You get a big ol’ picture just for me to say that I’ve updated my animation section with 15 animations from The Ant Bully. Normally when I post an image that big I have more to say about it. But nope. Not this time.

So now I’m just going ramble. Just so that I don’t have a similar image to story ratio like I had with the Hogan Bunch. Yikes. I got so many complaints about that. The masses were teeming. TEEMING I tell you. They were teeming, “WHY DO YOU HAVE SUCH AN OUT OF WHACK IMAGE TO STORY RATIO?!!?” I just didn’t know what to say. They were sad days. Sad days indeed.

Ok, I think I’m done. I think I’ve put this news posting into a ratio where you can now enjoy both the image (which, incidentally, was what the masses looked like when they were teeming at me) AND the news. Yes, the news. The news which you have probably forgotten by now. *sigh*

New animations in the animation section.

Pixar 3 started off a bit slow. Admittedly, it had to. We had to do all sorts of pre-production before we could start production. And the pre-production was fun for a while. It was great to see character designs finalize, the set gradually build up and the layout start to get locked down. Last week though, it felt like the energy had kind of died off as we got to the point of really minor changes and tweaks.

Fortunately, it came crashing back tonight. We finally got our shots kicked off and assigned and I think it’s safe to say everyone is really excited with what they’re going to be working on. In the words of my teachers, all of these shots are A or B quality shots that we’re simply lucky to have in a college-level course. All of the acting and animation in this short is really really juicy stuff. Grade A juice I would say. In my shot alone, I get a whole chunk of everything. I get some great close-up facial stuff, some great pantomime acting, and even some great physically based stuff, it’s brilliant. I’m excited.

As for pre-production, I did a bunch of research and focused in on visual development. The short is set in a spaceship that we decided should have more of a retro feel than a futuristic one so I was finally able to use a bunch of Googie stuff that I love for visual inspiration to pass along to the sets and character designers. As that part finished up, I took on the task of animating a bunch of the lights and console panels that one of the characters is at for the better part of the short. One of the sets designers had laid out the coolest control panel ever that had all these static textures. I immediately had to dork it out even further. It’s pretty tedious animating text and whatnot but the final result is pretty nice and honestly, I was having a good time with it. :)

Below is a collage of some of the stuff that inspired the look of our short. Click it to see the full version…

I started class last Tuesday. Yeah, I’m still going to school, a full two years after I graduated. To keep my character animation skills fresh, I’ve decided to take the final leg of the Pixar animation classes at the Academy. When I went to school, I took Pixar 1 and 2 but stopped at 3. I stopped partly because at that time I needed to move on with a professional career, however that decision was aided by the content of the class.

Pixar 3 at that time was focused on film making by creating your own short. Now I love film-making and all that that entails but I’m not quite ready to make my own short film. I don’t feel like I’m at the point where I have a story to share with the world. Furthermore, I didn’t want to write a script, board it, pitch it, lay it out, model the characters, rig them, light it, etc. About the only aspect that seemed entertaining to me was the actual animation.

Fortunately, the semester before I returned to San Francisco, Pixar 3 changed its focus a bit. Though it’s still focused on film-making, they’ve changed the class so that everyone in the class works together on one short. Every student has taken on a different aspect of pre-production and production will be handled like a film with students being cast shots that play to their strengths, taking direction, hooking shots up, etc. This is something that excites me.

The first day of class we went over what this semester’s short is going to be about and it looks to be quite fun. Last semester they worked on a sequence from a movie, but this semester the teachers took quite a novel approach. Scott and Andrew recorded improv guys doing a bunch of bits and then chose the best one. After this, they edited it and tightened it up into a really fun story that still maintains the wonderful spontaneity captured during the original recording. So now it’s up to the students to turn it into a great little bit to watch.

I’ll keep you updated with what I can as the class progresses.

The Ant Bully opens on friday. and since you’re here you’re probably curious which shots i worked on. here’s a quick list in chronological order that hopefully doesn’t give away too much plot.

• during the big flood sequence, water rushes toward a nurse ant and a pupa. i did a retake where i animated the pupa screaming.
• during Lucas’ trial, i did four shots of him and Zoc standing around, one in which Lucas rationalizes why he flooded the colony.
• during Fugax’s introduction, i animated 2 shots of Lucas being a brat in response to Fugax’s heroic stories and then his eyebrow raise reaction shot to Fugax.
• after Lucas leaves the colony, i animated three shots in a row of Lucas becoming frightened and then the frog emerging.
• in that same frog sequence, i did a retake of Fugax asking the group if anyone knows what “WAAAAAGH” means.
• near the end of the film when Lucas is being dragged away by guards, i animated the reaction shots of Hova and Zoc.
• in preparation for the final battle, the wasp leader tells his troops to start their engines. i animated the shots of them starting up their wings.
• during the end battle, i animated Kreela and her wasp flying through the air and landing in a bird bath.
• during the end battle, Hova swoops down and saves Lucas, i animated the shot directly after that where it all goes awry again.
• my final shot in the film is the final shot of the battle sequence where the group is celebrating on the wasps.

i also did a ton of crowd cycles that are used all over the film. they’re quite a bit harder to pick out however ;) but if you really really want to, pay attention to the background ants during the flood sequence when they’re climbing up the walls and they slip, pretty much whenever the ants are cheering and all of the background wasps, pill bugs, and stink beetles. there is also a shot that my friend Jason Hendrich did of the ant kids celebrating and doing a jig at the end of the obstacle course sequence. that animation is based heavily off of the jig cycle that i had done for the cheering ants.

i’ll have animations up shortly in the animation section in case you want a closer look at my shots. go see the movie though this friday, in imax 3d if you can :)

finally i have the history of Hogan posted. because of the delay i am going to post all 4 parts of it simultaneously. sorry about the hold up. fact checking the creation of Hogan took longer than i thought it would. even now, i’m still not certain it’s 100% correct :p

hope you enjoy it :)

The Story of Hogan

so i really meant to have part one up by now buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, my wonderful girlfriend got me an xbox 360 for my upcoming birthday so i’ve been playing that quite a bit. :)

hopefully i’ll have it up by weeks end. and if not, i’ve got the entire week after that off so no doubt i’ll post it then :p

on march 23rd, anonymous mentioned that i “should write up a post about the history of hogan – his origins and various incarnations throughout the years.” i don’t think i’m exactly the most qualified to answer his question but i can give it a whirl.

this will be a multi-part post as bert just told me what i’ve written is way too long :p

look for part 1 coming soon…

woohoo, some stuff that i worked on for the film aired last night in a commercial. you can read more about that below, but if you want to see 28 frames of animation, just click this silly little link riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight………………………………….. here.

no foolin’!

there’s apparently going to be an Ant Bully commercial during the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice awards show. now, i don’t have cable so i won’t be watching this, but you should. oh, you definitely should. i also have no idea when this gem will air so you will have to watch the entire Kid’s Choice awards show. but think of it as an adventure, not a chore. think of the great treasure you will find when you patiently watch the no-doubt super-stupendous Kid’s Choice awards show. think of the excitement that you’ll have along the way when you learn what the kids have chosen. oh, it’ll be a saturday night to remember. OH!

but alas, i don’t know when this Kid’s Choice awards show airs. i guess it airs at 7pm CST, but this is a guess based upon an email that was also unsure of the exact airtime. but anway, you didn’t really have anything to do tonight, did you? so just watch Nickelodeon from around 3pm CST until maybe 10am tomorrow and it should play sometime in that window.

when you do sit down and watch this amazing awards show and the Ant Bully commercial does come on, you’ll no doubt jump for joy as all your patience will have paid off. BUT! BUT! remember to settle down at least halfway through the Ant Bully commercial so that you have a chance to view my beautifully animated shot of a frog jumping out and trying to eat Lucas. it will be worth it my friends, it will be worth it.

ole!

i’ll upload a better ant bully photo when they unshackle my ankles and i go home later today

i put up a two year old animation i did in school. i was showing some co-workers my demo reel, they mentioned i should put some more hogan stuff on. well, i only had this one lying around not rendered. i didn’t put it on my reel, but i did put it up here (exclusively, for your enjoyment).

i look at it and see nothing but mistakes but my pod-mates convinced me to put it up. soooooooo, enjoy it :) it’s the first one in my schoolimation section.