The Greatest Latest

Click here for Divx version (15 mb)

And for your clicking amusement, here is my demo reel!

It was a long three months after school before I had this sucker in shape for review. I got some great tips and pointers from AnimationMentor on the best way to present all of my pieces that you see here. A few small tweaks, some added lights for the renders and ‘voila’ there it was, my new demo reel.

It was hard to sit and polish on the same pieces that I’ve been working on for over a year. But I wanted to really put them to rest by making them as good as I could, weaseling out all of the little things that had been nagging at me all of this time.

And it led to some great success! I feel super lucky and very happy to announce that I’ve landed a contract animator position at Tippett Studios in Berkeley, barely a stones throw from my house. My timing was nearly perfect on completing my reel as I got it done just when Tippett was in their big hiring push for the movie ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’, base off of the popular book series. So now it’s official, I’m a feature film animator! Wooohooooo!

I started at Tippett just last week and so far I’m loving every minute of it. It is a very friendly, relaxed (yet professional) atmosphere full of some of the most talented folks that I’ve ever worked along side of. I’ve started on my first shot and I can’t wait to see how it looks rendered and composited into the live action plate. So far the experience has been great.

I have to extend a big THANK YOU to my wife Season, AnimationMentor, and all of my fellow students who supported me and encouraged me and basically made it possible for me to have arrived at this point. I still have a long journey ahead of learning how to be a better and better animator and artist (one that will never end, I hope.) But this is a good time to take a pause and a breath and let everyone know just how thankful and lucky I feel.

I have gotten so many warm congratulations from my fellow alumni that I was taken aback at how generous they are were. I will always feel fortunate to have participated in the very first class at AM and to be part of such a supportive group of die-hard animators. We have all sacrificed blood, sweat and tears with no guarantee of success in a highly competitive field. And yet it seems that most feel lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from some of the great animators of our time. I hope to see everyone of them achieve their dreams.