Brad Bird interview on Fandango (*update* and Time Out)

Fandango has a short interview with Brad Bird here. It's not much, but I thought this article might get overlooked by the other animation sites. Probably not, but who knows :P

Ratatouille tomorrow! I'm going to go see it again :)

*update* Here's an even better interview with Brad Bird on Time Out that I found via Mark Mayerson's blog. This one is really worth reading. Here's a quote from Bird:

See, that’s what I mean. People on the far right and the far left only see their own myopic little agendas and are not awake to many other things that are going on. And I think there’s a tendency to polarize all thought and speech by relegating it all to one of two categories, far left or far right, which doesn’t serve any of us. I’m one of the people who think the whole red state/blue state dichotomy is ridiculous, because if you actually go down to the level where actual people are, it’s pretty much purple. Most people are right around the center, but these straitjacket categories get imposed on the map because it makes good TV, and it’s good strategy for both sides to sell this idea of a compartmentalized society. So I’m glad my films are politically confusing.

Man..I know how he feels.

A friendly reminder: "I am the Director's tool. It's his project, not mine."

So, today was a particularly tough day. Rather than going into the details, I think it's more appropriate to re-post Shawn Kelly's tips and tricks article, "You Are a Tool" (from Nov 2006). The title makes it seem like a negative topic...upon reading it again, (and having a fresh experience to relate it to), I see that it's a very positive article. It's really all about how to handle unexpected revisions to your shots.

It's nothing that I didn't know before, when I read it last November. But I tell ya what, the day your shot gets unexpected revisions, read this article again. It's one thing to know this stuff when you're not going through the emotional repercussions of the event, at those times you can say "yeah, I know this" and put it away. But keep this article bookmarked, and re-read this at those times you need it the most. I feel a little better already.

I "love" commuting

So yeah, I got on a 7:30pm train tonight, and what should have been an hour long train ride turned into a 4 hour ride. Apparently the storm that was taking place took out some of the electricity, some track switches weren't working, and believe it or not the conductors had some paperwork to do. Good 'ol LIRR! Gotta "love" it. At least I got to pass the time chatting with a girl who was sitting next to me, who just happened to work for an advertising agency in Manhattan. (Do you like how I tied this post into the NY advertising industry at the end there?)

The moral of the story--don't choose a long commute if you don't have to. So that's really all I have to say, heh. Now it's time to sleep.

Psyop Unisex Loves 4 Square

The anticipation!
The action!

The disappointment!

The cheers!


For the past few weeks a small group of us at Psyop Unisex (the studio's new space, where the Coke team lives--a converted hair salon) has been spending lunch hours playing 4 square at a nearby park! If you haven't played 4 Square since your days in elementary school, you should try it again--Our games have gotten pretty competetive and the various tactics developed have been surprising! Not to mention that it's a heck of a lot of fun! Friday was Chris and Jordan's last day working on Coke, so we had a big pizza party in the park, followed of course by a game of 4 square--with a few new recruits since nearly the entire office was there. There seems to always be something uniquely memorable from each gig I've had, and I'm pretty sure 4 square will be on that list for HF2. Go Team Psyop! ;)

Ratatouille Sneak Preview

I was fortunate to get tickets to see the Ratatouille sneak preview in New York last Saturday! I don't think there's really much I can say about this movie that's not described in that image above. Fantastic design, animation, film. I can't wait to see it again! We had a big group of people from Psyop there, as well as some of my SCAD friends, which made it that much more fun! I've never been to a sneak preveiw before, the audience that night was pretty much all adults, with only a handful of kids, maybe 5 kids max. The movie went over well with the entire crowd.

I also managed to stumble across the "Ratatouille: Big Cheese Tour" today, that's promoting the film around the country. It wasn't that big of a deal, pretty Disney-esque, but I did manage to grab a free Ratatouille poster!

Anyway, yeah--I know any of you who read this blog already want to see this movie. Get your friends and family to go too :) In the meantime, don't forget about Surf's Up! I've seen that one twice already, and my opinion of it has not diminished in the least.

Interview: Kylie Matulick and Todd Mueller of Psyop (via Motionographer)

This is a fairly old interview, sounds like it happened last summer after Happiness Factory 1 was finished, but I found it randomly online tonight! I have the pleasure of working under Todd and Kylie again for Happiness Factory 2 right now. But it's interesting to hear their story about how HF1 came about, because I've never heard it! I wish I had more time to work directly with both of them, but with the MUCH larger team on HF2, there's a structured hierarchy of directors-leads-juniors that seems to be working out well. Psyop functioned that way before, but the team is so much bigger now that it certainly requires more of that. I think there's 30 some people on this project alone, a dozen of which are animators. Definitely the biggest team I've ever been on in NY so far, and Psyop is becoming one of the largest places around here.

It still blows my mind a little that during the time I was working at other places in New York, the HF stuff was taking on a whole life of its own and becoming this huge project! Now it seems like the bulk of freelancers in the city are at Psyop working on this, and they're all very talented. I really feel like I'm learning a lot from the people around me, in terms of both animation, and working on a production. When you work with talented people, you can't help but want to push your work to be the best you can make it.

11 Second Club!

Hey everyone, head over to the brand spanking new 11 Second Club (11secondclub.com). In case you didn't know, 10 second club ceased to exist as of last fall, so my friend Aja Bogdanoff and her husband Mark decided to make their own new site. 10 Second club was a very popular way for young animators to practice with audio clips and see how their work compares with others. I'm hearing some really cool stuff about what might be in store for 11 Sec Club, so definitely spread the word! They're beta testing it now to get all the bugs out, so be patient and don't judge too harshly yet ;) It's gonna be sweet!