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.

Tags: 3D, Triggerfish

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:

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.

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.

Tags: 3D, Animation, Triggerfish

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.

Tags: 3D, Animation, 2D, Movie

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.

Tags: Animation, Creative

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!!

Tags: 3D, Animation, Disney, Movie, Pixar

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.

Tags: Web

... 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.

Tags: 3D, AM, Animation, Funnies

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.

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!

Tags: Apple, iPhone

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.

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.

Tags: Apple, 3G, iPhone

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.

Tags: Animation

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.

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.

Tags: Apple

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.

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.

Tags: Apple

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.

Tags: Funnies, Springboks

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

Tags: September 11, USA

_{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

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.