours of setting up a darn bookshelf) I was kinda organizing books by literature, anim ref. art, etc. etc and I picked up my Calvin and Hobbes collection and paused........art? or anim. ref.? I realized only seconds after thinking about it that it's OBVIOUS! It's anim. ref. Bill Watterson has such amazing poses that it'd be too good to put in the art section. I'd have to go into my always expanding 'anim research section.' heheh...nerd. Anyways, just found these online...don't have much time to post up specific examples but i thought theses were pretty rad.

Man, I felt like i just found treasure at that moment. I'd forgotten how awesome they were. I"m looking forward to being all moved into my place and can sit on the couch and re-read all of my Calvin and Hobbes again.

It'd be awesome to see how well Bill Watterson would transition into animation, 2d hopefully! Kinda rambling but I'd like to see it. ;)

*EDIT - Holy Crap. Dr. Stephen G. just stole my post on Spline Doctors!! Dangit..AND he had his up earlier than me. *Curses!* oh well...just verify's what I was sayin. :P
.

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

2005-10-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Sox Win the world series!!! So awesome. I grew up loving the White Sox, even liked them when they sucked...which happened to be for the majority of my life thus far...hah, oh well. I don't really follow baseball too much, def. not one of those guys who likes to spit out numbers when talking about it to show off how much i know about my team or how well i know my baseball videogames stats, but i did play it all my life up until my later teens, then i found out about art and guess i got absorbed or something. Anyways, we're straying off topic...man that was the easiest world series evar!! Too bad my nerd brother likes the cubs...just goes to show you, big brothers are always right. (i kid).

I wish i could be in Chicago for the festivities. *Curses!*

Anywyas, Sick!
.

The Masters

2005-10-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

So some of my fellow, and VERY inspirational, co-workers/teachers/mentors and friends have started a blog. It's huge. Spline Doctors. For those of you in the know, in terms of the blog'n world, I'm sure you already know about this but if you not....then theses guys are awesome. Check out their blog for anim info. and a few giggles. These guys know their $hit! I kid you not.
.

All Apologies

2005-10-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I'm pretty swamped at the moment. You understand right?? :P Thanks.
.

Sergio Pablos Lecture

2005-10-13T10:58:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know who he is, he's a very talented animator who's been an animation supe for Tantor in Disney's Tarzan, and Dr. Delbert Doppler from Treasure Planet. I recently attended a lecture by him which was awesome and I'd completely recommend to anyone who has the chance to do so. He covered a lot of stuff regarding his thought process and workflow when animating. He not only reiterated the basics, he also got into details such as what we as animators should be looking for and thinking about when animating. While some of it was a fresh reminder (which we always need), other things were new and very interesting to think about, which I'll proly get to when I get all my notes together in an orderly fashion (its on the to do list for ALL of my animation notes - I'm just in the process of moving to a new apt. right now so everythings a mess) However one thing that's fresh in my head due to an incident today was 'business,' and what good business is vs. bad business, kinda like character traits as well in a way, and maybe where to pull these from. I'll try and keep this short and simple (which I'm sure I won't) because i could easily ramble on about it forever because theres a lot to cover, but what he does, and I do, and I'm sure a lot of you do, is, you notice things other people do in real life and or good movie actors and you store those things in your head to use at a later date for whatever reason, some things get used, some don't, doesn't matter, just store'm.

The reason I thought about this is, this morning i was in the bathroom washing my hands and I noticed the guy next to me washing his face, hands, etc. and when he was done he took the paper towel and cleaned up his area of spilled water very meticulously. It was something very interesting at the moment because it was pretty unique to see him doing this (at least I thought). Most people could care less about the little water spots or mess's they make, especially in the public bathroom no doubt, but this guy was very much into cleaning up his minute mess. Proly just a habit or something he developed over time which was unique to him, or a quirky little piece of business that was just 'him.' Who knows were it even came from, maybe his mother always made him clean up after himself...dunno...however....*click, stored as interesting business for a character trait someday maybe" Where I'd ever use that I don't know, a neat freak kinda guy, a person who worries about germs? who knows....but it was very interesting to say the least.

It's nicer to pull buisness like this from real life because more people can relate to it most of the time or have seen this from someone they know. People can relate. That was a big point of Sergio's, make the characters/their buisness relate. When thinking about acting choices for a scene it's better to pull from these kinda things rather than to think about how your favorite animator animated a scene, or chose to 'act' out the scene. An example he gave was a scene he did from T. Planet where D. Doppler is about to eat his food and he smells the food using his hand by waving the scent of food up to his nose. His wife does this kinda thing and he's always thought it was ridiculous or pompous in a way but he stored that bit of information in his head and used it on doppler because doppler was kinda pompous and proper and it just fit for the character in this particular scene so he used it. Very cool.

Sorry if this makes no sense, this is all off the top of my head and I don't know if I'm explaining it to well, need my notes. But i hope it kinda makes sense and I'm not stating the obvious here.

It's just little things in life I guess that can be sooooo interesting, buisness is good in a shot always, guess it's just a good reminder for us all to think about the "right" kind of buisness for the character and don't just add buisness for the sake of it. Think about the character and how it's relating to what they're doing, or who they are, what they're saying, feeling, etc. and make it 'relate.' THAT type of 'buisness' ...is golden.

Man I'm long winded today, sorry, I gotta work on this.
.

Trailers

2005-10-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

First my apologies for the run on sentences and long winded blog. I'll try and keep it shorter next time. ;P

So at lunch I was having this discussion with some fellow co-workers about movie trailers and how important they are to a film. Proly cuz we just saw a few things, a 'sneak peek' trailer from OUR film earlier that day and weren't too pleased with some of it - however it wasn't a theatrical release so whatever I guess. Then there is/was this film contest called "Trailer Park" where people have taken exisiting footage from any movie and re-edit it into a different and creative movie trailer than what was released. The main goal was to take the feeling of the movie and push it in a different direction than the original. Nothing about the footage or audio could be changed (minus the music track) Some examples are here and here. Brilliant stuff, just brilliant. It's amazing how much a movie can change just based off editing and music. Imagine seeing these trailers, then going to see the original film. *insert keeanu reeves voice* "Whoa."

I mean a movie trailer can literally make or break a film as well. Some trailers you see them and they are edited sooooo good you want to go see the movie right away. For example. The new Harry Potter trailer...now I'm not huge -arry pott'a fan, but sadly I must say when I went to see the Corpse Bride, this trailer came on and I was sooooo stoked after watching it that I actually preferred to see THAT right then and there over Corpse Bride (it pains me to even say that but it's true). It just goes to show you how a movie trailer is cut can be sooooo important. There's sooo much skill that goes into making a good trailer and I think most people overlook it and take it for granted?? I mean, a movie could be pretty awesome and have a shitty trailer, take Shaun of the Dead for example, great movie IMO. Not so hot trailer. I don't think many people went to see this movie because of the trailer. The trailer did nothing for anyone, therefor the movie didn't do so good. Then you take the new Star Wars trailers....awesome trailers. Bad movies. Now that's 'kinda' a bad example because people were gonna see Star Wars regardless of the trailers, but who knows. It's just the general idea. Make any sense? The trailer should get you excited to see the film, not wonder what the movies about after you see it. I mean theres times when you see a trailer (and i know this has happened to all of you) where you see the trailer and your like...uhh...so whats it about? DOH! Don't think I'm see'n that one. I mean sometimes a second trailer comes along and redeems the film, but still, you SHOULD be able to make just one trailer (therefor not giving the whole movie away by doing 8 trailers just to get people FINNNNNALLY excited to see the film) You should be able to just do it with one. (I do however realize that the more trailers they put out there the more buzz and constant reminder people have for it, but eh, I think if you saw just one awesome trailer for a movie that'd be enough. Ok, I'm ranting....ending it.

The other thing that bugs me about CG trailers vs. Live action trailers is that sometimes you can tell that the dialogue has been changed from what's in the original shot in CG trailers. They don't do this in live action trailers (at least I can't recall very many times where i've noticed it)...why do this in CG trailers. Is it because it's CG and they feel they can get away with it more easily. Uhh...no, not only is the lipsync usually waaaay off, but theres also this thing called, acting which probably doesn't match the dialogue!! BAH! OK, ranting again...k done.

So I dunno, maybe it's just me because I like editing and surround sound, I like being excited to see something, or a good trailer, or just plain good editing with killer sound as loud as it can go. *shrug* I get excited for those kinda things.

Phew, ok i'm almost outta breath. *sigh* Thanks for reading.
.

Horrible News for Aardman....

2005-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

Apparently a fire destroyed a huge wherehouse where a lot of the old wallace and gromit sets, stages and props were being housed. The sets from the shorts - "A Grand Day Out," "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" - props, sets, everything, etc, they think are all destroyed, along with those from "Chicken Run" -- their first full length feature. Sooooo sad. Luckily all the props, stages, etc for Curse of the Were-Rabbit (which I KNOW! all of you went and saw this weekend - cuz it's No. 1 at the box office here in the states and is awwwwwwwwwwesome) wasn't in that wherehouse that burned down. So thankfully 'something' is left. However, it's very sad news.

CNN Article
.

Me Cheeeeese Gromit!

2005-10-07T09:04:00.000-07:00

Wallace and Gromit - The curse of the were-rabbit comes out in theatres today. Make sure you go and see it!! That is all. :)
.

Top 25 Animated Movies of All Time?

2005-10-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

uhhh...dunno who makes the final decides on these things but here's the list.

Top 25 Animated Movies of All Time

It's the 'of ALL TIME' thing that gets me. I guess it doesn't mean top 25 GOOD animated movies of all time. *shrug*

whadda ya think? I mean it is IGN, and they are a videogame site so maybe we should cut them some slack???

PS. I like IGN a lot, not bashing them in any way, well...not really. :)
.

Flavored Toothpaste Anyone?

2005-09-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

So my officemate and I are talking this morning about toothpaste...mainly cuz i didn't brush my teeth this morning (however I do have a supply of toothpaste and a toothbrush here at work for those overnighters or in cases like this where i just woke up and didn't brush'm) So I went to get a coffee with toothpaste and brush in pocket, forgot to brush my teeth AGAIN because I was engaged in a conversation while waiting for my coffee to be prepared. (I got a mocha and I can't make those myself) So when I got back I was like "curses!! I forgot to brush me teeth again" Then realized it's proly better to brush'm after my coffee anyways. Then my officemate says...."we'll I dunno what kinda toothpaste you got buttttttttt..." and I was like...*ding* oh yea, that usually tastes pretty nasty, fresh teeth combined with coffee *ack* it's almost as bad as fresh teeth and OJ. So then I say jokingly, "now if I had coffee flavored toothpaste....*eyebrows up*.....that'd be a different story." My officemate then goes..."speaking of flavored toothpaste...I was at the pet store the other day (he just got a new puppy!! that jerk! I so jealous)...and he and his wife were in the hygiene section and they noticed THEY DID have flavored toothpaste (for the dogs of course). For example, chicken or liver flavored. Which then got me thinking of all sorts of flavors WE could have. Like pizza or burrito flavor for example...do you think you'd brush your teeth loooonger or more often if your toothpaste tasted like a food you loved? It'd proly be a bit weird but I wonders........anyways, just a random stupid thought.

*ps. we also thought this was a great idea for a prank - unless of course the doggie toothpaste looked like grout or something other than what our toothpaste looks like.* - might be funny.

*pss. if anyone reads this blog and I find out you've made billions off this food flavored toothepaste idea...my officemate and I want a cut - i mean think about all the different flavors you could have, and from a marketing standpoint it'd be great. People would probably buy multiple flavors because who'd want to brush their teeth with broccoli everday, they'd need variety. Or maybe that's why they don't make it, people may riot because they have to spend so much money on toothpaste...thus leading us back to our current state...1-3 flavors of toothpaste. DANGIT! hehehe*

.

How awesome is this game!!

2005-09-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

Honestly, World of Warcraft is such an amazing game. I'm totally admiting how nerd I am here, but the game is crazy. Not only does it encourage you to work together with friends or even other people around the world to complete quests (and not to mention how elaborate and challenging single player is), but apparently it's coded so well/crazy that it almost has a mind of it's own. Just recently a mysterious plague showed up within the vitual world of warcraft which the programmers didn't intend to have happen. To me that's just so cool and amazing. It's like the virtual world was programmed so well that it kinda just evolved on it's own or something. Like the matrix or something. Here's the original article.

Regardless of how many hours of my life I'm wasting playing this game, i'm glad i picked it up. Even though it IS addicting as hell and can make you realllllly sleepy in dailies because you've been up playing it into the wee hours of the night trying to do....just....one......more.....quest......before..........bed! It's still amazing.

...and we joke about how nerd we are at work for geek'n out about this game but truth be told, it's just an amazing online game.

OH, and I almost forgot. You KNOW it's a cool game when Dave Chappelle even loves it. Here's the proof!
.

Double Feature Night

2005-09-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago some friends from work and I went to see some Spy double features at the Castro Theatre in SF just for shitz and giggles (and it's a tax write off and it's just plain fun to see old movies on the big screen with friends...oh AND it's kinda like research er something, heh). So yea, last night we went again to see another double feature at the Castro Theatre. For anyone who lives in the bay area and hasn't seen a movie there I highly recommend it. The Theatre is incredible. Not only is the inside beautiful, in between movies a guy comes up outta the stage and plays the Organ on double feature nights. It's fun, they even have 'chilled' junior mints!! Chilled I say!! Back to the movies I saw though. It was a Warren Beatty double feature night.

YOu know when your going to see two Warren Beatty movies made in the 60-70's your get'n Beatty AND his hair in their prime. Good stuff I tell ya. I'd never seen either movies nor had I seen a trailer so my views were completely untainted. The Parallax View was just great as far as movies go. It was a conspiracy movie with some great shots, acting etc. See it if you haven't!

Mickey One (not on DVD!!) was a tooooooootal surprise. I was a little tired after the first movie, but some candy helped keep me awake. I was thinking, eh, maybe i'll go home early and ditch this second movie and get some stuff done, but I'm soooo glad I didn't. I was laughing my ass off because the acting was funny, sometimes the movie would take spins in directions I had no idea where they were going but then somehow would come back full circle. Little kwirky things would happen here and there that were just awesome. I dont' know how else to describe it in words...i gotta act it out or something to do it any justice. Beatty is a comedian who's in a jam. His lifes been threatened and he's scared of everything, especially since he's becoming more popular in the buisness as the movies progresses. I read somewhere on a site that with a Stan Getz score improvising throughout, this looked and sounded like no other American film of its time, and I couldn't agree more. I highly recommend seeing Mickey One if you ever get the chance. Better yet, go see a movie at the Castro Theatre. It's fun!
.
ps. sorry for the horrible english/grammar/etc.. I don't have time to proof read right now. ;)
.

Stop Motion Fun for Everyone

2005-09-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just got my tickets for Corpse Bride. I can't wait!! I just hope the story is good. The Character designs look amazing.

Then pretty soon after the Curse of the Were-Rabbit comes out!!!

Ohhhh sweet stop motion goodness everywhere. I'm looking forward to it.
.

Mad*L Toys!

2005-09-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

So I'm in love with these cool vinyl toys this designer named Jeremy Mad*L has been making.

I got one as a gift a little while ago (and then another as a gift a few weeks later) and now I just want more and more of them. They are simple yet awesome! Here's a link to some of them. MAD*L Figures.

I'm trying to contain myself from buying so many of them but it's pretty damn near impossible. I went to Kid Robot today and bought "El Luche" because he was the only one there I didn't have. Then I bought some Tower Records Limited Edition one off the web, and there are some that are limited editions only sold in Europe which I'm pretty jealous about because those will be hard to find. PLUS he has a lot of shows and sells custom ones which are just plain sick. Anyways, i'm just obsessed with these guys right now for some reason. I should really spend my money on something else. Darn Toys!!
.

Being a parent in Animation

2005-09-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

I was watching Frank and Ollie the other day and heard something Frank said that made me perk up. To paraphrase it he said, "once you see the film of your drawings your hooked on animation and nothing else can give you the same feeling, nothing can give you that feeling of life. you feel like a parent who's just sent their kid to school, you don't own this guy up on the screen anymore, you did for a while, and you were very close for a while, but now there he is, making it on his own, making decisions on their own and making it by themselves."

I've always thought about why it's so hard to let go of an animation. I thought it was because maybe I/we are perfectionists, and I'm sure some of it has to do with that, but after hearing that it dawned on me that when animating, your investing a lot of heart and time in it and to then just say..."ok i'm done with you now" isn't an easy thing to do. I don't know about you guys but I tend to never really feel completely satisfied with my work, or that it's 'done.' Maybe that's a good thing, maybe not? ...but it does pretty much suck sometimes when you have to let somethings go into production...you look at it later after learning new things or just let your eyes become 'fresh' again and think...dangit. I should'a done this...tweaked that, could'a made this better...oh oh, can i have it back so i can tweak this. yada yada yada. It's scary yet thrilling all at the same time. Never really thought about it this way but I guess that's why parents tend to get emotional when their kids go off to college. heh. Anyways, just a random thought I had today.
.

. New Slang .

2005-09-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

So yea, this is it. Simple, done, easy. Not sure what I'm even gonna post up here, animation junk/tips/info/notes? eh, maybe. Guess then I'd have to put up one of those quirky disclaimers or something for my employers sake, and for the sake of my job I may stray from some of those things, however tips and tricks are fair game I'd think. Hmm, what else? Rants and raves about my day, life, friends, products, etc. Yea, that sounds good. May get boring since I tend to write run on sentences and or go off on strange tangents when I talk, so I don't blame ya if you bail on the site. ;) If you don't though...cool!!

If your wondering where my old site (OG site) went it's over there to your right under the 'Me' section. Dunno why'd you'd even wanna go there but who knows...

Anyways...

2005-09-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

yep, jumped on the blog bandwagon. at least it's easier to update. hold tight while i figure out how to make this page more appealing to look at, even though i think there's a lot of embedded info in these blogger templates.

i figured i wasn't really into updating my portfolio site that much so I think this will make things easier. I'll proly do some overhauling on that site as well as I really don't like some of the work on there, for now this is pretty easy to update.