alexiss dawn

Hey bloggers! It’s been a while! I’m still alive and kicking for sure. And it’s about dang time for an update.

I’m still at Lumenas Animation Studios and loving it. I’ve been keeping busy and having a blast with the incredible people I work with there. Last week we had a Halloween party and everyone dressed up! It was pretty amazing. A friend and I at work had been working to pass Super Mario Bros. 3 for the month before, so my Halloween costume idea was obvious: the Piranha Plant from the Mario games. I spent a few days on it and was pretty happy with how it came out. We even found spikey plastic balls that lit up when I threw them to act as the fireballs. I lost quite a few of them as it was quite hard to see, but it was well worth it. Everywhere I went, the game’s theme song was inevitably sung by party goers. As a side note, I’ve entered Wired’s Halloween Costume Contest that you can vote for on their facebook site. (hint hint)

In other news, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs came out on DVD/Bluray this last week as well! The film has done amazingly well worldwide. I’ve put together a show reel of the shots I worked on in the film. I’ve placed them in the order I worked on them, starting with the first production shot I’ve ever worked on from the Hunt sequence. For now, here’s the show reel. Soon I’ll write more about it as I want to tell you all about my experiences going from shot to shot and living through crunch!

And with that, a new demo reel! Not looking for a new job, but wanted to throw one together for kicks and giggles — to see my reel with some of my IA3 stuff. I haven’t put rendered shots in yet, so the shots included are in their playblast form.

And as one last thing, I went back and looked at my course work from Animation Mentor a few nights ago. I’ve been wanting to put together a show reel with all of my AM work, from the very first bouncing ball I ever did, all the way to seeing my short film thru. I started at AM three years ago this January, knowing nothing about animation, and feeling quite scared the first time I opened Maya. I’ll be one of the first to tell you that the program there is setup beautifully if you want to study to become a character animator. It’s fun to look back and be able to see progress bit by bit. For me, this is one thing that helps when you’re just not getting it while working on a shot — stepping back to see how far you’ve come, and thereby pushing yourself to go farther.

I thought the ending song would be appropriate as I completed my short film in June 2008 and within a couple of weeks moved out to New York to work at Blue Sky Studios on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. New York, New Yooooork!

Aside from all that, I’m an alumni tutor at Animation Mentor this term. Loving being involved a bit again and seeing students’ work progress. Their excitement and passion amazes and inspires me.

So I’ll leave it there for now. I have some things coming up that I can’t wait to talk about and things to integrate into this site to breathe some life into it and share resources I’ve collected over the last few years. I’ll holler when I’m ready. For now, keep pursuing that joy and start getting ready for the holidays!

Every year I get brought back to a commencement speech Steve Jobs gave in 2005. In all of the videos that provide inspiration for me, this is probably my favorite. I can’t wait to tell our story and what has been going on. I’m blessed to work with some pretty dang amazing people. Listening to this speech again tonight is perfect. Listen and learn — it has a zillion excellent points.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

Two quotes from Walt Disney. They sum up the moment more than anything I could say.

“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.”

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”

Just got back from spending the weekend out in the San Francisco area with a ton of Animation Mentor students, alumni, and mentors. It was time for the annual BBQ, as well as graduation and job fair. It was a incredibly great time to catch up with people and just enjoy being together. This was my third BBQ and may have been the best yet.

I met up for lunches and dinners with people, saw IA3 with a large group of AMers, partied way too late (or early in the morning…), got a killer sunburn, slept very little, dealt with massive group checks, and had an absolutely amazing time.

I also got to meet a few of my former springboard students in person. They did amazingly well in my class and are now working their way through class 1 at Animation Mentor. Good times to meet them and get to chat a bit.

Major kudos to the AM staff for putting on a good time. It’s always an incredible experience to get together with the AM family. With such a strong shared passion amongst everyone, the weekend always turns out great.

Jack Black has a new show on VH1 called Acceptable TV. There was a “How To” episode that goes about explaining story structure, camera angles, editing, lighting, etc., in a funny and yet effective way. He talks about each element in relation to shooting live action, however all of these things are extremely important to us as animators as we are story tellers as well. They each can apply to animation and are a part of creating a successful piece of animation.

Coming up with the story / Writing the script:
here

Be prepared to fail and rewrite:
here

Story Structure:
here

Framing and Composition:
here

Lighting:
here

Editing shots together:
here

All of the videos can also be seen here.

It’s finally that time boys and girls — Ice Age 3 is in theaters officially today! I had the chance to see it last week in New York with the Blue Sky crew and it turned out beautifully. You won’t be disappointed! So go check it out!

Less than two weeks away from the opening of Ice Age 3, and several clips are popping up. Here’s the latest!

Just saw this over on the Puhala’s blog — a new set of shots from IA3! It’s soooo great to be seeing the final works coming out combining a bunch of our shots together. I’ll admit it’s kind of surreal to see some of the shots I worked on all finished up!

Meet Buck!

EDIT: And another clip! Meet the cast!

EDIT AGAIN: One more clip — “One Angry Fossil!”

ANOTHER EDIT: “Mommy!”

Got together with some local animators to see Up this last weekend…

Now I’ve never considered myself a Pixar fanboy — err, girl — and I go to see almost every animated film that is released despite the studio. Every studio has its up and downs in films and due to personal tastes, some we like better than others. That said, I have to say that Up caught me by surprise and may very well make it into my favorite animated films list.

*Now if you haven’t seen Up yet, quit reading and skip to the end. If you don’t, there may be potential spoilers, and it’s not my fault if you continue to keep reading. *

The first 15 minutes or so of the film are beautiful. That short part in itself could be a short film. It’s beautifully executed and shows in depth the relationship between Carl and Ellie. When she passes, it’s an ah-ha moment for the audience as to explain Carl’s current disposition. The film definitely wouldn’t have as much depth if they hadn’t explained why he was such a recluse old man.

The up beat, cheery attitude of Russell is a great contrast to the more negative Carl. His nonstop talking compliments Carl’s quietness. Their beginning treks in the jungle are a great back and forth. And they certainly captures the little kid essence well — complaining that he hurt himself, that he has to use the bathroom, and changing dispositions on a whim.

The film was simple and that’s one of the things that made it beautiful. It seemed to have a similar tie to Wall-E as it didn’t necessitate constant dialogue, but was able to tell the story by pure pantomime a lot of the time, thereby not overwhelming the audience. Even in that beginning fifteen minutes, there is so much emotion expressed, and a large story told, with very, very little dialogue. Driving a story with dialogue is one thing and can be beautiful as well, but there’s something special about driving a story by pantomime that shows a beautiful craft.

The little surprises through out the film had me laughing quite a bit. Alpha, the main evil dog, had me laughing when he first spoke. I did NOT expect that voice. And the discovery of Kevin’s “true” identity accompanied by Russell’s reaction was a great combination. The dogs’ short attention spans, and Dug’s way of talking…

Of course, there are places things could have been changed or tweaked, as with any film. Every person would approach the film differently, but I think Pete Doctor did a pretty dang great job at making such an obscure story believable, relatable, and lovable.

*End of spoilers.*

But above everything else, the biggest thing that hit me that night when I saw it wasn’t from the film itself, but from reactions of people in the audience. Right behind us there was a little boy, about five or six years old, who couldn’t help but bust a gut laughing. His attention was kept the entire film and during the credits even he was watching intently, pointing, and laughing hysterically. It was a big moment for me — THAT is why we do what we do. Seeing the reactions from people and making those little kids laugh hysterically and actually sit through a good hour and a half worth of a show.

Michael J. Fox wrote a book called Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. This last week he had a special on ABC centering around the book’s theme: optimism. Nothing I can say could do it justice. Just go watch it. It’ll be well worth the 40 minutes.

Click here to watch. It’s the first link on Hulu.

A snippet:

The purpose that you wish to find in life, like the cure you seek, is not going to fall from the sky. It requires the faith to take risks, and the rejection of the bonds of fear…

…Optimists are open to alternatives in the face of adversity. And deal with reality head on. That hope flourishes in groups and resonates when people are doing what they love. And that happiness is contagious — you can give it out like newspapers, and feel it in everything you do.”