Friday, October 21, 2016

Bink at DreamWorks!


In a fun twist, Eric Miller gave a presentation at DreamWorks this week on his startup company.  I love seeing this image of Bink onscreen in the review room in my old stomping grounds.  A handful of the Bink team are still at DreamWorks and attended the talk.  Eric's been keeping his company pretty busy, which hopefully will fund the next round of Bink shorts.  I'm also scheduled to help him out on a public-service project in the next year.

Check out Eric Miller Animation Studios full post on the DW talk HERE


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Featured in APSU Alumni Magazine



It was great to see this article in the APSU Alumni Magazine this week.  Barry and I got to trek onto the construction site this summer for the photo shoot.  It's great to see the excitement we're getting already with the animation classes.  This also publicly confirms that Animation is getting it's own lab in the new building!

You can read the whole publication HERE

Saturday, October 1, 2016

"Words" Exhibition Animation


So this is a fun development.  I created a little animation for an art call by the Art League of Lincoln out in central California.  The only requirement was that the work somehow involve the use of the written word.  This idea came from a Facebook post.  I had posted an update about having trouble making a decision - a common situation for me.  And my Aunt posts that she has that, as does my dad and grandfather.  Apparently my dad calls it being "flexibly indecisive"


I actually was planning an entirely different animation...a very complicated one that needed me to create and rig some 2d characters in Toon Boom Harmony.  Over a very long and unproductive weekend, in my sketchbook where I was trying to think up some animated monsters, I was frustrated and drew a little sketch of myself and how I was feeling at that moment.

When Heather got home from the weekend, and I had basically no progress, she saw my little sketch and loved it.  She said that's what my animation should be.  I thought back to that Facebook post, and it all clicked into place.  I often tell my students that sometimes it's the tangental ideas, the ones you sketched out in a flash and discarded, that become the best projects.  That also shows the importance of having a sketch book, and exploring your ideas on paper first.  The computer sucks the soul of out ideas and it's too easy to get tunnel vision when you're staring at a monitor looking for that flash of inspiration.

The show has been running about a month and today is it's last day.  I wasn't able to see it in person, but hopefully the Art League will post some photos online.  It's a fun first dip into this new world of art exhibitions.