The Official Blog of the Super-Groovy Graphic Artist Chris O'Connell

Sharing is Caring

2011-09-26T00:05:00.002-04:00

For some time now, I've been running a website called VFX Job Hunt.com, which is a site dedicated to helping digital artists in entertainment fields (like myself) find work, mainly by syndicating visual effects and animation job postings from around the web. While the job postings at VFX Job Hunt do include video game jobs, over time, I've been more and more of the opinion that game jobs deserve additional and separate attention. Thus, I recently created a separate similar site:

http://www.GameDevGigs.com/

So, for all my aspiring and experienced game artist and programmer friends out there (and there are quite a few of you), please check out and tell your friends about GameDevGigs.com ...and more importantly, let me know what you think.

Also, on a much less serious note, a very interesting friend of mine created this site that I'd also like to share:

http://lfiquotes.tumblr.com/

This site is a satirical endeavor that I feel the need to share because I find it very amusing... and if you know anyone who believes way too much of what they read online, you should think specifically of them when you check it out. ;)

Have a Happy and Safe 4th!

2011-07-04T12:26:00.001-04:00

Given what I posted on the 4th of July a few years ago, how could I not share the newer take? ;D

About 6 Months Later...

2011-06-29T13:54:00.010-04:00

Yet again, it's been quite some time since I've written a blog entry... and I'm quite sure that the few people who still read this blog will probably wonder why I still bother to post at this point... but just the same, while I currently have the time, energy and urge to write online, here goes...
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When I last blogged, it was right after the holiday season, and The Green Hornet (a motion picture I had done some work on) was soon to hit the movie theaters. Well, since then, the film loudly came and went from the theaters, and to my own mild surprise, in spite of some questionable casting, the Hornet did decently overall both at the box office and with critics. It has since come out on DVD and Blueray.

So what have I been up to since the winter months? Well, I did get to spend Easter week in Maui for my birthday back in April. (click here for photos) ...but aside from that all-to-brief tropical getaway, with no exaggeration, most of my awake hours over the first half of 2011 had me working very hard as a stereoscopic artist on the following two Marvel movies:

Thor & Captain America.

Now, unless you live under a rock, you've at least heard of Thor and it's success as the first big summer blockbuster of this year. By the way, much overdue thanks to all of my friends and family who saw Thor in 3D and helped make it a success, while supporting the very hard work done by me, my colleagues and countless other creative people. As for Captain America: The First Avenger, he'll be hitting theaters in 3D on July 22, and mark my words, Cap is gonna be bringing it with tons of nazi-punching & shield-throwing awesomeness! For those out there who don't know about good ol' Cap or aren't yet adequately psyched for the film, check out the following trailer. It sets the tone pretty well.

As for me personally, if I have my way, there are going to be a few big changes going on in the coming weeks, hopefully all for the better. However, in the meantime, while I do hope to stay somewhat busy, let's see if I can find myself more easily going less than about half a year between these darn blog entries.

...wish me luck. ;)

European Holidays

2011-01-08T20:46:00.003-05:00

As many people know, I spent the recent X-mas and New Years holidays gallivanting around Italy and the French Riviera with the same friends that I went to South America with a few months ago... and while Colombia was fun back in November, this trip to Europe was considerably more exciting. Speaking as an artist and former teacher, I've always wanted to visit Rome specifically and glimpse such a place that clearly struggles with the accommodation the modern world amidst an amazing culture of historical and artistic tradition unlike any other.

Again, for the curious of mind, here are some travel photos...

Milan and Monaco:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=261875&id=585203371&l=dc37cc42dd

Rome and Pisa:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=263536&id=585203371&l=c0ee1cf85a

Meanwhile, on another page of things going on in my life... While I was overseas, Jack Black's version of Gulliver's Travels came out in US theaters. The release of this film is something that I consider very bittersweet. It is a film I worked on as a stereoscopic artist and my colleagues and I are really proud of surviving the very hard work we put into it... but unfortunately, from a non-VFX perspective, like many other Holiday releases and/or Jack Black films, most people pretty much know what they are going to get when they go to see Gulliver. Thus unlike it's Oscar-nominated predecessor, the modern film version of Gulliver's Travels isn't doing so great at the box office or with critics. Oh well, hopefully The Green Hornet will do better in the coming week, which I also did some work on.

Isis Strike Revisited

2010-12-19T22:03:00.001-05:00

Over the past week, in spite of having very little free time, I (metaphorically) dusted off some of my old game development tools and decided to revisit that particular former pastime. This time around, with the intent of just playing around (as opposed to taking another crack at the indie software business any time soon), I had an interesting little success in recently converting my old Windows game Isis Strike to an Adobe Flash version. So basically, now Isis Strike can be played in any major operating system with high speed internet, so long as Adobe Flash player is installed.

https://www.mochimedia.com/games/isis-strike

Note / Disclaimer: During the bug-fighting and other experiments of the conversion process, there were some minor changes to the game- Most notably, there are (1) a little less variety of enemies, (2) more weapons and (3) I apologize in advance for whatever looks less cool in 256 colors. Also, like the original Isis Strike, the game's pace gets a little fast, so be sure to close any unnecessary browser tabs if it plays choppy. Aside from all that though, I think it's still a fun and slightly addictive little shoot-em-up. So, please enjoy. :)
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Viva Colombia

2010-11-21T19:55:00.004-05:00

As some people know, at the beginning of this month, I got to take a week-long trip to Colombia and essentially knock visiting South America off of my bucket list. It was a fairly fun and wacky adventure, complete with strange foods, fun companions, super fancy hotels, police bribery, eclectic locales and all the crazy cross-cultural experiences a travel junkie can thrive on for a week. Since it's now weeks later, I'd say it's quite obvious I didn't have much time to blog about the trip during or since. However, for the curious of mind, here's a public link to my Facebook photo album appropriately titled: Viva Colombia. ;)

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=242499&l=d2b8c45278&id=585203371

Little Time to Blog Big

2010-10-10T15:16:00.013-04:00

Here's a quick little entry for anyone out there under the severe misunderstanding that silence in my blog might mean that nothing is going on lately... quite the opposite in fact... but as anyone who reads this stuff can tell, I've always been a fairly sporadic and less-than-avid blogger, especially over the past couple of years. Lately though, what can I say? As much as I'd love to goof around on the web more often, these days it seems I'm too busy a guy. If you do happen to follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you have at least an idea that back in September I switched jobs and moved across the country yet again.

This time, after two years of work and study in Florida, I pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles to work as a visual effects artist for a really interesting company called Stereo D. Yup, I'm working on Hollywood movies... and while to some folks out here in Cali, working on a big budget movie with big name talent might not be too big of a deal; to me, having my name associated with such work is something really cool that I've been itching to scratch off the bucket list for a long time now.

Here's my shiny new IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2755394/

For now, I've only been fortunate enough to do work on just a couple of films, but like I often say, who knows what the future holds. ;)

5 States in Just Under a Week

2010-08-26T23:48:00.009-04:00

In the middle of last week, I flew out from my current home of Central Florida up to Bradley Airport in Connecticut. From there, as is typical of my visits to the New England region, I went to Western Massachusetts to spend a few days chilling out and goofing around with family and friends.

After that, it was off to the beautiful, green, cell phone reception-killing mountains of Vermont, where I proudly watched some good friends start a new life together.

Usually, I'm quite cynical as to guessing how long most marriages will last, but I think these two are for keeps. When you look at them together, the love is very evident... along with potential long-term makings of quirky grandparents for almost any sitcom. ;)

Well anyhoo, after all that mushy knot-tying action, it was back to Connecticut for me, so I could fly out to sexy Las Vegas... and while I have been to other parts of Nevada before, this was my first real Vegas adventure!

Even though I'm not much of a gambler or a party guy, I've got to say, Las Vegas lives up to it's reputation as a really fun city. Unless you're some kind of super uptight or unadventurous person, there really is something there for everyone. For example, my friends kind of sucked me into attending the Miss Universe rehearsal show, which they enjoyed immensely, but it wasn't really my cup of tea and left me feeling the need for a testosterone reboot, in spite of all the bikini-clad goddesses. So, before dropping them off to the real Miss Universe pageant later that evening, I did some "dropping off" of my own, as seen in the video below.

I got back to Florida yesterday, but I'm still thinking good times with good people and viva Las Vegas, baby!
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Riding the Pendulum

2010-08-16T16:38:00.007-04:00

Life is composed of many kinds of ups and downs and most people often seem to be either in a state of utter happiness or dwelling on all that is horrid with their world. Some say, the best place to be is right in the middle, content with life, feeling graced by whatever they think is nice and coping with all that could be better.

Personally, I say that's a load of crap.

The lows in life are inevitable and they may be more difficult to cope with when they come right after a series of truly great moments, but what if you know how to hang on to the feeling of those great moments? What if those great moments give you something better to shoot for and inspire you to step up and conquer when an opportunity really presents itself?

I had a really crappy week last week. To my knowledge, nobody significant to me died and beyond routine headaches and stress, I wasn't really sick or injured or anything like that. The week just simply sucked, Friday the 13th and all!

At the start of this week however, I find myself preparing to go on a series of short trips that I expect to be fun and/or relaxing...and this morning I received a message from a far off land about a pending opportunity to change my life in a very cool way that's right out of a childhood dream. So, wish me luck in the coming days, folks. It looks like it'll soon be time to step up and conquer.

Rolling in Miami

2010-06-14T23:36:00.005-04:00

Just when I was really starting to complain that I never seem to travel anymore, this past weekend, my business partner and I took off for a brief working holiday down in Miami.

While I'm not sure if Miami makes my top ten all-time travel destinations, this weekend showed me it definitely gets honorable mention as a place worth checking out at some point. Between a beachy urban energy only slightly more sane than LA, multicultural art deco settings that vaguely remind me of Singapore and an unstoppable Latin funk that you can only hope to find in Florida, Miami is clearly one of those fascinating cities of the world that has it's own unmistakable persona. Oh, and when I say "multicultural" I really f@#king mean it! At midnight on Saturday, I stood in the most subculturally diverse fast food take out line ever, comprised of myself, some Latino gang-bangers, three douche-bag frat boys, a redneck tourist and her small daughter, a pair of crack-heads from the hood (ordering water of course), a bunch of sexy foreign night-clubbers (visibly representing almost half a dozen ethnicities just themselves) and two middle-aged white women who looked like they just spent all day shopping at Gucci and Prada. God, I love culture clash!!! :)

As often when I travel to cool places, I like to throw out a restaurant recommendation. This time, I've got two: (1) The Knife, an Argentinean meat, veggie and dessert buffet with a very friendly weight staff (of course you know I didn't touch the veggies) and (2) Finnegan's Way, an Irish pub just across the street from Miami beach that serves, what is in my opinion, the best damn burger in Florida. Plus, as you can see in the picture below, it doesn't hurt that they let you sub the fries with linguini alfredo... and yes, my heart prolly did stop for a moment in more ways than one.

This time, I went there for work, but pondering the glimpse of potential fun and adventure I just described, I'm sure I'll be back at some point for play.

Please Go Away, Glenn

2010-05-14T01:39:00.001-04:00

As many people who read this blog would know, once upon a time, I taught art, multimedia and other related subjects as a college lecturer. Time and time again, while lecturing on various media-related topics, I would occasionally tell my students that Reductio ad Hitlerum is possibly the lowest and most pathetic form of debate. It is with this belief that I am ashamed of my country for allowing someone like Glenn Beck to attain any kind of celebrity status (especially in the "news" world) and for the good of American culture, I deeply wish that Mr. Beck would take the advice given at the end of this video.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Back in Black - Glenn Beck's Nazi Tourette's

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Love 'dem Internets

2010-03-09T19:05:00.004-05:00

So, this afternoon a friend told me over the phone that she is strongly considering buying a new car and asked me to help her do some research online, while she was busy at work. After reading a bit of caranddriver.com, a Google search lead me to wander through a few other car enthusiast websites before I found myself about to search the forums at Ultimatecarpage.com. While on the search page, I couldn't help but to notice the site's tag cloud, displaying all of the automotive forum's most popular topics. As you might notice, something just kinda stuck out at me.

Gotta love 'dem internets. :P

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Walking Old Paths in New Places

2010-03-07T21:48:00.012-05:00

"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!"

I doubt anything describes my love-hate relationship with the art of web design better than the iconic Al Pacino quote above.

Just over a year ago, I told myself that I was done with web design for good, with the intent of focusing my creativity on animation and visual effects. Well, it seems in the past few weeks I felt a need to compromise on that one a bit. Recently, I had hosting issues with my job hunting blog for animators and VFX artists. So, I moved the blog to another domain and couldn't resist giving it a massive (all-be-it somewhat template-aided) redesign as part of the moving process.

VFXJobHunt.com

Also, given that I am currently a resident of Florida and a former resident of Hawaii, I guess it was only a matter of time that I somehow got involved in real estate. Thus, in recent weeks, I accepted a complex leadership role with a new company called Gulf Management Group, which among many other things, effectively makes me the company's chief of media or web guru guy. :P

Gulf Management Group

I've also got one or two other important irons in the fire, but these two entities (especially the later), and their respective SEO and PR, is where my focus has truly been of late... So, check them out and bookmark 'em.

I guess if there's a moral to this one, it's to never say never. :P

Saw some of it coming...

2010-02-28T22:06:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time, I dreamed of being a big-shot video game developer, and after watching this great lecture, I wonder why I'm not one. :/

新年快樂

2010-02-13T17:48:00.001-05:00

Year of the Tiger, folks... Hell yeah! That's my year! ;)

Happy Holidays

2009-12-24T09:44:00.007-05:00

In my personal tradition of spreading holiday giggles by sharing a wacky video, this December, I thought I'd go a little darker than usual. Enjoy. :)

Jazz Hands Pick-me-up

2009-12-05T11:59:00.003-05:00

As corny as it sounds, I've recently found that no matter how discouraged or annoyed I am, the following video always seems to make me smile at least a little. Being a fan of good karma, I now share it with you.

Job Hunting

2009-12-04T23:54:00.001-05:00

As implied by some of my previous posts, I've been looking for steady work for quite a while now. (Yeah, yeah, it's rough out there now... we all know.) So, in the interest of staying vigilant while possibly helping others, I whipped up the following job hunting blog for CG artists like myself:

http://fxjobhunt.blogspot.com/

I'm still goofing around with the functionality and overall design, but I say, if it helps just one artist find work, that's a good thing. I just hope that one artist is me or someone I happen to give a damn about. ;)

Bachelor Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T18:50:00.009-05:00

One cool thing about living with a trio of single guys in their early twenties: No matter how unconventional or simple the Thanksgiving spread is, they are all just thankful to have a filling, somewhat home-cooked meal with dessert. :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Fall '09 Show Reel

2009-11-01T20:56:00.004-05:00

As darn near everyone and their sister knows, I've been looking for work in visual FX (film, TV, video games) for kind of a while now. A few days ago I cut together a brand new demo reel to showcase the skills I've been honing of late, particularly in the past year or so. Constructive feedback is both welcome and appreciated... but of course, a productive job lead would definitely be preferred. ;)

Happy Graduation, DAVE Students

2009-09-26T11:33:00.006-04:00

I already shouted this out on Facebook and Twitter... but why not here too?

Congratulations to all my friends in the 30th class of the Digital Animation and Visual Effects school of Orlando Florida. You guys rock to no freaking end. Now get your asrses out there and make some crazy Hollywood $#!t that looks damn freaking cool! ;)

SIGGRAPH 2009 in Louisiana

2009-08-07T11:26:00.022-04:00

Laptops and gawky long lines at Starbucks by day, loud drunken antics and scantily clad women by night... This is the dichotomy that is the SIGGRAPH graphics and interactive media convention hosted in New Orleans.

New Orleans in and of itself is an enigmatic town, in some ways reminiscent to me of Boston, but with it’s own distinct southern flare and funk. From the airport to the infamous Bourbon Street, the town is an abrasively rebounding historical city with a cool jazz and blues backbone and a late night stench that gives New York a run for it’s money. It proved an interestingly bizarre backdrop for a nerd-fest such as SIGGRAPH, complete with hordes of technology pros and job-hungry creative geeks like myself, all swarming to attend.

In addition to trying to network while pimping our demo reels, my buddies and I had a very interesting time both in and out of the conference. From playing with crazy new technology by day to exploring the Bourbon street area at night, some of the week's antics included:

Out of form for myself, I actually gave the GPS in our rental car a chance and as typical for those devices, it did try to get us lost/killed a couple of times on the first day. However, after adequate threatening, the damned gadget smartened up and played nice for the rest of the trip.
When sampling a nice Mom-and-Pop diner, my buddy Andrew cautiously asked a waitress if the restaurant’s jambalaya had shellfish, explaining that he is allergic, only to send the dish back to the kitchen to the tune of a loud and concerned southern black voice exclaiming, “Really?!? Shrimp is shellfish?” It was a shocking had-to-be-there moment, which landed on the safe side of the line between dangerous and humorous. In spite of the incident, I still highly recommend Duffy's Restaraunt in New Orleans who, in my opinion, has a charming wait-staff and the BEST damn pancakes in the south! =)
2-3 AM on Thursday, I briefly got into Rockstar Games’ after-party party which happened to be just down the hall from my hotel room. Unfortunately, I quickly found myself at the realization that no one there was up for networking with a guy like me at that hour. Still, I gotta hand it to them, pun/cliche or not, those guys really do party like rock stars!
In my last blog entry, I noted that we had an unusual layover traveling from central Florida to New Orleans. Well, on the way back, we flew through Houston of all places, for a complete route that looked like this...

A Jungian therapist could ask what this shape looks like to you, but I say it just means that one should always read very thoroughly before clicking anything when booking a trip online. (Yes, I know there is likely an ad for a travel website to the right of this.) Oh well, just call it one of many crazy routes taken in my life. :)

Flyin' Round the South

2009-08-04T08:58:00.006-04:00

This week, my roommates and I are attending the SIGGRAPH computer graphics exhibition in New Orleans. We haven't even arrived in New Orleans yet, and I already can tell this is gonna be an adventure. First off, when I initially booked the trip, at the time, I could not find any affordable packages with direct flights to Louisiana. Thus, at the moment, I am typing this from Tennessee due to the unorthodox route indicated below.

Also, to add further wackiness, my zany roommate Andrew has proved in his own little way that you can get away with saying "bomb" on an airplane. :P

This is only 3 hours into the trip with the terror alert level at black watch plaid... feel free to stay tuned... ;)

Customer Support

2009-07-12T12:00:00.010-04:00

As anyone who follows me on Twitter can infer, I had an amazingly frustrating time this past week dealing with the Dell computer company's customer support staff. I am tempted to go on a rant about it here, but I have to admit, the whole experience has already actually left me a little ranted out right now... as well as slightly fearful that some of what I say could be misconstrued as racist against Indian people. So, I'll just keep this post short and share the following classic web videos, obviously created by people who have shared my pain at some point. Please enjoy...

Hoping Everyone Had a Happy 4th

2009-07-05T10:04:00.006-04:00

Today, I thought I'd break my latest bout of blog-neglect by saying:

I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July yesterday! :)

I'm glad to say that I had a good time, at least until some serious cookout gluttony that left me juggling a food coma with nighttime indigestion. However, after reading the news this morning, I found myself uplifted to see that certain tourists in New York had an extra-special and historically good day yesterday.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2009-07-01-statue-of-liberty-crown_N.htm?csp=34

Climbing Lady Liberty and enjoying the view from her crown is pretty high on my list of awesome childhood memories, but when visiting the statue in more recent years, I have to say, it was downright saddening and scarily metaphoric of those times to get stopped short in the pedestal, finding one's self unable to truly enjoy Liberty in the name of security. Thankfully, things look very different now and the next time I visit New York, I plan to reacquaint myself with a very special lady from France! :)