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Animation Mentor 2010 showcase

Posted on September 1, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Animation Mentor, Friends | Leave a Comment

Well it’s out! Some really really nice work from my fellow graduates and ex coworkers.

http://www.animationmentor.com/showcase2010/

Some of them have already landed top animation jobs and others will very soon.

And while we are at it, let me introduce you Bishop 2.0, the latest version of my favourite Animation Mentor rig. I haven’t had a chance to test it yet but this looks very promising and I have to mention that my friend the awesome Keith Ribbons helped out with the facial rigging.

YouTube Preview Image

Related post:
Dan Carey “Shower Power” short film

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Kaeloo

Posted on August 30, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

Few years ago, french director and Supinfocom alumni, Rémy Chapotot, released the trailer for a crazy cartoony TV series produced by Cube Creative, Kaelou.

http://www.vimeo.com/12422185

It took a bit of time but the 52×7 TV series finally got produced between french Blue Spirit and Belgium Sinematik and the series finally aired on french cable TV this summer. I tried to get on board last year but they were already fully staffed and my experience with Character Studio was way too limited.  (it is rendered in Vray by the way)

Here are few short videos that are getting me really excited and upset I didn’t work on it ;-)

http://www.vimeo.com/11648356 http://www.vimeo.com/14002633

a bit more reading and behind the scenes here:

http://www.qualia-international.com/works/animation/kaelou/index.html

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abAutorig Part II Pyro tutorial

Posted on August 29, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio, Tutorial | 3 Comments

[update] I thought I would be able to post the first video to Youtube but unfortunately they have a 10 minutes video limit.  Part I will therefore have to wait till sunday, once Vimeo resets my weekly limit.

If some of you are still struggling to use Supercrumbly’s awesome abAutorig auto-rigging script, or have no clue on how to rig, here is something for you!

Due to technical problems, I won’t be able to post them in order but this will make a lot of sense once they are all uploaded.

The video is real time and has now, me, commenting on the different steps involved. If you double click on the video this will sent you to Vimeo where you can save the Quicktime file in HD!

Let me know what you think!

Tutorial Part II
http://www.vimeo.com/14514357
Part IIIa
http://www.vimeo.com/14524954

Part IIIb
YouTube Preview Image

Related posts:
abAutorig overview, how to create a rig in 5 minutes
Autorig tutorial preparation work III

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Composition 101

Posted on August 26, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Tutorial | Leave a Comment

In the next few days I will be adding some content to that post but in the meantime, check out those two great illustrations on how to direct your audience and compose your “pictures” for a better readability.

Disney/Pixar - Cars

Disney/Pixar - Cars

Disney/Pixar - Incredibles

Disney/Pixar - Incredibles

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iAnimate, Jason Ryan interview

Posted on August 24, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | 2 Comments

A school were all the teachers are full time animators working at Dreamworks. Live instructor critique. Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it?

Speaking of Animation just posted an interview with iAnimate creator Jason Ryan.

http://www.speakingofanimation.com/2010/08/podcast-jason-ryan/

If I were to study animation nowadays, I wouldn’t know where to go! It will take a long time before iAnimate’s community reaches Animation Mentor’s size but the facts that all the mentors come from one of the top feature animation studio and are all still employed is definitely a big plus. Also, people with experience can already start in the advance classes without having to start from the very basics.

Rig wise, I am not keen on the Boris rig at all but I have heard that a top rigger would provide iAnimate with a much more interesting one and it is also possible to use a rig like Norman.

Related posts:
Stretchy rig or broken bishop
The downfall of traditional animation
Who is Jason Ryan?

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great Disney links

Posted on August 22, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Character design | Leave a Comment

I was busy collecting some references for my shortfilm today and found some really good Disney links.

Animation Background. As the name implies, you will find a large collection of old classic Disney shorts/features and also more recent backgrounds. It is so cool to finally be able to take a close look at those beautiful watercolours.
http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com

The Art of Disney Animation
http://artofdisney.canalblog.com
That one is mainly in french but you will find a lot of artwork from the house of the mouse, among them a larger collection of colour scripts from Toy Story 3 than was had been available in the past.

and 2 more links that have been around for a while but a lot of people don’t know about.

The Pixar blog
http://pixarblog.blogspot.com/

Upcoming Pixar
http://pixarplanet.com/blog/

oops I was about to forget a great resources if you intend to do some research on old Disney short films
The encyclopedia of Disney Animation shorts. A great website if you want to track a Disney director or artist.
http://www.disneyshorts.org/sitemap.html

By the way, does anyone know who was the main character designer on Jungle Book, Sword in the stone, 101 dalmatians, Robin Hood and other features sharing the same angular look? With my colleague Karim we are not able to agree on this. I am aware Milt Kahl reluctantly became character designer but I am pretty sure he was only drawing in that very characteristicstyle. For some reason Ken Anderson keeps coming back to me but I can’t find any information about it. Any idea?

Related post:
Dice Tsutsumi on the Chiustream

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MunQi

Posted on August 18, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

My friend and now Pixar animator Jude Brownbill was one of the two animators who animated that really wacky and fun pilot for London based animation studio BlueZoo.

Looking at the recent success of “Despicable Me”, investors should get really excited by that trailer!

Check it out!
http://www.vimeo.com/14088312

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Animator Roundtable part II

Posted on August 18, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment


It is now out! …. I just have to warn you that it is a bit shorter than the previous one :-(

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Pixar motion blur

Posted on August 3, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | 1 Comment

Historically there are only two types of motion blur, 2d and 3d. The 2d one is post processed and the  3d one is done at rendertime. 3d motion blur is much more accurate but takes a lot of time to render.

Two years ago, Doug Sweetland gave a talk at Annecy where he explained how much effort it took to achieve a good looking motion blur and I would like to share with you some screenshots I took a while ago.


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Megamind Comic-Con trailer

Posted on August 3, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

After visiting the San Francisco branch of Dreamworks yesterday and getting to see a bit more of the story, I am getting very excited about Dreamworks next feature “Megamind”.

The movie is only coming out in November but they just released some new footage for the San Diego Comic-Convention.

Watching that trailer still won’t reveal the entire plot but at least you will get introduced to a new character that will take a very important part in the movie. Check this out

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Available for work

Posted on July 22, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio | 2 Comments

I am reaching the end of my contract at EA Brightlight and “Spare parts” is looking great, getting an amazing response from the press. I have been putting a lot of hours into the cutscenes this week and with the sound, compositing and full environment they will look amazing. At 800 MS points or $10 on PSN, I think you should buy the game for the cutscenes alone!! ;-)

My current contract is finishing mid Septembre and I have a one month notice so if you know a company doing cartoony games, TV series or even animated feature and looking for an animator with generalist skills in Maya, direct them to my showreels and portfolio section!

I am flying to LA and San Francisco on saturday but will be back the second week of August.

Thank you!

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Christopher Meledandri interview

Posted on July 22, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Business of animation | Leave a Comment

I just found that very interesting interview of “Despicable Me” (DM)’s producer Christopher Meledandri. Some very familiar names popped up! Alright we knew that co-director Pierre Coffin was “Pat and Stan” creator but did you know that the original idea was from Sergio Pablos? Did you know that the character design had been handled by no less than Ratatouille character designer Carter Goodrich??? and yes “Lorax”, an other Dr Seuss book adapted for cinema release has finally been announced.

Check this out

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=67456

The movie has finally reached $145M after only 2 weeks by the way. No bad when you take in consideration that it is fighting for screens with Shrek 4 and Toy Story 3.

Related posts:
“Despicable me” triumph

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“Monstre à Paris” short video clip

Posted on July 16, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | 2 Comments

Ah ah! I just found a very short clip from “Monstre à Paris” on Zalex’s lighting showreel! ;-)

This is Vanessa Paradis’ character singing.

Related posts:
Monstre again

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“Albator/Captain Harlock”

Posted on July 16, 2010 
Filed Under Animation | Leave a Comment

Man I grew up with the 2d series and the 3d trailer looks awesome!!!
YouTube Preview Image

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“Despicable Me” triumph

Posted on July 16, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Business of animation | Leave a Comment

With a worldwide boxoffice of $92M after only 1 week of domestic release, “Despicable Me” is a huge success for Mac Guff and Pierre Coffin.

“Planet 51″ only totalled $105M in 16 weeks.

“The Tale of Despereaux” $86M in 11 weeks

“Valiant” did $61M in 13 weeks

“Triplets of Belleville” $14M in 32 weeks

Would the success of Despicable Me (DM) due to the large pool of talents found in France?

I have been told that during Annecy, Pierre Coffin was really really excited by the release of the movie and on stage, he even thanked the french government for its help.

Related post:
The magic of IP
“Despicable Me” fourth trailer

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2010 TAG wage survey

Posted on July 16, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Business of animation | 1 Comment

The numbers are out.

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/2010-tag-wage-survey-part-two.html

Here is cut down version for most of you:

Remember it is only an anonymous survey and only 690 people replied.

While we are at it, here is the link to the “Foreign Labor Certification Data Center”

http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CaseH1B.aspx

Ah, I just discovered that website

http://www.mydanwei.com/

No wonder a lot of europeans want to emigrate to the USA and a lot of american companies want to outsource in europe.

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Game showreel 2010 wip

Posted on June 27, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio | Leave a Comment

Game showreel 2010 / Quicktime H264, NTSC, 11Mo

Well since some of my work has gone public with the release of the Spare Parts trailer, why not create a new temporary game showreel!? ;-)

You will find it in the Showreel section of my blog
http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/portfolio/

Disclaimer:
No motion capture data was harmed in the making of that video.

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EA “Spare Parts” teaser

Posted on June 24, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Portfolio, Video Games | 2 Comments

Spare parts

Spare parts EA

The teaser for the game I am currently working on at EA Brightlight is finally online. You can even find a HD version on Gametrailers!

This game and the team I am working with are awesome. I have only been in the game industry for few years but making a downloadable XBLA/PSN game is probably the closest thing to what it was back in the mid 80s/90s. Unlike the 70 and upward teams most games require nowadays, in a project of that size, every team member can truly participate to the direction of the game.

All the character animation has been done by Neil, my lead animator, and myself.

Related posts:
Lee Sullivan
“Shower Power” shortfilm
Working at EA Brightlight

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KMPlayer, best video player ever!

Posted on June 12, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Life hack | 12 Comments

If you don’t know about KMPlayer, you probably think that VLC IS the best player ever. Very wrong! VLC is alright, but KMPlayer is much better, especially if you happen to be an animator.

KMP is a Korean Windows Media player on Steroids. It has thousands of features but for animators, the ones that makes it standout are the following:

- Opens and play XVID/Divx footage frame by frame, forward and backward …. with sound feedback. Except Premiere, do you know any player that does that? This function alone makes it the best video plaher ever. It is great for troubleshooting lipsync.
- Plays H264 quicktimes
- Setup In and out points and loop between the two (A-B function)
- Takes automatic screenshots (great for generating colorscripts)
- Hotkeys that make sense! Space bar to toggle the playback, 1 to play in half size, 2 original and 3 double size.
- You can autohide the interface so only the video is visible
- You can loads as many videos as you want and have them all playing. Great to pretend you are the master of the univers.

I made a walkthrough as a PDF file. Check it out:

KMPlayer walkthrough v. 1.5

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EA “Spare Parts”

Posted on June 12, 2010 
Filed Under Animation, Video Games | Leave a Comment

EA just announced what appears to be a very fun XBLA, PSN game!

“Electronic Arts has announced a new tiny action-adventure game called Spare Parts, to be released during Winter 2010 on Xbox Live and PSN. Your goal is to repair your spaceship to escape from an unfriendly planet. Therefore you can upgrade your robot with collected items and a friend of yours can join the game to help you in co-op mode.”

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_ea_presents_spare_parts-9432_en.html

Would a video be following very soon?

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