1.25.2009

SWEET

i can not seem to get rid of all this congestion in my head. it will not go away.

i'm not going to ramble on here today, i just wanted to re-post the new coraline trailer. in all honesty, it is totally badass. the last trailer was kind of... i dunno. i felt like it showed too much of the film's content (in sequence!) and the film comes across looking like it is meant for very young kids. at least that was my opinion. even neil gaiman is saying this is his favorite trailer thus far. it is a work of art in its own right. i think the pacing is great, and the music, especially toward the beginning, really makes you feel... cautious. i like it a lot. thanks again, W+K! now if only they had released this trailer first!

for now all i have is a youtube link. if i can find a high quality download i'll post that later.



a couple of new boxes have shown up too. check out the matrix to the right.

1.21.2009

Pretty Good Week

it feels better already, doesn't it? yay for us! the 20th was also my two year anniversary with a very special young lady, so that made the day even that much sweeter. the down side is that i've had a crazy cold for about a week now, and while i feel somewhat better, i am super congested. i'll get over it.

one of the projects that i took on a few weeks ago was to build a book for the "art of coraline" show at the cartoon art museum in san francisco. i kept process journals for all of my armature designs and doodles throughout the production, and someone thought it might be a good idea to put some of that work in the show. of course, instead of just scanning some pages and saying "here you go", i volunteered to make a replica of the whole dang book. the problem was, there were 2+ moleskine journals worth of crap to go through, so i wound up including only(?) 48 pages in the recreation. i'm not sure if they are having a fancy opening or closing reception, or if henry is going to make an appearance or anything, but regardless of fanfare the show is definitely worth a look. i've seen the selection of art and puppets that are going to be on display, and i think it will be a worthwhile trip for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing. there was so much beautiful artwork done for this film. really great work. seriously. and as an added bonus, if you visit the gallery before the 8th of february you can still see the current totoro forest project show, which is amazing. a few coraline artists have work in that exhibit as well. any of you fine folks who manage to check the show out should let me know if my book has been tagged or vandalized as of the date you see it! except for the stress of trying to get the thing finished on time it was a lot of fun to make the book. it has been a long time since i have done any book binding, and this little project reminded me how rewarding it can be to make your own journals. perhaps i shall make more.

how about a sneak preview?

1.14.2009

ghost town

dang.

i'm tired.

out of the blue i got called back to work for a few weeks to get puppets ready for some publicity appearances. there is an exhibit at the cartoon art museum in san francisco that we are preparing stuff for, and there is a whole bunch of other crap that needs to be done for the premiere. its a madhouse. i hadn't really expected to be back at work any time soon, so i guess i'm going to be a little light on free time at least up until around the time the movie comes out. it is nice, but kind of weird to be back in that giant building which is now a ghost town. i think we had somewhere up around 60 people working in character fabrication at the height of production, and now there are about 5 of us working. needless to say it feels a little different. its good to spend a little time with coraline though. i kinda missed her.

(i just realized this is going to be a pretty coraline-centric post... sorry about that. i DO have a life.)

in other related news, boxes 21, and 28 have surfaced. there have also been several button boxes showing up at different places. i can't really tell if all of these (admittedly cool) word of mouth marketing schemes are resulting in much mainstream awareness. i don't have TV so i don't really know how much presence there is on air right now, but i know they are cranking things up starting this week. i also don't live in a huge metropolitan market, so we don't have massive billboards or plastered storefronts. at least not yet. i've had a couple of relatives send me emails saying they've seen TV promos and stuff. pretty cool.

it seems like people who are into sneakers are liking these coraline dunks. i've actually seen these in person and they are pretty nice. the sole glows in the dark. (just let your soul glow!) you guys probably already know about the contest for winning these.

speaking of coraline swag, there are some strange goings on over at ebay lately. most notably, there have been a ton of black coraline keys popping up and selling for up to 70 bucks a pop. that's a lot! i think those keys are pretty badass, but i don't think they're worth 70 dollars, especially when you know they are just being picked up off the ground by the people who are selling them. whatever. one guy has a listing that states that the keys were given to VIPs and people on the crew. RIGHT. and what's this scavenger hunt business all of the auctions are claiming. i think it is obvious that the scavenger hunt is to find the frigging keys. anyway, i think they're cool, even if people are getting ripped off. if you have one of these keys and want to part ways with it, send it to me and i'll make it worth your while.

1.07.2009

holiday?

besides being snowed in for a couple of weeks just before christmas, i would say i had a fairly unremarkable holiday season. i guess that's not entirely true, but it kind of seems that way. i stayed in portland for christmas this year, marking the first time i've spent the holidays away from family. i'd have gone home if i'd been able to afford it, but i'm grateful that i didn't buy a ticket because due to the snow in portland i probably wouldn't have been able to make it out of town anyway. instead i had a couple of great dinners with other fellow holiday orphans from various parts of the world that could not make it home for similar reasons. i definitely ate some of the best home cooked meals i've ever had. thanks to george, vera, graham, and melena (and family) for your excellent holiday cooking and hospitality! i wasn't completely without the loving attentions of family though. it is always nice to get care packages, and it was especially nice to get some holiday cheer from the family. cards, books, batteries, candy, seasonal underwear, home baked cookies, and six pack of the world's greatest ginger ale all found their way to me before christmas morning, even though there was no one there to share hugs and thank-yous with. i think my favorite gift was a print of a scott campbell painting that vera gave me. the great thing about this painting is that it perfectly encompasses everything loved and hated when i was about 7 years old. even as a little squirt i loved all of the old classic universal monsters, but i was completely terrified of E.T.

not much has changed.

on new year's eve my buddy huy hosted an amazing party at his new place. he talked me into bringing over the poker gear for anyone who wanted to start up a game, and we wound up playing for a couple of hours. i don't know if it was meant to be an exclamation point at the end of a good year, or a sign of even better things to come, but i made a royal flush just after midnight!


apparently the probability of a hitting a royal flush is 1 in 649,740.

back in the real world, the snow kind of wreaked havoc on my whiteboard plans. i was literally housebound for about 2 weeks, so my gym routine is pretty much busted. i've basically broken rules 1-3 daily for the past 2-3 weeks. so sue me. i did finish one of my projects that has been looming over my head for several months, and i have made considerable progress on a couple of others. a couple of new things have come up to, so even though i've kind of been a chump about certain things, i've managed to keep myself moving forward, more or less. more show and tell in a couple of days.

things might be picking up soon?