Here is another impressive, little short from Bird Box Studios. The timing, as in their Ice Creams, is impeccable. Besides the short’s simplicity and elegant style, the thing that strikes me most is the attitude of each dueler shown simply by line. The proud character is all straight lines and nice ‘C’ curves, while the other is all ‘S’ curves. The character is further amplified by the animation.

Very nice indeed…

Check out this great little short by Birdbox Studios for BBC.  Whether you have kids or not, this clip has great comedic timing and is very funny.

Enjoy!

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.

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.

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!

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:

Due to demand (OK, a couple of people have asked), I have posted my demo on YouTube. Nothing major, and maybe several years behind the rest of the world, but what the heck?

Here’s the Link:

YouTube Reel
And the YouTube video:

• QuickTime

World of Coke opened in Atlanta at the end of May. One of the features is a 5 minute short film containing interviews with all the odd little creatures that work inside a Coke machine. The film was produced by Psyop, who did the original commercial – also featured as part of the short.

The characters are wonderfully designed and were fun to work with. Most of the dialog came from actual interviews with Coke employees, so it was a blast taking that and applying it to the characters. The final look that Psyop created is breathtaking.

(I am only responsible for the animation in the above clips, with the exception of the first clip. For that, I also added rough textures and lighting for my own purposes.)

So, I’ve been home for about a month since spending 10 weeks in New York City and working at Psyop. All I can say is that it was nothing short of amazing!  Psyop produces some of the best commercials out there, and it was an honor to work for them.  I animated about 30 seconds of character animation for a project for Coke. Look for a “Show Reel” in a few weeks…

Psyop assembled a super team of incredibly talented, smart, funny people, and it was a pleasure to be part of such a fantastic group. A huge thanks goes to Nick for the opportunity and to the rest of the animators for their awesome support and guidance. I learned SOO much and had a great time doing it.

Thanks!!

Here’s another AnimationMentor assignment. This one is from Class 4 – Advanced Acting Techniques. I owe a great deal of THANKS to Victor Navone (Pixar), my mentor for Class 4. Not only did he push me extremely far on this shot, but he also was the inspiration to keep working on it. I had decided to do a dramatic piece and selected this dialog from “Gladiator”. After blocking it out, I started getting cold feet, thinking a serious, dramatic piece wouldn’t look good on a reel. I thought I should switch to something funnier. I voiced my concerns to Victor, and he responded by saying I should definitely continue. He said dramatic shots are pretty rare on reels, and that this could help me stand out a little from the rest. So, I continued, and after an ENORMOUS amount of guidance from Victor and insightful feedback from classmates, I ended up with a shot I’m pretty happy with.

The end result is more or less what I started with, after weeding out other ideas. I felt he should display explosive movements to show his anger and frustration. In contrast, although she was frightened by him, she needed to stay calm and in control so she could push her agenda. I think the middle shot conveys this well. (I’m happiest with the middle shot, by the way)

Victor’s direction pushed the performance tremendously, giving me a solid foundation. Because of that, polishing this was great fun for me – for the first time, as its usually a struggle. Victor, of course, had ample polishing notes, too. Such as: Moving the hands/fingers while still clenching the bars, keeping them alive; the use of eye darts to keep the intensity up without a lot of movement; Using his shoulders (“like a drill sargeant”) to add force to his words in the final shot; Adding the spit in his final outburst.

Overall, I really enjoyed working on this shot. Thanks to Victor, I learned a HUGE amount in the process.