Tangled! Back to classic Disney animation!

I saw Tangled this weekend and was blown away. It was 1000% better than I expected. And I love that there were NO pop culture jokes… except for Cher (see below). Thank you to whomever made that choice at Disney.

First the animation:
Strong posing and timing on all the characters makes popcorn taste better. And Glen Keane’s character design replaces the butter baby!
My favorite was Maximus the horse. Here is a clip of some of his brilliant animation. Congratulations to the animators involved with this piece and all the Maximus bits:

Something about Tangled feels “right.” The character design, the animation choices, the story, it all comes together. And it’s a princess story which is Disney bread and butter. I loved the emotion I felt for the king and his wife losing their child ( I have a baby now too so I guess I could relate). Even the extras in the Snuggly Duckling musical number blew me away. I would like to know who directed that scene. Was it Glen Keane before he left the project or the two new directors.

The Deformation:
I love to see good rig deformation. The geometry deformation and the face rigs were perfect in every way.
At IMD we got to use the same system for hair WDFA used for Tangled. Rapunzel’s hair was fantastically animated and rendered. This hair system (not sure if I can name it legally) is probably the most amazing 3D development I’ve seen on the screen since The Incredibles‘ Elasti-Girl’s body deformations. I love watching a movie and being amazed by the deformations of the character rigs and feeling like I have a lot to learn as a rigger; I had this feeling after watching Tangled.

I know it’s not just me…. but the resemblance of Cher (circa Moonstruck) to Mother Gothel was hilarious.

In fact this week she had the cover of Vanity Fair.

This movie is way better than the one supposedly originally developed… here’s an article from 2005 that makes Tangled look 100% different than what was going to come out of WDFA:
http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2005/11/04/699.aspx

Add comment November 29th, 2010

Mars Needs Moms! Trailer

So this is it. The film I’ve worked on for over a year now as a rigger. I should have guessed Disney was going to put ALL the poop,fart and vomit jokes into the trailer. That’s the Disney marketing department! Enjoy.

Add comment November 23rd, 2010

My Science Animation in Wall Street Journal!

, a San Francisco based iPad textbook start-up was featured in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. And my Microtubule animation for Eva Nogales of UC Berkeley is in the piece! Click on the image below and go check it out. This is pretty exciting!

Add comment August 21st, 2010

Slow Motion

Made this short piece with Matthew Ward and Steve Kirchner. Playing around with the Canon 7D slow motion settings.  I got to act in it and be a real doofus. It was a lot of fun.  I got to make a lot of cartoony facial expressions!

“Slow Motion” from Matthew Ward on Vimeo.

1 comment July 6th, 2010

Something Left, Something Taken

This is a great little short! I found it on drawn.ca. It reminds me why I want a garage. I want a place to make stuff like this. There is also an amazing “making of” detailing how they did the photography, 3D, prop-making on their blog:
http://tinyinventions.com/blog/
Enjoy!

Something Left, Something Taken- Full Version from Tiny Inventions on Vimeo.

Add comment June 28th, 2010

New Poster for Presentation!

Here’s the poster for the presentation next week! I love it. Bishop never looked soo good! Thanks Bobby Beck!

Add comment June 19th, 2010

War in North Overland Teaser Rigs

So I had the privilege of working with my friend Todd Widup on two rigs for this trailer. I rigged the Dwarf and the Troll.

I spent days on the Troll rig and in the end it only got 12 frames on screen! Not even a second on screen. Hilarious. But that’s the way editing works. And I believe in the art of editing so that’s the way it goes. It’s a pretty decent trailer. check it out:

Add comment June 19th, 2010

Exploratorium Presentation Date Set

I’ll be giving an hour-long presentation. Get your Tickets soon!

Add comment May 11th, 2010

Giving A Presentation on 3D at The Exploratorium June 26th!

From Cube to Character
I’m giving a presentation on June 26th at the Exploratorium! My presentation will be geared toward kids (of course) to explain what ‘geometry’ is. I’m going to explain how a poly cube becomes a character (Bishop from AnimationMentor), and then show how it is rigged (without going down the rabbit hole on that topic).

Then show briefly some reference video, several animation passes, then the final rendered version. Explaining how triangles are everything in 3D!
The goal is to get all the kids and adults excited about math and geometry.If I can create a link to their favorite 3D cartoon character(s) they can see how math and geometry are an important part of art and entertainment today. Goal accomplished.

Special thanks to Bobby Beck at AnimationMentor for letting me use Bishop as an example for all the kiddies!

Add comment April 22nd, 2010

New Animation Reel

Here’s my new character animation reel: HERE. Even though I am job-hunting for a rigging position, I think it helps to be able to show you know animation and are good at it.

Add comment April 22nd, 2010