Possible Ratatouille Designs?

Before anyone asks, no. I'm not leaking these haha- I just found them by way of Jim Hull, who in turn found them at a character design blog, etc etc. I just like 'em! So I thought I'd share.

Such beauty on the horizon...

Hey everyone, I've been really busy with the end of the semester- trying to take care of final projects/papers/tests and so forth... but yesterday I signed my NDA and got my official acceptance letter from PIXAR along with all sorts of crazy stuff regarding my time there. It is rather ridiculous seeing it in hard copy... my name on their letterhead- I'd scan and post it, but I don't know if I'm even allowed to do that much! Best to play it safe...

However! If you'd like an inside look at what my time there will be like, check out the new section they added to their website regarding their internship opportunities:

PIXAR Intern Experiences

I'll be sure to post the final roughs for that 2d/3d shot by Monday the 11th, and in exactly 2 weeks I'll be headed home for the holidays, with much more time to devote to this little blog of mine! Thanks to those of you who continue to read despite my recent lack of substance!

"California Here I Come!"

Stealing a line from Cars, I'm heading out to PIXAR January 8th! Three weeks of training, then an evaluation, and I'll be working on one of their next feature animated films until June 29th. I'm signing a NDA this week so unfortunately I won't be able to tell you anything other than like "man, this thing I'm working on is going to be so sick!" but yeah... rock on.

A very happy Thanksgiving, eh?

I got home (New Jersey) tonight, to find a message on my answering machine from PIXAR- unfortunately no one was home as my parents were picking up Steve and me from NYU. Despite the fact that they didn't say the words "you're in" in their message, they were excited to talk to me, and certainly didn't sound as if they had bad news. I called back and left a message, but since they're off for Thanksgiving, I'll have to wait until Friday or even Monday for the final final word. So folks, it looks like I just might find myself in Emeryville in a few weeks. 'Til I know for sure, have a happy Thanksgiving!

My TD Reel

I've had a few people ask me recently what I sent to PIXAR, so here's the actual TD section of my reel. Other than this I had sent the figure drawings below, and a more completed version of my 2nd year film (which I should upload sometime...). Its hard to read the descriptions in the lower left-hand corner, but you should be able to get the general gist of it anyway... Check it, yo.

Final Countdown

I had my interview with PIXAR on Wednesday evening, 20 solid minutes talking to 5 Supervising Techinical Directors- talk about being nervous! I actually did a series of drawings that night which pretty much encapsulate how I was feeling, but I haven't scanned them in yet... It went really well! They watched everything I sent them, and asked me all kinds of technical questions. I'll hear back from them within the next 12 days if I'll be working on some stuff for their next film from January to June. I'll be sure to keep all of you posted.

Pixar round #2!

Today was absolutely awful- worst Monday I've had in a long time, that is UNTIL I got an e-mail from Pixar saying they wanted me to interview with their Supervising Technical Directors about the TD internship I applied for 2 weeks ago! Crazy... the very last thing I expected to see in my e-mail, but man what a rush. I can't help but be excited, and so I thought I would deliver on my promise and upload those pieces from my portfolio I mentioned earlier. Some of them you may recognize, those are new... everything else is pretty old, even a year old in some cases, but yeah, enjoy- (and though I have no way of stopping anyone from stealing these things, I'd probably consider it a high form of flattery for a second or two, and then hunt you down- no joke).

Much much progress

Update:
All righty- here's a quick comp of where I'm at with the shot at the moment. Just keys (a few missing) and very few inbetweens, but you should get the idea... hair, clothing, all that good stuff blowing in the wind- I'll address that once I get the character polished! Even though I REALLY want to keep working on this, its 7 in the morning and I should use some sleep...

Once in a long while...

...something inside you clicks, and for a few seconds you can do a nice rough... and then you can't draw worth anything for the next couple years to compensate!

The waiting game.

Text, lots of text, and no obligatory pictures (cuz I don't have the files with me) but I'll upload them later!

I applied for a Technical Director Internship with PIXAR this past week, which means I had to transform all of my modeling and rigging and programming stuff over the past year into something presentable. Along the way I rediscovered my previous reel that I'd sent over to Disney including all of my prior lifedrawing studies and stuff, which was pretty neat! I ended up recycling some of it and replacing the rest... I need to bring those files home from the lab though so I can post them for you (who ever you are? Why're you still reading this? ) to see. PIXAR says they'll let me know in a couple of weeks that I didn't get into their program (oops?) but until I hear the final word I've got my fingers crossed.

I also had the fortune to meet with Jeffrey Katzenberg this past Monday and show him my film, toward which he was very receptive. He seemed to enjoy it? Laughed at the right moments and stuff, but its always got to be somewhat unnerving to show him a traditionally executed short. All the same it was a great experience, and we shared some stories/aspirations/so forth. I'll be writing him a follow-up letter.

As for right now... I've begun animating my next project, like literally today, begun. There will most certainly be pencil tests coming in the very very near future, so watch for them!

So much to do...

Bleh.

Lifedrawing #2

Fun night tonight at lifedrawing... the model was very nice, had some fantastic poses. I think he was Iranian because he asked me if I was from there... haha, anyhow, some pictures! The brushpen one was 1-min and the graphite was 2-min. I hate running out of space on the paper to finish things... oh! I have no idea who commented on the last post, but thanks for doing so, it was a pleasant surprise.

Saving grace

It is truly astonishing what an 8 minute walk with the right person can do to turn the most dreary, dismal day into something that incites a feverish need to express what we feel inside.

Lifedrawing #1

Just a quick post of some drawings from tonight's session... and a note to any of you who are thinking of being models: have an arsenal of poses! No one wants to draw the same poses for 3 hours; I've drawn this woman so many different times at different sessions that I could easily post pics from previous sketchbooks side-by-side with some from tonight and you'd begin to see a distinct formula... but anyway, brushpens! Brushpens are amazing! These were suggested to us by Andreas Deja, they're water soluble, so you can smear them if you choose, but they force you to commit your lines to the paper, and be conscious of every stroke's thickness and weight. Buy them, use them! They're my medium of choice and are amazing for loosening up at the beginning of a session.

Pandora & the Ills (concept)

These are just two pieces of concept artwork for my treatment of Pandora that I'll be doing for my 3rd year film. I'm partial to the color-on-black (no, these were not done on the computer), but I don't know how well it is going to read once animated. For now it's just to get the tone of the film across. Down the road I'll be uploading some tests, but right now I'm exhausted!

Teaching is pretty neat.

I started a series of workshops last night for my fellow animation students over here at NYU. We talked pretty extensively about proper inbetweening technique, timing, spacing, etc. It was pretty amazing for me because I expected to not be able to get in all the material I wanted, and cut the class short, so forth. But a lot of people were really into it, and it ended up being 4 hours long!

I wrote up some handouts and gave everyone some keys and a breakdown from Aladdin (unfortunately I couldn't find the roughs, so we worked with cleanup artwork). But it was cool! No one had heard of taking their drawings off the pegs to get spot-on detail in the more complex forms, so I feel as if I at least was able to show everyone 1 thing that was new/worthwhile. Based on the response, I'm likely to continue with the series and address some other production tips and tricks. In the future I'll be sure to post all of the materials I use on this blog so anyone can access it if they'd like.

By the way I'm still working out the wrinkles in my story, so bare with me until I put anything up on my 3rd year film. Although, if you want an idea of where I'm drawing a lot of my inspiration from, this is by sculptor Frederick Hart:

Go find his stuff, its amazing. All righty, time to get back to boarding!

My 2nd Year Film

I started this last semester for John Canemaker's Independent Study class.

8 months... 1,000+ clean-up drawings... God knows how many roughs... and 3 burnouts later, this is the result:
*Note, there is no music yet, and the inking is inconsistent, but these will be addressed later!

Moving sucks the life out of you

So, for the one person who has come here, haha... sorry its taking a little bit to get things up and running. I just moved into my new residence and set up camp- check it out!
I'm finishing up the remaining backgrounds on my film and then there will be not a moment to spare before I begin my 3rd year film/reel/thing. My lack of GOOD ideas plagues me... posts will occur more frequently starting this upcoming weekend when I board out my film and begin to nail down some character designs... stay tuned!

New Beginnings

Wow, so... it's been almost 8 months since my last post. I decided to wipe everything, as it really wasn't pertinent anymore to what's been going on in my life. So sorry to all of you who left comments! Just a quick recap of highlights since January:

Finished my 3d character
Attended the PIXAR workshop
Started my 2nd year film (still not done... haha- ALMOST!)
My professor, John Canemaker, won an Oscar for his short film
Interviewed James Baxter
Screened some work at the SAL SAS
Decided to graduate a year early from NYU animation
Refurbished a really oldschool Oxberry disk, made it ACME registration
Found out I was going to be an uncle?! Sweet.
Obtained one of my mentors' desk/disk- started refurbishing that too
Read a lot of books- Illusion of Life, Nine Old Men, etc.
Bought a slew of animated films to keep the inspiration going

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but that gives you a pretty good idea of what I've been up to. Now its crunch time to finish my film and prepare for my next one. I'll be posting pics and videos soon enough. Till then!