RA Podcast - Dan Pozo

Recently I was asked by good friend and fellow animator Rusty Gray to be a guest on his animation podcast series entitled 'The Rusty Animator Podcast'.

So we organised a skype date and chatted for about 2 hours on subjects including my professional history, moving and working in different countries and the challenges that have arisen over the years from working in TV, VFX, and feature film. Then Rusty's hard drive died suspiciously in some alien abduction time traveling mutant robot zombie apocalypse, or he plainly forgot to back it up somewhere. I still like to think it was the mutant robot zombies, but I digress.

So we decided to do it again, I had heaps of fun the first time and it was interesting being on the other side of the podcast experience, having had recorded a bunch while living in London. And this is what came of it!

I was humbled and super fortunate to be apart of this series he has going. Hopefully I don't ramble on too long in this one.

Here is the link to the episode :

Thanks once again to Rusty for organising this and wanting me to be apart of his podcast series. Be sure to listen to Rusty's other animation podcasts with some amazingly talented people.

Cloudy 2 Animation Reel

While being back home in Sydney on a short vacation, I've finally had enough time (and motivation) to put together the shots I did while at Sony Imageworks on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" back in 2013.

Looking back at this amazing and fun project, I became all nostalgic with a permanent smile on my dial as I reminisced on the good times and great friends I made. Not to say it wasn't a challenging and or difficult show, but I have incredibly fond memories of the time spent working on this film.

Here is my reel:



Thanks for viewing :D

Cloudy 2 - Chester V featurette

With the release of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 on DVD and bluray in a few weeks, Sony have released a short featurette about the movie's antagonist 'Chester V' with commentary from Senior Animation Supervisor Peter Nash.



Chester was one of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of animating. The insane ideas we were able to get away with on this movie, made it a once in a life time experience for me.

Cloudy 2 Whiteboard

During my time on "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" I decided to have a collaborative drawing whiteboard, and also something to remind me of when cutoff for director review was (as it usually changed daily). The idea was I would start with a blank whiteboard on Monday morning and either leave it till someone would start drawing upon Dan desk visit, or I would start with something small and simple which would grow by Friday (or Saturday).

"Animators are disturbed creatures"

"Pirate plant"

"Expressionist Animators"

"Too much coffee"

"Dino" - by Simon Black

"Bleeding Pac man ghost?"

"Poo joke" by Simon Black

"Bathtub monster"

"Julius' rabbit" by Julius Kwan

"Julius Kwan" by Philip Rudolph and myself

"Director visit" by Cody Cameron and myself (while drinking all my Jameson)

"No" by Julius Kwan

"We're done"

Hobbit FX Reels

These FX reels released by Weta showcase the amazing work that was done on Gollum, The Goblin King and Azog (who I had know idea was completely cg, I figured it was atleast digital makeup or head replacement, not entirely cg).

Check them out here:

http://io9.com/5977133/check-out-the-massive-upgrade-gollum-got-in-these-gorgeous-hobbit-fx-reels

Daniel Fotheringham Podcast

When I was living and working in London, I recorded a bunch of conversations with artists / friends. The concept was to speak to people in the industry of various experience levels and backgrounds, and I had the privilege to even record them in different countries (including Germany, Singapore, England, Wales). Time and life got the better of me and I never released them.

The first one that was recorded was with the very talented Daniel Fotheringham in London, August 2011. We discussed his work flow, the process he uses to animate quadrupeds, and the balance of life and work while living in London.

Running time is: 23:09mins


Dan's website : http://danielfotheringham.com/
Check out Dan's crazy awesome reels here : https://vimeo.com/user5986209

Thanks to Bryn for listening and motivating me to get this online!

Let me know if I should work on the others and release them eventually.

--------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer - In no way is this a professional recording, apologies for any ambient noises or change in volume.

Animal Animation Shot Breakdown by David Wesch

Another Animation Mentor shot breakdown, this time by David Wesch, also a Sony Imageworks Animator and friend! Love hearing about peoples workflows and the process they went about planning and developing their shot.


Very awesomes.

Check out more of Davids stuff here : http://davidwesch.blogspot.ca/

Character Animation and Facial Expression Tips by Tania Simeons

Here's an Animation Mentor video with Sony animator and friend Tania Simeons, who discusses and breaks down her class 5 animation assignment.


Worth watching!

Check out more of Tania's stuff here : http://taniasimeons.blogspot.ca/

Joe Bowers Interview Frame by Frame

Frame by frame breakdown of scenes animated by Joe Bowers on Disney's "Tangled". Very cool and detailed analysis from Joe Bowers himself, detailing Glen Keane's involvement in making his shots even better, and how he overcame some tough and challenging shots. There's also a section on Joe's work on Disney's "Bolt".


While on John Carter in London, Animation Supervisor Clay Kaytis from Disney stopped by to do his "Tangled" talk, and showed us some examples of Glen Keane's drawings over already really good poses. It was mind explodingly awesome to say the least. To work under Glen Keane's direction would've been amazing.

The Making of Hotel Transylvania

Really cool video detailing some cool techniques used during various stages of the Hotel T Production. Even talks about the "Genndy Blur" in the animation section.

Check it out here:

http://www.itsartmag.com/features/the-making-of-hotel-transylvania/#.UGyHmE3R6i2

Go see Hotel T if you haven't seen it already :D

Hotel Transylvania - The Rigs

Here's a peak at what we were using on "Hotel Transylvania" to scuplt Dracula's cape, and animate Jonathan. They were probably the best rig's I've ever used on a production before.

Hotel Transylvania: Pushing the Boundaries of Animation

Cool 2 min video about how the animators pushed and were pushed to produce some of the most interesting and squash and stretch animation I've ever seen. If only they could show a more in depth behind the scenes.



Hotel Transylvania comes out this weekend in North America!!! Go see it everyone!

Hotel Transylvania at Siggraph

Sony Pictures Imageworks were at Siggraph 2012 showing off some behind the scenes process for Hotel Transylvania. The first pic shows how far we had to push certain poses using Sony's in house awesome tools. The second pic is how director Genndy Tartakovsky used his graphical awesomeness to make our poses even better.

I was always amazed at how Genndy would effortlessly draw the characters in such uniquely pushed poses, especially the hands. He'd put the hands in positions and angles I would never have thought to put them in.

 Can't wait to see this on the big screen!!!

The Lion King CTN expo talk

I love the CTN videos on Vimeo. The celebration of "The Lion King" one is awesome, and a must watch for any Lion King fans. Always great listening to Andreas Deja and Mark Henn talk. Thanks for CTN for posting this!



Copied from the video info, here are the names of the speakers:
Roger Allers Director
Ruben Aquino Supervising Animator
Brenda Chapman Head of Story
Andreas Deja Supervising Animator
Mark Henn Supervising Animator
Andy Gaskill Art Director
Irene Mecchi Writer
Rob Minkoff Director

Spiderman VFX breakdown

Here's a VFX breakdown of the high school fight scene from "The Amazing Spiderman" that was being worked on at Sony Imageworks during when I was on "Hotel Transylvania".



Congratulations to all my friends who worked on it, the VFX and animation are amazing! If I didn't have the chance to see some shots pre-rendered, I would never have thought some of these scenes are fully CG. Amazing work!

From Pitch to Picture - Sony Pictures Animation talk

CTN expo 2011 talk about the Creative Process at Sony Pictures Animation with key people in the story development at SPA.

Presenter: 
Michael Lachance – Senior Vice President, Creative Development, Sony Pictures Animation

Panelists:
Doug Sweetland – Director
Fergal Reilly – Director
Troy Quane – Director, Story Artist
Marcelo Vignali – Production Designer/Visual Development Artist

They speak briefly and show a tiny bit from "Hotel Transylvania"!

Louis Gonzales interview

Great interview led by Bobby Chiu with story artist Louis Gonzales from the "Schoolism" website. I really like how he describes silhouettes as verbs that he aims to communicate the pose as clear as possible.

check it out here, its well worth the 40 minute listen:

Louis Gonzales - Schoolism

Pixar Studio Stories - Toy Story 2 vanishes

Here's a short film/animation from Pixar about the time someone ran RM* on the Toy Story 2 main server and started deleting most of the movie.



Don't run RM* on a linux machine

Jay Wilson - Diablo 3 Director

Interesting interview on Gamasutra's website with Blizzard's forthcoming Diablo 3, director Jay Wilson. Who discusses candidly about crunch time, his definition of crunch, and meeting the high level of quality that Blizzard games are known for.

Find the full article here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/170258/candid_words_from_diablo_iiis_.php

Side note - can't wait for Diablo 3 !!!




And if you want to read about the making of Diablo 2 read this insightful and detailed article!

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131533/postmortem_blizzards_diablo_ii.php

McGurk Effect

Interesting video about visual speech information, and the illusion of the "McGurk Effect" and that what we see over rides what we hear.



It'll have you hearing "BAH...BAH...BAH" for the rest of the day