EYE HAVE SEEN

I am crying at this very moment. Ok, maybe not crying, but I have seen something rather amazing and it has impressed me greatly. Remember long ago I posted about seeing a trailer for the above picture and how it blew me away? Well, now I have seen the movie.

Makoto Shinkai was all the rage when I was in Japan in 2002. I heard about him before I went, but was amazed to find my arrival coincided with the launch of his "Voices of a Distant Star" DVD. Needless to say, after much searching at many sold out anime shops, I found a copy. We even tried to hook up with him at a show, but he was already deep into another work. The work I just saw.

This is leagues beyond "Voices". Sure he had a budget and a pretty decent sized staff this time around, but he still wore nearly every hat. The quality is really up there with the top of industry animated movies. I can't touch it, so I am not even going to try! :)

What impressed me even more was his ideas, though. This man has stories to tell. There is real substance there and I feel we are only scratching the surface of what is hidden in that mind. It is difficult to imagine what his next film will be. I can only guess that like Studio Ghibli, he will continue to put out memorable and artistic films at a consistant level of quality since it would be really hard to go "up" from there. Still I can only immagine...

If there was ever anything that truly gave me the kick I needed, and the motivation to realize dreams, this was it. Not just seeing art I wish I could do, but a story about dreams and accomplishments that I believe reflects a large part of its creator. I am fired up!

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Changes

I decided to give an early schedule a try today. For the past few weeks I have been going into work after traffic dies down in the hopes to avoid the pain and suffering that is the L.A. freeway system. Sometimes it's good, but sometimes...

Last night I had to seriosuly consider if I was gaining anything by this. Staying later doesn't guarantee a smooth ride home. It was so bad last night it wouldn't have mattered what time I left, though weather was also a factor. Still, it got me thinking. I am just plained burned out after that drive. The chances of going home and drawing anything are next to zero!

So I gave the early schedule a try. The drive was nowhere near as bad as I would expect. On top of that, in getting home, I still needed to unwind a bit, but after doing so I have some time. This may or may not translate into much animation, but we'll see how it goes. I still have weekends...

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I Forgot to Mention

Actor Carl Weathers, most famous for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, was here yesterday...

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AWAY TOO LONG

There was some talk a while back about my being unhappy with the character in the center of the title page, as he was at that time, and I said he needed an update. Back then I did some touch up to figure out how it should be done. Now, with some help from modo, the actual model is complete and ready for use.

Speaking of modo, or any software for that matter, it is not good to be away from it for too long. I found myself relearning many aspects of the software while working on this guy. Still it was a much needed refresher and I feel I am back in the swing of it.

So what does this all mean? Well...

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Netscape is no more. I don't mean to imply anythign happened to the company. I just uninstalled all their software from my system here. I am now a proud user of Mozilla Firefox browser. Next I will try their Thunderbird mail reader too.

Unfortunately, the spell checker in blogger doesn't run with Firrefox. Probably because its a pop up.

SUPER FORCE!

Actor Ken Olandt, who has been in a great many of the films made where I currently work, and who also happens to be one of the owners, has been seen walking the building today.

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