Best blog ever...

Somewhere in my Facebook Past I 'became a fan of' USA's TV series Psych. This was mostly due to the fact that J.J. of Sedelmaier Productions and John Grimaldi of 8 Hats High had already 'become fans of' it and I felt a bit obligated. Why?


Because for about six months, we all put together some 18 to 20 thirty-second animations for the show called 'The Big Adventures of Lil' Shawn & Gus'.



Produced, designed and storyboarded in-house at Sedelmaier's, the work was then outsourced to us at 8 Hats High in Middletown, NY (kinda like India but with more college kids). There we did most of the animation and all of the inking.

Animation was handled by John Grimaldi, Paris Hall and myself (I think Phil jumped in there at the end... can any of you Hats High folk confirm this?). The inking was all up to Sonha Bowen and your's truely. My hand still hurts from the thin-thick line we used.


Story-wise, they were cute, throw-away gags mostly. Visually, though, I'd say we did a damn good job... especially for a thirty-second spot on USA.

Jack of all ______

Back in college, when I thought I knew it all I had an 'argument' with another student whose primary concern throughout school was learning all he possibly could about modeling, texturing and lighting in 3D. I said something to him like "I'd rather be a jack-of-all-trades than a one-trick-pony."

The whole 'argument' stemmed entirely from the fact that I was taking an extra Computer Animation course to learn Maya. He decided this was something like me waving a flag of surrender since I was considered one of the 'experimental' animators. So, today when I came across some work I'd done recently at 8 Hats High, I thought I'd post it here as proof I can at least model in Maya.


Unfortunately, since the Computer Crash of '09, I don't have a copy of Maya anymore so I can't render out an image of the finished character, hood, feathers, feet and all. He looks something like this chap here in the lower left-hand corner.


So who won the argument? The 'jack-of-all-trades' or 'one-trick-pony'?

I'd like to think I did but in hindsight, either is fine. Each is just better suited to different situations. He's doing great and I'd like to think I'm doing pretty good, too.

The O.C.

No Peter Gallagher here, just Armand Assante, his alpaca farm down the street and the cornfield Jacko burned down to make a music video (more about this in future blogs)...

Been a bit longer than I would have liked between posts, but it's been a rough couple of days. For now, all I will say is I headed home to Warwick this week to see my folks and help prepare for the huge garage sale they're holding this weekend.


Home sweet home!

Aside from the seemingly endless task of pricing and tagging antiques, toys, clothing, film equipment and African artifacts (not to mention all the buffalo body parts), I got to catch a movie with the gang at 8 Hats High and swing by the Orange County Fair Grounds, a place I've been meaning to document in this blog for months now.


Orange County's version of the World's Fair in it's heyday, the Fair Grounds have since fallen into 'Nascar Knock-off' disrepute. With the exception of the occasional county fair, touring circus or race-car derby, the grounds are deserted.


Fortunately, most of the fair's oddities are viewable from the roadside. This old windmill greets you at the entrance.


The lighting is actually my favorite part of the past present. Each one is unique and sprouts from the ground like forgotten scenery to some modernist's set.


Next to grab your eye is the statuary, like this giant prize cattle's portrait immortalized at one of the side entrances.


This one might just run you off the road. Überraschen!

And if you thought they couldn't possibly top this hailing politically-incorrect monstrosity, Weird Al Yankovic will be playing the OC Fair Grounds in 2010!

Special Self-Promoting Post!

While munching on my breakfast this morning, I had an idea.

"I wonder if I can watch last night's Daily Show on Hulu.com...?"

Sure enough, there it was. I fired it up and happily laughed along while trying to stop my cat from eating my cereal.


After the second commercial break, Stewart announced the always amusing Lewis Black segment, Back in Black in which Black expounded on his thoughts about Earth Day. Then I saw THIS.

It's always a fun surprise to catch stuff that you worked on, but even better when it's on the Daily Show. I got to work on this short animation for School House Rock/Disney while freelancing at 8 Hats High a few months back. It was a fun little piece that had us singing the song for months afterward so I guess it did it's job.

Thanks Hulu!

So much for March...

Well, it’s been a long hard month. For those of you who don’t know I moved to Brooklyn, had no internet for the first three days I was living here, then got it back for one day only to have my computer of 5 years up and die on me the next morning.

In light of those rather weighty and depressing events, I’m going to keep this, my first post since moving, rather, umm… light.

A few months back, I was working at 8 Hats High on a project for some toy designers. Part of the project was to create multiple models (actual models; not 3D renders) of the proposed toy. In order to do this we needed a mold (cue my excitment! No, really. I like making molds). So, Sonha and I began our quest for molding and casting materials.

That quest lead us to a ‘somewhat deceit, but still unsuited for our needs’ art store. The question of whether or not we found what we were looking for is unimportant and was completely overshadowed by this awesome find:


I have no idea what place this has in an art store.


Boxers or briefs?


A few of those necessary outfits.


Our future president who, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you want to look at it), doesn’t have an ‘undressed’ state.


However, Jeb looks like one sour little bastard; probably cause he knows he won’t ever get a shot at the presidency.

I made this! *

* Well, I helped make this along with a bunch of other extremely talented folks, but I couldn't help quoting a favorite television show of mine...

Skool House Rock - Pull My Lever

And if that didn't convince you to go out and do your civic duty here's another one got to work on...

Skool House Rock - You Get A Sticker

Thankfully one of the projects I'm working on now is also based around a song or else I might still have that one stuck in my head.