I Enjoy Change

Soon after Siggraph I had a call back from Dreamworks. And long story short, I got the job! I finally have a long term job near my son. How fun.

So I gave R&H 4 weeks notice. Work on Compass already kind of ended for us tech animators. I have actually been doing a bit of work on the Alvin & the Chipmunks visual effects during my last couple of weeks here.

In 4 days I leave for Israel again. Though not for rest or vacation. My father became disabled earlier this year and I am going back to be with him for 3 weeks. When I return I'll be relocating 400 miles up north and start work on Madagascar 2 asap.

Wdding in Israel

The day before our flight to Israel, my son's mother realized her passport wasn't valid anymore. So I thank her here again for letting Noah come with me to Israel, just the two of us. The day we arrived was my dear Sister's wedding day.

March 30th 2006 will be remembered as the day the best, funnest wedding ever took place. It was an out door setting in an events park in Israel, complete with pond, grass, and of course a circus tent. The puppet band was great, the food organic, and the booze was free of course (not for the parents I guess).

After the ceremony, 4 ours of drinking and eating there was the main event in the tent. The happy couples close friends performed on stage, each in turn, their own unique awesome juggling, curtain thingy (edit this later when I learn the name), stationary trapeze acrobalance, and at the end... The newlyweds. My sister's bride dress transformed into performing uniform. The show was awesome, and if I ever get video of it online I'll post it. Pinky promise.

The rest of the 3 weeks in Israel were fun. Noah got a bit better in Hebrew, and loved spending time with grandma. He would also come with me to visit my dad in the hospital where he was recovering from his stroke, half paralyzed and limited to his wheelchair. I would walk outside and cry every visit, and Noah would pat me and say "it's ok daddy, it's ok".

Passover was celebrated in my sister's practice dome, at the border of a small village and it's orchard - near Natanya. Once Noah got bored he practiced juggling clubs.

Happy Feet

A week ago I arrived in Sydney. The first day I checked in to what will be my new home for the next month. It's a lovely Old-Terrace style home in a nice part of the city. After that my first stop was Bondi Beach (pronounced bondai in Australian). It's the coolest beach I have ever been to. It's got it all. Sand, waves, boardwalk, coffee shops, sweet skate park, grassy knolls, and even a pool on either end of the beach (2) that are carved into the rock. Last Sunday I bought a surf board and surfed for the first time in over 10 years.
On my 3rd day here I got to see the movie Happy Feet from begining to end. It's pretty good. I am not a big fan of musicals but I really enjoyed this one. I think the soundtrack might be worth getting. Happy Feet, in a nut shell, is a computer-animated-penguin-tap-dancing-musical. The main voices are done by Robin Williams, Elija Wood and Brittany Murphy. It will be the first film to use motion capture on non-human characters. My job is to fix/enhance the penguins motion capture data.
The company Animal Logic is located in Fox Studios. This place used to be a movie studio theme park like Universal Studios in the States. It failed, and about 4 years ago half of it opened for business as a real movie lot, where movies such as Superman Returns and Star Wars were shot. It's funny that I just finished workin on SR in the States and now am working right next door to where it was shot in Australia. The other half of the complex is open to the public with shops, resturaunts, a bowling alley, theater and park. Today, at lunch time, I broke my personal lifetime bowling record: 144.

Here is the latest Happy Feet trailer for your enjoyment.