2010 Technical Director Reel is Online

After 3 years at PDI Dreamworks I am setting out in search of new and exciting challenges.

Still living the dream

Monsters Vs. Aliens came out on DVD a couple of weeks ago. The DVD extra for the DVD was my 3rd Dreamworks project. The 10 minute short called Bob's Big Break includes a "True 3D" viewable version. The 3D experience leaves something to be desired when compared to a theater 3D screening... still it's pretty cool that this technology is getting introduced into the home. And Dreamworks is one of the biggest promoters of 3D technology - we are going to start to include a "True 3D" version of every DVD release starting with our upcoming feature film release "How to Train Your Dragon".



As a Chracter Effects Artist I simulated and final-ed the cloth on Dr. Cockroach, General Monger and Susan, as well as any other extra who happened to walk into one of my shots. I also animated crushing, crunching and squishing inanimate objects. I did a bunch of character contact type work as well (i.e. making sure feet weren't going through the ground, hands through props or other characters, etc.)

Golden Compass out today

Sep 29th was my official last day on Compass, which came out today. Unfortunately rotten tomatoes has it at a rotten 44%, though the general audience gave it a barely fresh 63%.

To remind my audience, my technical title was: TechAnim TD - which means Technical Animator Technical Director. What I really did was character effects, like hair & fur, collision/s, floppy skin/ears, muscle tensing/buldging, and other such effects. The comopany I worked on worked on the human dameon companions (not the armored bears), and their interaction with the scene and environments.

The Golden Compass

Even though I had allot of good feedback, interest in my work, and 0-3 interviews a month since Siggraph 06, I remained unemployed for close to 9 months. Yes... the Blizzard job did not pan out- I was crushed.

However May 14th was my first day of work at Rhythm & Hues Studios. I am contracted to work on The Golden Compass for 6 months. It's a movie based on a book. An excellent fantasy story, the first in a trilogy called His Dark Materials - Book I written by Phillip Pullman. As Technical Animation Technical Director (Tech Anim TD for short) I will be in charge of the dynamic look for a big cast of digital animal Daemons. i.e. The fur movement, ear flops, muscle and skin jiggle, and character contact with various surfaces.

Here is an official trailer for the film.

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.

Superman Trailer

The new Superman Returns trailer just came out. Enjoy :)

Join the countdown to June 30th premiere at BlueTights.net where you can also watch Bryan Singer's video blog.