I just saw an AWESOME documentary film called Surfwise. It’s the story of Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz and how he decided to leave his successful career in medicine to take his wife and 9 children on a nomadic quest to surf every day of their lives (all while living in a 24 foot motor-home).

Being a surfer myself, I was immediately intrigued to check it out. But, I can definitely say this is so much more than just another surfing documentary. While it does show the life of the Paskowitz family, it also shares many insights about life in general which I found really interesting (and sometimes just plain hilarious). Here’s the trailer, but do yourself a favor and rent this film!

An interesting musical side note…I used to dig this song by the band The Flys. Turns out, the lead singer is Adam Paskowitz and the backup singer is Josh Paskowitz.

Wow, time flies when you’re crunching at work! Needless to say, I’ve been anxious to post up my second blocking pass, or what I like to call blocking plus. I got some good feedback from friends on my first pass. The main things that were mentioned were to 1.) block in more refined face poses for the main emotional beats 2.) Make the end walk-out feel more determined because Bishop is really angry at this point. This also helps differentiate the end walk from the one at the beginning where Bishop is more caught up in frustration. So, in this pass I hit those things but also tried to add more detail throughout to get a better feel for what I want the shot to be. Check it out and feel free to leave any feedback if you like.

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Since this pass was blocking plus, I broke down the animation to the point of having a key every 4 frames (less in places where the action is fast). Next up, I’ll start my refining process and take this thing into spline!

10/12/08 UPDATE: I decided to rework the arms on the end walk out based on some new feedback I got. Basically, I needed to push the arms more to better showcase Bishops emotional state at this point. I tried to get more of a big swingy motion by getting more reversals and progressively breaking the joints on the arms. Feel free to let me know if you think it’s working.

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.

Well, I thought it’s about time I got down to business with this blog! I’m starting in on a new shot. Actually, it’s an old shot that I started a while back but never finished because I got busy with work. It’s a dialogue clip from the film Die Mommie Die. I’ve actually never seen the film, but I came across this line and really loved how it was performed. It has some distinct beats to the dialogue, some nice pauses, and a steady build to a strong climax. I thought it would be the perfect clip for me to do the following:

1. Animate something that is more physically broad
2. Focus on achieving a strong character performance that tells a story.

Here’s what I have so far. It’s the first blocking pass I did a while back. It’s a fairly detailed first pass, but there’s actually some areas that still need more detail. For instance, the parts where Bishop is walking require several more break downs to make it read properly. I’d also like to block in a little more with the face poses to get the attitude across.

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Before I dive in into the next pass, I’ll do a quick review of my notes and video reference I shot at the time just to get me back into the material again. One question I need to keep in mind is what is the essence of this shot? Some others are…Why is this shot important? What happened before this shot? What will happen after? What is Bishop’s goal in this shot? Definitely important things to ponder!

Now back to work. Next update will be my refined blocking!

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UPDATE: A few people suggested that I should post my reference so here it is for your viewing pleasure…

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Sims 3 is the game I’ve been animating on the last couple of years. Recently, EA produced a short, “behind the scenes” look at the Sims 3 for the Leipzig game convention which took place in Germany last month. They shot a bunch of footage of our animation team which was a lot of fun. I’m really glad I got to work on this game and even more glad that I got to work with such an awesome team of animators (many of which came from Animation Mentor!). Sims 3 doesn’t come out until February 2009, but check out the developer preview for a quick sneak peak.

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

Howdy! Welcome to my brand new animation blog. It’s taken me a long time to get here, but I’m glad I finally made it. As you can see, there’s not much here yet. But, soon I’ll be uploading more of my animation work as well as covering anything that informs, educates, or inspires me about animation. So stay tuned and check back for more good stuff!