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TabletPCs, eReaders, Asus EEE Note

Posted on June 12, 2011  | Leave a Comment
Filed under GTD, Life hack

Let’s face it, Apple doesn’t care about artists anymore. If they did, they would have released a Tablet PC many years ago. The closest thing you can get to a Tablet PC in the Apple world is Axiotron’s Modbook, a $1849, made to order portable Cintiq. Just for reference, the EP121, Asus latest slate Tablet PC sells for $1,100 with an i5 processor and 32Gb SSD hard drive.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfB8_fL9mIc[/youtube]

I am a Tablet PC fanboy and I have owned 4 or 5 HP and Toshiba Tablets in the last 6 years but with my recent travels I had to cut down on the amount of electronic I carry with me. Currently I have in my bags a two years old mid range HP laptop (DV7) which I use as a workstation, and a Samsung N110 Netbook for my web browsing pdf reading and light computing.

With nearly 10 hours of battery, the netbook is great for train/plane trips but I am really missing digital sketching and a proper ebook reader like the Kindle would be awesome so what is the solution? Well Asus came up with a new device called the EEE Note or EA800.

So what is the deal with the EEE Note. The EEE Note is $200 only, can be recharged through a mini USB cable (no extra charger needed) works as an eBook reader and hides a Wacom board which makes it a great digital sketching software. It can sync with your PC and can also be used as a Wacom Tablet when connected to a Windows 7 computer.

Check out that really interesting post on TabletPC review
Asus EEE Note review by an artist. She also posted a video showing how to draw with the EEE Note.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9pmk9pTYrw[/youtube]

The device doesn’t seem to be available outside Asia for the moment but if enough people show interest, they might change this.

I also wanted to talk about eBook readers today. My friend Richie just bought the $130 wifi version of Amazon’s kindle and it is a really sweet device. There is also a $180 3g version that could also take a huge market share thanks to its free 3G connection. Yes you read it right, there is no rip-off monthly fee but obviously that’s only to download books from the Amazon website or check Wikipedia.

I have had the silly idea of starting to read Leonardo Padura’s latest 600 pages novel and an ebook version would have been much easier to carry around, along with my other favourite books.

Also, if like me you tend to write a lot of notes or highlight text in your books this is not a problem for the Kindle supposedly. I was watching Tim Ferris latest random show and realised it is possible to highlight text on the Kindle and share this with your friends. Pretty cool I have to say.

So…. Kindle 2 or Asus EEE Note 😉

Asus EEE Note Cebit presentation

Tim Ferris random show

Related posts:
Tablet PC category

ESMA Mythologique shortfilm is out

Posted on June 9, 2011  | 3 Comments
Filed under Animation

Sorry for the lack of updates but I am at the Annecy Animation Festival and I am too busy to update my blog. The festival is awesome as usual. We have been really privileged to see some video clips of Aardman latest Stop motion feature “Pirates” and Enrico Casarossa’s short “La luna”.

Back to my post. Alexandre from “Mytho Logique” or Mythologique just informed me about the release of their student shortfilm on Vimeo, check it out it is really impressive.

“Mythologique” (Mytho Logic for the english speakers) is a short film done by 5 student from french school ESMA for their final year.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/24258323[/vimeo]

Related posts
ESMA
MythoLogique
Rigging outside the box

Jamaal Bradley acting shot walk-through

Posted on June 3, 2011  | 7 Comments
Filed under Acting, Animation

[update with the trailer video]
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/24982579[/vimeo]

ohhhhhhh. It just came out!
Dreamworks animator extraordinaire, Ianimate mentor and Pencil Test Depot writer Jamaal Bradley just released an Acting shot walk through now available on the JRA webinar store. For those who don’t know, Jamaal previously worked at Sony then on Disney’s Tangled where he did some of the most impressive shots.

The video is only $29.99, I just bought it myself and can’t wait to receive the download link!

JRA webinar store

Related posts:
Pencil test depot
Mike Walling ….. avec une moustache
Mike Walling walkthrough

Showreel february 2011

Posted on May 22, 2011  | 5 Comments
Filed under Animation, Portfolio

I am currently working on a new showreel with two new acting shots but in the meantime, here is a showreel with my latest work.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/25508250[/vimeo]

The first shots are from Chico Chica Boumba, a TV series I worked on at 2minutes (Angouleme).
The second shot is a self directed acting shot in french as I am currently looking for work in France.
The third shot is a short extract from my short film “Summer time”.
The Robots shots are from the EA game “Spare Parts”.

And if you are interested, here are my Work in Progress

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/20460994[/vimeo]

Exaggeration

Posted on May 16, 2011  | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation, Education

If you haven’t seen the Bluray version of Disney’s Pinocchio, you might not have realised how extensively the studio was relying on video references since their very first pictures but what I wanted to talk about today is Exaggeration in animation.

Someone just made a comparison video between some Alice in wonderland’s live action references and the final movie. It is a bit striking how close the reference for Alice is but all the other characters are way more exaggerated. A bit too much probably but this seem to work really well with the characters.

That video is really interesting as it shows two styles of animation, naturalistic versus broad, and how much a video reference can be pushed to create an entertaining performance.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZbOiv1Uf0s[/youtube]

via Spungella

How much Kung Fu Panda can you handle?

Posted on May 14, 2011  | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation

If you are not worried you would be watching too much Kung Fu Panda 2 behind the scenes, check this out. I havet to warn you though…. there are a lot of spoilers!

What a feast for the eyes. That’s what cartoons should be like! I am going to put a preorder on the Bluray, toys, pyjamas and coffee mugs 😉

If the story works, that movie could probably break the 900 millions dollars.

Those Cintiq screens seem to be lacking brightness by the way. I have never worked on one but I feel that my LCD screen has a better picture.

Kung Fu Panda 2 behind the scenes

Smallriders is finally online

Posted on May 11, 2011  | 5 Comments
Filed under Animation, Character design, Friends

Few month ago I was telling you about a short film made by two of my Chico Chica Boumba uber talented coworkers.

Smallriders, Chloe Blocktaels and Joan Delmont’s short film is finally online and I am loving the final product.

The short was finished in Octobre and we have had to wait a loooong time but this was really well worth it. Joan is not interested in 3d anymore but I would love to see this as an animated feature or a TV series. The animation is really good and the character designs are very appealing. Ah I should also congratulate Benjamin Meyer who was in charge of the rendering or he will kick my butt 😉

Really nice work guys, you can be really proud of it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8Hks6UNEd0[/youtube]

Related posts:
Smallriders, first teaser
Chico Chica Boumba pilot
Back from Angouleme

Walk cycles from Disney Robin Hood

Posted on April 23, 2011  | 6 Comments
Filed under Animation, Education

A compilation of walk Cycles from Disney’s 1973 Feature “Robin Hood”?

What a great excuse to watch Robin Hood again! Robin, “Sword in the stone”, “Jungle Book” and “The rescuers” are my favorite Disney movies.

Does anyone know who designed the characters by the way? I think Milt Kahl did a lot of character design towards the end of his career but I think I remember Ken Anderson was doing them before him, any idea?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJbEXPHunjo[/youtube]

via floobynooby.blogspot.com

Related post:
Pencil test depot
Milt Kahl Disney family album
Milt Kahl the animation Michelangelo

Full Sail showreel

Posted on April 16, 2011  | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation, Education

At the beginning of Animation Mentor, AAU was kicking butt. It seems that other traditional brick and mortar schools, helped by the release of Norman to the public, have now upped their game. More and more great showreels are coming out of Florida based Full Sail university. I would be curious to know how high are the tuition fees though, French Gobelin’s nearly free tuition is long gone but we are still really far from north american’s costs.

If some of you are following Andrew Gordon’s website, you probably remember Drew Winey’s Pirate entry from the last Spline Doctors contest. I thought is other schoolmate should have won the competition but after watching Drew’s latest showreel I have to admit that the guy is really talented and I am not surprised he got hired by ReelFX.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/11900014[/vimeo]

I would also encourage people to check out his blog and see for yourself how he might have gotten where he is. Many animators are concentrating on long acting shots where Drew seems to be favouring quick 1 to 2 days shots that have a lot of entertainment value.

Drew Winey’s blog

Related posts:
AAU graduate showreel
What is AAU

Mike Walling … avec une moustache!

Posted on April 14, 2011  | 9 Comments
Filed under Animation, Education

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/22386291[/vimeo]

Mike and I have been working on a French version of his great animation tutorial videos for the past few weeks and they are now available on the JRWebinar store page.

It is not very often that you see a video tutorial with a top feature animator working in a commercial package so you must recommend the videos to all your french speaking friends!

Mike Walling … avec des moustaches!

Mike Walling et moi avons travaillé pendant quelques semaines sur une version francaise de ses vidéo tutoriel de mécanique corporelle. Les vidéos sont à présent disponible sur le magasin virtuel (store) du site de Jason Ryan.

Mike Walling a commencé sa carriére d’animateur en 2001 et a joint Dreamworks en 2010 aprés avoir travaillé sur des films aussi prestigieux que L’Age de glace, Horton, ou Surf’s Up.

Ce n’est pas tous les jours que l’on peut voir un animateur de trés haut niveau travailler sur un logiciel commercial, aussi cette vidéo doit étre recommandée à tous les débutants et les animateurs plus aguerris qui rêvent un jour de travailler dans un studio de cinéma d’animation. Rappellons que les studios Dreamworks et Pixar utilisent des logiciels d’animation propriétaire aussi, rare sont les animateurs de ces deux studios qui connaissent Maya sur le bout des doigts.

Pour la traduction, j’ai repris la terminologie utilisée par Richard Williams dans son ouvrage Techniques d’animation. Les termes Key poses, breakdown, inbetween et spacing ont été respectivement traduits par Pose clefs, intervalle principal/breakdown, intervalle et espacement.
Les termes Ease in, drag, overlap, overshoot ont quant à eux été traduits par amorti, retard, chevauchement et dépassement.

Jason Ryan webinar website

Related posts:
Mike Walling walkthrough
Maya, mel scripts for animation

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