Big Jump Blog » Rod Amador

BIG JUMP Christmas Party 2009

Rod Amador — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:49:20 +0000

We want to thank everyone who joined us this year for the Big Jump party. It was a pleasure to have everybody enjoy themselves and get away from the daily grind.

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We look forward to another prosperous year and we wish you all the best for the holidays and 2010.

Ben Bear IV Stills

Rod Amador — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:50:43 +0000

Big Jump, now half way through production on the 4th cycle of The Secret World of Benjamin Bear is proud of our team and what we have been able to accomplish with The Adobe Suite.

“It’s a pleasure to see the quality and fullness of animation we have been able to achieve by using the digital medium and traditional skills. I am thrilled to see animators drawing again” says Rod Amador VP of Big Jump Productions.

Once production is commenced we never leave the digital domain from design through to offline edit. The transition from traditional to digital has been seamless, maintaining the rich fullness of the environments in HD and the appeal of the animation itself. Ben Bear 4 is a prime example of the possibilities of the software when operated by first rate talent at all levels.

“Everything is going according to plan, not only is the software an excellent tool for full animation production but the economics are unparalleled” says Cory Morrison VP of Big Jump Productions.

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Big Jump goes Paranormal

Rod Amador — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:58:31 +0000

Big Jump delivers Ralph Filmore Paranormal Investigator Promo to Amberwood Entertainment and Arcana Comics. The next big thing to hit MIPJunior….. no doubt! “The stylistic comic book approach coupled with fast paced animation and ultra dynamic staging is sure to make Filmore a hit.”

We made this possible with the collaboration of the Big Jump senior animation crew, Bradley Cayford, Leisl Adams and Steve Valdez. Great job everyone!

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OIAF 2009

Rod Amador — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:42:25 +0000

BIG JUMP Productions is both proud and excited to repeat as co-host of the Opening Night Shindig at this year’s Festival in October. Not only are we hosting with Atomic Cartoons again but are additionally pleased to have Kevin Gillis … Continue reading →

Meet our Production Crew

Rod Amador — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 04:04:27 +0000

Here is a chance to introduce our Crew hard at work on Ben Bear 4. We recently expanded our Cintiq capacity to allow all designers to draw on their screens and maintain the traditional approach with a digital tool.

The guys who keep the lights on…

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The production staff…

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The Character Rigging team…

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The designers….

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Character Design with Action Script 2.0 vs 3.0

Rod Amador — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:56:34 +0000

Action Script 2.0 vs 3.0

While working with the new version of Flash (ver 10 or CS4) we encountered a few problems making the software unstable. We were experiencing constant crashes from doing things like cycling from one frame to another, or scrubbing through the frames.

We also noticed that the files seemed to be very sluggish when doing simple navigation through the stage. After many attempts at trying to clean up the files; which were clean to begin with, we decided to convert them down to Flash 8. As soon as that was done, the files worked great. There were no crashes and the scrubbing was very smooth.

So we proceeded to call Adobe on this issue, and after talking to one of their techs he suggested to change the action script version from 3.0 to 2.0. This immedialtely improved the performance.

They still don’t know why the new action script 3.0 in Flash CS4 is causing this to happen but I’m sure they will release an update that will fix this.

Xmas party went off with flying colours

Rod Amador — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:17:18 +0000

We were thrilled to have our Christmas Party at the studio to celebrate the end of the year with all our friends and family. We had Pete from the caf cater the digs with all the trimmings and his signature Mexi dip. It was great to have everyone come out and take part in our celebration.

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Big Jump starts Pre Production on Benjamin Bear IV

Rod Amador — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:24:28 +0000

Benjamin Bear IV Turnaround

Our crew is diligently working on the Ben Bear IV character designs creating the character rigs that will be used for full animation. It’s great to be able to take advantage of the Adobe technologies available to produce such a popular series maintaining it’s traditional look.

We look forward to the New Year and full production. It’s already looking fantastic!

Primetime Animation

Rod Amador — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:31:20 +0000

Recently there has been a number of prime time animation content commissioned by Canadian broadcasters. It certainly is about that time, maximizing home grown talent from writing, design, animation through post production as the search continues for the next Simpson’s … Continue reading →

BIGJUMP and ATOMIC to host Ottawa Animation Festival Opening Party

Rod Amador — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:05:16 +0000

Bigjump and Atomic Cartoons are happy to host the opening night party on September 17 @ Helsinki http://www.helsinki.ca/. We are thrilled to be hosting this event alongside Atomic, it should be a great night and we look forward to seeing everyone … Continue reading →