My WALL-E DVD came today, and I was more than eager to tear off the shrink wrap and check out the goodies inside. Here is the front with its shinyness:


The packaging is pretty unique. You pull out the two sides to reveal the listings of bonus features for each disc. Then you fold those panels out to get to the discs themselves.



Ratatouille had practically no special features, which was somewhat disappointing. Fortunately, it's a freaking awesome movie, so I didn't mind too much. However, I was glad to see that WALL-E is loaded with special features. Disc 1 has the movie along with two shorts, Presto and BURN-E. Presto is the fabulous short that was shown before WALL-E in the theaters. BURN-E is a new short about the robot that WALL-E and EVE locked out of the Axiom. Like the movie itself, it has very little dialog, relying mostly on pantomime. It's pretty hilarious. There are the requisite deleted scenes and audio commentary along with a great documentary about animation sound design featuring Ben Burtt and old Disney sound designers. Disc 2 has a lengthy documentary about Pixar's history (you can catch a glimpse of the Brad Bird's crazy hair in the 70s!), more deleted scenes, and a bunch of other fun short clips. Disc 3 has the digital copy of the movie (which I will try and put on my Zen). To transfer the digital copy, you have to enter an activation code in iTunes or Windows Media Player. Apparently, this code expires on November 18, 2009. Uh.. OK. Thank God for DVD Shrink.

What can be said about the movie itself? Animation is the illusion of life, and Pixar is the best at creating that illusion. Of course, all the beautiful animation in the world can't save a crappy story, but at Pixar, the story always comes first. Although it's filled with all kinds of themes, ranging from consumerism to individuality, at the core it's a love story (with robots). It's sweet, clever, and funny. Just a wonderful film.

speedpaint done in Photoshop, ~1 hour of work

( here comes a buncha text )

Main Event by ~n8dawg on deviantART

Lost My Mind - MOAR by ~n8dawg on deviantART

I finally got off my lazy butt and sought an internship, although truth be told, I was on my lazy butt while looking for one. I got one at Immedium, a book publishing company that makes kids and art books. I've been charged with the task of creating some animated shorts for some of the kids book series. Right now I'm working on ideas for the Julie Black Belt and Tales of the Zodiac lines. It'll be a challenge adapting to two styles that are completely different from my own, but this is the sort of thing I'll likely be doing anyway. It's only a part time deal, so it shouldn't be too taxing on my schedule. I pretty much set my own working times and schedule. It should be a good experience. The only downside is that it's not a paid internship, but today my boss gave me two volumes of manga (Fairy Tail if you're curious) as compensation. Score!

Lost My Mind by ~n8dawg on deviantART

I discovered that GameTap has Psychonauts free for download, which comes at a good time: finals week. I already have the game for Xbox, but I'm just lazy enough to download it for my computer so I don't have to go downstairs to play it. If you've never played Psychonauts, I highly recommend it. It's a 3D platformer where you take control of Raz, a summer camper at psychic camp and use various psychic powers (Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, etc) to get through various surreal levels. The art style is fantastic, and the writing is top notch. Tim Schafer of Monkey Island fame is the creator, so you know it's awesome. Plus Richard Horwitz (AKA Invader Zim, Dagget) does the voice for Raz, adding that extra layer of rocktasticality. The game never got the attention it deserved, so offering it for free is a cool way to spread the love.

Speaking of finals, here's a sneak peek at some animation I'm working on: http://nattoon.org/n90.html
It's just a random mish-mash for now, but eventually I'll have an animated short out of it.

My midterm for Advanced Web Animation. Could use some more polish, but I'm glad it's done.


Super Nutty Crunchy Chewbar by ~n8dawg on deviantART

For my Motion Graphics final, I was supposed to create an opening for a TV Show, so I decided to do one based on one of my comics. Will I ever make an actual series? Maybe.

audio: Jack Black in Nacho Libre

My Character Animation final

Also:

I love the stats.

candy girl by ~n8dawg on deviantART

My final for web animation. I want to make something better now.

Walk cycle by ~n8dawg on deviantART

My Web Animation midterm.

\o/

My final for 3D Animation done in Maya and pieced together with After Effects. Watch out, Pixar, here I come!

Animatic for my final in Storyboarding. I intend to eventually turn this into a fully animated cartoon sometime in the future and stick in my portfolio/reel. This project just helps me out in the future in ironing out problems and such. 3D Animation final to come later.

My latest animation - a run cycle:
( lun, follest, lun )

Here's one of my recent 2D animation assignments. It's a "take" which is an exaggerated gesture of a character being surprised/shocked, used in such instances when Wile E. Coyote sees a train barrelling toward him. To get it on my computer, I had to scan every frame, individually position the drawings in Photoshop, then animate in ImageReady. This process is a lot more tedious than the one I actually use to film my school assignments, which involves using a Lunchbox and a camera. If I had a way of transferring VHS footage to my computer, I'd do that instead. I might scan my run cycle because I think it's pretty cool. It depends on whether I have the time and am not feeling lazy.