It's Big, its heavy its Wood....its Blog Blog Blog

Ryan Woodward

2011-06-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

Animator Ryan Woodward has been gaining some popularity lately... And for good reason. He's good. Enjoy:

Thomas Edison home, Ft. Myers Florida....

2010-12-28T14:28:00.000-08:00

Went with the family to the Thomas Edison summer home in Fort Myers, Florida over Christmas break...haven't been there in 30 years when I was a surly pre-teen with my parents. Now I can have some appreciation for everything in there. In addition to his summer home, and amazing Laboratory, there's an impressive collection of early film equipment. From Zoetropes to Kinetoscopes and Sceniscopes, and a bunch of other Scopes I cant remember, the Edison home collection has everything. Its worth a drive down there to see some of the earliest Animation and Film tools ever made. Its about 2 hours south of Ringling campus...

Double Dreamworks Face.....

2010-12-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

What does it mean?!

The Double Rainbow Connection (Remix) by gdelahaye

Recent bits of Awesomeness

2010-12-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

Just a couple bits of awesomeness that have come in front of my eyes lately...
Apparently Michel Gagne' is releasing a video game.

There's a studio in Spain called "Headless Productions" that does amazing 2D animation:

If any of you have had me as your teacher in 3D, you know how obsessed I am with nice hand poses on your 3D characters...    Why take one of the most expressive parts of the body, and leave it in the default pose???    Toby Shelton, a Story artist at Dreamworks has a blog, along with some really expressive hands... Drawings...that is. I've never seen his hands in person, who knows...maybe they are. Click the image to find out.

Do you have that one with that guy who was in that movie that was out last year?

2010-09-11T22:58:00.000-07:00

I just started an animation project today, and I needed to reference some Buster Keaton movies... So I went to Borders, thought for sure they'd have some DVD's.. Nope. Three Stooges, W.C. Fields....I was impressed....but no Keaton. Drove across the street to Barnes and Noble... Only thing I found there was Miss Congeniality and it's sequel. I walked out. I thought I'd have to go home and order some on Amazon and wait a few days... Then I remembered my favorite video store from back in the day when I was a student at Ringling... Hadn't been there since like 1991....was it still there? Yep. Sure was. Video Renaissance. 2243 Bee Ridge Rd, just a couple blocks off 41.... Unassuming little joint in a strip mall next to a laundromat... When I tell you this place has everything....I mean they have EV-ER-Y-THING... F Netflix. I needed Buster Keaton today, not in a red envelope in 2 days... Went in, and the same guy from 1991 was still working there... Behind the counter, like a living breathing Imdb.com full of knowledge... The man knows just about everything about film....if you've got something you're trying to find, but can't remember exactly what or where or how....he will know it. I swear he's better than Google. And when you rent, there's no long process of providing credit cards, passports, DNA samples... He just writes down your name once on a yellow notepad, then remembers your name forever. Old school. So much more satisfying than the sterile point and click of online renting. He immediately hooked me up with "The General" and a Keaton Compilation as well. I walked out a happy man. I love this joint. Go there. Give them your money. You will love this place too.

Jump the Shark...

2010-09-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

Somehow in class the other day, we ended up talking about where the phrase "Jump the Shark" originated... Since I'm old as dirt, I was actually watching TV when the exact moment happened.... But some people weren't aware of its glorious moment of inception. Here's a little article in the LA Times to capture the magic: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/03/entertainment/la-et-jump-the-shark-20100903
To that list of "Jump the Shark" moments I'd probably add any time a show adds a cute kid to the cast in hopes to resuscitate a dying show. First one I can remember was when Cousin Oliver showed up on the Brady Bunch. They didn't have enough kids on that show already? After Cousin Oliver showed up, that show sucked balls. Do I need to mention Scrappy Doo? I didn't think so. Also, any time a show tries to swap out a character with a new actor and get away with it....I'm done. When they swapped Darren's on Bewitched? Forget it. Its the whole "New Coke" problem...kiss of death. What? Never heard of "New Coke"? Maybe I'll talk about that in next week's class....

Rest in Peace my Friend....

2010-07-23T21:47:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that I write this past Saturday, Pres Romanillos passed away. He was surrounded by family, friends, and his wife Jeannine at his house....it appears he knew his time was short and he wanted to get out of the hospital and spend time with loved ones. He was able to attend his art auction, and I know he was touched by the outpour of generosity by all his friends and partners in the animation industry... Pres was 47 years old..... Too young to be writing this sort of entry... You will be missed Pres...

DO...DAH...DIPPEDDY

2010-07-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

Do I love this Video? Sweet Geezus yes... Where do I begin? Haven't heard the Black Sheep since I was in college... Eating lunch in the student center while watching Yo! MTV Raps....good times. Love the animation.....really subtle stuff in there. If I had to guess....it looks like maybe CG Hamster head and hand replacements, over top of actors with oversized clothes... I think some of the full body Hamsters in the back are all CG, and possibly the Hoochie Hamster girls dancing... Its really well done how ever they did it.....great integration....at least here on YouTube. Do yourself a favor, and watch it full size on YouTube in HD. Enough jibba-jabba... Onto the show....

Just brilliant....

2010-06-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

Pres Romanillos Charity Art Auction

2010-05-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Apparently you can have 'Good' and 'Fast'... not sure about 'Cheap' though.

2010-05-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

You've probably seen this clip before, its from "Three Legged Legs" in Santa Monica and they do great stuff! Check their site, they just banged out a cool Starbucks commercial in 4 days! Check 'em out.

Humans! from three legged legs on Vimeo.

Daily Life as an Animation Student.....

2010-04-29T09:44:00.001-07:00

Yoshida Brothers cover Radiohead....

2010-04-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

When this first popped up in my Pandora playlist, I was like 'Huh?' Then I was like 'What?' Then I said 'Hey...thats Radiohead!' And then I started to dig it... Check it out.

World of Imagination.....

2010-04-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ever see an animation thats so simple and elegant, that you wanna kick yourself in the eye, because you didn't think of it yourself? Well this spot did it for me. Love it. Now only if ATT's reception on my Iphone could be as cool as this commercial.. ;)

Animation is Concentration....Archie Style

2010-04-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've never been a fan of Archie Comics, still aren't, well...maybe Betty....or Veronica... I digress. Anyway....my friend Marty Murphy sent this image out the other day when the topic of "multitasking" came up.... It reminded me of that drawing of Milt Kahl yelling at a young Richard Williams when he asked him if he listened to music when he worked.... It holds a lot of truth... I had to block out 7 seconds of animation literally overnight recently, and decided to Unplug from Pandora and my other usual distractions.... I'd forgotten what a difference it can make when you give your undivided attention to the blank piece of paper in front of you, or that rig in the default 'T' pose.... Think its nonsense? Try it. Just for one day.

One eyebrow up, Open smile on other side......

2010-04-20T17:29:00.000-07:00

.....You've probably seen the posts on the internet regarding whats been called "the Dreamworks Face" "One eyebrow up, open smile on the other Side..." Yeah, you see it a lot in DW films.....I'm not going to defend it... In fact, we used to giggle about how many times we got that note in Animation dailies... Sometimes we'd collect all the Post-it notes from the Directors with that exact drawing on it, and hang them around our Monitors... buy 'em, trade 'em, collect them all.. lol. I must have had 30 or more...
This Guy has some interesting things to add to the debate.... And one of my students sent me this link, to tie it into 'Lost', which of course gets my interest... Enjoy!

"The Decade's Best!"

2010-03-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

One of my students just sent me this photo... "The Decade's Best!" Blockbuster claims with their bold marquee. Look a little closer....whats that you see? Why its Bee Movie... Oh...and whats that? Its all rented out? That's right baby. Suck it! How would over one million viewers be wrong? lol.

Tostitos!

2010-03-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

Great Spot for Tostito's by Laika.... Saw this ad on TV not too long ago.... Didn't learn till just recently it was done by Laika....and after reading the article on Motionographer, I found out my friend Fernando Benitez did the Fx work on the spot. Fernando was a classmate of mine at Ringling, and we worked together on a few Pictures in Fx at Dreamworks... Its such a small world out there in animation...for real..
Here's the spot.

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

Hate the Car......Love the Commercials....

2010-01-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

Some new spots have been running for the 2010 Honda Crosstour... Forgettable looking car, memorable looking commercials. Love the look of them, almost like the characters are made of crumpled and folded paper. Not sure what company is animating the spots yet....

*Update*... Looks like they're done by a company called "Elastic" In Santa Monica...thanks to Brendan for the link, and the new Squirrel commercial. Love it!
Who needs poly smoothing? Half the charm and appeal to these ads is the simple design and silhouettes, accompanied by the nice fluid animation. Great stuff.

Rabbids Go Home

2009-12-16T16:48:00.000-08:00

How can you not love these guys? Simple designs, really appealing... Great little animations... Love it.

Electric Mayhem....

2009-12-04T23:04:00.000-08:00

Maybe its the exhaustion and sleep deprivation talking... Or maybe this is just pure genius... This time of the school year, its hard to tell... You be the judge. Enjoy. :)

Michelin Man

2009-11-23T21:53:00.000-08:00

Love this spot... The animation is good, but I'm more into the design, and how CG now seems to be on a trend to sometimes pass itself off as looking like stop motion, or something else... I like this trend. The Spot is done by 'Psyop' and I think there's more in this series out there.. Enjoy.

Pop Tarts

2009-10-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

who doesn't like Pop Tarts? I mean really. And especially after seeing this commercial. I'm going out right now to buy a box of strawberry Pop Tarts, and burn the roof of my mouth with the magical jelly filling inside. I found who animated the Spot, they're called "FWY Studios" The FWY stands for "Friends With You". And they're in Miami. East Coast Represent. www.fwystudios.com You have to check out their website and reel...its Trippy. anyway.... enjoy the spot. They say its a mixture of 3D animation and miniature sets...it looks great. Simple and appealing.

Dancer (Pop-Tarts) from FriendsWithYou on Vimeo.

2009-10-04T23:33:00.001-07:00

Love it. Simple.

Blip from Sean Mullen on Vimeo.

John Hughes 1950-2009

2009-08-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

I can't think of any one filmmaker that takes me back to those awkward teenage years, and with a smile no less, like John Hughes. Walk into the video store where I worked as a teenager, and 9 out of 10 times, you'd find me watching one of his movies....again. He gave us The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Uncle Buck, Planes Trains and Automobiles, and my favorite film of all time....Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you want a window of what it was like to live in the 1980's, nobody did it better than John. His films still resonate with me, and I've yet to find a filmmaker today that can tell so many stories with such incredible heart and humor in the way that the did.... Mr. Hughes passed away of a heart attack on August 6th, he was 59 years old.
"Yep. I said it before and I'll say it again... Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around, you could miss it." --Ferris Bueller

Viva la Fjorg!

2009-08-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

Fjorg! has begun.. What is Fjorg! you ask? Its an animation marathon at Siggraph... Teams are to create a 15-45 second animation in 32 hours time. No more, no less, no Resubmits. This is no small task, for one thing...its 32 hours straight....and two, its in New-freakin-Orleans, and three....random distractions are thrown at the animators at any given moment. Good times....good times.
Day one Link:
Day two Link:

Here's an updated link to a short film about this years Fjorg! Ah, the joys of Sleep Deprivation. Plenty of Ringling Students and Alum representin y'all.

SIGGRAPH 2009 FJORG! Competition in New Orleans, LA from Alumiq Productions on Vimeo.

Good times....

2009-06-11T17:43:00.000-07:00

Here's some great slo-mo reference for the next time you're working on some blendshapes or something... At least thats my excuse for putting it up here. Enjoy.

A letter from Ward Kimball

2009-05-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Back in 1973 a young Will Finn wrote a letter to Ward Kimball.... On Will's blog, he recently posted the letter he received from Ward. It still holds many words of wisdom for aspiring and current animators today... Check it out....

So Simple......

2009-04-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a commercial I saw recently that I just think is just so damn simple its awesome... Its one of those ideas that when you see it you say, "Why the hell didn't I think of that??" I dont know what it has to do with Frito-Lay chips and dip, but I dont care....I just like the animation. :) There's a webiste with more of their commercials at:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/03/in-videos-frito-lays-dips-and-chips-animated-commercials.html

Enjoy!

How much does an extra "D" cost?

2009-03-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

Just went to see "Monsters vs. Aliens" this afternoon and enjoyed it... What I didn't enjoy however was when the kid selling tickets told me, "You know the 3D vesion costs $3 dollars more....is that Ok?" They were showing both a standard 2D version, and the nifty new fangled 3D version with Buddy Holly glasses as well. I asked him why the 3D one cost more, was it the glasses? He told me, "Its to cover the cost of making the 3D...." Uh....Ok. So thats $12 for adults, and $9 bucks for the six year old. I dont remember paying more to see Coraline a few weeks ago... Maybe Katzenberg is offsetting the cost of installing a Holodeck needed to make these 3D movies....
The 3D was cool....but I'm still not 100% on board..... It's still a bit dark around the edges, and fast movements seem to Strobe a bit. Overall it still has that gimmicky 'ViewMaster' feel...which was cool as a kid, but.... Maybe I'm just getting old... ;)
Sent from my iPhone

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" Trailer up....

2009-03-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Looks like it could be fun... Very stylized characters and animation which is refreshing.... even if the eyes look reminiscent of Davey and Goliath here and there... Click the Image for the Link.

Is that a Blender in your Pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

2009-03-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

BlenderPocket is a Blender port dedicated for mobile devices (Phones, PDA, etc.) having a touch screen, small amount of memory (RAM), a low speed processor (with no floating point unit) and no graphic unit (no hardware acceleration). BlenderPocket is working today on all mobile devices with Windows Mobile 2003 or newer but it should be "easy" to make it work on any other devices. It just got upgraded from 2.42 to 2.48a!

I've never used Blender personally, but I've heard really good things about it....and you cant beat the price. Its free. Open source even. Good times. Now you can build, rig and animate 3D models while you're sipping coffee in Starbucks or not paying attention to the road while driving.... Here's the Link.

"UP" Trailer from Pixar

2009-03-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

Another trailer for Pixar's upcoming "UP" is online. If you click on the HD version, and let it load into Quicktime Pro, you can dowload it and then geek through it frame by frame... Some really nice stuff on the humans so far.... Pixar definitely gets it right when it comes to design and execution of 3D human characters....so many other studios somehow miss the mark. Great hand poses by the way. Anyway... enjoy!

Prelude to Eden

2009-03-07T15:27:00.000-08:00

This is a fun piece of Animation from Michel Gagne called "Prelude to Eden". I'm sure you all have seen Michel's work in one place or another, he's an amazing designer/animator. I haven't seen this clip since I was working on Prince of Egypt back in 1995. Its got some familiar names from some other Dreamworks Animators like Dave Brewster, Barry Atkinson, and another amazing designer/animator Shane Zalvin. Enjoy!

Generic vs. Specific.... Animation Performance....

2009-02-26T23:16:00.000-08:00

Some of you hopefully were able to attend Simon Otto from Dreamworks' Lecture in 2008 when he visited Ringling... He showed a clip from the Movie "Moliere" where the Acting teacher asks his student to act like a Horse. The student proceeds to do so, and afterwards, his teacher grills him as to "What kind of horse was that? Are you all horses in one?" Ah the French. :) The point of the clip though is to think about your animations....specifically your performances....How can you push your performance from Generic into something Specific? Like a walk for example... Your character....when he/she walks... How does he walk? does he just put one foot in front of the other like the song says? Or does he tell you something about himself in the manner that he walks? Is he tired, has he had a bad day, is he sick, is he overjoyed, has he eaten too much for lunch, is he lost? When your character tells the viewer these things in the way he moves, your character becomes Specific, and your viewer connects with him on a much deeper level then if he is just moving Generically. Every single keyframe you set should tell a story. Deep...I know.... but think about it as you're working on your Next pose.

James Baxter is the Man....

2009-02-26T22:16:00.001-08:00

Yes indeed. James Baxter is the man. And not in the "Man is trying to keep you down" sense of the word. He's the Man as in, "This guy can freakin animate." He's one of those animators that makes it look effortless.... Really has such a grasp of technique and performance that you're often sucked into the scene so much you forget you're looking at drawings or 3D rendered frames....you just see it as a living, breathing, emoting character... Here's some clips of some Line Tests of his work at Disney Studios...and a promotional clip from James Baxter's own Animation Studio. His Studio Animated the 2D Opening Credits to Kung Fu Panda.

Whiplash the Dog riding Rodeo Monkey

2009-02-24T07:54:00.000-08:00

Really... what can I say about this clip... Its a Monkey. Its a Monkey riding a Dog. And its pure Genius. Ride like the wind little Monkey dude...

Goofy!

2009-02-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

This is just a really fun clip of Goofy... I never really liked Goofy as a kid.... I didn't like the Beatles as a kid either....what did I know. Wasn't until I was older that really came to appreciate them both... Beatles first....Goofy much later. Anyway..."On with the Show"

Animation Stopwatch on IPHONE

2009-02-24T07:36:00.001-08:00

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/internet-blogs/an-iphone-stopwatch-for-animators.html

This is Brilliant! One of my coworkers already bought and installed this on his Iphone and showed it to me this morning... Its designed by Randy Cartwright, animator at Disney. Its so easy a monkey could run it! Simply turn it on, Shake or tap the phone to start the Clock.. Then tap or shake the phone at any time to add a marker to the Timeline. After you're done recording your timing....you can view it in Frames, Seconds, or Footage... I've always hated footage...never did like doing the math. :)
For 2 dollars, 99 cents, you cant beat this. All I need now is an Iphone.