Podcast interview

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Its been a while since ive last posted.
Mainly because im just sooo friggin busy.
But i thought this probably belongs on my blog... since its about me haha.

Its a Podcast interview that my buddy Rusty did a week or two ago.
I hope some of you get inspired by it.

A new chapter

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Today im already three months into my Framestore adventure, and i still find it hard to describe what i feel.

As a student or later when i was working in my first two animation jobs, i had this picture in mind on how it would be, to work in a world class studio. And now that im here, i have to realize... it is even better.
The company itself is so professional but still feels like a family.
I am completely overwhelmed by the sense of achievement, humility and joy...

I didn't realize what i had achieved when i actually got the job offer, or at least i didn't feel like i had achieved something.
Probably mostly because i thought, that someone who hires a guy with a reel like mine, cant really be THAT good.
But now im sitting in the midst of some fantastic animators, i am here! I am part of this!
Someday i have to ask our Lead what made him pick me over everyone else, because every time i think of it when i go to sleep i honestly cant make sense of it.

For the first time in my life i feel like im EXACTLY at the right place at the right time.
Were really starting something great and unique here, everyone has so much energy and wants to prove to the guys in London and the rest of the world, that we can do anything they throw at us. It feels like a family, and since most of the people are new to the city (theres only two canadians in our team of 10 animators and only one is from Montreal) we really are a tight knit team, which makes life in and outside of work even cooler.
When they asked me how i like it at Framestore and i had issues finding the right words, many of them just nodded, saying i know what you mean... They all feel the same, because they have been in the same place themselves... but still they kept their wonder and excitement about our craft, and that after 8+ years at Framestore or in this industry overall...
This is so exhilarating...

This is the first time everything comes together for me, and the hard work especially in the last two years starts to pay off.

I wish each and everyone of you out there who strives to become an animator, that you will make this same experience one day...
Realizing that one actually really CAN make all his dreams come true is the best thing ive ever felt...

How much i love Pixar

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Today a coworker sent me these two videos...






everyone knows how crazy i am about Pixar... but well... it got me all weepy and i had to tell someone, so i messaged the videos to another amazing friend here...

i wanted to share that little breakout...

Its hard to find words for how much i love my job already.
And if you think im too fixated on Pixar, i can tell you... i have questioned myself a lot. Trying to find some other place that might be as cool... and i found some amazing places that id like to work at... but then i watch Nemo or Wall-E or the Pixar Story again... and BAM... nothing else gives me these amazing tickling in my guts than Pixar and what it stands for.

These guys really touched me... with amazing stories and characters, but even more with amazing art and craftsmanship...
There is no other place like Pixar.

Serious topics in animated films

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I had to get sick to finally watch The Incredibles again... And while watching it, i noticed something i hadnt noticed before.

But let me start somewhere else first... over a long time ive been complaining about studios not having the balls to put more adult material in their movies. That was one of the things that "disappointed" me the most in Brave... that there wouldve been a chance to make it much darker.

Anyways... while watching Incredibles, i realized that Pixar had already done it.
There is LOTS of pretty adult stuff in there which would, shown in a live action movie, most likely make the movie not very suitable for kids.

But somehow Pixar (and Brad Bird) packed a plane crash, a father thinking he has lost his family, a woman who thinks her husband is cheating on her, open street violence and much more in a movie... and its absolutely suitable for Kids...
My admiration for Pixar (And Brad Bird) just grew even more when i realized that...

Go, try to watch Incredibles, and imagine some of those scenes in a live action movie...

Man Pixar... you just rock... :-)
You guys really just rock... i hope theres gonna be more of that in future (Like in Toy Story 3 f.ex.) and i hope the company doesnt get too corporate...
My hopes are high, especially for "Inside out"

Please dont disappoint me :-)

i friggin LOVE animation...

ATTENTION: I HAVE A NEW BLOG!
Check out www.mountcg.com where i write down my thoughts and opinions on the industry!

After ranting around i just thought im writing something positive today.

I dont know if its because im super sensitive to caffeine or because im in love with a beautiful woman or whatever that im feeling such a rush at the moment, but i just realized once again how much i LOVE my life and what im doing with it.

Im working on two shots in my spare time at the moment, and both are a struggle, but every once in a while they take a step forward and i feel that im taking steps forward with my shots as well...
I can see how my work improves... i can see that with every shot im getting closer to accomplishing the dreadful task of making my stuff look the way i see it in my imagination...

I see how much that life drawing class helped me understand how to pose characters... and this was only the start... im gonna take more classes soon!
Also, by reading blogs about filmmaking, animation and art i feel so incredibly inspired...
There is still so much to explore... Drawing... i dont draw enough... if i look at Andreas Dejas fantastic blog im constantly reminded how amazing it is to be able to draw...
Music... there is no better way to express a feeling than through a song... i want to learn playing the guitar...
Photography... inspired by my friend Simon Christen i really want to get into photography too... learn about composition and the craft... i want to do a nice timelapse short about the beautiful city of Toronto...

But... a lot of the stuff i just mentioned has to wait because of my biggest passion...
Animation... i LOVE how im improving... Animation Mentor and iAnimate are the best places to be... its so inspiring to work with and learn from all those amazing people around me...There is so much to explore... so many stories to tell... i have at least 6 ideas for short stories that im bouncing around since about 2 years... i hope i find some time soon to actually produce one...

But there is also so much more in animation...
I wanna try 2D... by doing all the Assignments from AMs basic foundations class in 2D im learning so much more, especially about timing and spacing... i can only encourage EVERYONE to try to do this... it will give you a much broader view and understanding on how animation works...
I also want to try stop motion... after seeing Pirates, Paranorman and Frankenweenie this year i gotta say... those guys have my biggest respect...
Its insane how tedious the process of stop motion is... but i can only imagine how incredibly rewarding it must be...

An amazing year is ahead of us... im looking forward to what all you guys out there create...
And i hope i can share some of my creations too at some point... :-)

a rant...

This year ive seen more movies than ever before.
I tried to see every animated film (made by the bigger studios) that came out...
And of course i also love to discuss the quality of each and every movie.
I love to comment and analyze and hear peoples opinions.

And especially ive made an observation recently, that really brings me to the edge... i dont know why... my girlfriend says im stupid for getting annoyed because of something like this, but i think i just appreciate and love our beautiful art form so much, that it really upsets me when people argument unreasonably.

Maybe its also just about the words people use when they state their opinion about a movie...

Unless a movie was really bad... i mean: Bad animation, Bad visuals, crappy effects and the worst story ever... i would never say things like: "It sucked!", "It sucked soooo much, from beginning to end!", "nothing good about it!" "the best thing was my friends name in the credits" and so on...
Remarks like this really really REALLY get me going and i always find myself loosing a lot of respect for people who let themselves go like this... especially when they work in the same industry and should at least bring up some respect for the people who worked on it.

I just dont understand how someone could talk like this... Brave wasnt perfect... Madagascar 3 was clearly made for kids... People from Blue Sky even stated that they didnt make an effort to tell a story in new compelling ways...
Why people would dislike Rise of the Guardians except for the maaaaybe a liiiiitle to kiddie like story is a mistery to me... and i even heard someone completely dismissing Wreck it Ralph... i mean... WTF people?

I think it just comes down to the old rivalry amongst fanboys (and girls), mostly students or people fresh out of school... who see the films of their favourite studio with other eyes than any other movie... or even dismiss a movie just because it was made by a certain studio... And people like this... i just cant stand...
No one likes it when people talk bad about a movie youve worked on... we all pour our hearts and souls into each and every shot we work on... so a little respect should be given... dont you think?

And IF you go and talk bad about a movie... have a friggin reason why you didnt like it... "oh im just no gamer" or "it was just boring" doesnt cut it for me... especially for a movie that has such a beautiful and well crafted story like Wreck it Ralph...
Or when someone compares the Croods with Brave, bringing up stupid narrowminded comparisons without even having seen the movie... that really gets me going...

There is something beautiful in every new movie that comes out and i dont think that this is a matter of taste. I like or "dislike" certain movies myself... but in the recent years i have never seen a movie coming from the bigger studios, where there wasnt at least one small cute, nice, beautiful, astonishing thing in it...

There are AMAZING artists working at EVERY studio... People working in the industry should know that... and students definitely shouldnt bash movies, made by companies, they would give a kidney to work for.

Im done now...
just one last thing guys...
We are working in the ultimate art form... can you think of any other medium that combines so many disciplines together? Dont we have the f**** most awesome job in the world? Isnt creating those films together, by pushing each other and finding the coolest solutions for every problem, the best thing about it? And dont you LOVE it when you see how people get moved by it... how Kids admire the characters we created?
Isnt that the most important thing?

So... does it really matter that much, where we create our art?

What is animation...

ATTENTION: I HAVE A NEW BLOG!
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Today i stumbled upon an article on cartoon brew which had a link to ANOTHER article also on cartoon brew about the common impression people have about animation.
It had a quote from Brad Bird in it wich just made me smile because he absolutely nails it:

“People think of animation only doing things where people are dancing around and doing a lot of histrionics, but animation is not a genre. And people keep saying, ‘The animation genre.’ It’s not a genre! A Western is a genre! Animation is an art form, and it can do any genre. You know, it can do a detective film, a cowboy film, a horror film, an R-rated film or a kids’ fairy tale. But it doesn’t do one thing. And, next time I hear, ‘What’s it like working in the animation genre?’ I’m going to punch that person!” 

Thats why im such a big fan of Brad Bird... he is so straight forward. He doesnt  try to put lipstick on the pig just to not offend anyone. These Days you dont meet people like that very often.

copied pairs

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Yesterday i made an attempt to explain copied pairs to a student at AM... (btw. her name is Dita Lang... keep that name in mind... she will make it big... im sure of that!)
And i thought that concept would be nice to post up here as a base for discussions.
So here is what i wrote to her about how i approach copied pairs:

The main concept and advantage of working that way is probably that you can figure out how trasitions and the timing feel much better than in stepped...

Im doing it this way (this is for an acting shot):
im setting a key pose (nicely fleshed out of course) and put a key on all controls... then i go to the place where the movement should end... do the end pose and set a key on all controls...
lets assume that there is a hold following after that movement... i go and set a key on all controls at the end of that hold but at the START of the following movement without changing anything... so that there are two identical keys... combined with plateau curves, the character shouldnt move AT ALL between these two curves... if he does you probably have some overshoots going on somewhere...
then i go to the end of the following movement and do the next key pose... try to feel out how long this one should be held and set another key without changing anything at the START of the next movement... and so on...
After that you can start filling in the breakdowns but thats coming in a second pass...
What i think is really important to get the concept of copied pairs, is that you have two identical poses at the end of the previous movement and at the start of the next move...

(all this of course also applys to physical shots with one advantage: you can time it out in a later pass... wich means... in the first pass you just put in all your golden poses every fifth (or so) frame without looking at the timing... and in the next pass you time it out...)

If you want to go in later and add a copy of a key... you just select everything again... go to the key you want to copy, right click in the timeline and choose copy... then you go to the frame you want to place it, right click on the timeline and choose paste...
Some rigs get messed up when you copy the keys of ALL controls at once... in that case i usually go in, one frame after the key i want to copy, set a key on everything, go to the graph editor and push the curves back to the same value as the actual keyframe i want to copy, and then you can drag it out to where it belongs...

Im not using many tools or scripts for that... except for two things:
-Tween key... (as soon as you start doing breakdowns!) Gives you such a nice start on your inbetweens... (emphasis on start! you still have to go in and flesh them out! Dont be lazy on those inbetweens! You want to know how the character gets from one golden pose to the next!)
- there is a script done by cameron fielding from dreamworks who allows you to easily figure out your timing...
check it out here: http://fliponline.blogspot.com/2007/04/quick-trick-tap-your-timing.html
Its such a simple script but speeds you up a LOT... and you dont have to go into the dope sheet or graph editor and move keys around...
Just hit select all on your GUI Picker and then use the hotkey you gave it... so simple... so fast... try it! :-)

Another note at the end just to think about... mostly for acting shots i block in stepped to be fully focused on the poses but with copied pairs in my back head... so i put in copied keys even if you cant see they are there when you play in stepped... but you will see it as soon as you turn it into spline (or in my case plateau)

 Thats my personal approach to this... i would really love to hear some comments, suggestions or other peoples approaches!

and here we go again...

Serkis gave another interview on his performances... and the emotions are cooking high again...

I think he deserves the credit. And they truly are HIS acting choices... in my opinion he deserved an oscar for Gollum... that was just freakin brilliant work! Period! I would be frustrated too, to not getting considered for an oscar just because i played in the wrong movie... 

But he shouldnt play the animators work down as he does... it just seems like he doesnt really understand the process of an animator because hes not really interested in it...

And those people who wrote him hate mail are just jerks!
The animators community is based on accepting everyones opinion and growing together...
And im sure if serkis would take a deeper look in the creative process of us animators he wouldnt say stuff like that.


All that of course is only my humble opinion... 

Oh those gobelins show offs...

If i could go back and choose a school to go to... i would go to gobelins. Even before calarts or AAU... Almost every piece ive seen coming from their students is awesome...

Like this short...
I love the mood so much...

The Night We Were Kings from Cube Creative on Vimeo.

My favourite parts - 6 - Nemo

Stanton at its best...
He is an amazing storyteller, and nemo is such a complete film, you just have to love it.
The sondtrack is probably my favourite out of all Pixar films... and its filled with lots and lots of details.
Ive just recently bought the art of finding nemo and all the amazing drawings... specially simon varelas stuff is just stunning!
Its also one of the few movies that has a very good german version. Wich is also something pixar manages to do quiet well overall.

The part that stands out to me in particular for this movie is this here:

finally Nemo and Marlin are reunited.
But the very special thing about it was to see doug sweatland talk about it on the pixar story.
There you see how deep he thinks into the shot, the subtext, what every gesture means.
Doug is a genious anyways and this part shows how every animator should think...
I feel it brought my own work on a completely new level when i really started to think about the character, the subtext and really tried to figure out what every gesture will mean. That was one of these moments when it somehow clicked for me...

Geesh i love animation! :-)

My favourite parts - 5 - Wall-E

Were getting to one of my all time favourites...
I just love the characters so much... i love the setting, the story... everything... the only thing i was a bit disappointed about was that the movie is a bit split into these two parts... its just some kind of bump more in the visual style that disappointed me because i was so amazed by that post human world... the axiom is much more cartoony... but anyways... the story is beautiful and as i mentioned... wall-e is my favourite pixar character of all time!
You have to know how to animate first to be able to give him that robotic moves but still give him sooooo much character...
The part that stood out to me the most... is probably the one that stood out to everyone the most...

beautiful...

:-) so full of detail... i love how the cockroach is walking up and down... looking at them... then going again... like in a hospital... so perfect... then... 2:29... how eve holds him in the moment she gives up hope...
and then the kiss...
 ok first... i have never ever experienced something that was quiet as this moment at a theatre than on this movie... no one dared to breathe... dead silence... and then comes his questioning "evaa?" (im having goose bumps again) its just perfect...
And again... its not just the whole scene but how deep they go here... not all the new parts made him whole again... its that little kiss from eva... the love she feels when she kisses him goodbye... thats what truly revives him... awesome also because they established the strength of her kiss and the influence on him in the space/dance sequence where it overloads his system and lets it crash... but now that much energy/love was needed to revive his soul... awww... so beautiful...

btw... go to carlos baenas website to see what he did here... the broken wall-e is just awesome... 

:-) i love writing about animation... :-)

My favourite parts - 4 - Up

In preparation for this post i watched the intro sequence again and... well... watch it yourself first...

I really had to wipe a tear away... BEAUTIFUL! Amazing! And what a build up for a movie in the first 10minutes... oh i love it so much... thank god its friday... so i can watch it again this weekend...
This sequence makes me feel sooooo unworthy of even dreaming of working at pixar someday...

This film proves another thing... well actually pixar proved this much longer ago but this here is special i think...
It proves that they make films with such a depth that its definitely not just for kids anymore... the beautiful thing is that there is something for everyone... kids will love it because all the fun stuff like speaking dogs... a funny bird etc, but there is so much going on, on deeper levels that appeals to grown ups... im saying it again... pixar films are plain and simple... pieces of beautiful art.

But... im getting off topic (again).

The first thing that made me laugh out loud from excitement about the amazing animation is at 0:59 when carl places his hand on the arm of the chair and ellie grabs it... this moment... (oh my god im having goose bumps just by thinking of it again!) its so subtile... like its the most natural thing for them... perfect...

The whole sequence of course could be a short film in itself and is a masterpiece in every aspect (not just animation)

Next thing...

again... carls animation is just beautiful... how he rubs his eyes... how he gets up etc.
And there is that shot when he comes down the stairs in the "elevator"... (wich is storytelling wise also very very amazing... he got that elevator... and later in the film he is doing all this physical stuff... that elevater really shows how much he had forgotten to live...) in that shot, there are so many subtile moves... nothing forced, basically just overlap from the elevators movement... i just love that subtile stuff! :-)

There are lots of other things thats are very outstanding to me (as always) for example the scene when muntz kidnaps kevin and sets the house on fire... carl goes to extinguish the fire and russel accuses him not to care about kevin... the way carl turns around in his reaction... the lighting... that huge emotion in his face... thats another very very unique and incredibly strong moment.

I could go on and on again... but ill leave it for now :-)

My favourite parts - 3 - Incredibles

To me visually this wasnt the most appealing pixar film, and in times where i didnt know anything about movie making or animation... i actually wasnt that impressed by it when i first saw it. But as i started studying animation, and watched it again... i realized how amazing this film is... the visual style (specially of the environment) still isnt that appealing to me, but the animation is just another milestone in animation history. I recently just watched it with the animators commentaries wich just opened another level of excitement about the film.
It has an amazing story and every character develops in its own special way... its just amazing how everything is worked out perfectly. And of course there is the world famous edna mode... wich just rocks the house! And knowing that brad bird did her voice just increases my admiration for him.
He is actually the only reason why i will go and watch ghost protocol... :-)

But to come back to my favourite parts in the film...
For this one its actually just two little parts that just show pixars greatness... i like elastigirl/helen a lot... she is so confident, but vulnerable on the other hand... and that elastic stuff must be awesome to animate... but apart from all the funky stuff they did with her, there are a few moments where they showed her "powers" in a more subtile way.

Timecode 2:29 and 2:50


Specially at 2:29 there is no awesome stretch going on, but her main pose is just perfect... and amazingly beautiful. Her SL leg is bent in that amazing arc wich as i mentioned shows her flexibility without showing it off because in that moment she has to act subtile so she doesnt get seen... thats the way to keep a character like her consistent.
Same at 2:50... ok there is much more S&S going on, but its so fast that its almost not visible... and the way she squishes when she lands is just pure animation awesomeness :-) again... you dont have to turn her into a parachute to jump down from the ceiling... she doesnt need that here... its just perfect (hehe i gotta search the dictionary, i guess im using a lot of superlatives over and over again) :-)

Thats it for Incredibles... to me this film is a real phenomenon... everytime i watch it, i see something new that amazes me... well this happens with every pixar film, but incredibles hits me off the chair everytime i see it.