Ive been back from Siggraph for about a week now but I left LA with more than a few bits of swag. Some how I picked up a cold on the way back that developed into a minor ear infection. IN BOTH EARS! So I was basically mostly deaf for a while this week. Luckily I didn’t have much work to do, and was able to make it through the week more or less. A few more days on some heavy duty antibiotics and I should be good to go.

Moving on, here are some Siggraph Pics. Most of the time I was there I was checking in on old friends and attending some great talks and met some great people.

Click to start Flickr Thing:

Thats alot of pics so enjoy.

Every once and a while I go through the old bookmarks and check old sites I haven’t visited in a while to make sure they are there or to see whats going on. Surprisingly I (re) found Harvey Deneroff’s site, he is a Professor at Savannah College of Art - Atlanta  and is a wealth of knowledge covering animation history and theory. If you get a chance just take a look  he has authored  and edited several books on animation and apparently posts constantly on animation form around the world. A lot of stuff I haven’t seen yet.

http://deneroff.com/blog/

Aaron Kablack sent me a link today for the Bolt Trailer

http://www.empireonline.com/video/bolt/

It looks great, I wish it was in Quicktime HD, I like to go frame by frame on the animation just to see whats going on in the quick shots. Usually because Im just trying to see whats going on with the Animation but sometimes I do it to find any clues to the story.

Also just by looking at the trailer vs some of the old artwork from when Chris Sanders was directing you can tell at least visually this is a completely different film.

American Dog (Original Name for Bolt) Artwork

Bolt (2008)

Seriously that Cat with the eye patch is Awesome.  I dont know if Disney used a style of rendering to make the earlier images or if they were hand drawn concept art.Either way they look good.

Anyway, all I can defiantly say is that I like the premise and I’m sure it will be a solid movie.

Check out the Wiki on the movie for the entire story about the production and look up Edward Hopper (GIS)

Just wanted to let everyone know the wife and I will be moving to Raleigh, NC in about 2 weeks. She got a good job down there last week and is hoping to attend Veterinary school sometime next year or so. When I get a new job I’ll let everyone know until then I’ll be packing and finishing up my work here in Baltimore.

I got this link a few hrs ago and started looking at the clips immediately. As soon as i get some money ill prob get this. I have the book and I’m sure the DVD will be just as informative. Just watching the logo is awesome. Probably going to be a must watch for any animator or student.

From the site:
Richard Williams, triple Oscar winner and Director of Animation of Who Framed Roger Rabbit has combined his best-selling book, “The Animator’s Survival Kit”, with his legendary Masterclasses.

Now available for the first time as a 16-DVD boxed set - there’s never been anything like it. Filmed at Blue Sky Studios in New York, the Masterclass is inter-cut with over 350 animated examples. Richard is the link-man passing on the secrets of the masters of the golden age of animation to the present generation of animators.

http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/index.html

Thanks for the link Kelly Eisert

FOLLOW UP:

The price according to the site is $ 1,203.92  in USD so either thats a mistake or ill have to stick with the book.

While im rendering some footage for a freelance gig I found these two websites.

One is a quick look at the evolution of movie credits. Check it out.

Movie Credits

The other is a list from film critic TC Candler of his top 100 movie posters.

Top 100 Movie Posters

Im sure it was tough to pick a number 1, I know i couldnt.

Just wanted to congradulate Becki and Neil on thier 2008 Pixar internships. They both are great animators and people for that matter. Below are links to their sites

beckitower.com
neilhelm.com

Just finished the Reuters article on the release date of Disney’s 2nd installment of the Narnia Series; Prince Caspian. While its hard to say that the film is performing poorly, it is underperforming when compared to the other films released at the same time. I liked the 1st film, and as I’ve said before I think sequels epically ones that are predetermined in a series like Narnia can be better than their predecessor so I thought it would do well. But going up against Iron Man and Indiana Jones is almost impossible to get a fair share of the pie.

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20080529/121208046600.html

Taking a look at Den of Geek’s 2009 movie guide showed me four things.

1. You cant get enough sequels.
I love em’ I‘ve always felt that with the sequels epically superhero/fantasy films, that you get to skip all the introduction stuff, and get to the story and character development.  While X-Men 2 wasn’t a gem, you did get to skip all the baggage X-Men 1 carried with it introducing an entire world to a audience that may not be completely with familiar with. I hope that Iron Man 2 will do the same only better (But do we really need  The Fast and the Furious 4)

2. Almost every film will have a crazy amount of visual effects and animation
This is great because it means alot of jobs for people I know.  Hopefully more will continue (see number 4)

3.  Hollywood is out of ideas
I swear I wont pay for a rehash of 80’s tv shows epically if they are poorly Written/Directed (See Speed Racer) and Cast (See Dukes of Hazard). I will however keep an open mind when it comes to my fav shows like GI Joe, and if i see MacGuyver remade im gonna take a flame thrower to this place.

4. The CG/3D bubble has not burst.
During the 90’s I worked as what some would call a “computer monkey”, someone who didn’t really have any skill other than being able to use a computer and basic knowledge of the internet. I got paid a lot of money to do various things, like make bad web pages, and copy books into a database, and scan stuff. Then the Internet bubble burst and people weren’t doing that anymore. Don’t get me wrong you can still do that but it isn’t as easy to come by. (Maybe it is I really have looked in a while but thats the sense i get). Anyway I’m always worried that the 3D or visual effect bubble will burst and there will be a backlash in the market resulting in jobs being lost or outsourced. Having worked in live action i will never believe that CG will replace it at any point, but I’m investing a lot of my career into it and I hope that there will be a balance.

A friend who was working on the new Hulk movie, told me when the original trailer went out that that effects and render for those shots were hastily done, and that they will be rendered for the final trailer. I thought it looked great, but the way he said it seemed like he/the higher ups thought it was crap.

Well maybe they were right, I watched the updated trailer and didnt notice alot of the changes, but i then read a article by Alex Billington located here

Heres an image liberated from the linked site, the side by side comparison is surprising. Almost everything has changed, hair, clothing, character pose, bg lighting, character lighting. While the original has more contrast and really makes Hulk pop, the bottom image seems more natural environmentally. I suspect that now that a lot of the movie is starting/already rendered theres got to be a lot of shot to shot matching accounting for the less dramatic render. Just my opinion but check it out. Shows you all the detail that has to go into rendering one shot, let alone an entire movie.