I was on vacation but you didn’t know it.

The planning was almost perfect. I finished animating on Meet the Robinsons the week before Thanksgiving and then took off last week for a vacation in Maryland and New York. Why do you care? Because I theoretically have more time now that I won’t be doing overtime every day and so that means I’ll get back to producing shows and answering your comments and emails. I keep them all, so if you’ve written but are still waiting for a response, I’ll get to it.

It feels great to come back to work after the holiday with a refreshed mind and the promise of a new movie to work on. I also can’t wait for Meet the Robinsons to come out on March 30th to see how people react. I haven’t seen the final version myself so I’m excited for that too!

There are some questions that keep coming up so I’ll answer them here.

– The enhanced podcast feed in iTunes doesn’t have all the shows. I still need to make them. Every show is available in the regular feed.

– One of the Nik Ranieri files was cutting off and that has been fixed.

– I will add to the animation notebook in the future as well. I want it to be worth your while and looking back at my notes, I felt like they needed some more explanation so I’ll be writing and posting when I can.

I’ll talk to you guys soon.

40 Comments on “I was on vacation but you didn’t know it.

  1. great news clay, looking forward to Robinsons as well as some new podcasts!
    Happy Holidays,
    Brad

  2. you know the show we have all been waiting for… hope it is good! (and MTR too! – its out March 30? The poster on wikipedia looks great!)

    Here are a few trailers for the movie for everyone else!

    http://images.apple.com/movies/disney/meet_the_robinsons/meet_robinsons-tlr5a_480p.mov

    http://images.apple.com/movies/disney/meet_the_robinsons/meet_the_robinsons-tsr_480p.mov

    It’s funny, cos i think i read that book when it came out in ’93! – man, i am old!

    Are we working on a long haired maiden next by any chance? ๐Ÿ˜‰

  3. the meet the robinsons trailer is great… ๐Ÿ˜€

    one thing that is kinda odd though, is that the blonde kids eyes (blue part and pupils) kinda look concave in a few scenes… it might be a refraction of his glasses or something (OK. now i am talking like this kid actually exists!)

    ….is the “desperate times call for desperate measures” a throw back to Jafar in Aladdin! lol! Sid looks like he could pass as the guys twin (the good one)! ๐Ÿ˜€

    ….good voice cast- thank god you guys aren’t relying too heavily on Celebrity voiceovers! … i am soooooo sick of talentless celebs taking the places of real voice actors… ok, there are some exceptions (Hanks, Williams(except Robots… urgh yuk!), Crystal, Earl Jones, Degeneras, Broderick ect.) but the majority are completely overated and usually have their names larger than the title of the movie (just look at Charlottes Web atm! all i know is that Julia Roberts and Oprah are in it… how about marketing the story)!… i mean, most people don’t care about the actors, unless we can see them!… How about Execs/Directors, hold auditions like the good ol’ days, instead of taking the easy way out and hiring a Hollywood name for a few extra million… Thank god Reese Witherspoon is gone from Rupunzel!… ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. … can’t wait!… can’t WAIT!
    Lookin’ forward to new stuff, Clay! ๐Ÿ™‚
    And congrats on wrapping on ‘Robinsons.’
    … the movie looks very promising, and i
    am lookin’ forward to seeing it!

    Thanks again for all the work you put into this…
    it absolutely RULES.
    -Dagan M.

  5. Emma,
    I couldnโ€šร„รดt agree more. I felt the same way about Avril Lavigne in Over the Hedge. She just sounded so flat, and uninspiring. It must have been boring as hell animating her voice. Well may be not that boring, but she could go for some voice acting classes.
    Cheer,
    andy

  6. Can’t wait to see how Robinsons turns out (though us UK listeners will have to wait for an unhumanly late release date.)

    Bowler Hat Guy has been a great inspiration for re-thinking how to rig characters in CG for squash/stretch.

  7. Yay ๐Ÿ™‚ Can’t wait for the next podcast!! They’re absolutely perfect to listen to in the background when I’m drawing, or even when I just want to specifically listen to them. I really get chills listening to these great people and their stories!

  8. I know this is off topic… but did every one hear about the auditions for ‘The frog princess’? – She is going to be african american! – the first main cast member to be that (about time too!)… It almost guarantees that there will be an Oprah show on the movie! ๐Ÿ™‚ (but for the love of god, pllllleeeeeeaaaaaseeee don’t cast her!

  9. Yea! Glad you had time for some rest. I’ll be watching for new podcasts. Oh joy!

    I’m also glad to hear that the movie’s done, I myself am looking forward to seeing it. I have to mention my friend Luis was looking forward to seeing it too. Luis and I saw a production still at Siggraph in 2005 and thought that the “Luis” character looked a little bit like him, even taking a photo. Unfortunatley Luis passed away this summer and won’t be able to see it. But it’ll be like seeing him in a movie really, and he was looking forward to it too. I also like the poses that I’ve seen the villain in. So I’ve got more than a few reasons to see the Robinsons movie. I’ll be interested to see the animation and enjoy the story. ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. CLAY’S BACK! AND BETTER THAN EVER! WOOOO! Hiya CLAY, keep on doin what u do best! BEST WISHES!

  11. Hey Clay, how far-fetched would it be to get an interview with some great character designers like Stephen Silver? I know he isn’t best known for his animation but it would be interesting to hear about the industry from a character design standpoint.

    Looking forward to every show,
    Corey

  12. Welcome Back Clay. I thought that e-mail notification doesen’t work again. ๐Ÿ™‚
    I want to recomend Gendy Tartakovsky to be interviewed.

    @Corey
    Check this link
    http://silvertoons.com/silvertoons/
    There you have a link to Stephen Silver’s podcast.

  13. Hey Clay,

    I bet you’ve heard about the whole “Chris Sanders removed from American Dog” thing. It’s a shame for him to be thrown off his pet project, being such a creative artist & all. But, what are the chances of you interviewing HIM on the show. I think he would be a fun & interesting person to meet & interview. Or maybe Iwao Takamoto?

    Hope you enjoy your post-project vacation & hope to hear from you soon. I’m looking forward towards the next show.

    Happy Holidays to you & yours!

  14. Umm, Clay? You still have a job, right? I heard Disney recently let 160 animation employees go on the same day Sanders was released. I’m hoping that you were not among them, both for the future of your career and my shallow desire to hear more podcasts!

    Give us a sign all is well, and have a happy new year!

  15. I would like to second that request to have Genndy Tartakovsky interviewed. Much to my consternation, my school had him over for a talk that went on at the EXACT same time as the animation department’s senior showcase. (an animation guy NOT speaking in the animation department? go figure!) Needless to say I couldn’t quite get out of the senior showcase of my own class project so I did NOT get to hear him speak and I would sorta like to.

  16. Clay we are sending out an internet search party! We need to track down you and your satchel of new animation podcasts. Send up a flare so we can find you!

  17. Hey all, what a luckluster comeback, huh? I’ll be getting to it, I swear, but things have been a bit hectic lately. Work-wise, nothing has changed for me but the fine details are still falling in to place as you can imagine. Thanks for your support and encouragement. Currently I have the honor of serving on jury duty so life has taken a left turn for a couple weeks but I’ll be back on track soon. Check out the Spline Doctors since they are coming out with a roundtable podcast soon. I can’t wait for that.

  18. Oh more spline doctors? They’ve not updated in AGES…

  19. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

    I can’t stop checking your blog! I keep coming back here like every freakin’ day even though nothing changes. Why? I can’t stop… I have a problem…

    Am I the only one?

  20. Dennis, we should start a club. Seriously, I’m addicted.
    My name is Michael and I have a Refresh problem.
    Whew. That feels better.

  21. I think I have to second that..twice.

    My name is Michael and I have this site under my “Check Daily” bookmarks, lol. I even occasionally listen to these in place of “background music” when life drawing or just sketching in general.

  22. my name’s kristine and I have a problem – I too check Animation podcast for updates. I know the number of comments, yet I find myself double checking to see if there are any new posts. At least I can keep listening to the old podcasts.

  23. Dear Dr. Phil,

    My Name is Emma and I have a A.P addiction and Clay is my enabler… ๐Ÿ™‚

  24. Ouch! You guys are killing me with the guilt! All right, all right – I’m going to commit myself to working on the next show every night this week. That should make something happen. I love you guys, really. Thanks for kicking me in the butt. By the way, I have a new excuse for the latest lapse. I was on jury duty for 4 weeks. If there was ever anything concocted to sap someone’s energy, it is jury duty. I’ve recovered now.

    By the way, using the email notification (in the sidebar on the right) WILL work when I put out the next show.

    I just want to say once more, thanks for the harassment. Darn you all – it’s working!

  25. That is so good to hear. Thanks for feeding our addiction, Clay. Can’t wait to see what comes of it.

  26. I completely understand the soul-suckingness of jury duty/law stuff (I work in a law office). I use the podcasts to bring me back up. So thanks, looking forward to the next one.

  27. Hi Clay!

    Well, hopefully you’ve convicted the guilty and set the innocent free! Now it’s time to “sequester” yourself and get the next podcast out!! My son and I love the podcasts – keep up the GREAT work.

  28. jury duty… you should have done a Homer and said you are prejudice against everybody… ๐Ÿ˜‰
    So, any courtroom drawings to share ๐Ÿ™‚

  29. So now that the Movie Meet the Robinsons came out. What do u think about it? i thought it was preaty good.

  30. Clay, keep up the great podcasts! I’m hoping you can give a little insiders info on what it’s like working at Disney. Are the rigs you use fantastic, or do they still have limitations? How much time do you spend working on a given scene (ie. frames per week)? What happens between films, does Disney always have something for you to do or do you have gaps? Just little things like this would be interesting to find out (for me, anyways…) ๐Ÿ™‚