Tim Sormin: Anim-o-holic

Where've I Been & What's New?

2011-10-31T14:34:00.000-04:00

So I disappear from the blog for over a year and then just start posting again with no explanation? How dare I?

To be fair I actually started blogging again last year, but I've been doing it over at KennyRoy.com because, well, people actually read that blog. So general animation stuff goes there, and things that relate to me, but are also probably somewhat animation related will go here - but probably not as often as at the other site so go subscribe to that blog for more regular doses of animation goodness.

There's a lot of stuff I've wanted to post, but now it's sort of old news, so here's one giant brain dump about everything that's new in my life since I posted my 2010 demo reel last June:

New Computer

So, after my last computer went down in a blaze of glory while I was in the middle of crafting my 2010 demo reel, I finally got to upgrade. This was my first time building a machine completely from scratch.

I was pretty relieved when it worked on the first try.

Old Country

I had so much fun working at Airtight and I'm going to miss some really great friends. Redmond is a great city too. There's all kinds of stuff to do outdoors and a culture that really embraces both my wife's "crunchy granola" tendencies and my tech/nerd tendencies. However, my wife and I decided it was time to return home to Ontario to be close to family. So we loaded up the car for the cross-country drive from Washington, up to British Columbia, and across Canada to Ontario. Olive didn't have much room, but she was a trooper.

It was a bit scary to quit a perfectly good job without having a new one lined up first, especially these days, but we'd be back with family while I looked for work so we knew we'd be okay. After a few days of taking it slow we got impatient and pulled an all-nighter to arrive a day earlier than planned so we could finally relax and be at home again in the land of maple syrup.

New Job

Thanks to my new Franken-puter I was able to finish my reel and after pimping it out all over the province I landed the job I really wanted at Digital Extremes.

Admittedly, I was a bit conflicted between working on animated features or television in Toronto, or working on games in London. In the end, DE made an offer first and after one whole year here I'm so glad they did. It turns out that DE has consistently been recognized as one of the top/best employers in Canada. I'm having a blast working on Star Trek and I've even started doing some mocap acting from time to time at our in-house capture volume. Below is a picture of my fellow animator, who's done most of our mocap acting in the past, in our old studio. We've recently moved to a brand new, much fancier office, but our capture volume is still in transition.

New City

So I got the job and it was time to move again - at least this time the drive was a LOT shorter than it was from Washington. I miss Redmond, but London is called The Forest City for a reason (though after last winter I learned it could just as easily be called The Buried Under Snow City) and it's growing on me.

In truth, this city is one of the main reasons I wanted to work at DE. I've worked in Toronto before and the 2.5hr/day commute really takes it's toll. True, it's possible to live in the city, but I didn't want to live in the concrete jungle. What we really wanted was a house we could call our own and a yard for the dog and a garden - which we couldn't responsibly afford anywhere near Toronto.

New Apartment

The plan was to settle down and buy a house, but I had to live somewhere in the meantime so we found this great apartment within walking distance of work - which really helped when the snow was so bad the buses stopped running and we discovered the tire treads on our car were woefully inadequate - probably due as much to that cross-country drive as to the fact that they we hadn't replaced them since we bought our used car.

New Son!!!

The biggest change of all came just after midnight on the morning of May 29th, our new son, Elias Douglas Victor "DUGTOR" Sormin! (My wife won't actually let me call him that, though.)

Kids are hard. Total respect to all the good parents out there. He's adorable and fun though - just not so much at 1:30am, and 3:30am, and 5:30am, and 7:30am....

New Blog

Like I said before, I've started contributing to the blog over at KennyRoy.com - though I've cut back a bit since Elias was born. Kenny's got a fantastic thing going on over there. There's video tutorials and monthly lectures and his info is always of the sort that you can immediately turn around and start using in your daily animation workflow. There's some theory, sure, but above all else his tips are practical. Highly recommended. The blog is free to anyone, but you can check out a preview of the paid content here or better yet, sign up for 10 days free using the promo code friendsofkenny and cancel any time with no obligation. Just be sure to let him know timsormin sent you.

New House!

After months of searching we finally found a house that we could afford with a responsible mortgage, close enough to work, and with a yard that we can customize however we like. We compromised in that it's only semi-detached, but it was less than half the price we would've paid if I had taken a job in Toronto. I don't really have a picture of the house, but here's a half-naked picture of me in the backyard taken on International Handstand Day.

As you can see there's plenty of lush greenery around and we love it that way. There's no houses behind us, just a strip of forest with a private golf club on the other side so it's nice and quiet.

New CSA

I don't know if we'll ever find another CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) as good as Jubilee Biodynamic Farm, but we did manage to find a local CSA that's doing an admirable job.

Basically, a CSA works like this: you invest in a local farm and in return you receive seasonal produce. Usually you pay a seasonal subscription fee, but some farms will allow you to invest the sweat of your brow instead. I can't recommend it enough. Not only is it a great way to make sure you eat enough fresh food and try new things, it also promotes a more sustainable, responsible food production system. Farmer Eric explains it better:

Now, most CSAs are not biodynamic. Many are organic, but even more importantly they're local and farming isn't easy. I believe the only way to support and improve a more sustainable food system is to support the farmers that grow that food.

And Now, On With The New!
...

"Malcolm" - Awesome New Free Rig From AnimSchool.com

2011-10-28T12:04:00.000-04:00

I've been eagerly anticipating this one ever since they announced it. Then, after they released the Softimage version they went and made me wait for over a month to get the Maya version! Well, I guess that's the reality of creating two complete, feature film quality rigs in separate packages. Check out the video below to get a sense of what this rig is capable of.

(Part 1 of a very thorough demonstration of the rig is available on YouTube)
As a bonus you can also download a free version of Adam Burke's excellent abxPicker MEL script for Maya 2011+. I loved using the old, free version of this script and was sad when the new version for Maya 2011 was no longer free.
To get your copy of abxPicker and the Malcolm rig click on the image at the top of this article or, for you lazy types, just click right here.

Demo Reel Feedback from Animation Mentor Jean-Denis Haas

2011-08-17T13:54:00.000-04:00

Animation Mentor hosted a contest at CTNx 2010 for a free eCrit of two randomly selected demo reels. I submitted my latest reel and was one of the winners! I found JD's critique useful and there's no sense hogging all of the wisdom to myself so it's about time I shared it here with the rest of you.

Below are the notes that I took away from JD's eCrit:

Notes from AM CTNx eCrit of Tim Sormin's Animation Reel

Fortunately for me, my reel had already done its job by landing me the job that I wanted. I didn't have the time (or in some cases didn't have the Maya files) to edit any of the actual animation, but for educational purposes I decided to re-edit my reel based on his feedback. Here's the shorter, more focused result:

I think it's better, but I accidentally killed the audio - oops! So thanks JD and Animation Mentor. Hopefully this info will help me, and any readers I may have at this humble blog, make better reels in the future.

New Demo Reels

2010-06-01T15:02:00.001-04:00

Game Animation Reel:
I am responsible for all player-character and enemy animation in this reel. No motion capture was used on this project. Animation was created using Maya. I was also responsible for integrating these into the game using the Unreal Editor.
Narrative Animation Reel:
I created all of the character and prop animation in this reel using Maya, with the following exceptions:
- Alvin and The Chipmunks was created using Voodoo (R+H proprietary anim software)
- The Chipmunk concert run cycles were pre-made cycles that I constrained to a motion path and then modified to climb up the mic stands.
You can download these reels by right-clicking the links in the "My Portfolio" section of the sidebar to the right and choosing to "Save Link As..." (or "Save Target As..." for you folks rocking Internet Explorer)

Airtight Games vs. Penny Arcade Ping Pong Challenge 2010

2010-05-17T19:45:00.019-04:00

Part of my match at the Airtight vs. Penny Arcade Ping Pong Challenge. Unfortunately, I lost the match 1:2

Old Yeller

2010-04-05T17:25:00.000-04:00

My computer just went to the big render farm in the sky.

The timing is pretty crappy as I was in the middle of a personal project, but I'm pretty sure all the HDD's are fine - just the mobo has gasped its last. Looks like I'll be replacing it a year earlier than planned, but considering this thing was already 3yrs old when I bought it used 3yrs ago and it could still do a good job of running simple Maya scenes I'd say it didn't go quietly into the night.

R.I.P. Old Yeller.

Perhaps a trip to newegg.com will help me come to grips with my loss.

Creative Drawing

2010-03-12T13:48:00.002-05:00

Drawing is hard for several reasons, but one of the reasons is that it's often hard to decide what to draw. Being loose and creative is easier said than done. I'm starting to look into ways to keep the pressure off and try to keep my logical left-brain out of the mix. Here are a couple of things I've found so far:
Keys to Drawing from Imagination
I borrowed this book from the library and though I only got through the first couple of chapters before I had to return it, I liked where it was going. The first step is to "doodle with purpose." It's easy to do and it makes a great warm up exercise. Parka has a great review of this book here. Actually, if you like art-of books or instructional art books Parka is a great blog to subscribe to.
Alchemy
This is an open source drawing application that is specifically designed to engage your right-brain. It has tools to automatically mirror and even a random brush that creates unexpected shapes that can then inspire you to follow a direction you would never have thought of on your own. It's a bit hard to explain in words so check out this video of Alchemy in action if you're interested:

There are quite a few examples from users on YouTube.

Dark Void Has Shipped and We're All Still Employed

2010-03-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

Dark Void is on store shelves so go buy it! It's now under $30 on Amazon and it really is a ton of fun to rocketpack into the middle of a firefight, land right in front of a menacing robot and Falcon-punch 'em right in the face!

Okay, okay so I'm three months late posting this, but I was busy trying to get our next AAA game green-lit. Huge props go out to Jim, Matt and Jared (owners of Airtight Games) for avoiding any layoffs at the end of Dark Void. In a time when studios everywhere are experiencing dramatic downsizing, if not outright closure, Airtight has made a deliberate effort to keep the workload (and paychecks) uninterrupted. As the Dark Void build got locked down and people rolled off of it they were able to move directly onto the Dark Void DLC team or to help pitch new projects. I can't tell you what everyone is working on now that the DLC has shipped, but the important part is that we're all still working.

:: Dark Void | Jetpack Attack ::

2009-12-08T14:02:00.001-05:00

Cool little in-browser game using what looks like orthographic sprites of real Dark Void game assets:

(original source)

Dark Void - Tesla Roadster Sweepstakes

2009-10-12T21:11:00.002-04:00

Do we have the best marketing team or what?Too bad about that jetpack...

John Williams: Thanks for everything

2009-10-09T14:01:00.000-04:00

John Williams joined Southern's art faculty during my junior year. If I had to pick one word to describe him, it would be "passionate." The man was on fire for his beliefs, wouldn't accept less than 100% from his students, and never held back criticism when it was needed or praise when it was deserved. I've never felt so afraid to disappoint, so encouraged to excel, or so rewarded for my efforts as I did in his drawing and illustration classes.

His children were born while I was a student at SAU. I only found out he was sick last week.

Thanks for everything, John. You will be missed.

Pencil Test Depot = Awesome new blog dedicated to my favourite form of animation

2009-09-15T13:55:00.000-04:00

I love art that is still a work in progress. When I took a trip to Europe and did the whole gallery/cathedral/monument circuit I realized that as beautiful as the finished art was I actually liked the unfinished works better. Finished paintings by the renaissance masters were amazing - so amazing that they almost make you forget about the artist. They almost become entities unto themselves and it's hard to imagine that the canvas was ever blank.

Michelangelo's David was once just a chunk of rock and as impressive as it is, it was much easier to see the hand of the artist and appreciate his skill when I turned around and viewed his "unfinished" slave sculptures.

I guess that's why, when it comes to animation, I love watching rough pencil tests so much. When the finished product is in theatres it has such a sheen of polish on it that it's hard to see the touch of the artist. The magic is so complete that you just believe the characters are alive. Of course that's the whole point - and it's the mark of a great animator to make you believe it. But what I really love is when I see these drawings, that are still clearly drawings - just pencil on paper - and they STILL come to life. The magic is still there, but I enjoy it that much more because I KNOW I'm being tricked. There's a magician behind it, putting his heart into his craft, fearing his work isn't good enough, sacrificing his time to get it just right, learning new things as he does it. It's beautiful and so, so inspiring.

I usually have to scour the Internet looking for great pencil tests because they're just not commonly available, but recently I had the pleasant surprise of finding all my searching was no longer needed. Jamaal Bradley has made it easy for people like me by starting a new blog dedicated entirely to pencil tests."...Pencil Test Depot..." has most of the work I had found on my own and promises to continue posting more. Go check it out if you like pencil tests, and subscribe if you want ongoing inspiration. I highly recommend it.

Interesting article from GamesBeat about the history of Airtight Games

2009-09-15T13:41:00.000-04:00

It's a good read. I knew the general story of course, but this is a bit more detailed then the version I've been told. Here's and exerpt:

To fund their venture, Deal and his three partners (excluding Fries) each anted up $6,000. The $24,000 start-up fund, he hoped, would carry them until they got a contract. Until they found a publisher, each member (and their families) had to live off savings. The team met anywhere they could, from coffee houses to the nearby public library. “We started small and built slowly,” said Deal.

Read the whole article here: How Airtight Games started a console game studio with just $24,000

Proof that I went to PAX '09

2009-09-10T16:06:00.001-04:00

Wait, is this Kotaku employee trying to get my identity stolen by filming my ballot entry for some Uncharted 2 swag? Aw, who cares, I'm on Kotaku!

original source: Kotaku.com

Disney set to acquire Marvel

2009-09-02T13:14:00.000-04:00

original source: animatednews.com

Soon Disney will own Marvel Entertainment. Hmm. I don't really know what to think. It's certainly interesting, but I really can't say whether it's good or bad. Seems like an odd mix, but then I never would have thought I'd see Donald Duck fighting side by side with Squall Leonhart and Kingdom Hearts turned out to be kinda good.

Stan "The Man" seems to think it's good
Animation pundit Mayerson disagrees

If nothing else, it will at least be interesting.

Maybe we'll see some strange mash-ups:

original source: kotaku.com

Or maybe there will be redundancies:original source: penny-arcade.com

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Golden Jetpack

2009-09-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

Marketing is having fun with this game. :)

original source: www.gold4jetpack.com

On a subtler note, I think this swag-bag for members of the press is really smart. It's a little different, it's certainly appropriate for a game with a lot of flight and vertigo in it, and it's stuff that the traveling press might actually have occasion to use.

So good job marketing team, except why don't the developers get tons of free stuff?

Bear McCreary, of BSG and Terminator SCC fame is the composer for Dark Void

2009-09-01T12:40:00.000-04:00

Here it is straight from Bear's BSG Blog

And here's an interview he gave on Gamespot

This is actually really old news, but I haven't posted in about 5 months so I'm playing catch up. I think this news came out just about the day that I made my last post.

In a stroke of pure brilliance the powers that be approached Bear McCreary, the rising star known for his fantastic work on Battlestar Galactica and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, to see if he would be interested in lending his unique musical aesthetic to Dark Void. It turns out that Bear was not only excited to accept this new challenge but that he is actually a big fan of games and, in particular, a certain Man from Capcom, who can only be described as Mega. Wow, some things just come together perfectly. Serendipity, I suppose.

Bear uses a very interesting mix of traditional orchestral scoring and some unusual tribal instrument solos. Anyways, the music fits our game perfectly and what's more it sounds so great that some commenters have gone so far as to say that the music alone will be worth the price of the game - that may be, but I hope you enjoy playing it too.

8-bit Dark Void

2009-04-02T13:21:00.000-04:00

There are a lot of fans of the classics here at Airtight so sometimes someone will whip up a fun little bit of mock art - even our composer. So, seeing as yesterday was April Fool's Day, Capcom took the opportunity to share this stuff with the rest of you. Follow the link for more 8-bit artwork and an awesome remix of the theme music by Dark Void's composer: Dark Void's New Look

New Demo Reel [Updated]

2009-02-21T14:21:00.000-05:00

The past year or so at Airtight Games has been amazing. I love it here and Airtight has expressed interest in keeping me around, but for personal reasons it's time to move home to Ontario. I will be here until the end of April then... we'll see.

If you are an Ontario studio seeking an animator for film, broadcast, or games please contact me for a copy of my current demo reel: timsormin*at*gmail*dot*com

[UPDATE]: My wife and I have decided to put off our return to Ontario and stay here in Redmond for a while. Looks like I'll be here for another summer of ultimate frisbee with the Airtight gang! I am now working on a new, unannounced title.

The creator of Gracie "Brazilian" Jiu Jitsu died today

2009-01-30T02:57:00.000-05:00

Grand Master Helio Gracie 1913 - 2009

Some Refreshing News

2009-01-23T13:13:00.000-05:00

In the midst of depressing news like Microsoft laying of 5,000 people and EA cutting 1,000 jobs it great to hear that someone is taking a different approach to relieving financial pressure:Blue Sky has moved it's studio from New York all the way, um, next door to Connecticut to take advantage of the "Hollywood East" tax breaks offered there. The best part is that instead of huge layoffs, they're actually expanding and hiring more people. Now I realize this plan was initiated long before the whole US economy collapse thing became big news, but it looks as if some smart planning may have saved some people their jobs, and that's always a good thing.

Behind the Scenes at Airtight via The Seattle Times

2008-12-18T14:46:00.000-05:00

The local newspaper stopped by to take a look around and give a bit of a profile of us last week. If you're curious, there's some interesting info about our studio that I don't think has been made public before. Obviously, with the game still in progress no one can give it a glowing review, but it seems like most people are impressed with it so far and are looking forward to seeing the finished product. This guy doesn't seem to offer much of an opinion, however, opting to mostly give quotes from people who work here. (Click the picture to read the article)

"UP" Trailer Looks Great

2008-11-07T18:43:00.000-05:00

Beautiful teaser trailer for Pixar's next film, "UP." I love it already, but then what did you expect?

(source: firstshowing.net)

Monsters vs. Aliens Trailer

2008-11-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

Looks fun, that's all I care about... Well that, and that it makes lots of money so animators can still have jobs.

(source: Movie-List.com)

CSC Wins Gemini for Best Animated Series

2008-10-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Chop Socky Chooks may not be the best animated series on television, but it's the best one from Canada. Congrats to the rest of my old Starz colleagues and the new guard over at C.O.R.E. Toons. The writers and creators always get all of the credit. It's too bad the studios and artists that actually MAKE these things remain completely unknown to the public.

Exciting New Animation Tools Coming Soon

2008-09-18T17:40:00.001-04:00

I'm still using trusty old Maya 7.0 at work, but I must say that for the first time I'm actually excited about a new release of Maya. Maya 2009 will include animation layers, a la Motionbuilder, which is something I've wanted since I started animating for games. Just think, if they decide to change a character's idle pose you can simply slap that pose on a new layer in every other animation that needs to conform to that pose and you've got a non-destructively modified animation. Nice. Also helpful if you want to make several variations of similar moves. Other features include improvements to unwrapping UVs and easily rendering in stereoscopic 3D. Go to the Autodesk website to read more about it and watch some demo videos.

Independant R&D company Kickstand has some really impressive and useful deformation tools for Maya coming in the near future that will change the way people model and rig. Too bad you'll have to shell out more cash for these. Hopefully Autodesk can integrate these features in a later release, but it seems to take them a long time to integrate tools that users have generated a long time ago.

I'm still waiting for Reflex to be released to the public.

Eeee-vah!

2008-09-11T02:45:00.001-04:00

Okay, I'm sorry. It's been a bit long since my last post and I was intending to write about Wall-E as soon as I saw it. Most of you have seen it now so you know it's great and I don't have much to add that hasn't been said. It's a moving love story with truly endearing characters, beautiful visuals, and lots of pantomime so communicative that it makes you wish more movies would cut down on spoken dialogue. Kung Fu Panda was a great animated movie, but Wall-E is a great movie - animated or otherwise - and it's still in a few theatres. Obviously I'm a little late in saying so, but if you haven't seen Wall-E yet...

Then, after you've seen it, fire up iTunes and buy Presto, the short film that screened before Wall-E. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard at a cartoon, but what's even cooler is when you step through it frame-by-frame in Quicktime: crazy distortions, smear frames, extra limbs! Finally, CG that cheats just as well as the old 2D days!

Skidoosh

2008-06-09T13:38:00.000-04:00

Kung Fu Panda is an awesome, movie. Way better than any other Dreamworks animated movie to date. The trailer doesn't quite convey this fact, but check it out if you haven't seen it yet. The art direction is beautiful (except maybe the Monkey character design) the animation is really organic and entertaining, and the story has a lot of heart and humour. I don't remember a single pop-culture reference or fart joke, either. Huge props to anyone who worked on this. Hit the picture above for a link to the Google listing and enter your zip code to find the showtimes at your nearest theatre, then go see it. Hurry, because Wall*E comes out in a couple weeks and you should NOT decide to just see one animated movie this month.

Dark Void interview on CHUD

2008-06-05T13:29:00.000-04:00

Cinematic Happenings Under Development (CHUD.com) has a cool interview with the Dark Void developers. There are some great shout-outs to the animation team, but alas non of the work attributed to me in the article was actually done by me and I kind of just wanted to be clear that I'm not claiming anyone else's work as my own. The quote in question is: "The UFO hijack sequence, where you're pulling up panels? That's animated by this guy Tim, who animated on 300 and did the rhino sequences." It's a combination of mis-spoken and mis-quoted information. I didn't work on 300 at all. Jose was just thinking of another guy. As for the sky-jacking animation, including the part when your pulling up panels: It was mostly done by the talented (and patient) Anthony who spent ages collaborating with programmers and designers working and re-working the gameplay, tech, and animation. I just animated the part where Will is trying to steal the pilot's gun and then either wins or loses.

The compliment from Ed Fries is awesome. He says "As far as animation goes this team has some of the best animators in the game business. They hand animate everything." A lot of games make extensive use of mo-cap. I think it can be good, especially for cut-scenes, but 9 times out of 10 it's better to have more exaggeration or just physically impossible moves that can't be mo-capped. I mean, check out the stuff that TJ and Cameron animated and then try to tell me you think mo-cap looks better than by-hand animation. In our case we couldn't mo-cap a rocket-packing, ledge-jumping hero anyways.

In fact, it seems most of the articles praise the animation, with one exception: Gamespot said that "...the animation still needs some polishing..." and frankly they're right. Thank you, Gamespot. A lot of the stuff in the demo is still in progress and I was starting to worry that people thought that its current state was good enough. Who wants to make animation that's "good enough?"

Dark Void demo revealed at Captivate '08

2008-06-03T16:02:00.000-04:00

Capcom had a press event in Vegas last week called "Captivate '08" and the Dark Void demo we've been slaving on for the past few months made its debut. Okay, so the demo wasn't "playable" as far as letting members of the press play it, but it was a functioning demo mission that our lead designer could play and demonstrate in front of them. It turned out pretty well and the press coverage seems to be positive all around. There are some commenters complaining about things like the lack of multiplayer and the overall brownish look of the demo. The former is in the interest of a better single player experience and it works out for the animation team because we can make better, more varied animations if they don't have to be for multiplayer. The latter is a valid complaint, but keep in mind that this is only one small environment in the game and there will be more variety when we're done. I'm hoping for less brown myself. The only other complaint I saw a couple of times is that the helmet hides the hero's face and makes him hard to relate to. I think only one of the articles mentioned that he won't be wearing the helmet all of the time. It's an upgrade that you get at some point, but you start with Will's face visible. He's not some faceless military cyber grunt and he won't be one of those boring, mute (or nearly mute) characters either. Don't forget that there are cut-scenes, too.

Three new videos
Interview, Flying Gameplay, Vert. Cover/Grip Gameplay

Some articles from the event:
Joystiq: Impressions, Still a Year Away, No MP in Dark Void
Eurogamer: Impressions, Why Capcom
IGN: Impressions
Kotaku: Impressions

Dark Void Video Preview on 1UP.com

2008-05-28T16:10:00.000-04:00

Check out footage of Dark Void in all its W.I.P. glory!

I've been away for a few days so I checked to see of the Dark Void developers' blog had been updated and discovered that our game has a new logo:

Also, don't forget the Dark Void mini-site for all of 1UP.com's "Dark Void Week" coverage.

Day two of 1up.com's week-long Dark Void media coverage: Behind the Scenes at Airtight Games

2008-05-20T19:34:00.000-04:00

Head over to the Dark Void minisite on 1up.com or just click on one of these two pictures to go directly to today's article. (Just a note, however unimportant: DigiPen moved across the street) Based on what he says towards the end of the article it sounds like this reviewer enjoyed the animation we've done so far, but what's more important is that I enjoyed his choice of concept art to include:

Suprise!

Happy Birthday, Human! Make a wish! LOL

(And yes, I did just make the title of this post super long so that I could force the title of the article onto a new line. Why? I don't know.)

Dark Void in the media

2008-05-19T23:12:00.000-04:00

Finally, real coverage of our game is beginning to surface in the media. Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and its companion website, 1up.com, have been the first to start publishing previews of Dark Void.

There's a three page spread in the June 2008 issue of EGM, and 1up.com is featuring our game on the front page of their site with a new article every day this week. Today's article is "Eight things you need to know about Dark Void." This is just beginning and there will certainly be much more coverage before too long. There was a previous "debut" trailer making the rounds, but as you can now see, much progress has been made since then. It's exciting to know that people are seeing the work we've done. I hope people like it, but I know how hot/cold people can be when posting comments online. I think it's going to be a fun game when it's done, but for now I'm just having fun making it.

Below are a few screenshots of animations that I worked on, but don't hold it against me. They're still W.I.P

Chops Begins Airing Again

2008-04-08T01:59:00.000-04:00

After a false start last year (probably due to the little fact that only a few episodes had been completed) Chop Socky Chooks has finally started airing regularly on Cartoon Network. Actually, it started last month so there have already been a handful of episodes shown. I know the show isn't likely to win any awards, but if you're curious you can either tune into CN on Fridays at 9:00pm or Saturday mornings at 8:30am. In fact, if you're really interested you can catch a marathon of all of the episodes aired so far, this Friday from 7:00pm - 9:30pm. You can also watch full episodes after they've aired on the Cartoon Network video website. Just click on "Shows" to the right, and select Chop Socky Chooks from the list. As of this moment they have the first five episodes available for streaming.

The studio that I used to work at, Starz Animation, created roughly a third of the first season. I think it was (and don't quote me on this) episodes 1-6, 9, 11, and 14 that we created before losing the contract for the show. Myself, I'm really curious to see the episodes that were created by the folks at C.O.R.E. Toons. Say what you will about the show (or, for those who worked on it, the production) but it was my very first professional animation credit so it holds a certain sentimental value for me.

Dr. Wasabi FTW!

Full Wall*E Trailer

2008-03-12T13:43:00.000-04:00

The full length trailer for Wall*E is available now on Apple.com including an HD version. Follow the link and watch the new trailer. (it's the top-left option on the website)So far we have seen teasers that introduce the main character, now we're introduced to the bigger picture. I can't wait for this one!

Jason Ryan Animation Tutorials

2008-03-11T17:34:00.000-04:00

Jason Ryan, a supervising animator from Disney, is ramping up for a collection of animation video tutorials. The final product won't be free, but in the meantime he has posted a whole bunch of valuable "ramp up" mini-tutorials. Keith Lango had something similar going called VTS and I had subscribed for the first few of his videos until I needed to start cutting back on expenses. They were fantastic and I expect Jason's will be worth the money too, if you have it. If you're interested, click on the banner image above and sign up for his newsletter. That's how I got the link to the ramp up tutorials.

TJ Phan's Animation Workflow

2008-03-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

I love this!
Earlier I posted about Cameron Fielding 's fantastic in-depth explanation of how he created the intense, physical action in Turok. Now TJ Phan jumps into the mix, with a great explanation of how he animates. He talks about thumbnailing and video reference, but I think the most important thing he does is treat each key like a drawing.

When you key every control of your rig on the same frame, and then do that not only for your Key Poses, but also for your Breakdowns, Extremes, Eases, and Overlap you wind up with something much akin to a traditional hand drawn style of animating. If you do that and wind up with shots as polished and dynamic as TJ's then you can be certain of at least two things:

You know what you're doing
You're pretty darn good at it

Just don't let it get to your head.

This isn't the first time I have heard of computer animators working this way. Thinking back, I remember seeing a W.I.P. version of Kyle Mohr 's dialogue exercise, "games" that was animated with stepped keys down to nearly every frame. I can't find that version now, but you can see the final product on his website. Justin Barrett posted some really sweet examples including this shot of Puss in Boots.

I think it's high time I scrounged up the discipline and confidence to try it myself. Thanks, TJ!

PS: Don't you just love animating in a time when there is so much easy to access advice and instruction on the Internet?

Holy Hyperlinks, Batman!

2008-03-05T15:02:00.000-05:00

New Iron Man Trailer
First of all, the new trailer for Iron Man looks seriously bad-ass. One of my best friends from school is working on it over at The Orphanage so it's possible that I'd be biased, but the general consensus at work is that this looks frickin' amazing. I can't wait to see this movie, and then re-watch all of Andy's shots. I suspect they'll be a tad better than my Chipmunk shots.

My Paper Mind

Next up is a link that came through my RSS feed today; I already forgot which one. It's a cool experimental animation created by cutting out stencils and then filming them in layers to create a sort of practical onion skinning effect. Very cool.

Manipulation
In the vein of cool, "outside the box" animation I'm sure you have all seen the classic Duck Amuck (which is apparently being made into a DS game!). Well the idea of an artist fighting his cartoon has been revisited a couple of times since then. Most of you have probably seen Animator vs. Animation and Animator vs. Animation 2 done in Flash, but until recently I had never seen this Oscar winning take on the concept.

Turok Animation Workflow

Cameron Fielding has posted a breakdown of his process while animating on the Turok video game. His work is fantastic and it's always great to read about how another animator approaches the problem of bringing a character to life. It's a must read.

Animation Buffet
Animator and teacher Jean Denis Haas has a great blog setup for his class at AAU and I subscribed to it so I can eavesdrop on the critiques. It's a great way to learn. He has recently created a new resource for animators called Animation Buffet. It's your one-stop-shop for all of your free rig needs - well, it's only Maya rigs so far, but there will be more in the future. There are a whole ton of rigs there and many that I haven't seen before. I've added it to the list of animation tools in the sidebar.

Skater Traitor

One last thing. Why didn't this win the 11 Second Club competition last month!? Seriously people, open your eyes. It has translation AND rotation. It's cutting edge! It's Skater Matt!

Compass wins VFX Oscar

2008-02-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

Congratulationss to to my friends back at R+H for winning the Best VFX Oscar* last night! Congrats especially to Kevin, Emil, and Sean for being the first Southern grads to win an Oscar - well, in a way.

*Congrats to the talented folks at Framestore CFC, DD and the other studios too, but... well... I don't know any of you . Oh, and I can still see Raknison's detached jaw when I close my eyes - thanks for that, Framestore.

Better yet, Animate with your DS!

2008-02-25T15:15:00.000-05:00

Shortly after I learned about the amazing paint application, Colors! DS, two more DS homebrew applications came to my attention that are even cooler!

Animanatee is a simple, easy to use animation program (not to be confused with this guy) that allows you to export your scenes into .avi files. It has a very intuitive interface and once I loaded it up I was animating right away without needing to read any instructions. It supports 1 BG layer and 1 animation layer. It also has limited onion skinning, which only shows a ghost of the previous frame. You can't zoom in to draw at higher resolutions so it gets tough to make consistent drawings and inbetweens, but for very simple things it's ok. Here's a quick bouncing-ball test that I made using Animanatee:

Flickbook is another pencil-testing software for the DS and I think it's been around longer and has more users. I needed to read the instructions before I could make sense of the UI, but it does have some features that are more advanced than those in Animanatee. It has onion skinning for three frames in either direction, the ability to zoom when you draw, and the ability to cut/paste. I suppose I could deal with the clunky interface if I really wanted the extra features, but the deal breaker for me was when the application froze on me, but told me not to turn off my DS. I looked up the problem online and some people said that turning off the DS after a freeze caused them to loose data on their memory card. I'm not going to risk all my game saves because of a buggy application. I turned mine off with no ill effects, but I'd rather just stick to Animanatee. I'll support the underdog with the fantastic usability, and hope that the features get updated.
UPDATE: There is, in fact, a slightly newer version of Flickbook (0.2.1) with some small updates that make a big difference. The interface is WAY better looking and the buttons are more recognizable for the functions they perform. Also added was the ability to flip through your drawings with the d-pad just like in Animanatee which makes it just feel SO much more natural. It didn't crash on me either. It's getting tough to decide which app I like better.
There is a third animation application for the DS that has my attention, but it is being developed for retail so it isn't a homebrew application. It's called Inchworm and it has VERY impressive drawing tools. It has a lot of the basic features found in Photoshop and Illustrator along with some basic animation tools. It looks like it will make it a lot easier to create full colour animation on the handheld, but it's animation tools are not any better than the existing homebrew applications.

Even with their limitations these applications have gotten me excited again about animating traditionally. I can't work up the effort to get my pegboard out of storage, punch paper, scan all the pages, and compile it. I also don't have a tablet to be able to use some of the great PC applications. But I DO have a DS and I likes me some homebrew animation apps! There are better ways to animate, but having a pencil tester in your pocket makes it easy to get a quick animation workout while you're on the plane, waiting for a bus, or sitting through a bad Hayden Christensen movie.

Our parents have a grandpuppy!

2008-01-21T16:49:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Olive!!

I was adopted from the Seattle Humane Society on Thursday, January 17. I am a 3 month old Shepherd mix. I came into the shelter as a stray, so they don't know who my parents are and they can't tell by looking at me what I am for sure cuz I'm so young, but I certainly look like I've got some German Shepherd in me. I'm mainly black with brown on my legs and jaw line, white and brown on my chest and a brown patch on my bum that makes me look a bit like a baboon.

I don't know how to animate yet, but I'm a really quick learner - when I'm not distrac... hey what's that?

Veggie Pirates in theatres today!

2008-01-11T14:35:00.000-05:00

The website has been updated with all kinds of new stuff, too: there's a ton of clips, TV spots, etc.Go see it!

Paint with your DS

2008-01-11T14:32:00.000-05:00

From the official website:

"Colors! is a simplistic digital painting application for Nintendo DS based on modern
painting-techniques developed for drawing tablets in programs like Photoshop. By
taking advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the DS touch-screen it becomes a
perfect portable digital sketch-book."

This is what homebrew is all about, and frankly it's the coolest thing I've ever seen on the DS. For those of you who have never heard of "homebrew" or thought the DS was only capable of playing games, check out the Colors! official website. There is a FAQ explaining what this homebrew stuff is all about and a gallery where you can see more really impressive paintings created with a DS and this brilliant bit of homebrewed software.

For another brilliant example of homebrew check out this video of a kid controlling his computer with his DS.

New VT Pirates Trailer

2007-12-20T17:17:00.000-05:00

Click the picture to watch the new trailer for The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie on the Apple website:

New Job!

2007-11-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

I just officially accepted an offer to join the team at Airtight Games in Redmond, Washington. I have always wanted to make video games and lately the urge has been getting stronger and stronger. They have a great team (heck, I interviewed with 20% of the company so I have a pretty good idea!) and "Dark Void" looks like it's going to be a very cool game. You can watch the early in-progress trailer here. It is a new company, working on it's first title, but they have an experienced team and a fantastic publisher (Capcom) so you will definitely hear more about them when the game gets closer to release.

Animator Looking for Studio

2007-10-19T15:35:00.001-04:00

It's that time again. Rhythm and Hues has been awesome and I'm really going to miss it here. Animation on Alvin will be done soon and my contract is up in mid November. If you or anyone you know is looking for an animator to start late Nov. or early Dec. I would love to hear about it. I would love to stay in SoCal, but I am willing to go wherever the work is. Here is a small version of my demo reel. For my complete portfolio, and a larger version of my reel, please see the links in the sidebar to the right.

(If you don't have the Quicktime plugin for your browser
you can just right-click here and "save as")

(For a larger version see the links in the sidebar to the right)

A Single Sheet of Paper

2007-09-11T16:09:00.000-04:00

Just some non-animation inspiration for you, by Peter Callesen:

A Single Sheet of Paper(Click the picture to see more)

Alviiinn!!!

2007-07-27T14:38:00.001-04:00

The teaser trailer for Alvin & The Chipmunks is online. Click the picture that includes a flamboyant Simon dressed in pink to view the trailer.

Horton trailer

2007-07-27T14:29:00.000-04:00

This is looking fantastic! The animation from Blue Sky just keeps getting better and better. Click the picture to view the trailer.

First look at Chipmunks

2007-07-05T13:42:00.001-04:00

From comingsoon.net:

A low-quality version of the new Alvin and the Chipmunks poster is now online. In the CG/live-action family comedy, Jason Lee ("My Name Is Earl") plays David Seville. The film is based on the 1950s cartoon series about chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodore, who lay waste to Seville's surroundings and sing in three-part harmony. 20th Century Fox will release the Tim Hill-directed pic on December 14.They actually look pretty cool in this poster, although Simon seems a bit shorter than he ought to be. Oh and it should probably say "They're back and smaller than ever," because this is the first time that they're actually chipmunk-sized as opposed to child-sized.

Veggie Pirates Trailer and Website!

2007-06-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

Click the picture to go see the official Veggie Pirates website where you can watch the trailer. Apparently Universal also physically attached the trailer to the front of every copy of Evan Almighty so at least a few people have seen it already.

Unfortunately my title of "animator" for this movie was a bit open to interpretation so I only animated a handful of shots. Fortunately, one of them made it into the trailer. It's the one in which Sedgewick (Mr. Lunt) says "Okay, time to go home." Oh yeah, check out those bobbing head turns. I'm Brilliant!

Seriously though, I'm looking forward to seeing this in theatres. It's not Ratatouille, but it's fun.

We made it!

2007-06-05T12:11:00.000-04:00

It was a long drive, about 50hrs, but we made it to LA safe and sound. Pretty amazing considering we were driving a 10 year old Neon loaded down with as much of our stuff we could cram into it.

Work is great. I have two weeks of education before starting production.

I'm a little disappointed by the weather. My wife and I were two Canadians in LA, freezing our butts off in shorts and no sleeves. I suppose that's a good thing though, because our apartment won't have A/C.

More to come, and pictures too, once we find a charger for our camera battery (oops!)

New Job at Rhythm & Hues!

2007-05-22T19:30:00.000-04:00

I have accepted a four month contract with Rhythm & Hues where apparently we will be having a bit of an SAU reunion and I'm bringing at least a couple of my Starz friends with me. It has all happened so fast that I haven't had any time to post about it until now.

I'd like to give a huge thanks to those of you who spent the time watching my reel and telling me what sucked about it. It sure payed off.

I felt after two years of bouncing around different departments at DKP/IDT/Starz that it was time to move on and take the next big step in my journey. I had gotten my foot in the door as a character finaler, but even though I did move into an animator position it seemed that there was always a need for finaling or layout and I was always saying "yes" when they asked me to do it. I know I have a LOT to learn about animation and it just seemed that I would learn it a lot faster by animating. The animators at Starz are like really humble rock stars. I wish I could have gotten half as good as those animators before I left.

Rhythm and Hues is going to be an enormous challenge for me, but it's one I've been itching to take on. I've heard only good things about the studio and who doesn't like working near a beach?

It's been a whirlwind of activity around here: trying to pack up the apartment, arrange for my work visa, find a new apartment, find a place to store our stuff, try to find a new car to drive down in and upon failing that try to fix up our old Neon as best we can, and all while putting in our last two weeks at work. I sure hope they don't turn us away at the border because we'll be jobless and homeless if they do!

We'll hit the road this Monday and I start work the following Monday. So to all of you Californians who've been pestering me and Linds about coming out for a visit - be careful what you wish for.

New Demo Reel !!

2007-04-23T07:35:00.000-04:00

(If you don't have the Quicktime plugin for your browser
you can just right-click here and "save as")

(For a larger version see the links in the sidebar to the right)

The new reel includes work that I did on Chops and a couple of animation tests that I did for a video game company. The Veggies movie has not completed animation yet, let alone been released, so obviously I haven't included any of my work from that.

I haven't uploaded a breakdown sheet for the new reel yet, but basically I was only responsible for the character animation. The one main exception is the treehouse bit with the boy and girl characters. You can blame me for everything on that one.

I have updated my resume as well.

Any comments and critiques are welcome.

VT Pirates Trailer for Trailer

2007-04-22T17:22:00.000-04:00

We saw a rough cut of the actual trailer a while ago and it's going to be pretty good. In the meantime there's this:

The Big Idea website has posted a teaser of the trailer for "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie" (what a mouthfull, eh?)

It includes some concept art from the movie, but the animation clips they show are from the old video, not the movie. One clip is even played backwards!

Click here to watch the teaser

Open Season meets 300

2007-04-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

Sheer Awesome-ness!

Spline Hygiene

2007-04-17T13:33:00.000-04:00

Pixar animator, Victor Navone has posted a great two part tutorial on keeping your splines nice and clean. I dare say you can't animate in 3D without this type of info, so if you're new to the graph editor take a look and see what sort of things you need to look out for.

Splinophilia Part 1

Splinophilia Part 2

Ratatouille Featurette

2007-04-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

My excitement level is peeking. I really shouldn't be spoiling this movie for myself by watching every little bit of teaser footage, but I can't help it. I never thought 3D would get this close to the appeal of hand drawn animation so soon. This is looking De-licious!

And another featurette on Disney.com about how they made the cooking believable.

Chop Socky O'Chooks

2007-03-16T15:37:00.000-04:00

In time for the St. Pat's Day weekend there's going to be a sneak peak airing of the first episode of CSC on Teletoon today at 5pm. (That's in Canada, only. For everyone else it will eventually be on Cartoon Network, but I don't know when) So if you happen to be sitting at home for some reason, flip on the tube and see what I'm talking about. I believe the show's regular spot is 4pm on Sundays, starting this Sunday so if you miss it today, I'll forgive you. For the most part I only worked on the even numbered episodes, but No.1 is one of the best. Good job by that team.

For anyone who won't be seeing it this weekend there's a little promo video up on Decode's website: HERE

Cool Movie Poster

2007-03-02T09:58:00.000-05:00

Imagine this in one of those boxes on the side of the theatre. Now that's thinking outside the box - or more specifically: outside the clear plexiglass box, looking in.

Some people got all the brains

2007-03-01T12:03:00.001-05:00

These guys always mystified me in school and they just keep getting better and better. Here are a couple of brilliant tools created by folks I know from my SAU days.
(click on the images for links to the tools)

by Michael Hutchinson
Automated "toony" rigging

by Zach Gray and others
Utility for "mirroring" poses (so you can mirror your walk cycle poses, for example) that works on any character, and on any user defined plane (not just across a default world axis).

Not too shabby for a book that isn't even real

2007-03-01T11:34:00.000-05:00

You know those Walt Stanchfield drawing notes over at animationmeat.com? Well somebody has compiled the first sixty PDFs into an unofficial book (called Gesture Drawing for Animation) to help make it all a bit more understandable. He's organized the notes into loggical chapters and put them in a logical order. The original, "untainted" notes are still at animationmeat, but for those who want to look at them all as a whole this seems like a great alternative.

Secret of the Cave

2007-02-16T11:50:00.000-05:00

A huge congratulations! to the School of Visual Art and Design at Southern Adventist University for completing their film, Secret of the Cave, and for winning the Crystal Heart Award at the 2006 Heartland Film Festival where it premiered last October. There's info on the film's website and an interview with the Director and the DP (both professors at the school) for the film. There's also a review of the film from Entertainment Magazine and another one from Independent Critics.

The year that I graduated from Southern they had just released their first film, made mostly by students, and I think I remember hearing that this would be their next film. I had no idea that my animation professor, Zach Gray, was going to be the director. Looks like he did a pretty fantastic job. (no surprise, though it is his first time directing a feature-length, live-action film)

I'm looking forward to seeing the whole movie. I don't know if it was in theatres at all, but I'm sure a DVD is planned.

SVAD has made enormous progress in the last 7 or 8 years and it's really good to see that they continue to up the ante with each new undertaking. Here's hoping that this is their next project.

From Kung Fu Chickens to Swashbuckling Vegetables

2007-02-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

My last real post was way back in November and a lot has happened since then. By the end of that month, my time on Chop Socky Chooks had come to a close. I only got to work on about five episodes, but it was really fun while it lasted. I'm certainly not sorry to be moving on to my next assignment, though. Some of you may recognize these guys:

The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything originally debuted as characters in a "Silly Song," but now they're being promoted to big-screen status. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie is the second VT theatrical release after Jonah back in 2002.

Many people don't know that shortly after the Jonah movie Big Idea Productions went bankrupt and the creative properties were sold to Classic Media. The Big Idea animation studio was closed and since then all production has be out-sourced (in-sourced?) to our studio in Toronto, Canada. Though it was unfortunate that so many people had to go through those hard times we are lucky that the VT franchise has survived and the videos are still as good as ever. The original creators (who are also the voice actors) have reached an agreement that allows them to still write and direct the new videos and we're all glad for that. You can get the whole story from the horse's mouth over at PhilVischer.com

A lot of really fantastic animators came from the studio that Larry and Bob built. People like Keith Lango, Aaron Hartline, Mark Behm, Michael Comet, and Justin Barret, inspired me through school and continue inspiring me as they have continued sharing their work over the internet. Those are some big shoes to fill and I don't really feel worthy of a feature animation credit, but I'll take it!

So we started layout in December and finished last week. This week I officially started animating. Finally, I can tell people what I'm working on and they will actually remember it 2 mins later. My first shot was the very first shot after the opening credits. Keep your eyes peeled 'cause it's only 30 frames long.

It's Been a Long Time...

2007-01-29T17:42:00.000-05:00

...but I have finally updated this blog.

I made the switch to the new Blogger format which means that everything looks pretty much the same, (just with new colours) but I had to do a bit of fiddling to make it that way. I added a few more links on the right for those who might want to start learning to animate but don't have any software. There is also a link to subscribe to this blog for those who use aggregators. It's not something I'm very familiar with, but it sounds swell. I'll use the next few posts to play a bit of catch-up and then, hopefully, I'll post something at least once a week.

Joslin's Results

2006-11-15T09:05:00.000-05:00

For all the people who were wondering (okay, both of the people wondering) I didn't do so well at the tournament. I was definitely out of my league, but it was still a great experience and lots of fun. I lost my gi match by armbar in about 90 seconds without scoring a single point and was rather disappointed with myself. I didn't even have a chance to get tired!

Knowing then that I was not likely to win any matches I went into my no-gi fight determined to at least be the aggressor and score some points before I was defeated and that's what I did. I went all out right from the word "go" and took the fight to my opponent. I scored the first points with a take down, but couldn't break past his guard and ended up submitting to another armbar. After the fight my opponent said "good fight, I was totally gassed" which felt good because that means he had a hard time beating me, even if it didn't last the full 5 mins.

I don't have any pictures from the day because we only had a video camera. My brother has the tape and if he ever figures out how to digitized it I'll post what I can. The first fight wasn't so good so I might just post the second. Either way, the video will be depressingly short.

Joslin's Canadian Open Grappling Championships

2006-11-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

This Sunday I will be competing in my first martial arts tournament. I've been training in Jiu Jitsu for about 7 months now and will be entering the beginner (<1yr training) division in the 155lb (I hope) weight class. I will be fighting in both the gi and no-gi tournaments.

Joslin's is the biggest tournament of it's kind in Ontario, and perhaps Canada. There will be people coming up from the United States to compete too. Also worth noting is that it's not a Jiu Jitsu tournament specifically. It's a "grappling" tournament so there will be Greco-Roman Wrestling, Judo, perhaps Aikido etc. competing directly.

I'm a little worried since I haven't been able to train for more than about 3hrs/week and the school I attend hasn't focused a whole lot on competition. I have no delusions of winning anything, but I will be extrememly happy to at least win a fight or two (it's single elimination and I want my money's worth) but will be more than satisfied if I can just lose by points as opposed to being submitted. My brother will also be competing in the intermediate divisions. Wish me luck. While you're at it wish me not-to-get-injured too.

I'll post a picture or two afterwards, even if they're a little humiliating.

Because "Happy International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism to you..." doesn't fit well into a song:

2006-11-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Today is, in fact, the internationally observed day to commemorate the pogrom against the Jews, started by Nazis on November 9, 1938.

Today is also Cambodia's Independence Day. Happy 53rd, Cambodia!

Apparently, so many important events in German history (like the fall of the Berlin Wall) occurred on this day, that it has been dubbed "Schicksalstag" (Day of Fate), or in the United States it's called World Freedom Day.

In Europe they are celebrating Inventor's Day. What a cool idea! The day is in honor of hot actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr, who co-invented the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication.

Nick Lachey was born on November 9, for those who care...

...and 24 years ago so was I. Happy Birthday to Me.

Halloween McQueen

2006-11-02T09:10:00.001-05:00

Sweet Halloween variant of the Cars star. From Victor Navone's blog.

(click the image for a full-sized version)

Glen Keane vids on YouTube

2006-10-18T18:34:00.000-04:00

A Cal Arts lecture by Glen Keane that was apparently conducted during the time when Aladdin was in production is now available on YouTube. In case you didn't know already, Glen is just brilliant and you can tell by the way he talks that his head is just full of wonderful inspiration that he has collect throughout his life through observation. There are 17 parts so be sure to watch them all!

Here's a more recent video in which Glen shares how Ollie Johnston gave a great reminder to all animators.

Two Toots for Tut's!

2006-09-22T16:50:00.000-04:00

Remember when you had to actually move to California, fight tooth-n-nail for a lowly 'tweener or assistant animator position at Disney, and then peer over the shoulder of a master at work in order to learn how to animate?

Well I don't.

I'm only 23 and frankly I think that pros who take the time to deconstruct their workflow and explain it all in a clear tutorial, then post it on the Internet so everyone can benefit from it rock!

Here are the two latest little nuggets o' gold:

"Animating a Facial Take" - a 10 frame facial take, broken down frame-by-frame by Victor Navone

"Breakdowns Can Be Such a Drag" - an article on overlapping motion by Keith Lango

Thanks guys, you rock! ...er ...jazz? ...folk? Whatever you like, just keep the tut's coming!

Everyone's Hero Hits Theatres Today

2006-09-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

Round up a posse and go see the movie.

We only have two weeks until Open Season comes along and steals our audience.

Finally, Some "New" Stuff!

2006-09-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

THQ Anim Test
Way back in April, I was contacted by the folks at THQ's new Kaos game studio. They were hiring animators for their first game (which I've since learned is called Frontlines: Fuel of War) and asked if I'd like to take an animation test for them. After nearly a year of not animating I jumped at the opportunity. They sent me a very light character and an audio file. I was to animate:

1) a run cycle with a rifle
2) a death animation
3) a pantomime to match the audio file they sent

I was all jazzed about it, but I had a problem. I don't own a PC or a copy of Maya. My wife has a Mac that I had installed Maya 6.0 PLE on at one time, but I had since removed it and now the only version available for download (7.0) would not install on her old version of OSX. I had to delay a bit so that I could borrow a friends PC for a while and installed PLE on it. Finally, I was ready and animated at night after work. I think the first two parts turned out ok, but the pantomime is a prime example of my tendency to over animate. It's just a whole bunch of squirmy movements. There aren't any real holds and there's no rhythm to it. Don't do what Donny-Don't does, kids!

So in the end, they liked the animations and asked if I wanted to move to Manhattan. As much as I'd love to animate for games someday, I wasn't too keen on living in the most expensive city in North America and I felt that if I stuck at my current studio there was a good chance I'd get to animate on a TV show or even our next feature film. So I told them "no" for now at least. So far my gamble seems to be paying off.

Smaller Demo Reel
Additionally, please note that I have posted a smaller version of my Demo Reel in the sidebar. I just thought that many people find 20+ MB too tiresome to download. So now there's a tiny version that's only 2.6MB. It is the same resolution, but with lower quality, and an ugly watermark since I was using the trial version of the Sorenson Squeeze software. It should download in a jiffy.

Everyone's Hero trailer in QT

2006-08-21T09:11:00.000-04:00

It's finally up on the Apple site in quicktime format. Should be much better than the previously released flash version. Here's the link for you: EH Trailer

Also, the official site has been updated with some downloadable content and information on the voice cast etc.

EH at SIGGRAPH (updated)

2006-08-01T17:22:00.000-04:00

Now with more pictures of the DKP/IDT Ent./Starz Anim booth:
(and yes, I hear it was just as confusing for the people who were there.)

Resurrection of Hand-Drawn Animation at Disney

2006-07-27T16:51:00.000-04:00

Woohoo! This is awesome news. Apparently Disney's recent ban on hand-drawn films has been lifted (thanks to the new Pixarite decision makers). The new project, currently referred to simply as Frog Princess puts a gender spin on the classic fairy tale and will feature the return of the dynamic "Ron&John" duo who brought us such recent classics as The Little Mermaid and Aladdin.

The first paragraph of this AWN article confirms it, and more details are layed out on the Luxo blog.

Now as exciting as this is, I have to remind myself that just because it's hand drawn doesn't mean it will be amazing, (just like people were wrong for thinking that just because a film is CG it will be successful) but I believe it WILL be amazing because the right people, who have the right mind-set, are making it. I think this is good news for the industry as a whole.

Monday's Little Surprise

2006-07-26T17:46:00.000-04:00

The Fight: Squirrel vs. Fiber-Optic Cable

The Result: One unexpected day off!

The Unofficial Truth about The Industry

2006-07-07T10:16:00.000-04:00

Joe, a senior character TD at Sony Imageworks has written a great faq about how the industry works and what is really important to employers. If you're trying to break into the industry, or even if you already work in animation and are tired of answering the same questions over and over, then head on over to CGTalk and read his post.

EH Movie Poster

2006-06-30T15:44:00.000-04:00

Just keep swim... er, uh... swinging!

(click image for a larger version)

IDT Gets Sheepish

2006-06-29T17:18:00.000-04:00

This Animation Magazine article discusses IDT Entertainment's current and upcoming slate of animated films. Included is a description of Sheepish, which tells the story of a wolf who violates a longstanding covenant when he attacks a certain flock of sheep. As punishment he is transformed into a sheep and learns how to be a better wolf in the process. The film will be animated at IDT's Toronto studio.

Everyone's Hero Trailer

2006-06-19T08:43:00.000-04:00

The trailer for Everyone's Hero was released over the weekend on the official movie website. It's in Flash format.

WATCH IT

Finally, I am officially an Animator!

2006-06-14T18:33:00.000-04:00

On Monday I started my first official job as a character animator. I'm working on a TV series that our studio (IDT Entertainment/Starz Media? I'm not really sure) is creating for Aardman. It's called Chop Socky Chooks and it's going to be a real blast to work on. This is the only released pic I've found. Sorry for the tiny size. It's the three main characters: Chucky, Chick P, and KO Joe.

The folks over at Mondo Media seem to like it: Kung Fu Chickens?

Official Site for Everyone's Hero

2006-06-14T18:20:00.000-04:00

It's been up for a while now, but just so you know, the official site for Everyone's Hero can be found HERE.

I'm looking for work

2006-05-19T11:31:00.000-04:00

I will be finishing up my role as Character Finaler on IDT Entertainment's "Everyone's Hero" (formerly known as "Yankee Irving") in June and am interested in a character animation position.

I am particularly interested in opportunities located in the Toronto area, but will also consider options that require relocation or remote freelance.

My portfolio is available using the links in the sidebar to the right ->

CG Film Quality Graph

2006-05-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

(The following is quoted directly from a post on CG-Char by Andrew Silke, so all the credit goes to him)

Someone at work noticed that if you read a list of cg films in chronological order it appeared to read like a best to worst list. So we graphed up the http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ film scores Vs year made. Here's what it looks like. (Jimmy Neutron is mistakenly missing)
Not sure of the accuracy because a couple of Pixar films score 100%. I think those are DVD reviews. But it sure makes for interesting viewing.

Also worth noting is the production house stats. Sure shows why Disney bought Pixar.

Production House RT Average Ratings
Pixar 5 films = 97.2%
Dreamworks 5 films = 72.6%
Blue Sky 3 films = 66%
Disney 3 films = 28%

Choice of site formats

2006-05-05T14:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I've tried three different options for free websites.

The first is this Blogger site, of course. It was very easy to set up and since it's just one page it means that minimal browsing is required to get to my demo reel, resume etc. Unfortunately that mean's that I have to limit the number of links I use and I can't use thumbnails or descriptions for my animations. Also, as a blog, it comes with the implied expectation to update frequently.

The second uses Google Pages and can be found here. It was rediculously easy to set up becuase I could just copy the html directly from my blogger page and BAM! it was done in like 10 minutes. This is a typical website with multiple pages. It's nice because I can have a page dedicated to my animations where I have plenty of room to write descriptions and provide thumbnails (which I haven't yet). I can easily drag and drop pictures anywhere and replace the banner image etc. It's the sort of site that I could upload and then forget about it for a year before my next update.

The third site uses Word Press and combines the best of both worlds, then adds some cons of its own. The front page is a blog, but I can also have a seperate page for my animations. Unfortunately it's not quite as easy to customize. I think I can edit the files offline and then upload them, but it's not just as simple as "click, click, done."

I'm leaning toward the WordPress site, but I want to work on it some more before I direct my domain in that direction.

My earliest, recorded animation

2006-04-20T12:47:00.000-04:00

Seeing as this is the beginning of my blog perhaps it would be appropriate to share one of my earliest animations.

This is something I dug up a few years ago and scanned. I don't remember exactly how old I was when I did this, but I would guess about 11-13 years old. The idea of a 'career' never entered my head at that age. I was just a kid who had to entertain himself quietly in church for an hour each week. Unfortunately, I used a PostIt-type pad so by the time I found it and decided to preserve it, there was already a significant number of pages missing. I made quite a few of these violent things. It was just so much fun!

Enjoy: Stick Fight

Is Blogger for me?

2006-04-12T16:21:00.000-04:00

*UPDATE* - New Site!

Brand spankin' new, and it only took a few minutes to setup, since I already have a domain name and hosting for media.

Check out my reel and stuff on the right.