In my last post, I mentioned a small freelance gig I did for Comedy Central, that I couldn't pass on. Well, now that the series is out, I'm allowed to talk about it.
In November 2021, Director/Actor Jack Howard, invited me to design and animate on a Comedy Central sketch. He indicated that in this particular sketch, they would be paying homage to the “taste visualization” I created for the film Ratatouille back in 2007, and asked me if I would like to tackle this assignement. How could I say no?
The video below showcases the scenes where my animation was involved.
Meanwhile, work on The Saga of Rex continues at a furious pace!
Rex Progress, Fire Tutorial and No More Social Media February 5, 2022
Once again, it’s been quite a while since my last update. There hasn’t been much to report, save for the fact that I’ve been working full time on my Saga of Rex feature film since my last update on May 2021. I’m making really good progress. I have over 25 minutes of completed clean up animation, which is now fully inbetweened (thank you to Seung and Angelina Kim for helping me on that front). I’m also starting to have a decent amount of color footage.
I’ve been making story adjustments as I go, and feel that the narrative of the film has improved greatly in the past year. I’m anxious to show off some of the work I’ve been doing, but I must stay strong and keep everything under veil for now. Hopefully the wait will be worth it for people who have been following this project along the years.
Although, I’ve been determined to pass on any job offers that came my way, I did take on two short gigs that I was able to complete in a few days, without impacting my Saga of Rex schedule in any substantial way.
One of the gigs was to create a 136-frame flame animation cycle for the video game company, PSYOP. They used the flame animation for their “Clash of the Clans” Christmas promo video. You can see the fire animation I did for them here.
Speaking of Fire, a few years ago I did a tutorial for my pal Tom Bancroft’s Taught by a Pro website. Recently, Tom and his partners decided to close down the website, so I asked if I could put my tutorial video on my YouTube channel. Well, here it is for anyone interested.
The second gig I took on was for Comedy Central and it was a really fun bit of animation that I just couldn’t say no to. Once people see the clip, they will understand why I couldn't let that one slip through my fingers. I’ll follow though on this once the show is released.
On a side note, I’ve now closed all my social media accounts (Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter) to get away from the noise. Making a feature the way I’m doing it requires an enormous amount of concentration and dedication, and I was finding that social media had become a severe distraction. Not only that, it would often trigger negative feelings that were disruptive to my work flow. Even though it meant losing thousands of followers, it was very freeing to let it all go.
It's been a really long time since I last posted, so here's a little recap of what I've been up to.
I finished my work on Paramount'sThe Tiger’s Apprentice in March of last year. From April to June, I was able to work full time on my labor of love, The Saga of Rex movie.
In July, I was recruited by Brad Bird to help develop one of his projects. For a couple of months, I provided special effects and character concepts.
Once that assignement was wrapped, I joined Space Jam: The Legacy, where I acted as 2D Effects Designer and Lead Effects Animator for the Deluxe Animation unit in Toronto. Deluxe was the company that was hired by Warner Animation Group to create the 2D animation sequences. The job was intense and demanding, but also fun. Working with old pals, as well as new friends like Dan, Igor and Calvin made me feel part of a community again.
After a pretty exhausting several months, I finished my contract on Friday, May 7.
I decided that my course of action after Space Jam was to finish my feature film, The Saga of Rex. Therefore, I'm beginning a 3-year sabbatical to complete my 68-minute 2D feature film, The Saga ofRex.
I already have the equivalent of about three years' worth of full-time work vested in the film, and I decided it is time to give it the final push. I started a countdown clock at the top of the page, that will be a constant reminder of my completion date. I've never missed a deadline in my career and I certainly don't intent to miss this one.
I'm confident that with another three years of hard work, I will have the film ready for theatrical and/or streaming release. For those unfamiliar with the animation process, it may seem like a long time, but usually animated feature films are made with hundreds of people over a few years. Six years for one guy (with help on the inbetweens by my good friend and Padwan, Seung Kim) is actually not that long when you think about it.
