Lost And Found by Studio AKA

My family has been a big fan of the book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers. I was very pleased to see that Studio AKA produced the short film of the book. AKA has done some really nice work in the past. Judging by the the trailer it looks like they did a good job sticking to the style of the book while bringing it into 3D.

Cookie Kid

Emilie Goulet, one of my students from last semester just finished rendering and adding sound to her short film. I think it really turned out great, here it is:

Cookie Kid from Emilie Goulet on Vimeo.

New Simon's Cat

I'm sure your well aware of how much I like the Simon's Cat shorts. A new one hit the tubes and I can't resist posting it. As a cat owner I think they do a good job characterizing the cat. This one they have the cat doing that weird jaw thing that cats do when they get excited about seeing something they want to chase. Obviously the creators are cat owners, I've seen my cats do that several times and wonder why. I'm not a big fan of of the cat pointing like a human, I wish they could stay in character more. But it is funny so I'll let it go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qHVVbYG8Y&feature=player_embedded

Drawing for CG Animators

Other Things has a great post about the value of drawing in CG animation. Couldn't have said it better myself so I'm just going to post the link to it: http://www.otherthings.com/blog2/?p=243#more-243

Still Doing Stuff

Haven't posted in a while, not because I don't have anything to say, I've just been up to my tits in life stuff. Moving, packing, flying that sort of thing. It has kinda consumed my life. Hopefully things will settle down in the next few weeks and I'll be able to post more.

Latest Goeblins shorts

The latest shorts from Goeblins, need I say more. These are great looking shorts. I especially like the one with the sun.

What I've been up to, and Insperation

On Wednesday I was invited by a good friend of mine and talk to some animation students from Los Angles and from Taiwan. Mike Nguyen was also there. He gave a talk about finding character in animation and story structure. It was a good chance to meet and talk with Mike, I've been following his website for quite some time. If you haven't seen it you should check it out, its one of the best animation blogs on the web.

Mike's talk was truly inspiring. I hope that Mark keeps doing these animation lunch ins and keeps inviting animators to speak at them (it sounds like he will). I'd also like to see him incorporate open life drawing into it.

I've decided to try harder to breath some life back into this blog. I used to be in the habit of writing pretty often, now I find it difficult to find the time.

What I've been up to: I finished up on Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. It was a ton of fun. It has a really solid story and I think it will do well when it's out. I know my daughter is excited to see it.

I have a few weeks at home to spend with the family, then it's up to Canada to enjoy a nice warm winter up there. I'll be working on an animation project that I'm not sure if I can talk about yet. I think it's OK to talk about but better safe then sorry. I'll be back in LA once the project wraps up. There's a lot of really great animation going on up north it'll be great to see it in person. I hope to catch Ottawa while I'm there.