On August 1st of the year 2011…two departments, Lighting and Animation, went head to head in an EPIC battle of fluidic warfare. Neither had seen the sun very much over the past few months, but also hadn’t really minded either since it was 111 degrees that day.
Balloons were tossed, trash cans of ice water were thrown, and all artists had an awesome time while cooling off the only way you can in Texas during the middle of summer during a drought.
By wasting large amounts of water.
The premiere weekend of the new Looney Tunes short, “Coyote Falls” in theaters has come and gone. And it’s left in it’s wake some really stellar reviews from critics and audiences a like! Now I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. I am SO PROUD to have been apart of this creative team. The whole experience has just been a dream come true for everyone involved, so I wanted to give you all a consolidated list of all the reviews I’ve collected so far. The fruits of all the hard work everyone put in to make these as great as they are.
Now all that’s left to do is wait for the world to see the next two shorts. Which I’m so excited for, because each one is seriously better than the last!
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The Washington Post
The best part of “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” happens before this derivative family film even begins. It’s the Looney Tunes animated short, “Coyote Falls,” that precedes the movie.
The 6-year-old next to me, like nearly every child in the theater, shrieked in delight and gasped in wonder as Wile E. Coyote was smashed, flattened, run over and blown up in an enormous fireball. (All in 3-D!) For kids raised on the nonviolent, chipper children’s entertainment of Nickelodeon and PBS Kids, the first Road Runner cartoon they’ve ever seen delivers genuine entertainment catharsis.
Tampa Bay Times
The sole reason to buy tickets — 3-D or otherwise — to Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore has absolutely nothing to do with the movie, which belongs in a pooper-scooper.
It’s a preceding, too-short subject that almost makes the investment worthwhile, starring Looney Tunes legends Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in richer colors and more eye-popping depth than ever. Coyote Falls needs only those cartoon icons, a bungee cord, a bridge and heavy traffic on a desert highway to muster more enjoyment than the main event never matches.
Coyote Falls seems like a trial run for a possible Looney Tunes revival, retrofitted for the 3-D generation. That makes more sense in theory and now execution than most childhood retreads do in any format. The late animation genius Chuck Jones would be proud.
Box Office Magazine
In fact, Kitty Galore’s best laughs occur during the Looney Tunes pre-show cartoon Coyote Falls. Its 3D is fast and furious and the slapstick is clever. The cartoon short has everything Kitty Galore desperately needs. Too bad the Looney Tunes writers didn’t help out with the feature presentation.
Boston.com
Very much the best part of “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore’’ is the new “Road Runner’’ cartoon that precedes it. It’s in 3-D, of course, and Wile E. Coyote and his eternal avian nemesis have been rendered in fleshed-out, “realistic’’ shadings. I prefer the flat pop colors of yesteryear, but in all other respects, the short’s a scream: fast, funny, impeccably timed, and as brutally obedient to the laws of Looney Tunes physics as ever.
The National Post
In fact, the only thing that got the kids riled up was a new Road Runner short that preceded the feature. Although it lasted only five minutes, the dialogue-free, gleefully wacky toon scored more laughs than any wise-cracking pooch, no matter how famous the voice actor. Out of the mouths of babes indeed.
Wanna see what my wife Jess and I have been working on for the past 4 months? And also the reason I haven’t posted diddly on this blog either? Well then check out this shot of Wile E. that Jess lit / comp’d that was featured in the New York freakin’ Times!
LINK: New York Times – What’s Up, Doc? New Looneys
Meanwhile, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are going back to work in movie theaters in a series of 3-D shorts. The first of these shorts — Warner has approved three, and three more are in development — will play ahead of the movie “Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore,” which arrives in theaters July 30.
And the fan response over at Cartoon Brew is pretty awesome too. Fans really seem to be getting excited for the CG shorts! Here are some of my favorite comments…
Rafa says:
The road runner shot looks amazing!
the bugs & daffy, not so much…_______________________________________
lampshade says:
auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh
hey, the CGI shot doesn’t look so bad though
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Fooksie says:
I agree, Rafa. Wile E Coyote looks fantastic.
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erlab says:
I was seriously SCARED of Daffy’s welcoming expression! Now that I know Bugs WILL look like that, I will just have to live with it or ignore the show.
CN is still running the original cartoons in the morning right?
That CG Road Runner series has potential to be really good.
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A.J. says:
The cgi coyote looks pretty nifty!
But Bugs is having a serious tude problem…and his feet and face..wtf?_______________________________________
Taber Dunipace says:
Why is Daffey made of thistles? I hope that Coyote shot is going to be as good as it looks now!
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coyote says:
“The short will be in theatres? That’s great! The shorts were made in India? That’s really unfortunate.”
Don’t worry, the shorts aren’t being made in India. They’re being done by Reel FX in Dallas.
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tgentry says:
I guess I’m just restating what many others have already said, but the genericized, Flash-happy Bugs and Daffy make me incredibly sad. It’s odd that the 3D coyote looks much more organic and cartoon-like than the more trendy and souless look of Bugs and Daffy. Looking forward to the updated Roadrunners.
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mrscriblam says:
i like the coyote cgi shot
looks almost like stop-motion, which is a style i think would work very well for that sketch
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vfx says:
The real fun will be when everyone gets to frame-by-frame through the CG animation to see just how spot on it is to the classic stuff.
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The comments just go on and on. So I’ll let you thumb through them at your own pace.
But I will end with this. To all the fans who love the original Wile E Coyote and Road Runner shorts, the CG shorts will not disappoint. I dare say, you’re going to love them! I’m so proud to be a part of this project, as is every other single person on the team. And we’re putting in the hard work and long hours to do justice to what Chuck Jones brought to life all those years ago.
This is most certainly not all folks 
Just you wait.
If follow me on Twitter (@ZombieDUG), then you’ve already seen a few pictures from the Speedshape Halloween party. But if not, I’ll be posting a bunch more on the blog very soon! Until then though here’s one to wet your whistle. I went as a Zombie Pop-tart and Jess was as Captain Crunch. And for the second year in a row we got second place!
We like breakfast.
Want to see what we’ve been busy with here at Speedshape over the past month? Well then check out the newly launched “2011 Ford Super Duty” site, and listen to the sweet sweet Mike Rowe narration…
I’ll do a proper post on the who and how later when we get back from Italy (and when I know it’s ok to actually do so, ha). But until then, I just wanted all of you to check out this really cool site now because I personally think it marks some of the best work we’ve done here at Speedshape to date. Everyone really brought their “A” game to this spot and I’m very proud to have worked on it. All the artists here just seem to get better and better with each new job we get under our collective belts.
We even got to use some new techniques in Nuke using the 3D system and 2D particle cards, which was something I’ve been itching to test out on a job for a while now. But like I said before…more on that later.
You can see my finger prints all over all the snow and engine shots. While Jess comp’ed all the Highway, Desert, and Forest shots.
So, what do ya think guys? Let me know in the comments below!
LINK: Speedshape | 2008 Christmas Card
From all of us here at Speedshape,
Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year
Happy link dump day! The day that comes every once in a while where I have some cool stuff to blog about but I’m just too damn lazy to write a full post about each one!
Excited? Well here we go!
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The web campaign for the 2009 Ford F150 that Speedshape just finished up a couple months ago, and that Jess and I composited in Nuke, went live over the weekend. The work we did is located at the end of each section. Just click on the links after each video starring Discovery’s Mike Rowe.
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Next up is a making of video done by Speedshape’s own Rob Nederhorst. He talks about the work our LA studio did on the national Ford Flex commercial campaign.
LINK: Flex VFX Muscles for Ford
VFX house Speedshape, agency Team Detroit and director Mark of Anonymous Content came together to create a virtual city in the new campaign for Ford’s new Flex SUV. Watch the “Making of” video to see how Speedshape approached and executed these two commercials.
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And last but not least is very sweet youtube video courtesy of Jess…
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Alright, Happy Monday everyone!
UPDATE:
I finally got some pictures up of the 2008 Speedshape Halloween party! Check ‘um out!
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Well it’s Sunday, I’ve finally recovered from Halloween, and the wait is over.
Jess and I were freakin’ Ghostbusters for Halloween!
It was a blast and I’m gonna have some more pictures of the party itself on Monday. But until then, check out the step by step instructable I made detailing all the work that went into our Costumes over the past month, and a youtube video I made demo’ing the pack. I hope you enjoy it!
What the hell am I going to do with all this free time now?
LINK: Instructables – Ghostbusters Proton Pack
This is a semi step-by-step guide of how my girlfriend Jess and I built our Ghostbusters proton packs for Halloween 2008! We ended up spending just under a month and just over $200 on each pack. Not including random tools here and there that we needed.
No expensive lightboards or sound packs here. This is 100% homemade and on the cheap.
Things have been pretty crazy lately, and my time has been split between building the super secret Halloween costumes and working on some pretty cool projects. But in just 3 more days it’s my favorite holiday, and the recent radio silence will prove it’s worth.
So stay tuned…because something pretty damn strange is coming to your neighborhood.
(*hint *hint)
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But in the mean time to keep you all busy, some of the very talented artists over in our Speedshape Interactive Department put together a really fun game for Halloween this year called, “Candy Clues“.
And since for some strange reason it’s not sociably acceptable for a 24 year old to go trick or treating no matter how bad-ass his costume is…this is the closest thing to candy I’m gonna get. Without going to Target and buying all the jumbo Hershey bars I can find that is.
Man, I really want some candy now.
Follow the link below to your doooooom!
LINK: Speedshape presents – ‘Candy Clues’
It’s almost Halloween and all of the Candy in Ole Birmingham is gone, and local Candy maker Granny can’thelp because her prized Candy Cows are missing. It’s up to you to save Halloween.
Find Granny’s Candy Cows and figure out who is behind this mysterious mystery. Start by following the Candy Clues.
Jump, Climb, Swing and Bounce your way through 3 creepy and challenging levels to compete for the high score and unlock secret characters.
Only 29 more days till Halloween! And you know what that means…costume building time!
If you remember from last year, I spent way too much time…and WAY too much money, on my Spider-man costume.
This year Jess is joining me, so the question is: “What are we going to be this time around?”
Well head on over to Fermi Lab for a hint…
Confused? Well if so it’ll all make sense soon enough.
And this year as a little bonus I’m documenting the whole building process from start to finish, which I’ll post on All Hallows‘ Eve!
Talk to ya’ll soon!
