Archive for the ‘General’ Category

I didn’t really realize how long it has been since the last blog update. Blogging motivation is really hard to come by lately. Between work, family, and play, it hasn’t been the first thing I think of every morning. I’ll try to come up with something worthwhile to say soon. Promise!

I’m pretty anal about file and project organization.  In fact, many years ago, I wrote my own software called Toontrack to help organize the project management side of things.   When it comes to the file/data pipeline, I’m no different.  I want exacting naming conventions and files put in the right place – everytime!

A while ago, I stumbled across  Open Pipeline for Maya.  It is an incredible set of Mel scripts to help keep your assets in order.  These open source tools are nothing short of awesome.  If you are a one-man operation, or part of a small team, I encourage you to start using this software.  You won’t regret it.  Even for larger teams or studios, it is a great starting place.  You can modify it to your exacting needs.

It makes swapping between assets, shots, sequences, and even projects very easy.  It creates the directories and puts everything in the right place.  It will even publish files to be used as references.

I’ve freelanced for dozens of studios over the years, and this software is better than what 90% of those guys have in place.  This is such a huge part of any project, I just don’t understand why so many people take it so lightly.  Now you have no excuse.

For the last many years, I’ve been working with a few different groups trying to put together a rather big “thing”.  I’m not at liberty to really discuss.  Let’s just say that it has been going on for what feels like an eternity.  In actuality it has been close to 7 years.  Yikes!  While it always feels just around the corner, it has been “just around the corner” for a really long time.  The economic meltdown couldn’t have happened at a worse time.  It certainly put the squeeze on and put an even bigger hiccup into the mix.

With these potential “things” knocking on the door, it has shaped the direction of my professional life.   Arguably too much so.  No longer!  Time put a plan in motion that has been sitting idle for too long.

So what is this grandiose plan?  Mum’s the word.  What?  Another secret?  Seriously, I can talk about this openly without violating all kinds of trust.  Unlike the “thing” mentioned above.  It just that I want to wait a tad bit longer. There are a few ducks I need to align first.

More to come…

The rough economic times are being felt everywhere.  Even in an industry that has been said to be recession proof.  Layoffs, studios closing, and projects losing their funding, have all been recent indicators that we are just as vulnerable as anyone else.

The Orphanage, a studio up here in San Francisco has closed its doors.  These guys have been creating effects for both films and commercials for years.  I’m not privy to the exact reasoning for the shuttering, however, I have a feeling it is related to the same woes that has hit practically every industry in this country and beyond.

Face it, times are tough.  Freelancing and subcontract work has slowed down too.  Even for people that have been in the industry for a long time are feeling it.  The old supply and demand principle says that there is too much supply for the demand.  Hopefully things will turn around soon.  However, I wouldn’t  count on it.

Imagi, the studio that produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and has been working on Astro Boy both in LA and in China has been hit as well.  While they haven’t closed their doors, they have basically run out of money.  Financing has fallen through and the LA office is pretty much shut down, while the Chinese studio is supposedly working for free (another topic in itself).

Tough times all around.  There is work available, you just have to look a little harder and be prepared to make less money or simply move to a new location.  Those that have jobs, don’t take it for granted!  If The Orphanage and Imagi are any indicators, we may see even more studios close shop and more artists and techs put to the streets.

I decided to take a couple of shots from my short film, Till Death Do Us Part, and put it on Vimeo.  I wanted to see how good or bad their HD looked.

The short was rendered at 1920×820.  However, for the upload to Vimeo, it was scaled down to 1280×546.  There is some loss right there.  It still looks pretty good.  Especially when you compare it to all the crappy low res internet streaming videos out there.

Check it out for yourself here.  There is no audio.  And the shots are not together in the actual film, but are placed together here.

Till Death Do Us Part- Shot 97/99 from Rick May on Vimeo.

Download a high res video here

Something that I like about the animation itself on these shots are the eye movements.  I knocked these two out in a day.  But, I was still able to get some pretty decent movements that suggest thought.  The eyes are pretty much doing everything in these two shots.