Matthew Russell

TinTin kinda scares me...

2011-05-20T23:09:00.003-07:00

As much as I want to believe that this will be awesome, there's an underlying feeling of dread...and that sucks. Because everything I've seen looks great. The trailer, the images released at the beginning of the year. All of it looks great...except for TinTin. And that statement in itself is a bit misleading. It's not that Tintin looks bad, I wouldn't know really. We haven't been given a good look at him yet and THAT'S what has me worried. He's the lead, center, main character in this thing and they're giving him the Michael Jackson treatment (no, not giving him too much anesthetic) but hiding his face at every turn. They might as well have a surgical mask on him while he's dangling a baby off a balcony....wow, I took that Michael Jackson thing a little too far. Anyway, I know there have been marketing campaigns in the past based around keeping the final look of the character under wraps for as long as possible but I wouldn't think Tintin would fall into that category...I could be wrong but my fear is that in trying to ride some line between photo-real and stylized (which them seem to have pulled off pretty well with all the other characters I've seen) that, with Tintin, they may not have pulled it off...please be wrong, please be wrong, please be wrong...I'm hoping that if I say it enough I will be wrong. We'll see.

How Facebook almost killed this blog...

2011-05-19T19:47:00.002-07:00

Regardless of how you see Facebook, great connector or evil destroyer of lives (I see it as combination of both with a whole bunch of lazy thrown in for good measure) it is one thing for sure...convenient. By convenient I mean it's convenient for people to document every little detail of their lives on the fly...hooray for the iPhone, I guess. Anyway, it's also made it easier for me to comment on animation and industry related stories without ever having to remember what my blogger password is. Honestly, I'm not even sure how many people keep up with this blog anymore. Regardless (used that word twice in one post...win) I want to try to get back to posting here. Writing here just seems more intentional on both my part and the part of the reader. My posts aren't competing against fifteen status updates on "how much mean people suck" or "help me feed my tofurkey" on vegan-farmville. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Wish me luck.

What I've been doing...

2011-04-15T23:35:00.004-07:00

Portal 2 drops Monday. Myself and the talented team of guys I've been working with generated four web shorts and the television commercial for it in two months. This is the web short I (for lack of a better term) drove...good job robots.

"It's been a long time...."

2010-06-15T23:55:00.002-07:00

This is one of the things I've been working on the last couple of weeks. It's the teaser trailer for Portal2 that we debuted at Sony's stage today at E3. It was an absolute blast to work on...not just because the game kicks serious ass but because the crew I got to work with are amazing. Hope you like it.

Meet Meline...

2010-04-14T21:27:00.001-07:00

Just saw this today. Fun little short that was apparently made on the super cheap. Looks great. I haven't watched the "making of" video yet.

Beaker Rocks Out!!!

2010-02-16T10:25:00.002-08:00

Beaker Rocks Out!!!

2010-02-16T10:25:00.001-08:00

Animated Undead

2010-02-14T16:53:00.002-08:00

This is a fun trailer for an animated zombie flick called A.D.

A friend wasn't a fan of the style but I dig the idea of doing a no holds barred zombie flick in a super stylized way. I'm still waiting for an animated frankenstein flick based on the artwork of Bernie Wrightson...gawd, that would be awesome!

"Life As..." #1: Why the Hell are YOU an Animator!?!?!?

2010-02-02T23:58:00.010-08:00

I think about this one quite a bit. Not necessarily for myself. I'm very aware of all, well, most of the reasons why I got into and still love being an animator. I've always been curious why other people get into it.

When I was growing up movies, especially animated movies, were not "made." They were magic things that just showed up at the drive in (yeah, drive in.) I knew there were people involved somehow...the actors of course and the whole list of people in the credits had all kinds of bits and pieces to do with the movies creation. But, when I was 10, the idea of how these people actually made this wonderful story that I was watching that was sooo much bigger than life (especially my life in a small, southern town) was just as much a mystery as fission and girls. Add to that how something as wonderful as "The Secret of N.I.H.M." or "The Rescuers Down Under" or any of the "Warner Bros Shorts" was "made" and you just completely blew my mind.

It wasn't until I saw Jurassic Park (I wonder how many people tie that movie to their start in animation) that I knew I had to try. Not because of what I saw, as incredible as it was, but because of who did it. When I heard that Phil Tippet was key to making those beautiful dinosaurs come to life I was hooked. See, I enjoyed the classic Disney flicks but I loved, LOVED the stop motion films. King Kong, Mighty Joe Young, Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad series were the end all, be all. In the years leading up to Jurassic Park stop motion was being used less and less in film and there really were no large scale stories being told with it. The idea that one of my animation heroes was able to make the transition to this new (at the time) medium and help create this fantastic world...well, I knew I'd regret not at least trying to have my dream career. I haven't regretted it since.

Now, back to the original question. Why are YOU an animator? This is a somewhat rhetorical question of course. I don't expect anyone to post on here why they did (but I would love it if you do....feel free!) I ask because I'm curious as to how many people currently trying to get into the industry really know why. I actually had someone tell me because "it seems to be a growth industry."

You don't become an animator so you can be rich or famous. You don't do it because you want stability in your life. You don't do it because you want to work "bankers" hours and like your weekends to yourself. Animators are an odd crew by nature and we do this for any number of reasons. We want to make someone believe in a performance or we want to make dinosaurs walk or we want to have the "cool job" at the dinner party. Whatever it is, know your "reason." Know why you want to do this because when you have a director tell you your shots, that you spent countless hours of your life and brain cells over, are getting scrapped or you're working weekends for 7 months straight during crunch or your picking up and moving your family to start at a new studio, well, that "reason" is one of the only things you're gonna have to help push you through those times. Make sure it's a good one.

So, what's your reason? Why the hell are YOU an animator?

Life as a Video Game Animator*

2010-01-31T19:28:00.005-08:00

I had the good fortune to celebrate my third year at Valve back in August of 09. And, to be honest, I think it took me almost all three of those years to really find "myself" in both games and at Valve. All of my time as an animator up until that point had been with DNA doing film and tv work. The last few weeks (and few months to be honest) I've gotten to a point where I finally feel like I've found what works for me and in turn what that means for my work at Valve. I thought I'd share some of that (not that anyone really asked for it, but I thought I'd share anyway.) This "sharing" will start back at DNA, since that's where this crazy, wonderful, journey I've been on started, and will go all the way through....well, who knows. I can't guarantee I'll be the most timely with my posts but I will get them out as often as I can. My first post in this is going to be "Why the hell did you become and animator anyway?"...I thought it an appropriate if not clichéd way to start.

*You'll notice the little (*) at the end of the title. That's because all studios are different and my life as a game animator at Valve may be completely different than an animator at Infinity Ward or Naughty Dog or Blizzard. As a matter of fact I can almost guarantee we all lead very different and unique work lives.

Goodbye "Crazy Legs"

2010-01-25T15:05:00.003-08:00

http://www.teamfortress.com/

Edge of Darkness

2010-01-24T22:23:00.002-08:00

"You'd better decide. Are you the one hangin' on the cross or bangin' in the nails."

Mel Gibson has a new flick coming out 1/29/10. Looks like a good revenge flick. I've always had a weird soft spot for those since I would sneak and watch Charles Bronson in "Death Wish" when I was a kid. Here's hoping that Mel can deliver.

Welcome new peeps!!!

2009-12-16T00:35:00.003-08:00

One of the things I've loved about Valve is that I'm surrounded by some of the smartest and most talented people I've had the pleasure of working with. Another thing I love is when new "smart and talented people" start at Valve. And even another thing I love is when someone I worked with before and have really, really, reeeeaaaaallllly wanted to work with again starts working at Valve. "Whatever could you be talking about Matthew?" Well, come sit on Santa's lap and let me tell ya...Mike Belzer and Keith Lango started at Valve!!!

I met Mike "officially" last year at CG-Con but have known of him through his work and through Animation Mentor for a long time.

Like pretty much any cg animator getting started in the last 10 years I've been very familiar all things Lango. Plus I had the good fortune of working with Keith at DNA on "The Ant Bully."

These two have forgotten more about animation than I feel like I know most days. Having them working with me on TeamFortress2 has been the hottest inspirational fire I've had lit under my ass in a long time and love it.

"Reach"

2009-12-15T15:37:00.002-08:00

Love this student film by Luke Randall. It's probably my favorite Animation Mentor student film so far.

Tips-n-Tricks

2009-12-14T23:21:00.002-08:00

I did a write up for AnimationMentor's tips and tricks blog. They started posting my answers today. The new avatar was done by my bud Drew Wolf who works with me on TF2.

Another Movie that didn't Suck...

2009-10-04T01:08:00.002-07:00

I picked up "Monsters vs. Aliens" today and watched it with the fam. It didn't suck!!! Not only that but my lovely wife enjoyed it as well.

Now just to give you a little bit of insight. Our oldest is a lot like me when it comes to watching movies. We sit down and the moment our eyes focus on the screen we'd prefer it if no one bothers us until said movie is over (unless it sucks really badly, like Transformers 2.) We don't like getting pulled out of the moment. I mean, G would sit and watch "Spirited Away" from start to finish at age 3 (I was so proud.)

My wife and our youngest are very similar when it comes to watching movies. First off, they like to ask you exactly what just happened, what is currently happening and what is about to happen. It makes little difference if I'm seeing this movie for the first time as well. I'm dad and therefore should know all when it comes to whatever movie we are watching. I will occasionally resort to making crap up just to see the reaction I get when it doesn't play out like I told 'em. Yeah, evil, I know.

Anyway...we sat down and watched "Monsters vs. Aliens" all the way through. No bathroom breaks, no taking the dogs out because they're barking at the back door, no...anything. One straight shot all the way through. It was, well, really nice.

I think we're ready to have a regular family movie night.

I wonder how they'd feel about "Zombieland"?

Because I need to stay in the habit...

2009-10-04T00:53:00.002-07:00

I have nothing specific to say...

...my beautiful wifey spent all day Friday ill and in bed (she's doing much better today!!!)

...we're finishing crunch on L4D2...hooray!!!

...I had my first rehearsal for the Nutcracker (should be interesting.)

...my brain is full.

Dr Horrible, not so horrible....

2009-09-30T23:49:00.002-07:00

I have no idea why I didn't watch Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog when it hit the web last year. But I am glad I got to watch it all the way through on dvd...Hooray Net Flix.

In a nutshell, awesome. I know some people were torn about the ending (not giving it away in case other folks are like me and have waited waaaaay to long to watch this thing.) But as any comic book geek knows, it ended the way it needed to end. Oh, and N.P.H. is the man.

Hooray!!! Flash Forward doesn't suck....

2009-09-29T00:09:00.002-07:00

I've been seeing the promos for 'FlashForward' on ABC almost nonstop for the last month or so. The idea sounded pretty cool, the entire world blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During that "black out" almost everyone has memories from six months in the future....

Now, this could have gone either way. David Goyer co-created, writes and directs the first episode. Going into this that's before and AWESOME thing and , well, a not so awesome thing. As a writer Goyer can be top notch. I mean, come on, his was the brainchild behind "The Dark Knight", "Batman Begins", "Blade" and "Blade 2" not to mention "Dark City". Yeah, he's written some stinkers too but we have proof that the man's got some writing talent. This lends itself to the AWESOME I mentioned a moment ago. My fear came into play when I read the "directed by" slot that had his name in it also. Here Goyer's track record is less "awesome" and more "really? that's the same guy that wrote Dark Knight?" I'm very happy to say that Goyer can now add his first solid notch on his directing belt.

As for the rest of the crew comprising the show, everyone has dedinitely brought their "A game." Joseph Fiennes is solid as the show's lead FBI agent who quickly finds himself square in the middle of trying to untangle the story behind this global event. Goyer surrounds him with a top tier cast. I was expecting a heavy handed mess but the show plays off very assured in it's execution. The fact that they managed to cram at least the framework of this global event and introduce the major players without feeling rushed or forced was great.

ABC has managed to drag me into another hour of tv viewing because I really do want to see how this all plays out. They've already established characters I'm interested in and set up a possible future that has the possibility to be absolutely facincating and heart breaking. If you're a fan of "Lost" or (let's go back a bit) loved the first 3 season of X-files then you'll probably enjoy "FlashForward."

....if you don't like it, that's fine....not everyone likes fun or awesome things. I hear there's a "Murder She Wrote" marathon over on TNT that should be right up your alley.

It's a Dog's Life

2009-09-28T00:24:00.002-07:00

My wife and I picked Chloe out of a litter of 12 puppies. She was the second largest pup and the largest female. Technically she was a yellow lab but her fur was so light that a lot of folks called her a white lab.

We decided to get a dog because we wanted to have kids. I know that sounds odd but we had been climbing up the ladder of things we could love and keep alive. My wife had a cat already when we got married. Shortly after that we adopted another cat from the Humane Society. A year after that we adopted a kitten. We loved every new member of our family and they all got along like, well, family.

Chloe was our "transitional child". The step between a kitten (which requires a polite point in the direction of it's litter box and food bowl) and a child (which requires a hell of a lot more than a polite point.)

We brought her home when she was 7 weeks old. I was in art school at the time so I got to spend tons of time with her. There was the occasional bout of "why the hell did we get a dog?!?!" But way more often than not each day with her was just a little more fun than the one before it. We even based a new car purchase on the fact that Chloe was too big to sit on the seat of my little, Nissan pick-up truck. Big was an understatement...at 7 months she was already 70 pounds. She would top out at just under 100 pounds. Our vet called her our "big framed gal."

Chloe was 2 when our first daughter was born. That was when we started calling her the "gentle giant." Except for the occasional grumble (sounding more like a cranky old man than a dog) Chloe never once showed anything but love and patience with our girls. She was almost too good. Our daughters assumed that all dogs the size of small ponies must be as sweet as her. We managed to teach them that's not always the case. Chloe's sweet disposition was also the deciding factor in us adopting our second dog. Bliss (she came with that name so it stayed) was our rescue dog and quickly became Chloe's best friend. Chloe and Bliss would spend the next several years almost completely inseparable. Bliss has her issues so they quickly became known as "tweedle dee and tweedle dumb-ass."

Last year Chloe had her "episode." She collapsed. We took her to the emergency vet. We found out that she had internal bleeding and they ended up removing her spleen. Chloe had cancer. Hemangiosarcoma to be exact. We opted out of traditional chemo and went the "alternative route." We decided to do this because we couldn't bare the idea of her spending time feeling bad because of the treatment. The type of cancer she had guaranteed that she only had a short time and we wanted that time to be as quality as it could be. We were told we'd had 3 months if we were lucky...we got 8. They were an incredible 8 months too. Chloe did have some bad days but more often than not her days were really good. I cherished those days as did my wife. We knew what was inevitable so getting to spend this extra time with here was priceless.

I was in Austin on business when my wife called. Chloe was having a bad day. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't one of her normal bad days. She was bleeding internally again and the vet believed that the cancer had finally spread to her liver. My wonderful, incredible and loving wife made sure that Chloe's last bit of time with us was peaceful and filled with love.

Every room now seems to have a huge hole in it where our gentle giant should be. Some folks will probably read this and think, "dude, it's just a dog." That's fine. They don't get it and I don't expect them to. But to us she was more than a dog. Chloe helped us get ready for the much larger decisions in our life. She made our children smile daily (not every child has a giant dog that will patiently wear a tutu and a wig.) She was always there with unconditional love no matter how far I drug her across country (we did find out that she was a mountain girl at heart.) I think about her every morning as I walk Bliss and Maggie (our other dog.) Chloe was sweet, loving, gentle natured and one of my best friends.

.....I miss you "bugga."

Curse you Facebook.....

2009-09-07T22:10:00.001-07:00

I just realized it's been 6 months since I've posted on here....good gawd!!!

Kahn!!!

2009-03-30T20:24:00.003-07:00

You know what I'm talkin' 'bout Burke...oh yes you do.

Rectum?...damn near killed 'em.

2009-03-27T17:34:00.004-07:00

Let's all just take a moment of silence for my poor dead car. I got this car right after I started at DNA. It was my "daddy/family car" and it did a damn fine job of it. It's seen me through the birth of both my beautiful girls, 3 moves (one cross country), 2 movies, a tv series and my new venture into the gaming industry. I'll miss it....I had a really good butt groove going.

You will be missed...especially since you were paid off....damn car payments!!!

"Bolt" to see this movie...

2008-11-28T17:36:00.002-08:00

So while my lovely lady was out having some "lovely lady time" I took our girls to see Bolt...which is a way of saying I wanted to see Bolt and she had other "not nearly as fun as seeing Bolt" things to do and since, when it comes to seeing movies the girls and I think on the same level, the girls came with me.

As far as movie watching attention spans go, my youngest's attention span lasts about as long as the popcorn does so to say that she was all wiggly about half way through should come as no surprise. My oldest and I, on the other hand, were completely caught up in the show. I really enjoyed this movie. Disney' earlier efforts into 3D were pretty hit and miss with Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons. But with Bolt I think they're really starting to show signs of the good storytelling we all used to get excited about at the mere mention of a Disney animated film. That's not to say this film is perfect, it is a little paint by numbers with the story but it never sinks into pop culture quicksand the way so many animated films feel like they have to do to make a profit.

One thing that I really enjoyed with the story is the omission of a real villain. Much like Finding Nemo this is very much a roadtrip of self discovery and the only real badguys are the ones in Bolt's T.V. world.

I haven't seen Mad 2 yet so I can't comment on it but I will say that for the most part Bolt adds to a wonderful string of animated films that have been released over the last year or so starting with Horton Hears a Who. It's been really exciting seeing an animated film in theaters and thinking to myself "I really can't wait to get that when it comes out on DVD."

I hate the Mac guy.....

2008-09-12T15:57:00.004-07:00

....but I looooooooove my new iphone. Much like I did with the internet, sugarfree redbull and "ninja warrior"...I'm trying to figure out how I lived without it.

"The Goon"

2008-08-24T16:03:00.001-07:00

Saw this over at cgchar:

Blur Gets a Film

Friday, 11 July 2008

The Hollywood Reporting is saying that Dark Horse Entertainment, David Fincher and animation house Blur Studios are teaming up to bring cult comic "The Goon" to the movies as a CG-animated film.

Created by Eric Powell in 1999, the comic follows the adventures of a muscle-bound brawler who claims to be the primary enforcer for a feared mobster. The stories have a paranormal and comedic edge to them and concern ghosts, zombies, mad scientists and "skunk apes." Dark Horse has been publishing the comic since 2003.

Messin' around...

2008-08-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

I hates me some lawnwork...

2008-08-17T10:47:00.001-07:00

....yeah, not a fan.

Crap or No-Crap....

2008-08-15T01:43:00.013-07:00

Wanted: Mix 1/2 awesome gun porn with 1/2 crap, toss is the awesomeness of Angelina. Bake for 20 minutes too long and you get "meh"

Horton: All the Suess, non of the crap. Mmmm, delicious.

HB2: More crap free than the first one.

Iron Man looked crap right in the face, then melted it with his repolsors...Hellz Yeah!!!

Kung fu Panda: Dung Fu?.....Noooooo. This Kung Fu is stronger than yours! Two for two on the animation front....niiiiiiiice.

Primer: That's some trippy shit, yo.

Step Brothers: Laughed till I pooped a little.

The Incredible Hulk: Only the faint aroma of doggy bombs in a couple places. The rest is like a big, green, ass-whoopin, summers breeze.

Wall-E: Genius...three fantastic animated films this year. Makes me excited for the industry again.

The Dark Knight: Batman beats the crap out of it. Joke scares the crap out of it...what more can I say. Plus it has the single best magic trick ever put on film.

Ok, that's about it. More to come....eventually.

Fun with friends....

2008-07-07T21:27:00.002-07:00

So the holiday weekend was a blast. My wife and I had our best friends from Dallas up and we got to show them around town. Fun was had by all as well as a nice get together at our place that included some grillin' action and a nice, polite game of poker...just between friends of course. It is sad to have to borrow cash off of your 7 year old so you can pay the buy-in. On the plus side, daddy won (or co-won) and I was able to repay her with interest (thanks to my lovely wife for adding in that extra bit-o-fun.)

Anyway, our friends flew back today and we already miss them Hopefully we will be making our own trip to Dallas soon so we won't have to mope around the house for too long.

Damnit, that hurts...

2008-06-23T23:29:00.002-07:00

About a bazillion years ago when I spent quality time with Uncle Sam and my wonderful brothers in green, I had a disagreement with a large piece of equipment. The piece of equipment won (well him and his friend gravity....gravity can be a real sonovabitch.) Since them I'm occasionally reminded of this incident when my back decides to sit back in it's easy chair, drink a beer, give me the finger and take some time off. This time has been a doozy but with the wonders of modern medicine, physical therapy and a wife so freaking awesome she mowed the lawn so I could lay on the couch and whimper (like a small, malnourished chihuahua with a nervous condition and weak bladder) I'm making the slow move towards recovery. I'll let you know how it goes.

Spy's bloggin' my sentry...

2008-06-23T23:20:00.003-07:00

Team Fortress 2 has it's own blog. Here's some insight as to why:
"Now that we've settled into regular releases of content, we've found ourselves wanting a better way to talk directly to the TF2 community about the state of the game and some of the reasoning behind the choices we're making...."

Not to much is up yet but there will be as we keep churning out quality, wholesome bloodshed and violence.

**UPDATE**

Duh, guess it would help if I actually gave the link. You can read all the TF2-ish goodness here.

Meet the Sniper

2008-06-23T23:12:00.002-07:00

This is the newest in the "Meet the ..." shorts for the TF2 characters. Andrew, Aaron and the rest of the guys that put this one together did an outstanding job. This is probably my favorite but they're all so damn good it's hard to decide. I hope you enjoy this as much as i do.

Ok, ok, ok....

2008-05-26T23:40:00.002-07:00

So the other day two of the three people that actually read this thing I call my blog held me down and beat me with a sock full of quarters and interrogated me under harsh lighting until I cracked and told them why I hadn't been posting...ok, by "beat me with a sock full of quarters" I mean "sat next to me at a friend's bbq this weekend" and by "interrogated me" I mean "handed me a beer and said, why don't you post on your damn blog you lazy bastard?"

Either way I got the point. I say two of the people because the third is ordered by law to stay at least 100 yards away at all times (I love you too Andrew, just not "that way".)

So, yeah...I need to get my lazy ass moving. I think I'm just gonna go ahead and give the whole site a overhaul while I'm at it. I hope things are well in your neck of the woods...if you don't happen to live by woods then insert your own appropriate geographic settings.

"Juno I like dis film..."

2008-01-04T23:53:00.000-08:00

God that sucked balls but you work with what your brain cells give you...and mine have been giving me a lot of stuff that sucks balls lately. Thank god for "Juno". My wife and I made it out on a much needed date night and since we'd managed to pawn both our midgets off to a friend under the guise of a "sleep-over" we didn't have to make the choice of either dinner or a movie. Anyway, I am so glad we didn't have to choose because dinner was fabulous (the undone button of my jeans can attest to that) and Juno is my favorite movie of the new year and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be pretty damn tough to knock it off it's high horse for a while. Plus, as Juno, Ellen Page has solidified her status as one of my current movie faves in addition to her turns in both "Hard Candy" and as Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3. She is definitely too cool for school. And you don't have to believe me...my wife liked it too and except for a brief laps in judgment when she said "yes" she's got a good head on her shoulders about these kinds of things.

AM Fall 2007 Student Showcase...

2007-10-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from mentoring at AM this quarter...first break in a couple years. It's good to see this and remember why I love being a part of it all in the first place.

Movie "Recrap"...

2007-10-17T21:38:00.000-07:00

Been catching up on some flicks...some were ok...most were pure shite.

Here's the rundown:

crap

crap

crap...but with boobies and a "Bobbitt" for good measure

not crap...until the last 15 minutes. then mildly crap-esque.

definitely crap-free...unless you hate fun

Meet the Demo...

2007-10-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

Andrew says he'll buy a beer for whoever can guess what he's saying under the beep...oh, and Jamaal rocks the block.

ZeroPunctuation!!!

2007-10-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Funniest reviews...makes me feel like my daughter's "baby alive" doll...I want to giggle and pee myself.

In Loving Memory...

2007-09-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Joe Riley died yesterday. For those of us lucky enough, blessed enough to have known him, worked with him, talked to him about all things nerdy, stupid and fun...Joe was a great person. Joe was one of those people you're always happy to see, always make time to talk to. One of the most talented artists I've ever known.

menooshea.blogspot.com

We miss you Joe.

No Mo...

2007-09-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

In case any of you were wondering (and I know some of you are) there is no motion capture of any kind in TF2 (the game or the videos.) It's all hand crafted keyframe goodness.

Meet the Engineer!!!

2007-09-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

...watch it, live it, love it. You're my hero Andrew Burke....you are the wind beneath my wings.

Meet the Soldier!!!

2007-08-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

This is the newest class short for the TF2 crew. I love this one...Aaron Halifax is my hero. And for those that are curious....yes, there will be more. :D

Purdy thangs to look at...

2007-08-14T22:41:00.000-07:00

Every time I go to Sarah's site I'm always amazed at how great her work is...plus I like flying bunnies...now if I could just get one that has a missile launcher.

Fjorg ahead!!!

2007-08-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

Siggraph 2007 once again had the thrill of competative animation with the "FJORG!!!"...I added the caps and exclamation points because it was pretty damn cool. From the Siggraph site...

"SIGGRAPH 2007 officials, along with DreamWorks Animation, HP, and AMD, announced the winners of the world's first international FJORG! Competition - an "iron animator" event in which 16 competing teams from around the world had 32 hours to create the most impressive character-driven animation of at least 15 seconds in length adhering to at least one of two themes and using at least one of 16 sound bites. Based on storytelling, animation talent, use of resources, creativity, and technical skills, the judges selected Team Mocap from Bowling Green State University for their animation "Switch" as the first place winners. The team consists of Jim Levasseur, Tomas Jech, and W. Jacob Gardner. Picture This, a team from Miami International University of Art & Design came in second place and Impulse, from The Illinois Institute of Art-Schaumburg, won third place."

...take a sec and look through these...there's some really fun stuff and some, er, really interesting stuff. But even the "interesting" stuff is cool considering all the constraints involved.

Can't wait till next year.

"Your Number's Up...."

2007-07-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Not to long ago I finished reading Stephen King's book "Cell". That would have been the end of that except that's it's been a while since I've finished a book that wasn't either about animation/writing/film making or some kind of non-fiction ( I loves me some Sarah Vowel).

T.M.I. ALERT....

Most of my reading takes place in the brief time I'm either in the bathroom or before I fall asleep.

...end T.M.I. Alert

Anyway, so finding a book that held my attention long enough to set time aside to finish it was nice. Then I realized that none of my other blogging pals have posted book reviews...most just give their oppinions in the form of a single "witty" image (yeah, I'm calling you out Burkey Pants)...the closest other friends have gotten is to actually write and publish a book (so, yeah...a little envious of the talents of one Deanna Molinaro)...and others have had their artwork and stories published on some high falutin' compilation ( thanks for adding to my inferiority complex Sarah)...But I digress, despite all of these wonderful things that they have done I've yet to see a single book review (and if someone points me to a link of one that I've missed I will immediately close my eyes, stick my fingers in my ears and scream over and over "I'm not listening, I'm not listening.)

That being said, I've taken it upon myself to post my feedback on "Cell"by Stephen King....

I liked it and the ending didn't suck.

Cheers

"Return of the Digital Dead"

2007-07-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Why?....why, why, why???? Why do you do this to us Mr Zemeckis? Do you not like animators?...actors?...the general viewing public? Huh? You almost had me thinking their might be hope for "performance crapture" with the damn near brilliant Monster House...so why go back to the land of Polar Depress. Seems that's just what Mr Zemechis has done with his latest offering, Beowulf. Personally I think Zack Snyder's approach with 300 would have been perfect for this. Don't give me the corpse of Anthony Hopkins spouting stiff dialog...give me the real thing spouting stiff dialog. Take all that time, money and effort and surround your world class actors with a believable world to tell a compelling story in. Ultimately it feels like the failings of a flawed and untrusting director. Not secure enough to commit to anything but wanting control over everything. Yeah, this technique gives him control over everything in the scene...to find that "sweet spot" we're told...I've yet to see that "sweet spot" in either Polar Express or any of this footage for Beowulf. And this isn't me knocking the process as a whole...like I said before, I LOVE Monster House. It's a shame that more exploration into stylizing his world and characters wasn't put into this project because this could have had tons of potential...tons. And on a side note...why the hell would I want to see a dead eyed Angelina Jolie when i can rent a handfull of films that show the real her.....naked.

Live Free or....

2007-07-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

Die semi-hard...just this side of needing viagra. Loved Bruce Willis...hell, even the"Mac Guy" was ok...but this was about as generic a summer action film as it gets. Anyway, Timothy Olyphant better not screw up Hitman.

tubed on the intermetsss...

2007-06-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah, everyone else and their mom is posting this but, hey, funny is funny.

and besides, I likes me some prairie dogs.

Please oh please oh please.....pt 2

2007-06-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

Like I said in the prior post, the first images I saw for The Incredibles had me excited from the start. There was something different and unique. It was as close as Pixar had ever really come to something dark.....except for the opening 5 minutes of Nemo. Sweet Moses Malone, that opening made Bambi's mom taking a bullet look like something from a Precious Moments catalog. Anyway, The Incredibles was filled with aspects of that darkness, that "bad things can happen to good people and even good kids." There was real conflict between Helen and Bob. To me, it felt like Pixar was shooting for something different. Not all moody and brooding, but honest and accessible.

That potential looks like it might be there again with Wall-E. I have no idea if it is going to be dark or brooding or have marital arguments over the kids but from some of the rumors flying around it definitely sounds like Pixar is going for different and potentially ballsy. I hope this works out. I really want to be excited over the release of an animated film again. Between Wall-E and Horton Hears a Who, 2008 might be a very exciting year.

*see trailer HERE

Please oh please oh please.....

2007-06-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

I'm intentionally avoiding everything I can about Ratataouille. The trailers look pretty unimpressive....but I thought the same about Monsters, Nemo and The Incre....ok, bull, I loved the Incredibles from the first moment I laid eyes on Bob Parr's round, spandex covered belly. But Nemo and Monsters were way iffy starting out. With both of those films I was soooo happy to go in not expecting perfection but getting it (or a close damn approximation of it) up on the screen anyway (I still love you Luxo.) I'm hoping that happens again with Rat.

Ok, off the crunch and on a roll....

2007-06-17T21:56:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm getting crap for not posting enough...even though I'm pretty sure there's still only like, maybe, four people who read this thing. Anyway, I should be able to get back to posting something worth reading now. I've got a couple folks I want you guys to meet...and if they're willing to answer my list-o-dumbass questions...I should have something up soon.

Cheers!

Wild Life Abounds...

2007-06-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

So the dogs were outside freaking out and I'm all like "what the...?" and the dogs are all like "bark, bark, bark"...and I'm all ticked because they know I don't speak dog that well, especially when they're talking all fast 'en stuff. Right about then the rest of the family bum rushes me to explain that the dogs were getting gang signs flashed at them by a passing deer...which is strange since deer don't really have the appendages for proper gang signage. Anyway, we have deer in them there hills. I love it here.

And the cool award goes to....

2007-05-22T15:52:00.001-07:00

This is Kathy...she's a friend of mine who happens to be the most kickass HR person in the history of both HR and persons....oh, and she's cooooooooooooool.

luvs ya Kathy

The Way of the Future!!!!

2007-05-17T10:31:00.001-07:00

"Can you outsmart bullet?"

2007-05-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

So now what do we do?

2007-05-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

So I have a friend (surprise!) named Wade who (with another friend named Andrew...not that Andrew, a different one) made a book. It's an awesome book of sketches, drawings and all around mayhem.

Wade and Andrew's book is available for purchase HERE!

I love this book like mean people love kicking puppies...so, a lot.

You will like this book...I garauntee it. I'm so sure you will like this book that if you buy it and don't like it I will personally call you a dumbass for having bad taste.

Enjoy!

Busy and sick and busy again

2007-05-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

Between crunch at Valve, the current quarter of Animation Mentor and buying and being in the process of moving into a new house...well, not a lot of time has been going into the old website. so in the mean time I leave you with...
...me with my dumbass manchu and strange straw hat....your kung fu is good, but my kung fu has a dorky hat.

Ron Burgundy would be proud....

2007-04-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

Not Since Ron Burgundy has the jazz flute been this cool....ok, never in the history of anything has jazz flute been this cool.

Art am pretty....

2007-04-06T00:29:00.000-07:00

I love this industry because you can't throw a stick without hitting an incredible artist...and believe me, I throw sticks all the time....big ones, with nails in them. So after my last round of stick wielding mayhem I came across a friend's website just chock-full-of arty beautifulness.

Andrea is one of the artists at Valve, and like all of them I hate them a little every day for being so damned talented and making the rest of us want to see them get hit in the head with a stick or something...deja vu?...I think not ( love ya Andrea.) Anyway, take a trip on over to Andrea's site and bask in her artistic brothy goodness. It'll make you a better person and earn you brownie points with god.

Sweep the leg

2007-03-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hamish's word of the day....

2007-03-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Any of you that read my blog....all four of you...know that I'm lucky enough to call Hamish McKenzie my buddy, my pal, my dear old chum (becasue if you put him in the water, sharks come a swimmin'.) One of the many, many other things that I find so gosh darn swell about Hamish is his never ending ability to increase my vocabulary with the wonderfully discriptive vernacular of the Australian peoples.

Todays phrase: "That's the duck's nuts"

That just leaves a mental image that is both distrubing and freakin' hysterical all at the same time.

Remember, use it three times and an angle gets it's wings, then kills a kitten.

9 to get feature treatment

2007-03-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

Over at Ain't it Cool News they have a small write up on Shane Acker's dark and wonderfull short film "9". Seems like Tim Burton has taken a liking to it and is setting Shane up to direct a feature version full of big name star voice talent. I hope they keep the feel of the short. Will be interesting to see though since so much of the great vibe of the short comes from the fact that it's all in the body performances. Not a word needed to be spoken.

Anyway, here's the short...sorry for the quality. Youtube probably isn't the best venue to present this fine piece of work.

Caught like a rat in a trap...

2007-03-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice over seas trailer for Pixar and Brad Bird's next flick. Kinda slow but still beautiful. I'm looking forward to Ratatouille. I wasn't a huge fan of Cars and I'm hoping this is a return to form for the house that Luxo built. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it by any means. It's beautiful...BEAUTIFUL if every respect except story, which is why it was a disappointment. I know "they" say there are no original ideas left (which, for the most part is true according to the never ending flood of mediocrity spewing onto the movie screens) but Pixar's strength was taking that idea and making it their own and making it "their own" made it feel fresh and new...well to me at least. Cars didn't feel like that, it didn't feel like it was a story unique to the talents of the great story department in Emeryville. I'm not saying that every other Pixar film is perfect, but man, they're all damn entertaining and all in my top 20 animated films. Cars story felt, well, plain and predictable. I guess it's kinda hard to follow something like The Incredibles and maybe that has biased my opinion of Cars...wow, have I gone off on a tangent. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to Rata-ta-tat-tat-tatouille.

Heros in a Half Shell !!!

2007-03-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

I loved TMNT when they came out in the original black and white comics. I loved TMNT when they came out with the animated series. Dear lord, I loved TMNT when the video game hit and sucked up countless quarters and I even loved all of the live action movies....yeah, even the one with Vanilla Ice in it. I was a little leery about the idea of a new Turtle movie. It just felt like all the other 80's merchandise that's making a comeback...but man, after seeing this last trailer/featurette I have to say that I am seriously excited about this. This is fun, different...it's not talking, fuzzy, smart ass animals trying to out smart the humans and live happily ever after...it's talking, smart ass, genetically altered reptiles who eat pizza and kick ass....the only thing that would make this better would be if they fought hordes of the undead. They could be our only hope (since Zombies obviously don't eat turtles....d'uh!)...ok, I digress. This movie will own the monkey's heinie.

Spline-ly Explained

2007-03-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

The uber talented and damn good-lookin' Victor Navone has a new tutorial up about the mysteries of the spline. Part 1 of a 2 parter, Victor get's into the importance of good spline work as well as looking behind the curtain at what splines really are. A definite must read especially for those who would rather hide under the covers and whimper and cry than open up the graph editor.

The Animation Show on I-Tunes

2007-03-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

Cartoon Brew posted that you can now find The Animation Show in nice bite sized chunks over at the i-tunes for $1.99 each.

A few years ago I loaded up the truck and headed down to Austin with some friends to catch this at the Alamo Draft house. Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt were there along with a million adoring fans...ok, closer to a couple hundred drunk animation geeks. It was tons of fun and ended with a 2am run to the I-Hop down the street from our hotel...all of us enjoyed the goodness of pankcakes, except for Gas. He was too busy being unconscious.

UPDATE: E-mail is back up

2007-03-07T09:37:00.000-08:00

Back....

2007-02-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

We're back. The trip was a blast and I can't wait to get some pics up. Hamish took this picture of the ship....damn that thing was huge.

Purple and Brown....

2007-02-10T00:43:00.000-08:00

I don't get to see Keith Lango get all soft inside about a lot of stuff so it was really fun reading his post about Ardman's "Purple and Brown " shorts. Stop by and read his post then hop on over to YouTube for all the fun. If you don't laugh at these then you're dead inside

Geri's Game Redux

2007-02-10T00:33:00.000-08:00

Caught this over at Cartoon brew. Remember when they did a shot for shot remake of Psycho?...it took me a while to like a Vince Vaughn film again and, well, Gus Van Sant is dead to me. But this take on Geri's game feels like an homage to me and a definite labor of geek filled love.

News from the House of Mouse...

2007-02-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

Got this, from of all places, Aint it cool news....

"Toy Story 3" is coming in 2009, but John Lasseter won't be the director.

In addition to confirming for the first time that a third "Toy Story" is in the works, most likely for 2009 release, Lasseter said Lee Unkrich will helm it. Unkrich co-directed "Toy Story 2," "Monsters, Inc." and "Finding Nemo" but has never before been sole helmer on a Pixar pic…

Michael Arndt, Oscar-nominated scribe of "Little Miss Sunshine," is penning the script.
Lasseter also revealed a behind-the-scenes shift at Walt Disney Feature Animation -- which is separate from Pixar but also under the control of Lasseter and Catmull -- by announcing that Chris Williams, a vet story artist at the Mouse, is now directing 2008 release "American Dog." Pic was developed and previously under the control of "Lilo & Stitch" helmer Chris Sanders, who recently left Disney.
Catmull denied speculation that Walt Disney Feature Animation may become a 2-D-only studio, with Pixar handling CGI, though he did confirm the Mouse will bring back hand-drawn pics.

"We're really excited about that and have brought back some great directors to work on that," he said, presumably referring to "The Frog Princess," a 2-D pic being developed by "Aladdin" and "Treasure Planet" helmers Ron Clements and John Musker, whom Lasseter brought back to Disney last year. That pic is believed to be on the fast track and may be the division's next release after "American Dog."

...I am excited about 2D coming back to the house of mouse (but most of us have known that for a bit) and I'm interested in seeing Lee Unkrich on his own but I'm not sure about "An American Dog" without Chris Sanders. And, honestly, TS2's ending...well, I wasn't a huge fan of the ending but it felt like a pretty good period at the end of that story. No one wanted to see it done by Disney sans Pixar and I'm really not sure I want to see it done by Pixar at this point. Wasn't it just a couple years ago that Jobs said they had more than enough original content, what's the point of doing sequels?....well Mr Lasseter, what's the point?

In the coolest places...

2007-02-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so Ernesto Bottger is the coolest of cool. We worked together at DNA and now he's at ReelFX. Back in 2005 Ernesto's short film "Help" was selected to be in the Nicktoons Animation Festival. Well, last night I'm making my way through content on the old x-box live when what to my wandering eyes should appear but the Nicktoons filmfestival and Ernesto's short. If you're on x-box live just go to Video Marketplace/TV Shows/Networks/Nicktoons/2005-Nicktoons Animation Festival: Episode 5...man, that was a mouth full. If you don't have an x-box or x-box live you can still see the short here...but you won't be as cool, your friends will laugh at you and the terrorists will win.

Fog of War

2007-02-05T03:15:00.000-08:00

Depending on which way you lean on the current state of our union this is a worthwhile flick. The saying "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" came to mind during the second half.

Dollface

2007-02-03T00:46:00.000-08:00

A subtle or not so subtle piece on the results of trying to attain the perfect images we see on tv.

A big "Bowl of Robinsons"

2007-02-03T00:25:00.000-08:00

Disney's "Meet the Robinson's" super bowl ad. I really want this one to be good. Chicken Little had some really good moments in it but , story wise , wasn't much more than fluff.

Walling in da house.....

2007-02-01T02:17:00.000-08:00

My buddy Mike Walling has a new version of his sight up and running. Pop on over and take a looksy wontcha? If you know Mike then you know he'll be good at keeping fresh stuff posted in his blog section as well as having some fun work of his own up. And be careful or you just might learn a thing or two...stay in school, don't do drugs.

Ratatouille Test......back again

2007-01-29T23:41:00.000-08:00

Not sure how long this will be up. Fun little bit of test animation. I'm looking forward to Pixar characters with arms and legs again. Enjoy.

UPDATE: Yup, it got yanked. Didn't think it would last long but it was more than enough to wet my appetite to see it when it hits theaters. So, in it's stead the Ratatouille Trailer.....in German!

Auf Wiedersehen!!!

UPDATED UPDATE: yeah, it's back....enjoy.

Weird news of the day....

2007-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

I'm now an ordained minister with all the rights and obligations that that entails. Now Andrew and I are going to start our own ass kicking, evil fighting, gang of clergy and maybe start our own church...but definetly the evil fighting part for sure.

Chairman of the Board

2007-01-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

I love this piece the same way I loved the old sand animations they would show on Sesame Street.

The Thunder from down Under!!!

2007-01-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

It sucks when you have to leave a studio you've been at for a while. And not because of the studio itself, but the people. We all know that the people you work with can make or break a job. So when you get the opportunity to work with some of those folks again at another place...well, it's just freakin' awesome!!! My pal Hamish McKenzie started at Valve yesterday! For those of you who don't know of the mighty McKenzie, he is the tool master of macaronikazoo fame. He's also on my cool people list even though he got me to eat vegemite....I don't know how many cat owners there are out there but, there' a product for cats called "petromalt". You give it to your cat to prevent hairball issues.......in Australia they package it and sell it as a cracker spread and call it vegemite. Anyway, he and his wonderful family are here...now if I can only get him to try mountain oysters.

Fairy nice to meet you....

2007-01-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Please, somebody stop me before I pun again. Anyway, here's the first trailer for Disney's direct to DVD Tinkerbell release.

Hellz yeah, yo...

2007-01-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, there are blogs not devoted to animation-n-such. Dooce.com is one of them. If you have kids (or just hear the voices in your head...it's pretty much the same either way) then give her stuff a read. Sarcastic, irreverent and my new addiction (hey, Burke watches "America's Next Top Model...I've got Dooce.com, so back off.)

Spiders on Drugs....

2007-01-05T01:12:00.000-08:00

Spiders on drugs....it's like snakes on a plane or a house that eats people....just watch the damn video.

"Noel" time like the present...

2007-01-05T01:03:00.000-08:00

I had the good fortune of watching "The Very First Noel". Some friends from the DNA days worked on it. All I can say is Wow! I won't ramble like I did with Monster House. Plain and simple, this thing is ten kinds of awesome. Unlike "Teletubbies Hanukka Sleepover" "The Very First Noel" really is an instant classic.

Monster House....

2007-01-05T00:07:00.000-08:00

I've tried a few times to get through Polar Express. Beyond the creepiness of the zombie eyed, children of the damned expressions on all the kids, which was freaky enough on it's own ( as has been stated by a ba-jillion folks by now) I just couldn't get into the story. Bored me to tears. Anyway, that "burn me once, shame on you" mentality is why I've avoided "Monster House" since it opened last summer.

After some positive words from some of the folks at work ( I don't trust critics by nature, not because they suck or anything...they just creep me out is all, getting paid to sit in the dark, all alone doin' god knows what...just gives me the heebie-jeebies, the same way that I'm creeped out by clowns and mullets)....I digress. So I finally get up the nerve to put my eyes through what I was sure was going to be a visual beating of "Turkish Starwars" proportions and instead I'm greated by a damn good movie.

I would say that Monster House is better than it should be but that would just be a knee jerk reaction to the fact that I loath "performance crapture". I've heard folks compare it to films like Ghoonies (from back in my day....god, I feel old) and they're right. This wasn't a promotional tie in heavy, pop culture reference laden, furry forest critters taking on global warming/hunters/extinction/chlamydia extravaganza with bugs and a side of fries (no offense to anyone, I love fries.) It was three kids, the crazy old man across the street and a house that eats people....a freakin' house that eats people. I shouldn't have to say anything after that...it's like saying "it's snakes....on a plane", that should be all you need.

It's a house....THAT EATS PEOPLE!!!

Happy New year...blah, blah, blah...

2007-01-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

As usual I'm a couple steps behind the rest of you fine folks. The new year was good...all my girls, the wonderful Karen Prell, a damn fine dinner and last but not least...hand puppets. What more could you ask for? I hope you and yours enjoyed the holidays (which ever ones you celebrate) and that you're ready for 2007.

Peace

Blown Away...almost

2006-12-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

Sweet mother of all that's holy. So far Seattle has shown us it can hang with the big boys when it comes to weather. Since we got here we've seen Seattle's "record heat" (kinda unimpressive, but hey), "record rain" (ok, if Seattle calls it record rain, you better freakin' believe it), "unusually early snow" (almost had a white turkey day) and last but not least, the "record wind storm"...you best believe that one. It hit Thursday night with sustained winds in some areas close to 130 mph...crap!!! We were lucky, we only lost power for two days (even though I didn't get my internet back up till today...but who's complaining?) I did get to utilize my primitive hunter/gatherer skills and found coffee...mighty hunter next found donuts, mmmmm mmmm. Anyway, things are back to "normal"...which kinda sucks, I was gonna bring back karaboo next (or whatever I could take down with my Honda.)

"Ant" Misbehavin'

2006-12-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

So the AntBully DVD came out on Tuesday. I wish I could say I was more excited about it but I look at AntBully like a strange bookend along side the Jimmy Neutron feature. Jimmy was fun and exciting and signified all the potential that would be this little upstart animation studio in Dallas. AntBully felt like the complete opposite of that. It's like this story I heard about a guy who has appendicitis while he's eating at a McDonald's. From that point on he can't stand the smell of McDonalds food, not because the food caused the appendicitis but the association of the smell of the food with the tramatic event. There were some great things that happend during the production of AntBully but ultimately I will look at it as the time when my cynicism towards the industry first reared it's ugly head.

Now that we've gotten past my public therapy session we can talk about the DVD itself. AntBully is a solid movie that you can enjoy watching with your kids. The transfer is great, it sounds good...hell, it even has a really cool lenticular cover on the DVD packaging and there are some fun extras, like the interstitial shorts we did for Cartoon Network. It does has the obligitory "ooh, ahh...this is how we make cg animated movies" featurette. And to my surprise it did have some of the animated sequences that were cut from the film due to rewrites and test audience reaction....this is where I put on my cranky hat. The deleted scenes showed some of the potential of what I thought the film could have been.Don't get me wrong, there's definetly some crap in there that you watch and go "damn, I can see why they cut that." On the flip side there are a couple sequences that were just pulled for all the worng reasons. A prime example being one that involved Zoc's back story. It shows him as a young pupa watching his entire colony being wiped out by the exterminator. There is more emotion in that one sequence then I feel ended up in the entire finished movie. And it was cut for a really poor reason...tempo. Warner Bros wanted the film to keep hop, hop, hopping along like a kid on too many pixie stix. I understand that movies, like music have a rythem...but to affect the story so that the film has a "beat you can dance to" feels like the wrong reason to slice and dice if the story suffers for it. all the great backstory and character development that was originally in the film was all stripped away so that "we could get to the good stuff quicker and ride that roller coaster all the way to the credits." Too bad it wasn't enough to motivate more people to come along for that ride.

S-Wii-T!!!

2006-11-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

So the Wii came out today. I haven't been all that excited about it but it's been a blast listening to Andrew get all "school girl" excited as this magical day arrived. Since I'm not strong enough to admit my own addiction (remember, knowing is half the battle...GO JOE!!!) I decided to live vicariously through Andrew and document the momentus occasion for all to enjoy.

Tha adventure starts at an undisclosed GameStop location....at midnight, damn.

Here we see Andrew striking the classic "pose". See how excited he is...sad, isn't it?

VICTORIOUS!!!

Mmmmm, tastes like awesome

So close.....

My Kung-Fu is strong!!!!

I haven't decided yet who the bigger nerd is, Andrew for braving the geek horde or me for documenting it. Anyway, to say the Wii is kickass cool and fun to play would be an understatement. It rocked! Wii sports was da bomb yo, Call of Duty 3 looked like it would require a serious effort to master the controller but had potential. Once again I hate Andrew for adding one more thing to my "must have" list...Darn you Burke, darn you to heck!!!

Put on your poker face....

2006-11-06T22:59:00.000-08:00

I, like a lot of folks, like to play poker. I, like a lot of folks, am not very good at playing poker. But there's something about sitting around a table with a group of friends, drinking beer (or Arbor Mist, for you Mr Halifax), smoking cigars and looking at eachother all "steely eyed"...seeing who can win that high dollar pot of $15.25 and somebody's last "Chuck-E-Cheese" token. My bestest bud Keith Craker, on the other hand, is very good at playing poker...Texas Hold'em to be exact. So good that he's using his wonderful talents to produce his own line of poker related apparell. Feel free to cruise on over and take a look around...at least you can look like you know what the hell you're doin' when you sit down at the table.

2006-11-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

It must have been the fact that I'm one of, if not the only person at Valve who hasn't played Portal yet...which made me perfect for playtesting one of Valve's next big "thangs". Wow, I have never felt so smart and so dumb all at the same time. It was like watching "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy" at the same time. This game is definetly going to turn some heads and gaming thumbs it's way. I won't say how long I played (God I love my job) but the time flew...FLEW by. I'm not a monster gamer but I can honestly say that this will introduce some gaming experiences that just haven't been avaiable before...ways to figure out puzzles that will just blow your mind. And how this is all going to tie in to the HL2 universe...nice (that's for you Burke.)

Pot of Gold....

2006-10-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

Youtube is like a grandparents attic. Lots of stuff packed in there, most of it isn't worth much monetarily...really fun to look at but not worth anything other than sentimentality. Then you find that chest in the corner that contains a treasure...Action Comics #1, a letter from George Washington, the head of Jimmy Hoffa. Well, over at youtube there is that chest over in the corner and in it is a lecture done by Glen Keane several years ago. The quality is "iffy" but the content is great. I'll post them in GRAB-BAG for your viewing pleasure. For those of us who make our living animating, finding something like this is awesome....and it's a hell of a lot better than finding Hoffa's head, that would be seriously nasty.

A Big Shout Out?!?!?.....

2006-10-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! So a couple of weeks ago Burke showed me statcounter for my website. I had been keeping up with how many people were hitng the site but not really paying attention to anything past numbers (first time visits, returning, blah, blah). The cool thing about statcounter I quickly found out is it's handy little map feature to show you where these wonderful (and obviously bored) people are located. I damn near made a poopy in my pants when I saw some of the locations. So, I wanted to give a quick "shout out" to some of those "peeps" in Singapore, Johannesburg, Madrid, Nice, Zurich, Charlotte, D.C., Sierra Vista, San Fran and L.A.

Wow...there are some bored people all over the world in desperate need of entertainment. Now granted, most of these kind folks found me through other, way more interesting people than myself. But I appreciate it none the less. Hopefully, knowing that there are more then just my mom and a couple guys I owe money to looking at my website, I can use this as motivation to keep my posting more up to date. Some things are still on the "to do" list...my "You got the job, what the hell do you do now?" series is finally being written as well as the next couple of folks for the "Introducing" series (Next on the chopping block... Andrew Burke himself, I haven't told him yet so keep to yourself for now...this one will be filled with 33% more fun because we'll be taking a photo tour of Seattle and seeing what Andrew will do for 20$ and a Guinness.)

On a different note, some of you folks might have seen the Blue Sky Scrat short that got "leaked" on Google video (and then was quickly removed.) I had the pleaser of watching this fine bit of work and wow, what a fun piece. Aaron Halifax, of Blue Sky fame, started at Valve a couple weeks ago and worked on this before he sold his soul to the devil and joined us in Washington. I have to say, I enjoyed this more then most of the CG work I've seen this year and the slightly different approach to Scrat's animation was perfect. Not quite so snappy all the time...adds a whole new level of texture, very nice. So more shout outs to Tom, Jerrod, JC and the rest of the Blue Sky crew for making more things that make my eyeballs smile.

Cheers!!!

Keith Lango is my hero...

2006-10-07T23:56:00.000-07:00

Well, besides the fact that Keith is too cool for school in is lovable grump sorta way...he always manages to find some of the coolest stuff and folks in the industry. In this case he's found both with Bernhard Haux. Take a minute to look through his site and breathe in the freshbaked smell of cool stuff and also read the nice little write up over at Lango's Utopia of Animation Fun...I miss my Lango.

More of this kind of stuff...

2006-10-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

I love the look of this. The site is really bare bones which is so appropriate. The designer is Art Jensen, I found out a little more info here. This has the start of everything I want in a teaser...mood, style and very, very little of the story...let me find that out for myself. Great way to peek interest.

...now, if only Hollywood could follow suite and give me something more then talking animals and fart jokes. I was more excited watching this trailer then I have been with any film trailer this year with the exception of 300 and, yes, Jackass 2. The mood reminds me a bit of "The Spider and the Fly".

Content, content, content...

2006-10-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

There's an article posted on cg-char concerning the state of cg. Once again the author just boils it down to "too damn many cute, fuzzy, talking animal movies"...maybe not in those exact words, but that's the idea. It's an interesting time in the industry. All around box office is down for the year, not just animated films. It all boils down to content. But take a few minutes and read it and feel free to leave your thoughts.

YouTube find of the day...

2006-09-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

I know nothing about the band or who made this video but it was an interesting little diversion in animation...

...if you know which studio did this let a brother in on the scoop.

Reach into the grabbag....

2006-09-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to check out the grabbag section...fun stuff I tell ya, FUN STUFF!!!...anyway, I was looking for an appropriate image but instead found this fine piece of clip art. The sample stamp makes it look like his crotch just had a brilliant idea.

Check your brain at the door...

2006-09-23T16:37:00.000-07:00

So, Mike Judge is making a movie called Idiocracy about a future world suffering from the conciquences of the "dumbing down" of the viewing public. I'm sure the history books for that future world will have chapters titled "JackAss-It's Affect on the Bush Administration", "JackAss #2-Ha, ha falling down is funny" and "JackAss III-trees are made of wood"...but you know what?...I don't care. I love watching these guys torture and abuse themselves for my enjoyment. Honestly it keeps me from doing it. I grew up in the 80's on the cusp of the takeover of the video game, pre-internet, pre-myspace, pre-most of the crap that keeps kids in front of monitors. So, we would sit around outside and come up with the most outlandish thing we could think of to keep us entertained...fear of injury was the last thing on our mind. Such great games that we "invented" were "DodgeDarts" (think dodgeball but with darts...duh), "Hold the firecracker too long" (that one was more a discovery then an intentional creation), "GI Joe's burn good" (no explination needed.) and "Who can swallow their tongue and not die?" (this is something I'd rather not get into and still follows me to this day.) The stunts on JackAss weren't invented with the show...Johnny Knoxville is 35...this is the crap we all did when we were kids. I know this is going to make me sound like a callous, well, uh...jackass but I laugh at this stuff, the crotch hits on "AFV" are garaunteed to garner a chuckle or two. When warning my daughters of the dangers of climbing on top of the stack of boxes or walking on a precarious ledge I tell them "If you fall I'll help you but I will laugh at you first." So it's understandable that I would enjoy this bit of lowbrow effort in cinema. And on top of that, I will refuse to be feel guilty about it. I will laugh, I will hopefully laugh so hard that Mr Pibb and Popcorn fly from my nose...heck I may even trip Andrew on the steps of the theater on the way out just to prolong the joy. I can't help it...I like shiney things and things that fall down or blow up or a 35 year old dumbass that would take a bat to the groin for a paycheck and "fame". As I sit there basking in the warm glow of the silver screen, popcorn and Mr Pibb running down the front of my t-shirt, I will think to myself "there but for the grace of God go I." Stay in school don't do drugs.