jamuck blog

Traces of Joy website is up!

2011-09-21T19:14:00.001-07:00

www.chalklinepictures.com
We're going to slowly update with additional content every week.
Trailer to follow soon!
more media posting up soon and how!

Capn Amurika

2011-07-25T19:40:00.001-07:00

Comic strip Mock Rocket

2011-07-23T01:26:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've made a comic strip.

A lil straight forward gag... with a few randomness.

Just watched the Rocketeer again.. The same director directed the new Captain America flick, and it has a old school pulpy feel , whic you definitely see similarities between the two from what I've partially seen.

doodlin

2011-07-13T03:49:00.001-07:00

No idea why i started doodling mma fighter chris leben... and er.. other random people... not so random on the right :P

found a kick as brush mix that reinacts watercolor, really great to sketch in colors.. i forget which artist i admired, but they use soft coloring to layer in detail.. there's a sense of extra realism that you get from that sort of shading.

and then at the end you use sharper and sharper brushes for detail..

oh rite..

Nathan Fowkes

Amazing artist. worked on a few feature films

great layout artist, great sense of color and form...

elephant photoshop sketch

2011-07-08T00:39:00.001-07:00

from reference.

Pen andink doodle.

2011-07-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

There's something about the richness an quality of the stroke
scratching on paper is therapeutic.
I love analyzing how various comic artists ink their work. I've tried
brush but don't prefer it as my main tool. It's almost too graceful?
There's a scratchy shake in the nib that I appreciate.
Akita toriyama has fun pen work as do many manga artists. Old school
line artists like albrecht durer is azing to look at, how they only
use thickness of line to describe volume without shading.
>

i'm in a fashion show! Bwa ha!

2011-04-27T14:24:00.001-07:00

well, sorta,
My face will be plastered on a wall for a photo art show at the Fashion Arts at 99 sudbury
st. in toronto on the 29th of April.

A year ago I met the wonderful photographer Stef Kloibhofer (I love saying her full name :P)
who was finishing her Masters in Photography and for her thesis took pictures of dual identities of Canadians of different heritage.

http://fashionarttoronto.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/meet-the-photographer-stephanie-kloibhofer/

Jolly Melancholies playing before Brown Balls at Factory Theatre!

2011-04-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently my black and white short film , Jolly Melancholies
is going to be screening in the lobby during the theatre run
of Brown Balls at Factory Theatre in Toronto.

here's Fu-Gen's Brown Balls site: http://fu-gen.org/current-season/brown-balls/
and Factor Theatre: http://www.factorytheatre.ca/

This is a double honour for me since I screened the film at Reel Asian two years ago and my old high school friend Byron Abalos (who has been finding great success in theatre and acting) is the creator of the play.

here's a little exerpt from the fu- GEN website on what his film is about:
FU-GEN WEBSITE BROWN BALLS
"I’ve been working on this play for about 5 years now and I’ve had some wonderful help on the way from the Ontario Arts Council, Cahoots Theatre Company, Carlos Bulosan Theatre and, of course, fu-GEN. In that time, it has completely transformed. Originally, it was a play for my ‘peeps.’ It was about friendship, nostalgia and old school R & B music. It was about my feelings growing up Filipino in Toronto. I wanted to write a feel good play because there’s so much crap in the world that some times you just want to laugh. But now, with the help of some friends, a special fiancé, gifted actors, and some of the best dramaturges I know, it’s become something I couldn’t have expected. My vision for Brown Balls has expanded. Now, it’s about the experience of Asian-Canadian men - not just Filipinos - in North America. It’s about gender, race, power and hegemony – not just about sex.

My goal is to take the audience for a ride. At first, I want them to laugh their asses off. But in the end, I hope that they can look at their selves and the people around them in a very different way. "

Ode to my Bunny (ex Bunny)

2011-04-01T01:35:00.000-07:00

It's been all Bunny on the brain.
This year's theme for the Toronto Animated Image Societyj's Animation Jam is Bunnies.
My mom just gave away our bunny, Amber, just last week.

Been looking through old photos to see if I have any pictures of Amber to remember her by.
I'm also looking for references for an idea I have for the Bunny Jam this year.
It's gonn be gross, and offensive. But hopefully funny. Funny Bunny.

here's a warm up sketch o' Amber. I'll miss her. (But thanks to my buddy Phong for picking her up and now taking care of her. I should drop by soon to see how she's doing.)

Blast from the Past: part 1. comic strip

2011-03-18T00:54:00.000-07:00

I was just browsing through my old images I have from my pretentious years back in university (has it changed?) Saw this comic strip of an old man. I was exploring the ideas of sentiment and sentimentality (OooOooO) through mundane moments at the twilight of the old man's life. I guess it was a complimentary piece to the old man exploration I was doing.
Here's a few boards for ideas of things an old man would do.

Here's a lil diddy in 3d: Jolly Melancholies (Original)
and the 'old man on the can' (actual title)

Apart from my obsession with old men (don't ask why...:P)I was pretty obsessed with Chris Ware at the time in 2006, as well as Robert Crumb.
And I really gravitated toward their way of presenting relatively appealing characters in dark comedic scenarios (even borderline perverse)
Here was my take on exploring a story of an old man and a dog.

This time i really wanted to juxtapose the framing devices of comic books and framing in film. The genius that is Chris Ware and his exploration and innovation of page frame layout has intrigued me.

Scott Mcloud's Making Comics has always been an essential read that I go back from time to time... Evidently the read has found a broader reference outside comic books, and into video game designers short list.

I'll post more soon.

Stanley Kubrick sums our film up.

2011-03-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

Stumbled upon this amazing website quotevadis.com that presents inspiring quotes from great people from history.

The quote from Stanley Kubrick really stuck out to me since it really sits will with some ideas we are trying to portray in our film, Traces of Joy.

KUBRICK: “Yes, for those of us who manage somehow to cope with our mortality. The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their Idealism—and their assumption of Immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But if he’s reasonably strong—and lucky—he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s élan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death—however mutable man may be able to make them—our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfilment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”

http://quotevadis.com/post/3050164604/however-vast-the-darkness-we-must-supply-our-own-light

I'm going to read this over from time to time.

Short Film: Full time ! Day 1

2011-01-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

So today is my first day off from my contract at March Entertainment. It was a great experience there doing Layout on Yok..er Yuke..er. Mia and Me.

So what am I doing now? I'm going full time on my short film I'm working on with Louis Yeum. It's time well valued as we'll need all the time we're going to get.
We're crazy fortunate to receive some funding from various art councils and Bravo!FACT and the deadline is coming real soon.

Today I'm going to warm up on reviewing all of the various story issues we've addressed so I can make a new cut for the leica. (With temp tracks as well) so that we can show some people for feedback. We've showed our old cut to various people and we've received the same sort of concerns with our 2nd scene... So I think with the things we've talked about we've now addressed that.

Other positives this past month is our recent discussions with Animation Producer Michael Fukushima from NFB and our application for a Filmmaker's Assistance program grant. So cross our fingers and see if we get that!

Seems like there's a lot riding on this, and there's even now more pressure than ever to get this film executed to the best of our ability.

Other things our our agenda this week:
Meet with potential post production distribution strategist, and other opportunity for sales and exposure. We'll see what happens with that.

Also, a specific website catered directly for our film as some people have been curious about it.

Be back soon!

Reel Asian 2010

2010-11-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

It was an honour to be part of Reel Asian this year.
Last year I attended as a filmmaker but this year Louis and I attended as Pitch Finalistts for our short film, Traces of Joy.
The days leading up to the Competition was extremely stressful! Ups and downs of confidence and then sheer fear! Lol. But The hours and hours of practice paid off. And by the time we came on stage we were pretty calm on how to deliver.
The judges were rather positive in their responses but definitely address things that we will keep note on.
Unfortunately we lost! (sob!) but we're very happy for Shahrzad Nakhai and Tricia Lee
and all of the pitches were of great ambition and quality and we were extremely honored to compete with them.

Thank you again to Siya Chen, and Sonia Sakamoto-Jog and the rest of Reel Asian for their on going support of my work and hopefully we'll see you again soon in the future!

Click here for a facebook gallery part 1 of the experience.
REEL ASIAN 2010

Storyboards for commercial for Billie Mintz

2010-11-15T08:06:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a few commercials over the past 2 years with Billie Mintz
and he's working on a shot for a lottery commercial. Hopefully it brings
great things as I always have fun working with him.
Here's the link to the boards:

http://www.billiemintz.com/blog/?p=86

Doodleday

2010-05-14T03:55:00.000-07:00

uess who?
Clue, he's a director.

Been watchin' interviews for his upcoming film. Quick sketch in ball point.

Aye, lookee ere! Robin Hood ... well my first try. his eyes aren't droopy enough.. prolly a bit too big as well..

some random hobo missin' his pants.. and yet can find himself a hat to wear and a bottle o' beer.

WAR Huh! Good God!

2010-05-11T01:14:00.000-07:00

The Iconic Viet War Image of young Kim Phuc escaping a napalm bomb.

This is probably as close as I'm going to get to the Vietnam War.
(Kim Phuc standing next to a painting Daniel and I made for her during her visit to our high school)

Just stumbled on this link. Thanks Digg! The first war to be as documented as it was...
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/vietnam_35_years_later.html
ironically I haven't seen much as I feel as I should, what with me being Vietnamese and all. My father was in the navy for the anti-communist forces as a missile loader on a war ship. It wasn't a long period yet, I don't really know much about his life during the that time... I suppose it was something my family wanted to leave in the past and start a new life. Now that I'm older, and more mature, I slowly have a growing interest in learning more about the war that definitely caused me to be the Canadian I am today. It reminded me of the time my high school was visited by Kim Phuc, the famous girl immortalized in the war picture (see above).

My dad around the same age as I was when I made that painting.
Would you say he looks like me? WTF happened to his neck??:P

I can't say I knew much about her aside from the photo. She was invited as a guest speaker by our school to commemorate her anniversary of the photograph and the war. My buddy Steve and I (since we were viets and all) were in charge of gathering our vietnamese friends (from the catholic community) to attend the event and sing the national anthem (which I didn't know until the day before!... Was it the communist or southern anthem... oh politics!) So she told her story of what had happened before she was napalmed and her rescue. All I remember was that she would repeat that she 'cry, and cry and cry' a lot. In the end, she moved to Canada and became Catholic. *applause* There lies the connection to her invitation to our school.
My father attended that day as well, and had a chance to chat with her along with the faculty afterwards, which I remember felt cool that my dad was getting V.I.P. with the staff. Yeah... cooool. Not too sure she had much to say, aside her happenstance being a symbol of anti-war sentiment and propaganda.(well she didn't say that exactly) But she was affected by the war nonetheless. Even after this experience what do I really know?

The weird thing about all this is, with my personal distancing towards the war and my parent's life in Vietnam, is that I'm crazy fascinated with other historical wars. I recently studied the Japanese -American War during World War II! I loved Letters from Iwo Jima. And I can't wait to see The Pacific! But Vietnam War? Good Gawd!

So much I am fascinated with it in fact, I dedicated a short film (see a few images in the short film section) regarding it. Reading from 'Embracing Defeat' among other sources, I got into things such as the Nanking, The Bomb, American Occupation, Economical recovery, and its influence on manga and art (which probably has to do with the origins of my curiosity of the topic).

And all I did from the Vietnam War was a painting I did for Kim Phuc'n Phuc (with respects).

I'm sure it's a maturation of personal discovery. Steven Spielberg himself (can't even compare!) didn't do anything regarding the holocaust until he was in in 40's. He had his ideas on the Holocaust, but felt he wasn't ready until much later.

I visited my mom on mother's day and asked her about an old war photo of my dad in the navy. Then out from nowhere she whips out a whole new photo album with a bunch of 'new' photos of my dad I never seen before! Apparently they grabbed them on their last visit to Vietnam a few years ago... I ask them how come thye never showed me, in something similar she said.. "we never thought to show you". Wowzers... No wonder I know so little about that time in their lives. I don't know what it is about old photos, but I can't stop looking at them... something about it being bittersweet... being able to peer a glimpse into the past, at the same time existing in the present, and never able to go back. It's unbelievable to see my dad so young and almost 40 years ago.

A few friends of mine took a history course back in uni on the Vietnam War, which of course I had no particular interest in. Especially which shed the Viet Cong in any light other than negative. Blasphemous! From what my parents have told me, South : Good. North : Bad! Star? Yechh.. Stripes: Woo hoo!! I'm going to have to ask my fried to lend me his book from the course. It's crazy how complex it really is, and you can't help but grow up with bias from those who have been affected by the other side... and I hear Vietnam is actually really thriving now, and the War is becoming more of a distant memory. Well never entirely....

I better go see my Grandma in the motherland before it's too late...

ICON :The Catalogue arrives

2010-04-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

So you can see the image from the catalogue in color here: AKIMBO

My how times flies. I recently received my catalogue copy of the video themed commission I was part of, "Icon, Villain, Antihero". It looks pretty snazzy. I love the glossy text finish on matte cover.
And the nifty 'ntsc' like style of odd and even fields of what appears to be an image of Tim Curry from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

My film ' Construct a Nation of Couture and Peace!" was part of the first series titled ICON. My film discussed the idea of film/media icons and how it pertains to American/Japanese relations during the postwar occupation. I appropriated footage and images from various sources, Tetsuwan Atom, Astro Boy, Gene Kelly films, World War II photographs, and propaganda films and combined it in After Effects, and 3d. The other artists part of my series was Aram Siu Wai Collier (a hilarious film edited together of Lou Diamond Phillips from his various roles) , Maria Legault (a music video with a fabricated celebrity, Marie-Minou) , Kathleen Smith (an homage to Werner Herzog's work with her walk to the Toronto Zoo) , and Jenn E Norton (A kaleidoscopic visual representation of the creation of a star).

Here's what writer MARUSYA BOCIURKIW summarized about my film:

Things get even more dreamlike, perhaps even a little nightmarish, in Jeffrey Tran's 'Construct a Nation of Couture and Peace!' The title evokes Communist slogans and implies a sinister tone to fashion's dictates. ... These images represent the collision of Japanese and American culture in postwar Japan, but they also speak to the globalized and hybridized nature of popular culture itself..."

....and so on and so forth. They get it! Woo hoo! Then again, it wasn't cryptic ... It's crazy that it's been 3 seasons ago now that I made this,
and to have my first commissioned work with Trinity Square Video was a great experience and opportunity for me. Congrads to Trinity Square Video and all the artists involved on the completion of this series.

The evolution/derivation of computer graphic perfection

2010-04-23T02:05:00.001-07:00

Will Wright, Genius

I actually had written this in the previous post to further explain my thoughts on 3d glitches and mistakes but decided to give it it's own post:

Anyway here's a photo of me with Will Wright, the Creator of massively successful and innovative games such as Sim City, The Sims, and Spore.
I had a chance to hear his talk at Siggraph 09, and my word was in inspiring.

I wanted to talk about the current status of computer graphics and its amazing future. I'm not talking about Avatar, and oo ahh 3d! (Which is pretty impressive) But i'm still waiting for the standard screen w/o glasses part.

I'm talking about the state of which we're at where art is reverting back and exploring new aesthetics that isn't just about hyper-realism.

With new eye capture tech, The uncanny valley is appearing less and less noticeable.

With 3d graphics pretty much achieving the realism it was striving for, I notice that the industry is actually pulling back, in film and video games. And you are slowly seeing it like in Borderlands on xbox 360 cell shading.. or course Jet set Radio did that first, but was always a niche market game at best) Or even with Horton Hears a Who and the more recent Cloudy with a chance of meatballs.

But what I don't see as frequent is the minimalist, abract and raw animation, playblasted, and edgy, and rough work as accepted in the mainstream.. but it will eventually.. Have a look at low res pixel animation, it's exploding everywhere now.
low res graphic games are booming in the industry through xbox live downloads.

That's why David O'Reilly (I refer to him often b/c he's the first I've seen to receive accolades for his short film work in playblast, low res aestetics.

have a look:

Compression Reel from David OReilly on Vimeo.

And no, all the glitches just crappy compressed work or a mistake.. i'm sure it began as a glitch, but then by refining the technique, was able to harness it.

In history a lot of great things in science have been discovered by chance, like x rays, penicillin.. and viagra. And when I mean discovered, I mean in a sense of using it in a practical sense.

You ever work on your computer and the window freezes? And then you begin grabbing the window and dragging it around and around and making this cascading effect which is entrancing? I wouldn't be surprised if someone creates a performance piece out of that. (Kinda reminds me of sand art animation .. future post!!!)

As an artist, be it paint, pencil, chalk, or clay, the medium and how you use it is motivated by what you're trying to achieve in your art.

In art history, art began as cave drawings, then humans discovered perspective, pencils, paints, chiaroscuro, muscle anatomy, and arguably reached abilities to replicate realism. Then those crummy expressionists had to get involved.
Art began to push back and try to explore paint and ways of expression that wasn't so stringent to academia, and what came was an explosion (pardon me) of art possibilities.

Now in 3d graphics, those with the principle that it's all about hi res, with GI, displacement, normal maps, cloth, hair dynamics , that's fine. Now people are looking to push back and explore various ranges and trying to mix aspects of 3d together to create new techniques.... people are mixing 8 bit graphic paradigms with more realistic paradigms, or even them some.

It's funny how it seems that 3d graphics is related to limitless possibilties, but in a broader sense, we have gotten stuck in this 'realism' idea (among its umbrella of iterations), and it's the derivations that thrive from this.
Every art style has a confined (almost mechanical) set of rules (and exceptions)
to create a work of art.
But that can be discussed in another post!

When I was at Siggraph '09 last year, I attended Will Wright's talk about the evolution of computer graphics and gaming. He presented a slide show on the same parallel that I just said here (coincidence!) But I'm sure the thought isn't new, it just isn't in the forefront yet.
But the indies will eventually become the norm, (which i'm kinda afraid of it becoming over saturated and being seen in your next car commercial)
So if there ever was a stagnation in 3d art, it's opened up once again, and until 3d/3d holographic entertainment emerges, we'll be busy creating new and interesting aesthetics within this construct.

Glitchface!

2010-04-23T01:29:00.000-07:00

You know sometimes mistakes bring great surprises. There's one thing about motion graphics that I just am disappointed to not see in the field yet (well not entirely true: see the genius that is :David O'Reilly)

I was cleaning the mesh of a blendshape that was attached to a original bind pose, and since the the cleaned mesh had less vertices than the original it was connected to... this happened!

it kinda looks like what Two-Face from batman would look like in a modernized updated version in the future... wouldn't that be neat? as if Batman Beyond had a two face, where the new Harvey Dent was trying to stop a hacker of sorts (instead of the mob in a Chemical Plant) and was in some sort of tech firm, and half his body gets electronically digitized!

(next thing you know it happens.... )

Da Edison Twins!

2010-04-22T03:24:00.000-07:00

No just a quick sketch i saw online of Thomas Edison the perfecter of the light bulb! (not creator, someone else did, i don`t know who) and practicing my crosshatching.
You definitely have to work in steps, and plan out highlights to shadows, because each layer of cross hatch you add should be uniform and consistent across your image, as well as quality of line, and length.
it`s fascinating the amount of thought goes into a certain style.
You need to maintain a consistent set of rules to stick to, otherwise the drawing will look flawed...

it`s almost computer like, in fact it pretty much is. There`s tons of computer techniques (like you see in photoshop) that can mimic artist techniques. Thought I don`t think we`re there just yet in perfecting it.
To me from the animated films I`ve seen (SUPER Street Fighter IV) for example uses `pencil`line filters, that still seem too perfect to be considered organic.

I really dig the watercolor simulations that have been applied lately though. In the video game Okami it`s another example of this...

Hopefully in our short film that we`re making this year we can try something that can loosen up some of this computerized automated look.
Maybe We`ll be able to improve on the computer 'organic' technique.

Wild west!

2010-04-18T05:35:00.001-07:00

Busy working on a project for Bryan Belanger-Diaz, a 3d western of sorts, (with a twist)! It's always like that ain't it? I fixed the 3d model a bit and made his face a lil broader, his previous design seemed a bit gangly and more of a goon than a protagonist.
But yeah, the drawing is much more toonish than the project, but i decided to give it a try and draw a concept of them in this style.

Traces of Joy: We have a new teammate!

2010-04-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

Karate enthusiast, VFX extraordinare,
Enter the Jennings: Shaun Jennings.
He is just as masterful in the Martial Arts as he is in the Computer Arts.

We're finally in the stages of discussing our ideas with Shaun and how we can realize them technically in our film. He's extremely detail oriented and joined in our project as a volunteer. He presented some great thoughts on work flow, technical approaches to what we have in mind... Louis is here contemplating over some concept work with Shaun. He's very excited as well!

We've been doing some tests recently and hopefully we can lock down on 3d realization so we can start applying it to our first models next month!

Zangief vs. Bear: In Colour!

2010-03-31T02:09:00.000-07:00

Decided to take a break from the GSP painting, and do a lil toon colouring. I'm diggin' the faux-water colour i'm getting from these brushes in photoshop. Not as greatas Painter I'm sure, but it's got it's own loose appeal.

GSP vs. HARDY ver2. WIP

2010-03-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd throw it up here. Don't have time to finish it until tomorrow. But i'll post a finished version by then.

gsp vs. hardy

2010-03-22T14:34:00.001-07:00

less than a week away baby!

After watching UFC primetime, I kinda grown to like Dan Hardy, he's quite the character.
But I see gsp takin' this! Superman punch!
Go Canada!

zangief vs. bear: FIGHT!

2010-03-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Zelda Pig dog color

2010-03-21T18:56:00.001-07:00

colored , a lil twilight princess style.

Pig Dog!

2010-03-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite games of all time, the legend of zelda,
I`m actually a big fan of the art in the instruction booklet, and from nintendo power.
Here`s a link
Their work is more earthy and organic than some art is now, though I`m ok with the cartoony approach to wind waker. I think, though I enjoyed some of the recent Twilight princess designs.

Chicken Jam doodles!

2010-03-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

Some doodles I did last year thinking about the Chicken Jam at the Toronto Animated Image Society.

Joe Blob

2010-03-21T08:27:00.001-07:00

rotund chum in a cage, 'joyin' iz pellets.

Sigfried and Roy Redux

2010-03-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just practicing gag scenes, plus extreme poses, and some animal caricature.
javascript:void(0)

Ken in 3 flavors!

2010-03-19T06:56:00.000-07:00

Ken from street fighter.
I remember using Ryu in SFII but as the series grew, and ryu and ken began having their own personalities and moves, I prefered ken's flaming uppercut and speedy kicks.
Decided to color him in his green gi alternate, just for change.

Balrog

2010-03-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Just a sketch I did of Balrog from Street Fighter.
Something about the tooniness of how boxing gloves look (plus the bright red) that make them so fun to draw.

I'll post a few more as I go.

New drawings!

2010-03-16T20:07:00.001-07:00

For new drawings Click HERE
you can also check out my deviant art page:

I've been catching up on Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon comics recently and I have forgotten how much it had made an impression on me as a young artist.
I'll do a follow up post here on my thoughts on it further.

It has definitely sparked some energy in me and my drawing lately.
I've been drawing these past few months (still on the flow of doing storyboards for our Canada Council application).

The first drawing is just my attempt on some energetic creature attacking a human in some forshortened angle... I'd like to explore feline vs. human scenes some more.
Been looking at some Claire Wendling, who's known for her animal drawings. She is amazing.

Comments/Crits welcome!

JAMUCK DEVIANTART PAGE

I'll be posting more along the week.

Toronto Arts Council Funding Baby!

2010-02-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

Louis and I are collaborating on a short animated film together and have been in development for a frickin' year! No one said making a short film was easy, especially if you want to make it good. We've spent the entire year brainstorming, meeting up every month, researching at libraries, location scouting, interviewing daycare employees and preschool teachers... and receiving the Toronto Arts Council grant is a milestone for the production and shows that we're definitely headed in the right direction and people believe in our concept. We're happy to say this year we've now added a new person to our team: Linda Milan as our producer. We met her at Ryerson while taking screenwriting and it's great that she recently won an award for best student in her producing class! Louis and I also were nominated for our script for this short film (which is why we took the screen writing class).

This is Linda and Louis at our weekly meeting over paper work and budget and the sort.

And she's been a hella lot of help getting our proposal together, providing insight on grants and everything. It has definitely allowed us to focus on what we need to do while moving forward.
We're currently meeting up with friends right now to see who would like to be involved in the project, from the people we've talked to they seem excited to join the team! I'll keep posted on details on the film. A website should pop up soon specifically for the project and our documentation of our progress.

Music Video Shoot: The Apollo Effect

2009-11-30T23:50:00.000-08:00

CLICK HERE FOR GALLERY.

Bryan Belanger-Diaz invited me to PA for a day for his new video for the indie rock band The Apollo Effect. Last year he did a video for them and dropped by the shoot and found it fun to be on set with camera and crew. I jumped on the chance to be involved again. With the recent experience with the Aylmer Tomato sauce commercial shoot with Billie Mintz, I hope that I get involved with more live sets and shoots. It's definitely refreshing to get out of from behind the computer monitor sometimes.
The hours are long, and you need to problem solve a lot in person, but it's hella fun.

Reel Asian 09!

2009-11-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

Click on HERE for more pictures from Reel Asian!
So far so good! Film finally screened, got to meet very talented filmmakers and creative individuals. and I got to walk on a red carpet! So weird! But fun!
More pics to come from the rest of the weekend.

Original Jolly Melancholies!

2009-10-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

This was my first foray into old men in animated short film! Made in '06, it was part of my Fine Arts thesis regarding sentimentality and mundanity. My final film was a multi-framed window of various banal activities an retired man would preoccupy himself in his later years... (ex. eating cereal alone, reading a book, pleasing himself in bed.. .:P)
The title connection for my recent black and white film and this film was deliberate since i feel they share similar qualities.

I wanted also explore the length of time I can push the anticipation and see it's hopefully humorous and sad results!
You may recall the bit from a Rowan Atkinson stand up routine...

The diddy you hear was a song I heard from a clip from the first talkie 'The Jazz Singer' and thought it was a perfectly upbeat choice for such a depressing moment.

Enjoy!

Try the Sauce! Tomato Sauce Campaign

2009-10-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

UPDATE:
CLICK HERE FOR PRODUCTION PHOTOS

The site is finally up!
I did storyboards, motion graphics, concept development and assisted directed for Billie Mintz as the director and main man on this Aylmer Sauce Campaign! It was a crazy fun experience! Hope you enjoy the vids.
Click on the image to see.

See my Short Film at Reel Asian! Nov 13 1pm. NFB Mediatheque!

2009-10-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

You can find a gallery of how I made my film Here

The gallery also includes picture of other assignments I worked on with my friends Louis Yeum and Wayne Yum.

It's been a long year but an eventful one for sure. Taking time off from computer animation to study film at Ryerson has been one of the most scariest but exciting decisions of my life.
Being able to work with real cameras (16mm & HD), light meters, real locations and people is an extremely refreshing change from the virtual world behind a monitor.

But it was my goal to better myself as a story teller and filmmaker in general and I've definitely achieved that. And having my film screened at Reel Asian has been a great sense of accomplishment for me.

So a list of highlights of the year for me would include:
0. Moving downtown Toronto (Parkdale represent!)
1. 16mm filmmaking and created a film
2. Amateur acting (I went to an actual audition on a crazy whim! lol. More on that later)
3. HD Documentary filmmaking (With musicians Yoshi and Chie Yamano as my subjects. Still working on that film)
4. Developed a 1st draft script with Louis Yeum for an Animated short we're trying to make.
5. Storyboarded and assisted in direction on set for Tomato Sauce Commercial with Billie Mintz.
(Photos to come!)
6. Going to 5 of my friend's weddings (2 caketoppers and 1 animation)
7. Going to see my friend Charuvi Agrawal again at Siggraph 09 in New Orleans
8. Traveling across canada
9.Having my film screened at Reel Asian

I look forward to to the future!

Chicken Jam

2009-06-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Here's another clip of the chicken animation.
Working out the kinks of the rig. There has been issues w/ the hair joint, and wing.

More to come.

Chicken Jam

2009-06-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lateness of my post, I've been tied up with film class making a documentary,
based on the music group Kaminari, you can check them out here. Their music is a crazy fusion of traditional world folk instruments and electronica.

In the meantime right now what I've been meaning to show you is my update on the chicken Jam submission. It will be screened at the TAIS Showcase at the end of the month.
and here's their blog.

For my chicken, or rooster that is, I had to figure out how to work constraints for the feathers to automate it opening up like an umbrella.. hell.. I could have just modeled it all out and faked it with rigging and deformations.

On top of that, I've decided to pick up some knowledge on hair dynamics for bones, and working in collision objects so that when the chicken does his peculiar performance, the limp 'siamese twin' just limps around and shite.

I've attached a test of me messing around w/ the rig, and to be quite honest, stylistically, it's kinda intruiging... makes me wonder if if I'll see more '3d workspace-styled art'.... i'd say there's a lot of potential for expression even before sending things to render.

speaking of which this dude has inspired me: David O'Reilly. Not even 20 years old yet and he's thinking like a genius. Holds talks at festivals regarding this art theory on computer art and his comparisons to art history. The jist of his thoughts are that computers should stop trying to replicate other styles and search for it's own style and embrace its own self.

In any event I've also attached a clip of some feather test for the chicken.

I'll post a still of the animation this weekend.

Bock Kaw! Chicken Jam

2009-05-06T16:36:00.001-07:00

So this blog is getting pretty stale with in terms of what the hell I've been doing lately,
so I've decided to keep you posted on what I've been doing lately:

http://tais.ca/chickenjam.html

The Toronto Animated Image Society does yearly animation jams. Last year it was monsters. This year, it's chickens! Bock Kaw! Convenient. I'm born on the year of the chicken.
Here's a post of what I'm going to try and capture in a 10 second animation:
It's a self portrait. No really. Ahem. Yeah.
I drew this a few years ago, but I figure this would be a perfect excuse for me to try and attempt to recreate this in animated form. Enough Laziness Jeff! Chess Due Eat! I keep on thinking of ways of mixing 2d and 3d elements and never do it. well this time is different... 10 seconds is doable rite?
10 x 24 frames =240 frames?
I'm thinking of modeling the whole thingamagigger in 3d , animate it, then trace the damned thing over w/ a brush or pen and ink, to give it the crafty hand drawn quality but a strange 3d complexity to it. we'll see how I come up with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqi5ol2TjKI
Apparently Aardman would animate in 3d, then print out each sheet on paper, then work traditional media on it then scan it back in.. Insanely laborous, but BAD FACKIN ASS!
I have LO to NO 2d animation experience so this is going to be a fun test for me.
Now that i think about it, this black ink brush technique is all the rave now with Street Fighter IV and OKAMI using it all over their game. Which is another dream of mine to try and replicate in 3d but i digress. My next post I'll show a screen shot of my 3d model.
PAYCE!

OMG It's been 2 years.

2009-02-20T03:55:00.000-08:00

Well, save 1 day. Tommorrow would be officially the 2 year anniversary of me posting anything on my blog. It's 2009 now, and what can be said about this Title? The Victory Lap... Not so sure if it should be called that... its original meaning was to imply:
A victory lap (also lap of honor) is a term used in motorsports to describe an extra lap of the race track after the conclusion of a race.
(thanks wiki!)
When I first used the title, it was mainly cos of my extra years it took for me to finish university (from switching to Comp Sci to Fine Arts). Then yet another year, I took at Sheridan for Computer Animation.

Well how does it apply to this year?

To explain the missing year between blogs, I'd have to say it was mainly because I was officially working in Animation for the first time. I had broken in! Or had I? It was a crazy year, working on Super Why! The kid's animated series as well as side projects (collaborative and independent). I learned a heck of a lot in '08. But it's already '09. And I'm again looking to see what next lies for me.

Well get this: I decided to go back to school! This time it's more so for film studies, which I realize now I have an immense passion for. I've taken quite a few film theory and practical courses in uni, but never had the inclination to pursue it further. I think it has to do w/ growing more balls. It's a strange path way in my school and art experience:
from CS to Fine Art to Computer Animation - Film Studies???

So to wrap up this topic, (which is a new thing i'mina try this year... to have a structure to my thoughts! WE'LL SEE!) the title of this blog, applies in a sense, I've got my first gig in the animation industry... but the work, learning and evolving doesn't end there. So to that life's about small Victories, a few laps at a time. And for that I'm doing one again.

Rascal likes Lost!

2007-02-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

My parents told me to take care of Rascal this month with me at school and he's been havin' a blast! He must love watching me clean up his shit and clean the stank ass ammonia smelling newspapers that he leaves for me! This dude is a pig!

Anyway my buddies Heidi and Jillian love him! They love pets and have some of their own. Unfortunately Heidi lost her rabbit Qupie a few months ago.. But she loves Rascal around.. He seems to love Jillian a lot! Hump a lump after the first day!! Lol! Way to go boy! J/K.

This pic I caught of him Watching T.V. It's so jokes!!!! He has a small box tower to run on top of and he just sits on top of this rubbermaid container like he's King.... Damn he snorts a lot.. This dude is an Alpha Male!!

More pics to follow!

Bonjour Vietnam!

2006-12-06T01:58:00.000-08:00

I personally think vietnamese music, for the most part blows hard. And no one has yet to change me. However, this is prolly the first Viet song that I actually like! Then again, it's not necessarily viet. It's spoken in french... Which in a way has a heck of a lot of political,cultural, and generational signifiers! (OOO.. linguistics)

Yep, this one makes me want to cry. That means it's good!!! The video really captures a beauty that I personally don't see that often from my homeland... great lighting and colours. Except for those damned cheesy wipes! Wat's up w/ stupid pixelated karaoke wipes???? OOO AAHHH.. NOW GET OVER IT AND DO SOMETHING CLASSY. ...
I think it's time for me to visit Vietland soon.

here's a link to an article about the singer:
http://english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?no=273609&rel_no=1

Lyrics by Marc Lavoine.

And here's some lyrics

OMFG! THIS EAR ACHE Won't GO AWAY! (plus danny drops by and visits)

2006-11-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

Just felt like ranting about this painful ear infection I got. I never experienced this much pain in forever! It's like this throbbing sharp pain that never leaves my inner ear.. it's been pulsating for so long that it's affecting my daily routines! Headaches abound, sore throat! WTF

Went to see a doctor tues morning, by the plaza, and says I need to take ear drops (the heavy duty kind ) 3 times a day for 10 days..

and aspirin.. I never take a lot of medicine, cos I feel like most of them are placebos, but.. THANK YOU ASPIRIN! THANK YOU JEBUZ! It takes the pain away for a while. But when it wears off.. IT F*'n wears off! My head is in' so much pain rite now.. I'mina go get some meds...

On a lighter note, Danny my buddy who just moved back from Vancouver to Ontario for job opportunity, came to visit me and Sheridan, have a look at his ol' stompin' ground... Danny went to tour the animation sector a bit to see how things have changed since he was last there. I love looking at all the art and animation . I totally respect artists who can draw every frame of animation by hand. Very talented people here. We went out for some beers afterwards, danny gets carded, then i laugh in his face. then waitress makes me take out my id cos i laugh.. then i find out i didn't bring my id.... nice gal let's me off... woo hoo!

My 10 second interstitial!

2006-11-19T03:55:00.000-08:00

Have a peek at my 10 second animation that i did for class. A lil homage to anime corniness. Click on the image to jump to my Sheridan blog. (I write about my weekly adventures in class w/ my buddy Heidi)

I gradu-mabated! Horray! Horray for school!

2006-10-29T20:27:00.000-08:00

L-R: Joey, Mom, Assface, Hien, Joe. Hmm.. something to ponder... where's the father? Who currz! Got more important sheit than his son's grad! J/K.

Where's Waldo..I mean Jeff? Hint: Look for the Elvis do!

I chump fo choi! And show you that I have green boxers!

So they call up my name... and they pronounce it wrong..... How the hell can they mess this one up? ... Was he like , trying to 'fob it up? ' or something? Points for trying old man... Should have just stuck w/ what seemed natural.. or should I say, Naturelle.
Wankadank.

Anywho...I finally deed it! (Well, a week ago)
It's kinda hard to keep up the same kind of excitement of graduating a week later, really. It comes and goes, and life just keeps comin' at cha. So the 'elvis do' on stage never materialized, as Hien never gave me the hair when I told her to! But in all honesty I might have been too cowardice to put it on anyway. Too many creepy looks from old men on stage. Hien gives it to me afterwards, so I wear it while I'm sitting. The reception of it wasn't so bad.. Got some laughs from some peeps, photos from some parents.. got some really dirty looks from the audience too.. F* EM! lol.

I've been drafted by the Raptors!

2006-10-09T22:51:00.000-07:00

And in the role of benchwamer, at 5'6, 162 lbs. Jaaaaaamuck!

I'm a pretty hardcore Raptors Fan as my friends may know,so you bet I was pretty psyched when my buddy lil Anna (Whose nickname for me is Shitface... I have no idea why) surprised me this weekend with a personalized jersey with my name on it!!!

The whole time i was saying, 'wtf... WTF... WTF!!!!' Un-farkin'-believable. Thanks Lil' Anna and Joe! It's a shame it wasn't in the new White n' red. J/K/!

Btw. Raps over Wizards!!! Preseason but Hoo Kurz!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend Day 1: Ace Bday: Japanese Bbq

2006-10-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

L to R: Maria, Neil, Me, Anthony, Teresa, Kalvin, Godfather Ace standing behind.

Happy Bday Ace for turning just as old as I am! 25! ARggghh.. we're not youngs anymores.
Jap bbq was wicked! Must go again! For sure! Here's a pic of the Xavier Clique.

I just can't shut up about race

2006-10-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm hearing that people have protested against the whole Survivor theme this year.

What, so Korea vs. France isn't a racial competition during the World Cup?

Don't hear any protests regarding that....

I really think Race is a loaded word... There's just too much weight placed on that idea.

Really, it's National Pride, but underlying that there's race. Anyone who says other wise is prolly a freedom fighter for a free 'blind' world.

F*** the ignorant people, really.

Racism: Stereotypes and the Hypocrites

2006-10-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

"What do you call a vietnamese person who has three dogs?

A vegetarian."

- Joke as told by Cao Boi, Survivor.

Now for those who know me, it's not news to them that I'm pretty passionate with issues regarding race and the ignorance of the idea involving what is 'Racism'.

I'm going to make sure I'mina be a bit more careful for those feeling any sort of 'white guilt' or activists who are fighting the good fight for the 'minorities' and leaving notes to clarify whenever I make racial jokes, reference, or stereotypes.

It all comes down to this:

A person, group, organization, of a particular 'race' are hypocrites, when they embrace, stereotypes that benefit their group in any manner, while rejecting those stereotypes that bring any sort of disadvantage in their goals.

I suppose this statement can be branched out into business ethics, I'm sure there are 'COROLLARY' ideas (math was good for something!) to this but the main idea is, you're a damned hypocrite when you embrace positive stereotypes and reject negative. I'm sure we're all guilty of that.. I'm sure my thesis is greatly weakened when I realized I'm doing this as well. But I suppose it's me playing out the thesis in real life.

I brought up that quote, from that Vietnamese dude on Survivor (Vietpride! (embrace))
because the show's set up this season seems that it can be pretty controversial. Groups divided by race? Social experiment? More likely 'illegal', if any sort of government study would attempt. (Well at least what we know of)

Of course, by because I selfishly see a reflection of myself through them, I thereby associate myself with them, I'm rooting for the Asian Team! Yay slant eyes! (racial satire)
And of course, with Cao Boi (I love his name. It's genius) I'm cheerin' the most. But mostly for his colourful personality.

But what I'm noticing really, is that people aren't particularly fond of my man. You got the living breathing stereotype there: Refugee from the Vietnam War, Fob accent, and owns a Nail Salon (hilarious!). Then you got your other breed of second generation Americans bent on trying to wash away all negative (in their eyes) racial stereotyping of all kinds.
Cao Boi, embraces his individuality, his distinctiveness and most likely because he still feels Vietnamese more than he does American.
So with his Viets eating dogs joke, it was priceless.

Then.. you have these uptight **wads (probably unnessessary language but still colourful)
who take offense to these kind of jokes. While Cao Boi's timing of the joke and place was really off as most of his actions probably are.... LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE!

Let's let it out, people make generalizations all the damned time. Our world functions on generalizations. (I'll ahve a nother blog on that later)

It's funny, and who cares what ignorant people think... If every person went P.C. , it'd be a pretty crappy controlled world really.

I'm just saying things here, not to start a chaotic orgy of open expression, but to just be knowledgable and aware and in control of what you say and not always be affected by it. Let's change the standards on your own terms and not by abiding by others.

I may have over stepped my scope of this topic already but one more thing: I'm sure we all want to move forward and bring about world peace in race and blur the colours of skin. But it's not gon happen. Tolerance is what it's about.

Heck .. more on the conflict between diversity and unity later. (You can't have your cake and eat it too.)

yabba dabba doo.. thanks for your shoe.

2006-10-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's an official blog.
And I'll try to be as entertaining and non rambling as possible. But with me I probably will ramble anyway. Like how I'm doing it rite now.

It's 1:57 am.

Wait it's 1:58 am now. I just added the top line about how I'm going to be entertaining and non rambling and the sort... I guess that was short lived now it'it? (How do those cockney wankers say it?)

My personal goal was to finish animations of bouncing balls. One soft n' bouncy ; one hard and heavy. Yeah you just can't get away from the testicle jokes with this one.... Hell it's two blogs in a row where I talk about balls. I hope this doesn't become a pattern... I already pretty much repeated that I have a 'facscination with butts' during my presentation in class. What I do to get people laughing.

Butt... let's back that thang up a bit. (R D R R: Simpsons!)

These past 3 weeks at Sheridan Computer Animation have been a dream. Well not so much a dream but really a dream being lived. Sounds unbelievably Hallmark but 'whatever, girlfriend',
I really can't say when or how long I've been thinking about being here, but it sure has been a long time comin' .

I mean really... 6 years in Waterloo?... For Fine Arts?.... Hurry THE F up! That's where the title of this Blog's about really.. I'm doing yet another Victory Lap. What is this? My second one? Geebus...

Back to my point... so I'm makin' some balls bounce today.. finished my polygon model of a coffee maker. And really.. I dunno what else to say.. Cos this strong desire to pee is overwhelming me rite now.. So I can't but think about peeing rite now... I guess this blog's done..

Until next time America....

And so it begins... er.. again. or: Jeff is Back Back again.

2006-10-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been many a year that I've had a sort of online journal. (Ever since those Asianavenue days of me bickerin' about all nighters coding in the lab. Except now it's now going to be how I spend all night animating in the lab! Some things just don't change. WTF! )

I'd like to say a bit more on my first blog but I want to make sure this one works.

Test. Test. Testing. Testies.