KungFuAnimation.com

Long Time No Write.

2010-02-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's been damn near a year since I've written here in my blog and what a year it's been. Early 2009 I thought the world was about to end with our new business struggling in such a tumultuous economy. In an amazing turn of events, I was offered a position at Naughty Dog, Inc, a very popular Sony owned game studio as their Cinematics Lighting Artist. It was difficult to let go of one of my dreams but in hindsight, it was the best decision I have ever made. This company fits me like a glove. These guys are talented, highly motivated and have a open, non-political, all-hands on approach to production. Now that we're clearing some management debris, this could be the best job that I've ever had. So why is it so different from film?

The first and most important advantage that games have over film is job stability. Nobody at Naughty Dog is currently worried about being laid off due to a lack of work. I'm not talking about laying people off for product performance issues or studio closures, I'm talking about between-project downtime. It's slow right now at the studio but instead of laying off all the talent and re-hiring at the peak of production, NDI keeps us on, allowing us to experiment with new looks and technology. This is a big reason why game tech is outpacing film tech ten fold but that's a whole other article.

The other part of games that make it more fun than film is recognition. I know it's not suppose to matter but it just does. I have never met so many crazy, enthusiastic fans or signed so many autographs. It makes all the hard work much more gratifying and motivates me to create the best possible product. It's definitely a work-hard/play-hard industry and I love that.

There is a downside to working in games (at least as far as Naughty Dog). The production schedule is so frantic and the technology is so limiting that I can't produce the quality work that I'm used to. I enjoy the fine tuning phase of Lighting and we just aren't allowed that liberty time-wise. It's something we'll have to work out as a studio in order to schedule Lighting a bit more time to tweak but it's certainly a survivable drawback.

2010 and Beyond:

Ironically, I had always had issue with the way Naughty Dog offices appeared. For a successful game company, we had a somewhat hole-in-the-wall studio space. I used to tell friends that "it's fun working there, but not much to look at". That has all changed as of this week. We have taken over an entire floor of the Water Gardens building in Santa Monica and our new offices are stunning. I'm totally excited about going into work tomorrow and getting settled in. In the new space, there is an amazing new opportunity for me to work and learn from my peers without restriction and I couldn't be more happy about that.

In other super exciting news, me and my wife made an offer on a beautiful house in Thousand Oaks that was accepted just last week. We have a 45 day closing period with a lot of work to do in between but it's looking pretty good. I can't wait to have my own office space at home!

2009-04-27T11:05:00.001-07:00

Uncharted 2 'Multiplayer' trailer

I'm a die hard multiplayer gamer. Everything from Quake to UT, 1942 to BF2, there is absolutely no AI that can be as diverse and challenging as a real human player. If I do play a single player game, it's almost always puzzle or solution based rather than a pure shooter. When I first got here at Naughty Dog and they told me that they were working on a multiplayer version of Uncharted, I had my reservations about it. Usually a game company can make a good multiplayer OR a good single player game. The only game that has broken that mold (that I know of) is the Call of Duty series.

In my biased opinion, Naughty Dog is also creating a great fusion/hybrid of the two with Uncharted 2. I really think this will be the must-own game for the ps3. You can easily get away with renting Uncharted 1. It's short, it's great but seriously, how many times are you going to play through the same story? Uncharted 2 however, has serious replayability with the multiplayer version. I sneak into the game every day when they test multiplayer here at work and I can say that it's definitely a well thought out game.

All this talk about Game of the Year is a bit early I think but it will surely be well received. After playing around with the ps3 this past week, I can see where that system is in desperate need for some good proprietary games. I see no benefit of owning a ps3 over a 360 and with the cost of the ps3, it just seem ludicrous. Sony needs to re-think what they are doing with this console and what they are doing with the Blu Ray format. Sony will never capture the market at $30 a movie.. but that's another article altogether.

Huge Failure Creates Great New Opportunity

2009-03-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Computer Graphics Learning Center ended up being a great big, steaming pile of failure. Not because there wasn't any interest mind you. There were tons of people willing to come and be taught by industry professionals. The problem was, there was no loan money for students to pay for the school and running a school like that is very very expensive. There is just no way around it. You get what you pay for with these things. Every time we cut tuition cost, we had to cut a program or an instructor out of the business plan. We ended up cutting out so much that the original concept had been completely lost. That's when I decided to stop and look at my options. I put out feelers to see what kind of work was available and ended up with several hits. Come to find out, even in this terrible economy, the entertainment industry is still very strong.

I've been talking for years about making the jump into games and although I've had several offers, I never found the right fit for me. It always seemed like the studios I liked were never hiring when I was available. This time, however, the timing was perfect. Naughty Dog, a studio that I had visited a couple of years ago and absolutely loved, was looking for a Cinematics Lighter. In a strange turn of events, within days of telling friends that I was available, I got the call from a Naughty Dog recruiter. They had talked to one of my friends who referred them to my online reel. I was flown to Santa Monica for an interview and they made me an offer right away. I'm now officially a Naughty Dog!

I've been training this week on the Lighting tools and couldn't be happier. This place really feels like a great fit for me. I'll be working with one of my Art Directors from Disney and a group of extremely talented programmers and artists. I'll keep everyone updated here as to how things are going.

What's New is News

2008-11-06T05:43:00.001-08:00

It's been quite some time since my last post. I've been a busy little bee over the past few months... heck, this little project started several years ago really.

When Disney laid off a large chunk of Feature Animation, several friends and I sat around a lunch table and discussed what was next for us. I mentioned back then that I was thinking about opening a Computer Graphics school. We got into a great talk about the current state of Animation and CG schools and how most of them were located back East, were expensive and never quite hit the mark on instruction. We came up with an amazing idea to teach people on the East Coast what the West coast needed in terms of Film, TV and Gaming studios. This would also strengthen studios on the East Coast because they wouldn't have to hire West Coast people to get the necessary experience to run their studios.

We were very excited and talked about really doing it until the offers started coming from other studios. The excitment soon faded as we all ran off to our next movie gig... but I never quite let it go. It's been burning in the back of my head ever since and during production on Mad2, I realized that if I was ever going to do it, now would be the time. I'm newly married, no kids, no debt and financially secure. So I finished up Mad2, packed up our stuff and headed East.

We wanted a location that would be a crossroads to everything on the East Coast and would be a nice place to live and work. Charlotte, NC jumped out at us almost immediately. North Carolina's film industry is second only to California in revenue and Charlotte is a good size city right in the middle. Most production takes place in Wilmington, NC and we're planning on taking a close look at that area also. If not for the school, for Post Production work that might be picked up by the school.

We're knee deep in a pile of government paperwork but we are well on our way to starting a brand new computer animation school. I've decided to name the school CGLC for Computer Graphics Learning Center. We're in the process of choosing a building location and will be licensed throught the North Carolina Community College Board soon. I'll try to post updates as things change but until then, visit www.CGLConline.com for the latest news.

MvA Trailer Leak

2008-08-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Looks like someone sneaked a camera into a screening of a Monsters vs. Aliens trailer. I hadn't even seen this yet so it probably won't last long.

Mad2 is in the final stretch now. We're workin Saturdays to try and get it all done in time. Our tools are very complicated so it takes quite a while to light a shot which is unfortunate when it gets down to crunch time. I still like the studio a lot but the work is draining me. I need a very long vacation... which is not coming anytime soon. I was told that after Mad2, I'll be going straight onto Monsters vs. Aliens. OyVay!

Mad2 Animated Signatures

2008-07-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

Go ahead and take one... pass them around... you know you want to.

Mad2 Trailer

2008-06-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

If you've seen Kung Fu Panda then you've probably already seen this trailer. If you haven't seen KFP then why not?!? We just hit 50% done in Lighting on Mad2 so we're smokin through this show. It's a fun movie but challenging with lots of characters, trees and grass. Should be pretty though. We're using a lot of new technology to light the show that they didn't have in the first Madagascar. The PDI bounce light system used on Shrek 3 for instance. It's a global illumination solution that they came up with here... looks amazing.

Frank & Wifey

2008-06-12T12:18:00.001-07:00

A doodle during the day from an idea I had the other night. I drew this up on my tablet in Sketchbook then painted it in Photoshop.

Kung Fu Panda Beats Projections

2008-06-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Reporter
By Carl DiOrio
8 June 2008
"Kung Fu Panda" kicked Adam Sandler's butt at the boxoffice this weekend, as the DreamWorks Animation comedy opened even bigger than expected with an estimated $60 million domestically.

"Panda" -- distributed by Paramount, which handled three of the weekend's top six films -- drew mostly positive reviews. Its audiences were comprised 55% of females, with 51% of its patrons 25 and older. "Panda," which marked DWA's biggest three-day opening for a non-sequel, seemed to draw more non-family business than anticipated, execs said.

"It probably resonated better than expected with the adults," Paramount marketing maven Anne Globe said. "We really tried to show that the movie had comedy, action and lots of heart, and you can really see that audiences and critics alike embraced the movie."

"Panda" voice actors include Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie. Black in particular was credited with helping to bring older demos in the mix of first-weekend patrons.

Outpaced by a pair of sequels in the animation studio's "Shrek" franchise and a four-day bow for 2005's "Madagascar," "Panda" had pre-release expectations more comparable to DWA's family comedy "Over the Hedge." "Hedge" opened in May 2006 with $38.5 million.

The "Panda" debut included $2.3 million rung up from 89 of Imax's giant-screen venues.

The New... Old... Indiana Jones

2008-05-19T16:33:00.000-07:00

PDI gave us an early look this morning at Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Being a huge fan of the series, I jumped at the opportunity to see it. I have to say I wasn't disappointed. It's full of over-the-top action sequences that although incredibly unlikely, are extremely fun to watch.

An odd thing happened though. I was taken back a bit by the first shot showing Harrison Ford. I didn't realize how old he would look as Indy. It broke my heart because this was a character that I loved so much as a child, I wanted to be Indiana Jones. Seeing the 66 year old Harrison Ford reprising his famous role somehow made me think of my youth and all the crazy dreams I had of being a space pirate or a tomb raider. It made me realize that although I haven't grown up, I'm certainly getting older. The one common trait I ended up having with Indy.

The Animation Booklook

2008-05-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend, The Creative Talent Network and Van Eaton Galleries are co-hosting the second Animation Book Look signing and sales event. Gathering authors and artists within the animation industry to meet fans, the event will be held from 1:00 to 6:00 PM this Saturday, May 17, 2008 at Van Eaton Galleries, 13613 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, California.

The festival features appearances by well known visual and literary artists along with lesser known animation authors. This unique event gives publishing and animation professionals the opportunity to promote their work to fans, collectors, and art aficionados. Over 50 artists and authors will be at signing tables, showcasing over 75 books ranging from children’s books to artists sketchbooks, illustration to fine art, and informative “How to...” to “History of…” books.

Featured artists and authors include Jerry Beck, Toby Bluth, Tee Bosustow, Stefan Bucher, Chris Buck, Jennifer Cardon-Klein, Dave Colman, Craig Elliott, Gris Grimly, Ryan Hungerford, Chris Jenkins, Mike Kunkel, Jason Lethcoe, Rik Maki, Tracey Miller, Patrick Morgan, Steve Niles, Brian and Phil Phillipson, Don Peri, Eric Pigors, Ragnar, Martha Sigall, Bob Singer, Jim Smith, Tom Sito, Marcelo Vignali, Amanda Visell, Tony White, Shigeru Yabu, Willie Ito, and more.

For more information, visit animationbooklook.com. The festival is free but RSVP’s are suggested, please call 818-788-2357 for more details.

Kung Fu Panda Trailer

2008-04-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Ollie Johnston Passes

2008-04-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Disney Legend and the last surviving member of Walt's Nine Old Men Ollie Johnston passed away today in Sequim, Washington at the age of 95. Affectionately known as Frank's better half, Ollie Johnston along with Frank Thomas created the classic animation bible "The Illusion of Life" and created some of the most memorable characters and animation during the Golden Age of Animation that made us laugh, cry and think.

A quote by Maya Angelou - "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Ollie will live on forever through his characters.

On behalf of the Creative Talent Network
"Thank you Ollie and please say hi to Frank and the rest of the gang from us."

Tina Price
Creative Talent Network

Monsters vs. Aliens' Cast Announced

2008-03-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely excited to see Stephen Colbert play the President and I've already seen the sequence of him "greeting" the alien arrival.. absolutely, fall over hilarious. This is not just another kick arse movie from Dreamworks but probably my next project. It's release has been pushed which means when we're rolling off Mad2, this will be in full-on Lighting madness so I imagine we'll roll right into it.

The rest of the cast is pretty impressive also... Oscar® winner Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Rendition) as Susan Murphy, a.k.a. Ginormica; Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie (TV's "House," Stuart Little) as Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; Will Arnett (TV's "Arrested Development," Blades of Glory) as The Missing Link; Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Superbad) as B.O.B.; Rainn Wilson (Juno, TV's "The Office") as Gallaxhar; Emmy winner Stephen Colbert (TV's "The Colbert Report," Bewitched) as The President of the United States; Golden Globe winner Kiefer Sutherland (TV's "24," Phone Booth) as General W.R. Monger; and Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, Night at the Museum) as Susan's boyfriend, Derek.

Concept Work

2008-03-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

Some work I did Friday while I was waiting for the render farm to open up at work.

We hit Oscar Gold!

2008-02-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

So I'm now officially credited as a Visual Effects Artist on an Academy Award winning film. Golden Compass was awarded an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. How crazy is that!?! Not that I deserve much credit. I was there for about 6 months and did around 8 shots in the film. I'm sure my 8 shots were what pushed it over the top for the big win! :P

Happy Valentine's Day

2008-02-13T21:54:00.000-08:00

Kung Fu Panda on Kung Fu Animation

2008-02-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

Dreamworks sent out some animated gif signatures today so I thought I would share. I know you'll all be using them to sign e-mails until the movie comes out in June. I've been previewing shots from KFP and it really looks fantastic. Jack Black is a great voice talent and the Glendale crew is doing a wonderful job.

I Got Hitched!

2008-01-28T21:26:00.001-08:00

I'm a husband now. Thanks to everyone for all the amazing gifts and for the crazy few who showed up in Simi Valley to see me. It was very pretty and Catherine was stunning. I drew a little picture of the occasion on my new Motion tablet today.

Golden Compass Opening Weekend.

2007-12-09T18:25:00.001-08:00

Golden Compass racked up at the box office this weekend ending up at number 1 *EDIT-- I guess $26 million bucks is not considered a success for a movie that cost almost $200 million to make. :P * . I watched it on Thursday and thought it was ok. It looked so boring in dailies but seeing it all together made a bit more sense. It's certainly not The Lord of the Rings as they keep depicting it but it's decent. They cut 2 large sequences at the end which a lot of people (including myself) worked on. Kinda sad but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. I was just happy to get a credit. There was a rumor that not everyone was going to get one.

So if you go see it, I worked on shots where Lyra has run away and is walking through the streets and running from the Gobblers and I worked on the sequence where Daniel Craig is fighting people in the snow. The other sequence I worked on is shown only as a vision through Lyra looking into the compass. That's the sequence that got cut. Maybe if the shot is in Compass 2 I'll get a credit on that also :P unlikely.

My First Week at PDI

2007-11-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

First off, Happy Thanksgiving! I'm still waiting on my furniture but I found a fantastic place overlooking the Bay and it's only 10 minutes from work.

So if I had to describe PDI in one word, it would be 'Happy'. The place is a buzz with good vibe. Everyone seems cheery and eager to work and I think I'm quickly catching the bug. I'll be in training for another month or so but Madagascar 2 (Mad2) looks amazing. My supe and team seem extremely nice and knowledgeable so I'm anxious to get started. Not getting a chance to go home for Thanksgiving, I'll probably spend the holiday going over tutorials and getting ahead of the curve on all this training. I really want to hit the ground running when they give me my first shot. I've already seen the sequences I'll be working on and they look like they are going to be awesome.

I haven't really gotten into anything pipeline-wise so I can't say how complicated it is.. but I hear it's pretty challenging. We'll see here in few weeks.

CoD4, It's Like Crack with Machine Guns

2007-11-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Being a big Call of Duty fan, I was quite nervous about the latest installment, Call of Duty 4. I was a big fan of the WWII era of the game but Infinity Ward has ditched the period for a current day insurgent situation. You play both USMC and SAS tactical officers working toward the same goal of taking down some Russian terrorist guy... or something like that. Nobody really cares because this is just the training ground for the real thing, the multiplayer game. Not to say that Infinity Ward doesn't make a darn good single player game, but nothing challenges the reflexes like a 15 year old that's dedicated his life to mastering the age old tactic of run-n-gun.

The game is very well balanced right out the gate. You will need to get your arse handed to you for a while to earn the experience to get some better weapons. That can be a bit discouraging but when you earn your experience, you can create new profiles with a selection of your choice. So you prefer flash-bangs when you carry a sniper rifle? No problem. They even go as far as to have you choose what perks go with what profile. If you want your sniper bullets to penetrate farther or you want your assault guy to have more stamina... no problem.

Speaking of bullets penetrating, this is the first shooter game that I've played that understands the fact that bullets penetrate walls. This is a fact folks. Those giant 50cal rounds will go through concrete like it's paper and CoD4 has built that in. Bravo!

The highlight of the game, in my opinion, is the graphics, animation and physics (the geek stuff). But that 'geek stuff' makes the game extremely immersive. The detail in the environments is absolutely stunning. You just want to walk around and take it all in. It's not on the level of Gears of War but it's so much better than most the crap out there right now.

I have to recomend this one. I wish it were a WWII simulation but none-the-less, it's very good.

I'm Engaged!

2007-10-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

She's smart, funny, successful and more importantly, for some odd reason, she likes me! I asked Catherine to marry me at her favorite sushi house with the help of one of the chefs there. He made a special dish with the ring in the middle. It was pretty funny... especially when Catherine overlooked the ring in her desperate search for food. We finally coaxed her into looking inside the lemon in the middle of the plate. It was cut into a little container with the ring inside.

The Big Fire

2007-10-21T22:33:00.001-07:00

Me and Catherine were driving up into the Santa Clarita area today when I saw the most intense horizon that I've ever seen. Half the sky was painted an eery orange-yellow and billowing, wind swept smoke covered an area so vast, that it was impossible to capture on our little Blackberry camera phone. What looked like a giant alien storm cloud was actually a 20,000 acre fire consuming the nearby mountains. The photo we took does it little justice. It honestly looked like armageddon... or some kind of biblical disaster.

My friend, a fellow lighter, James Ford lives nearby in this area. When I called him, he was in the process of packing up his wife, kids and any valuables he could grab out of his house. They were all being evacuated. He had made it to a hotel the last I heard and was safe. Events like this make my life/work worries seem so very trivial.

On that front, I should have an announcement this coming week as to where I'm going to be working next. Should be another exciting adventure. ;)

All That Gaming

2007-09-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to take advantage of my days of unemployment by catching up on some games. I've been playing the crap out of Team Fortress 2 and will be picking up Halo 3 this morning. I'm usually good for 3-4 days of a single game. I must be a bit ADD.

Little news on the job front. Blue Sky was a no go. I think it was a salary thing but they just said there wasn't a slot available... that was the day after they told me they were drafting an offer letter. :P

Still waiting to hear from Disney. I guess I wasn't a shoe-in after all. We think that they are interviewing everyone (including outsiders) before making a decision, which is kinda a slap in the face to people that were told they would be coming back and took temp jobs to wait for it. So I've scheduled an appointment with Dreamworks and am in new talks with Vanguard and others to cover my bets. In fact, I'm seriously considering an alternative to Disney due to the instability of that position. I'm such a Disney fan-boy, that it's hard to leave them behind but Dreamworks is offering 3 year contracts and Zemeckis' new studio is said to be offering 5 year contracts! That sure beats the 10 months that Disney is offering. I also have a standing offer to go back to the South East and teach... which is probably the most tempting of them all. I'm really starting to miss home. LA is a strange world of tension and impatience. I look forward moving away from here.

Last Day at Rhythm!

2007-09-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

Friday was my last day at Rhythm & Hues. I think I did 8 shots in the five months I was there. Not exactly the pace that I'm used to. I really liked the people out there but Compass wasn't the cool project I thought it would be. All the shots I did were of cg animals that weren't really doing anything exciting. The stuff looks amazing but it kept me wondering... why not just use a real animal? Seems like an awfully expensive thing to do, to place a cg animal in every shot... and at the pace we had to work, because of the crazy complicated pipeline, I can't imagine how much money that movie cost New Line Cinema. This is a strange business for sure.

So now I'm faced with a few options. I'm still planning on going back to Disney but there may be an opportunity for me to go to Blue Sky Studios up in New York for four months before returning. I would be working on Horton Hears a Who. I was suppose to hear back from them Friday but Blue Sky's recruiters are somewhat famous for forgetting things. There is even a story that they forgot a guy at the airport that they flew in for an interview.

It's important that I hear from them soon because if I go, I need to talk Disney into a January hire date instead of November. It's possible that Disney might say no, that they need me in November. In that case, I obviously can't take a short term gig over Disney... even though we are hearing that there will be another gap inbetween Bolt and Rapunzel, which means the probability of more layoffs at the end of Bolt.

Why do I do this for a living again?

Siggraph 2007

2007-08-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

An early train to San Diego brought me to the convention floor of the 2007 Siggraph conference. Along with my ILM friend Farid, we jostled down the aisles taking in the new technologies and visiting friends along the way. The industry is so small, that we could barely walk ten feet before seeing somebody that one of us had worked with somewhere else in the country... or in Farid's case, the world.

It was great to see everyone from Disney and it made me quite homesick for the studio. I spoke with Aldolph, who will be my new "back end" production supervisor when I return. He told me that I will recieve a call within the next few weeks. Hallelujah! I appreciate the breadth of the project that I'm working on at Rhythm & Hues and I am learning an unbelievable amount about the technology side of a pipeline but I really miss the creative input I had at Disney. Working directly with Disney Art Directors to light environments was the highlight of my career. My current work gives me a new appreciation for that experience.

Simpsons' Kwik-E-Mart

2007-07-23T19:23:00.001-07:00

We took a trip down to the Kwik-E-Mart to grab a Super Squishy which is now possible thanks to the brilliant Simpsons promotions that took over a couple of 7-11s in town. The only problem is that if it's in LA and it's cool, everyone is gonna know about it. We decided not to wait in the line. Yes, that's the line to get into the Kwik-E-Mart. :(

Traffic Jam!

2007-07-13T20:47:00.001-07:00

Forbes and MSN just listed the 12 worst traffic bottlenecks in the United States and whatdayaknow, I drive through two of them each and every day. Topping the list is I405 and the 101 interchange. I live less than a mile from this abomination and have to wade through it every afternoon. Luckily, I get to exit Ventura right there at the 101 which makes life a tiny bit easier. Number 5 on the list is the I405 and I10 interchange which I also drive through daily. Here in LA they call these roads "the" rather than "I" which I find strange. So I405 is called "the 405" and I10 "the 10". I like to call them something else... but this is a family site. :)

360 Racing Wheel and Dirt

2007-07-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

After reading about the release of Nascar 08 coming at the end of this month to the 360, I decided to do something crazy and buy a Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel. It was a gamble being that I've never owned a gaming wheel before but I hadn't bought a game in some time and felt like splurging.

While I was at Best Buy picking up the wheel I decided to grab a copy of Dirt along with it. I had played the demo and it was a beautiful game. After hooking up the wheel, I was shocked at how much more fun my racing games were... and Dirt is just plain incredible! I played it so long I had to peel my fingers off the wheel at the end of the night. It has both force feedback and a rumble effect so when you hit a rough part of the road, the steering wheel is almost jerked out of your hands. It's very effective but not exacly "real" feeling. It feels more like you are driving a go-cart of some kind but it definitely gives you a nice "in control" feeling that the controller doesn't. I usually play racing games at a third-person angle but with the wheel, it is much more fun to drive first-person, looking straight out the windsheild.

All-in-all I give the Xbox 360 Racing Wheel a big thumbs up. It's a bit expensive at $129 but for the racing buffs it's a must have.

New Art Pages

2007-06-18T00:03:00.000-07:00

I changed out my art page. I added my reel and some stills from Meet the Robinsons in the Professional 3d area. Take a look!

KungFuAnimation.com for those of you that only read the blog. :)

Finished First Game Model!

2007-06-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

Plugging Away

2007-06-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

Still trying to utilize my weekends to work on my Alien Race game. With the release of XNA Game Studio Express, we now have an opportunity to make games for the xbox 360 and I want to try and take advantage of this. I went on the XNA community forum and put together a small team of programmers. Along with myself, we should be done sometime before the new century but hey, it's fun. I'm calling the team The Swimming Mindless Monkeys.

This image is of my latest model for the game. It's obviously not a game model (poly size-wise) but I should be able to map normals from this to a low resolution version. The tests I've done so far have been pretty darn impressive.

Official Golden Compass Trailer

2007-05-22T10:45:00.001-07:00

The official Golden Compass Trailer has been released HERE! Yahoo also has links to more info and photos on the movie.

It's still coming along. This is a very slow process in live action and I'm not used to that. Tiny tweaks are constantly made to the smallest of elements in the image that the audience may never see. It's a completely different beast than all cg. I'm much more geared toward an all cg pipeline because I've honed so many skills that benefit that type of work. A lot of the work in live action is done for you. Lighting is 90% right out of the box with image based lighting and you don't have to worry about color concepts, lighting/shadow composition or color theory. All of that is done for you by the dp or cinematographer and on a plate ready to go so it's not nearly as artistic as I would have liked. It's fun to do something different, though not very challenging. :P I'm looking forward to going back to Disney in November.

Here's the trailer!

My First Earthquake!

2007-05-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

A minor earthquake occurred at 2:54:48 PM (PDT) on Sunday, May 13, 2007. The magnitude 3.0 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) ENE of Canoga Park, CA. The hypocentral depth is 19 km (12 miles).

That's right, my very first earthquake. How exciting! I've lived here for over a year and a half and just now (well last Sunday) experienced one. It felt like someone slammed a huge door downstairs that shook the apartment building.

My girlfriend knew right away what it was but I had to look it up on the USGS site and sure enough, a 3.0 at Northridge.

Golden Compass Teaser

2007-05-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick teaser of what I'm currently working on. It's a strange story but should be pretty amazing visually. Nothing much to say. Still chugging along on it.

Swimming Mindless Monkeys

2007-05-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy few weeks for me. I finished up training at Rhythm & Hues and went on vacation to North Carolina the next week to see the folks. I somehow retained the horde of information dumped on me during training and started production this week. The Golden Compass looks good and the guys behind me are working on The Incredible Hulk (Hulk 2). Pretty exciting stuff.

My nephew had a crazy dream about "swimming mindless monkeys" so I was inspired to draw one up as a concept. Scary.... er.. something.

Training Days Again

2007-04-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

So today ends my first week as a Lighting Artist on The Golden Compass. This is a much bigger project than I initially thought and it looks amazing! I'm truely stoked to be working on this movie. Rhythm & Hues has another super complex pipeline but that's to be expected when working with cutting edge technology. I have one more week of training before I hit the production floor but I should hit the ground running. It's no more difficult than Disney's system. Working on this has really revitalized my enthusiasm for cg and movie making. I'm learning a lot. A huge downside is that I probably won't get a credit at the end of the film. The production companies only give a couple hundred slots for names and with 500-odd people at R&H, I doubt I'll be on the credit list. :( They said hundreds of people were not credited for Narnia so I'm expecting the same. At least it's on my imdb.

Meets Expectations

2007-04-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Article from BoxOfficeMojo.com...
Meet the Robinsons launched at $25.1 million on 4,400 screens at 3,413 theaters, which included digital 3-D presentations on 587 screens at 484 locations. Though distributor Buena Vista didn't have a precise breakout, the 3-D presentations grossed twice as much on average as the regular version. The computer-animated comedy's debut was solid by the recently lowered standards of the genre, but it was significantly less than Chicken Little and Robots among similar movies.
"It's right on the expectation level [of $25 to $28 million]," said Chuck Viane, Buena Vista's president of distribution. "And of course we're playing into the Easter holiday which begins Monday and by Friday 80 percent of kids will be out of school." Buena Vista's polling indicated that the audience was 78 percent families and 53 percent female, while the CinemaScore was "A-."

My New Gig Revealed!

2007-03-30T00:37:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to announce that I've been picked up by the world famous Academy Award winning fx studio, Rhythm & Hues! Today is officially my last day at Disney and I just signed the offer for R&H late yesterday. I'll be working in their film division on a very cool project called The Golden Compass. It's a fantasy movie right up my alley and time-wise it lets me out right when American Dog is expecting to pick me back up... so it's perfect! This will be my first "live action" movie and I'm pretty darn stoked. I start April 9th so I have another week off.

TMNT Review

2007-03-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

I have to be one of the most biased people to attempt to review this film. You see, this movie is going to compete directly with Meet the Robinsons starting this coming weekend (March 30th) so I really want this movie to be bad. Then everyone will go see MTR instead.... right? Well, low and behold, it's really really good. :( I can't believe it. $34m made in Hong Kong and it's good. Heck, I'll say it. It was great! I loved it. I actually thought it was better than 300... and more believable. The fight scenes were awesome and the story was pretty darn compelling. I give this movie 4 karate chops and a sweep the leg Johnny.

We'll all be working in Hong Kong soon. Good thing my girlfriend's Asian.

Back to Disney

2007-03-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

So I've made up my mind to go back to Disney. I've talked with the guys up there and I'm convinced that going back is the right thing to do. I still have several months before I can start so I'll probably take a gig in the inbetween but unless something catastrophic happens (like they shut down the project), I'll be back to make American Dog... or whatever they are going to call it.

It was great to see what my options were as far as jobs and I still think one day I might jump ship and go into games. For now there is just too much momentum behind me in the film industry and I don't want to have to "prove myself" again somewhere new.

MTR had a great wrap party Saturday night and I got to see all my old workmates. Everyone seemed in good spirits and several people were doing the waiting game like me to go back to Disney. I also got to see Meet the Robinsons as a completed picture for the first time. It was very heart warming. It's a bit slow compared to current cg films and has none of the pop culture gags that we see today but it's a very good movie. Of course, I'm completely biased but I think it will do well.

Meet the Robinsons Update

2007-03-07T10:53:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to see more and more ads for MTR but it still hasn't met the promotion blitz of TMNT which is a much lower budget film. We'll find out in a few short weeks if MTR is successful or not. I'm proud to have worked on this movie and I think it's very good. I just hope Pixar sees that too. The ads that I see don't do it much justice. Last word on American Dog (it's not even called that anymore) is that I can start work around October. The truth is, I'm thinking seriously about leaving film and going into the gaming industry. It's a very tough decision because Disney has been a great company to work for. The layoffs are what has stumped me about them and it's going to be hard to trust them in the future. I'll always feel like they will get rid of me or any other person that's paid well, no matter the talent level, with little regard to the person. It's a big company and they worry about bottom line not employee's or their families. It's the reason that we have the Animation Union to protect us. I didn't understand why we were in a union when I was working for Disney... now I know. ;)

Traveling Fun

2007-02-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been traveling around the area checking out the sites. I'm not sure where my next job will take me so I'm soaking up the California culture while I can. I am interviewing with several companies and may make a decision here soon but I'm trying very hard not to rush things. I'm also not going to disclose any of the companies because every time I do, I seem to jinx myself. I'll let everyone know when I sign on the dotted line (so to speak). Disney has informed me that they are holding a slot for me on American Dog which is very nice of them but I'm a bit nervous about the fact that they are not promoting Meet the Robinsons. Just last night I must have seen five ads for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and not one for MTR. Very disappointing. In the coming weeks we'll see if Pixar backs MTR. If they don't, then we know they won't back American Dog and they plan to ditch 3d at Disney Feature Animation. I tend to avoid sinking ships... besides, I still want to work in games. I would be more excited to work on a major next gen game than I would to work on the next big feature film. I would also like to go to GDC next week in San Francisco so if anyone can get me in...

Let the Promotions Begin!

2007-02-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

As you might have noticed, Meet the Robinsons will be coming out on March 30th. I'm starting to see lots of ads all of a sudden and I hear that they are going for a huge blitz 3 weeks before opening. If that's true, it swats down the rumor that Pixar is trying to sweet MTR under the rug. I think it's a very cute film so I hope this is not true. Here's a picture of me with some of the characters that will be seen at the parks.

I Got Published!

2007-01-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

The German magazine Digital Production will be publishing several of my images from Meet the Robinsons and Jimmy Neutron. They also interview me! I feel so special. Take a look here. If you read German, pick up a copy... I'm guessing it's the January's issue. Otherwise enjoy my fabulous art...

Transformers!

2007-01-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

I talked to Digital Domain today and will be having a second interview to work on the Transformers movie. I wanna wait for the offer but I can't help but be a bit excited about it. I also got an offer from Vanguard Films to work on Space Chimp. Those guys are in Vancouver which is suppose to be a great city... but Canada? Seriously. I'm from Florida. Can I really handle Canada? The crazy thing is, I might actually get to work on both films because of the schedules. I should know this week.

Lazy Days

2006-12-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Not much happening on the job front with most people being off this week. I did "meet and greet" quicky interviews last week with a whole bunch of companies including Pixar, Sony, ILM, EA, Orphanage and Laika. Some of the better companies sounded promising so hopefully I'll hear something back in the coming weeks.

This week I've been going to Christmas parties and sleeping in late. Lazy days for sure. Once again, I didn't get home for Christmas. My family sent a gift basket of goodies that I'm still going through. It's storming out right now, which is super rare for Southern California and I have a dinner to go to tonight in Santa Monica. It's still a bit early so maybe it will clear up before long. Hope the holiday season finds everyone well.

Naughty Dog Party

2006-12-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Quickly on the hunt for a new gig, last night I was invited to the renowned game company, Naughty Dog. I was a little thrown off by the amazing building they were in. It didn't look like the home of a small game house but there it was, on the sixth floor with a giant Jak and Daxter statue in the lobby. They were having their Christmas party. It was really nice and the people who work there are super friendly. I'm signing up with Digital Artist Management to see some other studios but I have to say, thumbs up for Naughty Dog!

I'm Out!

2006-12-13T13:29:00.000-08:00

Got word yesterday that I will be laid off from Disney after Meet the Robinsons. I certainly was not alone. All my friends including my boss and his boss were also laid off. They stated 20% of Feature Animation but that was very misleading. They meant 20% of the studio which from what I understand, includes some 300 "other" people. It was more like 60% of the artists but it felt like 80% here in Lighting. They did say we would get a call when American Dog ramps back up but I really would like to leave feature films for a while and work in video games. I know I've been saying that for years now but maybe it's finally time to take myself seriously.

Who Gets the Axe?

2006-12-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

The topic on everyone's mind here at the studio is who goes and who stays. The answer will come with a phone call just one day away. They are calling it "Black Tuesday". The day 20% of Disney Feature Animation gets laid off. What I have going in my favor? I'm fast, I'm good and I'm fun to work with. What I have going against me? I'm new! I just celebrated my one year mark at Disney last week. There are people in shot finaling with 10+ years in. I'm not saying it's definite but there is a fair chance I will be one of the unfortunate come Tuesday. I'm not bitter. Quite the opposite. I'm looking forward to some fantastic opportunities coming my way in the near future. More on that to come... first thing's first. What will happen on Tuesday?

Ant Bully on DVD, HD-DVD!

2006-12-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

Originally, I had said something smart-arse about working on this so I'm here to edit my original post. I loved working at DNA on Jimmy Neutron. It still remains the funnest studio I have worked for. Ant Bully was a difficult time for the studio and it became "not-so-fun" to work at DNA. We as a studio put a lot into this film and I am proud of it. Most of all, I'm proud of the opportunity to work with such great people. I made a ton of friends and have fond memories of our Jimmy Neutron days. I hope they get back on there feet soon with a cool Jimmy-like tv show. Give that crazy 3-eyed monkey another chance!

Make Your Own Xbox 360 Games!

2006-11-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-11-20T09:38:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-11-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

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!

BF 2142!

2006-10-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been two weeks since I've updated! That's what happens when you start playing Battlefield 2142. You instantly loose a couple of weeks. Although game play is almost identical to BF2, I have to recommend this title for one reason... Titan mode! In Titan mode, each team has a large floating warship with shields. The objective is to control the missle silos on the ground that shoot shield damaging missles at the enemy's Titan. Once that shield is gone, the fun begins. The Titans have 4 control panels which have to be destroyed before entering the "main reactor". When the main reactor goes, the entire ship blows up. The close combat inside those Titans is awesome. Hallways lined with defenders waiting for the coming invaders... reminds me of the opening battle in Star Wars!

Milka Rocks!

2006-10-10T15:13:00.000-07:00

I made a trip to Orlando last weekend to visit friends and go to a wedding. While there, I caught Milka down at the Social. Orlando has the best local bands I have ever heard and this one is at the top of that heap. I've seen them several times and they always put on an amazing show. Maybe they'll get out here to LA one day. This is a picture from the show I attended last Friday.

Best 360 Game to Date!

2006-10-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

I'm a typical adult gamer in that I will play a game for a weekend and consider it a good game. Every so often I get a game that snags me for more than that. Something that I can come back to time and again. Until now, the Xbox 360 has not produced this game for me but Just Cause from Avalanche Studios and Eidos Inc. has changed all that. This game kicks arse! Imagine GTA with a purpose. Causing mayhem to overturn a government on a not-so-small island with absolutely beautiful graphics. This game does a really good job handling LoD (Level of Detail). Up close there are lots of pretty things to look at with no loading for new areas. Don't know how they do it but I like it! Like GTA, you can take any vehicle you see and wreak havok or you can get missions that will help destabilize the island and overthrow the current government. Play it. Love it. I give it 4 Kung Fu kicks and a Karate chop.

New James Bond.. Casino Royale!

2006-10-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

I've never been excited about a James Bond movie but this movie looks like it will rock! A gritty no-nonsense Bond is just what the franchise needs. This guy looks like he would rip your head off before he would say some cheesy "he lost his head" line. I, like most of us, got very tired of that stuff. I want to see a cold assassin takin care of bidness on some terrorists. Nov 17 should be a good day!

The Art of Jason Dorf

2006-09-22T19:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Jason is an amazing 2d artist and is available for freelance. Check out his myspace page here. Jason specializes in band fliers and t-shirts but he also works for Disney as a storyboard guy. Drop him a line on myspace if you are in need of these things.

My New Truck!

2006-09-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

I traded in my beloved BMW on a brand new Cheverolet Colorado last Sunday. I had paid a couple of services after the warranty ran out and decided that it wasn't a good investment to keep the beemer so it had to go. I really loved that car. It was good to me for almost 8 years. I'm going to set a new record with this truck. I'm going to keep it for 20 years.. if I don't wreck it of course. Wish me luck!

Out for an evening stroll in WoW.

2006-09-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get back into World of Warcraft. This game is the best massive multiplayer game ever made. I'm not even a huge fan of the genre and I've put some serious hours into this game. I was playing last night until the wee hours of the morning when I noticed this pretty scenery in Silverpine Forest and grabbed a screenshot. Enjoy.

The End of the Movie Theater!

2006-08-28T09:36:00.000-07:00

I'm at the theater yesterday watching Invincible unable to concentrate very well between the little girl behind me tapping her foot against the back of my chair, her father explaining the entire movie in detail to the girl's mother and the general loudness of everyone tearing into their five dollar bags of M&Ms. My mind wanders far from the big screen to my little HD-DVD player at home and start thinking "this really could be the end of the movie theater". I never really believed that before because watching a film at 2k on the big screen with digital sound always seemed like a superior way to see it. Now I'm not so sure. I watched The Last Samurai last night, which I purchased for less than two theater tickets and the picture quality is unbelievable. I'm noticing things that I didn't even see in the theater and sitting there on my comfy couch drinking my 50 cent can of Coke thinking "it doesn't get any better than this". Am I just getting old or has the home theater experience become better than the actual theater experience?

I'm on YouTube!

2006-08-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

I finally added this animation from a year ago to YouTube. I can't seem to find it in the YouTube search so I probably did something wrong with that but whatever. I still think it's fun. One of these days I'll do some more with him.

SoaP the review!

2006-08-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

It was a sweet story of innocence and discovery. A Heart felt coming of age story... wait a minute. Hell NO! It was snakes! Snakes on a plane! It's that simple and that wonderful. Imagine deadly snakes loose on an airplane full of passengers. Set out to get one guy. A guy that we really don't care about who's an FBI witness to some other guy that we don't care about, who murdered another guy we don't care about. Nope, not in the slightest. All we care about are those SNAKES! You might think it would be easier to put a bomb on that plane or maybe just shoot the guy or poison his food or something... but no! A collection of venomous snakes from all over the world and pheromone laced Hawaiian leis made much more sense. He'll never survive Snakes on a Plane!

Although I enjoyed the film greatly, I was surprised by how seriously it took itself. I thought it would be like Tremors, Arachnophobia or Army of Darkness but it didn't push the humor like those movies. Most of the laugh-out-loud parts were due to the incredibly cheesy lines they gave Samuel L. Jackson. Otherwise, it had every piece of the formula to be Oscar worthy... snake biting nipple, snake biting penis, snake biting eyeball, snake eating person whole, and gratuitous sex.

I give this movie 2 Karate chops and a Kung Fu kick.

Snakes on a Plane!!!

2006-08-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, the movie event of the year is almost upon us. We've been having some fun today with SoaP's new veritalk ad campaign. Enter in some info on your friend and they will get a call from Samuel L. Jackson telling them to go see SoaP! Send one now... www.snakesonaplane.varitalk.com. It's a hoot!

ZOMBIES!!!

2006-08-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

I was up until 1am last night playing "Dead Rising" on the 360. There's just something about killing zombies that makes me happy. Those hungry little devils always find a way to sneak up on me. Crazy kids.

Party at Zoic!!

2006-08-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

We drank, we ate, we chatted. It was great to see everyone again. It always reminds me of how small our industry is when I go to one of these things and see people from all over the country that I've worked with. Zoic's work is amazing and the people who work there are super friendly. Good times!

2006-08-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here's me and Chris Browne coming out of the wardrobe from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I walked through the back of it and came out on the studio lot... what a rip off.

James Ford's mech crushes things...

2006-08-08T15:02:00.000-07:00

Some amazing work by my old roommate. All done in his spare time!

It's Alive! It's Alive!!

2006-08-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got this site presentable. It took thousands of monkey man hours and a couple of exumed bodies to get it to this state but it was all worth it.

Now I just need to figure out the whole blog thing so I can keep it updated.

Enjoy! I hope to finish off some of the Fun Stuff Pages here soon.

-Tom

Hi

2006-08-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is my first post! Yay!