Thundercats, HO!

I didn't get to watch Thundercats much as a kid, but my brothers did have a couple action figures. The cat-people were amazing to me, but my mother found cartoons to be brain-rotting and I couldn't discover their source till later in life. Now there is talk of a CG movie in lieu of other 80s cartoons becoming movies, and the talk has been buzzing for a while now... well, kinda. It's been pretty silent for a while actually. I hear Warner Bros has delayed its production, but thanks to the folks at MovieLine, we have four concept images!

This is a mostly personal blog, so I have decided that only one concept image will be displayed here. But not just any one concept image, no, but Lion-O himself. Why just one? I love characters, and Lion-O looks good. Perhaps I have a particular liking because his face is much like the face I tried to employ on my Caprean designs like Dallas and Jestir.

I hope that production continues on the movie. It's currently being said that Jerry O'Flaherty is directing the film, and he's credited as an art director from video games such as Gears of War and Command & Conquer: Renegade. An art director being a film director? Interesting. I really would like to see how this could turn out, especially with the pretty concept art they've released. (Yea, the movie could still suck, but if it can look pretty while doing it!)

Up up and away!

If you haven't bookmarked or even checked out my new short film pitch blog, then do it now, because it is getting updated this weekend. I could update it right now, but I'm trying to get the posts in about the same order as the book that goes along with it (that if I'm talented enough I might include as a downloadable .pdf), so untill then , enjoy the layout and my pitch poster as seen above!


PS - I feel a bit like a sell out, but I have a twitter. Find it on right side of page -->

(goes to hide in shame)

Jerk Wad

Got to see Coraline last night with a large group of people. It was kind of funny seeing the movie theater packed with fellow Animation students. All in all, the movie was amazing. I wish I had the patience to do stop-motion, the effect of it was beautiful. I randomly found an interview with the director, Henry Selick, this morning and he made an excellent comment on how the Other Mother had hand made this world for Coraline, so using the stop motion technique, that is all hand done, was a good compliment to that idea. I agree with that idea and it worked well. The only thing I disagree with is showing the film in 3D. I don't understand this 3D craze that is going on lately, half the people I talked to afterward said that it gave them a headache or was just uncomfortable for their eyes. My depth perception is off to begin with since I have uneven astigmatisms in my eyes, but I was even wearing my normal glasses under the 3D glasses and it was still obnoxious. (Maybe I need a new prescription?) But, that was the only thing I have to complain about, and it's not even that big a deal. Not all showings are in 3D, and when it comes out on DVD, that won't be in 3D either. So, if you're reading this and haven't seen Coraline yet, go see it. Now. Do it. Dooooooooo iiittttt.

Summer 2008

So I haven't had anytime till just now to really just sit down and breathe. Honestly, it feels like it's been from one thing to another. I worked all summer long at the Chelsea Teddy Bear Co. store here in Chelsea, Michigan, and when I wasn't there, I was thinking about being there. I didn't help myself either when I became addicted to World of Warcraft... heh, oops. I've been a terrible friend this summer, not keeping in touch with my friends from school or from home! They're all at most twenty minutes away and I've only seen them a couple times this summer. Also, I've gotten nothing creative done this summer.

Now I just have two weeks before I head back down to Savannah and stay at my boyfriend's house for a week, then move back in and start up classes again! I'm surprisingly not very stressed about the idea. I'm trying to have a more Hakuna Matata outlook on life, seeing as I can get so pent up over next to nothing.

I have managed to see a couple movies this summer. I got to see WALL·E earlier this summer.



Absolutely adorable movie! Disney/Pixar score again in my book. However, I am not a fan of the use of life action filmed people in these animated movies. Happy Feet was an enjoyable move for the most part, but not one of my favorites. I was especially turned off when I saw the filmed people towards the end of the film. It felt cheap to me for them to use real people like that. There's something about an animated film that just has its own feel and character to it that is interrupted by the use of mish-meshing medias like that. So when I saw the clips of Fred Willard being used in WALL·E, I was afraid. But, I was pleasantly surprised with how they used it this time. The progression of how people became what they were in WALL·E's time was very smart. Showing the captains' portraits, up to how they become, fat and baby like, was ingenious and reassured my confidence in the film. So, just having those few filmed clips didn't bother me as the film progressed. The minimal use of dialogue was amazing. In our beginning animation classes, we're stressed to on how to animate things without having to use verbal cues, and still being able to portray action and emotion. Now, in WALL·E, we still got sound effects and little blips of language, but for the most part they had to rely on expressions and movements to get the emotions across. This, in my book, puts WALL·E up there as one of the best pieces of animation I have seen to date that has utilized non-verbal cues like that.

I didn't get to see Kung Fu Panda, so I don't have much to say about that. I did get to see Dark Knight, and was very impressed with it. It's a shame we had to lose Heath Ledger, he had quite the future ahead of him. But, on an animation note, I've been told that part of Harvey Dent's burned half was actually animated. If this is true, then that was some damn good visual effects right there. If not, then that was some damn good prosthetics job.

However, as a side note to all this animation talk, whoever made the rigs for the cat forms in World of Warcraft needs to be slapped. Cats can't sit without a disgusting pinch at the hips. Yes, I understand it's just a video game and it doesn't have to be a neat as a feature film, but a good rig can't be so hard to ask for! Even with a certain polygon count. The texture people can't cover all the imperfections of a polygon model!

Oh, yea, and PS-

I've given up on DeviantArt. It's gotten too fancy for me.