My Second Film: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

I was really able to get my programming creativity going with this film. I created some super cool animation tools Raptor and Avatar (also extensively used on G-Force). Raptor had hidden geometry shaped like the character. When the animator selected a part of the body, the correct control would be selected. It also supported right-click menus for more advanced options. This way the viewport is not cluttered by control handles.

Avatar was a method of caching the geometry of a character real-time as the animator keyframed the controls, and would allow the animation scene to be played back at 24fps in the viewport whenever the animator wanted.  This eleminated the need for playblasting, and the animator could watch from any angle since it was openGL data.

I also developed character pipeline tools and provided animation support.

Synopsis: Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be the most delicious event since macaroni met cheese. Inspired by the beloved childrens book, the film focuses on a town where food falls from the sky like rain.

Release Date: September 18th, 2009 (wide) Visual effects and animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks.