Walking on Water

WALL*E

Click here for my latest Hollywood Jesus review for WALL*E.

Happy 7 Years!

Today marks 7 wonderful years being married to my best friend and creative companion Janet (Jay)! I'm so proud of everything we've accomplished together, especially the birth of Ariel and the love and friendships with others that we have nurtured and welcomed into our marriage. I'm so grateful that God brought us together.

To celebrate the occasion, we present the online debut of the little "music video" that I secretly edited together as part of my marriage proposal to her, partially updated and re-mastered from the original version. I woke her up from her sleep by sticking a post-it note on her head telling her to follow a trail of candles to the TV where this video was ready to play...and the Jack & Sally serenade at the end was literally my little song to her.



Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I sure love you!

Ariel Loves Otters

Ariel has taken a real liking to the animated film I worked on with BigFott Studios, Do Unto Otters, to the point where she's been repeating the word "otters" (both to us and to herself) all night long. This is just too precious for words.

Random Weekend Post

Today is Sunday. After church and the Ladner market, I slept all afternoon. Now I'm awake and full of ribs, cake and coffee. This shall be a random post of stuff I've been experiencing and discovering.

First, some pictures of Ariel I'm particularly proud of, as she is obsessed with the Muppets, loves Kermit and calls Rowlf, Piggy and Fozzie by name.





A few days ago I had a random memory flash of some childrens' books I remember from my younger days, which are now on my radar for seeking in used book stores or if I find a good deal online someplace. There was a Little Golden Book at my grandparents' house from the 50s called A Dragon in a Wagon which had some great modern illustrations in it...some of them posted here.


and a book which I had a love/hate relationship with, The Man Who Lost His Head.

I loved the story and thought a couple of the illustrations were funny. So much so, my dad decided to blow them up and hang them on my bedroom wall. Then I got scared of them and we had to cover them up.



And finally, Jay showed me this hilarious site today: garfieldminusgarfield.net

...and this. All I can say is BRILLIANT! (Be sure to watch all the way to the end)

Humphrey the Bear

While capturing clips for my course I captured & posted this clip just for kicks, and sent it to my dad for father's day. It's a little sequence of animation of Disney's Humphrey the Bear which always made me & my family and friends laugh in younger days. I still think it's one of the funniest animation bits ever.

Daddy's Day

So Jay lovingly woke me up this morning with waffles & coffee, and a surprise utterance by Ariel who learned how to say "Happy Daddy's Day," and also put this video together for me. I am very touched and proud to be Daddy today!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Breath of Life Animation Festival 2008

Well, what can I say, after having this vision in my head for several years, it's surreal to think that it actually happened...and better yet, it happened quite successfully! The first Breath of Life Animation Festival was held at Cedar Park Church in Ladner, BC on Saturday June 7.

Here's the registration table that welcomed people in, with demo animation tables behind.

The display for Create Art with Brenda Breuls, who did a lot to help organize and plan this event. This is all artwork created by kids who she teaches in her after-school and summer art camps.


Some worms created by Robin Carpenter and "Clayman" Paul Moldovanos for the Claymation Worm Race.

Soon-to-be-newlyweds and VanArts grads Blake Standard (EA Canada) and Nicole Tremblay (Atomic Cartoons) prepare for Animate Your Face!


Here they come! On-lookers check out VanArts student Fernando Gama Cintra and Disney's Calvin Leduc (behind) working on some 2D animation...

Gerard De Souza and Ryan Esau showed everyone how to draw cartoon characters...

...while Amanda Emery and Heather Trevis demonstrated how to make their drawings come to life with flipbooks!


The Claymation Worm Race!


Animate Your Face!


Pixilation Central, where kids are being attacked by a living set of bongos! Apparently the kid moving the bongos was wondering, when asked to move out of the frame, "But how are the bongos going to move if I'm not there to move them?" Eventually I think he got it. Shane Holmes (Nerdcorps Animation) and Peter "Leon" Roy directed these kids.



The Doodle Room was a surprisingly big hit for all ages, including the younger set...


...and Ariel.

The snack room gives everyone a chance to re-fuel.

Brenda gets her caricature by animator Sujan Chowdhury.

...and so did Ariel...

...and me, convincing me that I really need a haircut.

Everyone gathering in the sanctuary for the 4-o'clock Short Film Program! (If you look closely you'll see fellow movie reviewer Peter T. Chattaway sitting in the blue shirt with his little boy Thomas!) The screening consisted of films such as Librarian from the Black Lagoon, Monk and the Fish, The Creation, La Traviata, Next Door and a few more surpises...followed by all the animation from the day's workshops!

A big highlight for me was opening the program by sharing Disney's "Sorceror's Apprentice' on 16mm film!

Ariel joined me on stage to applaud with everyone at the end as I thanked everyone who made this day possible!


Here is a video of all the participants' animation!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

and....

MORE PHOTOS on Flickr!

Jay's Blog

Facebook Photo Gallery by Jay

Facebook Photo Gallery by "The Clayman" Paul Moldovanos

Overall the reaction to the event was fantastic, everyone had a great time and are poised to do it again next year, so I think we've started something special!

Festivals, Movies, Comics and Sketches

So let's see, what's been going on...last week I was asked to participate in a meeting with some members of the local Vancouver SIGGRAPH Chapter to begin brainstorming ideas for the SPARK Animation festival coming up in September. Not too much to say about it at this point, as it's all in the very early stages, but I'm incredibly honored to be a part of it. The time is ripe to develop an event like this in Vancouver, so I'm super excited. By the way, the next local SIGGRAPH event is about the visual style of Ratatouille, followed by a screening of the film.



Plans for my own festival coming up this Saturday are also coming together nicely...this is going to be a VERY busy week!

Friday night Jay & I had another movie date to see the highly-anticipated Sex and the City, which was very good. And no, I wasn't the only guy there. Another review for Hollywood Jesus has resulted here.



I've recently caught up with Chris Sanders' blog and his online comic Kiskaloo. It's the funniest thing I've read in a long time and reminds me alot of Calvin & Hobbes.



Today I watched "101 Dalmatians" DVD special features plus the movie itself with Ariel...she kept saying 'DOG!' I figured she would enjoy it.



Each year for Ariel's birthday, Jay and I write a story about her and get it bound into a book (through MyPublisher.com), so we're trying to brainstorm ideas as they come over the next month or so. I sketched a few design ideas...I haven't drawn that much in awhile so my first attempts are pretty rusty, but it's a start.