Flashback: The Herald Interviews Pixar’s Albert Lozano, Concept Artist

As you may know last week we talked to Pixar concept artist Albert Lozano. We video chatted with him through the webcam program iChat. iChat is an apple application that allows Mac users to chat with each other live, through a continuous video stream.

Some of the questions we asked Albert last week were , "What is your favorite character from the movie "Up"?, and, "What was it like doing the concept art and drawing up the ideas for the movies Monster's Inc. and Ratatouille?"

Albert said that his favorite character was Dug, the dog from "Up". Dug is a dog that the main characters in the movie find in the jungle. He has a a special collar around his neck that allows him to "speak" his mind. Albert also mention another character he worked on, Kevin, the 13-foot-tall rare bird the main characters also find in the South American jungle. In response to the second question Albert showed us some sketches from Monster's Inc. (see one below), and he also explained the reactions that let him know if his picture is good, okay, or not needed and needs change.


See part of our interview, as posted on The Hillwood Herald.

Here we also have a survey of some people's favorite Pixar movies. What's yours?

Last week's special package about "Up" included the following stories:

• Pixar's Sky High with New Movie "Up," by Darien C.

• Gamer Review: Merit Badge Mayhem, Julien G.

• The Creative Process: Characters of "Up" — Carl & Russel, Brigette W.

• Behind The Scenes, Zack O.

• Getting Creative: The Characters of 'Up' — Kevin & Dug, Irene X.

Interview with Albert Lozano

Last week The Hillwood Herald talked with Albert Lozano, a Pixar concept artist, and we thought that we should let everyone see our interview.

Last week's special package about "Up" included the following stories:

• Pixar's Sky High with New Movie "Up," by Darien C.
• Gamer Review: Merit Badge Mayhem, Julien G.
• The Creative Process: Characters of "Up" — Carl & Russel, Brigette W.
• Behind The Scenes, Zack O.
• Getting Creative: The Characters of 'Up' — Kevin & Dug, Irene X.

Summing-Up 'San Francisco's Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights'

This book features nostalgic pictures and captions that show Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights in the 20th -century with an introduction.

Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights are located in the Northern parts of San Francisco.
These districts have a rich history and architecture that is unique to "The City". They are mostly residential, but consulates, schools, hospitals, gardens, and religious centers have have made their way in these two neighborhoods.

Houses were simple and elegant, with curves and designs carved on them without being over-elaborate. Because by the late 19th-century jigsaws were invented, these machines were able to produce details on buildings more efficiently, allowing for the Victorian style to spread. Most buildings of the Victorian style were able to survive the 1906 earthquake.












Sources:San Francisco's Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights by Tricia O'Brien.
Images:Courtesy of San Francisco's Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights

National Ignition Facility Houses the World's Largest Laser

On Friday, May 29,2009, the National Ignition Facility (NIF for short) will be celebrating the new laser in Livermore,Californa.Officials have said that there will be an estimated number of 3,500 people attending including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and laser pinoeer Charles Townes.

How the Laser Works :

In most large lasers, there are white flashes from giant flashlamps. "A system of mirrors at both ends of the laser glass amplifier causes the photons to travel back and forth through the glass, stimulating more electrons to drop to their lower energy states and emit laser photons. This process results in "amplification," or the production of huge numbers of photons of the same wavelength and direction."

Some people have trouble reading science (including me) so NIF has created a little comic strip about where photons came from. It's very cute and it also explains scientific terms.

Source: National Ignition Facility & Photons, The New York Times

Pictures from the National Ignition Facility & Photons and the New York Times

The Maker Fair

The Maker Fair is were some scientist and "makers" come and show off what they have. Makers are people who make things for a hobby. It is open to the public for all ages.The Maker Fair has been going on for three years, and this is the third. The fair is in San Mateo, which is about thirty min from San Francisco. The fair starts on May 30th through May 31st. The fair is a great place to learn, invent, engineer, eat, and the arts and crafts are great for kids.


The Best of Maker Faire 2008 - Watch more funny videos here

The Big Hillwood Sleep Over

The 4th though 8th grade went to the cabin. It is an annual event but it might feel like a prize for the lower grades because they have waited so long.

At the cabin we interact with nature, go on hikes, play basket ball, and play baseball. Also there is very good food too. We ate Tri-Tip, chicken, corn on the cob, salad, and pasta. For break fest we had scrambled eggs, potatoes, and more.

For the hike, we went to Muir Woods. We saw Banana slugs, Red Wood Trees, animals, and lots of plants.

The So Called "NUTRITION" Game

This new game,"Mypyramid Blastoff" was released this this month by the USDA's Team Nutrition, and is supposed to teach the difference between good and bad foods, and which one's go in a rocket ship.

In the game ,you have to drag different foods from above and put them in your food, gas container, thingy, to make your rocket ship blast off.

I was not able to beat this game even though it was supposed to be easy. I think grades 1-7 should be the range for playing.

Pixar's Sky High with New Movie "Up"

First it was Toy Story, then Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. next, Cars in 2006, Wall-E in 2008, and now Pixar has done it again.

Coming to theater's on May 29, Pixar's newest wacky adventure, "Up," is going to be a movie that will be a great adventure all the way through.

The main plot is about an adventure taken by and 85 year old widower, Carl, and an overly-excited 8-year-old Widerness Explorer, Russell. These two unlikely heroes take an adventure that no one has ever taken before. When Carl, an idealist, releases a huge mass of ballons from his house, his house takes off into the sky. Russell had been hiding on Carl's front porch and joins Carl on his adventure. The floating house takes them to South America. There they discover not only the fat, lovable, glob of a dog, Dug, who is part of a pack of dogs hunting down a rare bird, but also the rare bird, Kevin.

The Hillwood Herald crew also interviewed Pixar concept artist, Albert Lozano, and asked him some questions. He says that Dug was his favorite character. (You can see some of Mr. Lozano's sketches of Dug on The New York Times.)

This movie will be great for the whole family and everyone will enjoy this adventurous comedy. Parents of kids 5- should be around if you let your kids watch this.

The image is from the official Pixar website, and anyone can download free screensavers and posters from the site.

Gamer Review: Merit Badge Mayhem

Merit Badge Mayhem is a game with a lot of mini games in the main game. You are a boy scout doing boy scout things like fishing, navigating, swimming, and more.

The game is a very basic. It is easy to play but hard to win. When I tried I only got to the baseball mini game. I think a kindergardener can play this game because it is easy to play and not violent. I think kids would enjoy doing the mazes, puzzles, and the batting in Merit Badge Mayhem.

Albert Lozano, an illustrator and production artist at Pixar, who help draw some pictures in Ratatouille, Monsters inc, and The incredible. One of the creatures he made in the game was the colorful bird Kevin.

The Herald interviewed Mr. Lozano through two computers and using iChat. iChat is the Instant Messaging, IM application, that ships with the Macintosh OSX operating system. iChat lets people talk to people using ".mac," AOL's AIM, and a few other services. When you iChat, you are video-sharing with someone else. You can hear and see the person you are communicating with.

IM is a type of communications service that lets you send written messages to other people. You are communicating in real time, or right away -- like when you are on a telephone with someone.

This image is from the official Pixar site and it is the character Kevin and one of the characters that Mr. Lozano drew.

The Creative Process: Characters of "Up" — Carl & Russel

Today, the upper-grade class got to interview Albert Lozano, one of the concept artists of the movie "Up". He created the concept art of characters Carl, Russel, Dug, & Kevin, but this post will be talking about Carl and Russel.

Carl is the "square-headed", stubborn, 78-year-old man who has a yearning for adventure. Russel is an excited, young, boyscout. The story is about their relationship and how it grows as the adventure takes place in the skies.

You can hear the director Pete Docter and the production designer Ricky Nierva talk about these characters on The New York Times. You can also see some of Mr. Lozano's illustrations on the site. In our interview with Mr. Lozano, he showed us some of his original sketches for Carl.

Source: The New York Times

Behind The Scenes

In the behind the scenes, they used clay models of the characters to get the main idea of it. A movie like up, takes several years to make. They had to use a black collie for Dug, a six year old for the boy scout, an old man for Carl. You can watch three behind-the-scene videos on CGI Explorer, a website about computer animation. The film clips show you how very different the final film looks from the process. You can even see where they go for inspiration — South America.

We had a friend, Albert Lozano, who worked for Pixar, and we got to Ichat with him. Albert did the sketches for Kevin, the big tall bird. Albert also worked on Incredible's, and Cars.

I hope that I will get to see Up when it comes out in theaters.

The images are courtesy of CGI Explorer.

Getting Creative: The Characters of 'Up' — Kevin & Dug

I'm sure you have heard about the up and coming movie 'Up'. And today, I got information about two characters from the movie: Dug the overweight dog and Kevin the colorful bird.

Dug, the dog from 'Up', was inspired by a Golden Retriever that Ricky Nierva, the Production Designer, discovered on the internet. He is drawn by Albert Lozano, a Production Artist Illustrator. Many times, Albert would have to redraw Dug if Pete Docter, the director of the film, wanted a different image. He had wanted to draw this "big, happy, gullible dog."

Kevin, a 13 foot tall bird, was based on the Himalayan Monal Pheasant. According to The New York Times and Albert, "Pete wanted a complex character. It had to be vulnerable, it had to be scary. It had to be colorful, and it had to be huge."

Sources: 'Up' Movie New York Times Mulitmedia, A Related Article Of the Movie 'Up'

Sleepover at Hillwood’s Muir Woods Lodge

Hillwood’s older students, including fourth through eighth-graders, are going on an overnight trip, from Friday, May 15, until the next day. At the cabin, students will take hikes and observe wildlife at the Hillwood Lodge.

Watch The Herald for coverage next Friday, May 22, of the outing. For now, listen to Brigette, a seventh-grader, interview Darien, who will be graduating on June 12.

Darien, who recently wrote and talked about applying to high schools in San Francisco, explains what students can expect to see and do at the cabin, from spotting deer, salamanders, and banana slugs to learning about trees and tannic acid. Last summer, the Hillwood lodge had some unexpected visitors — spotted owls (see photo by Mr. Eric Grantz). The owls, which are endangered, visited throughout the summer and could often be found on the fir tree by the Zach Shack.



Filmed by Irene X., who recently wrote about the use of electricity in California and developed the survey about ice-cream flavors.

Check Out The Herald's New Photos

Irene X.'s photos have been uploaded to Hillwood's school webite. Feel free to download them and use them in blog postings. As time allows, help write captions for each image.

Read what makes a good caption. Hint: It is essentially following the five W's of news writing (who, what, when, where, why). Also, avoid stating the obvious or using hokey phrases, and always remember -- if you don't have something nice to say, then don't say it. Additionally, use only first names and last initial in reference to your fellow students.

Here are some sample captions to consider:

BAD: Here Juliene types on a computer.
(This states the obvious and spells his name incorrectly.)

GOOD: Julien G., a seventh-grader at Hillwood Academic Day School, is working on an article about how to create your own super hero for The Herald.

The Results Are In: Green Tea Wins

Create Your Own Super Hero

Marvel Comics has a "Create Your Own Super Hero" website that allows people to design and show off their own super hero.You can make your hero's name, armor, and weapons.

Both Vimeo and YouTube are video-hosting sites. Vimeo is newer and smaller, and the videos found it are generally of better quality in sound and video than those found on YouTube. Also, Vimeo.com is more appropriate then YouTube.com because you can not add inappropriate videos, and you can not illegally copy video clips.

Image designed by Julien G.

One of the Great Wonders of San Francisco: The Bay Bridge

Daily hundreds of commuters commute across the bay bridge from communities ranging from Berkley to Concord. However many people just see this as a bridge and few truly appreciate the magnificence of this wonderful structure.

Also even fewer realize that they can find so much about projects and other fun facts about the Bay Bridge on http://baybridgeinfo.org/ and for video coverage go to http://baybridge360.org/#/section/sastransitions.

As you may know there are many reconstructions going on around and on the Bay Bridge. Most of the work is centered around the Yerba Buena Island Transition Structure (YBITS) and the Self-Anchored Suspension Span (SAS).

According to the Bay Bridge info website, the SAS section of the bridge is currently under the largest public contract in California history. The renovations' main job is currently to re-enforce the bridge to make it better structured in the case of an earthquake. This section of the bridge is the largest bridge of its kind and is quite unique in the way that it only has one support cable attached the a 525 foot tall steel tower, along with many other tiny cables.

On the YBITS section of the bridge the state is adding a 900 foot parallel expansion/detour.

Image from baybridgeinfo.org.

Last week Darien was interviewed by Irene about applying to high schools in San Francisco.

California's Source of Electricity

Recently, I have been looking around online and I researched too. I found out California's source of electricity. So far, we use:

• 47% gas
• 20% hydro
• 18% nuclear
• seven% geothermal
• three% biomass
• two% wind
• one% oil
• less then one% of coal
• less than one% of solar

The San Francisco County's Hunter's Point use:

• Natural gas, our primary fuel type
• Four generators
• 427 MW nameplate capacity
• 619,481 MW hours of annual net generation

Source: NPR Website

Current Events: Evolutionary Creatures — From Sea to Land

Paleontologists have found a fossil that belonged to a creature that was one of the first fish to begin to grow feet. It has been named the Titaalik. This fish was still a fish, but at the ends of its fins, developing fingers and toes were suggested. It also had flexible necks, larger ribs, eyes on the top of the head, and the ability to breathe on land. Because of the Titaalik's evolving fins, it could easily avoid danger by propping itself up on land in shallow water. This animal made up some of the roots of whales, dolphins, and porpoises.

Another fossil found was that of the Indohyus. Though it looked like a fox-sized rodent, it was a relative of the hippopotamus and of the whale. Its ears, teeth, and bones resembles those of modern whales, meaning that it spent much time underwater.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Image Courtesy of: San Francisco Chronicle

This is my Wordle:

NASA Timeline

This timeline about NASA's historical moments is still being built. It will take two blog sessions to complete.

Click here to watch the timeline about Hillwood Academic Day School.

Student Assignment: Zach
Build a timeline about NASA's work. Use information from NASA's fact sheet.

1) Go to Timetoast and log in.

2) Click on "Add a New Time Line"

3) Write a name for your time line.

Use this image: http://www.hsv.k12.al.us/schools/high/hct/Hunch/nasalogo.jpg

4) Upload the text (events) and related images from NASA. Add as many as you would like. Remember to include the source for your material and rewrite the text to make the wording your own.

October 11-12, 1968
Apollo 7, the first piloted Apollo mission, took place with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham. (Source: NASA)

Use this image: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo-7/apollo-7-patch.jpg

October 11, 1984
Katherine Sullivan was the first U.S. woman to walk in space.

Use this image: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/250553main_image_1110_946-710.jpg

July 1999
Eileen M. Collins was the first female commander of the space shuttle. She and her crew launched aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on the STS-93 mission. (Source: NASA)

Use this image: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/166761main_s99-00858.jpg