All Work and No Play....

Been spending a few days off, but not much relaxing. I may be off work-work, but work of other kinds continue here at home. I'm balancing two major projects that have deadlines looming, both my online stop-motion course for AAU and animation for Bigfott.

Today is our 8-year anniversary, which is very special! Despite the occasion it was pretty much a regular day...we had a Doctor's appointment (Xander is doing well), went to the mall, and I spent the whole afternoon animating. Jay is feeling uber-preggers and didn't really feel like going out or doing anything fancy, so we got take-out from the Boot and just had a nice little dinner. We may go to Seattle for a day-trip in a few weeks when things settle down, or maybe do something a little more romantic.

I downloaded a bunch of rare movie soundtracks today from VINNIE RATOLLE's Records, an awesome pop culture blog. Pretty great stuff...while animating in my studio, my iPod was graciously providing soundtracks for The Secret of NIMH, The Goonies, Gremlins, The Shining, Little Shop of Horrors and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This also made me happy.

Meh...

Apparently I was so shocked and numbed by the Michael Jackson news (a big bite out of my childhood culture) that all I could think of to do was post a music video I did for "Thriller" back when I was 14 years old, using a bunch of horror movie clips...(and using 2 VCRs hooked up to each other....major old school)

I'm not sure how I feel about it now. Too much death already. It's here if you want to see it.

UPdate on Life

If you want to know what's been going on in my life these days, simply read my Hollywood Jesus review for Pixar's UP.

Breath of Life Animation Festival 2009

Finally, here is my full report on the 2nd Annual Breath of Life Animation Festival at Cedar Park Church, June 6 2009. Much of it was the same as last year but we changed up a few things and added some too. Overall it was a big success, more organized and yet still a continuing work in progress.

All the kids filed into the sanctuary, assigned to 5 groups A through E with their group leaders, for an introduction and welcome by myself...don't let the scattered looks of this crowd fool you; we got quite a few more people by the end of the day!



Workshops included DRAWING CARTOON CHARACTERS with the talented Mr. Gerard DeSouza...





...FLIPBOOKS with the lovely husband & wife team of Blake & Nicole Standard...







...CLAY SCULPTING with the Amazing Clayman, Paul Moldovanos, who helped the kids create little clay worms for the following workshop...








...the CLAYMATION WORM RACE, led by the incredible stop-motion super-heroes Lee Skinner and Bronwen Kyffin...







...and PIXILATION with the incredible team of Amanda Emery and Matt Smith, who gave the kids a great time getting animated.





...open stations like the Doodle Room, animation demos, the Ten Thousand Villages table and 16mm film projection were also a big hit...







After topping off the workshops with a short film screening was the Animator's Picnic, a time of food and fellowship, wrapping up an inspiring day of creativity for all who joined in.





Thanks everyone for pulling off another great festival!

Presentation & Festival this Weekend....

DELTA OPTIMIST ARTICLE