In Loving Memory...

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...

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!!!

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

Meet the Soldier!!!

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...

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!!!

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...."

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"

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....

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...

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

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.....

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....

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...

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....

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!!!!

"Can you outsmart bullet?"

So now what do we do?

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

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....

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....

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

Hamish's word of the day....

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

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...

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 !!!

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

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

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

Back....

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....

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

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...

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...

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

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

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"

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.....

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

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....

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

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

The Thunder from down Under!!!

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....

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...

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....

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...

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....

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...

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

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'

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!!!

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....

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.

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....

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?!?!?.....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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.

Congratulations!!!!

First off, I wanted to thank Sarah for being so incredibly interesting to bring so many to my site to read her interview. Now on to the news of the day!...This is the last week of the first graduating class from Animation Mentor and the end of my first year as a mentor. It's been a blast so far and I'm looking forward to my second year.
The student showcase reel is a great collection of animation from some of the shining stars of the program. I mentored 5th and 6th quarter helping students get there short films together. The crew I got to work with was a blast. Great energy and enthusiasm and a s**tload of talent I'm sure I will be working with some of these folks in the future. Anyway, take a look at the reel and be in awe of the talent of some of the next stars of the animation world. And to the graduates...congratulations, you all kicked ass.

Introducing: Sarah Mensinga!!!!

It's taken me long enough but finally we have the glory that is "Sarah Mensinga"!!!!...I had the good fortune of meeting Sarah when she started at DNA on the Jimmy Neutron TV series. With 200% of the recommended daily allowance of talent, Sarah is just good at everything she puts her mind to. She likes comic books, video games, animation, cool movies and is a kick ass artist (and yes guys, she's taken)...anyway, she was gracious enough to humor me and answer my list of questions. So without further babbling on my part I give you Sarah Mensinga...



*Ok Sarah, Is it true you were actually created in a top secret lab to have abilities far beyond those of mortal men...er, women...uh, folks?

Yes, but unfortunately they only gave me extreme tooth brushing and pogo ball skills.

*Ok, for those folks that don't know how to connect the dots between graduating from Sheridan College and the wonder that is the "Sarah Mensinga Sketch Blog" give the readers a quick rundown of your animation/art career.

I graduated from Sheridan's Classical Animation Program in 2000. Two rather depressing years of working occasionally on 2D projects followed, during that time I attempted to teach myself how to animate on the computer, lived briefly in Halifax and tried my hand at improv acting. After sending out a third round of animation reels and not having the money to return to school to properly learn how to animate on the computer, I decided to give up on a career in animation. Just as I was starting to attempt to write some children's books in 2002, I got a job offer from DNA. So I found myself in Texas animating on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron. It was half awesome job and half computer animation boot camp; not only did we have to animate anything and everything... we had to do it extremely fast. I worked late nights and nearly every weekend, but I had fun. Eventually I left Jimmy to be a character designer on another DNA project "The Ant Bully" and then eventually returned to work alongside my animation buddies on the film until the big DNA layoff. Fortunately for me I had already been planning to take a studio break. While working on The Ant Bully, I met my future husband Stephen. We were married just as my job ended and he encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing stories and drawing. So I'm taking a year off and have begun serious work on a graphic novel. I do miss animating, but being able to focus on drawing again and to finally have time to tell my own stories is a huge awesome dream come true.

*A lot of the older traditional animators have been very vocal about their dislike of computer animation. Being somewhat fresher on the animation scene but still having done both, what's your take on the two mediums?

I fought tooth and nail against computer animation initially and I remember calling it a trend when first seeing the Toy Story trailer, but the truth is I love animating on the computer. While I was in school animating traditionally was great, yet when I did it professionally it was frustrating and strange not to do all the breakdowns and in-betweens myself. My drawings got handed to someone else and then to someone else. At the end of the day, it never really felt like my work. However with computer animation, all the tiny nuances of acting are up to me. I'm also free to change and adjust movements endlessly, so it's much easier to focus on the acting. On the down side though... I imagine that if I'd been animating traditionally all these years I'd probably be a super kick ass drafts-person. I mean, I know I can draw, but I certainly have a long way to go and a lot of weaknesses to work on. It's kind of horrible to think that for half my career I haven't been drawing full time.... and that's the reason I got into animation in the first place. Hopefully I can remedy that now.

*I heard a rumor that you're wanted in Mexico for bank robbing under the name "La Bandita Juanita"...any truth to this...and if so, is there a reward?

Nope, I've been forming a crime syndicate that takes candy from babies. Lower risk and tastier profit....

*Female animators are sorta rare. What do you think is the biggest reason for the lack of women in the field?

Because the boys all want to date you. Ha ha.... no no kidding. I really don't know. It's not like pencils are heavy to lift. I have a shaky theory that some girls would rather not learn perspective, but yeah, a shaky theory. I do think the male/female ratio in the arts industry is happily changing, more and more I see great female artists and animators out there.

*There's a saying that I've heard thrown around this industry quite a bit..."Jack of all trades, master of none"...you kinda blow that myth out of the water. With all the things that you do (animation, art, writing....I really hate you sometimes...more art) Which one skill would you keep if God were having a bad day and told you you could only keep one?

Writing. I know it's an odd answer, because no one's ever paid me to do it and quite possibly I suck at it. Nothing makes me happier though than creating stories and characters. I don't think of drawing when I'm stuck waiting in a line somewhere, I think of stories.

*What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Fight a bear... a bear with laser guns for eyes.

*I know a lot of folks on Ant Bully walked away with a wide range of feelings both towards the production and the film itself. You had the opportunity two work both in concept/character design as well as animation. How did you feel coming off production and is it any different now that you've had some time to separate yourself from the work?

Hmmm... initially I was delighted to have the opportunity to work on a feature film again, but as things progressed I missed the creative freedom, clever wit and fast pace of Jimmy Neutron. Now that time has passed I don't think I feel all that differently, although I definitely miss hanging out with all my DNA friends.

*If you were a wrestler and you had to pick a partner other than your husband, who would it be and why?

To fight at my side? Supergirl. Then I wouldn't have to do anything during fights except cheer her on. It would be awesome!

*...would you wear masks?

Of course. And they would sparkle. (Mine a little bit more than hers.)

*Cut to the chase...when's the graphic novel coming out?

At least the first part will be out by next summer..... hopefully I'll have even more done. I had hoped to complete the whole thing, but right now I'm desperately trying to finish up a story for a comic anthology. So work on the graphic novel's on hold till that's done.

*Is the "Dindle" story ever going to make it into print form? I would really love to add it to my daughter's bedtime story collection.

Maybe :) I'd have to redraw it though, the dindle's character design alone changes a bunch of times throughout the story. Stephen thinks I should at least do a little version for the comic-con next summer regardless. We'll see.... there will definitely be more blog stories though. I have a couple already planned. The next is going to be a fairytale.

*Now that you've had a taste of so many parts of production on top of your own work, where do you see yourself going after you've completed your book?

Hopefully the graphic novel will be well received and I'll be able to write/draw more. I have about four or five other stories in various genres that I would love to develop into graphic novels.

*Why does Andrew smell like old people and whiskey?

It's a long story. It's my understanding it has something to do with Santa Claus and rogue lumberjacks.

*If you had 7 apples and Alex took 2 of them...how many times would you hit Alex with a hammer for taking them?

Nope, just with a steak. I think that would be more upsetting to Alex. (Sorry Alex, but apparently you took my apples.)

*Who/what was your biggest influence starting out as a traditional artist then moving into animation?

My family and friends were very supportive, but one specific thing? I guess I always wanted to be an artist/animator as a kid but it seemed like an unrealistic goal. Even though I loved to draw, took drawing classes through childhood and went to an arts focused high school, I thought I'd probably try to become a dentist or speech therapist. Not until I took a tour of Sheridan College's animation program at 15 (ha ha, mostly just to miss a day of classes), did I realize it was not only possible for me to become an animator, but a person could even make money at it. So I'd say taking that tour was the big pivotal moment... and good thing too because I'd pass out if I had to drill a cavity :)

...many thanks to Sarah. I hope you all enjoyed it. Make sure and drop by Sarah's site or pop over to her sketch blog. I've already got a couple more victims...I mean folks lined up for the next couple of "Introducing" posts so keep an eye out.

Cheers

Coming up...

Ok, believe it or not I finally have everything pretty much ready to post for my "Introducing" spot. For those who don't remember (since it's been so long since I said I would have this up)..the wonderful artist in question is Sarah Mensinga. Take a look at her site (especially her sketch blog). The post should be up by tomorrow.

The Grabbag is open....

So I've had the little grabbag link on my toolbar for, well since the sight went up. It's gone to a blackhole of "coming soon". Rejoice brothers and sisters because hell has froze over and there is now a live "grabbag" section. "What will grabbag be?" you might ask. Grabbag is going to be all the crap I think strays a little to far off what I would normally put on the news page. It will have no rhyme or reason...it will be the "chock full-o-nuts" section. I make no claims of good taste when it comes to the grabbag...that's kinda the pont. I hope you enjoy.

A Look Inside Valve...

This informative little vid comes from GameVideos.com . The video shows a bit of Valve's studio, in game and trailer animation from HL2 Ep2, Portal and TF2. Also, there's some great interview stuff from people involved in all three projects. These are the kick ass people I get to work with/see on a daily basis. Enjoy!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider....

Saw this over on "You Tube"...and found info on the production house over at Cartoon Brew...

Turns out that MINUSCULE is a TV pilot co-created by Hélène Giraud (production design) and Thomas Szabo (direction). The show has been picked up and they’re currently creating 78 dialogue-less 6-minute shorts chronicling the adventures of the entire insect kingdom. The production company is France’s Futurikon and the series is slated to air in the US on Disney Channel.

This is F...U...N!!! This is "Microcosmos" done by Chuck Jones....enjoy!

Team Fortress 2 in da' house!!!

So this is the trailer for TF2 that was debuted at Leipzig. For those unfamiliar (such as myself until I came to Valve) Leipzig is a German version of E3. I really love the style and the characters have been a blast to work with. It's funny, some of the violence was toned down for the German censors...seems the German's love their sex and hate their violence. I love the fact that part of job is to playtest this game. I'm not a huge gamer, like Burke, but I love playing this damn game. I will finally break down and get an Xbox 360 just to play Team Fortress2, Dead Rising, Portal and HL2 Ep2...yeah, I know...I'm Burking out. Pray for me.

The Missing Links...

I finally updated my links page. Please take a few minutes to look through them...there's some really talented folks in there. Almost all are former DNA friends and co-workers. They're all over the place now filling other people's lives with happy thoughts and chocolate unicorns of love. I love chocolate unicorns...until you bite their heads off. Then they stop moving and aren't really that much fun anymore.

Even more wholesome goodness!!!

You guessed...it's the return of...

"Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss!!!!"

...working on this project was probably some of the funnest time I've ever spent animating. Keith Alcorn (the "A" in DNA) came up with this lovely duo many moons ago. I actually say an early short on MTV almost 15 years ago and nearly messed my undies laughing so hard. Little did I know I would get to spend seven years there.

This short is probably some of the most offensive CG ever put to pixel. It's rude, crude, violent...socially unexeptable in almost every way. This crowning achievment took the fine animation efforts of such greats as Andrew Burke, Sarah Mensinga, Tom Grevera...oh yeah, I did a few shots myself.

Warning!!! Nanna & Lil' Puss Puss is intended for MATURE viewers. If you watch it and are offended in any way...tough! I told you, you have no one to blame but yourself...and maybe Jesus.

Ok, enough with the chit chat...watch the video!!!

Ok, My two cents...

First off, sorry for the delay in getting stuff posted. With the move, the new job and half a million other things...honestly, the websites been kinda low on the priority list. Now, onto other things...

Over the course of the last couple of weeks lots of people have posted their feedback on why AntBully has burst into a fiery ball and taken a nose dive at the box office. Most of it I pretty much agree with. Mr Lango has a great post on his site. Keith has always been one to say exactly how he feels about something. Sometimes I think he's being a little to cynical about the industry, but this time he's pretty much on the nose. If you haven't read it I would advise taking a little trip over, as with most of Keith's stuff...you'll learn somethin'.

I've had some time to think about this. I've intentionally held off on saying a lot about the subject. Mostly to keep myself from having a kneejerk reaction and maybe saying something that might hurt a feeling or two but also to seperate myself a bit from the end product and try to get a clearer idea of what really bothered me as a whole with the experience and why I think it didn't do as well as some people thought it should have, including myself.

First off I want to say that AntBully didn't "fail" for lack of effort of those involved. Every department busted their ass to put something great on the screen. Even when we were feeling beat down and knew the layoffs were coming when the movie was done...people still came in and put their backs into it and were true proffesionals...yeah, we bitched about it but we're human.

Unfortunately the problems started early on when the project moved from Universal to Warners. I'm not saying that Universal is this god send for animated projects but, come on, Warner's?!?!?!?! I can almost understand why "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" was a mess story wise. So many people want to make sure that these icons of animation (Bugs, Daffy...) are handled with kid gloves...gotta sell those lunch boxes...so everything is watered down till it's as bland and unoffensive as possible and you end up with..."Looney Tunes, Back in Action"...I can almost understand the short sighted executive MBA thinking behind that. Agree with it?...no, understand how it came about?...yeah. But, and everyone knows what I'm going to say, what the hell was up with "The Iron Giant"?!?!?!?! Arguably one of the best animated films ever...EVER! I can't even begin to understand the (insert expletive here) inaction on Warner's part for dropping the ball on that one. And with AntBully we all saw it coming like the light at the end of the tunnel that you know is really a train. I'm not saying that Warner Brothers intentionally dropped the ball. They are in this business to make money after all. It was more like they left the ball laying there, thinking maybe somebody else would take it and do something with the damn thing. Yeah, there were commercials but if you're going to go to all the trouble of having some of the "biggest stars" in the industry do your little movie then you should at least plaster their faces all over the place. I thought that was the point of all this "star power"...like Peter Parker said, "With great power comes the great responsibilty of using them to promote your damn film."...ok, maybe he didn't use those exact words. They didn't even have Bruce Campbell doing the damn talk show route...good lord. And what the hell were they thinking with that release date? "Hey, every other CG film is going to be released this summer, we better get ours in there too and get some of that money before it's all gone."...huh? I'm actually gonna come back to this thought in a second.

Now, on to other things. In an earlier post I asked if other folks in the industry have seen a project that they've worked on go from something promising with heart to a pile of the "same old, same old ". I didn't get too much feedback but by asking the question you can tell I had an opinion. In my heart, I don't think AntBully is a bad film. It's a fun, good looking roller coaster ride but, ultimately, not anything unique. This is hard to talk about because it really had the potential to be something really, really...cool. Being fortunate to start early in production I saw so many iterations of the story as the film developed. From character designs (Sarah Mensinga, you rock the block) to voice talent (Tress MacNeille is still the best Mommo) to back stories that gave purpose and meaning to characters...all for the sake of pacing. What good is snappy pacing if you've cut out the heart of the film? And that's where Lango hit's it on the nose. It got "committeed" till it was, what it was...candy. And as much as I hate to say it, it's not even the kind of candy you want to go back for a couple times.

And this is where I go back to the whole "release date" thing. Why? Why do you have to put it in the middle of all that? If you're not going to use any of that star power to promote your film how do you expect it to stand out of the crowd and give parents a reason to go see it? At least you could concider the idea of waiting till the crowd is a little less full. I know this may sound a little "too simple" but I honestly think if they had pulled an Ice Age and released in a less "typical" time of the year they could have easily increased their box office. Look at the numbers..except for Pixar who owns the holiday season, most of the CG films that have done any business have been early summer (usually mid to late May.) And that time frame has just gotten more and more congested. The ones who have dared to release outside that window fall into two catagories...smart and crap. Blue Sky has been incredibly smart in release dates. So far all of their films have released in March and , so far, all have done pretty damn good (even Robots.) Not because they're great films, animation wise they're freaking brilliant...but story wise, well...uh, yeah. But because they were, for the most part, entertaining and they picked a time with little to no competition they set themselves up very nicely. A couple other films have tried this ("The Wild", "Doogal") but the difference is those movies had no clear direction...even less that set them apart and made them unique...put simply, they sucked. See, I'm not saying AntBully is a great film...but it is a good film, a really good film. And if some thought had been put into actual competition and not trying to get in with the rest of the crowd I believe it would have had a better chance...I hope it would have anyway.

And finally...DAMNIT!!! Some of the best damn people in the world to work with blown to the four corners. I know that doesn't have anything to do with the post but, hell...that part really sucks the most. DNA had a vibe that most of us doubt we'll find again at a studio. I really want to see DNA rise from rubble of all of this and go on to do great things.

Well, at least I've got my Burke and friends in Portland and Vancouver. All I can say is I hope that the DVD for AntBully has some of the heart put back into it so that folks can get a glimpse of what could have been.

...oh, and if you worked on one of the two films that I said sucked..yeah, not a lot I can say about that. It's not a reflection of the folks on the floor who actually made the film. In this industry you will more than likely find yourself working on a project that, well, just isn't that good. Your efforts will be affected, your moral will sink and your love for what you do will be tested. On top of that not everyone will like your film...at least they didn't say your film was a communist manifesto, man that's a kick in the crotch.

Cheers

(If you read this post over the weekend you will notice some editing on my part. I was told I was being a little harsh...by Burke of all people. If Burke says you're being too harsh then somethings up.)

The Dead Have Risen...

Sweet Mother of all that's holy!!!...Mike Gasaway has a blog! For those of you that don't have the good fortune of knowing the "Gasman", he was one of the two directors on the Jimmy Neutron t.v. series. Mike is a great guy, an awesome director and has some of the worst taste in music...but he loves good horror films and makes some damn fine beer. If you get a chance, pop on over to walkingdead.com and look around. There's not too much there right now but knowing Gas it will be crammed chock full of wholesome goodness soon...Oh, I couldn't find a pic of Gas, so instead I found the gayest picture of Kip Winger on the internet...same difference.

Annihilation!!!!

Isn't this how most Hollywood movies are done anyway?

Our next contestant is....

Sarah Mensinga!!!! Yup, Sarah has generously agreed to be my next victim for "Introducing". I'll be sebding her my lsit of stupid questions and hope to have the post up before too long. If you're not familiar with Sarah's work...well, shame on you....and once you feel appropriately ashamed then go here.