Shahblog

New Career Move…

// May 19th, 2009 // 5 Comments » // Personal Posts, Work Related

I feel blessed to have worked at the places I’ve worked and with all the amazing people I have worked with in the past 5 years.

As an Art Institute of Colorado student, I still remember being inspired with “Killer Bean” and the “Learning Character Animation” DVD both works created by Jeff Lew who I was honored to be able to meet and work with at Digital Domain on Transformers 2. Also being able to work with people like John Nguyen, Keith Sintay, Tom Gurney, Tom St. Amand and many others there. I remember being awestruck with the likes of Aja Bogdanoff who was the driving force behind me joining Animation Mentor. And being a huge fan of Rebecca Perez for getting hired at DISNEY so early into Animation Mentor. Both these ladies and amazing talents I was honored to work with and befriend at Blue Sky Studios on Horton. Other greats like Jeff Gabor, Luis Llobera, Juan Carlos Navarro, Melvin Tan, and Mike Walling made for a surreal experience. I was able to work under Mike Belzer and Colin Brady with the amazing animation team at Lumenas and being a part of the great crew at Disney Interactive while here in Utah. Guys like Andy Conroy, Jason Stansell, Rob Barros, Seth Hippen and Jon Pitcher. I never would have imagined being able to meet these amazing animators among many others that I have worked with, let alone actually work with them and even have some of them become great friends.

God has blessed me in more ways than I’ll be able to believe and continues to do so. The past 5 years since graduating college have been amazingly exciting, trying, and hard. I’ve accomplished things I never would have dreamed of and have aspired to things that I am still so far away from.

This fall I will be taking on the role of an Animation Professor at Huntington University in Huntington Indiana. A position that in the past I would never have imagined I would take on, but something that I have inevitably been prepared for. Back when I graduated from AiC the greatly talented Nigel Style was gracious enough to take the time to help me with my animation and has continued to do so since then. I think even back then I started seeing the value in helping others “get it”.

After meeting the students at Huntington University and seeing their passion for their projects I was sold on becoming a part of that process. At HU I look forward to becoming the best animation professor I can be. A professor that can bring what practical experience I have had and my continual thirst to learn and grow as an animator to the students that aspire to make it in the animation industry or wherever their career aspirations may lie. I want to be a great mentor and example to the students at Huntington both as a professional and as a person. I know it will be a challenging role. I know that I have a lot to learn in my own work and I have a lot to aspire to. Being able to work next to Stephen Leeper and Bryan Ballinger at HU will be another honor and I know they can teach me tremendous amounts of things including what it takes to be a great professor. As an added bonus, around time next year I will be enrolling in an MFA program to further my study of animation and film making.

I know this career move comes as a surprise to most, even to myself. Those who know me know this move is everything I could have asked for and a huge blessing for my family and me. I thank all my great friends and family and all those at Gateway Community Church for being the rock I’ve needed through all my ups and downs, and my continuing support as I venture off to Indiana for this new career opportunity. Here’s to a whole new adventure in my career and in my life.

Cheers.

Shahbaaz

Appeal is a principle of animation….

// March 4th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Rambings

Yes its true. Look it up. I’m not lying. And to make matters worse it doesn’t just apply to the old 2D days. Like I know people think “Solid Drawing” only applied to those 9 old dudes. I think the first mistake that students of animation make when it comes to appeal is the rig they use. There are so many free rigs out there, particularly for maya (see highend3d.com) but honestly there are MAYBE one of two of these rigs that are actually worth looking at. We all have been through the Generi era, and while this rig was great to learn animation and the time taken to put this guy together is much appreciated, lets face it, he’s not a pretty guy. And these days he can be a black mark against you on a reel.

The sad thing is that so many people out there are trying to rip of Animation Mentor’s rigs. Not sure why…don’t get me wrong I think Bishop is an amazingly appealing charcater, but if you’re taking the time to create a rig, why not do something original? ( and get an accomplished concept artist and modeler while you’re at it) To make matters worse, the rigs that attempt to look like bishop are HIDEOUS!! No appeal whatsoever. So even if you’re an aspiring animator who does a decent job at animating, IMHO I think you’re doing your talent a disservice by starting out your piece with this principle of appeal missing from the equation.

Why is appeal so important? An article on Animation Toolworks, defines appeal like this:

Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience¹s interest. ( I encourage you to read the entire definition)

In any visual medium, we want the audience to WANT to look at our work. Appeal is a natural desire for viewers. We are drawn to what appeals to our senses. I actually think you’ve got an advantage if you use appeal to grab the viewer’s attention. They may be hooked before even seeing anything. I’ve seen appealing character with horrible animation, but I was drawn to it by its appeal before even seeing it in motion. (but yes the animation has to be appealing too)

I guess my whole point is, think about appeal. Are your poses appealing? Are you taking the time to work out your golden poses? Are the fingers, eyes, face, line of action, sillouette, working and appealing? Is your character design appealing? How about your background? Not that lighting and background are a necessity in a demo reel piece, but is your background a retna burning neon green? Or obnoxious blue? Remember 3D animation is still a visual medium and while we aren’t focusing too much on anything other than the animation on a reel, remember the appeal. Don’t sink your ship on a hideous free rig. And please, don’t use a rip off AM rig. If only for the reason that they’re uglier than your granny wearing that string bikini she should have never bought…

"I'm sad because I"m hideous"

“…if you do pretty movement…”

// March 1st, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Acting, Personal Posts, Rambings

“…if you do pretty movement, people will think that it’s good animation. And, man, it is not! It’s about acting, man, and it’s about performance and individuality.”

-Brad Bird

I’m excited. I’m way excited. I feel like a born again animator since joining Lumenas. The major difference between animating in film and animating in any other medium is quite simply acting. I feel truly blessed to have another opportunity at figuring this acting thing out.

On Monday I am hosting an Alumni Q&A for Animation Mentor. When asked what topic I was going to talk about, I kinda freaked. I am nowhere near an expert on anything animation. So I decided I would talk about something that I have barely begun to scratch the surface of with my own understanding, which is acting and the thought process in animation.

The best part is that choosing this topic has forced me to start studying and really start thinking about the subject. I’m going to post a series of notes and resources I’ve found on acting as it relates to animation and throw in a few thoughts I have on it myself. To start, check out what Brad Bird said in an interview that took place in 2005 at the Museum of Moving Image.

GOODMAN: That’s beautiful. Chuck Jones was on this stage about ten years ago, and he had, for him, an epiphany when he was younger watching his cat, named Johnson, devour grapefruits. He had this bizarre habit of devouring grapefruits. He said something to the effect of “Character is the point; it’s all about character.” And it’s not about what they look like or how they sound, but how they move.

BIRD: That’s right. And that’s something that people… You’d be surprised at how little people think of that most of the time. And I mean a lot of animators, too. The strength of our generation of animators—meaning the generation after the great old guys that really developed everything—is also our weakness. And that is that there are more A-level animators now than there has [sic] ever been in the history of—even in the golden age of animation, the so-called “golden age.” There are more great animators now that are capable of putting really beautiful animation onscreen. At the same time, because we are—and it’s because we know every trick in the book, because we can look at all the work that they’ve done, on DVD and all that stuff, and study it. And they didn’t have that, and they couldn’t do that.

At the same time, it’s our weakness, because we tend to animate collections of movements that we’ve seen before, rather than drawing from life. And so, you know, if you really know animation, you can look at people’s stuff and go, “Yeah, that’s that little shoulder turn that they got from Frank Thomas in Pinocchio,” and, “Oh, yeah, there’s the blink that so-and-so did in The Sword in the Stone,” and “Oh, there’s the…da-da-da.” You can literally go through the scenes and see a collection of things that people have studied and picked up on. They’re almost Frankenstein-ing their scenes together. You can fool critics a lot of times, because if the movement is beautiful, if it moves smoothly, they’ll go, “Wow, that’s great animation.” And, you know, no, not necessarily. You could have beautiful movement that is not specific to the character, not specific to the moment, [that] doesn’t reflect the character’s sex or age, or where they’re coming from, or where they’re going to.

When you go to acting class, they teach you that you’re not starting a scene at zero, you’re coming from somewhere and you’re going to somewhere. There’s something that you did, your character did, ten minutes prior that is going to affect how they come into the room. And animators are not used to thinking that way—a lot of them aren’t. At Pixar, I feel like I was pre-sold on the place because I love their stuff, but [also] they are thinking more in depth. Like: take a shot of the audience right now. Everybody here is facing forward, they’re all sitting down, they’re all here watching us. But everyone is sitting in a slightly different way. This woman right here’s got her little shawl pulled up, she looks very comfortable, she’s sinking down lower. (Laughter) The only thing missing is maybe a cup of cocoa. (Laughter) But the guy next to her is kind of up here and, “Yeah, prove it to me that you deserve to be on that stage.” You know? And the girl sitting next to him is kind of leaning forward, kind of leaning toward him a little bit, kind of taking it all in. And every single—if you took a great high-resolution snapshot of this audience, everyone is sitting in a unique way. They’re sitting in a way that reflects who they are and where they’re coming from and where they’re going to. I think that that is really the home of animation—of character animation, anyway—and the thing that’s neglected the most. Because if you do pretty movement, people will think that it’s good animation. And, man, it is not! It’s about acting, man, and it’s about performance and individuality.

We tried to make every single character in this movie move differently. Syndrome has these kind of flashy, aggressive gestures when he gets full of himself. When he’s a kid, it’s a little more like a pup. But it’s the same guy, moved up the scale. Edna’s movements are very confident. She’s never experienced doubt in her life. Bob feels like an athletic guy gone to seed. There’s a certain physicality to the way they hold themselves. Helen’s got these buttery movements that suggest that she could fit into any situation. I just feel like that is the home of—that’s what makes the old Disney stuff so great; that’s what made [Chuck] Jones’s films great. And it’s missing, I think, in a lot of animation.

View the whole transcript from the interview here: Transcript

And listen to the interview here : Listen

The amazing part of studying acting is that when you realize its about your character and WHO this person is and WHY they would move the way they move, it changes everything about how you handle a shot. You stop getting wrapped up in trying to force animation for the sake of animation. Suddenly your poses have a purpose and a personality behind them. Suddenly your animation has a reason to be animated, it has a story to be told and a living character to tell that story. Which is why we animate and why people want to watch it.

Lumenas on AWN!

// February 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Work Related

Whoo! Lumenas has an article on AWN! More insight on what’s going on over here. I can honestly say after just a few days here I am so fired up about this project. More later…

AWN

Brandon Hardesty is awesome.

// February 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

This guy is awesome. I can’t get enough of this amazing acting ability. He does all the dialouge himself which in this case is pretty amazing.

Moving onward and upward…

// January 23rd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Personal Animation, Personal Posts, Work Related

I recently accepted an offer to work at Lumenas Studios on the feature film, “The Legend of Santa Claus”. I’m more than excited to be joining some friends and co-workers and I am grateful for the experience to work with them again.

Also I am super excited to have Mike Belzer as our Animation Director. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this production and this company. I know I personally have high expectations and great confidence in this new opportunity.

Go Buy Bolt!…for your kids…

// December 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Personal Animation, Work Related

Ok so I’m a few weeks late on this, but the game I was a part of here at Avalanche is finally out. Its based on the Disney movie Bolt. I’ve heard great things about the movie and I’m still trying to find a good time to see it (or a babysitter).  Hopefully I will get around to posting select animation that I did for the game. Congrats to all who worked hard on bringing this project together.

To Know Where You’re Going, You Have to Know Where You Came From

// May 20th, 2008 // 5 Comments » // Personal Animation, Personal Posts, Rambings, Uncategorized

Yeah its been said before, but its true. Trying to start a new phase in your life is really friggin hard. I just came off of a 2 month “tease” on what its like to work for a feature film studio back in November. Ever since I saw Shrek back in 2001 I decided I was going to be an animator. After attending a less than ideal college I realized I just finished 3 grueling years of generalist study and hadn’t even touched the surface of animation. I didn’t even know the principles of animation.

I struggled to accept my fate and didn’t stay comfortable at my new job in theater advertising at National CineMedia. After much thought I decided I needed to join Animation Mentor if I was going to make my dream of becoming an animator a reality. So with new child, full time job and all I set forth to get an education from AM. Halfway through due to my impatience I jumped ship and was employed by High Moon Studios in Carlsbad. Unfortunately the job turned into a 100% mo-crap position with a side of long OT hours. So I struggled to finish AM with a full plate but I managed to squeeze through.

It would seem all this work would pay off in September of last year as I was blessed with a temp animator position at Blue Sky Studios on Horton Hears A Who! . Leaving then pregnant wife and child behind I left for NY to work on my first feature film (finally!) After my short 8 week stay I managed to complete 4 shots in the film and a couple of cycles. After Blue Sky I very painfully had to decline a position on Open Season 2 with Reel FX due to the lack of health insurance. Finding a great opportunity with another game studio in SLC I accepted a position at Disney Interactive / Avalanche where I am today…

So what now? The balance of family and career has been a very difficult part of my life. None of my decisions have ever favored both my career and my family at the same time. But for the first time I feel like I am happy with my job and at a place where I can spend my time with my family and enjoy my life. Without a new demo reel to be slaving over or homework assignments to work on for the first time in 7 years I’m now posed with the question, “Now what?” Where do I take my studies and my abilities now?

Maybe the first step could be to see where I’ve been with all this.

My first official Demo Reel: (August-ish 2004)

My revised and official graduate reel from AIC (September 2004)

Halfway through AM, this reel got me a job at High Moon Studios (September 2006)

After many reworks, finally my POST AM reel landed me a temp job at Blue Sky (September 2007)

And here is my work up to this point

Now what?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an Idiot

// May 12th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Personal Posts, Rambings

This GEM of an article was on the AM site.

And my response:

Oh brother. That’s all I got. Not even gonna read any of this. My 3 year old son didn’t seem to give a crap about any of that. Get a life and stop watching kids movies if you’re going to be critical of them. And if you’re concerned about the content of kids movies and exposing them to your children, take them outside and live life a little. Some people have nothing better to write about and have to bank their careers off something.

*OK edit*

I did read this, and what an idiot. What a cheap and idiotic way to plug a politician. So if Barack is elected then we’ll have more wholesome animations?? Ok, I’ll again state what I said before, GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY WITH YOUR KIDS. If your kids are learning all their life lessons from a movie animated or not, YOU’RE NOT DOING YOUR JOB AS A PARENT. They should be learning these lessons from YOU NOT HORTON. Movies are ENTERTAINMENT to ENTERTAIN YOU. So is this article about Horton or Obama? What an idiot. Its just crappy political propaganda and his entire article doesn’t even prove why this movie may be racist but he’s only trying to get some attention so people will read all the way through and catch his endorsement of Obama. Idiot. He should take his kids to see Rendition and then he can start a discussion on how our kids are learning about the Middle East and suicide bombings. Man what a tool. By the way, I love how the NBA culture is grooming and empowering women in today’s world. Good job.

Smilin’ Andre

// April 28th, 2008 // 2 Comments » // Personal Posts

Here’s some great pictures of Andre similing I was able to catch this weekend. What a joy. I still can’t believe he’s my boy! (And yes the reddish hair and the bluish eyes is sometimes adds to the disbelief )