Bret Bays Animation

This is how i envisioned my playoff beard and how it actually looks…

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I was thinking back about myself, how I got to where I am and what got me into the creative world. It brought me back to the thing that started it all. Comic strips.

I know most animators have preferred, or at least spoke more about comic books than comic strips, but looking back comic strips absolutely shaped my life to the path I am currently on. The earliest memories I have of comic strips were what I can only assume was sometime around 1st or 2nd grade. It was a small private school, and we had some books on the shelf. I THINK(listen I have a horrendous memory so I could be wrong) I started off with peanuts(I mean really who didn’t?), but the first BOOK, the first comic strip BOOK I actually remember seeing, holding, reading, was Garfield. Which Garfield book? I could never tell you. But I remember when we had to sit and read, if I wasn’t playing this cool game with Pennies(I’ll show you sometime if you ask) I was reading Garfield books.

That school only went to 5th grade. My brother is 3 years older than I am so when he was in 5th grade I was in second and when it was time for him to get to 6th grade, it meant I was changing schools too. Now, I believe when I was in 2nd grade, my brother and I bought books from the book….store thing that came to schools. If memory serves, which it doesn’t, I bought one of the “I Spy” books, and my brother bought a book that has stayed in my head, and in our house, ever since.

The book was Gary Larson’s Cows of our Planet. I read through it after my brother and I enjoyed it, everything seemed correct you know? Nothing looked bad, or wrong or anything. I mean jeez I was in 2nd grade, so all I cared about was the fact that there was a Cow wearing glasses which I’m sure I thought was hilarious. My brother would explain some of the other jokes to me which were still funny.

Now, as I said, when my brother finished 5th grade I had to move to a different school.This was a pretty big moment in my life. I was a shy kid who sat in the back, didn’t know anyone. Most of my classmates had all gone from kindergarten to 3rd grade together. Sometime that year, I found the book that did indeed change my life…

Scientific Progress Goes ‘BOINK!’ This book was in the bookshelf in my classroom. It turns out my teacher, Mrs. Boston loved Calvin and Hobbes. Had them all. So in my spare time, I read that whole book and I fucking LOVED it. Looking back, how the hell does a 3rd grader understand some of the jokes in that strip? They were pretty advanced, but I thought it just looked awesome, and it was an awesome message. A Boy and his imagination.

That book store/fair that came every year, you bet your ass I was looking for any Calvin and Hobbes books I could find. I think the second book I read was It’s a Magical World, which ironically was the last book in the series. I didn’t know for a long ass time though.

Calvin and Hobbes shaped me so much I used to buy tracing paper all the time and trace the characters all the time. It lead to me beginning to wonder about how to make comic strips, and eventually, I did make comic strips. For 3 years or so I did my own comic strip online trying to be like Bill Watterson, just without the talent I guess. I wasn’t as good at drawing, but damnit my mom thinks I was funny.

There was just something there, and I’m sure fans of comic books have the same feeling, that seems so alive about comics. I mean, I am literally looking at a piece of paper, it is not moving, nothing on there is moving, but when I was reading the books, I was always THERE. I was always WATCHING these things happen. In other words, I was immersed in the environment, and I forgot that I was reading a comic. It’s something we try to do in animated films, fool the audience. Man was I fooled when I would read Calvin and Hobbes.

Anyway, I write this because thinking about that made me look online at the books, and merely SEEING the covers of each of the books just brings me back to that time. It reminds me of my childhood. It jogs memories into my brain which is normally a black hole for memories. I hope to never grow up. To never lose this feeling as I grow older, and I hope my kids someday learn to love Calvin and Hobbes like I do. I hope you guys reading this take a minute to think back to what got you excited as a kid, and I hope you go revisit it. I know a lot of times when you do that you realize how bad it was(usually going back to your old favorite movies as a kid is not as pleasant as an adult), but do it anyway. Find that thing that got you going on your path now, remember it. Embrace it. Love it and don’t ever forget it.

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I bought an iphone. I have not been able to put it down. Ive found some cool games and some nice apps like this wordpress app and some drawing and flipbook apps. I think this thing is just so slick, i love it.

That is all. Been working on some python stuff for c4d and animating a nice mechanics shot(ive put the firefighter shot on indefinite hiatus) and just enjoying life.

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I just found this on Victor Navone’s Website(http://blog.navone.org/) but it’s one of the best things I’ve seen in a while. It’s The Google Art Project(http://www.googleartproject.com) and it’s incredible. It allows you to walk through museums and get really up close and personal to some great works of art. And getting to walk through The National Gallery in London again really brought me back, and getting to get really up close and seeing how Botticelli painted the hairs in his “The Birth of Venus”. Check it out.

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It’s Christmas Eve, and lucky me I am sick, but I just wanted to take the time to wish you all a Merry Christmas tomorrow. I hope it’s not too crazy for everyone. Be Safe and have a good day!

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It has been a long time since I’ve posted on here. I have been busy busy busy. I spent Thanksgiving in Springfield Illinois and then a few days in Chicago. It was fun. Here are some photo’s from the trip.

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Sorry if anyone went to my site and it looked like crap.

Also very VERY sorry if you tried to view my reel and got Rick Roll’d. I don’t know what the hell happened, but I think I have fixed it.

Truly Sorry,
Bret

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If you’ve wondered what I’ve been doing at work, well now I can tell you. CINEMA 4D R12 is out. Please read about it all here: http://www.maxon.net/news/singleview-default/article/maxon-announces-immediate-availability-of-release-12-of-acclaimed-3d-package-cinema-4d.html

Quick List of new features:
-Fully integrated Linear Work Flow including in the viewport
-Completely New Dynamics System using Bullet including Softbodies.
-A BUNCH of new great deformers for Character animation and more(Camera Deformer, Mesh Deformer to name a couple)
-Real World Units
-Morph and Posemixer had a baby. It’s name is Pose Morph and it Rules
-IES Lights
-Screw, the old Batch Render, Welcome the new Render Queue
-Python fully integrated
-IK Dynamics
-OpenGL 3.0

There’s a bunch more crap out there. Go to MAXON.net and check it all out. It rocks. Rick and Kai will be busy with CINEVERSITY Live This week:

“Cineversity Live! Will be on the air twice a day this week - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - to coincide with the launch of Release 12.
To view Cineversity Live visit http://live.cineversity.com/

Wednesday, Sept 1
11 am PDT (1800 GMT/ 2000 CET) - General Release Announcement
3 pm PDT (2200 GMT/ 0000 CET) - Rendering Features and Q&A
Thursday, Sept 2
11 am PDT (1800 GMT/ 2000 CET) - Dynamics
3 pm PDT (2200 GMT/ 0000 CET) - Release 12 Q&A
Friday, Sept 3
11 am PDT (1800 GMT/ 2000 CET) – New Character Tools and Deformers
3 pm PDT (2200 GMT/ 0000 CET) - Release 12 Q&A”

And now some time to breathe as the madness unfolds

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It’s been about a week now since I posted the last post. I meant to get all caught up right away, but I didn’t. Whoops. Ok, let’s continue. So SIGGRAPH has come and gone. I was scheduled to go for 2 days. One day(Tuesday) was to be my day to go around, see the sights, pass my reel around, schmooze, etc. Wednesday would be my day as a MAXON employee at the MAXON booth.

So I set out on making some reels. I bought some DVD’s, DVD Cases, and Labels. This would become my nightmare. See, first of all, I was out of black ink. I bought that and then set out on making my DVD’s. Memorex has frustrated the hell out of me. See, first of all, they don’t have a Mac version of their software. And I’m not like a big Mac zealot or anything, I work on one, I like working on one, but I’m not in your face about it. Since Mac’s can just as easily burn DVD’s you’d think you’d want to provide a version for those people right? Well, no. Then, even when using it on a PC, the darn thing wouldn’t even print properly! ARRRRGH! I had I believe 30 labels, and I was looking to print 15. I wasted 15 of those #$(*@#$ labels. Now, I’ll attribute about 8 of those to me just being stupid, but still! I swear to you, I’m going Lightscribe next time for sure.

Ok, so I gotta say you can certainly tell there was a recession. The floor was much smaller, and so was the job fair, but I was still determined to have a good time. So with a backpack full of Demo Reels, I set off walking around. First, I went to the Pixar Booth because I remember last time I went, I saw all of these people walking around with these cardboard tubes. I eventually found out what and where but it was too late. So I went to Pixar, but you know what? EVERYONE goes to Pixar first. I thought, “Screw this”. So I left, and went off looking for Disney because they were doing Reel Reviews. It was a really good thing I did leave because they were nearly out of slots by the time I got to Disney. With my slot in check, I left to go back to the exhibition. Also, I thought Disney’s absence from the floor a bit weird but you know what? They had a nice quiet area almost all to themselves, and it was really nice. I went back to the exhibition and I walked to Pixar, right as they were finishing up posters, and I got one! Sweet! It’s a nice poster too. After that I checked in with Libby to see how she was doing at the booth. Turns out she loves working at trade shows haha. I walked around some more stopping at places like Blue Sky, Sony, Nickelodeon, and Rhythm and Hues. Talked with some people got some names, but nothing terribly promising sadly. I did drop off my reel to a few places though which felt good, and I had a reel review at Nickelodeon as well. It was kind of funny, I didn’t even know they were there and I was just puttering around the floor and I saw them and saw they were doing reel reviews for animators today. Jackpot! Sadly, they were filled by that time. But someone missed their review and the lady who’s name escapes me but is written down, said “Is anyone an animator?” I promptly raised my hand, and got a free review haha. Sadly, the two people who watched it were texture and shader artists, but hey, they laughed at the gags is good. One of their advices was to learn different styles like their animated shows, because people there often will switch and hop around on different shows, so it’s important to be able to do the style of Fanboy as well as The Penguins or Kung Fu Panda. I went to go to the Animation Mentor and Animation Magazine Blockbuster Breakdown panel, but by that time, the line was enormous. I must hate lines or something. Who knows. So I went back downstairs and walked around some more. Then I went back up and went in a little late. Sadly, I should have just waited in line I think. I missed all of Eric Goldberg’s talking! GRRR! I did come in time for Aaron Hartline breaking down the Mr. Tortilla head bit. Then Michael Makarewicz  did a breakdown of a very dramatic, piece from Up which he said was quite a challenge for him. Carlos was last and he broke down his animation of the Spanish Buzz Lightyear including some hilarious video reference. It’s was a blast to watch, but I wish I would have seen Eric Goldberg’s part.

So after that I puttered around some more before running out of things to do. You really gotta have a plan. I didn’t plan on what I wanted to see, so I was bored. I did manage to pass out a couple of reels cold turkey to Rhythm & Hues and Sony Imageworks. Pixar wasn’t taking reels because of the sheer volume there would be. Nickelodeon watched it but didn’t keep it.

So with nothing else to do, I donned a CINEMA 4D shirt and just hovered around the MAXON booth helping wherever I could. Now, I need to give Libby a lot of credit, she was pimping my name out to anyone who seemed remotely interested in animation or Character animation. A gentleman from Dreamworks came to the booth and Libby found this out, and immediately started telling him how her Boyfriend is a Character animatior. He told her to come get me, and she did. We talked briefly and he gave me his name and email(which is on a paper on my desk at work) and I gave him my reel. Life is funny like that.

Around 3, I went over to watch Kai’s presentation at the Pixar Renderman booth. It really was an interesting presentation about the Multicamera(I believe that’s what it called) where you could really help cut your render times a bit and also its usefulness for Stereo work. Renderman is a powerful beast. I want to learn Renderman, I really do. But I should learn how to light and make things look good. Ha!

. I did that for a little bit before I went to my reel review at Disney. I was fortunate enough to meet with Miyuki Kanno who would be reviewing my reel. She was such a nice person and she gave me some great feedback on my reel. She watched it once and laughed a few times(which is a good thing because it was when you’re supposed to laugh) and said it was really good. She said she could tell I knew how to animate. She said the first shot(which I have been documenting as I work on it) was really good, she liked his mouth shapes and told me that shot made he want to keep watching more. WHOO HOO! However, she was honest and told me that my next shot was not working very well. It felt kind of robotic and a little stiff, and didn’t really have the nice mouth shapes like the first shot. NOOOOOOO! I agree though, I should have kept it off, and, I also think I burned that one to 25 fps so it looks even worse than it normally does.  She thought the weight and feeling of Stewie felt right, and good, that it was nice. With my AnimJam shot, she felt the weight of him lifting the bucket was off, and that he was kind of overacting. The saw was good but then the sigh was a bit much. However, she said she really liked when he picked up the board and knocked the things over. She said it looked very natural and that I might want to cut it to start right at that point. She felt that the end was really good and funny. So right now it looks like I got my bookend shots in place, and even the midpoint shot. I just got to either fix my dialog or cut it, as well as trim my animjam. It was really great feedback. It was honest, but not brutal, you know? It made me feel warm and fuzzy when she said the first shot made her want to see more. Now I just need to keep the interest throughout the reel.

So I went back to the MAXON booth and helped out where I could. After the show, all of the MAXON people went to Magnolia down the road for dinner. I got a club sandwich(what I would get anywhere). Then we walked back to our car, and drove home.

I repeated the process of driving down in the morning through terrible LA traffic. Wednesday I was designated as a floater. I would work on an open station and answer any questions I could. If there’s no questions I would just work on various things. I practice a lot of python coding in CINEMA in my spare time. I really am going to bring a chair next time, I am not one to stand for long periods of time. Nothing eventful happened that I recall. We went bowling afterwards. I dazzled a few of the people with my ability to curve the ball, and bowl through my legs.

Now, the following Friday, Libby and I took a trip up to San Francisco for  the Animation Mentor graduation and BBQ. We stopped at Firestone in San Luis Obispo. Holy CRAP! That was a delicious Tri-Tip Sandwich. I HIGHLY recommend you check it out if you’re in the area. SO Good. We stayed at The Crescent. It was an interesting hotel. Very stylish.

We walked down through Chinatown down to the Wharf. I like that place. We ate at Wipeout which had a good club sandwich. Then we walked back home later that night, but not before eating some Delicious chocolate dipped marshmellows from Chocolate Heaven.

Now, on Saturday it was time for Graduation. The plan was for me to take a Bus to the place where Graduation was. I waited at the stop for my bus…but it kept passing me. 3 Buses passed me because they were PACKED. Kai said he’d give me a ride, so I tried to walk to his hotel, but I was very confused and lost. Eventually, Kai, Amanda, Libby, and myself all drove together. We missed rehearsal.

The ceremony was nice. It was longer than expected but it was good. Lee Unkrich was the commencement speaker. He told a very heartfelt story about his Grandmother and how he took that experience of her passing and applied it to Toy Story 3. The story really moved me since my grandma had died like 2 weeks before. We all did our thing congrats Class 15 and 16 for graduation. We Schmoozed a bit and then headed off to the Wharf with Kai and Amanda. We ate at the Sea Lion cafe, and then we went back to the hotel. That was pretty much it. Then the next day we went to the BBQ before heading back home. Oh, one thing I want to say, Shawn Kelly may very well be the nicest guy I’ve ever met. He’s just such a friendly person, and I bet he’s a blast to be around more haha.

So that’s it. I’m pretty much caught up now. Since all of this, I’ve just been working a lot on some side projects, scripting, and more. I’ve been working on The Ottoman, which is making a lot of progress. We’ve just finished the rig(I guess it would be a Beta) and now we’re just weighting the Clothing before rigging the other characters. I’ve also been working on a lot of Scripting to make my life easier. I need to get back to work though. More animation needs to be done.  Below are some pics from the last month or 2:

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It’s been over a month since I have last posted on here. So much has happened, and I just haven’t taken the time to sit and reflect on what has happened, you know? I don’t like to do that, it makes me feel busy busy busy work work work, and I for one like to kick back relax, and enjoy the world around me.

Summer Sevens has been going on. I’ve only participated in 2 tournaments so far, one in Vegas, one in Santa Barbara. Vegas was a blast. Stayed in the Luxor, never done that. the pyramid is an odd one to stay in(and dangerous I would imagine.) We played in the Kings Bracket which is the second best bracket. We were matched against the runner up from last years Aces Bracket(the best bracket), Tempe Rugby Club. Sadly, we lost to them. We did well but they pulled away at half time. And unfortunately, do to the way the tournament worked, we could only make 9th place at best if we lost our first game. We pretty much blew out every other team we played, I think including 2 shutouts. I might be wrong. I had a couple good games, with some good runs, and of course put on a pie facing clinic(one of which lead to a very long try). In the end, we won the “losers” bracket which put us in 9th which sucks but is kind of nice. It wasn’t very close the rest of the day for us. Tempe lost in the Semi final I believe to eventual champions.

Santa Barbara is a tournament that I love playing. I’ve played there twice now, and It was the place where I scored my first ever try. Last year our team won the social side, and we aimed to do the same again this year. This time around we split up into two teams: Open Side, and Social Side. Open division is a more competitive division compared to Social. I played on the Open Division side. We were matched up with Last years national sevens championship team, Belmont Shore. Belmont is one hell of a team, and they pretty much whooped us. Next we played the Santa Barbara Grunions, and we mopped the floor with them. I myself managed to score 2 tries(I’ve just shattered my previous scoring records for sevens which was 1 try all season, twice) against the Grunions. One came from an interception(a move I’m well know for doing while playing touch rugby), and then another on a break to the outside complete with 2 pie faces met with much cheering from the boys.

We next found ourselves in a must win situation against Kern County. Kern County has some big boys, and they brought it. The match was really close going back and forth, the last play of the game came from an interception from Brad who ran it back for a bit before being caught by 2 Kern county players, but he managed to dish the ball out to me and I ran as fast I could scoring the game winning try.

In the playoffs, we found ourselves matched against, get this: Mexico’s Olympic Rugby/National Sevens Rugby Team. No joke, the Outlaws get their first international test against Mexico. Unfortunately, Mexico beat us. They are shifty and fast and like to run stunts and they won. I think eventually Belmont Shore won. Our Social side also made it to playoffs but lost in the semi finals as well, partly due to some of the worst officiating I have seen, but those are the breaks.

The next thing that happened was Libby and I went to Yosemite. Now, I have never been to Yosemite before, and let me tell you, if you haven’t been you gotta go. The Valley is beautiful. It’s so inspiring there. It’s just so nice. I will have to post some pictures soon. We went up on Thursday(7/15) to stay with my friends Justin, Sarah, and Gonzo at the Housekeeping camp right next to the river. It was a primo spot. Justin, Sarah, and Gonzo had hiked Half-Dome Thursday, and that had kind of wiped Gonzo and Sarah Out. Justin however was game for another hike, and because Half Dome requires permits on Fridays-Sundays, we decided to Hike the Upper Yosemite Falls trail(”It’s only like 3.6 miles”). The trail is pretty tough, maybe because I’m not much of a hiker, but it’s steep with probably a billion switchbacks. When you reach about the halfway point, you get an absolutely beautiful view of the falls. It’s really stunning. We eventually hiked to the top, which actually was kind of a let down visually, but now I can say I hiked to the top of the 6th tallest waterfall in the world.

After Yosemite I found out that my Grandmother had died, exactly 2 months after her Husband, Pumpy. It was very sad to hear of this, and crazy to think about how just over 2 months ago, I still had one whole set of grandparents alive, and now, I do not have any grandparents left. It’s very saddening. I don’t know too much of my Grandmother other than she was a sweet woman and quite the fighter. She developed alzhiemer’s in her late years, which made her life much tougher, but she was a tough woman. The last 2 years I would say have been riddled with problems. A cold that developed into pneumonia and other things, my parents had prepped me of her death for quite some time. At least 3 times since 2008 I was told she probably wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. I feel like that is why this news hasn’t hit me as hard as when Pumpy died. I loved them both very much, but I had done plenty of bracing for Grandma’s death which is what made Pumpy’s death so startling because he seemed to be just fine. I guess Pumpy just needed to go get everything ready up in heaven for Grandma, and it didn’t take him long to do it, so I guess I can take comfort in the fact that the two of them are reunited again. May you both rest in peace. I love you both so very much, and was so glad you both got to meet Alice before you had to go.

We’ve arranged  to go back east to Upstate New York(apparently WAY upstate because most people I talk to from NYC have no clue where it is) to Pulaski which looks to be about 50-100 miles east of Toronto, for a Memorial for them with friends and family. Almost a Wake I guess it would be, just to look back and remember the couple who were so dedicated and in love with each other for over 65 years.

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