November 2005 Archives
Well, it's getting late in the evening here, spending a couple of hours after work finishing up our Sundance project. We hopefully will be done with everything at the end of this week, possibly next week. The shots look cool, and it's definitely a break from the monotony of comping CG creatures! Lots of creative development for this project. Flaming hearts, flying bugs, some sweet work from a small team here working on our own time.
I went to the theater last night to catch the new Harry Potter film, now that the hype has died down and there isn't too much of a crowd. It was a decent film, with wonderful effects. Those guys did a great job! The story seemed to jump around quite a bit, and also seemed to drag in places. I prefer the previous film to this one, in terms of storytelling and pace. Some really spectacular compositing and integration, in addition to all the sweet, sweet CG creatures and animation! The dragons were wonderfully animated, and I really enjoyed the underwater action as well. Unfortunately the live action portions of the film did not stir the same type of emotions for the previous films. Maybe I'm getting jaded with Harry Potter and his gang, who knows.
During the previews before the film, we saw no less than four trailers for full CG animated features. Monster House, Over The Hedge, Hoodwinked, and one other one whose name escapes me. They all seemed quite mediocre, and I can't help but wonder who these films will cater to? I guess everyone is trying to ride Pixar's coattails, but we'll see how effective these films become.
It's been a long time since I last updated this site. With last weekend being the American Thanksgiving weekend, and travelling around the southwest without a decent internet connection and time, I apologize for the lack of updates! A bunch of new items on my list to start this week off.
It's amazing what a little time off will do for the mind. I spend the last eight days travelling; from the Bay area to the Lake Tahoe region, to Reno, to Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix, through Joshua Tree National Park and finally, home. A decent 2000+ mile trip! I'm back, refreshed, and ready to tackle the rest of Charlotte's Web!
I received a bunch of goodies over the holiday break, one being the 2 disc edition of War of the Worlds, courtesy of the Visual Effects Society. They have other DVDs planned for release this winter. I haven't started receiving any Emmy items just yet, but they don't usually start coming in until late January.
I'm listening to a bunch of new music that also came today. Bluetech - Elementary Particles & Prima Materia, from Aleph Zero Records is currently in my CD player. I heard one of their songs on DI.fm and I searched high and low for the CD. Finally caved in and got the 2 CD set. Sweet ambient techno/trance. I also won an auction on eBay for an Underworld record entitled Dubnobasswithmyheadman. I listened to an MP3 from David over at Meyemind and liked it so much I searched quite a bit to find the LP. This 2x LP set is on 160 gram virgin vinyl. Another surprise which came in the mail is a LP of Up, Bustle, and Out: Rebel Radio. I've had these guys on CD for ages, and had to get the record. Tonight's a listening extravaganza!
I've removed trackbacks from this site, yet again. It will still be listed with Technorati and other blog trackers, but I've received so much spam with trackbacks that I've had to remove it. I have also received a lot of comment spam as well, but Movable Type has been good about filtering that junk out. When I get around to it, the site will be upgraded to MT 3.2. There will be no change in the way you add comments.
Tomorrow is the Autodesk What is Real Roadshow event. My attendance is still up in the air at this point. I've got a couple shots to hit for Wednesday, and tomorrow is really the only time for me to get to them. I may have to get a private demo of the new Flame sometime.. On that note, Flame is now on Linux. Sweet.
The new Chevrolet Impala SS commercials are now being regularly broadcast! I managed to catch a glimpse of them last night. The first one, Mirror, shows the reflective impala running alongside the car while the actor speeds away. The second one, Savannah, shows a miniature impala as it bounces around the interior of the car.
Another one of my good friends here at Tippett has decided to move on, and join another company. I wish him the best, and I'm sure he'll fit right in with the rest of the talent artists over there!
On that note, make sure you check out the recruitment page over at Tippett, since it's becoming more frequently updated. New positions are open for comp, roto, matchmove, fx, anim, model, rigger, data wrangler, and a bunch more! So if you think you're qualified, send that reel and resume in.
If any of you are receiving email updates from this site, could you let me know in this comments section if you are getting one email or two duplicate emails.
Last week I bought another bullet camera. This one is ideally suited for the types of extreme sports that I do throughout the year. It's a bit different from the one I use for my road trips. Read on to find out what I think of the ATC-1000 from Oregon Scientific.
