Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I have eaten too much ham and it's not even dessert time yet. Update time though...

I was contacted by Hamish and Andy about funding a 12 episode web series over 16 weeks for next year, but emails stopped coming in and I'm guessing they found someone else to make 'em or got bored with the idea. Soooo! I'll go back to making my episodes in my spare time (read: gonna take ages). I'm about half way through episode 2, I'll finish it off next year some time.

I've just finished up a 6 week animation course over at AnimSchool. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the beta testing team, a classroom of students from around the world who helped test the technology and general use of the website. It all went fantastic! This is what I ended up with after finishing my class.

Oh, an idea came to me the other day while working on the family farm. I've taken a few steps towards writing my very own short film! It's still in the very early stages of development, but I'm liking where it's going so far. It's about salt and pepper arguing over who is liked most on what food. Pepper is a bit of a dick.



So... year! Not much to show these days, it's all .mb files and WIP pieces of animation. Sigh. Oh wait, look! I drew this for Cory a while ago for his second comic book.



See ya later, internet friends.

I'm back... kinda!

Last day of work tomorrow. It's been amazing, I've learned a helluva lot.

Just launched Balltiggy, a new creative outlet to keep me busy. Check out the first episode of Hamish and Andy!

That's all from me for now, I'll be updating again soon. Byeeee

Just quickly

Going to a weekend Python class taught by Taylor Carrasco, Animation TD from Weta Digital. Lots to learn this weekend!

Update on Hamish and Andy project, just playing with colours and ironing out issues with the rigs.



Next comes the other backgrounds and the bird rig.

Projects

Ages ago, I started planning out a short 90 second clip from the Hamish and Andy show. I wanted to animate one of the stories they end up telling each other, so I found a clip in one of their podcasts about a bird who walks across a telephone line, instead of flying. Andy witnesses this and isn't impressed.

Here is a test image of where I'm at in terms of progress. All characters rigged and tested, assets drawn and backgrounds roughed. I'm due to start animating next weekend, as I'm busy this weekend being a nerd and learning Python (yay!) - but when I do start animation, I'll be able to crank out 90 seconds or so of animation hopefully within the month.

Toy Story 3 is amazing, also life drawing on Tuesday and Thursdays is great too. Ahh, it's 12:04am. I should be in bed, work tomorrow!

Fat bee

Today while eating lunch with Ruby, a bee landed on the custard pie she was eating.

She accidentally bumped the pie as she broke some off, this clearly upset our new bee friend.


What a rude bee.

So excited!

Oops, it's been a while since I've written here.

NEWS:
* Documentary is all done! It's going to be air mid June some time. Struggled through the final stages, but learned lots during the journey.
* Bought a Canon 500D which I am really enjoying. Decided to give photography a try and now I'm spending my weekends taking pictures and learning how things work. Currently shooting through a 18-55mm lens, gonna buy some more lenses as I get better.
* Worked at Tangata Whenua TV for a few months on a show about animals. I was using a program called Anime Studio 6, both rigging and animating characters. I was working there until two weeks ago when suddenly ... I got a job at Weta!
* Started working for Weta on a TV show called The WotWots! I'm working as an animator on season two of the show and absolutely loving it. Hard work, but definitely awesome.

So! In short, now I'm living in Wellington with two bags of clothes, a camera and my bike. Everything is fantastic! I don't have a computer at the moment so I can't upload recent work/drawings/animation/photos. I'll be buying a laptop soon when I move into my new flat, then I'll share some new stuff. Exciting!

New job!

Doco is almost done! Putting on final touches through out this week.

Starting a new job tomorrow working with my buddies Mikey and Dane at Tangata Whenua Television. Working in Flash and animating short stories for kids.

This will be my first time I've worked in Flash professionally, so I've been cramming my head with revision and learning as much as I can before tomorrow.



Tests are fun!

25 days

25 more days left and I'll be finished the documentary! I'm pretty happy with the progress and how everything is looking. I'm looking forward to getting this done and getting back into 3D. I miss Maya! :(

My buddy Rick has been helping me out with some backgrounds for this project as well. I provide him with the layout, he sends them back completed. Here's an example of where we're headed with the first sequence of 3.



Then after a few moments in AfterEffects, we end up with something like this:

SH002_BG.mov
(4.3mb)

Not what I'd call final, but gives a good example of where I'd like to head with all of this!

OK, time for bed.