Where to?

So there are a few films coming out about Space... Last year it was penguins penguins, before Zoo animals, bugs bugs bugs, mice mice mice, and back and back into antiquity. What I find interesting is that it seems that we've gone as small as we possibly can. What's smaller than Bugs? Howabout cells? Interested in seeing battle on the atomic level? Is anybody else holding their breath for the next DW film "Quarks: The Saga"??? I've heard many complaints by leypersons at the apparent lack of ingenuity of animation writers. But if we are not going to give personalities to the other forms of life on this planet (animals), can only slap a face on so many toys or cars or robots before we're called merchandising sell-outs, and are running out of ways to instill the awe of immense scale differences, what the heck else can we animate?

3 Years is a Short Time

This is the last week of my 12th semester with AnimationMentor.com
Wow. That makes it 3 years since I first came on campus as a campus mentor, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready to interact and hopefully help inspire fledgling animators learn the craft I love. Three years.
That's:

• 1,728 e-critiques
  
• 144 Students Mentored
  
• Over 200 hours of Live Q&A's
  
• Millions of "Rock On's"!!
  

I'd actually like to extend my deepest gratitude to the school, and my students.

First, to the entire AnimationMentor.com staff, and especially to Bobby, Carlos, and Shawn, I would never had the confidence to break out and start my own shop if I were not a Mentor. Being put in front of 12 hungry students is akin to being thrown in a wolf's den, wearing a sirloin bikini. It was that constant barrage of questions that really solidified for me what I think of all this, and how I animate. From the first moment I stepped on campus I knew that it was going to be a rewarding experience, I just didn't know how rewarding.
And to the students: You guys have pushed me, pulled me, drained me, excited me, challenged me, and above all, inspired me. It is a constant drive to be the best mentor I can be that makes it all worth it. To any student I've ever had in my class during my tenure at A\M, thank you for being so positive, so eager, and so honest with your passion for the craft. I always said it would be a great honor to work with a student, before I started my own studio; now I wish I could get a project big enough to hire all 144 of my students. You've been fantastic.

3 down, many more to go.

Cheers.

The Incredible Bulk

My opinion is not all that important; as reviewers go I am biased, skewed in odd directions. Being an animator with a sweet tooth for the impossible, even sour films like Jumper blow my skirt right up with gratuitous depictions of super-human abilities. So it was with huge surprise then that with all of the extremely exaggerated animation, strength, and power in the character of the Hulk, that I managed a mere "meh" as the credits rolled.
Not to spoil too much of the film, but at the climax, when Betty Ross yells "Stop!", she manages not only to halt the rage of our green hero, but my enjoyment as well. Maybe it was light on plot-driving action; comparing this film to Iron Man is a sure-fire way to bullseye writing flaws and odd timing. It would have been much better if we didn't follow Banner for over an hour in his pursuit to destroy the beast within, only to have absolutely ALL plot development be thrown out in the blink of an eye when he decides to fight the Abomination. If the audience is rooting for Bruce to succeed in eradicating his power, then you can't betray our allegiance by rendering moot all the time and space we traverse once it's time to show the big fight.

Nosy girlfriends who don't want their gamma-radiated man-beast boyfriends to sink to the level of murderer FTW!

Wall-E Anticipation - The Scary Kind!

I am not the kind of person that tries to break from the crowd to look cool. I hate that actually. In fact, I almost didn't write this post, but I feel compelled to share my concern only because the market of animated features affects all of us, directly or indirectly. (By us I mean animators). If the Great Pixar does not pull through (and there are those that have been waiting with baited-breath for the first Pixar flop - I am not one of them, but I digress) then shudders will be felt down to the lowliest tweener. Running a small studio is EXTREMELY stressful. When the big guys take a hit, it's the little guys who, down the road, have to scramble even harder to compete in a reduced market.
My apprehension lies in the fact that I've heard more than 30 minutes of celluloid pass without a single line of dialogue. I foresee little kids, (the "DEMOGRAPHIC" as we call it) being bored, even potentially getting fussy in their chairs. It takes a little more maturity to sit through a half-hour of character study, the entire point of which is to glean little detail of Wall-E's personality. Young kids, on the other hand, need the wacky dialogue and happy pokey plucky fun to stay interested. I am not saying the animation is going to be lax. Absolutely not. I anticipate some of the best animation the world has ever seen. I only started my own studio after finally coming to the realization I would never work at Pixar... No, I'm sure the craft will be present. I am just so scared of the idea of yawning preteens. Because it is they, by way of the purse-strings of animation producers everywhere, who decide if us little guys get a crumb every once and a while.

Kung Fu Panda - Awesome

Wow. Dreamworks has really delivered with this film. I do my best to stay away from reviews for fear of spoilers or bias. So it was with great surprise that I saw a strong ~90% positive rating on RottenTomatoes. Normally they destroy animations on that site; it's also terrifying reading people with little or no knowledge of the process criticize technical or artistic aspects of an animated feature. But I digress.

Kung Fu Panda packs the proverbial punch, immediately knocking your socks off with the 2D dream sequence - a brilliantly animated introduction to the world. A too-short hour and 40 minutes later, the audience is left huffing and puffing from the highly acrobatic kung fu, and well animated acting scenes. I recommend it HIGHLY.

Go see!

Nice plate.

Nice plate., originally uploaded by KennyRoy.

Testing Flickr integration. How awesome is this plate by the way?

New Blog!

I had to cave and get a blogger acct. The old blog was way too difficult to admin, so now I'm hoping that I will keep this much more up to date. I have integrated my flickr, which is neat because it means you can see photos of what I get up to each day, and I have integrated my Twitter, which is neat because you don't have to have an account to see what I'm up to. I love twitter because it's a super awesome way to find people in your area to get together with. I've had 3 lunches and 2 movies from invites I saw on twitter so far. If you don't have an account I suggest you sign up. Especially all you A|M'ers! It's always a treat to meet students and alumni.

So what I'm planning on is to update this daily, as a daily journal of my work at Arconyx. There is a very large chance that some very large exciting projects are coming our way, on the order of 2 Feature Films, both that need substantial VFX. Also, I have two feature animation scripts, one complete, the other in progress, that I am beginning to shop around. So hopefully there will be plenty to talk about. First post tonight!