3D Animation Noodling

Here's a little animation I cooked up during a slow time. The first draft was a light week of work, but I've been noodling with it off and on for about a month. Thanks to the people who gave me feedback to help make it better (you know who you are.) The voice is Albert Brooks and the movie is Lost in America.

Captain Macaroni is Safely to Harbor

I just finished a couple of weeks at Animation Collective where I helped the compositing crew put some final touches on Captain Macaroni, a AC production for Daystar Networks. The show is another flash/3D hybrid, as Speed Racer was, but all tasks were performed in-house. The studio really is getting good at this: the flash animation is very nice, and Scott Strong came up with some good tricks for marrying it into the 3D backgrounds in a cost-effective manner.

Above is Soonmin Chung's design for Captain Macaroni's ship.

Spreading the Faith

I'm a rabid Hayao Miyazaki fan, so when I visit my friend Bob in L.A. I usually take a DVD of one of Miyazaki's films as a present for his daughter, Gracie. Well, Bob sends me a photo of Gracie from Halloween this year. Gracie, as you can see, is dressed as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service. My scheme is going perfectly to plan!

If you don't know Miyazaki, rent him. Kiki is very charming, but I also have a soft spot for My Neighbor Totoro. Our culture doesn't create many empowering heroines for young girls... Miyazaki-san has made it his mission to try and remedy that. If you have a young daughter (or son) run to the video store!

Inking the Water

This is an amazing technique! (h/t Drawn!)

Speed Racer Is Over the Finish Line!

Season 1 of Speed Racer is finished! After starting out with 3D, I migrated over to the special effects crew, which you can see here (L to R): Samantha Olschan, Chris Scales, Mois, Speed Racer, Scott Strong, and Mitch Lucas. Great working with you guys!

BGRG Featured on Channel Frederator

Blue Guy vs Red Guy is being featured on this week's episode of Channel Frederator. Apart from its website, Frederator is one the most popular podcasts on iTunes. Thanks to people at Frederator for including me!

Go! Go! Go Speed Racer!

I spent most of January and February helping out the folks at Animation Collective with their production of "Speed Racer: The Next Generation". I had the pleasure of working with Chris Leathers and Kostya Gorbachev on the CG side of things. This new and updated version of the classic anime cartoon is being produced to coincide with the Wachowski Brothers' film, which if you've seen the trailer, is a good bet to be the big blockbuster of the summer. The AC production is a flash/CG hybrid... the backgrounds, cars and props are done in Maya and the characters are done in flash.