Has anyone updates about the "lives, careers, and CG works" of former "A:M Heroes" Jeff Lew, Stephen Millingen...etc?

[Manuel]

Hello Admired, Inspiring and Appreciated People of this A:M Forum, my best wishes for you all!!!

 

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I was writing this topic, because is kind of interesting to me know a little bit about the current lives of this "Great Heroes" of the History of the Great "Animation Master".

 

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Especially when I see that Jeff Lew in his website "killerbeanforever dot com" says that is "OUT OF BUSINESS". It is for me a little sad to think that a Great Talent and Ability like his, can't find a place and a long and profitable career to make a happy living in the CGI World.

 

Also I would like to know about Stephen Millingen (and his currents animations, if any), Jim Talbot, Dusan Kastelic, Shaun Freeman, Stian Ervik Wahlvåg (Agep), Brian Prince, Ed Lynch, William Sutton (any advance in his Zandoria's animation shorts?)... etc

 

And also perhaps a little bit about those studios that worked with A:M in the past... Anzovin, Avalanche, Eggington, Reel FX, Momentum, Soulcage, Will Vinton's ... etc

 

So, if anyone has any Information/curiosity/update about them, It would be great if you could share it here,,,

 

(by the way, sorry for any error in my english)

 

 

Thanks, and you all, have a good day!!!

[Fuchur]

Soulcage still works with A:M for some projects. For others they use other software. It depends.

Avalanche has been bought by Disney a couple of years ago. Last time I heard from Anzovin, they sold Maya-Plugins... I am not sure if they still do.

 

Some of the artists you are talking about are still with us... like Stian, William and Dusan... I am not sure about Stephen.

 

Jeff Lew is a little hard to answer for me. He has worked on some huge movies (like Matrix Reloaded) and so on, then he made his animation tutorials and the KillerBean 3-animation.

It cost much money to do that KillerBean3 and I do not think he got everything back he has put into it. Still he said, he would have done it again.

 

It's and artists life... ups and downs.

I think people who are not the absolute shooting stars are longer lasting. They are small gears in a big machine, but they often keep their jobs longer and I think are often more happy about them on the long run. I am still with my company for about 8 years now, I am doing animation work and web-developement / app-developement there and from time to time there are 3d projects too. I like that kind of diversity and I think you need to be flexible in that way to stay up and running in the business. On the other hand, I am in Germany... it is much less hire and fire here... people tend to stay in their job for quite a while. It is harder to get one, but if you have one and you do your things well enough, you will stay in longer (because laws are more protective of the employees here...)

 

I am happy what I can do at my company. It is fun, demanding and never boring especially because I have many different projects like that.

[detbear]

William Sutton still uses A:M and has released a short, "First Episode of TAR"...

 

xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd_ekaOdDWg

 

Not sure where it will go from there.

[balistic]

It's funny that I should happen to cruise by the Hash forums today, as I probably only do it once a year these days.

 

From 2007 to 2010 I was working at Blur in LA, but switched over to the video casino gaming sector in 2011 so I could move back home to Nevada to be near family and have a better work-life balance. I still do a lot of 3D environment stuff, it's just for slot machines instead of videogames/movies.

 

I have a website that's in need of an overhaul, and tend to post sketches and such at my ArtStation page. I haven't done any 3D at home in quite a few years, but I just built a new desktop a couple weeks back and am looking forward to trying to get back into it; particularly real-time stuff and GPU rendering. We use Unity at work, but we're a couple versions behind, and those new lighting tools in 5 are calling my name.

 

Thanks for asking about me, and any of you A:M old-timers are quite welcome to add me on Facebook!

Edited April 26, 2016 by balistic

[steve392]

still fantastic lighting I remember some of these very well nice to hear from you Brian

[largento]

Martin has a section of his forum dedicated to A:M and some of its greats.

 

It's a kind of archive of the past, though. I don't think it points to anything new.

[Manuel]

Thank you everybody for your comments...

And Thank You So Much to * Brian Prince * to stop by here and let us know about him and his projects currently... really great to know about him!!! "Modeler of The best photorealistic landscapes made in A:M, so far"

 

Anyone else has something to share about some of this "Legends"... hehe

 

Have a Good Day Everybody!!!

[Fuchur]

It's funny that I should happen to cruise by the Hash forums today, as I probably only do it once a year these days.

 

I think you should consider increasing that rate a little .

Nice to here from you Brian and interesting to here about your work at Blur and what you are doing today .

 

See you and thanks for visiting

*Fuchur*

 

[balistic]

I'll try to swing by more often.

 

Thanks all

[John Bigboote]

Victor Navones name just came acrosst my Facebook...

http://www.animationmentor.com/resources/webinars/timing-and-spacing/

[balistic]

It was a shame to hear about Avalanche getting dropped by Disney last week. Hope all the old-school A:M users there find new jobs quickly.

[Rodney]

It was a shame to hear about Avalanche getting dropped by Disney last week. Hope all the old-school A:M users there find new jobs quickly.

 

Definitely. While I'd imagine a path of least resistance might follow that of merging with other aspects of Disney (mobile divisions etc.) I can't help but wonder what options the folks at Avalanche have with regard to just starting over from scratch. In many ways Avalanche set the standard that got Disney to where they are today and while field is vastly different from back in those days I'd like to think they could do it again. I know there are a lot of moving parts and the most important of those are the human element. Other companies should be chomping at the bit to snatch up some of these talented folks but... I hate to see the great team they formed broken up. Still, either as a unified team, as smaller groups or even as individuals, 300 people of this level of experience and skill is a force to be reckoned with. I have no doubt that they can alter the landscape of computer graphics again.

 

Return to your roots, rise to the challenge placed before you and change the world... again.

[agep]

Hi guys! I saw that my name was mentioned and wanted to give you an update. Thanks for mentioning me by the way I currently work for a ship simulator company in Norway which requires me to use different 3d software than A:M. At the company I make different 3d assets used in the simulator ranging from big ships to smaller containers and cargo. At home I do play around in Unity and use A:M sometimes for smaller projects. I became a father for the second time four months ago, and since my first born is still a toddler, my amount of spare time is very limited I do visit the A:M forum almost daily

Best regards

Stian

[robcat2075]

And it is Stian's birthday today!

[Rodney]

Happy Birthday Stian and... congrats on your second child!

It's great to see you.

[zandoriastudios]

Honored to be included on the list of A:M heroes! Thank you!

 

I haven't made much more progress on TAR, except for roughing out a script for a graphic novel...I've been staying busy doing freelance design work (if you see Little Debbie "back to school" little red schoolhouse display at your grocery store or Walmart this season, I did that), for POP displays and a lot of modeling as a designer for hire on Shapeways.com