Motion Crapper

It is my personal opinion that Motion Builder 7.5 (and all other versions) sucks! It is hands down, the worst tool ever implemented in the animation industry. I am personally looking forward to moving 7,000 miles away from any copy of this lame and clunky tool.

As well, I think the industry should adopt a new protocol for labeling artists. Animators should retain the name animator only if they "animate". Motion Capture "artists" should be referred to Motion Capture technicians as there is very little artwork involved.

Rabies Free and Off for Approval!

We got the RNATT test results back earlier this week. Very good news indeed, the cats came back with 2.31ppm for Rabies Antibodies out of a standard of .051ppm. That means that there is plenty of Rabies Antibody running in their little veins to ward off any potential for the disease.
That means, that after I get the test results verified by the USDA Area Vet in Charge, then I can apply to AQIS for an import permit and then make our Quarantine reservations.

Total cost so far... $675.00

Includes:

1. Avid Microchip (1 per pet)
2. Blood tests (1 per pet)
3. RNATT test verification (1 per pet)
4. Rabies Vaccination (1 per pet)
5. Kitty treats for brave kitties (4 per pet)

It is a process but worth while...

Found a canidate...

So, after the last post I should mention that I might have found a good candidate for a new board; Webber Surfboard's, Modern Twin Fin. It sports a reduced rocker, double concave to forward vee and two massive, super raked flexible fins.
This takes the twin fin to a new level, from what was always considered a small wave board to a board that can handle all sizes... How will it handle the tube?

I will look into this some more...


http://www.webbersurfboards.com/

Dredging pits and the fins that love them...

The last couple of days drooling over shots of The Gold Coast doing it's thing has really gotten me thinking of fin setups.
I am already taking two boards with me. A 6'2" Con, keel fin fish for the open points and a 6'10" mini gun for the larger days. I plan on rounding out my quiver with a third board which instantly raised the question, "how many fins"?
Background; I was raised on the thruster. I am from the generation that learned on a single fin but came of age in the developing years of Simon Anderson's invention and how Tom Curren defined for it to be used. There was a period in the late eighties that Quads started to make an appearance, but they were really just modified twin fins of the era that did not work well to begin with. Two fins were ok, four just compounded the problems that the twin already suffered.
Yet, it was not until I picked up a twin fin that I understood what the strengths and limitations of a thruster really were. I love the responsiveness and the forgiveness of the thruster. You can really push off your turns and hold tight in the pocket and you have a platform that you can work with that is reasonably stable . Yet thrusters are slow overall, you can pump speed into them but without serious effort from the rider, the two outside fins, channeling water into the double foiled fin in the back, creates some serious drag and they suck for maintaining speed. Tri-fins however, have some serious drive through turns if properly executed and I find them, compared to twins, very forgiving and stable.
Twin fins are fast as all hell. You can make a drop, push off the bottom, and slingshot your way down the line like a race horse. The bad thing is that they are dangerous in the pocket, especially the more retro styles with softer rails. . This point is crucial as it seems that one trait Queensland surf has is hollowness.
Twin fins slide, this can be a great thing as it is fun as heck extending the turn and feeling the tail start to give, if you can control it. Floater's, you can forget it on a twinnie. It just does not handle it. Perhaps on a performance twin, but on my retro rocket it's a no go.
Now, with modern rockers, templates, rails and foils, the true potential of the four fin has finally been unleashed.Modern quads from what I have been reading, have the best of both worlds. Speed, drive, control, responsiveness, all of it. I am going to have to demo a board or two and do some serious research on this issue. A serious tube time test which I have a feeling I will get plenty of in due course.

Crikey!!! Look at them lines!!!

I found Australia's version of Surfline called Coastal Watch. I have been scanning it every day for the last month or so in my spare time. They have tons of spots, great high res cams and local information. It has been a great resource and a focal point in getting a head start on orienting myself on the coastal layout.

It is winter there and from what I can tell, it is the off season for surf as it has only been 2-3 foot for weeks with only a couple of bumps. Until yesterday. A low pressure system has been parked over Fraser Island for the last few days and is literally chucking surf at the Queensland and New South Wales coasts. The weather has been woolly but the mornings look very good until the wind turns. Check out the picture on the right taken yesterday at Coolangatta.

I looked at all the points on The Goldie and they were going off. Crowds looked heavy at Snapper but Burleigh, Currumbin and even Kirra looked epic and manageable. The insane thing is that the beach breaks were GOING OFF and no one on them at all. From what I have heard, no one surfs them. It is hard to believe as they looked just as good as the pictures I have seen of Anglet or Landes in France or any other world class open beach break.

I am officially psyched (frothing at the mouth really) to go to Australia. It is hard that I will be 30-40 minutes from the surf but I have read that in summer, which happens to be cyclone season, the sun rises very early so if I can get out of bed at 5 or 5:30 in the morning, I can still sneak in some surf on the weekdays and be back in time to walk to work. Weekends will be spent driving the coast looking for more uninhabited points and towns and paradise on earth.

Crikey!

Done Deal

The deal is sealed... I just signed last night and what a feeling. All along I knew that I was a great candidate for the position and that they liked me. I have interviewed enough to know that it is not a done deal until the paper is signed so I never let myself get fully excited about it, until now. Once the papers are signed, it is good to go and I can finally say that we are on our way. Australia, whew!

Now life is going to get crazy. We have to organize garage sales, sell the cars, get estimates from movers, pack, get the cats taken care of, file papers for immigration, the list goes on and on...

Great New Surfing Game

I just checked out a great new web-based surfing game and it is awesome. You can pick from all the spots in the world you could want to surf, North Point, Kirra, Pipe, all of em. The wave simulation is done by someone that actually bothered to study the waves, they have all the section irregularities and the waves seem to mimic the real thing. Too bad it is not more customizable but it is a lot of fun.

www.youriding.com

Will Vinton and I cross paths

We had Will Vinton here at the studio today. I got in on the meet and greet and got a little Q and A time to boot. All in all, he seems like a very pleasant gentleman.

If you are not familiar with Mr. Vinton, he is the animator behind The California Raisins and the M-n'-M commercial spots, not to mention years and years of claymation and stop motion animation... So, I have met two, Ray Harryhausen and now Will Vinton...

I am the mummy looking creature on the far left, I guess it was too much to smile...

Cha-Ching!!!!!

Cash Money - Yo....

B Flat

We have had one decent south swell and that was back in April. Since then, the South Pacific has been virtually asleep, high preassure sitting just east of the Tasman See is keeping any storm tracks from forming in the South Pacific.

I am a moron when it comes to surf forecasting but as in all things Nick, I try to sound like I know something about it... Hopefully, in a few months it will resemble less as a lake and more like the photo on right of the Gold Coast I dug up...

Report 08-08-07

Thursday the 9th looks like the last day for this SW swell with waist to possibly, at times, chest high waves for south facing breaks. Winds should be calm in the morning and only reach 11-13 mph in the afternoon. Tide looks moderate for the AM, but extremely high for evening sessions. More on the winds here, tides here, and wave heights here.

Friday the 10th is looking smaller. SW fades to knee to waist.

Saturday the 11th looks about the same.

Sunday the 12th, hit the small-surf replay button: waist high at best.

Monday the 13th looks even smaller: knee high.

Tuesday the 14th looks about the same: weak and small.

Looking farther out on the horizon, there just really isn't much happening on the models right now. Long-range southern hemi models are showing some possible activity around New Zealand in a few days, but the jetstream is rather strong right now and anything forming in that region will likely be held tightly to the south, which isn't good news for surf along our shores. We'll keep an eye on it though and let you know if anything comes of it.

Our next report is scheduled for Thursday. Until then, keep it safe, smile in the line-up, and have fun (no matter how small it gets).

Sirius Dead

This week the good folks over at Sirius debuted the new Grateful Dead Channel on Sirius 17.
The format is great, interviews and music all day long with two uninterrupted, full shows at 9:00 and 3:00, each day. The Dead were one of the only (successful) bands that not only allowed recording of live shows by the fans but actually set aside space for them at the venues to set up. This means that for us relative late-comers, there is hundreds if not thousands of hours of great shows out there on tape and Sirius has many of them from the vault, bootleggers, and Dick's Picks.
Keep your ears perked up for the Harpur College, Binghamton, NY, 5/2/70 show... Good times.

I am starting to think that I was born to the wrong generation. I have a wide variety of music on my IPOD but i always come back to the old standards. Hendrix, Joplin, Cream, The Allman Brothers and so forth.
I was a let comer to the Dead. I had friends that listened to them back in the day but i thought they always sounded like a band that needed a tune up and just out of sync. As I came back to them again and again, I found that this is the trait that I like the most about The Dead. They played the same songs for years and years but every time was a little bit looser and never the same as the last.
Luckily, I was able to get to two shows before Jerry passed on and the band split up. They are still touring as The Dead and I should get out to see a show before I roll out.

IIf I had a time machine, I would love to have seen them from about 70-78...

I think we need a band like The Grateful Dead now, more than ever...








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That is one Scary Hot Dog...

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