Hobbie's Blog

Hello again! hello? anyone still come here? lol

2010-01-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

Retired this site! Yah... I've been MIA for a while. I guess if you still wanna follow along with some stuff that's goin on in my life (for some wierd reason) than feel free to check out this new bloggy!!!!

http://hobbietoons.blogspot.com/

Richard Williams!!!

2008-09-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

WOW!!! Unbelievable! I got back to NY on Monday and on Tuesday who stops by the studio but Richard Williams! And dang it! I was in the airport and could have sworn I walked by this man who looked like Richard, but I was like "naaaah...., but now I believe it. So I could have had good old chat with him before boarding. It's cool though, I got to meet him anyways! Good timing eh?

Update from my first day!

2008-09-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well my first day was awesome! It wasn't really different from last time! It didn't take me very long to get acquainted with familiar folks and then I got to meet some new talented hires as well! It'll be a blast! No training test this time, just gonna get comfortable with the system and workflow and I'll be thrown into the firey pits of pressure! haha.

Thanks for stopping by bloggers! Hope all is well with everyone!

Blue Sky

2008-09-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well!

I'm on my way back to New York to work with the same talented artists and some new ones as well! To Blue Sky Studios I go! I'm excited to head on back! I start Monday the 22nd! I'll write about it further when I get some free time!

Hope all is well!

Now that's talent!

2008-09-07T04:30:00.000-07:00

NO CG INVOLVED! Just a lot of patience! Check out the "making of" below! Pure concentration there! I bow to thee! haha

WALL E

2008-06-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

WOW! All I can say it wow! This movie is flippin incredible!!!! And Presto, the short film before the movie started made me scream like a little girl (well I had to hold it in, but I wanted to jump out of my chair and scream!) It was almost too much pure awesomeness to take in, in one night! I swear you'll enjoy the night you go see WALL E. And there was no dialogue for a good solid half hour and I was enthralled and couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The story is awesome, the visuals are stunning, the characters are so life like, OMG! Go see WALL E! It's totally different then what we've seen lately and it's a complete breath of fresh air! And the short film is just something else. I'm so sorry if you don't see this or don't have the urge to see it. This is something you don't want to miss out on! Do it up! You won't regret it!

Too Cool!

2008-05-15T01:29:00.001-07:00

Wall-E Spotted in LA! from Blink on Vimeo.

A vision of students today

2008-04-25T10:27:00.001-07:00

pretty interesting!

Horton Reel

2008-03-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

EDIT

Well.... I guess I can't show my reel at the moment! Don't want to get into trouble! Sorry! Well if ya saw it already and have a copy, DO NOT post it anywhere please!

Thanks guys

Hey howdy hey!!!!

I've uploaded my new Horton reel for viewing! Hope you like! It's not much, but the experience was out of this world!!!

Kung Fu Panda

2008-03-06T08:33:00.000-08:00

Hello hello! Just updating me blog! Well... I was just hired on to Reel FX this past week and I've been put on a Kung Fu Panda commercial project! Can't discuss the details, but yay! I get to animate Po the panda and also Tigress the tiger. The movie comes out June 6, so I'll get my blog updated on more info of stuff I might be a part of!

Take care!

Amazing Interview! Geek out!

2008-03-01T21:25:00.000-08:00

Jive! Dialogue shot

2008-02-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

PLAY

This is my newest finished piece! I'm sure I'll find things wrong with it later, but I'm satisfied with it for now! On to my next one! Hope ya like!

20 Years of Blue Sky!

2007-12-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

Happy 20th Anniversary Blue Sky!

Friday Night was a pretty awesome night! Blue Sky celebrated 20 years!

The party was in NY at the Gotham Hall. All the talented people who have been apart of Blue Sky, from the start, got together and had a hell of time! We got to see a screening of Blue Sky's history, had some speeches, had free food and drinks, and we boogied all night! These guys sure know how to get down and it was well-deserved after all the kick-ass work.

I felt EXTREMELY LUCKY to have been apart of it!!!

Pimp'n!

Blue Sky!!!

2007-09-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose I'll update my blog as I'm playblasting. (playblast is an animation term)

So... I'm here at my workstation in NY. I'm currently working at Blue Sky Animation Studios as a temp. animator. I'm in my 3rd week. I'll be here for only a few months. It's been pretty flippin intense, but I'm lovin it and I'm learning TONS! I'm workin about 10-12 hr days, which isn't always normal working days. The deadline is really tight and we are animating like crazy! I feel lucky to be hear and I'm not sure what's next, but this is a big start!

YAY!

Dialogue Shot (First Blocking Pass)

2007-08-19T13:40:00.000-07:00

I think I'm getting there! Whatcha think!

LINK

Siggraph!

2007-08-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

Siggraph was sah-weeet!!! I ran into some of my Animation Mentor class-mates as well as the founders, Bobby, Shawn, and Carlos! The AM booth was bigger and better this year! It was crowded there the whole day! Big recruiters stopped by to see the latest work students were doing!

The AM/Reel FX party was PACKED!!! You could barely get around, but I managed to meet so many cool people and have a couple drinks!!! I was there chatting as the place was closing!

I must have walked 100 miles through-out the week! San Diego is such a cool city and the weather was perfect!

Me and Spike!!! (I should have smiled)

Some Very Talented Individuals!

Samson Ledesma, Russell Adkisson, Toby Cochran, Nathan Engelhardt, and half of Cliff Ward's head! :)

Toby Cochran and I

Toby Cochran and Anthony Hamilton (crazy guys!)

Dominic Doan and I

Some more random pics of San Diego/Siggraph

Well I suppose...

2007-08-03T13:30:00.001-07:00

This will be the reel I'll be taking with my to Siggraph! I wish I could have gotten at least one dialogue shot with AM's Bishop Rig, but I'm not too worried about my reel at the moment. I'm just gonna have fun, meet people, and check out cool new stuff to geek out to! Gonna be fun! I'll post an update on how the trip goes!

GearChange

2007-07-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

Umm... WOW

2007-07-28T03:47:00.000-07:00

So my last assignment for Animation Mentor really helped my eye for animation, with a LOT of help from my Mentor and class-mates!

WOW I was so blind in the first run. I thought I was doing pretty well, until each new critique my mentor gave me didn't get any better, so I decided to start all over again from scratch. I'm content with my current one, but I'm sure in a few months I'll look back at it and say "UGH!" I guess even now, I'm a little "UGH" towards it. Yup I can totally see some ugly spots.

UGHH!!!

It is true! The more you do, the better your eye for animation strengthens. So NEVER think your stuff is perfect! Even the animators that work on those awesome features sometimes go "UGH! I could have done better" And that is a good thing to keep in mind!

First "Horton Hear's a Who" Trailer

2007-07-27T12:08:00.001-07:00

This looks Sah-weeeeet!!!

"Nine Old Men of Disney" on Cinderella DVD

2007-07-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

So… I was watching the extra features on the 2-disc set of Cinderella and it’s in the “Backstage Disney” area where this is a tribute to the “Nine Old Men of Disney”

Inspiring animators of today, such as Brad Bird, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, and Ron Clements sat at the same table Walt and the Nine Old Men sat at in the Tam O’ Shanter Inn. And they just sat and talked about these men who pretty much invented this stuff!

There was a great quote that stood out to me. Brad Bird says…

“One of the keys things I was taught, was to not look at other animations, though you can learn a few things from that, but what’s more important, is to take from your life. Either take from books you’ve read or something outside the art-form and make your own observations to bring to the art-form so then the art-form is always growing. They brought from their lives and so if we follow that example and bring from our lives, the art of animation is going to expand!”

If you haven’t seen the extra features on Cinderella, you MUST! It’s pretty darn inspiring to listen to. It’s a great animation pick-me-up!

CHECK IT OUT!

Flippin Sweet French Animation

2007-07-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

A quoi ça sert l’amour?

Disney Family Albums

2007-07-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

Martin K posted this on his blog. Pretty sweet post! Good ole' animation pick-me-ups! Need some inspiration, check it out!

LINK

Martin says...

I love watching documentaries about the old masters and today I came across some really cool links at YouTube. It might be old stuff to some, but I've never seen it before :)

Ward Kimball Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Milt Kahl - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Frank Thomas - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Ollie Johnston - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Wollie Reitherman - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Eric Larson - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
Marc Davis - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

Enjoy!

Class 3 baby!

2007-07-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Oh man oh man! Class 3 is gonna be SICK! Right now we are learning pantomime and I'm loving it. I've had the passion for animation before, but now that I'm studying this stuff, I've found a new and higher love for this stuff! And I LOVE pantomime! Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Mr. Bean are now my favorite actors to go to!

Here is my story idea for my next assignment! Love this stuff!

Ratatouille BABY!!!

2007-06-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

This film was totally jaw-dropping for me! It may not be the best story ever told, but it was a very well put-together story! Everything was so inspiring!

My eyes were just in awe the whole time! Can't wait to see it once again! I was the only one left in the theater cause I had to sit through the whole thing and take it in for a moment!

If you haven't seen it yet! It's a must-see! I couldn't believe the amazing effects that they are constantly improving. The water and the wet hair and clothes. And the animation was amazingly kick-ass! The flippin scenery was jaw-dropping. The food looked real enough to eat! I kinda want to see it at an IMAX superscreen and just take in the detail!

Oh and the short film, "Lifted" was true comic genious! Amazing comedic timing. A sweet little appetizer before the feature!

YAY PIXAR!

AM Progress Reel up to Class 2

2007-06-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sticky Door Final

2007-06-23T00:19:00.000-07:00

No Way Out

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Glen Keane Baby!

2007-06-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Dancing James Baxter!

2007-06-18T18:49:00.001-07:00

haha I love this!

James Baxter Rules!

Joe Ranft's Category Answers!

2007-06-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

Well! Heres a link to all the answers on Joe Ranft's Category on Jeopardy,(as well as all Jeopardy's previous answers) thanks to Happy Steve! Thanks man!

JOE RANFT: PIXAR LEGEND

Joe Ranft on Jeopardy (Pixar Legend)

2007-06-11T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well this was pretty awesome! I was flipping through channels on the ole' TV and stopped on Jeopardy when I saw they had a Joe Ranft catagory. "Pixar Legends, Joe Ranft"

I wasn't quick enough to record it, but some of the answers I remembered were

"Joe was the voice of Heimlich in the 1998 Pixar film..." And the contestants said Antz! AHHH!

"Joe was the voice of Jacques in Pixar's 2003 film..." One contestant said Little Mermaid!!! NO!!! Finally one buzzed in with Finding Nemo

"Joe voiced Elmo St. Peters and co wrote for Disney's 1987 "Brave Little, what?" One guy said "warrior"!!! I wanted to punch him haha! Thankfully one contestant knew it was "toaster" of course!

Another was about him co-directing for Cars! They got that one right.

I, for some reason am blank and cannot remember the other ones cause I was so excited!

Oh man I was so into it, screaming and shouting the answers! And shouting at the contestants for getting them wrong! Oh man I knew every answer cause they were so EASY! haha Good times!

I hope some of you caught it and hopefully recorded it! I wish I had TIVO!

Anywho! I just thought I'd share that with you from one Joe Ranft fan to another!

(Still can't believe it)

Thank GOD for you Joe Ranft! Rest in Peace!
ANIMATION LEGEND

Those who don't know Joe Ranft!

Joe joined Disney in 1980 as a "story man" on films such as "The Brave Little Toaster," "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King."

He was also the storyboard supervisor for "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach"

Joe was an inspirational story-man that has been around in the business for a long time and probably got his most attention as being one of the 4 main guys that built PIXAR stories to the best of its potential. He joined the crew in 1990 and was nominated an Academy Award as co-writer for "Toy Story"

He was the voices of Heimlich the Caterpillar (A bugs life), Jacques the Shrimp (Finding Nemo), Wheezy the Penguin (Toy Story 2), Red (Cars), and many more additional voices.

Joe's Film Credits

Week - 9 Blocking Refining

2007-06-03T02:54:00.000-07:00

Just keeping it goin!

BlockingRefining

Week 8 - Sticky Door

2007-05-29T01:45:00.000-07:00

Sticky Door Assignment! Couldn't wait to do this one! I'm still working out the ending!

First Blocking Pass

Week 7 - Final

2007-05-29T00:50:00.000-07:00

So here's the final version of my first assignment of Quarter 2. Been a while since my last post! So here's my latest! Hope ya like!

CLICK HERE

The Illusion of LIFE!!!

2007-05-12T03:58:00.000-07:00

READ IT!!! IF you want to be a true aspiring animator, dive into it whenever you can! Don't just skim through it and look at the pretty pictures. Everything in here is GOLD for an animator. It's the BIBLE of ANIMATION!

Week 5 and 6- Pole Jumping

2007-05-08T23:02:00.000-07:00

Video Ref

Animatic

Blocking Final

Spline Pass 1

Fun little animation by Alex Hirsch

2007-05-08T05:12:00.000-07:00

Ratatouille! Can't WAIT!!!

2007-05-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

Week 4- Football Kick Due

2007-04-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

Well I'll NEVER call it done. This thing was a beast and I could probably say this was my most difficult piece of animation yet. Selling wieght and judging the timing is so hard, but comes with practice and a little bit of trial and error. You won't get a perfect animation everytime. I will NEVER think of my animations as perfect until I'm 98 and on my dying bed. haha. Good hard assignment, this one! I'll call it done for now so I can focus on other assignments.

Spline Pass (still in week 3)

2007-04-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

VIEW

Week 3- Re-blocking Pass

2007-04-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

Week 2- First Blocking Pass

2007-04-20T03:49:00.000-07:00

Week 1- Planning my new shot!

2007-04-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

So here are my cruddy thumbnail sketches to figure out what I'm gonna do!

I chose to put together an animatic for extra help figuring out where I'm going with this. (I know pretty cruddy, but I'm just trying to give my self the most info to go off of)

New Quarter and New Mentor

2007-04-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

Welp... its on to Class 2! Body Mechanics! My new Mentor is Greg Kyle who worked at ILM for 7 years and is now at Laika. He worked on all 3 Star Wars, the Hulk, the Mummy, and most of the films they did since the first "New" Star Wars! I should be learning tons! Lucky guy gets to ride his bike to work!

Snagged him as he was thirstin for agua! Hah!

Class One ReCap!

2007-04-06T21:35:00.001-07:00

Well Class One is over with! IT.... WAS.... AWESOME! I didn't only get personally taught by Ray Chase who is currently working on Transformers, I got SO MUCH MORE! We get weekly 1hr class sessions that usually go over the time limit. We talk about everything animation. We get weekly lecture videos going deep into the arm pits of animation, stuff the old school animators came up with themselves! The inovators, the inventors of this stuff. They came up with most of the animation principles and gave them terms for us to understand! So we dove into all that, stepping it up more and more each week! Plus! I got to watch over everyone's work and see thier personal critiques from other mentors! Plus! The students share tips and tricks with each other and help each other out with our assignments through-out the week to get ready to submit the final animation so you do the best you can do before getting rammed by a person that has SO MUCH experience! Naa they are cool! They just don't sugar-coat anything! They will go deep into your assignment and point out not only what's wrong but what you did good! SO YA! I learned TONS!!! AM is the BOMB!

2007-04-05T12:13:00.000-07:00

Class One Progress Reel

2007-03-27T23:45:00.000-07:00

Quicktime Version 7mb

Week 11- Refining Personality Walk

2007-03-19T16:40:00.001-07:00

Spline Pass

QuickTime Version

Blocking Pass

Week 10- Personality Walk

2007-03-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Exhausted Pose

Check out some of the features shorts from AM!

2007-03-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

YOU MAY HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE ANIMATION MENTOR NEWSLETTER TO VIEW
CLICK HERE!

AM Winter Showcase!!!

2007-03-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

CLICK HERE!!!

Week 9- Vanilla Walk(PolishingPass)

2007-03-06T23:42:00.001-08:00

Concerned Pose

Week 8- Vanilla Walk(BlockingPass)

2007-03-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

Strong Pose

Week 7- Arcs and Path of Action

2007-02-21T01:35:00.000-08:00

In this exercise, we finally got to really put some character into it! Say hello to Tailor, a cool, simple ball character with a tail. This week, we focused on all the principles we've went through so far this quarter. We just added character and story to it! I didn't even touch the tail until I got the right movement down with his main body so I didn't get lost. Hope ya like!

Week 6- Pendulum

2007-02-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

Okay Week 6 and our exercise was focused on overlapping action. You remember physics class right?! Well this isn't far off. We learned that with other things are going to be affected my the main-driving force. In this case, the block was the driving force. Where ever he goes, the rest go. But they never move at the same time, unless its a stiff object, but the 3 links here lag behind. And again not at the same time. The first link will drive the second link, and the second link will drive the third and so on. Just think if they had personalities and the were just chillin in their spots having a good time and all of a sudden their driving forces start to move. They won't be ready. They are like, "Hey man! I'm not ready, but let me catch up!" Something to think about!

Week 5- Obstacle Course

2007-02-16T20:16:00.000-08:00

My bad! Its been a couple weeks since my last post. So...Week 5! This is our first chance to do some squash and stretch. We still focused on timing and wieght with the ball, but were introduced to some squash and stretch and anticipation. Got to add a little chararacter to this ball! I only got half credit before this revision, so once my mentor checks this out, lets hope for a better grade. hehe.

Week 4- Bouncing Ball Weight Test

2007-02-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

In this Assignment, we were to create an animation portraying different wieghts between 2 balls. A feeling of a heavy ball and a light-weight ball.

Week 4 Poses DEVISTATION

Excitement Poses (Revision)

2007-01-28T00:22:00.000-08:00

2007-01-26T11:49:00.001-08:00

Franky and the Frogs
Uploaded by blackcomb

Week 3- Excitement Pose

2007-01-26T02:39:00.000-08:00

Week 3- Bouncing Ball

2007-01-25T11:43:00.000-08:00

Week 3- Bouncing Ball
Uploaded by hobbie_21

Great basic exercise creating a soccerball/basketball type bounce and make it look believable. It may not seem complex at all, but to the untrained animator, it's a bit tougher than you think! Getting to know the basics of animation is KEY before you try and bust out a sweet dialogue/acting shot.

-Hobbie

Week 2- Random Pose

2007-01-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

I saw this little girl trying to push this big cart full at work and I had to re-create that pose!

YAH! Quarter 1, Week 1

2007-01-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

So Animation Mentor is pretty much gonna kick some arse! We just had our first Live Q&A Session with our first Mentor, Ray Chase. He was a cool dude! He seems to know what's up and I can't wait to get some good critiques and advice from him. Each student got a turn in the spot light of the webcam and introduced themselves. We talked for over an hour and it really felt just like a normal class-room! YAH!!!

-Hobbie

And my first Mentor is....

2007-01-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

Ray Chase! Ray has worked on such projects as, "The Ant Bully", "Jimmy Nuetron TV Series" and "The Very First Noel" You can check out his website at http://www.raymation.net/
I'm pretty stoked!

AM School

2006-09-27T04:52:00.000-07:00

Just incase you'all wanna know what this school is all about, go to AnimationMentor.com and click on Trailer

Animation Mentor Student Showcase

2006-08-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

Accepted to Animation Mentor

2006-08-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

I start in JANUARY!

Well I've been accepted to Animation Mentor! I can''t wait to bust out some sweet animation. I start in January, so I still have time to better my animation until then. No sense just waiting right?

I was honered to talk with Bobby "Boom" Beck out at Siggraph and was also honored by the personal email from Shawn Kelly welcoming two of my friends and I. Thanks guys! This was a leap. But I believe it was the right choice. Even though I decided to move back in with my parents. Hey! Gotta save some money! Free rent and some down-home cookin'! Though it's nice to have independence, it sounds pretty good right now.

Can't wait to get started!