Cielo Azul!!!!

Roadtripping

Super Venezuelan Empanadas(below)

Ok! Como esta el merequetengue! So i finally got a whole month off :) :) :) TRIED TO STAY AWAY FROM COMPUTERS, I relaxed in sf for bit, then I went to Venezuela (beach, ocean, sun) and spent my first bday over there in 11 years, ALL ABOUT FAMILY, recharged.

I came back, ROADTRIP again from California to New York to my new adventure ...... BLUE SKY ANIMATION STUDIOS! heeeeellllllllll yeeeeeeeeeeeeee haha.
As soon as you walk in the studio you can feel the team's energy. No egos, no bad vibes, just love for the craft as well as the talent to make SUPERB animation. It definitely feels super chill, no matter how good people are here, they all are still super down to earth, approachable and eager to give you a hand. I am loving it. The style, the humor, the way Blue Sky approaches animation is unique; a very refreshing flavor of animation (i know i know, i just got here, shut up Jorge, u know nothing). Traditional animation is a HUGE inspiration and a start point for most artists here, it clearly shows. We have many animation meetings, guest speakers, and resources to keep learning (yep, animation leech attacks again). I also keep on meeting people that i looked up to for a long time, very nice.

Im superrrrrrr excited for none other than ICE AGE CONTINENTAL DRIFT which looks muy very nice. The new characters are literally KICKASS MOFOS with tons of appeal (dont think i can say more, but i am animating a lil bit of the whole crew right now, and maaaaannn they are cool characters).

The trailer is out (a sort of Scrat short film/trailer) take a look at the new characters and see what I am talking about. The short/trailer is pure animation gold, they pushed Scrat's rig in ways i have never felt in cg. Enough said.

http://www.blueskystudios.com

apple trailer:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox/iceagecontinentaldrift/#videos-automatic
youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzixp8s4pyg

http://theloztboyz.blogspot.com/2011/11/scrats-continental-crack-up-animator.html

EL MAS GRANDE entertainment launch of all time!

Time Square

COD XP carpet

COD coolio Box

Transformers: Dark of The Moon Blue Ray

Teotihuacan Temple of the Sun

Teotihuacan, charging buenas vibes

Que es lo que paso panita! Super exciting times!!!!!! I can officially say Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a BAD ASS shooter insanity total success! CONGRATS TO THE TEAM! Go and get it, PIM PUM PAM KABBBOOM WHAM! crazy stuff. WHAZ KAPOW! (yea that crazy).

"MW3 made more money than Avatar or Titanic did in five days..."

“We believe the launch of ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3′ is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” claimed Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision

A couple of things have happened since i last wrote, Activision sent us on private plane (sweeet) to LA for COD:XP http://www.callofduty.com/xp/age-verification which is basically an exposition/party for the fans (and hot LA girls that wanted to see Kanye west, yep Kanye closed the party, not the biggest fan, but hey, good times). I got VIP all access to the event, so I guess I was kind of sort of maybe somehow quasi important people? :) haha. Tons of drinks, food, celebs and A LOT of call of duty, Jeep rides, paintball, zip lines, and a million dollar call of duty tournament (a million dollars, wow/whaaa). I have been playing the multiplayer at the studio and it's very very cool (i suck).
I also did a couple of quick animation tests for Pixelux entertainment http://www.pixelux.com to try out their new softbody software with my animations. As soon as they are done with their testing and everything is clear i shall post them here, very cool software they have. It has been used in Xmen: First Class, Sucker Punch , as well as many other cool movies (come on Zack Snyder, redeem yourself with the New Superman, I love Snyder's style! Sucker Punch's visual style was sweeeet, visuals only.

Shallow (my back at school thesis short film) keeps making it to official selections on different Festivals (no Sundances or Academy Awards, but still que bien). I have been very busy with no time to keep submitting :(

Also, Transformers: Dark of The moon Blue Ray is out!

You probably dont give a S%$t about this but, I went to Mexico for 10 days, went to Acapulco, gorgeous beach, went to the temples ("pyramids" of the ancient Teotihuacans, Mexicas and Aztecas) it blew my mind how ancient men were as a civilization, Mesoamerica, wow! FASCINATING, bought like 6 books about it! hahaha yep weirdo.
I finished up at Activision/Sledgehammer with this project (another awesome team that i am going to miss), now i am beginning a new one.

WATCH THIS:
The vet and Noob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuzaxlddWbk

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114249-Modern-Warfare-3-Breaks-Every-Sales-Record-Known-to-Man

E3!

E3 VIP pass:

Nintendo's WII U :

Disney's Animation Studio visit:


Break-time at the Studio(below)

Que fue!!! Ok, last month i made a couple of my biggest childhood dreams come true (nooo kidding). I grew up loving video games and its art. I would read a lot of magazines (i would read them over and over again, expensive imported magazines), i loved staring at the illustrations and screen shots. A lot of these magazines were foreign so most of them were in English; i had no choice but to force myself to learn English and try to understand what the hell was going on. Most of these magazines got to Venezuela monthssss later....3, 4 months later or sometimes even almost a year later). I would especially get excited when the E3 issues would come out, and again, i would stare at the pictures of the event for sooo long (yea I AM a weirdo), dreaming that one day i would go myself, and i would make games, myself. Well, not only SledgehammerActivision sent me to checkout E3 http://www.e3expo.com, i was sent representing one of the biggest games in the E3 floor. Wow, a surreal dream come to life big time! I got to check out the latest for Nintendo's, Microsoft's, Sony's consoles, along with the famous and very popular booth women( don't like the sound of booth babes), plus for someeeeeee reason a i got a VIP pass(SHHHHH). Great experience thanks to Activision/Sledgehammer. OH, yea! I also finallyyyyyy visited some friends at Burbank for lunch, studio tour, peeking, etc, sweet place, so much history, most of the animation i grew up with and inspired me to become an animator came from those halls, awww Walt Disney Animation Studios Hat building, inspiring. http://www.disneyanimation.com

booth babes. yum.

Third Guerra Mundial! aprieten ese cu...!

WORLD WAR III ohhhh sh$ttttttttt!
awww man... I knew Activision's logo ever since i can remember..come on, this atari was at my parents room, with lots of these games, now... im part of it.. wow

The amazing good news is the new project im working on. I am along the super talented team of Activision/Sledgehammer making the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Mother F$%^ing Bad ASS! :)
This is the first time i have realized how crazy cinematic games are (i mean its just another level!), the line between games and movies keeps on getting thinner, specially in games like this one.
This game is aiming to a bigger, faster and crazier experience and i am definitely trying to help get to it. I grew up loving video games, and i have always found myself saying stuff like "this animation could be soo much better here.. the composition could be better there, that could make the game so much better etc", now i feel i can finally do a lil something about it! With a team that feels just like i do! (who are much more talented than i am to make it happen!) yeeiii!!

I'm having a blast doing this big crazy cinematic moments and having a lot of creative freedom along with working with the animation director. I forgot all the technical difficulties that go along with working on a game, but its all worth it. Besides, it forces you to learn technical tricks and discover very useful scripts along the way. We have to make it look awesome, still we cant forget its a game, therefore sometimes you have to compromise a little bit. This is no excuse for this specific project , GOOD ENOUGH ISN'T! (trowing a lil Activision motto righ thur...)
I am also refining my physicality skills working in this ultra actioncrazypack (i have always wanted to use that term) realistic animation game, a lot of the times we start with mocap data, just as a start. We usually have to do heavy fixing, modifying, sawing together (Frankenstein, a sequence together since there is no "cuts" most of the time) or in many other cases, hand key the whole motion. I have never really played too much with a very dynamic camera myself, but with this project i have done some crazy cinematic moments. This has definitely forced me to start thinking in different ways, and to learn a couple of tricks of the trade, camera is a huge part in any cinematic sequence(or in any sequence really...).

I am very excited to be part of probably THE biggest gaming release EVER, and "business $" wise, THE biggest launch in entertaining (wow, loco). We are very busy right now hitting some deadlines and making the game sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, till the next post.

animation is in fact, love.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER! (COD YouTube channel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coiTJbr9m04

http://www.callofduty.com/mw3
http://sledgehammergames.com
http://www.activision.com

Venezuela sin Transformers :(

Translation "Transformers 3... not right now... maybe tomorrow..." say whaaaaat

"...half of the world with opening dates... but Venezuela..."
and Miss Rosie


hola hola hola, first of all i wanted to start by congratulating all the Transformers 3 crew at ILM for an awesome show and doing great at the box office! I saw the movie on an IMAX 3D (yep my brain was a lil overwhelmed). It was very surreal to see my name up on the big screen along with the rest of my team's, very proud of it. Long and challenging hours went to that beautiful visual spectacle of a movie, if you haven't seen it, then go! :)

The weird and crappy news is that Transformers 3 WONT be playing in theaters in Venezuela (my home country!), it will be played across the world except Venezuela (and i think China?), rumors say the reason is because Venezuela is mentioned at some point in the movie or there is something about Venezuela in the film, which is totally false ( well i worked on it, that's the only tiny bit of Venezuela in the movie? haha) anyways, it sucks. (UPDATE: Venezuela owns Paromaunt some dinero, really? Venezuela, where r we going?!!! also this probably means.. no Capitan America?!.

Transformadores 3- trailer out!

7/1/11 it's the date when Transformers 3 comes out, and i am very excited to see my name on the big screen. Its first full trailer just came out a couple of weeks ago, with a great surprise. Out of all the amazingly insanely cool shots in the movie, One of my shots is on the trailer! (small part of it that is, but hey ! i am loving it!).
Also, before the trailer came out, Apple released a fourth exclusive image from the film, my shot! (nerding out 4 shooo), and the thumbnail you click on to watch the trailer issssssss MY SHOT! (couldn't be more excited to see my work everywhere! )

Transformers 3 is looking BADASS and i cant wait to see my fellow animators work on the big screen wall put together.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/transformersdarkofthemoon/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHRf01Gjosk

I am currently working on another sweeeeeet project, i will post soon.

Magia & Luz Industrial

When the summer was over, i was what a lot of us in the animation world called BURNT out. I had my monitor tan, lost few pounds, and i saw splines everywhere (not really but kind of). SO i decided to do the right thing and go to Burning Man. A whole week of no computers, no phones, none of that. i did bring my sketchbook :) .Welcome home!

Driving back to reality, i turned my phone on, and i had some ILM emails, yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, i went in for an interview and i have been at Industrial Light & Magic for 5 months already. ILM is amazing, i breath legacy every time i step in this place. My entire childhood is all around these hallways, inspiration is everywhere, VFX legends walk around me all the time, yep im nerding out, and who wouldn't!
I was fortunate enough to be at the studio when their first all animated feature film was released, and man, Gore Verbinski did an amazing job with Rango. The animators here are beyond talented, and their passion feed everyone's Creative drive at full speed, its great, Working along these people is definitely an honor.
I also had the chance to watch Leslie Iwerks (the Pixar Story) new documentary about ILM, creating the impossible, literally right next to its protagonist, Georgie Lucas himself, pretty sweeeeet.
But eto (fam and friends call me eto) what in the hell u working on over at ILM? im working on Transformers 3! and im loving every second of it, giant robots kicking each others asses? animator's heaven! Michale Bay is doing a great job for this third installment, its looking sweeeeeeet. This is my first time working with live action plates, its so cool to see your animation interacting, living and breathing with real life footage. needless to say,Phyics and mechanics have to be spot on, otherwise is just easy for audicences to feel that something is not quite right, but i love the challenge. I also had the chance to animate some hard surfaces in this project which is something that i have never done before. The team is great, so much talent, and every single one of them is more than willing to help you. I cant talk much about the project till is realeased, but lets say its a bit more serious take on transformers, Michael Bays ass kicking shots are everywhere, and S#$T is going down!

http://www.ilm.com
http://www.transformersmovie.com
http://www.rangomovie.com
http://www.leslieiwerks.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmPEYssU5vQ

Yo soy tu amiiiiiiiigo fiel... the Pixarian xperience

You could smell the Brain juice in this room, last day :(
Last nite... :(


While I was at EA I got a call from Pixar offering me the chance to spend the summer training with them on their internship program! It was amazing news, but i had to make the hard decision to leave EA in the middle of production. This industry is very small and i didn't want to be that guy, plus i was having a great time at EA. It was a hard decision to make but i already said no to the Disney apprenticeship the year before because i was interning at EA helping out in Dante's Inferno already. I have always wanted to work and learn feature film animation, and Pixar is definitely a great place to do so :) .The summer was pretty surreal, so many people that I've i always admired all around me, everyday. I was a complete animation leech for the whole summer just suckiiiinggggg all that knowledge out of the brains of this masters in their craft, wow. I kept telling myself that i had time to sleep when i die, so cereal (yes from the 24 hour cereal bar, the 24 hour part came in handy) and love for the art form kept me going. The place itself is perfect to get anyone's creative jugos going, inspirational. My fellow interns were soooo talented (what am I doing there?! haha) so it was so interesting and challenging to see everyone come from such different animation backgrounds and styles all trying to learn the software, get the personalities and animation style of Woody, buzz and the rest of the Toy story characters. From Having lee Unkrich critique my shot with characters he knew so well...!(congrats on all the Oscars nominations btw) to Ed Catmull giving one of his supertalks to a small group of us, wow unforgettable summer.
P.S. i animated Woody
P.S.2 i animated Buzz
P.S. 3 i animated Luxo jr.
P.S. 4 and a couple of other ones :)
P.s.5 animation is love

I will be posting the work i did during the summer soon

Spacio Muerto 2

OK i graduated, went to sunny Venezuela to rest a bit, got some cosmic rays, some vitamin D, happiness, the whole she bang. Came back, and guess what? i got a great offer to go back to Electronic Arts :) ( i did my internship there the year before and worked on Dante's Inferno). I went back to EA's Visceral' team to work on Dead space 2 http://deadspace.ea.com/ which came out yesterday(Jan 25) its getting amazing reviews! http://www.destructoid.com/review-dead-space-2-192306.phtml. I got my first taste in Mocap this time(interesting... mocap is getting scary accurate) and of course some hand key horror awesomeness Dead Space styleee. It was great to see people again and as well as meeting some new amazing artists. The Dead space team really loved the project, and it shows, its always great to see everyone really pumped about a project. Oh man, EA is so cool(once again) great facilities, arcades everywhere, Futbol field(yes futbol), gym, great food, video club, people, etc etc. BTW i just saw the new Dead Space 2 action figure (its always pretty cool to see a character you animated in toy form).