My 11SC November Entry

I came up with some ideas and sketches for last month's 11 Second Club competition. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get much work done. However, I really like the dialog clip and my idea and would still like to get it done so I can add it to my reel.

My idea was to have a devil character wearing a halo. An angel appears next to him and accuses him of stealing it. Here's what I have so far:

I really wanted to push the over-the-top antics and expressions. I also felt the key would be the subtle facial animation on the more quiet moments.

I checked the website this morning, and as you can see from my previous post the winner's entry is really good. So I keep looking at the top 10 and what do I see at the #10 spot?

An angel and a devil wearing a halo! HOLY CRAP! Someone else had a very similar idea to mine AND THEY CAME IN 10TH PLACE! I'm not saying that mine would have been better but now I at least have to try.

11 Second Club November Winner

This is the winning entry for the 11 Second Club competition for November.

"Thought of You" by Ryan Woodward

This is an amazing piece of work that has been making the round on facebook. I had to post it.


Thought of You from Ryan Woodward on Vimeo.

And here is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of it.


Thought of You - Behind the Scenes Preview - ROUGH CUT from Cambell Christensen on Vimeo.


Thought of You - Making Of from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.


And here is Ryan Woodward's website. I've seen some of his work and it is just amazing.

New Pooh

Not too sure how I feel about this. It seems like Disney is taking a step backwards with traditional hand drawn animation. Instead of going for something new and daring, they're going for something that already seemed to have worked before.



I've been reading a lot of different comments about this new trailer. Most of it negative. Yes, it is nice to see Winnie the Pooh back up on the big screen for a whole new generation. But, THIS is the best the Disney company can produce?! I know John Lassetter has been pushing for a resurgence of hand drawn animation at Disney. I'm all for it. But instead of going for something new, they go with something old. The Princess and the Frog is a great and beautiful movie. The new CG movie Tangled looks amazing. I would have loved to have seen it as a traditional hand drawn feature. (more on that to come later). But they keep going for the "safe" story lines and themes. Singing princesses and dancing animals. While PIXAR is going for the more daring and innovative story lines. THEY are the ones taking risks (Ratatouille, Wall-E, The Incredibles) and they are paying off big time!

I, of all people, am so happy to see a resurgence of hand drawn animation return to Disney. It's great to see new work from some of the animators that have inspired me over the years like Andreas Deja, Eric Goldberg and Mark Henn. Hopefully, their talents will not be wasted on material that could have been completed by a TV animation studio.

ZOMBIGOTCHI!!

Zombigotchi! from Michael Please on Vimeo.

New book released today...

If you know me at all, you know that I am not political at all. But last night as I was putting out the new releases at work, I couldn't help but see the humorous implications of the two newest titles being released today: Decision Points by George Bush and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth by Jeff Kinney.

The results are in...

...and my entry came in #59 out of 233 entries! Not bad for my first time. It received 5.14 starts out of 11 total.  These are some of the comments I received:

"I don't get the sense that she is actually leaning against the couch. Different lighting might help there."

"maybe if the dog put his head down ears up on her leg and rested it there with a sigh that would keep him alive for a little longer. good work though"

"I really like her posing with this dog. Sitting behind the couch instead of on it. Makes the framing interesting. Nice work"

"It seems weird that she doesn't move her eyes when her dog turns back to look at her.. She looks like she looks through the dog, and not at the dog"

"Nice use of dog tail to explain the light thud occurring in the first half the dialogue! Along with, of course, the inclusion of the dog in general; it was a very natural touch and fit well with the context.
The only thing that felt out of place with the rest of her acting was the crossing of her heart with her palms; doing so felt more like a spiritual motion versus bonding her pet, as she had for the rest of it, but that was about it. That could be a personal opinion though.
Good job!"
 
"Nice, I think the dog perking up on "Hmm?" would have been a better accent than him perking up when he does now.."
 
"The entire animation matches the tone of the voice extremely well. I like how the dog reacts."

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the response. I also uploaded the scene to my profile page on YouAnimator.com. It's a new site that showcases animators from all around the world. I uploaded it last night and today they posted it on their home page as "Today's Highlight."  It was even posted on their facebook profile! It's really given me a boost of momentum to get started on more scenes. I'm thinking of ideas for this month's selection. I also have a few other things on the back burners that I want to work on.

Didi is sending me ideas for her movie that she is writing. I'm helping her with ideas, but mainly I want to help with visual development, storyboards, layout, and possibly animatics. They way she describes a scene, I instantly visualize it in my head. The trick is getting that picture in my head down on paper or on the computer.

As far as my studio work goes, it can get pretty busy. I have so many irons in the fire that it's difficult to decide which one to pull out and work on. The good thing is that it will never get dull. There is always something to do.

"I'm Alone" - FINAL

I finally did it. I finally entered one of the 11 Second Club competitions! I still believe this scene still needs some work, but for this competition it is done. Over the next week or so I do plan on going back and touching up a few things.

This was also an experiment in lighting. I've only done it once before but that was pretty basic. The lighting was very bright with several shadows. This time I had to try and create a mood for this scene. I used three different lights, changed their intensity, changed the color, and changed their decay. I'd really like to learn more about lighting. It's all about creating the right environment that best reflects the mood of the scene. Something more to learn that could be very beneficial in the long run. 

Toy Story 3 on 60 Minutes

Demo Reel June 2010

As promised, here is my current demo reel as of June 2010. It has a new parkour shot that I did a few weeks ago. It took me about five hours to block out the whole thing and get it near completion. I received some helpful feedback from a couple of my AM buddies. I also worked on "Crazy", the second dialogue scene. After watching several demo reels on YouAnimator.com and other blogs, I realized I have a lot of work to do on both scenes. So I think I may work on the first scene a bit. I now see several areas that need to be touched up.

I am also working on another dialogue scene. This one is from the movie "Down with Love" with Ewan McGregor and Renee Zellweger. I'm still blocking that one out so it will be a while before I post anything. I'm still trying to figure out how to play the whole scene. I'm thinking of adding a quick, smaller scene to set up the line, but I don't want to make it too big that I don't get it done in two months.

I have noticed that as I go throughout my day at work that I am observing the people more and more lately. I'm noticing different types of walks, small gestures, standing poses, etc. I am trying to figure out the pose and keep it in my internal databanks for a later time. What I need to do is quickly sketch down what I see. I have started carrying a post-it pad with me. However, I've been so busy at work lately that I haven't had time to stop and sketch anything down. It's very frustrating for an artist when he isn't able to think freely. Oh, well. It pays the bills for now. Well, most of them.

I applied but did not get into the summer internship program for Reel FX in Dallas. After seeing my reel several times lately, I can see why. I did see that they will be taking applications again in September for their internship to begin in February 2011. So I have a little under two months to get things in order. I need to finish up another dialogue scene and get my scenes for Dana completed. I am more determined more than ever to get these done. I have been spending just about every waking moment in the studio. It gives me something to look forward to at the end of my workday when I know I can come home and really get into the work I truly love. Two plus hours working on two seconds of animation? Yeah, I love it!