Plenty to write about, but lately blogging has been displaced by doing.

During the past 30 days I’ve spent time in Yokohama and Guangshan in the midst of my ongoing producing and consulting work. The Animation Options website has been updated with the latest happenings (at least those I’m free to talk about), and I hope to address some topics of interest here soon.

Kevin Geiger
BEIJING

Only two more years until the Mayans score bragging rights. I’ve got my hi-tech ark ticket, do you?

(Personally, I think the Mayan calendar stops at 2012 due to good-old-fashioned laziness.)

It was with sadness that I read today of the passing of Roy Disney.

The word “legend” is frequently used when speaking of the Disney clan, but what I’ll always remember about Roy is the personal. As a relatively young CG artist working the “Fantasia” sequel in 1995, it was a remarkable experience to have Roy suddenly pop into my office one day as I was modeling 3D characters for the film’s “Steadfast Tin Soldier” sequence. The shock of seeing the spitting image of Walt standing in my doorway was eased by Roy’s disarming, “Hello there, young fella! What are you working on?” Sitting next to Roy for 5 minutes, showing him my work (and silently praying to God that he wouldn’t hate it as the production coordinators paced nervously in the hallway) was indescribable. I’ll never forget Roy’s kindness, his gentle humor and his encouragement.

Roy truly cared for The Walt Disney Company as only a Disney could. His family touch will be truly missed.

R.I.P. Roy!

Animation Options has you covered from stem to stern at SIGGRAPH 2009 in Yokohama, with courses ranging from story development to production efficiencies…

Making its Japanese premiere is “What’s Your Story?”, a condensed version of the popular three-day story development course, Wednesday, December 16th from 9:00am-12:45pm:

What’s your story? Can you explain it in a sentence? If the central idea of your film is not clear to you, how can it be to your audience? Does your story pass the “who cares” test? And do you know that story is NOT king, but character IS?

This course examines the nuts and bolts of feature film storytelling in a straightforward, accessible manner for everyone seeking to improve the resonance of their movies on the international animation market. The way to the audience’s wallet is through the heart. Is your story stuck in the head?

The course explores story loglines, genres, hooks, and twists with an eye towards a compelling stage for an appealing hero. The story-outline section addresses the foundation of a strong and flexible story “spine” and then assembles the full skeleton. In the story-boarding section, the course reviews the process for laying out an entire feature film from beginning to end by applying tried-and-true structural beats. The course concludes with an interactive audience brainstorming session and a pitch of the resulting story by presenter Kevin Geiger.

Returning to SIGGRAPH Asia by special request is “Keeping Your Money On The Screen & Off The Floor”, Saturday, December 19th from 2:15pm-6:00pm:

The global animation industry is as competitive as ever, with merciless markets, unforgiving audiences and miniscule profit margins. Yet independent and major productions alike seem content to burn through money (and people) as though they have resources to spare. Amazingly, this waste is not only pervasive, it is accepted. Not only is this irresponsible, it is unsustainable. It is also easily addressed through clear-minded assessment and informed action.

This course squarely addresses common production motivations and pitfalls. It examines the human factors and organizational considerations that are the foundation of all production (dys)function. It proceeds to cover workflow considerations and strategies, the establishment (and erosion) of balance, common heuristic assumptions and errors, and the importance of clarity and adaptation within the studio environment. A series of “Golden Rules” for production segues into the characteristics of a balanced pipeline and an overview of a flexible and robust nonlinear production pipeline. Finally, asset management is reviewed with an eye towards organization, flexibility, and transparency.

The presentation concludes with a micro/macro view on the production paradigm and synergistic orchestration of these parts into a practical yet transcendent whole.

See you in Japan!

My apologies for the dramatic reduction in blogging.  The past couple of months have been a mad rush of activity, compounded by my participation in two events:  the Jilin International Animation, Comics & Games Forum in September, and the 1st Zhengzhou International Animation Forum in October.  And now the American Film Market in November.  :-)

You can read all about the goings-on in Jilin and Zhengzhou on the Animation Options press page, including video of me trying to keep up with a young monk onstage at Shaolin Temple.  ;-)

Part 2 of AWNtv’s fmx/09 interview with Magic Dumpling’s VP of Development Wen Feng and President Kevin Geiger, on the subject of Chinese animation, the global marketplace, and their upcoming animated feature film “Road to Home”.

Part 1 of AWNtv’s fmx/09 interview with Magic Dumpling’s VP of Development Wen Feng and President Kevin Geiger, on the subject of Chinese animation, the global marketplace, and their upcoming animated feature film “Road to Home”.

The news last Friday was brief, but BIG: Dick Cook was “stepping down” as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Mr. Cook officially stated:

I am stepping down from my role as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, effective immediately. I have loved every minute of my 38 years that I have worked at Disney… from the beginning as a ride operator on Disneyland’s steam train and monorail to my position as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. To wrap up my Disney experience in a neatly bundled statement is close to impossible. But what I will say is, during my time at the Studio, we have achieved many industry and Company milestones. Our talent roster is simply the best in the business. I believe our slate of upcoming motion pictures is the best in our history. But most of all, I love the people, my colleagues, my teammates, who are the most talented, dedicated and loyal folks in the world. I know that I leave the Studio in their exceptional hands. I have been contemplating this for some time now and feel it’s the right time for me to move on to new adventures…and in the words of one of my baseball heroes, Yogi Berra, “If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger’s short eulogy read:

Throughout his distinguished 38-year Disney career, Dick Cook’s outstanding creative instincts and incomparable showmanship have truly enriched this company and significantly impacted Disney’s great legacy. We thank Dick for his tremendous passion for Disney, and his many accomplishments and contributions to The Walt Disney Studios, including a very promising upcoming film slate. On behalf of everyone at Disney, we wish him the best with all the future has to offer.

Of course, everyone knows that there is always more to an abrupt corporate departure of this magnitude, and within days the “untold” stories began to surface in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Google “Dick Cook”, and you can triangulate a fascinating story.

I had the pleasure of breaking bread with Mr. Cook a few years ago in the rotunda of the Team Disney building. As a CG supervisor with Walt Disney Feature Animation, I must admit to being pleasantly surprised that someone like Dick Cook would accept an unsolicited lunch invitation from a “below the line” frame jockey. But he was as down to earth as you can imagine: from his order of spare ribs and fries, to the candid expression of his concerns and hopes for The Walt Disney Company. Given the content of that conversation years ago, it was with sadness but no surprise that I read of his departure last week.

Time will tell what lies in store for Dick Cook and the company that he loved and served so well. “It’s just business” is a pervasive rationale in Hollywood, but for Dick Cook it never was “just” that.

Farewell, Captain Cook!

The days of theaters full of Poindexters are numbered as Alioscopy USA, a 3D visualization technology provider, will showcase autostereoscopic 3D content playing on a proprietary HD LCD display at IBC 2009 in Amsterdam, September 11-15, 2009.

Autostereoscopy is a technique for displaying three-dimensional images that can be viewed without glasses or other headgear. Depth perception is produced on a display using lenticular lenses or parallax barriers. The displays can have multiple viewing zones, allowing many users to watch the stereoscopic image at the same time. Other displays use eye tracking systems to automatically adjust the stereo pairs to follow viewers’ eyes as they move their heads. Although eyestrain and headaches are still a side effect of extended viewing exposure, the autostereoscopic market is taking flight - driven by the resurgence of stereoscopic films and the emerging stereoscopic broadcast market

A wide range of players are in the game with Alioscopy, including 3Dicon, Apple, Dimension Technologies, Fraunhofer HHI, Hitachi, Holografika , i-Art, Miracube, NewSight, Philips, SeeFront, SeeReal Technologies, Sharp, Spatial View, Tridelity, VisuMotion and Zero Creative. Philips has released the first 3D HDTV, with a 2160p resolution of 3840×2160 pixels and 46 viewing angles, while Hitachi has released the first 3D mobile phone for the Japanese market.

The Japanese get all the cool stuff first!

Been remiss in my blog posts and wondering what to jump back in with. “Delgo” suing “Avatar” over the definition of ugly? Nah. How about Disney buying Marvel! Now THAT’S big. Looks like Steve Jobs didn’t completely clean them out.

From Variety…

DISNEY TO BUY MARVEL FOR $4 BILLION

Deal requires antitrust review

LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters.

Disney said Monday that Marvel shareholders will receive $30 per share in cash plus 0.745 Disney shares for every Marvel share they own.

It said the boards of Disney and Marvel have both approved the transaction, but it requires an antitrust review and the approval of Marvel shareholders.

“The Incredibles 2″ is going to be AWESOME!