Chad Vernon

I thought I would forward Chad`s blog. This guy seems to be quite active in 3d animation apart from his job in Imagemovers Digital, which now works (maybe finished?) on Christmas Carol, full cg movie, starring motion captured Jim Carrey. Chad is also modeling characters, texturing and rendering them (does facial animation etc.). It`s really cool. It`s good to always stay generalist even when you specialize. In cg everything overlaps anyway.

http://www.chadvernon.com/blog/

you can find there python and directX tutorials, also some interesting downloads including his Tinny rig (which is basically gorrila skinned using his custom muscle system, for all rigging TDs: check this out!)

anatomy illustrations I

added one more link to my blog... thanks go to Radek!!

those illustrations are sort of like Gray`s Anatomy, combined with photos, precise and also include very useful simplifications. In czech language... nice collection piece :))

UPDATE: Priprava na profesi 3d animatora

I have updated my work experience advice for czech and slovak 3d artists:
http://www.jakubkrompolc.net/data/document/priprava_na_profesi_3d_animatora.pdf

BOLT

I`ve seen Bolt cg feature now on DVD and it was awesome. Don`t know how previous Disney`s thing (Meet the Robinsons) was doing, but Bolt seems like very good quality both how it`s rendered and animated and the story is also not bad. Eventhough it`s obvious, it`s the dog`s journey back to Hollywood which is interesting and entertaining. Animation is brilliant. I like how weight and softness of that dog is done, but other character are also really good. The cat, Bolt`s friend acts very real and also the TV show`s manager got my attention from first scene. The perfect timing and facial expressions. And I shouldn`t forget fatty hamster and incredibly stylized pigeons.

The scenes and effects are created in high quality, there wasn`t time I`d say, this is missing texture or this shadow looks weird. The fur of animals and overall lighting of scenes was done really well. Also lower detail cloth simulation on human costumes again adds to make things more believable, even in the cartoon world.

Now boxoffice-wise the revenue ratio was 1:2. Production cost 150 million dollars (quite high) and it made almost 300 worldwide. Opening weekend was weak, 26 m. dollars (Wall-E 63 m.). It might have been marketing, who knows. Still I`d say, not super-original, but really nice movie.

really big headphones UK online store

http://www.iheadphones.co.uk/

just got exactly those I needed here. There`s exhausting choice of all brands and their products. I got the package in 5 working days.