Artie Loves Robie

Playing around with some Renderman lighting.... Channeling my inner 'Price is Right' modeling skills.

Congrats Moonbot!

Congratulations to Moonbot on their first Academy Award for Morris Lessmore! It was surreal watching it on TV tonight, knowing that I had a tiny part in creating some of the Animation... 13 years at Dreamworks....how many Oscars? Zip. Move to a tiny Island off the coast of Florida, and work on some freelance animation in my pajamas, via the internet....win an Oscar. Go figure.
Proud of those 'Swamp Rats' from Louisiana. Keep up the good work!

Ryan Woodward

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

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

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.....

What does it mean?!  

The Double Rainbow Connection (Remix) by gdelahaye

Recent bits of Awesomeness

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?

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.