Quick Update

I thought I'd post a quick update on what I'm currently up to, now that I'm back and settled into the real world where not every bathroom has its own television set.

I'm still plugging away on my final short for Animation Mentor. I've got about 5 weeks left, so things are winding down fast. The short has really come together, and I've got some talented people lined up to help me light it and add sound and music, so I'm hoping it will be something worth showing off when I get done.

I'm also working on yet another dialogue piece. This one isn't for The 11 Second Club, but is a clipped I liked a lot and I'm having a lot of fun animating to it. That being said, I think I'm actually getting worse at lip sync stuff, rather than better!

On top of all of that, I've got a big announcement (at least for me it is) to make coming up in the next few weeks, if everything shakes out like I'm hoping it will. So stay tuned for that.

Frankly I doubt you really wanted to know what I was up to even before you read this, and I highly doubt that reading it has changed your mind. I just mainly wanted to post a quick update, so that if I don't add anything to the site for a bit, you'll know why.

Share this on: facebook

WALL-E is Real!

He's really, really, really REAL!


Wall-E Spotted in LA! from Blink on Vimeo.

That's nothing short of awesome.

Share this on: facebook

Back from the City by the Bay!

I'm back from San Francisco, and thought I'd offer up a quick recap of what "went down" as the kids like to say.

Since I can now somewhat freely discuss the game that I'm currently a part of, I thought I'd start off by showing you the logo for it!



That's right, I'm part of the next installment in the crazy world of Banjo-Kazooie! We went down to showcase the game, along with a bunch of other great MGS titles, including "Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise," "Gears of War 2," "Ninja Gaiden 2," "Too Human," and "Fable 2."

I arrived on Monday morning, and checked into my hotel. Since I'm with the Test Group, we usually stay in budget hotels and the like. However on this trip, we weren't paying, so I was treated to a very nice room in a hotel called The St. Regis in downtown San Francisco. I'm not the type of person to stay in hotels that actually have a "butler staff" and the like, so I was impressed right off the bat when I walked into my room and noticed that I had a TV... IN THE BATHROOM!



Once checked into the hotel, we headed out to set up for the event, and along the way, I snapped a photo of a billboard:



After our crew got everything set up, I had a chance to meet up with a friend who I met through Animation Mentor! Jules and I had our first and last classes together at The Ment, and I asked him to show me around a bit, since he is a San Fran native. We went and had Irish Coffee at a really cool little bar, and then headed off for the ILM campus! It was around Midnight on a Monday, so the campus was dead, and we were surprised to find that there was no guard in the shack. Jules said he had always heard that there was Yoda statue somewhere on the campus, so we drove around for a bit and suddenly spotted the little dude at the entrance to the Lucasfilm building! We talked one of Jules' friends into getting out with us and snapping a quick picture of the two of us standing in front of The Yodster (I'm the guy on the right).





The next day we had the schedule from hell, since we had to be at the show at 8:00am and it didn't end until 9:00pm. By the time I got out of the event, I was totally spent, but still managed to sip on a few beverages to relax with the awesome group of people that helped to make this event happen.









The show went great, the reaction to the game was extremely positive, and I got a kick ass night tour of San Francisco! Next time I hope to spend a bit longer there, and have a bit of extra time with the motherland of Journey.

Take care!

Share this on: facebook

Off to San Francisco

On Monday I'll be heading out to the land of Rice-A-Roni, Trolley Cars and Journey!



I'll be heading out with Microsoft Games Studios to show off our upcoming Banjo-Kazooie title to the press! I can't tell you anything about it until next week, once the press embargo has been lifted, but I'll try to snap a few photos and give a recap of what went on at the show.

I really wish I had an extra day to go out and try to sneak onto the Pixar campus, but I've got a jammed schedule, so that will have to wait for another time.

Take care!

Share this on: facebook

Horton Breaks $150 Million!

While it's not exactly "Iron Man" numbers, I did want to point out that "Horton Hears a Who!" has now passed the $150 million dollar mark in domestic box office sales!



According to Box Office Mojo, this now puts it firmly in the #19 spot on the highest grossing computer animated films (domestically) of all time, and it will probably jump a couple more spots before ending its run in theaters.

I LOVED the film, and everyone I've talked to who has seen it agrees. If you haven't seen it for yourself, try and take it in on the big screen before it's gone. It's truly one of the very CG Animated films I've seen that matches the Pixar quality level.

Congratulations to everyone who worked on the film, and here's to hoping that the DVD release gets here as fast as possible!

Share this on: facebook

Brad Bird's Nine Keys to Innovation

There is a great article up right now over at GigaOM, in which Brad Bird discusses his nine keys to innovation.



It's a great read, and one that applies to many disciplines and not just animation. In other words, in many cases in the article you can easily substitute the word "Animator" with any other profession that requires some form of innovation.

It's a short read, but well worth your time!

Brad Bird Nine Keys to Innovation

Share this on: facebook

April 11 Second Club

UPDATE: Well it looks as though I took 5th out of 92 entries. Not too shabby, and I can't say as I disagree with any of the four entries that wound up getting higher scores than my animation. Heck... there were even quite a few that rated lower than mine that I would have ranked above my little clip, so I feel pretty good overall with my first entry into the contest. I probably won't enter this month, as I try to wrap up my final quarter at AM and have some other personal and business travel things to take care of this month. That being said, I'll enter again down the road for sure, and I hope you'll all swing by and check the site out!



Hey everyone! Just a quick reminder that voting begins today for the April 11 Second Club entries.



This was my first time entering the competition, despite being totally intimdated by the level of work that has been displayed in past competitions. I think the voting on the April entries begins at 3:00pm PST, so swing on over anytime after and check out what I'm sure will be an amazing crop of entries!

In case you missed it, this is my entry for April:

Share this on: facebook