Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I have a blog? Oh yeah. Forgot about that. Well, here we are. Nearing the end of May. The last 6 months have been crazy. Not because of work, but because of doing stuff around the house. I committed almost full time to getting the house fixed up. Painting and repairs. All that fun stuff. I’m happy to report that I’m done. The house is perfect! I can’t find anything else to do on it. Okay, maybe that is a lie. However, I can say that all the walls are painted and repairs have been made. It looks pretty darn good. Yay!

From house

I just finished up animation on a commercial the other day. Actually, I may have to do some tweaking next week. But for the most part, it is done. It was great fun. Looks like I’ll get about a week or two rest before a new one starts up. Keep it coming, I say!

Well, glad you stopped by. Come back again in a year for the next post! :D

Just a few moments ago, I announced via the CGCHAR forums and CGCHAR linked in group that the CGCHAR forums are shutting down. This was a hard decision to make. It has been part of my life since 1996. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the energy to keep at it. Giving it the attention it deserves.

I’ve been getting a lot of thanks privately. That means a lot. The community has been great and has provided for some lasting friendships. Maybe some day CGCHAR will rebound into something new. But for now, I’ll be closing the forums sometime after the New Year.

Thanks to the thousands of members, hundreds of thousands of threads, and everything else that went along with that. It has been a great experience!

www.cgchar-animation.com

P.s. There is a CGCHAR linkedIn group that will remain. Join the 3500+ others that are part of this group and join.

Here we are, at the end of Summer, and I haven’t made a post since May. Just wanted to pop in and let anyone who stumbles by, that I’m still around. Just finished some work for a studio here in San Francisco, and before that did a couple of commercials. Outside of animation, I’m busy writing some software that I’m not exactly ready to make known to the www yet. Maybe I’ll feel like I can say something before long. But right now, it is hush-hush.

Most of you that come here are in the animation business, so it may not be of interest to you anyway. But, it is something I’m really excited about. I’m currently tweaking the code and will let it loose on the world soon, wreaking havoc as it goes on its merry way.

Blue Sky just released the first trailer for “Rio”. Wow, does it look amazing. Can’t say much about the story, but aesthetically, it looks incredible.

The animation is really, really, I mean really nice. Great job. These guys have always impressed me. But, their animation has just been getting so much better with each film. This new one is another huge step forward. And look wise. Wow. Incredible. Lighting, textures, well, just everything looks great.

Technically, I was blown away by the feathers. Especially on the main Macaw character. I’m sure anyone reading this blog knows, but just in case you aren’t in the industry. Creating nice looking feathers is not easy. It is probably one of the tougher things to do. Not only do they move realistically, but the way they are used to convey the characters emotion… Wow!

Lastly, animating with these rigs must be amazing. These look to be very well thought out. The performance they are able to squeeze out of them is inspiring. Working mostly in commercials, we don’t often have the luxury of fine tuning rigs to this level. It must be a joy to work with.

I must add. Anyone that knows me, knows I’m not a fan boy. So, it is a little unusual for me to give this much praise to anything out there. I almost feel dirty. But, I really like it that much.

I stumbled across this nice animated short film. Why can’t I come up with an idea like this? :)