Netfrost

Well, the OIAF just started selling tickets and announced the selections for this year’s festival. Can’t wait!

If anyone is interested in going, let me know, cause I’m hoping to be there everyday.

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Just got back from drooling over myself for 2 hours. Lee outdid himself, this was even better than I expected. I won’t give anything away as I’ll be posting the review in the morning, but wow.

I’ll also be posting a review of Day & Night… which was also way better then I expected. Teddy Newton is a visionary!

Stay tuned for a review in the morning.

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Tickets in hand… and just waiting… less then 12 hours and I get to see the masterpiece that is Toy Story 3.

I was showing Ange some pics of the new characters last night, cause well was never a fan of the Toy Story franchise and wasn’t exactly looking forward to this movie… other then the fact that it’s in 3d… As soon as she saw Lotso, she fell in love with it. Which doesn’t surprise me, since her favorite Pixar film is Monsters Inc… (guess I should really pick up “Shave and a Haircut” 5.0 and model some fuzzy creature for her.

Anyway, or tickets are for pretty much smack center seats at the IMAX for the late show. Expect a review later tonight!

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So 4 days left till Toy Story 3.

Most of you know that I’m borderline obsessed with Disney and Pixar (shush! yes.. borderline), but to be honest, I’ve never been a real fan of the Toy Story franchise. I do admire it for what it is, the first full feature 3D film. Yes, the story is cute, but I never found anything about it mind blowing, like say Monsters Inc… or Up. But Toy Story 3 really has me excited… it looks fresh and full of cool new stuff.
Can’t wait for the weekend to arrive.

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So the day I ordered my Wacom Cintiq 21ux, I decided I’d get a training DVD for Zbrush 3.5… so I looked around. I thought of going with Digital Tutors… but since they went the streaming only option, I kind of avoid them… not that they don’t offer superb training, it’s just I like having the DVD or files to go back to when I want and not have to keep paying a subscription. Hmm… Gnomon? Well… they do have high caliber training, but unfortunately, I find their instructors boring… They are way too monotone, it honestly puts me to sleep.

That’s when I found Eat 3D. They had two Zbrush DVDs for sale… you can get either a DVD mailed to you, instantly download it, or stream it… NICE! Options!
So I looked at both, the first; “Zbrush 3.5 – A Comprehensive Introduction” where the instructor goes over the fundamentals of Zbrush 3.5… hmm sounds like just what I need… a refresher of what I know, and fundamentals of what’s new in this version vs the versions I knew. The other; “Zbrush 3.5 Character Production – High Res Sculpting, Polypainting, ZPlugins, and more” (now that’s one long ass title), Continues where the first DVD ends…

Ok, no brainer, get the first. So the first DVD has 4 1/2 Hours of video, led by Michael Pavlovich a Senior Character Artist at Sony Online Entertainment, and some files.

I downloaded it, and watched it and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Michael basically goes through the steps of sculpting a head and in the process describes most of the brushes and what they’re best used for.

I’ve done a quick once over of the DVD, now that I have the tablet, I think I’ll go through it once more, and follow along… once this is done, I’m DEFINITELY getting the second DVD. Hope they make more :)

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So my Wacom Cintiq 21ux tablet is finally ordered… so hopefully it will arrive in a week or so.
I’m so excited about getting this tablet to work on some Zbrush stuff.

Now to order some Smudgeguards :)

What to model first? hmm…

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Pigeon: Impossible is the tale of Walter, a rookie secret agent faced with a problem seldom covered in basic training: what to do when a curious pigeon gets trapped inside your multi-million dollar, government-issued nuclear briefcase.
 
The film, writer/director Lucas Martell, first attempt at animation, took nearly 5 years to complete. The project started off as an excuse for Martell to learn 3D animation… and did he ever learn.
 
Not on par with shorts from production houses such as Pixar or DreamWorks, but for a first attempt, it’s fantastic. The visuals are great, but what truly separates this from an amateur short is the fantastic story and the memorizing score.
 
Anyone interested in great story telling, and or animation should definitely make a stop to the site’sblog and make sure you check out his videos… informative and hilarious!
 
 
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Planet 51, a story about an American astronaut who lands on an alien world and tries to get home…
 
Strip away the over abundant pop culture references and you’re left with a story that is a blatant role-reversal rip off of the likes of E.T or My Favourite Martian. The main character, an egotistical US astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker (Dwayne Johnson), lands on what he thought was an inhabited planet, only to find that the planet is a mirror of a 1950s Pleasantville society, only inhabited by little green men. The only people err aliens who know that Captain Baker is not an evil alien bent on enslaving their race is teenage planetarium worker Lem (Justin Long), who with the help of his geeky friend Skiff (Seann William Scott) and girl-next-door crush Neera (Jessica Biel), decides to help Chuck get back to his Lunar module before his orbiting vessel returns to Earth.
 
The problem is that it has since been quarantined by order of General Grawl (Gary Oldman) and his consulting professor Kipple (John Cleese), both hell-bent on capturing the invading ‘Humaniac’ before he supposedly turns everyone on the planet into his Zombie slaves.
 
The animation is clean and well done, however, it’s hard to watch the movie and ignore the plethora of kitschy 1950s references and bad music.
 
 
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First off… WOW! From the original concept art I saw a few years ago, and the trailers… I thought, ok, an other cute and mediocre Sony animated flick… was I ever wrong!
 
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, is a film based on a children’s book written by Judi Barrett and illustrated by Ron Barrett. Now, the movie follows the character, Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), as he sets about creating a machine that mutates water into food. Flint types a recipe code into his computer, presses a big red button, and voila, instant meal from the heavens.
 
After an unfortunate incident with the machine and the town’s unavailing of it’s new Sardine World theme park, burgers start raining from the sky. At first no one seems to worry about bringing their lunch to work; but a glitch in the computer program means that the food keeps getting bigger and more plentiful, to the point where pancakes are flattening entire subdivisions as maple syrup floods the streets and residents slip into food comas.
 
In comes a cute and perky weather girl (voiced by Anna Faris), which ends up becoming the love interest of Flint’s.
 
We saw the movie in IMAX 3D, and unfortunately, this is one film, that didn’t really need this treatment, as they didn’t really take advantage of the technology. It is a cute and cartoony film that I absolutely recommend.
 
Some other noteworthy voice actors in this film included, Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey (now one of my all time favorite side characters), James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint’s widower technophobic father. Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, Benjamin Bratt as Manny the camera man/doctor/pilot/comedian, and Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the Anchorman.

 
 
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Well, the deadline for the 9 contest has come and gone, I didn’t get a call, so I take it I didn’t qualify… today at noon, they’ll announce the 9 secondary prize winners… keeping my fingers crossed for a new laptop

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