Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Although this is not animated, it is a really funny (and sad at the same time!) short created by some guys that work in the industry. I’m sure most of you can relate.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPflLGEHUAI]

After watching Horton Hears a Who, I’ve got to say that Blue Sky really did a wonderful job.  The lighting, story, models, shading, animation, all of it was top notch.  I was especially impressed by the rigs and what they are capable of.

They’ve definitely raised the standard on what is capable with a cartoony CG rig.  The deformations were amazing and the animators used them very well.  I’m hopeful that some papers will be released, or some secrets will be revealed so that we can learn more about the process that they used.  Simply amazing.

Go see the movie once just for fun, and the second time pay attention to the technical achievements.  Such a great job.  Impressive stuff.

There is an interesting article that was written for the LA Times. In a somewhat surprising read, Carol Burnett, Steve Carell, and Jim Carrey talk about the difficulties working on the newly released CG film Horton Hears a Who. Usually actors have nothing but good fluff to say about whatever projects they just came off of.  Although they didn’t exactly tear anyone a new one.  I was a little caught off guard.  Awesome!

For those of you not familiar with how voice recording sessions go for animated shows, they generally take an actor and throw them in front of a microphone by themselves and are told to read some lines. There is generally little or no interaction with other actors. Just them, the director and his team.

This a flawed system. Actors feed off of each other to make great performances. The Sony Pictures Animation film Surf’s Up did it the right way. They put the actors together and allowed them to play off of each other. The results were most impressive and gave a more naturalistic delivery, in my opinion. I realize the value in having them singled out and performing on their own, but I really wish the system was changed.

Here is how I would do it. Put the two or more actors in a room with their own microphone. Separate them enough so that you can easily single out recordings from each person. Tell them to read the script a couple of times a few different ways and then allow them to shoot from the hip with some adlib. You can even put each actor in their own booth if need be. As long as they can see eachother and work off one another it will pay off in the end.

This is what the actors are familiar with, why take a fish out of water?

This blog was originally setup as a place to read what was going on with my short Till Death Do Us Part. However, ever since the film was completed, there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about. I mean, how often can I say that I sent out submissions to festivals or write about festivals that accepted or didn’t accept the film (Btw- TDDUP was just accepted at Cross Roads Film Fest and Newport Beach Film Fest)?

Maybe I should just write about animation in general. Things that other people are working on? Maybe. I’m not sure. Perhaps I should give it a try. Stay tooned.

This has been an unusual winter for me.  Normally by this time I would have gone skiing several times already, but unfortunately I’ve only been able to go a couple of times.  I shouldn’t complain, one of the day’s that I did go was timed with one of the biggest storms to hit the Sierra’s in a while.  Something like 12 feet of snow fell over a 4 day period.  I went to Kirkwood on the last day of the storms to swim through chest deep snow.  It was truly bottomless.

Because of my schedule, I haven’t been submitting to as many festivals lately.  In fact, I’ve only sent to one in the last month or two.  And that was just earlier today that I put it together.  This one is going to Australia for Mudfest.  This time around I sent in both Till Death Do Us Part and my older short The Instant Animator Machine.  I’ve been wanting to submit this older film for a while but just haven’t gotten around to it.  I finally have.  It is almost completely opposite of TDDUP.  It is short, a comedy, and very simple CG.

Speaking of festivals, TDDUP just finished at the Pomona festival just outside Los Angeles and it won the “Best Animation” award.  Hearing about that was a nice start to my week.  I’ve also just been notified that TDDUP has been selected to play in Cleveland at their International Film Festival.

As usual, I’m working on various projects.  Mostly the same things I was working on in my last post.  Nothing really else to say.  So, we’ll just leave it at that.  Happy Winter!