Thinking Animation Blog

Artist Spotlight - July - Jamie and Drew

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:45:05 -0500

Last month, I decided to spotlight one CG artist a month on the blog who has taken something they love to do outside of animation and turned it into additional income - as inspiration for us all. I started it off with Caleb's Cro Customs Chopper venture. This month, I thought none better than to spotlight my co-author Jamie Oliff. He had an art show of his paintings last month at the Dresen with his friend Drew Edwards.

Jamie and his buddy Drew Edwards met in Canada working on Ren and Stimpy. Both, still have one toe in the animation industry mostly doing storyboards. They created a show together that was held at the Dresden. These are the pictures of the debauchery of the night. It was great fun and Jamie sold all of his paintings.

Proud artists...Look at Drew's shoes! Awesome!

Beginning of the evening as people start to come in...

The paintings in black and white are Jamie's
and the monochromatic color ones are Drew's.

This was one of my favorites...look at the character in his face!

Drew was inspired by the movie swingers for quite a few of his.

Guess who this motley crew is supposed to be?
I will give you a hint - see below.

Samir eyes a painting he wants...and decides to buy it for 600$!!!

Jamie places the red dot to show it's sold!

Very happy patron the arts!

Sarah Bockett's smile could light up any room!

I am obviously talking about something VERY important,
since Drew is listening so closely.

LA Commute for a Freelancer

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 18:28:41 -0500

I recently took a job where I have to drive to Westlake Village two days a week. The drive could be much quicker probably if I were to take the highway...but, what is the fun in that? It takes me about an hour and a half to get to work, but it's exhilarating. I bought a new Mini cooper Convertible almost one year ago and I haven't really broken it in ,until now. I take all the windy roads from the PCH up through Malibu Canyon.

Talk about fun! I was inspired by the time lapse video posting I put on the blog here and thought I would try my hand at recording the experience with my little digital camera. It's very unstable because I am holding the camera braced on the steering wheel as I shift gears and drive. Dad, don't show Mom...she might have a heart attack.

Below, are some snaps I took as well, some through my dirty windshield. I'm afraid the video doesn't compare to the real experience. If anyone has a suggestion as to how I could mount the camera to the dash or something and I could drive freely while recording, don't hesitate to post it in the comments. The drive makes the commute so fun. The landscape reminds me of when I worked up in San Luis Obispo for Oddworld. The mountains, the wind, the speed is all very addicting. Although the driving takes it out of me and I am exhausted on the days I commute, I had to share some of the fun here.

Looking at all those telephone poles on the side of the mountains makes you wonder sometimes how they stay upright? Kind of ironic because I just worked on a T-Mobile spot for Giant Steps where a hell bent chick chainsaw a bunch of poles down. I animated the poles and cables falling. To see it click the link below and look for the teaser spot.

TMobile Spot

Hideaway Video

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:15:38 -0500

Hideaway - Michael Warner

Not the best animation, but such cute characters and heartwarming message. My good friend Mike "Utah" Warner made this little animated music video. May favorite part is the little puff of smoke coming out of the ship!

Bolt Trailer vs. American Dog

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:41:21 -0500

Talk about a story that has some history...

Originally this was Chris Sander's story (creator of Lilo and Stitch)
called American Dog and it looked more like this in 2005.

The original story in 2005 went like this...

Henry is a popular dog. He stars in his own television series, in which he is a James Bond style secret agent who manages to survive the most wonderful adventures. Henry is the toast of the town, but then one day one of the stunts in his show goes terribly wrong, Henry loses concsiousness, and when he wakes up he finds himself on a train, thousands of miles away from his home. Henry has been a celebrity all his life and does not know how to handle himself in this new situation, but luckily he is able to make some new friends that he convinces to get him back home.

So, here is what Disney/Pixar has come up with after they fire Chris Sanders and reworked both the story and the artwork.

Bolt tells the story a dog who plays a heroic pup in a hit TV show and has some trouble recognising that he is in fact not possessed of extraordinary powers beyond the ability to lick his own nether regions. This becomes something of a hindrance when he is accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New York City. From there he has to make his way home with only the help of a manky old cat and an overweight hamster in a plastic ball. John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman and Mark Walton provide voices.

The Art Change: I honestly am not crazy about the new designs, but then I am really partial to Chris Sander's style and design sense because it is so different than most Disney styles. I feel the new Disney dog looks just like any other dog now - very homogenized, as well as the cat. The hamster character is cute and almost more fun to watch that the lead characters, from what I can tell from the trailer above.

The Story Change: I think the idea Chris had for Henry the Dog - as a celebrity on a train headed for who knows where? is stronger, and offers more of a change in Henry's personality. Chris's story offers an opportunity for Henry to learn about himself by being placed in a world he knows nothing about and with new people who know nothing about him. The whole Jame's Bond angle gives the dog more of a sophistication than the idea of "ohhh I am so hard headed that I think I have super powers like I do on TV?" The premise being he discovers he doesn't need superpowers to be a hero...I just think it's playing down to the audience and makes the lead character seem dense and not someone I would root for.

Watch this little clip from the original movie being made to see how much potential that one moment has where he wales up to discover he is on a train to somewhere far away.

The new Disney story creates almost an idiot savant personality for Bolt because he thinks he has the powers he has on the show. The dog isn't really learning anything about himself or growing, he is just going to realize like there is no Santa Claus and that he has no super powers and then goes back home.

I was REALLY looking forward to American Dog, but I am not sold on the Bolt turnaround just yet.

I welcome any comments.

Hitler gets banned from Xbox live

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 13:57:37 -0500

Funny...
Some foul language, but it's in German with subtitles.
Watch at your own risk.

Pixar Leaked Trailer

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:34:44 -0500

Funny...

How to Draw Manga

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:55:44 -0500

Mark Crilley demonstrates how to draw Manga.
I love that he uses a simple writing pencil to do it.
It's not the tool, it's what you DO with it.

His YouTube page has more stuff there.

A Short Story

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:21:32 -0500

An experimental short from Marcos Vaz and Daniel Blanco of Wondermint.

Nice!

Watch “A Short Story”.

The Whale at Digital Domain

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:45:31 -0500

Ever wonder where the whale conference room at DD came from?
Watch this Frank Ghery TED Talk.
It's at about 8.5 minutes into the talk.

Little People

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:08:15 -0500

I am pretty sure this guy is a genius.
It's like theater, plus animation, plus street art.

He even sells images of his street art now
and has a book of his images for sale.

The Inner City Snail Project is pretty funny too.

Little People Blog

WALL•E Featurettes

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:36:44 -0500

The PR Peeps at Pixar contacted me and as the premiere of WALL•E nears, they have four new featurettes! Each of these videos provides a behind-the-scenes look at the production of WALL•E. You can frame by frame these movies in hi-REZ and see all the Squash and stretch that happens to a robot! Don't miss when WALL•E is hit by lighting! ~Angie

“Lots of Bots” Featurette
“A Space Journey in Sound” Featurette
“The Man & The Machine” Featurette
“Pixar Goes to Space” Featurette

WALL•E has a MySpace page (http://myspace.com/wall-e) for more fun features, such as giving WALL•E commands, building your own bot through the Build-A-Bot feature, and grabbing the social widget to use on your own personal sites.

For more information about the film, visit http://wall-e.com, and remember that the debut of WALL•E, June 27th, is just around the corner!

WALL•E – “Lots of Bots” Featurette

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WALL•E – “A Space Journey In Sound” Featurette

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WALL•E – “The Man & The Machine” Featurette

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WALL•E – “Pixar Goes To Space” Featurette

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Hp Maestro

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:37:25 -0500

I was working at Psyop when they cut out all those letters for the shoot.
GORGEOUS!

Produced by Psyop for agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners/SF.

Young Illustrator's Award

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:42:15 -0500

As principal art festival for contemporary illustrative and graphical art the ILLUSTRATIVE Berlin is contacting you both as artist and as part forum for designers and artists.

For the selection of the new participants of this year's exhibition a concourse is again on its way at the moment, the YOUNG ILLUSTRATORS AWARD.

YIA is now looking for young illustrators (between 20 and 40 years) to motivate them to participate in the concourse which is giving them the possibility to present their art works in an international field. The winner will be awarded by an internationally renowned jury comprising the leading representatives of graphic art magazines (Shift, Page, Id Pure, Novum, etc.). He will have the chance to create the new limited edition for SWATCH watches. The artists can present their works until August 31.

www.illustrative.de

Stanton Talks John Carter of Mars

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:41:11 -0500

Stanton Talks John Carter of Mars
June 25, 2008

During a recent junket for WALL-E (opening Friday from Disney/Pixar), director Andrew Stanton was asked by AWN about the status of the upcoming JOHN CARTER OF MARS project at Pixar (which is reportedly being scripted by RATATOUILLE and THE INCREDIBLES head of story Mark Andrews).

"We haven't decided yet if it's going to be live-action or animated," Stanton confirmed. "The one thing I've learned at Pixar is spending the first year or two making sure the story's as good as it can be, and everything else will fall into place. So we'll let the story dictate that."

But Stanton acknowledged that Pixar's toolset will certainly be considered in figuring out which direction to take the Edgar Rice Burroughs sci-fi epic.

The importance of this, of course, is that the sci-fi WALL-E raises the bar for Pixar with its new virtual camera system, allowing for more of a live-action look in depicting the futuristic world. In addition, the movie marks Pixar's first entry into live action with a few brief surprises.

Meanwhile, Brad Bird's upcoming 1906 for Warner Bros. will be the studio's first test case for handling CG vfx in this live-action adaptation of James Dalessandro's novel about the devastating San Francisco earthquake.

Slow Mo Stuff

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:44:29 -0500

Not sure what is more interesting - the footage or the narrator!
The slap is insane!
Talk about heightened entertainment!

Seeing it with a camera up to 400fps.
-water balloon
-disposable lighter
-brick
-propane balloon
-slap
-crossbow
-soap bubble

49% MF and 51% SOB - Lemmy The Movie

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:25:04 -0500

Lemmy - The Movie

So, this also has very little to do with animation - but I guess I am in a mood. Let's just call it "off-topic Monday" because I have a 3500 frame playblast that is taking forever and I am sitting here surfing round da net while the computer make pictures!

So, I just saw Helmet at the Malibu Inn on Friday and it's no secret I am a metal head. I cannot wait for the Lemmy movie!

www.imotorhead.com announced 2009 will bring us “Lemmy The Movie”, like that title says, the movie will be about the God-Father of heavy music, Lemmy Kilmister.

Lemmy’s story is about to move from the concert hall to the big screen. Tentatively titled “Lemmy”, the documentary movie promises fans more access than ever before to Kilmister’s life, and includes interviews with past and present bandmates and such peers/admirers as Slash, Dave Grohl, the Clash’s Mick Jones, Alice Cooper, Steve Vai and wrestling superstar Triple H.

Directors/producers Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski are shooting the movie on a combination of HD video and super 16 mm film. “Lemmy” is planned for release in 2009 and a teaser clip is already available at http://www.lemmymovie.com/

Some other Motörhead news, the band started the recording of the “Kiss of Death” follow up earlier this year. Drum tracks have been recorded in Dave Grohl’s studio.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:08:50 -0500

I know this has nothing to do with animation,
but it's my blog
and I love Nick Cave
and I really love this video!!!!
It's really well done!

Official video for 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. Taken from the album 'DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!'

Click here to see it HIREZ!

Universal Studio Promotion Film By Matt and Trey

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:00:19 -0500

I am not so sure Universal knew what they were paying for?
But, its really funny!

The short film Trey Parker and Matt Stone made for Universal Studio's takeover of Seagrams (wine coolers). Has many guest appearances, like Demi Moore, Sylvester Stallone, and Stephen Spielberg.

All My Base Cake

angie@thinkinganimation.com — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:44:28 -0500

Couldn't help myself...
I thought it was funny.
How geeky am I?