it's been a while

i've been meaning to update this blog for months but with life, work, teaching 2 classes at nyu and more life just got in the way of me getting back here. that's not to say i haven't been busy.


so please bear with me as i ramble on a bit...

i was in a bit of a rut with the site and decided to go and see a coach, jim arnoff, to help me work out some problems. the great thing about talking to jim was that i was able to flesh out some problem areas, like olifant's origin, which will soon be up on the site, strengthening the character design and, wait for it...wait for it....deciding to create an animation.


i think the problem with the site is that it just doesn't offer the amount of content that kids need to come back. my own kids go to miniclip a lot and that's because it has a ton of games to keep them constantly stimulated. lots of people put their own games on for free and i just can't compete with that. and, really, at it's core i made whereisolifant.com as a showcase for the property so someone would buy the it and make it into a tv show.

well now the design is much better and the backstory is solid. i've written a script and created a storyboard. it takes place in the fall so a few months ago when the leaves where in full color i got my camera and took many, many gigs of background movies. now i have to put together the animatic and then start animating.

it's exciting because i haven't made my own animation since "in transit" over ten years ago. and for all the great animation that i've seen in that decade (remember i've had 2 kids since then so i've seen a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnn of animation) the piece that really spoke to me was the the end credits to ratatouille. i can't begin to say how much i love it's simplicity, textures and movement. just fantastic. someone should make an animated feature in that style.

so i'm off and running. i've got a lot to do because i would like to finish by the end of the year but i have a really good foundation so hopefully things will progress well on consistently.

i'll be updated more often as things happen.