Bobby's NY Journal

End of the line

2011-09-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

So tonight is my last night in NY. My last day at Blue Sky was Friday , and after a full weekend of saying some pretty heartfelt goodbyes , I'm driving back across country,home to Seattle. The exact opposite if what I did two years ago ! Man time flies! I'll be taking October off, spending some time with friends and family, and after that I start at Disney on Nov 7th ! I feel really lucky to have had this experience at Blue Sky. I met some amazing people, made some really fantastic friends and I really grew to love the area, especially NYC. I'm going to miss it so much. Best of luck to everyone on finishing up Ice Age 4.

It was awesome to get to share some experiences with you guys and gals, thanks for following along and I hope to do the same when I get to Los Angeles!

See you then and
Take care everyone !!
Bobby's LA Journal

Jeff Gabor

2011-09-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

RIO demo reel (password: education )

'NUFF SAID!

Joe Lee

2011-09-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

Talented bloke who early on became one of my best friends in NY.

Pete Paquette

2011-09-15T10:53:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the "Awesome people I got to work with" series, Today's is Pete Paquette.

Pete Paquette's blog

Pete's Rio Reel

Garrett Shikuma

2011-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

As my time at Blue Sky & in NY comes to an end, so will the entries in this blog. But before it concludes, I wanted to introduce you to some of the super talented artists/animators I have had the pleasure to learn from during my time here!

First up : Garrett Shikuma !

Garrett's Art Blog!

Shikuma's caricatures

Design Presentation

2011-09-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was asked to give a presentation on Character Design to the Animation team here at work!

Let me first say that I don't, by any means, consider myself an expert in the field, and approaches/opinions on design vary wildly. So this was , essentially, just my humble outlook on the artform, and is based on my personal design aesthetic (what I like.) So here are the images I went through during my talk.

If I have some time I hope to give these images some actual context with what I was saying, but I just wanted to post these images us, hopefully they mostly speak for themselves.

"Personality usually dictates design, so I consider Silhouette, Shape , Proportion, and Pose."

-Joe Moshier, Dreamworks Character Designer

Art by Shannon Tindle

Art by Daniel Lopez Munoz

More examples of circles vs squares (straights vs curves):

Art by Ricky Nierva

Art by Jay Shuster

A lot of times Nico Marlet works with one broad shape and the details are subservient .

Art by Nico Marlet

Art by Carter Goodrich

Art by Joe Moshier

Art by Nico Marlet

Art by Norman Rockwell

Art by Bobby Chiu

Art by Milt Kahl, Breakdown by Mark Kennedy

Art by Chuck Jones

Art by Nico Marlet

Art by Shane Prigmore

Breakdown by Xavier Ramonede

-----The Way I work. Well, one of the ways.-----

Subject research

What I want to emphasize

Thumbnail , done tiny tiny

Thumbnail blown-up

Shape Breakdown

Flow Breakdown

Clean Line

Flat Color

Simple Render

And that's all I had! Feel free to drop me a line you wanna talk shop if some of this doesn't make sense!

Bobbypontillas (at) Gmail (dot) com

AnimSchool

2011-09-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Check out this promotional video for AnimSchool, a new online animation school started up by Dave Gallagher, an amazing animator and rigger who used to work with us here at Blue Sky. The clip has a lot of AMAZING animation done by friends here, some of whom will also be mentoring at the school. My only contribution was the "Milt, Frank, and Ollie" portrait at : 048.

On DVD

2011-08-03T08:52:00.003-07:00

Our adventure with Rio has finally concluded. The film came out on DVD/Blue-Ray yesterday!

I am extremely proud & thankful to have been a part of this project. It was a fantastic first film experience.

Meet Nick Bruno

2011-06-22T06:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a inspiring interview with Nick Bruno, now one of the lead animators on our next project. I always love hearing about the things or events that inspire someone to begin to chase their passion.

Meet Nick Bruno

The Spanish Armada

2011-05-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

If you can understand Spanish, check out this interview with some of the animators from Spain workin here at Blue Sky.

Top: Isaak Fernandez, Julen Santiago, Qcho Sanz

Bottom: Elena Ortega, Pako Bagur

Personal Behind-the-Scenes-y stuff

2011-04-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

*Warning: Potential spoilers I guess!*

My first feature film shot! This was right before the security guard gets "chloroformed" by Nigel, the bird villain. I think this was a 2nd pass on blocking. I showed to the director, Carlos, and he gave his initial feedback. Something he mentioned for the feeling of it was "...Y'know, kind of like a Paul Blart Mall Cop". Since I had never seen the movie, I took that quite literally and swiped this funny expression from the trailer on You Tube. I just remember the shot doubling, almost tripling in length, which happens alot.

Since we had a bulldog in our movie, another Blue Sky-er was nice enough bring in her French Bulldog for the day. We let him loose in one of the screening rooms and played with him for a while. Here he is with one of the character leads for the Bulldog, Pete Paquette, and Dave Gallagher. I wish I could remember that dog's name. He was super outgoing/ active/ weezy.

My first Blu shot! Also my first dialogue shot. Though it's pretty simple, I actually couldn't believe they gave me this, (remember, I was pretty scared to even be here.) Here it is along with my vid ref (which was, pretty bad). Blu says "What? Why? This cage is awesome!" in response to Jewel trying to break out of their bird sanctuary. I briefly got to work with Blu's lead, Nick Bruno, on this one before he had to jump onto another project. Fun times.

My first Jewel shot! When Blu first sees Jewel in the sanctuary and shes flying in slow motion. Initially I thought I had something good going on here, but looking back at my initial pose on the left, it's pretty

terrible. She looks kind of dumpy. Luckily for me , after feedback from my lead, this is how it turned out in the final film.

SOOOO much better right?! He basically wanted to me to try to get an overall stronger graphic, triangle shape, flowing from the wings down to the tail. Totally made sense. Since this was going to be the first time we see her, I wanted to make this image as iconic as possible, like it would've made a rad tattoo or something. And lighting did an amazing job, since Blu's offscreen comment was "She's like an angel."

The shot, even if they picked a different frame, was even made into a toy! Cool!

Some behind-the-scenes-y stuff

2011-04-28T07:10:00.001-07:00

Some Rio Marketing stuff

2011-04-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

As animation production on Rio was winding down, one of the marketing directors asked me if I could do some sketches for Rio Marketing stuff. So for a day I spent some time to doing some simple sketches for ideas for bumpers/ads, etc. These are the little ads that show up at the bottom or edges of the screen (that you might find a little annoying, your welcome;) ) I was just excited to spend the day drawing! Anyway I ended up only having time to do about 5, Here's one of them:

Ha! Pretty simple eh? I'm really not even sure if this aired!

More stuff

2011-04-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Rio is doing really well at the box office!

And I'm not a Master Anything, but here's a little Q & A I did for my good friend, Xia's site

Misc Rio Stuff

2011-04-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some simple images I used to pitch an art style for the end credits before they settled on what is in the film now.

#1 Domestic

2011-04-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone who went out and saw it this weekend!!!

#1 International

2011-04-11T16:46:00.000-07:00

Photo by Travis Price.

All of the hard work and late nights.

I said Damn!

2011-04-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Solid drawings. Caricature. Entertainment. This shot has it all!

It's too bad the rest of the film is pretty forgettable.

All the Buildings in New York

2011-04-05T12:00:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic idea! And I wish I'd had thought of it. Illustrator James Gulliver Hancock plans to draw every building in New York City.

Jesse Eisenberg

2011-04-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

Jesse Eisenberg (the voice of Blu, main character in Rio) stopped by the studio today!

Carlos (our director), Galen (our supervising animator), Eisenberg, Elena, AJ, Mike, Me, Carolyn

I have to sit next to this guy

2011-04-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

KOL Electricity shots process (video reference / blocking / final animation) from Isaak Fernandez on Vimeo.

Soundtrack!

2011-03-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

*Sniff* Thats my shot!!

Please excuse the onslaught of Rio posts, this movie occupied my whole life for all of last year.

More painting practice last night

2011-03-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what I am doing...

Signed Rio Poster Auction

2011-03-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Click image for the link.

A good friend of mine, Rich Fournier, is auctioning off a signed intl. Rio poster for a charitable cause.

From Rich:

"Recently I learned that an old friend from High school was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia or AML. Having family members who have gone through similar struggles, I know how much of a toll it can take emotionally, physically and financially. In an attempt to help Chris and his family, I am posting an auction for the international poster for “Rio”, Blue Sky Studios’ next feature film, which has been signed by the Animation staff & Director Carlos Saldanha."

For more information, please click on the image above, Thanks!

Rio Animation Crew

2011-03-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a group photo of the animation team on Rio! Including Technical Animators and the Animation Coordinators.

At my previous job, I worked with

a team of about 8 animators.

Rio float in Carnavale. Rio De Janiero, Brazil

2011-03-17T06:20:00.000-07:00

Our film had a float in this year's Carnavale, a 4-day celebration down in Rio. Our supervising animator went down for it, and I heard he dressed as one of the characters in the parade! Ha!

More drawings for work friends

2011-03-17T06:17:00.000-07:00

Sheldon and Chantelle , for Sheldon's last day here @ Blue Sky.

The Junior Animators. Done last year but colored this year for going-away gifts.

My first shot on Ice Age 4 starts...NOW!

Art Blocks

2011-03-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

These are the 2 Art Blocks for Ghana that I'm bidding on:

Celine Gobinet

Ricky Nierva

I'll let you know if I win them=)

Update: I won Celine's!

RiOreos

2011-03-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Whaaaaaaat.

Isaak's NY Journal

2011-03-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

Check out my cube-mate, Isaak's personal NYC photo gallery . His site also has an animation section where he's posting some of the awesome work he's done up until Rio. Prior to Blue Sky , he was one of the handful of animators that came from Illion Animation in Spain working on Planet 51.

It begins....

2011-03-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

In a couple of hours, I get kicked off on my first Ice Age 4 shot . Not animating on production shots in a while can give you butterflies. I remember this feeling starting out on Rio. But I'm ready to hit the ground running.

Here's another clip from Rio. I got to do the last 4 out of 5 of the last shots, starting at 00:47. Wes Storhoff did the very last shot with the birds flying from the trees.

Blue Sky Blues by Ramon Lopez

2011-03-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

Animator Lluis Llobera.

The sculpting/maquette room.

"Last month I took a bunch of pictures about the studio aiming to show something about the people of Blue Sky Studios." -Ramon Lopez

Click either of the images above to check out Ramon's gallery for a peek inside the studio!

Nigel's Song

2011-03-10T06:52:00.000-08:00

I'm a huge, HUGE, Flight of the Conchords fan. So I was super excited to have Jemaine Clement in our film . Even on boards, this sequence was one of everyones' favorites. His animation was lead up by Nathan Engelhardt and Lluis Llobera. Actually, both Animation Mentor guys! Both amazing animators.

Dice Demo - Learning from the master!

2011-03-10T06:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday , on our work's network, I found a painting workshop video that Dice Tsutsumi (former Blue Sky color key artist and current Pixar art director) gave while he was here at Blue Sky! That guy is so dang good. Needless to say, the workshop was amazing, simply demonstrated, and so inspiring that I was excited to give it a go when I got home, as verbatim as I could.

I've been making my way through the Academy Awards' Best Picture noms, and the other night I watched the Fighter, which was great . Here's my interpretation of Christian Bale's character Dicky Eklund.

Suuuuuper amateur status for sure, and it's nowhere in the ballpark as what he ended up with. But it was fun to learn how he does things.

If you're not already familiar with his work, do yourself a favor and check out his amazing paintings!

On Artistic Growth

2011-03-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

" The one thing I have noticed about people who are exceptional in their creative work is that they are always trying to get better. That's how they got good in the first place. These people judge themselves against the best work. They aim for the top."

-Brian McDonald, Invisible Ink

( A book I just finished, and highly recommend!)

Rio Site Animation

2011-03-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

Hey wanna see some animation I got to do that won't be in the film?!

Yes? OK go to the Main Rio Site. Wait about 5 seconds for the main cast photo to dissipate. One at a time, random characters from the movie will come across the screen dancing. I did these two guys:

Haha. Party Fowl. The power of homonyms.

Here's the vid ref Garrett did for my dances. Oh Shikumes.

My cubemate Isaak did Blu, Slemmer did Jewel & Toucan, Keith did the monkeys, and Pete did Bulldog!

Day in the Life

2011-02-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

7:30 AM. A case of the mondays.

8 AM. My car barely fits into this garage.

I usually have a commuter buddy that lives down the street.

But he's in Aruba right now.

8:10 AM Starbucks.

Everyone knows my name and my order.

8:30 AM Into work.

Bagel Mondays.

Morning work surge go!

Getting as much work done as I can before...

...Cube-mate Isaak gets in.

Tells me about his weekend.

Drawings between playblasts. Usually pretty crappy.

12 PM Lunchtime downstairs.

Joe talking about Australia. Most likely. Or Radiohead.

AJ made Red Velvet cake over the weekend,

and saved me some.

3PM. Animation Inspiration Meeting.

This weeks Pete gives a talk on the comedic stylings of the 3 Stooges.

Haven't watched these in years. Pretty pretty funny.

Valentine's Day confection in the big kitchen.

Strawberries. Dipped. In CHOCOLATE.

Afternoon work surge!

Those splines are goin' into IA 4!

6 PM. Gym Time in the tiniest gym ever.

7 PM. Going home.

8PM. Drawing time.

Wee hours of the morning. Bedtime.

Looking back at this I realize how much I still live like a student.

Dang.

New Desk Locale

2011-02-08T10:32:00.000-08:00

...For Ice Age 4.

Bonus points if you can spot the artists!

I would rock these pants

2011-01-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

NY Snow

2011-01-31T10:30:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing here every week!

Rio Intro

2011-01-28T14:34:00.000-08:00

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=v5%5E544x306&from=sp&vid=390a5af2-fac2-4e20-8b6e-4cc518d71596&src=FLCP:sharebar:embed" target="_new" title="'Rio' Exclusive: Film's First Two Minutes">Video: 'Rio' Exclusive: Film's First Two Minutes</a>

I've always like this intro because it reminds me of being in a Disneyland ride.

Rio Tiny Tee

2011-01-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

How cute is this toddler sized Rio shirt. Pretty damned cute.

New Scrat Short!

2011-01-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

Last year in the middle of production on Rio, Blue Sky needed some animators to help animate a new Scrat short. I submitted my name and was lucky enough get the chance to animate this little guy on a few shots!

I remember seeing this little guy on the first Ice Age trailer back in 2001, how cartoony and pushed and Warner Brothersy he was!

Fast forward 10 years and getting to animate him was so much fun, liberating, and I'm even more fond of him now. I hope I get to animate him more on our next film!!! Exclamation points!

Rio Wrap-Up

2010-12-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

Last week marked my very last week working with the Rio characters, I finished up production shots about a month ago, and had since been doing animation for marketing stuff. I'll let you know if I spot the ads anywhere =).

Obviously working on my first feature film will is an experience I'll never forget. I worked as hard as I could but I'll always feel like I could have worked harder, smarter, or I wish I approached that shot with a little more confidence. I went through a lot of growing pains transitioning from games to film, and I really felt like a beginner again, so much to learn! We are putting together our reels today for reviews, so it'll be interesting to see the progression. At the end of the day, learning and being surrounded by such high-caliber talent, I know I'll be able to look back and say that I'm definitely a better animator.

What's next for us? After a little bit of down time, we are moving on to our next film, for which I'm proud to say I'm being given an opportunity to be a character lead! Myself and the very talented Joe Antonuccio will be heading up the character development,animation style, etc. for one of the hero characters in our next film! Really looking forward to it! Wish me luck!

New Rio Trailer!

2010-12-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

Jesse Eisenberg

2010-11-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

This is the star of our movie.

Here is an awkwardly awesome interview w/ Conan O Brien.

One year!

2010-11-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

Today marks my one-year anniversary at Blue Sky!

More random pics from the Studio

2010-11-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Blue Sky Halloween

2010-11-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the Halloween party/Costume contest we had at Blue Sky last week. Pictures by Travis Price

I think I'm done

2010-11-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today I finaled my last shot on Rio! I'm moving on to marketing and promotional stuff for the main characters. These should include TV Spots, commercials, teasers ,etc. And this month already marks my one-year anniversary at Blue Sky! Insane!

I still count my blessings and feel incredibly lucky to be here, working with so many folks who I consider superstars. You have no idea!!!

Heres a cool little blip on Blue Sky from Greenwich Magazine.
Yes. Greenwich, Connecticut has it's own magazine. Lord knows why.

More Rio Characters!

2010-10-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

Ironically enough, I never got the chance to animate the bulldog. But everyone else I touched.

"Halloween Treat"

2010-10-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

…at least that’s what the subject of the email that fellow animator Anthony Travieso sent out to the department this morning. I’m featured along with animators Nick Bruno, J.P. Sans, Pete Paquette, and Scott “Pimpcane” Carroll.

Co-Worker Update!!!

2010-10-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Marcelo Sakai

Michael Richard

Brandon Kern

Laura McGowan

AJ Conrad

Sheldon Kruger

Audrey Bagley

Rich Fournier

Jason Martinsen

Brad Regier

Pete Devlin

Guido Muzzarelli

Matt Hasselman

Kevin Koch

Sebastien Bruneau

Steve Dahler

Anthony Travieso

Wes Storhoff

Tom Grevera

The first set is HERE.

New Rio Poster

2010-09-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

B-Day Card!

2010-09-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here's the B-Day card I worked on w/ Bruno for Mike Thurmeier, one of our directors on the next Ice Age!

Blue Sky Rubik's Cube Championship

2010-08-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

Rubiks Competition 2010 (part I)- Blue Sky Animation Dept. from Nate Wall on Vimeo.

For about a month the animation dept had Rubik's Cube fever! It's over now, but check out the next installment to see who ended up winning it all!

Desk!

2010-08-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

50 % !

2010-07-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

My Anim. Sup Galen and the Director Carlos. Hammered.

Whoa! Sorry for the severe lack of updates everyone! (And anyone who even follows this blog anymore.) I've been super duper busy animating on this film. So what little free time I have has been spent enjoying NY w/ good company, and watching the World Cup. We are halfway through animation production on Rio! I'm continuing to meet lots of amazing folks here and am really loving busting our asses on this film w/ them. Hope everyone else's summer is goin well !

Back to work I'll talk to you guys in a little bit!

Our first trailer!

2010-05-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

Today the first trailer for our movie came was released! I can't tell you how thrilling it is to see it fully lit, shaded, rendered and out for everyone to see! I remembered , back at Arena Net, when the very first trailer for Guild Wars came out and how excited we all were for the public to finally see our work for the first time. Such a gratifying feeling.

The voice for Blu ( the bird who can't fly) is Jessie Eisenberg (Zombieland) , who is awesome. He brings so much appeal to the character, and I love listening to his reads. I did have small quick shot in the trailer, so don't blink or you'll miss it. It's around the 1:28 mark and looks like this:

Haha. Yeah! Super simple shot but I worked like the dickens to even get it working right. When I animated it I was thinking about a story workwife-Joe told me at lunch about the first time he went bungie jumping. He was all super casual about the whole ordeal , even up on the platform he was chill, until he actually jumped and it suddenly hit him that he was free-falling, and he let out the loudest, balls-dropped, shriek and (when he told the story) he made this crazy, panic-stricken face. That's that face right there.

Anyway, the trailer, everyone at the studio is super excited about it. For me, seeing it out there, that same gratifying feeling I talked about , gave me a huge boost. I'm in the middle of a shot right now which I'm really wrestling with. It's a big shot for me so naturally I've put a lot of pressure on myself, too much pressure. There is so much amazing work being done around that I can't help but be tough on myself. To the point where it starts to become detrimental. It's the kind of thing where you feel like you've had a pretty good grasp on this artform, and then you come in and are suddenly are surrounded by superior talent. Immediately you feel like you don't know sh*t. And then you feel like a teenager, all awkward and unsure. It's just growing pains man, like animation puberty or something. Every time I start a shot I try my best to make it awesome, and by the end I'm just trying to get to a point where it's, like, not terrible. And trust me I'm not fishing for compliments, if you've seen the work being done here, you'll see that I've got a ways to go. All of this is all something I should write more about later, when I come out on the other side =).

Anyway, off my soapbox, we're getting to make films here for crying out loud. We're all stoked! Check out the trailer HERE!

Some of the crew when our trailer went out earlier today.

Entourage

2010-04-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

When the director comes around to see our work, he's usually rollin' deep.

Animation Dept. Meeting

2010-04-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

Love At Arm's Length

2010-04-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

Check out this short film a few of the super talented animators here at work did last weekend for the NYC 24 hour Film Race!

Animator Geek-Out Moment #457

2010-04-17T12:42:00.001-07:00

I'm currently getting to animate on a shot that hooks up with another animator's who worked on Simba, Mulan, & the Beast! I grew up on these movies! These movies ARE my child/teenage-hood.

Big fan! Big fan.

Authenticity

2010-04-17T09:25:00.000-07:00

Monsieur Degas

2010-04-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

At the Met.

The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer

Cast in 1922 from a mixed-media sculpture modeled circa 1879–80

Goodbye and good luck, Coats!

2010-04-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Misc. April

2010-04-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

At the Metropolitan Museum of Art! The highlights for me: The Rembrandts,the Arms & Armory wing!

View from the MET stairs.

Cherry Blossoms at Central Park

And back at work, since I can't show anything, here is a checklist of the shot numbers of what I've done so far! I know, the pic is mundane but I can tell you that the ones marked "120" are a doozy! They are sandwiched between this amazing animator, and this amazing animator! Both are like rockstars to me. The pressure was definitely on man and I put everything I had into them.

Spring!

2010-04-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

I lost about 20 minutes of work at the end of the day when Maya crashed, and that's OK because...

...Its gettin warm out here!!! Word on the street is that there are cherry blossoms blooming in Central Park!

In other news, Animation Mentor updated their main site, check out where some previous AM students have ended up on the Alumni Page, including my fellow Blue Skyers Brandon and Lluis!

Misc Touristy stuff!

2010-03-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Koreatown!

Shikuma Art

2010-03-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

My monday morning greeting

Overtime week

2010-03-06T03:21:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing alot up here the past couple of weeks, and it's just finally starting to melt away. And NY is finally starting to feel like its getting warmer! Man I'm looking forward to seeing Central Park in the spring.

I spent my first week doing a bit of overtime to get a shot done. The deadline was pushed up early, and I really didn't want it to go past this week, and more importantly I didn't want to half ass the shot. It was my first dialogue shot in the movie, with the main character no less! It was small, but I wanted it to stand up to the shots around it. Early in the week monday, I was nowhere near being done! Not even close. Work-wife Joe was a lot of help, he's got a great eye for not only mechanics but whether the shot if feeling right. Motivation, thought process, mood. We walk a lot about that stuff and it really helps. So I spent most of the week to get the acting to feel right and stayed late thursday to polish the sh*t out of it to show the director the next morning. I come in early friday to make some last-minute, down to the wire tweaks at my desktop, and I scrambled into the screening room so scatterbrained that all I had to take notes with was a dull pencil and a recycled napkin. My shot was the first to show, the director watched it over twice, gave a few notes on camera tweaks, and It was finaled ! Production Manager hit the gong and I had the biggest sigh of relief.

(As an aside, the cool thing is that they pay you for accrued overtime hours here, which may seem like a given, but I've never worked in a place like that. And I've done my fair share of overtime in games.)

On the drive home, I was thinking, that was best shot I've ever done. As animators there's always gonna be times where we feel like we plateau or become stagnant. I think the best way to remedy that is to put yourself in a position where you are scared. When I felt like my animation becoming stagnant a while back I took an Animation Mentor to push me out of my comfort zone. I was intimidated of dialogue shots, acting. But consequently I grew leaps and bounds taking those courses. When you come into a place like Blue Sky, you're scared all over again. The bar is so much higher and there's no way you can anything even close to it. With me, that struggle and sense of urgency ends up pushing me to do my best work. I'm scared every time out of the gate, but the trick is to dive in fearlessly, and I'm confident enough to say that every subsequent shot I've done since I've been here has been the best thing I've animated so far, and I still have a long way to go.

Poo-hala's

2010-03-06T02:25:00.000-08:00

To lighten the mood around this blog a little bit here is Nathan and Pete drawing poop on the whiteboard wall. In tribute to the Puhala's, this week's whiteboard targets.

Balance

2010-02-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

Since we're all friends here, I figure we can take a seat on the curb and start to talk about more important matters.

I've sacrificed a lot to come out here to New York, to live my dream of working on a feature film. But before that I gave up a lot even chasing this goal. I spent more of my time in front of the computer than spending time with my loved ones. Nevertheless, I still had her support, my dreams were her dreams. Time went on and this became an obsession. I animated day and night, neglecting our time together. I did this for years, and sure enough it began to take a toll on our relationship.

By the time I finally got the call from Blue Sky, our relationship was severely damaged, beyond repair. I relocated from Seattle to NY, and it was no longer strong enough to survive the long distance. I've been spending the last few months trying to resuscitate it, but it was too late. So now I sit here, having reached this goal, and I've lost the person who meant the most to me in the process.

If I can pull my head together, I guess the lesson I have to learn here is to balance my life. That it isn't all about career, relationships with the people in your life are all that matter.

Dragon

2010-02-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is looking pretty fantastic. I've really connected with the work Dean Deblois and Chris Sanders have done in the past. The animation is looking top notch, and to me Nico Marlet is one of the best designers in the industry. His work blows me away every time. Though I still wish the boy turned out more like the initial designs, younger and more appealing. But whatever it probably won't bother me. The shot where the main dragon brings his face to the boy's hand is so good!

Let 'em Breathe

2010-02-22T22:59:00.000-08:00

One time an animator way better than me told me, "Sometimes people ask me how I get my characters to feel like they're alive, and one of the things I do, is I let them breathe."

Simply obvious to most but I don't think I ever did this at AM. Let your character breathe, even if it's subtle, even if it's not so evident in the dialogue, even if they didn't just finish running a marathon. Let's try to find places to incorporate a sense of inhaling and exhaling. Chest expansion, nostril flares, shape change on the lips,etc. And it's more than just energy expenditure right? Like the idea that someone might start to hyperventilate when they're nervous. Play it in degress, appropriate to the action. If I neglect to consider this in my initial blocking, I'll always make sure (and by "always", I mean I've done this one time, on my last shot, two weeks ago) , I'll make sure to do a "breath pass" before I get too far.

Here at Blue Sky, without singling out any one animator, I would hear that, "With His/Her scenes, the characters are just...ALIVE!" I would scour the animation tests that were being done for the characters before I came on board. I picked out a simple dialogue test, and among other things, I noticed that the character's chest would expand and contract right where you'd expect, and I freaked out! It was suuuper subtle too. I was like, "Man I'm gonna do that!" So I did! I did exactly that on my shot. Since it was all pantomime, I blocked in the my acting, then went in and looked for opportunities to put in breaths. Varied them up a little. And when I showed the Anim. director my blocking, he called it out! Swear to God he's like, " I like that breath he takes right there , that's good thinking." Which felt pretty nice because I'm usually not too smart about these things. This whole thinking thing.

It makes a world of difference, and people might not notice it but they'll feel it. And it's one of those things that'll help you inject more life into your characters.

Breathe-Pass!

Final!

2010-02-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I finally got my first shot in the move finaled! Woo-Hoo! Work-wife Joe Lee gave me this gift.

On a sadder note, this week was JC Navarro's last week at Blue Sky. As a tribute , some of the animators paid homage to JC on our giant mural wall.

I get to come face-to-face with this everyday.

Good luck JC! Thanks for showing me around Blue Sky!

Caricature Show

2010-02-06T06:41:00.000-08:00

Last Friday the animation dept. had a caricature show.

Here are the ones that I did.

AJ Conrad

Amila Puhala

Nick Bruno

Scott Carroll

Who Organized the event!

Paul Diaz

Matt Doble

Andrew Coats / Nathan Engelhardt

Jeff Gabor

Galen Chu

Garrett Shikuma

Ryan Hobbiebrunken

Juan Carlos Navarro

Jim Bresnahan

Or House, take your pick.

Keith Paciello

Brian Menz

Ray Ross

Robyn Powell

Scott Lemmer, aka Slem-dog Millionaire.

Stewart Shaw, circa Nov 2009

Tab Burton

Thom Roberts

Claude-William Trebutien

Ha! And here were some done of me.

by workwife, Joe Lee.

by Andrew Coats.

Joe Lee by Matt Doble.

I'll end with some by Nick Bruno, who to clearly, this was a Caricature War. These got the biggest laughs of the night. And I'm sure everyone will be gunning for him at the revenge show.

Jeff Gabor by Nick Bruno.

Pete Paquette by Nick Bruno.

Brian Laron by Nick Bruno.

Snow Day

2010-01-28T19:15:00.000-08:00

It was snowing this morning. I have a short commute so the building was practically empty when I got in. I went around and snapped some misc. pics!

This is the Chop Shop, the room I was talking about earlier where reel reviews are usually held.

The director , Carlos, in Sweatbox

My cube-mate, Joe. Uh kinda.

Joe's cube mate, Me. By Joe.

There's a caricature war coming up in the department soon, so I guess we were, practicing?
Oh, Joe and I went to an Ikea in Brooklyn last weekend. I got this overpriced chair and massive desk for my workstation. It's literally the first piece of real furniture at my apt.

Here's the other half of the room.

Yup. January and still haven't unpacked completely. Awesome.

Sweatbox

2010-01-27T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hey Bloggy-Sphere!

I'm about to show my first production shot to the director in sweatbox today. I came in a little early to jot some notes and collect my thoughts. A year from now I'll probably look back at this shot and cringe.

I'll let you know how it goes OK?

Your friend,

-Bobby P

P

-------------------
Post-sweatbox update : Went pretty well! To be more specific and vague at the same time, my shot in layout was originally a smaller, more straight- foward shot to start me out on. During briefings Carlos acted out what he wanted to see. Those ideas would no doubt make the shot longer. Uh-oh, I was afraid to ask for more frames so I tried to stuff it all in to this quick shot and sure enough it looked way busy. So the animation lead gave me the OK to add more frames to sell the ideas, I blocked those poses that indeed extended it's screen time, but thankfully Carlos liked it and gave me the OK to add more frames to make it work. I'm making this movie more expensive!

First Impression

2010-01-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

Today, during our weekly animation department meeting, one of the shots they screened for the whole team was my very first animation test I did a few weeks ago. It was the first time I had ever seen my stuff on the big screen. Considering the company I was in, it was terrifying.

NY Jets

2010-01-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

Currently the city has its Cinderella story in the NY Jets.

Unfortunately back at home, things didn't fare so well for my Hawks.

** Update 01-24......Nevermind!

MOMA

2010-01-19T04:55:00.000-08:00

Animating from the inside out

2010-01-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

"In Finding Nemo I had a HUGE revelation and I called
this Animating from the INSIDE out. My character is not
just some spans of geometry. My character has a heart, has
flesh, has a brain, thinks on their own, etc. After I would
put my blocking in there shortly thereafter I would think,
'Okay, this character has ALWAYS done this, they have
always moved in this way, They are living this moment of
their life RIGHT NOW.'

I think this kind of thinking has happened over many years
of thinking and animating. But the sooner anyone can start
thinking about animation like this the sooner their animation
will become ALIVE and not just a series of movements."

------------------------------------------------

I found this gem on my good buddy, Jamaal's site. And
although it's obviously attributed to someone at Pixar, this
actually sounds like something Jamaal would say himself.
We both previously worked in Seattle and we'd always be
talking about art, trying to come up with all of these new ideas.
The dude is as passionate about this artform as anyone I know.

First Shot

2010-01-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks for your responses on the reel review post. I'm glad people found it helpful! Chris W had a good question in the comments section, but let me know if you have any more.

So back at work, today I was assigned my first production shots! Oh man!

Seq. 150! Apologies for the over excitement , but my first shots in movies ? It only happens once! To celebrate I decided to spruce up my workspace a little.

Haha. Not much I know, but I really don't have that much desk space. And Joe and I still aren't sure if we are allowed to put stuff up on the walls. So just the essentials here. Pictured are a Chris Sanders figurine I got from SD Comic-Con, a Tarzan Maquette, the corner of a Princess & the Frog cell & Coraline popcorn bag via Asifa, and a figure drawing sketchbook (every morning, a group of animators get together and take turns posing for each other. I don't go nearly as much as I should.)

And yes, I'm still doing the touristy things when we head out to NYC. Last weekend I had my special someone visit from out of town so we went to see Central Park, Times Square, the top of the Empire State Building, went dancing in the Meat-Packing district, watched the Lion King, and went ice skating at Rockefeller Center, which has a pretty magical-y backdrop for ice skating, despite how terrible I am at it.

Demo Reel Reviews

2010-01-12T04:40:00.000-08:00

When I was applying to the studios, I would always wonder what Demo Reel Reviews were like.

What do they talk about? How many people attend? Was someone taking notes? How many do they look at at one sitting? There are more than enough resources out there that address the golden demo reel do's and dont's ; Keep it short, best stuff up front, cut the so-so work. But even equipped with that knowledge, I know there's still a sense of vulnerability that comes with sending out your work.

I've been able to sit in on quite a few reviews since being here, so here are some things I've seen that I'd like to share to students wondering the same thing. It seems like after the holidays, a new wave of demos are being sent out, and hopefully this helps. I'm sure every studio is different, but here's how they go down at Blue Sky, and I'm betting there are lots of similarities.

-------------------------------------------------

-In an average week, there are maybe 2 reel reviews. The attendance varies , usually hovering around 8-12 animators, and one Animation PA loading about 6-10 reels per review. It's usually in this small theater room called the "Chop Shop". But your work will be projected on a pretty big screen.

-Any animator can come to these reviews, if the majority of the room likes it, it gets forwarded to the supervising animators. If the supervisors like it, they will contact the candidate.

-There actually isn't much discussion or deliberation that goes on in these things. It's usually either a yay or nay. And no one is taking down notes to give feedback to the candidate. (which is something I always wondered about =). )

-Since I've been here, candidates are considered for 3 different positions. Staff Animator, Junior, or Temps.

-Most animators don't look at reviews as a chore, but are pretty genuinely excited about finding new talent. They WANT to see awesome! They want to be inspired like everyone else.

-Fancy packaging and labels. I don't even see them. Everyone gathers into a dark room and watches it on a big screen. The Anim PA is in the back, opens and plays the DVDs one after another.

-Fancy titles don't impress. Ironically, animators are really impatient and hate sitting through shiny animated logos, they just wanna get to the work. Hell, there's even a running joke that the fancier the titles, the worse the actual animation will be.

-The "best stuff up front" thing is no joke. I've seen demo reels get shot down 5 seconds into the first shot.

Someone will immediately speak out "NOPE." and the rest of the room will tend to agree.

-By contrast, the reels that impress the room usually get watched again. Like I say, animators want to be inspired.

- I hear "He/She should've cut that one.." alot, so get picky about what you show.

-The type of test that seems to say the most about a candidate is the dialogue.

-Great ideas impress. " This one's a little rough, but He/She's got some great ideas..."

- Now, the above said, make sure you've polished your mechanics! A slight IK pop will jump right out and ruin your chances.

-No one really seems to mind cursing, but sex gags never get a laugh.

- I see AM's Bishop alot, likewise with AAU's Norman. It's certainly not a deal-breaker. But if you want your stuff to stand out, modify them a bit if you can.

-People are on the fence seeing 2D animation for a 3D position. Usually the 2D we see is pretty weak. But I have seen some beautiful work come in and even the stronger 2D candidates will be contacted being asked to see some 3D samples.

-If you've applied before, be sure that your reel has enough new work on it. You have to show that you're progressing. Sending the same reel with just one new shot won't show that. I learned that one the hard way.

-Every session has a few reels that don't play (Usually they are data DVD's). The PA sometimes accomodates, but the reel ends up being played on a small laptop screen with the room crowded around it struggling to see. Make sure your stuff gets on the big screen!

-The whole review usually lasts around 15-20 minutes. But I've been at some that were much faster.

So Good luck ! Hope this helps. Get out and knock us on our asses!

New York Times article

2010-01-12T02:55:00.001-08:00

Taking Aim at the Big Names in Animated Film

2010

2010-01-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

Back here in NY from Seattle ...Happy 2010!

Last work day of year

2009-12-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

I like this guy.

Tomorrow I take off for a short holiday vacation. The month & a half just flew by man. So far, all of my time here has been spent working on my animation test for training, and the schedule has been pretty chill. So I'm lookin' forward to coming back in the new year and eventually beginning some production shots! Oh man.

Also, tons of snow last weekend in NY ! Here's a pic of a huge snowball fight in Times Square.

It's an early start for me tommorow, I'm waking up at 5AM to take a train from White Plains to Grand Central Station, and shuttle from there to JFK. And then its off , back home to Seattle!

Greenwich, CT

2009-12-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

The view from the window I sit nowhere near. William's reflection animating something awesome.

Manhattan

2009-12-13T18:46:00.000-08:00

Manhattan by Irene Suchocki

Christmas at the Rock by Tasayu Tasnaphun

One month down

2009-12-12T17:12:00.000-08:00

Last week marked my first month in NY! Some things that happened last week; I showed blocking on my first animation test to Bruno, who gave some detailed, encouraging critique & feedback. Got a new cube-mate, Joe, who is awesome, we get along really well. I asked them to take the wall down between us. Had some drinks & pasta at the company Christmas party. Attended a lecture on bird intelligence & behavior. Met Peter De Seve. Watched Princess & the Frog at lunchtime w/ some of the other animators, was great to see 2D on the big screen again. Took the train from White Plains down into NYC to Sandeep's, finally met a few artists outside of the animation team. First time on the subway!

On the 23rd, I fly back to Seattle for Christmas and New Years! Excited to see friends and family again.

Blue Sky blip

2009-12-08T07:05:00.000-08:00

Director

2009-12-04T10:19:00.000-08:00

Today in animation sweatbox, I introduced myself to the director of our film. Cool dude! Lots of energy.

Carlos Saldanha

Breaking bad habits

2009-12-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know if many people do this, but If I see something that inspires me, and I dont know how they did it, more often than not, I'll shoot the artist an email, pay them their props, and ask them how they did it! Or I'll see him or her in the hallway and ask about it.

Well as you can imagine, that's already happened a lot here. And luckily for me, people are more than willing to help me out.

When I had a few weeks off inbetween jobs, I went back and took a good hard look at my reel. I studied what I thought was weak about it, and I made a list of all the things I could work on, in the hopes that I'd start to find it in people's work here. I've watched a lot of training videos here, and talked to a lot of people and realized how differently everyone works. Bottom line is, these folks are way better than me and I want to be on their level.

So during this first animation test, I'm trying to break all of my bad habits. Which is just doing things the way that I'm not used to. And so far that includes blocking a different way, taking more notes and doing more thumbnail sketches, even shooting video reference differently !

Specifically, I know that my work tends to get a floaty & mushy really quick! I tend to block out main keys and go ahead into splines. So after shooting a message to one animator here who's test I came across and was blown away by, I was lucky enough to get a response:

Hey Bobby,

Thanks for the kind words, I'm glad the test was inspiring. I did shoot reference for the shot. I actually tried to get really sad that day and just act out what felt natural, then build on that. I often block out the animation pretty tight, sometimes every 2-3 frames. I like seeing as much as I can before I hit the spline button.

When I start splining I often push things/poses more, add some more subtle stuff, or offset things, but all the keys are usually there. Anyway, if you wanted to talk more about it just stop on by. Here is a path to my last blocking pass, if you look at the spline version next to this, you'll see where I pushed some of the head motions,squash poses,subtle stuff etc.

Look forward to working with you man.

Hope this helps anyone else who thinks their work is feeling a little on the floaty side, and I know a lot of peeps have trouble with the dreaded transition from stepped to spline, hopefully this helps you too! In my case, the best way to break out of the progression stagnation is to break outside of my comfort zone, and shake up my workflow a little bit.

Dude Challenge 2009

2009-11-30T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the dudes I work with.

D.C.

2009-11-27T18:28:00.001-08:00

Manhattan

2009-11-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

Training mentor

2009-11-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

To familiarize new hires with the studio's tools , each animator is assigned a mentor to help with training, answer any questions, and walk us through the studio's pipeline. Here is mine.

Ladies and gentlemen, Stewart Shaw. A real American hero.

Blue Sky Studios Beard Challenge

First week...

2009-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

...In the bag! The week flew by really. I spent my time learning the animation tools, familiarizing myself with the film's characters, sitting in reviews with the director, being blown away by several animation tests, and meeting the members of the animation team little by little. I sorta have a knack for remembering names, so I think I've got 'em all.

Next week I should be starting on my first animation test! I spent all day today prepping for it. Listening to dialogue clips, jotting notes, scribbling ideas, thumbnailing poses. Monday I'll begin to shoot some video ref. It's like I'm at Animation Mentor all over again!

Just a few misc. pics from my first week. This is White Plains from my morning coffee stop.

Fridays are filled with Donuts.

Scott Farrell's Tiki Cube.

Lunchtime basketball tournament.

Dude I'm scared

2009-11-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

I just came out of my first animation review meeting today with the director and the rest of the animation team.

The tests were just flat-out amazing. Its crazy to see how far these already talented animators are pushing the limits of what they can do. It's inspiring but very, VERY intimidating.

I'm gonna go ball up into a corner and cry now see ya later!