Remind me why I wanted to become a character animator in the first place?… Oh wait… Now I remember, this is because I want to dream, and to make people dream.
This is all Avatar, the last James Cameron’s superstar movie is about. Dreaming. I sat down, put my special glasses on my nose, and dreamt for nearly 3 hours of pure magic. Needless to say that I loved this movie. One of the best I’ve ever seen in my life. The characters are fantastic, the sets are gorgeous, the music is magical, the shots are so well filmed and the story is great. I won’t say that the story is fantastic, the plot is a classic one, but you won’t hear me complain. I had not dreamt like that since The Lord of The Rings. These movies have nothing in common except that when I saw them, I wanted to believe. (Oh, and also that Weta did the VFX on both too).
I’ll see it again next week, with my wife. I know she’ll love it, and I just can’t wait to go back to Pandora. For those of you who are still hesitant, please don’t. Take profit of the 3D and go see it in theaters. It’s really amazing what they managed to achieve with this new technology. Just go, and enjoy the ride!
On a side note, tomorrow evening is the beginning of our much awaited holidays! We’re going back to the south of France to hang out with our family, so they enjoy Gabrielle a little bit and so we just relax and appreciate doing nothing at all. Let’s recharge the batteries and get prepared for 2010, cuz 2010 is the beginning of my new feature character animator at Double Negative, and I will need all my skills and energy to become as good as the dudes who are already working there.
I added some images of my freelance work as I was studying at AnimationMentor and trying to pay the bills in the meantime. Not really what you’d call exciting work, but I learned what it is to work freelance: finding a customer, dealing with deadlines, dealing with the customer changing his mind… You can find those images in the 3D Artwork section of my website.
The promotion of Garage Club, the show that I’m currently working on, has begun on Nickelodeon France. Do not hesitate to check it out here.
It’s in french, but you’ll get a pretty good idea of the designs, renderings and style of animation hopefully.
You may not have access to the website if you’re using a computer outside of France. I’m really sorry for that. I will be looking for links that allow my friends from everywhere in the world to watch it.
I’ve been sketching this dude for a long time in the corners of my sketchbooks and everywhere I could, so I thought that I would finally give him a real try. I love this kind of mood, I was mainly inspired by the concept arts of The Nightmare Before Christmas from Tim Burton. I love this movie.
Anyway, you can find this drawing in higher res in the 2D Artwork section of my website.
I’m proud to say that I accepted an offer to work at Double Negative, and will be starting over in March. Just to name a few, these dudes are the ones who did all the visual effects on Hellboy 2, they also worked on Dark Knight, Batman begins, all the Harry Potter movies and a lot more blockbusters. Anyone who knows me knows how deep I am into movies that truly make me dream for two hours like the ones above. This is definitely going to be the most challenging experience in my life, but I just can’t wait to get started and am so looking forward to it.
I will always be thankful to Pinka for having believed in me and offered me that first gig as a professional animator. I will never forget you guys.
From here, I want to thank my family, my sweet Christelle, and all my friends at AM who supported me and believed in me. I couldn’t have done it without you.
As you may have noticed (or not), I just changed a bit the design of my website. Nothing big, its whole structure remains the same, but I wanted something more professional looking and more animation related too. Also, I created a drop down list for the archives since they were growing a bit too fast haha! Hopefully, it should be easier for you to find what you’re looking for.
Oh, and since the AnimationMentor badges came out a few weeks ago, I thought it would be great to add mine on my page too. Hope you like it!
Ok this may be a bit outdated but better late than never uh? I love that Disney is doing 2D animation again, and I cannot wait for the upcoming “Princess and the frog”. Anyway, here’s the new Goofy short they released in 2007. There hadn’t been a Goofy short since 1961’s aquamania, can you imagine that? The animation is just beautiful, and it’s sooooo funny! And so true haha! Enjoy
Oh, and if you watch carefully, at some point in the short you’ll see a picture of Walt Disney (the man) and another one of John Lasseter.
How AWESOMELY AWESOME is that?!? Yes, AnimationMentor, the animation school I attended for one year and a half just released its 2009 Student Showcase. And guess what?!… You got it, one of my shots is featured in it, beautifully lit and rendered. I’m so glad to have been chosen to represent my school, and to see my work packed with so amazing other animated shots. I owe so much to this school. It really changed my life.
Looking back now, I realize how much efforts I put into my work and how little time I gave to my sweet wife Christelle. Thank you so much for your patience and being so supportive during those long lonely hours of yours. If there were someone I would dedicate all these distinctions, that would be you. I love you.
And a big THANK YOU to all of you who believed in me, and who still believe in me. I won’t stop until I get my dream job. I promise.
I think I forgot to mention that I won the highest reward here at AnimationMentor, which is the Mentor Choice Award! From here, I would like to thank the mentors that voted for me, and especially to thank Paul Allen, Brian Mendenhall, Michelle Meeker, Dana Boadway and Sean Sexton for having given me this amazing education, and for having shared some of their animation tips and tricks with me. I wouldn’t be where I am at without you. Thank you!
I wish I was here at San Fran to accept it live, but getting this job was priority number one to me.
Remind me why I wanted to become a character animator in the first place?… Oh wait… Now I remember, this is because I want to dream, and to make people dream.
