Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
here's my demo reel
Up on YouTube.
It's just my animation work. I'm trying to get a job at Pixar. I know, everyone wants that.
It's just my animation work. I'm trying to get a job at Pixar. I know, everyone wants that.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
a modest proposal
Something really bothers me about the animation industry right now. Everybody seems to send their stuff to Korea. Why? Even good animators like Genndy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken. There's more new animation being made now than for a long time and there's a distribution channel for it (cable) but none of it is actually being animated here. It's apparently 'just how it's done now'. This is distressing for a couple of reasons.
One- Outsourcing Creative work. This isn't just labor. This isn't just something anyone can do. This is creative work. Even inbetweens are creative work. Which brings me to the second point:
Work for new artists. Used to be, young artists would get to build up their skills on the crap work like inbetweens. Then they'd have a foundation for drawing animation, and know what's required to work in a studio. Now, no one can get those skills. School teaches you basic principles (if you're lucky), but you need to work on a real series to apply those principles. So, there's never going to be a native animation industry here. It's all overseas.
How come this is the way it's done? Money? Probably.
Also, I should probably say that I have nothing against Korea or their animation industry. They're selling a product that people want to buy- more power to them. What i don't like is the people who made the decision that outsourcing jobs was a good idea.
The real point of this diatribe? Someone needs to found a studio that will do that, if that's how the industry works now, no one does animation in-house, then someone needs to make an inbetweens studio in America. There are a ton of people who want to get into animation- i went to school with a bunch of them. Probably i have enough connections to staff a studio like that. i don't really know. I don't really know the size of the staff or the amount of money involved. We'd of course need it to be very cheap, to compete with Korea. Office space is pretty cheap in some places here, and no Aeron chairs for anyone. Is that cheap enough?
This studio would have these benefits:
Rapid turnaround.-It just has to be faster to FedEx stuff to Burbank than to send it overseas.Has to.
No Language barrier.-This shit should be obvious.
No culture differences-This is a little more subtle. Animation depends on physical acting. A lot of physical acting is gestures and poses, a lot of which are culture specific. An American company would know what you mean.
Possibly starting a new industry in the Bay Area.
what do you think?
-jeremy
One- Outsourcing Creative work. This isn't just labor. This isn't just something anyone can do. This is creative work. Even inbetweens are creative work. Which brings me to the second point:
Work for new artists. Used to be, young artists would get to build up their skills on the crap work like inbetweens. Then they'd have a foundation for drawing animation, and know what's required to work in a studio. Now, no one can get those skills. School teaches you basic principles (if you're lucky), but you need to work on a real series to apply those principles. So, there's never going to be a native animation industry here. It's all overseas.
How come this is the way it's done? Money? Probably.
Also, I should probably say that I have nothing against Korea or their animation industry. They're selling a product that people want to buy- more power to them. What i don't like is the people who made the decision that outsourcing jobs was a good idea.
The real point of this diatribe? Someone needs to found a studio that will do that, if that's how the industry works now, no one does animation in-house, then someone needs to make an inbetweens studio in America. There are a ton of people who want to get into animation- i went to school with a bunch of them. Probably i have enough connections to staff a studio like that. i don't really know. I don't really know the size of the staff or the amount of money involved. We'd of course need it to be very cheap, to compete with Korea. Office space is pretty cheap in some places here, and no Aeron chairs for anyone. Is that cheap enough?
This studio would have these benefits:
Rapid turnaround.-It just has to be faster to FedEx stuff to Burbank than to send it overseas.Has to.
No Language barrier.-This shit should be obvious.
No culture differences-This is a little more subtle. Animation depends on physical acting. A lot of physical acting is gestures and poses, a lot of which are culture specific. An American company would know what you mean.
Possibly starting a new industry in the Bay Area.
what do you think?
-jeremy
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Describe any software quality assurance experience that you have.
I worked as a software tester at SSI and I saw the whole range of changes that go on as a company goes from small to large, swallowing up other companies and being swallowed in turn, as well as the changes the the people around you undergo, being promoted up along different paths, making sometimes horizontal moves, though all starting in the same place-TEST.
What is the shortest amount of time that you have held a job? Why did the job end?
I was a waiter once for about one day. It was a little too much pressure for me and I forgot basic stuff. Also it was a little too real for me. I mean, in software testing, you can make mistakes, and things can go wrong, but in waiting tables, those mistakes can cost someone their lunch, it could be burned or whatever. Real consequences.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
Zwoip!
chivva chivva chiff....
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff ch-chiff chiffa!
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff! chivi chivi chivvi
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff ch-chiff chiffa!
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff! chivi chivi chivvi
chivvie chivvie chivvie chivvie....(fade out)
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff ch-chiff chiffa!
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff! chivi chivi chivvi
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff ch-chiff chiffa!
Zwoip! chiffa! chiff! chivi chivi chivvi
chivvie chivvie chivvie chivvie....(fade out)
300 again
When the digital effects technology looks old and outdated, is there anything left to make the movie great? In short, will it be remembered? Probably not, not with Sin City available. Sin City does a better job in both reproducing the graphic style and delivering the substance, the essence of the source material. 300 just seems to be copping a style, riding someone else's coattails.
cliche effect: film tinting (not sure the official name of that process)- Lord of theRings did it. The Matrix did it (subtly). Oh Brother where art though did it.
cliche effect:lens flare.
As much as i have to gripe about 300, it reproduced the images of the graphic novel to the screen as faithfully as i've ever seen. So technically very well done. The Art people, awesome. But they're not the problem. they've never been the problem.
We're expected to believe that a battle-hardened Spartan, hearing his father call his name, will suddenly fail to hear a horseman approaching him at full gallop, blade leveled at his neck.
In places the movies was just so serious it was pompous. I think the music didn't help. Pompous music, practically Wagnerian. So yes, Hitler would have loved this movie. But mainly for the beautiful men. He loved beautiful men.
But the music, jesus. Those electric guitars during the battle scenes, yech, it just doesn't match. It's a disconnect & it brings me out of the picture.(i'm sure for every one who recedes, four advance(is bothered by it, buy into it(go 'cool')))
It's like if that scene with Leonidas chilllin' eatin his apple had him listening to his IPod. You go 'honk!'It makes a record needle screeching sound (even though none of the audience really knows what a record needle looks like.)
Zwoip!
cliche effect: film tinting (not sure the official name of that process)- Lord of theRings did it. The Matrix did it (subtly). Oh Brother where art though did it.
cliche effect:lens flare.
As much as i have to gripe about 300, it reproduced the images of the graphic novel to the screen as faithfully as i've ever seen. So technically very well done. The Art people, awesome. But they're not the problem. they've never been the problem.
We're expected to believe that a battle-hardened Spartan, hearing his father call his name, will suddenly fail to hear a horseman approaching him at full gallop, blade leveled at his neck.
In places the movies was just so serious it was pompous. I think the music didn't help. Pompous music, practically Wagnerian. So yes, Hitler would have loved this movie. But mainly for the beautiful men. He loved beautiful men.
But the music, jesus. Those electric guitars during the battle scenes, yech, it just doesn't match. It's a disconnect & it brings me out of the picture.(i'm sure for every one who recedes, four advance(is bothered by it, buy into it(go 'cool')))
It's like if that scene with Leonidas chilllin' eatin his apple had him listening to his IPod. You go 'honk!'It makes a record needle screeching sound (even though none of the audience really knows what a record needle looks like.)
Zwoip!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
goofy monsters: in 300
1. Fat fish executioner-dude. No lines. his scene's about a minute long. He has no role in the battle.
2.War Rhinocerososes- not in graphic novel. Added most likely because of War Elephants in Lord of the Rings.
3.War elephants. And then there are war elephants too. just like in lord of the rings.
4.Evil goat-head orgy dude- not in graphic novel. i love this scene. Ooh, he's being tempted by the dark side! Amputees and goat-headed guys and oh my god, are those women kissing? edgy.
5. I totally forgot about the troll dude who cuts Leonidas' helmet. He looks just like... yes, the troll in Lord of the Rings.
The only 'monsters' in the graphic novel are the hunchback and the oracle priests.
2.War Rhinocerososes- not in graphic novel. Added most likely because of War Elephants in Lord of the Rings.
3.War elephants. And then there are war elephants too. just like in lord of the rings.
4.Evil goat-head orgy dude- not in graphic novel. i love this scene. Ooh, he's being tempted by the dark side! Amputees and goat-headed guys and oh my god, are those women kissing? edgy.
5. I totally forgot about the troll dude who cuts Leonidas' helmet. He looks just like... yes, the troll in Lord of the Rings.
The only 'monsters' in the graphic novel are the hunchback and the oracle priests.
300 -why the monsters?
the movie 300 i mean.
It's really dumb. dumber than the comic book, which is pretty cerebral as comic books go.
I really don't get why they felt the need to put in all those goofy monsters that aren't even in the comic. It's like they have this impression that comic books are crap. Or they have the impression that people think so.
But here's the thing: The comic books that make it to the movie stage (achieve such popularity that movie people are aware of them) are different from other comics. They stand out from the crowd. They're not typical comic books. To take that and then just throw a bunch of what you think is typical comic book stuff in... 'because people expect it'
fuck that. have some guts. For a movie that's about guts.
Speaking of guts, in the graphic novel the spartans all fight naked. Cause they're that tough. The movie gives them brown trunks. What would really take some guts is to be true to the comic. But there could never ever be male nudity in a movie- even an R-rated movie. I guarantee no one considered it even once.
Maybe that's a good thing considering how many people commented on the "nudity" in the movie.
other lame thing: bad guys all have piercings. ooh, scary. To old people, maybe.
It's really dumb. dumber than the comic book, which is pretty cerebral as comic books go.
I really don't get why they felt the need to put in all those goofy monsters that aren't even in the comic. It's like they have this impression that comic books are crap. Or they have the impression that people think so.
But here's the thing: The comic books that make it to the movie stage (achieve such popularity that movie people are aware of them) are different from other comics. They stand out from the crowd. They're not typical comic books. To take that and then just throw a bunch of what you think is typical comic book stuff in... 'because people expect it'
fuck that. have some guts. For a movie that's about guts.
Speaking of guts, in the graphic novel the spartans all fight naked. Cause they're that tough. The movie gives them brown trunks. What would really take some guts is to be true to the comic. But there could never ever be male nudity in a movie- even an R-rated movie. I guarantee no one considered it even once.
Maybe that's a good thing considering how many people commented on the "nudity" in the movie.
other lame thing: bad guys all have piercings. ooh, scary. To old people, maybe.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
