Monday, November 20, 2006

Matt's Excellent Portland Adventure

Welp, It's that time of the year. A time when we all need to reflect on why we should be thankful. Me, I have absolutlely nothing to not be thankful for. Yes, I could go on and on about my wonderful wife, the fact that i am still doing hand drawn animation for a living, and that we have so much more than 90 percent of the world. But honestly, what i am driven to confess is my thankfulness is for a God who loved me enough to die for me so that i may live. All else is rubbish compared to knowing Jesus as Lord of my life-- I am thankful indeed!
As for other news, I am affraid that posts are going to slow down dramatically for a while. I have taken a job up at Laika in Portland! It's not permenant, and i will mostly be working freelance from home though i will need to be spending a good long chunk of time up there in house. I'll be on "Coraline" doing hand drawn animation-- there is no hand drawn in the film, but they are using a lot of it for reference and other things. I've heard the film is looking amazing! Someone up there even told me that from the reels they've seen it's as strong as the "Iron Giant". Now, I'll take that with a grain of salt for now but if it's true this could be pretty freakin cool!
Anyhow, I do not intend on not ever posting, if i do it'll be small for now. No tutorials for a while--thanks for your patience everyone and to my students at CalArts, rock on and finish strong! I'll see you guys next semester! Cheers!

35 comments:

Anonymous said...

congrats matt!

Anonymous said...

Ouah "Caroline".
I saw only one image of it, and I am already impatient to see all this stuff moving.
Nice.

Anonymous said...

Hey Matt,

Congratulations on the job at Laika! I'm up here in Portland, too, and I hope you enjoy it. I love it here. :)

Thanks for all of the amazing information you've posted on your site--even if there's not much that's going to be new very soon, I have notebooks full of printed notes to comb through, so there's enough to still gather and learn from....

Good luck on "Coraline!" :)

- Eric

Young Vo said...

Liaka, congrats.

I think Huy is a character designer there. I don't know if you remember him. He was a year ahead of us.

Good Luck!

Ali said...

That's really cool Matt.

I believe a lot of stop motion animation is based on drawn reference animation. Tim Watts animated the entirety of The Big Story in 2D before animating the puppets for the final film. It sure makes puppet animation look less daunting.

Good luck with the job.

Joe said...

that's great news matt!
i've freelanced for the 2-d folks for a long time and they are super super wonderful folks...don't know if you'll be in touch with them or not since they're on a different part of their set up but if you do they're really great people...and portland is gorgeous as you already know...good luck

joe

bla said...

I've read Coraline, and if Henry Selick makes justice out of it, it'll be an awesome stopmo feature...Maybe you can share something with us?? :D

Good luck on that one!

The Ad Mad!

Matt Williames said...

Thanks everyone! I am looking forward to seeing what the film looks like as soon as i get there! Maybe i should have clarified too--it's not a permemnant job, and I'll be in L.A. most of the time. Up front I need to do a big chunk in house to get into their "flow". After that I'll be in L.A most of the time.
Bobby and Damien: Thanks guys!!
Eric: I am so glad you have found this informative! It won't stop, just slow down for a bit.
Young: HUY? Hm, sounds familiar, I'll keep an eye out for him!
Ali: Thanks man! That's really interesting, i didn't know that a lot of stop motion uses 2D as reference first. I am excited to learn more about stop motion... it's something that's always daunted me!
Joe: Always good to hear from you! Naw, unfortunately I won't be in touch much with Laika House-- I have talked to them before though and they are super nice folk!
Ale: Yeah, let's hope the films as good as all the hype says it will be! As usual i am sure i won't be able to post about it, but we'll see!

David said...

Matt ,

Great news on the job !

Your Thanksgiving post totally resonates with me ...

"I could go on and on about my wonderful wife, the fact that i am still doing hand drawn animation for a living, and that we have so much more than 90 percent of the world. But honestly, what i am driven to confess is my thankfulness is for a God who loved me enough to die for me so that i may live. All else is rubbish compared to knowing Jesus as Lord of my life-- I am thankful indeed!"

Ain't it the truth ?

Happy Thanksgiving Day , Matt ,and everyone .

Anonymous said...

hey man hows it going? its me the high school french kid again. there is some stuff id like to send to you if thats cool to see what you think? also i have some bits and peaces on my blog that i would apreciate you brousing threw if you had time.

your stuff is nothing short of insperation

Halya said...

Good luck Matt!

Mokuu said...

I was wondering, as an animator, how do you go on about doing a finished drawing, i mean there is this thrill of sketching with gesture and movement that can be easly lost if you ink over it or even color digitally and that deals great pain to the concept itself. So i wonder, how do you save yourself the hit? Its hard since in some circumstances an employer might ask a finished marker drawing or any other medium but as an animator its rare to have to "finish" a drawing, right?

Unknown said...

thanks for all the knowledge and inspiration on this blog!
looking forward to your future posts!

Matt Williames said...

Thanks Halya! Mokuu, well, I've never been asked to ink drawings. We really don't go to that extreme, but we do tie down drawings. It's actually pretty essensial for a traditional animator to know how to tie down. I covered this in a previous post a while back, but everyone does this differently. Yeah, there IS a thrill to your ruff's, but there even more of a thrill (to me) of tying down that ruff sketch and maintaining the feeling behind it. That doesn't have to get lost in your tie down, sometimes it can, but that's when you sit down and figure out why its not working and redraw and redraw and redraw untilyou find the dang drawing you need! Animation is not a lazy man's artform. It takes relentless curiosity and energy to make it work.
So in my opinion know how to "finish" your drawings is primary to great hand drawn animation. Your job is to communicate, and it's really tough for any assistant followingyou up to reinterpret you drawing. Believe me, it's tough enough to get them to follow you tied down version, let alone a really rough scribble.
Hope that helps!
Adam: thanks a lot man! I am glad you're enjoying it!

Andre Barnwell said...

I have to say I am pleased with the gross amount of info on here and im commenting your 2nd your very second post way back when. "im not too sure too many people look at this blog" well i do and its wonderful. thank you for your time for explaing and tryin to better an animators mind so to create some real magic on screen. Thank you and happy holidays and a new year

Unknown said...

Hey Matt,
Just happened to stumble across your blog, looking at various links on animators sites... You've got some great stuff! I'm a 3D animator and live in Vancouver, WA (right across the river from Portland... it's kind of like a suburb of Portland in fact). Anyway, just wanted to say hey, and congrats on the work with Laika. I hope to someday soon get my reel in there. Also, it's great to hear some one in the industry profess so strongly their love for Jesus :) Can never hear that enough!

Again, congrats and keep posting the great work!

God Bless

Unknown said...

zzzzz2018.7.27
michael kors outlet online
kate spade outlet online
cheap jordans
pandora jewelry
kate spade
true religion outlet
nike factory store
canada goose jackets
christian louboutin shoes
manolo blahnik outlet

ahmed said...

افضل شركة مكافحة حشرات
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بابها
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالرياض
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بخميس مشيط

yanmaneee said...

curry 6 shoes
jordan 13
hermes belt
nike air max 95
cheap jordans
kyrie 6
nike react
kd 12
curry 5
kyrie 5

edok69 said...

Suggest good information in this message, click here.
เว็บแทงบอล ออนไลน์
แทงบอล ออนไลน์

แตงโม said...

Admiring the time and effort you put into your blog and detailed information you offer!...สล็อตออนไลน์

แตงโม said...

Very nice article, I enjoyed reading your post, very nice share, I want to twit this to my followers. Thanks!...สล็อต 999

แตงโม said...

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic...สล็อตวอเลท

แตงโม said...

I’ve been searching for some decent stuff on the subject and haven't had any luck up until this point, You just got a new biggest fan!... สล็อตเว็บใหญ่

แตงโม said...

This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing blog that understand the value. Im glad to have found this post as its such an interesting one! I am always on the lookout for quality posts and articles so i suppose im lucky to have found this! I hope you will be adding more in the future... บา คา ร่า วอ เลท

แตงโม said...

Nice post! This is a very nice blog that I will definitively come back to more times this year! Thanks for informative post... บาคาร่าวอเลท

แตงโม said...

Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I feel strongly about this and so really like getting to know more on this kind of field. Do you mind updating your blog post with additional insight? It should be really useful for all of us... สล็อตทรูวอเลท

น้องอาย said...

Nice blog and absolutely outstanding. You can do something much better but i still say this perfect.Keep trying for the best...สล็อตxo

น้องอาย said...

Thanks for providing recent updates regarding the concern, I look forward to read more... เว็บสล็อต

น้องอาย said...

Your blog provided us with valuable information to work with. Each & every tips of your post are awesome. Thanks a lot for sharing. Keep blogging... เว็บสล็อตเว็บตรง

น้องอาย said...

I felt very happy while reading this site. This was really very informative site for me. I really liked it. This was really a cordial post. Thanks a lot!... เว็บตรงสล็อต

น้องอาย said...

Cool stuff you have got and you keep update all of us... เว็บ ตรง

น้องอาย said...

Nice blog and absolutely outstanding. You can do something much better but i still say this perfect.Keep trying for the best... เกมสล็อต

น้องอาย said...

Hi, I find reading this article a joy. It is extremely helpful and interesting and very much looking forward to reading more of your work... สล็อต เว็บ ตรง

Anonymous said...

paul george
supreme outlet
golden goose shoes
kyrie 7
moncler
jordan shoes
hermes handbags
cheap jordans
jordan 1 high
goyard outlet