Life Changes!

I got Lasik surgery this year - one of the best decisions I ever made.  I love not wearing glasses, especially somewhere it tends to rain a lot.  I'd advise anyone who was going to do it to A) take a Xanax right before the surgery (my place required it), and B) DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES watch videos on how it's done.  It's creepy af.
I rolled off of Laika for about a month before landing into an animation job for a toy company.  Ozwest makes something called Stikbots, which are meant to be animation toys for kids!  It's pretty awesome.  More than just commercials, we make short films to show them what's possible and get kids creating.  My nephews and niece took a tour yesterday and one of the fabrication guys gave them a pile of Stikbots and accessories, and they've been making up stories for them constantly since.  It's kind of awesome.  I get to animate and periodically make a few props.  I've learned a lot and made some new friends.  And you should see some of the fan animations on youtube - those kids are adorable.
I miss film work though.  But it's a really convenient time to live in Portland for that sort of thing:  Laika's working on film 6, which should be crewing up sometime next year.  Henry Sellick is coming to Portland to work on Wendell and Wild, another stop-motion feature produced in part by Key and Peele.  Shadow Machine will be crewing up soon to make Guillermo DelToro's Pinocchio film... It's a good time to be into stop motion.