'Ball' is a short Short, brought about by my wanting to actually start AND finish a piece of animation with a simple story attatched.It's always a hard slog getting these pieces done, but there's nothing like the feeling you get when you see characters you've created living and hopefully breathing...
Hustler Test.
I'd built a character (named 'the Janitor' for the moment), for a short I hope to get going soon, and decided to do a quick (HA!) test to see how he was coming along. I chose this piece of dialogue from The Hustler, a great monologue delivered by Paul Newman to his long suffering manager Charlie. After animating Paul Newman's part, I felt an ending was called for, so stupidly built another character to help things out. Charlie was born, and I'm happy for it. BTW, many thanks must go to Andy Buecker, XSI guru, for calmly seeing me through the learning curve, rigging the Janitor, and writing me a great tool to help in creating the shape library (this was before the joys of XSI v5.0 and it's shape manager). Anyway, cheers Andy!
Pandora's Closet.
Where do I start with this? This is a 7 minute short I began in earnest 8 years or so ago using the facilities at ILM, about a little girl who had lost her fear of the dark and in turn her childhood imagination. Two monsters from a world beyond her closet are given the task of scaring her to set things right. All does not go according to plan, and the monsters find themselves defending their very existence .... A couple of years after getting going, this feature known as 'Monsters Inc.' decided to appear on the horizon. Unbelievable bad luck, but I was too stubborn to jack it in (besides, I'd spent 2 years on this right?).
So here I am, another 6 years on. The animation is complete (as of 2 years ago now), and a small crew of us are still attempting to get everything rendered and out the door. Many many great people have helped out over the years, and I feel I owe it to them as well as myself to see this thing through. Check the news section periodically, and we'll see if it happens.
End Of The Line test.
Just a small piece of animation to dialogue from 'Deliverance' which I wanted for the end of my reel. A quick resculpt of my character from the 'Ball' piece and I was off. Fun stuff.
