mikefeil inspirations . reflections . ideas

Figaro Pho Trailer

http://figaropho.zdfe-b2b.de/trailer.php

I have been working quite hard for the past 5 months on a great show called Figaro Pho. All 24 animators have been working super hard (25 sec a week quota) and there have been many late nights and weekends. Everyone has really pushed the style as hard as they can, and the whole team has grown in leaps and bounds. I'm hugely proud to be apart of this production. We are roughly about 2 months away from wrapping all the animation and I just know this show is going to do great.

Hope you enjoy the trailer, also check out the great extra characters too. I also have some awesome news that is in the works too, not 100% but its looking really good!

Feb 2012 Animation Reel

Hullo!

So I have got some approvals for some work I can now put into a reel. This is a collection of some of the projects I was apart of in 2011.

First off is the Woodlies. This was a great show I was apart of while I was at Flying Bark. The quota was roughly 15 seconds a week. I hear the show is pretty big in Germany at the moment?
The second chunk is from Lego, look at my previous post into that!
The last chunk is the Saints Row 3 - Cinematic Trailer that  I worked on while at Plastic Wax. This clip uses a combination of mocap and keyframe animation. Most of the mocap was highly augmented towards the end to work with the set and characters, aswel as to get the desired motion for when the time shifts in speed. Really fun project to work on, Plastic always does a great job with the Lighitng/Rendering.

Updates on my end - I'm still getting through Figaro Pho, its looking really amazing for the sort of constraints the production is under. Can't wait to show some of it.

Lego StarWars Reel and Retrospect

Hey Folks

This year has easily been the busiest, most challenging and rewarding one so far in my career. First a little back story.

My first, real, position into the world of animation was at a local, Sydney games studio that has now shutdown. I was extremely passionate and worked pretty hard for about the 2 years I was there. The last  6 months I was there I started to feel extremely stale and was getting more and more depressed towards how flat I felt in my animation ability. The company  had lost the animation lead about a year before, and any sort of focus on animation was pretty much sitting in the back seat.

Watching colleagues go off  onto better, more exciting projects and seeing them improve in leaps and bounds honestly made me feel even lower, as silly as it sounds. However, I still had a twinkle of passion and hope for the game that I was working on, and continued to work through a 3-4 month crunch that would finish around xmas time 2009. I would also be taking off all of my annual leave  ( 1 month) for a trip with my girlfriend and close friends to New York and Costa Rica. I felt good taking this holiday as I knew that I had worked really hard on the game upto this point but seriously needed a break before coming back and getting the game 'done' that how I envisioned it in my mind any way.

When I returned at the beginning of 2010 I was feeling even more flat and depressed. Over the course of the holiday I got a fresh perspective on my career and deep down I knew what I wanted and what needed to be done, so without any job prospects and a refreshed enthusiasm to push myself hard with my animation -  I quit. This was the best decision I have made so far in my career.

Luckily, even though I almost went completely broke, I literally had about $10 to my name. The ball started rolling with some freelance work at Plastic Wax. I pretty much worked for them off and on until about May 2011. This was a great experience and really allowed me to work on a huge variety of projects. The only thing that was lacking was having other animators above me to give me feedback and critique on my work. I was hungary to be pushed, my motto since leaving the games job has to always try and put myself in situations where I felt like I had been thrown into the deep end, I wanted to be challenged. I wanted that deep feeling in your gut when you feel like you have bitten off more then you can chew - but most importantly I  wanted grow from these challenges and learn from them. I never want to feel complacent and settled in my animation again.

In May, an old production friend of mine from the games studio helped me get in contact with Animal Logic on a animation position for a short form series they were working on. I grabbed at the chance. Working at Animal has been a goal of mine ever since I was in high school. I luckily gained an interview, which I thought I completely bombed and was told that "We were looking for someone a little more senior, but the lead animator was impressed with your passion and enthusiasm, so we would like to hire you for the position" I was overwhelmed with excitement.

Working at Animal was definately a turning point in my career. Being able to work side by side with some total veterans and other animators who were just as passionate as I was, was truly inspiring everyday. On my first day I felt so overwhelmed with the project in terms of quota, style and just the sheer talent that I was surrounded by. I felt well out of my depth. I made a quite promise to myself and thought if I can make it through this without being found out that I can't animate and subsequently fired, I can make it through anything. With lots of hard work I did get there. Huray!

This is why this little showreel of my work on this project means so much to me. Even tho I look at it now and I think its pretty rubbish. I still know how much I grew during my time on this, and how thankful I am for all people that pushed me along the way too.

Since then I have continued to seek out new and challenging positions and am now working on something that is easily the most challenging project I have worked on, but then again - hopefully every new project should be like that.  Enjoy!