There's this great narrative in the book of Exodus, when the Israelites are completely stuck. In front of them is the Red Sea, and behind them is the Egyptian army - out for blood. Some of the Israelites want to pray, some want to fight, some want to go back to Egypt. The Voice calls out to Moses, "What are you waiting for, dive in!" Taking his cue from Moses, a man named Nachshon leaps into the sea. He trudges inward, the water level rising from his knees . . . to his waist . . . to his shoulders . . . until his nose and mouth are completely submerged. Then the miracle happens. The Red Sea splits.

I love this narrative because it's about taking risks when it looks like all is lost.

Living in a time with the economy the way it is, where it's hard to find good, solid jobs - a story like this really needs to be considered. Not everyone believes in a Higher Power, but there's no doubt that taking risks and believing in a positive outcome go a very long way in splitting the sea of stagnation. Here's to thinking good, so it will be good.

So, I'm currently in pre-production on the adaptation of Eric Kimmel's "Hershel and the Hannukah Goblins." Although I won't be using the original illustrations as a basis for the final character designs (mostly to tone down the intensity of the monsters, so my kids can watch them), I still wanted to try modeling one of them - just for fun. Here's the still render:

. . . and here's an animated turn-around, just 'cause . . .

Once again, way too long since I've posted anything. So where was I, and what was I doing? Well, I had this outrageous thought that I needed to learn every aspect of CG animation - so I could go on to make my short and catapult into fulltime Careerland. Watching tutorials, reading books, fixing up old shots. A total waste of time? Absolutely not. Delving so deep and wide into the whole process, I became very familiar with what goes into making a CG film.  In other words, it really prepped me to produce and direct animation.

I'd really love to get more into details, but needless to say, I'm keeping busy. No promises, but I'll do my best to update much more frequently.

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I've been really delving deep into animation technique - trying to take my stuff to the next level. One thing that I find difficult is "subtle" animation - when there's not a lot of movement going on, and a character may be doing a great deal of acting while generally staying in one pose. In my searches, I found a great article by John K (Ren & Stimpy). Here's a snippet to think about:

"Subtle" is a very misunderstood word today. Most people think it means the lack of anything happening-and they think that's good. It actually means that lots of things are happening but they are happening not blatantly obviously and they are conveying meaning even though each individual subtle move is hard to detect.

I'll keep posting as I find out more.

Here's the short film I recently contributed to for Zoetifex, a Pittsburgh-based animation studio that's on the up and up. My shot (3) starts with "forthcoming lecture" up until ,"our good friends." Check it out, spread it around, and leave comments on You Tube!