Gestural

Orb-it!

2010-09-29T16:10:00.004-04:00

It has been awfully quiet around here lately, hasn't it? I've been working on a number of things that I haven't been able to show/announce.. but today I wanted to point you all to a little side project I've had on the back burner for a while now.

It's called Orb-it! And is my first foray into iPhone game development. You can pick it up and give it a whirl for only 99c on the AppStore.

A word of caution - it runs faster than intended on 4.0+ operating systems, but a patch for v1.1 will be out shortly.

I have a bunch of other stuff to upload (sculptures, drawings, etc) so keep your eye on this space in the coming days!

Belated

2010-02-22T23:07:00.004-05:00

Lazy Sunday scribblies :)

Sculpting No Longer

2009-11-13T02:22:00.005-05:00

Alas, the class has ended.. here's as far as I managed to get. I may tweak further when I have time... definitely much to improve still. Fun! I expect to sculpt more in the future =)

More sculpture

2009-11-01T17:23:00.004-05:00

We're at the point of making pretty small improvements to our sculpts, so this post might not be totally worth your while, but here it is anyways. Monday is our final session, so we'll be going over finishing details.

In a future post I'll share some information that's been passed down to me on materials and techniques to make your own armatures.

Thriller

2009-11-01T13:09:00.003-05:00

A lot of you may have already seen this, but I joined Alex and the crew in putting on a ridiculously fun performance of Michael Jackson's Thriller at Pixar on Friday.

Here's a pretty decent angle:

Happy Halloween!

Sculpture update #2

2009-10-23T20:53:00.003-04:00

Finished muscles of the neck and face on the exposed side. For the curious, this is half scale - so its roughly almost 2 feet tall. Next steps: get the body on model and address the face for portraiture.

Sculpture continued...

2009-10-20T03:06:00.002-04:00

Not much to say, lots of learning going on. More as it comes!

Sculpture!

2009-10-13T01:47:00.002-04:00

Wooow it's been a while, hasn't it?? Sorry to all of you who've given up on coming here regularly.. I was under enormous deadlines on the film I just wrapped (can't say much other than it's the short preceding Toy Story 3). Now that its done though I'm off to Bear and the Bow for at least the next year!

To celebrate getting back into characters, I joined a bunch of fellow Pixar folk in a fantastic opportunity to learn more about facial anatomy through sculpture. Here's what I've got after a few hours - I'll continue to post more of the progression as I flesh it out - HA!

Puppy Thumbs

2009-07-07T01:49:00.003-04:00

I'm not going to be sharing much on here with regard to the Puppy app, as I'd like for there to be a reason for people to download it once its done. But I figured there's no harm in sharing some thumbnails I did to plan the animation.

I intend for the loading screen to be the pup chasing its tail round and round (it loops). Realistically the app doesn't even need a loading screen (shh!), but I thought it'd be a fun idea.

Puppy!

2009-06-24T19:37:00.003-04:00

I'm developing an iPhone app featuring this little guy, fully animated!

More on that later..

Monkeys

2009-06-13T17:35:00.002-04:00

Cute? Its a challenge to find a shape language that says "cute" while making it look unique enough from all the other monkey designs out there.

Just for kicks.

Partly Cloudy

2009-05-29T20:01:00.002-04:00

Ahem. Uh, hi.. It's been a while, hasn't it. I've been doing stuff! I swear..

In fact I should still be doing stuff instead of writing this, but I wanted to mention that Partly Cloudy opens in theaters today with Up. You should go see them both, says I.

I had the fortune to model and rig the main character, Peck, as well as all the other birds. The kind folks I worked with even threw me a couple shots to animate - (look for the one where he gets electrocuted). I'll talk about it more some other time. Hope you enjoy it!

Coming up for air..

2009-02-23T21:23:00.002-05:00

To make this brief post. I've been busy busy.. the beard should indicate that. Those darn things are never intentional! More details when I have the time to write them.

Amber Studies

2009-01-11T21:00:00.003-05:00

I had a lot of time (though never enough) to be with my family over the holidays and saw my 2 y/o niece for the first time in months! I wanted to take the opportunity to do a few quick studies of her and this is what resulted.. isn't she cute!

Old roughs

2009-01-05T17:26:00.005-05:00

I figure I ought to post these.. I did them several months ago but who's counting? =)

It's that time of year!

2008-12-15T04:48:00.001-05:00

New Work

2008-09-27T02:26:00.007-04:00

Here's some new stuff, and some iterations on old ideas made with friends.. some of it ought to look familiar. Expect more tomorrow as I don't have all the scans handy this moment.

Hopefully I don't have to remind you that everything posted here is Copyright Lou Hamou-Lhadj 2008.

Outnumbered

2008-08-02T21:27:00.003-04:00

I've been doing a lot of design and animation recently, but I can't share any of it, unfortunately. Finding some time for personal stuff is a rarity these days - here's something I managed to squeeze in.

Moving Up

2008-06-29T16:45:00.005-04:00

First, here's a big blanket "thank-you" to everyone who has expressed their love of Wall-E (and Presto of course)! Please spread the word and encourage others to see it. It's wonderful and bizarre to finally be able to talk openly with the world about it.
In other news, I wrapped this past Friday on Toy Story 3 to work on the *short film that will precede* Up this May. I can't say anything more about it, but I'll be creating a main character and enjoying the slight move up in the ranks!

Wall-E

2008-06-28T12:30:00.003-04:00

We did it. Holy. Cow.

Hats off to my awesome team, and everyone else involved!

Revisiting old friends

2008-06-24T23:58:00.002-04:00

Some slightly evolved sketches of a character Andrew and me played around with about a year ago.

Inflatable!

2008-06-23T17:43:00.001-04:00

My job is admittedly pretty ridiculous sometimes.

Pixar redux

2008-06-10T11:16:00.002-04:00

My new assignment!

Lots of Bots

2008-05-16T22:34:00.003-04:00

If you've any interest in seeing some of my work before Wall-E hits theatres, be sure to check out Lots of Bots (you can get it on Amazon for about $10).

It contains many of the characters I created for the film, with wonderfully simplified illustrations done by our own Ben Butcher.

Oh yeah, and I graduated college this week, so I'm headed back to Pixar.

Age 6

2008-05-01T10:18:00.003-04:00

This is kind of interesting. I'm not really sure when it occured to me that I wanted to be an animator.. but I believe this is the first time I ever committed that dream to paper.

Too bad being 23 isn't a profession, and dinosaur bones aren't already hermetically sealed in a pocket of air to make digging easier.

Note the use of mixed perspective - perfectly logical to a six year old. Boiling it down to an act of sheer communication, the desk wouldn't have been nearly as descriptive without knowing what's on top, yet too busy (at my crude level) had I included all 4 of its legs. Same goes for the chair. Most interesting to me is how one can arguably trace correlations like this between the development of a child's drawing ability (say, over 20 years) to the development of drafting in art history (several thousand).

I won't even bother to go into the figure drawing here though haha.

Amateur

2008-04-20T23:11:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I get frustrated, having to keep things rough in my animation.. so I took one of the keys from this weeks assignment and took it as far as I wish I could take the whole test.

This amateur magician just accidentally turned someone in the audience into something rather horrid.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 12

2008-04-19T00:30:00.002-04:00

Things have been intense with graphics lately... I'm working almost around the clock on some software I'm developing. Sorry for the hiatus, here we go again, this time with a butt-shot.

Oh, and pretty frequently spam-bots will put comments in the comments section. Usually I try to get around to deleting them, but just know not to click on the links - they might compromise your computer.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 11

2008-04-11T23:29:00.003-04:00

Hey it's spring all of a sudden - yaaay.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 10

2008-04-10T00:31:00.002-04:00

Omigosh - I used a pencil for once.

Col-erase though... bad animator's habits.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 9

2008-04-10T00:29:00.003-04:00

Another late post, but one to follow to make up for it.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 8

2008-04-09T00:25:00.002-04:00

Ahhh, I spaced out when I got home tonight and so I missed posing this in time.

The world as we know it will never be the same.

Another 30-second-er.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 7

2008-04-07T23:55:00.000-04:00

This guy liked putting his feet up apparently.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 6

2008-04-06T15:39:00.002-04:00

This one was 30 seconds. Try it, it isn't easy.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 5

2008-04-05T11:59:00.001-04:00

Thanks for the positive feedback folks - here's another.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 4

2008-04-04T00:56:00.004-04:00

A preemptive post so I don't forget, cuz tomorrow is Rock Band night!!!

Edit: By tomorrow I mean today- see how easily I get confused? Haha, does anyone even read this?

Gobble-di-gook.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 3

2008-04-04T00:50:00.002-04:00

Whoopsies, got carried away with animating and didn't realize it was technically the 4th already.. here's what I had intended to upload.

Lifedrawing Month: Day 2

2008-04-02T01:25:00.002-04:00

Here's a (I think?) 5 minute pose, again brushpen.

I think all of my stuff is brushpen these days...

Lifedrawing Month: Day 1

2008-04-01T00:31:00.004-04:00

I'm going to make an attempt to load 1 new life drawing every day for the next month.. some might be good, most will probably be bad, but hopefully this will help me keep my mind off of other things.

Here's the first, a 2 minute pose in brushpen:

I hate spelling bee's

2008-03-19T02:05:00.002-04:00

The only time a refrigerator got the best of me.

Final Wall-E Trailer

2008-03-12T16:46:00.002-04:00

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/

Go! Now! =)

Animation? Why yes, please.

2008-02-11T02:17:00.004-05:00

Can't remember the last time I posted something moving on here.. figured I'd try the new embedded movie feature. This is just a rough pass at an assignment for my Action Analysis II class- a character unwittingly drinks spoiled milk.

I'll be fixing it in another pass and reposting the improvements when I have time. Also soon to come are some recent lifedrawings- I'm doing it 6 hours straight every Tuesday. Gotta love art school.

Prepping for school.

2008-01-01T18:41:00.001-05:00

I figure it best to sort out the designs I'll be animating with this semester before school starts so I can concentrate on improving my acting. Here's what resulted after giving in to the urge to draw a weathered old cowboy. Forgive the bad scan job, I wanted to get back to drawing.

Stag

2007-12-19T00:02:00.000-05:00

Here's some cleanup from something I'm doing in my off time. Color coming soon.

Edit: Testing out some color and a quick comp of snowflakes.

Our latest Wall-E trailer

2007-12-18T14:55:00.000-05:00

Enjoy.

Mathematical Excursion #1

2007-12-17T16:52:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything at all, let alone something worthwhile, so I thought I'd do something a little different for once. Here's a little glimpse into some of the more technical things I've been having to use in my personal projects as of late- calculating where to move points in 3d so that they're not intersecting another object.

We'll start with the simplest case- a sphere! Below you'll find a simple diagram of what we want to accomplish. Given a sphere of radius r, and a point that lies within it's volume, we're trying to find the new position, at the perimeter of the sphere.

Going into a bit more detail, the next diagram displays all of the necessary components we need to consider in our calculation. Don't be too put off by this- I'm merely trying to illustrate that we're looking at similar triangles.

All we need to know is the position of the center of the sphere, its radius, and the position of the point in question (relative to the center of the sphere). With this we can determine the distance from the point to the center of the sphere.

d = sqrt((xo - xp)^2 + (yo - yp)^2 + (zo - zp)^2)

If this distance is less than the radius of the sphere, then we know for a fact that the point lies within its volume. Now we merely have to find a single component of the corresponding similar triangle above to be able to determine some ratio between all of the similar components (read that a couple times until it makes sense). The only component we are guaranteed to have is d'- the distance from the current point to where it ought to go. This is straight forward.

d' = r - d

Now we can solve for the remaining xp', yp', and zp' components, knowing that the ratio d/d' = xp/xp' = yp/yp' = zp/zp'.

xp' = d' * xp/d
yp' = d' * yp/d
zp' = d' * zp/d

Pretty simple huh? All it took were a couple simple algebra equations and now you're moving the point in the vector (xp',yp',zp').

Babies and bugs...

2007-11-09T17:54:00.000-05:00

Did a little illustration for my niece's 1-yr birthday (it was a ladybug theme). I think what's funniest about this is how if the drawing were to be of what's about to happen 10 seconds from now, that bug would be in her mouth and the scour on her face would be fantastically hilarious. Aw.

Officially more official than ever

2007-10-17T15:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I received word that I am to be a permanent employee of Pixar Animation Studios.

Even reading the words I just typed hasn't helped me to realize what has happened. I think that's mostly due to the fact that it was 10.5 months of insanity (in a good way) that led up to this point. I've had to make sacrifices along the way, and had I given any less than my all perhaps I'd be more fanatic about the news, but to be brutally honest the most prominent emotion at the moment is relief.

I can relax.

Kind of. Now we have a film to finish, and while my dedication isn't going to change, I think I'll be able to carry out my daily tasks with the certainty that I deserve to be here. My current contract ends in about 6 weeks, and then its back to NYU for my last semester, where I can take the classes I want to take, instead of those that will "help me get a job". It is going to be a fun time for sure, and when I finish, I'll have an amazing job waiting for me to come back to, on one of the most exciting projects out there!

Cheers to my buddies Jacob and Alex who also received word of their permanence. We're gonna rock this.

Crunch

2007-10-11T00:33:00.000-04:00

Wall-E. What a crazy film.. I'm the last character TD that isn't cast to one of the main characters- which means I get to do everything else!! It's really quite remarkable, and an enormous amount of responsibility. I'm totally thankful for everyone who's put so much trust in me thus far, and hope they continue to do so as I try to trudge through my last few weeks on the show. I've been keeping up with my animation tests as well, but of course I can't share them, not until I request the legal department to approve the work. But that has had some huge payoffs as well. My animation abilities have rocketed skyward I feel, and I'm finally comfortable with spline-work.

I had my interview with all the Supervising Technical Directors almost two weeks ago now. The last hurrah to try and sell myself to them as deserving a permanent position at the studio beyond Wall-E. Of course I have to go back to NYU and finish up, but I'm hoping I might be given an offer for when I complete my degree in May. It'd be really nice to not have to think about work while I'm back in the classroom. I explained in my interview my philosophy of what makes a great Character TD great. You can have all the computer graphics training in the world- it wouldn't impress me all that much. In the end we feed the animators, they rely on us wholly, and to that end we have to always be considerate of their needs and listen to what would make something better. Some of the best Character TDs are excellent animators. Being able to see the shortcomings of your product before sending it out the door almost always puts you on the right level with whomever you're servicing (as long as you take the opportunity to fix it!). I've been asked why I animate- whether or not its something I'd rather be doing. I can't say one way or the other, but I know that regardless what position I held, I'd be seeking to comprehend the other to its fullest.

There are whisperings I may have some satisfaction coming my way in these regards. Till then I'm going to take every opportunity to get my fill of these characters before my time runs out.

It's weird!

2007-08-29T00:40:00.000-04:00

Holy cow I have no idea what's going on!!

If I ever have a kid I want a girl.

2007-08-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

I did this one on location at a music festival I was at a little while ago. Classical stuff- Mozart and whatnot. This little girl was so bored that she thought pretending to hang fully from the handrail until the blood rushed to her head would be more
entertaining. I happened to loved the pose.

Catching up and switching gears.

2007-08-05T14:46:00.000-04:00

It's been a little while since my last post- things are getting pretty crazy over here at Pixar.. Many of the people on my team have moved on to our next show- UP, which means there is now a grand total of 5 Character TDs left on Wall-E (including myself). I'm pretty excited because there's still a great deal of work left to be done on the film, and I'll have my hand in most of it.

The bg character project I led is at its end, and I will be moving on to doing hair (something only a handful of people at the studio know, which will be a great opportunity to secure myself a permanent position here). I'm currently poking around some local schools to consider transferring to in the event that Pixar tells me that they want to keep me on, but that I have to finish school first. The potential game plan is that I could finish my degree here, and continue working part time so as to not lose my seat in the company. Ideally I would get an agreement letting me finish at NYU with a secured position waiting for me when I return, but this isn't a half-bad solution to have in your back pocket. I will be meeting with some people from the animation department at SFSU in the coming weeks to review my portfolio and determine where I fall in their program.

The summer interns are getting ready to leave, and the other night I went out to San Francisco with Victor Navone and a few other animators for some sushi to say our goodbyes to one of the animation interns. It'll be strange when they're gone- they've made coming in on weekends much more enjoyable.

Speaking of animation- I began doing a test with Helen Parr from The Incredibles. I'm hoping to have it done soon so I can include it in the materials I show to the schools around here. And I've also started doing a maquette for a project that a few of us Pixar-folk are collaborating on. Jerome Ranft and Greg Dykstra set us up with the appropriate materials. I'll post the finished sculpt and any helpful notes they gave me as they come. Till then~

The wheels are turning...

2007-07-06T21:49:00.000-04:00

My computer has been acting up at work lately, so I've had time during reboots to actually draw some stuff. This was my favorite from earlier today, playing with an idea Andrew and I are working on..

Ratatouille.

2007-06-30T13:08:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to see Ratatouille at the Metreon in San Francisco. It marks my fifth time seeing the film since our Wrap party almost a month ago, and I have to say- it was one of the best movie-going experiences I've ever had. There's something lacking when you watch the movie with Pixarians only, most of whom have worked on it for the past 6 years.. but being able to ride the film (and it was a ride) with an audience who has NO idea whats going to happen is a rare treat. I had the most amazing woman sit infront of me who had absolutely no inhibitions when it came to expressing how much the film moved her. I highly suggest sitting near someone who looks like they might be one of those folk- so entertaining. When I arrived at the theatre an hour early there was already a line of about 60 people, and I half-hoped I wouldn't be able to get in, were it to sell out. We were ushered over to someone's apartment afterward for a large party where I had the pleasure of meeting some students from the Academy of Art, all of whom freaked out when they asked me where I work. I don't think I've ever felt like a celebrity before, but they sure treated me like one, and that was pretty neat. All in all I had a blast, and can't stress enough that if you enjoy movies, you'll absolutely love this film. So go! Now!

I'm hungry...

2007-06-29T01:11:00.001-04:00

I think I have some soup at home. I should go home.

Finally back to animating!

2007-06-25T01:27:00.001-04:00

Yep, I spent my whole weekend at Pixar, animating Remy. It was nice to have some fellow animators around for once too- makes going in and getting work done a lot more enjoyable. All the interns are doing Luxo tests to get their feet wet with our software. Now that Ratatouille is coming out in a week, I should be able to finally post the tests I did! I want to get cleared on that first though before I post anything (you probably haven't noticed but I took down the links to other animation I've done with Pixar characters, just to play it safe.. you know, now that I have a job to worry about and all).

The teaser for the film I'm working on is out! Yay, Wall-E.. there's talk that I'm going to be given a chance to do some animation for the film, with the characters I've been building =) Let's hope!

Tie it DOWN!

2007-06-17T23:09:00.000-04:00

Just something to keep the juices flowing..

Fresh meat

2007-06-11T23:14:00.000-04:00

Art, Animation, and Story interns started today at Pixar.. there's about 20 of them or so.. I'm super excited to be meeting 'em all! Maybe they'll give me the kick in the pants that I need to do more tests and stuff on my off-time.

Work is challenging, the pace ever-quickening, and everything else falls by the way-side. Sorry everyone that I haven't posted in a while- I've been under the weather.

This is just a little girl for the fun of it- I don't really know what it is that she's looking at, but I'm getting some really strong urges to make a children's book of some sort...

Welp!

2007-04-27T23:45:00.000-04:00

I was made an offer today. Pixar wants to keep me as a full-time Character Technical Director. I don't really know what else to say... word? Oh, yeah- obviously I'm going to take it, haha. Duh. =)

Can't sleep?

2007-04-27T03:42:00.000-04:00

Pick up a pad and pencil.
Draw a girl from work.
Try putting your pillow at the foot of the bed.

I haven't died...

2007-04-26T02:49:00.000-04:00

...but I have been placed in charge of all the background characters in the film I'm working on here at Pixar! Modeling, articulating- the works. I'll be presenting them to Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) fairly soon and so all of my time and energy has either gone into working on them, or resting to prepare for working on them. It's a big responsibility, but everyone at the studio I've spoken to about it seems jazzed about the work I'm doing. Such a thing is rare these days, and awfully encouraging! I'm being considered for a full-time position effective post-internship, so at the moment making sure that I do the best I can at the job I was brought here for has pushed aside many of my hobbies.. hopefully I'll have something cool for you folks soon. Don't stop visiting, please!

Beautiful day to be animating.

2007-03-31T18:20:00.000-04:00

This is what it's like walking to the front entrance of Pixar on a day like today... I wish my office was outside.
I'll be posting the progress I've made with my Remy test either tonight or tomorrow, I've at least got the blocking underway!

"Trying to animate" and "animating" are very different things

2007-03-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

I went in to work today (Saturday) to try animating my test with Remy... sometimes I wonder if I'm actually cut out for this.

Domestic Ratatouille Trailer

2007-03-24T01:16:00.000-04:00

Bon apetite!

Remy Thumbs

2007-03-10T17:47:00.000-05:00

I've been talking to a lot of animators here lately, all of whom have been really supportive of my attempts to keep doing my own tests during off-hours, and some even willing to help me out with critique to further my work. Needless to say it has been incredible. I'm putting off the Helen test for something a little more challenging- animating a short acting test with Remy, the main rat character from our upcoming feature Ratatouille. Here's my first pass at some thumbs. I intend to log the progress of this shot from blocking to polish so please keep visiting!

The obligatory atrium photo...

2007-02-19T01:38:00.000-05:00

I've been getting a lot of people asking where I'm located exactly- now you know! That is all...

Lines

2007-02-18T17:41:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from work for a moment (yeah, I'm here on a Sunday...). Thought I'd talk about something that I think is interesting and I'm starting to notice:
For a long time I didn't have even a marginally decent grasp of line, but it is something that's finally starting to (sort of) make sense to me- that is, the mechanics of a line and how they work to carve out space and describe interrelations among forms that exist only in your mind. Now, my first point that I'm going to try and communicate with this is that a line cannot be judged solely on its angle, or thickness, or tangency, but in the manner with which these things change. When being viewed, a line is transformed into a temporal space, and becomes animated in its own right. Granted it is a still drawing, but it takes time for your eye to traverse the stroke, and it is over that time that there occurs a change of shape.
I've noticed this has been overlooked by many new students of animation and design... we're often told that our keys make or break a scene. Time spent getting those poses right is essential to communicating your idea. Yes, but. As many of you know its the manner in which you change those shapes IN A TEMPORAL CONTEXT that tells that idea in a nuanced/interesting/worthwhile/(believable?) manner. It isn't enough to have only the beginning and end of a line planned. WHEN does its angle/thickness/tangency change along your intended path? HOW LONG does that change take? Do all the elements change AT EQUAL RATES, or are you offsetting them? These are all things that are shared in both animation and design, and invariably give you a much much better chance of getting your drawings off the page. Thoughts?

1 out of 3 is... terrible.

2007-02-09T03:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry I didn't live up to my promise... all I've got for you tonight is the audio I'll be animating to:

Edit: I changed the clip- this one has much more energy. When I have the means to do so I'll use a signal generator to beep out the swearing, but until then... DEAL.

During sculpture class I broke my armature. I'm going to have to start over, so no pics tonight... and I'm too bushed to have done any thumbs, but I'm going to have some extra time at work tomorrow- look for an update in the evening.

Oh yes, and we released this little gem today to promote Rat. Awesome. Notice how long ago it was done- this doesn't even hold a candle to the way the final film looks, I believe it was rendered with just plain white shader lights and before Emile was even being put through all of his paint passes. Just so you're aware... you have no idea. =)

Onward and Upward!

2007-02-08T02:41:00.000-05:00

Welp, I've finished my Ratatouille test (all 24 frames of looping goodness haha). Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, I cannot share it with anyone outside the studio, so it will have to wait until after the movie is released. However! I took that as an opportunity to show it to some animators here, and get some extremely valuable feedback (very subtle spacing tweaks for the most part). They've agreed to look at all my future tests and help me move forward.

Speaking of which- I believe I'm ready to begin planning my next two self-assigned animation tests. Both will use characters from The Incredibles: an action shot (most likely using Bob) that will be something OTHER than a loop, I promise! and an acting piece with Helen. I already have some audio picked out for that from Holly Hunter's role in Broadcast News (I'll post tomorrow), but I want to take my time to fully explore my options before just diving in, so keep an eye out for thumbs and such as I log my thought processes.

By the way, these animation tests are being done outside of my time at Pixar- that is to say they aren't paying me to do them. What I'm actually doing there 12 hours a day I cannot say, but I like to get in a little extracurricular time here and there (sick, I know). Tomorrow I start an Animal Maquette Sculpture class through Pixar University, 8 weeks of sculpting an Amur Tiger- watch out!

Lets see, what else... Yesterday I had lunch with Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews, both super-talented artists who worked together on The Iron Giant as well as The Incredibles and co-directed One Man Band. That was a real treat and brought back some memories of Andrew's visit to NYU last spring.

Anyway, tomorrow evening I'll upload the audio for Helen and some preliminary thumbs, as well as something worth showing (if any) of the maquette. But for now, sleep!

Bonfires and Animation Tests!

2007-01-29T01:17:00.000-05:00

Sorry folks, no pictures/vids this time around. I finished training at Pixar University this past Friday, and finally got to meet my manager and team leads. So tomorrow I finally begin working on a film (starting with some character modeling until I learn their proprietary rigging software) and I am sooo excited to actually get to do something for REAL! Last night we celebrated the end of training with a bonfire on Ocean Beach out in San Francisco, and today I spent my afternoon starting an animation test using a character from Ratatouille, which I definitely can't show anyone outside the studio so you'll have to wait until I do something from the Incredibles... probably within the next week or so? Anywho keep comin' back and I'll be sure to keep posting.

Pay Day

2007-01-20T01:07:00.000-05:00

I got my first paycheck from Pixar this afternoon... the mere fact that they're paying me to learn from them is just nuts, but I'm not complaining!

Today was full of techy stuff, but at the end of the day we got to see the last two weeks worth of Ratatouille weeklies- fully rendered/animated sequences that absolutely blew all our minds. Prepare yourself for this one, folks. I got so stoked from watching it that I immediately went back to my computer and decided to TRY animating something. Unfortunately YouTube cut it short, but nevertheless- what a way to end the week.

Catching up!

2007-01-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

My apologies to everyone who has stopped reading- I've been without internet in our new apartment here in Emeryville for about two weeks. Since then I've started at Pixar Animation Studios, I'm on the character team for the upcoming film after Ratatouille... and that's all I'm allowed to say. Needless to say this has been a ridiculously amazing experience thus far, and I'll upload some pictures shortly. In the meantime, here's a little test I did with Luxo Jr. on my 3rd day at work to get a feel for some of their proprietary software. It isn't very good, but man... Pixar's tools for animation are far far superior than anything I've ever used before, so it was a pure joy to do. I'm going to continue doing tests on characters from their previous films on my free time during lunch and after work, so keep coming back for updates on that as well.

Possible Ratatouille Designs?

2006-12-17T00:34:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-12-07T01:17:00.000-05:00

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!"

2006-11-27T19:18:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-23T02:11:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-17T14:07:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-11-14T02:40:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-12T01:01:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-11-05T00:12:00.000-05:00

...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.

2006-11-04T20:43:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-10-22T18:28:00.000-04:00

Bleh.

Lifedrawing #2

2006-10-16T23:52:00.000-04:00

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

2006-10-13T04:10:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-27T22:56:00.000-04:00

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)

2006-09-26T18:57:00.000-04:00

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.

2006-09-21T13:34:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-14T18:08:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-03T17:11:00.000-04:00

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

2006-08-24T22:12:00.000-04:00

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!