In Between The Keys

Happy Holidays, and to a Happy 2012!

2011-12-20T11:38:00.003-05:00

Dear friends and family,

This year was yet another year of dramatic change for us. We spent the early weeks of 2011 working on the east coast: Laura had another contract with SpeakeasyFX to help animate a second season of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" for Sesame Street, and Naveen was continuing as a game programmer at AMI Entertainment. Every day Naveen would drive 45 minutes to an hour down to his job in Pennsylvania, and Laura would commute by train an hour and a half up to north central New Jersey to her job. But soon our lives would change.

We knew Laura’s contract would end in July, so the race began. Where would we go next? It wasn’t long before Naveen scored a really nice position at Twisted Pixel Games down in Austin, Texas. That’s right, Texas! So our journey began... again. As you know, when we got married on September 6, 2008, we thought we were going to be living in Chicago for a while, but it was only a week later that Laura got her first contract for the Sesame Street project and had to move, separating us for our first year of marriage. We overcame that and Naveen eventually moved out to be with her. However this time was Naveen’s turn to take the leap, which he did in mid-March. If anyone thought it was an April Fools joke when we told you Naveen was working in Texas on April 1st, we were telling the truth!

We visited Texas a couple of times to secure a place to live. We ended up at Iron Rock Ranch on Slaughter Lane, believe it or not! Sounded like Texas to us. Even before starting the job, Naveen was welcomed out to a co-worker’s bachelor party the night before he started work. His new company was a lot of fun, with a great atmosphere, challenging work, and great people. For Laura, it was an end of an era - she finished her work at SpeakeasyFX by early summer and had to quickly pack up the apartment all by herself! In true “Laura” fashion, she whirled through the apartment like a tornado to get most everything done in the final 72 hours. She flew our kitty Sully down to Texas over July 4th weekend, and made the final voyage with a loaded van at the end of July, first stopping for a few days with family in Indiana, then driving with her mom to Memphis and finally Austin. It was a great road trip and Mom seemed to really enjoy it too!

We spent the summer acclimating to our new Texan environment - tubing down the Comal River with friends, enjoying some great ribs at Salt Lick, gazing out over Lake Travis, hopping around on South Congress to the various food trailers, and more - all with the great folks we’ve met at Twisted Pixel. They even have a “wives” club, no joke, where the women together for brunches and bake-offs and such, which Laura loves. She has also stayed very busy since the summer, getting freelance projects here and there, and supervising layout and animation on an independent animated short film, which will likely come out next summer. Naveen has been working hard since the release of his first title, “Gunstringer,” for Xbox Kinect. His company was just acquired by Microsoft, which is a great deal for everyone - TPG gets to continue generating creative projects, Microsoft gets to exclusively publish their great games. It’s a win-win!

In the final months of the year, we are busier than ever. But we wanted to take a moment and wish you a very happy holiday, and a happy, healthy 2012!

Originally posted on LauraSko.com/holiday

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-21T12:34:00.005-05:00

Going on hiatus from freelancing and the short film this coming week (22nd-29th). Hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving!

Laura

Greetings, GDC Online!

2011-10-11T13:43:00.004-04:00

So you met me at GDC Online in Austin, and you wanted to check out my blog.

That’s nice! Thanks! Now let's work together!

What's in it for you?

About me:

Computer Graphics Technology at Purdue University

Animation Mentor

"Abby’s Flying Fairy School"

online interactive component

GDC Online

Professsional Skillset

It was a pleasure meeting you, and please keep in touch!
http://laurasko.com/

Loving Life in Austin, TX

2011-10-02T15:45:00.012-04:00

Wow. It occurred to me that I have gone quite some time without posting on my blog what is going on in my life. Work on season 2 of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" with SpeakeasyFX wrapped in July, and in the days following I packed up our apartment and moved everything to Austin, TX - stopping overnight with my folks in Indiana for a few days, then overnight in Memphis, then finally to be with my hubby again in Texas. It was a long haul getting here but we love it here so far.

The end of July was spent getting used to the new apartment and a brand new city (region, really) with tons to do, places to go, things to see, people to meet. Right off the bat we have made friends with his whole office at Twisted Pixel Games. We have had house parties, lazy river tubing, baby showers, dinner and movie outings at Alamo Drafthouse venues around town (fantastic!!), and quite notably, the Gunstringer (for Xbox Kinect) launch party on a boat up at Lake Travis. We've eaten at the famous trailers, visited the capitol building, hung around downtown, and most importantly have just hung around together, enjoying daily life in one place again.

Recently we enjoyed a full day of Austin City Limits music festival, which was a big deal for us. We had only ever been to Summerfest up in Wisconsin, which was fun (probably more family-oriented with craft activities for kids, etc), but this was a great fun time with some great new music to our ears, as well as our primary reason for attending - Arcade Fire! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but completely burnt out exhausted from 10am-10pm in 100 degree heat. We may do a 3-day pass next year, especially since it will take place a month later in the year (hopefully slightly cooler, although in Texas, a "cool" day seems to be 90 degrees so far).

Fun things coming up include a wine trail tour, since it was rumored to us that Texas wineries are second in the country to Napa in California! We'd like to plan a bed and breakfast getaway out there as well, as a belated 3-year anniversary trip. Of course, we still have to plan our honeymoon too (is that getting old yet?) and had thought about doing that over Thanksgiving, but we are apparently really bad planners when it comes to vacations. We seem to do fine for seeing people, specific events or conferences, etc, but we're really bad at planning getaway times. Something we'd like to improve while we are enjoying our time here.

Professionally speaking, Naveen has been loving his job at TPG, very excited about the release of Gunstringer (his first big title!) and about working with such a great team of people.

I have been working at home toward an independent short film slated for release in March 2012, hopefully in time for the festival circuit. It's a collaborative project with a 45-member team working remotely, even internationally. I'm proud to have contributed layout work this summer, and will be supervising animation on it in the coming weeks. We have some great minds and talents working together on this, so it's pretty exciting to see it grow right now.

Oh, and finally, Sully has been enjoying it here too. He loves having all the stairs and windows at the townhome, and is learning to be a little more independent of us, although we are still thinking about getting him a buddy next year. We're just not sure what kind of buddy yet. ;-) We'll keep everyone posted!

Hope you are all well. Happy autumn!

Austin-Bound in Three Weeks

2011-06-25T10:39:00.006-04:00

Hi friends and family!

I'm wrapping up my time here in New Jersey very quickly. As most of you know, Naveen took a job in April as a tools and gameplay programmer at Twisted Pixel Games in Austin, TX, and soon I will be joining him down there. I plan to drive to Indiana in one day, spend a few days with my parents, and then drive to Austin over two days. If anyone wants to carpool with me, let me know! :-) Free road trip, anyone? :-)

So the details: I only have 3 weeks until I'm scheduled to be out of my apartment. In one week, I'm traveling to Austin with our kitty Sully, who should love the heat and sunshine more than any of us. So after July 4 weekend I will be kittyless in New Jersey. Then two weeks from now, SpeakeasyFX (where I work) is wrapping up season 2 of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" for Sesame Street, which is likely going to be an emotional moment in my life. My last day at SpeakeasyFX will be July 8. It will be a really short week due to the holiday, plus I'm taking a day off on Tuesday for travel back from Austin. The weekend of the 9th-10th is really my last weekend in my apartment in its current state, because by the 13th the movers could show up and move me out. I had to give a 4-day window, so it could happen anytime between the 13th-16th. The 17th is my last day in NJ no matter what as I will turn over my keys by that date and will be en route to Indiana to stay with my parents for a couple of days. There is a chance I would leave on an earlier date if I'm out a few days before then, but it just depends how things are looking at that point and what's going on in NJ/PA/NY area. :)

I have selected a mover - North American - and did not realize the initial quote I was given during the in-home estimate included full packing service, so I might just go ahead and put the money down for that rather than recruiting friends to help me do it. Many of my friends are also moving, and regardless, I'd much rather spend the time enjoying their company than wrapping up my stuff.

Depending on what happens schedule-wise, I think it might be fun to have friends over on the 9th-10th, or anytime that week of the 11th, but I know all of you are quite a drive away so I'm not expecting anything.

On top of my 9 hour day up in Westfield for work, I have 2 hours of commute per day, and then I try to spend my evenings mostly working on a private project (which is being called "OPP" for the time being). It was started by my friend Jac Piette and a colleague of hers almost a year ago, and over the last several months it has gone through dozens of story iterations and simplifications. They have gathered together about 30 of their industry friends from Disney, Dreamworks, Rhythm & Hues, Blue Sky, ReelFX, and Digital Domain, among other studios, and we are creating an animated short film together. This past week we finally got the first rough editorial cut of the storyboards and this weekend we officially start layout. Also exciting is that Jac has asked me to supervise animation with Brian Carney, and we have our 9 animators currently working on character walks and other tests to build momentum toward animation kickoff, which will happen just about when I'll be moving. So between critiquing animation cycles and laying out shots, things are pretty busy right now! I'm very grateful to have this project going on, namely to have the chance to work with such talented people, but also to have an animation project keeping me busy while I'm transitioning into my new life in Texas.

I just thought I would keep you in the loop. Hope all of you are well, and I will be in touch! Love to all.

Adventure is Out There!

2011-04-20T22:55:00.007-04:00

The Incinerator

Man. I can't watch this part of Toy Story 3 (the Incinerator) without crying. So intense!!! :-p Just hits you in the heart the way they look at each other in the face of death. That sort of raw, instant empathy I feel for them is exactly why I love Pixar and their ability to tell stories.

I'm not sure what's next for me in Austin, TX when I move there this summer, except to say that no matter what I'm doing, I hope I'm animating something great. I don't have anything lined up just yet in terms of work, but there are two really amazing looking indie productions I'll be working on with others, and the viz dev is already blowing me away on one of them. So whether I find myself employed or not... I intend to find myself on an adventure.

A new kind of greatness yet to be defined.

Car vs. Train - April 2011

2011-04-02T14:56:00.003-04:00

So, now that Naveen is in Texas and I'm still in NJ, I got to keep our vehicle and he got a new (well, used) Mazda 3, I think a 2010 or 2009. The vehicle in NJ? A 2003 Honda Odyssey. HA! So one of these days, hopefully in TX, I'll buy my own first car myself. But for now, I'm looking at all the ways driving is better than taking the train.

First, I love to drive. LOVE to drive. When we moved from Chicago to NJ, I drove us the ENTIRE WAY. Naveen offered to drive several times, but I took it on and loved it (until we nearly ran out of gas at 1am in NJ where the gas stations close at night.. but we still made it).

Secondly, I have learned to hate the trains. A part of me still remembers the wistful, distant chugga chuggas and woot woots with blissful, rose-colored nostalgia. However, the bigger part of me remembers being shoved around in the vestibule between cars when all the seats were full and "standing room only" on NJ Transit would equate to being married in some countries, as no part of yourself is any longer private in the mangled mess of limbs and briefcases and bags.

There is of course the memory too of being able to read, sleep, and converse with people while riding the train, but those occurred primarily during the wait for a train to arrive a half hour later than scheduled, or more, or while on a stopped train waiting to start up again.

A lot of time was wasted on NJ Transit in the past couple of years. My route cost me 1.5 hours or more each way, depending on one excuse or another about a train becoming disabled, blocked by another disabled train, police activity, or an unexplained cancellation, so anywhere from 3-5 hours per day had been spent on or waiting for trains. Even on the worst days when Route 1 is stop and go and the Garden State Parkway is more of a Garden State Parking Lot, a one way trip will at most cost me 1.5 hours; but on a normal day, one way is 45 minutes.

Then there is the cost. I plan to save my receipts through April to determine my cost of travel. With the trains, a monthly pass for me to get from Jersey Avenue to Westfield cost me $248. From J-Ave to New York Penn is $361 per month. This of course doesn't count the 10-15 minute drive it takes to get to J-Ave, and of course it overlooks the fact that J-Ave is closed on weekends - I have to go farther up the line to New Brunswick to catch a train in that case, or if I am going by myself instead of getting dropped off, I have to go south to Princeton Junction for a chance at a parking space, which you pay for and then pay more for your ticket as well.

It's true, gas is expensive right now. I filled up on the night of 3/31 right near home so that I could start this experiment with a full tank of gas. The gas was $3.31/gal and my total was $45.22. I will not be counting this toward my April total, but I figure if gas is an even $50 per week, that's $200 per month and definitely cheaper than the train. We don't have car payments on this old thing (on April 1, I had 146,862 miles on it!), so that helps, and our insurance is pretty reasonable at $64 per month (both drivers and a variety of services), but keep in mind if you were actually making a cost analysis of train vs. car, you still need a ride of some sort from our apartment to the train station, so that can't be overlooked.

The roaring motor and whistle sounding in the distance beckons ("Stella!!!!!") -- but I've moved on!

Ain't No April Fools

2011-04-01T23:56:00.002-04:00

Three months of 2011 are complete and no posts yet until now. You know why.

THINGS. ARE. BUSY.

It's been a fairly crazy start to the year. After being unemployed for a large part of 2010, I got to enjoy a long-anticipated return to SpeakeasyFX for a stunning 5 or 6 hours before I became pretty badly sick and had to stay home for 2 days. Ha! But, illness aside, it's been a remarkable new season so far, with a 700-frame weekly quota and some fun new characters. I can't wait to show everyone.

Now for the real reason for this post, and no, it's not an April Fools prank (which I love)...

The bigger news of course is that Naveen just started as a tools/engine programmer yesterday at Twisted Pixel Games in Austin, TX. He got the offer back in January and since they didn't need him until April, we had to sit on it for a month while we figured some things out. We were finally able to make our public announcement on the week of March 1, so that he would give his two-week notice and have two weeks until starting at TPG.

First of all, Austin is great. The climate is particularly awesome right now, when the upper region is still dealing with snow and sleet and freezing temperatures. However, more impressive is the people. EVERYONE seems incredibly nice. And I think I'll be even more of a foodie there than I am here.

Secondly, toward the end of February we were able to schedule an apartment-hunting trip to check out different sides of town. After sifting through literally hundreds of apartments, we had only enough time and energy to check out a little over a dozen of them in person, and we were able to make a decision by the time we left, which gave us a little much-needed peace. Then toward the end of March, we scheduled the move in, but we decided to keep most of our stuff in NJ for now, shipping only his computer and two suitcases full of his clothes, a couple books, and dishware. We cleaned the apartment and had maintenance look at a few things, and got him an air mattress, computer chair, and other necessities. It is a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhome, which we are tremendously excited about -- at least 300 square feet more than our current 1-bedroom apartment, and $60 less per month. It's in a decent area, and about 10 minutes from his work.

Now begins my hunt, and a lot of personal decision making. I have a tremendous employer with managers who know my situation and have been extremely helpful and understanding through the ordeal. I have been doing my ultimate best at keeping my emotions at bay and focusing at work, but I am once again dealing with separation from my loving husband and it isn't easy. I am looking forward to joining him as soon as possible, and I am still deciding how and when that will happen. My animation contract doesn't exactly have an end date but our current project will complete animation sometime in July, so that is when I expect to move. It seems as though there are a lot of game studios in Austin, so I may find myself there as opposed to film or tv animation, but I have some other projects in the works as well, so we will see. Time will tell.

For now, we are so thankful for all our support from friends and relatives, and we continue to wish you all the very best. XO!

2011, Make A Wish!

2010-12-30T10:05:00.003-05:00

Unbelievably, in less than 3 days, we will be living in the year 2011.

This year had several ups and several downs, but stirring in just enough of the right ingredients seems to keep things going strong. We have been in a holding pattern for quite some time, with freelance opportunities and side projects here and there, but our patience has paid off and now I have at least 6 months of employment to look forward to with SpeakeasyFX! Season 2 of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" begins!!!

The last two weeks were spent as a layout supervisor there, putting together layouts and assisting in composition and creative direction for the first episode. It's fantastic to be back. Not everyone has returned yet, but we're only days away from full production and I am super excited that I'll be returning as an animator as of January 3, and get to see all my SEFX friends again.

Since the studio was closed this week (for Christmas through New Years), I've been taking it easy at home, cleaning and making turkey-egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwiches to freeze for myself during the workweek. Despite the massive snowstorm that hit the northeast, I did get to travel "home" to Wisconsin (and back, without incident!) to see most of my family. We arrived on the afternoon of Christmas Eve and stayed through Monday, visiting my dad's mother and some family, as well as mostly my mom's side (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins), went to church for vigil mass and Holy Family Sunday, and enjoyed tons of excellent home cooking and bakery, games like Apples to Apples, and quality family time. Now that I'm back in New Jersey, my attention is back to getting to work on another Sesame Street project, which everyone asked about over the holidays and triggered further excitement!

This year has been tough, though. I've learned that if I want to be happy in this line of work, I have to prepare for more seamless transitions between jobs. I absolutely love animating in a creative studio of folks, all working together toward something bigger than a project I'm merely kicking around at home. It's taken me a while to decide that if you are a project hire, it isn't disloyal to spot new opportunities and take them. If I am willing to do that, I am being loyal to myself, and frankly it makes me feel more saught after, which is rewarding when it happens. Until a place puts you on staff, you have to keep the ball in play at all times, sending reels out and applying places where you feel you can make a positive difference in the product, and also to be happy and make others happy during production.

January is a great time to get hired, and it is also a good time to develop and finish side projects, deciding whether they are reel-worthy, and put that development cycle on a continuous loop, rather than to expect so much from a single project. You shouldn't be developing for a reel, you have to develop the talent. Gotta take the blinders off and make broad improvements.

That said, may it be a Happy New Year to all -- a year of relentless strength, proactive perseverance, marked improvement, open-mindedness, calculation, and confidence. And be happy!!!!!

Naveen and I opening gifts at our apartment in NJ.

Making breakfast sandwiches with Pillsbury Grands, turkey, egg, and cheese.

The Milwaukee airport, Christmas 2010.

The storm that skipped over the midwest but walloped the east coast.

Naveen and I on Christmas Eve 2010. Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!!!

2010-12-09T10:29:00.004-05:00

The holidays are here!!!!!

I am super excited.. and I haven't even gotten my flights yet to go home yet. It's been a crazy time lately, wondering what the future holds for us. But as of Monday I'll be back on at SpeakeasyFX putting together layouts for a new season of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" for Sesame Street! I am so excited. I wish we could put together a Christmas special for next year. I've always wanted to work on one... like Disney's Prep & Landing, a relatively new ABC holiday special. Last night they aired a short called "Operation Secret Santa," which I caught this morning on YouTube. It's a SUPER cute new holiday Disney series, featuring Betty White as Mrs. Claus, Dave Foley as one of the elves, among others.. well done!!! Check it out.

Watch on YouTube

Official Prep & Landing Disney Site

Story Telling...

2010-12-05T23:01:00.002-05:00

...is something I sincerely want to get better at. A handful of friends and family tell me that they already like my storytelling, but I tend to be long-winded, full of details that may or may not be necessary or critical to my audience -- the kinds of stuff people might skim over in a book that they're cramming in a hurry to get to the end. Being concise is not a strong suit of mine.

One thing you learn in animation is to tell stories -- not just through the animated expression of the character, but also through composition, lighting, texturing, aspects of your set and props, etc.

If someone were to animate me, in my life right now, they may put together a jovial essence with a lot of hinted backstory of struggle and hard work in my facial expressions and how I hold myself when I'm sitting at my computer desk, playing Angry Birds on my Droid, reading books on Autism and stars and religion and fuzzy Muppets. Gradually, they could tell a bigger story by modeling a fantastic array of clutter on my desk, consisting of power cords, pencils I used in the fourth grade, handmade felt flowers from Nepal, several external hard drives, travel receipts, honeymoon vacation brochures, Tylenol Cold medicine, coupons, bank statements, demo reels, pads of paper with scribbled dates, recipes, and wannabe-Matt-Groening-slash-Jhonen-Vasquez-style sketches of myself and my husband.

Then you add more story-telling layers. Many items are covered in a thin layer of dust and/or cat hair. Papers are generally a bit crinkled throughout with worn looking edges from getting thrown in and out of travel bags or my ever-stuffed purse. The honeymoon brochures have those transparent circle seals, which are yet unbroken. In the looming shadow behind my flatscreen monitors are my demo reels from this past year as well as blank dvds for new reels. Also back there is my webcam, which I used to use daily when my husband and I had to live 800 miles apart (but now he's at the desk beside me, tinkering away at his work as well).

All those details add so much to that crazy ol' Laura character with the goofy-serious face, hunched camel neck, and famed librarian hairstyle... typing away thoughtfully at her machine.

Staples..That Was Hard

2010-11-30T15:31:00.003-05:00

Telemarketing calls are annoying.

It's bad enough to get unwanted calls from time to time. It's almost more annoying to continue getting unwanted calls regularly per month from the same venue.

I've gotten many calls in the last year claiming to be from Staples Rewards.. many times I ignored the call, let it go to voicemail, etc. But the last couple of months I started asking to be removed from the system, with no luck.

On September 16, I got a call from a pleasant sounding woman named Shiny (yes.. Shiny) who claimed to be my Staples Rewards account manager, which seemed weird to me because to be honest I rarely shop at Staples - I made a large purchase a few years ago when I was initially setting up my home office (desk, chair, etc) but I don't have many office supply needs. I think I signed up for rewards at the time, but to my knowledge I've never received any Rewards information or benefits, and had since forgotten about the program. She seemed perplexed because there was activity on my Staples Rewards account, $12 here, $30 there, etc. That certainly wasn't me - I don't know the last time I shopped at Staples. I gave her updated information (no credit card, just email and home addresses) and she said the Rewards checks would come to me now, but I have just found this very confusing and thought I should report it. The contact info she gave me was Shiny Varghese, 866-319-8181 extension 7654, but she called me from 306-584-6705.

I reported exactly that to a customer service contact form online, but never got any response. Then today, I got another call from Shiny. Of course now she had all the updated information I had given her the last time, but I had still not received any rewards checks or even any account information - no mail at all from Staples. She was again perplexed to hear this, and I just told her I didn't mean to be unfriendly but I wish to stop the unwanted calls as I am not currently a Staples customer, my former account information is not accurate (and has not been corrected), and someone else is using my rewards checks (although they are buying with the card so they should be getting the awards.. I just don't want the calls anymore)...

So I reported again to the online form that I had received another call from the same person and now I absolutely would like to be removed from their system. I even went to the Staples customer service live chat and spoke briefly with a person who didn't know what to do, and then gave me a number, (800)793-3320, which I could call to get my information removed. I called, and reached a woman who said my telephone number wasn't in their system. Frustrated, I asked why I am getting calls from reps, and she suggested it might be this other department, so she gave me another number, (877) 235-9088. When I called that number, I spoke with an operator, and got redirected back to the original number. At this point I was so fed up that I just disconnected. I imagine the next time Shiny calls me, I will demand to speak to a supervisor. All of the roundabout calls ignite my dramatic side and makes me just want to organize a boycott of Staples (if it is actually them, and if not I just wonder if these are just some amazingly connected scam artists up in Saskatchewan -- which is apparently where Shiny calls from).

There are other people as frustrated as I am out there. I searched Shiny's phone number on Google and made a complaint on this 800notes.com website along with maybe a hundred other people who also have received calls claiming to be from Staples.

No "easy" button for this ongoing problem... :(

Virtual Me #1

2010-11-18T09:42:00.003-05:00

This is hardly the first digital representation of myself that I have made. Nor is it anywhere near the best. I just thought I should share the 5 minute pose exercise I did yesterday morning over coffee and waking up my animation brain for the day. It's not a great pose, but I want to do more of these "quick sketches" since they prove useful to do with a sketchbook and pencil or vine charcoal.

Thanks to Animation Mentor for the customizable Bishop 2.0 rig. It's very versatile even in its beta/first released version. So all you AMers, check it out!

Solace

2010-11-15T20:55:00.002-05:00

It's been an interesting year. Only a month and a half left of 2010. On one hand, it seems that I didn't use this year to its full potential, and although there is some amount of correctness to the thought, I spent a lot of this year learning about myself and about the world, and how I think the two should be related.

Tonight I had some time to myself, with inspiration from Queen, Temple Grandin, and a little Vouvray --- 2008, a good year! :) It's been a quiet, reflective kind of evening, which is highly welcomed after a string of working and crashing and noise. I don't really have anything more to say about it. Just thought I'd share. I'm happy. :-)

The Queen Symphony, Movement #3, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Tolga Kashif

Abby Season Two Announced!!!

2010-11-10T15:47:00.006-05:00

What better day than today, the 41st birthday of Sesame Street, to announce that I'll be returning to SpeakeasyFX on January 3, 2011, for a second season of Abby's Flying Fairy School. WOOT!!!

Some of last season's episodes can be found on Leslie's page! Yay!

Happy birthday Sesame Street! Presents for Everyone!!!

~*-*-*-*-*~

Just New Jersey

2010-11-02T12:06:00.001-04:00

There are no words for this awesomeness.. so I'll just repost with credit to Jon Stewart and Schmoyoho.

Auto-Tune the News: Sanity Song

Call Me Katamari

2010-10-21T13:45:00.004-04:00

I've decided, in all my recent purging of nostalgia, my nickname should be katamari - I'm a rolling, highly adhesive ball collecting junk as I tumble along hoping to become a star.

Check out: TomPreston (DeviantArt) Nintendo Katamari Cartoon

Recently I took a trip back to my stomping grounds in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where my parents and my husband's parents still live 5 minutes away from each other. My folks think they're edging closer to putting the house on the market, and all summer I had hoped to visit them but then I went and did that preschool thing, so the time finally seemed right to make the journey home and start sorting, throwing out, recycling, and donating my stuff that has stayed behind the last several years.

Which, of course, meant Man Week for my husband.

I planned the trip to overlap my good friend Cait's baby shower in Chicago and surprise her there, and I also had friends to see in Indianapolis area (including my friend Mark on Saturday, my other pregnant friend Jess with her son Liam and our friend Mike on Sunday, and my friend Jac Piette speak at Purdue on Tuesday about her experience in the animation film industry), and also friends to see in Fort Wayne (where my pregnant high school friend Julie lives with her husband), so I got my flight through Indy and rented a car for 10/2-10/10 to cover all my bases.

Liam providing "Duck Dinner" to all the little ducks behind our house.

Hanging out at Purdue with my family and Jac before her presentation

The PU Bell Tower, where Naveen and I decided to start dating

Other fun moments at home

I fully intended to fly home in time for a friend's wedding on Sunday afternoon in PA. But then on Friday, as I was out to lunch with Julie, my plans took twist number one: I found out that Launch didn't need me to come in the following week. Working there has been really cool, by the way. For two weeks I've really enjoyed the people and getting an awesome breakfast in the morning, and being in the city, learning new things, being part of a commercial pre-production team - but one of the things I like least about freelance is the unpredictability. I don't know from week to week whether I have work or not, and frankly that does bug me a little. Don't get me wrong, I like the flexibility that comes with it, but it's really hard to plan ahead. Like in this case, if I had known that, I would have simply booked a 2-week trip home. After talking with Julie about it, and realizing there was still so much to be done at the house, I decided I wanted to push my flight. I was glad to come to that decision because it meant that Julie and I could go to lunch together again the following week. After lunch we went to Target together and she gave me some tips on what to get my friend Cait off of her baby registry, speaking from personal experience with her sister's pregnancy advice and now being pregnant herself. We had a nice time catching up.

I got home and started dialing Expedia when the unthinkable twist number two happened. A call interrupted my dialing, and I saw it was my friend Jess. I answered very bubbly, excited from seeing her the past Sunday and meeting her two-year-old Liam for the first time. However, her voice did not answer me - it was Kevin, her husband who had just started his year in Korea with the air force last month. At first I was ecstatic to hear his voice, but it quickly fell to pieces as he told me that there had been a problem with the baby girl and she had been stillborn on Thursday morning. The air force (and the American Red Cross) got him home quickly enough that he got a chance to hold her that night. It was a shocking, devastating blow, especially since the baby was due December 1, just another month away. I pushed my flight and extended my car rental, but other than that I spent most of the rest of the day crying and wondering how that kind of thing could happen. I had an awfully hard time putting it out of my mind the very next day on my drive and visit to Chicago for my friend Cait's baby shower (also due in one month). I was fairly relieved there were so many other friends and family there (some who also surprised her like I did) so that I could hold it together and be happy for her as I have been these last several months. I also made a fairly impromptu visit with Kedari and her brother Harikiran (who was running the Chicago marathon the next day), and had a really good time unwinding with them for a couple hours before making the trek back to Fort Wayne. It was a tough ride home in the Indiana darkness, late into the wee hours, but I was so thankful to get to see them and talk about everything.

Cait's shower

Thankfully Jess and Kevin are incredibly strong people with amazing focus on their future, and with Liam they understand the importance of projecting constructive energy rather than allowing themselves to fall into complete despair (as I fear I would, at least for a while, had I been in their shoes). They definitely grieved for her, but they felt strongly that something wasn't right with her heart and that this just wasn't meant to be.

Dominique's memorial

They named her Dominique (after St. Dominic) and held a memorial for her on Monday in Fishers (near Indy), which I attended. It was comforting to see both of them doing so well, watching Liam steal the spotlight, seeing our friend Crystal who I hadn't seen in years. It was good to see Jess and Kevin together, since the last time had been at our Hindu wedding two years ago to the day (I got an awkwardly funny "Happy Anniversary" moment). Despite the tragedy, we had a wonderful visit, with laughs and memories, and Kevin's hilarious stories about hashing in a foreign country (meeting at a bar with a bunch of guys, some of whom are deemed hares and run off into the night, and the rest are deemed hounds who must follow the trails, or clues left in chalk on the ground, until they finally meet up at the final drinking destination). I was so thankful to be there with them and to swap good memories to help us move on again.

Staying the extra week also allowed me to be home in front of a live television broadcast of the historical overnight rescue of 33 miners in Copiapo, Chile.

So back to the at-home cleanup effort. Besides leaving behind useful furniture that belongs to my folks anyway, I have collected and saved all kinds of memorabilia from my childhood. I used to be REALLY bad about saving things - cocktail napkins from airplane trips I was excited about, wrappers of favorite special candy from faraway places, scraps of paper or leftover materials I believed I'd use for crafts, etc. Those kind of things I was able to get rid of when I was in college. However, I still kept hundreds of school papers, cg magazines, SIGGRAPH swag, and more. I came across a lot of forgotten things... In fact, here are some of the highlights:

Found:

$20 in a high school graduation card
A friend's college senior project (and yes he wants it sent to him!)
About 15 SNES game instruction booklets
Reply letter from Nintendo's Megan Faris (Gameplay Counselor) wishing me happy birthday and comparing our favorite games
Reminder note for my Indy eye appointment July 22, 2002 at 10am
Funny poem I scribbled on a piece of paper (probably something I heard and wanted to remember) - The limerick packs laughs anatomical / into space that is quite economical / but the good ones I've seen / so seldom are clean / and the clean ones so seldom are comical.

Kept:

3 carefully drafted 8th grade English papers riddled in Mrs. Applen's red pen, the toughest class of my childhood
My first flipbook animation of a stick figure turning into a flower vine then back to a smiley stick figure, on the back of Grandma's Rite Realty contact cards
Things I brought back from the month I spent teaching a cg workshop in Poland
About a dozen dried roses

Disposed:

1 so-called "bookish" paper in which Mrs. Applen accused me of plagiarism when I had spent a week or more trying my best to use more adult and intelligent language
Another dozen or so dried flowers (used to be a "thing" for me)
About a gadgillion wedding magazines
Gateway 2000 Computer with Win98 OS
1995 Calendar from my church growing up, St. Vincent de Paul
A Giant box of college/tech school admissions marketing books and dvds, mostly from schools like AAU, SCAD, USC, Cal Arts, Pratt, Art Center, and Full Sail (all great schools)
Countless progress report cards, assignment planner notebooks, and school newsletters
Century Pride fundraising brochure with cheese, sausage, and chocolate selections
Keyboarding class papers from 7th grade, showing 20-30 gwam
Claire's receipt from 6/23/2006 when I had to have my ears re-pierced
Class Royale memory book where my name wasn't published
Ferngully seed packet from a Pizza Hut promotion back in 1992
Receipts from sending demo reels by mail or other carriers through the years
Random assortment of colored or specialty envelopes that once held greeting cards
VHS tapes from college like Independence Day, MIB, Erin Brochovich, Elizabeth, Air Force One, 10 Things I Hate About You, Wedding Singer, A League of Their Own, Little Women, Rain Man, Patch Adams, Matrix (all), Apollo 13, Romeo & Juliet, Stuart Little, Schindler's List, Good Will Hunting, Hearts In Atlantis, Shrek, Jack, A PBS Vietnam Story, Volcano, Bowling for Columbine, "The Circus" with Charlie Chaplan, Man on the Moon, Cast Away, Twilight Zone Episodes, Bridget Jones Diary, My Dog Skip, Lilo & Stitch, Fantasia 2000, Walt Disney's Old Yeller, Paris When It Sizzles

And the absolutely laughable, gets-its-own-category:

Cassette tapes from back in the day: Club Cutz (Everything T-Empo's Key Lime Pie Mix, Don't Stop Me Now Extended Power Mix, Lookin Up West End Mix, Movin Up Extended Version, Can You Feel It Ultimate Club Edit, Wait For Our Love to Find Us Extended Version, Scatman, Basic Radio, Love Me The Right Way Real Rapino 12" Mix, Gotta Find Love 7" Radio Mix, Let Me In Your Heart Full Mix, Macarena Bayside Boys Remix, I Was Made For Loving You Club Mix), KWS Please Don't Go (The Album), 20 Greatest Hits of 1964 (Highland Records), Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams Are Made of This) from 1983, The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse, Billy Joel - River of Dreams, Autographs - A collection of favorites by popular artists (Tony Bennet, Shawn Colvin, Gloria Estefan, Kenny G, Luther Vandross, Kenny Loggins, Celine Dion, Jon Secada, Taylor Dane, and Basia), Sheryl Crow (includes If It Makes You Happy, Every Day Is A Winding Road), Gloria Estefan - Destiny, Tears for Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Bruce Springsteen - Dancing in the Dark, Kenny G - Kenny G, Wayanay - Andes Cosmos, Wayanay - The Magic Music of the Andes - Tee Pee Encounters Catacoma, Andrew Lloyd Webber - The Premiere Collection Encore, Nature Quest - An Adventure in Nature and Music - The Power of Beethoven, Gene Autry - Everyone's a Child At Christmas, Random House's Story of the Nutcracker Ballet / Nutcracker Suite, Oasis - Definitely Maybe, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (with Donny Osmond), Highlights from The Phantom of the Opera (original cast recording with Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, Steve Barton), Tim Weisberg - Night Rider, Hootie & the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View; Soundtrack Music from the Motion Pictures - Top Gun, One Fine Day, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Don Juan DeMarco (Score & Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman)...

So you can see even just a tiny bit how necessary it was for me to go home and take care of these things. There is still more to do - yearbooks, figurines, and even some clothes that have come in handy when I'm visiting home - but those will have to wait for next time. :)

And so, with all that in mind, I will sign off as yours truly,
Katamari

Oh. PS, Hubby picked me up in a suit when I returned home, in lieu of flowers, considering I may try to dry them and keep them in our apartment. Cute. :) He always makes me laugh.

More AFFS stuff!

2010-09-19T13:27:00.006-04:00

Cool new "Abby's Flying Fairy School" stuff on the Sesame Street website!
	Abby's Flying Fairy Fun Pack Gear up for Flying Fairy School with twinkle-tasty recipes and magically simple costumes.
	Abby's Flying Fairy School Playset AFFS Paper Dolls!!! Create your own adventure in Abby's classroom with this printable playset.
	Abby & Friends: P is for Princess DVD Once upon a time on Sesame Street there lived a fairy in training named Abby Cadabby, and she loved going on all kinds of adventures. She loved playing princess with friends like Rosita, but what happens when a misguided Prince (played by actor Paul Rudd) tries to rescue them? Pretending and the Letter P are the focus of two more stories in this enchanting title that also features fun with Natalie Portman and Elmo in "The Princess and The Elephant". This title also features two bonus episodes of Sesame Street's animated show Abby's Flying Fairy School.
Online "Play Along Stories" (assets by SpeakeasyFX interactive team):
	Call It Macaronisaurus Help Abby, Blogg, and Gonnigan stop the macaronisaurus. Subject: Thinking Skills
	Sleeping Bloggy Help Abby and Gonnigan wake up Blogg. Subject: Numbers / Early Math
	Say Gezundenshniffle Help the fairies get the dust bunnies back under the rug.

Three, Two, One.. Launch

2010-09-13T17:21:00.004-04:00

Two weeks ago today, I was called in for Motionbuilder training at Launch in NYC, and I have to say, it went very well. First of all, it was a first-class crash course. Alex, the CG Super, was an excellent guide to learning the software as well as the history of the company and its parent, Charlex. On a related note, when I noticed and smiled about some LOTR references (the server name "blackgate" and my computer name "urukhai") he told me the person who originally set up their network was a giant Lord of the Rings fan, and I thought that was pretty awesome. If I never mentioned it before, we got to name our own computers at SpeakeasyFX with beverage names (most of them being alcoholic, mine being mojito), with the server being "keg."

So enough trivia. On with Launch.

How their training program works: it begins with a simple ball bounce animation in Maya (to eliminate the truly clueless). Then, working directly with Alex, you open up Motionbuilder, which functions a lot like Maya with an almost identical QWERTY keyset. You learn the basics of how to navigate the software, set up a camera and light the scene, applying backplates, bring in primitives and library assets, set up parenting constraints, and set keys and work with them in the graph editor. Then you graduate to the motion capture side of things. You check out all the proprietary stuff, like the Mocap Browser and SureShot tools. You import mocap data, apply it to an actor body, assign marker data in the GUI, and use actor body inputs on a character to make it move realistically. You wrap your brain around the concept of reaching and pinning controller positions to conform the actor to a particular constraint or snap it properly to marker data. You position your mocap character with ghosting, like having an offset control with a visibility toggle.

Before long you learn to work with the Story window and its multiple timeline tracks and subtracks for mocap overrides and additive keys. You figure out tips on how to appropriately razor a mocap track into chunks and blend them like a video editor. You clean mocap ROM (Range Of Motion) data, and you learn how to apply facial mocap and adjust it with phoneme and other overrides. You learn to deal with problematic markers. You see how to plot animation takes and merge a set of subtracks into one track. You import audio and cover the basics of rendering in passes, such as a rim light pass. Then you move on to bigger assignments, like a bar scene which you direct and build from scratch using primitives and "tempChar" simple bodies.

And finally, you put together the Sandwich Test, a series of three shots in which a woman makes a sandwich, carries outside to her back porch, and then attempts to eat it (although she is distracted and never actually eats it). The first two shots have motion capture data for the body only; the third is entirely your own animation. I had roughly two hours per shot, which felt pretty grueling at first but I paced myself well, hitting on groundwork of everything first and then cleaning it all up. The first shot was the hardest, because I couldn't initially remember one of the steps in getting mocap working with the characters. The step, called ghosting, involved moving a character into a correct position in the scene after mocap data was already applied. After trying to get it on my own for about 10 minutes, I decided not to waste any more time and asked Alex. It turns out I simply forgot to select the animation track to activate the tool. I got over being embarrassed over forgetting something so small and pushed forward, deciding where to cut and crossfade the mocap clips to get a working, believable action.

Once I got that done on the first and second shots, I moved on to the third shot which involved only hand (3d) animation (no mocap). I got a tip from Alex to constrain both hands to the bread and then just move the bread, which probably saved me a lot of time in the end. He also worked with me on reach and pull since I still didn't quite have that down yet. After setting up the constraints, I was able to do some basic body blocking through the scene to get the timing down, and then I went back and layered in the facials. After two hours of that shot, I was ready to render it and move back into the mocap shots to clean up arcs, constraints, and facials. I left just enough time to render those, and before you knew it, it was 7pm, time to go home. I gave Alex a handshake and a thank you, hung around for about 10 minutes to unwind on some social sites like Facebook, made a quick round on the third and then the ninth floor to say goodbye and thanks to anyone I had met or shadowed while there, and then I left.

I've gotta say, just four days of working in that part of the city was just invigorating. I absolutely loved the vibe, and feeling so jazzed "to be a part of it, New York, New York" as famously sung by Sinatra.

This weekend was spent in Philly with friends, in part at Dr. Sketchy's doing life drawing for a few hours, followed briefly by some time with the IGDA folks showcasing their independent projects -- which included my husband Naveen Nattam showing his most recent game in progress, Combo Storm. (Watch video demo here, or watch IGDA showcase video here.) Afterwards we enjoyed some Tex-Mex and margaritas and talked about upcoming projects, and I spoke a little about Launch and how awesome the training had gone all week.

Right away Monday afternoon I got a call from Blake, which was a good sign. He asked me how training went, and I told him how I really dug it and thought the training was excellent - it seemed clear to me that they train people all the time, because it flowed so well and all the concepts really gelled at the end. Blake echoed my observation but said although they do train people all the time, it doesn't always pan out, and told me that I was a "rare exception" and that Alex was very impressed. They were happy I picked up the software and general vibe of the company so fast, and said that my shots showed a good working knowledge and understanding of the process, even though there was room for growth in some areas. So they want to bring me in to start next week as a freelancer and see where things go. I'm psyched, to say the least. ;-)

August Wrap

2010-08-31T12:35:00.001-04:00

So, summer's over. Womp-womp. I actually don't have a lot of time, so I'll let pictures do most of the talking this time.

Some days were downright lazy.

There was definitely a lot of cuddle time with Sully and my handsome husband Naveen Nattam, who will be celebrating a 2nd wedding anniversary with me soon.

I had a lot of time to cook, so I found myself trying out recipes involving potatoes and eggs, when normally I don't buy either (if I generally don't have time to cook, I don't buy eggs or potatoes because they'll go bad too quickly for me to use them).

We found ourselves going to a lot of house parties with our friends in PA. It was really great to get out and have fun with everyone. We really aren't too crazy at these things.. Hubby plays a lot of Rockband, I chum around, both of us with drinks in our hands. Our friends share a house there and typically invite 20-30 people, and there hasn't been a boring night yet.

It wouldn't be summer without a major car expense - but at least we didn't have to pay for this one. In one of my many trips to/from PA this summer, I was driving next to a construction site and they dropped/flung a small piece of concrete at me and accidentally smashed my windshield. Luckily I had my sun visor down, or I would have had bits of glass in my eyes and face. No injuries, just a lot of glass fragments in the car and a windshield to be replaced, all at the construction company's expense. Thankfully they were nice about it and didn't make problems for me. The cop told me this was the worst construction related accident he had ever seen, and said that besides escaping injury, I was also lucky they were accepting responsibility so readily and offering reimbursement without question.

A lot of our evenings looked like this, as hubby and I aspire to advance in our careers and talents. Plus we just love what we do. :)

Finally, I must say that working at the preschool this summer was for the most part a real blessing for me. Sure, this part-time job was taken on a whim and I missed out on a lot of the summer relaxation by the pool, which bothers me a little. There were definitely those days where I got annoyed with a couple troublemakers, or struggled to agree with certain teaching or management styles facing me. But on the whole, I'm coming away from the experience so very happy that I did it. I learned that I can captivate, teach, and enjoy the playful company of 30 kids at a time. They were so imaginative, and growing so much with each other. Even in just a few months, I watched a couple of them go from shy, introverted kids, to happy, bouncy extroverts with their friends. By the end, it was really hard to leave, and I was even asked to stay through the year, but I always intended this to be just for summer and then return to animation in the fall. I'll always remember these kids, though!

For more CFM pictures, click here.

Sesame Street Play-Along Stories (AFFS)

2010-08-09T12:30:00.004-04:00

For anyone who has been following, the interactive projects SpeakeasyFX did for Sesame Street's "Abby's Flying Fairy School" are now being dubbed "Play Along Stories" on the website.

There are two games currently available:

	Sleeping Bloggy Help Abby and Gonnigan wake up Blogg. Subject: Numbers / Early Math
	Say Gezundenshniffle Help the fairies get the dust bunnies back under the rug.

AM's Bishop 2.0

2010-08-08T23:29:00.003-04:00

I finally got a chance to watch this video of Animation Mentor's latest news: the launch of their character "Bishop 2.0." For the most part, I was shaking my head in disbelief and sheer amazement, saying, "These guys are insane. These guys are INSANE."

AM Launches Bishop 2.0 - (watch on YouTube) - (AM Site)

"Bishop, our flagship character, has been a critical piece of our animation curriculum since we opened our doors in March of 2005. Our students and alumni have logged an estimated 1.7 million hours animating Bishop, which makes him possibly the most collaboratively animated character on the planet."

If THAT doesn't blow your mind..

"Bishop 2.0 is a fully customizable rig which allows even the most novice Maya users to completely alter his appearance." They aren't joking, when they say completely.

I'm thrilled and eager to try using the new rig at home this week. I am extremely grateful that AM is allowing its alumni to have this benefit, to continue being a part of the school's growth and community in this way.

These guys are insane(ly talented and dedicated) and I never doubt for a second that they are the best animation school out there, period.

Dialogue Clips from AM

2010-08-04T15:27:00.002-04:00

These are a bit outdated, but I realized I never posted them a few years ago when I was working on them in the AM program.

America's Sweethearts Byron Allen Interview

Clip taken from America's Sweethearts movie. Some of it is still in blocking (the girl filing her nails). I'm happiest with the first shot of Byron, and secondly some of the final work on Eddie's character in the last shot, since those are the most finished parts of this piece.

In Love With Frank

Clip taken from You've Got Mail movie. This was one of my more polished monologue pieces at the time.

AM July 2010 Newsletter: SpeakeasyFX

2010-07-20T22:34:00.004-04:00

Check out the article, "Animation Soars to New Heights on CG Sesame Street" by Thomas J. McLean, for some insights from SpeakeasyFX on how we approached working on educational animation for television.

Quote Excerpts:

"In the matter of a couple of days, we had to take a shot from nothing to the final version," says animator Laura Nattam, who blogged extensively about her experience on the show. "We had to create all the character blocking of any body mechanics, any acting choices, facial expressions, dialogue – all of that had to be blocked out, animated and polished all in a few days."

Nattam says it was helpful to have plenty of reference material, especially on the lead character, Abby Cadabby, who has appeared as a live-action Muppet on Sesame Street. "We had a few years' worth of filmed material, like live action material, to observe to get to know her character," she says. "We also got to meet [puppeteer] Leslie [Carrara-Rudolph] and the puppet Abby in person to get a better feel for her, to convey her into the animated world."

Nattam says the characters have distinct personalities, and the series has its own style that each shot needed to match. "These characters are designed to be very animated and curious," she says. "They have very uninhibited and very innocent, childlike improvisational gestures. The way these characters think and emote are really social and they are meant to evoke responses from the child watching along and learning."

"Some of our animators were definitely more dare devilish than others and they peppered in these hilarious inside jokes and subtle pop culture references, and they added a lot of flavor to the show," says Nattam. "But of course we had to watch very carefully what we were saying with characters' actions because you know, after all, we're a part of this educational media powerhouse that has won over parents and their children for four decades. So we had to make sure we were doing it the right way."

Hot Dog & Hamburger

2010-07-07T21:28:00.003-04:00

It is with great pride and enthusiasm that I can now share with you some animations we have been working on in our spare time at SpeakeasyFX. These episodes are known lovingly as "Hot Dog & Hamburger," featuring bad food behaving badly. Dawg is a charismatic tough guy with his bun vest collar emphatically popped; Ham is the more docile, sweeter meat of the odd couple. In just a matter of weeks, the generalists and animators pulled together in our free time and created this IP and a number of clever little stories to execute for fun. Please enjoy! And feel free to comment!

Hot Dog & Hamburger

Thanks for watching! :)

End Of June Recap

2010-06-26T13:18:00.003-04:00

What a month it has been. It's crazy that in only a couple weeks we'll be flying to Seattle for Matt & Amy's wedding and then Raj & Kristin's the following weekend. We're so psyched!!!

So far I have worked for three weeks at Children First Montessori, and it has been a tremendously fun challenge for me. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but we have three sets of twins in a class of 30. Aiden and Brendan are identical Chinese, Adithi and Adwaith are fraternal Indian, and Maya and Reya might be identical but they have quite a few differences so it's tough to say. Most of the kids are Indian or from some similar ethnicity. Aiden, Brendan, Kavya, Vivin, Maya, Reya, Sidhuk, Sai, Jasleen, Arushi, Kavya & Vivin (sister and brother), Jayden & Billy (sister & brother), Siya, Diamond, Arjo, Mikhil, Arya C (boy), Arya (girl), Sreya, Dhyan, Meher, Samaira, Armaan, Arshaan, Eesan, Ishaan, Aditya, Kaia, and Muis (baby comes sometimes with a teacher). I have them all memorized. :) There are other children that apparently come to the school, but I haven't met them because they are either visiting India or are otherwise away for the summer already.

Me and the kids on Miss Sangeeta's last day.

The ones that are the most well-behaved are Armaan, Arshaan, Aiden, and Kavya. It seems I can always count on them to help or listen well. The ones who are the most problematic are Sai (a bit hyperactive, disobedient often, and may actually have trouble with English or a slight learning disorder), and Dhyan (who is small enough for diapers but likes to make trouble). I try to take the time to speak directly to them and see if their needs are getting addressed. The other kids seem to fluctuate - sometimes listening well, other times being noisy or disruptive. Usually if they're causing trouble I've found it is because they felt no one was listening or that something happened but wasn't acknowledged. They seem to want more than anything to have that acknowledgment.

Highlights have been playing outside, snack time, naptime, singing graduation songs, playing the quiet game (who can sit on the red square with fingers on their lips and stay quiet the longest - winners get stickers), craft time, and crayon coloring with two dozen kids wanting me to fold their papers into fans. Armaan, one of the older kids and very sweet boy, drew a picture of a fence and let me keep it:

Obviously not everything is fun. Gross alert, for those of you squeemies. Thursday I witnessed a boy's milk being projectile-vomited onto the lunch table, after bouncing around and shaking himself up like a soda bottle. Thank goodness most of the other kids were done eating and had already put their things away - otherwise we would have had a much more complicated mess. Friday another boy threw up as well, a little in the classroom and all over the bathroom. I wish there was better ventilation in there - the acidic smell lingered even an hour after I disinfected the surfaces and mopped up the floor. I just think it's funny how quickly the kids bounce back to normal as if nothing happened.

As far as Speakeasy, Hot Dog & Hamburger is now showing in the UK on BBC's website:

Unfortunately, we can not view it in the USA, but we're pushing for more exposure. Supposedly we'll be able to get it on a worldwide website soon. Still no word on Sesame or anything else. Still a waiting game on other job applications. Still getting better at my at-home schedule as far as animating and other priorities, including a cute short film I'm starting to flesh out. More later!

"Abby's Flying Fairy School" Gets Emmy, "The Gruffalo" Awarded at Annecy 2010

2010-06-13T11:47:00.002-04:00

For its tenth anniversary on children's bookshelves around the world, The Gruffalo was adapted for a Christmas television special on BBC One last year, and it has been doing quite well, including an award for best TV special at Annecy 2010.

Since I am so new to television production, I still find it perplexing that the animation studios behind the shows are rarely publicly recognized. It took some hunting to find out who worked on The Gruffalo. Personally, I'd like to throw a shout out to Studio Soi in Germany, who with the help of some fellow Animation Mentor graduates, brought this story to life in a 3d / cg world.

Similarly, I'd like to recognize the crew at SpeakeasyFX for the amazing work on Abby's Flying Fairy School, which just won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation. The award went to Peter de Seve, Character Designer and a great artist, but because of my bias and desire to see the animation studio gain credit as well, as it is an animation award, I must mention our amazing team of animators and our in-house art director David Michael Friend who fleshed out the characters, school design, and overall look and feel of the cg show.

These productions are two of the many productions out there today backed by fellow animators from Animation Mentor - who deserves some congrats as well for driving to bring high-quality, well-educated animators to the industry.

Winds of Change in June

2010-06-07T15:45:00.010-04:00

Where has this year gone? Time is flying. Things are changing.

I am still an animator, but as of today and for the rest of the summer, you can call me "Miss Laura," part-time assistant teacher & caregiver at Children First Montessori Preschool. ;)

Two weeks ago, I was getting very restless, even depressed to some extent. Since our project ended, I sorely, deeply miss working at the studio, collaborating with other animators, interpreting scripts and bringing characters to life. Motivation can be hard to find at home by yourself - but moreso than that, it is very easy to allow your brain to get wrapped up in the "what if's" and second-guessing every project idea, every move you make. You can find yourself asking, "Is this going to get me anywhere? Is it worth my time, or should I think of something else?" Indecision and splitting hairs and staying at home full time is not a good recipe for me. So that's changing.

Me & My Nephew/Godson Zander

The Friday before Memorial Day weekend, I drove around to about 13 local schools. I decided, I've always loved interacting with young kids, especially when they're first learning to speak and work with their hands - so why not see if there are any schools who need assistants for summer camps and programs? Obviously it's preferred if you have an educational degree or certification of some kind, but who knows. So I wrote up some cover letters and made a plan to get around to the dozen or so of them, and just see what happens.

As expected, the public schools required a certification, and most of the others seemed to prefer it - at least, I think so, since some looked at me pretty quizzically when they saw that I was coming from an animation background. I don't blame them. I was appreciative that a few schools indulged me, heard my interests, and were willing to make constructive conversation about the idea.

I felt really good about two of those schools (preschool / daycare facilities). One of them gave me a 6 page application packet, and the director wrote "Sesame Street" on the front to remind herself about meeting me and talking about my experience with them. The second school's director wasn't available to meet me, but the couple of staff people I spoke with were simply very nice and eager to hear my ideas.

After the 3-day weekend, I was admittedly a bit shocked to get a call from that second school (Children First Montessori), and they wanted to hire me. "I think these things happen for a reason," the director said to me. Apparently the way things happened for her, when she arrived back from Memorial Day Weekend on Tuesday, she found out one of her afternoon employees had to quit, and basically my resume was the first thing that fell in her lap. She thought she'd give me a try before even placing an ad anywhere. How's that for luck!

She asked me to come in the next day to meet her. She was incredibly friendly and eager to place me there. After speaking with me for a bit to get to know my personality, she took me around inside the school where about 30 kids (two classes together), all under the age of 5, were rehearsing a musical performance for their graduation. She warned me that there are the messier parts of the job (cleaning up bathroom accidents, vomit on occasion, runny noses, etc), but that didn't make me flinch.

She introduced me to several of the teachers and assistants, and I was amazed to find out they were all very happy to meet me and wanted to show me around the project area, the nap area, snack area, etc. I had gone there, totally prepared to insist how much I respect the educational profession and hoped that they might accept me as an apprentice in their field. I was concerned meeting them that they may be frustrated at my lack of educational degree. I must say, I am adamantly opposed to the thinking that a teaching position is something a person could "fall back on" - as students of any age suffer from feeling a lack of sincerity and dedication by those kinds of so-called teachers. But I was surprised to find how open and inviting everyone was. One assistant was a mother who had been out of work for 18 years with some kind of business background, had been hired since March and was well accepted; another was a Christian youth dance instructor; another was from Italy, recently married and now pregnant - it seemed that she was the one who was about to leave the school, by the way.

As far as my commitment level, the director asked if I might consider working year-round. Again I was stunned. I thought I was interviewing just for the summer afternoons. I told her I am thrilled she is so eager to bring me on board, but I personally need to take things one step at a time. She is aware I very much consider myself an animator and will return to that position when more work is available. I want to treat the summer as a probationary type period, and see where things go. She seemed agreeable to that.

Last week was extremely stressful and emotional, because as excited as I am, this is a risk for me. I don't want anything to adversely affect my animation career. But I've decided that the pros far outweigh the cons, and if anything this will inspire me creatively, and allow me to tap into a different part of my brain, and even provide structure to my day. For the first couple weeks I'll be coming in about 2-3 times per week, and then move up to 5 times per week for the remainder of the summer, either way, afternoons only.

As I spoke with the director last week, after being presented with the possibility to work with the preschool on a more permanent basis, I grew such a heartache for animation, and I can just sense that feeling can only help me move ahead with my personal practice and applications.

Dwight's Insights.. The More You Know, Doo, Dooo... (Random Interjection

How many of us are scared of failing miserably, and let fear inhibit our ability to make decisions - even the simple ones, or ones that should be joyous or regarded with happy anticipation? This job, for example, is something I think I will really enjoy, at least to try it - but it took me several days to get over some initial fears about money and my animation career. This job will pay next to nothing; I don't consider this a step down, but a step to the side; I think I am going to love this, and the truth is that 3.5 hours on weekdays isn't so much that would keep me away from animating - it will provide structure and the drive to do what I have to do to get better.

Another thing that has come up is the issue of a car. I've never owned a car. I've always managed to do without one - or that is to say, I've always managed to find ways of getting where I need to go, whether that mean public transportation, borrowing or renting vehicles, or hitching a ride with my trusty husband who always goes the extra mile. Frankly, this method is becoming more and more difficult, and less and less practical. We are now pushing forward and considering a car purchase in the *VERY* near future. One of the reasons we hadn't done that yet is expense, and considering we may move out west sooner or later. But now it's apparent that we could have the two vehicles now, making life much easier on us, removing the hardship (in our time and also in mechanical stress) of sharing the van, scrapping the many limitations particularly in my life which keep me from moving forward. So, we're starting to shop around. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated!

There is a change in the wind this June.. can you feel it?

Rust

2010-05-27T10:43:00.003-04:00

An aging machine
Looks to be reinvented
Not to be harvested for spare parts
Hopes for a tinkering hold
Longing for a friend
Begging for another chance
Quietly waiting out the old clock
Wishing to break off its hands
Interrupt the gears
Jealous of endless ticking
And never faltering or questioned
Just portioning out the time
In small increments
Touched and wound and self-assured
While the old are thrown into the dirt
Covered in organic waste
Pleading for maggots

-Laura Skowronski, personal writing exercise, 5/27/2010

An Engineer's Guide To Cats

2010-05-12T15:45:00.003-04:00

Really funny video, if you're looking for a fun break this afternoon.

An Engineer's Guide To Cats

I about lost it at "post modern cardboard deconstruction."

Meanwhile.. Keeping busy animating a test this week. Will get back to the usual sketching and personal work next week. Have a good one!

AM & Pixar Webinar

2010-05-04T20:01:00.008-04:00

AM hosted another great webinar last week, this time with some great animators from Pixar. Aaron Hartline and Victor Navone gave a helpful talk and demo on timing and spacing.

The replay is available here as of May 5. The Eric Goldberg webinar is also available - I really enjoyed his lecture and took several pages of notes which were unfortunately lost due to technical problems, but please check out his replay as well. Some very good stuff.

Just as a heads up, my favorite points were about balancing your timing. For instance, if you have a lot of fast stuff going on (as I often do, because I have SO MANY ideas and I have to eliminate some for clarity!), it's good to balance those moments with slower or medium-paced moments. A tip for beginners might be to aim for all three (slow, medium, and fast) speeds of timing in a shot to help generate interest and focus on particular movements or actions. That's especially true for a single standalone shot, but maybe not so much when you have continuous shots. You don't want a series of shots to each have the same lows and highs, peaks and valleys of timing. Vary the range and keep it unpredictable but clear for your audience.

Another good reminder I got was about planning your shot. While working on Abby, especially with tight deadlines, it became standard to make very simple acting choices and movements, and often we were restricted by time or by the surrounding shots to maintain posing or character placement. This webinar pointed out that a good animator explores every possible option when planning a shot, conveying inner monologue and the best possible choice of action (and acting).

Seeing Aaron and Victor talk about going to dailies, getting feedback, watching other animators' work being critiqued, and following up later in the day with walkthroughs, I am ever more excited to get back to working with a studio. I'm continuing to commute to SpeakeasyFX voluntarily working on our internal project, which will hopefully gain buyer interest soon, but I'm also doing more at home and also considering an AM refresher course this summer just to keep in touch with my peers and stay current and motivated. More soon.

Sketching: Harryhausen

2010-05-03T08:07:00.003-04:00

The SpeakeasyFX sketchblog has now completed its fifth week. Themes so far have been Healthcare, Regret, Little Victories, Impossible, and now Harryhausen.

I was going to sketch something completely different at first. I read somewhere how Ray Harryhausen had made his first stop motion character, a cave bear, using a chunk of his mother's fur coat -- not unlike Kevin Clash (the voice of Elmo) cutting apart the black synthetic fur lining of his father's Sunday churchcoat to make one of his first puppets as well, Moandy.

May Maya Madness

2010-05-02T11:36:00.003-04:00

So in between sketching, animating at the studio on our growing IP (abbrev: "H&H") using XSI, and thinking up new reel material, I've taken a dive head first back into Maya using AM's Bishop character, and I'm noticing a lot of interesting workflow issues.

When I was working on Abby at the studio, there were a number of helpful factors. Being around other animators is almost a "must" because you inspire each other and critique each other constantly, and better animation is always the result. There were other nice reasons having others around, to share helpful advice and receive assistance easily when needed. My setup was a little nicer as well, in terms of machine and having a second monitor - although now that I have a new computer at home, the hangup has been resetting my preferences with new hardware & software. I have an old monitor I think I'll be hooking up soon, and then my workflow should improve at home.

Then, there's XSI versus Maya. I've put in probably well over 2000 hours in XSI in the last year, and in the same time frame I've maybe put in 15-40 hours of Maya. But in the last 10 years, prior to working at SpeakeasyFX, I animated almost exclusively in Maya, through all my Animation Mentor experience, and most of my Purdue cg training (with some 3d Studio Max education early on). Thankfully I'm pretty adaptable and it shouldn't take me long to get used to Maya again.

But then there are issues like character setups. The AM character setup is great and very flexible, but right now I'm used to our Abby rigs and other internal rigs that we move around almost like puppets. The controls are so tactile, instead of using GUIs or channel boxes with a hundred options. It's nice to be able to pose a hand by clicking right on parts of the finger and manipulating them directly. Probably there's a way to do that with the AM rigs.. I just need to look into it for longer than an afternoon.. or just build my own controls on it. :-)

Tonight I have another sketch to work on, but hopefully I'll have some new animation to show later this week. I've gotta get some things set up on Naveen's XP computer because they aren't complying with my Windows 7 machine (ergh), and then I'll be in business.

Sketching: Impossible

2010-05-02T11:33:00.002-04:00

Recently, the animators of SpeakeasyFX started a sketchblog in their spare time, with weekly themes. Themes so far have been Healthcare, Regret, Little Victories, and this past week I came up with the theme of "Impossible." In this sketch I went more for character and less about the background.

Sketching: Little Victories

2010-04-16T01:29:00.002-04:00

Recently, the animators of SpeakeasyFX started a sketchblog in their spare time, with weekly themes. Our first theme was Healthcare, then Regret, and now, Little Victories. I spent the week thinking of tiny victorious moments and this was the simplest one. I was hoping to achieve a lot of character. Here was my contribution.

I have a lot of babies in my family right now.. nieces, nephews, cousins.. and one thing these babies have in common is their hilarious tendency to want nothing on their feet. Ever. Period. The parents get their socks on.. and those things come right off. So I thought it would be cute to feature a slightly older, but still very young girl, putting them on all by herself.

Revamped Website

2010-04-14T18:17:00.004-04:00

So today, I decided it was about time to revamp my website. I need to make a nicer looking one, but in the meantime, I pulled down the old one and threw on a simpler design with current stuff. Check it out!

Grooveshark, For A Good Energetic Mood

2010-04-13T23:21:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard of Grooveshark, it's your next best friend to Pandora. It's the real thing with music on demand... and playlists. You can export playlists too, and embed them in your webpages, like this.

I'm still working out this playlist (and you can maintain several with up to 200 songs), but this one keeps me in a perky mood most of my day. Music and a good mood go a long way in my daily life. Enjoy!

No Black Noodles for Nate

2010-04-13T20:14:00.003-04:00

Dear Natron,

I felt that you should not consider yourself a loser for the third month in a row while overseas, so here is an official audio Valentine from the SkoNats.

First Valentine sound bite The Office 5x15 Blood Drive sound bites

I refer to black noodles in the title of this post because apparently if Nate didn't get any Valentines, he would suffer through a Chinese style black noodle dish, mourning being single. Nate, if you meet a pretty girl today, you'd best give her some Skittles.

Thanks to Wikipedia for this excerpt:

Thanks to a concentrated marketing effort, Valentine's Day is celebrated in some Asian countries with Singaporeans, Chinese, Pakistan and South Koreans spending the most money on Valentine's gifts.

In South Korea, similar to Japan, women give chocolate to men on February 14, and men give non-chocolate candy to women on March 14 (White Day). On April 14 (Black Day), those who did not receive anything on the 14th of Feb or March go to a Chinese restaurant to eat black noodles (자장면 jajangmyeon) and "mourn" their single life. Koreans also celebrate Pepero Day on November 11, when young couples give each other Pepero cookies. The date '11/11' is intended to resemble the long shape of the cookie.

The 14th of every month marks a love-related day in Korea, although most of them are obscure. From January to December: Candle Day, Valentine's Day, White Day, Black Day, Rose Day, Kiss Day, Silver Day, Green Day, Music Day, Wine Day, Movie Day, and Hug Day. Korean women give a much higher amount of chocolate than Japanese women.

Cheers. :-)

Sketching: Regret

2010-04-13T02:09:00.003-04:00

Recently, the animators of SpeakeasyFX started a sketchblog in their spare time, with weekly themes. Our first theme was Healthcare, and in this, our second week, our theme was regret. Here was my contribution.

This doesn't exactly represent a personal story for me, but instead a mix of random things I've been coming across lately in chatting with friends about relationships, including topics such as how their boyfriends proposed to them, and whether or not they fart all the time (or at inappropriate times). Honestly I didn't take much time thinking about what I wanted to draw.. I just started drawing. I'm sure I could come up with many other forms of regret... but instead, I picked this little guy's flatulence.

Auto-Tuned Elmo

2010-04-12T16:40:00.001-04:00

A new generation of Sesame Street songs.....An auto-tuned Elmo & Dancers perform a dance & How U Doin song for Wendy Williams on her talk show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKuNYzZngAU

It's always interesting to see how Sesame Street embraces social change through the music of the day. I never would have thought to auto-tune Elmo. :-)

Kitty Complaints

2010-04-09T18:34:00.002-04:00

Those who know me well know that I love our kitty Sully, who we rescued three days before we got married. Those people also know that while he is extremely cute and cuddly beyond belief, Sully can really be a little brat sometimes, very jealous, calculating, and destructive. So I started logging a mix of compliments and complaints, and if you're interested, they can be found here.

Warning.. Extremely Cute Cooking

2010-04-09T18:31:00.005-04:00

This little blonde Boo (Monsters Inc reference) bakes chocolate chip cookies cooking-show style. Complete with catch phrases, like "I will BREAK YOU!" and "Shut up old man." Her lines are clearly spoon-fed, but still subject to her hilarious interpretation.

So.... much... cuteness.... The Yippity Yo Cooking Show

Pretty sure my family will agree that this is an incarnation of toddler-Laura...

My Fitness Pal

2010-04-08T14:33:00.005-04:00

I definitely would recommend this site to anyone trying to shed some pounds before summer. I joined in February and have lost four pounds, which is more than I can say for just "watching what I eat" on my own. It's got a great food database, so you just enter what you're eating and it tracks all the nutritional information for you.

It can also track exercise, although I've opted to track it in notes vs. through their exercise (calorie burning) database: the reason for this is because say you go running for a couple hours and burned around 200 calories - the site then gives you a 200 calorie extra allowance in your daily food intake.

So by not officially reporting the exercise, I am eliminating the extra allowance and sticking to my set calorie goal on a daily basis. I'm tracking sugar and fiber much better, which is tremendously healthy awareness. I've made strides at weight loss that I haven't made in over a year, and it's been really great.

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Sketching: Healthcare

2010-04-06T00:23:00.005-04:00

Last week, the animators of SpeakeasyFX started a sketchblog in their spare time, with weekly themes. Our first theme was Healthcare, in honor of the recent bills passing and political schtuffz. Here was my contribution.

A certain someone might realize this sketch is about him. A friend of mine in college went to the university health center, and, despite his masculinity, was asked if he might be pregnant. After seconds of silence, the doctor looked up from his chart and realized he was speaking with a man, and moved on to the next on his list of predetermined questions. My friend and I had a good laugh over this, after much commiserating over the lack of good health care in America. I haven't had a good doctor since my pediatrician, and if I ever go in for any symptoms whatsoever they are, these close-minded doctors always assume pregnancy if you're a girl - even if you've been celibate your whole life, which I found very frustrating at the time.

I actually haven't bothered with doctors since.

It's pretty cool that Healthcare was our first topic, considering I have a short I was "doctoring up" about a month ago involving this subject, and now I'm re-inspired to get going on it.

(White board silliness ensues..)

Blog Bio

2010-04-05T11:00:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while I retire my blog bio.
Latest retired bio:

Laura is happily married and finally living together with her husband after spending 10 months apart, working her dream job as a 3d character animator (using XSI) at SpeakeasyFX in Westfield, New Jersey. The company created 13 eight-minute episodes that began to air November 10, 2009, during the 40th anniversary season of Sesame Street. Laura has since contributed to the direction, layout, and animation production of the interactive segments which will air online, alongside various broadcast episodes. She and her husband now live together in Central New Jersey.

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Laura (Skowronski) Nattam wrote:
Laura is happily married and finally living together with her husband after spending 10 months apart, working her dream job as a 3d character animator (using XSI) at Speakeasy FX in Westfield, New Jersey. Her company created 13 eight-minute episodes that began to air November 10, 2009, during the 40th anniversary season of Sesame Street. Laura has since contributed to the direction, layout, and animation production of the interactive segments which will air online, alongside various broadcast episodes. She and her husband now live together in Central New Jersey.

I'm retiring my former blog intro:
Laura is happily married but currently living away from home, working her dream job as a 3d character animator (using XSI) at Speakeasy FX in Westfield, New Jersey. Her company is creating 13 eight-minute episodes that will air in November 2009 during the 40th anniversary season of Sesame Street.

That's all the history I've got on my edited bios.. but I thought it might be interesting to keep tabs on it over time.

Retiring blog bio - 12/30/2010:

Laura is currently freelancing in NYC and from home. She always keeps her eyes out for new collaborative animation projects, especially since the successful completion of 13 eight-minute episodes and interactive webisodes of "Abby's Flying Fairy School" for Sesame Street, which she worked on with SpeakeasyFX. While anticipating production for a new season of AFFS in January 2011, she continues to develop IPs with fellow animators there, most notably the "Hot Dog & Hamburger" series of shorts. She is happily married and lives with her husband and kitty in New Jersey.

Laura knows life is good when she wakes up really early in the morning after a pleasant dream, only to realize that dream is her real life.

April Fools 2010

2010-04-01T13:18:00.002-04:00

I think April Fool's could very well be my favorite holiday. It's not the most anticipated day of the year, like say Christmas or New Year's, or a landmark birthday, or a wedding, or a baby being born... it's just a subtle day, unlike most others on the calendar. But for me it brings great joy. :-)

It isn't utter chaos, but there are so many un-truths floating around, like my Prego My Eggo graphic indicating I might have a waffle in my toaster, or my latest post to the Kids Media Salon indicating the salon is a place for a child's first haircut in front of a television.

Of course the famous one is always Google (or shall I say, Topeka), which in itself makes me want to work for Google even though I have no idea what I would do there.

Starbucks, Kodak, and Hulu were my other favorites this year (so far).

If you're behind on all the April Fool's jokes, one great place to look is TechCrunch - they had a great list this year. Take a peek.

And, thanks to my brother in law, Raj, for pointing out this old clip.

Prego My Eggo

2010-04-01T09:54:00.000-04:00

* Not actually pregnant. Happy Fool's Day.

Boredom & Chocolate

2010-03-30T17:46:00.005-04:00

So, today I was eating a Fun Size Twix bar, and like the frugal chick I am, checked their website hoping to find some kind of coupon or special where I could buy a gazillion of these delicious chocolate caramel cookies for really cheap. I had no such luck, but I was led to a website where I could make my own M&M character. I had so much fun making my M&Meme that I made one for Naveen as well. Then I took a screencap of each character and threw them into a Photoshop file to make a "VS" battle screen.

Let's hope someday soon I'll have my mind on something a bit more productive.. still retaining the wackiness though. Cuz let's be honest...

Waking Sleeping Beauty - Special Screening at BAM

2010-03-21T18:12:00.000-04:00

On jolly green St. Patrick's day, I was in New York again, weaving through a sea of barely-legal drunk people dressed as leprechauns and other lucky blokes.

Blokes.. I don't know why I got all British just then, please excuse that.

I window-shopped around in the morning in the fashion district, and thought about putting together a bogus photography project called "I want to be a mannequin." I'd need a nicer camera and a little more direction, perhaps.

At any rate, I was there not to get drunk, but to make my way around town people-watching during the day, eating appetizers at my favorite spots, and making my way over to the much quieter Brooklyn for the evening hours to enjoy a very special presentation at BAM: a screening of Waking Sleeping Beauty intro'd and followed by a Q&A by the director, Don Hahn, the producer, Peter Schneider, and the writer, Patrick Pacheco.

The film was wonderful, with humor-filled but very touching narrations, news clips, and even home movies shot on the Disney campus illegally. There were very few if any talking heads, just a voice over storyteller and a lot of original archival footage. Don's direction relied on the idea that the audience would forgive grainy footage as long as they felt engaged, and at least for me and the audience I sat in that night, that theory was all too true. Apparently Disney was all too happy with the production of the documentary and not only approved but also provided distribution of the film. For anyone not in-the-know, it is about the comeback years after being beaten out by a CareBears movie, all the way until computers started coming onto the scene (and before all the traditional animators were ultimately fired). For ten years, people pulled together and recreated the sense of magic originally discovered and popularized by Walt Disney. It had been a few hard years that no one really wanted to bury the dead, making executive decisions based almost solely on "what Walt would've done." The rising action occurs with the late Roy Disney and the addition of Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Eisner, and greats like the late and clearly amazing Howard Ashman and of course animators like Glen Keane and all the rest. The film is as much or more about relationships and the business and politics of animation than the art of animation itself, but it was all held together by the desire to do something great, to lift up the company and to survive. It's a fantastic, inspiring story in that way.

See a clip from the movie at the Animation World Network:

Don and Peter stayed for a Q&A period after the show, introducing Patrick as the outside journalist they hired to help balance the writing and shaping of the story the two of them knew so well. They all spoke fondly about Howard and his heartbreaking story as well as how key he was to the rebirth of Disney in the early 90s. They also shared how special and emotional it was having Roy's last interview on camera included in this movie. They talked about Michael Eisner not wanting to do a current interview, but lending ideas and older interview tapes to be included.

One interesting question was if the magic of Disney was still alive for them, having seen the internal struggles and ugliness of the business, and they responded with a resounding yes, that especially seeing and hearing an audience react to their creations is what reinvigorates the magic for them and encourages them to keep moving forward. Don answered, "You never get tired of that, even though you're a magician of sorts, and you know all the trick work. You never get tired of going out in front of an audience and hearing them go 'wow!' And that's very much the same thing with animation. And I still marvel that it works."

They also addressed the new age of Disney since Bob Iger made the deal with Pixar, and how the culture has been quite good in the past few years now that John Lasseter is back working both studios, translating Pixar's success and happy-go-lucky feel into the Disney environment, making for a really good time for animation. This is especially true because Don credits John as being "the biggest proponent of 2d animation on the planet" despite his ironic and historic career in computer graphics animation. Aside from Princess And The Frog, there is apparently a Winnie the Pooh feature in the works, so traditional animation may be on the rise again. But as Don said and as many agree, it isn't about the technique nearly as much as it is about the story.

Another question was if there were any problems they encountered making this movie in terms of Disney not wanting to show bits and pieces of their internal strife. Don also answered that there were times the three of them wondered if the film would see the light of day, but also that part of Disney's legacy is preserving its history, and that was well recognized during the making of the film, which allowed the inclusion of even the illegally-recorded home movies on the Disney campus shot by folks like John Lasseter. They had to call in a lot of favors, asking for these hidden gems, including an Apocalypse now reenactment involving nerf-style weapons, which the animators did in the early days after Walt's death, thinking the studio might go under. Mothers sent in news reports taped off of television in which Jeffrey in the limelight got mauled by a lion during a promotional shoot. Animators and directors submitted controversial caricatures, including one of Howard roasting someone during a meeting, and other caricatures which were popularly drawn around the studio - especially during caricature shows that were encouraged on April Fool's Day and would result in 400-500 public drawings. The shows served almost like a hazing ritual, in which case, if you didn't show up, you really didn't want to see the extent of wicked ways your colleagues would depict you. Moreso than from the Disney company, they had a lot of internal debate about what should be included in the film, such as Eisner jokingly wanting a better introduction at a eulogy, Roy not allowing Michael to promote Jeffrey, emotional warring over getting and giving credit, and other uncomfortable moments. And as Patrick pointed out, "Hollywood is just high school with money," so there were a lot of those moments.

They talked about union compensation as well as voice over royalties a bit, such as how one line out of a little Blueberry character in A Bug's Life translated into staggering residuals of around $27,000.

They also addressed Disney's chapter turn in 1994, citing Michael Eisner's heart attack, the earthquake knocking out the studio, creating Lion King in garages and basements, Lion King grossing a billion dollars in the box office, Frank's death, Jeffrey leaving Disney, and the subsequent money/bidding wars with animators being stolen away to emerging competing studios as Disney's time as a monopoly came to an end. Therefore, they felt that this point in time would be a good place to end their documentary.

Small snippet of the Q&A:

I was able to capture a little video on my phone about the three of them chatting about making the film. Also I made a point to catch Don and thank him for his eye-opening documentary, and win some encouragement from him as well: I had gone into a bookstore earlier in the day and picked up a $3 Little Mermaid Golden Book, which he signed, "To Laura - Enjoy, & Keep Animating! Your Pal, Don Hahn." Peter also scribbled his name on it as they were all leaving for a late dinner. I was so very lucky to see this, and would encourage everyone to try to make it to a local screening. It's an enlightening piece of animation history you don't want to miss.

It happened in a nap tonight...

2010-03-20T22:53:00.003-04:00

Our home was apparently attached to the airport. It was a futuristic world, and we were living in a cozy, small house attached to an airport, apparently. We were getting ready for Raj & Kristin's wedding, packing our bags for the flight, and we became very sleepy, so we took a nap. When we woke up, we continued putting together our bags, and in a flash I was afraid that we had missed our flights. It was around 8:45 at night, and sure enough upon looking at our tickets, our flights had been scheduled for 8:45pm. Our hearts sank! For a moment we didn't know what we would do. We called his mom and apologized profusely, but she wasn't angry at all, just groaned and said she would call the travel agent to figure it out. She had apparently been napping too, or sleeping for some reason: even though the time difference in her direction would make it earlier in the day for her, it was supposedly night time in Hawaii. I told Naveen to keep packing, and that I would take our tickets to the counter and see if I could do anything about the situation. So I ran through the airport, which looked a lot like a huge high school hallway, and burst out the doors at the end of the hallway, and I could see what the planes looked like.

I had never seen anything like it - this one was only going to Charlotte, North Carolina, as I could hear by an intercom, but it was still a double-decker plane with a really amazing lift service onto the second floor, from the outside (in actuality though, this particular lifter would be terribly inefficient to load people aboard the upper floor one by one from the ground, but it still looked really cool). People were standing in security lines to board the plane. I got into another line that appeared to go back toward the building, where there was apparently a service counter. I climbed onto the first few steps, and over this half-wall I saw one area that looked a lot like a living room with these high-quality metallic chairs (looking like folding chairs but actually permanent fixtures to the floor and far more comfortable). At the immediate area where I entered, there were people sandwiched next to each other, but even so they all looked extremely comfortable in their smaller, but red-cushioned seats.

I saw a lady with a clipboard in a casual red polo shirt uniform, and walked toward her, feeling my eyes red. Half forcing some tears for sympathy (not one of my actual skills), I held out the tickets and explained frantically that we needed to get to Hawaii for my brother-in-law's wedding, and I didn't know what I would do if we missed it. The lady was very calming, appearing to be Hawaiian herself with a very round, dark, beautiful face and flowing black hair. Looking at me with a very motherly, caring face despite her youth, she assured me that everything would be all right, and that there was nothing to fear. We would make it, I just needed to breathe deeply and sit down. But suddenly, I realized the seats had buckles, and through the windows I saw movement. She looked perplexed, and said. Well of course we're moving, you're going to Hawaii! A relieved but strangely and simultaneously panicked sensation came over me because Naveen was not there yet with our bags. I frantically messaged him using my phone. Thankfully, despite seeing me doing this, the lady in the red polo shirt did not force me to immediately turn my phone off as she could see how distressed I was. She gestured to me that I should be more discrete, so I held the phone lower on my lap as I told Naveen I was on our plane, that he could catch the next one and it would be okay, and that he should not forget the shoes that matched my dress or some things I had left in another room and hadn't placed in the suitcase yet.

In a bizarre twist, I realized I was wearing not pants or a regular dress, but the huge pillowy slip I had worn under my wedding dress, with an unpleasant cake frosting stain on the butt (which doesn't exist on my actual slip). I thanked the lady in the red polo shirt for helping me, and left our seats to go to the area that looked like a living room to order myself a cocktail.

Bizarre what unfolds in dreams. :)

Texas plane crash solved nothing

2010-03-18T12:46:00.002-04:00

I wanted to wait a while (it's been about a month) before posting anything on this subject, because it's clear we don't have all the facts, and truthfully I haven't read everything available about what happened, nor do I really want to. But after reading a few articles about the Texas plane crash (including this one),there is something that I wanted to say.

I don't really want to make commentary on the man who piloted the plane, since plenty of people seem to be doing that. I never knew him and I have no expertise in psychology. What I do want to address is the highly-publicized excerpt of the suicide note which read as follows:

"Nothing changes unless there is a body count. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at 'Big Brother' while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won't continue; I have just had enough.... Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

The real truth: the Texas plane crash solved nothing.

It makes me think of those boys at Columbine, or any similar act of home-grown terrorism or self-justified act of violence. These acts may be catchy and heroic for those who feel truly troubled by something, and thusly there should be worry of copycat acts. People are affected by (and can identify easily with) the struggle and pain brought on by national and even international financial crises.

But I think it is important to consider this was the voice of someone who gave up. He uses the word "sadly" when he talks about violence being the only answer, but really the statement in itself is what is sad. There is no doubt what he has done was impactful and draws alarmist attention to the hardship of America's striving lower and middle class people. But the "sad" idea that only a body count will inspire change is only perpetuated by those who want to make a statement about giving up. There is absolutely nothing heroic about that.

Someone who wages their own personal war against the government by crafting dramatic situations, damaging property, and finally killing themselves and others is not a hero, or a mascot, or a leader of any kind. These people will only lead others to death and destruction.

True heroism (in this political or social arena) is born out of a person's ability to be revolutionary without this kind of needless destruction. A hero is someone who ventures deep into the roots of the problem and studiously crafts structural improvement. A country, which is home to millions of people, should never be likened to such a problematic building that requires demolition to fix or begin again. A human being, who becomes sick, is not taken away to be executed.

We need to be the doctors of this society. Everyone who has as much as a roof above their heads and dinner on their table has a responsibility to advocate change. We are a nation of dream seekers. It's a beautiful country in which to chase your heart's desires, but right now there are too many people who are chasing just to make ends meet, and too many of these people are not the same people who at one time owned six cars or five homes or a small island somewhere for vacationing.

Animators on Facebook

2010-03-10T22:16:00.004-05:00

As a handful of you know, I've run an Animators group on Facebook for the last four years. It was very active while a lot of us were recently out of college; however, as many of us got jobs, the group got a bit stale and, quite rightly, we began to lose a handful of our 150+ members.

Recently though, I've had some time to revamp the group, and our numbers are on the rise again, which is driving me to encourage further participation and bring a special element to the group to lend hope and motivation to our aspiring animators.

I've been thinking it would be nice for the Animators Group to get back into mini-interviews (it's been a long time since we've done them). I'm going to try to do one per month, and after a few solid months I'll see if there's time to do more beyond that.

Without further ado, we have a real treat - an interview with Stephen Wong of Pixar Animation Studios. Please enjoy, and come see us at the Animators!

***

Stephen Wong, character animator, Pixar Animation Studios

Hi Stephen, thank you so much for taking the time to answer our questions. It looks like you got your start in CS and then moved into animation. What inspired this transition? Have you always wanted to work in animation?

I was always into art but had never considered it as a career, so I just kind of walked into computer science thinking it sounded sort of interesting. 6 painful years later, after endless math and science classes, and a few co-op stints with IBM, I found that I really wasn't very passionate about programming, but I was passionate about filmmaking, animation and visual effects. The idea of art school was always in the back of my head, whispering to me. I was working at a tech startup at the time, and the company was struggling a bit, so I decided I might as well give art school a shot and see if I had what it took to be an artist in the movie industry in some capacity. I studied illustration and traditional animation, then got lucky attending a couple of advanced computer animation classes taught by some Pixar animators, and I knew right then animation was what I wanted to do for a living.

What did you think of your time at GIT & AAU? Pros/Cons?

To be quite honest, Georgia Tech was a pretty painful experience for me. But it did teach me how to think analytically, learn to adapt quickly, and realize what my pain tolerance was. But in all seriousness, it's an experience that strengthened me mentally, and for that I'm grateful. The Academy of Art was a great experience (I wish I could have stayed in art school forever). I learned so much about the fundamentals of art, animation, how to learn and grow from other artists around you. Of course, art school is a bit sink or swim, and you learn pretty quickly that grades don't really matter as much as what your portfolio says about you and your work ethic. I went to every drawing workshop I could possibly attend, and spent many sleepless nights working on my animation reel.

Shortly after graduation, you jumped right in and worked on the Sims 2 EP for a few months. How did you land this first animation job, and what did the experience teach you?

If I have one word of advice for people trying to work in the industry, it's to not be picky about your first job! Just get one, any one, and prove that you can work on deadlines, and work with other people. I honestly didn't do a whole lot of animation at EA, even though I was hired in that capacity. I mainly got stuck working as a graphic designer on the user interface and drawing little icons (endless icons...), and then occasionally animated when they had an opening for me. But I worked as hard as I could, met a lot of great people, and used that experience along with my personal demo reel, to land my first big animation gig at Bluesky.

Right after working at Electronic Arts, you quickly moved over to Blue Sky, then ILM, Pixar, Tippett, and back to Pixar. How have you been proactive in getting your animation jobs? Did any of these companies (or recruiters or agents) find you, or did you apply yourself to getting each position?

You always hear about the importance of networking in school, but you never really fully understand just how important it is until you start looking for work. Outside of EA, pretty much every job I ever got was through someone I knew from school or from another company, recommending me or handing my reel in for a position that was open. And of course, having a demo reel that shows that you have a solid understand of weight, timing, performance and appeal is critical. Only show things that present the best of what you can do, and from within that, show your best stuff first. I've seen reel reviews where each reel gets about 6 seconds of viewing before people decide to either keep watching or hit the eject button. When in doubt, show friends and colleagues and ask for their brutal honesty. A 30 second reel of top-notch work looks a lot better than a minute long one with mostly good stuff and a couple of average pieces.

As far as being proactive about getting jobs, I normally try and pay attention to what projects are ramping up and consequently who is hiring animators for those projects. And it doesn't hurt to be decent at interviewing. They're looking for people who are passionate about what they do, and good at it, but not cocky. But you also can't be so passionate that you come across as a fanboy, people don't like that either.

You completed a lot of shots while you were at Blue Sky. What were some of the challenges you faced moving into feature film animation?

The biggest challenge coming from school to feature film animation is being able to consistently hit your deadlines while trying to do your best work on every shot. Unlike school, you don't get to scrap shots that aren't working out that well, so you've got to be able to adjust to notes quickly, and bring strong efficient ideas to your shots. Typically you've got a week from beginning to end to finish a shot, which doesn't give you a ton of time to explore different ideas for a shot. Honing in to a good idea or being able to scrap an idea you have that probably isn't going to work, is critical to any animation job, but especially true with feature anim. If you have a hard time taking notes and critiques in school then you had better learn how to, or you probably don't belong in the industry.

While you were at Tippett, you got to work on the Spiderwick Chronicles. What characters did you animate on that feature? What did you like best/worst about Tippett?

I mostly animated the little goblins running around terrorizing the kids, but also had a couple of shots with the character Hogsqueal. As for Tippett Studio, the place is amazing. It's one of those old school fx houses that has so much rich history in regards to visual and special effects, and one walk through the garage/workshop is like a trip through fx film history. Maquettes and models from Jurassic Park, Robocop, Hellboy, Starship Troopers adorn the walls everywhere, and there's a great energy and collaborative nature to that place. I had a great experience working there.

So far, you've worked with Pixar the longest. What is your favorite thing about working there? Least favorite?

It's crazy to think I've worked at Pixar the longest, but I guess that's true! There's a lot of great things about working there, but I guess my favorite is just how fun the work environment is. They really try and make the studio feel open and relaxing, so that you're able to put all of your creativity and inspiration into your work. I seriously have fun every day, even when production gets crazy, because you're constantly inspired by all the great artists working there. And everyone has the same goal there, which is to make great films. Least favorite? Hmmm...they didn't give us President's Day off, does that count?

You have a fantastic Ratatouille reel. What was your favorite shot to work on during that production?

Thanks, I came on half-way through the production but it was incredible to be able to work with Brad Bird, even for a few months. I suppose my favorite shot was my first close-up shot of Remy looking up at the TV, more for sentimental reasons than anything else, since it was my first big shot on the show.

What are your most favorite animated productions, and who are your favorite animators?

I love the Jungle Book, Spirited Away, anything with Wallace and Grommit, and of course, as generic as this is, The Incredibles and Finding Nemo. The animation in those movies is still mind-boggling to me. There are too many great animators out there to name, it wouldn't be fair.

If you had any advice to give an aspiring animator, what would that be?

Anyone can be an animator. Like anything else, it takes time, dedication, a good eye, lots and lots of passion, and a little bit of luck. I know animators who used to be cops, worked at coffee shops, doctors, musicians. The thing they all have in common is a love of filmmaking and storytelling, and a goofy sense of humor doesn't hurt.

***

A very special thank you to Stephen for taking the time to answer these questions. Happy animating, everyone!

Florida Times Commercial

2010-03-10T12:12:00.002-05:00

Congrats to SpeakeasyFX on completion and delivery of their latest commercial, this one for the FL Times. You can check it out here.

http://www.vimeo.com/10019174

Florida Times Union "Origami" from Michael Wiehart on Vimeo.

A Day in NY & Kids Media Salon (2/23/2010)

2010-02-24T09:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I hopped the 9am train to NY Penn and was there by a little after 10am. It was a soggy, windy, brutal, nasty day to be hanging around the city, but I had plans.

I walked around in Macy's for a little while to kill time, and then headed toward the Flatiron district to meet my friend Jess for lunch. It was great to see her again! I hadn't seen her since my wedding, and we had a decent amount of life to catch up on. We ate at a place called Organique where we each made our own sandwiches. I made up a french baguette with sliced grilled chicken, leafy greens, brie, and farmhouse chutney. I was going for a recipe similar to that of the sandwich I enjoyed last November at Bierkraft with my sister.

I'm excited because Naveen and I have made plans to meet up with Jess, Dorina, Jac, and a bunch of their friends for snow tubing in Connecticut this weekend. Hopefully the weather will be good.. it's been so rainy the last couple of days, and supposedly we're due for a big snowstorm which is conducive to tubing but not to driving north for 3 hours there and again coming back home. But it looks like it will be a lot of fun, and it will be great to see everyone and get some fresh air.

After meeting with Jess I walked around the Flatiron, and was so ridiculously cold that I walked into some pharmacy and picked up an $8 pair of fuzzy gloves to help keep myself warm. The wind was just biting, and my pretty blue umbrella was practically destroyed, flipping inside out several times and leading me around like a bucking bronco. No wonder so many New Yorkers don't bother with them if they can stand getting a little wet.

At any rate, I walked around a lot and eventually walked past this other place I had considered for lunch called Boqueria. I had really wanted to eat there but the online menu links were suspiciously broken when I had tried to view them, and all I had to go on were cached links on Google. We thought maybe the place wasn't as good as it seemed, so we ended up at Organique.. but seeing Boqueria in person, it looked very inviting and warm with glowing, rusty-burnt-orange colors. The only thing I wanted was an appetizer I had seen outside called Dátiles con Beicon, or Dates stuffed with almonds and Valdeón, wrapped in bacon. Amazing. I loved the sharpness of the cheese mixed with the sweetness of the date and salty crispy bacon on the outside. Just superb. I was so excited about those flavors alone that I had ignored the mention of the wide, beautifully-blanched almond on the inside, and almost spat it out thinking it was a date pit!

I could eat tapas like that every day.. fantastic combination, and the chef (Seamus Mullen) was really funny. He came out playing with an iPhone or some kind of device joking around with coworkers about a neti pot photograph (only it was photographed near a "teti" pot gag gift... which looked like a breast with a spout!) which I was nosy enough to ask to look at and have a laugh with them. We and the bartender and a few other employees (not very busy in the middle of the afternoon) were joking around about the Olympics which was playing on the screen at the bar. It was a fun experience there and I would definitely recommend it and go back myself.

Man am I craving that right now.. MMM!

Okay so after that I headed to the lower east side to meet with Robert and Sally to talk about helping them with Dogsharks while work is still slow for me. Mostly it was a chance for me to visit his studio and see all the panels all over the walls, and watercolors. It's very fun and hopefully getting off the ground very soon.

Soon it was time for the Kids Media Salon meeting, so we headed over to the home of Carla Seal-Wanner, an amazing woman who hosted the event last night. Joining us again were Robert and Diane who I had met at the last salon meeting I attended in November. Also joining us were Charlie Schroder who I know loosely from seeing her at SpeakeasyFX, Julie Tortolani via Skype, and a woman named Kathleen (Kathy) Wilson who just self-published her first book, Rumer & Qix, a story about a girl in a futuristic, utopian, fabricated world who rightly suspects there is a bigger story out there and that something is amiss. Kathy was generous enough to share a copy with me and I'm excited to read it.

Later in the evening I got to speak to Kathy one-on-one, and I asked her what she did before working on her book. Years before she had gotten her bachelor's in Fine Arts, and had also worked at Paramount and Viacom. But perhaps the most interesting thing for me was early on in her career she worked with disabled children, holding art classes and exposing them to technology as well. I was completely fascinated and told her about wanting to cross my art and technology interests with my being drawn toward people with autism. I hope we get to talk more about her experiences.

Overall, topics last night mostly covered Kathy self-publishing her book as well as other projects we are all working on, including Robert's latest Dogsharks news and some interesting stories about being a sheep farmer, and Charlie and Carla's impression of Kidscreen this year.

I was fairly quiet this time, a little wet and wind-blown perhaps. But very good company and conversation, and a really fun time with cheese fondue, breads, crackers, fruits, nuts, and wine. Carla's home was very classy and (like Louise's) surprisingly spacious for lower Manhattan. We all had a wonderful time. Fantastic evening and a memorable day.

AM Featured Alumni: Laura Skowronski Nattam

2010-02-14T10:32:00.000-05:00

This is pretty darn cool, and very humbling.

Thank you so much, to AM, Purdue, all of the SpeakeasyFX crew, my husband, and of course all of my family and friends, for giving me something wonderful to write about. I owe this most fortunate experience to all of your love and encouragement.

*.*.*

Abby's Flying Fairy School Homepage

2010-02-10T12:15:00.002-05:00

A few folks have asked if Sesame Street's "Abby's Flying Fairy School" has a homepage, and it does... Here!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/theshow/abby

It talks about the show and also acts as a holding area for the interactive "play along" episodes that SpeakeasyFX helped to create. Enjoy!

Google Buzz

2010-02-10T11:59:00.004-05:00

In my hour of experience with the program (so far), Google Buzz seems like something to turn to once Facebook takes that final plunge of the deep end... but for now it's annoying that updates get sent directly to my inbox "so I don't miss anything." Heaven forbid I miss a friend telling me they're heading for the can with a smelly copy of War and Peace.

I already discontinued my use of Twitter, for similar feelings of annoyance that were plaguing me.

Fostering Narcissism, one social networking site at a time.

Thoughts?

Too Lazy For Google

2010-02-07T08:38:00.002-05:00

So, some of you may have noticed in the last year that I have developed another blog called Too Lazy For Google. When a really random question comes to mind, if you have the latest smart phone or gadget out there, you can look it up instantly and be everyone's go-to guy, like a co-worker of mine who is always the one to have to look up the latest dumbest thing that I and other co-workers want to know about.

I am not one of these people that clamors for the latest and greatest tech to satisfy all my crazy questions, because I know that either my inquiry will be unimportant and forgotten by the time I reach home, or I will simply put it on the back burner until I'm near a search engine that can help me. However, in recent months with a very lengthy commute, even the questions I'd like to remember have ended up lost somewhere in the gray matter. So rather than simply scratching out these impermanent thoughts on paper or a hand or something I really would rather not have written on, I've developed the blog to which I can send a text message that will free my mind for more important things, like determining whether I should get my Starbucks at Newark Penn or in Westfield.

The idea behind the blog is that no matter how interesting I may find my question at the time, I'm usually too lazy to bother looking it up unless it is truly important to my existence, so I post the more trivial questions there so that my fantastic friends and family might find it amusing and may even post a comment response, usually detailing what a Google search may have actually contributed to my knowledge base in that subject, had I not been too lazy to search for it.

I have one more humorous thing to share on the subject, and that is this recent post I found on Bauer-Power which features a hilarious website, Let Me Google That For You, that will generate a sarcastic visual tutorial for someone who is simply too lazy to look something up and would rather bother the closest IT professional (or my co-worker who gets all the random questions all the time). Say the person asked what "blogging" was, because they just weren't sure. Guy With All The Answers can simply type "blogging" into the LMGTFY website, which generates a page resembling Google, which Answer Guy can now send to Annoying Co-worker. This automatically-generated page for the word "blogging" creates a step-by-step tutorial which animates in the letters "b-l-o-g-g-i-n-g" followed by an animated cursor navigating to the "Google Search" button and a text field with the remarks, "Was that so hard?" and redirects the viewer to actual Google search results. I find it fantastic. :)

Well enough randomness.. it's almost Superbowl time. My nails are painted blue... are yours? Go Colts! (PS: Drew Brees, we'll be cheering for you too...)

Singing Abby's Flying Fairy School

2010-02-05T12:30:00.004-05:00

Brad shared this with us this morning, and it is completely heartwarming and adorable. Sing it, Nili!

Nili Sings "Abby's Flying Fairy School"

I love my job!!!

Taking My Time

2010-01-30T11:53:00.002-05:00

So, in my recent lack of work since we've wrapped Interactive, I'm filling my time with other interesting things while we wait for some potential clients to realize how amazing we are. ;-)

Kids Media Salon Blog
I developed this blog for Sally Anne's group so that we could keep our events and discussion topics organized.

Eden Autism Services
I stopped in recently to offer volunteer work, whether hands-on activities, or office, graphics, or web-related work.

"Medic Malaise" (working title)
Writing project I plan on turning into boards and a new animation project this spring.

Happy birthday to Mom today!

A Slow but Fun Start to 2010

2010-01-27T10:17:00.005-05:00

So, it's nearing the end of January and I'm finally getting used to writing the number 2010. We're only two years away from the supposedly dreaded 2012 and a decade away from the famously anticipated 2020. As for this year, it's hard to know what's in store. School advisers always said to prepare for the 5-year question in job interviews - aka, what are you going to be doing by then - and I always used to have an idea of what I would say. I simply figured that if I worked hard and didn't burn any bridges that I would 'climb the ladder' in a fairly predictable way.

Since that time I've realized the question is far less about foretelling my future success and far more about defining what I want in life and trying to generate a path that will lead me there. I've learned the joy of waking up naturally and enthusiastically about going to the studio every morning, rather than feeling trapped in my life, punching an alarm clock and hastily throwing myself out the door to a job I don't like. I was able to learn this despite being separated from my newlywed husband for 10 months while he worked to finish his job in another state. It's a little harder to wake up early in the morning now that our commutes are so long to work, but we still very much enjoy what we do, and it's great to be able to finally live together while doing what we love.

However, things have slowed down at the studio for the moment, so it's been a slow start to the year for me. However, I have so far filled the time with a new demo reel (the web version from December is 1:15, but I recently made a longer 2:40 format on DVD), which I took with me to San Francisco for the annual Animation Mentor winter alumni job fair and open house in Emeryville. For this reel, which primarily featured muppet-like fairy characters from Sesame Street, I had to stress the fact that our rigs were relatively limited and didn't offer much in the way of facial control, but it forced animators to improve upon their posing, timing, and especially speed of delivery since each 3-5 second shot had to be completed in a matter of a day or two. With episodes pushing 11,928 frames (minus a 360-frame "spot" film) and only 13 animators working at the studio, each animator had an average of 890 frames per episode which had to be completed in a couple of weeks. We were taking shots from layout-to-blocking-to-final within a day or two, which demanded a strong work ethic and firey enthusiasm, which wasn't a problem considering our fantastic team, strong leadership, and great office morale and environment. I couldn't help telling recruiters how much I love it at my studio and how much I hope we land some more work, and soon. The word I've heard is that we've so far as doubled ratings for Sesame Street with our show, which is also selling well overseas, so we all fervently hope to earn more episodes and continue our relationship with Sesame Workshop this year.

After the open house and fair, I checked out of the hotel and enjoyed time with my friend Charlotte from the studio and a pretty big handful of my Animation Mentor pals - some from all over the world. We enjoyed dinner at Fuddruckers and later some fun at The Broken Rack.

It also happened to be my birthday weekend, so late that evening I took a train into the city to stay with my best friend Dorothy, who immediately took me out for drinks at a local Irish pub and later a Thai diner, and we didn't go home until 3am. It was the most fun I've had in a long time, and always great to see her. We got up Saturday morning to enjoy Dim Sum nearby her place on Geary Street, followed by a relaxing, beautiful birthday drive up to Napa - particularly a winery called Domaine Carneros where we enjoyed sparkling wines and a delectable cheese plate with among other things probably the best chevre I've ever had in my life. We also visited some garden and specialty stores as well as some antique shops, and finally ate at Michaelangelo's which is my favorite place to eat dinner in Little Italy. Sunday, before I left, we took a walk and lunched in Japantown. It was a really lovely trip, and I wished Naveen could be there, but it was really nice to go alone and spend quality time with Dorothy who I don't get to see very often.

Since my return, I got to meet Tyler Bunch, who is a great puppeteer and perhaps an even greater vocal performer who gave a voice to such characters in our show as Gene the Genie (his personal favorite and the one he felt was the most well-realized by our studio), the Cubby Imp (not yet aired), Niblet, Peck, and cg "anything-muppet" type characters on the show. He visited the studio to lend his voice for some characters we created in a spec project we're hoping to sell, and SpeakeasyFX took him out to lunch at Dillon's where we had celebrated the initial airing of "Abby's Flying Fairy School."

When we returned to the studio, he was telling us all about these performance tools that they use on Sid the Science Kid, which is a show I respect more now that I can envision the technology they are using on it. He has had the opportunity to work with these digital puppeteer performance tools developed at the Jim Henson studios, and to me it sounds like having to learn an instrument or live inside a robot. You have to train every joint, every finger, to handle all kinds of gestures and movement: a thumb opens and closes a mouth, but may also rotate a jaw; fingers may control eyes, eyebrows, cheeks; pitching and rolling the wrist might control something, either position or emotion depending on which hand you're talking about - both hands and arms are used to comprise the emotional and positional acting of the characters. Basically, puppeteers enter into the studio, stand around each other with their arms in these mechanical suits, and complete a controlled mechanical performance while watching the other performers in their suits. Video might capture their facial performance and any subtle body language, and an audio record captures the voice they give their characters - all while able to hear and communicate with the director in the booth who may be demanding acting changes on the fly or suggesting retakes. It sounded like a very high-tech take on what used to be a low-tech entertainment industry, but puppeteers and puppeteering will always have their place on shows like Sesame Street and in live performance in front of audiences. That's where that magic takes place, anyway - with children surrounding and interacting with the puppets. It was a joy talking with Tyler and at the end of the day we gave him a still featuring one of his characters from our studio-favorite episode, "The Cubby Imp," which has not yet aired.

So for now, we are waiting on spec projects to generate more revenue for the company and bring everyone back on staff. Tonight I am wiping the old, corrupted laptop because Naveen is bringing home a brand new Dell Mini-tower and monitor, which he ordered a while back as a Christmas-birthday gift for me. I'm psyched to get it hooked up and animating again! Catchya later.

Sleeping Bloggy Interactive Game

2010-01-12T07:59:00.005-05:00

Check out our first online interactive game for "Abby's Flying Fairy School: Sleeping Bloggy."

Sleeping Bloggy Game

It was released before the holidays, but the people getting it to run properly online didn't have all the kinks worked out - now it runs fine, and it's pretty fun! Hopefully future episodes will handle buffering and alpha channels a little better so everyone can see our beautiful work as it was meant to be seen! ;-)

*Update 8/9/2010: The game has been moved and now can be found here, along with another!
Sleeping Bloggy
Say Gezundenshniffle

The Gift of Perspective

2009-12-28T13:31:00.006-05:00

Given the continuing economic slump and a handful of us on unemployment, our families shared fewer commercial gifts this year (there was a "no gifts" policy but some simply could not hold to it). In the airport, some individuals could be overheard talking about the best gift they received, be it a favorite movie, game, gadget, etc. While I did receive some great presents, by the end of our trip to Wisconsin I had been given a tremendous gift that I hadn't expected.

Some might read this and may think that I'm just a downer, and I'm sorry for anyone who feels that way. It probably does seem that I have an eye toward the negative side in this post - but believe me, I'm only posting these things because they somehow find a way to remind me personally how lucky I am and how fortunate we are to have all that we have. Writing about the mishaps and misfortunes, for me, is therapeutic and puts me at ease as I can then turn to what is right in my life and all that I should be thankful for.

Monday night, we decided we'd bring my laptop along so that the guys could game and we could check emails and such. I started backing up my files and deleting stuff off the laptop hard drive so there would be adequate space to install and run the games, but after a few hours, it got to be 1:30 in the morning, and it was time to close up shop so we could get some shut-eye. Tuesday morning we gathered up our bags, scooped up the cat, got him to the vet for boarding, and headed to Bristol. I hung out at Naveen's office taking care of some things during the day before our flight. One of his work friends was kind enough to take us to the train station, so we left the van at work, took a train to Philly, and managed to fly on schedule despite the winter weather.

When we arrived Tuesday night at Mitchell Field, our flight from Philadelphia was supposed to have arrived around the same time as my sister's and (her boyfriend) Nick's flight from Newark, so my dad waited in the cell phone parking lot while Naveen and I sat at the baggage claim waiting for their plane to arrive. We had claimed our luggage and saw that their flight was "in range," so we waited. And waited. And waited. Due to some misinformation somewhere down the line, we ended up sitting around the destination airport an hour and a half until they finally landed and got their bags. By the time we got to my grandmother's house, it was well after midnight, but we were just happy to see each other and be back with our family.

The next day, Naveen and I were looking on my laptop at images I had saved from our wedding photographer, trying to narrow down pages and pictures to an album that would be affordable for us to purchase. There is so much we haven't done - we still owe a majority of people Thank You cards for their thoughtful gifts, we still hadn't ordered our wedding photos, and we still haven't planned or gone on a honeymoon. But this week, we were going to start getting things done. We determined which pictures and pages we were okay to lose, and reviewed the change requests to the photographer's website which I had made during the day on Tuesday before our flight. I left the laptop open and Naveen and Nick decided they wanted to play "Sins of a Solar Empire" to pass the time for a while.

Unfortunately, even 10 or so gigs of space wasn't enough, or they noticed a slow performance, so they decided to run a routine disk cleanup. Since I hadn't finished backing up my files, and I had heard horror stories about using disk cleanup, I was a little anxious about it and mentioned that I used CCleaner with decent results, but they had already begun and confidently explained that you tell the computer exactly what areas to clean up. It was reportedly going to clear another gig of space, but by the end of the cleanup, they had freed 40 or so gigs, which seemed alarmingly high. Since the computer was still running a bit slow, they tried running the defrag tool, but had to stop it at 3% because we were going to eat dinner and needed to move the laptop to another location.

Later that night, however, when Naveen set up the laptop elsewhere, I heard him mutter something with disdain and I ran to him... almost all my folders located on the desktop and My Documents folders were completely wiped out. Empty. Gone.

I ran upstairs and screamed into a pillow, I was so mad. This isn't usual behavior for me, so everyone was concerned and quickly found out what happened. At first I felt mad at Nick, because I didn't know that Naveen had given the go-ahead on the disk cleanup, and then I was mad at Naveen, but primarily I was just mad at myself, that in my busy life with my long commute and everything going on, I still should have found the time to back up the things I had lost. It didn't take long before I went back downstairs and apologized to everyone for losing my cool about it, but everyone understood and was hoping we could recover some of the files. Nick patiently was able to recover most of the files that had been lost - but unfortunately even a 3% defrag was enough to corrupt a majority of the files. I lost a handful of photos, videos, Maya and Photoshop work, among other things that were important to me. As upset as I could be about the guys pushing the button, in my heart I knew it was a routine cleanup that simply must have triggered a virus (or, as we found out later, something like 7 threats) which caused the mass deletion of my files, and I knew that it was my fault I had not backed everything up ahead of time.

I spent too long talking about that perhaps. I'm still getting over it.

Christmas Day we were supposed to head over to see my paternal grandma, but it was delayed by several hours because my parents' van died. They had just gone in to have the battery looked at, and the technicians at Walmart said it was fine. They don't typically go there, but they've had to cut a lot of costs since unemployment is running out soon for them. So, the battery was dead. With Nick's help, they were able to charge it enough to get it to a local garage where they replaced it and saw that the struts or shocks or something also needed to be replaced (I heard both and never got the final story which it was). Just what they needed, right?

I won't go into much detail, but I've had some moderate health problems in the last month that have gotten worse in the last couple of weeks (so I'm going to the doctor later this afternoon). My issues weren't helped by the fact that last night we had a delayed first leg from Milwaukee, and had to sprint from an outdoor gate at Terminal F to an indoor B gate at Chicago O'Hare in order to make our connection to Philly. We made it, but the running triggered some of the respiratory problems I've been having as well as digestive and pain problems that are becoming chronic for me as well, so it was a miserable flight (not to mention two uncontrolled little boys sitting behind us, yelling playfully, and kicking our seats). When we arrived in Philly around 12:15am, we found out that they didn't get our bag moved onto the connecting flight and so we are waiting for it to be delivered to Naveen's work sometime today (let's hope). Inside I have medicines, gifts, a hair dryer which I desperately need in this cold weather, and a large wedding print (protected only with a cardboard box) that we bought from the photographer this weekend. I hope everything arrives safely soon, and isn't damaged, stolen, or lost.

But as I mentioned, this past week has offered us a very important gift of perspective. We can't stay upset about these things because we must acknowledge what we have - I was able to fly home and see my family, and that was the main thing. However distracted we could be about the negative side, we were there, together.

While sitting at the airport waiting to go home to New Jersey, we received the most unfortunate news of a friend in California who lost their second child. Their first child, an unborn daughter with a rare blood condition, had been lost on the morning of our wedding day, which is forever with us and reminds us how precious life is. This time, they were having a son, who was starting to show signs of problems at the same time in pregnancy as their daughter, but the doctors were able to deliver the 4-pound premature baby successfully, sharing his mother's birthday just a few days before Christmas. Friends and family were overjoyed and sent cards and gifts. They spent the holiday in the hospital because of his need to be monitored in an incubator and with feeding tubes. After only five days of life, he suddenly developed a different rare condition called NEC which affects only 1 in 4000 premature infants, and died yesterday. I can't even begin to imagine the strength our friends have in getting through this second loss.. There just simply aren't words.

My cousin lost her best friend in a head-on car accident just days before my birthday in January. This friend had been her single most important confidant since childhood, and as for my cousin, who is hearing impaired and has worked since high school rather than having gone to college, she has been left this year to redefine herself and cope with her grief largely by herself. Our family has been sensitive to her needs this year, but seeing her on Christmas Eve, it is evident that this pain may take years and some new social conditions in order to heal.

One of Naveen's cousins in India, who he met just a few years ago, was very intelligent and well on his way to a good school sometime soon. But a few weeks ago, he was in a terrible motorcycle accident without a helmet on, and he has only a slim chance to live. If he does survive, it is probable that he has suffered irreparable brain damage and may remain in a vegetative state. This news comes shortly after another cousin, whose wedding was impending, lost her mother (I believe to a heart attack), which was preceded a couple years before by another of Naveen's cousin's suicide at his parents' house, and my great uncle's suicide as well when he thought he might be dying of cancer.

We've been through a lot in the last couple years, but to stay upset about a computer crash, car problems, luggage lost... These things are meaningless. The tragic stories of our friends and families in recent years truly remind us how absolutely precious life is, and how much care we hold in our hearts for everyone. The stories of their joys and moments of happy excitement are what encourage us and keep us going. And, hoping that this post doesn't merely slip into the void, I wish for everyone a safe, happy, healthy new year, and that peace remains in your hearts and minds even through trying times. Distance may separate us, but we are always thinking of you, praying for you, and looking forward to our next meeting.

AFFS Criticism

2009-12-20T07:37:00.001-05:00

So, as we know, mostly there has been super positive feedback about AFFS. However, we also know there are a lot of die-hard muppet fans who are afraid the real puppets are going away (which isn't true). This article by Eric Alba is no different, but at least it shows internal debate: Eric says the animation (in all its technical glory) is really well done, but he also makes a good point that it doesn't have the typical Jim Henson lo-fi lovability. Good argument, I just think that as die-hard as they think they are, these people must not be watching the SS hour, because there are plenty of puppets still bouncing around, and there always will be.

When Santa Turned Green

2009-12-14T13:37:00.002-05:00

When Santa Turned Green - Official Site

Just thought I'd spread the word - "When Santa Turned Green" is now the best selling book at FAO Schwartz and my company just helped with the release of the new iPhone app, which I believe reads the story and you can zoom in on the illustrations, etc. Since Santa's in the mix, it's great for introducing children to global warming and what they can do to help. Just thought I'd share with you!

Sleeping Bloggy Online Interactive Game Launched Today (Abby's Flying Fairy School)

2009-12-09T15:08:00.009-05:00

I'm proud to say our first online interactive game for "Abby's Flying Fairy School" launched today. This episode is called "Sleeping Bloggy." I'm not sure if the broadcast version of this episode has aired on television yet, so you'll have to let me know about that. Anyway, give the game a shot! ;-)

Sleeping Bloggy Game

(Note: at the studio we are testing it and it seems that the game hangs up after the juice game for most people. Hopefully the Flash company, Firefly, is figuring this out!!! SpeakeasyFX was only responsible for the show content, character animations, and magic fx. While I did not layout this interactive episode, I did a handful of animation on it.)

Women In Children's Media Holiday Party

2009-12-09T11:13:00.004-05:00

I think I'm going to go to this, since I have a train pass for this week anyway. Anyone else interested in going too?

*Update 4:45pm - I've decided not to go - I'll be going out with my SpeakeasyFX crew instead! We have a lot of celebrating to catch up on!!!

JOIN US & CELEBRATE!

If you haven't RSVP'd yet,
there's still time!

Event Details:

Wednesday, December 9, 2009
6:30-9:00 pm
Vig 27
119 E. 27th Street
New York, NY
between Park Avenue South & Lexington Avenue
on the north side of the street
Members & Non-Members welcome - Please RSVP

Raise a fancy cocktail and toast to another year at the Women in Children's Media holiday celebration.

As a special gift, all those in attendance will receive a 20% discount on new memberships and renewals*!

Light appetizers will be served. Drink specials available from 6-8PM.

Come celebrate 2009 with us and:

Meet other children's media professionals

Catch up with old friends and coworkers

Learn more about Women in Children's Media

Hear about all of the things we've learned this year at WiCM

See you there!

*20% discount offer applies to all new memberships and existing membership renewals and extensions. Offer does not apply to previous purchases, although you may add a one-year extension at the discounted rate for any recently purchased new membership or renewal. Offer valid through Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 11:59pm ET.

You must be present at the event and check in with a WiCM staff member to be eligible for the discount. Offer cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion.

OUR MISSION: Women in Children's Media (WiCM) is an association of women who are committed to creating and distributing thoughtful, entertaining media to children and young adults. WiCM builds connections, promotes professional development, and inspires our members to lead, innovate, and shape the future of children's media. www.womeninchildrensmedia.org

AFFS Character Animation Reel 2009

2009-12-03T20:20:00.002-05:00

I've created a reel that you can see if you'd like! It's at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Fg6uZn8Ps

Link information:

"Abby's Flying Fairy School" (© Sesame Workshop) - Laura Skowronski Nattam, SpeakeasyFX character animation reel for December 2009.

On November 10, 2009, Sesame Street celebrated its 40 years on television with a new and exciting season premiere. "Abby's Flying Fairy School" is an eight-minute cgi animated segment (nine minutes, counting the intro song and 'Spot' film) which airs during the Sesame Street hour on PBS. For more information, please visit the official site: http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/theshow/abby

This includes a portion of my work that has been aired in November-December 2009.

Episodes which have already aired include the following:
"Niblet's Wand"
"The Fairy Godmother Test" (aka "Cinderella Challenge")
"The Pinocchio Process"
"Sugar Plum Fairy Dancing Shoes"
"Genie in a Bottle"
"Say Gezundenschniffle"

Thanks for watching!!!

A Special Day In Brooklyn

2009-11-23T11:02:00.010-05:00

This weekend was pretty great [editorial note, this was written just after the weekend of November 21, 2009]. Friday had been my sister Kristy's birthday, and she and her boyfriend Nick went out that night while my husband Naveen and I went to a movie night with my SpeakeasyFX friends (featuring Star Trek, this summer's blockbuster). But on Saturday, we had a very special day out - in Brooklyn.

We started out just about on time - we had put together a pretty decent itinerary last week, starting out from South Brunswick around 10am (allowing ample time to sleep in after a night out), stopping at an ATM, picking Kris & Nick up in Woodbridge (leaving there by around 11 or so), and crossing the Geothals and Verrazano-Narrows bridges into Brooklyn by just around noon. These days, the trip is $8 eastbound and $11 to return, which isn't much considering we'd each be spending $10-20 on train tickets otherwise. This way we saved money and could keep our own schedule. I gave Kristy a birthday card with a face on it that looked just like hers (ha-ha), a Boyds "Sisters" bear, and Oreo cake for later to share with Nick. But today (Saturday) - the whole day was on me.

Upon arrival, we set out to find street parking for our lunch, beers, and chocolate goodness at a place called Bierkraft. No reservations were needed - it looks like a liquor store as you walk in (which it very much is) - but the sandwiches and chocolate came highly recommended to me by my Raritan train conductor Joe last week, and I'm so glad we went. We were highly skeptical at first, and as it turned out, no one really felt like having a beer at noon on a Saturday. Once we stepped further inside and around the corner, we found the sandwich selection and literally a handful of picnic tables wedged into the narrow shop, and I was really wondering if we should find a nicer place for lunch. But I'm so glad we stayed. The sandwiches were amazing. I ordered a Serrano sandwich which was out of this world - Serrano ham, manchego, fig spread, arugula, EVOO & Sherry vinegar on a baguette. Amazing. I mistakenly thought Nick asked for the same thing, but he seemed happy with the sandwich as well. I think he meant to say "make that two" when a moment earlier I had ordered the Pastrami Spiced Brisket sandwich for Naveen - a homemade brisket & Leyden with homemade sauerkraut, arugula, tomato, onion, and grainy mustard. Kristy was the most creative, with her self-created sandwich, including salt & pepper turkey, honey chevre, and apple-ginger chutney. I treated everyone to lunch and got to try a bite of each, but I must say I liked mine the best. Finally, we walked up a few blocks for some tasty Gorilla Coffee to keep us going on our eventful day.

We had thoughts about going up to the Flea Market, but we thought perhaps there wouldn't be enough time to fully appreciate it since parking anywhere takes a while on a Saturday in Brooklyn. Similarly, I had made a note about possibly going into the museum if the library presentation was a bust - I had made the unfortunate mistake of relying on my handwritten reminder about the presentation, which conveyed the date and time but not the fact that reservations were required for the event. I knew it would be memorable, led by Louise Gikow who I met weeks ago through Sally Anne Syberg at the Kids Media Salon gathering in Manhattan. I've only gotten about a third of the way through the sizeable 300-page work, Sesame Street: A Celebration---40 Years of Life on the Street, which I've posted about before. I desparately wanted to see the panel discussion, and on Friday I had spent quite a bit of time on the phone and in emails to library staff and even poor Louise, who offered whatever help she could and probably ended up with half a dozen notes from me in her inbox that night. Luckily for me, the gracious Meredith Walters, adult programs manager at the Brooklyn Public Library, called me back at the end of the day offering a chance to squeeze not only myself but my three guests as well into the presentation. I was ecstatic. I later spoke with her colleague who put us onto a waiting list Saturday morning, and so after lunch we excitedly headed to the library.

Staying on schedule, we were at the library at Grand Army Plaza by around 2:30 to check out some of the wonderful exhibitions on display in the lobby, foyer, and youth wing. On display in the lobby were several pieces of original Sesame Street book art from Sesame Workshop's Publishing Archive, featuring a range of illustrators' works in a variety of styles from the 1970s to the present. Foyer cases held the story of Sesame Street, from its inception to its present and future, told through photographs, scripts, original sheet music, celluloid animation and show props, as well as a special collection of Sesame Street Muppets, built by The Jim Henson Company over the show's 40 years. As you walk into the building, the foyer case on the left held a small model of a laptop computer with the famous press release image of Abby's Flying Fairy School, which was wonderful to see as well. Unless I'm mistaken, I don't think we made it to the youth wing, where there were supposedly more items, but we were thrilled to see Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Bert and Ernie, among other characters and monster friends. Curated by Sesame Workshop, these are on display through February 21, 2010, and were a delight to see.

Around 3:15 I was too excited to wait any longer - I led the group downstairs to the Dweck Center to see if tickets had become available. I spoke with a woman who got the impression that I was one of the presenters, since I had mentioned speaking to Louise and Meredith, and she was ready to lead me into the Green Room where presenters relax - however I caught on to what was happening and admitted that I was only a waitlisted guest with her family hoping for tickets. As luck would have it, at that very moment Louise walked through the door and greeted me with a warm hug, and I recognized Meredith from a photo I had seen and introduced myself. In a rush, I think it was Meredith who went up to the desk and pointed back towards us, saying, "And that's Laura and her family - she gets in." We were thrilled.

We still had to wait of course - the 40th Anniversary Book Panel Presentation was not to start until 4pm, but it wasn't long before the line began to form, so we stood in the waiting area, books in hand - myself in particular starting to look a lot like an excited puppy dog. Finally the crowd started to roll in, and while everyone was being seated, a "Cool Reel" of Sesame Street footage was being run to the tune of Coldplay's "Life In Technicolor," which I love, and made it all the more dreamlike for me since I'm such a fan of their music. Meredith then went onstage to introduce Louise and begin the panel discussion with Chris Serf (lyricist and songwriter for memorable ditties like "Put Down the Ducky"), Carol-Lynn Parente (Executive Producer of Sesame Street), Rollie Krewson (designer and builder of Abby Cadabby among other female muppets), Bob McGrath (Bob, the ever-present, heartwarming, longstanding Sesame Street resident and singer), and Fran Brill (the advent of females-playing-female-characters on the show, including Zoe, and also known for her role in the film What About Bob). They each spent some time speaking about how they became involved in Sesame Street, what it was like working with each other at a sometimes very strange but always very rewarding job, and other fantastic tales of trivia.

Many people who have worked with Jim Henson commonly share the story that he brought a very low-key attitude within his studio. Some people didn't even exactly realize they were hired until they showed up at the studio, thinking it to be a visit, and overhearing Jim or someone mention their name as the "newest puppeteer."

Bob talked about when he was hired, essentially chosen by a test audience of five year olds. He spoke about how some actors don't know how to interact with puppets, and in his case, was sometimes strange and very unpredictable working with children. In the beginning, he was very concerned about who he should be, or who he should try to emulate - but clearly the best solution was to simply be himself.

Like some other puppeteers in the early years of Sesame Street, it seemed that Fran had been an actress but had never touched a puppet before, but since she had both acting and vocal performance talent, she was given the chance to play around with some "Anything Muppets" lying around in the Sesame Workshop. Prior to Fran's arrival on the scene, various members of the all-male cast would puppeteer the girl characters using falsetto voices. When Fran was asked to develop Zoe, it was the first time a woman played a girl puppet; soon whenever the script called for it, Fran was asked to play "the girl."

Rollie addressed the topic of building puppets, and despite her role in crafting monsters and muppets and fairies like Abby, she described the process as being very much a group effort. Carol-Lynn spoke about where Sesame Street is going, and how it deals with the many issues that they feel children are facing today. Chris unfortunately lost his voice, but he sang for us anyway with Bob's help, and played the piano, and everyone watching and singing along became five again. It was wonderful. I heard someone compare watching Sesame Street as an adult to the moment of climax in Pixar's 'Ratatouille' when the critic zooms back into his own childhood and reminisces within his own very fond memories - and that was exactly our experience.

I was overjoyed to find that Leslie Carrara-Rudolph was sitting in the audience just a row away from me, and after the presentation I scrambled forward to see if she would autograph my book, which she so kindly did - both as herself and of course as miss Abby Cadabby, which was wonderful of her. She also introduced me to John Kennedy, (who I didn't know) is a right-hander for several muppets and is featured on page 138-9. He as well as the entire panel signed my book, and the panel also signed the three other books I had purchased - one for Kristy's birthday, and one each for my mother and grandmother, who enjoyed seeing us grow up with Sesame Street and (even vicariously from the midwest) are just as excited about its 40th year as we are. Thankfully the boys helped us lug the books around all afternoon so we each had one in hand, so a special thanks to Naveen and Nick for their help there.

On our way out, I phoned the place where I had made our dinner reservation, a place called Char No. #4, a whiskey bar and barbeque that Kristy had recommended as she used to live nearby. When I made it on Friday, I knew we would be cutting it close, but they only had a 6:45 open, so I had taken it. It was nearly 6:45 when we got to our van, however, and when I got through to them on the phone, they weren't sure if they could hold the reservation if we were later than 7:15. I knew that with street parking we would just be arriving then, but we took the chance. As we walked in, the restaurant maitre d' thanked us for calling because he found a chance to move things around and was able to seat us right away.

It was an incredible dinner, I must say. Kristy had a delicious beef brisket sandwich and tasty potato salad, Nick had some pork sausage with peppers, Naveen had some fantastic melt-in-your-mouth ribs, and I had a delightfully tender smoked chicken with kale and walnuts in a dressing. Everyone had drinks - Kristy got a Wild Turkey Honey, Nick got a Bourbon Insider, Naveen got a Porkslap Pale Ale and Peak Maple Oat, and later I even sipped on a Henrique Madeira from Portugal. A delectable evening, and I treated again as it was in part a present to Kristy and in part simply a celebration of the amazing day.

I had thought about ending the evening with a comedy night at Vox Pop, but we already had such a full day that we agreed it might be too late into the evening to attend since we had a long drive home. Still, stuffed as we were, Kristy wanted to treat us to desserts on our way back to the van. She hoped to take us to Po for some affogato ice cream, but as they were booked for at least another hour, we wandered over to Provence en Boite and enjoyed some chocolate mousse domes (dark chocolate for Kristy and I, and a milk chocolate one for Naveen) and an apple tart (for Nick). Then we truly were stuffed! We happily made our way back across the bridges and back to New Jersey, getting to Nick's around 11:30 and then home a little after midnight. A truly full and joyous day.

Brooklyn Library Sesame Celebration

2009-11-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

Recently, I purchased a copy of Louise Gikow's book, "Sesame Street: A Celebration -- 40 Years of Life on the Street." I describe it in more detail in a recent post (see here) a week before AFFS aired.

Saturday, November 21 at 4pm, I attended an event at the Brooklyn Public Library (Central Library, Dweck Center) where the author and various behind-the-scenes folks gave a presentation and book signing. Cool huh? :) In honor of Sesame Street's 40th year on television, personalities from the show and behind the scenes came together to discuss the impact of TVs first educational program for children. This 90-minute event featured Louise Gikow, author of Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street; Bob McGrath, human cast member since Season 1 in 1969; Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente; Chris Cerf, Sesame Street composer and lyricist; Rollie Krewson, puppet builder with The Jim Henson Company; and Fran Brill, puppeteer for Zoe and Prairie Dawn. A book signing followed the event.

I've written a longer, much more descriptive posting on this event and will be posting it either tonight or tomorrow, when I get a chance to upload some photos and perhaps some video as well. Much more to come!

The Yip Yips

2009-11-18T00:12:00.000-05:00

I can't tell you how influenced I was by Sesame Street when I was a kid.

But I can show you something that makes me laugh, even to this day, and probably had an effect on the profession I chose:

Martians discover a book (The Yip Yips)

LOVE it. :)

A Bad Day For Trains, An Even Smaller World For Me

2009-11-17T08:31:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was an all-around weird day for some Newark and NY Penn commuters.

It was a nice day. Unbelievably, my North East Corridor train arrived at the scheduled time at Newark Penn - something it rarely does - and I had enough time to walk leisurely to my next platform (rather than the usual sprint to try to catch the Raritan line before it leaves and doesn't return for a whole hour). However, yesterday, it wouldn't have made a difference if my NEC train had been half an hour late - the Raritan train wasn't even idle on the tracks. It wasn't there at all.

As usually-precious minutes ticked by, I wandered around the platform looking for the couple of coworkers from NY whom I routinely meet when on board the train - Sean Smith, our editorial assistant, and JoEllyn Marlow, our producer. I saw Sean first, said hello, and told him about a text message on my phone saying that the train was delayed between Cranford and Newark due to police activity. We weren't terribly surprised - it's pretty common that someone on the Raritan line doesn't want to pay the fare, and they do whatever they can (traincar hopping, picking up old tickets from the floor to use like a decoy, the "I lost it" excuse, etc). It happens probably once every month or so near enough for me to notice. But the situation was apparently a bit more serious this time.

Without a train in sight or any word on when it would arrive for boarding, I decided to run downstairs for a quick breakfast. When I returned, I found JoEllyn and sat with her until the train finally did show up a half hour late. Folks on board looked pretty peeved, probably too late for their regular connections in their commute to NY. Thankfully, there wasn't anything in particular that was pressing for us at the office, so we chatted away the time and got there eventually. When I got into my email, however, I had received an alarming notice:

NJ TRANSIT apologizes for the delay and inconvenience many of you experienced during this morning’s commute due to police activity in Mount Laurel.

At approximately 8:15 a.m., Mount Laurel police responded to a bomb threat involving the Conrail dispatch center responsible for controlling train movement on a portion of the Raritan Valley Line near Newark. The dispatch center was evacuated as a precaution, and service between Newark and Cranford was temporarily suspended.

Local police cleared the incident shortly after 9:00 a.m., and rail service was restored at 9:15 a.m. Several trains were delayed 30-60 minutes.

I had to shake my head in disbelief - this is very unusual, I think, for this area.

Other than the strange morning, it was a pretty regular work day - except to say that 'regular' for me (as of the past week or so) entails not actually putting in any real hours until the last interactive project is finalized, so like many others, I come in voluntarily to visit with each other, review work that might be used on show reels, and talk about (or animate on) new projects we're working on together. I'll get an hour here or there of paid work, but not much until that last interactive episode is finalized and ready for production.

Leaving work was nothing out of the ordinary - but once again, upon arriving at my next platform at Newark, things began to spin out of whack again. The computerized track information board started re-arranging entries, as it sometimes does when a train is delayed or another train arrives earlier than normal - but it kept rearranging them, and after only a minute or two, it stopped completely and every single train line reported, "DELAYED -- DELAYED -- DELAYED."

I was a little uneasy given the news I received that morning on the Raritan line, and this time it was all across the board. I wondered what might have caused this halt on all lines. Soon I heard a message come in on my cell phone, and felt a little relief at the news:

Rail Update: Trains in and out of New York Penn Station are subject to 60-90 minute delays due to disabled Amtrak train blocking one Hudson River Tunnel.

I was glad to know I shouldn't be letting my imagination run wild, but it was unfortunate to read about the 30-60 minute delay. I called my husband to let him know. Meanwhile, some nearby men waiting for the Amtrak to Harrisburg overheard me and were joking around, instant friends by situation it seemed. They joked about it being the crazy NJ Transit system, and although I would have liked to agree, I laughed and informed them that it was because of an Amtrak train, and they laughed and rolled their eyes. I mentioned my earlier troubles on the Raritan line, which prompted one of them to ask where I worked. When I told him Westfield, he looked surprised.

"I built the new building out there a few years ago, in the downtown area," he claimed. I wasn't exactly sure which building was new, since I'm fairly new there myself. He said it was for Salon Visage, and I instantly realized which one he was talking about. "That's right next door to us, on North Avenue - they have the big glass windows and a big screen tv you can see from the street."

He looked a little confused, asking, "Well, where do you work then?" I tried to describe the building we worked in, on the second floor, with the large parking lot out front, brick face and white siding exterior, with a clock on it. "And a gazebo on top?" he asked, with the answer of course being yes.

"I built that gazebo," he said. "I helped build that building! That was supposed to be for Visage - they were going to move next door." I had to laugh - we get calls all the time for hair appointments because apparently the phone companies thought the move happened too - but something must have changed at the last minute. I told him I thought that some lawyers might have worked there before us, but that our company had the building since sometime last summer, and that I had worked there just over a year. When he asked what I did, I was all too excited to tell him that we were a small but growing commercial shop that got to work with Sesame Street this past year, producing the new cg-animated show, "Abby's Flying Fairy School." He had a wife and three kids, ages 4, 5, and I think 7, waiting for him at home. He seemed like he couldn't wait to tell them.

Suddenly my train arrived, and I said goodbye to them and wished them well. I had lost all sense of time and couldn't say exactly how long my wait had been, but unfortunately I'm sure they were stuck there longer. I boarded the very crowded train and was surprised to get a seat - I asked to squeeze in on a four-seat section, which is sometimes uncomfortable since passengers in those sections sit knee-to-knee, but the two men I was sitting with there were very friendly. It's funny that however inconvenienced people are when these train problems occur, most people seem more approachable and friendly despite their troubles.

It was because of this that we struck up a conversation - one of them happened to be Indian, and of course I talked about Naveen and our time at Purdue - and his eyes lit up. His son is majoring in Electrical Engineering at Purdue and is hoping to go on to get his Master's degree there. He mentioned that his younger son (in 10th grade) wants to go to John Hopkins, which they are all in favor of since there are no doctors in their family, but he joked that he might have to take three jobs to put his son through school there.

We continued talking about our families a bit - and when he heard ours lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he was surprised and asked if we might know a Jyotir Reddy, a renowned doctor in that area - and I smiled, pretty certain that she is a family friend of the Nattams. I felt even more certain when he mentioned she had just been involved in the founding of a new Hindu temple in Fort Wayne, and I think the celebration of its opening occured the weekend we were home for Zander's birthday. He became friends with her because he was involved in the founding of a temple in South Jersey (I think probably this one), and I believe he said she was there and wanted to involve the same priest, perhaps for groundbreaking ceremonies or something. As we were leaving the train (he parks at my station but lives in North Brunswick), he got to meet Naveen and we chatted a little more. Unfortunately, tired as I was, I somehow did not think to take a moment to write down his name, but at least earlier when he said he would talk to Jyotir, I asked him to mention that he met the youngest Nattam son and his wife.

So that was my day yesterday - a very strange one indeed. I am staying home today to catch up on some personal work, and got sidetracked for a little while in wanting to write about yesterday's experience. Today I got this message in my inbox:

NJ TRANSIT apologizes for the significant delay and inconvenience many of you experienced last night.

At approximately 6:35 p.m., Amtrak Train 137 became disabled just outside of New York Penn Station, unfortunately blocking access to the North Tube under the Hudson River. Until the disabled train could be moved, all NJ TRANSIT and Amtrak trains in both directions were forced to share the single-track South Tube for service in and out of New York Penn Station. This caused delays to all trains ranging from 30-90 minutes throughout the remainder of the evening peak period and into the late evening.

To provide customers with an alternate travel option during the disruption, we established cross-honoring on NJ TRANSIT bus service out of the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

At approximately 9 p.m., the North Tube was returned to service and normal operations resumed using both tunnels. Residual delays affected service until about 11 p.m.

I also got an alert on my phone that there is a 20-minute delay on the Raritan line again, around Union station. I wonder what wonders I might have encountered this morning if I had been there!

Hope you have a good one - so far as I've heard, "AFFS: Pinocchio Process" re-ran today - let me know if you heard differently!

Abby's Flying Fairy School: "The Cinderella Challenge (The Fairy Godmother Test)"

2009-11-16T17:22:00.003-05:00

Some Trivia, if you'd like... This show, called The Fairy Godmother Test (aka, The Cinderella Challenge), was the very first show in production at Speakeasy FX. At the show's beginning, we only had eight animators. Shots back then were counted up incrementally by one, while later we numbered our shots by multiple of five to ease technical issues if shots were added in between (for continuity). We used to tack up storyboard panels all over the walls. While getting our feet wet in XSI (since we were all brought up on Maya), not to mention learning the character rigs and production flow, this episode took us nine weeks to accomplish. By the end of the first season, we had thirteen animators and accomplished shows in an average of two to three weeks (our record being one week - just to see if we could pull it off - needless to say, nobody slept that week)!!!

My work on this episode, which aired today:

(EP001SH006) Blogg, Abby, Gonnigan
"Well Cinderella is a girl, and Abby is a girl, hehe, hint hint, nudge nudge!"
This was my very first shot assignment with Speakeasy FX. I think when all of us AMers got here and got shots done in a few days instead of a few weeks, we were pretty shocked at what we were able to do!

(EP001SH013) Mrs. Sparklenose
"You will be playing Cinderella!"

(EP001SH015) Mrs. Sparklenose
"I'm sorry dear, but eenie meenie is legally binding. You'll have to be our Cinderella.."
I loved this line and did not want to overact it, but I wanted her to appear half like a teacher, half like a lawyer laying down the line! A render still of this shot (frame 120, pictured below this shot list) was used in Louise Gikow's book, "Sesame Street: A Celebration -- 40 Years of Life on the Street."

(EP001SH030) Mrs. Sparklenose, Fairy Timer, Dress Badge
"You've now completed the first part of the Cinderella Challenge!"
Unfortunately the original camera was changed during the render, so the composition is off - which bothers me, but hardly anyone else. :)

(EP001SH037) Abby, Gonnigan, Blogg
"Oh don't worry, Gonnigan! My mommy does this all the time. We just have to wave our wands and say - 'Fragile Footwear.' (all together) FRAGILE FOOTWEAR!"
This was my first time animating Abby dialogue. It didn't take long for me to fall in love with animating her!

(EP001SH053) Abby, Gonnigan, Blogg
"(Gasp) Twelve might have something to do with the shoes!"
Twinkle think... twinkle think... ;) Also, Blogg likes his dress. ;)

(EP001SH066) Gonnigan, Blogg, Abby, Niblet
"Oh, oh, Oh no! Niblet ate the pumpkin!"
This shot (pictured at the top of this post), along with my first shot, were favorites in early playblast screenings.

(EP001SH069) Gonnigan, Abby, Niblet, Mrs. Sparklenose
"Mrs. Sparklenose, does Cinderella's ride have to be made from a pumpkin?"

(EP001SH084) Blogg, Gonnigan, Abby
"A tricycle?"

(EP001SH090) Abby, Gonnigan, Mrs. Sparklenose, Fairy Timer
"Now we have to get Blogg to the ball!!!"

PS - I was surprised to hear this aired today (Monday, 11/16/09), since they aired all new episodes throughout last week. We'll see what they air tomorrow - if it's a new episode, you allergy sufferers may like to tune in for a tickle!

Colbert Report Questions Values on Sesame Street

2009-11-13T13:34:00.009-05:00

On Wednesday, November 11, 2009, Comedy Central's satirical late show, "The Colbert Report," openly questioned the values conveyed through Sesame Street. It was so funny that I had to take the time to post my favorite moments. Please enjoy!

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=255230

GROVER THE HILL

"Tonight - Sesame Street celebrates its 40th birthday. Soon it will be 'C is for Colonoscopy.' "

(By the way, on the November 9th show, Stephen Colbert started with "Happy 40th Birthday Sesame Street. That bird's not gettin' any bigger. I say we eat him now.")

"Nation, yesterday marked the anniversary of the most insidious, socialist, brainwashing program in our nation's history. Of course, I am talking about Sesame Street."

"For forty years, our socialist muppet masters have been turning children to alphabet-reciting, Snuffleupagus-hallucinating, Elmo ticklers. Well I've had my eye on the Children's Television Work Collective, ever since the show premiered in 1969. I was five, and I could not believe my eyes, folks. Big government, funding little children being indoctrinated into singing the praises of numbers."

(Video: A fast-paced hypnotic song ensues about the numbers 1, 2, and then repeatedly 3. "One, Two, Three! Three! Three! Three! Let's sing of the number three! How many is Three...")

"Let's see, Hitler, Mao, and Stalin. Is that three enough for you? And the propaganda does not stop with numbers! Oh! You've got to do the alphabet the way the man says!"

(Video: A charming moment when Kermit sings the alphabet with a little girl who insists that "q.. r... Cookie Monster" is in the alphabet. Kermit disagrees.)

"Yes, Cookie Monster! So what if that's not a letter. Jam him in there. Because not only is Cookie Monster a friend of the show, he is the only one teaching kids to consume like an American."

(Video: Cookie Monster appearing with Stephen Colbert earlier this year; Cookie Monster frantically piling food into his mouth.)

"Thank you. And just look how these furry fascists attack the institution of marriage."

(Video: Grover asks the boy, "Do you know what marriage is?" The boy answers, "A marriage.. a madgredge... is... is when somebody... when two people get married." The boy nods happily as Grover replies, "Yeah. Yeah. That's good, that's marriage.")

"That is not marriage! Two people??? Excuse me, Grover, a marriage is between a man and a woman. Not a man and a man, or a man and a monster, or a monster and the other head on the same monster... I think these guys are sharing more than the same torso..."

(Image reveals the two-headed monster.)

"Plus, Sesame Street gives aid and comfort to illegal aliens. This is America! Try English guys. Me no speaka the yop yop!"

(Video: The yip yips, discovering a book.)

"So it is no surprise who the guest for their 40th anniversary was."

(Video: Michelle Obama planting a garden with children. Elmo introduces her, and she asks, "Who has seeds?")

"Ooh! Ooh! Oh, I know a seed you'd like to plant! An acorn."

(Image: ACORN logo)

"And why, why folks, why are these kids only growing vegetables? Where are the meat seeds? But luckily there is a glimmer of hope that Sesame Street is changing. On last week's show, this was an actual conversation between Oscar the Grouch and his girlfriend..."

(Video: Oscar apologetically says, "Yea yea, I know what you're gonna say." Grundgetta blurts out, "Hugging and kissing?!? That is it! I am changing the channel. From now on, I am watching POX News! Now THERE'S a trashy news show! Ha!")

"Sesame Street now has POX News. Well this little crack has upset many conservatives. One right-wing blogger wrote - 'I can't even sit my kids in front of 'Sesame Street' without having to worry about the Left attempting to undermine my authority.' - And nothing says parental authority like propping your kids in front of the tv so you can blog about how tv is undermining your authority."

(Image: 'Conservatives Grouch-y' article)

"Now personally folks, I wish my cable company carried POX News. They provide insightful coverage at my reading level. And the citizens of Sesame Street are desparate for fair and balanced coverage. Just look at how the muppet media covered tea party protests..."

(Video: Kermit scorning an inaccurate re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party.)

"Mister Frog! You can not silence the people with your web-footed storm troopers! And I am not saying that Kermit is Hitler, but doesn't this look a little too natural?"

(Image: Kermit with a small imperialist mustache)

"I would much rather my children watch opinion chicken Glen Beak squawk about how President Barrack Opossum wants to euthanize Big Bird and legalize Bert-Ernie marriage. So kids, turn off Sesame Street and turn on POX News. You'll love their great commentators, like Shawn Hammadee, Bull O'Reily, and Mitt Romney. We'll be right back."

Abby's Flying Fairy School: "Sugar Plum Fairy Dancing Shoes"

2009-11-13T11:20:00.003-05:00

Some Trivia, if you'd like... This fourth show to air, called Sugar Plum Fairy Dancing Shoes, was actually the second show in production at Speakeasy FX. This was the first show in which the animators used extensive video reference to help us convey some kickin' dance moves!

My work on this episode, which aired today:

(EP002SH011) Mrs. Sparklenose
"[All right class, is everyone ready to] shake their groove things? Wait a minute, where's Gonnigan?"
A lot of people say she looks like a mosquito. But have you ever seen a mosquito with these moves? ;)

(EP002SH013) Gonnigan, Abby, Mrs. Sparklenose
"Sorry. I won't dance. Don't ask me."
I had a really fun time getting Abby to do a little bit of Maniac / Flashdance here. If you watch the music video, I took my inspiration from the part that comes right after the famous part, where the girl pulls the chain and the water cascades down on her (around 3:24 into the full version 6:27 song, but about 3:54 in this YouTube link).

(EP002SH014) Mrs. Sparklenose, Dancing Shoes
"I think I have something that may help you, Gonnigan. Sugar Plum Fairy.."

(EP002SH015) Mrs. Sparklenose, Abby, Gonnigan, Dancing Shoes
"..Dancing Shoes! Made especially by the Sugar Plum Fairy, to teach dancing!"
These last two shots appear one right after the other. Mrs. Sparklenose's line is cut right in the middle of the sentence. This was a conscious, frequent directoral decision to keep dialogue and action continuing through the cut.

(EP002SH017) Mrs. Sparklenose, Abby, Gonnigan, Blogg
"[It's almost] Recital time! Your parents should be here any minute now!"
As animators, we enjoyed a LOT of freedom with acting choices while working for Sesame Workshop. We had to use the composition and general idea behind the storyboard panels, but for example, in this shot, my only direction was to get Abby and Blogg offscreen before the next shot - so it was fun to be able to make the choice to have Blogg poke Abby before flying away with her offscreen.

(EP002SH035) Abby, Gonnigan, Dancing Shoes, Lunchbox
"Tippety Tappety Prippety Prance. Make those two feet start to..." - "The shoes!" - "DANCE!"
All I can say here is... Daaance! ;)

(EP002SH069) Mrs. Sparklenose, Gonnigan
"That's because you don't need them. You already danced." - "Huh?"
You may notice that I only claim the first four seconds of this shot. You see, because the camera angle for the next shot was so similar to this one, it was later decided that the two shots should be merged together, keeping my original camera angle and animation. When two shots merge like this into a single animation file, it can be very complicated on a technical level, since you have to match exactly all the character controls in the last frame of the first shot perfectly with the first frame of the following shot. This process became known as Frankensteining, and thankfully was only used seldomly during the creation of these episodes.

PS - I haven't heard yet whether our next show will air on Monday, or if they will re-run these past four, for a while. I'll try to keep you posted. Be on the lookout for a new episode when Blogg steps up to the challenge in a magical new outfit, fit for a prince, you might say...

Abby's Flying Fairy School: "Genie In A Bottle"

2009-11-12T10:33:00.004-05:00

Some Trivia, if you'd like... Even though it was the third show to air, Genie In A Bottle was actually the sixth show in production at Speakeasy FX. It combines a message about recycling with a fun surprise - a genie pops out of an old bottle!

My work on this episode, which aired today:

(EP006SH015) Abby, Blogg, Gonnigan, Peck, Mrs. Sparklenose
"Oh, don't you remember, Blogg? Recycling is when you take something that's been used, and turn it into something new, that can be used again!" - "Oh yea! Why do we do that exactly?" - "So that there's less trash." - "That makes sense! Come on, let's recycle!"
Probably one of the longest shots I ever got to work on. It took several days, as opposed to the average 2-3 days of animation on a single shot, which is why I can claim so few shots in this episode as opposed to others.

(EP006SH120) Gonnigan, Genie, Niblet, Abby, Mrs. Sparklenose, Blogg
"Oh, what do we do now?" - "All right, all right. But make it quick! I haven't found my swim wear."
Sadly (for me), this shot never made it to render. After animation was finaled, a chunk of the dialogue was repuprosed into another shot when new dialogue, or "pickup audio," was recorded and sent to our studio to help with a continuity issue. This sort of disappointment is fairly common for animators and must be accepted with a shrug of the shoulders.

Here's what an un-rendered shot looks like, without all the pretty fur and magic:

PS - Friday's episode is shakin' - it brings some real toe-tappin' fun!!! Enjoy!

Abby's Flying Fairy School: "The Pinocchio Process"

2009-11-11T10:00:00.002-05:00

Some Trivia, if you'd like... Although it was the second to air, Pinocchio Process was actually the fifth show in production at Speakeasy FX. Personally, I think it's our most gorgeous show.

My work on this episode, which aired today:

(EP005SH067) Gonnigan
"Oh, that doesn't sound like a good idea!"

(EP005SH095) Blogg, Abby, Mrs. Sparklenose
"I can do that, no problem! Eeeh! Oooh! Huh?" - ("I'm off to find the cricket!" was later cut.) - "Uhm, maybe I'd better poof us there. But where do you find a cricket?"
While this was originally a longer shot, the second part of Blogg's dialogue had to be cut to make room in the episode for a crucial change elsewhere.

(EP005SH120) Abby, Ladybug, Gonnigan, Blogg
"A ladybug, ha! We better keep looking."
One of my favorite little Abby moments. I love Abby!!!

(EP005SH170) Blogg, Cricket, Abby
"Well you can help if you want, but I definitely do not need it."
I had a great time adding the stiff wooden shake characteristic to various Blogg puppet shots.

(EP005SH220) Abby, Gonnigan
"We don't need a giraffe or a monkey, what we need, is a donkey!"
One of Abby's many cheerleader-style rhyming moments.

(EP005SH340) Blogg, Abby
"Eghh, Eeeh, Oohm..." - "What's wrong?" - "I can't do it!" - "Sure you can! Your arms and legs and wings are all back to normal."
I really put as much love into this underwater shot as I could in just a couple of days! When I saw a test render of the whale, I knew the caustic lighting would be really impressive for a kid's tv show, and so I tried to really get the weight right as well as believable secondary action on the fairies' flippers.

PS - Thursday's episode introduces a really fun new character, so don't miss it! I think he will leave you *wishing* for more!

Abby's Flying Fairy School: "Niblet's Wand"

2009-11-10T14:36:00.004-05:00

Some Trivia, if you'd like... Niblet's wand was actually the fourth show in production at Speakeasy FX. However, it fit better within the season to be shown first, as it introduces the class pet, Niblet, who is a clever, mischievous, gerbilcorn - that is, a gerbil/unicorn mix.

My work on this episode, which aired today:

(EP004SH080) Gonnigan, Abby, Blogg, and Mrs. Sparklenose
"And there he goes!" - "Let's go Gonnigan, we need all the fairies we can get!" - "You know gerbilcorns, they love to be chased! A little fairy chase music please!"
Note - the first part of this shot was the last shot shown on the earlier YouTube promotional video.

(EP004SH307) Blogg, Gonnigan, Abby
"Oh no, we're on top of a mountain!" - "And Niblet's at the bottom!"
While originally animated in the close up perspective, this shot was later split into two shots, the latter portion merging with shot 310. Niblet was animated by Will Robertson, a freelance generalist and animator who came in briefly this spring to help while Scott (our owner) was away.

(EP004SH495) Gonnigan, Mrs. Sparklenose
"Then how will we ever catch him?" - "Oh you can't catch a gerbilcorn."
Initially, we were given notably the deepest, most out-of-character vocal performance for Gonnigan. The shot was later extended slightly to accommodate improved vocal characteristics.

(EP004SH500) Mrs. Sparklenose
"Unless he wants to be caught."

(EP004SH505) Abby, Blogg
"I'll never get to pet him again?"

(EP004SH510) Gonnigan, Blogg
"And I'll never get to try to pet him again."

(EP004SH595) Gonnigan, Blogg, Niblet
"Uh, oh... okay!" - "Meep!" - "Oh! This feels nice!"
One of the cuddlier moments I ever got to animate on the show, with Niblet jumping into Gonnigan's arms.

PS - Be sure to tune in tomorrow for Episode 2... you won't regret it, it's a gorgeous episode with some amazing visual sequences... don't miss it!

AFFS Airs Today!!! Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009

2009-11-09T11:04:00.009-05:00

(I'm posting this in advance so folks can find airtimes.)

Congratulations to Sesame Street on 40 years of fantastic children's television!!! And congrats to all of us at Speakeasy FX for the production of the show's second daily segment, Abby's Flying Fairy School!!! it all begins in the morning on PBS.

We'll be watching on WLIW, at 9am over at Dillon's in Mountainside.

To save you the trouble: Here are the times Sesame Street airs for my biggest supporters!

Fort Wayne, IN: PBS 39, 10:00am

Milwaukee, WI: MPTV, 11:00am

Indianapolis, IN: WFYI, 10:30am
(although for Indy the show listed is "The Help-O-Bots," whereas it should be "Frankly It's Becoming a Habitat" - currently listed Wednesday, you may want to tune in both days!)

PBS couldn't possibly make their tv listing website more complicated.. you navigate to the website , choose the zip code or location near you, and you'll see a list of available stations for your area. Find out on your tv which one you can tune into, and pick "This One" on the website. You'll see TV Times, but you must navigate to where it says "Full Day" in the top right box, and just hit the nearby right arrow for Tuesday, November 10. Make sure your listing says "Sesame Street: Frankly It's Becoming a Habitat" or you may not be watching the premiere show! In this show, a real-estate agent tries to persuade Big Bird to move to a warm climate by taking him on a virtual tour that stops at a beach, a swamp and a rain forest. Meanwhile, in our show, the class pet gets a little greedy with a magic wand and sends the fairy kids on a wild goose chase. Enjoy!!!

I also hear that they're actually airing our first four shows this week - highly unusual! Usually they get a segment and repeat it a ton, but they're actually going to show a new episode EVERY DAY this week! How awesome!!!

Yeay!!! Thanks everyone! So excited!

Kids Media Salon (11/04/09)

2009-11-05T16:06:00.023-05:00

(Click the image to watch the latest 40th anniversary promo):

I just realized Kids Media Salon has my sister's initials.. KMS. ;)

Well last Wednesday night was a lot of fun. It was a change of pace for me since I usually spend my free time goofing around with Naveen or watching animated comedies like the Simpsons or catching up on one project or another. It was a night with a very intellectual, opinionated, friendly group called Kids Media Salon, a melting pot of talented industry folks working in children's entertainment who have been invited together by none other than miss Sally Anne Syberg.

This particular event was held at the home of Louise Gikow, who most recently published "Sesame Street: A Celebration -- 40 Years of Life on the Street" which has been a great, nostalgic read and has also served as a sort of memory keepsake for my past year working at Speakeasy FX. I've even started calling it 'my yearbook' and have asked my coworkers to sign it. Louise offered to sign the inside cover page, "Hope you enjoy it, Laura!" I was thankful for that, even though I hoped she might sign it later on November 21st at the Brooklyn Library event, but this was a more intimate meeting anyway. I greeted her with some nice products from a new store in Westfield called "Bath Junkie" - one being a soft-woven menthol baggie for headache relief, and another being a eucalyptus ball that effervesces in the shower for sinus relief. Tis the season, after all - I'm going back for some myself later.

Louise had a gorgeous apartment. As the ten of us sat around her living room, I started out fairly quiet, but by the end of the night I was actually trying to be more reserved because despite my usual standoffishness or indecisiveness, I was finding myself just as outspoken as the rest and had to restrain myself from interrupting or interjecting possibly too much. After all, I was in the room with an Emmy winner, Louise Gikow; an independent foreign documentary film maker, Tania Cypriano from Brazil; writer/illustrator/Dogshark President Robert Wurzburg (a clever but subtle hoop earring on the right); the analytical President of Paradigm Research & Consulting, Iris Sroka (of Polish descent, and reminded me occasionally of my friend Joanna Leathers); President ("Countess") of Relevant Research, Patricia "Pat" Tobin; directors/animators for TinyInventions.com, Max Porter and Kaoru "Ru" Kuwahata (a couple of bright, creative people - beware the quiet ones, they have the talent!); project manager/producer Diane Strack (the friendly, laid back woman who sat next to me and was willing to chat with me superficially about monetizing strategies in a changing world for broadcast models); and of course, miss Sally Anne Syberg who was our EP at Speakeasy FX during the AFFS project, is a networking superwoman who was able to pull us all together for the Salon group (which meets regularly), and is now coming up on some really exciting new ideas for production.

Add Laura Skowronski Nattam, character animator on Abby's Flying Fairy School (the new second segment of the Sesame Street hour), also former art director for CVC Communications... :-) yeay me.

The conversations really escalated at times, regarding today's content for children: the appeal and values of yesteryear's classics as opposed to the quality of television, film, and games made today; the amount of layering happening with syndicated television, dvd sales, and recording programs like TiVo; current topics in media and our own current projects; etc. I got the vibe from Sally that the evening was perhaps somewhat more disjointed and socially-motivated than topical or socratic as it typically may be. Nevertheless, good time, good company, good evening.

My major contribution of the evening was recommending "Everything Bad is Good For You" by Steven Johnson, regarding the Sleeper Curve theory and "How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter."

This morning (I'm finishing this recap Monday 11/09/2009), I'm excitedly watching the hours pass until the airing of Sesame Street tomorrow morning. The local stations air the program at 7 but then again at 9am, which is good because that's when most everyone from the AFFS crew can make it out to Westfield. We're gathering at a family restaurant called Dillon's up in Mountainside to watch the premiere of our show. How very, very exciting. :)

PS, Sesame Street is throwing a birthday party next Saturday, 11/14, following the premiere of the new season tomorrow (11/10). Folks have been asking me what time it airs - you'll have to look it up through this website: http://pbskids.org/tvschedules/stationfinder.html
The party website is here:
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sesame_Street%27s_40th_Birthday_Party

Enjoy!

Thanks again for all your support!

One Week Before Abby's Flying Fairy School Airs

2009-11-03T23:45:00.001-05:00

One Week Before Abby's Flying Fairy School Airs...

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm leaving work early to catch a train to NY as I've been invited by Sally Anne to take part in a Kids Media Salon meeting with a couple handfuls of really intuitive-sounding folks in the children's educational entertainment industry. It is being held at the home of one Louise Gikow, author of the book I recently purchased: "Sesame Street: A Celebration -- 40 Years of Life on the Street."

It's a GIANT book. It's making me feel really "big" right now.

Of course since Louise visited us at the studio and spoke to me at length about the animation process, I knew the book would at least mention us. So, I gambled and bought the book online before I knew for sure - but I knew I'd want it anyway as part of my collection.. it is the 40th year for Sesame Street after all. Sure enough, though, our little NJ studio has a full 2-page spread in the "Believe in Little Things" section, pages 234-235, where yes, Speakeasy FX is mentioned in the process of bringing computer animation into the world of Sesame Street puppets. The famous render still that was leaked for the August press releases was included, as well as stills from David Shirk's Abby test for the bid, and some of our David's preproduction work. It's a great little section, and does quote Scott and Jan well, and mentions David and Andy also.

I am proud to say, although I was not credited, I realized that page 234 has a render still from the third shot I ever animated professionally for television - something like frame 120 of Shot 15 in the Cinderella episode. It's the one where Mrs. Sparklenose looks apologetically at Blahg the fairy troll, saying, "I'm sorry dear, but Eenie Meanie is legally binding. You'll have to be our Cinderella."

Yay me!

On an aside, designer Peter de Seve was unfortunately credited with a name misspelling: "Animator Peter Sepp -- a veteran of Pixar who created the characters in Ice age, among others -- designed all of the new characters in the segment, like Gonnigan, Blahg, and gerbilcorn Niblet." Now, as it turns out, his original designs were truly important, but sketched out only very quickly, so I've heard. It was actually David who really fleshed them out and designed the bulk of the look of the show. A few folks who realize this may chuckle at the unfortunate "Sepp" credit, but this is obviously a luckless slip for Pete's sake.

Yes, a strained use of the pun.. I know. I'll try harder when it isn't almost midnight.

I was entertained that Louise chose to describe us as working and sitting silently at our computer screens... silently... woah, do we get points for good behavior? :-) Most days, back in "the day," there were nerf gun wars, YTMND and YouTube shares, and the very usual hilarity of office craziness. This was indeed a special place.. although my sense of humor is not as innocent as it once was, perhaps. :)

The book comes with a DVD of the first episode that aired Nov. 10, '69, which is fantastically reminiscent of our childhoods.. and also a brief 40-year recap video which is framed cleverly onscreen in a changing television (that is, it goes from an old fasioned tv border of the video which morphs over time, starting from early episodes in the 60s, and gradually the border changes to newer tv models until in 2009 it's a plasma screen.. pretty cool, and very subtlely done).

Actually a glimpse of that video can be seen on Leslie Carrara's website:
http://www.lesliecarrara-rudolph.com/
And also on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHUKDMyt7wo

Finally, in a few weeks, on Saturday, November 21 at 4pm, I plan to attend an event at the Brooklyn Public Library (Central Library, Dweck Center) where the author and various behind-the-scenes folks will give a presentation and book signing. Cool huh? :) In honor of Sesame Street's 40th year on television, personalities from the show and behind the scenes come together to discuss the impact of TVs first educational program for children. Featuring Louis Gikow, author of Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street; Bob McGrath, human cast member since Season 1 in 1969; Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente; Chris Cerf, Sesame Street composer and lyricist; Rollie Krewson, puppet builder with The Jim Henson Company; and Fran Brill, puppeteer for Zoe and Prairie Dawn. A book signing follows the event. This program will last approximately 90 minutes.
http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/sesamestreet/

I'm psyched. A lot going on this month.

I can not believe that November 10 is only a week and a half away!!! The unveiling is fast approaching!

Thanks again everyone for your support!!!

Laura

Last Official Day on Abby's Flying Fairy School, Season One

2009-08-28T20:04:00.007-04:00

[Note: I started drafting this on August 28, when animation on our show finally came to a close - but I have since been busying myself as a generalist/layout AD for the interactive projects that will air online alongside the broadcast episodes. However, that production is wrapping up soon as well, and we are hopeful to begin work on something new very soon. Huge good luck and bon voyage to Scott as he ventures to France for the big MIPCOM/MIPTV/MIPJR conferences, armed with a gorgeous portfolio and work that we're all very proud of. Best wishes! And now for that post I was writing almost a month ago...]

So, today marks the last official day of animation at Speakeasy FX on the broadcast project we've been working on for Sesame Street. It has been an amazing year, and I think it's allowable now to tell you that the name of the thirteen segments we animated is called Abby's Flying Fairy School, which is already searchable on Google, since the start of this month when PBS made their press release.

Here is also an article which includes a rendered still of the show.

A photo of most of the team on the last official day of production on AFFS, taken in the back of the historic Galloping Hill after some fantastic hot dogs. Front to back, left to right:
Jan Carlee, Sally Anne Syberg, Laura Skowronski Nattam, Charlotte Zielinski, Kristy Maslin, Mikaila Munoz, Edyta Kuciapa, Steve Palaia, Eileen Kearney, Kevin Scott, Andy Zazzera, Eric Thivierge, Mitch Lotierzo, Rob Gegner, Sean Smith, Brad Regier, Cesar Tafoya, Scott Stewart, David Michael Friend, Mike Wilson, Kevin Worth, Jake Kalsbeek, Roman Kobryn.

It boggles the mind a little to think about how this last year went for me personally. Towards fall of 2008, I was completely absorbed in wedding planning, and very focused on the upcoming state of simply being married. I did work on some small animation projects myself, but few that I felt were going anywhere because of moving, wedding planning, etc. Toward the wedding, I was more and more focused on being a bride, and being a very happy, thankful one at that. However, just ask my husband and he will tell you that throughout last year I definitely had my moments (or -insert long periods of time-) of feeling down about myself as a person because I had spent all kinds of time and money and effort trying to become a professional animator, and instead I saw myself as a small-time graphic designer who didn't sell herself well and might very well not (dare I say never) find herself animating professionally anytime in the near future.

And then we got married, and a week later, I heard from our dear Sally Anne, EP and awesome lady extraordinaire, who heard about me through a contact from Animation Mentor by the name of Bridget Haley, former career services manager there. And it just so happened that I had met Bridget at GDC in SF earlier that year and she recommended me to Sally Anne, and the rest was history. The moment I got Sally's email was the moment my whole mentality changed. Instantaneously I knew that there was no other way than to accept the position I was being offered - not because it had been the only one, but because it had been the only relevant one to me, and an extremely special one as well. I knew in the moment I received the email that everything was about to change, and I had no fear. This was what I had been waiting for, trying for - - - why it had to happen a week after we got married, I'm not sure, but it truly was a blessing.

It certainly was interesting, showing up on September 22, 2008, to a small office above a tuxedo shop in Westfield, NJ. The place had been partitioned into what we called 'pods' which organized animators, generalists, and editorial/direction staff, and to give an idea of how rushed the process was, the computers and desks were still being assembled for much of that first day on the job. Speakeasy FX had been a small commercial outfit for the last couple of years, and suddenly it had taken a fast forward plunge into children's television, exploding in size from a couple of specialized folks to suddenly around 16 - about a 8 animators, 2 generalists, a production assistant, an editor, an art director, an animation director, an exectutive producer, and the owner - plus a small handful of accounting and other staff that worked out of NYC, so we animators didn't get to know them too well. And as time ticked on, 5 more animators came onto the scene, and about 5 more generalists, new editors, new assistants. It was awe-inspiring, being a part of such a special production team while watching this growth unfold.

Simultaneously though, it didn't take long for the heartache to start of being separate from my husband in our first year of message. The time was ticking away, month by month, and by spring our personal misery was beginning to become very noticeable at work, which we had fought hard to avoid. We searched and searched for an opportunity to live together and work on the east coast to accommodate my job, since his job was lacking the challenges he anticipated. Even looking for work elsewhere was difficult because it not only meant leaving a company which had swept him off his feet at a convention, offering him a tremendous salary and benefits package for an entry level programmer, but it also meant uprooting ourselves from living near our families in the midwest and from the beautiful apartment home we were starting in Chicago.

Still, we were determined to find an opportunity to live together again by the time our first anniversary would come to pass, and thankfully we were able to fulfill that goal when finally a company we were hoping for came out of a hiring freeze, and a friend at the company helped to get my husband's name heard until an offer came for us. Despite an enormous pay cut and decrease in benefits, we took it to meet our goal to live together, and thankfully the job has proved to be far more involving and gratifying for my husband. We are very hopeful for my animation career to continue out here in the coming months, and I am certainly grateful to have been able to remain onsite at Speakeasy FX to help direct the online interactive media projects. What is next, few are sure, but once again all the best to Scott in his endeavors at MIP these next two weeks, and hopefully we'll be celebrating soon with more work for this very special crew. Bon Voyage, à tout à l'heure!!!

No Limbs, But No Limits

2009-08-24T20:52:00.002-04:00

Truly amazing video, and a very inspiring gentleman who has remarkable strength and wisdom for someone my age.

Another Stepping Stone for my Interest in Autism

2009-08-19T20:55:00.005-04:00

Another noticable brush with fate today perhaps...

Tonight after work I went downstairs to do some laundry, and I met a neighbor, Barbara, a 59-year old woman who works at Seton Hall University and takes classes there simultaneously. We were having a friendly commiserating moment about being halfway through the workweek, but I added how I really can't complain because I love what I do, and I'm lucky enough to still be doing it. I was supposed to have been laid off about two weeks ago, but was needed for some help on our interactive projects. Again, I was supposed to be laid off this coming Friday, and again, it looks as though it will be pushed another week so that I can help to complete the project (hopefully). It's going to be a very hectic, fast-paced week, but I'm very thankful to still have work and to be valued so much. It's a very special feeling to have at work, and I've already mentioned several times on this blog what a special company this is to work for.

Getting back to the whole fate thing.. I believe I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to be getting involved somehow with Autism, perhaps helping at a clinic or something. Well, while discussing with Barbara what she was learning this semester, she also happened to mention her involvement helping those with Autism through ARC for Union County, a non-profit membership-based organization dedicated to enriching the lives of individuals of all ages with developmental disabilities and to assisting their families in promoting the quality of their care and support. As it turns out, ARC is based in all New Jersey counties, so there is one near us in Middlesex (where our new apartment is). So, of course, I am completely psyched to check that out more.

That's unfortunately where I have to leave that tonight, because I have to finish doing laundry, taking trash and recycling out, and doing the dishes before going to bed early (ha!). Tomorrow I will be attending a meeting with Nitrous and possibly some Sesame Workshop folks to discuss our interactive projects, so the morning will be slightly more rushed for me than usual. I'll have to catch an 8:15 train into Newark Penn and an 8:55 NEC line to NY Penn for a 9:15 arrival there. Wish me luck. ;)

Hope you are all well, and please shoot me an email sometime. :-)

I Made A Mother Cry Today

2009-07-22T19:43:00.002-04:00

Not exactly a title to be proud of, but I'll explain.

Tonight, I left the studio after a productive day working on my first shot of the last episode of our show. It's sad to think that in just under a month it will be over, but everyone is striving hard to secure future work for the studio.

As I walked toward my bus stop, I passed crowds of people that one would be used to seeing in New York but not usually in Westfield, NJ. As it turns out, there was some kind of marathon today and the endpoint was right at the intersection where I catch my bus. So traffic was a madhouse and apparently I crossed at the wrong time because an officer yelled for me to stop (it hadn't been apparent to me that he was directing traffic, since he was in plain clothes and in the street like everyone else). Most surprisingly, my bus was on time despite the craziness, and I started up a conversation with a woman about all the marathon runners and food vendors packing the corner of North and Elm. We started talking about Westfield and traffic officers and the horrendous parking enforcement, and eventually about work. Of course when she asked me what I did, I told her I was an animator working for Sesame Street in the building with the clock on it. She lit up right away.

As it happens, her son is autistic, but responds very well to programs like Sesame Street, and she was quick to mention that he even responds better to the animation sequences than to the live action sequences.

If you know me very well, you may know that for almost 10 years, I've had a slowly budding interest in autism, so my interest in her story was piqued. In a very short bus ride, I learned that the boy was 12 years old, attending a special school called New Beginnings about 45 minutes north of here in Fairfield, and currently living with his father and stepmother. I was surprised to hear that he was only recently medically diagnosed with autism (in the past year), whereas the schools recognized it before he turned 3. I wondered how it was possible for the medical diagnosis to take so long. This is where things started taking an emotional turn for the woman.

She started describing that for the last few years he was living here with his father and step-mother, but for his first 7 years the boy lived with her in Minnesota (she actually may have said Missouri, but I can't remember now). The boy lived with her until she was completely burnt out, and needed a break. She started crying at this point, describing how until that time she thought she could fix him, and was in denial of the school's diagnosis, spending her time blaming herself. I had to hand her some tissues - I couldn't believe how much she was pouring out to a stranger on a bus. I did apologize in case I was asking too many questions and in a few words explained my interest in autism (from personal and educational standpoints), and she was eager to say it was no problem and not offensive at all. I felt badly when I had to exit the bus for my stop, and told her not to blame herself and to take care. It sounded like she might take that bus regularly so I may see her again. I hope so.

There's a lot I could tell you about my life right now and how things are going since our move - we are still not living together since I am up in Cranford through the end of August, and Naveen is in our new place in South Brunswick - and there will be much to tell once we are more settled. But for now, I felt that sharing this story was important. In one of our many recent driving trips throughout this state, Naveen and I passed a place called Eden (or Edens?), a center for autistic children. At that time, I related to Naveen that if animation work lapses for me in the next few months, I would highly enjoy taking some time to get involved there or at another center, voluntarily or part-time.

I hope not to offend anyone who is autistic or knows someone who is, but for a long time I have felt some sort of calling toward understanding autism - whether that means fighting it or simply embracing it, I'm not sure, but it is a subtle, strong internal vibe. Whether I'm a working animator or not, I hope to indulge in my interest soon and perhaps find a way to channel that into something helpful.

Good News Everyone!

2009-06-30T20:52:00.006-04:00

To be read in the stylings of Futurama's Professor Farnsworth...

Good news everyone! After painfully observing the approximate ten months of elapsed time my counterpart and I have been biologically separated due to phenomenal natures of profession, I am delighted to report a permanent dimensional union which will occur in an estimated 229 hours and 13 minutes at coordinates 40°22′51″N 74°32′37″W. Please note that the distinct cause of this impending equilibrium is to be credited to my counterpart who has secured an unprecedented but significant transition into an alternative engineering classification, and also to myself after securing a correlating intermediate habitat between our respective diurnal endeavors. Prognosis, booyah!

Translation:

The news we've been waiting for: After 10 months married but living apart due to our jobs, Naveen and I are finally going to be living together again under the same roof in central New Jersey starting next Friday. Thanks to hard work and dedicated job searching, Naveen will be continuing as a game programmer for a new company called Megatouch Games (a division of AMI Entertainment) while I continue working as a character animator for Speakeasy FX. We're going to split the distance between Philly and Westfield so that neither commute is too bad, and if all goes well in the next two months for my company (in that, we secure further work from Sesame Workshop or an additional client), perhaps I could even afford a car. For now, Naveen will most likely take the van to work and I will take a train.

Today was crucial because after only a two-day search, lots of mileage on a rental car, and never enough iced coffee from Starbucks, we signed the lease for our new apartment and also finalized our moving truck reservation next Wednesday. We plan to spend Friday packing, Saturday (the 4th) with my family in Wisconsin, Sunday through Tuesday finishing packing, and finally loading the truck and heading to the east coast. It's hardly what we thought we'd be doing a year ago, but much in our lives has evolved and we've begun to roll with the changes and jump at the opportunities that mean most to us. Still, we could not do it without the constant support of our family and friends, and we thank you for cheering us on and offering helping hands, sympathetic ears, among all else and your love.

Warm regards,

Laura (and Naveen)

PS, some spanking new images hot off the press...

We'll be home soon!

Cannonball... Less Ouch... and Up!

2009-06-01T23:40:00.005-04:00

So the good news is, I don't COMPLETELY suck. :-)

I jumped back into Maya tonight, just for a half hour, trying to reacquaintance myself with the AM character Bishop. As mentioned in an earlier post, after 8+ months of working in XSI with a different character setup, I felt like a total noob coming back into my old workflow. But, 30 minutes got me this catcher's type pose, not great but much better than the confused looking soul that was staring at me last time.

I'm getting slightly faster at navigation and don't anticipate that to be a major problem. Frankly though, I have fallen in love with XSI shortcuts. I really never bothered with shortcuts before because I used to pride myself on just being able to do the posing and animation without getting too hungup on software specifics. Professionally, though, that concept didn't last long, because shortcuts are just so helpful and efficient. So it's taking some getting used to.

One thing I had completely forgotten about is channel box animation. We don't have much of that with our rigs at work - our characters simply have controls on everything you'd ever want to possibly move. There are some channel type controls but mostly they are for toggling visibility or IK/FK and the like. I forgot how much AM rigs provide as far as inside the channel box. However, the one thing I'd like to do is be able to scroll through the min/max limits on each control and I've forgotten how to do that. Another night.

Consistent complaints: I really do need to improve my workspace. Probably the easiest thing to upgrade would be my mouse, which is still a little stiff on middle-mousing, which is very limiting. I would love Love LOVE to have a second/bigger monitor and be working on a desktop. Animating on a laptop is something I used to do fine, but now that I've been spoiled at work a with bigger better setup, it is truly hard to return to my former groove.

Improvements: I re-familiarized myself with how to pose Bishop in Maya and set keys on the control curves. I have yet to learn if I can animate within a character set too, or if such a thing is even set up for Bishop. If not, oh well. I'm just going to have to remind myself to set all the various character keys that I'm currently accustomed to automatic keying during blocking. That was a mouthful, but at least I know what I mean.

And now for my fangirl update...

Up was phenomenal. Truly amazing and deserves its own post later. It could possibly be my favorite Pixar movie, with a couple of iffy spots (whereas I am still completely in love with Finding Nemo). And Wall-E. And Ratatouille. Okay, don't get me started, it's REALLY hard to choose. ;) Up did have some very different character arcs, a couple of which had me scratching my head a bit (and I found out that my boss' young kids were actually a bit scared during the end, for good reason). But I will say that it really offered me some perspective on my current situation, reminding me to take life as the adventure it truly is, and when one chapter closes, be willing to open a new one. Terrific storytelling, as always. Bravo, Pixar.

More later.. Good night.

If Facebook Disappeared...

2009-05-21T00:45:00.003-04:00

If Facebook Disappeared...

...would it mean the end of the world?

I think it would be the end of the world for some people. True, for some folks, Facebook is just a website, and there might be many more important ones out there, like CNN, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, or even YTMND. For some, Facebook is just a site you can slap your name on and say, oh sure, I have an account, but I'm never on there, it's just for fun.

I realized tonight how important Facebook has become for me while living alone and away from my friends and family. What started as a networking tool among college friends has grown into this massive universe of status updates, quirky applications, and shared links and photos. If all this were suddenly to disappear, if Facebook were to close its online doors, so to speak, I think we'd have an uprising. It would be an uprising of the Bored, the Lonely, and the Networking Communicators. And that's scary.

First, you've got these tightly wound communicators, who would be the brains of the uprising operation. They'd be the ones driven completely mad over it. They would plot and scheme and judge, and they'd network with all their fellow networkers to decide what sort of action to take out.

Then, you've got the lonely people - the people who crave constant contact - and they'd be the ones that the communicators would use (I mean, talk to, lovingly, maybe over a cup of coffee and some hugs). The lonely people would desparately relay the communicators' plans and instructions to others, so that they would be less lonely. These "others" - well, they're the bored people.

Now the bored people are the ones that carry out the action. They're the most unpredictable, because if you could predict their actions, it would have meant they were a structured, disciplined species with a plan unfolding in their lives. But they're BORED people. It's a whole subclass of folks willing to display indecent behavior in public, stick anything in any orifice, experiment with anything for no real scientific or curious purpose, and take on the dares of more contemplating folks who are too guarded themselves to act in such ways. The Bored People are the ones to fear, but arguably not so much as those Communicators with the plans in hand. Still, all these people as a collective would rise up and do something terrible, for sure, if Facebook ever simply disappeared.

I'm pretty sure I'm a Communicator, so, ye know. Look out, for me.

Cannonball!!!...Ouch!!!

2009-05-17T22:43:00.003-04:00

I'm laughing quite hard right now.

I made a deal with myself today that if I got those peanut butter cookies at the store, I'd have to do some extra animating at home. Or at least start a new side project. So I did. Never mind that the cookies pretty well sucked. I had already made the deal, so, poo.

Yes. Poo.

Anyway, I gathered some audio clips I've been harvesting lately, decided on one, and started drawing thumbnails. Fun. And then, I launched Maya...

HOLY MOLY I'm rusty. At first, it was just weird opening something that wasn't XSI, which I've been using exclusively for the last 8 months. Prior to that I had only really ever used Maya (except for maybe a year of 3d Studio Max in there somewhere), and had been completely comfortable with Maya. Suddenly tonight I found myself severely out of touch, finding I'd have to retrain my fingers again to the different keyboard shortcuts, and realizing exactly how much my workflow has changed (for the better) over the past year.

One thing I believe I'll have to change before the week is over is a new mouse. I didn't realize until now how the pressing function on my middle mouse wheel is so inefficient. Another thing I'm coping with is a single 17" laptop monitor versus dual 19" Dell monitors at work, which I use to spread out all of my tools, like the object view which I use to see the official shot camera view at all times, as well as the animation (graph) editor and often my explorer (or outliner). Even my vocabulary is XSI friendly now as opposed to the Maya terminology.

Another readjustment for progress... let's hope. For now, Bishop (the AM character) looks as stumped as I am.

Until tomorrow...