Buck Lewis in Buenos Aries

Buck Lewis and I

Buck Lewis and Argentinian friends

A get together in Palermo Hollywood

Barbecue

Ignacio Albert Me and Jon

Jonny -- everyones favorite son. 

Last week we all had a small evening dinner which turned out to have 20 people show up..  Buck Lewis was down in Argentina to visit on behalf of CTN to interview a famous Argentinian cartoonist.. ( I forgot his name )  SO he and his possie came to have dinner with us and just talk art politics and culture.. I felt like I was in Paris having art discussions much like Picasso would have have with Braque, Modigliani, Cezanne and whoever..   Did you see Midnight in Paris??   It was alot of fun.. Buck Lewis is character designer and visual development artist for all the major studios including Dreamworks and Pixar.

  

Animation rant

Ok, this is for the animation crowd, inside discussion on work flow and software..
I have been used to Dreamworks' proprietary software for animation called EMO.. Granted there are some issues with Emo but in all I came to really like th graph editor..  NOW I am back with Maya 2011
and its driving me crazy..  WHat would take me only moments takes me a life time with Maya's graph editor.. I have to constantly adjust the curves with the bezier like handles.. The curves NEVER behave correctly right off the bat like they do with EMO and what takes me one click in EMO takes me 9 clicks in Maya!!  Dios Mio!!.
so in all my progress is slowed down by almost half..  Or at least it seems like it..  I want to get faster but it is impossible with this archaic graph editor..  Just picking and isolating the curves to edit is a pain in the arse.. 
Next is not having phoneme mouth shapes.. I have to recreate the mouth shapes each time by drawing it out..  I mentioned this in a meeting and it seems like they like the idea and will create a library.. If they do this the workflow for blocking in phoneme shapes for the mouth will accelerate at least three times..There are so many ways to speedup the work flow with the correct software fixes and plugins it would be worth it to make those changes..

Bezier handles up the wazoo.. you have to edit each one!!  Well sort of -- for the most part.

On Monday Miguel and hung out the whole day exploring Recoletta and neighboring barrios..  We visited the Evita Peron government house, which was brick red, making it stand out  amongst the rest of the buildings.. That was in the Plaza de Mayo..-

 

  All around were vendors in the streets in the nearby theater section where I bought a silver ring and some leather wrist bands.. This is the place to go see a Tango show.. As a matter of fact we actually saw some tango dancers demonstrating in the street.. Watch below.. 

Close by were some very old buildings  ( churches) that date back to the 1570´s  ( wow  thats about 430 years ago) Amazing..  As you can see by the architecture the city has a European flair .. Many  beautiful buildings and history here..

Unfortunately you see this kind of thing throughout the city..  Trash everywhere.. It seems so easy to keep this place cleaner by finding a more efficient way to pick up the garbage.. 

 

Here are some of the architecture around BA.  Some of the buildings like the ones shown are beautiful.. A throw back to what you might see in Europe.. 

   

We visited the Hardrock Cafe and I had a hamburger.  but for some reason the hamburgers dont taste as good as at home.. I have had three burgers so far here and  none of them seem to taste all that great.. I dont think they know how to make a good burger.. !!




















We took the subway back to Palermo and went to the Cinema  ( Multiplex)  very nice cinemas and equipped for 3D!! .. The seats were very comfortable.. Felt like bucket seats you would find in a Mustang..  We saw the Hugh Jackman movie with the fighting robots..  pretty good movie I must say.. Iron Giant meets Rocky with rockem sockem robots..










Then I see all these posters for Animated movies in 3D.. Where did they come from... Top Cat!!???  Apparently Top Cat is very popular in the Spanish cultures..  Did you see thisn the US? 
 

We also came across these trees with the unusual root system..  Reminded me of Giger art from Alien..

I moved into my new apartment today!  Its a nice apartment..  It will do.  Close to the buses and close to Palermo Soho..  I lost my friend Miguel to the neighboring town Belgrano..  I'll have to make it on my own now..  Wish me luck..  Miguel was my faithful translator..  Now I can set up my Cintiq and start to do art work again..  

This is the gym on the 31st floor..  And that is the view from the windows..  AMazing view..  and great Gym.. 
They still have to fix the window and sliding tracks for the closet doors.. I have been waiting a week so far and nothing has been done.. lol..  But thats the way it goes around here..  Have to be persistent to get things done.. 

I looked at some more aprtments today and I found two in the same building that I like alot.  One is a studio aprtment with a fold down bed and another is a one bedroom with a fold out bed in the living space for guests..  We talked them down to 1050 a month for the one bedroom but I still have to pay one month commission to the realtor who showed me the apartment.  Its the total opposite in the US where the owner is the one who pays for the realtor to get him a tenant.. Its friggin backwards here..  Why should I pay them??  lol  Amazing..  The owner doesnt have to pay for the service of screening a tenant filling out the forms? Thats what I had to do when I rented out my places..  Shhesh..  Hopefully I will have a more permanent place that has more amenities then whee I am now.. I want to set up my cintiq and be able to get a good base of food for cooking and feel like a home.. right now I feel like I am in a motel!! 

I was schooled to day in spanish lip sync.. ONe of the animators (Ignacio)was gracious enough to actually video himself saying the dialog so I could see what the mouth shapes might look like..  I was a bit taken a back when they said my lipsync didnt feel like Spanish.. lol  but I am sure the same thing happens when someone from another country who doesnt speak English starts a dialog scene At Dreamworks.. Except for Philippe Lebrun, a french animator at DW who still has a very thick french accent but manages to hit it right..  Philippe has been at DW for over tn years.  "Fede"  and Marion translated the dialog for me.  I ask them to first translate it literally , then what it means in English. then I have to be able to parse out the words when I listen to the dialog on my head phones. Let me tell you its no easy task!!.. I am getting better at it and should beup to speed in no time..

I am still abit apprensive of going out on my own and just hanging out.. Even ordering a pizza at themany cafes and restaurants seems daunting..   I hope to hang out with Johnny  the only other American guy at the studio and get used to being the foreigner..

Hasta Luega

This is my work station.  Thats Marlo next to me.. Thank God because he is our TD and he hables inglese..

I am the only one who has two monitors..  Thats because I bought mine!!..  Cost me 200 bucks.. But I figure its worth it.. After seeing what I did and explaining how this can save time, the studio chiefs are considering getting some for the rest of the crew.. That would be nice..

I am getting used to Maya again..  Its been a long time using the animation software..  Is coming back.. But after using Dreamworks' software esp the graph editor this seems a bit cumbersome..  I got really good at using that software..  finished my first scene.. A priest in a confessional..  I have never been in a confessional so I faked it..  The priest was supposed to act surprised to see Amadeo and I didnthave that in my first pass.  Apparently my lipsync is off..  I am not getting the Spanish just right!!. I have to tweak the lipsync this Monday to make it more Spanish.. I got the feeling they were like almost offended that I didnt get it right.. lol.  Next scene I am doing involves two of the foosball players arguing..  I have to get the body language just right..  This is getting to be alot of fun..

I am still at the temporary apartment havent decided where to be ..  So I have held off unpacking my Cintiq until I get a more permanent place..  I have been conducting my on line classes with only one monitor and its been a bit of a pain not to have two monitors..  My apartment is leaking water somewhere but I dont know where its coming from..   So I cant wait to get out and find a better place.. with a gym hopefully..  These are some of the aprtments I ahve been looking at.  One of the was ina community that is a converted Silo of grain.. They took the whole factory and grounds and turned it into an apartment complex.. Unfortunately the aprtment was too expensive for the what it actually had to offer.

This is an idea of what the buses are like in the morning. Tons of buses hurtling their way through

 space rushing to get totheir destination and then do it all over again.. and again.. and again.

Some interesting sites along the way..  This is a horse and rider coming out of the windshield..

More graffiti by the train tracks.. Looks like LA doesnt it?

 This is the store called Jumbo.. I went there with Miguel to check it out..  Its wall mart and costco combined..  Lots of stuf from groceries to electronics..  ANd its close by!! 

Eggs are not stored in the refrigerated section..  Just stacked on the shelves..  Is this ok?? 

Miguel and I finished the day with pool in Palermo.  Saturday night.. We stumbled on a central  square that was buzzing with people after eating at an Indian all vegetarian restaurant.