The Josh Blog

Adam and Dog Trailer

2012-01-11T09:42:00.001+10:30

Haven't posted anything here for a while because....well, there's been nothing worth posting about....until this popped up in my twitter feed this morning and single handedly restored my love of animation, something that has been atrophying with the current run of schlock on tv and in cinemas at the moment.

Make sure to check it out in HD!

The Andy Serkis Animation Circus

2011-12-13T09:43:00.002+10:30

You may have heard Andy Serkis pounding his chest over his self-elected Oscar worthy animation performance and if you didn't know much about the process of motion capture you'd be forgiven for thinking from his trumpeting that he alone is the sole reason Ceasar was so magnificent to behold up there on the cinema screen.

To be fair, I like what Andy Serkis has brought to motion capture but for him to think that he actually has sole claim over the entire performance and that he deserves an Oscar for it is ridiculous. He makes a very valuable contribution to the process but is only one part of the process, he certainly wouldn't be considered for an Oscar if he'd dressed up in a chimp or gorilla costume and prosthetics but if he had then he would indeed have more claim to being the sole reason Ceasar was received so well by audiences.

Here's an excert from a blog post by an animator who worked on Andy Serkis' motion capture data over the years, I think he, rather than Andy would have a far better idea of just how much work went into making the character of Ceasar come to life on screen.

For him to break it down to a two part process, then, is a gross over-simplification. Aside from the artistic contribution made from either the performance capture artist or animator, or whatever mix of the two exists, there are the several other creative and technical processes needed in order for that character to be believed as any other performer. Modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, rendering and compositing are several other crucial steps that, if not executed to the highest degree, would then render anyone’s performance or animation irrelevant because the character wouldn’t be believable.

You can read the rest of the post here

And the winner is....

2011-09-26T20:16:00.001+09:30

Recently accepted a position at Ambience Entertainment over in Sydney working on the second season of the animated t.v. series Figaro Pho.

So the next few weeks will be *packing*packing* then *driving*driving* then *working*working*

Really looking forward to this project as I'll be working with and under some top talent which I'm sure will cause me to grow and get a tonne better (which always seems to happen when I'm working with awesome people).

Workflow Apps for Animation on the iPad 2

2011-09-17T15:28:00.001+09:30

Now that I've had a few weeks to really get used to my iPad I wonder why it took me so long to buy one.

It's completely changed the way I organise myself. Being able to practically take an organiser/media device with me wherever I go and pull it out at a moments notice to draw, take notes, refine my workflow checklist, come up with lesson plans, storyboard ideas for short films, organise my finances, show people my portfolio, remote access my computer at home, learn to play guitar etc, has made most things that much easier to keep track of and know where everything is.

I thought I'd recommend a couple of apps that have really helped me stay on task and stay organised with my animation.

(These three note taking apps all have their own strengths and weaknesses, I find that between them they have all the features I need)

UPAD
This app has become indispensable to me ever since I started using it. I'd previously been using Note Taker HD to write down all my notes for lessons and for anything else but after trying out the free version of UPAD and loving it to bits I bit the bullet and purchased the full version for $5 (US, not sure how much it costs in Australia, I purchase all my stuff from the US store).
The UPAD UI is clean, slick and unobtrusive when writing out my notes. I can import custom paper backgrounds or choose from the many already on offer. UPAD allows me to import pdf files and annotate over the top off or highlight underneath text which allows for a great way to tick off tasks or highlight sections of important information without it becoming obscured. It also has a colour wheel for picking colours for the pen/highlighter tool which is sweet as there are a few other note taking apps I've tried that only have a very limited range of colour options.

Everything can be neatly organised in folders and exported to pdf/jpeg/printer and then dropbox, iBooks, or any other app that can import pdfs.
There are a few things I'd like to see in the next version which are; select, move and copy/paste strokes, page bookmarking and a folder tree for better organisation.

Note Taker HD
This app is a powerhouse. It's recently been updated with a brand new UI that now sings and is pretty intuitive to use. The ability to write out some text with a stylus or finger and then grab that text and move it anywhere on the page is exceptionally useful for scribbling down notes and then organising them into something cohesive later on. The only minor drawbacks are that it's stroke smoothing isn't quite as refined as UPAD, I find that my writing in UPAD looks slightly neater than Note Taker HD.

Again this app also comes with the ability to sort notes into folders, unfortunately that folder can't house any other folders just like UPAD but it's not such a big deal at the moment. It also has all the export options of UPAD. Again, a copy/paste ability between pages would be the icing on the cake for this app.

Noteshelf
I've only really just started playing around with Noteshelf and it's got some great features including custom papers (user imported or paid), custom covers (some included, some paid) and the one feature all the other note taking apps that i like are missing which is the ability to cut/copy/paste/move every single scribble on the screen. It doesn't seem to be vector based, so when you zoom in you start seeing the pixels, but for the ability to do all that I can totally live with a slightly blurry zoomed view.

ThinkBook
Brilliant app for making to-do's and creating entire workflows. I was looking for an app that would give me the ability to nest to-do's or questions for different stages of a project and after a lot of searching through MANY different to-do apps this is the only one that nests AND does it brilliantly. Not only that but it also shows a pie chart on the top-most project to show how many of the tasks underneath have been done. I've created an entire checklist for my animation workflow that I can now keep track of, tick things off as they're done and remind myself of steps that i might have previously forgotten or skipped over.

Sketchbook Pro
This has been on many 'Top 10' app review articles and for good reason, it's replaced paper and pen when I'm creating thumbnails for poses, coming up with acting ideas and little gestures or planning how I want some body part to move, it's quick, simple, clean, minimal UI and it just works well.

Other notable mentions:
Dropbox, Splashtop Desktop Remote, Webcamera and Headset

I also recently purchases a Wacom Bamboo Stylus from Harris Technology (Australia) for $28 + $12 shipping and it's been brilliant, feels great in the hand, got a bit of weight, small tip and slides over the iPad effortlessly. This replaces my old cheaper, mini one that was actually pretty nice but the rubber wore out pretty quickly and it would pick up a lot of gunk and then smudge it over the screen...eeeew!

As I find more useful apps I'll be back to update this post. I'm not saying these are the best, just the ones that I've found really helpful for my work.

Gotye's Bronte

2011-08-23T19:09:00.001+09:30

All round, mild mannered, super cool Ari Gibson and the talented and also mild mannered dude Jason Pammet created this totally super awesome little animated music video for Gotye's new single "Bronte".

Director and Animator: Ari Gibson
Backgrounds: Jason Pammet

Head on over the Mechanical Apple to see more of Ari's work and check out OzAnimate.com's interview with the two for their previous animated music video for The Audreys.

Annecy to Venice

2011-08-08T11:56:00.000+09:30

Here are a few of the photos I took while traveling through France and Italy. It was a fantastic experience.

Lost My Mind and Bought an iPad2

2011-06-23T23:55:00.001+09:30

On the way back from Annecy I was determined to get some sort of tablety device and it was a tossup between an Asus EP 121 or an iPad2. I had a bit of a hunt in Hong Kong for the EP 121 but found them to be sold out in the couple of stores I tried so I decided to get an iPad2 instead (I still wasn't completely sold on either system but at half the price of the EP 121 I decided to take my chances with the iPad2).

After spending a few days with it there are various pro's and con's with the device.

The biggest con being NO FLASH SUPPORT! Seriously Apple, we know you hate Flash but it's used by a tonne of sites all over the web and not including it just because you've got some issue with is seriously petty and ridiculous. The iPad2 demands it, I could live with the inconvenience on the iPhone because it was so small but it seriously starts to get rage inducing when there's some Flash video or audio media you really want to check out and you have to find a PC in order to do so. Stop lying to yourselves Apple, Flash is not dead, it's here and it's here for the foreseeable future and you need to include it because as soon as a viable alternative tablet that has decent power and runs windows comes out I'll be switching to that unless I'm convinced otherwise and lack of Flash is definitely the thing that will drive me away.

On the pro side of things I now have a slightly gimped personal computer that I can take with me and help me stay organised.

After a couple of days having buyers regret i was searching various forums for some way to link my iPad to my PC and came across an AWESOME little app called Splashtop Remote Desktop which allows me to use any PC in wifi range with the Splashtop Remote application installed so now I can use my PC like a touch screen device anywhere i like around the house.

Not only that but I also have Wifipad on my iPhone along with a custom interface called MODPAD2 (thanks to someone I can't remember from CGTalk) that allows me to access program hotkeys through my iPhone.

So now I can be sitting out in my backyard sunning myself while modeling something with my fingers in sculptris, animating in Maya or roughing out something in photoshop. Granted the interface causes my work rate to slow down but it's very interesting non the less and I'm really looking forward to the day where I can be working in Maya untethered from my desktop on a portable windows tablet.

Oh and I can surf the web in firefox with adblock plus and Flash! As soon as a powerful enough Windows tablet comes out I'll be dropping the iPad like a rock and switching to that because Windows on a tablet PC feels incredibly useful......hmmm maybe i should have just gone with an EP 121....i guess now I'm enjoying the best of both worlds n_n

Annecy 2011

2011-06-23T23:54:00.002+09:30

Quite a bit's been happening over the last three weeks starting with flying over the Annecy in France to attend the Annecy International Animation Festival with a few friends from work and ending with the purchase of an iPad2 on the way back through Hong Kong.

The Annecy Festival was simple awesome! Great films, great behind-the-scenes presentations on things like Tangled (which i totally geeked out about when i found out it was happening) and La Luna the new short film by Pixar which i can say is really charming, definitely the one with the most heart I've seen come out of the studio.

Like I said, charming, in no small way because it was directed by a European so the comical moments aren't really gags but just quaint observational humour that I totally loved.

Anyway, learned a lot, saw a lot, met a lot of really awesome, talented people and had an absolute blast.

After Annecy we continued on to Venice where i could quite happily spend another few months living. The place is amazing. Tall, thin alleyways and streets which lead to larger more open areas and then onto bridges or even just a dead end with an opening onto a canal. Totally loved the place from top to bottom. Can't say the same for Paris or Rome which I found rather dull, I'm not into big cities at all.

What can I say? If it ain't quaint and small towny, it only makes me nonplussed and all frowny

Farm Easter Weekend 2011

2011-05-01T13:44:00.000+09:30

Headed home for the extended Easter long weekend with my 7D and a desire to learn more about black and white photography. I've been reading a couple of books on film noir and have been fascinated by the use of light to bring depth and in composing a shot to be more readable. While I only used natural light in the black and white photos I took it taught me a bit more about contrast and silhouette.

Earth Justice

2011-04-20T11:22:00.000+09:30

Saw this over at Drawn.ca and just had to post it. I love it when animation is used to simply and effectively communicate the needs of people and environment.

Meinbender Pirate

2011-04-18T15:22:00.001+09:30

Couldn't let this wonderful piece of animation go by unposted. I've been super busy these last few months but changes are in the wind.

Sometimes The Stars

2011-03-04T16:22:00.003+10:30

The gorgeous new music video for The Audreys' "Sometimes the Stars" is finally out on the internet.

The short was created and directed by Ari Gibson and Jason Pammet, two friends who have teamed up and are doing some pretty cool stuff together (look forward to their next project which I'll be posting here once it's complete, the WIPs I've seen are pretty stunning). I helped out on this doing the character colouring for various scenes with Jarrod Prince. (full credit list on the youtube page)

Update:
Here's a small behind the scenes interview with Producer Luke Jurevicius and the directors Ari Gibson and Jason Pammet.

Bloody Idiot

2011-02-22T17:18:00.001+10:30

Australia needs a campaign like this.....in fact just buy this and screen it on t.v.'s here.

Animation Round Up

2011-02-17T21:53:00.005+10:30

Been a VERY busy last few weeks with work and teaching so i haven't had a lot of time to keep up with all the new animation that is being created all over the world.

I managed to find some time today to check Cartoon Brew and was really impressed with a couple of animated shorts posted by The Animation Workshop

First up "The Backwater Gospel" (click image to view)

"The Saga Of Biorn" (click image to view)

And lastly a pretty sweet stop motion music video by David Crowder Band

This is Our Home

2011-02-07T14:43:00.005+10:30

This documentary about earth has been on youtube for the last year and a half and I'm only just seeing it now thanks to Gizmodo.

I think this is an important documentary to watch as it really speaks to how drastically we've changed the planet in only the last 50-60 years.

Time is obviously running out for us to drastically change the way we live our lives or face the consequences of our ever increasing population and hunger for resources that the planet just doesn't have enough of to provide for everyone now and into future generations.

It's easy to see how with businesses and corporations chasing ever increasing profits as the ultimate goal that the things that fall by the wayside are the things that don't seem to turn a profit, like leaving old growth forests alone, or taking less fish out of the ocean per year so stocks have a chance to replenish. These sorts of things drag profits down but since when has anything on this earth, apart from humanity cared about money? never, but now we're all starting to really see the price for our own greed and over indulgence.

Trailer:

Full hour and a half movie can be viewed here

Tough Times Ahead for Australian VFX and Film Industry

2011-02-02T11:51:00.002+10:30

The ABC's 7:30 Report recently aired a story about the state of the Australian film industry and on the whole it does not look like a good future.

At the moment the 15% tax offset can't compete with the high dollar and has driven many productions to either cancel plans to film here or pull already in-production films out of the country and still save $10 million plus.

The government is proposing doubling the tax offset to 30% but by the time that's announced it may be too late in the short term to save all the skilled workers here from moving offshore or departing the industry altogether.

For a more indepth report head over to the ABC website and check out the article and streaming video.

It'll be interesting to see how this would affect the indie film market and whether the flood of skilled out of work specialists would boost indie productions or starve them of people because they're finding work in other industries.

Explore Art Galleries with Google's Art Project

2011-02-02T10:55:00.001+10:30

Google have just released their newest project, which has been 18 months in the making, titled "Art Project" (very apt) which allows us to explore 17 museums around the world and view works of art by famous painters in hi-res detail down to the individual globbs of paint in the brushstrokes. So inspiring and very educational.

via Gizmodo

the CGI of Black Swan

2011-01-28T16:30:00.000+10:30

I recently caught Black Swan at the local arthouse cinema and was completely blown away. The film was an intense, psychological heart pounding experience that I won't forget anytime soon. I won't spoil the plot here but a recent video was released showing some of the CGI visual effects that were part of why the movie turned out to be so great, they're so well integrated into the film that some of them are unnoticeable.

Spoiler Alert: Don't watch if you haven't seen the film and don't want to know what happens

Via FirstShowing

Oiling the Cogs

2011-01-28T14:34:00.001+10:30

Animation is like any skill, don't use it for a couple of months and you can get rusty really quickly (at least that's been my experience). Having not really animated much for the last 6 months I've found that starting on my latest project has taken me a couple of weeks to really start doing decent animation again and I've had to go back and redo animation that I'd done at the start of the project because it just wasn't up to scratch.

It's definitely a good idea to do a couple of test animations before starting on a new project in order to hit the ground running once you start on the real deal. Also constantly going back and refreshing yourself on animation principles and techniques in order to stay fresh.

Acting and Animation

2011-01-21T22:00:00.015+10:30

I've been feeling rather unfulfilled over the last few months about my ability to really find the character within the characters I've been animating over the last year and a half.

It's been slowly building in me that all I've been doing is trying to find interesting poses that match the tone and fill up the seconds of dialogue I've been given to animated for a particular moment.

I began getting frustrated thinking that if I just understood the mechanics better or could find more little sub-actions to fill up a characters dialogue then maybe I'd be able to develop further as an animator. The reason for such thinking is that, as animators, it seems like that's all the training we ever receive and any instructor ever teaches us; More observation, more sub-actions, more overlap, more interesting poses, more detail in the movement etc. etc.

In the end I was at a point where I felt absolutely sick of just moving stuff around on a screen for 8 hrs a day because the personality I was trying to create was all coming from the way the character held themselves and the way they moved which didn't appeal to me at all because it felt so superficial. I began to think about live action and about the human aspects of crafting a story around real people with real emotion and as i pondered this the desire to leave animation behind became greater and greater until all i wanted to do was give it up and shift into photography and film.

So I started looking for acting resources because acting has always been something I've been interested in at one level but was constantly reinforced as an unrealistic and ultimately fruitless journey that would end in nothing more than a job waiting tables (...as if animation has any more job security or certainty than acting) which is why I turned to animation. I loved pretending to be different characters, I loved the genuineness of the characters I saw in animation and so i figured what better thing to do than bring characters to life that, before I started moving them, had no life.

The constantly recurring comment from my brother is "Josh. Stop. You're being animated again" which, to him, is a negative thing but for me, I can't help myself, I have to be.

So anyway, back to acting....

What I discovered in my hunt for good training was that there really is relatively few "good" resources on acting training out there but the few that are actually good, are great.

Which brings me to the title of my post, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Nina Foch are three people who's books and dvds have really opened my eyes in different ways to bringing characters to life.

I found myself absolutely mesmerized by Uta Hagen's dvd of some of her acting classes. Her students, even when they were not so good, displayed an ability to entertain and caused me to suspend my disbelief in a way I'd never done before. I'd stumbled upon something that I didn't understand and desperately wanted to know more about. I decided to go ahead and also order her book so I could really understand the types of exercises which had helped her students to light up the stage. After half a book of waffle about an actor's true calling and why we act I finally got to the very enlightening exercises she suggested doing (...don't get me wrong, she wrote and explained some really great things amongst the waffle, I just found her writing style hard to follow and could only manage 10 pages at a time before putting the book down and needing to go for a ~~run~~ ~~jog~~ shuffle to the fridge to get my head around the things she'd written).

Meisner's dvd on the other hand started out well as he explained principles and anecdotes but the students he taught in this recorded class are either really bad, really green or they've been caught up in a style of acting that feels really false and over done, as if they just enjoy hearing the sound of their own voices and how much variation they can get into their performance. Poor Meisner, I'm only half way through the dvd and I'm only really sitting through the rest of it to hear what he has to say and cringe through the appalling performances from the students.

This is part 1 of 7 from a documentary about Meisner's School back in the 80's

Nina Foch's dvd was different again. Her course focuses on a variety of movie related training, from casting and auditions to directing and acting, her's is a general overview with a few specific lessons to use for training in each area. While not as in depth as the other two dvds I found her dvd very helpful in demystifying the different aspects of each area that bring a film together.

So what is the point of this long monologue? Only that, in discovering what makes a great actor, I have discovered what was missing in my animation and was so frustrated by. Instead of figuring out who the character is from the outside, I needed to look deeper into the character and understand who they are from the inside out (I knew this before, but didn't understand what it really meant at the level required to create a believable performance) and what they would do instinctively and emotionally in any given situation that they find themselves in throughout the story. This realisation that it isn't what the character is thinking that determines who they are but the feelings and emotions that are passing through them on their journey which defines them as a believable and relatable being on screen.

So there you go, through frustration, perseverance and a hunger to discover new things comes understanding and ability. Who knew?

PS3 Hacker Sued....Because He Made Sony Mad

2011-01-14T18:41:00.003+10:30

over at Kotaku [via G4] there's a video interview of the guy who hacked the PS3 and discovered Sony's software signing code. This code allows any software the ability to be run on the PS3 and so Sony sued him. This is also the guy who first jail-broke the iPhone witch was originally illegal to do but now the law has been changed to allow for jail-breaking and modification of smart phone devices, a law and a right that would have never existed if it wasn't done first and done by a lot of people.

I'm a big believer in owning the products I purchase and being allowed to do whatever I want with them after I purchase them, not have the company tell me what I can and can't install so this is a case I'll be following closely.

Download:

FLV MP4 3GP

New York Underground

2011-01-04T17:47:00.002+10:30

This is an amazing video following Urban Historian Steven Duncan and shot by videographer Andrew Wonder as they travel through New York's underground rail system and climb bridges in search of the city's forgotten and often off limits past.

Totally fascinating. Be sure to check it out in HD and full screen.

Meet Buck

2010-12-09T07:45:00.002+10:30

Meet Buck has finally been officially released online for your viewing pleasure.

Breathtaking Dance Animation

2010-12-07T18:28:00.003+10:30

I don't think I've seen something so poetic, moving and expressive in animation like this in a long time.

Treeless Mountain

2010-12-04T23:49:00.003+10:30

I stumbled across this film at an Asian film festival in Melbourne a year back which, when i tried to buy a ticket, was already sold out and so I missed my chance to see it. Since then I've googled it from time to time to see if anyone had uploaded it to the internet and it wasn't until today that I managed to find a link and watch it.

After being glued to the screen throughout it's 90 minute length I just sat and reflected on my life and how much I've taken for granted the stable upbringing I had along with my relatively stress free journey through life to this point.

The two young girls do such flawless performances that it's very difficult not to treat this like a documentary and really caused me to feel for any child who has to endure such feelings of abandonment by their parent/s.

After watching it I decided to see if iTunes had it available to buy because there was no way I was going to let someone who can so carefully craft and unfold a story with this amount of heart go unsupported. This movie is a textbook case of "less is more" with dialogue used only where needed and moments that convey enormous amounts of emotional turmoil through a single sideways look.

Rent or buy it on iTunes today ($10 from iTunes USA)

Georgious Taiwanese Short Film

2010-11-23T23:40:00.003+10:30

Kinect Tech Looks Impressive

2010-11-16T10:39:00.000+10:30

There's been a lot of commotion lately about around Microsoft's new Kinect hardware which can extrapolate 3D images of your lounge room using a camera and an array of infrared dots that allow it to perceive depth. Now it's hacked for Linux/Mac/PC and the possibilities are pretty amazing.

This could be used as a cheap alternative to an expensive motion capture setup.

This is the Face of Capitalism

2010-11-12T10:52:00.001+10:30

This is what happens when the bottom lines and shareholder profits are more important than people's lives.

This is a classic example of what happens when people stop caring about others, when those who are rich (i include myself) and powerful (myself not included) don't see or care beyond their own immediate desires and needs.

money, money, money, money, money.

Nike can kiss my money goodbye as they're never seeing another cent.

An Evening at Hallett Cove

2010-11-08T14:32:00.004+10:30

Traveled down to Hallett Cove to spend the evening with friends and brought along my camera. I had no idea we were going to get front row seats to one of the most beautiful sunsets I've witnessed.

Favelados

2010-11-05T23:49:00.000+10:30

I discovered this through a random youtube recommendation and found it deeply moving. A very well executed, paced and empathetic story.

Half Life Fan Film

2010-11-05T19:18:00.004+10:30

This is what $1200 and a lot of hard work and passion will get you.

Added: 28th Jan

The full short film has been released

Full Road Runner and Coyote Short Online

2010-11-02T14:09:00.007+10:30

EDIT: Video keeps getting removed, looks like they're not interested in people enjoying this :-/

I like what I'm seeing here, still not as fun as the originals but a great effort all round non the less.

I saw the other one of these current shorts before the film Legend of the Guardians and didn't think much of it so it would seem the ability to get the right sort of feel for these cartoons is still very hit and miss.

Death Buy Lemonade

2010-10-25T22:18:00.003+10:30

A simple, very well told story done simply very well.

Follow THIS link to view some of the preproduction sketches from this short.

Poverty, Money and Love

2010-10-24T17:29:00.002+10:30

More from Disney's Tangled

2010-10-22T09:10:00.000+10:30

Painting With Sound

2010-10-17T23:54:00.000+10:30

Here is a photograph of paint as it vibrates on a rubber surface which is oscillating to sound waves.

Created by Linden Gledhill under the umbrella of Dentsu London for the new Canon Pixma ads.

And here's the "making of" video and a link to the process.

Inspirational Advertising

2010-10-14T10:15:00.001+10:30

Usually I stay as far away from watching advertisments and free to air tv as possible. The constant consumer mentality it promotes just rubs me the wrong way. But I can't deny that making ads in the past has paid my bills, I just choose to not watch them.

But it's impossible to ignore advertising that really inspires and creates such a wonderfully artistic experience and for that reason this ad by Three Legged Legs stands head and shoulders above anything i've recently witnessed in the advertising rhelm.

Georgia Power from three legged legs on Vimeo.

Not only is this absolutely encharnting but the company behind the ad have been generous enough to share A LOT of the production art and tests that went into creating the work.

And just for giggles here's another ad of theirs that I really liked n_n

Chico and Rita

2010-10-13T17:43:00.000+10:30

Spotted this while browsing the Apple Movie trailers site.

Himeji Gardens

2010-10-09T23:12:00.001+10:30

I've been wanting to visit the Himeji Gardens in Adelaide for a while and never managed to get around to it. Until now.

Horace in Slow Motion

2010-10-05T14:33:00.002+10:30

Around the beginning of the year I worked for Boombada Productions on a short t.v. series called "Horace in Slow Motion" for ABC3.

Some of the episodes were recently posted online and so here are two out of the three that I animated.

EDIT:
The videos have been taken down from youtube.com BUT you can now watch all the episodes on the ABC website.

Photos From the Farm

2010-10-05T14:19:00.000+10:30

Took a trip up to the farm on the October long weekend and took my camera to capture a few moments.

Victor Harbour

2010-10-05T14:14:00.001+10:30

Down at Victor Harbour between the 24th and 26th

Pakistan Floods Report

2010-09-30T15:02:00.005+09:30

What are you doing to help the people of Pakistan?

To donate and KNOW that all your funds will be used to help support those in need in Pakistan please donate as you can at 1toAnother

Meet Buck Trailer

2010-09-30T12:00:00.001+09:30

I was fortunate enough to see this whole short the other day and it cause me to capsize on the ground twitching uncontrollably in giddy delight.

So here's the trailer:

Made by a group of students from the same school as those that created Salesman Pete...infact the leads on both projects are brothers and they both feature the same piece of steak n_n

Can't wait for everyone to be able to see this once it's released publicly.

Also check out the website both productions share, it's got some really cool preproduction and production artwork on show as well as links to other content.

Fan Made Titles for The Walking Dead

2010-09-29T14:24:00.002+09:30

Get inspired!

Bible Based Games?

2010-09-27T10:20:00.000+09:30

Just came across this little gem of an article by Tycho over at Penny-Arcade which i thought held some interesting things to consider about the possibility of using the Bible as a source of inspiration for gaming.

Article here

Moon Lantern Festival

2010-09-24T00:12:00.000+09:30

Met up with some friends at this years Moon Lantern Festival and shot some footage as we watched the lanterns go by and ate warm doughnuts n_n bliss!

7D Surf Footage

2010-09-22T22:13:00.000+09:30

I took this footage last summer and cut it together but never got around to finishing it. In the last couple of days i came back to it to test out a couple of After Effects plug-ins, Colourista and Twixtor and finished the edit and this is the results.

Still nowhere near as good as another local 7D owner who I've just discovered. This guy has some really inspiring stuff.

Salesman Pete Has Arrived!

2010-09-21T17:02:00.000+09:30

In all it's frenchy goodness n_n

Light Painting on iPad

2010-09-17T10:51:00.001+09:30

Here's a pretty interesting use for long exposure, light photography. I'm definitely going to have to try this out with my iPhone

New Tangled Trailer

2010-09-17T10:31:00.001+09:30

Another trailer for Disney's Tangled (Rapunzel). Looking better and better every time i see it!

Drain Surfing

2010-09-07T09:27:00.001+09:30

So after being featured on the local news website Adelaidenow.com.au my brother, cousin and I headed back to the Botanic Gardens for another afternoon of drain surfing.

Here's the original video by Jake:

And here's the followup i shot on Sunday with a mix of Canon 7D and iPhone 3GS footage:

Download:

FLV MP4 3GP

Download:

FLV MP4 3GP

Another amazing film from Gobelins Students

2010-09-03T19:02:00.002+09:30

Ha! Love it n_n

2010-09-02T10:30:00.007+09:30

Click image to see video (takes a while to load, but it's worth it n_n)

Scott Pilgrim vs MY World

2010-08-31T10:26:00.003+09:30

Went and saw the Scott Pilgrim vs The World yesterday and totally loved it! It totally bombed at the box-office but this is going to be an insta-purchase for me once it's out on bluray, the film rocks.

So then after i saw the film and thought it rocked, i went home and purchased both the soundtracks to the movie as well as the soundtrack to the game out on PS3 and XBox360....all three rock!

Here's a sample track from the games soundtrack. All the tracks in the game were created by the band Anamanaguchi.....they rock!.....I need to learn some more words to express my appreciation =_=

You can find the rest of the tracks from the game listed on the right if you watch the video on youtube.com.....then go buy the CD on itunes!

Oh and whilst waiting for the movie to start before any of the trailers came on there was some awesome music playing which came from the label HiddenShoal which i really dug, I have no idea which of their signed bands the tracks belonged to but I'm having fun digging through their acts and listening to singles.

Ice Creams

2010-08-25T23:15:00.003+09:30

Eat Your Cake 800% Slower!

2010-08-20T13:52:00.001+09:30

Via Kotaku:

"We now know how to make a Justin Bieber song sound good: slow it down 800%. But what happens when Portal's Still Alive, that great video game song from Jonathan Coulton, gets the same treatment? Listen."

'Still Alive' from Portal, slowed down 800%. by xihilisk

This was made possible using a free program called Paulstretch

"I Wish I Had Your Talent"

2010-08-11T23:02:00.001+09:30

Talent? pfffft! Hard work buddy!

Sensology Sensation

2010-08-10T23:10:00.001+09:30

Here's a shortfilm to tingle your audio/visual sensors!
Makes sure to click through for the 720p version

Looking Forward to This n_n

2010-08-07T00:27:00.002+09:30

This Is What Happens to Women Under Taliban Rule

2010-07-30T21:31:00.004+09:30

After running away from an abusive arranged marrage and being recaptured, her husband returned for the first time from abroad, to send her to a Taliban court for sentancing. The verdict: To have her nose and ears sawn off and to be left for dead in the hills. But Aisha survived.

This is her story

TIME: Why they decided to put her photo on their front cover

Video about Aisha's TIME photoshoot:

Photography an Endangered Hobby (Unless You Can Pay)

2010-07-30T11:03:00.001+09:30

I stumbled across a rather terrifying article relating to my budding photography hobby.

It's one thing to work out a misunderstanding, but when authorities won't even listen to you when you have every legal right to take a photo, and still won't listen when you produce a document stating that you are allowed to photograph, you know there's something very wrong about the state of things.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs Animation Breakdown

2010-07-26T12:08:00.000+09:30

I stumbled across a couple of GREAT! articles by David Gibson, one of the animators who worked on my favourite animated film of last year "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs".

The Eye's Have it!

and

Eyeball Squish

And here's the guys Cloudy Showreel

New Road Runner and Coyote Short

2010-07-26T09:32:00.004+09:30

Can't wait to see this in full n_n

Can't say the same about the outsourced-to-India Cartoon Network shorts though =_=

Getting Familiar With Adelaide

2010-07-11T22:46:00.000+09:30

Not sure how many people who come across my blog in their random travels to some other blog, that they were supposed to get to but somehow spelled the address incorrectly, know about my dear old current home town of Adelaide.

Well this should clear things up, there's even a map and some pictures to help people get a broad picture of what this happy place is like

Hey and Ben Folds even has a song about us!

Desktop Backgrounds

2010-07-09T15:23:00.003+09:30

I cropped some of the photos from the last few days into a collection of desktop backgrounds, so here they are in all their wide-screen 1080p glory.

Farm Trip

2010-07-08T13:07:00.004+09:30

Recently spent a few days back home on my parents farm. Spent the time helping out dad with odd jobs and taking photos of the local wildlife and scenery.

Pogo's Gardyn

2010-06-07T21:07:00.003+09:30

Download:

FLV MP4 3GP

France Makes all the Cool Stuff

2010-06-05T17:31:00.004+09:30

Here's a totally awesome CG/Hand Drawn short which pretty much combines CG and traditional elements in the best way I've ever seen.

Now THAT is what I consider modern art!

Recovering After Red Dead Redemption

2010-05-30T23:48:00.000+09:30

IGN review - 97/100

.....I agree

Finished after roughly 32 hrs of game time. The game is massive, the game is amazing, I'm going to go play it some more.

iPhone Photography

2010-05-27T10:41:00.005+09:30

I've been having a great time with my iPhone taking pictures around the place. It's super handy and simple to just pull out and take a photo, unlike my 7D which, while awesome, needs some tuning before snapping away. I also went ahead and splashed out on about $30 worth of apps for the camera which really allow me to add some punch to the images.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Monster Mash

2010-05-27T10:37:00.002+09:30

This has been distracting me quite a bit lately, it's super simple but really fun to mess with.

Uncharted 2 Artbook in da house!

2010-05-27T10:35:00.000+09:30

National Internet Filter? DO NOT WANT

2010-05-13T22:10:00.001+09:30

What the hell use is a government, elected by the people, when they aren't listening to the FLOOD OF DISAPPROVAL coming from the people who elected them.

This video of a Greens senator ripping through the governments plans and showing every one of their arguments to be totally without merit and how he offers some very viable alternatives, that don't force themselves on the entire country, is exactly the way this debate over a national online filter needs to be steered.

My Boss in Melbourne Was A Psycho

2010-05-08T08:05:00.000+09:30

An interesting article has been written about the cold, heartless and at times sadistically gleeful way my previous boss at Ettamogah treated his remaining employees after he'd fired most of the workforce.

Article here

If you ever have the misfortune of crossing paths with a one Leigh O'Brien, real estate developer, owner of the Ettamogah Pubs and owner of failed animated tv series "Lil' Larrikins", don't trust anything that comes out of his mouth.

Longboard Promo

2010-04-05T20:29:00.003+09:30

This past Easter weekend has actually been pretty busy for me. Still working away madly getting an episode for the t.v. series I'm working on finished and tomorrow I'm starting a gig at The People's Republic of Animation.

What has been fun though is the creation of a promotional video for my brothers skateboard/surfboard shaping business using my 7D.

click on the vimeo icon to access the HD version.

Red Dead Redemption

2010-03-19T15:42:00.001+10:30

This has the potential to be THE definitive western game of this generation....in fact, personally I'd this is looking like the best western game since LucasArts' Outlaws.

May 18, 2010. Mark it.

iPhone Doodles

2009-12-26T10:41:00.000+10:30

Just a bit of messing around in Autodesk's Sketchbook app on the iPhone. Some of the stuff I've seen from real artists has been awe inspiring ^_^ me, I'm just content doing little ditties.

New Digs in Old Town

2009-12-23T15:10:00.003+10:30

After the dramas of Melbourne (which still haven't been resolved) I'm back in Adelaide working for a few months.

I'm working at a place called Vishus Productions which recently one dual AFI's for their recently completed animated series "Figaro-Pho".

So until mid-Jan I'll be working on their short film "Wadu" and after that their next short t.v. series.

So even though my Melbourne work was cut short I learned so much from all the talented people there and came back with a much better understanding of animation.

Oh and I'm blogging this from my new iPhone, which although quite restricted in it's ability to personalize it's look and feel away from Apple's corpoate branding (ie no personal background photos, no ability to create my own message alert sound, no ability to have more than one app at a time, no ability to sort contacts into categories, unlike the iPod Touch no portable hdd ability etc etc) the third party apps and games are great! I've been drawing, racing, shooting and checking emails all from my phone. If I can learn to live with Apple's restrictive crap, I think it's going to be a very useful tool.

Drama Central

2009-11-27T12:22:00.001+10:30

For those not in the know, here's a link to a newspaper article about what I've been going through over the last 6-7 weeks with work.

Canon 7D

2009-10-11T09:49:00.000+10:30

I'm in the middle of purchasing one of the new Canon 7D's and a bunch of equipment for the purpose of trying my hand at short film creation as well as filming surf and motocross events.

I'm also doing all this now because I'll be heading over to Japan for around 10 days on November 5 and I wanted to be able to record as much as possible of the trip while I'm over there and cut it into a music video to help me understand more about editing and timing.

So far my Equipment list includes:

Canon 7D
Manfrotto 190XB Tripod
701HDV Fluid Video Tripod Head
Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II Lens
Lowepro Flipside 300 Camera Backpack
Hyperdrive Colorspace O UDMA 120GB Photo Storage Drive + AA Battery Case
2 Camera Batteries
2 Sandisk 16GB Extreme 3 Compact Flash Cards
2 UV Filters (basically a lens protector)

All this I bought from various places in the US and Australia, searching the internet for the best prices and in the end it all came in at a couple of hundred dollars under $4K.

I'm still waiting for all the stuff I purchased from the US to arrive, some of it (one of the lenses and the tripod) starts getting shipped on Tuesday which should arrive before i leave (it had BETTER) and the protable photo drive will probably arrive this week at some point.

So now I'm all kitted up for the time being (until I get back and save some more money) and don't really have a lot of money to spend in Japan....but at least now I'll have a record of what I did there ^_^

Odosketch

2009-10-01T17:07:00.003+09:30

Just some fun messing around with a new internet based sketch tool.

Up

2009-09-17T13:50:00.001+09:30

-_- Meh

Time, Where Hast Thou Gone-eth

2009-08-23T17:55:00.000+09:30

Sheesh it's already the 23rd of August, what happened.

Work. I've been busy at Ettamogah Entertainment here in Melbourne, finally settled on a place to live and now just need to get myself some furniture (IKEA here i come).

In the last couple of days the Avatar trailer has come out. People who have seen the 15 minute preview in 3D have been totally blown away by it. Someone was randomly listening to a song by Imogen Heap when watching the trailer and by some crazy coincidence it syncs up perfectly with the trailer, and makes it feel like a more mysterious, epic story. So i cut the two together and made this.

Transformers 2 Review

2009-07-01T23:08:00.000+09:30

For the most accurate review on the internet click here

New Work

2009-07-01T14:11:00.000+09:30

As some of you who visit this blog may already know, I'll be shifting over to Melbourne on Wednesday the 8th of July to start working at Ettamogah Entertainment on their upcoming animated t.v. series for channel Ten.

So I'll be sadly saying goodbye to all my friends in Adelaide which I've called home for the past 8 years and start a new chapter in my life in the south east of Australia. I'll be popping back over to Adelaide every so often to visit and catch up with friends though so I won't be completely cut off ^_^

Genius Party DVD Arrives Tomorrow

2009-06-23T09:35:00.000+09:30

Two long years after Genius Party was first released in a selected number of Japanese cinemas the DVD has finally arrived in Australia on the 24th. So tomorrow I'll be trotting down to JB HI-FI to pick up said DVD and watch it until my eyes bleed.

Gobelins Annecy '09 Sequences

2009-06-16T11:02:00.002+09:30

So much talent! they must teach AWESOMENESS at this school as a subject.

New-ish Showreel June 2009

2009-06-15T22:12:00.000+09:30

Here's a newly cut showreel for some of the previous work I've done. Unfortunately my best work is still under various Non Disclosure Agreements so until they're lifted this will have to do.

June 2009 Reel from Robinhood on Vimeo.

Dolphine Slaughter

2009-06-06T21:52:00.005+09:30

As much as I find Japanese culture, language and the country's plants and wildlife intersting, unique and beautiful, they still have a long way to go in respecting the natural world. This is especially clear when it comes to the wholesale slaughter of dolphins, whales and clearing entire forests for housing development.

They are surrounded by so much beauty and life yet they still don't seem to understand that at the rate they are culling these animals and vegetation it could soon be too late to do anything to reverse their actions. The Europeans have already learned this the hard way by pushing many animals to extinction or near extinction before we finally woke up to the fact that over consumption and killing will have massive consequences to the affected species. I really hope that this film wakes people up to what's going on, especially in Japan I hope that people will see this and refuse to buy anything with whale or dolphin in the product.

Genius Party Beyond Arrives

2009-05-31T23:24:00.005+09:30

One of the fansub sites I frequent released a subbed version of Genius Party Beyond which when I saw had me grinning from ear to ear in anticipation at finally being able to see this collection of independant artists working on things they wanted.

While the quality of the shorts ranged from "ho hum..next" to "WOWAMAZING!!!" it was great to see artists getting to freely explore ideas even if some were a little bit on the "seen it before" side.

One that stood out far above the rest was Koji Morimoto's Dimension Bomb which instantly and constantly kept blowing my mind at how beutiful a medium animation is.

These still images are so beautiful and yet still don't do the short justice, it has to be seen in motion to truly be appreciated. I was so impressed with just this one short (there are another two in the collection that are also really good) that I decided to buy the Limited Edition box (rock on tax deductions) which not only includes the DVD (if there's anything crying out for a Blu-ray release it's this) but also:

Genius Party Storyboard Book (590p)
Genius Party Beyond Storyboard Book (544p)
Project Genius the Making Book
2 Bonus Discs (Making Of and Interviews)

I can't wait to see how this was made and now all i need to do is find someone who can translate the Making Of stuff......that or learn more Japanese.

Toy Story 3

2009-05-30T13:45:00.003+09:30

The Truth

2009-05-30T13:29:00.002+09:30

Maz Jobrani

2009-05-16T09:19:00.002+09:30

For Your Consideration

2009-05-15T13:24:00.002+09:30

Pixar vs Dreamworks

2009-04-07T22:52:00.000+09:30

Here's a neat little pic I found online illustrating the differences between Pixar and Dreamworks.

click for larger image

Pretty accurate.

The Fruit of a Day's Labour

2009-04-06T21:44:00.002+09:30

This is the result of basically an entire day (I stopped to eat and watch Doll House) spent trying to get my head around 3D objects integrated into Flash. Very frustrating but I ended up with something which is better than what I had at the start of the day.

This is the start of something very interesting

Q & A with Conroy about Internet Filtering

2009-04-01T16:25:00.002+10:30

click the image to watch the show (1 hour)

Last weeks Q and A panel was probably one of the best open discussions the government has had with the public about what all this internet filtering stuff is all about and specifically the sort of things they're going after.

Also on the show was an interesting discussion about the wide range of Muslim beliefs and misconceptions which seem to dominate peoples thinking lately...one of the best Q and A's I've seen.

Coming Soon....I Hope!

2009-03-25T23:25:00.001+10:30

Best Site EVER!!

2009-03-17T22:39:00.001+10:30

I have officially just discovered the absolute best site on the internet that has ever existed at this point on the internet.

www.ecodazoo.com

....

....

....okay I'm back, just had to visit it one more time.

The guy actually made the engine entirely himself in Flash and I can't stop geeking out over the cuteness of his popup picture books....I love it!!!!!!