4.4.07
I have added a new Screenings/Awards page linked from the front page splash screen so I may not be adding every festival in the BLOG section from now on.

3.1.07
Solomon Grundy will screen in the 2007 Philadelphia Film Festival. The festival is April 5-18 and expects around 70,000 in attendance.

2.19.07
Solomon Grundy heads to England. Solomon Grundy has been selected to screen in the 13th Bradford Film Festival in Bradford England. Check it out this March

12.19.06
Solomon Grundy heads to Oderzo, Italy! Solomon Grundy has been accepted into the Oderzo Inquita Film Festival and will screen in Italy from Feb 18 - March 30, 2007.

Solomon Grundy accepted into Victory Media Network. Solomon will be part of their first juried show. This amazing new venue, in Dallas Texas, is the first large-scale, outdoor digital arts gallery in the world.

11.16.06
Solomon Grundy on Line! You can now see the entire short film, Solomon Grundy, on the Film page.

10.13.06
Solomon Grundy hits the internet. We are pleased to announce you can now see Solomon Grundy in its entirety. Solomon Grundy is the featured student animation on mtvU from Friday Oct. 13 - 19. MTV's web site geared toward college students with videos on demand.

8.11.06
Solomon Grundy accepted into the Savannah Film Festival! This fall Solomon Grundy will be screening at the
2006 Savannah Film Festival.

8.8.06
Honorable Mention. Solomon Grundy has received an honorable mention in the Fine/Art Experimental category at the 2006 SIGGRAPH SPACE-TIME student competition/animation.

7.22.06
Solomon Grundy Accepted into the Hiroshima International Animation Festival! This August Solomon Grundy will be screened in the "Stars of Students" show in Hiroshima Japan.

7.6.06
Solomon Grundy appears in the SIGGRAPH Animation Festival trailer! It is really exciting to see Solomon Grundy in such good company. You can view this years SIGGRAPH Animation Festival trailer on the SIGGRAPH web site.

6.30.06
Solomon Grundy in Digital Content Producer! Digital Content Producer will be covering Solomon Grundy in an upcoming issue. Check it out this summer.

3.20.06
SIGGRAPH 2006 Animation Theater Accepted. We are all very proud to announce that our short Solomon Grundy has been accepted into the 2006 SIGGRAPH Animation Theater.

1.21.06
Done and Done! We are all thrilled to officially be finished with Solomon Grundy. Now it is time to send it off to the festival circuit and wish for the best. Cheers!

1.7.06
Back to the Grind! We all got together for our meeting after break! Props go out to Jen-Feng for the great lighting he did while I was gorging myself with food. Thanks Jen-Feng! We discussed the changes and tweaks that we felt needed additional work and are meeting again January 14, 2006 at 10:00 a.m.

11.22.05
Today was the big day. We turned in our Solomon Grundy film. It is safe to say we are all happy with the out come. The current movie in the Film section is a Work In Progress. While we are 90% happy with the film and have officially turned it in for the class, we are meeting again January 7, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. (just a little reminder everyone) to start the wheels turning again. We just have a few things we need to tweak and of coarse some rendering we want to do. And then there are the new credits and...
We hope to then start submitting to festivals and taking over the world.

11.17.05
Wow - we are rounding third. It is exciting and full of stress at the same time. Five days until lift off. Our final animation is due at class on Tuesday November 22. The render farm is chugging along and it seems almost everyone has pulled an all nighter. I think we are all happy with Solomon Grundy at this point and while it is hard to stop clambering "one more render" we are in good shape to turn in a short we can all be proud of.

11.1.05
Working on the ever changing schedule. We are really at the point that deadlines are either met or something does not make it into the film. Today we updated the schedule and everyone has a nice chunk of work to be finished up by Friday the 5th - at 2 p.m. to be exact.

10.27.05
We are rounding second base and heading toward third. The project is meshing together. We are at the point where lot of "little" things need to be done to be tie everything together. Every time you turn around you have to get something done or tweak something to get started. 80 percent of the project is 80 percent finished kind of stuff.
It is going good and I think one of the best things is that we are all getting along good and still working together. I know collaborations can bring out the demons.
I am going to start posting pics in the BLOG. Let us know what you think. I am starting with a lighting test the Jen-Feng has been working on. Check it out!

10.18.05
Wow. Today went really well for me. It seems every time I sit down to animate I end up having to tweak something on rig or paint weights. I think after class today I can finally start on some animation tonight. The stage is coming along great. Ken is moving along and making the inevitable design changes that go along with a project like this. Joshua is the only one that has really started to animate and it is looking great. It gave me the boost of energy I needed when I saw the wheelchair fly out and scoop up Solomon. Jen-Feng is working on the lights and we are getting nice work in progress shots from him Natalie has been keeping up with the schedule, texturing, laying out audio and all the other duties that you get when you are a co-producer. Suresh has been animating and working on the pipeline. Pipeline on something like this is really the most important thing and often the most confusing. If something goes wrong down the line and the animation does not render it does not matter how nice your poses are or how amazing your overlap is. In the end you just have a file that does not render. Good Luck Suresh! You can do it.

We had our midterm presentation on the 13th. Over all it went really good. The feedback was predominantly good and we all agreed with most the issues that came up. The main issue was the title card is stopping the rhythm of the scene. The pace of the piece is falling apart with the abrupt stops of the silent film style full screen. Jen-Feng had a great idea that we all ran with and between the five of us we came up with a nice solution. Now the full screen is acutely a working piece on the stage. I really like the idea and think it is more original.

10.6.05
Ah-the joys of painting weights. I have been painting weights on our chubby little Solomon and it is as much fun as I had remembered it. We are able to start animating though, so that is fun. Everything is moving along pretty good. Joshua and Natalie have finished laying out the UV's. Jen-Feng is working with ken on the stage lighting and Suresh is fine tuning the pipeline. Check back soon for an original song by the "Ewok Tree Band"!

10.4.05
The Solomon Grundy rig is finished. Josh Muntain did the work of four men in his three day marathon UV session. Thanks again to Craig Dunn for all the hard work. Last night when Josh handed the model off I added all the set driven keys to the rig and created the Stop Starring blend shape set up. Now it is time to paint some weights. Jen-Feng has been busy creating a working light set up for the stage and experimenting with soft body dynamics for the stage curtain.

9.29.05
Jen-Feng is finished with the Solomon Grundy Model! I will post a picture of it in the next few days. Jen-Feng has a lot to be proud of-he managed to model the main character for our short in one week.
Suresh was able to give Jen-Feng a hand at modeling Solomon and also gave us the low down on the pipeline he has been developing. We spent some time going over the timing sheet for the animation and I talked a little about the style of motion/animation we are going for in the piece.

9.27.05
Today we had WIP critique! It is exciting to see the progress and quality of work everyone has been doing. Jen-Feng is almost finished with the Solomon Grundy model and it is looking really good. Josh's illustrations are top notch and I can't wait to see them in the final output. Ken almost has the stage finished and Suresh also has some really nice props modeled. Natalie has the schedule for the entire quarter ironed out. It is more like a living entity really-constantly changing and evolving. I can appreciate the time it takes to organize a project like this. As animation director I have gathered a list of reference material and plotted out the timing for the animation based on the original timing chart Ken and I developed.

9.23.05
Craig Dunn to be guest rigger. We have enlisted rigger and animator,Craig Dunn, to help us get the rig completed in one week. Our goal is to create a new rig, facial blend shapes(with the stop starring set up), weighted and ready to go in one week. Check back for updates and to follow the progress of the model and set that are currently in the works.
Thanks Craig.

9.22.05
Suresh joins the team. We are glad to say our team has expanded to seven with the addition of Suresh. Suresh is going to be Pipeline Manager and his modeling and texturing skills are a great addition to the class. Today we did some improvisational exercises that Bridget picked up through her years in the industry. Ken and Josh are moving along with the many props, Natalie is finding out just how much fun it is to schedule something like this and Jen-Feng is cruising along with the Solomon Grundy character model.

9.20.05
We are moving along. Some of us are getting to know each other better as we share our own creative visions. The most significant accomplishment today was the official naming of positions. What each position entailed and who would do what.