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Ian Ross, Drake Brodahl, Troy Parke, Matt and myself went down to the screening of “The Animation Show 4” at the Varsity this Friday.  We sat next to a crew from the old Sucker Punch days including Suzanne Kaufmann (who currently instructs at Digipen and is working with us at Plexi this summer), Ramey Harris, Bart Kaufman and Gene Blakefield who worked with us (meaning Matt, Troy and Joel) at another studio before going over to Sucker Punch. 

The highlights of the show for me included Joel’s intro piece, Pes’ “Western Spaghetti”,  and Matthew Walker’s “John and Karen”.  Word straight from Joel was that he did an ending animation that wasn’t included in the screening.  Perhaps it’ll make an appearance sometime in the not-so-distant future. 

After the screening, Joel Trussell, Rebecca Moline and Robert May (Producers of “The Animation Show”), Anton Bogaty, Gene Blakefield, Tom DesLongchamp and his wife Jessica, Matt and I went over to Flowers for a couple of drinks and lots of animation chatter.   The group eventually ended up in Capital Hill for more drinkage and deep discussions.  Hanging out with Gene, Anton, and Joel again after such a long time was such a wonderful treat–reminiscing, talking about new stuff, being wacky, eating lots of fries and fried fish, *sigh*!  The cherry that topped everything off was getting a chance to meet and talk to the very delightful Rebecca and Rob.  Thank you for some fun times!!!

Joel in the Plexipixel animation clubhouse

Troy cheesing it up with Joel Trussell

Rob May, Joel Trussell and Rebecca Moline rocking HARD

Getting crabs in Northgate with Gene Blakefield and his adorable family

Joel, Anton Bogaty (and Matt) reliving old times at the Canterbury

Matt and I spent a little time with Tony White (award-winning animator and Digipen instructor) and his partner Saille while we were in Southern California.  Here’s a blog entry about what Tony was up to and consequently a little bit about what we were up to. 

I forgot my camera, so there will be photos from our trip on Flickr when Matt gets a chance.  Until then, here’s a photo of our friend Monica Hare and Wall-E on the Disney Studio Lot.

Yeah, we karaoke… every year at our annual Plexi holiday party.  But that was insider information until Google outed us.  It’s true we are karaoke fools!

Evidence, circa December 2006.

As tech-savvy people, we love our digital media. But as designers, math savants, artists, writers, and general thinkers we often find inspiration in those old-fashioned information-conveyers called books. Remember those? Reading rates are declining alarmingly in the U.S., but we refuse to believe that’s happening here in our office.

To prove it, we thought we’d spend a little end-of-the-week energy discussing the books that engage us. We like to call it the Plexipixel reading room. Come inside, pour yourself a cup of hot tea, and peek at what has us snuggled up under our afghans in the mid-February cold.

Here’s our “in process” or just-completed list:

• Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis – “Funny and dark and crude … by the end I was like, ‘Enough already!’ but it cracked me up,” says Kiva P.
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith – “Smith is sharp and incisive. It’s a great book on diversity that doesn’t bang you over the head,” says Amie S.
• The Worst Years of Your Life: Stories for the Geeked-Out, Angst-Ridden, Lust-Addled, and Deeply Misunderstood Adolescent in All of Us - “Four out of five stars,” raves Ryan W. about this collection of short stories about junior high.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• If I Die in a Combat Zone (Box Me Up and Ship Me Home) by Tim O’Brien
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy – “Very dark and post-apocalyptic, but touching and hopeful in its own way,” says Ian R.
• Al Jaffe’s Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions #5
• Magilla Gorilla: A Big Golden Book
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Blade Runner: The Inside Story by Don Shay
• Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
• Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky – “All those other white powders have nothing on salt,” says Tizzy A. “Just try to pickle a herring in Splenda!”
• The Writings of Austin Osman Spare: Automatic Drawings, Anathema of Zos, The Book of Pleasure, and The Focus of Life by Austin Osman Spare
• Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• The daily Seattle Post-Intelligencer – says John T. “It’s all I ever read.” (He’s not lying. -.ed)

And like most readers, we’ve got a long list of books we’re going to get to… someday. (Except Joshua S., who always finds time for his book list. “I’ve never missed out on a book. if I want to read something I read it,” he says. “There are probably some really good books that I don’t know about that I haven’t read, but would like to read, because they’re good, right?”.) Maybe so, Joshua S. Here’s what’s on our shelves to finish in the next few years:

• Moby Dick
• Ulysses and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
• Photoshop CS2 for Dummies
• Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft
• First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio
• Birds and Words by Charley Harper – says Drake B. “He was incredible. He just passed away last year, right as his giant anthology book got published.”
• The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun
• My Life by Bill Clinton – “The one book I’ve had since it came out, but I just cannot get any traction on finishing,” says Allen C.

How about you? What’s in your Reading Room? 

So last entry was about the “what” of a caucus and this one is more about the “why”. 

Matt and I went to an organized event last night for a couple of hours to watch the results with a bunch of other people.  The census around our table was that no one was completely clear on how the process of electing each party’s candidate works.  We had such a mixture of ages, sexes and races that were obviously interested enough in the process to perhaps know a bit of something. Both Matt and I were also admittedly in the dark about how it all works which resulted in the following questions for me: “Is the US political process so difficult as to keep people from participating?” and “Am I gonna let the ‘Man’ keep me down?”  I’m sure you’re formulating your own questions at this point… 

Some facts I learned last night which may answer some of your questions (they certainly did for me) and you’ll see why it’s all so confusing: 

• The Republican party has opted for the “winner take all” scenario.  This means that whoever wins the popular vote in the state wins all of the delegates.  Makes sense, right? 
• BUT the Democrat party has decided to divide the number of delegates per state. 
• Add this to the fact that each state can decide by caucus or primary or both (like in WA) and they can decide when to have these things happen 

So why is this particular caucus important?  If any of you followed the races last night, you’ll know that it’s a tight race all around.  In the Republican camp, there are 3 top candidates vying for delegates.  The Democrats have 2 who are very much neck-and-neck.  Even though almost half of our states (24) elected their candidates in the Super Tuesday event yesterday, the races are still very much in the air.  This means Washington’s caucus this Saturday is still extremely relevant.  

Our caucus is uniquely suited for being extra exciting.  This is a historic race: the first time we have a woman, a mixed-race African American, and a Mormon all as very viable candidates for the presidency.  People are coming out in big numbers to take part in this election process.  It’s also a very close and, at times, heated race.  All of these things combined make for an opportunity for a very interesting caucus.  Unlike voting, which tends to be private, caucuses are more of a community event.  With a caucus, “you have to be present to win” or at least take part.  People make speeches and woo folks in real time which sometimes results in a sort of musical chairs where people move from one part of the room to another (each candidate will have an area of the room for people to gather to be counted).  Plus, you may also get a chance to be voted to represent Washington as a national delegate and go to Denver (this caucus is the first tier of a three tiered process).  Pretty exciting, no?  

Additional information specific to Washington State: 

• You will be able to register to vote or update your personal information at the caucus location 
• You will need to register as a Democrat or Republican in order to vote in the caucus.  However, if you do not want to register for a particular party, you can make speeches, but not be counted for the vote 

So I hope some of you will take the opportunity to participate in this year’s caucus on Saturday.  It’s gonna be an exciting day! 

Matt and I took Will Vinton, his lovely wife Gill, and daughter to brunch this Sunday before Will’s Master Animation Class at the Northwest Film Forum.  We wanted to welcome an animation luminary to our lovely city and have an excuse to check out the brunch at Palisade Restaurant.

Will’s little daughter had a bit of a rough morning–we picked them up at 9am so that we’d have enough time for a leisurely meal and get Will back in time to set up for the class.  As soon as her Very Berry Smoothie (which came in a tiki glass) and Wacky Waffle (adorned with a bacon smile) arrived at the table, she was able to find some enjoyment in hanging out with a bunch of adults in a strange place.

Will and Gill were amazingly sweet people and extra fun to talk to.  Matt was able to talk shop, taking as much in about Will’s experience as an Academy Award and Oscar winning animator.  Gill and I talked about food–one of my favorite subjects.  Gill’s from Yorkshire (she didn’t think that I picked up on her slight British accent) and Matt’s family is from London/Ipswich so we had a lot to gab about.

We all ended up eating way too much.  You see, the way brunch is set up at the Palisade is that you pick an entree and it comes with trips to the buffet.  I know you’re thinking “ugh! buffets… usually not the cream of the crop.”  But this buffet had shrimp cocktail, oysters on the half shell, papaya, mango, macademia nut pancakes (with rum maple syrup)…  *burp*  Oh yeah, AND we had our entrees which were also amazing.

All the while, we were able to oogle the Seattle skyline, mountains, and water all from our table.

Holiday wishes from our Scottish friends Radio Magnetic and Tommy Perman.  Because “if it’s not Scottish, it’s crap.”

Dear Santa,

Seeing as you’ve been Santa since long before the digital revolution, you must have trouble keeping up with technology. You’re probably feeling intense pressure to write daily blog updates or build your friend list on MySpace. A million sites make your email addy public, and that means you get more spam than Bill Gates. Modern kids aren’t capable of physically mailing something — they wouldn’t know a stamp if it pasted itself to their butts and sent them to China.

Because we’re a tech-savvy bunch, we considered digital solutions to help you manage our Christmas list. Our design and development teams created an interactive Flash game that calculated naughty versus nice, but it kept crashing when it hit the cookie-and-milk matrix. The PMs offered to write up a report and add milestones and email updates, but they got distracted by their overflowing Inboxes and ringing phones. The Web producers designed customized XML schemas that templatized our lists, but then they found some shiny Javascript to look at and just wandered off. (You know how Web producers are.)

So in lieu of an awesome digital solution, we thought we’d make it easy on you and go old school with a plain old list. Thankfully, no one at Plexipixel was naughty this year, so you can leave your coal lumps at home.

• Allen C. desires nothing less than world peace. But if that seems like a tall order given the current state of world affairs, a Canon 40D camera will do.
• Amie S. would like a goat. But please don’t deliver it directly to her apartment. Instead, buy it through Heifer, a non-profit that lets you purchase gifts for families in need around the world. Her goat will then provide food and wool for an entire community.
• Devi P. needs only bags of money, preferably the sort that come pre-imprinted with dollar signs on them.
• Drake B. wants a Rascal ConvertAble 600F with flames painted on the sides, because using your legs is for suckers.
• Ian H. longs for a 1962 Fender Bass VI, in Lake Placid Blue because 1.) he’s never played one before and 2.) 4 out of 5 scientists agree that it is actually the best bass ever.
• Your aching back will thank you after you see Ian R.’s wish list: he wants nothing. Nothing is the only gift that doesn’t take up space or need batteries and it won’t break or shrink. Best of all, he won’t miss it if he regifts it.
• Jesse H. would like free health care (we assume he means for everyone) and a new paint job for his van. 
• Jesse R. wants a pony. And his innocence back. You’ll have to ask him if/how those two things are related.
• John T. hopes you’ll bring him a baby Bigfoot and the complete set of “Teaching your Bigfoot American Sign Language” DVDs. That way, he can start Bigfoot learning early and they can eventually have endless conversations about the wilderness and politics.
• Get your pen ready, because Joshua S. has technical specs for his desired Macbook: 2.2GHz core 2 duo processor, 4 GB of ram, and a 160 GB hard drive. Got that?
• Kristi T. wants a gigantic snow storm and sledding party. Or Warren Miller’s Extreme Storm and Virtual Sledding Party for Wii (and a Wii to play it on).
• Lisa S. is keeping it simple with her request for an iPhone.
• Matt T. needs Fewture EX Chogokin Getter Robo Getters 1, 2 and 3. For these truly nerdy-ass gifts and the nerdy-ass gift connoisseur, only the entire set will do.
• Paola R. is giving you two options: either a Wii or a new wardrobe. You pick.
• Ryan W. hopes to zoom around on a pair of new quad rollerskates.
• Tizzy A. wants a President that can correctly pronounce the world “nuclear.”
• Vicky T. longs for designer fake eye-lashes from Shu Uemura, and a trip to Japan on which to display them. If you could arrange it so that it coincided with the Sapporo Snow Festival, that’d be great. She’s waited her whole life to see the resident snow monkeys whooping it up in their little stone hot tub.

Speaking of which, the entire studio would like a hot tub, and maybe an in-house barista and a weekly delivery from Cupcake Royale, as well as continued good health and happiness for all the people who work here. (But if you have to pick just one of those, go for the cupcakes.) If you want to take us up on any of our technical offers, you know where to find us.

Sincerely,
The Plexipixel team

Cynopsis Kids reported today:

Tim Burton enters into a two-movie deal with Disney to direct two 3D movies, Alice in Wonderland and Frankenweenie, per Variety. First up is Alice in Wonderland, which will be a motion-capture movie, is of course based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  Linda Woolverton (The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast) is penning the screenplay for Alice.  Burton will both direct and produce Frankenweenie, which is based on his own 1984 short film about a dog brought back to life but his owner. Frankenweenie is set to be a 3D stop-motion animated movie.

A Frankenweenie movie is exciting, but Alice in Wonderland in MoCap?  REALLY? 

The original 1951 Alice in Wonderland movie is one of my favorite Disney films.  Mary Blair’s concept art and her color and styling work was stunning.  The music is catchy and classic.  And the Disneyland ride–because it gave me nightmares as a child–is a must-ride on every visit to the park. 

Tim Burton movies do delight me over and over again–Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood… But MoCap?  Maybe he’ll be able to bring something new to the table that I’m unable to imagine.  He’s able to direct stop-motion in a way that’s stylistically magical, even when the rest of the movie needs a little something-something (Corpse Bride?).  So, I’ll remain optimistic and hope for the best.  Good luck, Tim!

I love spam that is just so NOT right…

I’ve “gotten” cards from my “Mate”, “Mother”, “Collegue”, but this one really takes the cake.

—–Original Message—–
From: fswindl@usafisnews.or
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2007 8:57 PM
To: Vicky Tamaru
Subject: Animated card

Good day.

Your Worshipper has sent you Animated card from greetingsnecards.com.

Click on your card’s direct www address below:

[link removed for your protection]

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