News Feed

Hanging with the Froads!

2011-12-06T22:45:00.001-06:00

“Brian Froud and Me"

Last Saturday, the Animazing Gallery in SoHo had an opening called "World of Froud".

It featured Brian, his wife Wendy, and son Toby Froad, each an awesome and rather famous artists in their own rights.

Brian is one of the Concept artists for Labyrinth, and Dark Crystal, having worked very closely with Jim Henson. Also created and illustrated the Pressed Faerie books.

His wife Wendy is a puppet creator, and fabricated Yoda, as well as the puppets for Labyrinth, and Dark Crystal.

Finally, Toby, is a puppetter, as well as the actual baby that David Bowie steals in Labyrinth.

“Gelfling Kira & Frizzgig”

Works of Wendy Froud

Last Years Comcast spot you never saw

2011-09-22T17:50:00.000-05:00

Here is a great spot Directed by Craig Gillespie and shot by Bruno Delbonnel.

I served as CG/VFX Supervisor for the Mill on it, adding effects, such as satellites, Helicopters and Ships at sea.

The spot was part of a campaign for Comcast to be aired during the superbowl of 2010. Unfortunately, The client felt that the end result was too war-like and ended up not showing it due to war-sensitivity.

However, someone has found it, and posted it. So I thought I'd share it until it eventualy gets pulled, which I suspect it will.

I enjoyed working with Bruno and Craig on the project. Some real stellar talent there!

State Farm "State of Chaos"

2011-08-27T21:04:00.005-05:00

I'm behind on updating the projects I've been working on. I have been working on some high-profile and exciting projects. I just need to collect the media to post on here.

In the meanwhile, I do have this fun project I lead for the Mill NY. StateFarm- "State of Chaos" I served as CG/VFX supervisor for the project working with Director: Jim Jenkins and DDB, Chicago.

It was recently named "Ad of the Deay" by Adweek here: Ad of the Day: State Farm
We got ILM alum, Mark Moore to design the killer robot, that the Mill brought to life. The project was fun, and working with a comedic Director such as Jim Jenkins, who I learned graduated from the same high school as I did, was a great experience!

Daft Punk's 'Derezzed' Video getting press

2010-12-07T08:47:00.013-06:00

So for the last 5 weeks I've been apart of a most awesome project! A Retro look at Tron set to Daft Punk's new single. "Derezzed". Directed by Warren Fu, the Mill executed the shoot, and visual effects in just over 4 weeks! I worked as CG artist as well as Finishing Nuke Compositor on many of the sequences seen here, including the light-cycle 'build'. I'll post more as it trickles out on the web.

IFC: Daft Punk's "Derezzed" Features Old School "Tron" Look

Gizmodo: Watch Lightcycles Joust (Yes, Joust) in Daft Punk's First Tron Music Video

Pitchfork: Video: Daft Punk: "Derezzed"

MTV: Video Premiere: Daft Punk, 'Derezzed'

MTV: Daft Punk's 'Derezzed' Video Revives The 'Tron' Legacy

MTV: Daft Punk's 'Derezzed' Video: Behind The 'Tron Legacy' Nerdery

Take OFFF Eh..

2010-10-30T19:32:00.003-05:00

Below is a project I worked on for the Mill. OFFF is a Design conference, and this year it was held in Paris. The Mill was asked to complete the titles for them, and I was responsible for the "Zebra-Moose" Sequence... I really like how it turned out...

OFFF Paris 2010 Titles

2010-10-30T19:30:00.000-05:00

OFFF Paris 2010 Titles from OFFF, let's feed the future on Vimeo.

Summer of the Droid

2010-10-30T19:25:00.000-05:00

So this summer has been the summer of Droid. I've been in production as a CG/VFX supervisor for the Droid Campaign. The Mill took on a series of four spots for Verizon. In the end Three of the original series will have made it to air. Below I've posted my favorite two. "Digits" and "Eagle Eye"

Currently, in production is the 5th of the series. Doing CG robots is a perk. :-)

Verizon Droid's "Eagle Eye"

2010-10-30T19:13:00.000-05:00

Verizon Droid's "Digits"

2010-10-30T18:57:00.001-05:00

Industry Giants

2010-05-03T12:37:00.001-05:00

Things have been busy here. I'll post some new work here soon, but wanted to update about an upcoming event.
Industry Giants is put on by A Bunch of Short Guys, who are a Dallas-Based CG/VFX industry promotion group.
So I was invited to speak at the 2010 event! Details are on their site. Go check it out! If you're in Dallas during the event, I'd love to hear from you!
I had some new PR materials done recently, here is my latest 'headshot' for PR stuffs. Would you hire this guy!?

Mitsubishi "Invisible" at the Mill.

2009-12-19T15:48:00.001-06:00

Happy Holidays! December is here, and the first spot I completed while working at the Mill is now airing.

Mitsubishi "Invisible" hosts CG clothing of the people who do not 'stand out'. Not until they get inside the car of course.

Here is another link to it:
BeamTV - The Mill

I served as a General CG artist for various shots. Everything you see that is associated with an 'invisible' person or vehicle is CG.
I'll also have a Herseys spot coming out next week I'll post asap.

In the coming weeks I'm starting a Superbowl spot with a host of VFX that should be rather spectacular. I'll keep you posted.

Enjoy!

A Prestigious Award!

2009-10-28T14:19:00.000-05:00

What a week!

My hosting provider, Dreamhost, held a simple retro t-shirt design contest.   They were looking for designs for the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's.

The prize was lifetime free hosting!! Unlimited space, and bandwidth!! wow!

Well, I submitted 3 variations on the same design, and low and behold. I won! I was notified that I was 'best in decade'.   I'll never have to pay for hosting again. Hazzah!

I'm pretty stoked about it. I wasn't even REALLY crazy about the design I submitted, but it was inspired by a recent party invite I got from a friend. Thought it was appropriate for this contest.

In other news, I'm continuing my research to develop my online Director's presence. I seem to be getting more and more interest in my Directing.   So that just leaves me with digging through all my work, and getting the spots I Directed into a more presentable form online.   I think I'll even get a new domain...   Hmm..

More soon.

Work for the Fall

2009-10-27T14:36:00.000-05:00

So with the coming of the new season here in the city, there is so much energy in the air. Good things happening, so hang on.

For the last few weeks, I've been freelancing as a CG FX artist for 89.edit. Nice bunch of people, with a nice studio. My contract with them is up on the 31st!

Then on the 1st, I head over to service one of my favorite commerical VFX companies in the biz "The Mill".
Not clear on what roll or capacity I'll be in use, but I'm looking forward to getting to know the talent over there, and hopefully get to contribute on some good work during the whole situation. :-)

Tentaclecloud.com is alive and well!. The Alpha is released, and we're starting to pick up users.

Finally, I'm thinking of setting up a Directorial website, that would only showcase my Director's work, and in hopes that I can better sell myself as an CG/VFX Animation Director. I'll keep you posted.

Looking forward to the next few months when the weather gets chilly, and all there is to do is huddle indoors and work on personal projects. Looking forward to it so I can get some more quality time with "Invasion"

It's Alive!! Alive!!

2009-07-13T23:03:00.003-05:00

That's right!! You can't stop it! The Tentacle Project is coming!
[ tentaclecloud.com ]

In fact, I have just received the very first alpha version of the Tentacle Project, and [ kungfukoi.com ] is in-fact powered by Tentacle currently!! That's right, tentacle is up and running, and the driving force of the this site. Stay tuned to tentaclecloud.com for updates about what the Tentacle Project is, and why it's the most awesome web developers environment ever!!

In the last week, I've been working away on the Invasion Project, and have made a few updates over on the Invasion Blog.

Also, recently have aquired a 13"Macbook Pro, and am joining the ranks of nerds with mac's. I got it for the development platform it offers for the iPhone and the Web. Plus, it's time I learn Mac again... ( read: unix )

And Finally, I'm heading back to Texas for a couple weeks, to visit family, friends. So if you are one of those and are reading this. Call me, lets get together. :-) I've also started a personal blog for all the stupid stuff that didn't really fit on here. Please follow me here:
[ warriorginger.blogspot.com ]

Enjoy!

Rebrand Under Construction

2009-06-17T13:30:00.005-05:00

Remember back in the dawn of the internet when you would say a site is 'under construction'? It was how you would tell people that the site is being worked on and will be improved shortly. You don't really hear people saying that any longer. I wonder why.

Well, I'm bringing it back. At least for now. www.kungfukoi.com has moved off Speakeasy, where it has been hosted since the dawn of time. To Dreamhost. ( unlimited space, bandwith for your life, only $6/mo! )

The entire site, galleries, and misc content are temporarily down, as I build a dynamic and super cool back-end for the site that hopefully will make updates and re-designs easier in the future. So for now.. I am keeping my contact info, and reel up.. you know, for self promotional puposes.

However, I fully expect to have the new re-branding and site up in the next few weeks/months. The new site will also come with it some new features that I won't go into yet. However, I'm pretty excited about it!

In other news, I'm finishing up my current contract with Psyop and will fully available for bookings on the 22nd.
I've also broken down and aquired a Twitter account. So if you are so inclined.. follow me at: www.twitter.com/kungfukoi . I have started to peck around on it, and think that if I just use it for a work-related feed only, perhaps I'll be able to justify it. After all, I have a Facebook for the personal stuff right!? :-)

Guiness Dot on permanent viewing at the MOMA!

2009-05-16T09:49:00.006-05:00

So this spot I helped with, served as as sequence lead, is now on permanent viewing at the Museum of Modern Art! I can say now say I have a piece in the MOMA. heh.
( Lead the Black and White jungle that grows on with a panther sequence )

Guiness Dot
Uploaded by Actupub -

MTVA Promo Now Online!

2009-05-16T08:51:00.009-05:00

It's been a whirlwind couple of months. Last month I finished up the MTV gig, which was a really quick turnaround project. I think I had two weeks or so to turnkey the spot. They wanted the 2D style typically associated with After Effects. Check it out here, I'd love to hear what you think.

Since then I have gone back on contract with Psyop, who have always been great to work with!
I'm working on an international Psyop spot for Playstation, so you know that'll be some fun-eye-candy coming out soon. So keep the eyes open.

My contract with them is up May 23rd and am not booked beyond that at this time.

I'm going to be updating/re-doing the KungFuKoi.com soon. I'm moving hosts, and using that as an excuse to update and redesign the site. The goal is make the entire site more dynamic so it's not such a chore to update it. I have so much content these days, it's hard to organize, update, and just keep interesting all the archival content. I want to keep it out of the way so it's not overwhelming, but still online, so that I can easily get at it. It looks like I'm going to be moving into a world of PHP, mySQL, and other acronyms that are boring and dry.

But hey, I'll have a jazzy new site worthy of being on ( insert your trendy design promotional blog here ).

Big Changes

2009-04-20T19:39:00.003-05:00

Well, I read somewhere, that you know you are happy when you don't update your Blog.
Apparently, I've been extremely happy. :-)

Ok, big changes. Mass Market has made some cutbacks, and that resulted in me going back on the independent/freelance market.

So, with that, I've had the opportunity to work with click 3x, on an MTV promo for Star Trek. Was a lot of fun, and got to meet some fun new people!

Then MTV asked KungFuKoi to produce a :30 promo for the MTV Movie Awards. I'll post the spot as soon as I upload it. I think it airs ( 4/20! )

So with all the hustling, I'm going to attempt to revisit this blog, and find a more interesting format.

I'm also looking to update it weekly. We'll see how that goes.

Sprint Nascar "Speed"

2009-02-19T21:06:00.007-06:00

My Directorial Debut for Mass Market is finally online ready to show!

[ Glossy ]

[ Feed ]

[ NOTCOT ]

This Nascar spot was done for Sprint, for the Daytona 500 and Nascar season. I imagine it'll run like very nascar race...

I'm very happy with the spot, and really enjoyed working with our team at Mass Market to make it possible.

It was an ambitious undertaking, and I think the end result speaks for itself.

7-up goes live!

2009-02-07T12:08:00.005-06:00

The spot I worked on back in August as an Animation Director, is finally airing and I can show it here...

Check out a small version here: http://7up.com/

I'll post a bigger version when I get some time.

This spot was entirely done with XSI's ICE system.

Superbowl Spots!

2009-02-04T08:52:00.005-06:00

Well it looks like they took down the link to the Stereoscopic HP spot. It was turned into 3D for the superbowl, but I don't think it aired.

However,

Coke - Heist,
Monster.com - NFL Draft
Kellogg - Frosted Flakes
GE - Wizard of Oz

All aired!! All Psyop/Mass Market projects! Pretty cool!!!

See them here: XLIII 2009 Superbowl Ads

August 2008 Update

2008-11-06T23:54:00.003-06:00

Day Off The Dead was included in 3D World Magazine's "50 greatest independent animated 3D shorts: 1997 to 2007!

Way to go guys!!

September Update

2008-11-06T23:11:00.002-06:00

Send a message via Yahoo to eightgr

Studio Profile : MassMarket

Since June of 2004 MassMarket has grown in size and competes with the top VFX houses in NYC. While still maintaining a boutique vibe and sensibility, they have built a strong team which includes two additional Flame leads, Nick Tanner (formally from Smoke and Mirrors) and Jamie Scott (The Mill), an up and coming 2D artist Julian Ford (FIN design in Sydney) and a large 3D department lead by 3D leads Jake Slutsky and Jeff Dates.

Discover this studio and their famous spots with Justin Lane, Executive Producer at MassMarket : Click this Link

September 12th

2008-11-06T22:59:00.002-06:00

Smith and Nephew from mate on Vimeo.

I pre-visualized this spot for Eben and Mate, that went onto become an FX masterpiece!
They did an awesome execution.. I'm proud to have been part of the project!!

2008-06-30T21:50:00.004-05:00

IPHONE TO: spore creature creator

Almost forgot, Just finished up on this HP spot for Psyop.

I turnkey'd the final grand finale shot!!

HP: Maestro

Seen here on Motionographer

2008-06-30T21:09:00.007-05:00

IPHONE TO: Iphone 3G

So much to update. I have been neglectful, and am going to try to fix that.

So lets see... Digital Tutors says I'm a success story!

What the heck kind of face am I making there? Jeez oh Pete! I look like a stroke victim. I wonder why I thought that was a good press photo?

Here is the spot that we shot in New Zealand.

Feed does a brief Q&A about Travelers, the Rupert Sanders spot, shot by Chris Soos.

See the spot also here: Travelers Umbrella

Also seen on 'boards: Travelers yet again.

So MassMarket asked me to do this 'proof of concept' pitch... so I grabbed a KidRobot Dunny and this quick test was created!

Subway Super Dunny

As if that wasn't fun... it got picked up by the KidRobot's CEO's blog!!!

Supe r Dunny on KidRobot

Another fun item, Day Off the Dead was showcased by 3dWorld, as "The indie 50 3D World's 50 greatest independent animated 3D shorts: 1997 to 2007" and was released on a DVD with their magazine #102 issue! That's some kudos!

Thanks guys!!
However, the bar for best kudos is set extremly high with Kerry Tescher's tribute!.

2008-04-06T12:42:00.003-05:00

IPhone To: Bjork's Wanderlust Video

So I have a lot to update in the coming post(s)!

For now, I wanted to show off a shot using my new Land Polaroid 100! My buddy gave it to me, and it works great! It took a few test shots to get used to how to predict the exposure
in lighting conditions, but I think I got it now.

This piece has been up at the gallery right next to my building for awhile now. Every morning on my way to work I can watch this beauty sleeping in. I have another pic of her after the snow storm. It's pretty crazy to see her with ice and snow on her. See it at my Facebook Gallery. ( yeah, I know.. facebook)

Work has been super busy, I've recently wrapped a few cool projects and will be posting them when I get some more time.

2008-02-18T18:39:00.004-06:00

IPHONE TO: SXSW 2008 Band Sampler

So you wouldn't believe it. On my block, the same one with Mario, is this space invader!! This guy is about 14 feet in the air. Unmarked other than what is seen here.

I love that.

I've just returned from New Zealand from where I was on a Rupert Saunders shoot. It was for a Travelers insurance spot Mass Market is finishing. With Ruperts eye on it, it will be spectacular. DP - Chris Soos.

Chris is a great Photographer, and I was thrilled to be able to pick his brain for all things. I learned alot! Got tons of inspiration that I hope to nourish and harvest.

Rotorua; New Zealand.

I'll show some more details from the shoot after the spot gets released.

Sometimes next month.

2008-01-16T21:10:00.000-06:00

IPHONE TO: My second iPhone's new update!

So one of the best things about living in New York is the fact that art and culture is literally everywhere!

So on my very block there is like over 6 art galleries! Every month it's a new show in every window as we walk our dog. Pretty neat.

Well, one day we noticed Mario hopping out of your run-of-the-mill random pipe. Apparently, these guys are all over the city! It's nice to know that Mario frequents the neighborhood. Pretty cool.

2008-01-13T21:07:00.000-06:00

IPHONE TO: The Damn Store to Replace the one you lost.

Motionographer just posted the second spot I have worked on with Psyop.

I served as sequence lead artist on the black and white jungle sequence.

Check it out.. and enjoy

2007-12-23T16:12:00.000-06:00

IPHONE TO: My New Facebook

Well, it's holiday season here in the big city, and I haven't been very active on posting things to my blog here. I'll try to improve on that.. ;-)

Some great news though. My first job I lead for Psyop. (2) :30 second spots for Infiniti. Gift_Spot 1 | Gift Spot 2

Motionographer also wrote a blurb here about it... Pretty nice things they say.

ThanksGiving was awesome. The Wife, Her Fam, and the Fabians headed out to Costa Rica for the break. Lots of good times.
[ Photo Album here ]

Then just a few weeks ago, Psyop had their Christmas party. It was themed after "King Pin" the movie with Bill Murry. So you can get a load of my awesome ombover.. It was classic.

2007-09-27T19:37:00.000-05:00

IPHONE TO: The Orange Box

So it's been a crazy couple of months!!
Since my last post...

I have accepted a Staff Position at Psyop's Mass Market Division.
So that means the Wife and I packed up and moved to NYC.

We'll post images soon, of the whole experience. But I must say it's much different than Dallas!
;-)

I'm a CG Project Lead up there, doing National Spots with Psyop flair! I'm loving it! They call the position "Technical Director" but I must say, It means Production Generalist. Do it all, do it fast, and do it awesome. ;-)

Working alongside some of the most amazingly talented guys in the industry! I'll have to gather up some of their work and share it.. it's crazy good.

I've started to pick up the basics to Python, and have already started to implement it into practice with XSI! Thanks to Bradley Gabe.
I never thought I'd see the day when I'd pick up scripting.. but I figure if I'm going to be labeled a Technical Director, I might want to at least know a little something technical. ;-)

So I must say, Psyop/Mass Market, is about the most inspiring and sweet bunch of talented folk I've ever run across. It's really bizarre to see such chaos spiraling around despite itself, and yet, some of the most elegant and well designed spots come out. I'm proud to start being apart of it!

With the PPL spot fresh on everyone's mind, I'm doing a more graphic version based on one of the Designers style frames.. With that, and (2) upcoming car commercials I should be into some really cool design stuff. I'll keep you posted.

The Invasion project has been on hiatus due to all the freelance, and relocation. ( ironically I had less time as a freelancer as I did as a staffer! ). But rest assured I will be completing the trailer! Hopefully by years end. I guess it totally depends on how busy I get with the before mentioned upcoming spots.

Well I hope to update more often with more updates. The blog might take a slight "what happened to me in NYC today..." angle for the next few posts, but I imagine that is normal for new transplants in the city. ;-)

More soon, I swear.

2007-07-03T17:07:00.000-05:00

~~IPOD~~ IPHONE TO: Anything on your new Iphone.
WEB TO: Mass Market's Reel

So I just got back from NYC after wrapping up a contract with Psyop's Mass Market division.

The spot was a cute fantasy-real piece with all sorts of foliage. I'll post a link to it when it aires.

So after spending some time up at Psyop, I have to admit, they are some of the most talented, hardworking, fun bunch of artists that I'd ever been lucky enough to work with.

I hope to work with them soon in the future, as their projects are only getting better, and they are about as much fun to work for as you would want.

But it's good to be home, and ready to celebrate the 4th. Enjoy it, everyone.

2007-04-07T17:28:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Saul Williams
WEB TO: John K

FREEDOM!! I've recently left Janimation to try my luck as an independent artist! Kungfukoi.com has been rebuilt and the new reel is now online. So call me and throw money at me to work on your project!

I'll be working around the country, and from home. Doing Commercial, Feature, Motion Design, or basically anything I can get. ;-)

In between I'll try to get some time to work on my ongoing projects. We'll see how that goes.

So, John K, is bringing the heat with the online animation discussions. Whether you hate him, or love him, you have to give him credit for raising the standard for discussion on Animation.

Be sure to check out his blog and backlog of totally amazing articles! He's been talking about, and giving his opinion on things like: Writing for Animation, Animation Performance, Blocking for Animation, and Color in Animation. I don't always agree with him, but in general I respect him as a Cartoonist, and find often his thoughts valid. His points are well thought out, and he offers counter arguments, and explains in great detail why he believes the way he does. I really have been enjoying reading it. There just isn't any other open dialog about animation on the web that I've found, and I sure love me some animation talk.

2007-03-01T22:44:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Definitive Swim
WEB TO: Korean Films in 2006

So I haven't posted in awhile. I have missed the opportunity to comment on the Boston Bomb scare, and for that I'm sorry. So I'll just have to let these guys tell you about it.

I also missed the opportunity to comment on the China Stock Crash. If any of you know me, you know how much I'm interested in China and it's evolving economy and international power!!

So what's got me on the blog tonight is the Premiere and Debut of my Animated Music Video! "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The 80's pop band, the Smithereens have released a Beatles cover album called "Meet the Smithereens"! Pat Dinizio, the lead singer, asked me if I could help him out with a video. So basing the concept on the album cover art, I put together this little piece for the band! ( High Res Version 43MB )

Well, the video is doing awesome, and getting all sorts of great comments! It's also apparently slated to go on VH1 Classics!! I'll post air dates when I learn of them.
In the meanwhile it's been released on, YouTube, Ifilm, and Vmix so far!!

So thank you Pat, and the Smithereens for the opportunity to get my first Video Directorial Debut!! Also, thanks for all the fans of the band who are giving out kudos!! I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. It was fun to do, and I look forward to doing more.

2007-01-19T19:59:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Ok, Go
WEB TO: Orville "Deadenbacher" By Digital Domain

Well, apparently if you are Chinese this week is pretty crazy nuts! China has announced that they have destroyed one of their own satellites as it flew 250 miles above one of their providences! This has countries up in arms, specifically the U.S. The assumption is that if China can target and destroy satellites in orbit, they would have a stake in the 'space' above their country which had, until recently been ruled by the U.S. and Russia. I find this escalation of technological and space warfare, awesome! I'm looking forward to all the new "Star Wars" like weapons in our near future!

But, if high tech Real Sci-Fi Rail Guns, and precision targeted ICBM's aren't your bag.. Perhaps you'd like to see the future of computer interfacing!?

And for something totally different, check out Demetri Martin, he's funny.

2007-01-02T19:43:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Saul Williams - List of Demands
WEB TO: Ruairi Robinson ( 50% Gray Short Film Guy )

Well it's a new year! 2006 has been great, and went by like a flash! So now with a 'fresh start' for the NEW year, I look forward to what it will bring. ( ...more Invasion for sure! )

The wife and I got back from Costa Rica, that was awesome! A week long sitting at the beach is never a bad thing! It was our second trip in what has turned out to be an annual event!

The Holidays allowed me some down time with Battlefield 2142. ;-) Ok, so I wasn't productive these last couple of weeks, but that's changing!

Lastly, I have recently purchased the Dell 30" Ultrabright! I'll write up a review after I've been using it for a couple of weeks! Also coming is a Dual Xeon Quad Core and 1TB raid 0 system.
Yes I likes me hardware!!

2006-11-02T20:59:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough
WEB TO: LDD Opening

We just got back from the Living Dead Doll show in NYC! Awesome Time! The opening was on Halloween evening during the NYC parade. Check out my pics of some of the pieces. from the show.

I'll post a construction journal as soon as I get some time!

We met a lot of awesome people and had a great time at the show! Everyone was so nice, and the pieces were awesome, I was just happy to participate! Thanks guys!

Also while in NYC we hooked up with our buddy Ryan Sias
who is the brainchild behind Silent Kimbly. Be sure to check that out! He's the bomb.

I plan on adding a "making of" section on my site soon for my doll and the experience! So look forward to that soon!

2006-10-31T20:39:00.001-06:00

IPOD TO: Peter, Bjorn and John

WEB TO: Animated Soviet Propaganda

LDD Art Show

So this Halloween I was invited to participate in the first annual Living Dead Doll Art Show. I was one of a hundred artists that were given a blank doll and asked to do our worst!!

To see the show check out my flickr gallery of the show here.

So the opening was filled some amazing art and artists! Check em out!

I'm building a production journal for the entire process that I'll put up here as soon as I get some time.
In the meanwhile get a load of a sneak peak of the show below.
Also here is the website for the show: [ LDD Art Show ]

2006-07-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Dining Rooms - Cinemaroma 2
WEB TO: Reef Keeping Made Easy

Well, it's official. They announced the Living Dead Dolls Art show!

I was asked to create a Doll for the show and I accepted!

They sent me a blank doll, and I can go to town on it doing whatever I want! I can't wait for you to see what I am doing.. Officially, I'm not supposed to show the doll before the show on Oct 31, Halloween! I'll keep "making-of" photos and share them with you after then.

Kim and I are planning to go to the opening in New York City! So I'm going to get my hat, buckle and boots ready!! Although, Kim is worried I'll look like an idiot! Ha, as if. ;-)

The official announcement is here: Living Dead Dolls Art Show!

2006-07-16T16:59:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: The Horrors "Sheena is a Parasite"
WEB TO: Dream of Doll "Superdolfie"

So went out and caught Scanner Darkly today. Linkletter's roto-film. I guess since I haven't read the book I'm missing a lot of key information. The film was hard to follow, and generally without a point. The roto-work really didn't anything at all for me other than establish a style. A style I felt could have been abandoned because it didn't raise the film up. Sorry Linkletter, I'm still a huge fan of "Dazed and Confused", and "Waking Life", but "A Scanner Darkly" really didn't leave me with any sort of satisfaction from viewing it. A huge amount of effort and money went into this film.. and for me, the end effect fell flat. The only saving grace for me was the cast. Keanu, Winona, Woody Harrilson, and Robert Downey Jr, are always a good ensemble, and entertaining to watch. So at least you can get your money's worth watching the brat pack.

However, the opening trailers had a great suprise! "The Science of Sleep" by Micheal Gondry looks promising! So keep your fingers crossed.

2006-07-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Disorder - Slayer & Ice -T
WEB TO: My Next Watch

Ok, so what you are looking at here to the left is an official phenomenon! I'm serious. Here they are! Straight from New Zealand, smuggled in with love to us here in Dallas Texas with care via Kiwi native, Abby Cutriss! Thanks lass!

So now the boys in Dallas have "short shorts" for "men". Yeah.. it's the genuine article alright. Real for goodness Stubbies. Look out for photos soon!

And if you are asking yourself, what is a Stubbie and how will it affect me!? Consider this:

2006-07-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Public Enemy
WEB TO: Retro Art from Plan 59

Well, as you may notice, Kungfukoi.com got an overhaul! I have pumped 1.21 jigawats of Web 2.0 goodness into this puppy! The future is here baby, and we're surfing in on the cusp!

I am celebrating a fresh look for the site, with something we can call... "Retro-Geek". Thinking back to the days of DOS, and Intellavision, when you had to use your imagination to play a video game.

So now, in a time where the Web has decided to reinvent itself and upping the version. I thought it appropriate to do the same with our little nest here. Only, with our reboot, we're going back to the roots! Before the days of Flash, and animated loading pages... There was simple. So KungFuKoi would like to celebrate those days with our latest facelift.

In all seriousness, the site is 100% dynamic XTML/CSS Web 2.0'd up! What that means to you, is that I now have the site entirely under my control... easily. So expect me to be tweaking on the design over the next week(s). I have the broad strokes in place, but as you might see, there still are alot of pages that need to be stripped of the old HTML code, and updated with the fancy CSS standard. So as I run across them, I'll conform them., add new content..etc. I have tons to upload.. now I should be able to do it easier. Enjoy!

2006-06-19T21:21:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Close Your Robe
WEB TO: Heat Vision and Jack

Well, "The Fist" has been out and about and shot a music video for the "Dutch Treats"
I was one of the cinematagraphers for the project, and this is my edit.

In other news I had the opportunity to be interviewed by The Guild here in Dallas. I think they were extremely flattering to a point where I'm almost embarrassed to plug it. Don't laugh at me.

Guild Interviews Me Here.

2006-05-28T14:28:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Roundhouse Anthem!
WEB TO: The FIST!

Well, the last few weeks have been a maelstorm of activity. Lets see,...

The 24 hour film festival held in Dallas was awesome this year! I was fortunate enough to have connected with a whole new talent pool in Dallas. One that pulls inspiration from some really hilarious places! I love it. So a shout out to my boys at Brainfood. This unholy collaboration spawned something truley eerie. I bring you... THE FIST!

The movie contained on that site, is our entry in the 24 hour race. We called ourselves "Heavy Petting Zoo". Don't ask me why, I have no idea. Now we are "The Fist"!

Cover Story 2 - Vengence is afoot took home 2nd place in the "Hollywood" division! 2nd!

I think we tipped the 'sillyness' meter too far to the 'right' to acutally take home 1st. The film that did win 1st actually was executed very well, and held up to critique. Though, ours had more action, and more blood! Ours was the Summer Blockbuster to thier IFC matnee.
Either way, it was an honor to work with Chuck Norris!

During the race, we had a reporter from the "Dallas Business Journal" with us. She took notes and slept the whole time we were in Production for the video. Her article just published! It tells the whole account. So I don't have to! :-)

Finally, Moustache May comes to a close.

2006-05-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Gnarls Barkley
WEB TO: 24 Hour Video Race

I was lucky enough to participate in the 24 hour video race with the most amazing team of filmmakers ever!

Our Hollywood Team, called "Heavy Petting Zoo" has completed the 24 hour video race in only 23:33 hours!

The shortfilm that was produced, "Cover Story 2, Vengence is afoot", starring Chuck Norris, featuring his roundhouse kick, is expected to play to audiences delight! It runs at 4 minutes and 33 seconds, complete with it's own Bitchin' Theme Song!

So check in to http://www.24hourvideoracedallas.com/
Monday to see when "Cover Story 2, Vengence is afoot" will screen this week.

All videos that met the midnight deadline will be screened at the Angelika Film Center before a panel of judges. Judging is tournament style, with all videos screened in 15 rounds, and top three contenders in each round advancing to the finals. Videos advancing to the finals will be judged on May 23rd and prizes and trophies awarded.

"Heavy Petting Zoo" hopes to see you out there!

( Chuck Norris will be in attendence! )

2006-04-25T20:09:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Perfection by AMG
WEB TO: My My Space

Kerry Tescher wrote me and asked if I would post a blurb about the 2006 Nicktoons Film Festival. The Nicktoons Film Festival is accepting animated shorts (up to 10 minutes in length), between now and May 31, 2006 for its annual competition. Shorts selected for the fest air on the Nicktoons channel during August and one will be selected to win a $10,000 Grand Prize. Judges include Seth MacFarlane of Family Guys fame. Any medium of animation is acceptable: flash, traditional cel, stop-motion or CG. For more info go to: www.nicktoonsnetwork.com/shows/animfest/. Frederator also has a blog for Nicktoons…it’s pretty active and fun: http://frederatorblogs.com/nicktoons.

I still have tons of updates that I just haven't sat down to upload here and on the news section.

A few things of note, Janimation just wrapped up another cool Game Trailer Directed by Greg Punchatz. I'll post more when it goes public, I think at E3! I worked on a rather daunting crowd shot, animating, lighting, and compositing well over 100 characters, some of which interact and fight! So look forward to that in the coming weeks.

I still have yet to post the article written about me in Animation Magazine. I'm pretty proud of it! I just need to scan it and upload it. If you must read it, go out and get this months edition!

Invasion has been idle while I've been working on the project for Janimation, but now I can get back and knock out a few more shots on the trailer. At least it's moving forward again!

Finally, I've sent out an Animated Series Bible to my people out in Hollywood, I've mentioned it before, but the project is gaining ground and will be hitting the streets in the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on the meetings and how they go as they get set up! The project is really getting some momentum, and for the first time since SCTV, I have a Show Runner, and Executive Producer who are whoring it out to them Hollywood types! I'll keep you posted!

One last thing! I've never had anything close to the devotion that Korinne Roesner has for anything! And I'm thankful that she focusus her devotion for the rest of her life to "Day Off The Dead!" She got Tattoo's inspired directly from our shortfilm's character designs! How cool is that!? Korinne is from France, lives in Strasbourg with her Bullterrier Tara, and is "DOTD's" #1 superfan! Check her out!

2006-04-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Slim Cessna's Auto Club
WEB TO: Identifying Animators and Their Scenes

Well it's been awhile since I've been motivated to update this. I have several updates and need to focus long enough to get them up.

Last week A Bunch Of Short Guys and Janimation hosted Ray Harryhausen!! We brought him out during his book tour, so that Dallas fans could quiz him on what makes him so good! It was a blast!

He got a tour of Janimation, and we all got our few minutes with the man to say "hiya", and to bask in the glow of old-school-stop-motion genius!

Ray is still sharp minded, even at 86! Pretty amazing! He was touring his book, and showing a new film he produced along with his parnter. The film is done by a studio on the West Coast, and the name escapes me. It is basically an animated re-telling of Edger Allen Poe's "The Pit and the Pendelum". I enjoyed it because, well I know how hard it is to put something like that together. There was alot of dicussion of the subject matter. ( Poe ). Some of my collegues gave the short "thumbs down". I was rather suprised by the Negative tones they used. Considering all the folks who were "poo-pooing" the short, hadn't even made one themselves! Speaks of ignorance, and lack of respect. After all, to be a bit dramatic, None of us in the FX film biz would be here if it wasn't for the pioneering FX work of Ray. Not just animation, but Ray was the ILM of his time. It just so happened that he was mostly doing creatures. But I figured for the short, they were able to get it made, tell a story, and actualy finish it. Kudos! It was animated rather crudely by today's standards, when you compare it to such polished stop-motion wizards like Aardman, or Henrey Selick, but it was sure fun to watch!!

Ray and I!

( I'm the guy on the left! )

Janimation hopes to have more opportunities to bring more filmmakers down so we can pick thier brain! It was a great event, sold out and everything! Hope to see you at the next one.

One of the guys at the office, we'll call him "Greg", is a giggling school girl at the mere mention of Harryhausen. Ray is the reason our fictional character "Greg" even got into the FX biz at all. "Greg" also focusus on creature creation and design as well as bang on animation!
So it was fun to watch "Greg" all beside himself. I don't think he stopped smiling all day!

What I also found fun was seeing our "young guys" learn who the hell Ray even was. At Janimation, we have this one artist from Translyvania. Seriously, Translyvania. Young guy, EXTREMLY giften in all things art-production, and is budding into a 3D generalist! So this guy is pretty new to the industry and is cutting his gums on Janimation. On the day of Ray's visit, this kid blurts out in confusion, "Why did he bring a toy Skeleton?". Well, let me tell you, after the laughter settled down, this young 'slyvanian' got an education of ridicule. I think he still gets teased about that. He'll never live it down! Ha! So that goes to show you. Learn your damn animation history! If you don't know history, you'll be made fun of by those who do! Know your Art history, no matter what medium. Just for heaven's sake , know it.

Well, this may have been the last time Ray tours around like that. I hope this is never referred to as his 'farewell tour'. But either way, I was extremly thankful to meet the legend. Finally, my faith in animation was just confirmed by Ray. The most talented animators just work the hardest and longest and pour more of themselves into thier work. Just like anything, good work is usually is the result of painstaking hard work. Well that's all the Ray I hav e to share.

In the mean while, I'll leave you with a CU of one of Ray's actual armatures he brought with him! Pretty neat!!
( I was asked by Ray to "not count the ribs!" )

2006-03-06T20:23:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: S gt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
WEB TO: The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

So last week was exciting! It turns out that four spots I directed at Janimation have been awarded Telly's this year! Three of them for UNC, and involved cool photo-projection FX, and one was a full on CG -animated Design spot for Sylvania! If you go to Janimation's site we have Sylvania on the front page!

I went ahead and put a clip of the FX for the "Fishing" UNC spot. It's still my favorite. The clip has been lifted from our Montogue so it's been sped up, and has some of the Montoque music still attached. Either way, you can see the basic FX. This spot was a locked off clip we had to purchase from Stock. We then sliced it all up into layers, built CG geometry, and re-projected it all back down onto the 3D scene. From there we were able to fly the camera any way we wanted. I love this effect! The Line and Text were just dropped into the 3D scene. You can see the entire spot at Janimation.com

2006-02-27T23:06:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Soma FM
WEB TO: Cyborg Name Decoder!

Updates on Invasion.

2006-02-23T19:47:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Eighteenth Street Lounge - Balanco
WEB TO: John K's Blog

Alright, groovy things are in the works. Fist Invasion has what I would call the first draft of an Trailer. I've selected some tunes, and cut together something of a blueprint for a trailer. I'll have something to show for that in the next coming weeks. I'm working on a painting for a Background as I type this. I've been totally inspired by a student artist named Brandon. His influence weigh heavy on me as I paint my own BG's. Stay tuned for those!

Brando Blogo -- Brandon Scott's simply amazing!

Oh, I don't have a copy myself, but have seen it, Animation Magazine has a full page article on me! With a head-shot and everything! LOL! I'm talking all sorts of B.S. about Stranglehold, and how all the hard work was done by the artists! I just stood around and pointed. ;-)
I'll put a link and scan of the article as soon as I get my grubby little hands on it.

Finally, I picked up a pencil and actually drew today in the sketchbook between renders. I must say, all the drawing i've been doing for the storyboards really had a noticed improvement in my daily drawing. Way to go me! I guess I'll try to keep drawing and see if I can get comfortable with it again. I sure miss it. But it's a talent that will dull without use. Like muscle, it needs to be flexed and trained. Otherwise it goes soft. I'll post some sketchbook pages when I get around to it.

Otherwise, I leave you with this until next time:

Sculpture for Animated Films!

2006-02-15T23:29:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: DangerDoom
WEB TO: Harry's Poster Page

Yeah, I've been pretty bad about updating this in the new year. I'll try to be better. ;-)

So the new links page is awesome! I'm able to dymanically update my links page on the fly while I surf!! Thank you del.icio.us! I have logged so many great artists and websites of wonder! Please swing by my link cluster and have a gander.

Today A&M Dallas's portfolio class invited me out to show off my goods and to chat about "why the hell anyone would want to get into production?" It's always fun to hear the questions asked like I have some great insite. *laugh* The only thing I could contribute was first-hand-experience. When the students learn that everyone is just making it up as they go, and are not guarding some 'hidden' knowledge that'll make it a straight shot to any profession.
Work is hard. Producing is harder. Promotion is the hardest. And guess what a student is doing right out of school. Not until experience is earned, and a badge of bitterness awarded can someone really graduate to a 'battle hardned production artist". Until then your fodder. ;-)

Now don't let any of that scare you students. It was encouraging to see such advanced work coming out of the school. It shows the students are using the software, and creating content!
Looks like some students are focusing on just executing with Maya, but I can see some budding filmmakers and designers in the ones I looked at. It's encouraging!

In other news, Invasion has undergone a serious storyboarding frenzy. Who knows, I'm expecting to have an animatic in the coming weeks. Got music, will edit them all together when I have time, and will post it on the site.

2006-01-19T20:44:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Pandora
WEB TO: wankr -- Web 2.0

The new year came and went. Immediately followed by a viral infection that knocked me out for 3 weeks and counting! This is the first time I've felt anywhere strong enough to sit at the computer!
However, I've updated the links section with a streaming link's page. Now it'll be the most updated part of this site! I collect inspiring links for artists, and myself really. I gather them daily and will log them here! Thanks to the power of Del.icio.us! Artists enjoy!
I swear to have new images in the next coming week. My goal is to get something up from Stranglehold this weekend, and perhaps some actual drawings from the sketchbook!
Invasion is burning in my britches, so expect to see a teaser for that in the next month or so!
2006 is shaping up to be a bang-on productive year!

2005-12-23T13:44:00.000-06:00

RSS Feed now online!
A quick note to say that Kungfukoi now has an RSS feed that is online and ready for syndication!

2005-12-18T12:29:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Spy Mix
WEB TO: My Del.icio.us Links

So the holidays are barreling down on us. Shane Glines keeps reminding us that we only have 6 more shopping days until Christmas! My confession is, I haven't even started my shopping. What does that say about me?

Costa Rica is a beautiful country and an awesome place to spend Thanksgiving!

On the visit we saw, Howler Monkeys, Giant beatles, sea turtles, free range iquannas, and about a million migrated birds! It's the Rain Forest, and as much of a tropical jungle as it gets.

They filmed "Jurassic Park" there, so if you have seen that movie then you know what I'm talking about. It really looks like that!

Lots of stuff I need to update the site with. I want to update the 2005 animation and still sections. I have tons of work that I just not have uploaded.

The reef section needs a major update. I have since moved the tank twice, and upgraded into a full 75 gallon. So look forward to those updates over the next few weeks while relaxing on the holiday break.

For now, go see Peter Jackson's "King Kong". It's spectacular.

2005-11-17T19:17:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Boozoo Bajou - Divers ( Funky Lowlives Mix )
WEB TO: f-secure

Ok, so I've been through a bunch away from the site for the last month or so. My last post was when? Oct. 8th! Jeeze. The wife and I ended up moving out of the Rosemont last month and into our very own, bought an paid for, home! I'll post pics as soon as I have more time. So moving twice in 6 months was a time consumer. Now with a little vacation this next week to Costa Rica, I should return for the new year 2006 fresh, and ready to produce.

LOTS in the works, and LOTS more to show. For now I leave with you some Facts you MUST see to believe.

Top 30 Facts about Chuck Norris For Real Yo.

See you in a week.

2005-10-08T10:35:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Dangerdoom -- The Mouse & The Mask
WEB TO: ( See Below )

I've managed to find two hours to rub together long enough to bring you a short weekend trip around the internet.

First I'd like to bring you Chrisis.org. Bill Presing's corner of the web. Bill is a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation. His previous animation work has been seen on WB Gotham Girls, Cartoon Networks's The Venture Brothers, Disney's Doug, PB&J Otter, and his work on the Rosie O'Donnel SHow opening sequence won him an Emmy. Bill's work has been a constant source of inspiration for me on Invasion.

Sam weber brings you: Sampaints.com A great portfolio section
His stuff has turned up in the Dallas Observer a local alternative news publication.

I love the sketchbook section. It gives the impression of being loose, but actually is tight as hell. He seem to really get off on drawing lots of branches and individual strands of hair.

Cooky! But I still enjoy it!

Alright, now onto something totaly time consuming! Bibi's Box.
Now I know what you're thinking, but get your mind out of the gutter it's not that kind of blog! This is self described blog of "A curious girl blogging to share and enjoy!" The content is updated often and always inspiring. It's good nurishment for the creativly curious.

Alright, so you have investigated those sites, and still want more!? Well buckle your seatbelts and put your peepers on this! Them5 is going to rock your creative mind! Design, and Motion with a bunch of 3D projection to boot never looked so good. Plus, the web interface is cool as hell.

Ok, so now your inspired and ready to grab your art supplies and start cranking! If you are like I am, you started drawing a Lion, after seeing the holy moly amazing wonderful CG Lion in this:

Chapter V of the Narnia video journal. The CG test of the Lion is the best thing in the entire chapter! Yes, that lion is CG!! Woozers!

So you'll need animation motion reference. And you'll want to look at these! We got the 2nd series at work, and they are great reference. The DVD interface is ill-thought-out, but the content is great! It's awesome reference for any movements you can think of.

But wait, there is more! For dessert I want to turn you onto: Arthur De Pins.com! Great work and fun animation!

Now at posting this, Joel Trussell's site had Exceeded Bandwith. However, if you still can't get enough of the onslaught of creative coolness I've pitched at you check back when he gets the lights back on. It's on my list of awesome sites to show you. So it's gotta be good!

I hope you enjoyed your short trip through the internet with me. I'll post more soon.

2005-09-19T18:43:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Blackalicious - Make you Feel That Way
WEB TO: The Animation Podcast

I just finished up the first in a series of neat 3D Design spots for the University of North Carolina. I'll post it as soon as it's online. It's pretty fly! And the next two should be even cooler!

Work has been so emersive lately I haven't really been around enough to produce anything new for Invasion. I did however, manage to concept a short film for kids! I'll post more when I get some designs down on paper. I'm reluctant to post the working title until I have some imagery to show. So I won't! ;-)

In my fascination with "Animation Blogs" I found that Cartoon Brew is showing a few great ones here: Animation blogs. I love this renaissance of artistic voice. It's freakin' awesome!

I'll post some imagery soon I promise.

2005-09-12T22:05:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Doug E Fresh @ Slick Rick -- The Show
WEB TO: Fwak Grab Bag. "Subcuture Scrap blog: Ideas and Links"

..So busy... ...Weight is hard to bear.... ... Must continue on...

So in my research for the "Chronicals of Oklahoma Shay" I was shown this photo of "Great Great Grandfather Mason". I expect I'll need to incorporate him into my current project!

I was able to hand the image off to Photoshop and it gave back the following restored image! You can see a before and after below. Ain't the "Restore Photo" button in Photoshop great!?

:-)

2005-08-30T19:07:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Nuk if you Buck
WEB TO: Bibi's blog

Cyber-Dump Part 1.
Yes, it's been a delayed posting. I guess when SO much is going on I get overwhelmed and just pass on the whole updating thing all together! Some fun stuff ahead so grab hold!

I would like to introduce my wife's new Blog called "Last Rage". She has learned how to Blog. ( fear! ) So of course she's totally addicted. Her current topic for "Last Rage" is to photoblog about our weekends. So currently, it looks like we party like rock stars! It's not for the weak of heart, so Grandmother, if you are reading this.. you might want to skip this particular link. ;-)

Next, my mother and her partner just released a line of designer furnature called "Family". She and Linda have created some really awesome custom designer furnature. And true to the name, "Family".. There is a, you guessed it, a "Jeffrey Chair". My mother loves me! So go check out her new line. I just can't wait to get some for the Rosemont!

So if you haven't already noticed, I had been trying to keep up with my weekly illustrations. But that became impossible due to schedule, and general lack of enough hours in a week. I have been finding time to continue on with the progression of Invasion however. So I've uploaded a quick animated style test to: the Invasion Production Journal. I hope you enjoy it.

So much more, but I'm weary. Check back soon for the next installment.

2005-08-15T22:03:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Los Amigos Invisibles
WEB TO: Meathaus.com

Jim Hill has a great article about the upcoming Disney project "Rapunzel Unbraided". Directed by Glen Keane who was in attendance at the "Legacy of Disney Animation" segment out at Siggraph. The technology used to make the images is likened to the "Deep Canvas" technology used on Tarzan. Really exciting stuff!

2005-08-06T15:04:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Celso Pina "El rebelde del acordeon"
WEB TO: Chris Cunningham's "Rubber Johnny" ( Ultra Creepy!! )

Just got back from L.A. where Siggraph 2005 was held. I went out there for Janimation to research the latest and greatest in technologies across the board. While I was out there I managed to snap a few photo's off of the floor. See the fun here.

Spent alot of time getting to know the Softimage XSI group. It was the first time I got to put names to the faces. Really amazing stuff was announced for XSI. Most notabably: Face Robot.

Now I normally, don't geek-out on features, but this one has me pretty excited. It is a facial solver, that allows the animator to have controls for the face that behave correctly. The face keeps it's form and knows how the wrinkles should be, how the lips roll over the teeth. All automatically. So then the animator only has to animate, without fear. You can still make your blendshapes for your targets. But now, they behave organically, and don't solve lineraly. ( a problem with traditional blendshapes. ) Check out the videos to see what I mean.

Other things of note. The 32 bit display. Oh it's beautiful! HDR displays are here! ( well for $50k )

During the event, I was lucky enough to attend the Studio Ghimbli demonstration where Mitsunori Kataama, CGI Director at Studio Ghibli spoke on how they utilize the toon renderer on thier projects. These are the artists who did "Spirited Away", and "Howl's Moving Castle" to name just two. Here is a brief of what was discussed. Oh it's awesome!

Overall the conference was great. Got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in awhile. Made alot of new friends, and got inspired about new techniques and ideas. One thing I can say for Siggraph, it's nice to get out of the office, surround yourself with thousands of other like minded artists, and to generally think outside of the box. I would like to think I live outside the box, but if that's the case, then Siggraph, allows you to think outside the room the box is in. Very inspirational, forward thinking stuff.

2005-07-11T18:26:00.000-05:00

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...

2005-07-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-05T21:52:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-06-29T21:05:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Morcheeba
WEB TO: Bolt City

Recently, with the start of Everything Stupid, I have been looking for similar projects, when I came across -- Illustration Friday. This is a weekly illustration club, where topics are posted, and every friday, illustrators from all grades post thier work based on the topic. Sounds like a hellof alot of fun so I have signed up, and will share my weekly updates here. I look forward to attempting that.

Nothing significant to share, so I'll leave you with a bit of zen. Take a deep breath, and prepare yourself for some Cute Things.

2005-06-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Ben Kweller
WEB TO: The Digital Pencil

I made it out to see "Batman Begins" and "Howl's Moving Castle" this weekend. It seems like everyone is in love with the Batman movie except me. I am really tired of Comic Book movies in general and this is no exception. It IS the best Batman of the franchise thanks to the director. if you like realisim in your comic book flick, then you'll enjoy this. It's the complete opposite of Tim Burton's vision. I guess my problem is, no matter which way the mythology is told, it's still just Batman. The movie is a sensational summer blockbuster, and all that that implies.

"Howl's Moving Castle" on the otherhand was amazing! It never seizes to amaze me how fanciful and whimiscal Miyzaki's worlds are. This one is no different. Wizards, Witches, and Steam Powered technology! Gotta love it.

So I wanted to show you the Grapevine trail at one of the many scenic overlooks. This is the only shot I got because I forgot to bring the camera on the ride. So I rode back with it, and this is about 1/4 mile in from the trailhead. But there are several photo opportunites along the trail.
I'll try to snap some more shots of the trails we've been riding. If you didn't know any better, you woudn't know it was Dallas.

2005-06-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Thievery Corporation
WEB TO: Mike Manley Blogs

7 days later I finally post. Lame I know. It just means I have nothing going on to report. I guess that in itself can be considered good. The truth is I got a new game. Well a demo actually, Battlefield 2. Oh it's the shizzle if you are into it. I am. So in the meanwhile, here is something educational.

[Technical Mumbo-Jumbo Ahead]
I would like to share is a nugget of internet for you Shading freaks out there.

Faking HDRI with SDR imagery

This result had been elusive to me because I wasn't thinking about what I actually needed to achieve. My problem for several months now was that I couldn't easily create HDR maps for use as reflections. Any experienced shader will tell you that controlling the reflections go a long frakin* way as to achieving realism. Well, with Mental Ray it's ashame not to utilize the 32 bit color space and that gives more range in the result. So the problem became, how can I make HDR maps on the fly? I knew there had to be a way to fake HDR so I could take any image I find off the web, and treat it, and get a result that worked for HDR casting. This guy presents a simple yet obvious solution that works amazing! I utilized it for a spot that showcased reflections. I was able to give some amazingly realistic results from standard imagry. No special photography was needed. It's not identical, but I challenge anyone to do thier own side by side, and the result is so impressive it convienced me. So now my resources for reflection control are up to my imagination. So enjoy this quick tute. It assumes that you understand the basis of shading in whatever package you are using. I was able to apply it in practice no problem. Enjoy.

*( Thanks Battlestar Gallatica for that one! )

2005-06-13T22:32:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Cars Trucks Buses - Phish
WEB TO: Tirade

Well, due to a screwup, Kungfukoi.com was down since Saturday night. Ooops Me!
It's been resolved and measures have been taken to ensure it won't go down again. ( at least for the same reason! )

I've made my first posting to the "Everything Stupid" experiment. I'm going to really have to work at getting into the swing of things. Especially making time to draw daily!

So Kim's birthday is coming up this month, and we decided to get her a Jamis Mountain Bike.
It's a sweet ride if I don't say so for myself. It got me inspired to ride again, so I dusted off my Santa Cruz that hadn't been ridden since last season and headed to the trials. Of course as soon as I got out there 2 miles in, my saddle broke beyond repair. Walked back to the car, crestfallen. So later Kim and I went for a 11 mile cruise around the paved White Rock lake.
Next time I'll remember to bring the camera.

Somewhere on my body ( I'll leave that to your imagination ), I scored a pretty gnarly bruise from the saddle incident. I've never seen these colors on a bruise before.. So I had to share!!

2005-06-10T21:49:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: I froze my iPod
WEB TO: Directors Collection Vol #2

So with the launch of Everything Stupid comes a new wave of pressure that is self induced. My first big update is Monday and I haven't drawn a thing. Woo Hoo.. that's why I started this experiment to see if I can kick start my productivity!

Shawn Alan Peters came over last night with his new toy. At first I mocked him. Until I saw and heard it work. Check out the most awesome lightsaber replica ( read: toy ) I've ever seen.
From the makers over at: Master Replicas

( live video below -- 2 MB )

An update on the SCTV production gig. I finished up a "writers" package to send out to some prospective writers for the Pilot. I'm excited about the potential of getting some professional writers on board. SCTV is amped about moving forward, and it looks like we're going to produce the Trailer for the project at Janimation. That is to be seen, but we're in talks about that very thing. So hopefully by the end of this year we'll be shopping around a joint, SCTV, Janimation project created by Myself and Lee.

Enjoy.

2005-06-07T22:23:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Sparklehorse
WEB TO: Tadahiro Uesugi Illustration

If I can just talk a second about today's "WEB TO:" Recently, I've been talking to a friend about RSS feeds. What they are, how they are used.. etc. If you aren't sure what an RSS feed is, go ask Google. And since I have recently discovered Blogging in general, came exploration into the RSS feed. Supported by Firefox, RSS subscriptions are crazy cool user defined feeds! Well, the community of Blogging Illustrators, Cartoonists, and animators is amazingly lush! It's a huge resource for inspiration!
So I've been hoarding a bunch of my recent finds and posting them into my links page. Be sure to check them out! It's got me so charged up that I've got Jimmy on board with a new project.

The Idea is "Everything Stupid". Starting an E-zine, or a Creative Production Journal, is just another way of saying "self imposed deadline system". The idea is to start a "series" of creative thought in the form of art and follow it through to a pre-determined completion. The content can be anything determined by the artist. The whole goal is to simply produce art on a weekly bases. There will need to be some thread of unifying element between a "series". A "series" can be stopped and a new one can begin at anytime. The result will be an impressive body of work, organized in to a collection of "series" by various contributing artists.

So EXPLODE with creativity!!

Jimmy and I are going to post with our intentions to start the ball rolling. Then the plan is to have updates every Monday that are considered breakthroughs for the "series". These breakthroughs will be displayed and elaborated on by the artist if needed weekly.

It should be a fun exercise in creative thinking and practice. The later being what I addmittidly need to do. Practice my handskills.

2005-06-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Johnny Hammond
WEB TO: Craig Harris' Frankenbulb

So Friday, Janimation took the afternoon to play Whirleyball. It was in celebration of a co-worker's 30th birthday. Well if you haven't experienced Whirleyball then let me tell you.. it's a crazy far out idea. It starts with bumper-cars on an electric basketball court. Add in a dash of Jai-Lai scoops, whiffleball, and some basketball backboards with holes cut in it and you have the makings of an interesting time. Some will claim it takes skill, some will claim it takes stratagy and teamwork. I claim it should be an olympic sport! We drank, played, ate cake.. good times were had by all.

I rediscovered an old college friends site today. ithinkican dot com Toby Craig is a comic illustrator who's been publishing independently since 96! Pretty impressive. So go enjoy his work, and email him that I sent you! ;-)

DJ Jazzy Jeff announcing the play-by-play at Whirlyball! Whirly What!?!?!!!????

2005-06-02T22:20:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Caribou - The Milk Of Human Kindness
WEB TO: Vintage Robot Porn

Well good news! Stranglehold was selected by the smart and wise people over at Gamespot as one of the top 10 best cinematic trailers at E3 this year! ( the largest E3 in history, mind you! )

So I've been on cloud 9 all day. So much so that I went ahead and updated the Animation Page with some new stuff, and re-linked the old stuff so it actually works! Yay me!

2005-06-01T21:34:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Le Tigre -- This Island
WEB TO: Aeon Flux Cinematic!!

In my ongoing effort to figure out the purpose of this Blog I wanted to share something I came across lately.

a chat with john kricfalusi.

John Kricfalusi has been of course a huge source of inspiration in my sick and twisted upcoming. The article appears to just be a log-file from an online chat. There are some interesting tidbits, but what struct me as really particular was his insistance that there are no modern cartoons worth watching. I was amazed to find someone of his bearth saying that there are no good cartoons anymore. I don't know if that was a generalization, or if he truly doesn't like contemporary cartoons. Perhaps in context of Nickalodian, Cartoon Network, I could tend to agree with him. But, to say that in general, seems obtuse. I mean, you have to give props to the artists at Noodle Soup who bring us Venture Bros. The "animation" per say isn't what I would call good ( think minimul ). But they make up for it with writing. From the creators of the Tick.
Then you have shows like Dextor's Lab, and Samurai Jack. The term 'Animation' is used losely when describing Genndy Tartakovsky projects. However, as a cartoon, his design, color and layout are some of the most cutting edge western animation art i've come across.
Then if we're talking Internationally, then I would have Mr. K. watch: Samurai Champloo. Some of the most forward thinking and well animated concepts I've seen out of an anime series. With it's "hip-hop" soundtrack, and Production I.G. sensibilities, it's hard to ignore the mad awesome animation style.
And to look at even newer talent, you have to look at an academic level. So I bring you Alex Woo. His Rex Stele won a student academy award. His motion is well thought out, and stylized in a way that is reminesent of Don Bluth. The color is inspired, as are the layout and designs.
To say that there isn't any good cartoons anymore is turning an eye to the hordes of inspired and new animators who ARE doing great work. Animate on!

Riding in Shawn's Car with my new Camera.

2005-05-31T20:04:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: The Books
WEB TO: Mr T: Treat Your Mother Right

Memorial Day came and went. I would love to say I did something productive, but I can't. I managed to secure the couch for the full 3 days. So that being said I'm ready to jump back into it.

2005-05-26T16:13:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Cish Cash -- Basement Jaxx
WEB TO: Zen Reef -- Hawaii

So today I saw Blur's latest cinematic. I must say they really have a knack for creating cinematics that are beautifuly done in the big picture. Sure you can nit-pick flaws here and there. But you know what they say about folk in glass houses. :-)

I met some rather interesting Gentlemen today. Keith Lango, and Bryan Engram. Both really talented and nice fella's. Good folk. Keith is leaving ReelFX for DNA. *smirk*
I've been a fan of Lango's since I saw his first 10 second club entry. It was nice to see that he's an upstanding, fast-witted individual. I hope we can work together someday.

I almost forgot. I saw Star Wars Sunday night. Ya know, I love Star Wars as much as the next guy. I sure loved Star Wars better before Episode 1 came out. So now the "Revenge of the Sith" is out, and done we can sit back and look at everything in context. Even after reflection I find that "A New Hope" is still my favorite. I think because it introduces Han Solo. Say what you want, Episodes 1, 2, and 3 didn't have a character I cared about as much as Han Solo. "Revenge of the Sith" is a great finale to the entire saga. Lots of corn in the movie, but then that's what we've come to expect from Lucas these days. A full helping of corn. But Jar Jar looks beaten down in this one. He's so sad. You think it's because of the abuse by the masses over the years? You'll see what I mean when you watch it. Darth Vader finally appears. OMG he rolls on the scene like Frankenstien, then has a moment that will be doomed to infamy throughout history.
Nooooooo! I could also have done without the appearance of Chewbacca. It would have worked just as good with a generic Wookie. But that's just me. I'm funny that way. Again, Chewie is a Pirate Mechanic, not a General of the Wookie Army. Or so I thought.
Overall I like it. GO see it... it has light saber battles, and actual Wars in the Stars.

I'll leave you with a situation and thought. Have you ever found yourself sitting on the "throne" and you notice a little ant walking across your vast tile landscape?
Do you ever wonder what you look like to him??

2005-05-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: Hoochie Mama - 2 Live Crew
WEB TO: Drawn!

I'm Back! The Dominican Republic was awesome! Went on a drinking spree that would have made Nicholas Cage proud. ( Can you say Leaving La Ramona? ). I Got to hang out with my wife, my friends, and made some new ones.
The Dem Rep. is an awesome, and beautiful place and I recommend you go.

I was able to give you full coverage of the action. Seen here from above and below! Enjoy!

In other news, "Stranglehold" the project I've been Creative Directing for the last 12 weeks has finally came out! Check it! I'm really excited about the work that Janimation did. So go check it out and give me some feedback.

I'm just getting back into the swing of things... But i'm back now, and you should enjoy regular updates.
Until then, be sure to check out the Drawn! website. It's awesome.

2005-05-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: What It Was Will Never Again
WEB TO: Phil Vischer dot com

So, blogs interest me. There is a lot of pressure when you say "hey, check out my blog". I look at someone's like Keith Lango who has intellegent conversation about the Art of Animation. So with all the pressure to contribute to the community I wonder to myself, "what do I talk about?". Truthfully, I guess whatever I find interesting that day? Is that valid? Does anyone care? Do I care if anyone cares? All questions to be answered on this here blog you are reading. You sad poor soul. Go read Keith's.

This is the last week before I head out to Dominican Republic for vacation. So excuse me if i'm distracted. Speaking of that, I bought a new camera for the trip. The Cybershot T33. Oh I fully endorse this camera. If you don't know about it... do.
Although I only payed $399 at Best Buy. Dunno why RedNova's price is jacked up so high.

Over the weekend we hosted a wedding shower for a cowworker and all of Janimation turned out at the Rosemont for the event. Before our heels cooled from the all day event that lasted from 12 until 7ish. We went to Adrian Carmack's birthday party thrown at HIS house later that evening. Let me say his house is technically a Mansion. A Mansion on a hill. I would say it was the closest thing Dallas has seen to a real Hollywood-style 3-day binge drinking-rock 'n roll- style blowout. Needless to say we had fun. Perhaps it could be argued too much fun.

During the course of that Saturday, I witness the brutal slaughter of 3 seperate pinatas. Oh it was horribly tragic. Sometime during the evening with Carmack, he was given a sword and let loose on a poor defenseless Spongebob Squarepants pinata pictured here:

I'm sorry you had to see that.
I'll leave you now to pay your respects.

2005-05-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

IPOD TO: M.I.A
WEB TO: Sin City

I'm Back! I guess since the last posting, i've been working on a project that premieres at E3. It turned out awesome! I'm really proud of it, and will be bringing you a peek at it as soon as I can.

So until that pops, I can say that I saw Sin City. -nice. Rob.Rod. does it again. Now i've worked on a Rob.Rod. production(s). I know how hard it is for the post team. I have to say my hat is off to them. Sin City turned out awesome. Very graphic, and that style lent to Rob.Rod.'s pipeline.

This summer is turning out to be a thunderstorm of work. Janimation has a few things lined up that should initiate a blip on the radar. So be ready for that to drop.

This guy who MC's a San Antonio radio show sent me a huge mix of music. The one I think you should check out is M.I.A Arular! Holy Cow. Nuff said.

on the 13th Kim and I are heading out to the Dominican Republic. Rest and Relaxation! Woot!

More soon!

2005-03-28T23:32:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Zwan -- Mary Star Of The Sea
WEB TO: Google Maps

Fish: "I wonder when he's going to change the water?"
Other Fish: "WHY? We haven't finished the water he gave us!"

2005-03-26T10:44:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: The State We're In
WEB TO: War of the Worlds

Ok, so it's been awhile since I last posted. However, the clan here have picked up and moved into a new 4200 square foot estate that will from this point on be referred to as "The Rosemont".
The spanish-style, 11 room, bohemoth of a house will be our new residence for all foreseeable futures. I'll post images as soon as I can get the hang of posting images to the Blog. ( this thing's UI is so awkward, that I seem to not really have a handle on layout or how to control it really. )

The Janimation project in production right now is so amazing, I can't wait to brag on it. It'll be released at the end of May.. ( debut at E3! ) ;-)

The clan is also slated for a trip to the Dominican Republic.. so I'm in the market for a new camera. I'll keep you posted when that goes down.

Personal projects, such as Invasion have been in hiatus while I've been focusing on the Move, and Directing the gig at Janimation. I'll be able to sit down and really work on it here more off and on now that I have my computer plugged in! Dead Tonight is ongoing the Pilot script writing process.. so we should have something on that here in the next month. Seems April is a busy month for everyone. Busy Busy.

So that's it for a brief update. I'll elaborate more as I should be posting more regularly now.
In the meanwhile, here is my first attempt to post an image on this thing.
Kim and I at the Dam Short Film Fest in Boulder City.

2005-02-24T21:53:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Missy Elliott - Under Construction
WEB TO: Domino Topple!

So Jimmy Gass and I came up with an idea for a movie today. I won't elaborate on it, but I can admit to you it's genius! It has car chases in it! Perhaps i've said too much. But wait until you see it before you judge. I predict this will be a really, really fun project. It has no working title yet.

Busy as all get out at work. Several cool projects in-house. I mean COOL projects that of course, I can't talk about until they're officially released. They are in the style of Area-51. You'll likie.

A relocation of residence is about to occur for Kungfukoi. ( read; Kim and I ). We're moving to Oak Cliff, into a dream house. I'll post more on that as it occurs. But wait until you see this house.

2005-02-17T21:08:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Madvillain - Madvillainy
WEB TO: Rex Steele - Nazi Smasher!

It is becoming more and more apparent to me that you make your own destiny. It may sound silly with a hint of cliche', but it's true. I think that when all things are observed, the correct path, or path of the best outcome, becomes obvious. It might seem like common sense, but it never seizes to amaze me how much of the population is oblivious to this fact. Many will even try to resist, and fight you as you forge ahead. The best defense is to power up, stay grounded, cycle your chi, and find time to recharge. In the end, a well grounded assault on destiny will defeat the weak paper tigers of the resistance. Positive visualization is real. I think it's humanity's connection to the universe. That's all I got on that.

2005-02-12T13:58:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Fu Manchu - California Crossing
WEB TO: Ong Bak Trailer

Went and saw Ong Bak last night. If you are into Martial Art Movies... then you have got to see Ong Bak. The star Tony Jaa, is going to be the next Jacki Chan or Bruce Lee.
In other news, i broke down and update the site one more time. Lots of things in links, and the misc section is now back open. A little classier now. I hope to get some time this weekend to sit down with Invasion. but being that it is "Valentine's" weekend, I am not hopeful. I have a couple of AWESOME projects going on that I cannot talk about yet. So keep checking back.. I anticipate a big press release for one of projects in the next few weeks.

2005-02-08T19:05:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Judgement Night
WEB TO: All SuperBowl Commercials

This last weekend has been interesting. I went out to the DAMN SHORT FILM FEST and gave a seminar on "Short Film Animation". This was the first year for the fest, and had an impressive turnout! The seminar went great I was told! I got to meet lots of great Filmmakers and watch a host of suprisingly impressive shorts! Both animated and Live action! I had a blast, and look forward to returning where we'll be able to spend more time sight seeing... and VEGAS!!

I'm hoping to update the site here soon with some new content. I need to go ahead and remove the AWN link, since it's from 1998! I think whoever was in charge of that has died off, or lost interest. I also want to post some new Future Girl animation. I've been reworking her, and can't wait to show off the new stuff.

2005-02-01T19:40:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Upgrade to 4.7.1
WEB TO: Good Omens

So, that dinner to Outback I keep talking about... It was awesome. I'm not really impressed with the food in general. It's good don't get me wrong, but it's not worth all the hype I think my friends are into. Either way, it was a fun time among friends. Well, it turned out that the friends who invited us ( my wife and I ) to go to dinner, also invited Mike Knapp who was also in town. Mike Knapp is an illustrator, and is currently a creative at Blue Sky Studios. He has just finished up "Robots" and is moving on to Ice Age 2. He's a great guy, and an even better artists. Check out his stuff in the new "Art of Robots" book. I sure love to talk about Animation and Storytelling, and guess what, so does Mike. So we talked show for 4 hours! It was a treat! In the same weekend I got to chat with Jason Taylor, who is an animator at Blur, who just recently found out "Gopher Broke" was nominated for an Oscar! Congrats to Jason, and everyone at Blur.

2005-01-28T19:21:00.000-06:00

IPOD TO: Paperboy -- The Nine Yards
Web To: Poplockin

So it turned out Outback was tonight, not last night. Either way, Outback! It's Friday, and i'm about to downshift for the weekend. I want to direct your friday attention to today's link. Holy cow I was on the floor. (o.k. not really, but it's quiet fun ). Enjoy

2005-01-27T22:16:00.000-06:00

IPOD To: Boards of Canada
Web To: Hidden Humor of Iconographic Instructions

I updated the links section and it should be updated more frequently.
It's outback steakhouse for dinner tonight! Awww yeah!
More later,

2005-01-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

IPOD To: The Donnas -- Gold Metal
WEB To: Ninjai Chapter 11!

Things are moving forward on all fronts. I've been playing with importing Poser Models into XSI. Say what you want about Poser, but having a pretty decent unibody mesh, with about 300 shapes to customize the proportions,and phenomes isn't a bad deal. Espeically if you are getting the models professionally built by DAZ.

The Textures are pretty decent, and the geometry isn't layed out half bad. For BG characters, or Base Meshes they sure are a time saver. Espeically if you use pCharacterImport. and get them into XSI with UV's already layed out. Time-Saver.

We've been investigating Flash as a tool for Animation. With an upcoming animated project I hope to employ Flash as a tool for traditional animators to migrate to an all digital format. ( eliminating the need for scanning or shooting of pencil tests ) The Cintiq is the bridge to make that all happen. "Q" up at the office has already taken to the flash interface, and is already producing full rendered animations in a week!
All this prior to having gotten the Cintiq. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

That's all I got. And todays "Web To" is Ninjai Chapter 11. If you haven't seen 1-10 go see them now. If you have, then this is the LONG awaited next installment of The Little Ninjai.

J

2005-01-25T20:24:00.000-06:00

Hmm. I haven't quiet figured out how to control the Font size, and style with this damn blogger.
So please disregard the non-consistancies while I try to figure it out.

2005-01-25T19:53:00.000-06:00

IPOD To: Handome Boy Modeling School -- White People
WEB To: Shadowfist

Back again. Three in a row.. I didn't think i'd get this far!

Picking over this site, I see lots of things that I need to "conform" and just plain update. Some of my upcoming chores will include, re-saving out every darn gallery image, and replacing the old 'blue" with something from the current pallet. I also want to organize and expand on the link section quiet a bit. I have a collection of really neat and inspiring links, (as i'm sure we all do ) and I really want to catalogue and show the link collection I have thus far.

Thinking aloud. Catagories I will need are:
Artists :: Here is where i'll put independent artists' websites. Friends, Collegues, and Masters.
Filmmakers :: Links to inspire, and education those looking to become actual filmmakers!
Animation :: Well, I'd have to go with, anything specific to Animation
Reference :: Here is where i'll put things like , Texures, photo reference, anything that would be considered library.
Media :: Film, shorts, and artwork of all mediums will be collected here.
Gizmo Tech :: I'm a huge tech geek, so cool cuting edge technology and gadgets will be here.
CGI Tech :: Anything relating to CGI specific software, CGI tools, computers used for CGI production.. etc. ( CGI = Computer Generated Imagery )

So now that I have an actual record of what catagories, I should be able to whip something out pretty quick. So look forward to that.
Until next time,
Thanks

2005-01-24T19:51:00.000-06:00

IPOD To: Primal Scream -- Xtrmntr

WEB To: Esao Andrews

Aww, Snap! Looks like I'm here for yet another blog. This could be the start of a trend? We'll see. So here's my intention. I want to inspire others to want to inspire others. Does that make sense?

To do that, my idea is to share creative ideas from where ever I find them with whoever happens to care. Mixed with some good tunes, and I hope it'll turn someone on to something new!

Right now i'm infatuated with Shane Glines. He also hosts a really cool Artist Gallery, and Forum at Cartoon Retro. Between him and Genndy Tartakovsky, with some Mary Blair thrown in, and I'm somewhere when I want to be for the look of Invasion. So in my quest to define exactly what that means, I'll be sharing more visual brain food like these.

Enjoy.

2005-01-23T10:17:00.000-06:00

IPOD To: GM Grimm As Superstar Jet Jaguar

WEB To: Taste for Makers

So today I gave the website a facelift. Playing with a new palette, and just changing it up because I was getting bored with the old site. I've also started this blog. I'll be updating the blog with a more verbose news and updates relating to both professional and personal.

January marks the first month of a twelve-month development deal with SCTV! I obviously can't relate any of the details of the project, but the goal is a Day Off The Dead animated spin-off for air! We are extremely excited about the opportunity to work with such veterans of comedy as The Second City. I'll go as far as to say, it's going to be absolutely hilarious!!

I guess that's all I got for my first blog. I'll attempt to update with stuff I find interesting, and turn you all onto things that really excite and inspire me.

Thanks!