Make Your Own Xbox 360 Games!

Microsoft has recently released XNA Game Studio Express, an application which makes your pc and Xbox into a development tool currently for making Windows based games but with another release or so, it will be able to convert that code to play on the Xbox 360. I'm excited about this product because I think after spending some time with Visual C# that I could actually make something (very small) that might be fun to play. I need to make some time in my busy busy schedule to play with this thing some more. Fun!

Movie of the Year!

Finally, a movie worth bragging about this year. The new James Bond movie was a huge hit with me. I would say that this is my favorite movie of 2006. The first heterosexual James Bond since Sean Connery. This guy is a pure killing machine! The way Bond should be. The best line in the movie is when the bartender asks Bond if he wants his martini shaken or stirred. Hells yeah!

Dreamworks Party

Last night I went to a party at Dreamworks campus for CG industry professionals. It was a pitch of sorts to show off their company and meet some potential new employees. Although I'm not interested in leaving Disney just yet, I did get a look at the next several films coming from Dreamworks and I have to say, they look very good. I especially liked Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. Those are films that I might actually be willing to leave Disney to work on. With Disney's impending layoffs, I might not have a choice but it's nice to know that there are great projects out there. We were also told that Shrek and Madagascar will both go four chapters and will be done by PDI up North which is another great opportunity. We will know here in a few weeks who's going and who's staying.

Ollie Johnston

I had the incredible opportunity to meet Ollie Johnston on Monday while celebrating his 94th Birthday. For those who don't know, Ollie Johnston is the last of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and has worked on over two dozen movies including Snow White, the first animated feature film ever made. It's hard to imagine just a short 50 years ago Ollie and Frank were running around with Walt Disney, making the most treasured movies in history. If you want to know more about this animation pioneer, take a look at Frank snd Ollie the documentary.

I also caught John Lasseter in the picture (background). John is quite famous himself now having directed some new classics like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and recently Cars. He also runs both Pixar Animation Studio and Disney Feature Animation along with Ed Catmull. Maybe one day someone will write a blog about meeting an old man named Tom Wright and how he used to run around with the famous John Lasseter and make great movies. In a short 50 years, we will see. :P

Gears of War!

I was watching Flags of Our Fathers this weekend and wanted to say good job to Raymond, Sammy and Roy. The movie looks amazing. You guys rock! Before the movie was a trailer for a game that I've been excited about since seeing previews of it at E3... Gears of War! I hear the trailer is all in-game graphics which really freaks me out. It takes Renderman forever to do reflections and refractions and this engine is doing it real-time! The game comes out November 7th and I've already pre-ordered the special edition. Yay!