Up

***SPOILER ALERT***
"Up" is the latest animated feature from Pixar. With its combination of adventure storyline, sympathetic characters and animation in eye-popping Digital 3D that floats the viewer to heights that would make even an expert skydiver dizzy, this tenth Pixar film is easily their best work to date.

While the visuals of octogenarian Carl's house floating through the clouds are stunning, the most shocking and effective moment takes place on terra firma. Carl hits a construction worker over the head causing him to... bleed. While blood is no stranger to anime, I'm almost certain "Up" represents Pixar's first use of it. It's an effective device that immediately raises the stakes and informs us that there is actual jeopardy ahead. When the bitter and evil adventurer Muntz hints at the many "trespassers" he has killed in the past, we really worry for Carl's life.

"Up" is nearly perfect. If there is any nitpicking to be done, the visual pun of dogs flying planes in a, um, dogfight, is a misstep. It seems like something that probably came up in a story meeting and got a big laugh in the room, guaranteeing its inclusion. But dogs flying planes seems somehow beneath "Up," (if you'll now pardon my pun) especially for a film more sophisticated than your average animated feature. Secondly, the joke of Beta's Alvin & the Chipmunks voice went a little too long.

Workspace

My bedroom is small. At first, I tried to make do with the layout and the furniture I had, but every time I sat down at my desk to work I was immediately annoyed and felt cramped in. Solution: design and build the perfect desk.

I'm nearly finished - just need to add a stabilizing beam to the back, plus some shelving. Above is a photo of the desk as it stands now. The top is 8 feet long and is supported by six 4X4 pine wood posts. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out - especially since I've never built anything like this before. This also represents my first time staining wood, which was more fun than I thought it would be.

The only bad experience I had was with Home Depot. Getting them to cut wood at 90 degrees is asking a lot. I ended up having to take the wood to an independent lumber yard to clean up the mistakes made by HD.

This whole project has been a gigantic learning experience - I'll impart just one probably obvious piece of advice: if the wood is heavier than you think it should be, don't buy it - the extra weight isn't because it's more dense or sturdier, it's because it's filled with water, and if left outside, will eventually cause the wood to crack.

Excuse the unmade bed - I'm going to get a smaller mattress and push it against the opposite wall. In any case, I already feel less boxed in. Los Angeles freeways have enough congestion, so who needs it in the bedroom? Well, maybe Wilt Chamberlain, but he's the exception, not the rule.

Another Enterprise clip? Are you F'ing serious?!

Yeah, I guess the starship Enterprise has been on my mind lately since the release of the latest "copy and paste" update to the Star Trek franchise. Of course, the effects from Abrams' film are billions of light years away from what I've done below - another stab at the Enterprise in space - similar to a final project I did a couple years ago. This needs to look way better, but it's helping me figure out the right camera move - which this is not. I did something a little different this time: rather than creating the warp effect in post, I parented two particle emitters behind the nacelles, key framing them to turn on when the ship warps out. From a distance I think it works. The real reason for this project is to create an animated stereoscopic sequence, which I will do once I nail down the scene.

Super 8

As a gift for my brother, I assembled a simple book of stills from the dozens of Super 8 films my parents shot between 1966 and 1979. Below is just one of those stills of the two of us. Aw...