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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!  Blue Sky Studios has officially relocated to Greenwich, CT and the new studio is really quite amazing.  With the move came the opportunity for us to rebuild the treehouse to the way it was before the flood of 08.  Scott “Pimpcane” Carroll did a good job documenting our progress that day: The Tree House Lives! Posted on January 1, 2009 by Scott Carroll Now that we’ve moved to Greenwich, CT, we had the opportunity to resurrect the tree house, (we were forced to tear it down after a flood 6 months ago in our old building).  We started at 6 am Dec 23rd and finished around 8pm the same day.  We still have to set up our work areas and finish decorating, I’ll post those pics when we’re done.  But for now, here are a few of our construction on the 23rd. 6 A.M. Pre-construction 9 A.M. Nick’s better side 11 A.M.  One side completed 2 P.M. Who gave Pete the saw? 4 P.M.  Laying down the decking 7 P.M.  Putting up the the sign 8 P.M.  Clean up       

So I was watching the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer last night with my kids and I realized for the first time, after watching it like a thousand times over my lifetime, that Santa is portrayed as an impatient, hard-nosed ahole in this show.  I was going to piece together clips proving this, but I found on a video on YouTube that does a great job at illustrating what I’m talking about .  This video is your proof.  Keep in mind while watching this that there’s some foul language, but proves what I’m saying here.       

This is really overdue, but I’d like to congratulate Paul & Jen Downs on the arrival of thier son, Eric. I would also like to congratulate Scott “Pimpcane” Carroll and his wife Wendy on the arrival of thier second daughter, Lilah.  Hannah has a new sister!! The arrival of Eric makes all the 12 year old’s that reside in the tree house at Blue Sky, Daddies. Nick with Taryn Me with Emma & Landon       

Now that everyone and thier mother can own a digital copy of the movie, I assume I can post this again.  I had to take it down a while ago because of property issues. We’ll see what happens over the next couple of days.  If you care to check it out, simply click on this image or check it out under my animation page.       

Four versions of the DVD have finally been released today!!       

      

This trailer has been playing at the beginning of “Bolt”.  I unfortunately didn’t get to animate on this sequence because I was on another project at the time.  Check it out!!       

To celebrate the holiday season, I’ve put together some youTube clips from some of my favorite holiday specials/commercials.  Enjoy!! TV SPECIALS The Snowman The Velveteen Rabbit Christmas Eve On Sesame Street: A Wish For Wings That Work: A Muppet Family Christmas: Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas: COMMERCIALS Old holiday bumper for Channel 2 Boston: McDonald’s Ice Skating Christmas: Oreos: Milk Bone: 7-Up: First Coca Cola Polar Bears Commercial: M&M’s:       

Blue Sky had a screening of “Bolt” for the crew on Friday.  I consider myself a fan of Disney and what they do, but their past couple films have left me a feeling a little disappointed.  With this in mind, I went into the screening not knowing what to expect.  After the previews an animation from Mickey’s first appearance in “Steamboat Willie” was playing and the signature of Walt Disney was written across the screen. This really caught my attention and before the movie even started, I felt like what I was about to see was going to be something special.  The opening sequence with Bolt as a puppy blew me away.  It was some of the best dog animation I’ve seen since “Lady and the Tramp”.  The pigeons were particularly noteworthy because their performance animation was new and refreshing.  Overall, I really loved the film!!  The story was clear and the characters were fun and appealing.  If you haven’t seen it yet…GO!!!  You won’t be disappointed.  Congrats to Disney and all who worked on “Bolt”!!       

      

The co-creators of Robot Chicken visited the studio and showed us their latest Star Wars episode.  I’ve never seen Robot Chicken before this, so I didn’t know what to expect.  I absolutely loved it!!  I now want to catch up on what I’ve missed over the years.  There is nothing that will prepare you for awesomeness of this magnitude!! For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, here’s the opening sequence from it.       

I know what you’re gonna say…”I didn’t know there was an Episode 2!!”  I apologize for not posting that info last week.  You’ll be thrilled to know that there is a new episode up as of yesterday.  Enjoy!!       

Over the past few months, the studio has had visitors from every aspect of the entertainment industry in order to inspire the crew.  Today Brian Henson came to visit and give us a lecture on Jim Henson Studios and a demonstration on muppet performance techniques.  It was by far my favorite visitor we’ve had to the studio so far.  His presentation was truly inspiring.  He had a lot of behind-the-scenes footage of past Henson productions and he also had a camera and monitor set up on top of the table (both of which were facing away from the audience).  He pulled out this little guy from a box and put him in front of the camera (which was projected on the movie screen) and that puppet came to life.  Needless to say, the place lit up with excitement. We jived with him for a bit after his presentation about the differences between animation and puppet production.  I told him about our little online production, Treehouse Studios, utilizing the Muppet What-Not’s from FAO Scwartz.  I was suprised to find out that he had only seen unfinished prototypes and he asked me how they were.  I explained they are extremely high quality; pretty much what you’d expect from a place like FAO.  He was a super cool guy.  He even took a picture with us treehouse guys.       

      

      

      

I’ve been getting a bunch of emails from students asking if everything’s ok with me, since I left AM.  The truth is, production on Ice Age 3 is starting to rain down on me, so I won’t be teaching for at least a couple of semesters.  Thanks for your concern. This is the official trailer for the new Ice Age.  For those of you interested, I animated the Scrat tumbling down the dino’s back (1:25).