Madrid and new friends!

Mando much saludo's a mi amigos en Madrid! Gracias por todo, David y Patricia!!

Hi folks! Here's a pic of my friend David Alvarez and his "mujer" Patricia. They were kind enough to meet up and show us a great time around Madrid. I couldn't have asked for a better tour guide of the city and local scene.

By the end of the night we'd had quite a bit to drink but I still remember what a great night we had catching up!

... more pictures and posts to come when I find time ...

BOLT ANIMATION IS A WRAP!!!

BOLT is COMPLETE!

Well.... at least animation is! What a production, full of amazing work and incredible people. Every moment on Bolt has been an adventure...stressful and exhausting at times.... but awesome nonetheless.

So what now you ask?!?! A much needed vacation! I'll be traveling for the next couple of months.... catching up with old friends and exploring Spain and Italy!! (If anyone reading has any recommendations or advise shoot'em my way, I'd love to hear'em.)

I started my long overdue vacation with a brisk walk around the Hollywood Hills with my baby Rocco! Here's a cute picture I managed to snap while we were taking a breather.



I have friends and family who visit the blog so I'll certainly be updating it with a few pictures and details from my adventure. Keep an eye out!

Who is Rocket Johnson?

Last week we had a book signing party for "WHO IS ROCKET JOHNSON?" a graphic novel that the Disney Story Artists put together. It's a pretty amazing book, illustrated and designed by the top artists in the industry. I managed to snap a cool pic with my best friend (and amazing story artist/character designer) Tron Mai and Director of the up coming film RAPUNZEL (not to mention legendary animator of Tarzan) Glen Keane!

Overall a great event... thanks to all the Disney artist that help put this together!

Princess & the Frog

Here's a treat for all you 2D animation fans! It's the latest teaser trailer for the upcoming Princess and the Frog film.... very cool stuff.

Here's a film called "Yellow Sticky Notes" by Jeff Chiba Stearns. I came across this short film here at work and found it profoundly moving. We all focus intensely on our day to day lives often loosing sight of the bigger picture and larger world events. Check it out... what have you missed?

Where in the world is Matt?

This just made me smile... so i hadta share. Enojy!!

Wall-E + BOLT trailer!

Here's a great little treat... THE NEW BOLT TRAILER! It'll be playing in front of WallE, but here's a sneak peek in case you can't wait ;) I saw WallE last weekend in a special work screening and I thought it was amazing. Another job well done from the guys at Pixar. Keep up the inspiring work!

Presto Teaser

Here's a clip from Pixar's latest short film... due to come out in front of wall-E this weekend! Pretty cool... very... Tex Avery ... Chuck Jones ... style. Check it out!

The Animators Survival Kit - VIDEOS

Check it out... this is pretty sweet! I had the chance to take Richard Williams lecture class before he wrote his book and I found it to be amazing. Full of insightful wisdom and enthusiasm. I thought, "damn... every animator should get a chance to see this for themselves!" Of course his book came out and it pretty much says everything his lecture did... but without the added live aspect and entertainment that only a face to face lecture could give you.

So here's the next best thing!! ONLINE videos!! I live for this stuff!

Click on the image.

Dale Baer

We had a company meeting a few days ago and I was lucky enough to sit next to the legendary animator (and good friend) Dale Baer.... I took this fun little camera phone pic to capture the moment!

...if you haven't already done so... go check out his online/podcast interview at the Animation Podcast by Clay Kaytis! (Click on the image for link)

Real or Fake Smile?

Can you tell a real smile from a fake one? A fellow animator here at work sent out this link. It's fascinating to see if you can tell the difference. How many can you get right?

It's by author, Paul Ekman, who wrote the excellent book "Telling Lies."

Here's a pretty insightful article on BOLT as well as details on the next features coming out of both studios... Rapunzel, The Princess and the Frog, UP, Newt, The Bear and the Bow, Cars 2, and King of the Elves!

the 9th old man

A heartfelt goodbye to the last of the nine old men... Ollie Johnston passed away yesterday. He was 95. I had the pleasure of meeting Ollie a couple of years ago at his Birthday Party here at Disney Animation.

He will be dearly missed.

Disney Pixar Line up....

In case a few of you might not know... here's the latest line up of films coming out of Disney/Pixar! Some really cool projects!!

Zen - Doggy

I came across this pic and thought it was so moving I hadta share.

Horton Hears a Who!

Go see it!

The movie came out great... animation, visual development, and story are all amazing! It was amazing to be a part of such an amazing crew, yet again. I'll post my contributions to the film at a later date. 'Til then... enjoy the film!

Golden Compass WON!!

Wow... what a trip! Golden Compass WON the OSCAR for Best Visual FX!! It goes without saying, but every film is a "team" effort. Congratulations to all involved... it is a true honor to have been a small part of it.

Oscar Nominated

I found this really funny and kinda cool. A fellow animator congratulated me today on being an "Oscar Nominated Animator". I said... what? He said well Golden Compass has been nominated for a "Best Visual Effects" OSCAR... and since I worked on it... it inadvertently makes me... an "Oscar Nominated Animator".

It's a stretch... I know.... but still pretty cool I think!

Best of luck to all the Nominees!

Happy 2008!

I've been seriously neglecting my site for the past few months. I'll try an be better about updates.

After a few months in New York animating on Horton, I'm now back at Disney Animating on BOLT their latest animated feature coming out Winter 2008. I'm super excited to be back in the halls of the mouse house and working on such an incredible film. I can't wait for everyone to check out all the great work going on here.

In the meantime... keep an eye out for Horton Hears a Who ... coming to theater's in the US in March!! My experience at Bluesky was absolutely amazing. I really learned a lot about animation made some great friends and experienced the Big Apple like I never imagined I would. Thanks to everyone who made my experience there a good one!

Cheers!

Wow. It's been quite a while since my last post. Well lots going on.
Since my last post I wrapped up animation at Rhythm & Hues and now
I'm working on Horton Hears a Who? at Bluesky.

Learning tons! This place is amazing and the film incredible.

Glen Keane

I came across a really great site with very inspirational work from Glen Keane. Most folks may have already seen this, but for those who haven't... check it out!

latest and greatest.

Hi folks, sorry it's been a while since I've updated the blog. Lot's going on and work is getting more and more busy these days....

Here's the latest film I'm working on "Golden Compass". Based on a book by Award winning writer Philip Pullman.

The animation is looking amazing! Be on the lookout for a suh-weeet trailer in front of "Pirates" next week.

Bush Scandal Collector Plate

I know this is funny and all... but geez how many scandals can one president be a part of and STILL be president!?!

MTR Animation Tests

For those interested.... here are some of the animations test and sculptures I created while working on Meet the Robinson's.

Jason Ryan Animation!!!

Hey folks... not sure how many peeps already know about this, but Jason Ryan, my AM class 2 mentor and Disney Supervising Animator is starting up an online tutorial site. I'm fortunate enough to be working with Jason on his venture... so I can tell you first hand how cool this is coming together! The official site should be up by the end of the year! SO....Go sign up for his mailing list NOW and be among the first to get updates and goodies!!

Meet the Robinson's

OPENS TODAY!!!

-Amsterdam Part II- Coffee Shops and Red Light District

Onto the lighter portion of our holiday in Amsterdam. Today we really had nothing planned except to explore the city and sight see different areas. So we walked around all the small shops in the Rembrandt Plaza area and main road. I was a trip just to people watch and check out all the folks riding bicycles! We hit a few more Coffee Shops and met some locals in the area. It was a pretty laid back day...

Later at night we met up with our friend Tony and got to check out the much anticipated "Red Light District". I wasn't sure what to expect.... boy, this was one eye opening experience for sure. For the few who may not know what this place is about.... well... think of sex as a business.... yep.... soliciting sex is completely legal... as is many many other things just like smoking marijuana.... This place is undescribable in words... you really hafta be there and see if for yourself to get it.

Amsterdam is a pretty Liberal town... that's all I hafta say about that. ;)

London then.... Amsterdam!

This was our last day in London and was pretty muggy... rainy and cold... but that didn't deter us from heading to Buckinham Palace and witnessing the chaning of the guard. What a ceremony.... it took about 45 min for the traditional soldiers to march up to the tower while playing instuments as they walked. They set up inside the gates and put on a show for all the traveler from around the world. Cassia took a bunch of pics while I just tried to not freeze my toes off! ;) Seriously... this was by far the coldest day there!

Shortly after the ceremony, we headed off to Harrod's and "Tea Time" at a local hotel. Funny enough, as we sat and had our tea I looked over at the bookcase to see what books they had and noticed the newest Harry Potter. I grabbed it off the shelf and to my surprise was actually signed by J.K. Rowlings and dedicated to the hotel we were at. What a trip. We imagined sitting in the same chair as Rowlings and sipping on tea, as I'm sure she probly did! Cheerio! What a wonderful end to the London portion of our trip!


Click image for more pics of London.

We flew into Schiphol at night and stayed in Den Haag, better know to us American's as The Hague, which was about 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam, so we really didn't get to see much of the city that night. The next morning we woke up to a partially sunny day, which was pretty rare in our trip, we hopped on a tram and then the train headed to Amsterdam. The train ride was perfect we got to see a good portion of the Holland country side, which is absolutely breathtaking. The train dropped us off smack dab in the center of Amsterdam and we were ready for our adventure in another city!

We decided to head straight to the Anne Frank Museum/House. I guess I really wasn't sure what to expect here and mentally I was concentrating on not getting lost that I really didn't think about what we were actually going to be seeing. Once we got to the area it was unusually empty, we later realized that we came on a perfect day when there wasn't a huge crowd. I'll tell ya... this was by far the most moving part of my trip to Europe. Up to this point we'd seen artwork and landmarks that were breathtaking... this one... was... mentally and physically heartbreaking. The whole Museum recreated Anne and her family's every step and walks you though the entire house including the small area that they all hid for nearly 2 years! For the next hour I couldn't speak.... and I found myself shedding a few tears for what, not only Anne's family went through, but for what all the Jewish families must have had to deal with during this time. I hope that they all can find some peace in their lives... and that we never forget. I'll leave it at that.

It was hard to keep going after Anne's house, but there was so much more to see in this beautiful city... so we marched on to the Van Gogh's Museum. I had never realized that Van Gogh had only been an artist for roughly 10 years... and in that time created some 200 paintings, 500 drawings! Wow!

Next we were off to Rembrandt's House! This was another amazing tour. They walked you through his whole house filled with original paintings. His house was quite a site... and pretty impressive for the times. As an artist we're usually more financially successfull after death.. but Rembrandt was actually pretty popular in his day and used his house as a gallery as well... entertaining clients! Pretty cool!

What's a visit to Amsterdam without going to a traditional Coffee House! On to our last stop we headed to "The Greenhouse". We had some delicious coffee and entertained ourselves with the lovely views! Nuff said. ;)


Click image for pics of Amsterdam.

-London Part III- Shakespeare, Crown Jewels, and St. Pauls Cathederal

Tower Bridge - Click image for more pics

We woke up to a pretty beautiful day. The sun was actually sunny outside (partially) so we decided to explore the eastern part of London and headed over to the Tower of London . We walked across the Millenium Bridge which drops you of right in front of the St. Paul's Cathederal. What a breathtakin' view of this church and the Thames River. On our way to the Tower we also passed by Shekespeares Theatre. We took a tour and got to actually walk around the inside of the theatre. Even though this is a recreation of the original theatre that burned down centuries ago... it was pretty authentic down to every detail. And even in the contruction of the building they used only material and equipment that were available in the time of Shakespeare. The tour guide also walked us up to the booth in which Queen Elizabeth II sat to watch the very first play when the new theatre opened a few years ago in the late '90's. pretty cool indeed.

After the Shakespeare Theatre we took a long and cold walk to the "Tower of London". We passed several bridges along the way and froze our tails off as you'll see in some of the pics. ;) The coolest by far was the "Tower Bridge" It has so much detail and a brillian blue pinstripe detail along the whole edge. It looked more like a castle than a bridge!

At the Tower of London we got to tour around all the different sections of the castle. From the bedrooms to the small cathederal. They even had a section dedicated as a armory. The castle has been used for so many different purposes encluding beheadings and jails that it's rumored to be haunted... boo! HAHA!

By far however, the best part of the Tower was being able to see the Crown Jewels. They are all being displayed permenantely in this area everything from crowns to orbs to swords you'll find it here! Again.... I couldn't take pictures... but you can catch a small glimps of them here.

-London Part II- From Manet to Picasso

Westminster Abbey - Click image for more pics

Our second day found us in the halls of Westminster Abbey. We spent the better part of the morning exploring the resting places of England's many Kings and Queens. This was a pretty amazing building and the detail was exquisit and breathtakin'. Unfortunately, the only picture we were allowed to take was outside the building. In this same area we got to see a great view of Big Ben and the "Eye" of London.... we thought of going on it... but decided we'd rather take a closer look at all the neighborhood instead of the birds eye view.

Later in the afternoon we headed off to London's National Gallery Museum located in Trafalgar Square. We got to see so many iconic paitings and drawings by all the masters from Manet to Picasso. We got to see Vincent VanGogh's "Sunflowers", DaVinci's "The Virgin of the Rocks", and Raphael's "The Madonna of the Pinks", Rembrant's "Self Portrait", Michelangelo's "The Entombement", and my all time favorite, DaVinci's "The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist". I think this one moved me the most because I'm facinated with pencil sketch and line drawings. It reminded me of a rough animation drawing. Very very amazing to sit and take a real close look at these paintings.

We were also able to explore the city a little more by taking the tube, London's undergroud subway. I was amazed at how accesible the whole city was with just one railway ticket. And remember to "mind the gap" as they say. ;)

-London Part I- Parthenon, Rosetta Stone, and Cleopatra... oh my!

This being my first trip out of the US I was a bit nervous and excited to be seeing a part of the world I had only read in books or seen in movies. The first place we arrived was the Kennsington Train station out of Hethrow airport in London. We hopped on one of the "black" taxi's and headed toward our hotel. In the cab ride we got to see some cool sights, but what freaked me out the most was the simple things, like driving on the opposite side of the road. I kept mentally trying to adjust, it took me all trip to get use to it... the good news is that we didn't drive at all while in London. Thier public transportation is just amazing and blows LA's out of the water. We stayed in the "SoHo" area near Picadilly Circus. I later realized this is the most centralized area to all the great landmarks and museums.

In short, on our first day we got to head to the British Museum where we got to see so many amazing pieces of art, a section of the actual Parthenon taken from the temple of Athena in Greece, the Rosetta Stone, and the mumified Cleopatra. Here are some pics of our first day in London.

......Cleopatra's Mummy...............Entrance to Tomb.....

..The Rosetta Stone.......British Museum....

European Holiday

We're back from our trip to Europe! It was absolutely amazing... my first time out of the states... so many great museums and landmarks! I'm organizing the 300+ picks we took while out there... I'll be posting them up in the next few weeks so stay posted!

Happy 2nd Birthday!!

Damn.... how time flies!

EuropeTrip

I've been planning a trip out to jolly 'ol London and Amsterdam.... anyone have and advice or suggestions on places to see or restaurants to eat at?

Wire Sculpts

First off... HAPPY HOLIDAY'S to everyone!!


Wow... it's been a while since I've updated my blog. Well here's a pic of my latest wire sculpture created in a class I took here taught by Andreas Deja. He's amazing and has so much experience working with wire sculpts. It was amazing to take his class!

Early Disney CG Test

Thanks to a co-worker... Here's a really cool 3D animation test that Disney originally made in 1983. Pretty cool stuff.... it was even directed by our very own John Lasseter.

got EDITOR?

What does a Film Editor do? I kinda wondered that myself...Here's a DVD that talks all about it. I never knew just how involved and powerful an editor can be. I highly recommend it for anyone working on a film of thier own.... or those who simply have an interest in filmmaking.


*image courtesy of amazon

NEW Robinson's Trailer

More on Storytelling

I came across a great video on David Martinez's blog. Along the same lines of the pixar storytelling post I put up a few weeks ago. Here's an online video that breaksdown the storytelling methods and ingredients which create a great story. The video itself isn't geared toward animation... but nonetheless breaks it down for anyone interested in communicating through story. It's lengthy, (and a bit dry) but I guarentee it's worth watching!

94 years....

Today I met a disney legend and one of my idols.
Happy 94th Birthday Ollie!

Storytelling Pixar Style

I came across a really great post by the animation guild here in LA. I don't know how many of you folks had the chance to go to the screenwriting expo last week. There was a great talk given by the top folks at Pixar about storytelling. If you're interested at all ... it made for a really great read. And if there's anyone out there with more notes please post 'em on here and I'll add a link! It sounds like this was an amazing lecture...


Part 1 & 2 *images from animation guild blog

More Pics

For those interested... Here are some additional pics of my new niece, Sophia Bella and my extended family.

I'm an Aunt!

My brother & his wife had a baby girl last week. Her name is Sophia Bella Perez.
6lb. 20 inches long. Here's a pic... I'll try and post more soon.

Crunch Time - Pause

Howdy folks, due to the overhelming hours at work these days.... I haven't had a chance to post very much in the last few weeks. We still have several more weeks of 'crunchin' left so I'm afraid the post will be few and far between, at least for the next month or so.... stay tuned.

More Caricatures

After my caricature class here at work I decided to try and create some of the folks on the film I'm on "Robinson's" .... here's what I got so far ;) ...enjoy!

REBlog hits 30,000

A huge thanks to everyone who visits my little blog and ... especially those who every now and then leave a few encouraging comments! I never woulda thought a year in a half ago, when I started this blog, that I would have so many hits from such a wide variety of countries around the world. I had initially thought my mom would be the only one really looking at this site... boy am I pleasantly surprised!

I hope I can continue posting interesting stuff for everyone to check out every now and then ;)

And if you haven't already noticed a few changes or updates to the blog... lemme point 'em out. I added a cool little link on the right menu bar from Google Maps which logs each visitor based on location in the world. Click on the icon and check it out. Put one on your blog!!

I'll also be adding a brief bio and there's a new Site feed using Feedburner.com And for those who wanna keep in touch via email just fill out your info in the Subsription area and you'll get an email whenever my site is updated. I promise... no spam! Enjoy!
And again... THANKS EVERYONE!!