"I never smile if I can help it. Showing your teeth is a submission signal in primates. When someone smiles at me, all I see is a chimpanzee begging for its life." - Dwight Shrute
I have "the office" desktop calendar and thought I'd share Dwight's thought on smiling.
So here's my latest endeavor, my music video directorial debut for Tooth and Nail Records' band The Classic Crime. Also directed by the awesome dudes at Endeavor Media.
It's been getting a lot of hits (almost 18,000 on YouTube as of this posting). It is also on Yahoo! Music!!
So it's been a while since I last posted any work. I've been super super busy.
What have I been up to? Well, besides being crammed with animation at Animal, my wife and I moved to a new house last month. It looks sort of like this:
If you've never bought a house, don't. No, I'm kidding (sort of), but be prepared to be overwhelmed with self maintenance the first year or so. One of these days we'll be able to relax on the patio. Nah, who am I kidding.
Other than that, a couple freelance/commission projects and getting to know Pittsburgh. We checked out the Andy Warhol museum
this past weekend and it was quite a trip. The Ron Mueck exhibition was there (ended March 30) and to see his huge human sculptures in person really gives the viewer the sense of how much time and effort went into each piece.
So beautifully done with so much detail it blows the mind. If the exhibition is coming through your town, I highly suggest checking it out. I was never really a big fan of Warhol. After going to his museum, I'm now a bigger non-fan. I mean, his stuff was just OK. I appreciate what he's done for the art community (mixed photography and bright-colored paint/silkscreens) but he was pretty full of himself, didn't create great pieces (just a whole slew of multicolored primary color silkscreens) and even wrote a book of his own philosophy. I'd have to say I believe he was a better businessman than artist because he fooled so many people into buying into his recreation of pop culture icons in fine art galleries. Graphic artists love him because he began to evolve commercial art into "fine" art, yet the general public still doesn't look at commercial package design as "art". That's a whole conversation in itself. Eh, whatever.
I heard the terrible news that Steve Emmett, a painting and drawing professor at Edinboro University of PA (where I studied), passed away Saturday, March 15.
I never personally had him as a professor while there, but I did have a run-in with him last October when I went to Edinboro to give a lecture about Flash animation. We ended up talking for a few hours, about his life up to his then current status, and I told him my short story and where a bunch of Edinboro students are working, some of whom he remembered from his classes.
He told me about how when he was younger he lived in Ventura, CA for a while, Colorado and a few other states before realizing that he didn't need to move around to find happiness. He said he was happy in the small town of Edinboro, able to pass his knowledge of art onto future artists at the school and still able to be a painter at home. He said "Let's be honest with each other, I know where I stand as an artist and I'm just not that great. I'm good, ya know, but not great." He did say he was OK with that, but those thoughts stuck with me for a while. At the time I tried encouraging him by saying many artists create work throughout their lifetime, and may not achieve artistic success in their lifetime, but do afterward. He agreed in part with me, but kept insisting his art was just alright, not memorable. I remembered and sincerely enjoyed his work from the faculty exhibits.
He left a lasting impression with me that I will always remember from that one conversation. He was very proud when I told him what many Edinboro students are working on in LA, NY and around the world. He talked proudly, and briefly, about his artistic sons. I know I'll always remember how full of life he was just a few months ago. My prayers and condolences are with his family and friends. He will be greatly missed.
The night before they taped this, Cornelius played at the El Rey in Los Angeles and the crew went to the show. Such an amazing live performance and I think they did an AWESOME job for YGG. Animation on the back screen was based on the original they use from their live performance to a modified kid-friendly version for YGG, done by the very cool Joel Fox.
NOTE: You can see clips of the unaired animation segment I posted on youtube in the background collage.
EDIT:
Since YouTube took down the video because of Viacom restrictions, I found another link to the video. YouTube is awesome like that.
Although I don't have a gaming console (not since Sega Genesis), I might need to buy one for whatever system this game can be played on. It's seriously insane.
This short was made for Yo Gabba Gabba's 2nd pilot episode but was taken out for the on-air episode for reasons unbeknownst to me. I personally think it's awesome so thought I'd share it with all of you.
If anyone remembers who did this, let me know because the studio name slips my mind at the moment. This was done by Lifelong Friendship Society. (Thanks Tyler!)
These are exact replicas of the figures you see on the opening and closing credits on the show!! At the office a few months ago I heard these were coming out, just didn't know when. I'm impressed they're out so soon!
From the Kid Robot site:
The new face of children's television, Yo Gabba Gabba!, is rocking away as it gives kids and adults an entire world of fun to wrap their mind around while losing their marbles. We don't want you to be left empty handed though, so we're premiering a series of 7-inch to 10-inch figures at $24.95, as well as our collection of Kidrobot Loves Yo Gabba Gabba! apparel. Forget how old you are and relive the days of sugarfrosted cereal and Saturday morning cartoons.
Just got back from the Ottawa International Animation Festival and it was a blast! I met a lot of really great people there, lots of fans (and a few guest animators) of Yo Gabba Gabba, saw some really great animated pieces and attended some very interesting workshops.
My favorite short of the festival, and I think many other attendees will agree, was Claude Cloutier's "Sleeping Betty". Apparently the judges thought so, too, because it won "Grand Prize for Best Independent Animation".
This trailer doesn't do it justice because the storyline was just great. At least you can see some of the awesome drawing skills that are throughout the piece in this clip, though.
Another favorite was Jesse Rosensweet's "Paradise", although I don't think it's technically animated. Still, an outstanding piece.
I enjoyed Augenblick's "Golden Age" shorts, although there was just a few too many. I missed it, but apparently during the first shorts competition on Wed night there was a projector failure and the Golden Age piece didn't play, which consisted of about 10 different clips. So OIAF decided to break up the clips to play 3-4 throughout the other shorts competitions screenings. I enjoyed watching 3-4 at a time, but on Friday night they played the entire piece, with all the clips and it was just honestly too long. By the 8th clip, you're saying "wow, another one??". All in all, they were pretty funny.
Some other miscellaneous favorites include Nick Cross's "Waif of Persephone" (which I had seen before), Trevor Jimenez's "Key Lime Pie", Matthew Walker's "John and Karen", Michael Langan's (whom I met at the Animator's Picnic) "Doxology", Juan Pablo Zaramella's "Lapsus", Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski's "Madame Tutli-Putli", and Luis Cook's "Pearce Sisters".
I attended the Blogging for Animation panel and was happy to hear what bloggers who I read just about everyday had to say about their take on getting involved in writing about animation and what they think the future holds for blogs. Jerry Beck, who I first met at John K.'s house a year and half ago, said he first began writing for the web in fanzines and just wanted to share his knowledge and love for animation. He said he wishes he could get paid fulltime for the blog he co-writes with Amid Amidi, which I thought was a great point. You read other people's blogs, who spills so much information to you for free, yet they are doing it at their own will. I get so much more information out of blogs than I would in a magazine. Michael Barrier, Mark Mayerson, and Jeff Hasulo were the other panelists.
I'll be back later to update this post soon with some photos I took!
