Cars

Listening to Car Talk on NPR this morning, I realize that when doodle-ing on the train yesterday I must have been sort of inspired by Pixar's Cars, which I finally saw on DVD last week. That animated movie is not quite up there in quality with their other great features, but you can't win them all I guess. When having lunch in Montclair recently at our favorite European Eatery, I overheard a mother saying that her boy, who was about three and wearing a "Cars" T-shirt, watched that DVD every day, and twice on Sunday. "My girl has the same thing with 'Ice Age'", the other woman replied. Guess creating animation that has that much impact on kids is quite something.

Garbage

All I have to show now for my animation efforts of the last couple of days is: garbage. I did animate quite a few seconds as well, but here's a test for a garbage bag. Oh, I did also put a cap on the truck drivers head

Time consuming stuff...

Spent most the last two days animating, but do not have much to show for it. Animation Tips:

• When you build a truck, make sure there is enough space between the seat and the steering wheel for the character to move if he is to get out of the car.


• When possible, make characters walk in straight lines. Making them turn long corners su... is much harder


• When you take a break from a project for two months, write down where you just found that option in your 3D program so you do not need to look for it when you pick up where you left off. Off course, it helps to know that you might not have time to touch the project

And still... it's so great to see this thing I build come to life!

Raccoon on the Roof

Less than a foot outside the window of our appartment there is a tree that functions as a squirrel highway with two way traffic from and to the roof. Two days ago, a huge furry thing came climbing down. When I stuck my head out the window, the raccoon looked up at me, like "what 'r you lookin' at?". Yesterday we saw it again, climbing up.

This morning, when I got home from the dentist, I saw a pest control van parked in front of our building. I parked the car, and when I passed the storm drain I saw a small and unhappy raccoon sitting there. It didn't run, just sat there. I asked the guy from the pest control van if he was here because of the raccoon on our roof. He confirmed that, and added that he "had taken care of it". Helpful as always I pointed him to the little one sitting near the storm drain. He thanked me and said he would see to it.

To say that the scared face of that little furry creature has been haunting me since would be an exaggeration, but I did feel some unease. The pest control guy had just "take care of" its mother, and now I had betrayed it. I try to tell myself that it probably had no chance to survive without its mother and that at least it wouldn't painfully stave to death. Not real comforting for this vegetarian...

Did April just fly by?

Wow... this is my first post in April and it will be May in a couple of days. Time flies when you work full time and have an hour long commute each way. Not complaining though, it's good to be back in the real world. I will be getting a little break though, and I'm creating this post to revitalize my use of this blog as a surrogate AA. So look for posts on the progress of my new animation soon!