Tag Archives: Maya

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Kevin O’Neil

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What is your name and your current occupation?
Kevin O’Neil and currently a freelance special effects animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Being a bank courier, picking up bank checks from all the big banks in downtown Chicago, for Jet Courier services in Chicago, back in the 80’s. I worked at Midway and O’Hare airports in the middle of the night, 1 am to 5 am. Also before that, I taught guitar for 6 years, and played in a few bands in Chicago. I was a full time musician before going back to art school at age 28. So I don’t know if they were exactly crazy, just jobs.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
One of my favs was Iron Giant at Warner Feature, and Hercules and Mulan at Disney Feature. Working at Disney TV on The Tigger Movie was also a lot of fun, and working with Jun Falkenstein was a great experience. I was glad I got to work at Disney if even for a short time. Brad Bird at WB, John Musker and Ron Clements at Disney. Great people if you ask me. Proud to be a part of those films. The caliber of artists at these places is just great. Actually the caliber of artists at most of the studios is great, it’s just too bad a lot of the stuff we saw in the studios is art that never makes it to the screen.  I also worked at Warner’s Classics back in the 90’s as a character animator. We did a lot of commercials. I worked with Keith Baxter, Jeff Siergey, Spike Brandt & Tony Cervone. The place was fun and I got to draw Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. How could that not be great?  More recently I had a lot of fun on the Priest animated prologue for Genndy Tartakovsy. I did most of the effects on that except a couple of shots. It was fun because it wasn’t your normal efx, there was a lot of blood and guts and I got to blow things up. I finally saw an unedited clip of the whole thing online. I guess for the movie, it was tamed down.

How did you become interested in animation?
I guess just watching and growing up with the usual cartoons like everyone else. I leaned towards Warners. But I got into rather late, in my late 20’s. I was undecided in art school whether to pursue Continue reading

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Free “Mery Project” Maya animation rig for download

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José Manuel García Alvarez and Antonio Méndez Lora have teamed up to produce a really nice looking Maya rig for Maya 2013-2015. You can download it here.

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Jennifer Harlow

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Jennifer Harlow and I’m an animator at DreamWorks Animation SKG, where I’m currently working on “The Croods” which is due out March 2013.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Prior jobs have included working at Subway with the job title of “Sandwich Artist”—a fancy name for the not-so fancy job of making the customer’s order. I was also an assistant manager on Sundays, so I kept the business running from 6 a.m. until almost 9 at night when the other manager would take over. I also worked for 2 years at Target as a cashier, but I also spent time in the photo lab and behind the customer service desk. I have a lot of wild stories from my time there, ranging from encountering a homeless woman who was convinced Target employees like myself were stealing her freshly purchased toilet paper, the chaos that is Black Friday, to random strangers pulling my curly ringlet-like hair because they thought I was wearing a wig. A slightly crazier job was during the summer after my second year at CalArts, while staying at my home in Oregon I worked as a freelance caricature artist and this led to one memorable event where I was hired for a wedding. Nothing stranger than drawing tons of already self-conscious strangers for about 4 hours. Everything went very well though, the crowd was extremely nice, and I had a fun time—though I made it a point to make the caricatures a little more flattering than my usual style.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
It’s still pretty early on in my career to be able to state a specific project. I’m really enjoying working on my first feature project, “The Croods.” It’s been a really wonderful experience, and the crew is very supportive and awesome. But I’m proud of everything I accomplished during my time at CalArts and while my students films are less than perfect, I’m glad I have them. They were each a huge learning experience.

 

How did you become interested in animation?
I always drew as a kid, even before I can really remember, my Mom likes to tell this story about how she found me in the living room drawing with a big red crayon on Continue reading

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Samsung’s Family Hub: Inside the Fridge

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Adweek is reporting on a new spot from Samsung animated by Moonbot in Shreveport.

Painfully cute real-life celebrity couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard add another painfully cute Samsung spot to their résumés today, as the electronics retailer has recruited the pair to introduce its souped-up Family Hub refrigerator (and its built-in cameras) to the public with a raft of new advertising.

The campaign begins with the digital short below, by R/GA, which shows the actors unloading groceries into the fancy new fridge, which Samsung unveiled at CES this year. They leave and walk away, but we get a glimpse inside—first through the screen on the outside of the fridge, which shows its contents, and then inside, which is a blissed-out paradise where all the food seems to have paired off in ecstatic love.

Well, almost all the food. A sad bottle of chocolate syrup seems bereft. Will he find the perfect partner to pour some sugar on? Watch the spot below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1mKwuPtGfU

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F. David Meyers

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What is your name and your current occupation?
F. David Meyers, 3D story artist on the Clone Wars animated series at Lucasfilm Animation Ltd.What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation? 
I was a Ink Retoucher for a photo lab (covered up spots on developed photos by hand), Checkout Supervisor at Kmart, trust me it was crazy.
What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of? 
I love working on the Clone Wars a lot!! It’s a dream of mine to work on Star Wars.
I also really enjoyed working on Team Smithereen with the Dan Clark company.  That was one of the funnest jobs I ever had.

How did you become interested in animation? 
As a kid, films like Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty were magic to me.  I wanted to be a part of that.
I think it was a culmination of the love of drawing and the idea that animation is a legitimate form of storytelling and fine art together.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business? 
I am from Orange County in Southern California.  I got into the industry by Continue reading

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“Ma’agalim” – Jane Bordeaux

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Clever music video about a wooden doll stuck in place and time in a forgotten old penny arcade.

Music – Jane Bordeaux Band
Producers: Uri Lotan & Yoav Shtibelman
Director: Uri Lotan
Co-Director: Yoav Shtibelman
Art Director: Ovadia Benishu
Additional Art: Avner Geller
Lighting and Shading: Yosef Refaeli
Additional Lighting: Uri Lotan, Rob Showalter
Storyboard: Yoav Shtibelman
Modeling and Rigging: Uri Lotan, Ore Peleg, Or Ofri
Texturing:Yosef Refaeli, Dor Ben-Dayan
Animation: Yoav Shtibelman, Toby Pedersen, Ron Polischuk
Effects: Phenomena Labs
Compositing: Uri Lotan, Ilia Marcus
Colorist: Ilya Marcus

Jane Bordeaux – Doron Talmon, Amir Zeevi, Mati Gilad
Lyrics by – Meytal Kadosh
Composed by Doron Talmon
Percussion and Singing – Doron Talmon
Guitar – Amir Zeevi
Duble Bass – Mati Gilad
Harmonica, Percussion, Music Production and Mix – Tomer Yeshayahu
Mastering – Ori Winokur “Slik Studio”

facebook.com/JaneBordeaux.Band/

youtu.be/zgHHph-CrC8