Beautiful day to be animating.

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

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

Bon apetite!

Remy Thumbs

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...

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

Lines

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.

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!

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!

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

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!

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?

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!