A whiteboard, some markers and a lot of patience

An incredible stopmotion piece created using a whiteboard and markers. Created by a guy at Minilogue.

Link found on Pixelsurgeon.

Christmas is coming...

Here's some frames from three Christmas ID animations I just completed for channel m. The first one was inspired by my nephew Jack and his cat Freddy. Don't they just make you want to say "Awwwww"?
Now before you go saying that I ripped off Starbucks' new Christmas look, keep in mind that I based the style on the Christmas animations that I have done for the last couple of years at channel m. Hey, maybe Starbucks ripped ME off - though I seriously doubt it.

Click on the pics to see them bigger.

Bond: The Beginning

The first time I went to a movie by myself was in 1983, back when Haney had it's own movie theatre. The double bill was Octopussy and Rocky 3. Hard to believe that 23 years later I'd still have another Bond movie to go to (and judging by the trailers I've seen lately, another Rocky movie). Can you believe that they let a 15 year old boy see a movie called Octopussy? Disgusting.
Earlier this week, on one of my rainy afternoons off, I went to see Bond number 21, Casino Royale. I guess I'm a little biased since I've always loved watching Bond movies. It's like that old saying about pizza and sex - even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.
Anyone expecting a typical James Bond formula pic however, will probably be disappointed. There's no Q, no Moneypenny, very few gadgets (what they do have, you can probably buy from Sony), and no huge volcanic lairs ruled by evil masterminds. I really didn't mind though - what they lacked in that department, they made up for in an interesting story, some great suspense, and surprisingly, some actual 'acting'. And of course, they did have some incredible stunts, sweaty villians with high cheekbones, and ridiculously gorgeous women with names like Vesper and Solange. Unfortunately, his new Aston Martin was hardly driven.
I also liked how the movie existed in it's own little universe, as if the other Bond movies didn't even exist. It's almost a prequel of sorts, explaining how Bond became a double-0 agent and a ruthless dispassionate killer. Daniel Craig was great in the part - very gritty, very cool, and actually funnier than I expected him to be:

Bartender: Shaken or stirred?
James Bond: Do I look like I give a damn?

Borat ... wawaweewah

Friday night I went to see Borat, or more precisely, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. It's not often you get such a vocal audience at a movie - lots of laughter, but also a lot of 'ewws' and 'no ways'. It's one of those movies that really pushes the envelope of good taste, but in it's own way, explores what makes the U.S.A. such a scary place to so many people. It relies heavily on the reactions of everyday people to the Borat character - after all, if you can't laugh at others, who can you laugh at? I'm not surprised that Sacha Baron Cohen is being sued by most of the people in the film.
Apparently, the cops were called on Cohen 91 times during the production of the movie.
All in all, it's a very funny, very offensive and sometimes revolting movie. The naked wrestling scene between Borat and his extremely overweight manager kinda summed up the whole thing for me. I laughed really hard, but I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Visit Borat's official website here.

Feeling a little two-dimensional

Here's a South Park version of me showing up for work at 6:30am. You can create your own version at South Park Studio.

Thanks to Chickadee for the link.

In other news...

By the way, did you hear that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married on ... Oh, who cares...

Black Friday

Just wanted to apologize to anybody who happened to cross my path on Friday morning. Due to the heavy rains last week, mudslides spilled into our reservoirs, resulting in brown tap water for much of the Greater Vancouver area. Because of this, ALL downtown Starbucks were not serving drip coffee for risk of contamination. Can you imagine? Very hard to wake up for a rainy 6:30 shift without my morning Starbucks fix. I spent the whole morning feeling like I was in a scene from Trainspotting.
In any case, Starbucks was back in full service on Saturday, so I was able to put the tragic events of 11/17 behind me. We still have to boil our water for the next few days or so until things are back to normal. I managed to get through the rest of the weekend alright though. Saw Borat on Friday night (more about that later) and went to a house party on Saturday night where I hydrated with lots and lots of Smirnoff Ice. I'm back on weekend shifts from 12:00-8:30 which is kind of a drag, since there's not a lot to do, but since the weather hasn't been great, I don't feel like I've been missing out on much.

Office life

Last Friday I went to my Mum's long overdue retirement party. It's hard to believe that she worked at the same accountant's firm for 25 years! It seems that the days of working for the same company for such a long period of time are becoming a thing of the past. Career changes occur much more frequently nowadays and most companies just don't seem to last as long as they used to. But all in all it was a very nice night - it was obvious that everyone genuinely enjoyed having her around and that they were sorry to see her go. Of course there was the standard cringeworthy Powerpoint presentation along with the usual free alcohol abuse and helium sucking sing-a-longs. But I am glad that I went.
It also got me thinking about office environments and the people you spend your working life with. It's incredible sometimes how such a odd, disconnected bunch of strangers can co-exist when they need to. That's the appeal, I think, of shows like The Office (yes, both the British AND the American versions).
I suppose that I'm pretty lucky to be working with a very nice bunch of odd, disconnected strangers. In fact many of the strangers have become friends. After a couple of days off, I look forward to seeing the people I work with; catching up on their lives, recycling the same old stupid jokes, gossiping, flirting, and bitching about silly things. Enjoying what you do is one thing, but it's the people that you work with who keep you going. My sister described a recent bad spell in her work environment as a little like Lord of the Flies. Yes, I have days like that sometimes, but it's not THAT bad. I haven't found a pig's head on a stick in my cubicle lately.

November Rain (and no I don't mean the Guns 'n' Roses song)

Been a while since I've posted. No excuses really. I think that maybe the weather has affected my motivation. It's been back to the typical Vancouver November rain lately and I just feeling like hibernating when I get home from work and not even going near a computer. The walks home from work just haven't been the same with all those beautiful fall leaves now looking like soggy cereal. I've just switched over to weekend shifts too which means I've just plowed through working seven days straight. Bleah.
On the plus side I do get three days off in a row now. Yay.

For my Mum...

Here's a design that I used for a birthday card for my Mum last week. A lovely card for a lovely Mum.

The Departed

Yesterday, I went to see The Departed; Scorsese's take on the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. I liked how he kept the basic framework of the original but added more motivation and depth to the characters. This was a much grittier and more character-driven film than Infernal Affairs, which was more stylish and action-orientated.
It also had all of the ingredients of a Scorsese movie - great use of songs on the soundtrack, it's opening voice-over, swooping cameras and sudden bursts of brutal violence. It also had great dialogue; characters that you really wanted to listen to between the action and suspense. The one thing I think he could have left out from the original was a subplot involving a romance with a police psychologist. It seemed kind of convoluted, slowed things down and didn't really go anywhere.
The performances were great too. I liked how Scorsese left Jack Nicholson's face in darkness for much of the beginning, just letting his voice do the acting. And as for Leonardo DiCaprio, nobody can do tortured anguish like he can. He's evolving into a tough looking guy - far removed from the pretty boy in Titanic.