Goodbye Aotearoa...

After almost 2 years of pure happiness in New-Zealand, we left the land of the Maori...
Sadly, Oktobor Animation closed its doors,  not able to survive against China and India competitive low rates...The company couldn't keep us all...
We had to leave cause our visa wasn't working anymore. It was hard, very hard. This country is so precious to my heart. The people are the kindest, the air is pure and the nature beautiful...I made amazing friends and started to feel like it was THE place for us...(even if it is surrounded by 50 volcanos!)
But now that we are parents, we have the biggest responsibility and we needed a plan B.

So plan B was to find another job quickly! Manu did! He is now a rigger at Bluesky Studios in the USA. (http://blueskystudios.com/ Epic, Ice Age, Rio...)
Since November 2013, Manu, Lani, Ficelle and I are living in Stamford, Connecticut. We are about 40 min far by train from NYC! Which is fantastic! NYC! it's like being in a movie every time we are getting out of the train and are in Grand Central station!
I am not going to write too much about the tough winter we've been through cause I will complain a lot and will sound like a real french! but man, it was hard! We felt isolated surrounded by all this snow! I couldn't drive the stroller outside as first it was extremely cold and second it was so icy and dangerous! Hey but it's now summer and things are looking much better!

And then they became 3...

I am a mum! Since April 28th 2013, I am a mum of a little girl named Lani Jade. She is born in the Auckland Hospital in New Zealand. It was the most beautiful experience I ever had! From pregnancy to birth, even if we've been through scary moments, it all worth it!
This all thing is so crazy! You have no control on it. You are like a puppet and until the baby is in your arm, you have no idea what is going to happen! And we are grateful that our little girl is healthy :)
It changes you a lot!
After months of being in the fog figuring this baby thing out, I feel like I am back to my creative self, richer from this experience! I can't wait to bring all those emotions to my future animations.

Epic Mickey 2!!!now, we can talk about it :D

For 5 weeks before leaving Australia, I worked at Plastic Wax (small game company owned by the Maddams family) as a freelance in Sydney on a "secret" cinematic for a Disney game...haha...SO hard when you sign the paper where you guarantee you will not talk about it, mention it or whatever to nobody until it officially releases! yes, hard when you like to talk and share like me but hey > this is a gold rule of our industry and it has to be respected. Also, it has his charm cause when you finally can share, it's exiting and rewarding. I worked with 2 animators on this cinematic. One of them is Maurice Giacomini who also worked on Happy Feet 2. An experienced 2D/3D animator blessed with kindness and James Pearson, a very talented young guy...James is an amazing animator, he was my lead and I learned great tips from him. Here is the link to his demo reel : http://www.pearsonanimation.net/
Most of my work was on the singing mad doctor sequence, some Ozwald shots and the most important,  the last 3D shot when Mickey is waking up at the end! I animated MICKEY! my life is complete :D
Here we go:

Character Animator @ Oktobor -Auckland- New Zealand

The animation industry is so magic! Here I am, at the very end of the world, on a small island...New Zealand. Working on great projects, animating awesome characters at Oktobor animation in Auckland.
TV serie is for sure a different world from Feature film. The rhythm is so intense! You just need to be able to deliver awesome quality on a very short deadline! EASY! Even if it's an everyday challenge, I am enjoying myself so much and feel grateful to do this job!

I started to animate on Robot & Monster, here is a little synopsis :

Created by Dave Pressler, Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia, Robot and Monster has been picked up by Nickelodeon for 26 episodes.  The animated buddy comedy is set in a unique world where gangs of Howling Cyber Monkeys roam the streets at night, everybody loves bacon, and robots and monsters live side by side, but typically don’t get along.  A self-proclaimed genius and amateur inventor, Robot is convinced he is capable of great things, an opinion that is shared by absolutely no one else except Monster.  Monster believes good things happen to good people and that all people are good.  Together, they prove you can handle anything with your best friend at your side.

It's still impossible to find a picture of how exactly the serie looks like cause Nickelodeon is still testing the audience. I really like Robot And Monster, it's sooo funny! Hope to see it soon on TV!

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Another great serie I have the chance to work on : Penguins of Madagascar

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From mi-April, I will start on Kung Fu Panda "Legend of awesomeness". How cool is that?? I can't wait to  challenge myself and animate those great characters kung fu fighting! Hopefully I'll have some cool shots to put in my future demo reel!

WELCOME!

You are on my online portofolio!

My name is Ambre and I am a 3D character animator, working in the industry since 2005 using Maya.

My sensitivity and attention for detail allows me to add depth and personality to my animations.

My goals in our industry, are to learn from experienced & talented people, bring my motivation & passion for animation to a team and work together on nice projects while challenging myself to become a great animator!

Click HERE to look at my latest demoreel

Click HERE to see my latest resume

Check my professional profile on :

Karina & Will customized cups!

Few months ago, I received an email from a nice girl called Karina coming from Tuscon, USA.
She said in her email that she found my blog by chance on the internet, falled in love with my designs and would like to order cups for her and her boyfriend (now future husband).
I can tell you that receiving that kind of compliments from someone you don't know, about your work, is priceless!

So from that, she sent me pictures of her and her boyfriend (Will) with nice little details about them, things they like to do, favourite colors etc...
I soon started to draw, looking for nice charicatures of them. During the time I was working on the cups, Karina and I communicated via email and had nice conversations. She confessed to me that Will asked her to marry him! What a beautiful new to share!
After few months, Karina wrote me again, telling me how happy she is with her cups and how much she likes them! Here are the pictures she kindly sent to me :)
Thank you Karina and I wish you the best with Will <3

Life Drawings

 

 

Australia & me

Because of this fantastic industry which is animation, I have the chance to work on great projects, with talented people and experience new countries, new life styles.
Sydney has been so far the best experience I ever had.
I remember very well being scared when Manu told me that he had a job offer there. I was like "What?! no way! too far!!!".
But then, how could I let him leaving without me! hehe (btw, he will not leave without me :D)
After 1 year and 8 months, I am happy to announce that I am totally in love with Australia! What a beautiful country...For the little I saw, I loved everything..actually, it's a lie...huntsman spiders and others tropical deadly things are still not my cup of tea! But the trees, the nature, the bay, the kangourous, the koalas, the sun, the sand, the dolphins, the whales....and the people...it's magical and I feel very lucky to experience this...
So that was my little love letter to Australia...Yes cause it's not easy to stay in this country...you have to deserve it!
So, hoping to be able to write another post about Australia next year, I just wanted to post the trailer of "Happy feet 2" the movie we are working on and which bring us to the land of OZ...

In french s'il vous plait!

Where the wild things are...

Some of you know the book from Maurice Sendak when you were little. Spike Jonze (imdb Profile) made a movie version of it!
I wasn't really into it when I started to work on this project...I had difficulties with the story which I found too dark and characters ugly! But then, I became familiar with the atmospher and understood the approach of the director and found it fantastic!
I mostly animated "Alex" the goat. Lucky me, he was my favourite character. He is the little child of the team, the shy and scarred one. Spike Jonze was really present in the studio in London. It was great to have his feedback on each animation we did.

Avatar...

Yes, it sounds crazy but I did have my name on the credits of the amazing movie of James Cameron!!! Lucky me, I was part of the small team based in London who worked on few shots for the movie...For me, Avatar is the movie of the century...it's just unbelievable the design, the technic, the story, the everything...