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08 19th, 2010| 
Modeling along with rigging are two of my other favorite things to do along with animation. I play around with zbrush all the time. I haven’t gotten too good with it yet, but nonetheless its super exciting to see all these new features! Zbrush has always had problems with hard surface stuff, and it has been super dependent on Maya to provide base meshes. While I don’t think this will completely replace it in the pipeline it sure makes it easier to bring in less refined models and just work quicker with them so you can get to the OCD stage of Zbrush quicker. Really exciting stuff.
Went to watch Toy story with my co-workers during lunch on opening Friday (yeah, movie lunch during work, I know) and I was really surprised with this movie. I have never considered myself a Toy Story super fan by any means; the original one had its impact on me certainly, and it sparked my interest in 3D, but that was it back then.
Having said that, this movie is really is praise worthy on a lot of levels. It presents us with a set of character that we know from before that have to deal with a lot of their issues and insecurities as a group and as individuals. They make you realize how much you actually care for what happens to these guys, and it makes the whole journey from the first movie worthwhile.
All I can say is that it really did nick up on me. Great, great movie.
I saw Prince of Persia last week, and I have very mixed feelings about it. I want to like this movie, I really do. It is about one of my favorite franchises in games, it has good talent, good environments, good overall feeling, but…nnnghh… it just doesn’t have that good storytelling element/pacing that the game had. I think it is in part due to the editing, which i found horrendous, but there is more missing than good fight sequence cutting.
During the movie they are always trying to avoid some situation that will result in: a) the death of Farrrah/Tamina, b) the death of our hero, or c) the destruction of our reality/space time continuum, and in every instance someone says: “Don’t do that! it will unleash the ___________ and destroy __________”, but in good hero fashion, he goes and does it anyways. The problem then becomes that in every single one of these instances, the problem gets magically resolved or nothing like what the movie told us would happen happens. Now it can be that everyone the prince meets (including Farrah/Tamina, is full of it or a compulsive liar, in which case good for him for not being gullible i guess :S) Still, makes for a not so enjoyable feeling during the film.
I might be over thinking it quite a bit, this is after all a movie based on a video game, but the narrative on said game was amazing! oh well, we’ll try again next time I guess. It will go into the archive as a cool reference film for when I need to animate acrobatics.
Saw this on Keith Lango’s Blog, and I though it was pretty awesome. I’m at that point in my career where i definitely need to concentrate on more physical actions to go to that next level, and this is certainly inspirational in that respect. That said, if this is a show, I’m not completely sold on the main character’s design. The concept drawings at the end of the short are much better, but still.. I don’t know it has that amateur anime drawing feel to it.
Anyways, that is a minor setback, I do think the animation speaks for itself 
Well Wondercon has come and gone, and it was absolutely insane this year. I don’t thin I’ve ever seen this event so packed, in particular on Saturday. I ended up going just certain points of interests, picking out some of the sketchbooks I was hunting down, and saying hi to different friends at their tables. After that ,I just went back home. Sunday was more mellow, and I was able to roam around to my hearts content.
My greatest surprise was that Humberto Ramos and Francisco Herrera were there. I had been checking out the Artist List and never saw them posted, so I was really excited to be able to pick up their new books, say hi, and get stuff signed. If you are not familiar with their work I highly suggest you check them out. I always end up picking up comics I don’t usually read, just to get my hands on more artwork by them.
This brings me to something that happened at their table which I thought was super super awesome on Humberto’s part. While I was waiting to get the sketchbooks, this really young kid came by and told Humberto how much he liked his work, and that he wanted to be a comic-book artist too. Instead of dismissing him, Humberto took him very seriously and asked if he had any drawings to show him. The kid produced a ring binder with some rudimentary comics he had drawn, but to my surprise Humberto started critiquing the kid’s strips just like he would do any other professional work. Told him about tools he could use to improve his work, basic paneling techniques, etc. It just blew my mind that this guy who is rather well know in the comic world, and who is being surrounded by masses of people in every event would take a kid this seriously. It really made my admiration for the guy grow even more. Anyways I thought i was worth mentioning
Oh Hai!
I decided to give my website a much needed face lift. My previous site was a bit hard to edit and to keep up to date, so here is to hoping I can manage this format in a better way.
In other news, I went back to EA this past Monday, and it has been amazing. I really love the people there. Its truly an experience to start working somewhere and know so many people already. It feels quite homey, so here is a big thank you to all you guys at EA especially the Sims division. Truly, thank you for making going back to the team such an incredible experience.