Mike Milo’s Journal

So today is a great day for me… we finally commenced production of a script for an “as-yet-to-be-disclosed” property. Not that we’ve started writing it yet but we are talking about story now which is awesome!

It’s gonna be a huge hit, I can feel it already and my friend Harry and I are lucky enough to be a part of it. Possibilities include comics, games, toys and even Happy Meals. (there’s a joke in there for those “in the Know” ;-)
It’s funny but Harry and I have always had the joke where we accuse each other of, “…making the Happy Meals before we sell the property”
…and it’s true, we’ve often thought of what else we could do besides making the actual film. Toys, comics, books, games. We’ve done it all.

I remember one time we we’re going to pitch a property called The Cool Patrol which Universal had bought from us. We were slated to pitch it to Hasbro as a potential toyline. Well Harry and I went nuts and we built these little action figures, complete with a remote control car and everything planning to drive it into the boardroom. It was cool and all but Hasbro wasn’t impressed because of course no matter how cool I could make a toy prototype they could do it better. We were out of our league in that respect.

Tonight I have another meeting with a new potential client and I am looking forward to that as well. things are really looking up for ‘ol Mr. Milo, yessiree. Feelin’ mighty good today!
Also there are more things working now on my site.
the Films section is up and running now as well as the Services page. Little by little I’m bringing it all back.

So the new look is up and operational. I’m sure there are things that will not work to start but I am working like a busy lil’ bee to try and get it all back online right away. Apparently this new design works because I’ve already had three inquiries for work today alone! Amazing what an organized site will do for your business.
As for other endeavors I am currently in negotiations with a few companies about making some animation for them. All this and some freelance too makes me one busy little boy! Still it’s very cool to be working again! Lastly you can now post comments here. I don’t know who WILL post comments but please feel free to say stuff!
Today I went to see my brother and my niece. Aww she’s so darn cute! It’s amazing! Must be his wife’s blood ’cause us Milo’s are not exactly what you’d call eye catching material… Or at least I ain’t!
I’m also taking private lessons with a really great teacher who shall remain nameless until he says it’s cool to do otherwise but he’s worked on so many excellent films that you know. One of them rhymes with The Day Tricks and another one rhymes with Yell Boy.

Well, well, well! I finally got a new look to the website! Amazingly enough. I’m pretty tickled with it actually. Of course my genius friend Harry helped make it a reality and if you notice on his website Zaptoons, the new Milowerx site is very similar. Thas because I copied his layout and I gotta say it looks great! From now on my main site will be primarily a business site and Animation Insider will be a personal, blog. Kinda cool huh? Oh yeah and now finally you can all post comments! Not that anyone will but still you can and that’s cool! Thanks again Harry! Ya’ll is not such a bad fella after all! ;-)

I kinda stopped animating the Fireside Chat for a while after I got some critiques that it was too floaty, which I agree with. It’s really hard to get a realistic feel to animation in 3D, or at least it is without any training. Still, I figure I should finish it up so it’s complete so I rendered the next scene out. I’m almost done with it only a few scenes to go. Wish me luck! Speaking of really good animation have you seen Madagascar yet? I did at an advanced screening for ASIFA members and let me tell you I loved it! Very well animated. So quick and snappy. The only thing I didn’t like was Alex the Lion’s paws. they were just too designy for me. too square and blocky which I didn’t care for but other than that it was awesome. Reminded me of a great old Warner Bros cartoon. Like an updated Bugs Bunny (Not like the crap they’re doing now with Loonatics)

The next project I’m going to work on is Poltergoose who is one of my favorite characters. He speaks with a Jackie Mason type voice and is always telling lame ghost jokes. I hope to get this one up and running soon. Why do I do all these things no one will really see? I dunno. I ask myself these same questions but I guess just to have something creative to do. You can see my progress on the Poltergoose film here.

I found some really cool and free software for testing your animation. Whether it be stop motion or for actual drawn animation Monkey Jam software will let you turn a simple web cam into a toll to make your own animated movies! Actually your only limit is the web cams screen size. Broadcast animation (read:high quality) animation i s traditionally captured in 640X480 so if you have a web cam that resolution you’re all set to go. Of course you can do it with a smaller resolution camera but if you dump it onto a DVD it will be all grainy when you watch it on your tv. Anyway go check out Monkey Jam software! You won’t regret it! It’s really REALLY cool!

I don’t know which side of the fence you guys reside on concerning Michael Jackson but I really like this little film and what it’s saying about him internally. very well done piece of animation which is why I posted it here at all. Check it out. You;You’ve got to admit that he’s creepy even if you do like his music. He’s got serious problems and when you think about young kids and what he may or may not have done to them it’s really really sad.

Finally after all this time I finally found a good program that can compress video and not have to be a rocket scientist to figure it all out. It’s called Image Converter for PSP and it came with my Playstation Portable that I won a few weeks ago. Anyway, it compresses huge 1 gb files into 17 mb! Amazing! That said, I finally got Bloo’s Gang in all it’s entirety online. Check it out! Also it’s a small thing but I am working on my next character Poltergoose, which is coming along nicely.

I have been trying for years to create a decent model in 3D and I believe I finally got one going. It’s not done yet, but it’s a pretty good start. Check it out! Click here for a page of renders and a quick Playblast turnaround of the work-in-progress. It’s quite satisfying to see something that doesn’t look like a big ol’ pile of glop for once. I am in serious need of someone to paint the weights for this character so if there’s anyone reading this that knows how to do this don’t hesitate to contact me!
It’s fitting that the first character I ever successfully made in 3D would be Charlie because he was the first I created. In 1989, Harry and I created Charlie Hippo. We created 6 full comics with him and Harry will be publishing them soon enough. Charlie is sort of an amalgam of Harry and I and he is still one of my favorites. Charlie lived in Jersey City with his mom, his lil’ sister Suzi and his grandpa. His best friend was Louie Hedgehog and his girlfriend was Penny Pachyderm. He also had a friend named Einstyne Alberts.

Finally after all this time, you can finally see the final pilot of Knights of Sherwood. I think it came out great! What do you think? It had a great look and I really think it would have done well as a series, but then, I guess we’ll never know as WB decided to change some major gears and go with a total Sponge Bob rip off called Coconut Fred’s Fruity Island. Go figure. In other news I am actively freelancing around town and actually enjoying myself!
Note: the pilot is a whopping 16 mb so unless you’ve got Broadband, it’s gonna take a few minutes to download. Be patient! It’s worth it!