I stumbled across some beautiful pieces of concept art for WALL•E Today. These were taking from the upcoming issue of Total Film which will feature an interview with Director Andrew Stanton. Don’t miss it!

-Matt
via: Upcoming Pixar

I was invited to join James Wadsworth and Andrew Becraft on this weeks episode of LAML radio. The topic of discussion was “Why we love the minifig.” James did an amazing job editing out all of my incoherent ramblings and making me sound like an intelligent adult. Not an easy task.

In other LEGO news, The LEGO Factory has announced a new fan-designed space line. “Help the Star Justice or Space Skulls crews gear up for battle!”

Hmm…Now why on earth does that sound so familar to me…

-Matt

I don’t have time to post much but I did want to share this:

Basset Hound Beat Box

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There is nothing more adorable than a basset hound…Except maybe a basset with some rythmn. Nice animation too.

-Matt

(I am re-posting a great audio interview with Don Hertzfeldt. The original post appeared on 9/27/07.)

Scene Unsceen Podcast has an interview with Don Hertzfeldt; one of the funniest animators around.

The first film of his I had seen was called Billy’s Balloon. I absolutely died laughing. It was at a Spike and Mike film festival that came to my college and the theater was packed. That short helped solidify my decision to major in animation.

Check out the interview here.

You can also see more of Don’s work on his website: www.bitterfilms.com

-Matt

We all know of the Zune as being the *snicker* “iPod Killer”; Microsofts controversal attempt at cashing in on the growing portable MP3 player market. However, there is another less well known side to the Zune. It is a website called Zune Arts where artists can gather and create fantastic work all in the name of Zune. As Microsoft puts it:

Zune Arts brings the best creative minds to collaborate on inspiring work of art under themes of sharing, connection, discovery, and friendship. Zune Arts is continuously growing, ever-evolving, and always open to new voices, influences and ideas. Join us.

That sounds like a load of marketing bull. Until you actually see the work that is being done there.

I had been hearing that great work had been coming out of this marketing effort, but I had no idea what I had been missing out on. I think its safe to say I will be spending plenty of time playing around on that site in the coming weeks.

-Matt

via: Portland Studios blog

WEBSITE UPDATE: I thought switching over to a new theme was going to be easier than it is turning out to be. I figured I was going to be able to use most of the visual layout, but it turns out it looks like crap and is just going to have to get completely overhauled. The only thing that stays is the navigation and functionality, and even most of that needs adjustment.

Anyway, It may take a little while as I know nothing about PHP and CSS.

By the way, there is a sequence in the middle of that last short that reminded me alot of a short I saw back in college called “Robot Walking” or something like that. I have been searching for it ever since and have been unsuccessful in finding it. Anyone have any clue as to what I am talking about?

Hey gang!

It’s time for some change, and among the first of those changes is a new theme! I will be doing some major work over the next couple of days to the site and so stuff may get to looking funky.

But fear not! Because when this is all over with It will be looking great and we will finally have a working search function!

BTW, the current header image was created with the help of Kuler Creator Which is a nice little toy built by my co-worker and good friend Chad Udell.

-Matt

Brad Bird did a couple of interesting radio interviews over the last couple of weeks. Blam, and Blam. In the first interview he speaks about the Oscars and animation and the sketchy relationship the two of them have had over the years.

Nice enough for sure, if your a meat and potatoes kinda person. But I want a bit more substance from my Brad Bird interviews. Thankfully, the interwebs do not disappoint. Check this out: At this time last year he did an awesome 53 minute interview with the dudes at Spline Doctors.

He puts forth a theory that suggests that Pixar succeed because they had permission that a new medium had given them. Because it CG was brand new, there were no rules or pre-concieved notions as to how things had to be done. The stuffy suits who make all the decisions didn’t know what to do with the medium and so they gave Pixar a pass. Which is interesting considering what has happened to CG now with everyone copying the Pixar approach.

It’s not often that we have an opportunity to listen to a master animator speak to us about our craft on a level that we can truely appreciate.

Happy Valentines Day, Spread the love!

-Matt

To my students: please take a moment to listen to the interviews and comment on them.

Some images are starting to make the rounds and wow! Kung Fu Panda is looking fantastic!

You’ve gotta love great character design like this! Very clean, very distinctive, very refined.

I am also in love with the color treatment. My own personal tastes lean towards strong color schemes with a single dominating color and you don’t often see that in animated films these days.

-Matt

via: Character Design Blog

Here is a very lovely collaborative animation done entirely on post-it notes. These talented artists hail all the way from Mother Russsia. I love the technique, and the music isn’t half bad either. This is animation in its rawest and most pure form, and its wonderful to see. This is certainly something that I might steal for future class projects.

-Matt

via: Cartoon Brew

I had a dream last night.

I was hired to direct a low-budget, yet highly ambitious independent film about a giant monster that attacks a grand old hotel in downtown Chicago in an attempt to get back an ancient jewel which was in the possession of a handsome and eccentric archaeologist. (our hero) The monster would circle the hotel, occasionally attacking a particularly weak spot in an attempt to gain access and to retrieve his prized possession. The film ends with our hero finding himself trapped at the very top of the hotel, confronting the monster and ultimately sacrificing himself to protect the life of his young lover.

The entirety of the dream was basically a shot-by-shot walk through of the film from beginning to end with all the production staff and actors talking out the scenes with script in hand. We would pause to discuss character moments, camera and lighting requirements, visual effects complications and opportunities. etc.

I remember one moment, I had to leave the script walk-through for an impromptu meeting in the hotels ballroom with the films financiers. I was trying to explain to them why I needed more money to re-dress the room and hire more extras for a grand ball scene. This moment would become an iconic scene which would lead to the big reveal of the monster and I felt it was much more effective than what was intended in the original script. They felt I was attempting to do something that was out of question considering that much more money was spent on pre-vis than they had originally anticipated…

…I doubt that most people have dreams like this, and I have no idea what this says about me. It does sound like a movie I would enjoy seeing though!

-Matt

Oh, by the way, I retain all rights to this film idea. I’m talking to you 20th Century Fox.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am passionate about the work of Hayao Miyazaki. It all stems from my first viewing of the film Princess Mononoke. I was a wide-eyed freshman in college at the time and a friend had gotten his hands on a copy when he was in Japan. We all gathered around the big screen TV in the dorm cafeteria one night for a viewing. The film was was not dubbed or subtitled, I had no idea what anyone was saying. Yet as the end credits rolled I knew I had just seen something significant. Miyazaki had crafted a film that was so powerful and so exquisitely presented, it was able to deeply touch someone from a completely different culture without the benefit of shared language.

From that moment on, I wanted to learn everything I could about Miyazaki and his films, however, in those days he was relatively unknown in the states and translated interviews were difficult to find. Thankfully, things have changed in recent years. GhibliWorld.com has a new interview with Miyazaki about his latest film Ponyo. Interestingly enough, this film will be created using only traditional 2D methods and will feature no CG work at all.

“I always tell my staff that if they don’t like to draw by hand deliberately, then they should give up animation. It’s easy to distinguish if pictures are drawn by machines or human hands. If we give up the tough way, we will lose the richness in our art.”
-Miyazaki

Enjoy the Interview!
-Matt

Did everyone get to see the Superbowl trailer for WALL•E? If not, then Poppa Matt is here to feed you:

Personally, I think they could have done without Buzz and Woody. Those two added nothing to the spot and their dialog was actually pretty lame. But, It is good to see that Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are still lending their voice to these characters after so many years. Anyone remember the Genie from Aladdin after Robin Williams walked away? *shudders*

Anyways, Here it is without the poo:

-Matt

UPDATE: Josh Burton mentions that this piece was created by Victor Navone and points us to his blog. Victor is the Creator of Alien Song, which was an insanely popular video back in the day. I remember it as being shown all over the vendor floor at SIGGRAPH 2002. (Incidentally, I had a film that was playing on a monitor or two that very same year. But that’s a story for another time.)

On an relatively unrelated note, My favorite Superbowl commercial was My Talking Stain. Hilarious.

I have nothing profound to say here. I just love this poster.

-Matt

The LEGO Brick turned 50 today! Here are some fun facts:

• There are about 62 LEGO bricks for every one of the world’s 6 billion inhabitants. (about 65 thousand of which are sitting in my basement…LEGOs that is…not people.)
• More than 400 million people around the world have played with LEGO bricks.
• 2.16 million LEGO elements are molded every hour, or 36,000 per minute.
• World-renowned author Douglas Coupland believes the LEGO brick represents a “language in itself.”

Now get out there and start building!

-Matt

via: Gizmodo

Matt Maloney is a good friend of mine from back in the day. By “day” I mean “college.” And by “college” I mean that time in our lives when we would get drunk and talk about whether Kurosawa’s “Tenno” directing style was going to far when he ordered a stream be made to flow in the opposite direction for aesthetic effect. (Yes, I looked that up on wikipedia, but seriously, that was the kind of stuff we talked about.)

Matt is one of those unique individuals that passionately sets his mind on one thing and works relentlessly towards perfection. His dedication is simply inspiring and his artistic skill is jealousy inducing.

Recently, Matt posted some images of a sculpt he created on his blog and man, is it cool.

This character is actually from an older stop-motion animation he was working on back in college entitled King Rust. It’s great to see the king re-interpreted this many years later. I love it when Artists re-visit their old work with a fresh insight and a matured stylistic approach. I am looking forward to seeing more from him soon. His current animation with its combination of stop-motion and CG elements, is coming together very nicely.

On a side note: I really am beginning to seriously miss working on personal projects. I have been involved in some really fantastic projects over the past several years, and I am very blessed to be working with so many talented people, but like any artist, I yearn to create. I want to make something that I can call my own.

I have a concept and everything. I came up with the idea back in ‘02. I have even started to do a little bit of work. I just always find a reason not to work on it.

But who knows? Perhaps this is the year I will finally put my head down and do some work. Perhaps…

-Matt

Yesterday Disney announced that it would be bringing Pixar’s Toy Story 1 and 2 back to the theaters. This time in Glorious 3D!

Having now seen beouwulf in the theaters and seen what modern 3D looks like, I can say that I am very excited by the prospects of a 3D Buzz Lightyear.

Slashfilm has the story:

Toy Story and Toy Story 2, are headed back to movie screens October 2nd, 2009 and February 12th, 2010, respectively, with a complete digital 3D makeover, called Disney Digital 3D to be exact. The films will be an audience primer for Disney-Pixar’s digital 3D Toy Story 3, which hits screens on June 18th, 2010. John Lasseter, director of the first two Toy films and a Pixar poobah, is supervising the 3D process on both, while director Lee Unkrick continues his work on the second sequel.

Call me ill-informed, but this is the first I have heard of Toy Story 3 since that nasty Circle 7 incident. Your thoughts? Should Pixar travel down this road for a third time?

-Matt

(I am re-posting a great audio interview with the legendary Andrew Stanton. The original post appeared on 2/28/06.)

The spline doctors have posted a 3 part interview with Writer/Director at Pixar Animation: Andrew Stanton.

I just listened to the interview and it is EXCELLENT. Andrew really gets into the nuts and bolts of directing an animated feature. He talks about his early days at Pixar and even has a few choice things to say about many of the other folks making animated features these days.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

-Matt

Well, I am back up and running, (thanks Brian!) and I have some very cool news.

I entered a LEGO builders contest on FBTB.net. The contest is to re-imagine the Star Wars universe in the style of Steampunk.

There have been alot of great entries and a few have been highlighted by popular blogs. I was lucky enough to see my entry get posted on the front of Gizmodo.

This has been a very cool contest, and alot of very talented people have gotten some big-time attention because of it. Be sure to check it out as everyone starts submitting their final entries. The contest judging begins the first of February. You can check out more photos of my entry here:

-Matt

I have been hit with a ton of comment spam over the last week. So for the time being, I am turning off the comment feature on my blog. UPDATE: Comments are back on!

Hopefully I can get up and running again soon. And I apologies in advance if anyones comments get lost in the purging process. Usually these attacks go away fairly quickly, but we will see. This attack has been a rather nasty one with about 2000 spam comments so far.

…sigh.

-Matt

My daughter, Georgia Kay Forcum, was born on 12-16-07 at 10:28 a.m. She weighed in at 5lbs, 8 oz and 18 inches long.

More pictures can be seen by clicking here.

-Matt