Me and My Shadow

DreamWorks released the poster today for the upcoming movie, Me and My Shadow which I am working on as a 2D and CG Animator.

The movie is really unique where it mixes CG animation and environments with a 2D animated shadow. Its been so cool seeing 2D pencil tests in dailies at the moment and there are some amazing animators working on the film.

More details can be found out the Me and My Shadow facebook page.

Animation Mentor Showcase

Animation Mentor posted an awesome video that I did with them a few months ago when I was in San Francisco. It was loads of fun to do with them (even though I was very jet lagged!)

Check out the video here, or click on the image above.
Hope you enjoy!

Dream Job

Recently a dream of mine came true.

When I was 10 I saw Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the cinema... five times! To say it had an effect on me is a bit of an understatement. It was at the very moment when Roger walked off the cartoon set and into the real world that I knew what I wanted to spend my life doing; being an animator for feature films.

Since then it has been a long and wonderful journey of working at Disney Consumer Products, running my own animation company developing TV shows for with Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and then attending the online school, Animation Mentor (which I believe is hands down the best place to learn animation anywhere).

It was at Animation Mentor that I was lucky enough to be taught by some of the greats currently working in feature animation today. Passionate teachers like Sean Sexton at DreamWorks, Victor Navone at Pixar and Drew Adams at DreamWorks who added even more desire fuel to achieve my goals!

More recently a film had the same effect on me that Roger Rabbit had all those years ago, How To Train Your Dragon. When Hiccup rises up into the clouds on the back of Toothless I knew where I had to apply this craft that I had been working so hard to learn, at DreamWorks.

But I never imagined the amazing mentors and friends that I would make at Animation Mentor. These incredible people included Sean Sexton, Drew Adams, David Weatherly, Ron Pucherelli and Simon Otto. It was through their belief and support in me that I was able to get an interview with DreamWorks and I will be forever grateful.

The interview process was intimidating and extremely exciting. It was also very fitting that my first interview was with James Baxter - an animation god who just so happened to work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit!

I leave Australia on July 2nd to move to LA and will start working at a studio that to me is best described in the words from the wonderful movie, Hugo: "If you've ever wondered where your dreams come from when you go to sleep at night, just look around. This is where they are made."

I can't wait to start.

2D Animation Desk, Disc and Paper for Sale

I am currently selling a 2D animation desk, disc and approx 1000 sheets of punched animation paper on ebay. If you are living locally to Melbourne, Australia and are wanting a great animation desk and don't mind picking it up then please head over to the link below.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/170850345346?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1413

New Blog!

I am currently hosting a class at Animation Mentor and decided to put a blog together where I can post anything that inspires me including short films, art, other student work and tips and tricks.

The tips and tricks however are something that must never be taken as gospel. I am still a student in animation and I certainly don’t profess to hold the final answer (and I constantly keep learning the rules are there to be learnt, bent or even broken). These are just personal observations and things that have worked (or not worked for me) along my journey of animation education.

ACTION ANALYSIS BLOG

Shot Progress - Polish Pass

Really enjoyed working on this shot so far - its one that I have not been able to put down! I love adding loads of little details in the polish phase, and this shot really allowed me to go for it with the face and finger animation.

I will keep tweaking little things over the next day or two, but this is very close to done!
Hope you like it and look forward to hearing your comments!

Shot Progress - Spline Pass

I have now completed the spline pass of my new shot! Yay! This includes my first pass of lipsync and facial animation.

When I convert a shot to spline my main goal is to get everything smooth and retain the snappiness of the blocking. So I try to look for places where I can add a bit more zest into the spacing which really adds some texture to the shot. I think this can be seen best when she says "Fight" for the first time near the start.

My next pass will be polish where I will first go through the fingers and really clean those up and get them to interact with each other nicely throughout. I will also track everything and try and get the spacing to be really tight and not get even at all anywhere within the shot.

So stay tuned... polish pass is coming up soon!