Great news! Shark Suit: the Musical will be screening this Sunday at the ASIFA East festival!

I'm really looking forward to having my work screened in front of the community I've learned to love and become a part of these past 4 years since moving to New York. It's a huge honor. Plus, there will be free cookies (and other fancy refreshments). And last year nickelodeon gave out frisbees!

It's all FREE. This Sunday at 6pm at New School. Don't even come to see my film, come to see the other awesome films! Like Tim's.

Shark Suit also won Best Animation this past week at the Rincon International Film Festival in Puerto Rico. Believe me, I wish I could have made it to that one...

I'm a big fan of bloggers posting screenshots from films. So I thought I would start doing the same. Here's a sequence from "the jerk" that I've always found funny.

So here they are. Bernadette Peters and Steve Martin in Carl Reiner's "the jerk."











See how the kiss is the easy laugh? But Steve's look at the end is what sells the entire sequence for me.

It works on a lot of levels, building on the archetype of the hollywood kiss. It manages to be humorous, this weird gag of sorts, as well as oddly character-driven. Finally, the best part of this gag is the last shot, a look that requires a strong performance to be funny.

I'll make a huge generalization here--these days nearly every big studio animation has some sort of romance. Mostly, these love interests interact in some kind of playful, awkward banter. That's fine, and more often than not it's hilarious. But I wish there were more moments like these in large animated films (maybe not quite as weird?). silent, physical interaction goes a long way. And it can still be hilarious and emotional. Can't wait to see how it's done in wall-e.

It's not an easy thing to do. I'll get off my soapbox. What do you guys think?

blob people
happy square man

or maybe something like this:


In other news, everyone should mark their calendars for nyu's spring animation screening, where you can finally see shark suit. Here's the info on posters by joy marie smith and jd amato.

it's done, minus some sound mixing.

This is the postcard, maybe. Maybe not.

undersea creatures are strange. Anyone seen the hairy lobster thing?



Chicken cowboy is unbelievably close to being almost completed. Expect a trailer up on youtube in a week or so.

nothing like trying to put your future in the mail.

Here's to graduation in a month.

"Any questions?"

*late night edit:

anyone know how to get rid of digital artifacting out of FCP when rendering at animation compression or mpeg2?

I don't.

"You're a really nice guy, but the whole washing machine for a head thing is sort of a deal breaker."

I finally made imdb. woo hoo.

cheers to ollie johnston. Who knows what those 9 guys will come up with now that they're together again.

Hey everyone!

News today is Shark Suit news. "Shark Suit: the Musical" was picked as MTVu's Film of the Week! So if you haven't seen the whole thing, here's the place to do it:

MTVu best film on campus

There's also a cool critic's review you can read/watch:

critic's review here

check it out!

just shark suit

Also, Shark Suit is screening tonight at 9pm at Cantor Film Center on 8th Street. It picked up two awards this year in NYU's First Run Film Festival. One for Achievement in Animation and another award for original score. Props to my music people, Christopher Han and my sis Christin Neary.

the reward for reading through all that boring news is this cartoon! nice and upbeat!

"Well he sure as hell doesn't get it from ME!"

Hi everyone. So here's "mickey," the first in a new series of short shorts I'm hoping to animate every now and then. This one is an animated phone message from my mom in which she tells me it's time to put my childhood dog to sleep.



Simple, to the point, expressive, and short. That's what I'm going for with these.

part of my new "make more crap" mantra.

note card doodles. this guy communicates in a series of short and long vacuum noisesI hate that sound.

It continues. Here are some stills from the credit sequence. I'm playing with some live action footage, which I may or may not keep in. Maybe it's better if I don't explain what's going on.




The hardest part of this entire project was definitely growing that mustache. It took dedication and a full 22 years of my life. Anyhow, my hope is that this sequence will be funny whether you know me or not. If not funny, at least weird.

I also wanted to plug NYU's First Run Film Festival. "Shark Suit: the Musical" will be screening at Cantor Film Center on 8th Street & 5th avenue on Friday, April 11th at 9pm. It's in a block of cool animated and experimental screenings:

STEPHEN NEARY SHARK SUIT: THE MUSICAL (6 MIN)
CHRISTEN SMITH SALLY TAKES THE LEAD (3 MIN)
JOSH INTRATOR PILOT (2.5 MIN)
GUENEVER GOIK DREAM PUP IN AISLE 4 (1.5 MIN)
DAVID PAGANO LITTLE GUYS! (3 MIN)
JOSE ANDRES CARDONA A PICKLE LIKE YOU MUSIC VIDEO (5.5 MIN)
BENJAMIN NICHOLAS COUPLES (18.5 MIN)
MAX NOVA THE BYSTANDER EFFECT (8 MIN)
BEN BINDRA VERSES (30 MIN)

And as always, here's the Shark Suit trailer:



I'm also excited to see some live-action stuff my friends have been working on. Here's the trailer for Liz Toonkel's "Fashion Kills!" I did some animation for a few scenes and the titles.



I wholeheartedly support anything shot on super 8. It'll be screening at 3:45 on Thursday, April 10th.

Seems like everyone is working hard on a film these days. Here's my pal Harry, unrolling 30 feet of watercolor paper for his current project: