Frequently-Asked Questions
How do you make your movies?
I’m going to write out some detailed blog posts covering the nuts and bolts of it in the near future, but for now I’ll give you the thirty-second version…
Pre-production for both hand-drawn and computer-generated films are the same: story treatments, scripts, and sketch out the storyboard panels. When I’m happy with the way the story flows, I record the dialog and, using the storyboard images, put together an animatics reel…
Production: for CG movies, it’s time to build sets and models of our characters. Then, I begin staging scenes and blocking out the action, one set at a time. When my basic scenes are shot to my liking, I’ll put together the first edit reel and tweak it til it’s exactly right. Once I’m happy with the edit, I move on to shading, texturing, lighting, and final image rendering…
Hand-drawn films get a different treatment. First, I put together model sheets for my principals and work on the layouts for each scene. After that, I begin creating keyframes with pencil, scene by scene, shooting as I go. If I’m happy with the keyframe sequence, I add the tween shots, do the first edit reel, then finally inking and coloring my frames…
Post-production involves adding the sound effects, doing a second edit reel, recording music, and a final edit. Now it’s time to release my movie!! Woo HOOO!!!
What software do you use to create your movies?
For CG movies, I use POV-Ray. For hand-drawn, the images are painted in Painter, with POV used to sequence the images and organize the layers for final rendering…
What’s your audio setup?
I have an old AKG414 condenser microphone and a Mackie 1402 mixing board to record dialog with. For audio software, I use Audacity, Opcode Vision, Csound, and SuperCollider…
How long have you been making movies?
I was making stop-motion animations with a Super8mm camera way back when I was a teenager. I stopped for a long time, then got back into filmmaking around 2003…
Who are your influences?
I enjoy George Lucas, Steven Speilberg, Peter Jackson, Nick Park, Brad Bird, and Tim Burton, among others…
You do both computer-generated AND hand-drawn animations — which style do you prefer?
That’s like asking which of my children is my favorite — I love ‘em both!! 
So, what’s the deal here? You trying to score a gig with Pixar or something??
Ha! As if! While a job with Pixar would be snacky-good fun, I really don’t think my meager skill sets are the ones they’re looking for. Besides, California is going to fall into the ocean someday and I don’t want to get my computers wet…
