Christopher Meledandri interview

Posted on July 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation, Business of animation

I just found that very interesting interview of “Despicable Me” (DM)’s producer Christopher Meledandri. Some very familiar names popped up! Alright we knew that co-director Pierre Coffin was “Pat and Stan” creator but did you know that the original idea was from Sergio Pablos? Did you know that the character design had been handled by no less than Ratatouille character designer Carter Goodrich??? and yes “Lorax”, an other Dr Seuss book adapted for cinema release has finally been announced.

Check this out

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=67456

The movie has finally reached $145M after only 2 weeks by the way. No bad when you take in consideration that it is fighting for screens with Shrek 4 and Toy Story 3.

Related posts:
“Despicable me” triumph

“Spare parts” interview

Posted on July 22, 2010 | 1 Comment
Filed under EA, Video Games

Our game designer Gary Napper just came back from San Francisco where he presented our game “Spare parts” to reporters. Want to find out what “Spare Parts” is about?

The robots at the bottom in the background are performing some of my “idle animations” by the way.

Oh there is also an other video with more gameplay on Gaming Truth
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0xFmgtthMo[/youtube]

“Monstre à Paris” short video clip

Posted on July 16, 2010 | 2 Comments
Filed under Animation

Ah ah! I just found a very short clip from “Monstre à Paris” on Zalex’s lighting showreel! 😉

This is Vanessa Paradis’ character singing.

[update]this post is gaining a lot of popularity those days so I would like to point the readers to an older post with an other clip from the movie

http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/2009/07/05/monstre-a-paris-short-clip/ .

Related posts:
Monstre again
Monstre à Paris short clip

“Albator/Captain Harlock”

Posted on July 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation

Man I grew up with the 2d series and the 3d trailer looks awesome!!!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH7ZjB7lzgI[/youtube]

“Despicable Me” triumph

Posted on July 16, 2010 | 1 Comment
Filed under Animation, Business of animation

With a worldwide boxoffice of $92M after only 1 week of domestic release, “Despicable Me” is a huge success for Mac Guff and Pierre Coffin.

“Planet 51” only totalled $105M in 16 weeks.

“The Tale of Despereaux” $86M in 11 weeks

“Valiant” did $61M in 13 weeks

“Triplets of Belleville” $14M in 32 weeks

Would the success of Despicable Me (DM) due to the large pool of talents found in France?

I have been told that during Annecy, Pierre Coffin was really really excited by the release of the movie and on stage, he even thanked the french government for its help.

2010 TAG wage survey

Posted on July 16, 2010 | 1 Comment
Filed under Animation, Business of animation

The numbers are out.

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/2010-tag-wage-survey-part-two.html

Here is cut down version for most of you:

Remember it is only an anonymous survey and only 690 people replied.

While we are at it, here is the link to the “Foreign Labor Certification Data Center”

http://www.flcdatacenter.com/CaseH1B.aspx

Ah, I just discovered that website

http://www.mydanwei.com/

No wonder a lot of europeans want to emigrate to the USA and a lot of american companies want to outsource in europe.

Light and colours

Posted on July 13, 2010 | 8 Comments
Filed under Portfolio

I came across some Dice Tsutsumi‘s Toy Story3 color script thumbnail this week end and was blown away by his understanding of colours and lighting!!!! As rought as they are, all the information is there for the lighters to start their work. Amazing stuff. This guy is a rendering engine equipped with all the radiosity features you can dream of!

Check out the subtle nuances in the shadows, the reflected light under the chin of Buzz and Woody, the contrast between cold and warm hues.

This made me want to go back to oil painting and experiment with those things on Monday. This is only my third painting so please forgive the basic technique. I am pretty much self taught. I spent most of the time on the right shoulder, trying to get the highlight and reflected light. The model kept moving so I wasn’t able to do much work on the legs. Really enjoyable!

Related post:
Lines and colors

Game showreel 2010 wip

Posted on June 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Filed under Animation, EA, Portfolio

Game showreel 2010 / Quicktime H264, NTSC, 11Mo

Well since some of my work has gone public with the release of the Spare Parts trailer, why not create a new temporary game showreel!? 😉

You will find it in the Showreel section of my blog
http://www.olivier-ladeuix.com/blog/portfolio/

Disclaimer:
No motion capture data was harmed in the making of that video.

EA “Spare Parts” teaser

Posted on June 24, 2010 | 2 Comments
Filed under Animation, EA, Portfolio, Video Games

Spare parts EA

The teaser for the game I am currently working on at EA Brightlight is finally online. You can even find a HD version on Gametrailers!

This game and the team I am working with are awesome. I have only been in the game industry for few years but making a downloadable XBLA/PSN game is probably the closest thing to what it was back in the mid 80s/90s. Unlike the 70 and upward teams most games require nowadays, in a project of that size, every team member can truly participate to the direction of the game.

All the character animation has been done by Neil, my lead animator, and myself.

E3 Highlights

Posted on June 17, 2010 | 2 Comments
Filed under Video Games

E3 2010 just finished. Microsoft stole the show with the announcement of Kinect, the newly renamed Natal system, and a slim version of the Xbox but for the time being, my 2010 favourite games are pretty much all for the WII. Could companies bring more cartoony games to next gen consoles?!

Here are this year’s announcement.

Donkey Kong Country returns. Donkey Kong country is the reason I decided to work in games and join Rare. I fulfilled part of my dream and managed to work on Banjo Kazooie but I still have to work on Donkey Kong country. Well looks like it could happen!

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

DeBlob2 on Next Gen consoles

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eOocRhiRko[/youtube]

Disney Epic Mickey

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz8jD4LJ_o0[/youtube]

Scott Pilgrim

Spare parts