How much does an extra "D" cost?

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

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?

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

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

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....

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....

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.