I can't wait to see my old friends again soon! This trailer turned out sweet! Doesn't give anything away about the story, just gets us all excited and aware that it's coming soon!
Animation Mentor co-founder, and super duper friend, Carlos Baena animated Buzz on the first half. Great stuff. I can't wait to see the movie!
Audrey Tautou and Jean-Pierre Jeunet together again!
Amelie is one of my favorite films! Love the acting, the direction, the design, and well... Audrey Tautou ;)
It was nice to see the director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and Audrey Tautou got together to create this short. Nothing super spectacular, but still nice to see.
Wow man, this is absolutely amazing. Alli took a big risk doing something this bold and I have to say it paid off nicely. I'm completely impressed and inspired by the work for sure! Congratulations!!!
Remi Tjon Ajong from Amsterdam and Animation Mentor graduate just released this great short! I got a PM from him on the Alumni site and I did a little interview with him, posted below! I hope you all enjoy as I think this is great, look, feel and the animation is excellent. Way to go Remi!
INTERVIEW BELOW:
1. Q: This is great stuff! What is it for and how many people worked on it (what did you do on it)?
RTA: Thank you very much!!! Well I recently graduated from Animation Mentor, but looking at my short, there's so much I want to "fix" on it that I felt I needed to do something else to re energize! My pal Niels had this design and idea floating on his computer somewhere and thought it would be great if I animated it! And so did I :) So basically it's just the two of us. Niels did all the design and technical stuff, and I did the animation and sound design.
2. Q: What was the inspiration for this piece?
RTA: For me the inspiration came from the design and basic concept of the original idea! When I saw the character design for the first time I knew Immediately how i wanted to make him act I was lucky that Niels allowed me to make the animation my own! This way I could come up with the timing and acting.
3. Q: Are we going to see more of this character or not now that it's splattered on the screen? :)
RTA: Haha, that's a question we've asked ourselves as well ... We thought about keeping him alive... but i think we can reincarnate him if we want to haha!
4. Q: What's next for you?
RTA: Well, this month I am pretty busy with a children's series for the dutch Jetix. They have asked me to direct it, it's a combination of live action and flash animation! (eleven songs in one month! I'll never show it hahaha!!) After that hopefully finish my AM short, and come up with a new one. WORLD DOMINATION! or just happy animating.. I can never decide...
-End
Great work my man. Keep it up and keep us inspired. This is really fantastic and fresh to see!!!
I just saw Brad's finished short film and I have to say it's polished to the MAX! It turned out great and I can see there's been a lot of love put into this one. Congrats Brad! Great work!!!
I had planned to do some cool updates while I was away at Comic Con, however my batteries were dead on my camera and I didn't bring my recharger. Doh! Lesson learned. Anyways, the highlight for me, hands down, was Pixar's "UP" presentation with Pete Doctor. This movie is going to rule! It has potential to be my favorite. I LOVE the concept!
I'm REALLY looking forward to this film. It looks fun and witty. In watching this I spotted our very own John Yoon (the guy in full Kung Fu uniform with glasses near the end) from DreamWorks leading a class on Kung Fu for, what seems to be, the animators! So cool. I love seeing all this behind the scenes footage and from the looks of the animation it could be a freaking geek fest of goodness! Enjoy!
GOONIES!!! Okay, this is a trip I have been talking about doing for years. Anyone who knows me knows that this is my favorite movie! I flew up to Portland where we met up with Jeff and Sally Riley and then the adventure began! I can honestly say this trip was freaking AWESOME!!! It was so fantastic visiting the sites and being in the "Goonies" land. It was surreal! It felt great to be a big kid.
When the movie first came out in 1985 i was 11 years old and my mom and I sat in the theatre and watched it two times in a row back to back! I love my mom! She's awesome!!! This film is very special to me and I'm happy to say that even after all this time the film still holds up! How do I know... well I watched it the night we got in to Portland! WOOT!!!
We arrived in beautiful Astoria, Oregon Saturday April 12th! Wow, what a fantastic town. Astoria is also where they filmed a lot of the movie "Short Circuit," "Free Willy," and "Kindergarden Cop." The weather was fantastic and the air was so fresh. There was definitely "movie magic" in the air. Here we are in front of the Jail House in Astoria where the Fertelli's break out of at the beginning of the movie. The paint has changed but it was so MEGA cool to see.
The Goonies house (Brand and Mikey's House) is really there! It was so crazy amazing to be standing right in front of it. Data's house is right next door where he slides across in the movie into the front door of this house. Man, I'm just so jazzed about it even as I type this.
Yes, of course we had to do "The Truffle Shuffle" in front of the Goonies house just like in the movie. This is an image from a movie of us doing the dance. WOo hoo!!!
We stayed in Cannon Beach about 30 minutes south from Astoria; which is home of the famous "Haystack Rock." This is the rock that Mickey lines up with the Light House the Rock and the Fertelli's Restaurant. The Light house and Rock are there but the Restaurant was a set in the movie. Seeing the rock was magical. No joke, it felt so 3D in the best of ways. (Notice my cool T-shirt; which I got in Astoria the day before, woo hoo!!!!)
My hotel was right in front of Haystack Rock! It was so cool. That night we watched the movie again with commentary with all the actors grown up talking about what it was like filming the movie and it was so cool seeing the film again having been to so many of the spots!
There are so many photos and stories to tell from the trip but I wanted to post a little something because this trip was just AMAZING! This trip was all about being in touch with our inner kid! It feels so nice to be in touch with this aspect of life as "anything is possible" and there are no limitations. As we grow up life inherently becomes more complicated but I do my best to remember to always be in touch with the kid in me. We're all just big kids when we grow up and I never want to lose touch with that side of me. I hope you enjoy this little entry and I hope it inspires you in some crazy way!
Wow, we're so proud to know that we had 22 graduates and former students from Animation Mentor work on Fox/Blue Sky's latest feature animated film, "Horton Hears a Who." 22? Yes, 22 from Animation Mentor!!!!
For more information and full list of names click on over to Carlos Baena's Blog! It's in his news section dated March 21st. Enjoy and CONGRATS!
Ales Mav, Animation Mentor graduate just sent me a fantastic Private Message. It's always great to hear about the positive impact AM has on students lives. It is so uplifting it really keeps us all going! I wanted to be sure to post the link to his short so you can see all the hard work he put in. It's the "full package." He even created his own characters for the film. I would imagine we will have a write up about it in one of the upcoming www.AnimationMentor.com newsletters. Until then, straight from Slovenia:
This weekend was the best I've had in a long time. I've been working SUPER hard this year and it was nice to get a break to recharge the batteries. It started off on Saturday at Wondercon. I got to hang out with a bunch of my most amazing friends (Shawn, Carlos, Dave, Jeff Riley, Morgan, Bailey, Laurie, Kendrix and my amazing wife to name a few). It was so great getting to see everyone all together, catching up and having a good ol' time!
We all came together by and large to celebrate the completion of "Operation Fish." This is Jeff Riley's stop motion film that he worked on for 8+ years! It turned out great and it was so awesome seeing it up on a big screen and hearing the audience react so well to it. I'm so proud of Jeff for sticking with it and making this happen. He's such a dedicated and talented guy and I couldn't be more proud of him!
Sunday a big group of us got together at Carlos' new place in San Francisco and watched the Oscars. It was a fun show to watch with friends. Some "surprise" winners for sure. We had an oscar pool which I did not come close to winning! Ha, ha. So many great films I still have yet to see. I can't wait to catch up.
It's Monday morning and my batteries are recharged and I'm ready to have an amazing week!
I wanted to take a few moments to write about something I get asked quite often and that is, “Do you miss animating,” “Do you regret leaving Pixar?” or “Do you plan to go back to Pixar?”
Leaving Pixar was not a tough decision for me. I was there for 7 years and worked on 5 amazing feature films. I saw the company go from a relatively small shop to a large, well establish animation studio. I have been and always will be impressed with the way they keep the company so alive and so exciting. I’ve done my best to infuse Animation Mentor with the qualities that I liked most about Pixar; namely the atmosphere being fun, nobody looking over your shoulder, allowing people to make mistakes and not being too hard when they make them, as well as a philosophy that I’ve come to call “inspired people create inspired results.”
It’s a fantastic feeling to see your name in the credits of a film and know that this will be there forever. It’s even cooler to work with an amazing team on something you believe in and know will be enjoyed by millions of people around the world.
However, my Pixar experience was not all smiles and monkey’s in the hallways. It has its clicks and difficult people to deal with. By-and-large I feel proud of the work I did there and wouldn’t change much about my overall experience.
On Finding Nemo I knew I was getting antsy and wanted to grow, but there were so many amazing people in line in front of me for the “high-level” positions, so I was trying to take a different route. I asked my animation supervisor if it would be okay for me to make a video documentary of what it was really like to be an animator at Pixar to be released with the Nemo DVD. This came about because Monster’s Inc. was such a special film to work on but the DVD extras didn’t have much about animation at all. In fact it had a monkey running around the studio, which I guess was good for kids. Many of us were upset because we wanted it to be something more.
I wanted to be able to help give back some nuggets of animation knowledge to the world. I even explained that I did not necessarily want to be in the video, but rather just be in charge of shooting and editing it together and that I would do it on my own time and for free. I was denied as Leslie Iwerk’s was doing a documentary about Pixar at the time. I’m happy to see that she did a great job with the Mark Walsh piece on the Nemo DVD. I was happy to see that there was something on that DVD that would be able to inspire people to want to become animators and a little about the magic and struggle behind it all.
Instead of getting frustrated and stopping my pursuit I decided to direct my energies towards teaching. Around that time Shawn Kelly asked me to co-teach with him at AAU. In doing it I found my calling. My calling is a marriage between animation and education. I love them both so much and seeing someone learn and “get it” is huge. No joke. It’s more magical to me that creating a great shot or having my name in the credits. It’s not that I do not love animation; it’s just that I feel so much life in seeing someone’s dreams come true and seeing their life changed forever.
Almost every single day I get an email thanking us for creating Animation Mentor. A school who really does care very much about quality in what we are doing. It is not perfect, nor will it ever be, but we are constantly doing what we can to make it truly an amazing place to learn and fulfill dreams and spread animation knowledge around the world.
It does shock people, but I do not animate anymore and for that reason I have decided that I do not feel comfortable giving outside talks about animation. I don’t want to be false in this way as I’m not as in touch with it as people who do it regularly. I feel that I’d rather leave the teaching up to our amazing mentors and co-founders who animate at their jobs day-in-and-day-out. They are much more in touch with it and will be better equip to teach people what they really need to know right now.
My job as the CEO of Animation Mentor is truly to make it an industry school and make it the best school for animators in the world. To make sure that what we are teaching is relevant to what the industry needs and that our graduates are coming out with solid skills and an inspired attitude. This is an art in and of itself. I pride myself now more on learning how people learn, the tools they need to learn, the environment they need to learn in and that it all makes sense and is rewarding to them all; mentors, students and our staff. We have a long way to go, but we will continue to push forward and will never get comfortable as we always want to keep it fresh and exciting.
Animation Mentor is a different kind of company and it’s something that challenges me on many levels. I am truly AWE inspired by the team of people behind Animation Mentor who put so much passion and energy into it; and leading them is an honor for me. For this reason I do not ever question leaving Pixar, nor do I have any plans to go back. Starting Animation Mentor and marrying my wife are the two things in life I have no regrets about at all. Life is awesome and I’m so proud of the choices I’ve made.
I hope this make sense and gives some of you an understanding about how I feel on this subject.
I've loved the little Pocoyo bits on YouTube. Now a trailer for Pocoyo 2! I love the style and the look. This animation is not about polish at all but more about graphic style and solid posing. For that alone I LOVE IT!
Mario Pochat from Vancouver Canada is one of Animation Mentor's 3rd graduating class graduates. His short film, "Bye Bye..." is completed and looks fantastic! We know Mario is going to go a long way and we are very proud of him. Check out his short film here: Short Film: Bye Bye...
To think that Animation Mentor started as a simple idea and to see work of this level coming out of this "little idea" we had feels so amazing. Wow!
I'm back home from Comic Con and it was an awesome experience. So many cool movie "sneak peeks," toys and amazing artists. It's such a nice way to get a JOLT to the creative nervous system. I'm back in the Bay Area for a week before heading down to Siggraph for an amazing week of cool technology, lots of meetings with studios and several super fun Animation Mentor events. I'm hoping to see you there! Now for Wall-E!
The Wall-E presentation was great! Some spoilers ahead so don’t read unless you’d like to know more. Andrew was awesome and full of passion for his new film. I could tell he was a bit nervous. I guess presenting your film for the first time to 6,700 people can be a bit scary. :)
Andrew also explained that the film will largely NOT have dialogue and will have some component of live action to it (related to the humans, I think he said). They also showed and talked about the overall concept of the movie, but I don’t want to spoil it too much for the die hard fans other than to say it sounds like the most original film in a LONG time!
They showed 8 minutes of the film as well as a lot of cool stuff regarding the sound design for the film. Ben Burtt, the guy who did the sound FX in the old Star Wars films is doing the sound for Wall-E (Sweet!). I guess if you’re going to have little dialogue in the film then Ben is the guy to get. From watching the 8 minutes it’s hard to tell where the film may go as it was 8 minutes of Wall-E cleaning up trash and exploring the overtly wasteful Earth. It seems like an animated political statement, but I’m curious to see how it turns out. No doubt it will be a fun adventure and something very new for Pixar to explore in this way.
There is also a “mock” website for the company that makes the Wall-E unit which can be found here: http://www.buynlarge.com/
They showed this too: http://youtube.com/watch?v=slnR1GjoDRk For some reason I’m REALLY excited about this film to see how it comes off. At the very least it will be a bold move for animation and film making. Nice!
Okay, first off, I'm a geek for this movie. I've been waiting to see this since I was a kid. So my opinions are probably a bit biased. :) It's a Michael Bay movie so it's fully of "cheese" but overall it was a lot of fun and exactly what I wanted to see!!! Overall, it was a SUPER fun roller coaster and one that I think will do very well.
I saw the movie with almost the entire ILM animation team and our significant others. The line was SO long and I was happy to know that Shawn Kelly saved my wife and I a spot in line. Thanks! It was awesome because several AM graduates were with us, too! Several of them worked on Pirates 3 and also Transformers! It was so awesome to see these guys/gals as they are now "professionals." It was a really neat feeling to know that they came to us and are now "all grown up." It's hard to put into words but the feeling is amazing. I'm proud of them.
A few of the AM graduates at the movie; Jimmy Almeida (AM graduate and animator on Transformers), his wife, me and Matt Garward (AM graduate, Pirates 3 animator and now at Lucas Arts).
and last but certainly NOT least. Check out this great clip of Conan O'Brien at ILM. Be sure to watch out for Animation Mentor's Charles Alleneck and Kevin Martel!
Between Pan's Labyrinth and 300 I'm fully inspired by movies again! I'm really impressed with this film. I knew it was going to look cool, but I was not expecting to be blown away. The massive Imax screen, seeing it with about 12 of my super good friends and a totally excited audience with people dressed as Spartan's helps, too! The film is simple and linear, but kept me going and my heart beating the entire time. I'm not much of an "official critic," but I dug this film a ton. I can't wait for the DVD so I can watch all the extras and commentary. WOW!
Check out this great animation test that Doug Dooley did for Ratatouille. Doug is a great friend of mine and someone who always strives for excellence in his work. He's super talented, but like any super talented person, he is also very critical of his own work. I wanted to take a moment to point out that although he works at one of the best places surrounded by some of the best talent in the world, that his work stands out in a BIG way. Check it out:
What makes this so great to me is that it has all the right elements; he hits great poses and holds, things only move for a reason and when they do move they are NOT moving all over the place. Great timing, great spacing, great facial expressions, amazing silhouettes! This shows such a high level of "mastery" to me. Knowing Doug, I'm sure he would say this is "aweful." Being a master has it's draw backs, but I'm totally inspired by this great piece of animation! Great work Doug!
