In My Element- HOME RUN!!

Hey guys!!

LINE -News- Looking so forward to getting back to the family and finishing the film ....Dober Grabs his tool for some repairs-

LAIKA news-

I just finished a great and demanding couple of weeks at work.....and I done Good guys -I hit a real live Home Run......

Caarrraacak!!!!

and the story begins....

so......I am working every Saturday untill I leave this Christmas....that is after a 55hour average week...PRE 5-10 hour Saturdays ....pretty hard on the feet.

I am leaving about a month earlier than was originally planned so I am working these saturdays for 2 reasons.

1. To make sure LAIKA doesn't get shafted out of my scheduled time of work-

2. To make sure I get to animate and have as much ownership of my THESIS - Sequence...as possible...If not most ALL....

This is the Sequence as I hinted at In my last post.....It is a HUGE responsibility and the People involved with the film all expected it to be nothing short of AMAZING!!

In Fact the sequence was Originally supposed to go to the Man himself-Travis -That was WAY more than enough to make me Quake in My boots.

Travis is Hands Down the Most Amazing Sooper Natural Stopmotion Animator I have ever seen in my life!!

So.....First things First- I spent a week in a Test Station just getting an Idea How the Character Moved-I had only animated a very Simple shot of him thus far- and only from the waist up.

He is a Thick Puppet with very short legs- Here is a Pic of Him from the Teaser.

After a Day of just Posing him and Getting briefed by the Directors-Animation Supervisor- on what they want to see in the scene.

I Did what I do.....researched and Played with that puppet-

I had a bunch of sketches I did of some poses I liked -I had the Animatic to draw from-and I started to build a map of KEY Moments-Poses to Hit- that would work in the sequence...

I then after choosing My KEY Poses I started to think about my Transitions between the Poses{BREAKDOWNS} Ultra Important part of making that animation magic.

Before I knew it I had it MIND-PENCIL-choreographed....and jumped right into TESTING it out on 2's and a few 3's in there...After a couple of days- I had some pretty freakin cool stuff to show.....18seconds worth.

so......I decided to take what I liked from that test...and do another one not so planned out- Improvisation- Freestyle like

....I HAD SO MUCH FUN guys!!!

I ended up with an even better piece of animation that was led by the puppet and my natural Instincts....It turned out GREAT!! In fact its some of the best work I have done at LAIKA so far....

My supervisor saw it and was very happy!! The Directors saw it and Were VERY Happy.

WORD spread quickly through the building and before I knew it I was getting Super Amazing compliments from the Best animators on the Crew all the way to the Building supervisor. It was soooooo amazing to feel like I accomplished the GOAL - Filled or maybe even Surpassed the sequence expectations....

DREAM STUFF Guys- I think My last 6 weeks could not go out on a better Note-I am doing a sequence that plays to my strengths {action-Movement} and Its allows me to leave a good sized MARK

on the film and in Laika's memory .

- one last POWERFULL note to the story- on Fridays Weeklies Party- they play the approved shots for the crew and at the very end of the sequence- POW....for the first time - I was told.

- They Played my TESTS at the weeklies -just because they were so happy with them-I was Blushin In the Dark....guys...

I got a Big BUNCH of of HIGH 5's and some great pats on the shoulder.....as well as a Great Handshake from the Directors and the statement that the animation made their week!!.........saaaausummm.

Trick of the week-

jriggity