RIO!!!

RIO's in theaters. GO SEE IT!!!

I know, I know, it's been a while....

Jake "the snake" is Back!!!

Hey All you wrestling fans!!!

Early Thursday morning (9-10-09) at about 4:59am Ally gave birth to the newest member of the Bruno family.

Name - Jake "the snake" Anthony Bruno
Weight - 7lbs 1oz
Length - 19 inches (this time i payed attention, with Taryn i had no idea this was important...To most of you it still probably isn't).
Occupation - Baby wrestler (not to be confused with adults who wrestle babies, This is an actual baby who wrestles babies).

Everything went really well. Ally beat her all time baby pushin' record comin' in under 9 minutes. What a pro!

Jake's first scheduled wrestling match was with his happy big sister Taryn "Taryn-o-saurus Rex" Bruno. It went really well. In fact they've combined forces become the unstoppable tag-team duo known as The Bruisin' Bruno's.



I bet Jake can't wait to meet all of you!!!

Be sure to check out my dog Cooper's blog for updates on him and the rest of the fam.

How I Approach My shot

When I get my assignment and kick off from the director, I usually spend a whole day away from the computer planning my shot. I refuse to lay down one key until I can see the whole animation in my head. Now I know not everything in my head may work during my execution, and I know some other things may evolve, but it's important to have a clear plan before messing around in the computer.

Here is my own personal checklist put into a rough sequential order. I say rough order, because different shots call for different things.

• Know the character(s) you are animating. Look at their model sheets for expressions. Read their character packet to know their arc (storyline) in the movie, and understand their personality traits and their limitations.
o Also understand the type of animal they are and how they move.

• Study the sequence - what is the pacing throughout the sequence. Think of the sequence as a roller coaster. What part of the ride does your shot fall on? Is it building to something else? Is it the peak before the fall?

• What kind of moment is it and what is the point of my shot? Happy, sad, calm, crazy, is it a reaction shot, or a bridge to another shot. In my opinion, this is the most often forgotten thing. There are many ways to nail a point, but there are even more ways to miss it, or overdo it. As animators, it’s in our nature that we want to do something awesome, fresh and new, and sometimes we tend to overdo some of those simple moments.

• Look at the storyboard panels. Amazing artists work long and hard on capturing each beat of a sequence. What I always find amazing, is that the artist manages to capture some of the most complex actions and feeling in just a few drawings. It’s that simplicity and clarity that we need to study.
o Keep in mind these guys and gals are really good at drawing, so we can also learn a lot from their drawing skills in how they design the character and capture the essence of that particular feeling they are going for.

• Toggle around the set. When you get your assignment, you usually get your camera and set along with it. I always find it very useful to toggle around in it to get a sense of the characters scale and what limitations they have within camera. For instance, you may find a tree is in the way, or that you only have enough room to move their head around. Whatever you find will help in planning your shot.

• Listen to audio. Listen over and over again. Try to listen for just the lyrical rhythm, then try to listen to the words and the accents, and what importance those accents have over those words.

• Draw from personal experience. Nothing paints a more vivid picture than picturing your own personal experiences. So if you’ve gone through a similar moment, draw from that.

• Thumbnails. Do lots of thumbnails. A lot of people tend to do only one thumbnail per beat in the shot. NEVER settle for your first thumbnail, no matter how in love you are with it. Explore several different variations of one pose. Its not just the pose you are looking for but what the pose looks and feels like amongst the other poses.
o After Milt Kahl would thumbnail out the full character, sometimes he would go in and do thumbnails of individual parts like hands and legs, trying to see if within those he can find a pose that gives the feeling he’s going for.

• Acting it out before a camera is really good too. It may help you see the performance a little clearer. For me, I use reference to see little happenings that I may not have thought of.

• Using movies as reference. If you can remember a scene in a movie that you thought captured the moment you are going for, study it. Find why it was successful.

• The 12 principles of animation laid out by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson.

• Some additional principles learned along the way:
- Pantomime: How would you get the point across if no dialogue available
- Texture to timing
- Rhythm of the dialogue: Use the rhythm to see how you lyrically move the character around.
- Show characters thought process
- Visualize patterns of movement within the 2D frame
- Reversals: Getting reverse curves in the body.
- Shot context: Achieving the purpose of the shot. Don’t overdo it!
- Contrast
- What is motivating the movement
- Silhouette and shapes in front of shapes. Think about color and patterns as well.
- Avoid tangents
- Develop a method of approaching your shot. How are you going to tackle the problem?
- Know what you want the audience to see and what not to see
- Direct viewers eye
- Control the head and eyes. The viewer focuses mainly on the eyes, catches the rest of the performance in their peripheral.
- Choreograph between characters
- Avoid twinning
- Don’t let the action overpower important dialogue.

• After my first pass of blocking I always analyze it using all of the principles.

Then you’re done! It’s just that easy! Hehehe.

VOTE GABOR!!!

Jeff Gabor - Annie Nominee

With all the important elections taking place over the last couple of monts I wanted to remind everyone to go out and vote in one more. Vote for the Annies that is!!!

This year, my co-worker and good friend Jeff Gabor has been nominated for an Annie in the category of best Character Animation in a Feature Production. For those that don't know, the Annie Awards are animations highest honor.

"Why vote for Jeff?" you ask. I'll tell you why. Well I think his reel will speak for itself, but more importantly he's a great guy, humble, an educator (remember that cool comparison reel you all joygasmed over), a contributor to our industry (a modern day June Foray), a leader, and more importantly not a racist. I'm not saying the other guys are, but you can never be too sure. Hehehehe jk.

Either way all the nominees deserve a big congrats for their work, their sacrifice and dedication to the craft. The carreer of Animation is a hard carreer just to keep a-float in, let alone be considered one of the best. So CONGRATS to all the nominees!!!

VOTE JEFF GABOR!!! A true American Hero.

We're all proud of ya Jeff!

HORTON DVD!!!!

Horton Hears a Who! is out today on DVD!!! Let the frame f*#@ing BEGIN!!!

EPISODE 5 - The Legend of Pimpcane is up!!!

At Blue Sky, Scott Carroll lovingly goes by the nickname "Pimpcane." A name that is by no means fitting. So naturally, a lot of students and newcomers ask why.

Here is our answer.

P.S. A special congrats goes out to Scott, Wendy, and Hannah Carroll for their new baby Lilah. And also to Paul and Jen Downs for their new baby Eric!!!

Don't get too close to B.S. unless you plan on gettin' preggers!

CRUNCH TIME!!!

Crunch time has begun at Blue Sky for the animation team. We only saw it fitting to do this next episode.

Brian Henson Visits Blue Sky!!!

Me, Petey-P, Brian Henson, and Pimp-o-potamus Cane

Today was an awesome day!!! Brian Henson acoompanied by a his little Armadillo puppet friend came and gave Blue Sky a 3 hour presentation on the how to's, the history, and the behind the scenes of Puppetry. It was amazingly entertaining to say the least. And given our rescent hobby (treehouse studios), the presentation was super edcuational as well.

Watching him in action was amazing. It was so funny to see how a puppet could instantly transform a bunch of adults and jaded computer geeks into kids again. Animation has so much to learn from the magic of puppetry.

In short, If I had a time machine and I went back in time to tell my 10 year old self that I met Brian Henson, my 10 year old self would flip out and excitedly say
"When I grow up I get to meet Brian Henson!!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!"

And then that 10 year old self would ask if I got to kiss any girls too. But I'll save that for a different guest speaker I guess.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO BLUE SKY FOR MAKING A LITTLE DREAM COME TRUE TODAY!!!!

EPISODE 1

Head on over to http://treehousestudios.wordpress.com/ to view episode 1!!!

We created this blog to make light of all that goes into making an animated feature. Since each event effects people differently, we thought we would tell our stories through the eyes of 4 contrasting animation stereotypes. Since each one of us closely resembles one of these personalities, we couldn’t help but make fun of ourselves.

DISCLAMER:
This blog is meant to be fun, and possibly educational. The events depicted in these movies are fictitious. Similarity to any person or studio, living or dead, is merely coincidental. Especially if it’s you we are making fun of!!!

P.S. By no means do we think we’re any good at this puppet stuff, we’re just having fun.

COMING SOON!!!

The first movie is up!!!! Click on the pick above to watch the intro to the show. The whole show will be shot gorilla style. No high-def. No good lighting. Only done in one or two takes. Just keep it spontaneous!

Thanks,
Nick

HANDS!!!

Here are some Hand-outs!!! Some of them I've gathered through some time and others I stole them from my good buddy Leif Jeffers' Blog.

Hands are Super-DUPER important. So much acting and emotion can be conveyed with them. Not just in gesture, but simply in how they are posed.

So I hope they help! Or dare I say....Lend a hand.

I know! I suck!

DUDE CHALLENGE 2008!

Ready set GROW!!! I'll be participating in Blue Skies Animation/Story Department 5 week Dude Challenge. The challenge will pit 43 (un)lucky contestants against each other in a battle of the beards competition.

We each had to pick a style out of a hat. Whatever we pick, we have to stick with. I drew "Captain Morgan!"

We'll see how good it comes out, since I only have to shave every other year or so.

click here!

AM Summer Showcase!!!

To put it simply...

Fun, and inspirational animation and storytelling! I definitely laughed out loud more than once.

You all should be proud!

Click here for the showcase!

11 second club

For those of you that don't know about 11 second club, it is a monthly character animation competition that is open to everyone.

Each month the winner is rewarded with a critique given by a professional animator.

This month Leow Chan Ghee has won with a really cool test. So you should go check it out.

The 11 second club website

This month's critique

p.s. I did the critique. Too bad for him huh?

Thank You Cooper!!!

On a near daily basis, my dog Cooper writes in his Blog about us Bruno's. It always puts a smile on my face, and can get me through the toughest of days. Inspiration comes in many forms, and mine is my family.

While I feel privileged to be a Blue Sky animator, I feel even more privileged to have a family. So I just wanted to Thank Cooper for his hard work.

I know its not easy for him to type with his paws.

THANKS COOPER!!!

GO SEE HORTON!!!!

If you don't see it this weekend you may make Taryn sad. You don't want to make little Taryn sad do you?

Check out the reviews so far.

WATCH OPRAH THIS MONDAY!!!

So yesterday I got a call from my good friend Mike Walling who had the day off. He told me that while watching Oprah, he saw an ad for a future Oprah-sode that was dedicated to our movie and the beloved Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears a Who!"

It airs this Monday, Feb 18th. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett all appear to chat with Oprah about the characters they voiced and their experience working on the film. I'm sure they'll show a clip or two as well.

Apparantly Oprah's personal review was beyond glowing, highlighting to all the film's "good for you" message.

We also heard that her designer was so inspired, that they Who-ified the set.

So tune in!!! It should be fun.

And if you get a chance stop by Wallings blog and make fun of him for watching Oprah.

WE HAD A BABY GIRL!!!!

Her name is Taryn Kathleen Bruno
Her nicknames are: Piglet, Tarynosaurus Rex, Taryn the Red Baron, Tarylamadingdong.
She was born on 1-15-08!

She weighed in at 6lbs 8 oz
and she stands about 20inches tall.
Ok she doesn't stand yet.

All is well and we couldn't be happier.

check out my Dog Cooper's blog for updates on her.

HORTON TEASER - as promised

CLICK ME!!!!

Horton Hears a Who - TEASER!!!!

Horton teaser is hittin' theaters today!!!! You can see it before the Simpson's movie. So go check that out. Or if you don't feel like spendin' any dough, I hear you can catch it on AOL today. Or find it on the tube...or somethin'.

I'll try not to be lazy and post a link as soon as I can find one.

Word to ya motha!