Portfolio Website Update

by Michael Cawood January 6, 2013 in California Film Awards, Layout, Los Angeles, New York, Orson Welles Award, Previs, views, YouTube0 comments
I’ve posted a number of website updates to include some recent work. I did a short stint in New York working on previs for commercials. It was a surprisingly quick job, but we generated a lot of content in that time. You can check it out here. In other news I’ve moved to Los Angeles and I’m looking forward to catching up with my west coast buddies. Devils, Angels and Dating picked up the Orson Welles Award, which I’ll be going to the California Film Awards ceremony to accept. It also passed a million views on YouTube over the Christmas break.

Skylanders Giants

by Michael Cawood November 28, 2012 in 3DS, 5) Animation, Activision, animated, Cinematic, Game, Panda Panther, skylanders, Skylanders Giants, Spyro, Stereoscopic0 comments
I had the pleasure of going to New York to work on the pre-rendered game cinematics for the new Skylanders Giants for all console platforms including some unique stereoscopic sequences for the 3DS. The games are currently being splashed all over the Disney channels ready for the Christmas season. I’ve written up a little about my experiences working on both sets of sequences here: Skylanders Giants Skylanders Giants 3DS

Cloud Catchers – Short Film

by Michael Cawood November 27, 2012 in Cloud Catchers, Lucas Martell, Pigeon Impossible, short film0 comments
I’ve been working on Lucas Martell’s “Cloud Catchers” short film. We’ve been good friends for a few years now but had yet to work together and I couldn’t pass up this chance to blend our directing styles. I couldn’t do it initially when he first asked me but as my schedule freed up I was able to slip in as the last recruited member of the team. There will be more news on this project later on as it approaches completion over the coming months. In the mean time you might want to subscribe to the blog which will be updated in due time. http://theoceanmaker.com

Production Tips – Recruiting Database

by Michael Cawood November 26, 2012 in 5) Animation, database, excel, producer, recruiter, recruiting, spreadsheet0 comments
Continuing on from the last Production Tip blog about Tracking Production… The Recruiting Database This might seem creepy but I kept a spreadsheet with some basic information on everyone on the team… or anyone interested in joining the team. The key thing I used this for was to remember their strengths, up to years after I last had any contact with them. We had over 400 volunteers sign up and many more that I spoke to outside of our development site. It could get very difficult for me to remember every encounter, especially since most were only over email. I tended to remember shots in reels better than the specifics about my conversations with each artist. Some would be people that left the project and rejoined a year later, and it was key to remember their strengths and weaknesses. I would score them in a few very important areas: Talent (0 to 4) – The quality of their reel, this would be updated with each encounter and if their work on the film differed from the work in their reel. Communication (0 to 3) – Their communication skills including written English and responsiveness. A world wide project can have some severe problems with […]

Production Tips – Tracking Production

by Michael Cawood November 23, 2012 in 5) Animation, excel, producer, production, spreadsheet, tracking0 comments
Kenny Roy asked me to contribute some anecdotes for a presentation he’s putting on, and I thought it would be a good idea to share them here. Tracking Production I’m a keen addict of a good Excel spreadsheet that tracks the progress of each project. My short film was no different and over time I was able to show the progress of each department across the duration of the film. I let Excel save out an image of two charts that were then synced to a public folder on Dropbox. The first just showed the progress level in the main categories  It was published to our development website and quickly allowed anyone to see how far we were. It was also embedded into the beginning of the animatic edit. The image simply overwrote each time I saved so it was always up to date and showed up in each export of the animatic that I published about once every two weeks. The second graph showed the progress over time. This was very useful as we could aim for a date and see roughly when departments were getting behind. It allowed me to respond by changing assignments, recruiting more or less in each skill […]

‘Best Animated Short Film’ – Burbank Film Festival

by Michael Cawood November 22, 2012 in 5) Animation, award, best, festival, short film, trophy1 comments
This is the Award our film won for ‘Best Animated Short Film’ at the Burbank Film Festival  

Updated Layout / Previs Demoreel

by Michael Cawood November 21, 2012 in 7) Demoreels, animator, Artist, Layout, Layout Artist, Previs, Reel, Showreel0 comments
I’ve been doing a lot of spit and polish on my portfolio recently while hunting for work. Half of the shots in my Layout / Previs reel are new thanks to the release of Skylanders Giants.

Devils Angels and Dating – Directors Cut

by Michael Cawood November 21, 2012 in directors cut, short film, vimeo0 comments
I had some niggling doubts about the pacing of the first half of the film and I decided it was worth the time to make a few easy fixes for this Directors Cut exclusively for Vimeo. It adds 30 seconds to the overall length and it’s designed to clarify a few things.

Guiding vs Micromanaging

by Michael Cawood September 11, 2012 in 1) Direction, 5) Animation, animated, animator, feedback, filmmaking, guiding, lead, management, micromanaging, producer, short film, supervisor, volunteer0 comments
This is a tough balance for any Director. You want to communicate your vision and give your team firm direction as they go along, but if you tell them how to do their job down to the finest detail there’s nothing for them to get any satisfaction from. They’ll quickly realize there’s no point in using their creativity, and problem solving skills, and they’ll lose their personal investment in the task. Then all you have is a clock punching drone, waiting to go home. But that’s in the work place. On a volunteer based film production it can mean you lose their interest entirely, and you lose a team member. Since ‘Devils, Angels and Dating’ was produced entirely online I can’t even be sure when that happened to my team mates. I’m positive it must have occurred on some level for some people, as we had plenty of turnover with team members, like any volunteer based project. But without dealing with them in person it’s hard to figure out where that line is with each team member. Usually in person you can tell. Body language, mood and tone of voice are going to tell you a lot about how someone is taking […]

The Layout Sandwich

by Michael Cawood August 6, 2012 in 1) Direction, 5) Animation, animator, Camera, filmmaking, Layout, Layout Artist, Previs, Previsualisation, short film, Staging, VFX, Workbook Layout1 comments
I started my first full time job in animation and, along with another person starting the same day (later to become a close friend of mine), we found ourselves being taken into a large room with a cinema screen high up on one wall. We were sat down and told we’re about to see what we’re going to be making for the next six months. What we saw was (for its time) a very impressive action adventure role playing game filled with characters and cut-scenes (FMVs or cinematics as many prefer to refer to them). It was my first day at Rare, a 200 strong, growing company with a very strong pedigree working under Nintendo’s wing. My friend and I were given an outline of what we’d be expected to start working on. He was a software engineer so we weren’t going to be doing the same things but we were going to be working together a lot. I was fully prepared to be doing in-game cycles, when the Director turned to me and casually told me I’d be making the cutscenes. I forget now if it was verbal, but I know that in my mind I went “Wahoooooo!”. It was more […]

The right time to get story feedback

by Michael Cawood July 29, 2012 in 5) Animation, feedback, filmmaking, friends, notes, screenwriting, short film, story0 comments
There’s mixed stories about when you should get feedback on your ideas. In animation it’s common for people to say that you should get feedback early and often but I’d argue that’s not always true. If you do that you risk ‘too many cooks’ and you can water down the elements that would make the film what it needs to be to make it resonate with a targeted audience. Better instead to protect the idea, and explore it fully for as long as you can, taking breaks so that you come back to it fresh and with other perspectives filtered through you. Only when you’re returning to it repeatedly from a fresh perspective and you feel it’s gone as far as it can, is it time to get feedback.       At this point it’s time to ask yourself if you have surrounded yourself with the kind of people that can give you valuable, constructive feedback. Whether you recognise it or not, your idea is still fragile and undeveloped and other people will see it. You need to be sure that the next person that sees it understands the fragile nature of an early idea and that they can […]

The Origins of a Man on a Mission

by Michael Cawood July 5, 2012 in Movies1 comments
Devils started out in the skies between Sydney and London. I’d spent years trying to get into film after five years studying animation, followed by seven years working in games. Finally I got an opportunity to work on my first film for a meager four months or so in Australia. The risk I’d taken to walk away from my games job to do this seemed immense at the time, and it was meant to be the beginning of something big. But what I came back with wasn’t an incredible new reel or a foot in the door at a film studio, I wasn’t rich, and I hadn’t learned much more to further my animation skills. Instead I came back with an insight into how much further I had to go, how much harder I had to work, how much more I had to climb to get to where I wanted to be. But I also got a glimpse into how much competition there was and how far I’d fallen behind the curve. I’d left University at a level I felt was well above the norm… later in life you realize that’s how a lot of bright graduates feel only to be crushed by the real world. In my case, I’d […]

Devils Angels & Dating at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

by Michael Cawood July 4, 2012 in 5) Animation, animated, animator, cupid, dating, devils, devils angels and dating, short film1 comments
I thought I’d kick off my official blog posts here on blogger by showcasing our short film, ‘Devils Angels and Dating’. It’ll be screening at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on the 16th of August at the HollyShorts festival. It’s been amazing to have two articles in 3D World, and two in 3D Artist. http://devilsangelsanddating.ning.com/photo/albums/press Here’s our official website where you can see lots of behind the scenes content. http://www.DevilsAngelsAndDating.com/