AAAAAHHHH!!!! Monkeybone!!

Me & Monkeybone. I can't believe this was seven years ago. It would be nice to get back to pushing puppets around since I've been doing all CG animation for the last four years.

ASIFA-Hollywood's Stop-Motion Expo

This weekend I went to ASIFA-Hollywood's Stop-Motion Expo at Woodbury University in Burbank. There were panel discussions and a few items on display including Speedy Alka-Seltzer, above, and portions of The Nightmare Before Christmas "Oogie Boogie" set, below.

This is Gene Warren Jr., special effects artist and winner of the effects Oscar for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. His dad, Gene Warren, worked on many George Pal "Puppetoons" and won the Oscar for the special effects in 1960's "The Time Machine".
Here is Will Vinton on the panel discussion, "The Evolution of Stop-Motion Animation". Will screened some of the work his studio created over a 25 year history.
This is from the famous Nissan car commercial from the mid-90's.
A clip from "Closed Mondays", Will Vinton and Bob Gardiner's Oscar winning short from 1974.
Some CG animation snuck in there too. This was from a popular M&M's commercial me and Tracy Larson animated at Will Vinton Studios. The characters are eating their own M&M's and Patrick Warburton comes in and tells them, "you don't eat your own kind, it's unnatural." So they all switch bags and continue eating. Patrick walks out saying, "That's just disturbing."
More Vinton Characters: Raisins, above, dinosaurs, Rex & Herb, below.
Smokey & Thurgood Stubbs from "The PJ's", below.

Portland Trip

Me and fellow DreamWorks animator, Eric Deuel, were in my hometown of Portland, Oregon this last weekend.
This is the Pittock Mansion which has a great view of Portland. You may remember the TV movie, "The Haunting of Sarah Harding", starring Sela Ward was filmed at this mansion.

While we were there we visited my friends at Laika Entertainment. At the moment they're spread out among several buildings until their new Tualatin campus opens in 2009.
Beautiful Multnomah Falls. I believe this is Oregon's number one tourist attraction.
This is the view from the top.

Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock, seen in the movie, "The Goonies".
Astoria, a location for many different films.
This is the famous "Goonies" house in Astoria.
A few blocks away from the "Goonies" house is the school from "Kindergarten Cop".
The Astoria column offers a great view of the city.