Bad Blogger, Well Time Flies!

The simple fact that 2011 is nearing an end absolutely blows my mind!! It's been a while since posting here. I've been taking a bit of a sabbatical from animation since finishing my Short Film and new Demo Reel.  I've been spending more time with my boys and family which is awesome, taking a break is nice.  Recharging the batteries is a good thing as we all learned in Cars!  Speaking of Cars, I watched Cars 2 a bunch with Maddon last weekend and I liked a lot better the more I saw it (I didn't like it at all after seeing it in the theaters).  I still feel it's Pixar's weakest film yet, it lacked the story and appeal their other movies have done so well.  I'm curious to see what Brave does and am getting excited for it's release!  With that said, here's the Brave trailer if you haven't seen it yet.... See you all in 2012!  Till then, it's animated movies and books!   Ciao!

Short Film Complete (in robot voice)

It is done.... so it's been 2 years since graduating Animation Mentor.  The old curriculum was such, class five was Short Film: Pre-Production and six was  Short Film: Production.  The trickiest part of coming up with an idea was the time restriction, keeping it under or right around 30 seconds.  Otherwise there was no way you'd finish a short film in six months.  Not sure the actual percentages but very few went on to finish their films, myself included.  As my second anniversary was approaching, getting it rendered off and putting some final touches was looming over me... I felt compelled to complete it, I had to.  I was really tempted to go through and do one or two more polish passes on the animation.  If you're in Animator you know you could literally spend the next two years doing that... Another major factor causing a delay/procrastination was my Maya knowledge (or the lack there of), having just learned Mental Ray for 3DS Max over this past year I had a bit more confidence then before.  I was finishing up the latest version of my demo reel (see below) when me and my buddy got to talking about  the final touches and what more my reel needed.  He suggested that I render all the shots to give it that finished, professional touch.  The two shots that weren't rendered, I had previously tried to render them and had no such luck.  I spent the good part of a weekend up very late and early in the morning learning tutorials and getting my hands dirty in my Maya files trying to figure it out.  Granted there is so much to learn (just like anything when dealing with 3D Animation) but I finally felt confident enough to go back and revisit and finally finish my short film.  You can CLICK HERE  to visit my Short Film Blog and see the animation pipeline from pitching the story to my Mentor to layout through animation.  It was a great project and I learned a lot from it.  Part of me was sad when they got rid of those classes, but I understand why they did..

TRT: 01:57:00

Modeling/Texturing: 3DS Max and Photoshop
Animation/Rendering: Maya (Mental Ray)
Post Production: Sony Vegas
Bishop rig provided by Animation Mentor
A special thanks to the entire staff and student body at Animation Mentor.

My 2012 Character Reel...

After a long weekend of tutorials, trial and error, countless espressos and perserverance I finally feel comfortable rendering Mental Ray out of Maya.... Also, after almost a year a half of completing the animation on my short film I am finally rendering all 17 shots out.  Look for it later this week.  I was going to add a couple more shots and polish some more animation, but at some point you have close the book on the project and move on to the next... I'm already looking forward to my next animation.

Responsible for all animation.

Bishop Rigs: provided by Animation Mentor
Car Rigs: provided by Sparkplug Entertainment, Cars Life 2
Music: Beck - Timebomb

Totally AwesomE3!!

I've been watching the new game trailers making their debut at E3 this year. My jaw is on the floor.... man! Some amazing new games coming out and a lot of sequels! The amount of action and the cinematography has blown me away. Here are a few of the trailers I thought look totally wicked-awesome. I've definitely been playing more video games... but still really wish I had more time and money to start 'gaming out' and getting my nerd on! These are totally inspiring to say the least!!

I love love love the style of this game and of course the animation rocks! It's the new Sly Cooper.


IMHO better than all three prequels... check out the new Star Wars: Old Republic game... wow!


Some reason I kept thinking back to Leo trying to escape the Titanic... the new Uncharted 3 looks like a nonstop action packed adrenaline rush.

The new Insomniac franchise Overstrike...

He's back baby!!

Okay, so now that I'm only working 56 hours a week I actually have some free time and am back on the video game wagon once again!! I forgot how much fun it is. Lately I've been playing Donkey Kong Country Returns for the Wii. Probably one of the hardest games I've ever played. It's all based on timing and Kong's movements aren't exactly easy to get precise actions, it makes the game somewhat frustrating and annoying, but mostly difficult. I beat Epic Mickey and am enjoying having a Wii. I think the game I'm going to get next is the original Ratchet and Clank for the PS2 and if I like it, go through the whole series.. They look like fun games and I hear they're awesome!

Okay, so I know this isn't a video game blog I was just excited about having the spare time to be playing video games once again!! I'm making great progress on my shot and have been getting a lot of great feedback from my peers. Still looking for a full time animation job all over and am anxious to get my new demo reel up... Hopefully it will generate some buzz. I'm going to attempt to enter the 11 Second Club next month and start working on the next piece. Also we're planning on listing our house on the market in June and have a lot of work ahead of us getting it ready to sell. We're currently remodeling our kitchen and it's coming along. It looks like we're going to be staying in CO for a while unless an Animation Job out of state pops up... otherwise, I'll be looking for contract positions.... Stay tuned, till next time.

Cars 2, Electric Bugaloo.... We can't wait.

So, you may or may not know Cars 2 is coming out this June. I'm getting really excited and the one major I love that Pixar does to get you so excited for the movie without ever spoiling the plot or showing all of the funny parts in the movie is all their promotional content that circulates the web. I showed the official trailer to my 2 year old (he's a HUGE Cars' fan already) and now he asks to see it every time I'm on the computer. I don't think he understands that it won't be out till June, but I can tell he's just as excited as I am to see it! You know we'll be there opening day. I've been seeing a lot of new characters going around the "interwebs" and think they have tons of appeal. I'll post some below for you enjoyment.

I finished up my first official animation job back in February and it has given me a lot more free time to spend with my awesome family and friends, time to work on my demo reel and I've been playing more video games in the past few months then I have in years!! I was able to get through about 9 shots for the movie and am excited to see them rendered and in the movie. I'm only working 2 jobs now (56 hours a week) and it feels like nothing. I've been making good headway on my monologue Rounders' shot I'm working on for my demo reel and have been getting excellent feedback, it's amazing how much it's helped the shot progress to get it where it's at now! I've said it before and I'll say it again... The AM community completely rocks!! So supportive, helpful and encouraging. I've got another acting shot I want to do, as well as a pantomime shot I'm going to start planning... so hopefully I'll have 3 new shots to go on my demo reel by July.

In other news; we've official outgrown our home and are trying to get our house on the market by June... so my demo reel might not be ready till the fall. We'll see how my time management goes. And hopefully our new home will have an office for me.... that would rock!!

Check out this appeal!! (and awesome animation)

2011. Could this be the year?

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to finally see Tangled. I took my 2 year old and not knowing what to expect (as far as violence and story for a toddler) we went anyways. The movie was absolutely awesome. It was a great story and it totally reminded my of old school Disney. Lots of action, song and dances, silly thugs an evil Mother and the animation. I noticed that they're really pushing 3D to the limits of what is accomplished with 2D. The crazy poses, lots of squash and stretch and the real essence of 2D animation. Since John Lasseter took over the Disney story department they've made some amazing movies! Bolt, Princess and the Frog, Enchanted and now Tangled. I was surprised (and happy) they decided to do Princess and the Frog in 2D (obviously there were 3D elements throughout the movie) but none-the-less an awesome movie. If you haven't seen Tangled yet, go! It was a great movie and I can't wait for the DVD to come out with all the special features.

2011 there are a ridiculous amount of animated movies coming out this year. Rio, Rango, Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Gnomeo and Juliet. I'm planning on seeing all of them! In other news, I'm still looking for an Animation Job and began working on new shots for my reel. It's just hard to find extra time.... my goal is to have something done by July so stay tuned. Till next time...