The Office : Accountants

I was watching this last night and it had me in stitches! 

I'm not sure if it makes sense out of context. But basically the 3 office accountants are trying to figure out where & how $3000 went missing.  Give it a look-see.  

Right?!  Oscar's reaction to Kevin's line at the 1:00 is PERFECT. It is so, damned, funny and I had to figure out why. It's pretty much nothing, like literally a "non-reaction". But the pause, blink, and "OK" is so perfectly timed.  So much with so little.

John Kahrs

So former Pixar and current Disney animator , John Kahrs, is directing a short film here at Disney.  I can't say much but it looks bloody amazing.  I've never seen anything like it.

I mention it here because I think it's inspiring that a big studio like Disney is experimenting and moving forward with new looks and techniques in this medium.

Which is how I feel about the film I am working on now.  It is so wonderfully different and refreshing.

Christmasy Disneyland

Super pretty right!?  

BTW, if you guys are ever at Disneyland, you GOTTA check out "World of Color" .  It's a show at California Adventure and it is AMAAAAZING.

Disney Open House

Last week we had an industry open house here at the studio.  Lots of folks from DW's, Sony, Pixar, and more.  Man I've never met so much talent in one building.  Art student geek out  Bobby was definitely in full effect!

Brian McDonald

Last week, Brian McDonald, screenwriter and author of Invisible Ink, gave a talk on the Power of Storytelling (or a title something along those lines :)  

Brian is from my neck of the woods in Seattle , WA.  A professor at the Uni of Wash,  I've followed his wonderful Invisible Ink blog for a few years now.  I can't remember how I found it, but I always come away super inspired.  He obviously has topics on story and film, but also how you approach and think about your craft.  They really encouraged me when I was building my reel through Animation Mentor.

La Luna w/ Enrico Casarosa

A couple of weeks ago we had a screening of Pixar's newest short film , La Luna, hosted by director Enrico Casarosa, w/ a "making-of" and Q & A after.  I've followed Enrico's work for a while now, so it was great to finally meet him and talk about his charming little film.  Probably the most personal, and as Svetla put it, poetic short that Pixar has made so far.

Monday ARL study

Mr. Snoops from the Rescuers.

Nice contrast to Medusa.

Sir Ector study

Wasn't the biggest fan of his animation, but man, what a killer design.  

Lots of contrasts in shape sizes; massive barrel torso , tiny cranium.  Such wonderful combinations of straights and curves.   It's interesting to see the graphic cheats he did when turning such graphic shapes.  Oh Milt, your subtleties are lost on me. 

I also like when Milt went through a phase where he liked to put a roll of fat sagging over someone's knees.   What an awesome/random thing to emphasize.  Knee fat.

Pushing those ideas

First Dailies!

I showed my first-pass blocking to our director for the first time yesterday!  I think it went well.  He's a funny dude and a great collaborator.

Rich Moore- IMDB

Lasseter Interview

Great interview with my boss, John Lasseter.

John Lasseter on Charlie Rose

Annie Awards

Two of the amazing character animators I had the good fortune to work with on Rio were nominated for Annie Awards today! I'm so proud of them!

Patrik Puhala Rio Reel

Jeff Gabor Rio Reel

password: education

Patrik was my "pod lead" on the show.  Pod leads came around everyday and helped with your shots before you showed Galen, the supervising animator.  I learned tons under Patrik, and whatever level of polish or quality of acting ideas in my Rio shots owe so much to working directly with him.

Anita

Today's terrible Milt study.  Anita from 101 Dalmatians

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Bert Klein interview

Check out this great interview with a new friend of mine, animator Bert Klein!

Part 1

Part 2

At our first day of the studio, Bert gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to all of the 2D animators (read:  the flippin' rockstars) still at the studio.  He's a super nice dude and always encouraging us to come over and stop by just to talk .

Dec 1st

Hey again you guys! had a great first day of the last month of the year!

I'm making good progress on my first chunk of shots on Ralph,  I got to talk shop and have my design portfolio reviewed by one of the character design supervisors here, sat in on an animation meeting w/ Mark Henn giving a quick talk on the importance of silhouette in animation, and finally found a new apartment!  Which was a great way to end the day.  I'll be moving to Silverlake this weekend.

Since the resources are there, after lunchtime I've been trying to make a habit to look up the Animation Research Library and do a quick design study on anything I find interesting.  Yesterday I did a terrible sketch of Roger from 101 Dalmatians. Oh.  So bad.  Today's lunch study sketch was a mildly-less-worse copy of Milt's.  Edgar the Butler from Aristocats. 

I've also been reading a book on Ronald Searle, whose work I've never really payed much attention to, but am starting to find more and more fascinating.  The influence on 101 Dalmatians is evident, as is the influence Pablo Picasso , in turn, had on Searle.

At a hidden staircase