Time, time, time...

I completely forgot about this and the fact that I promised to post it weeks ago.

Bob Lyons was so excited that my partner, Chris Farinella and I were tackling some strata-cut animation for his class Animated Camera he decided to recorded the process. This is the result.

There are any number of folks who walk by the camera at some point - Stephanie Yuhas, Adam Cusack, Lauren Cipollo Etkins, Stephen Murphy, Kea Alcock, Justin Hillman, etc. Chris and I take turns shooting and handling the log of clay, though I think he spent most of his time behind the camera.

Look how cool I was with my shoulder-less black top. The final strata-cut is at the end, cut together from bits taken out of 'Take 5'. I'm sure I have the original footage somewhere on 16mm.

Ancient History

I came across this last night while ransacking my DVD collection, looking for a missing Paranoia Agent volume.

The video quality isn't the best and the watermark is unfortunate, but I'm cheap and don't feel like buying the proper software just yet.

The whole thing was shot using a good ol' fashion Bolex with some under-the-camera shots using an Oxberry. Most of the effects are done in camera, though most of the tinting was added in post, editing in After Effects.

Chris Farinella (the spastic face that keeps popping up) did the lion's share of the editing while I stepped out to a Simon & Garfunkel concert. Then I took all the credit. Lauren Cipollo (now Etkins) and Adam Cusack are also seen in some of the clips, mostly the ones shot in a park off of South St. Stephen Murphy is the man who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. I think his performance is hilarious and he was a good sport about us dragging him all over Philly. I'm the chick in the baseball cap with the serious biceps.

Towards the end of the video is the part I'm really proud of - some simple, yet still mind-boggling strata-cut animation. I'm pretty sure Chris and I are some of the only folks at UArts to have tried the technique.

At some point, I'll post the timelapse Bob Lyon's shot of us creating the strata-cut animation.

Old Dog

A friend and former co-worker linked to this page yesterday. Many of you may not know this, but I'm a bit of a dog nerd. I spent a fair amount of time in my youth reading through stacks and stacks of books covering Afghan Hounds to Westies.

Clicking through the site, I came across some great photos.



I love how owners can so resemble their canine companion and visa-versa.

It reminded me of my original plan for my Senior Thesis. A short film along the lines of 'Creature Comforts' using interviews with performance artists, beauty pageant contestants, etc. paired off against animated dogs backstage at a show.


Sifting through stacks and stacks of backup CDs, I managed to find some old character designs -


- and even my example still.

I'm not crazy about the designs. I feel like they're close, but not quite there yet. Maybe that's why the film never made it past this stage. At some point (when I actually have some free time, hah!) I think I'll give the audio a listen and take another crack at it.

*And since there's been some surprise over this, the Pomeranian is clay-on-glass, not digitally painted in Photoshop.

We are the...

Today's post may seem somewhat random, but indulge me.


I came across these photos on Facebook. An English friend of mine had been tagged in one of the photos (the squid if I remember correctly) and it looked intriguing enough that I clicked over.


In Senior year of High School, I took a class called Portfolio which focused on getting a portfolio together (duh) for the students who planned on studying some form of art in their upcoming college years.

We also had to write a few variations of an 'artist statement'. At the time, I planned on studying animation but mostly because I had no idea where to go to study the things I really wanted to do (puppeteering, animatronics, matte painting, makeup effects, etc.). I even went to far as to make my final project for the Portfolio class a (rather crude) animatronic bat-like creature.


Unfortunately, it looked nothing like this. I can tell you it was similar in color, about a foot and a half long as oppose to eight and could manage to 'walk' along at a sloth-like clip.

Fortunately, I threw out all the slides that had images of the beast. Instead, you'll have to settle for this awesome robotic menagerie.



Too bad this exhibit is somewhere in London; I'd love to see it. Maybe the AMNH will surprise me this winter...

Day-Tripper Part I

Did a lot of traveling this week, which thankfully, kept my mind off other things.

First stop, Philadelphia! I've been SLOWLY working on a side project with a writer from Baltimore, Ron Tanner. The piece involves cats (somewhat therapeutic) and about 10 minutes of hand-drawn animation (not so therapeutic).

The film is narrated by the main character, an old 'cat lady' hosting a afternoon brunch. I immediately thought of my friend and occasional business partner, Stephanie Yuhas who lives and works down in the Philadelphia area. We booked the sound room at our old college and spent a good four hours locked in a padded room.


Stephanie - voice artist, animator, writer, producer, curry and rice cooker... Is there any job she can't do?


Myself - trying to make sound editing look hawt...

The real fun came before and after, though. I haven't gotten a chance to just walk around the city in a while. First we headed to up to West Philadelphia so Stephanie could yell at some people.


The ice rink we use to 'hang' at.


View of Center City's skyline from Drexel's campus.


Then it was off to UArts to start the recording, with a brief stop at Hamilton Hall to pick up our Alumni IDs.

Afterward, we took a stroll down Pine, past some familiar sights.


Pine Street Pizza where the owner complimented me on my Greek pronunciation of 'gyro'.


Our old 'Slum-lord's' office and -


- preferred mode of transportation. Oh, the temptation...


Remember this?


Finally got a good shot of that Take-Out lovin' T-Rex! Would have loved to get a full-body shot but the weed-turned-tree was blocking it.


I finally headed out about 6:30PM, saying goodbye to the city that boast most murals in all of the grand US o' A (or at least it was 5 years ago).

Next post? Boston!

Pre-history...

Elliot Cowan's blog last week reminded me of this great mural in Philadelphia and one that sadly, gets overlooked day after day.

Painted on the side of a hospital, right across the alley from the old townhouse I lived in during college, the mural (which I don't think is even technically a mural) was of a rather retarded looking dinosaur carrying a Chinese Take-Out box. I say was because I was almost positive it would have been painted over or removed by now.


A recent weekend trip to the city, however, confirmed that it is not only still there (unfortunately hidden from view by the bush on Google Maps), but thriving! With the help of a fresh coat of paint, the T-Rex now sports a leather jacket and mohawk. At least, I think it was a mohawk. By the time we got there it was pretty dark and almost impossible for me to take a picture of it.


Instead, you'll have to settle for an artist's recreation (at least till my next trip to Philly). I swear it really looks like that! I even have an eye-witness to corroborate my story.

On a slightly related topic, I came across this last night in Google Image Search.


It's of this exhibition going on now at the Natural History Museum. I need to see this! Who wants to go with me?!

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.

Not seen, but heard...

Here it is! The post you’ve (all three of you) been waiting for! The audio collected for What is Animation?

The idea for What is Animation? came from a class exercise in which we had to interview someone and animate to the audio, producing something like a Richard Linklater short.

We were only really suppose to record one person but I got a little carried away. I got an answer out of almost everyone in the animation department and several students and faculty from the illustration, sculpture, film, dance and theater departments, as well as school security guards, random people on the street and almost every person who worked in the cafeteria across the street at the Bellvue Hotel. Oh… and a bunch of people at Barnes and Nobles down by Rittenhouse.

The results were obviously varied. Some people were kinda close to what might be a 'right' answer (at least in the technical terms).



Some people were really off.



And some people were just spouting off philosophical nonsense.







The most popular answer was 'cartoons' which, while funny, isn't a great answer for any number of reasons...







A few folks (notably the perplexing Karl Staven) opted for the 'what it's not' definition.





Arguably the best answer came from my then instructor Chris Magee. His answer formed the glue that held the film together.



There's a ton of other audio but I'll save those for another day. For now, against my better judgment, I'll close this posting with probably one of the only clips from the film I'm actually kinda proud of (congratulations, Kyle!)...