Open Season, fitting title

As far as studio premiers go, I think Open Season was a really great one for Sony Pictures Animation. It may prove to be 'open season' for studios other then Pixar and Dreamworks to be able to turn out some quality entertainment. Yea, the story is the same old "animals on an odyssey" we've seen in just about every other animated feature, but it wasn't terrible. There were some one-liners that gave me a chuckle

- Yeah, we'll need your nuts!
- And your acorns, too!

Yes, the story was acceptable, but the animation was amazing. Here is where I think the previews fell short. The fur on the bear was beautiful. The poses and extremes were top-notch. There is some classic stuff here.

That's enough from me, go see it!

fipper book madness

I was reading about the history of animation in the 'kit, and he calls them 'flipPER books' and I think that sounds cool, so that is what I am going to be calling them from now on. Any whooo, check out what happens when you work too long on one.

a day in the life of Rick O'Connor

So, I needed a break today. Work has been crazy. This 20 hour/week contract I have been working on has been more like 50 hours a week for the past few weeks. It is all good because with AM starting in a couple of months, I need all the 'ka-ching' I can gather. And, since I am not in classes this quarter, I have some extra time for the work.

In search of my latest AM fix, I check out the thread over at cgsociety. Nothing really new there. My next stop was a tab I had open from last night. It was on AM's site, were I had discovered their free articles. This particular article was very interesting. Written by Rick O'Conner, a lead animator over at ILM, walks you through a typical day. It was very interesting to read about the 'Willy Wonka' -like atmosphere of his workplace, as well as the ins and outs of his day.

After a full day of reference footage, storyboarding, and a long lunch of McDonald's and "Deadwood" on HBO, he heads off home around 7 to the arms of his four year old.

My chinese just arrived, enjoy the article!

http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/0905/feature_lead.html

i am IN!

I got the Congrats email from AM today, welcoming me. The email from AM said the next step was compete the registration process on Nov. 30. Nothing about the deposit that I knew needed to be in by Oct. 25, so I called. It took a few hours, but I finally got someone who said the deposit email was going out in a few minutes. I wish the email had said something like that. I got voice mail every time I tried to call, so I am guessing they were busy with others when the same question.

Enough of that, I got the link, paid my $$ and now I am all set for Nov. 20!!!

This is a dream come true for me. I have wanted this for so long, and now I am so very close! I can't wait 'till I get in and see who my mentor is!

still waiting (on EVERYTHING)

So, it's been a little more then a week since I took 'the test' and I still haven't heard anything about if I got in or not. I and emailed them soon after to ask if I would hear back in time to make the deposit by the 25 of Oct, but I've gotten nothing back.

Also, still waiting on the books from Amazon. The Animator's Survival Kit said it was in stock, so I emailed about the hold up. They were nice enough to bump up the shipping to standard and I should get it by tuesday! I am very excited. I've been working with djo and jonas with some basics in Maya and they both (as well as many others) talk up this book. I can't wait to test it out!

I've added a new blog (there are SO many good ones out there). Please check out Rebecca's Blog. She seems to be a very helpful presence over at cgtalk, and has some great examples of work out of AM. Anything to get my AM fix.

new AM blog added

There are a LOT of AM blogs out there, it's hard to check them all out. As I am working my way back through the huge AM thread over at cgtalk, I see some posters more frequently then others. One calls himself "My Fault"

I checked out his blog where he talks about his ideas for his upcoming short. As an added bonus, he also a Venture Brothers fan! Check out his blog here, or in the links to the side of the page.

new links area / AM test

I've started a new links area here for portfolios and blogs. I might split it up in the future, see how long it gets. Might also get rid of those other links, idunno.

In other news, I got my email about the test for AM! I did what I could in the 8 minutes they allowed. I got to answer 24 or 25 before it quit on me. I've heard the total is 30 but not everyone finishes. I should hear back with in 2 weeks. I emailed AM because 2 weeks would be 26, a day late for the Oct. 25 deadline for deposits to get this years rate. Oh well, I can only hope!

I've already met some cool guys that are waiting to start AM with me. Jonas and Joost who are from Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. It will be quite the international event once we get started!

google gets youtube

I pulled up cgsociety today and saw an interesting article on the front page. Apparently, google has purchased youtube. I wonder how this will affect users like me who have content on both? I don't have much of a preference personally, though youtube seems to be more popular and have more interesting content. I started with google, because I like the idea of keeping all my content together. Google has my email, calendar, photos, timelogs, etc, why not my video? The only reason I started using youtube to host my videos is because google started having a 10 sec. minim for uploaded videos and some of my stuff was being rejected because it was too short. For instance, my bird flapping. Yea, it looks silly because it is so sort, but it is supposed to loop. Perhaps google getting youtube will allow both to combine into something better. Perhaps they will have new features, like looping!!!

Anyway, we will have to wait and see, i guess.

applied to animation mentor

after about a year of debating, at 10:08pm last night i submitted my application to Animation Mentor. i spent about a week working on the essay part of my application. i am waiting to see if i get accepted, but everyone i have talked to (or read) over at cgsociety as said not to worry. apparently, no one has ever heard of anyone not getting accepted. i still have my fingers crossed that i hear back in time to get my deposit in for the oct. 25 cut-off for this year's rate.

also wanna say hello to D. Jonas Manke, he is also going to be starting at AM this jan. Check out his blog here.

another cool AM blog I came across is found here.

new blog backend - labels!

I was going to update my blog, and was presented with a new blog editor that is in beta. I'm always a sucker for the new and barely tested (it's a wonder I still have all my appendages) so I am giving it a whirl. Brought to you by the brilliant minds at Google, the new blog features labels.

I wanted this blog to be about my work, and the work that I feel is done and presentable. There was no place for news, WIP's or just plain experimentation. The result was several unfinished pieces and some tests were cluttering up my blog. Now, everything can be filtered. Click on the label 'portfolio' to see my finished work and everything else will be filtered out.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIII love technologyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

another old maya render

cubicles

This was to be my entry for the 'journey' challange over at 3dsociety. I was going to have a guy at work for his first day. It was when I first started with Maya. I was trying to force myself to learn it. In the end, I just ran out of time. I wish I had just done it with blender.

unfinished venice scene

This was from the Maya class that took last year. It fulfilled the requirements (and then some) but I wanted to go back to it and finish it. But, I got more and more involved in Blender and never went back to it. I am posting it here because it is one of the few projects I have done that I found a sketch and reference picture for. As you can see, I sketch almost as well as I model :)

introducing billy

If you checked out my 10secondclub entry below, you billy, my little star. OK, he's not yet. But he wants to be and I am supportive.

But seriously, I am proud of billy. He is my first original character. He isn't perfect (his hands just have 3 bones in them) but I think he turned out nice for a first try. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and make him more sophisticated as I am working on a couple other new characters. But, I did what to take a few minutes to show more of his character. The 10secondclub thing was a great test, but I don't want billy typecast as a dark figure. So, here he is, flashing you his pearly-whites. Well, he doesn't have teeth really, but if he did, they would be white. As an added bonus, he works well as my avatar.

Enjoy!