Chad has moved!

One of my best buds from back in Massachusetts Chad Sullivan just moved out here to Los Angeles. He is an actor and has been living and working New York City for about 4 years, and just made the big move to LA. He has been in a couple of features and worked on some NYC shows like Law & Order and some other stuff. Him and his lady friend just moved out to Burbank so I'm pretty stoked about that!

FJORG! Videos

In case you didn't get a chance to see them, here is a link to all the FJORG! videos.

Our film was titled, "For Grandma", Team Ragnarok.

http://www.siggraph.org/s2008/attendees/fjorg/

Patricia Beckman Recommendation

The Chief Viking Priestess gave me a nice recommendation on LINKEDIN today. Thanks so much to her for the kind words and all her hard work at FJORG!.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/jaygrenier

New Animation Test: Vanilla Jump

I wanted to do a short little test with a very light character just doing a normal every day hop. Nothing fancy or exaggerated, just an exercise in weight.

Check out the gallery on my site or click HERE to see it.

Animation Mentor Graduation!

Note: Because of the length, remember to click "Read More" at the bottom to see the entire article!

When I got home from my vacation in Massachusetts I had about 2 days to recover and get myself ready for the next leg of summer. Come Friday, Emily, Dan Edwards, Mike Bahurinsky, and myself all piled into Dan's Civic and began the trek to San Francisco for our Animation Mentor Graduation.

The drive was easy and uneventful, discussions of gaming, cars, music, etc. all took place in the usual fashion and we arrived in Oakland around 1am. A decent hotel room and about 6 later we got up, had some breakfast, dressed up nice and headed on our way to the Berkeley Art Museum where our Graduation was being held.

Last time we were here was for the Animation Mentor Annual Barbecue and the weather was less than awesome. Overcast, a bit chilly with what seemed like impending rain was what we had then, but this time we got lucky! 80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect, it was shaping up to be a really awesome day. As soon as we arrived we started seeing people we had spent 2 years in school with yet (in some cases) never met in person. Bill, Cedric, Jerzy, all these guys I talk to ALL the time yet had never met. Instantly cool for sure, but it kept getting better! We had a trial practice run for the ceremony, hung out a while, and were then seated for the ceremony to begin.

Shawn, Carlos, and Bobby are definitely a bunch of amazing dudes. The school that was once an idea being tossed around during lunch and gaming sessions was now alive and changing people's lives, mine most included. As well as great animators, the three of them have an air of charisma and inspiration about them that has definitely played more than a small part in the success of the school. Many thanks to them for everything and for Shawn's great speech.

Glen Mackintosh from ILM was the guest speaker and had some really cool things to say. We also heard from Rick O'Connor, Don Crum, and many others with a boatload of great info.

After the speakers spoke and awards were awarded, we all got in line for our diplomas, handshakes, and pictures. Awesome to the max! The reception following was a great time with many pictures to be taken, wine to be drank, and memories to be made. After it all ended we got a burger, took a deep breath, and headed on home.

Stay tuned for the next update...Siggraph and FJORG!

Back To Reality, Job Search!

I've returned from the East and have dug my heels back into reality. Sort of...

I've got one normal day to catch up on a few things, then tomorrow we leave for San Francisco for our Animation Mentor graduation, then it's right back here to LA for Siggraph and FJORG!.

The vacation was amazing. I got to spend a lot of time with Emily, my family and friends, do a lot of surfing, eat some great food, and overall just relax and have a really cool time. I'm totally refreshed and I'm looking forward to getting back into the game with some new animation work.

I'll update next week once FJORG! is finished with some hopefully really cool news. =)

Summer Trip, FJORG!, Siggraph!

Reporting in here from Cape Cod, Massachusetts right now! I've been here about a week visiting family and friends, soaking up the sun, and preparing mentally for FJORG and a hopefully busy month of August.

August 8-9th -|- AnimationMentor.com Graduation -|- San Francisco, CA
August 10-13th -|- FJORG! Animation Challenge @ Siggraph '08 -|- Los Angeles, CA
August 13-17th -|- Siggraph '08 -|- Los Angeles, CA

FJORG! is going to be freakin' amazing! My team is Bill Buckley, Ken Robkin, and myself. We'll be held up in a room full of animators where we'll have 32 hours to make the best short film we can. I've been working with Ken for almost two years and haven't had a chance to meet him yet (he lives in Florida) so it's going to be a good time for all no matter what happens I'm sure. More updates when I can.

Once I get back from Siggraph I'll be back to work full time on my short film until I find some work in the L.A. area. It's been a really neat summer so far with so much free time but it's about time to get back into some real work. =)

So far on the trip Emily and I have taken a couple hundred photos so it will be a good time going through them all. I'll definitely put them up once the time comes. Stay tuned!