Francois Maree's Blog

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 30

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-06T20:45:27+02:00

Good thing I only made this for 30 days. I would start to forget to do it. Work’s been awesome as always. After the scene corruption I had I spent most of today reblocking that shot, and I incorporated the notes I received on the now-corrupt version of the shot. They made a decision to have us block out a full sequence so that they can look at the whole sequence in the edit and then suggest changes from there on. Not a bad idea considering they need to check if shots flow nicely together, if the actions are working well etc. This does mean that our quota level will be updated in leaps and bounds though. Let’s hope they change the tracking system so that we get a assigned a percentage of our quota per state of the shot’s progress (e.g. 40 for completing blocking, 40% for the blocking plus and 20% for polish).
Well, this is it for me. I’ll be resuming my usual blogging and only blog when there’s something significant/exciting. Despicable Me coming out real soon. Cannot wait to go see that. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 29

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-05T23:40:59+02:00

What the... day 29 already??!?! Wow, this month flew by!
So today I gotten 5 easy shots in a row. Just some simple flying happening in each. Managed to block out all 5 of them today, so this should give my quota a slight boost. One of my previous shots seems to have gone corrupt so I will probably have to reblock that. :-(
It was also two birthdays at work today, happy birthday Mike and Francois. We went out for a small dinner at Primi Piatti at the V&A Waterfront. All-in-all a very good day today. :-) Another new animator also started today, Ruaan Grobler. He came over from Luma. The studio is expanding very nicely now. I am also busy cleaning up some of the old fly cycles that have been giving us problems. I hope these new ones will resolve the issues we had with the old cycles.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 28

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-04T22:26:16+02:00

Spent only a few hours at work trying to fix some of the fly cycles. There’s so many bones to check that it became a long exercise. Will work on the fly cycles as I got time. Looking forward to work tomorrow. :-)
Downloaded and installed iOS4 but it’s messing around with my current TomTom app. Either go back to 3.1.3 or get the 1.4 version of the app. Decisions decisions.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 27

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-03T21:09:10+02:00

Been spending most of today settling in my new place. Bought curtains and put those up. Gotten a desk for the computer, and some other stuff I needed to get homely. The internet here at this new place is also fantabulously awesome.

Proof:

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 26

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-02T11:41:56+02:00

Spent a few hours today battling the rigs. Seems like the fly cycles I created during my first week was done on rigs that had channels locked since then which causes havoc on the locked channels. Feathers pointing in all directions imaginable, toes flipped 180 degrees. Quite a bit of troubleshooting but the rigging team is pretty quick at sorting the problems out. I’ll be going in to work on Sunday to go rework the fly cycles on new rig versions to try and avoid all those hassles. Let’s hope it works.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 25

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-07-01T21:46:02+02:00

Not much to report. Spent today moving to a new place. Sharing a flat with a fellow animator from work. Much better internet too. Plus rent is also much cheaper than where I was. A bit further from work though but overall a better place to stay. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 24

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-30T23:03:43+02:00

It’s been quite an interesting day at work today. I figured out two workarounds for problems I’ve been struggling with. The one being the ability to apply an action from an animation clip without the need of using the animation mixer and then plotting (baking) the animation into the timeline. The second being the enabling of ghosting to track the animation path of an object (quite a few hoops to jump through to get this working). I’ve also had one of my 230-frame shots taken apart and put back together by the director and animation lead. They looked at the blocking in the edit suite and realized things didn’t flow well together so lots of changes have been made. This is awesome for it just improves the overall quality of the movie. So to those animation students out there reading this, IT WILL HAPPEN and DON’T DESPAIR. You are still being paid to animate... what can be better than that? :-)
So I’ll be moving house tomorrow. I’m sharing it with one of my fellow animators and her boyfriend. Quite looking forward to not having to smell cigarette smoke at 3 in the morning. Woop woop!

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 23

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-29T22:12:48+02:00

I’m slowly but surely breaking the will of the rigs and making them do what I want them to do. XSI is still hardass but it will also be broken. For now I’m figuring out workarounds for all the issues it has... it’s pretty much female that’s for sure. Very whiny and bitchy. Helped a friend tonight record video reference for a shot she’s working on. Lots of laughs for she’s nervous but I can see her confidence improving as she gets used to the idea of a camera recording her every move. That’s it for now, I need sleep.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 22

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-28T19:13:40+02:00

Work’s been sort of productive. Been battling XSI to give me what I want. Cycles in the animation mixer doesn’t behave as stably as in Maya. Now I got to plot those on the timeline once I’m sure the cycles are acting as needed. Managed to get one of my shots up for blocking approval but it’s still not fast enough to get my quota of 2 seconds per day. :-(
In other news, AM starts today. I’m sure there are many students happy to be back. Good luck guys. Happy animating! :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 21

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-27T18:03:50+02:00

Didn’t touch anything 3D related today. Went down to Simons Town’s Long Beach and watch a buddy of mine taking part in a kayaking race. Afterwards we drove down to Boulder’s Beach to look at the penguins there (I’ll upload the photos sometime soon). Left there to a picnic spot a few kilometers down the road and had some lunch. On our way back late the afternoon we stopped at the Spur in Fish Hoek for a burger and milkshakes. The weather was sunny, no clouds and I did’t get sunburnt!! Woohoo!!! :)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 20

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-26T23:38:33+02:00

I spent the morning at work, trying to catch up on some blocking seeing as all the troubles from yesterday with the camera costed me some precious time. A few fellow animators was also in so the mood at work was very light... enjoyable and quiet. In the late afternoon I drove up to go visit some friends of mine I haven’t seen in 9 years. Was great seeing them, they got married and had a kid since I last seen them. Life stands still for nobody.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 19

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-25T22:32:57+02:00

Ran into a spot of trouble today. Managed to overwrite the official stereo camera (that everyone at the studio references to in their scenes) by using the option in XSI where you right-click on a local model in the explorer and select “Convert to reference”. I was under the impression it would allow me to select a model to reference to and replace the local one with. So instead it took my local camera, the one that was offset from 0,0,0 by a lot and saved that camera over the one on the network I specified I wanted to reference in, and referenced that camera back in. It didn’t even bother to ask me if I’m sure I want to overwrite the file... it just did it. So, anybody working at Autodesk on SoftImage... GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER AND FIX THIS HUGE FLAW!!!!! Luckily we have backups so the original camera got restored. Have I mentioned how much XSI sucks?

On the other hand I went to see Toy Story 3 with a friend of mine. Wow. There’s no other word to describe it better. Back in 1995 Toy Story set the standard for animation. With Toy Story 3 in 2010 they set the standard again. It was mindblowingly amazing.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 18

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-24T23:23:50+02:00

Gotten the details for the middle part of the new sequence worked out. Our team lead will divide up the shots soon. I started working on blocking in my first shot. You get to animate all the characters in your shot which is quite challenging seeing as we work on a 2-second-a-day of approved animation. This means I’ll have to skip out on the small details that won’t enhance the storytelling by much. But you should still add in the stuff like overshoots, settles, follow through, anticipation. Decided to work late seeing as Thursdays are the official work-late night where the director and other people in charge stays late to catch up on work. At 7PM they ordered us a pizza and we all circled around the boxes of pizza like vultures. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 17

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-23T20:27:17+02:00

Been quite a hectic day today. Gotten new shots assigned from another sequence. Gotten 5 shots so far but it’s only for the first thirds of the sequence. The middle part is being reworked and that will affect the numbering of it’s relevant shots and the last part following it. Busy brainstorming out the small details and doing thumbnails. We’re put together in a team of 6 animators. This will be fun.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 16

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-22T18:45:57+02:00

Toy Story 3 had the biggest opening weekend for any Pixar movie ever, a cool US$109 million. That’s got to say something. Looking forward to go and see it. I’ll be checking with the people at work tomorrow if we will go see it as a studio this coming Friday. If not then I’m sure we can organize pretty much everyone to go.
Work was awesome as always. My shot is pretty much done in the AnimA phase. I have submitted it for review. They realized that the shots (mine and the one before) didn’t flow well together and they’re busy reworking the shots to make the sequence work better. They will also chop off the first couple of frames but liked what I did so they want to keep it. :-) Glad to hear my first shot I animated for them made the cut. But, if it happened that they had to drop the shot to improve the flow of the overall scene, then so be it. I would just be glad that they realized it and want to make the best movie possible. This is one great thing I learned from my mentors at AM. So I should have a verdict by tomorrow morning if the shot’s ready for polishing. We also have to work on our next sequence tomorrow and as a team discuss the shots, distribute them evenly and roughly thumbnail things out. I have an idea of how to improve one of the shots and will mention it tomorrow to the director and animation lead + animation director. I’m sure they will like it and go for it.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 15

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-21T21:07:12+02:00

Been struggling with my internet connection. Was unable to post blog postings because of that but luckily this awesome app of mine saves the entries and uploads them when it has a proper connection.
Work’s been good. Been working on my shot mostly. It’s in the AnimA phase (blocking plus for the AM readers out there). The timing’s a bit slow so everything feels floaty. But first I want to get my poses working before I worry too much about timing. The set I have to work in is also cramped so every pixel counts. That also makes it hard to cheat some shots because the movie is also done in stereo so heavy intersections could be spotted at a certain angle but luckily we have a dedicated guy doing the stereo camera setup and checking so he should pick it up and let me know.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 14

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-20T17:41:09+02:00

Well, with it being a Sunday I didn’t do much animation wise. One needs a balanced lifestyle or you WILL burn out. I was invited over to friends of mine for lunch and just to chillax. Had a great time and felt ready to face the coming week. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 13

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-19T20:48:37+02:00

Had to go in to work today to help plan out my current shot. I got a lot of things happening in a confined space and needed to work out the paths everything takes to prevent them from colliding with one another. This just goes to show how important planning is. Even if you have to do thumbnails of every couple of frames and label each object to help keep track, then so be it. But, I got through it all and hopefully I can show it Monday during the daillies to get feedback from everyone else.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 12

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-18T19:20:52+02:00

This is it! Toy Story 3 is out today! It’s a definite must go see. Rumor has it that we will go watch it as a studio next week Friday so I’m not going to spoil my appetite. :-) In other animation related news I got my shot’s blocking approved, the stereo guy setup his camera and I got the go ahead for the next part which is adding in-betweens and splining. Plan on going in to work tomorrow to catch up a bit for I’m a bit behind with my struggles with getting the scene set up for the first time. And also what controls to animate for the camera.
We’ve also been briefed about the next scene, the one we would have originally done. Lots of action scenes, not much acting. Nice!

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 11

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-17T22:42:30+02:00

First things first... the dailies. Some people dread it, I’m looking forward to it. Maybe because I have nothing to show yet. But this coming Monday onwards I will be showing. Why? Because I got my first shot assigned today. :-) One of my fellow AM students already sketched out some planning thumbnails of what he foresee should happen in the shot and it’s such cool planning that he offered for me to make use of it. So I spent some part of today figuring out ways to improve the responsiveness of SI. Through a combination of display layers, custom surface approximations and custom display options that lighten the load while navigating the viewport I managed to get it so-so. When I lay out a frame I just do a rough layout with all models on, turn off the taxing ones after that to fine-tune the scene and then turn them back on to check my work from all angles.
Halfway through this I realized I haven’t planned properly for things like IK/FK and found I had to switch stuff I had in FK, back to IK so lesson learned, add useful tips like that to your planning thumbnails. After work I also finally joined the guys in a few rounds of Call Of Duty 4 on the network. It’s my first time playing it so I definitely died a lot (probably the most of everyone) but I also got a few good kills in. They sat up and took notice of this new player... BoulderFoot that joined them. So all-in-all a good productive day. Tomorrow I’ll be putting the hammer down and really try and steamroll through my blocking ASAP. Now, off to bed.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 10

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-16T18:32:05+02:00

Well, today’s a public holiday, so not much to report. I spent a few hours at the studio watching my final AnimationMentor lectures. Also, did I mention we have snow on Table Mountain? Needless to say it’s slightly colder than what we are used to for Cape Town.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 9

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-15T19:24:43+02:00

Spent most of today boringly clicking through XSI. I’m pretty much proficient with bypassing the flaws I need to avoid, and I can even do it with one hand tied behind my back. The rigs are getting better as we report the issues. Layout guys finished with the shots today, but the two soon-to-be-newly-assigned team members are still not done with their current shots. Let’s hope by Thursday I will have something to report.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 8

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-14T21:53:28+02:00

Didn’t get my first shot to work on today. We’re still waiting for two of the other animators to finish their shots because they will be joining and leading our team. Also found a few more minor bugs with the rigs so it’s all good. Sat in on the dailies and a few more shots got shoved over to the final status.
As for AnimationMentor.com, it still feels unreal that I’m finished. Just found out that Wednesday is a public holiday here so I won’t be able to attend my final Live Q&A. :-(

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 7

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-13T17:40:09+02:00

I’ve spent most of today finishing off my assignment. This is as good as it will get without me going insane. There’s still a ton of stuff I want to work on but after 18 months the mind doesn’t want to co-operate anymore. And seeing as it is in control of the hands and so on, I fear there might be a revolt or maybe even a coup d’état. Looking forward to the upcoming week. I should be getting my first shot to work on tomorrow.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 6

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-12T20:24:51+02:00

Seeing as I’m not at work today, I really don’t have much to say. I’ve spent most of today working on refining my final shots for my demo reel to be submitted to Animationmentor.com as my final assignment. Have to create a DVD Cover Sleeve and label that can go on the DVD Disc with my name and contact details, just in case the DVD and the DVD’s box get separated. I shall upload the final stuff tomorrow.
On a sports-related note, seems like the French didn’t bring their best team to play the Bokke so they got the hiding they deserved. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 5

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-11T22:36:04+02:00

So my first week is over. It’s been quite an interesting one too. Learned a lot, and I’m still learning but I feel comfortable at work. Still swearing at XSI for being such a stupid program. The DopeSheet is really not cool. And the random moving of keys in the time line when I select keys on another frame and move them is pissing me and some of the other guys off. Oh well, at least it’s not just us new XSI users that’s having these issues.
We had to watch the soccer match against Mexico today. I was just bored out of my skull and pretended to show interest at the game while I was surfing the net looking at the trailer for Mortal Kombat Rebirth. Looking forward to that and the new movie from Disney called Tangled. We were also given this bag with a few items in it:

With it was a piece of laminated paper with the following written on it:
Mints - To have a fresh outlook.
Rubber Bands - To remind you to have a resilience and “spring back”.
Sparklers - For those days when you feel everyone needs a bit of spark.
Eraser - To remind you that we all make mistakes. It’s OK, we learn from our errors.
Tea Bag - To remind you to take the time to relax daily and go over the list of blessings.
Vitathion - For body and mind energy booster.
Mini Vuvuzela - To make some noise when you have a bright idea.

All in all things have been good this week. Worked on another flying cycle for another character and looking forward to getting my first scene to work on next week. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 4

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-10T21:36:55+02:00

Another day’s gone by, man does time fly. In order for us to watch the opening ceremony and first match of the soccer world cup, we had to either work the hours in extra tonight, or start work earlier than usual tomorrow. I decided to stay later tonight and get used to some other XSI tools I would need for my first shot. Even though I have no interest whatsoever in soccer (I reckon it’s a sport for woosies) I will still join in the watching of the game tomorrow for I see it as a team-building exercise. Plus there will be food and whatever I will take in to drink.
Got my first glimpse today at the final quality renders and I’m simply blown away. The lighting and rendering guys are putting in some serious efforts and this will be one awesome-looking movie. Also joined the guys for the dailies today in the screening room and a few shots got final approval. It’s a great buzz when a shot gets final approval and one can hear the animator give a sigh of relief. :-)
I’ve been through most of the script now and I also got to watch some of the videos that was recorded of the different artists recording the new voice tracks. There’s some great references for facial performance there and it’s quite hilarious to see what happens between takes.
I know I said I will take photos today but yet again, the day was over before I realized it. I’m considering setting a reminder on my phone to do so. Until tomorrow then. :-D

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 3

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-09T19:57:01+02:00

Today I felt a bit more at ease going in to work. I’m starting to get the hang of using SoftImage with it’s keyboard shortcuts, but I’m still frustrated at some stuff that I know how to do in Maya, but have to fumble around SoftImage to get it to work. To top it all off, SoftImage has this nasty habit of crashing and not even saving an emergency copy of my scene like Maya does. Using Winblows is also not helping. I’ve learned to Ctrl+S once I made a few changes that I like to a scene.
With this project they have a requirement of 2 seconds of approved animation per day. It’s a bit tough but I’m sure I will manage. I might be slow initially but I’m sure I will pick up the pace as I get used to the workflow. Today we were asked to create a few cycles for some of the characters. Even though I have only created one I have learned some of the other tools in SoftImage like the Animation Mixer, Synoptic viewer, Animation Layers and the Graph Editor equivalent of SoftImage. Still got to figure out how to get the curves in stepped mode. There didn’t seem to be an obvious shortcut button for that. As I found issues with the rig I logged them with the rigging guys and within a matter of half an hour that rig was fixed and I could update my referenced character. Hats off to Sandy and his team.
To those that asked: I will be taking photos once everyone is used to me. I don’t want to make any sudden movements or have the sounds of the shutter scare them off. Crikey! Now just imagine I said this last bit with a Steve Irwin accent. :-)

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 2

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-08T20:23:33+02:00

Arrived at work at about 07h50. Decided to go in a little bit later seeing as it’s not my first day anymore. Got greeted by everyone and I can get used to this. It’s so awesome to get to work where everyone is happy to be there. First order of the day is to grab a cup coffee to get the engine started.
I spent most of the day arm-wrestling XSI and the rigs for the characters. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was the URL of the movie’s website in case any of you are interested so here it is. I got informed today that I will get my first shot to work on this coming Friday or next week Monday. I also got a brief description of what it will be about so now I know what to focus on. I’m pretty confident that by Friday (or Monday) I will be a bit more at ease with XSI. I hope they cannot smell my fear. ;-) I have been having a hard time with getting the characters to do certain things and it seems like it’s was normal for the other guys too so I’m feeling more at ease about that.

My first 30 days as an animator - Day 1

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-06-07T19:44:56+02:00

I decided to blog about my first 30 days of my animation career. Due to the NDA I signed I cannot give detailed information about the movie.

So I got to work at 07h45 this morning, waited for the rest of the people to arrive. The first thing I noticed was that everyone there seemed happy and got a lot of smiles from these soon-to-be-not-strangers. The studio is located on a farm in the middle of Cape Town. It’s a beautiful setup and so serene. The first person I met was Mike, my animation director. Was just an informal chat. Just after 8 the director held a quick studio meeting. Very relaxed and informal. He discussed the goals for the week.
After that us animators moved up to the screening room for the dailies. Obviously I hid in the back and just watched in awe the other animators’ work being projected on the white canvas while they get their feedback. It is pretty much like we were told at AM it would be. The shot comes up, it gets played through a couple of times at normal speed. The director gives his feedback, and the other animators even chip in their 2 cents. Some shots gets stepped through frame-by-frame. Some funnies even came up like on of the characters spinning out of control towards off-screen (or so we though initially) until we got informed that it’s a temporary placeholder for the character that needs to flail around helplessly after being kicked.
After dailies I got assigned my desk, with a computer (lovely Core i7 3 GHz with 12 Gigs of RAM, a GeForce GTS250 display card and a dual 22” LCD screen setup). The IT guy came around and setup all the network mappings and installed SoftImage XSI 2011 with all the scripts and workgroups I need. They showed me where the models are located and reference videos and images and told me to play around with it and familiarize myself with it as much as possible. Since I’m from a Maya background, this is crucial for me to get the hang of XSI. I’m used to doing stuff in a certain with wait Maya and it’s going to take some getting used to XSI, even though I can setup the shortcut keys the same as Maya.
At 13h00 we all got a cooked meal for lunch which I thought was awesome. One of the guys celebrated his birthday so after lunch we also got some cake. :-) I slowly started to get to know some of the other people working there as we mingled during lunch. Lots of laughter as the people poked fun at the birthday boy and sang him an inaudible happy birthday song, of which he joined in and sung the loudest inaudibly.
Back to the computer to wrestle on with XSI after lunch and by 17h30 the big guns were brought out. No, I’m being serious, the COD4 LAN game starts then. Even though I never played it I sure wouldn’t mind joining in some day and become the target the other guys can practice on. But for now, I have to get back home to try and work on my AM assignments.

Triggerfish here I come!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-27T20:08:06+02:00

I got the great news today that I’ll be starting at Triggerfish Animation Studios in Cape Town within the next week. It’s only a 7 month contract but I am super excited about it. This means I will have to animate 4 legged animals and possibly birds too. I will also have to learn to use SoftImage XSI. Looking forward to these new challenges.

MegaMind Trailer

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-23T10:25:02+02:00

A new trailer for the movie MegaMind, created by DreamWorks Animation is out. As always, try to see it in HD full screen. :-)

Rio

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-21T09:34:28+02:00

The trailer for the next movie from Blue Sky Studios have also been released today. It’s looking good and I’m looking forward to go see this one.

Shrek Forever After is here!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-21T09:29:00+02:00

Well the day is finally here. Shrek Forever After is now showing! Well.... what are you waiting for? Go and see it, now... go go go!!!

Pop

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-20T12:37:19+02:00

This short film by Bernard Derriman made me almost pee my pants from laughing. Press play, you know you want to. :-)

Azureus Rising

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-20T10:15:06+02:00

This is one very impressive short film produced by a guy named David Weinstein and a group of talented artists. Would love to see this one expanded. Oh, and watch it in full screen at the HD setting if you can.

Shrek Forever After - New Trailer

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-05-03T21:12:26+02:00

Got to love this new trailer from DreamWorks for Shrek Forever After. Enjoy. :-)

War-E... the badass Wall-E

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-29T08:43:02+02:00

I think this is a very cool mod to a Wall-E toy. Makes him look so much more Terminatorry (I just invented that word, so you got to pay me some royalties to use it). ;-)

New Toy Story 3 Poster!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-27T16:32:02+02:00

A new poster for Toy Story 3 is out.

Gorillaz - Stylo

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-27T12:32:14+02:00

I quite like the music video for the song Stylo from Gorilaz’s latest album Plastic Beach.

99 year old iPad user!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-23T21:20:19+02:00

Wow, I stumbled upon this news article over at Wired.com about a 99 year old lady... using the Apple iPad to read books again! She suffers from glaucoma and with the iPad’s ability to enlarge text, she can read books again. Plus the VoiceOver facility which lets the iPad speak the word(s) you select, she can thoroughly enjoy her reading again.

This granny rocks!

Original article here.

Ray & Anita - In Da Name Of Love

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-18T15:52:49+02:00

Wow, the guys from 2 Unlimited are back with this new song “In Da name of Love”. They are not allowed to use the name “2 Unlimited” anymore due to it being owned by somebody else. So they now go by the name “Ray & Anita”. Just have a look at this video, I quite like it.

Pixels

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-10T08:08:18+02:00

Just saw this short film by Patrick Jean and it’s amazing.

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Watch original web videos.

Maya 2011 is here!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-08T10:11:16+02:00

And it is official. Maya 2011 is available! I just finished downloading a 30-day trial version of Maya 2011 for OS X last night. The System Requirements on the Autodesk website states that you need OS X 10.6.2 but for the hell of it I tried installing it and it’s starting up on OS X 10.5.6. Don’t believe me, here’s my screenshot:

Time to take this bad boy for a test drive. The interface feels so much better already.

Last Toy Story 3 characters revealed

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-06T15:52:17+02:00

The last of the new Toy Story 3 characters have been revealed:

That also means that the poster with all the new characters are also completely lit up. :-)

I think I covered all the new characters now. They all seem familiar to me at least.

Now June 18th better come along swiftly.

9, Secret of the Kells and Fantastic Mr. Fox

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-04-05T12:51:03+02:00

I’ve managed to see a few movies this weekend.

9
This was one of my favorite movies. The story was great, animation well done. The only thing that bugged me was the burlap texture. At times it felt flat with no bump/normal mapping whatsoever. Visually it was pleasing and fit right in with the mood. Might at times be a shocker for people. The scene with the dead mother holding her dead baby comes to mind immediately. Only further on in the movie do you realize what happened to them.

The Secret Of Kells
Wow! This was definitely one visually stunning movie. And with my love for Ireland I enjoyed this one tremendously. Story was good, animation too. But those celtic symbols and signs throughout the movie was just pure eye candy. I would definitely recommend this movie. And if you can, go see the Book of Kells. Last time I saw it was at Trinity College in Dublin.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
With having big names such as George Clooney and Meryl Streep provide the voices, I was expecting more from this movie. The story itself wasn’t bad, based on the Roald Dahl book by the same name. Visually it wasn’t that pleasing. At times I was distracted by the fur on the stop-mo puppets that constantly moved at random places throughout the movie. This is one huge reason why stop-motion puppets shouldn’t have fur... at all... ever!!! The animation was done on what felt like 4’s. There was also part where it felt uncomfortably stiff, with no moving holds to keep things alive.

All in all, I reckon I had a very relaxing weekend. :-)

More TS3 Characters revealed

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-30T22:41:48+02:00

Ok, I apologize for the delay. I’ve been having some internet connection issues. Hopefully it will be sorted out soon. So here’s 4 more characters for Toy Story 3 that got revealed:

I’m really looking forward to seeing this. Have a great week. :-)

Photoshop CS5 Content Aware FIll

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-25T11:58:03+02:00

Wow, here’s a sneak peek at the new content aware fill in Photoshop CS5.

SkyWalker Ranch

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-22T07:51:07+02:00

This is just a beautiful video shot with the Canon 5DMk II and 7D of the SkyWalker Ranch.

Meet Sparks

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-16T18:43:58+02:00

Yup, this is the latest new character revealed for Toy Story 3. His name is Spark, and ultra cool robot toy with flashing lights and everything.

Shrek Forever After Trailer!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-13T09:14:33+02:00

Woop woop!! Here it is, the official trailer from DreamWorks themselves.

What's new in Maya 2011

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-09T23:07:07+02:00

Well, Maya 2011 is coming. Some of the new things it will support that is of personal interest to me are:

Support for Mac OS X 64-bit
Backburner
More file formats for creating custom icons for the shelf
The Camera Sequencer for doing layouts and managing camera shots
Few improvements to the Graph Editor
Point on Poly constraint
Viewport 2.0 which will allow for navigating complex scenes with ease

There’s a few video clips here to watch, and here’s the full post listing everything.

Found this screenshot on the web. It shows the new Camera Sequencer in action. You can see multiple audio tracks are now supported too! :-)

TS3's Stretch

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-09T23:05:23+02:00

Meet Stretch, and 8-legged purple octopus. Voiced by Whoopi Goldberg. :-)

Final TS3 Poster!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-04T21:30:25+02:00

And here it is!! The final Toy Story 3 poster!

Meet TS3's Twitch

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-03T07:55:22+02:00

The latest character announced to be in Toy Story 3... Twitch. Half man, half insect.

How To Train Your Dragon... for real.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-03-02T21:57:40+02:00

Dragon Training Lesson 1: The Deadly Nadder

Dragon Training Lesson 2: The Gronckle

Dragon Training Lesson 3: The Monstrous Nightmare

Dragon Training Lesson 4: The Hideous Zippleback

Dragon Training Lesson 5: The Night Fury

Dragon Training Lesson 6: The Terrible Terror

How To Train Your Dragon Olympics

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-02-19T15:59:28+02:00

Hehe, so DreamWorks brought out a few super cool clips with How To Train Your Dragon. Here they are:

Snowboarding. Vikings on snowboards?

Ski Jump. Being the best means having speed, agility, timing and a helmet!

Speed Skating. Before they trained Dragons, Vikings trained Olympians.

Bob-sledding requires 3 things: Strength, courage and a guy named Bob.

Medal Ceremony. The awarding of Gold, Silver & Bronze medals is a relatively recent development. 1000 years ago, athletes were awarded slightly different prizes.

Toy Story 3: Buttercup

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-02-19T12:14:34+02:00

Say hello to Buttercup. He... yes HE... is one of the new characters in Toy Story 3 that just got unveiled. Now, I’m still trying to get over the fact that a HE... got heart-shaped nostrils. ;-)

Some more Toy Story 3 goodness!! :-)

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-02-12T19:34:03+02:00

There’s been a flurry of activity on the Toy Story 3 front. A new trailer got released and a few of the new characters got revealed.

Lotso

Oh Mr. Potato Head

Shared feelings

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-01-29T08:07:02+02:00

I think quite a few of us feels like this about the iPad:

Apple iPad is out!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-01-27T22:15:38+02:00

So Apple today announced the iPad. In a way I’m kinda disappointed. I was hoping it would run OS X so it can be used as a real tablet computer. For now, I will just sit on the sideline and watch how this evolves. I already have an iPhone so it doesn’t do anything magically better than my phone.

Tim Burton on Creativity

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-01-16T16:53:10+02:00

Wow, I was just now reading this article over at Creative Creativity about Tim Burton’s take on creativity and it struck a chord with me. When he says “Goddammit, I don`t care if I can`t draw, I`m just gonna draw how I feel about it.” That is pretty much how I feel about my drawing skills (almost none). A very powerful sentence that is.

Iron Man 2 Trailer!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2010-01-04T13:24:11+02:00

Second Toy Story 3 still!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-12-16T10:23:41+02:00

Yup here it is. The second still from Toy Story 3 released to the public. :-)

First Toy Story 3 render!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-12-12T21:08:30+02:00

Well well well, it seems like the first publicly released render from Toy Story 3 is here!

_{Image courtesy of The Pixar Blog}

Introducing Google Public DNS

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-12-03T19:05:56+02:00

Oooh I like the sound of this:

Google is launching their own public DNS. Read the article here.

Ode To The Joy

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-11-05T08:15:21+02:00

Pixar Intro Spoof

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-28T08:48:52+02:00

I found this over at CollegeHumor. Bad Luxo! ;-)

The Marshmallow Torture Test

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-19T22:00:32+02:00

I laughed out loud when I saw this. I think this must be one of the worst “torture” tests for kids. ;-)

Toy Story 3 Official Trailer!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-14T08:32:20+02:00

The official version of the Toy Story 3 trailer is out now! Get it while it’s hot. :-)

Microsoft messing things up... yet again.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-12T08:12:43+02:00

Wow, if I didn’t know any better I would say Microsoft is trying hard to mess things up for a LOT of people. It seems like Sidekick users in the USA are losing a LOT of their personal data. All I can say is that there should be heads rolling at Microsoft. Shame, I will give them an A for effort but that’s as far as it will go. And I feel sorry for Sidekick users. When Microsoft gets into the cloud computing business, I will make triple sure I don’t go with them. They are just dodgy. Where’s hyperactive Steve Balmer now? Oh wait, he could be screaming at people to not let his Sidekick lose power or he will lose all his stuff.

And to show yet again some really crappy Microsoft ads, here’s another one. Trying to rebrand Windows Mobile as Windows Phone. And using HTC Pure hardware instead of using the Windows Phone they are working on? Seriously, somebody should let the people that come up with the ads go back to mopping the floors.

I finally saw Up!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-08T13:17:13+02:00

I finally managed to go see Up, and in 3D as well. Wow, it was so damn awesome. Dug with his “SQUIRREL!!!” and “POINT!!” had me in stitches. The whole story line was also very well thought out and endearing.

Then I also went to see District 9. I have to admit, I was quite surprised at how well District 9 turned out. Even though it’s a “local” film, the story wasn’t that bad at all. It was quite a refreshing difference compared to other aliens-invaded-earth-OMG films.

I also managed to squeeze in G-Force. It was also very well done and I enjoyed it for it’s entertainment value. Just being able to switch off, relax and enjoy it was a good break from my animation studies.

And a friend of mine gave me The Iron Giant on DVD. I’ve enjoyed it tremendously and will definitely use it as reference during my AM studies. Thanks Leigh-Ann!! :-)

Pretty cool Coca-Cola ad

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-10-01T17:34:22+02:00

I found this Coca-Cola ad quite funny. Even though it’s not an english ad no words are spoken in the ad, yet we all get the idea clearly of what their message is. That is what I call good advertisement. :-)

Steve Jobs is back! (and other Apple related news)

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-09-10T07:14:19+02:00

Yes, the man is back on stage. Welcome back Steve!

Today I would say the big announcements was the iTunes 9, iPhone OS 3.1 and the new iPod nanos with video capabilities.

It's trailers time

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-08-22T09:50:36+02:00

I found the following 2 trailers over at Apple which I’m very excited about.

AVATAR
This is quite a “controversial” movie in the sense that it was supposed to be done 14 years ago. The film was first conceived by director James Cameron 14 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, AVATAR delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film, disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story. It will be released on 18 December 2009.

Alvin & The Chipmunks - The Squeakquel
Yes ladies and gents, they are back! In the “Squeakquel,” pop sensations Alvin, Simon and Theodore end up in the care of Dave Seville’s twenty-something nephew Toby (Zachary Levi). The boys must put aside music superstardom to return to school, and are tasked with saving the school’s music program by winning the $25,000 prize in a battle of the bands. But the Chipmunks unexpectedly meet their match in three singing chipmunks known as “The Chipettes” - Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette. Romantic and musical sparks are ignited when the Chipmunks and Chipettes square off. This one is set to be released on 25 December 2009.

AnimationMentor Student Showcase Summer 2009

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-08-05T10:27:49+02:00

Our AnimationMentor Student Showcase for Summer 2009 have just been released. There’s some really cool kickass animation on there. I am so excited when I see the quality of animation my fellow students puts out. Hopefully soon I will have something good enough to have on the next one. :-)

RobotBoy trailer

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-08-01T10:21:36+02:00

Looking pretty cool! I enjoy the cartoon version of it a lot so I’m sure this one will be able to push the bar.

Seacom cable is live!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-07-24T09:53:05+02:00

So the Seacom fiber optic cable running up the east coast of Africa went live. Now we will just have to wait and see how it improves our internet here in South Africa.

Giant Toyota Flowers

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-07-21T16:25:02+02:00

I saw this post over at Engadget today. Things have been busy here with my AnimationMentor assignments and the family that is here, so I haven’t been able to blog in a while. Anyways, so the clever marketing guys from Toyota have 5 of these flowers out in the USA. They have solar panels at the top behind the petals, and allow you to charge your portable devices there as well as having free Wi-Fi internet. I think it’s a damn cool idea.

Gobelins Annecy 2009 Entries

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-06-13T12:01:48+02:00

The guys over at Gobelins have some pretty cool entries for this year’s Annecy festival.

Apple's App Store HyperWall, Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0 news

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-06-10T23:41:57+02:00

All I can say is “WOW!!”. As a way for Apple to show to the developers that was at the WWDC (Developer’s Conference) how popular the top 20,000 apps in the App Store is, they setup a hyperwall. This hyperwall consists of twenty 30-inch Apple Cinema Display monitors. Every time an app is downloaded it pulses on the display. And to top it all, the icons were sorted by their color making a rainbow spectrum. Read the full article here.

Apple gives Microsoft a kick up the arse with an even lower price for Snow Leopard over here.

And last but not least, TomTom and Navigon will be bringing us turn-by-turn GPS navigation to the iPhones using iPhone OS 3.0!!! It’s about time! Woop woop!!!

Project Dragonfly

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-06-01T22:18:36+02:00

I accidentally stumbled upon this thing over at Autodesk Labs. It’s called Project Dragonfly. The description on their site says it best:

Streamline your next home improvement project by using Dragonfly's intuitive design tools to rapidly create and furnish your floor plan, experimenting in real time with your ideas in 2D and 3D before making it real!

I gave it a quick try and I must admit it’s not that bad. You can choose your measurements between imperial and metric. Creating rooms are super easy. If you accidentally drag the corner of a room thinking it will keep the walls 90 degrees, the walls will snap back to 90 degrees as you bring the corner closer to where it was. The selection of stuff to add into the room (doors, windows, furniture) might not be uber but it’s not crappy either. This is a great tool for you to try out a new living room couch arrangement without having to strain a back muscle, or to give the master bedroom a new coat of paint without picking up a paintbrush.

Give it a try, you might just find it handy. :-)

Toy Story 3 Teaser

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-05-30T16:34:45+02:00

Yup, here it is. The first teaser trailer for Toy Story 3. You can go watch a full HD version on the Apple Trailers website. :-)

Swine Flu

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-05-19T08:36:41+02:00

The big bad wolf said "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down".

The little pig said "f***off or I'll sneeze on you".

^{* Hat tip to Ox, who gave a hat tip to Bianca... whoever that is*}

Pixar goes to Canada!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-05-10T07:37:19+02:00

Woohoo! Pixar announced that they will be opening a studio in Vancouver, Canada, for producing their short films. Short films being those short movies of a couple of minutes that gets to play before one of their feature animation films. Short films are also what they tend to test new technologies on so it’s a great way to get a sneak-peek at what they’ve been working on. :-D

Time for some funny clips...

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-05-08T21:25:54+02:00

... speaking of time where did it all go to? I’m already halfway through the second semester at Animation Mentor! :-) Anyways, fellow students posted these two video clips today and I found them to be very funny, and inspiring.

Supermarket Fever

One and zero

Oxygen

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo.

This is what happens when The Matrix runs on Windows...

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-04-27T14:07:22+02:00

A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-04-18T11:01:58+02:00

I totally agree with that statement made by Apple spokesman Bill Evans. It seems like Apple just gave Microsoft another sucker punch. Click here to read the article.

How To Tell If Pantyhose Is Too Thick

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-04-08T20:16:42+02:00

Hahehaehahehahehaeh!!

Microsoft... shame, they are a bunch of plonkers.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-04-05T09:40:04+02:00

So it seems like Microsoft is desperately trying to fix it’s self-esteem by getting average people on the street to say that they cannot find in a MacBook what they’re looking for. Here is the first ad and also the scam that has been revealed about it, and this is the so-called self-confessed technically savvy guy. Shame, poor bastard probably only read up on MHz and GB before he left for the shops on the Wikipedia. Shame Microsoft, you’re making an ass of yourself. Stop trying so hard, it comes naturally.

Zapping

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-04-02T15:09:11+02:00

Zapping from Aritz Aizpurua on Vimeo.
Pretty funny clip sent on to me by my buddy Dave. Quite funny. :-)

Adrenaline Lemmings

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-29T09:52:12+02:00

Adrenaline Lemmings CGI test from Alex Orrelle on Vimeo.
Saw this over at Victor Navone’s Blog and just had to post it. Brilliant stuff. :-)

Earth Hour, 28 March 2009

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-26T21:53:52+02:00

This is something I feel we should all try and do. Just one hour out of your night without the lights on. And please sign the petition if you can. :-)

Wow, hats off to Apple.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-20T21:54:18+02:00

When I read articles like this one over at Apple Insider, I just have this big lump in my throat and I feel proud. Not just because I’m an Apple fanboy, but because for the people over at Apple the business they are in is not just about making as much money as they can out of the average Joe. No, these guys also empower people to do so much more with their Apple hardware (the iPhone/iPod Touch in particular in this case) to help other people who have a tough life (diabetes sufferers in this case).

Good job guys!

Theme update

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-20T13:39:17+02:00

I’ve decided on a theme change for my site. Especially since the dark background made it difficult to post images with white background and have it look good still. I’m still working on the sidebar to get the AM banner to fit. Will see what I can do with that.

New beginnings

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-03-24T10:16:14+02:00

So I have decided to do a redesign of my portfolio website. Keep your eyes on this space. I will soon post more news and changes.

A dog is truly a man's best friend

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-03-25T10:25:58+02:00

If you don't believe it, just try this experiment:

Put your dog and your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour. When you open the trunk, who is really happy to see you!

Ollie Johnston passed away

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-04-17T13:16:51+02:00

_{Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org}

It's a sad day today for me to hear that Ollie Johnston passed away.

Who is he you may ask? He is one of the 9 Old Men as they were famously dubbed that worked at Walt Disney Studios. The last remaining one as a matter of fact. I am actually currently busy reading him and Frank Thomas's book by the title of "The Illusion of Life - Disney Animation". Also known as the animation bible.

Rest In Peace Mr. Johnston

Some more links
Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston's Official site
CNN Report

LOLCats

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-05-06T19:30:10+02:00

Stumbled upon the LolCats website. Some very funny captions. :-)

Also seems like our beloved Eskom has decided to halt load-shedding for the time being because we are such good citizens and are working hard on getting a 10% reduction in electricity usage countrywide.

Some other good news is that Vodafone and Apple signed an agreement to sell the iPhone in 10 countries including South Africa! Obviously VodaCom will be handling that bit over here. Well, let's see how much they will charge for it first of all.

Kung-Fu Panda released!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-06-09T10:19:25+02:00

_{Image courtesy of Dreamworks.}

I know it's been a while since my last post. My studies have been keeping me quite busy.

The latest movie from Dreamworks called Kung-Fu Panda has been released. And it's taken the top spot for this weekends release too.

Well, I'll be back some other time with more news.

Hello 3G iPhone!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-06-10T08:36:04+02:00

_{Image courtesy of Apple.}
So it's finally been introduced. The new 3G iPhone from Apple. Coming to South Africa somewhere this year... the date we have for now. And it will be selling much cheaper than the first iPhone. $199 for the 8Gb in the US. I think we can get ready for approximately R 3000. Not bad considering it's features.

Some more links
Official 3G iPhone website
EnGadget Reports

Help set a Firefox 3 download world record!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-06-18T20:21:45+02:00

The guys over at Mozilla is trying to set a new world record for the most downloads of their brand spanking new Firefox 3 browser. All I can say is that I'm still a loyal Firefox user and version 3 feels a bit faster with regards to web browsing.

AnimationMentor here I come!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-07-03T07:59:26+02:00

I woke up this morning to one of the best e-mails waiting in my inbox. I got accepted for AnimationMentor!! Starting the 29th of September. :-D

Cuil?

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-07-29T08:36:37+02:00

Seems like some ex-employees of Google is gunning for them. The team of 4 people created this search engine boasting that it indexed 120 billion web pages, allegedly more than that of Google. If you ask me they will become just another Yahoo and Microsoft.

Read more at CNN.com

Bolt (Trailer) - Next animated movie from Disney!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-07-31T23:14:39+02:00

SigGraph '08 is upon us again.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-06T10:24:34+02:00

Yup, it's that time of the year again... SIGGRAPH '08. The who's who of the industry will be there and by the looks of things, some nice announcements are to be made.

Maya 2009 is coming!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-12T08:51:19+02:00

Autodesk Maya 2009 has been announced at SIGGRAPH (no surprise there).

Have a look at some of the new features of Maya 2009! I personally like the new render pass feature and mental ray proxy.

The Hitman

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-18T12:16:37+02:00

Two old friends were just about to tee off at the first hole of their local golf course when a guy carrying a golf bag called out to them, "Do you mind if I join you? My partner didn't turn up."

"Sure," they said, "You're welcome." So they started playing and enjoyed the game and the company of the newcomer. Part way around the course, one of the friends asked the newcomer, "What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a hit man," was the reply.

"You're joking!" was the response.

"No, I'm not," he said, reaching into his golf bag, and pulling out a beautiful Martini sniper's rifle with a large telescopic sight. "Here are my tools."

"That's a beautiful telescopic sight," said the other friend, "Can I take a look? I think I might be able to see my house from here." So he picked up the rifle and looked through the sight in the direction of his house.

"Yeah, I can see my house all right. This sight is fantastic. I can see right in the window." "Wow, I can see my wife in the bedroom. Ha Ha, I can see she's naked!! Wait a minute, that's my neighbour in there with her...... He's naked, too!!!

He turned to the hit man, "How much do you charge for a hit?"

"I'll do a flat rate, for you, one thousand dollars every time I pull the trigger."

"Can you do two for me now?"

"Sure, what do you want?"

"First, shoot my wife; she's always been mouthy, so shoot her in the mouth."

"Then the neighbour, he's a friend of mine, so just shoot his d*ck off to teach him a lesson."

The hit man took the rifle and took aim, standing perfectly still for a few minutes.

"Are you going to do it or not?" said the friend impatiently.

"Just be patient," said the hit man calmly, "I think I can save you a grand here.

The Laws Of Ultimate Reality

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-21T11:54:41+02:00

Law of Mechanical Repair
After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.

Law of Gravity
Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of Probability
The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of Random Numbers
If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal and someone always answers.

Law of the Alibi
If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tyre, the very next morning you will have a flat tyre.

Variation Law
If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now (works every time).

Law of the Bath
When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law of Close Encounters
The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

Law of the Result
When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

Law of Biomechanics
The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Law of the Theater
At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.

The Starbucks Law
As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy's Law of Lockers
If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Physical Surfaces
The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

Law of Logical Argument
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.

Brown's Law of Physical Appearance
If the shoe fits, it's ugly.

Wilson's Law of Commercial Marketing Strategy
As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

Doctors' Law
If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor, by the time you get there you'll feel better. Don't make an appointment and you'll stay sick.

Who's Next?

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-24T15:46:01+02:00

Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me "You're next!". They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

When I'm 100, if I lean a little... LET ME!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-08-26T14:01:54+02:00

The family wheeled Grandma out on the lawn, in her wheelchair, where the activities for her 100th birthday were taking place. Grandma couldn't speak very well, but she would write notes when she needed to communicate.

After a short time out on the lawn, Grandma started leaning off to the right, so some family members grabbed her, straightened her up, and stuffed pillows on her right.

A short time later, she started leaning off to her left, so again the family grabbed her and stuffed pillows on her left.

Soon she started leaning forward, so the family members again grabbed her, and then tied a pillowcase around her waist to hold her up.

A nephew who arrived late came up to Grandma and said, 'Hi, Grandma, you're looking good! How are they treating you?'

Grandma took out her little notepad and slowly wrote a note to the nephew:

"Bastards won't let me fart."

Google Chrome

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-02T23:08:09+02:00

Google Chrome is here. The new web browser from that search engine company most people love. Well let's see how it goes. If it works as easy and smooth as it's other products then I think we might have the guys at Redmond getting a bit worried.

Bill Melendez passes away

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-04T07:52:08+02:00

It's another sad day for the animation community. Bill Melendez, the only animator authorized by Charles Schulz (creator of the Peanuts comic strip) to animate the Peanuts, has passed away of natural causes at the ripe age of 91.

Rest in peace Mr. Melendez.

Some more links:
Full CNN report here.
Wikipedia

28 hours to go...

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-09T17:00:00+02:00

... until I can setup my AnimationMentor account!!! *does a happy dance* Things are a bit hectic here still. I am busy building a website for a client, and I also got 6 photography assignments to work through and send off. I also got my exam dates for the Photography course and they are in the middle of October. I hope to finish this all before the real AnimationMentor classes starts on the 5th of January 2009!! :-D

9/11... We will never forget.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-11T14:05:55+02:00

It's been 7 years since that tragic day, and this is to let everyone know... we will never forget.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-17T08:57:00+02:00

The new Canon EOS 5D Mark II has been introduced and man does it look sexy spec wise.

Capture full HD video clips at 1920 x 1080 resolution
21.1-megapixel full frame 24 x 36mm CMOS sensor
DIGIC 4 imaging processor
Significantly lower noise
Expanded sensitivity range from ISO 50 to ISO 25,600

Press Release here.

The iPhone 3G has finally arrived in SA!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-09-26T08:47:45+02:00

The iPhone 3G has finally arrived in South Africa today. Looking at the pricing structure from VodaCom you need to go pawn in your granny to be able to afford it though. :-(

Cars 2 coming in 2011 (maybe earlier)!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-10-07T08:57:39+02:00

Seems like the guys over at Pixar are working extra hard. Rumour has it that for the first time ever, they have 2 movies scheduled for release in 2011 (Newt and The Bear and the Bow). But if Cars 2 is scheduled for 2011 they would probably move the other 2 movies to 2012. Either way I cannot wait. :-)

WTF!!?!?

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-10-07T22:33:33+02:00

WARNING: Watch this video at own risk, and if you decide to watch it, have a barf bag handy.

I actually decided to put it in the Humor category because it just goes to show how much of an ass Microsoft can make of themselves. This was probably condoned by Steve Ballmer. Who knows, might be some of his family members in the boy band. Head on over here for relief.

Hectic

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-10-21T20:58:09+02:00

Damn, things have gotten hectic quite suddenly. Started a new job as a graphics designer at one of the local newspapers, as well as my AnimationMentor classes that really start to get into the swing of things. So I'm leaving you all (South Africans that is) with a funny comic strip I received today.

Recovering

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-12-13T17:33:02+02:00

I've experienced a hard disk drive crash on my Mac and have just installed the new drive. It does seem like I might have lost loads of data on the old drive. Luckily some of them are backed up, but not all of it. Mostly my Address Book. So if you don't hear from me, please drop me a mail so I can add it again.

Disney - Pixar's movie "Up" on it's way!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2008-12-16T10:14:44+02:00

From Disney*Pixar comes “Up,” a comedy adventure about 78 year old balloon salesman Carl Fredericksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. From the Academy Award(r)-nominated director Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.), Disney*Pixar’s Up invites you on a hilarious journey into a lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

Happy New Year!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-01T00:00:00+02:00

I hope you all have had a good festive season and got back home safely. Class 1 of my AnimationMentor semester starts on Monday (5 January 2009) and I cannot wait. See you all on the flipside.

AM Blog added

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-04T18:49:46+02:00

I have decided to create a dedicated AnimationMentor blog. Also I will be adding galleries of all the finished weekly assignments for all the different semesters. I have just added the clips of my assignments I did. I will most probably be posting more frequently there than here.

Steve Jobs is going to be fine!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-05T16:43:09+02:00

In a open letter to the Apple community, Steve Jobs have put the rumors about his deteriorating health to rest. It's a mere hormone imbalance for which there is a simple treatment. Can I ask that the plonkers that like to start and/or spread bad rumors stop acting like asshats and get on with your lives. Thanks.

Guide Dog

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-06T11:07:13+02:00

A visitor to San Francisco is standing on a street corner waiting for a bus when he notices a blind man and his guide dog.
The dog leads the man into the street, where he is brushed by an oncoming car. The man is knocked down, and he rather gingerly gets back up. He calls the guide dog over, reaches into his pocket, pulls out a canine treat, and gives it to the dog.

The visitor, upon seeing all this, walks over to the blind man and says, "That's amazing! Your guide dog led you into a busy street where you were nearly run over by a car, and yet you're giving the dog a treat. You must really love that dog."

The blind man turns to the visitor and says, "No, I'm gonna kick that dogs butt -- I'm just trying to find out which end is which."

Norwegian Firefighters

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-06T11:09:30+02:00

One dark night outside a small town outside of New York, a fire abruptly started inside the local chemical plant and immediately engulfed the plant in flames. The alarm went out to all the fire departments for miles around. When the volunteer fire fighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed straight to the fire chief and said, "All our secret formulas are in the vault in the center of the plant. They must be saved!! I will give $50,000 to the fire department who retrieves them intact." But the roaring flames held the firefighters back. Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate.

As the firemen arrived, the president shouted aloud that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company's secret files. From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into view. It was the nearby Norwegian township volunteer fire brigade composed mainly of Norwegians over the age of 60. To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine roared right past all the more modern sleek engines that were parked outside the plant.

Without even slowing down it drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside, the other firemen watched as the old Norwegian firefighters jumped off right in the middle of the fire and fought it back on every side. Within a short time, the Norwegian old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas. The grateful chemical company president announced that for such an amazing feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave fire fighters.

The local TV news reporter rushed in to capture the event on film, asking their fire chief, "What are you going to do with massive reward?"

"Vell," said Larsen, the 68-year-old fire chief, "Da first thing ve is gonna do is fix da brakes on dat focking truck!"

Microsoft managed to stay crap at making ads.

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-10T09:56:28+02:00

Microsoft has done it again! They made yet another crap ad for their new app called Songsmith. Well done MS, you've managed to outdone yourselves yet again. Is this the best you guys can do at taking a stab at Magic Garageband Jam from Apple? Pathetic!

Ok people, you know the drill, go grab your barf bags. Don't say I didn't warn you!

"Up" sneak peek with Pete Docter

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-12T08:36:58+02:00

Another sneak peek at the upcoming animated movie, Up.

Eddie Izzard - Death Star Canteen

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-15T09:06:01+02:00

Oh man that is funny. Love Eddie's work but this is even better.

SilverKeeper, a very nice OS X backup app

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-17T11:08:18+02:00

After my previous hard drive on this Mac Mini failed and I didn't have any full backups of everything, I decided to look for some kind of backup solution.
I wanted to make a daily backup of my Address Book and iCal data to an external drive/share on my network. Also a full backup once a week of my home folder (and sub-folders) to the network share.
After trying numerous backup programs (all trial version) and testing stuff with Automator, I stumbled upon SilverKeeper by Lacie (those people that create external hard drives etc.). Best of all, it's free (Just need to register your details, but you can opt out of all their mailing lists)!
This app is really nice and easy to use. You select your source folder, set your destination folder (which is a shared folder on my Windows XP PC), and set your schedule (if you so desire). Voilla!
My PC in turn then backs up all my important studies data from my animation course, my Mac's Address Book and iCal data, and then once a week FTP that over to an external server. It also makes a full backup of my PC and Mac's full backup to an external drive.

I reckon I'm sorted now when it comes to a data backup procedure. So, critical data offsite, non-critical but still important data onto an external drive. Everything is automated, from my PC and Mac both switching themselves on at 6am every day, to having all the backups kicking off between 06h05 to 07h00 so that by the time I'm up and had breakfast, my data is safely backed up and I now have more peace of mind.

President Barrack Obama sworn in

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-20T19:27:11+02:00

Barrack Obama has just been sworn in as the 44th president of the USA and I got to say, I'm pretty excited about it. There is quite a buzz at the inauguration and the "Obama! Obama!" chanting coming from the crowd is quite positive. I got to say, he is entering presidency with tough times ahead. Lots of things that needs to be fixed. I wish him good luck.

Got my new 22" monitor

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-27T12:43:29+02:00

I received my new monitor today. It's the ViewSonic VX2240W. And I must say I like it a lot. At 22" Widescreen with both VGA and DVI, a 2ms refresh rate, and a dynamic contrast ration of 4000:1 it is looking pretty slick. Nice thing about it I can share it between my PC and Mac. Got the PC hooked up via DVI and the Mac via Sub-D (normal 15-pin VGA connector) and I can switch between the two inputs. That extra screen-estate sure is very handy. :-)

G-Force Trailer

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-01-31T10:24:42+02:00

Stumbled upon this trailer for a movie called GForce. It's about guinea pigs used by the government trained to do covert espionage. Equipped with the latest high-tech spy gadgets this can only be one comedy adventure not to be missed. Interestingly it's produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (who brought us such movies/TV Shows as CSI, Pirates of the Caribbean, Black Hawk Down, Gone in Sixty Seconds etc.) so it would be a must-see movie come July 24 2009.

Transformers : Revenge Of The Fallen

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-01T15:24:23+02:00

Yup, that's right. It's the second Transformers movie, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. This is the ad that will air during the Superbowl. And this looks like it would be good, really good. Coming to a theater near you on the 26th of June 2009.

Happy Birthday Pixar!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-03T09:51:38+02:00

So Pixar is 23 years old today. Happy birthday guys! :-)

Annotate!Pro

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-03T19:47:04+02:00

I have recently tried out Annotate!Pro to help me with tracking my arcs during my animation course and this application is well worth it's $20.00. Give the trial a go and see if you will also like it.

Monsters vs. Aliens coming soon!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-07T00:11:49+02:00

Can't wait for the 27th of March when the Monsters vs. Aliens movie will be released.

This one is for all the iPhone haters... :-P

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-16T19:24:01+02:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

He finally did it!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-02-17T12:35:51+02:00

New UP Trailer!!!

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-07T09:03:26+02:00

It's been a while since I blogged, I know. Things have been hectic here. Anyways, a new Up trailer was released yesterday. Be sure to check the HD version if possible.

World Builder

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-14T13:13:53+02:00

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Wow, that is one stunning piece of work!

iPhone OS 3.0

fmaree@gmail.com — 2009-03-17T20:55:23+02:00

So it’s official, the new iPhone OS 3.0 sounds like it would be good. The things that gotten my attention was:

Turn-by-turn directions are now available to devs. So soon we should see some proper satnav apps for the iPhone
The 3.0 software upgrade will be free to current iPhone 3G owners
When asked why they don’t support background processes, their explanation was as follow, and it makes totally sense to me: "We were asked, why don't you do background processing? It's bad for the customer. It drains battery. We've been testing this, and running some background processes on some phones. We took a popular AIM client, and we just let go in the background -- then we measured the standby time. And it dropped by 80% or more." So, they will implement Push technology to help resolve some of the current issues.
Cut, copy & paste
Landscape keyboard in Mail and SMS
MMS
Spotlight is now going to be included for all the key applications!

Cool, cannot wait to get my hands on it. :-)