Pixar bound!!!!!!!

So as the title says I'm going to Pixar!!

Apparently the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco hosts a benefit each year that includes a tour of the Pixar Studios.

http://cartoonart.org/2011/09/save-the-date-benefit-at-pixar-animation-studios/

So I made the decision to go. I have to go. It would be an absolute dream come true. This is one of those things I could check off my bucket list!! I am going to Pixar!!

Hakuna Matata!!!

So today I will blog about something special that could be said to coincide with certain milestones in my life.

The release of The Lion King on blu-ray. By far one of the greatest animated films of all time.
But this film probably more than any other has many memories for me...

It was released in 1994 at which point I was just entering high school. Yeah, I'm that old. Though I'm not really. I just like to joke about being that old.

I was just about to turn 15 a few months after it's release. Not really a milestone so much.

But these are.

I loved drawing all the time. I got my hands on everything I could related to art and drawing. This caused me to have a hard time in high school because I got picked on a lot. In 1994, being an artist in high school was grounds for bullying. (it probably still is)

If anything The Lion King (though I did not know I wanted to be an animator yet) kept me drawing even though I took abuse for it everyday because my fellow students labeled me an "art fag" A fave term of the bullies.

The Lion King also coincides with what was my first real girlfriend. Many times we sat and watched The Lion King and discussed the film and how much we enjoyed it. Though I do not see or speak to her anymore, I still remember those moments.

It also coincided with my formative teen years which can be rough for everyone. I was one of those kids that did not know what I wanted to do with my life except I knew it would be something artistic. Though my high school years almost killed that dream due to the bullying. I just wanted to not be bullied and tried to avoid it as much as possible.

I would watch The Lion King on my parent's old VHS copy when they weren't around because I was forced into being ashamed of liking animated films at 15 by my school bullies. I was picked on for still buying toys.
Though all of these things were signs of what I would become nearly a decade later. (or what I always was... an animator)

And also probably the most important milestone that began in my second year of high school that I learned from The Lion King. Be who you are and be who you are meant to be and let nothing stand in your way.

So I now have The Lion King on blu-ray and watch it fondly with memories of my childhood and how the film helped in defining who I am and to not care what anyone else thinks. :-)

character model.... done

Yep, finished this model for rigging class. I had to stick with certain guidelines for the model, but I really just wanted to make something as cartoony as possible within those guideline. I like how he turned out. Still debating on whether or not to give him hair

Music that rocks my socks

Good stuff to listen to while animating. Bands with female singers are so much cooler!!

May the force be with.... uh wait nope

Quick post about something near and dear to my heart. A big chunk of my childhood being ruined. I was very excited that the Star Wars Saga would be hitting blu-ray on the 16th but not anymore.

This is why!!

Thanks George Lucas for turning Darth Vader (the most badass villain in film history) into the biggest pansy in film history!!

And here is another vid to show far Lucas has fallen from grace and given into the temptations of the dark side.

I now go back to school work.

twinkee twinkee twinkee

Yeah, so I got back to this finally and did the mouth animation. The word twinkee starts to sound really weird after hearing it again and again. That is one shot down. One to go...

Edit:

I'm going to do a shot breakdown of this to get used to it for a demo reel and why I made the acting choices I made.


First up. His body is moving through the entire shot until after he says lives and then he stops moving his body in reaction to what he just said as he tries to digest the realization.

His eyebrows. I have them hold for 2 frames after he raises them just to add that same element of acting as mentioned with the body movement.

Also he moves his head a lot but also moves it much less after he says lives.

I let his eyes do a lot of the acting as far as his emotion. He is dumbfounded that his life is about to be risked for a box of twinkee's so to express that, he never stops moving his eyes. Even if it is very subtle.

Lastly his hands. I animated the right hand and the fingers to move much more than the left to show that this is a right handed character.

At SIGGRAPH, I learned from some great animators and they all said the same thing. The little subtle touches you add to a character are what make their performances believable. Not the over the top exaggerated stuff.

Great advice that has already made me a better animator.

dialogue blocking twinkee

feel free to critique. taking some of the things I learned at SIGGRAPH and applying them to my animations. No mouth animation yet and still in stepped mode.