Alex Zemke's Animation Blog

That's More Like It!

2010-01-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

Now that I spent a near-sleepless weekend adding three more shots, the superhero work is done, and an impressive 25% of my reel is brand-spanking new! Time to send out DVD's...

Demo Reel Update!

2010-01-07T16:51:00.001-08:00

The exclaimation point may be a bit much; I'm not really that excited. The superhero needs a third shot yet to round out his moment, and the whole reel needs more new stuff. I want to get to the point where there's nothing left of my shcool work!

And if the video refuses to play, try this link:
Animation Reel Jan 2010 -- Alex Zemke

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Tron's done!

2009-11-04T16:30:00.000-08:00

Actually, it was done three months ago. Can't believe I didn't post it! Worst. Blogger. Ever.

Still haven't been to Scott's house to see it on his MAME cabinet, or in HD on his giant projection-screen TV. Ah well. Eventually!

Noooooo!!!

2009-11-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

Shoot me if I ever try to start building this thing!

Out of nowhere, I suddenly had an urge to look deeper into MAME cabinet building. I'm especially impressed by the guys who build them with rotating control panels for more versatile play without the hassle of separate removable panels. Then I started doodling, then I made this rough mockup in Maya to see it in motion.

I'm already backlogged for the next two to three years! I'm doing a sequence for my animation reel, then I need to learn character modeling and rigging, texturing, effects, dynamics and lighting, then apply that learning to create a Dragon's Lair sequence for Scott's Surgeville cabinet (my friend Scott's the one who introduced me to MAME years ago... this is his fault!), then finally use everything I learned to produce my first post-school animated short.

Not to mention next year's Halloween haunted house that I've already started thinking about!

Good god, when would I ever have the time to build this behemoth?! And yet I find myself looking at all the MAME cabinet plans I can find online, searching for wiring solutions for the rotating panels (FYI, turns out it's called a "slip ring"), and eating up hours making this!

Why, god, why?!! Make it stop!

...kill me...!

G-Force demo!

2009-08-31T19:39:00.000-07:00

New job-hunting season, new reel, G-force shots included.

Oregon Transplant

2008-12-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

No animating will be done this coming week! Nothing!
The family and I are in Oregon, visiting my folks' place. Tons of snow (tons) and our daughters' dogs guarantee not a moment of boredom.

Tron's Coming Along

2008-12-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to knock out one shot per night after work on my friend Scott's arcade cabinet idle animation. This first one is Tron, and will probably run about 30 seconds or so (just pulling that number out of my ass, honestly).

The next one will probably be Pac-Man, likely followed by Q-bert. After I've learned to model, rig and texture my own cartoon characters in Maya, I plan to tackle Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Tall order, I know.

Oh! Tee! Oh! Tee! Oh! Tee!

2008-12-15T16:31:00.000-08:00

And so it begins. Short notice today that we'll be doing ten-hour days all week, starting now! And maybe a Saturday thrown in to boot! Bye, wife! Bye, kids!
On the plus side, extra cash for car repairs...

Where's my head?

2008-12-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

How could I have failed to mention I got hired at SPI?
Over two freaking months ago!
I'm at Sony Pictures Imageworks, animating guinea pigs, moles and flies, for Disney's G-Force!Now that I'm past my initial first-time-on-a-feature-film, oh-my-god-I-don't-belong-here jitters, it's actually getting to be a lot of fun! I knew this would be a better job than hotel bell clerk! Also with Disney, coincidentally.

My First Tron!

2008-12-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Yay! I'm working on my friend Scott's "Surgeville" game cabinet idle animation.
And I finally got the Tron stuff looking like I want, so I went ahead and dove right in.

Off With Their Heads!

2008-09-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Bill Maher noted that when a five-star hotel just isn't good enough for the richest of the rich, "it's time to bring back the guillotine". As I watch this business with the bailout for all these robber-barons bathing in the millions they stole while steering the American economy into the ground, beheading actually sounds pretty fair! Maybe some good, old-fashioned, blood-thirsty mob tactics are just what we need to bring their asses back in line! Say what you will about Wal-Mart (and you could say plenty), at least their CEO only makes 25 times that of the lowest paid employee. On the books, that is. I wish I could make hundreds of millions of dollars for sucking at my job! What a deal!

Arconyx: Gold Mine!

2008-08-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Wow!

The pace was so quick, and the work so varied, that I forgot half the stuff I did while I was working for Kenny at Arconyx. Having gone back through my old files, though, I found enough fodder to double my demo reel! Not to mention add a ton of variety to a reel that used to be just Star Trek and my short...

Awesome!

Alex Zemke Animation Demo Reel August 2008

I'm abandoning my kids!

2008-06-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Animation Mentor's holding their first-ever job fair next Friday, and I'm actually flying out there ahead of my family. We're all going to the BBQ the next day, but we can't all drive out soon enough for the fair. Boo.
Anyway, Sony'll be there, along with several big names -- including the biggest, but I already got my rejection email this year, so I'll get back to them later -- and I get to meet and greet and shake things and such. I'm already sending the Sony animation director my updated reel (see below; the copy he already has doesn't have any Star Trek on it), but I'll drop one off with the recruiters anyway, just for good measure.
The nice thing, though, is there's no undue pressure to land one of these companies. I just got asked to stay on at Technicolor for their next project! The reason I'm not torn about staying longer is that, unlike this last one, the next project is all keyframe! No mocap! I just might get to put something from one of my jobs on my reel!

In the meantime, however...

My Blanking Job

2008-05-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yay! I got to sign my first non-disclosure agreement, which means I can't say squat about what I'm doing at Technicolor. Ah well.
Still, the experience is very much like I expected, and with a deadline looming in July, I don't run the risk of getting comfortable and staying too long at what should only be one step on my path to feature animation. Let's just hope Sony's still interested in me come that time!

Flying by the seat of my pants!

2008-04-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

Work dried up sooner than expected at Arconyx. It's too bad, because I was learning so much and getting on so well.
But the bills gotta get paid, so I went out and found new work at Technicolor Interactive Services! Looks like it should be a good gig. Nice studio, friendly staff, and we'll be doing game cinematics and trailers, which is closer to the kind of work I was training to do at AM.
More later!

Videos, Videos, Videos!

2008-02-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

OK, so maybe I shouldn't shout it three times, since there's only two.

First, my most recent demo reel update:

And, of course, my student short. This is the very weak lighting and rendering job I did for the Animation Mentor newsletter. Hey, I didn't go to Light & Render Mentor, did I?

A Whole New World...!

2008-02-23T21:18:00.001-08:00

Whoo-hoo!
I graduated last month from Animation Mentor, and yesterday I got my very first animation job!!!
I'm working for AM mentor Kenny Roy, at his Arconyx Animation Studios in Santa Monica, CA.
Right now we're working on a fairly dry -- but still interesting and educational -- assignment for one of his clients, and down the line I hope to get myself placed on one of the studios more creatively exciting projects.
I've been on the job for half a day, and I can tell already that this is going to be a great new carreer! Plus, while a lot of guys who get into animation at my age have to take substatial pay cuts from their previous jobs, I have the dubious benefit of coming off an absolute crap job that I've had for over seven years now, so I'm actually making almost double what I was.
Sa-weet!