This is a few weeks late, but Turbine has released a digital expansion to Lord of the Rings Online.  This expansion takes you through Mirkwood to gates of Dol Guldur.  What I’ve seen of it is beautiful.  Turbine places high value on the art that goes into the game, and it shows throughout.

I got to work on a few different characters for the game, including the fellbeast above.  In addition to several fellbeast attacks (a couple of which appear at the end of this video), I also got to do a 10 second entrance animation for the creature.  All in all, it was very challenging, and a lot of fun.

First Monticello with South Pavilion	Tearing down the first Monticello
Construction of Monticello's Dome	Side view of second Monticello

While I’ve been settling into my new gig animating at Turbine – and loving it – the people at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation have been preparing to open the new visitor’s center at Monticello.  Part of the center has been open since November, and on April 15, they open the rest of it.  I’ve only seen plans and pictures, but it looks pretty amazing.  We hope to visit again soon to check it out.

I put together two of the pieces, under the direction of aMPU and am pretty proud to have seen them mentioned in today’s Boston Globe article.

“An Essay in Architecture” is an epic piece of 5 minutes of animation, interspersed with Jefferson drawings and drawings of French architecture.  It demonstrates how Jefferson planned Monticello I, and built most of it before moving to Paris as ambassador.  Upon returning, he had all new plans, tore down a large part of what he built and constructed what is there today.

The stills above are featured on the Monticello website.  Clicking on each will bring up a higher-resolution version of each.

The other piece, “A Passion for Ordered Knowledge”, humorously portrays Jefferson’s obsessive need to count and measure EVERYTHING.  See below for a clip.

Fun stuff.

The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has posted a clip that I worked on.  The clip is from a video that will display in one of the new galleries opening at the Monticello Visitor’s Center in April.  It is one of five pieces that will play in sequence, when started by a visitor.  (Here’s the clip on Monticello’s site)

My responsibilities on this project were to take these great collages provided to me, apply them to models in Maya and animate them.  The animation is pretty simple and straightforward, but was a lot of fun.

When the Visitor’s Center opens, I’ll post a few more clips of this and the other “epic” piece I worked on.

If you haven’t played LOTRO, yet, now’s your chance!  A free 10-day trial is now available for The Lord of the Rings Online – Mines of Moria.  It’s a blast to play, and looks incredible.  Critics and players have been raving about the Mines of Moria expansion where you get to explore the entire underground Dwarf city of Moria.

Try it!

Top Ten

First of all…  Happy New Year!!  We celebrated very quietly during a snow storm, then went to a crazy-busy New York City for a fun weekend full of sight-seeing and LOTS of walking.  Fun stuff.

My girlfriend, Jacquie, put this list of Top 10 Ways You Know You Live With an Animator together.  It’s very funny, very true and very sweet.

She’s been a huge inspiration for me, and the number one reason why I’ve pursued a career in animation.  (Well, right behind how much I love it!).  Her support in so many ways has meant so much to me, I don’t think I could have gone that far without it.

Thank you, Jacquie!!

Jenny Lerew posted this clip on her blog.  It’s an animation by R.O. Blechman done for CBS back in 1966.  I really like simple stories with nice messages and this one stands out.

What made it memorable for me was showing it to my 11 year old daughter – a big animal activist – and watching the emotions wash across her face.  At first, there was surprise – “why is my Dad making me watch something as ancient and ‘crude’ as this?”.  Then laughter and happiness when she succumbed to the birds’ charm.  This quickly changed to contempt as the man walks in with a saw and the birds stop singing.  Finally, there was the “Awwww” moment.

All from a simple, short, sweet line-drawn animation.

Awww…

I realize this is, like, sooo late, but what the hell…

I only just recently purchased Kung Fu Panda on DVD and have watched it twice.  You know?  I really, really like it!  Several friends have been telling me how good it is and that I have to see it, but I missed it in theaters and then kinda dragged my feet on it.  I was worried about the big letdown.

It has a decent story, some heart, loveable characters, fantastic animation and is extraordinarily beautiful to watch.  What it lacks, thankfully, is fart jokes!  A long-time pet peeve of mine and almost staple humor for Dreamworks.  Sure, there are butt jokes, but those only emphasize the fact that Po is so out of shape (something I totally relate to).

Oh, and the slow-mo/bullet time shots are wicked cool!

So, if you haven’t seen it yet – don’t delay any further!  There’s no charge for awesome!

Check out the photography of Chris Jordan.  Although sad and somewhat disturbing, the images themselves are beautiful.  You always hear about the amount we consume in this country, but to see it in an image is simply stunning.  The images of Katrina’s aftermath are breathtaking.

Having just completed a huge animation for a visitor’s center at a national landmark, I am done taking on any new 3D generalist projects.  It’s been great fun and I have learned so much, but its time to really focus on character animation.

In the works are a couple of new shots, one with dialog, one without, as well as collaborating on writing a short animated film.

The first time I saw Presto, I was blown away by the brilliant timing and animation.  At the very end, however, the magician hit a pose and I thought..”hmmm… I’ve seen that pose before!”  I ran home and dug up the 1984 Oscar-winning short, Charade.  There it was!  Okay, maybe not the exact, same pose, but pretty darn close.

Now, I am in no way insinuating that Pixar stole the pose.  Absolutely not.  However, they do throw little nods to other things in their work, and I wonder if this is another one.  (Presto is actually one giant nod to the Warner Bros. classic shorts)

If anybody has the “inside scoop” please leave a comment to enlighten us all.  In the meantime, enjoy  Charade: