Alex Orrelle

Gilad Shalit comes home October 18 2011

2011-10-18T10:28:00.002+02:00

Shana Tova 2011

2011-09-28T10:33:00.002+03:00

For this Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShana) I made a Rage Mouse themed greeting. As many of you know, the New Year custom is to dip apple in honey, so that we have a sweet year. I chose to dip an angry mouse in it.

Too Badass...

2011-09-18T02:08:00.004+03:00

My sons Ben, Gidon and Dan made a short film titled Too Bad Ass inspired by Freddiew's channel on youtube.
Check it out! I'm so proud...

Recording Eric Bauza for 'Rage Mouse'

2011-09-16T06:02:00.001+03:00

Rage Mouse in on fire. Today I spent a session recording amazing voice talent Eric Bauza, of Loony Tunes and countless other animated characters fame. Eric was in a studio in Burbank, CA, and I was directing him via video chat from Sydney, Australia. I got some snapshots of Bauzilla in action...
In this preliminary scratch session for my film, Eric voiced three different characters with a ridiculous range of depth and comedic style. Being a creator as well, his understanding of story and character makes him a pleasure to work with and huge contribution to the success of Rage Mouse.
I'm about to start cutting the dialogue into the story reel. After almost a year of boarding this project alone, it's like I've opened the door and let in a stellar team from CG animation, design, cinematography, music and voice... every one a talent, a team player, and all together the rocket fuel to launch this film in to space.
Enjoying every second of it. More in it soon.

Pitch Boards

2011-05-17T12:24:00.000+03:00

I recently drew a set of pitch boards for writer Producer D.J. MacHale's new live-action feature project. The images below are NOT from his project, but I made them in a similar style.

The key is fast visualization of dramatic moments, quickly working out angles and indicating the action. Occasionally, a color treatment is made to communicate mood, or to liven up a static composition. These presentation images are more invested than animation boards, because their purpose is to engage an audience in a business meeting, quite different to an animator briefing or editorial session on an animated film. In pitch boards, every frame must deliver the promise of entertainment, whether in comedy, epic action or drama.

Thumbnail animatic

2011-05-12T22:47:00.000+03:00

2011-05-10T09:09:00.000+03:00

CREW 972 show reel

2010-08-08T05:40:00.002+03:00

CREW 972 show reel Feb 2009 from Alex Orrelle on Vimeo.

KICKED ASS!

2010-04-18T02:06:00.006+03:00

Just saw Kick Ass and loved it. Huge spoiler below - stop reading here if you haven't seen it or read on if you don't care!
The film starts out brutally crashing superhero fantasy against our cold, cynical reality. I laughed and cringed as the nerd-like-me, socially invisible Dave Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) tries to be a hero by getting his ass handed to him by thugs in a humiliating costume, ending up dramatically worse off than where he started. But as the plot unfolds organically (props to writers Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, who also directed,) Kick-Ass raises the stakes. While reality mops the floor with Dave's ass, it slowly veers left into mob vs vigilante world. Dave/Kick-Ass becomes a pawn in the war, and befriends Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), the eleven-year-old vigilante caught up in her father's vendetta (Big-Daddy, well cast and portrayed by Nicolas Cage.)
With great dramatic build-up, the film easily led me by the nose through spectacular set pieces and believable character development towards an awesome heroic finish. By the time I realized I was duped, I was delighted. As a true popcorn muncher average audience, I gobbled up the hero saving the girl, flying through a city with a swelling score and landing on a skyscraper rooftop against a gorgeous sunrise. Being brutal, funny and dramatic without insulting my intelligence is tough. This film reinforces to me that a passionate telling of a good story beats 80% of the attempts to predict its success by categorizing it in genre or audience appeal. I didn't read the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, but my friend and fellow animation director Joe Ksander told me about it after we saw the film. I'm going to see it again. Thanks to Lionsgate and the filmmakers for this bold enjoyable film.

Loved the dragon!

2010-04-03T08:44:00.003+03:00

Congratulations to Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders, and the entire crew on a fantastic job making How to Train Your Dragon. What a beautiful and moving film! Story, design, layout and animation were terrific. It is another refreshing departure by DreamWorks from the Shrek series.
While the voice acting was good, Hiccup's voice (by Jay Baruchel) tended to sound older than he looked and behaved. Occasionally, the dialogue sounded too hip for a viking teen (perhaps in an effort to be relatable) and felt like it lacked the confidence it deserved for holding the audience with pure drama. I also think the film title was misleading, making the film sound primarily like a comedy rather than an adventure. The dragon flight scenes were gorgeous and should have served more in marketing the film.
Two thumbs up!

My boys (now 3 of 3)

2010-01-27T09:23:00.005+02:00

This is some work I've done recently for my #1 clients and fans: my sons Ben, Gidon and Dan.
I see my sons as heroes, and I want to tell everyone how brave they are, and how much we miss each other. They are working hard on their school work and are helping look after the house while I'm away.
I am so looking forward to seeing them next month!
Here are Dan, Gidon and Ben:

Bloomberg News story

2009-07-28T20:28:00.005+03:00

Nice write up on Bloomberg news!
“(‘Waltz With Bashir’) had a strong impact on the image of Israel as an animation-savvy country,” said Orrelle. “When I call up an animation studio outside Israel, they are no longer surprised. We are definitely seeing business opportunities expand.”

Action film anatomy 101

2009-07-25T19:39:00.007+03:00

Michelle and the boys have been in Australia visiting our family there for the last three weeks. I've spent a lot of time at the studio working, and most of the weekends watching films on VOD and DVD.
I haven't had the house to myself for an entire day in years, so I decided to confront story structure. I had read McKee's Story years ago but never actually sat down to do the homework of it, for a thousand good excuses. For years I'd nod knowingly when anyone mentioned three act structure but damned if I knew where they started and ended.
No more. Last week I watched Die Hard while reading the script and jotting down the story beats, and then charting the plot points according to Syd Field. I found an interesting structural analysis of the film by William C. Martell (scroll down). Die Hard was an instant favorite of mine when it came out. I actually had a poster of it in my room (same as pictured here.)
Today I did the same with RoboCop and I'm happy to say I'm starting to understand structure. I also watched Quarantine and Traitor, and enjoyed them thoroughly, except for Jennifer Carpenter's "acting" in the first and some terror apologist undertones in the second. All this film study is part of my new writing project, referenced in an earlier post. It's been exciting learning a new art form that is strongly related to my professional one at the ripe age of 36. It has as much (if not more) to do with what I've loved since I was a little boy; Film.

Rage Mouse concept art

2009-05-30T01:09:00.005+03:00

REMOVED IMAGE
Inspired by illustrator Florian Satzinger's presentation at Nemoland 2009, I sat down for five hours to make a rendition of the subject of a feature project I am developing. I was mostly excited by Florian's system of extracting palettes from inspiring photos.

From right to left: Yours truly, Florian Satzinger, Giuliano Cenci, Paolo Chiari and Luca Chiarotti, manager of the Nemo Academy.

Shoody Fadoody: The Israeli art collective

2009-05-06T00:49:00.008+03:00

My talented friend, illustrator Patri Balanovsky has started a blog for Israeli concept artists:
http://asspat.blogspot.com/
Check out one of my favorites from Pat's work...

Honored again at VNOG

2009-03-31T15:33:00.003+03:00

Victor Navone, my old roommate from Pixar (drew the caricature you see on my profile) has kindly posted our Adrenaline Lemmings test on his famous animation blog. I was in SF last week and we got a chance to spend some quality time. Thanks man!

VNOG Blog: Adrenaline Lemmings

We're on Feed

2009-03-04T00:59:00.002+02:00

Cool

Tel Aviv character animation house Crew 972 is headed by ex-Pixar talent Alex Orrelle who contributed to “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles”. Here’s two recent in-house pet projects well worth a peek.
Watch “Adrenalin Lemmings”
Watch “Pocketbot”

New showreel - Feb 2009!

2009-02-22T18:41:00.002+02:00

Watch it in High Quality... Enjoy!

Alex

Pocketbot animation test

2009-01-24T16:28:00.002+02:00

Here's a short test I directed eighteen months ago for Arad Productions. I recently got authorization to show it. Big thanks go to Shay Goldberg for CG supervision, rendering and compositing, Daniel Shneor for rigging, Oleg Magrisso for modeling and Eran Lazar for animation.
Enjoy! Comments welcome...

Patriot By Roy Iddan

2009-01-22T15:05:00.002+02:00

Patriot - Animated Short by Roy Iddan from Captain_Fantasy on Vimeo.

Fellow Israeli animator Roy Iddan spent a year (after work hours) animating this moving short film about a German veteran of WWI who ends up as a prisoner in a concentration camp in WWII.
Echoing the recent success of Arik Folman's Waltz with Bashir, this is another human message about war, conscience and nationalism done in very tasteful animation.
As usual, for all of Israel's advocacy efforts during times of conflict, there is not stronger ambassador than Israeli art.

Happy Hannuka!

2008-12-16T08:02:00.002+02:00

It's an oldie but it still works... made two years ago at Crew 972.
Modeled by Rafi Ben-Aharon, rigged and shaded by Eran Lazar, animated by Talia Shapir, Keren Horesh and Eran Lazar.

11 sec club thumbs

2008-10-11T22:23:00.004+02:00

I've been hankering for some 2D animation. I'm going to try my rusty hand at it this month at the 11 second club.

2008-07-26T16:26:00.002+03:00

JP and I went to Italy in May to give a four day character design and animation seminar. We were invited by Luca Chiarotti, manager of the Nemo digital art Academy in Florence.
Here we are with Giuliano Cenci (director of the Italian Animated Pinocchio) and the the president of Florence (far left). More on this event on Luca's blog.
JP and I ate and spoke way too much and came home with aching jaws and tummies. Highly recommended!

Kung-Fu Panda rocks

2008-07-25T13:47:00.005+03:00

I watched DreamWorks Animations' Kung-Fu Panda last weekend. What an awesome animated film. I congratulate directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson on their inspired craftsmanship and imagination. I loved the opening sequence (Po's dream) so much I was concerned it would be too hard to top; the traditional animation (Did I hear James Baxter?) was sensitively blended with "invisible" CGI, in a way that shows 3D animation has finally grown up, and no longer exists just to draw attention to itself as a technological edge. The beginning felt a bit like Samurai Jack, but it very quickly took on feature qualities with rich palettes and very complex character animation.
Everyone seems to be very excited over Jack Black's voice acting in Panda, but my favorite voice performance was actually Dustin Hoffman as Shifu. His character is facing massive faith and interpersonal dilemmas, and the last thing it needed was over the top cartoon voice. Excellent choice!

My tablet is dying...

2008-07-09T15:24:00.002+03:00

Just thought I'd share this with you all: My Toshiba Portege tablet is on it's way out. It doesn't play sound any more, and it turns off abruptly (dead black screen) when I pick it up.
I don't know if I can revive it - I'll have it checked when I get back to Israel, but from what I've learned it sometimes costs less to replace a laptop than to fix it.
My tablet has served me for two years. I use it to storyboard, design and comment on animation. I will always remember my Toshiba Portege M 400 (I think) as a trusty friend.

Tel-Aviv Sketch Crawl

2008-04-01T12:12:00.003+03:00

Big thanks to Jean-Philippe Vine for organizing the first ever Israeli Sketch Crawl. Check out the work and photos on Enrico Casarosa's page. In attendance were Jean-Philippe Vine, Doron Meir and myself, from Crew 972, Rafi Ben-Aharon and Cecille from Animation Lab and Mysh from Pil Animaiton.

Party time again!

2008-03-08T21:49:00.003+02:00

Economy in storytelling

2008-02-08T19:34:00.001+02:00

This image from Yael Bar-Tur is a great example of economy in visual storytelling.
There is a clear dialog between two people, where the soldier is talking and the reporter is listening and writing. We only see their hands, but it's very easy to imagine the expressions on their faces. It's satisfying when a tightly framed faceless composition captures the mood of a nation.

Photo by Yael Bar-Tur
Title: Norwegian reporter interviewing soldiers

Hannukah 07

2007-12-07T16:46:00.001+02:00

Oh no he didn't!

2007-11-11T14:11:00.000+02:00

Old friend, workmate and goof-off partner Jeff Lew just completed his 85-minute feature, Killer Bean Forever on his own! I think the whole animation community joins me in saluting your independent spirit, your perseverance and your eccentricity in pulling this off. It better be good, Jeff, but either way I think you have massive beans.

Animation at the Academy Awards

2007-11-10T12:06:00.000+02:00

Victor Navone writes a great comment about Beowulf being nominated for an Oscar against Ratatouille. He focuses us on how recorded performances encroach on animation creativity, but also laments the existence of animation categories at the awards:
"I believe the category of Best Animated Feature should not exist, because it creates an arbitrary distinction between mediums and ultimately ghettoizes animation into a separate category so that it can never compete for Best Picture. If you want to make distinctions, do it by genre, not by medium. Ratatouille is the best reviewed film of the year, but it will never compete directly against the year's live-action films because the Academy has it squarely seated at the kids' table."
Come on, man. Remember who started the Academy Awards? Cigar chomping studio moguls posing for pictures with their tall film stars, putting on dinner suits and celebrating themselves one night a year. Animators have always been a more modest specie of filmmaker. As a kid I used to love acting stuff out, as long as no one could see. We're mostly shy. That's why we love to work from home, and, IMHO, why we like to ghettoize ourselves when in big buildings (wink wink honk honk). I think the award seperation is healthy for our kind as it is for foreign films, with some overlapping reasons; Most people like to watch stars more than watching animated characters. That's how it can be that there are too many animated films in one year for the market to absorb profitably. Academy members would never vote Remi over Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp. Not even Woody over Tom Hanks.
While the crossover of live-action and animation is pushing the envelope of filmmaking techniques and enriching the audience experience, the Oscars are really for the American screen stars and for their patrons.
Happy belated birthday, Victor!

Jonah

2007-11-10T11:54:00.000+02:00

ויצא

2007-11-10T11:24:00.000+02:00

Flipbook Redux is deluxe!!!

2007-09-29T19:10:00.000+02:00

To all free online flipbook maker fans - good news: The excellent flipbook maker that used to be at Fabrica is now online again on the Benetton website. No Benetton apparel purchase necessary, luckily.
Improvements include color and duplication of last drawing - very important for holds. Thanks to Gidon for pointing it out to me while messing about!

Wham Bam Thank you Imam!

2007-09-26T15:57:00.001+02:00

I made a little flipbook. It plays best at the highest speed ("Speedy")

The movie quiz

2007-08-11T20:50:00.001+03:00

80%

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Great behind the scenes featurette on Ratatouille

2007-07-22T21:05:00.000+03:00

Los Angeles

2007-07-20T17:30:00.000+03:00

Dodgers vs Mets

Off to LA

2007-07-04T14:49:00.000+03:00

Hello fans,

I just came back from New York, where I attended my dear friends Gabriel and Samantha's wedding in the beautiful Hamptons, and I'm packing my bags again for a two week trip to Los Angeles. In LA I will be part of the Israeli delegation to the Jewish Federation’s Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnerships’ 9^th Annual Master Class in Cinema and Television (try saying that twice in one conversation!) As part of the Jewish Federation’s Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnerships’ 9^th Annual Master Class in Cinema and Television, Israeli and American professionals will get to meet and hear key Hollywood personalities from the areas of writing, producing, distribution and representation, in a bid to create personal relationships and cross-fertilize the two film industries with fresh talent and ideas from the one side, and professional experience and mentoring from the other. I'm preparing to pitch a number of ideas in development at Crew 972, including the short film Train Hunter (pictured above). Needless to say I am very excited about the opportunity, and I'd like to thank the Jewish Federation for the innitiative and sponsorship.

Bye!

NY day 2

2007-06-07T15:22:00.000+03:00

New York New York

2007-06-06T16:37:00.001+03:00

Flipping again

2007-06-01T19:29:00.000+03:00

Yesterday we had a group of kids visit the studio. As part of the tour, we gave a talk on how animation is made and helped them to make flipbooks. My role was to explain the principles. I found a new website that lets you draw and record animation (the old one I used to play with stopped providing their on-line tool) and I demonstrated on it with my tablet computer, connected to a projector. There is something very soothing about drawing animation, when you're used to animating 3D models for your day job. Most 3D animation projects out there spend most of the money on modeling and shading beautiful models, but don't leave a complex enough articulation or time for the animator to go beyond simple puppeteer-ing. In drawn animation, you easily get to animate the volume of the character at the same time as you're plotting its path of motion. Everything you know just flows out of your hand in thirty second sketches. I can choose to neglect the design and animate without staying on model. It's so satisfying, it's like scratching a spot on your back that you usually can't reach.
I recommend that all 3D animators play around with this concept once a week, so we don't forget those hard-to-reach spots.

2007-05-30T23:22:00.001+03:00

I came under quite a lot of fire for the previous caricature of JP, so I offer this more flattering correction.

Jean-Philip Vine joins the Crew

2007-05-30T13:05:00.000+03:00

Jean-Philip is a story artist from aardman who recently directed four episodes of Shawn the Sheep. He joined Crew 972 as Creative Director two weeks ago and we're now working on developing film and TV projects. I didn't have a photo so I drew him. Good luck, mate!

My student film

2007-05-12T08:18:00.000+03:00

Before working for Pixar, I went to the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, where I made three animated shorts. The last was a CGI group project, completed in 2000. 'Freeware' won the 2001 Sundance film festival in the on-line category, and the SIGGRAPH group project student film competition.
I found 'Freeware' is still available on iFilm.com. As I watched it I became nostalgic and full of admiration for my colleagues who stuck with this beast for almost two years, staying at the computer lab late at night and looking for excellence at every corner. These guys went on to become key players in the animation industry, and I am proud to have worked with them:
Michael Kaczmarek (EA), Gabriel Schlumberger(Pixar, Blue-Sky), Tadao Mihashi (ESC, DreamWorks) Andres Martinez (ESC, Sony ImageWorks), Jed Diffenderfer (DreamWorks), Eric Smitt (Pixar), Dan Cayer (Tippet Studio, Blue-Sky) and David Lipton (ESC, DreamWorks).
Oren Jacob, who instructed the TDs on the project, is now director of studio tools at Pixar, and Jimmy Hayward, the animation instructor, is directing Horton Hears a Who at Blue-Sky. They both mentored me through making Freeware.

Actimel Campaign on air

2007-04-08T17:13:00.000+03:00

Crew 972 was selected from seven studios by Young and Rubicam Israel, to design and animate the 45 second spot. It is now up on You tube.
Huge props go to Joyce Boll, the fiery producer, Eran Lazar and Guy Ben-shitrit, the courageous character animators, Alon Boroda and Larisa Lerner, the divinely gifted designers, and to our model and render shop, Snowball, for pulling this fourteen headed beast together in three months.
The ad plays to a cover of the song "You've got a friend in me", which is a little awkward for me , having worked at Pixar, though not on Toy-Story, where the song comes from. Just putting it out there - the song was picked by the agency...
The chameleon scene (pictured above) appears in the 30 sec version, which will soon be viewable on the studio website. In the film, the chameleon family is surprised by a noise, so they all change color to match their background, except for the one kid who's looking at the bird. Mother chameleon gently cuddles him with her tail, thus reminding him to camouflage himself before he becomes part of "The circle of life". Notice the difference in attitude from my original storyboard (pictured underneath.) We had to tone down the humor to make it palatable for the dairy client. Hey - we all have to eat, right?

Cosmic gas girl

2007-04-05T12:04:00.000+03:00

Artwork for a TV show we're pitching. Fingers crossed!

Party time again!

2007-03-17T10:37:00.000+02:00

All family, friends and animation artists and professionals are welcome to join me on Sunday, March 25th at 20:00 in the Saluna-Bar, 17 Tirtza street, Tel-Aviv.
Animation projects, shorts and exercises will be screened. Anyone wishing to screen their stuff in front on a live audience is welcome to bring it on DVD.
See you there!

"Push the button" music video

2007-03-17T09:53:00.000+02:00

One late night last week we completed the animation for the Tea Packs music video. The result will be screened on TV, but I found a low quality version on YouTube.

Crabby day

2007-03-07T14:30:00.000+02:00

Blue Crab by Jean-Philippe Vine

Pushing the button with Teapacks

2007-03-02T13:23:00.000+02:00

Happy Purim! Crew 972 animators and cg artists are hard at work this weekend, to produce a segment of the music video for Israel's Eurovision song contest entry, Teapacks' "Push the button".

Will post a link to the result next week!

Teapacks lead singer and songwriter Kobi Oz and I are developing "History of the Trains", a five minute theatrical short.

GDC

2007-02-23T12:42:00.000+02:00

I made this for our material for the Game Developers Conference, next month in San Francisco. Crew 972 will be represented at GDC by ISM (Interactive Studio Management) who are our agents for game animation and art projects (http://www.ism-agency.com/).

Short film in development

2007-02-16T14:20:00.000+02:00

Here's a first peek at my short film in development, 'History of the Trains'. Original concept is by co-creator Kobi Oz.

Talent

2007-02-09T11:51:00.000+02:00

I'd like to point out some talented people I have the pleasure of knowing:

Doron Meir is a prolific traditional and CG animator with a great sense of personality in his character artwork. His location design and color are pretty damn strong, too, but true to animator form, he'll never admit it!
http://animgug.blogspot.com/

Yaniv Cahoua is a designer, illustrator and animator from France. I like his expressive color and imaginative use of materials in creating environments, like in his book illustrations. See his portfolio here: www.doublekawa.com
Yaniv just joined Crew 972 and is training as an animator.

Nir Hirschfeld is another designer animator who graduated Nemo art school in Florence, Italy. Great character art and funny 2D animation on a page dedicated to him at the school website:
http://www.scuolanemo.com/beststudent2005.html

My tablet pc

2007-02-03T16:38:00.000+02:00

I bought a Toshiba Protege M400 in NY.

Seven month update

2007-02-03T11:05:00.000+02:00

Dear friends, family, fans and foes,
I'm back in the mood to broadcast (lucky you, right?) The past seven months haven't been very busy: In May I went to E3 in LA (which turned out to be the last ever) where I met our new agents for game animation projects. Then in June I went to Annecy '06 with Lior (our fearless ceo) and hung out with old and new friends. Michelle joined two days later which made it much more romantic.
In July Israel went to war against Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and in August we went to the Greek island of Kos for a family holiday for one week.
In September I went back to the US with Joyce Boll, our head of production, for meetings at some major studios, broadcast design shops and game developers in LA and NY. We must've done 40 meetings in twelve days! Among others, we met with Michael Daubert from The Animation Farm, Chris Rausch and Chris Glenn from Super villain games and Marc Levin, the bike racing genius lawyer.
I broke the trip up by flying to SF over the weekend, and played with my friends at Pixar. Andrew Gordon and his lovely wife invited me to stay the night in his beautiful new home. We had dinner with ex office mates David Smith and Victor Navone.
I lost my digital camera on the way to NY, so no pics. Blast.
In NY I had a great time with my old college days friends Doug Rowell and Gabriel Schlumberger. Doug is a major creative figure at agency.com (he and his wife Paloma hosted me at their lovely apartment), and Gabe is the camera designer on Blue Sky's upcoming feature Horton Hears a Who.
In November Michelle and I went to Paris to celebrate Michelle's birthday. We had a magical three days and nights walking up and down gorgeous streets, enjoying great museums and restaurants. In December, Lior and I went to London for two days to meet Sascha Hartman and John Frasier of Billi Productions, where we signed a new deal to animate 23 minutes for their film. Later that month the family and I went to visit our family in Sydney Australia for three weeks. We came back in mid January and have been very busy catching the kids up on school, and growing the studio to take on a few new projects. At this moment Crew 972 is animating on a feature film from Scotland, a TV show from Germany and an Israeli TV commercial. I'm also storyboarding a short film with Kobi Oz, which we will pitch to investors in coming week. I'm back in London in March for some meetings. Yawn!

E3 bound!

2006-05-05T15:31:00.000+03:00

That's right. This work sucks but I just have to keep my nose down and keep at it...
I'm heading out to LA for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Don't be a stranger!

Some pics from Passover seder:

My family

And... A stranger from the outside. (pull my string! Did I already have four?)

Party pics from the Saluna Bar on March 25th

2006-03-29T10:43:00.000+02:00

Michelle and Jonathan Chissick

Eitan, Daniel, Lior and Daniel from the Crew

with Kobi Oz and his wife Shira (I'm actually two heads taller...)

Top view of crew and visitors watching the screening

With Selina and Yonatan, my brother and sister!

Catch up!

2006-03-26T15:43:00.000+02:00

Oops! Haven't posted in over three months - no excuses. I'm fired.

I made this character art for a potential Purim promotion animated billboard:

I just turned 33! Had a really fun evening at Saluna Bar in Tel Aviv (photos to follow soon) with a bunch of animators from Crew 972 and other studios. I simply called the evening "Beer and Animation". We screened a number of shorts from our own animators and others. Good times!
Here's the invite:

Michelle and the boys went to pick cabbage. Check out Dan's serious work face!

Visit to Oz

2006-01-17T16:54:00.000+02:00

We all just got back from a three week family visit in beautiful Sydney, Australia. Above is my son, Gidon, making a new friend.

On our way out of Sydney, the boarding was delayed by thirty minutes. Twenty minutes into the delay, I was lucky enough to see a couple running to the gate desk, obviously thinking they're late for boarding. I watched carefully to see their poses change before and after hearing the good news. I tried to capture the difference.

Dick Roche, Salesman

2005-12-02T14:15:00.000+02:00

New Album section on Crew 972 website

2005-11-20T15:18:00.000+02:00

See the Crew at work here.

Also, our new reel will be up by the weekend.

Flipped!

2005-11-14T15:19:00.000+02:00

I'm addicted. I found Flipbook! on Spline Doctors blog and I made these. Such a waste of time but I can't help it...

Armydillo

2005-11-14T14:26:00.000+02:00

So here's something that I've been kicking around in my free time. Armydillo is an idea for a show about a mutated armadillo who thinks he's an army special forces captain fighting off an alien invasion all on his own.

Friday at the playground

2005-11-13T12:00:00.000+02:00

I took Dan to the playground on Friday morning. He's always asleep when I get home from work during the week, so I miss him. I made sure to bring my sketchbook and I captured a nice moment of Dan sliding belly down on a spiraling slide. It's the only one that doesn't feel forced and contrived, which is how I can't help feeling about drawing for the last ten years. When I was a kid I had so much to spill on the page. But while working at Pixar I was so humbled by the great artists there that I had to rehabilitate my stiff wrist!

Shabat Shalom from Wingate street

2005-11-12T09:39:00.000+02:00

Here's a photo of yours truly with his family:
The gorgeous redheaded Aussi is my wife Michelle. The strikingly handsome young lad is Ben (almost 8 yrs), the charming puppy-eyed boy is Gidon (5.5 yrs) and the edible toddler is Dan (2 yrs).

Bye,
Alex