A Fool and his Munny

This is my first munny. We had a contest at our studio holiday party. I went with Doc Ock mainly so I could do the robotic tentacles.

Brisk, That Is

Want to congratulate Modi, Chris, and the team at Aatma Studio for completing this awesome Brisk spot that will be popping up soon in theaters everywhere. Modi gave me my first break in this business and he's a great guy to work for. I reluctantly had to turn down the opportunity to work on this spot and boy do I wish I could have been a part of it. The animation is fantastic and they did a great job emulating the stop-motion look and feel of the Brisk campaign.

Animating Animals Master Class

Tippett Studio Animation Supervisor William Groebe gives an hour-long talk and demo about what goes into animating believable animal characters in a live-action feature. Will is a fantastic creature and character animator and has been my anim supe at Tippett on Cats & Dogs 2, The Smurfs, and Mirror Mirror. He's also created lectures for Animation Mentor's Animals & Creatures Master Class.

Reel Feedback

My Norwegian buddy Hans had a great idea. Set up a system where job-seeking animators can get direct feedback on their reels from the industry pros who judge reel submissions all the time. If you've ever submitted your reel to a studio and just didn't hear back, you always wonder what they thought of it, what they were saying about it when they watched it, and what kept you from getting that interview. Hans' brainchild Reel Feedback pulls back the curtain and lets you know where your reel stands and how to make it stronger.

In December the RF crew held their first major event - an evening of free pizza, beer, and critiques for everyone who showed up.  Over a hundred people came with reels in hand and everyone left with solid feedback.  Check out this video for an idea of how the night went down.



There will be more events coming up so be sure to connect with Reel Feedback on Facebook to stay in the loop.

Happy New Year!

 What better way to start the new year than with Calvin and Hobbes!  My gift to you is a collection of Calvin's New Years ponderings...

Breaking Dawn Wolf Animation Featurette

Here's a cool video clip of our Visual Effects Supervisor and Lead Animator explaining a bit about how we approached animating the wolves in Breaking Dawn Pt 1.

Winning! Congrats, Tun

I was just scanning down my sidebar of blogs and noticed a post about last month's 11 Second Club winner on Spungella. I clicked out of curiosity and was met with an unmistakably familiar name. Veerapatra Jinanavin. I never called him that though, always knew him as Tun. One of my best buds from the Academy and one of the hardest working people I've ever met. Years ago Tun tipped me off about a freelance gig that turned into my first animation job. Before that he gave me some much-needed help on my grad school thesis short film. I got to work with him professionally for about 2 days before he bowed out to take a summer internship at Pixar.

Anyway, I'm indebted to the man and I'm proud to congratulate him for winning the February competition. And I have to smile at his continuing habit of using "familiar-looking" characters. If you ever get to work with him, ask him about his love of Wendy's.

Check out his winning entry!

Me and Tun 6 years ago. Wait, 6 YEARS?!? Geez.

Grickle

Hello. Happy 2011.

I love Graham Annable's shorts. I subscribed to his youtube channel years ago. If you haven't seen any of his work you should check it out. His films are perfect examples of visual storytelling that is simple yet clear and entertaining. Watch them and marvel at his use of pacing and creating atmosphere. And the occasional skull-headed fellow.

Here is one of my favorites.

Poll: Best Animated Films of the Decade

I took a look at this list and couldn't believe all these films came out just in the last 10 years. I suddenly feel a lot older. And I haven't seen the bulk of these movies. Many I intentionally skipped, but now I have a bucket list of animation features I really should watch (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Secret of Kells, Persepolis, The Illusionist, Triplettes of Bellville, and Bill Plympton's features Hair High and Idiots & Angels). It's embarrassing to admit I haven't seen some of those. Almost as embarrassing as some of the ones I did see. Some more than once. Usually due to circumstances beyond my control.

So follow the link and pick your top 15 before December 27.

Twi-ing too hard?

I can't sleep so I thought I'd share an observation I made earlier today at Best Buy.

If you buy the Twilight: Eclipse DVD/Blu-ray as the 2-disc Special Edition, the actors on the cover gaze back at you at eye-level.


But if you decide to save a few bucks and go for just the single-disc edition, the actors look down at you in scornful disapproval.