working on ogre

a couple of new posts on our progress to be found at The Ogre and the Mermaid.

Janelle is wrestling a pile of sand.
Ellen is running marathons and painting backgrounds.
Garion, Evan, Meghan, Nishant, Grant, and Mark are learning the ropes.
and Chris is trying to keep everyone busy, including himself.
(photo by Janelle)

animation: storytelling in movement design

movement means life, and life has a story to tell.

what do animators do? animators conceptualize movement, taking reality and interpreting it, reflecting life via motion, the sense that a thing has a path to take and make from the random choices that confront us every moment. animators create that unpredictability that motion brings.

as it moves, it tells a story...

"Stuck in the Middle"

I love reading Ru's comics, because, having grown up in Hawai'i in mixed circumstances and then having traveled to different places for extended and repeat visits, what she writes about makes a lot of sense to me.

"Stuck in the Middle": comic by Ru Kuwahata of Tiny Inventions.

But it looks like this might be the last one, so enjoy her previous posts!

ottawa, sep '13

always enjoy the festival, always have mixed feelings about it, mostly because of not having submitted something. this year, no submission, once again, but we are working on a film!

the canal was attractive yesterday. today, it rained.

saw "Get a Horse," the new old Mickey Mouse short from Disney. better than expected. in fact, it was very good!

a day in the laugh

this is what happens when we eat cookies.

eric go bye-bye! : (

well, it's off into the sunset for our background artist Eric - or sunrise, rather.

he worked on sand, water, and sky for us for well nigh over a year, told us jokes, informed us about Apple products, eventually didn't buy an iPad, and mumbled agreeably as he worked. but now, eric is off to less humid pastures, up north-abouts, where love has led him and the high hope of escaping food art via an industrial-strength animation studio await!

of course we will miss our often-bearded co-Head, but eagerly await news of his forthcoming adventures.

farewell, sir eric! and settle in nicely to your new digs!

*of course you realize you're going into the "alumni head" category on the "about" page. : D

make us proud, son.

timing for animation

"Timing for Animation," by Harold Whitaker and John Halas. the link is a blog post from New York animator Michael Sporn.

this is my favorite animation instructional book, even more than Richard Williams' seminal "Animator's Survival Kit," because it is smaller, more concise, and lets you take off from where it ends without getting involved in semantics.

and here's an article on the artist by John Halas, Whitaker's boss at the Halas and Batchelor Studio in England.

back from vacation

Montreal, Québec City, and the green hills of Vermont were wonderful.

here I am participating in a work by Québec artist Alfred Pellan, featured at the Musée des Beaux Arts du Québec.

it's great to get out and explore, and get photographed with your head in a dish.

but now back it's time to stick my head back into that drawing board...

ogre at siggraph

what is SIGGRAPH? it's a conference for tech artists and other folks, this year held in Los Angeles. I represented UArts along with two of my colleagues.

what was the ogre doing there? well, I colored him during lulls in the action at the UArts booth.

no rest for the wicked.

animatic revision, 16jul13

animatic revision, 16jul13
rough - but more than last time.


main 16jul13 small from Christopher Magee on Vimeo.