OSCAR time

For those who have not already seen or heard the news, the Oscars were announced yesterday and the following movies were nominated.

Nominees for Best Animated Feature of the Year:
CARS (Buena Vista/Disney/Pixar) John Lasseter
HAPPY FEET (Warner Bros.) George Miller
MONSTER HOUSE (Sony Pictures Releasing) Gil Kenan

Nominees for Best Animated Short Film are:
THE DANISH POET (NFB) Torill Kove
LIFTED (Buena Vista/Pixar) Gary Rydstrom
THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL (Buena Vista/Disney) Roger Allers
MAESTRO (Szimplafilm/Kedd Prod.) Géza M Toth
NO TIME FOR NUTS (20th Century Fox/Blue Sky) Chris Renaud and Mike Thurmeier

Nominees for Achievement in Visual Effects:
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST (Buena Vista) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson & Allen Hall
POSEIDON (Warner Bros.) Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, Chaz Jarrett & John Frazier
SUPERMAN RETURNS (Warner Bros.) Mark Stetson, Neil Corbould, Richard R. Hoover & Jon Thum

Randy Newman's song from CARS, "Our Town," was also nominated for Best Song.

For an in-depth look at each nominee in the animated categories, go here for the AWN showcase.

(Thanks to AWN for the lists)

Work as usual

Nothing much has happened these past two weeks back at work. We finished off some Vodacom Squeezebacks for the Super 14 which I can show on the 2nd February once they have aired.

Preparing for some Fido Dido spots from Egypt, which Hilton is currently shooting - other than that, just our extremely secret project as usual. Once the project is revealed I can show all here. So stay tuned later in the year.

Another Dinosaur vid

Frikkin' awesome

Walking with Dinosaurs

This is truly flipping amazing.

Watch this clip from the production process of Walking with Dinosaurs The live Experience. A stage show starting in Australia this year and going global mid-year. Life-size replications of dinosaurs move and "live" on stage.

Pixar's WALL-E

An image from the Disney Shareholders letter of Pixar's next project, due out 2008.
Looks a bit like Johnny Five.

Thanks to Animated News Forum

Madikwe Holiday December 2006

Finally had some time to upload the photos from our Holiday to Madikwe.
The full set can be seen here

But for the blog I will post some of the better ones.


The first day we went fishing at the weir near Declan's house.


Craig was able to catch two barbel and here I am releasing the second one.


A lion on a termite mound under a tree. Between Tswasa and Safari lodge.


This zebra has had a lucky escape as can be seen by the scar and missing tail. Ouch.


Me, Declan and Andre at the base of Tshwene Tshwene, sundowners to follow.


As always the female dungbeetle catching a ride while the male does all the work, typical.












Declan looking for his wildlife - radio collars keep him and his animals in touch.


This is a panoramic I made using Autostitch, you can view the fullsize 10 800 X 1456 ( 2MB )image by downloading it here.

Fishing in Belfast

Who is this on the jetty at Green Pastures trout farm?







Why, it's none other than my 80 year old Gran fly-fishing. She is a remarkable lady, after recovering from bipass surgery she is still going strong and in November celebrated her 80th.

She has been fishing at the same farm for around 30 years now and I have been going since I was in nappies.
After my Grandfather passed away she nearly stopped but we all convinced her that she still enjoys it and it would be foolish to quit something she loves. Being a country lass born in Ireland in 1926 and growing up on a farm she always enjoys the weekends in the country.

I try and go with her whenever possible, lend a helping hand and help her with her fiddly knots and flies. Last September she even caught three good sized trout - unfortunately this weekend I was only able to come away with one small nipper. My Gran came up empty. Until next time!

A Closer Look at the iPhone

After catching the release recently on the Apple site, I was pointed to this YouTube clip. Looks interesting - I will probably buy the Sony equivalent when it comes out.

Miniscule - The Ladybug

Make sure to check out the others in the series.
Simply brilliant from original concept to finished product, MINUSCULE is a new CG series created by Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo at Futurikon in France.

Quote from the site - "Imagine a blend between a National Geographic documentary and a Tex Avery cartoon. A combination of 3D characters and live footage, with no commentary or dialog. Based on this offbeat starting point, the series will be zooming in to the grassroots level of the counrtyside to give viewers a bird's eye view of insects' day-to-day existence, distorted through a burlesque, yet poetic lens."

Liverpool woes!

What is happening? First this, Now this.

Oh dear...

oh dear

Happy New Year

To all my friends and family across the seas and in South Africa, I hope you had a very merry Holiday and will have an even better Happy and Prosperous New Year.

I am back at work, my second working day of 2007 - we are well underway on two short jobs for the Super 14 starting in three weeks time. Work is the same, people are the same, weather is the same and traffic is still the same as last year.

I will be posting all my fantastic photographs from my two visits to my brother in December as soon as I can get them organised.
At the same time I will fill you in on what happened from the 16th December to the 28th December.

For New Years I went to Andre's for a little braai, spit roast, jacuzzi and loads of alcohol. - DAMN - I'm still feeling the effects of that one. A little OTT for me that night. We started at noon and ended at 4am - even though I struggled to make it to midnight I got my second wind and carried on till well past. Nice One!

Then on the 4th January I went fishing with my Gran which I will explain in greater detail later.