New Year ----- New ADVENTURE

Hey guys,

    I am happy to say that I am re- joining LAIKA for another Amazing Film.

KUBO and the 2 Strings-

    2 days Driving and I just pulled into foggy wet Portland tonight. After unpacking and feeling the Head cold my son gave me take the last of my energy I sit to blog.

It was another BIG decision to join this project due to leaving family - LA and a great CG job....but It was time again to tackle a HUGE film and tell An EPIC story as only LAIKA can!!

My CG job is very rewarding but since I lead a team of animators I spend way more time organizing and directing than I ever get to animate. It can be very frustrating to my animator heart but that's why I try to keep animation balance at home when I don't animate at work.

I was also talking to LAIKA way before the project was announced so we knew the project was brewing and that they would like me to animate on it........me and shel had lots of time to consider and talk about the situation.

In the end Shel and Aedon were very excited again for me to join and be a part of the MAGIC!! And completely supported my return .

We have a very clear schedule of visits set and I am missing them already.

     so ..... as Monday-First Day-  approaches

 I am feeling TERRIFIED and THRILLED.....all together....Living LIFE.

       I will be working with the most talented Stopmo artists on the planet!! lucky me.....

                       more to come....

also....in preparation for coming back to LAIKA and getting some practice I created some animation with my Dirk Puppet....

I sculpted the puppet a while back after meeting a child hood animation Idle Don Bluth at CTN .

 Don Bluth was KEY to my entering the arts and animation specifically- In our talking I told him I was an animator and that he was a HUGE influence. I am sure that he heard that a million times over the weekend....and I was just another face to forget. I wanted to change that by sending him an animation of DIRK in stop motion.

NOW I had a clear reason to finish the fabrication. Shel foamed and painted the puppet and we both made some simple wire armatures to get them moving.

here are some of the tests-
Grab and slam-
Grab and Slam WIRE from jriggity on Vimeo.
Sword Fight test-
Sword Fight1 test from jriggity on Vimeo.
Here a Noise-
NOise Test from jriggity on Vimeo.
Walk-
Walk Strutsm from jriggity on Vimeo.
Run-
Run Test from jriggity on Vimeo.

Now that I feel comfortable with the puppet I am ready to create the counterpart which will blow peoples minds  over the next few months as a side project.

    I will post the progress here

                talk soon.

                           justin