A fine birthday indeed.

Monday the 15th was my birthday. It was pretty good, for the most part because of our Nickelodeon softball game that night. We played the Insomniac Games team. Our team played very well, beating them 15 to 7. My constant reminders of "It's my birthday - get a hit!" or "It's my birthday - get me to third!" were I'm sure partially responsible for the victory. Whatever the reason, we got 5 runs the first inning and were up by so much that we didn't even get to use the chants and taunts we came up with. The best one: "Low Polyyyyyy" when they were batting. That's such a CG nerd chant that if you don't get, I won't bother explaining. Just roll your eyes.

Next week the real games start, as that was the last practice one. So, with one tie and one win, we're still undefeated...

Tomorrow night is week two of the Nickelodeon Intro to Maya class. I'm going to have them start modeling a simple set and character. It will be something easy that will show all of the tools and methods of modeling. More on that tomorrow!

My Top 5 Favorite Animated Shows Right Now

Just because I've been meaning to write it...

1. Justice League Unlimited
2. Teen Titans
3. Family Guy
4. SpongeBob SquarePants
5. The Simpsons

... And the Pixar party afterwards!

Pixar had a party after the show at a semi-secret location. It was a great time. I got to see some old friends I've worked with, a lot of current Nickelodeon people, and my friend Doug from Disney. The highlight of the evening was an hour or so conversation with me, Look, Chris Neuhahn, Doug, his friend Dick (who's animating the cool villain on "The Robinsons") and Angus MacLane, animator extraordinaire from Pixar. Angus did a lot of the Bob's boss shots in "The Incredibles", and the amazing sequence when Bob drives home and lifts the car. It was a great animators' rap session where we talked about the industry, the same things that go on everywhere, and the things that go on everywhere but Pixar (which is why they are the top dogs!). Angus and Dick, it was great to meet you.

We had to cut the conversation short when they kicked everyone out around 2:30 am. I went back to Nick, and was there 'til about 3:30 am. We got the shot done, and people were happy. A great ending to a crazy and wonderful night.

CalArts Producers Show...

Thursday night I got to go see the CalArts Producers' Show. This show is the crème of the crop of the year's student films, and CalArts is the crème of the crop animation school, so it had some great work. My good friend and former Nickelodeon co-worker Josh Look (yes, that's right, Josh Look) had his film "Asexuality" in it. I may be biased, but I think it was one of the best!

I couldn't really fully relax and enjoy the show, because before and after the show I had to rush back to work on a tight deadline. However, the night proved to be exceptional when I got to go to the next event...

Teaching "Intro to Maya" at Nickelodeon starts

Last night I started teaching an "Introduction to Maya" class at Nickelodeon. I think it went really well based on the feedback from the class, which consisted of around 15 2D artists and production people. It's a tight little training room, so unfortunately there's a waiting list, but we might have two more people from "Tak" next week. We have 5 more Wednesdays with 2 hours per night. Most of the class had never used a 3D app before, so there was lots of new stuff for them to see and take in.

We went through the basics of Maya, including navigating around the program, the basics of translation, rotation, and scale, and got a little bit into animation - just enough to keep people interested. I did some really quick modeling of a ridiculous little character so they could see how what we were learning relates to real world applications. That was the main thing I was trying to stress - that the simple fundamentals are the tools you work with through even the most complicated projects. I know that when you're moving a bouncing ball you think - how does this relate to animating a character? So, I ended the class by showing a couple of complex rigs and explaining how it relates to what they had learned.

Next class we'll jump in to modeling, then animation. I've been putting together some docs since a while back when I knew I'd be teaching the class. I'll put those docs and some sample rigs on the SchoolBook portion of my site soon!

Bishop Animation stops by Nickelodeon

Tuesday we had some guests stop by Nickelodeon. I got to meet Floyd Bishop and 5 of his crew from Bishop Animation. I've known of Floyd for years from Animation Nation and CGTalk, so it was cool to put a face to a name. We have him doing some FX development for a pilot I'm on at Nick, so he stopped by for a meet and greet. His team's also doing a bunch of work for an "Oh Yeah!" short called "Six Monsters", which has a cool production blog. It's great to see an independent animation studio in the US doing good work and being successful. Congratulations to Floyd and his crew. Their next stop: E3!

"Hey Book! Where've Ya Been?"

I know. I haven't been posting lately. Life's just been getting a little too crazy. I'm working on a second show at Nick for a little while, in addition to Tak. My email's behind. My blog's neglected. Digitally, I'm making latchkey kids. Here's my list of excuses:

At work:
Overseeing CG on Tak
Helping finish a pilot for Nick Jr.
I have to pick an intern for our dept.
Starting teaching a Maya class Wednesday (tomorrow)

At home:
Directing and overseeing production on an independent CG project.
Working on my short.

That last one is what I really want to be spending more time on, but shorts are always the first thing to go to the back burner. That's their lot in life.

Oh, but we did completely redesign the CG dept. I had all of the cubes removed from our room. It's way nicer now, and everybody digs it. I'll post pictures soon. I promise. I don't like neglecting my blog. It's good to get a lot of stuff out of my head and onto the page. See you soon.

NICK: The Splats are Undefeated!

So, our Nickelodeon softball team just had the first game of the summer season, and WE'RE UNDEFEATED! (We tied). Still, it was a great game and the team looks strong. My fellow Tak team members include Chris, James (Wrecking Ball), and Rusty (Hot Tamale). My wife Jennie is also playing and she did great, including catching a ball and throwing to first for a double play. Yee-haw, it's gonna be a good season!

I'm also excited about the new uniforms, going back to the Nickelodeon orange, and the new name, The Splats. Next time we win!