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Yesterday I traveled downtown to visit the Cartoon Art Museum which is featuring the exhibit, The Art of Coraline. It’s a great show which has almost 80 different pieces from the film including drawings, storyboards, puppets, sets, costumes, and more! Unfortunately, photography is not allowed so I was unable to capture any pictures.

When you enter the exhibit, the puppets and other 3 dimensional elements are in the center of the room with the surrounding walls featuring all the 2d artwork. I was immediately blown away by the puppets design which are both amazing and beautiful on an artistic and technical level. There’s also a fascinating handwritten journal by one of the people responsible for designing and implementing the armatures for all the characters. Lastly, the walls are covered with some phenomenal 2d artwork (concept art, character designs, storyboards, etc.) from artists like Dan Krall and Shane Prigmore among several others.

The exhibit is only open for 2 more weeks (ending on February 15th) so definitely check it out if you have a chance. Then go check out the film when it opens on Friday, February 6th!

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to see Richard Williams speak in San Francisco! He was promoting his new DVD set, The Animator’s Survival Kit: Animated which I hope to be able to get at some point. He showed clips from the DVD set (all of which were pure GOLD) and then spent most of the night talking about animation and answering questions from the audience. He even signed my beat-up copy of The Animator’s Survival Kit!

It was an amazing experience for me to see this animation legend in person. Even though I’ve never met him before, I feel like Richard Williams has been a teacher to me. So much of what I initially learned about animation came from his book (and The Illusion of Life). It’s nice to see that he still has so much passion and enthusiasm for the craft, while also being very willing to share his vast knowledge and experience. All in all, a very inspiring evening for sure!

UPDATE: Fellow AM’er Alonso Soriano posted some great notes of the lecture on his animation blog. Definitely worth a look!

The world lost not only an incredible actor yesterday, but a genuinely amazing and rare person. Paul Newman will always be considered the definition of cool. I have to agree. Some of my favorite performances by him are also some of my favorite films: Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Road to Perdition are just a few. He also worked with some of the most amazing directing talent in history: Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Robert Altman, Sydney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, and the Coen Brothers.

However, I think that Paul Newman being the definition of cool goes far beyond just being an actor. I’ve learned more and more about him over the years and he always seemed to be an all-around amazing person. Rather than go on all day about how much I’ve enjoyed his films, here’s a short list of things that define what I thought was “cool” about Paul Newman:

• He was part of the legendary Actor’s Studio in New York and his classmates were Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Karl Malden.
• He thought his debut film, The Silver Chalice was so bad that he took out an ad in Variety magazine to apologize for his performance.
• He became a professional race car driver in 1977 and competed in some of the great races including Daytona and Le Mans. He was still racing at 80 years old!
• He had a great sense of humor and often played practical jokes on his friends. He once placed 200 live chickens in Director Robert Altman’s trailer.
• He was a genuine humanitarian who opposed war and strongly supported civil rights. In fact, he even ended up on President Nixon’s “enemies list” which he said was one of his proudest achievements.
• He was a devoted husband to his wife (and actress), Joanne Woodward. One of my favorite quotes by him was always “I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?”.
• He was the voice of Doc Hudson in the Pixar film Cars.
• He made my favorite popcorn and salad dressing; The Newman’s Own brand has made almost $200 million in profits and he gave every penny of that to charities.

I know there is so much more to Paul Newman than my simple list. But, these were just some of the hallmarks that I will remember fondly. I know his life and work will always be inspirational to me.

I thought I’d write this post about something I did recently…The Alcatraz Challenge! It’s this crazy race where 700 people swim roughly 1.5 miles from Alcatraz to the beach at Chrissy Field in San Francisco (there’s also a 7 mile run, but I only did the swim portion). I know Alcatraz is not exactly animation related, but for me being inspired is a huge part of being an animator. Also, there are times when inspiration seems to come from the most unexpected places. Swimming from Alcatraz has proved to be hugely inspirational for me and is motivating me in all areas of my life.

The Alcatraz Challenge began a year ago as a goal for me and my good friend Jackie who I work with. In fact, it was Jackie (and our other good friend Elise) who got me to start swimming again as an alternative to the gym. I thought I was in good shape until I actually tried to swim from one end of the pool to other. I barely made it. I even made the lifeguard nervous. But, I enjoyed swimming so I kept doing it. Eventually, I was able to swim laps. I even learned how to do flip turns. After a while though, both Jackie and I were feeling we needed to do something more to push ourselves with our swimming. That ’s when we decided that Alcatraz was the perfect goal for us: it was a challenge that would push us, it required new skills, and it was definitely out of our comfort zone.

My training spot - Aquatic Park, San Francisco

So how did we go about preparing for this crazy challenge? Jackie and I started by swimming at least a mile in the pool in 45 minutes or less, 3 times a week. There were definite periods of time where this didn’t happen (ie crunch mode at work, being sick, etc.) but for the most part we always stuck to this basic routine. About 6 months before the race, we started swimming in the bay. One of the best places to do that is Aquatic Park in San Francisco. It’s a beautiful location that sits right below Ghirardelli Square. We had to buy wet suits since the water temperature never gets warmer than 62 degrees in the summer! We also found some awesome clinics and coaching through an organization called SwimArt which specialize in training for open water swimming. These resources were invaluable to us and I highly recommend them to anyone considering open water swimming for the first time.

Jackie and Me

We spent many months training and preparing, until finally race day was upon us. It’s a day I’ll never forget. I was pretty excited and nervous, but mostly I was just ready to hit the water! It’s funny…they told us that the hardest part of the whole race would be what you’d go through before you actually begin. I have to agree. Your mind has plenty of things to focus on if you let it, especially as a newcomer to open water swimming. It’s very cold even with a wetsuit. The currents are strong, making the bay more like a rushing river than part of the ocean. There’s also that little detail about sharks. Still, as I stood in the doorway of the ferry ready to jump, none of these things really concerned me. I felt confident in my training and abilities to deal with whatever I encountered. That’s when I knew I was ready.

Ready! Set! Go!

When I hit the water, I didn’t even notice the cold. Maybe it was all that adrenaline! Or maybe I really had acclimated to the cold water. The currents were actually a little lighter than normal and nothing I couldn’t handle because of the training I’d received. Oh yeah…and that little fact about sharks? Well, here’s another fact that I learned: the first San Francisco swim club was organized in 1873 and since that time there has not been one single shark attack on anyone swimming in the bay. All this gave me the confidence to feel good about the race. So as I swam away from the boat, I was stoked! It was hard to take it all in. 700 swimmers all around me. 50 kayaks flanked on either side, forming a wide lane for us to swim in. Power boats everywhere outside the line of kayaks. But, here was the real beauty: I took a moment to just stop and look around. Floating at eye level in the water, I could see Alcatraz rise up in front of me. Something that always seemed small from the land now looked really big and menacing. I can see why they made it a prison! Rotating around, I could see the Golden Gate Bridge and then the entire skyline of San Francisco as I’d never seen them before. It was a humbling moment for me. I even saw my friend Jackie and we both did a high-five before continuing on.

Reaching the finish line

The rest of the race was a partnership between me and the ocean. I was continually sighting on the landmarks given to us before we left (first, the twin tower Fontana Apartments behind Aquatic Park, to Fort Mason, to the dome on the Palace of Fine Arts, to the finish line on the beach itself) while also being pushed west by the current of the bay. It was pretty amazing as I approached the finish line on the beach and could see several hundred people there. In fact, with ear plugs, two swim caps and having my head submerged in the water, I could still hear people yelling and screaming on the shore. Talk about a boost of inspiration! This was it. It was juice for a lifetime! I started thinking about all those endless days of training. How sometimes when it was really hard, you’d start to think it would never lead to anything. But, here I was finishing the race! When I finally stopped swimming and put my legs down, they were like rubber. I almost fell over and I think I might have bumped into a female swimmer on the way out (sorry about that whoever you are ). But, I got my legs together and ran up the beach to officially complete the race. I was super happy to learn that I did it in under an hour! Jackie was only a minute or two behind me. Not bad for a couple of first timers thinking it would take them at least 75 minutes.

All in all, it was an amazing day. One I definitely won’t forget for a long time. I feel very lucky to have found a challenge such as this one. The experience pushed me in more ways than I could have imagined. It also made me realize just how important it is to regularly have goals that are outside your reach and comfort zone. Because for me, it’s not really about the goal itself. In the end, it’s more about the process or journey you go through to get there. That part you get to keep. It’s something that I plan to apply in all areas of my life, including animation.

Me and the post-race crew

Lastly, I must say thanks to Jackie for being a great swim buddy and helping me to keep at it. Thanks to my family and friends who all wished me well and good luck. A super big thank you to my girlfriend Lisa who was always supportive and got up at the ungodly hour to drive us down there at 5:30 am! And another big thank you to my great friends Bobby (who kindly mentioned me on his blog) and Eva who drove a long ways to be there to cheer me and Jackie on as we finished the race. Good times!

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You can see a short slide show here:

SLIDESHOW