Thursday, November 20, 2008

Communication is Key!


Val and I are getting older, but we still try to stay up to date with the newest technology trends. Ok, maybe not up to date, but just one or two versions behind the times.

A couple of weeks ago, we both got new cell phones. We replaced our old "free when you sign up so there are no bells or whistles" phones (Ours were identical except for color) for fancier "almost free when you sign up so they are a little nicer" phones. Well, Valerie's was still free, but we got to pay for mine (so it's better). Sure they don't have touch screen or multitouch interfaces - but they come with twice as many ringtones as our last ones! And they are very shiny! Anyway, we also let Val have text message access this time around too (I already had it). It's great! We never have to talk directly to each other the way old fashioned people do.

When it works, I just text Val from the living room when she is in the kitchen and I can find out whats for dinner, how her day was, etc. I say 'When it works' because, despite having had a cell phone for 2 years, Valerie still isn't used to just carrying it around with her everywhere. Often times I'll text (or call) her only to hear her phone ringing 4 feet away from me. That's really ok if I'm in the living room and she is in the kitchen, but if she is further away (like the bedroom), how am I supposed to communicate with her?

Truthfully, we find other ways to communicate. Sometimes we comment on eachother's blogs or facebook wall. An even better technology though, is gchat. Like if I'm on the computer in the office, and she is on the computer in the living room, we can both log into our gmail accounts and chat back and forth - in real time!

Technology is so great now days that we've pretty much decided (while g-chatting) to do all our Christmas shopping online! I bet we could even have the gifts all wrapped online!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

"Up" Trailer


For the past year and a half or so, I have been working on Pixar's next movie "Up" which comes out next May. It's really fun and exciting, but there are a couple of frustrating things. First, everything is 'top secret', so I can never share too much with anyone. Second, it takes a couple of years (from when I started) before I can show off any of my work.

Well, they just released the trailer for UP, so now people can get a taste of what this movie is.


It's tiny on my blog, but you can go here and see it bigger and make it full screen.
You want to make it full screen so you can really see the expression on Russell's (the boy scout kid) face at the end.

The very first things I worked on at Pixar are in the trailer:
The fat orderly/nurse guy, I shaded his scrubs and name tag. (shaded = did the color and textures).
The window shopping family, I shaded their skin and clothes, and made their grooms (their hair).

Much more to come in May.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

The Award and Halloween



First off, Thank you to everyone who voted for Pajama Gladiator online! I hope you enjoyed it. If you haven't heard yet, WE WON THE VIEWERS CHOICE AWARD! This is the second award we won in this festival. I just got the plaque/trophy for the Producer's Choice award. Here it is.


Halloween is the best! My friends and I have been playing a lot of "Call of Duty 4" lately, and decided on the 30th to have a COD4 party at Lou's on the 1st. We decided we would dress up in military costumes and make it our Halloween party. After a couple of hours scrambling around at thrift stores, we had our costumes. Since Halloween was the next day, and it's a huge deal at Pixar, we decided to wear our costumes to work. I really needed a special piece to my costume, so I built an M5 rifle out of a golf club, foam board, a couple of flashlights and a lot of electricians tape. On Halloween,we went out on the Pixar property and posed for a bunch of pictures.





At work they have an awesome Halloween party. People come with the best costumes you can imagine. But even more impressive is the 'show'. There are prizes for the best costumes, but you have to 'sell' you costume as well by performing some kind of skit. Here are a few fun ones. The "Enchanted" group was awesome. Giselle got on stage and was lip syncing to a song that was beautifully sung - by the prince in a beautiful falsetto. He came on stage and they danced together while singing a duet. they would dance in a circle so that his back would be to us when he was singing her part and his front was to us when he sang his part.



The Bunny is Alec. He is the magician's rabbit from the Pixar short "Presto" that showed before Wall-e.


One hilarious part was when everybody who was planning on performing was done, there was a little lull in the show. Suddenly Elliot rode by on the bridge above with ET in his basket. It caught everyone off guard and was sooo funny!