Siggy Shenanigans and Bish 2.0

Wow! Well Siggraph was indeed a blast, I have the great fortune to have my reel reviewed by both Disney and Nickelodeon, and they were able to lead me in the direction to where to take it next to push it to the next level. I've never felt so close at this point, however juxtapostionally still far away. My lack of industry experience is still a hindrance, but that's just another hurdle to overcome. I also moved downtown after returning from Siggraph and moved in with my belle, a bit of an exhausting month but back at it.

My new shot is still a work in progress, but after watching a documentary on the world's tallest man I felt inspired to try and animate a guy with crutches. This was also a good excuse and first test with Bishop 2.0. A bit of backward working, but I chose an audio clip from Firefly that I thought made for an interesting character; A physically weak man and yet quite clearly powerful. we'll see how it comes along in the next few days but as it is...

For Some Reason I'm Being Commented With Japanese Erotica

And for that I sincerely apologize so do not click on those links. I have no idea why I've been targetted for this, but I'm at a lack for not caring enough to astutely do anything proper about it. Maybe later, but I have bigger fish to fry and more important concerns.

My biggest accomplishment for the last couple weeks was revamping my demo reel, updating my resume and format of my website. I can start to reapply to studios I have applied to before in the past, but largely this is all in preperation for Siggraph. I will be down there for 4 days, mostly for the job fair, so I'm making sure I am absolutely prepared. Feel free to check it out at www.dylanimation.com. I would like to get one more shot that I'm happy enough with to put on my reel so I will work on that. The later half of July is becoming increasingly chaotic, but I'm sure I can make it all work.

These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty

Soo I've decided to tackle a new dialogue piece and over the past week and a bit it's coming along quite nicely. I chose a clip from Best in Show that I became obsessed with and decided to use Kyle Balda's rigs from 3D World for a change of pace. All in all, I quite like them, tho no rig is perfect, but it will add some nice variety to my reel as well.

Blocking:


Splining:


The shot still requires a fair bit of finesse, that's where I'm at now and will be a fair bit of fun to add. At present, it's my plan to finish this, my werewolf shot, polish my other dialogue and short film pieces and create a new reel lickety split, as even though my old reel isnt that old, my quality is improving beyond what I think it accurately depicts. A fair bit of work left to get this done, but I'm motivated and working hard at it so indeed it shall!

Updates, Updates

Where to start. I worked on the Kools for about 3 weeks and did my best to bang out 5 shots. Unfortunately Lightwave did not like running in particular on my computer and I was suffering from many graphical errors. I made good progress on those shots, but I wasn't able to polish anything as it was literally impossible to add that kind of finesse. I know Lightwave is a frustrating piece of software to begin with, but Newtek could only offer upgrading to a better graphics card as a viable solution and I wasn't prepared to do that. Nonetheless, it was much fun and Mr. Bazley was an excellent director to work for.

I moved on to another NDA project which helped get me my XSI legs back. Unfortunately, scheduling problems may call for them needing me in the future as to right away, but I'm rather stoked about that project, it's very neat. On top of that, this gives me the opportunity to go back to completing my short film. With those other two projects, I got distracted and neglected to finish my submission for the spline doctors contest, I did spline it, but I didn't give it that level of polish I wanted and thus, did not enter it. I will wait for the next one. Sooo thusly is my plan to really finish my short film now. With a few months hiyatis from it, I've come back with a set of very fresh eyes and am able to apply the new things i've learned from the new shots I've accomplished. Progress so far is promising.




This is my immediate plan: finish short film, accomplish new dialogue piece and polish a new reel for Siggraph at the end of July, not necessarily in that order. I feel rejuvenated and, although the job market is less than ideal at the moment, I just have to keep pushing forward and something will come my way. Every week I can feel my eye and skills improving just a little bit, so at least I know I'm moving in the right direction.

In terms of the new dialogue clip; I wanted to do something Fred Willard at first, but in my search, I came across this awesome piece from Best In Show:

Since I have legit copies of the Kyle Balda rigs from that issue of 3D World Magazine, it would be so rich to use them for this piece and offer a lil extra diversity to my reel. A nice little bit of more subtle acting, I can't do the whole thing obviously, but I am in the process of narrowing it down. I will let you know what I choose.

Platitudes and Shenanigans

A super busy couple weeks as I keep pushing forward and honing my skills. So far, I've done 3 weeks of alumni tutoring, and results have been much better than expected. Far more students in attendance and classes go far in overtime, it's been a great experience. As well, the Werewolf shot evolves and somehow gets somewhat closer to completion but so much more work to do on it. I changed the ending since I didn't like him jumping down a cliff so now it's over a crevice. Since the whole thing is a quadraped body mechanics exercise, it's a little more suited, but I can't explain enough how much I've learned from doing this shot. More polish yet to comes, I stress THIS IS NOT FINAL:


As well I started working on a new shot for the Spline Doctors competition, and I have 6 days to whip that off. It's far more achievable so I'm sure I can do it, but still quite challenging. Basically it's a stylized walk, and there were many different themes to approach it with, I chose the 1970s theme and decided to go with a pimp strut. Lot of fun pimping up bishop and managed to get a pass done on the blocking, I'll see what I can do to finish it lickety-split.



More importantly though, I'm on a project!! Yea that's right, I am working for Bazley Films in the UK on a Kool project (The Kools) for the next little while. It involved learning Lightwave and so far so good. It's been and interesting experience, but I don't have too too much to report yet, and doubt I should release any WiPs from that so I won't. Progress! :D

Also super recently I was able to attend GDC Canada with an awesome press pass courtesy of VancouverAnimation and the work I do on the webcomic for that site. I guess I have somewhat of a fanbase but GDC was an amazing experience. I'd like to think I did a lot of good networking, but only time will tell, hehe.

Hello My Nugglets

So started P9oX last week, sticking with it and feeling great, exhausted but great. This is exactly what my sedentary lifestyle needed at the moment, I could literally feel my legs atrophying. If anything, it's entirely possible it's helped my focus a little more too, but maybe that's cuz i'm also eating healthier or seeing some things animationwise I hadnt seen before. Either way, it's progress baby! And that's all I can do at the moment, is really hone my skill.

With that said, I've decided to start working on my creature shot finally; now that I've managed to become solid on an idea. At best this is really a body mechanics test, but nothing beats a nice wolfie run through the forest. Some mild humanoid elements but I think they shall be minor as I learn some of the limitations of the rig. So in the blocking phase and really trying to understand the mechanics of quadrapeds, it's simply a fantastic exercise for that, if not daunting and occasionally mind bending, but I have good hope on my success with this.



Progress continues on the development of my new super live action/CG short film; I forgot how much the conceptual phase could be; and sooo thankful I actually decided to read McKee's "Story" book. I did my second proof of concept test simply to have a better understanding of the technical challenges I'll be needing to overcome, as I've never really done any live plate animation before. I can't thank my wonderful girlfriend enough for allowing me to shoot her and use her as the subject matter for this test. 3D matchmoving, marker removal and animating to a live camera... mostly successful.



And in other slightly related news, I had my first alumni tutor session last week... that's right, as a tutor! Yes, the powers that be deemed that I am mature enough to aid the students once a week via webcam with my own hour of awesome QnA, and all I can say is that it was a blast. It went on for 3 hours and there were 15-20 people that stayed for the whole length of time... who knew. Maybe the current students are just really really bored but I'm glad the alumni sessions are growing in popularity and it's definitely a nice way to give back to the community that helped me out so much. :D

The Cherry Blossoms Are Out!

Just a quick update; it's been a month of computer problems, sprained wrists, emergency family trips, apartment relocations and new girlfriend so I guess I got caught up with life. With that said, I did manage to enter my animation in the 11second club for March, though not quite as polished as I would ideally have hoped, but here it is;
Made the 22nd percentile, woowoo! Had I put a little more TLC into it who knows how much better it might have done. I've decided though, not to do the 11 second club this month and instead spend my time testing out new shorter acting pieces I've been wanting to try. First up is a Sammy Davis Jr. piece that's still in blocking.

Also, considerable work and development has begun on a new short film (I know, what about my old short film) but this will be a live action/CG hybrid in conjunction with an actor friend of mine. The nice part also is that I'll get to try a bunch of things I've never really done before like animating to a live plate, etc. Without going into detail, I've had some good fun doing some rudimentary concept sketches, here are but a few.

The Days Are Longer Again!

What an interesting couple weeks of ups and downs and not as much progress as I would like to have hoped for, but oh well, these things happen. I wiped out on my bicycle in some morning snow and sprained my wrist, not a serious sprain, but enough to hinder my animation progress to be sure. As well as suffering from a few computer related issues which will lead to a backup and reinstall as soon as this blog entry is done. So in terms of animation, I guess my greatest accomplishment was really hashing out, modelling and blocking my shot for the March 11 Second Club competition. I was able to give it a few passes and get a nice block-plus going and will begin splining early next week. If you're curious, feel free to check out the video below:



Other than that, I was able to experiment with the new werewolf creature rig and test it out to see it's limitations and how the controls really work. Basically just a run cycle but it was pretty eye-opening as to how to approach the real shot I want to do. So this is a gallop run done with the werewolf, admittedly it's meant for a lighter dog, but as I mentioned, it taught me an awful lot about the particulars of the rig and quadraped mechanics in general. I've been archiving footage from Twilight, Underworld, National Geographic etc to help narrow down a solid shot I want to do with this and I'm getting ever so close to finding the perfect one, will keep you updated.

This is the close to gallop test, and I stress it was primarily a test.

Game modding work has slowly picked up again, with the transition over to Unreal, I've finally gotten my hands on the rebuilt rigs and have been testing out their limitations as well. Also, due to my apartment being put up for sale by my landlords, I am moving into a quainter place across the bridge at the end of the month. As long as I can get my 11secondclub entry done, then I will be more than satisfied.

February Schmebuary

Wow, pure insanity with the Olympics in Vancouver; it's been a very distracting couple of weeks. I haven't really done much Olympic persay except observe from a distance, I didn't feel like standing in really really long lines, but it was still pretty amazingly cool. I also just finished and submitted my 11second club entry, so I'll be interested in seeing how I do on it. I don't expect to win but it's not really about that anyways. I tried to go heavy on body mechanics with this one and learned alot from doing it. Not really sure if the idea makes sense, but hey, my gut told me to go with it. Here is what I submitted, if you vote, please still vote fairly and accordingly, I have the utmost respect for this competition.



I also chose a werewolf rig from Arconyx as part of my prize from Kenny Roy, I'm bouncing through a few different ideas for that at the moment, but that's my next project, as well as getting back to work on my short film. My Hiatus from it was perfect to give me the fresh eyes I need. Age of Chivalry has decided to switch over to Unreal from Source, in the big picture I suppose it's worth it, but it also means the animations I did for them are useless. Ah well, new models have to be rigged so I get some time off from that. It's all about the best end product and this seems to be leading towards that.

Vive l'animation!

The last two weeks, though officially graduated and currently looking for work, has been busy and hectic, so that's fantastic. I could use this, and I've been tempted believe me, as downtime for a job well done, but I refuse to let that happen for two reasons: a) I'm in a productive routine that might be hard to get back into if I get out of it and b) this animation stuff is really fun anyways. There seems to be lots to keep me busy and keep me working on my skills and the more practice I get in, the more refined my skills seem to get; I guess it's a testament to the never ending learning curve in this industry and I have to admit, nothing excites me more.

I spent the majority of last week working on the uber shot for Mass Animation, which constituted of 16 characters, a bus and 7 seconds, most of which was bullet time. The payoff for this was a substantial reward, but more importantly to be a shining portfolio piece. Sad to say, I didn't win, but that's ok, I won for a game cycle in Phase 2 and already a trailer shot in Phase 1, so it will still compliment my resume nicely. It's funny as the reason I did the game cycle was to have a taste of the gratification of having an animation in game that is used by players, and to be quite frank, I didn't think I'd win that one, so the world works in mysterious ways. Since the competition is officially over, I'll post my uber-shot that I grueled over, as I'm fairly pleased with it, and I imagine I must have been close to winning, hopefully I'll finish polishing this regardless.



It's also been a good week for busting out cycles for Age of Chivarly; I managed to get all my sprint cycles done for the crusader character wielding a flamberge as well as an idle cycle. I'm fairly happy with those too, but I will come back and polish those, for the meantime, it's something to test their functionality in game. Next up on the list is attacks and parries (woo woo!) should be interesting as they are torso only animations, but regardless should be alot of fun. I was hoping to start work on those already, but there was a lot of backend stuff I had to learn (even deconstruct and rewrite code) to get these animations to import into the game properly, a fun challenge to be sure.

And more recently, I've spent the past couple days on and off working on my entry for the 11 Second Club this month. The audio clip this time around is so... unique, it provides such an interesting challenge. I thought of a few different ideas, but I kept coming back to one in my head so I went with my gut instinct on it. At a glance it seems rather weird to me, but with refinement and a properly modelled set, I think it will all come together. Regardless, it is a chance for some super fun and polished animation, but here's my first pass blocking thus far. I plan to spend time this weekend going back and pushing the poses and checking my arcs to see they are on track.

Graduation Blues? Hardly

Well Graduation just happened this last weekend and the only word for it really is... speechless! So many elements of it was fantastic and surreal it's hard to know where to start. The actual ceremony itself was creative and entertaining, done in the style that only Animation Mentor could pull off, but on top of that, meeting most people for the first time that I've only met before through webcam or even text was an amazing experience. Especially being harnessed as such a global community and knowing how far people travelled, just... wow! There was also a career fair the day before in which I was able to introduce myself to numerous recruiters, I consider that to be the most important element rather than simply prospects of finding work, though that plays into it as well. And being able to do all the touristy things that San Francisco offers with friends from literally around the world was just as exciting. 5 days was not long enough.

Although I was nominated for 2 student choice awards, I didn't end up winning either, but I wasn't disappointed, as both people who won them were entirely deserving of those awards. I did however, get to meet up with my last mentor, Kenny Roy who's an awe inspiring individual, but having won his class award, I received a 3D maquette of one of my film characters. All I had to do was send him a pose in a maya file and the rest was his; I plan on painting it, but it was an honor to receive it.

So I guess it's official, I'm now a full fledged alumni, but the work doesn't stop there. After graduation, a group of us got tours of ILM and PDI Dreamworks and both places were just amazing. So many good vibes that I definitely feel rejuvenated on finishing my short film, even sooner than later. So I've begun work on that as well as continued to bust away work for the Age of Chivalry mod I'm part of now. Mostly working on Sprint cycles at the moment, and I'm realizing how challenging cycles can actually be. It is definitely a good test of... well darn near everything and a really good learning experience. Hopefully I'll post something soon.

Also, one of my shots for the new Mass Animation contest was chosen as a finalist and I had a skype call with the director Yair Landau earlier today. Offering me some feedback on how to improve it and getting me set up for working with ReelFX to push it up to finalized production quality. It's a very exciting prospect and I can't wait to start to finish it (sounds ironic I know). I've decided to do one more entry for the DCUO contest, this time a game cycle. If it gets chosen, it would be an interesting sense of achievement seeing some of my animation in game being used by players and NPCs alike.

So all in all, even tho becoming alumni would seem like a bit of a denouement, the animation wheel keeps on turning, and I'm glad I have enough to keep my plate full until the next studio job comes my way. :D

A Whole Decade Later

Huzzah! It's a new year, new decade even, and even better than that, I can proudly display this awesome new logo! That's right, I've graduated, and I am officially an Animation Mentor alumni woohoo! Well, to be fair, the actual graduation ceremony is next week, but barring some absurd technicality, I'm feeling pretty confident I'm a graduate. It was a pretty mad push up to the end, but well worth it's weight in learning and goldness. Though my short film is not complete, I'm feeling happy with the shots I worked on and feel now I have something far more competitive than I did in the past. Plus the relationships I've nurtured over the last year and a half are practically worth it on it's own, socially and otherwise.
The Xmas break was good, but ultimately too short as per usual. I got to go home to see family and also use that time to enter the new Mass Animation DC Universe Online contest. I wanted to challenge myself with one shot, a hard one at that to prevent getting rusty and really, it was the only time I would be able to work on it, as I have quite a full plate going on at the moment. Anyways, working on a laptop for a change was quite the experience, and though I don't feel my shot was complete or as good as it could have possibly been, I gave myself a time restriction and handed it in. I'm not hell-bent on winning, I just wanted to participate as it was a chance to animate Batman, that in itself was worth it to me.
On another front, my work with the Age of Chivalry dev team is ramping up and I'm busy creating cycles for them as well. It's a very exciting project and a fun crew to boot. Already I'm learning alot, including quickly mastering (I'd like to think) 3DS Max, so even another piece of software under my belt. Not sure if I'm allowed to post animations from that, I imagine it's ok, but I'm going to check first.
If you haven't noticed, also I've manage to compile a new reel together on the main page, updated to the max! Unrendered as of yet, but I'll get around to it; I've also had some dynamics simulation problems, mostly with the software crashing, but I'll overcome that hurdle as well.
So in the very least, I guess I can say I'm glad I'm keeping busy in the new year and not allowing myself too much downtime; one resolution I've stuck to so far hehe. Now if I can just keep up more regular blog postings. THE FUTURE IS NOW! :D

I'm Not Dead I swear

I realize it's been a while since my last post. This is largely due to the Class 5/6 phenomenom I've noticed, that most students choose not to publish short film works in progress in a public domain and I'm adhering to that as well. It may come back to haunt me in terms of film festivals if it actually does become a festival piece who knows. With that said, it's been an amazing learning experience, that is absolutely no lie. As of now there is only 2 1/2 weeks left of class 7, then I will be ready for the almighty and scary class 7! (Class 7 being a colourful euphemism for the real world industry). Exciting and a bit scary at the same time, but mostly exciting.

Against my original plan but not against my better judgement, I will not complete my short film this term. At the start of class I made a verbal contract with my mentor that I would only tackle 30 seconds of my short film, so I can make those 30 seconds as best as I possibly can, instead of 1 minute 17 seconds of less-than-awesomeness. At most CG film studios where 3 seconds / week is expected, that's about right on par, plus I'm still a student learning and more than polishing out my animation also polishing out my workflow mistakes. That has been the real power of this class so far, I've really developed my workflow into something very functional through experimentation and trial and error. On top of that, I've also increasingly developed my eye into seeing finessing on an even more detailed level as well as a series of "aha!" moments, which are so gratifying.

Sooo much more to learn I feel incredibly humbled by how much there is yet to know, but that's also the very exciting part of the whole industry as well, I will keep growing and learning and pushing myself, and I freakin' love that! With the end of AM so nigh, I will gratefully look forward to my xmas downtime, but much work to be done before the actual graduation in mid January; namely polishing up other shots and compiling a new and improved demo reel. I don't want to jinx anything too much but many new extracurricular projects coming up as well; namely Mass Animation 2, 11 Seconds Club and some Crysis game modding so much to stay busy with.

Also, this week marks the 26th issue of Andy-Mated, my webcomic I'm doing for www.vancouveranimation.ca. In other words, that's 6 months of drawing a web comic and everything that entails. Not only has it been a great commitment but a great way to keep my creativity flowing and improve my artistic and photochopping abilities. Each week it grows slightly stronger so I hope to keep this up.

Musings From Within the Time Cube

First day of Class 6! I just found out my mentor is the wonderfully inspirational Kenny Roy and I'm quite pleased. He's got a great enthusiasm about him and seems quite knowledgable of cartoony style as well, which will be unbelievably helpful for me this term in particular. Woo! Pre-production and layout of my short film is complete, and you can see the more final version below:


In other updates, PAX was great, although I caught the infamous PAX flu, and at least was able to poke fun of it with my webcomic. There is a very real possibility that it was H1N1, but I was advised not to get tested and stay away from public unless it starts to affect my respiratory system in a serious way. Regardless, it surely knocked me down on the floor and recovery was slow. Well over it now, so that's great and now I can go forward out into the world with my super-human immunity.

I finally was able to get my Art page on my website pseudo-functional, tho the proportions are still funky and I apoligize for that. At Siggraph, I had the privelage of having Disney review my reel and they're predominant suggestion was that I plaster my website with drawings of all sorts. And thusly I've been trying to draw with a passion, including weekly life drawing classes. One of the most amazing things is that life drawing has become substantially more enjoyable than before. Anyways, examples can now be seen under my art section, and I hope to categorize them soon appropriately (ie. Quick Sketches, Creative, Longer Studies, etc). Nonetheless, content should be progressively added. Right now though, it's all about getting into the grind, Class 6 goes by fast I'm told, the first day's not over but it's going fast already!

Gimme Sum PAX Plox

Another week and another update. Short film pre-production continues smoothly and relatively unabated so far. I've progressed from the 2D animatic to the 3D layout and am just beginning some first pass blocking. Ahead of schedule but my film's a bit ambitious, so I want to try to get what I can done early to give me more time for polish in Class 6 when it starts. Here's my 2nd revision of my 3D Layout for your viewing enjoyment; poses are rough and I combined some of the shots, but it tells the story, more to come soon. It's missing the AM logo, but the rigs are property of AnimationMentor.com so I'm not taking credit for that. Possibly unnecessary but just in case.



Also, the Penny Arcade Expo is this weekend and I've had the good fortune of attaining tickets for Saturday and Sunday before they sold out. With 50,000 expected people in attendance, it should be a gamer/geeker's paradise. I'm not 100% sure what to expect, but I'm very excited and it should be a fantastic amount of fun. I should be meeting up with other AMers on the Sunday, so hopefully I'll have pictures to update with shortly thereafter. PAX ho!!

Siggraph was a Fulfillment of my Nerdlinging Wishes

Well as I've suggestively indicated, Siggraph was amazing! Got to see the amazing town of N'Awlins to begin with but on top of that, the conference itself was simply mind blowing. I think one of the most prominent events that transpired for me was the Gamejam! competition, a 24 hour video game asset creation challenge, and challenging was an understatement. This was the first year running of this event, so it had it's bumps in the road, but I'm grateful to have been a part of it, completed it and have a Siggraph themed video game to show for it. Specifically, the challenger was to design, model, texture, rig and animate a character with an idle, walk, jump and Special cycle. I created whom I have dubbed Zorgath, a Pikachu-esque slug creature with unknown backstory (little time to develop one) that uses his clawes and "slugness" to crawl up walls. If I do this challenge again next year, I'll be sure to avoid a special power that involves interaction with the environment, this proved to be an extra added difficulty on top of an already packed and complex itinerary. Anyways, there were some drastic rule changes throughout the contest, but as I said, basically bugs being ironed out. If you, the reader, has any inkling to waste endless hours playing this groundbreaking sidescrolling machinima you can download it at this link http://www.megaftp.com/92122 (PC only, sry).

Recently, AM came out with these wonderful badges to show our school pride. I am in full endorsement of this, as I've made obvious numerous times this school's one of the most exciting and amazing communities I've been fortunate to be involved with, and the learning is unparalleled. I'll figure out how to properly append this onto my website shortly but in the meantime it's here for all to see. A bit behind the ball on this one, they came out with the badges about a day after my last post.

And speaking of school, shortfilm preproduction is well under way. 2D storyboard finalized and 3D layout beginning as we speak. I'm trying to get ahead of the curve here, as my story is getting longer than I intended, but necessary to be sure. I think I'm running at about 43 seconds right now and it will be a wee longer, tho most of that is just to let the acting breathe. Very exciting stuff, I forgot how nerve wracking working on a short film could be, as it's all form the inner depths of my mind. And with that, I decided to go bizarre and hopefully not offensive in the religious context. A light hearted story of God babysitting Satan's child. I've heard someone say that I am not held responsible for what my mind comes up with; at a glance that seems totally false, but I'm inclined to believe it :D With that said, here's the 2D animatic in all it's embarassing glory (no sound yet).

Birds of a Feather Flock in Relative Proximity of Each Other

Another quick update. I attended CG Con this weekend and it was simply fantastic! The animation masterclasses were full of gold nuggets that I am looking very forward to implementing. I was also able to have my reel professionally reviewed by Matthew Russel of Valve and Charles Alleneck of ILM. Both experiences were humbling but positive; some definite tweaks to make, so much more to learn but overall they thought it was rather strong, which is a good sign as I certainly can't judge my own worth. One thing they both mentioned was that I could use a full body, body mechanics shot and so I have started one. It's only in the blocking phase and a short test, but hopefully I can get it polished up by Siggraph.



I've essentially finished the subtle acting piece I've been working on, and decided to cut off the ending, I felt it drag on a bit too long for the purpose it was trying to serve, which was to demonstrate a context between text and subtext. It was understood at the reel review so that's a good sign to be sure. I've compiled it all together in what is now my current reel, but only for a couple more weeks, as I have to go back and tweak other shots. But here it is for the time being:



CG Con is planning on coming to Vancouver in the next few months for a smaller road show, they've asked for my assistance so I'm seeing what I can do to make that a reality, not much mind you. It will be great if they come, a lot of local talent and interest to be sure. So yea, it's largely just the mad rush to get ready for Siggraph, GameJam, and mostly just finish tweaking my reel as many studios this year it seems requires a pre-submission to be talked to; rather smart but kind of annoying hehe. A test of endurance, can't stop now! :D

Et Tu Bay?

Just a quick update, it's been a week off between terms but I still managed to keep busy. I started a new monologue shot that still needs a lot of finess but it's well on it's way. I decided to go with an clip from the original Frost/Nixon interviews as the authenticity of the piece really sung out to me and presents an interesting challenge in what's being said and what the subtext actually is.


My new mentor for Class 5 is Jason Taylor and I feel very lucky to have him. This term is all about story and I'm very excited, also nervous to come up with a short film idea that I will be happy with as I will be spending the next 6 months on this. I've had a few good brainstorming sessions already, but I'm not letting the cat out of the bag yet, too early.

CGCon is only 2 weeks away holy schnikey! Part of my reason to do a new animation was just to bulk up my reel for this event as there will be an impressive job fair there, to which I will get an opportunity to hand out some reels and more importantly receive feedback to make them stronger for Siggraph, the theory seems sound anyways. Also there will be some excellent animation master classes and a chance to meet some AM mentors, alum and mentees, it's going to be a busy week.

I saw Transformers 2, I shall refrain from comment on that one as I want this to be a short blog post. Also saw Ice Age 3, and that was excellent stuff. Great for kids, but the animation in that was supersolid, I feel really inspired right now and I gotta keep that feeling. Also with any luck there is a new twitter widget on my blog as I recently found out I can combine the two, feel free to follow me if you wish.

Instant Coffee Offers a Different Sort of Caffeine Sweats

This is the last week of class 4 and just wrapping up one of the most challenging assignments of my journey. There are still minor fixes, but my two person dialogue shot is practically complete and what a learning experience has this been. It's amazing how much I really started learning this last month, hard to quantify but certain elements really started to click into place; namely the amalgamation of body mechanics and acting choices. To some this may seem trivial, to others non-sensical, but having the marriage of both work with each other rather than against was a big breakthough in the annals of my mind. Term break next week, but I'm already beginning work on a new monologue/acting piece so I can have something to pad my reel a bit more, no rest for the wicked or socially dis-inclined it seems.


In other news, my Andy-mated Webcomic strip has finally gone live on VancouverAnimation.ca and so far response has been positive. It proves an interesting challenge to come up with content as it's weekly and industry related, but it's one I am happy to go about as it will definitely help keep the creative juices flowing. You can view it at this incredibly loooong link: http://www.vancouveranimation.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=52&Itemid=127 Partially related, as an incentive for my efforts in swinging this together I was honored to receive a ticket to Rob McKee's 3 Day "Story" seminar which was a fantastically amazing, yet thoroughly exhausting experience. Not a single regret from the 35 hours of his lecture, as I really look forward to apply his concepts to make a powerful piece in term 5 for the development of my short film. This is the same man who taught Pixar how to do it and his book has become the staple of screenwriting in Hollywood as well has led to numerous academy award winning movies, it was truly an honor.

Also, Siggraph is ramping up, and I cannot wait to attend it in New Orleans this August. I have already made time to accomadate my Gabriel Knight photo tour, simply as it was one of my favorite all time games growing up, and still for that matter. I made it tho, I am an official contestant in the GameJam! competition which is a 24 hour collaborative experiment to make a theme based game. Although I have no clue about scripting and game engines, it should prove to be ample fun and my 3D skills should come into play very well. I also just recently found out about CG Con in LA, which is a new event, but having a great job fair and Animation master classes, so I'm looking into the rationality of being able to attend.

April Anuerisms bring May Dopamines

Well a fair bit to update on this one. First and most notably, Pixar is opening up a studio in Vancouver! Asides being exciting in general, the launch of their studio sort of coincides well with myu completion of the core program at AM. I know realistically, my odds of getting hired there are small, but I also know that they don't always go for the best quality, they like to see a certain... panache I guess. Anyways, long shot, but exciting.

My charitable project is now very much complete, and reception has already been quite promising. For those who wish to view it you can here. It was an amazing plethora of technical challenges and creative design; occasionally drove me nuts, but I think that's the nature of the work. I feel much accomplished for having done it and am glad it's serving a good purpose. If you're reading this and live in the lower BC mainland, I highly encourage you to donate as well; the cause is quite just.


Also, through networking at a rather unique CG/Steampunk event a couple weeks back, I have an opportunity to start a webcomic for a local animation related website. This is very exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. A weekly publication that would run for about a year, but now that I've ironed about a bunch of the lumps, I think it's quite achievable and am really grateful for this opportunity. I had to be proactive and pitch my idea, which was liked, so hopefully next week on www.vancouveranimation.ca my work should be published weekly! Also a great way to gain some recognition and just generally be creative. Here's the first prototype issue; rather relevant to current local media:









New assignment has been going on for school the past couple weeks as well, the all encompassing 2 person dialogue shot. After sifting through near half of every movie ever produced, I narrowed down my choices of audio clips and after a long deliberation of determining what I wanted to achieve with this shot, I ended up choosing a clip from The Wedding Crashers. It's highly emotional and shows good anger and fear; plus I was able to throw it way out of context and do (what I think) is a rather original take on it. Still in it's base blocking stage, I am definitely hoping I'm not getting too far over my head, or that I inadvertantly offend someone or come off as a masochist or pervert :P but I think I'll be fine and this is just how the story evolved.