Hangin' with Justins: Virtual Vacations

I've had the idea for adding a silly 'laugh-track' now for awhile, and thought this would be as good short as any to add it to.

I know I said I was done making these videos for awhile, but as it turns out, I'm not, because that's a new one up there.

I was truly inspired by last night's Oscars, as we all are, to a certain extent, and especially moreso since a couple guys I worked with won last night.

Brandon Oldenburg was a co-worker of mine at Reel Fx in Dallas for seven years. He hired me. He explained the ins and outs of the studio to me. He was a mentor in many ways to me and a lot of others like me.

In 2006 we had the opportunity to design the opening titles for 'Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.' This was a monumentous occasion. We drove to Shreveport to meet up with Bill Joyce and discuss what exactly we'd be doing. He let us go wild with it.

I'm still extremely proud of that sequence. And the producers of the film even let us have our own little title card for our names, unheard of for designers in today's title sequences.

And then, when it was time for Brandon to go on his own, he left Reel FX, the studio he co-started in 1995. The man who made the place I was working at, left.

A year later, I left, as well. I've talked with him a few times since and knew they were up to something out in Shreveport, Bill and Brandon.

Turns out, now the whole world knows, too. They took home an Oscar for 'Best Animated Short', beating out Pixar.

Inspiration comes in many forms, none moreso than seeing a colleague succeed on such a wonderfully high level.

Congrats to Brandon and Moonbot, the little guys who dared to dream big and take down the big boys.

And to all of us little guys out there...never give up.