Friday Night Blitz Updates

The Harvatines worked it this weekend. We started work on our Friday Night Blitz project, and it's coming along nicely. I put some behind the scene pictures of our madness here. For those of you are too lazy, I'll put some up right here, right now.





The first thing that I started shooting this weekend was a light element. I will use this for the scoreboard through the magic of computer.










This is what resulted, I'll add some more effects to it later. Stay tuned.


























Did you figure out the math? Harv + Miller = Heavy machinery.

Friday Night Blitz

Liz and I have just started to work on a 30 second opening for a CBS affiliate up north. The show is called Friday Night Blitz and it highlights High School and College football every week. The animation that we will do will be similar to our "San Francisco Treat" spot that we did a few months ago, but this time I'll be much better with the behind the scenes stuff as it happens.

This project will be a lot of fun, and I'll introduce you to our crew as it develops. Here is a picture to set the mood of the spot.

Richard Combs-The Exterminator

Our old pal from Wreckless Abandon Studios, Richard Combs, has just completed a cute stop-motion short that I'll put up for your viewing pleasure. He did it during his final semester at Maryland Institute College of Art, and the animation took him about two weeks. He's currently working on a new short, and he will soon be a teacher's assistant for a stop-motion animation class that he is starting up.

So, enjoy his short animation here.

Multiple Blasts from the Past

I was just rummaging through all of the random, unorganized crap on my computer and I discovered the following gems sitting right on my desktop! This is not only premarriage Harv, this is pre-Make Out City Studios, pre-Liz, pre-Harv Harv! Back then he was referred to by coworkers and new friends as Harvatine, IV or the dreaded John. Imagine! All of these pictures were taken in East Granby, Connecticut at Wreckless Abandon Studios.




Larger versions and short descriptions are here.

A Pretty Nifty Walk Cycle Test

Misha Klein showed me this clip this morning (actually I walked by his computer and looked over his shoulder), and I thought that it was pretty cool. It's a simple walk cycle by Justin Rasch, who I don't know much about but I believe he is a CG animator. Anyways, I guess this is just a test, but I love the movement of it. He also created and fabricated the characters. Check it out here.

The Beast From the Egg

Ah the wonders of YouTube. I was tooling around looking at things and what not, and I discovered a really old movie by the Chiodo Brothers. You know, Charlie, Stephen, and Edward. The boys are located in beautiful Burbank, and they have done some really amazing things such as effects in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Vincent, and Team America. But I don't need to tell you that, our readership is an educated, nerdy following.

This old movie really shows what talent they had, even at an early age. The Beast From the Egg is a short film about a mysterious egg (a ball of tin foil), which hatches a stop-motion monster on an their unsuspecting neighborhood.

Enjoy it, and also check out their latest children's book, Alien Xmas. You can look at that here. And check what else they have been up to here. Those boys have been busy.




This film has been approved by The Unbreakables as being egg worthy.

Ale Stop-Motion: The Pac-Guy

Flying with a low-profile on the stop-motion radar, our pal Ale from Buenos Aires, Argentina has just finished his film "Pac-Guy" that you should check out. The film is about a 42 year old man named Guy, who lives with his mom and is a Pac-Man addict. With that premise alone, you can't go wrong. Pac-Man deserves to be thrust into the spotlight.

You can go here, or click on the link that we put on the side to see a lot of great pictures and hear all the great ups and downs that Ale went through to create his clay animation film. Ale also has some great animation tests that show the development of his short film. And don't forget to leave him comments on his blog, we must feed the artist to make him grow!

I wonder if Pac-Guy is related to the great football writer, The Pac Man? I have a feeling he is not. Go Pack Go!