Announcing...

You know, I was thinking that the tweenMachine Facebook page needs some art.  I was also thinking that with the new Python version of tweenMachine coming, maybe it's time to get a new shelf button icon as well.  Thinking about those two thinks spawned another think, one that I hope will be fun and interactive.  So without further ado, it's time to announce...

The tweenMachine Design Contest!

The tweenMachine Design Contest will present a unique challenge for graphic designers, and a unique opportunity to have your designs seen in multiple locations, both in Maya and on the web.

What's so unique about it?  Well, the contest centers around the creation of two images, each serving a dual purpose...

• Image 1 will be used as the new official tweenMachine shelf button icon in Maya AND as the profile image on the tweenMachine Facebook page.
• Image 2 will be used as a header graphic for the new "About" dialog in the upcoming tweenMachine update in Maya AND as the cover image on the tweenMachine Facebook page.
• Both images will also likely be used in other places as well: web sites, documentation, etc.

The images will need to be created based on very specific guidelines, so don't start on anything yet.  I will announce the full contest details when it officially kicks off on August 1st.  Stay tuned for more!

I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat!

Entertainment Weekly has posted a sneak peek at I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat, a new CG animated short film featuring Sylvester and Tweety.  The short is one of three new theatrical Looney Tunes shorts that Reel FX has produced for Warner Bros, and one of two that feature revived audio of classic cartoon voice talent, Mel Blanc.  June Foray, another legend in the world of cartoon character voices, was brought in to voice Granny.


I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat will play in front of Happy Feet Two this coming weekend, while the other two shorts -- one featuring Daffy and Elmer (again with Mel's stellar vocals), the other bringing back Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner for more mayhem -- will appear in front of other WB features in 2012.

Sneak peek at upcoming RFX project

I had the opportunity to work on a cool project at Reel FX last summer. We were awarded a contract to construct a series of sculptures to coincide with the opening of a new light rail station not far from the studio. Part of the prep phase involved posing some 3D models in Maya, with the resulting models to be used as templates for the final sculptures, and I had the honor of creating the needed poses under the watchful eye of Brandon Oldenburg, VP of Creative at Reel FX, who designed the installation.

Work is well underway on construction of the sculptures, although I can't give any more details at this time regarding what they'll be. However, if you happened to pop into Reel FX during the last month or two, you probably would have seen a work-in-progress version of one small portion of one sculpture sitting in our main atrium. If you didn't...I'm so sorry. Other than that, I can only say this: they will be BIG!

For more info, and a sneak peek at some of the smaller components of the installation (not to scale, in case you're wondering), check out the official site for the Deep Ellum Gateway Project. With the opening of the new station slated for September of this year, I imagine more info about the installation will come along any day now.

Yoono

Just discovered a nifty add-on for Firefox: Yoono.  It sits in a thin sidebar in the main window, and lets me hook up to pretty much everything: chat, social sites, RSS feeds, etc.  I'm even writing and posting this blog entry from it.  Pretty slickaroonie, I must say.  :)

All right, enough geekin'.  For now, anyway. ;)

Thanks and stuff

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating the holiday this weekend! It's been a while since I've posted a significant update here, so I figured it was about time to crank through a few different things.

First off, The Very First Noel is going to be airing on DirecTV beginning Friday, November 24th, and running through December 31st. It'll be on channel 103, with the first show at 7:30 am, and repeats popping up every two hours after that.

More candy ballistics tests are on the way. Shortly after the first installment with Smarties, Steve and friends ran another test with Starburst. How on earth did they manage to get Starburst down the barrel of Steve's gun? What happened to it once it was fired from said weapon? Stay tuned for more candy gun fun...

Some questions have come up regarding further updates to the tweenMachine. I still have plans to add additional features, and even started working on some of them shortly after releasing 2.02. However, those efforts were short-lived, as I was just a little too burnt from the big push I made to get the updated TM released. Things were complicated further when the motherboard on my home box died and I had to get a new machine. My old hard drive survived, thankfully, but I haven't yet re-installed Maya (and to make a long story short, Alias doesn't make that very easy). Anyway, I do plan on picking up the torch again one of these days, but at the moment I'm working on a totally different scripting project that will likely keep me busy 'til the year is out.

And finally, on a more personal note, some of you will be receiving notification of a new e-mail address for me in the near future. While our spam filter does a great job of setting aside junk mail, the ratio of spam to real mail has taken a dramatic leap in the last couple months (about 10:1 at this stage...even worse on my wife's account). If you don't receive a note with the new addy and start getting bounces from my current address, just use the handy-dandy contact form to get in touch with me. (Sadly, even that has needed an update or two recently to deal with form-spammers. Just sick-n-wrong.....)

There are a couple other things I want to talk about, but they're a bit more involved, so they'll be coming later in their own topics.

Fun at work: Smarties Ballistics Tests

Steve Kolbe, who is head of layout and asset management for BOZ, has a modified Nerf gun that he constantly likes to "test". It has much greater air pressure than the off-the-shelf model, and an added tube allows it to shoot the smaller Velcro-tipped darts as well as the larger missile-style rockets it was originally designed to launch.

Most of Steve's tests lately have been attempts to shoot the small darts at my desk, which is on the opposite side of the studio from his, but this past Friday, someone brought in a bunch of Smarties rolls, and it was suggested that Steve shoot one of those from his gun. I didn't have my camera ready for the initial test, but it ended about how you'd expect. The Smarties lost big-time.

Steve's next attempt was with two Smarties packs at the same time, and this time I was ready with my camera. The white dot on the target wall is the impact point from the first test.



A final test later in the afternoon involved a repeat of the shotgun test, but shot inside the studio (in the back, where there's large, mostly-empty space). However, I wasn't aware of this test until I heard the gun go off, then the sound of Smarties raining down on filing cabinets, old monitors, etc. Fun stuff. :)

NFB puts 50 animated shorts online

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I watched a lot of Canadian TV, and was exposed here and there to some of the great animated work done through the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). When a DVD was released of some their top animated shorts, I jumped on it. While it's not all character animation, even their experimental stuff intrigues me. Recently I also learned of the release of a DVD cataloging the work of one of their more popular animators, Norman McLaren, and I'll jump on that when I get the dough. And now I find that the NFB has put fifty of their animated short films on their web site! Sweet!!!

New animation software: Reflex

Work buddy Bryan Engram just shared some info he found about a new animation package being developed by some CG animation industry vets. Gotta keep a close eye on this puppy...

La Linea

La Linea! It's online! I remember watching these cool little animated shorts when I was a kid. A student on AnimationMentor.com posted a link (found on the Drawn blog) to this site that has 50 of the shorts online. Now here's the funny part...I remember watching them on American TV, they're of Italian origin, and now a French site is hosting a bunch of them. Gotta love it!

EDIT: Apologies to Justin Weg for not properly crediting him as the source of the post on AM.

"The Myth of Talent"

Found a link on a photography forum to this really cool article called "The Myth of Talent". Very inspiring read!

"You're nuts...I applaud that!"

Following the ceremony for the first Texas Avery Animation Award last November, Reel FX hosted a private party at the studio for award recipient Brad Bird, Reel FX employees and their families, and selected other guests. I had my camera in tow, and shot a ton of photos and video throughout the evening. This is just the first of several posts I'll be making to share little tidbits from the event.

The focus of this first post is a comment that Brad made to a budding young filmmaker. Chuck Peil, our executive director of business development, told Brad that the young man wanted to be a filmmaker. Here's the entire exchange, which I was lucky enough to capture on video...

Quicktime - H.264 - 1.44 MB

I like Brad's final follow-up remark just as much as his initial reaction, because it really says a lot about this industry. There's nothing the least bit logical about making animated films. Where's the logic in taking several years to craft an experience that's over in an hour or two? Or in telling stories with characters that don't really exist except as drawings on paper, or as numbers on a computer? Logic has nothing to do with it. It's all about emotion. If you're willing to let your emotions -- and your desire to share those emotions -- carry you through the roller-coaster ride that is the creation of an animated film, you've gotta be just a teensy bit loopy.

Personally, I think that's part of the attraction. :)

Simplicity and story

Just read a great bit of commentary from a story artist on the beauty of simplicity when it comes to story. Well worth checking out!

Ray Harryhausen coming to Dallas!

Got wind of this from a friend a couple days ago, and today the official announcement is online. Woohoo! Can't wait for this one! I've still gotta post some stuff from the Brad Bird event last fall. Not sure when I'll get to that...hopefully soon.