Hey all, just a quick update. This are going swell, I have 3 pieces I am working on to put on my demo reel. I intend to have that ready for the AM Job fair in July. In other AM news, I am excited to be a Peer Buddy for Spring ‘09 Term. I havent been PB for a few terms, so I’m very excited to get back into the community. In addition to PB, I am also gonna be a Maya Springboard Trainer! I’ve never done this before, so I’m excited to see whats up with that.
The end of the beginning of the end.
So I finished up Class 6 and am now a part of Graduation Class 10! I am heading off to San Francisco next week to attend the graduation ceremony. This last class or two kinda kicked my butt. Not for lack of understanding, but mostly for lack of time. With a new baby in the home after 9 years, it was definatley a change of pace. I have set up a pretty rigourous schedule to put together some pieces for a demo reel. So expect to see some updates on that. Just want to give a shout out to all my family, friends, and AM family for all the love and support. Congratualtions to all of GC10. I expect that we will see great things come from this experience.
An Evening with Ed Catmull
Last night we had a wonderful opportunity to go up to the University of Utah and listed to Dr. Catmull speak.
It was an excellent talk on the industry, studio environment, and how to develop yourself personally. It was amazing how some themes have been reoccurring lately. I have picked up the book The Power of Now as recommended by Bobby Beck. At first it was kind of a mind job (not that its too difficult to go over my head) but a lot of the things taught in that book are appearing everywhere, including Dr. Catmulls speech. There was some talk of not getting too caught up in the past, and taking the time to fix what wrong at this moment. There was a great line delivered, and I may be taking it completely out of context, but it struck a chord with me. He said “its easier to fix your mistakes, than to show them” I really took that to heart as I find that one of my weaknesses is what I call the ‘good enough syndrome’ Maybe I get tired, or other matters are requiring my attention and it becomes all to easy to look at my shot and say ‘thats good enough’ knowing all too well every little mistake that needs to be fixed.
Real quick, I also found a little article on the local news website about Dr. Catmulls visit.
How does recession impact Pixar, Disney animation companies?
December 9th, 2008 @ 7:02am
By Paul Nelson
A University of Utah alumnus is sitting on top of one of the most powerful companies in Hollywood. But what can his company do to keep from being hurt by the recession?
He’s the head of two major animation studios, and even he, at one time, had doubts of his animation skills.
Pixar Animation and Disney Animation Studios President Edwin Catmull said, “By the time I got ready to go to college, I came to believe I couldn’t draw well enough.” He added, “I now know in retrospect that I had the skills that I could have gotten there.”
Catmull says tough economic times can make people revert to behavior that’s worked in the past to avoid risk, which doesn’t always work.
“Something will go wrong. So, your measure is not whether you avoid risk or not. It’s what you do when things go wrong,” he said.
Catmull says even his companies haven’t grown to recession-proof status yet.
“We’re always at the edge of having something disastrously go wrong. I think part of the trick is just to realize that,” he said.
Since he’s run Pixar, he’s seen things go wrong many times. Catmull says every movie Pixar has made has had major problems, and in some cases, the company has had outright meltdowns.
“‘Toy Story 2,’ the core story was the same, but they retold it because it didn’t work the first time. Same with ‘Ratatouille,’ it was always about a rat in a kitchen, but the first time, it wasn’t watchable,” he explained.
The next movie is called “Up,” and it’s set for release in May.
“It’s a 70-year-old man and a young boy who go off on a phenomenal adventure,” he said.
After that, “Toy Story 3″ is up for release in 2010. It includes all the stars who worked on the first two, with the exception of the late Jim Varney. But, plans still call for using the “Slinky” character.
“There will be somebody else doing the voice,” Catmull said.
After that, it will release “Newt,” “The Bear and the Bow” and “Cars 2.” He says it’s too soon to release any details on any of those movies.
Too Cute!
Normally I would put these images on my Facebook, but this is too cute. Look how upset she is. “Dad!…..you’re making me go out it public with this geeky shirt on!”
Class 6 has started!
So it begins. Again. After taking a leave of absence last semester, I am back for more. My Class 6 mentor is Kevin Koch. I am way excited to learn from him, I have heard great things about him. Here is a little background on him from his website www.synchrolux.com:
After a brief career in neuroscience and medicine, I’ve been animating professionally for the last 12 years. I actually started before that on a friend’s personal project (Steve Rude and Nexus, specifically), learning from books, and trial and error (still a great teacher). My professional career began at Warner Bros. Feature Animation, in a tall building on Brand Boulevard, as a lowly inbetweener on The Quest for Camelot. I was lucky that my first supervising animator was the inspiring and talented Mike Nguyen, so even though the film was a dud, I couldn’t have been happier. Then I moved over to DreamWorks as an assistant and worked on all the studio’s hand-drawn films, eventually progressing to animator. I learned from and assisted some of the best of the best, people like James Baxter and Kristof Serrand and Rodolphe Guenoden. I switched to CG animation about six years ago when the rest of the industry changed over, and happily found the transition as natural as could be.
My credits include Over the Hedge, Madagascar, Shrek 2, Terra, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, The Road to El Dorado, The Prince of Egypt, and The Quest for Camelot. I’ve also done some freelance and consulting work to keep things interesting.
I enjoy teaching animation, and for the past year I’ve been a Mentor for AnimationMentor.com, teaching Introduction to Animation, Beginning Acting, Advanced Acting, and Short Film Production. There’s nothing like teaching eager students to sharpen your skills and your eye.
The new Maya is here!
no no, not the software! My wife and I welcomed our 2nd child and first daughter, Maya (I know, I’m a geek) into the world Fri. night. So now matter which way you look at it, I am a slave to Maya. I wouldn’t have it any other way 
