Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem to Open at Universal Studios, Hollywood in 2014

Well this is nice to hear. The Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem ride I worked on--which is running now at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL--apparently is planned to open right here in Hollywood for next year. This means I'll be able to see my work as it was intended! Here's the news article, and here are other times I've written about the VES award-winning ride.

Rockstar Games wins "Best Animation" award for Max Payne 3

Congrats to all of the animators who worked on it. I'm proud to have briefly been among you on that project in 2010, and it's great to see your work pay off like this!



The trailer:

New portraits for the "300 Heads" Sketchbook

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for this week was Top Chef judges, and in Bravo fashion, I introduced some bold color...

Tom Colicchio, Emeril Lagasse, and Hugh Acheson

New trailer for 'Jack the Giant Slayer'

The Jack the Giant Slayer movie that I worked on now has a new trailer:



I worked on the movie for six months at The Third Floor, which previsualized many, many shots for it. Shots from the trailer that I worked on include:

0:46 Isabelle screaming as Jack's house lifts/Jack running through rising vines to get to his house
1:28 Giants throwing flaming trees from across the castle's moat
1:32 Jack jumping across giant steps along rope bridge to Gantua
1:42 Giant throwing windmill blades at horseback riders

300 Heads Sketchbook Update

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for this week was The Three Amigos.

300 Heads Sketchbook Update

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for these was White House Cabinet members.

Arne Duncan (Education), Shaun Donovan (Housing/Urban Development), Eric Holder (Justice)

Ray LaHood (Transportation), Hilda Solis (Labor), Steven Chu (Energy)

300 Heads Sketchbook update

Barack Obama’s campaign “Dream Team”: 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe, senior advisor/strategist David Axelrod, and 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina. Together the three controlled the two most dominant political campaigns of the modern era, and with Obama's re-election success this week, it seemed fitting to draw them for this week’s trio of quick portraits in my "300 Heads" sketchbook.

David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Jim Messina

Election Day

You know what to do.

Episode VII banner

With the news this week of George Lucas selling his Lucasfilm company and properties to Disney, I thought it would be fun to mash-up a little banner for the new Star Wars trilogy arriving in 2015.

"300 heads" sketchbook update

Five pages from my "300 heads" sketchbook:

Steve Jobs, Stephen Colbert, Mark Kelly

John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman

Robert Iger, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy

Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Nothing all that pretty, but at least I'm keeping myself busy.

300 sketchbook update

Five new pages for the "300 heads" sketchbook:

The three richest people in the world: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison

The three tenors: Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras

Soldiers: Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, Specialist Pat Tillman, Sgt. 1st class Leroy Petry

Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd

Malala Yousafari, Neda Agha-Soltan, and Marie Colvin

More will come soon.

"Art is a Game" Art Show at Gam3rcon

Over Comic-Con weekend this year, there was a video game art show put on by my good friend Ben (aka "Mister Benja" of the 8-Bit Cubist.com. The venue was the top floor of the theater that featured Gam3rcon.Two of my 8-Bit Legends prints were among the awesome artwork displayed. More pictures of the event are on the 8-Bit Cubist Facebook page.

Bug-eyed at the "Art is a Game" show with fellow 8-Bit Cubist Ben.

FXGuide's writeup of the VFX in The Avengers

A nice and thorough account of how the visual effects teams worked together on the movie.

Previs'ing the Avengers

New Trailer for The Avengers

The new trailer for Marvel's The Avengers went live today, and like the previous trailer, there are a few shots in it that I worked on.
Watch in 1080p:

Shots I worked on:

1:53 Hulk catching a falling Iron Man and scraping against a building
2:15 Non-CG shot of Thor and Cap looking up
2:19 Monster chasing Iron Man around corner of building


I think it's the best trailer yet, and I couldn't be more excited to see this one when it comes out on May 4. There is also a gallery of hi-res stills from the trailer here.

New "8 Bit Cubist" interview podcast up

Myself and MisterBenja of the 8 Bit Cubist had a fun talk about video games, film, and staying focused on the long road to self-fulfillment over here at the 8-Bit Cubist site. Check it out and leave a comment.