Sunday, April 3, 2011

DREAM COME TRUE!! The Journey continues

Hey Guys,




I apologize on the delay of postings.....Our LIFE has been incredibly busy and Momentous.... with no further PAUSE..... I am so very proud and EXCITED to announce that I will be joining LAIKA as a professional Stopmotion animator on there latest film following {Coraline}

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This has been a DREAM of mine since I was a kid....to work on a FEATURE film...

....and not just a Feature animated film a FEATURE Stopmotion animated film ......jeeez..... Whoda thunk it guys!!!

Hard work and Passion-.......................................and an incredible WIFE -FAMILY.

You can do ANYTHING!!!!! Ive been telling my kids this since they were born...and its TRUE!!!

I have to share this too guys.......here was a pic I found in setting up my computer here ....This was another DREAM me and shel had

this was a computer sketch of the gym we wanted to make for the kids to grow up in....and POW.....we made it happen...I feel so Incredibly fortunate and excited about life!!....

so..........I am in Hillsboro, Oregon now .....and my very first day is tomoorow..... morning

I am planning on spending the day studying a bunch of Classic stopmotion films and mentally prepare for the time ahead.....

This was A huge decision for us in the Rasch Household.....when the offer came....My heart screamed GO FOR IT!!!! but at the same time it screamed NO FREAKING WAY I can leave my family for that long....

We really talked about it alot and really boiled it down to this is whats best for our Future as family-film makers- and life livers ....we WENT FOR IT!!

The Universe has been telling us its the right thing for a good while now.....and it was too hard to ignore...... The way we have worked it out is that Shel and Aedon will come up here in the summer after the kids are out of school {June}....and they will stay here for a couple months.

Otherwise we plan on visiting one way or another every 3 weeks or so....I'll go down or they will come up.....

so In the meantime I am going to be focusing completely on 1 thing- Becoming a STRONGER animator and learning how a feature film is made from the inside. I will be learning directly from the best guys in the world.... WOW...School is about to begin!!
This will serve me and Shel on our own FILM we plan on making in the future.
as for "LINE" this means my animation will go on Pause....but Shel will be directing our Animation Intern{?} in doing some very possible animation work for the film while I am gone to keep it moving.

Shel will also continue all of the puppet building , Miniiatures, Sets and Prop building the entire time I am gone. So In that way nothing will change on that end.

I ....in the meantime will also be doing alot of wire removal in the evenings....and setting up the 3D in after effects for output when I get back in town. There is alot of wire to remove in the Right and Left frames....so that will keep me busy for a while.

in NEW shots news....

I had to do many freelance gigs to pay some billz before leaving..... and I didnt have hardly any time to animate on the film. I did get about 4 shots done on the film in those last couple of weeks....and here is one of them that I tried to do somthing new.

I pulled out the Manfrotto geared head ......and decided to frame by frame track the flea as he droped down from fixing the antanna...

I am not too pleased with how it came out but....I learned alot in doing it.....My biggest thing is that I should have shot it on ones....Duuugh. ....

but thats why we do these things....

so...in family news....

Both of my boys in the last 2 weeks before I left made Demo reels for a possible stunt- mocap career... I have been doing stunt and mocap work since 1996 when they were still using Pingpong balls to capture performance......

the kids wanted to try and get in on it.....so alot of stunts have been a happening at the house.Its been incredibly Hard on Shel....since she just had the Family's first Knee surgery 2 weeks ago. She ended up completely severing her ACL dancing about 6 weeks ago....but luckily they can fix that kinda thing....and replaced it with a replacement achilles tendon. Shes ok.....and is actually starting to walk again.....so send her your POWERFULL healing vibes.

Ill post the boys reels here in one of the upcoming posts. And GUEST appearance on the Blog is the ACTUAL- B Johnson- Inventor of the Shopping Cart Challenge...One of my VERY Good Friends...and fellow artists.

Here are some clips...for now...{For Grandma AGAIN} AedonBalance- Roberts -ActionPacked GunDive Shamus PowerDrop Nickys Dive ring Challenge- Shamus Gun Grab Plant- RobertWallRide shoot-
Dads Dive ring Challenge- Shamus Front Flip In the backyard- Dads Wall SideFlip Nicky Spidey Slide AedonDad Seal Slide Challenge DadMultiFun Robert JamesBond Challenge Nicky CirclePark Challenge Dad Laugholympics LongJump Shamus WallRide Rhinocerous Aedon Parkour session Dad Backyard funflipages NickyTreePark
and in closing....I am going to be posting quite regularly on How this experience is going and How its going to benefit our future filmaking during my 9 months here.

so ....LOTS to learn....and Ill actually have time to share it...as life here will be much simpler.

Thanks for all your support guys!!!...stay tuned.

jriggity

26 comments:

Ken said...

Awesome dude!
You're a bit closer to Vancouver now. ;)

Congrats!
Ken

Robert Litton said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JP said...

Woohoo. You're awesome! have a great experience :)

Robert Litton said...

B Johnson really needs to learn how to jump in slo-motion...no disrespect.

F said...

YEAH! congrats for your new job and destination;) I was really touched reading this news. I follow your blog for a long time now and I started my own stopmo-film as my diploma movie in filmschool. (www.deskmotion.de) If somebody would ask me right now about dreams I would definetly say: work at laika for a feature. Now I see that dreams can come true:) I wish you and your family all the best!
feliks

Anonymous said...

woow, What great news!
mucha suerte!!!
Asís

Unknown said...

That is FANTastic!
:-)

Dean said...

Wow! This is great news. Well done, Justin. Go show them how it's done! ;)

Get well soon, Shel.

Marc Hendry said...

Phenomenal! Maybe I'll see you there in a few years!
Sounds like it'd be great for you to experience a feature film from the inside, even at your level there's probably a lot to learn(and if you're anything like me you'll love learning it, right?) :)
Hope Shel's knee doesn't take tooooo long to heal!
Thanks for spinning the cycle of inspiration around, guys!

JON said...

A very heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS! Loved watching you sign those papers! The Rasch family house is a training camp for cool! Speedy recovery for Shel. All the best, guys!

Fish said...

well done dude :D

Alonso said...

Crazy news, congrats! I always assumed you could've gone a long time ago and it was just figuring out what was best for the family that kept you back. I wish you guys all the best of luck getting through this new adventure.

I hear Portlands an awesome place :)

and it's a zombie flick right? score :D

Wow ACL is bad news, glad Shel's on the mend already (hope recovery goes smoothly), what a pain, but thank god for modern medical miracles huh :)

I love that casual pose Shamus takes after his front flip. I swear you guys are more monkey then peoples :)

Shelley Noble said...

Yeah, You're pretty much a Super Hero Family.

Way to make everyone's dreams come true.

We are all cheering you all on.

Take good care.

Carla (Veldman) Morris said...

wow, CONGRATS!! That is SUCH an amazing opportunity, and an incredible learning experiene. Can't wait to hear more!

MT said...

congratulations on the dreams come true my friend. Glad to see current work on the current project isn't being dropped- it's on my top 10 anticipated films...

Furthermore, you guys are always having fun. Can you guys adopt a college kid?

Mad Max Winston said...

Wow... congratulations! And this gym/playground thing... wow! Where'd that come from?! Here I thought you were making a short film, then comes this crazy new colorful space! Pretty darn cool, have fun up in Portland.

Unknown said...

Bummer about the ACL asininity.

But. You can do well at a distance from your family with this. Your crew clearly has the chops to make this work. I was in LA for about 4 months working on 2 films while my wife and daughter (6 weeks old when I left) were in Michigan. I'm the only dreamer in this house, so that didn't work out well. Your family shares your enthusiasm and supports you, so it's an adventure for them as well as a challenge.

Joel Fletcher said...

Laika is lucky to have you on their show! I'm sure you will learn a lot on this production about the tips, tricks, and business of feature stop-motion production which should be invaluable for your long range goals. Yet it is tough having to leave family behind to animate on a gig. I've done it many times so I know how it is.

As impressive as it is to be hired as a feature animator, I think your past and in-progress short films are much greater achievements artistically. There are plenty of animators, but very few create their own projects.

I hope this adventure at Laika goes well for you!

Best Regards,
Joel

Mexican Viking said...

You go Boyeee! That's awesome! Congratulations! It's really cool to see that dreams do come true these days! Wow, I'm so excited for you I'm about to throw up!!

Jeff Lafferty said...

Congrats dude!!!
Jeff

rich said...

wow. i am so excited for you man! livin the dream!

Unknown said...

Very HUGE congrats!! You definitely deserve that position at LAIKA!!! Can't wait to see the film when its done!!

trevor

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kenneth Sipel said...

Awesome. Do they have an animation dorm for you to live in?

As you say, the journey continues and the thing about that is we can totally bank on that.

Thanks again for sharing AND teaching.

jriggity said...

Thank all of you guys sooo much!!

jriggity

Yaz said...

Justin, congrats for your new position. Thats amazing!!!!! Keep going.. Please say hi to Shel and hope she gets well soon.