Z(ed) Brush Gallery-ing
November 15th, 2008
Congrats to my buddy, Nick Miller, for having his work selected to be in the new Pixologic Turntable Gallery.
You can see that piece here. Click to page six and look at the first one on the bottom row. You can see Nick’s other work at artofnickmiller.com.
The Art Institutes’ Pear Pirate Commercial
November 2nd, 2008
This was one of the more fun gigs I was part of at Cinemanix. Always nice to work with the guys at Animalspots. This was their second shoot with us and was MUCH more streamlined and less stressful as a direct result of the pipeline improvements and training we had worked on throughout that year.* Having a short motions list is always nice, too. 
My contributions included shoot coordination, mocap tech (ran the system + set up the mocap suit), tracking/solving and some minimal pipeline consulting for the MotionBuilder <> Max Biped workflow.
The final spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeakJnzP7iI
The behind the scenes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXxIZVAz-U0
* Many, many thanks to all the former mocaptionators at Cinemanix that were on-board for that ‘adventure’.
Goodies
October 19th, 2008
I finally started the updates for the Goodies section. It’s geared towards acting as a list for the various resources I use and routinely share with others.
Enjoy!
MotionBuilder Training Blog
October 19th, 2008
The MotionBuilder Training Blog first started as a support site for The Character Animator Toolkit for Motion Builder class that Brad Clark and Chad Moore put together for SIGGRAPH 07, but has since turned into an all around good resource for MotionBuilder users.
Make sure to thank Brad for keeping it updated!
ImageMoving
October 19th, 2008
I recently made the move to LA to join up with the great folks at ImageMovers Digital as a mocap tech/tracker. Although I can’t comment on the pipeline or current projects, I can say that I’m very confident in this crew’s direction and excited about the work it’s producing.
Look for great things from these people. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
2008 Character Reel is Up!
September 29th, 2008
It’s been awhile coming and I’m very excited to announce that the new reel is finally up! Many thanks to everyone that took some time to give feedback. 
Academy Award Screening for Far Sighted
September 18th, 2008
Far Sighted is finally screening!!
Champions Online: Meet the Team - Carlos Montero
September 7th, 2008
One of my good friends from Ai Pittsburgh was featured on the Champions Online blog. Congrats to Carlos and his crew on all the great work they’ve done.
http://www.champions-online.com/articles/meet_carlos_lead_environment_artist_for_champions_online
Animation Mentor’s Shawn Kelly on Mocaptionating
July 17th, 2008
I want to take a second to thank Shawn Kelly for sharing his POV on mocap in the CGTantra article Motion Capture Is Your Friend. Those that have worked with motion capture long enough to actually learn how to use the tool effectively seem to share the same options about the technology. You will find similar statements in in numerous threads on CGtalk, Softimage|Net and most every cg animation related forum (you’ll even find it right here in The Mocaptionator’s Handbook V1.0).
I leave you with Shawn’s closing statements:
“Animation is the act of bringing characters to life. If that’s what you do, I don’t care if you’re using Maya , Softimage, Lightwave, Animation Master, Flash or Motion Builder or your H1B Pencil or an armatured puppet! I don’t care if your reference is video reference, yourself in a mirror, or a day at the park, and I certainly don’t care if you are using your animation skills to mold a crappy motion capture performance into something memorable and truly alive! If you are using the tools at your disposal to bring characters to life, then guess what?
YOU ARE AN ANIMATOR.
And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
P.S. If you notice the credits in the pictures, you’ll find fellow Phasespace user Greg Worley’s name. Greg’s WorleyWorks studio probably isn’t what you envisioned as a typical mocap vendor. You kinda’ just have to see it to understand.