Exiting the Comfort Zone

This past semester, I took a visual effects class where we used Houdini to create a flame and a breaking object. I'll be honest, before taking this class, I only thought I had an appreciation for the hard work done by visual effects artists. Having gone through the course and getting out of my comfort zone a bit, I've not only learned how to use the software better but I've also learned that, (1) effects artists are kings among princes, and (2) long live the kings. Effects artists do something that I have neither the talent nor the constitution to do, and they have my utmost appreciation, admiration, and respect.

Now when I watch a movie – animated or otherwise – all I do is notice things that were probably done by an effects artist: particles, smoke, flames, hair, water, breakage, grumpy dinosaurs, etc. Seriously, try watching Wreck-It Ralph or Land of the Lost and look for everything that was probably created by an effects artist. It's staggering. You can't unsee it.

Kind of like the arrow in the FedEx logo. Or the stormtrooper hitting his head in Star Wars.

Oppan New Yorker Style!

Sketched this fairly quickly the other day; thought it was funny. The owl makes me laugh.

O Adolf, Where Art Thou?

What if Hitler tried his hand at show business instead of offing himself in that bunker? Inspired by the work of Bob Godfrey and Terry Gilliam, here is der Führer in all his glory as he takes the stage to sing the Eduard Khil classic.

The Snoring Proprietor Dies at the End

A few weeks ago in my advanced storyboarding class, we were given a challenge by Steve Hickner (left), the co-director of The Prince of Egypt and Bee Movie. From his office at DreamWorks via Skype, Steve gave our class five loglines to choose from and it was up to us to figure out how to approach the story. One of the stories involved a salt shaker trying to woo another salt shaker at a flea market, which seemed both challenging and appealing to me. Most people who chose that story ended up drawing the standard salt shaker with little eyes, arms and legs. But I have a set of Fred and Wilma Flintstone salt shakers, so I thought it might be fun to try something different and make one of the shakers a UPA/Hanna-Barbera-style caveman and the other a Disneyesque, turn-of-the-century socialite.

After two weeks, Steve actually came out to BYU to have the class pitch their boards to him personally. Knowing his credentials made me nervous during the pitch, but I was put at ease when he began critiquing my work. He was very complimentary – he told me that I draw beautifully, which is something I don't hear very often from my peers – and his notes were helpful and appropriate. I actually got to have lunch with him which was a lot of fun. We talked about movies, working at DreamWorks, and where animation could go in the future. At the end of the meal, I sheepishly asked Steve if he'd sign my copy of The Art of Bee Movie and he very kindly obliged.

For one reason or another, I didn't get around to reading what Steve wrote in the book until a few days after our lunch. In the course of conversation, I told Steve that I was trying to decide if I ultimately wanted to work in animation or live-action. This is what he wrote:

For John –
Stay with animation.
It's a great life!
Steve Hickner

That advice has really stuck with me over the last few weeks. It's helped me solidify where I want to go and what I want to be doing in the future. It's also helped me feel that I'm truly at the right place at the right time pursuing the right industry, despite the somewhat treacherous landscape of the animation world at the moment. The whole experience with Steve was fantastic; one that I will remember fondly.

Here now are my storyboards for the Steve Hickner storyboarding challenge, titled Sweet Relief. Enjoy!

Emotion Capture

A few weeks ago, we filmed this reference for the animators working on Owned, BYU Animation's next film. That wild and crazy guy in the motion capture suit? Our fearless director Wesley Tippetts. We set up three cameras – one on his right, one on his left, and one to capture his facial expressions – so that we could get his action from multiple angles and so the animators could have reference aplenty.

Right now, the global tech team on the film is working to apply Wes' motion capture performance to the characters' layout rigs so that the animation in layout will be a little more sophisticated. Many thanks to Robin Conover for all of his help with that. It was great fun watching Wes play all three of the characters in the film; I really hope we'll be able to use his performance in layout.

There's close to an hour of reference in the three videos below so no worries if you choose not to watch all of it. If anything, I hope it gives you some insight as to the exciting things that we're doing, both on this film and here at BYU.