Feeling Contemplative

If I could find a video to help describe my angle on my career and life in general, I'd be hard pressed to find something better than these two videos by Sigur Ros. I've always loved this band's eclectic and unique orchestration, but these videos spoke to me in a way that I just had to share them here on the blog. In a way they represent my feelings about animation. Working in this field is a crazy journey and there's been moments where I just had to jump off the deep end and have faith that everything would turn out ok. My reward for this had been the ability to live a life in which I never really have to grow up completely. I'm never more than a few frames away from my childhood in a way. I can stay connected to my imagination and push it everyday if I choose to. That, I feel, is the real key to staying young and enjoying life. It's easy to get burned out, and I've been feeling a bit of that lately. Looking at videos like these always help me to find more inspiration and to keep on plugging away.


Enjoy. Happy Friday!

Oscar Nominees Announced

The nominees for this year's Oscars have been announced. Check them out here.

Recent late night scribbles...

Maybe a new idea for a painting? We'll see..


Melissa wants a french bulldog bad. Like really bad. All I can do for now is draw her pictures of them until we have the place to keep one.

Top Albums of 2008

The music blog Zeitgeist has released a list of the top 50 albums of 2008 according to its blogging community. The best part is - you can listen to each album in its entirety! Very cool, although I'm not sure I agree with the #1 album. Happy 2009!

Bloc Party in stop motion

Bloc Party - One Month Off

I just came across this video from Bloc Party for their new single off of "Intimacy". It combines some retro looking stop motion with classic fables and modern themes to create a pretty interesting juxtaposition.

Fireworks

Started a new one...

Updates: Band Together

I've been pushing through the rigging phase of the short lately. 3 of the characters have body rigs and 2 have face rigs as of right now. I was hoping to get all 4 main characters done by the new year, but that seems like it might not happen now. I am happy with my progress overall though. I finally have some animation to show! Check it out:

And.. if you hadn't noticed already, the film has a logo! Its about time it had one of those..

First Image: "Cloudy"

Cinema Blend just posted the first image from "Cloudy with a chance for Meatballs" the upcoming film from Sony pictures animation. The character designs are interesting. I'm not sure that I like the hands but the faces and bodies look pretty cool and stylized. I cant wait to see them in motion. You can read the full article here.

Gobelins Student Films

The latest batch of student films from French animation school Gobelins is online now. As usual, its awesome stuff!

Animated News and updates

Hey, I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving. I am working away on Night at the Museum 2 right now, but I wanted to take a timeout and update the blog with a few cool animated trailers that are floating around the web right now. I had the chance to see Bolt when it came out last week and I really liked it. Its too bad its not doing better at the box office. I'll be back with some more stuff from Band Together soon. I've been working on it quite a bit lately.
Coraline:

Tralier:

Making of featurette:

Astro Boy:


Also, the Annie Award Nominees have been announced for this year, check em out. Thats it for now!