back home

I am back home. Back to my flat and cat, family and friends. Back to Austria, good food, snow and freezing cold. The downside is I am not with all he other nice people at all the other gorgeous places.

I finished my contract with Framestore CFC at the end of November. Thanks to all the people there I had really good time at work. Every single day.
And thanks to all the other people I got to know during my stay I enjoyed my spare time too. Which is quite unusual for an animator. (Just ask Manfred…)
I know I gonna see you all again some day soon so let’s get not too emotional!

So where ever you are have a nice Christmas season and enjoy the holidays. (Especially you, Manfred!)

publish

Did I tell you about publish?Well, publish is when not only the lead animator but also the director and the production agree that the animation is awesome. And then the only thing left for the animator to do is to press the ” Publish” button. Which passes the animation on to the TDs and the Postproduction.Sweet! Because that what happened two my two shots that kept comming back to me to change them. They have been approved and I am finally done with them.

a hill

I guess I found the only hill around London. It’s in Greenwich and 1675 they put the Royal Greenwich Observatory on top of it. And yes, that’s the home of the prime Meridian. A nice historical place where you can easily stand in the east and hold a cup of coffee in the west.

What they don’t tell you is that you are standing at the old prime meridian. Tue to a modern reference system the new prime meridian is about 100m east of the steel engraved, laser marked one.
I have been there too and found a squirrel.

After that I went DownTown extreme shopping for the rest of the day.

an inconvenient truth

I finally saw the film “an inconvenient truth“. And, oh boy, that’s definitely some inconvenient truth Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore have to show us. According to the facts they present the climate crisis is happening right now and has already an impact on our lives and will be dreadful in the near future.

And I believe in those facts. Because Al Gore ran for President against Mr. G.W.Bush, is member of the Board of Directors of Apple and Senior Advisor to Google. So he has to be one of the good guys, right?
Just kidding =)

No, I believe in those facts because even if they are hyped, acting accordingly would still make the world a better place. And if just a little.
So watch the film or at least click the “TENTHINGSTODO” button on the left and take action. Do it for yourself and your children. Or at least do it for me. Because I love to travel and I would really hate it if you spoil my experience.

After I saw the film I went to the Human Resource Department here at Framestore CFC and made sure they are into recycling and saving energy. And I was pleased to hear that this really is a matter of importance. Still I had some suggestions and they wanted me to join the compost -team (that’s what they call the tree hugger here at Framestore CFC). Unfortunately I am leaving in a few weeks but if I ever come back I will participate.

changes

Yup, the ‘evil’ shot came back.
The animation and camera movement in this shot is restricted by the background. Which is stitched together. And therefor has some holes and open edges. But since the creature is at full speed it goes off screen for a few frames when it is about to turn. Unfortunately the director was so pleased with the animation that he wanted to see it on screen for the full length. So the background had to be extended to move the camera a little more to the left to follow the creature all the way. This  altered the geometry slightly… so I not only had to change the camera movement but also the animation.

I think this shot number will be engraved in my tombstone…

I submitted it yesterday. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back.

At the beginning of the week I did another shot and submitted that also. And guess what: … Changes!

clark kents weekend

chilling to recover from Friday I was rushed out by Roman to attend a private Halloween party. He was asked to show some magic tricks and I was asked to come along. Having nothing better to do I grabbed my new superman t-shirt, one of his ties (which alone is a costume for me) and we took a bus to Parsons Green. I must say Roman became quite good with some of his tricks and especially the card tricks are awesome. During the night I found out it was a charity event so it was totally worth my heroic appearance.
And I had lots of fun as soon as my real identity was revealed.

submit. -> party

… and I just heard that we have successfully delivered episode 3.

Well done to everybody for pulling off the hardest creature we have to do this series to a level we didn’t think would be possible on this schedule. The clients are delighted!
Special mention should go to… Mark and his team for the brilliant animation,…

miss my cat

OK, there is that shot that is hounting me.
First I struggled to get it right. Then I struggle some more. Then I do some corrections. Then I am allowed to submit. -> Party!

Then the director decides to change something so I train my creature to do a new trick, I do the mandatory struggling and I am allowed to submit. -> Party!

Now it turns out that the creature is too small. But since you can’t either change the scene or the beast in size you end up with a miss placed animation. And since all the struggling has been taken care of already twice I opt for an technical approach to alter the animation in size too. I spare you the details [and for those other animation nerds out there: call me if you want to know more] and just mention that I am a freaking genius.

Well, I have to admit, it’s not finished yet but I will keep you updated.

well done

friday, 12.Oct.2007, events in chronological order:

0900

Hi all,

Well we’ve nearly completed delivery of episode 1 for Primeval2! As I write this only a few shots left for DI to pick up, meaning that we will have completed and delivered our first 126 shots of this series!

Huge congratulations and many thanks to you all for your tireless enthusiasm so far. The results this series are already truly stunning and I am extremely humbled by what you guys seem able to achieve with such little luxury of time!

I am sadly not in today, and will miss the chance to join you for a pint tonight – and I am very sorry for that. We will of course be screening the finished, graded, mastered episode one as soon as we can and I’ll certainly be hoping for another chance to join in the celebration!

Well done!

Best

Matt (Managing Producer, Televison)

1452

Congratulations everyone -we have delivered our last shot for Ep1!!!

It is by far our biggest episode so it’s a real achievement. Digital Lab are mastering to tape this afternoon and everyone from the colourist to the director and EPs are commenting on how good it looks so well done on this fantastic first episode!

Pauline (Head of Production, Primeval 2)

1800

Production are off to the pub, follow us now or see you guys there!!

1810

BEER!

thanks mom

thanks to this medicine my mom gave me to take to London (just in case) I am feeling much better.

Oh, and the mouse that is living somewhere in the walls in that house just fieped and stucked her little head out of the hole in the wall where the pipes of the heating come through. Cute little bugger. Will have to find a mouse trap that catches the mouse alive.
Any hints which shop in London sells mouse traps?