The mexicans are coming...

Last night I saw "Children of Men" directed by Alfonso Cuaron who also directed "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". It was very good.

Last week I blogged a review of "Babel" directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who also directed "Amores Perros" and "Life's a Bitch".

Both of these directors hail from Mexico. Both films put the audience right in the action, the panic and the confusion. They are visceral. While Babel is set in modern times, Children of Men is set in the scifi but not-so-removed future. I can't say enough about the quality of both these films and the skill of their directors. But if I were an Oscar voter and had to choose one I'd probably choose Babel.

Brothers

The next pencil test animation I'm working on is called "Brothers" and the above is a concept sketch of the three characters. Although I was learning 3D animation with applications like Maya, I was also introduced to "Traditional" animation using the good ol' pencil, paper and a light table.

I've found the traditional pencil test animation to be a very quick and rewarding way of seeing your idea come to life. Animating in 3D can be quick once the models are created, getting to that stage takes a gargantuan amount of time. So I do pencil tests.

Movies I'm looking forward to:
Pan's Labyrinth
300
The Transformers

"Bare" Storyboard

The assignment was to tell a story in 24 frames. I used the '3 tries' method where the main character tries something 3 time and on the third time succeeds or fails, leading up to the punchline. I made an animatic out of the boards above but when I upload it, some frames are lost for some reason. Hopefully the image above is big enough (click for larger image) to read.

I realize that I'm just posting older material and have not been actually making a new drawing a day. But it's better than not posting at all...?

Dad

This is a drawing I did of my Dad several years ago. He had just taken a shower and was reading a book on the bed.

When my Dad stopped drinking for good I asked him if he noticed any difference in his life. He thought about it for a while and said that when he read a book before going to bed, he would wake up the next morning with no memory of what he had read and would end up re-reading the same pages night after night. After he stopped drinking he could remember what he had read and got through books much faster. That was the only difference he could think of.

My mother snorted.