DreamWorks constructed their own Toothless quadsuit for publicity appearances. Check out his appearance on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival recently:

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....pet-at-cannes/

Wish I had the skills to construct something like that.

DreamWorks has released two short behind the scenes featurettes for How to Train Your Dragon 2 featuring some brief interview clips with the voice cast and director. Less than two weeks to the release!

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....your-dragon-2/

DreamWorks just released a clip of the first 5 minutes of "How to Train Your Dragon 2". A lot of it we've seen before since they used pieces of it in the previous two trailers, but now we get to see the whole intro to the movie:

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....gon-2-now-out/

DreamWorks just released the second full length trailer for "How to Train Your Dragon 2". The movie premieres mid-June. Can't wait!

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....ailer-now-out/

Anyone who likes seeing life sized animatronic dinosaurs running around an arena for a live docu-drama type show should check out the Walking with Dinosaurs Arena Spectacular. The show has been touring the world for several years now and is back in North America this year to visit at least 23 cities. Check out the tour schedule and more details at:

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....american-tour/

I saw the show myself on the previous North American tour and thought it was fun. I may even go see it again when it comes through my area.

If you like dragons on the big screen (and after all, who doesn't), then check out an article I wrote about Smaug in the latest Hobbit movie:

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....ly-bad-dragon/

Includes some interview quotes from Benedict Cumberbatch, the voice of Smaug, plus a few behind the scenes tidbits. Enjoy.

DreamWorks just released the first full trailer for How to Train Your Dragon 2 which is due out in theaters in June 2014. The movie is looking pretty awesome and the trailer has got some surprises I wasn't expecting! And their new animation system is producing some amazing looking footage. Check it out:

Click here to watch the latest trailer!

Toothless the night fury dragon from How to Train Your Dragon will appear in the Macy's parade this year as one of those giant character balloons. With the release of How to Train Your Dragon 2 due this coming summer, it will obviously be good for publicity.

Watch a short video of Toothless taking a test flight as they get ready for the parade:

http://youtu.be/oWxGo6XZZW8


Read more about the Toothless balloon here:

http://nightfurylive.com/how-to-tra.....ng-day-parade/

DreamWorks is running a contest where you can win tickets to a showing of the How to Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular live show and with that you also get a backstage tour to meet the dragons. Now that sounds like fun to me! Entering the contest is easy and done online. Start here for more information:

Click here to Enter the Contest for a Chance to Meet the Dragons

You have to enter by April 20, 2012, so don't delay. Spread the word to other HTTYD fans!

I had a fun time at Further Confusion this year. This was my first FC with my Canon 60D DSLR camera. I previously had the Canon 40D and I really like all the improvements that Canon has made in the 60D. In particular, they've changed the default saturation and sharpness settings and I really like the way the pictures look right out of the camera now. The 60D also adds movie mode which wasn't present in the 40D. I really like the quality of the video and the fact that I can switch between still and movie mode in a matter of seconds. The only daunting thing about movie mode is dealing with focus. Unlike most actual camcorders, there is no continuous auto focus while shooting a movie, so unless you're good at manual follow-focus then you're probably going to lose focus if the subject moves out of the focus region. This makes shooting the more kinetic fursuiters a challenge but I was actually able to get good footage more often than not, so overall I'm rather happy with the footage I was able to capture. The nice thing about a con like FC is that there are lots of opportunities to practice and I got better as the con went on. I'll probably be making some sort of montage video once I can decide on how to organize the footage around a theme of some sort.

In the meantime, here's a selection of my best still shots from the con. Thank you to everyone who posed for me!

-- Click for FC 2012 Photo Gallery --

My next con will be Texas Furry Fiesta and then RainFurrest later in the year. Let me know if I'll be seeing you at either of those!

You may already know that the folks who did the Walking with Dinosaurs arena show are doing a new show for How to Train Your Dragon. It will again be an arena show with the dragons portrayed by both elaborate costumes as well as giant sized animatronics like the life sized T-Rex in the Dinosaurs show. If you haven't seen their previous arena show, the dinosaurs were all very impressive looking and I'm looking forward to seeing their dragon creations. I believe the How to Train Your Dragon show will be more story focused and will loosely follow the movie as opposed to the docu-drama type show they did for Dinosaurs.

Some videos recently became available:

http://bit.ly/rhv5Bm
http://youtu.be/tQMGkeV5qIE

The show premieres in Melbourne in March and then tours around Australia and New Zealand. They say it will tour the US next. Here's hoping that San Francisco is one of the cities early in the US tour. I want tickets NOW!

Show of hands: who here would like to have a domesticated fox for a pet, where a domesticated fox is one that interacts with humans in a manner identical to a very friendly dog?

OK, that's just about everyone. No surprises there, huh.

Well, this month's National Geographic has an interesting article about the domestication of animals and of foxes in particular. Turns out there is an ongoing genetic research project started in Siberia about 50 years ago where they selectively breed foxes to understand the domestication process and what genes, if any, make it possible to domesticate a wild animal. And in this relatively short period of time, they now have a colony of foxes that one could easily argue are fully domesticated, or at least nearly so. These foxes will not only actively seek a bond with humans and seek out human interaction and affection, but will happily greet total strangers whom they seem to view as nothing more than potential companions.

The article is available online here (or in your local library in print):

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2.....s/ratliff-text

Be sure to read the second to last paragraph where it says the research group is seeking to obtain permits so that they can sell their excess fox population as pets in order to raise money to further the research. (They are currently forced to sell these foxes to the fur industry.) Assuming all their domestication claims are indeed true, I think this would be pretty cool. Of course, I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for this to happen. After all, California has been fighting against pet ferrets for decades now even though they're legal in 48 states, so who knows how long it would take to get any kind of permitting through at both the federal and state levels. Still, it's a fun notion that it might be possible to keep foxes as pets one day.

And for the "Awww, isn't that cute!" moment, go to the photo gallery:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2.....si-photography

and go through the photos until you find the one where the researchers are all snuggling the foxes in their arms.

-- Furox The Dragon (who also happens to like foxes, and no, I don't mean for dinner)

"Rango" is an upcoming CG animated movie with a photo-realistic look to it that I really like. The story is a furry western of sorts that I'd categorize as an action/adventure/comedy type movie. I'm really liking the character design of the critters in the movie and that they fit in so well with the chosen locale. They live in the dry and dirty desert town of Dirt and their appearance matches. The characters are all somewhat dusty looking and unkempt with somewhat matted and dirty fur. Some are even downright mangy looking. Very different from the squeaky clean look of characters in Disney films and I really like a change of pace like this. I'm hoping this movie turns out as good as it looks in the trailers. I'm liking the little spiky lizard and Rattlesnake Jake so far.

We'll see how this turns out!

Click for Rango Movie Trailers
Click for Rango Screenshots and Wallpaper

Written any poetry about dragons? Well, here's a chance to submit it and possibly get it published in an anthology. Author M.R. Mathias is running a simple contest as a charity fund raiser. You can submit any type of poetry about dragons with no other restrictions. It just has to be dragon centered. Prizes include signed copies of a couple of his books (it's a charity fund raiser, so big prizes aren't really appropriate). Your poem may also be included in an anthology book where all net proceeds will go to charity. So even if you don't win a prize, you may have bragging rights about being a published author!

Click here for full contest details and how to enter.

Here's an excerpt of the main info:

Contest Rules

The poem submitted must center on dragons.  Any style poetry will be accepted.  All entries must be submitted by email to daisynme23188[at]gmail.com before midnight December 15, 2010.  At that time, the entries will be reviewed and judged.  Please reference “M.R. Mathias Poetry Contest” in the subject line of your email.


Prizes


1st Place
– The winner of the poetry contest will be featured on M.R. Mathias' homepage ( http://www.mrmathias.com/Dragoneers.html ), as well as receive a signed copy of his new book The Sword and The Dragon.

2nd Place – The second place winner will receive a signed copy of The Royal Dragoneers.

If there are enough entries to the contest, M.R. Mathias has also graciously agreed to produce an e-book poetry anthology* (available on the Kindle & Nook for $0.99) of all submissions, with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to www.smiletrain.org, as well as a $250 donation to the charity made by the author.

I'm going to enter something just for the heck of it. I know I'm not good enough to win a prize, but I think it would be cool to say I had published a poem!

I went to see Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole while I was up in Seattle for Rainfurrest. Now *this* was a good movie. It's CG animated with that near photorealistic look. The owls themselves are pretty realistic looking, at least as realistic as you can get with talking animals. This is a very non-toony movie, and while there is a little bit of humor here and there for comic relief, the look and story are fairly serious overall. In particular, the owls don't use their wings for anything except flying. No where in the movie do they try to use their wings as substitutes for arms and hands. If they have to pick something up, they use their feet or beaks.

There's lots of action and drama in this film, and I can only imagine how much work must have gone into the choreography of the aerial fight sequences. Those were just great to watch, as were all the scenes involving weather and environmental effects. All the sets and scenery were outstanding as well. It's awesome that they can make animated fantasy movies that look this good these days.

Legend was directed by Zack Snyder who also directed 300 and it shows. That type of style works so well with a movie like this and you can tell this movie was directed as if it were live action. I saw this movie on the IMAX screen in 3D and it looked and sounded fantastic.

Animation fans should try to see this movie while it's still in the good theaters. On the other hand, you can wait and just rent Alpha and Omega and you won't really be missing anything.

Legend of the Guardians Trailers
Legend of the Guardians Desktop Wallpaper

I went to see this movie while I was up sightseeing in Seattle after Rainfurrest. Overall, I'd say the movie was OK though it could have been a lot better. It's a toony sort of movie with CG animation, and I rather liked the art style of the wolves. The animation itself is a bit stiff and sub par when compared to the likes of Pixar and the other top studios. I would assume this was due to budget limitations and it's pretty clear they made this knowing it wasn't going to be a blockbuster or anything.

The movie is sort of a comedy/adventure/buddy-movie sort of thing and I think the one thing that would have made the movie a lot better would have been better jokes. Most of the humor just isn't that good and it kind of sticks out. Better comedy throughout would really have improved the overall experience when watching this movie.

From what I saw in the trailer, the movie turned out pretty much as I expected. Though there is a bit more going on in the plot than they let on in the trailer, which I liked since the movie wasn't then totally predictable. There was enough here that I found the movie enjoyable enough though I really wish the humor was better. That single element would have really made a difference in my opinion. But it's still an OK furry movie to me.

Alpha and Omega Trailers
Alpha and Omega Desktop Wallpaper

If you've read my other recent journal entries, you'll know that I attended RainFurrest 2010 in Seattle this past weekend. It was definitely good times! This was my first furry con I've been at outside of California and I think I picked a good one to attend. Compared to FC, RainFurrest is definitely smaller of course but it has a nice vibe to it. I thought the con was well run and all the events and panels I attended were enjoyable and reasonably well organized. Since I'm a science geek, I particularly enjoyed the panels about space and the Apollo program which worked real well with the con's theme. I also really enjoyed Da'alrakken's panels on whales, dolphins, otters, seals and sea lions. Those two panels were the most polished and professional panels I've ever seen at a furry con.

Compared to FC, this con is more laid back. Whether that's due to the smaller size or local culture I'm not sure, but I think I prefer it actually. There are definitely cases I've seen where people at FC take themselves *way* too seriously, and worse, try to push that off on other people which I don't like to see. And things are definitely a lot less rowdy during the fursuit games at RF. At FC, the level of physical rowdiness reaches a point where I'm not certain I would want to participate in the games if I had a fursuit. In this respect, the games at RF and definitely more my speed and I would feel a lot more comfortable competing in them here.

The furry variety show was quite pleasing and had more acts than I would have expected to see at a smaller con. It was a very enjoyable show and worth the time to attend.

I also had fun sightseeing in Seattle. It's been ages since my last trip here, so I stayed on for three extra nights so I could just do sightseeing. I spent one whole day at Seattle Center where I visited the Experience Music Project, the Sci-Fi Museum, the Space Needle, and then wrapped up the day by seeing "Legends of the Guardians" on the IMAX screen at the Pacific Science Center after dinner that night. All those museums and sights were excellent and enjoyed the day there. I also drove up to Everett to do the Boeing factory tour and got to see them building 747s and 787s. Unfortunately they don't let you bring cameras on the tour but it was interesting and fun to see anyway. The factory building itself is enormous: it's 7/10 of a mile long and about 3/10 of mile wide. They say it's the largest building in the world as measured by interior volume (as you can imagine, the ceilings are really high). After the tour, I pulled into the nearby theaters in Everett and saw the new wolf movie "Alpha and Omega" which was a great way to top off the day.

Overall, a very enjoyable visit to Seattle and it was great meeting everyone and making new friends. I hope I'll be able to attend RF again next year!

I'm flying up to Seattle to attend Rainfurrest tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 23rd). I'm looking forward to the trip. This will be my first time attending Rainfurrest and my first visit to Seattle in way too long. Because of that, I've added on some extra days in Seattle for some sightseeing while I'm there. Should be a fun trip!

I'm presently on vacation in Orlando and I went over to Islands of Adventure to check out the new Harry Potter themed area. This is a new section they added to the theme park and it opened just a couple of months ago. Thankfully, now that fall is here the excessive overcrowding by rabid Harry Potter fans has dissipated and you can now visit this themed area with relative ease. I'm a big theme park fan and I will say that they really did a great job with this addition. The addition reportedly cost $265 million and it shows. Everything is very nice done with lots of attention to detail. All the iconic elements from the books are there, all the way down to hearing Moaning Myrtle in the rest rooms.

The lion's share of the money no doubt went into the new dark ride/thrill ride "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey." The ride is outstanding and is by far the most technologically advanced dark ride to date. This ride will undoubtedly displace the Spiderman dark ride (also at Islands of Adventure) as the best dark ride in the world.

I don't want to spoil the ride for people who haven't been on it, so I'll just give you the intro: the premise of the ride is that Harry Potter & company have invited you and a few other muggles to join them in a game of Quidditch. So you can fly along, Hermione casts a flying spell a four seat "bench" so it can fly and carry you along. The ride system is pretty cool and is capable of giving a very convincing illusion of flight, high speeds, banks, and floating in the air. It uses a combination of HD video projection and practical sets that you fly through on a motion control rig. But it's nothing like old style simulator rides like Star Tours since you're not enclosed in a cabin. This is something new. You're just out in the "open air" with your feet dangling.

I've seen and ridden on pieces of the ride technology they use (most notably the Robo-coaster), but this is the first time I've seen all these elements combined together to make a really new kind of ride experience. The ride is also impressively long: the whole ride experience lasts 5.5 minutes and is much more intense than any other dark ride I've been on. There's also a very elaborate and detailed queue line that winds you through familiar sections of Hogwarts.

My favorite part of the ride is when you literally come face to face with a life-sized dragon. It's very cool and that's one of the unique things about this ride system: they can put things right in your face. And I'm not talking about 3D movie images either. I mean real physical set pieces and animatronic characters.

If you like theme park ride experiences, then this is something you'll definitely want to check out. They don't say how much this ride cost, but I'd say it has to be close to $100 million. It's one hell of a dark ride and the show building that houses it is enormous. It's a really great experience and I'm not even that big of a Harry Potter fan.

I've got one more week left in Orlando before I head out to the other side of the country to Rainfurrest in Seattle, and you can bet I'll be spending some more time at Islands of Adventure before I go!

Another furry movie premiers this month, this time with owls in the main roles. It's "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" and it will be presented in 3D like just about all CG animated films are these days. The visuals look outstanding. I don't know much about the story since I haven't read the books, but from the trailer it looks promising. It's not a toony movie like "Alpha and Omega" and instead seems to go for a more naturalistic look and more drama. I'm hopeful about it myself. Some links in case you want to take a look:

Legend of the Guardians movie trailer

Legend of the Guardians Desktop Wallpaper Pictures

Here's another potentially fun CG animated movie: Alpha and Omega.

It seems to be part buddy-movie and part "pauper seeks the love of the princess" kind of thing, in a kind of action/adventure/comedy situation. It might good, but it's hard to say based on the trailer. I like the character design of the wolves if nothing else. That poofy hair they all have is kind of cute. ^_^

Alpha and Omega Trailers
Alpha and Omega Desktop Wallpaper

We'll know soon if it's any good. The movie opens next month and will be in 3D of course.

I wrote an article recently showing where to find free mp3 song downloads that are completely legal. You won't find the top 100 songs here, but there's lots of good music just waiting to be discovered. Got space left on your iPod? Well, here's how to fill it up!

Free MP3 Downloads

Happy listening!

Finally got a chance to see "Toy Story 3" tonight and loved it! It really amazes me that they could come up with such a good story three times in a row now for this series. So many sequels suck so badly that it's so nice to see one that's actually good, no make that great! The visuals are stunning of course. You can really tell how much the state of the art for CG animation has advanced over the years. And the 3D was excellent. And the way the ending worked with more and more layers being added and more challenges for the characters as it went on. What a fun ride! Just a great movie all around.

Next on my list is "The Last Airbender". I know the critics don't like it, but I still want to see it anyway. I'm really interested to see what their take is on converting this story from animation to live action. And I want to see how the CG Appa and Momo look. Taking cartoon animals and making them photorealistic doesn't always turn out well and I'm interested to see if they can pull it off and avoid having them look silly and out of place in the live action world. I'm looking forward to seeing this movie and I hope I'll like it despite what the critics have to say.

I saw the latest (and last) installment of the Shrek movie series last night and thought I'd post a few comments. No real spoilers here, however if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know anything before you go, then you should probably skip this.

Overall, I liked the movie and was pleased that the plot is quite different from the previous three films. One difference about this one from the previous films is that the story focuses primarily on Shrek himself with less support from the other characters (which you'll understand why once you see the storyline). Fiona and Rumpelstiltskin feature prominently in the movie as well, but the other sidekick characters like Donkey, Puss and Dragon do little in this one. Donkey in particular has a much smaller role to play in the story, and other than delivering his usual wisecracks at appropriate times, doesn't really do anything to further the plot. It's kind of a shame to see less of the furry characters, but it does make sense given the story that they chose to tell. I figured Dragon wouldn't be featured much since she hasn't really been used in the story since the first movie, but I did expect to see more of the other furries. Oh well. At least Dragon has a good sized appearance in the Shrek 4D attraction at Universal Studios. I think she probably has more screen time in that attraction based movie than in the first film! No complaints from me of course.

I saw this movie in 3D on the IMAX screen and it certainly looks great in that venue. There were a number of typical 3D gags, but nothing too over the top in my opinion. The animation looked good as did the rendering of the images. Just great to watch.

I would have been happier if the furry characters had a bigger role to play (especially Dragon!), but this wasn't a bad way to end the series. Worth seeing in my opinion.

I saw this movie on the IMAX screen in 3D last night and really enjoyed it, though that was pretty much a given from the start of course since it has dragons in it. It's sad that dragon movies are so few and far between so it's nice when one finally comes out. (The Shrek movies don't count as dragon movies since while there is a dragon in them, the dragon isn't the focus of the story.)

Without spoiling anything for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, I liked the way the story progressed and I liked the characters. And like just about all the other 3D movies of late, they don't use silly 3D effects and this is a good thing. Silly effects are fine if you're making a silly movie, but they get really distracting with story-focused movies like this one. For a movie like this one, they used the 3D just the way they should: to make the virtual world seem all that more real. Instead of just looking at a picture on the wall of the theater, the 3D makes it look more like you're looking through a window into another world and that I really like. The depth effect adds so much more reality to this fun world we get to watch for 90 minutes. And the giant IMAX screen is great as well. The image fills a good portion of my peripheral vision and makes the experience more immersive. It's almost like it's all happening right in front of you. (If only it could.)

The dragons themselves are fun to watch. The character design they chose was to make them monstrous looking but with silly faces. They look like they could be dangerous in the fighting scenes, but it's also hard for kids to be afraid of them with those faces. Seemed like a good way to approach it.

And like all present day CG animated movies, all the imagery and effects were top notch. Tons of details in all the environment and all the textures. Lots of detail in all the human characters including skin, clothing and hair. Water and wave simulation on the ocean was great, too. Great look to the film overall.

I do have to subtract a few points for the overall story though. While it was very good, I have to say that I feel it is a slight step down from Dreamworks' previous CG film "Kung Fu Panda". That story was just so perfectly put together with all the elements fitting so well that it's going to be hard to top. And I think "How to Train Your Dragon" just comes up a bit short in comparison. That's not to say it's bad of course since I still liked it a lot, but I just feel it could have been a bit better overall. In particular, I feel the pacing is a bit off in places and one or two aspects of the story aren't developed sufficiently or quite the way they should have been. But hey, it's still a dragon movie, and that just can't be bad.

Obviously I highly recommend this movie. Definitely see it in 3D and make the effort to visit an IMAX theater to see it if you can. I'm going to see it a second time myself in about a week or so. Gotta enjoy it while I can since who knows how long I'll have to wait for another dragon movie.