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.

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.

Niquitin Mini's TV Spot

I didn't think this was online anywhere but I stumbled across it today. I worked on this ad about two years ago at The Orphanage. It was part of a series of spots directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack fame. It was a fun style to work in and definitely cool to be working with/for an animation icon like Genndy.


Niquitin Minis Advert

Back to Tippett's

If this were an actual blog it would be a pretty terrible one. Why do I even have this?

Well since I do I might as well say hey, I'm back at Tippett Studio for a stint. Working once again with some unbelievably talented folks. I'll leave you with a sketch of the Godfather himself, Mr. Phil Tippett drawn by my current Animation Supervisor. Click the pic to see more animators' doodles of the big guy on his facebook page.

UPDATE: Just launched today - Phil's YouTube channel! Lot's of great interviews, behind-the-scenes "making of" clips, and animation tests!

Sims 3: Late Night Trailer

I may or may not have been spending my summer working on this EP...

A Taste of My 2009: Cats & Dogs 2 Trailer

So what have I been up to most of the year? Here's your first glimpse at the long-awaited sequel to the spell-binding 2001 blockbuster everyone remembers so fondly - CATS & DOGS.

UPDATE!

About a year ago I was working on a series of anti-smoking PSAs for the state of Arizona. I rolled onto another production before they were completed, but I was kind of excited to see the final product go live. After the spots were delivered, I remember hearing that the client had a change of heart and decided to hold off on airing them. I was hoping to at least find them online, but I couldn't find them and figured they may never see the light of day.

This past weekend I caught up with an old college buddy and he mentioned having seen the PSAs online and liking them. He'd found them on the blog of the guy who directed the ads. It turns out Arizona finally decided to air the ads and released them online as well. Below is the one I was most involved with. It's the most subtle of the three, but I enjoyed reading in the comments that it also seems to be the most relatable to smokers.

(Watch it in HD by clicking the video twice then clicking "HD" in the Youtube player)

Check out the director's blog to see the other ads.
 

End of an Age... an Orphan-Age

Most of you following the industry will have heard by now - last Friday The Orphanage closed it's doors and a lot of wonderful, talented people suddenly had to say goodbye and scramble to find the next big thing. You can read the more or less official announcement on Stu's blog. I'm happy, grateful, and proud to have been an Orphan and to have worked with such amazing folks.

Lisa Simpson once asked her father if he realized that the Chinese word for "crisis" is the same as "opportunity." Wise Homer replied, "Yes... Crisi-tunity!" I hope this crisis quickly becomes opportunity for all the Orphans and I'm excited to see where everyone goes next.

As for me... well that's a story for another post.

The Pilz

Well I don't know what to say about this short except that I pretty much animated the whole thing (except for the last couple of shots) and I only had two weeks to do it. Not sure if any of it should go on my reel since I wouldn't consider it finished or polished animation, but there are a couple moments I'm happy with. It was fun and a good exercise in scheduling and time-budgeting. Obviously the amount of expression achievable in these characters was limited, but if I had it to do over I would definitely try to push everything a lot farther. (Also I wish I could have done the sound mixing.) Supposedly the client may want a sequel, so maybe I'll get another shot at the Pilz family.

There is a larger version available on the client's site, but it has big obtrusive subtitles just in case you miss any of the medical technobabble.

Happy Halloween!

Today I dressed up as my hero - Danny, better known as the Tourette's Guy.


I promised to post more stuff I've been working on so in the spirit of Halloween I thought it'd be appropriate to show a little work I did for Cobra Creative's new site. In fact I think they launched the site just today. I animated the menu side pieces on the Works and Studio pages of the site (skull, shield, tentacles, all the little bits). This job popped up just as I was in the middle of a crunch week on another project. There were a couple days I was already working overtime and then I'd have to put nearly a full day's work into this after hours. I don't think I'll ever do that again if I can avoid it. Still, it was a fun little side project and it's neat to see it go live.

Well my Disney Afternoon toon poll ended today, looks like DuckTales came out on top. For me it was between that and TailSpin... to this day those themes will get stuck in my head.

Right now at work I'm on a big push to finish some massive feature vfx work. Supposedly I'll finish this coming week and start on another TV spot that should be really fun. Check back in a couple months and I'll probably have more to say/show about it. In the mean time, there's still one or two more recent pieces I'll be putting up soon. Mmmm... Reese's pieces.

Balloons

Wow, it's been 2 months since I've written anything here. The O has kept me pretty busy, which I'm especially thankful for considering these uncertain times we're living in. But if you've been watching TV at all recently you may have caught one announcement that offers a pin-prick of light through the dark days ahead. Disney has decided that next year you can go to any of their big theme parks free on your birthday. And what better way to illustrate this landmark of self-celebration than...


Lots... and lots... of balloons. That needed to be animated. And so that's what we did. If you don't watch TV (like me) or you haven't seen these spots yet, you can watch the premiere 60-second version here on Disney's site for the campaign or a higher-quality version here via the Orphanage's commercial portfolio. It's also all over YouTube - here's one with the alternate ending I worked on.

These images are some of the shots I worked on. I'll try to post more work I've done recently again soon.

O-dee-doh

I'm happy to say I'm back at the Orphanage for a few weeks. They even saved my old spot for me. I'll be working on some commercial spots. I just finished a fun stint at my (P)alma mater from last summer - Palma VFX. Actually I'm still finishing up a few things... it was a beast of a project, but really fun stuff. Always enjoy going back there. Was up until 5:30am trying to finish up and consequently got 2 hours of sleep before starting at the O this morning. Supposed to see Dark Knight in IMAX tonight... my exhausted mind and body aren't going to be happy about that.