Happy Holidays

I have been working in London for 2 months now. Also got a nice visit to Paris. DNEG has been great. Working on Iron Man 2 until Feb then Paul. After that John Carter of Mars with Andrew Stanton. I moved to Angel and am settling in. Start teaching class 2 at AM in a few weeks after the break. During which I am heading to Milan and Geneva and my friend John Wheeler from Disney is coming over to visit for New Years.

DNEG xmas party

Halifax and London

On my route to London I stopped for a week in Halifax NS to visit my best buddy Kev. Then it was off to the UK. For my new job at Double Negative. Upon arriving to London I found my temporary pad, thanks to David Sloss, (and his lovely parents) a former AMer who now works at Blue Sky. There I celebrated Halloween and met this random guy with the best costume ever.

Quaid!

Casa de Sloss

Mmmm...still alive.

Halifax

Unemployed

Nothing like being unemployed when you have a job in London lined up in a few weeks. My time off has been spent with family and friends. I spent fantastic weekends in Puerto Rico, and Chicago. Friends from Blue Sky, Pixar, Dreamworks, ILM and others all gathered for Dave and Jess's awesome wedding. And I managed to get a few more days of surfing in sunny SoCal. Which I will miss in the UK.

Blurring the Chicago skyline at night with Blue Skiers

Me, Wes (ILM) Mark (Pixar) and Greg (BlueSky) take a ride

My amigos!

Lots of (awesome) animators.


Puerto Rico underwater


Best beach ever.

PR

Finished!

Uncharted 2 is done! Well, almost, a couple days until gold master... and I will soon be on vacation before heading to London, and DNEG to work on Paul. Now my only job is the prestigious one of Animation Mentor! And enjoying life.

My 30th B-day! With Elsa and Umberto my crazy college roomate.

Getting close to vacation...

Only 4 weeks left at Naughty Dog. We are in major crunch. So much to do. But the game is looking amazing and I am confident it will be game of the year. Its really friggn fun and has multi-player, so it has everything going for it. 10/10! Tomorrow is my 30th b-day and I will be spending it working, but in a few weeks, I will have a 6 weeks off to relax before my next adventure, which is taking me back to Europe!

Where I spend most my time now.

Chloe and Drake

Summer in Cali

I moved to Manhattan Beach for the summer while I will be working with the Dogs on the game of the year, Uncharted 2...learning how to surf, playing some beach volleyball, and enjoying the sun. Not too far from my doorsteps...and quick trips to vegas and san fran a short hop in a plane!

one block to beach!

our volleyball team!

uncharted 2 trailer at e3 09


smashball

my roomates Brendon and Andrew get in 4th of july spirit

another beachside breakfast

Another day at manhattan beach, on 6th man.

Back to the USofA

So after my 9 months abroad I had to return. In April I flew back into NYC to visit all my old Blue Sky peeps, and check out the new Studio. I also went out on the town with one of my AM students, another Jason. Good times. Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs looked great, and it was amazing seeing everyone after all that time. Seemed like the entire look of the team had changed!

After that I headed home to WI for some good ol' R&R with the parents, and packed up for my x-country road adventure to Cali, where I will be spending the summer working on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, at Naughty Dog. The road trip was great, and I got to stop at some national parks, Zion, Arches and Grand Canyon.

Mi ultimio dia en Espania!

Y Ilion Animation Studios tambien. Adios todos! I'll miss you guys.

The Planet 51 crew.

London visit

Just got back from three (sunny!) days of exploring the city and visiting studios. We got to meet Eamonn Butler at Double Negative who was a great host and got a quick visit into Framestore as well. Lots of big stuff coming up in London. Special thanks to Kai for putting Hugo and I up and hanging with us and showing us the best Sushi in Soho. Camdon market food rocks. Who said the brits dont eat well?

The final weeks...

My five months in Spain are almost over! I'm down to 2.5 more weeks here at Ilion Animation Studios, and the movie is just about finished in animation. The film is looking great despite the crazy schedule, thanks to some of the talented people working here. Next week I am heading to London to visit a few Studios there, then I return to the States. I will miss Madrid and all my awesome international friends, but hopefully someday I shall return. Here are some of the folks who are working, or pretending to, in the animation dept. As you can see, its quite a cultural mix here at Ilion....

The Stein from Norway

Abraham-ham-ham from Spain

Harmut the wise and witty German

Ramero from Argentina

Andrew the Scott or Brit or Welsh or - whatever

Marco the deadly Italien

Yannick from France

Hugo another crazy German

Wampaa from Hoth

Terry the Irish rover

Pepe and Andrew, helping Harmut, or causing problems?

Dani the laughing Spaniard