IPOD TO: Train Montage - The Wild Bunch
WEB TO: Gorillaz - Dare video



Well this weekend was pretty eventful! "A Bunch of Short Guys" put on the 4th annual Industry Giants event. The event had a master class by Bobby Beck of Animation Mentor, which was an all day lecture class on "performance in your animation". Bobby's class was a great little affirmation session on how to approach animation. He's an entertaining speaker, and is passionate about animation, to say the least. It was nice to listen to him, and find myself nodding in agreement the whole time. Everything he covered was right on point as far as I was concerned. Lango says it perfectly, "There is no magic bullet". Animation is hard work, and rework, and rework. Nothing magical.. Just good old hard work and analysis.

The next day was full of keynote speakers in the industry. Chris Olivia the #1 guy over at Troublemaker Studios was one of the speakers of the day. I got more out of talking with him then anyone else on the panel. He's from Texas, and is forced to work as a Generalist for Robert Rodriguez. ( RobRod ). I can relate to his pain, and effort. Working under RobRob cannot be the easy on the constitution of the artist that I can tell you from personal experience. However, doing it for the last 5 years gives Chris this "baked" and "burnt" look. Poor fella. However, he has a huge amount of influence over RobRod's FX shots.. And since that's what RobRod has been making lately, it's a testimate to how creative Chris is. His previsualizations on movies like Sin City, or Spy Kids 1,2, or 3 were more often than not, followed literally. That shows the amount of trust RobRod has in Chris and his work.

Another power hitter was Rita Street. She was the Exec Editor for Animation Magazine for the last few years.. But now she's producing animated TV. She is well connected, and really understands what it takes to produce animation, and all that that implies. She rocked! I was like a little schoolboy talking with her. Picking her brain and finding out every tidbit of information I could harvest about selling and marketing animation of all sorts.

After the panel, the short guys treated everyone to drinks at a local pub. So hanging out with all these "industry giants" and really getting inside their head was a wonderful treat. I walked away with some new friends that day...

IPOD TO: Hoops -- The Chemical Brothers
WEB TO: The Girls Production

Well, some dumbass thought it might be a good idea to blow up London. In the process he took out 40 civilians on thier morning commute. It's sick and so far beyond my comprehension as to how this could ever be thought of as a good idea. Under ANY rationalization. I can't understand it.
Now in a backlash this will serve to stoke the fires of racisim against Islam by the angry simple minded. I bet your going to see some lame attempts at some misguided retaliation against Muslam innocents. When will we learn, violence is a vicious snake eating it's own tail. A vicious cycle doomed to consume itself. My heart and soul go out to those affected by these horrific blasts.

To talk about something more uplifting, I wanted to share something cool Janimation got in today. They took a few of the frames from Stranglehold and got them printed on some backlight velum, like a movie poster. Here it is illuminated in a light-box at full res. ( the photo is a little blurry - but you get the point ). Back lit Chow Yun Fat is a cool thing!

IPOD TO: Broken Social Scene
WEB TO: Ping Pong Remix!!

4th of July weekend came and went, and I still have all my fingers and toes!!

Saw "War of the Worlds" this weekend. Pretty good Summer Blockbuster. Oh it's not the film I would have made.. But It's still very entertaining, and visually spectacular! I mean, Giant Alien Tripods!? Gotta love it! I would even say that it's better then Minority Report, AND A.I. So go check it, as I know you will. ;-)

Spent the weekend drawing, and bike riding. I posted a few of the drawings over at Everything Stupid. Mostly Invasion Character concepts for Oklahoma Shay. I also subscribed to the Illustration Friday, and this weeks topic is "Sport". I've been completly stumped on what to do... Since it's due friday I have to really get started! Stay Tuned.