This blog has moved on to Squarespace.com!

It was time for a face-lift, and I couldn't resist Squarespaces amazing tools, so I have moved this whole blog over to markderidder.squarespace.com. This is my 4th version of markderidder.com and certainly the most dynamic. I've had markderidder.com running since 1999 and it's come a LONG way!

Be sure to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds if you have any for this site, and drop me a comment to let me know what you think about the new look!

-Mark

I am now an Animation Mentor Alumni!

After 18 months of study, focus, weekend sacrafice, and amazing growth, I have finished all 6 classes at animationmentor.com!

I have made many new friends, industry contacts, and memories that I will never forget! My time at AM has been way better than I ever imagined it would be and I am so proud to have been a part of such an amazing school, and to now be part of an exclusive group: Animation Mentor Alumni!

Take a lot of my progress reel that shows all of my work from Class 2, to Class 6, including a WIP look at my short film "Superdumb" which I hope to finish by the end of the year. I now move on to the Alumni site and will continue to be involved with the school as much as I can.

I now have a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Character Animation! This is an awesome addition to my Bachelor of Fine Arts focused on Animation and Digital Media.

Giving the Netbook to my Mom

Last night was a lot of fun! I finally got to give the Netbook gift to my Mom who is now home after being in the hospital for over a month straight. She looked and sounded great! It was so nice to see her rested, comfortable and smiling.

I borrowed my friends tiny Flip video camera (thanks Bruce!) and had Heidi secretly record the moment. She loved it! In the video you can see how blown away and overwhelmed she was with the thoughtfulness and generosity of everyone around her. It was a lot of fun to give it to her and set her up so she could use it right away. We even signed her up to Facebook last night!

Thanks again to everyone involved. You made this a very special moment for our family.

**Note: the video may need time to buffer. Hit play once, and then wait for it to go.**

A gift for my Mom

My mom has been battling a rare cancer called Mantle Cell Lymphoma since September and I am happy to say that she is finishing her final round of treatment and is officially in remission. But the battle isn't over just yet as she now has to build up her strength and immune system for the next 100 days. During this time she will be at home resting and looking to connect with others.

To help her do this I decided to get my mom a netbook computer that is light and portable so that she can connect to the interenet from anywhere in her home.

In order to make this purchase I asked her friends and family if they would like to contribute and the response was overwhelming! So many had donated more than I had originally asked for that I was able to get her some essential accessories as well.

This video is for those who donated so that they can see just what we have gotten my Mom. Thank you all so much for your support!

"Farmer Jenkins" gets a positive review!

My short film "The Legend of Farmer Jenkins" got a positive review from an underground film site called Bad Lit that was doing a full review of the DVD "Festival Of Horrors: Volume 1". Jenkins was featured as a bonus short on that compilation which can be purchased online.

Here is an excerpt from the review:

"The Legend of Farmer Jenkins, dirs. Mike Tonder & Mark DeRidder. While I’m usually not too crazy about the type of computer animation used for this film, this is such a fun, well-done short that the animation didn’t matter. While sitting in a treehouse one night, two older kids terrorize a younger kid about Farmer John, who fell into a thresher and now his zombie self roams the countryside looking for little boys to eat. Like a good campfire tale, this has some good gags, some actual scares and a great ending."

Full review

I'm having a girl!

Today we had our 2nd trimester ultrasound and found out that we are having a girl! It's cliche to say, but we just wanted to see that the baby was healthy (which she is) and we were soo excited to see we are having a daughter.

Here is a photoshopped image of three ultrasound pictures today. The baby is in her 19th week.

I'm gonna be a Dad!

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet but I am going to be a Dad this summer when my wife and I expect our first child. This is something we have wanted for a long time and couldn't be more thrilled about!

Thankfully I will graduate from Animation Mentor just before our baby is due to arrive so I will be able to focus 100% on being a Daddy when I am at home. You can bet I will be posting much more on this topic in the near future!

FJORG 2008 Entry: "Loveless End"

Well I survived the grueling Iron Animation competition FJORG! It was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I was on one of 16 teams who had 32 hours to complete a 15-45 second character animation about a common theme. This years theme was "The saddest story ever told". I was on Studio TeAM (AM for animation mentor) along with JJ Pastore and Chris Schloemp who are fellow AM students.

We decided to tell the story of a relationship that was never worked on and allowed distractions to come between them which in the end resulted in no love at all. The three of us are married and we thought that would be the saddest story. While we are very proud of our film, in hindsight we realize that we didn't focus on which way we wanted to go with this one (funny or sad) and therefore have a bit of a mushy blend. But given the scenario and the fact that every hour there were new distractions from Disney animators giving talks to Shaolin Monks giving martial arts demonstration. Oh and then there was the techno music until 3am. I got a total of 30 minutes sleep on this, so I'm amazed we turned anything in!

Unfortunately we didn't place in the top five but thats ok as there were a LOT of great submissions. The competition was extremely tough this year. Either way it was an honor to be a part of the competition. I had direct feedback on my work from animators that work at Disney, Dreamworks (Shrek Co-Director!), Pixar (Andrew Gordon!), Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues, etc.

Here is a documentary they shot during the competition! This gives you a great idea of what the event was like and how much pressure we were under!:

Yeah, this game is going to rock...

Just about to finish up my first set of shots on Ghotsbusters: The Video Game and I am still pinching myself. I can't believe I am animating the boys in grey. Anyhow, since it is the start of E3, some more game footage and details are coming out and I wanted to share a cool 6 minute clip showing in game footage so you can see how awesome this game is going to be. Even for people who just "like" Ghostbusters, it is going to be amazing.

UPDATE: Ok, this potentially even cooler. Gametrailers.com just posted a trailer for the game that splices some clips from the films and has a narrator making it feel very much like a movie trailer. This is really being billed as a sequel to the movies. Check it out here:

Ghostbusters: The Video Game - Trailer

Ok, back to work!

I'm Working on Ghostbusters: The Video Game!

Now if you've been following this blog, then you might know that my first mentor from Animation Mentor, Paul Allen, is working on Ghostbusters: The Video Game which I blogged about with much excitement. I am a HUGE Ghostbusters fan and am geeked about this new game as it is being written as a sequel to the movies by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis who wrote the first two movies. Additionally all the main actors are back to reprise their role (with their voices) including Bill Murray. This game has the look and feel of the first movie and is a continuation of the story. It is sure to be a hit with fans and gamers alike.

WELL...

I am happy to say that I was lucky enough to score a little contract work on the project and have been assigned several shots for the cinematic cut scenes!! Being able to participate in anyway on this project is a major honor for me and to be able to provide character animation to characters I know and love is a dream come true! How much I end up contributing is up in the air and dependent on how much time I can give, but so far i've been given some Egon shots which is fun!

Look for the game in October on Xbox 360, and PS3!

I have a fan club?

So last night a new twitter feed was born called mderidderfans, with the slogan "We Twitter for mderidder!". Apparently my cousins were all at the same house last night (13 of them) and out of sheer love, or perhaps just bordom, they got very pretty creative. And I loved it! And I feel I should share this amazing burst of creativity that warms my heart:)

They made a youtube video, a mux tape and posted a number of loving, and often sarcastic posts. I have the coolest cousins in the world.

Thanks for making me smile Jack, Ryan, Sean, Katie, Brent, Claire, Michael, Timmy, Alexandra, Jessica, David, Haley and Garret!

Accepted to FJORG!

Good news! My team of fellow Animation Mentor students (JJ Pastore and Chris Schloemp) have been accepted as one of 16 teams to compete in this years FJORG! competition at SIGGRAPH in LA in August. FJORG! is an iron-chef like competition for character animators where 16 teams of three create a 15-second character animation based off a similar theme in only 36 hours. What makes this competition interesting is the contest creators try very hard to keep you from completing you masterpiece by doing many different distractions. From fire-breathing performances to late night techo rave music.

From what I hear this is a great competition to be a part of and a wonderful way to make connections. Last time I did a competition like this was at KAFI 2002 with Damian and Pete where we and two others spent 5 days and 5 nights in a community college along with 8 other teams to create a 30 second PSA animation. It was a blast, and a wonderful way to work on your team work abilities.

I cant wait to compete and I will share our results on this blog in mid-August. Hopefully we will win!

Animation Observation 01 - contrast in movements

To be a good animator you have to do your research and observation. And this is where youtube really comes in handy.

Lately I've been checking out old Dick Van Dyke clips and am amazed at his physical control and slapstick humor. Check out this clip for some really amazing work. Talk about contrasted movements! It doesn't get more contrasted than this.

What is particularly interesting to me is how Dick uses his body to get from one extreme to the next... its got an amazing flow to it, and the arcs in the hands and overlap in the spine/head really make it hilarious, and magical.

FOX 2 News White Castle interview

Heidi and I celebrated Valentines Day the same way we have for the past 3 years... at White Castle! This is the third year White Castle has gone all out for V-day with your own reservations and servers.

This year, we actually got interviewed by FOX 2 News! Check it out:

Click here to watch interview

The image of Heidi and I on the left is from three years ago, at our first White Castle Valentines date.

Jenkins gets limited distribution!

My 3D animated short film "The Legend of Farmer Jenkins" will be released in limited distribution on a compelilation disc of horror shorts. This DVD collection features 7 award winning shorts from the highly respected Spooky Movie Film Festival which Jenkins showed in two years in a row.

I am VERY honored to know that Jenkins will be available on DVD along with such amazing work. This is the first of Many Volumes that the Spooky Movie Film Festival people will release under the title "Festival of Horrors". Additionally, I will receive a portion of the profits of this Volumes sales! Click on the cover art image to get a better look.

Once this disc is on the market I will post information on where to purchase it. Jenkins has been my little engine that could. It's been shown in over 10 film festivals across the country, 60,000 hits in one day on myspace.com, and has it's own page on IMDb. And finally it will be available for purchase in stores!

My AM Mentor is Senior Animator on the new Ghostbusters game!!

Bustin' makes me feel gooood!

I just put two and two together when I was in Q&A and saw my mentors desktop had a ghostbusters logo on it. And I knew he was just hired at a game studio in Texas and I recently found out that the new GB game is being made by Terminal Reality, a game company in Texas! It's top secret but I busted him!

I am stoked about this because I am a huge GB fan and this game looks AMAZING! They are doing everything right including continuing the story from the second movie and bringing back all the actors for voice over including Bill Murray. Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis are even writing the script for the game!

I am extremely jealous of Paul but so happy to know he is involved in a big way with this project. I hope to hear more! I want an internship Paul!

UPDATE!
Paul was kind enough to actually give me a few cutscene shots to animate in this game! I got to animate the ghostbusters which was an amazing experience. The game came out June 16th and I am half way through it. Very cool to see my animations in context of the game. Thank you Paul!

Wolf Lake Ranch

My wife decided to make my birthday gift a surprise and told me nothing other than what to pack (from long johns to a Hawaiian shirt!). We hit the road and headed north. Two hours in she finally tells me that we are going horseback riding for the weekend at Wolf Lake Ranch!

Heidi knows I love horseback riding and that I always ask to go whenever we are on vacation. Since Heidi has never ridden a horse (except once at my uncles house with me pulling the horse around), she usually isn't too excited about the idea. But being the sweetheart that she is and the good sport, she booked this awesome trip! Not surprisingly Heidi was a natural on the horse and was Cantering in no time.

Check out my Mac gallery for images from the trip!

The DeRidder Haunt 2007

So we geeked out a bit this year for Halloween. Every year we put up some sort of display in front of our house but it is usually a rush job. This year we were inspired early! We made a new tombstone (Sir Edward Poe) and expanded our old creep fence to cover a large portion of the yard. We also added a few new gouls to give it some life! Check out the pictures and let me know what you think.

Unfortunately our house in Royal Oak gets about 5-8 tricker treaters each year, but we are hoping our display will help generate more kids.

And here is an image of Heidi and I as Shaggy and Velma (and Topper as our Scooby Doo!) from the CEA Halloween Party Friday night.


UPDATE: I counted roughly 40 kids that came to our door this year! Might not sound like a lot but when you average about 8 kids a year, this is a nice jump. Hopefully we can keep that trend going :)

My co-workers think they are funny

For some reason, I cannot stand still when I am on a phone call, I believe it's due to my need for constant visual stimulation. At Armstrong White there is NO place to have a private phone call, let alone room to move around while doing so. So when I wanted to have a private chat with my wife while at work, I went to the parking lot behind the building which happens to be in plain view of the 3D room. Oops.

My fellow co-workers, whom are all well aware of my problem, thought it would be funny to walk around me on their phones during my phone call/walk. I tried to run, but they followed...

What does a guy have to do to have a private phone call around here!? And whats wrong with walking laps while on the phone?

Note: Thank you Bruce for documenting the event with your iPhone. Lucky bastard.

Jenkins gets acceped to L.A.A.F.!

I am very happy to report that my short film "The Legend of Farmer Jenkins" has been accepted to the 2007 Los Angeles Animation Festival (L.A.A.F.) and will be shown as a part of their "Ghost Story" Competition. The winner of the competition gets some money as well as having their short featured in an upcoming "Tales from the Crypt"-STYLE anthology DVD.

The L.A.A.F. is designed to showcase new talent and the Ghost Story competition seemed to be designed for Jenkins! In thier words: "...as long as it’s spooky, weird, or scary. If it’s a story, character or atmosphere driven tale with a twist – even better." That pretty much sums up Jenkins!

Jenkins will be shown between 2pm-4pm on October 20th. For more information check out www.laafest.org

Special thanks to John Vassallo for suggesting I do this!