"Penguins" Opens, Back to "Home" Once More

Man I really like this poster.  I joke that DreamWorks alternates between epic/artistic posters and very generic ones...and I'm always off that cycle.  But finally landed on a show with a beautiful poster that I'll like hanging up at the desk!

Penguins opens up today.  Doesn't feel that long since I was working on it!  Definitely the shortest gap from "shot work" to "premier" I've had on a film here at DW.  After all the crazy crunch time on that...I'm back onto "Home" for the third time.  It's the show that just keeps going.  Actually, there's been a lot of changes since I left, and more importantly the crew seems really in the groove and things are (mostly) running smooth these days.

It was a rather relaxed "release day" party at work.  But there was this amazing cake that one of our artist made of the four Penguins.  Also thought it'd be fun to share an "after" image of the cake :)

Meeting Animation Legend Glen Keane

Today at the studio, the one and only Glen Keane came to give a lunchtime presentation of his new short interactive animation "Duet"

It was a great presentation, and great to hear Glen's firsthand experiences and observations on the world of animation.  Also surreal to sit there watching a pencil test of "part of your world" from Little Mermaid with the guy who drew it!  Some great inspiration from a guy who just loves animating and drawing.

Later in the afternoon he walked around the studio for a bit and chatted with a bunch of us animators that were around.  Such a gracious, giving and talented guy.  Today was a good day.

If you haven't seen "Duet" check it out below.  What you should realize (that I didn't first time I watched it) is that it's made to be viewed on a smart phone.  So the action is happening, you can freely move the device around to view other parts of the story.  So in this case, you can follow either the boy or the girl - and their stories happen in parallel.  Really fascinating - so you're only seeing about half of the animation in this cut.  Oh, and he animated it at 60 fps!