Hey Everyone! Sorry I've been away for so long...but, I've got great news! A lot of it!

Earlier this month I got married! The picture below is me and my beautiful new wife! It was a perfect wedding at such an amazing location.

And here is our wedding cake! Yeah, thats right. Its Wall e! My wife told me to design it myself and thats what I came out with. Heres a little side note, my wife is not an animator, she's just that cool.

Then we went on an amazing and beautiful honeymoon in Mendocino, CA where we went kayaking in the ocean and mountain biking and wine tasting!

Then I got back and headed down to LA for Siggraph (first business-ish trip as a married man) and while I was down there I got to go on a tour of DreamWorks! It was so fun! Pictured below are me and a few other AM alumni. The coolest thing about that picture is that I am from America, to the left is Miurika from Venezuela, then Sean from the UK, then Tommi from Germany, and then Kristina from Australia! We had the whole world right there at that lunch table at DreamWorks! It was so fun and all of those people are super nice and incredibly talented!

Then I got back from LA and headed to SF for my AnimationMentor graduation! AMAZING!!! Best graduation I have ever been to. It was so entertaining and so much fun! Our commencement speaker was Lee Unkrich, the director or Toy Story 3!!!

During graduation we had an award ceremony. I won an award!!! I won Most Entertaining Video Reference! Oh man, thats embarrassing... but so awesome!

And last but certainly not least... I got a JOB!!!! This fall my wife and I will be moving to Auckland, New Zealand! I'll be joining the crew at Oktobor Animation! I'll be working on the Nickelodeon/DreamWorks animated TV series "The Penguins of Madagascar"!!! I can't wait to move to NZ and get started!

Thats it for now, but hopefully Ill be able to post more soon!

-Matt

Amazing Trip to LA

Hey everyone!

Sorry its been so long since the last post. I've been super busy. I finished up AM and took a trip to LA and as always, Ive been animating! While I was down there I got to hang out with some amazing animators and AMers. One of the many people I got to hang out with was Daniel Klug. Awesome guy and super talented animator. If you've never seen his stuff check it out here:

http://www.lesdangereux.com/

So I wanted to share some awesome pictures from my trip and some of the stories of hanging out with some great people. Hopefully they could serve as inspiration to others. I know I'm always inspired by pictures from inside the studios.

This last one is where all of the DW employees get to eat! Crazy!!! And the food is delicious... and free! An awesome friend of mine brought me in for some lunch and showed me around the campus. I got to see the animation floor and I got to meet the rest of the Speaking of Animation guys! Thanks Adam!! I had a blast, and was totally inspired.

I also got to go to Disney Inspire Days. An amazing even put on by Disney where a bunch of students get to get together from different schools and tour the studio and hear from some of the employees.

Here I am with a bunch of other AMers at Disney! Whoo! (From left to right) Justin Rochon, Miurika Valery, Joe Miranda, Wes Storhoff (in the back), Me, Jesse Colucci, Lamont Hunt, and Casey McDermott. Sorry if I misspelled any names :) I had a blast with these guys!

I also got to go in for a personal visit with the help of my good friend Malcon. He brought up me and fellow AMer Leon Gittens. Then the three of us went and hung out with my friend and rock star mentor, Chad Sellers! I hadn't seen him in a while so it was awesome catching up with him. Haning out on the animation floor was cooler than I can explain in words. And I got to see Andreas Deja and Bruce Smith walk by Chads office! Awesome seeing those guys in person, even though I didnt get to speak to them.

I also got to meet one of Disney's fix animators, Michael, and he showed me what kind of things he does. Such an awesome job for those of us who dont have much experience. It looked like a ton of fun and he was a super funny guy.

Lastly to end the trip I got in touch with an animator at R&H and me and him went out to lunch. I didnt get any pictures, although I dont know why. He was by far one of the nicest guys Ive ever met! We had a great lunch talking about life and of course animation! Thanks Phil!

Thats about it. I hope I didnt bore you, but I had a blast! Im sure you could tell just by the amount of times I said "awesome" in this post. haha

Amazing trip, and I thank everyone I got to hang out with for being so generous with their time.

Talk later :)

Matt

Out Of A Forest

Hey everyone!

I just watched the stop motion short "Out Of A Forest" and wow! That was amazing! Well done to all of the artists who worked on it. Ive never done any stop motion (other than little clay creatures back in middle school haha) and I imagine it must be super hard, but these guys did incredible. From the story and characters, to the lighting and music, I was totally sucked in. I actually forgot it was stop motion for a second because I was so into the characters. And what a fabulous ending! It really put a twist on it.

If you have not seen it and need a boost of inspiration, go check it out!
http://vimeo.com/9335203

On a personal note, I have started applying to studios! So wish me luck!

Matt

Class 6

Hey everyone!

Class 6 has started at AM and I am so excited that my new mentor is Mark Oftedal!! This guy is an amazing animator. He is said to be one of the greatest animators who ever worked at Pixar. And hes such a humble guy. I got to meet him for the first time earlier this week. Another awesome thing is that Toy Story is really what inspired me to become an animator and Mark worked on it! Thats so awesome that I now get to learn from him. Hes also the creator of the short "4pm" and it is incredible!

I just wanted to talk for a minute about "4pm". Hands are a very difficult thing in animation, especially 2D work. His short "4pm" stars a main character who is very simplistic in design. Basic shapes for his body, no real facial features, everything is pretty basic... except for his hands! They are super detailed and that is what Mark chose to communicate this characters emotions through. So the whole short the character is thinking and emoting with basically just his hands. Now that is impressive!! Marks timing and posing are so amazing that you always know exactly what the character is thinking, and all your really looking at is a pair of hands. Wow! (And it is all hand drawn!)

Lastly, I started a new shot, and that is what I posted. My goal with this one was to really think outside of the box and take the line and put it in a situation that you would never think it to be in. The shots not very far along, but I think it shows potential. Hopefully I will be able to use Class 6 to finish and polish it up.

Thats all for now!