Nathan & Jen Glemboski

"Feelings"

2008-09-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Here's is my final shot for this last semester. The advanced acting class was pretty pretty brutal, and I wasn't very happy with the first shot that I did in it, but think that this latest one is definitely my best so far. This shot took my two months to do. Enjoy!

Day at the Beach

2008-09-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

This last Monday we decided that we would take the day as a family and go the Cannon Beach, since it looked to be the last nice day of the summer. We'd never had a chance to take Coen to the beach before, so we were looking forward to seeing what he thought of it. It took a little getting used to, but once he got over the whole water and sand thing, he loved it! Definitely a very fun day all around.

I just finished up my fourth out of six semesters at Animation Mentor. Only one project left, and that's my short film. That will take the next six months or so to finish, so it's going to be a lot of work. I've got some finishing touches to put onto the shot I've been working on for the last two months and then I'll post it here hopefully this week.

Did you check him, Cory?

2008-07-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well, after three months of work, my first dialog shot is complete. If you're curious, the sound clip is from a Twilight Zone episode. It's definitely been a lot of fun getting to work with this character. He's called Bishop. The faceless one from previous animations was Stewie. Finally getting control over the face has been really fun. This project felt like mostly practice though, so I'm looking forward to hopefully taking it up a notch with the next shot. The next one will be a definite challenge. We have the rest of the semester to complete it, or about 8 weeks. It's a two man dialog shot, so it's about twice and much work with a month less of time, but I'm sure it's going to be a blast. Right now I'm just watching lots of movies trying to find the perfect clip for it. So I guess I'll have more to show you all in about two months then. That will actually be my last regular assignment at animation mentor. The final 6 months will be spent working on my short film, which I'm very much looking forward too.

-Nathan

It's a big one

2008-06-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it been quite some time since I've written an update. We've been pretty busy these last few months. Right now I'm on a one week break between semesters so I thought I'd take advantage of the time and put up a post.

This last semester went very well. My mentor, Scott Carrol, was awesome. I really learned a lot. We spent the last two months working on a 10 second shot with dialog. The character we're using is called Bishop, and he has fingers and a face. He's a lot more complicated than the other simple characters you've seen me using. I'm afraid I don't have any finished animation to show off at the moment thought because we've still got another month to work on the shot this next semester. That whole time will be spent just working on the facial animation for this shot. I'm really looking forward to that and can't wait to get started.

School isn't the only reason that we've been busy however. At the end of May my (Nathan's) parents flew in from Mongolia, and my brother, who just graduated from NTBI, flew out from Wisconsin. They were here for around 3 weeks. It was really wonderful to have everyone here, especially since we hadn't seen them in a year and half. They were obviously excited to get to see their grandson again. The last time they saw him he was only a few weeks old. Needless to say he's grown a lot since then.

Youth group is over the for the summer, and will start back up this fall. It's nice to have a little break to recharge a bit, but I do miss the fellowship on Wednesday nights.

Jen and I celebrated our 3 wedding anniversary this month! It's really hard to believe that it's been that long. It's truly been a wonderful time. I really can't imagine life without her anymore. I don't know how I made it through the first 20 years. :) To celebrate we went down to Depot Bay on the Oregon coast and stayed in a bed and breakfast for the weekend.

The Hesselmans watched Coen so we were able to just relax while we were down there. It was really refreshing. We down to the beach and did some exploring along there.

We also visited the sea lion caves. They're the largest in the world apparently.

On our way back we stopped at the Aero Space Museum. I hadn't even realized that it was there. I love planes and space ships, so that was a blast. The coolest thing to me though was the fact that they actually have the spruce goose at this museum. It the worlds largest wooden plane. It was made in 1947 and only flew once. Its size is incredibly impressive in and of itself, but the fact that it's all wood is even more amazing.

So that's been our last month or so.

Oh, and Coen got his first hair cut. :)

-Nathan, Jen, and Coen

Butterfly Duel

2008-05-12T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just finished up my first animation of the semester. This is the introduction to acting class, so this first one is a pantomime acting shot. This will be the last animation I post for about the next 3 months, which is how long it's going to take to finish up the next animation, which will be much more complicated than the previous ones. We're finally moving into a dialog shot with facial animation and everything. Should be challenging. Anyway, here it is...

-Nathan

How to Cope with Death

2008-04-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Not much of an update here. Just wanted to post another picture for the grandparents. Poor little Coen has been teething in earnest on and off lately. He's got two molars in and is working on two more. Not fun, for him or us.

I wanted to share a little animation I found that amused me. I'm kind of animation obsessed though, so it doesn't take much. It's not too long, but starts a little slow, so just wait and it gets pretty funny. This animation seems like it should have I Corinthians 15:55 as the subtitle.

-Nathan

Coen in the great outdoors

2008-04-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was beautiful. After a very long, gray winter, we finally had some wonderful sunshine and even saw the temperature reach into the 70's. Coen has never really had the chance to experience the outdoors much since he was still too little last summer, we thought we'd take him out onto the lawn. Apparently, he is terrified of grass though, so it was more him trying as hard as he could not to touch the ground than really playing outside. He definitely seemed to like all the sight and sounds and sunshine, however.

-Nathan

Happy April Fools!

2008-04-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we managed to make it through April 1st unscathed. People generally don't play pranks on me because I never play pranks on other people because I don't want pranks played on me. Funny how that works. The internet is always buzzing with April Fools articles around this time every year. Especially if you're into video games, there's always a few good announcements that studios will make, like some bizzare game they claim to be making. One I saw this year was someone claimed to be working on a Lego version of the popular Halo series. Not a bad idea really...
One internet prank craze at the moment is called "Rick Rolling". They Rick Roll'd us at school today. What's Rick Rolling you ask? Well, basically it's to make someone think they're clicking on a link for something relevant to the conversation, and instead link them to this video.

Yes. It is terrifying. The 80's just were. Glad I don't remember them.
The original video has nearly 6 million hits, so you know it's been put to good use. So there, you've been Rick Rolled.

And since it's been a while, here's a picture of our adorable little man.

Class 2 Progress Reel

2008-03-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

Here's basically the same animations I've posted over the last couple of months. This is just my progress reel that I have to put together at the end of every term. Six months and fifty-five seconds of animation! :)

Angry Weight Move

2008-03-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe, but my second semester of Animation Mentor is coming to a close. This class was all about body mechanics. Next, I'm on to Introduction to Acting, which I'm very excited about. We'll finally get a hold of a character that has a face. :)
So here's my final shot. Enjoy!

Coen Wrestling

2008-03-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time I guess. I remember loving to wrestle with my Dad when I was little (now I would just hurt him :) ), and Coen seems to have discovered the same thing as you can see in the video below. He really is the funniest kid. We went to his 15 month doctors appointment this last week and he got the last of his immunity shots. He didn't enjoy them, but everything checked out and he's healthy as can be which we're very very thankful for.

On a side note, I started another blog recently which you can view here. It's mainly just about gaming, so if that kind of thing interests you, then check it out!

Without further delay, here's that video...

Spring Update

2008-03-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, it may be a little early for a spring update, but I figure if I call it that, and keep wearing sandals, then winter will have no choice but to stay away. My logic is flawless.
Well, there's not a ton to update. I'm still going to Animation Mentor. Still absolutely loving it. I'm working on my final project for this is semester and will post it as soon as it's done in the next couple of weeks. Then it's on to Introduction to Acting! Sounds a little strange perhaps, but that's all animators are. Actors that aren't limited by their own bodies, thank goodness. All the same principles apply. You still have to be able to communicate to an audience.
Jen is working two days a week taking care of the old woman down the street, and I'm still doing chimney sweeping and estimates as much as I can. Work has slowed down a lot for me, just because it's that time of the year, and most likely because of all the economic fear out there right now, so we're really thankful that Jen's work is more steady and should at least allow us to get by for now. God provides for us. More sometimes than others, but always just enough.
Jen and her brother Steve have started doing worship at church once a month, and of course she continues doing the youth group worship time. Youth group has definitely been interesting as of late. We've had an influx of junior high boys, which means that the maturity level of the group as a whole has dropped, so it's been a little bit more of a handful than normal, but that's just the ups and downs of youth I guess. So hopefully they'll grow through being there, and we will too. :)
Coen is doing really well. He's pushing through 3 molars this week, so that's been a little rough on him, but it'll be nice when he can finally chew. He's run around like man now. Definitely enjoy his new found vertical freedom. He's a smart boy. A little too smart, because he's hitting his terrible two's a little early. He's testing the limits, and Jen and I are having to switch over and realize that now when he doing stuff, it's far more intentional that it was when he was smaller. He's still a blast though. Every different phase comes with a different set of difficulties and a different set of joys. It's fun to really be able to play with him more now. He love playing peek-a-boo. Could do it all day. :) He love it when I get down on the floor and chase him around the house. He still a very cuddly baby. Love to give big hugs, and he definitely hasn't lost any cuteness, as this picture demonstrates...

Does it get any better than that? :) He cracks me up. Well, I think that's about it for this update. Just keep praying that God would continue to help me do well in my studies, and that we would be able to serve him faithfully in our jobs, in our ministries at church, and in raising our son. Just the little things. :)

-Nathan, Jen, and little Coen

Pole Hop

2008-02-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is the latest assignment in my body mechanics class at Animation Mentor. Took 4 weeks to finish. I've got just one more assignment this semester and then it's on to Intro to Acting! Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! :)

Coen Finally Walking

2008-02-12T15:42:00.000-08:00

Well, our little boy is finally realizing that he can indeed walk. He's been strong enough for a long time, but hey, crawling is easy. As proof that he can muster at least a few steps, here's a little video.

Making of Ballie 180

2008-02-02T22:48:00.000-08:00

One month into my second semester of Animation Mentor and we've only just now finished our first animation. Four weeks for 5 polished seconds. Man I love this stuff. :) While I realize that few people get as excited about this stuff as I do, I put together a little "making of" video of my most recent assignment. So without further delay, here it is...

My Animation Mentor Porgress Reel

2007-12-19T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finished the first class, or semester, of Animation Mentor. We were basically just going over all the fundamentals of animation, so it's not a very flashy demo reel, but was definitely a lot of fun working on this stuff. The following semesters will have the more interesting to look at kind of animation. Anyway, here's my progress thus far! Merry Christmas!

2007-12-12T17:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Coen's first Birthday! If I was Mongolian it would be his second since they count birth as 1. As is tradition, we gave him a big piece of cake to eat, and he mostly just played with it. He's so used to not being able to play with his food that it took him a while to work up to that even. Anyway, I have it all on video of course, and here it is for those of you who are Coen's grandparents, and if any of the rest of you are watching our home videos, you must just be bored.

This week also marks the end of my first semester at Animation Master. It's definitely been a very good one. I'm finishing up my final project this week, and then start back up again at the beginning of the new year. No more bouncing ball exercises. From here on out, pretty much everything has legs at least.

Presenting Tailor

2007-11-18T21:39:00.000-08:00

Well, it's sort of my first character in Animation Mentor. Tailor, that is. Tailor is a ball with a tail, as I'm sure you can see by the video. Still all very basic animation, but it's really a lot of fun. Next week we're moving on to a ball with legs. Oh yeah. :)
In other news, we're doing really well. Coen is sort of walking, in that he'll stand using a chair, and then slowly push it around the room and get around that way. Funny how we end up like we start. Ball, toothless, and pushing around a walker. Thanksgiving is this week, so happy thanksgiving to everyone. Go be thankful... or something.

Coen's first stand

2007-11-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe, but Coen is 11 months old today. He's almost past his first year. Time sure flies. Anyway, as the title would suggest, Coen stood himself up for the first time a couple days ago, and since I make it a point to never be to far from a gadget of some sort, I got it all on video.

The other video is my animation assignment from this last week. We're learning about overlapping action, like the way a whip moves, except it applies to all sorts of motion we see. The overlapping action in the way your arm swings, or the way you spine moves when you walk, or a tail. Anyway, I won't bore you with all the specifics, but needless to say, I'm loving it. ;)

2007-11-06T10:21:00.001-08:00

Since I had mentioned Coen crawling, here's a video of his little "bull charge". :)

2007-10-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, Coen is crawling. It just suddenly happened, and now he's just flopping himself around everywhere. It takes a little getting used to thinking that if you turn around he's probably going to be on the other side of the house before you glance over your shoulder again. Yesterday we went out and bought, for lack of a better word, a kid corral. It actually work quite well, and it keeps him from trying to pull all of the usb cords out of the front of my computer. He's definitely got the cord obsession. I get the feeling that the infant mortality rate was so high in past centuries because babies sat around bored to death until the advent of the electric socket.
Anyway, we are all doing well. I just started up part time at the chimney sweeping, which has been a welcome break and has allowed me to put the time I need into school. Jen is working two days a week taking care of the elderly lady down the street while I stay at home and make basketballs bounce and watch Coen. Speaking of bouncing basketballs, for those of you morbidly interested in to see some less then stellar animation, check out my first animation assignment. It's amazing how hard it can be to make a ball bounce like you want it to. Sure it'd be easy to just make it bounce, but when you're told to give it approximately the weight and bounce of a certain object, in this case a basketball, then it gets a little harder because you suddenly realize how any little thing to far off entirely collapses the believability. It really is a blast though. I'm sure most would be bored to death like babies past, but for me it is a joy.
So that's where we're at at the moment. One of these days I'll actually get Jen to post in here so that you're not just getting my slightly twisted view on things.

First day of Fall

2007-09-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

Apparently today is the first day of fall, although it's been feeling that way for about a month now here in Portland. Can't complain though, this is about as bad as it gets here. When there's an inch of snow on the ground it's a state of emergency. No tornadoes, no hurricanes, no major earthquakes. We've got it pretty easy.
Anyway, just wanted to post some new pictures and let everyone know that we're doing well. A week from tomorrow, I (Nathan) will be starting classes for Animation Mentor. I'm so excited to get started. I've already done orientation and it really looks like it's going to be a blast.
Last Wednesday Jen and I started back at youth group again. She's still doing music and I'm just starting teaching through the book of Ephesians. So far so good.
Coen is doing wonderfully. He's 9.5 months old and growing like mad. He's got 2 bottom teeth and 2 more on the way. He's adorable and thankfully continues to have a wonderful disposition.
I'm still plugging away at chimney sweeping, although possible for not much longer depending on how it works out with my class schedule. I wouldn't be sad to quite at this point. I've done it for 2 years and would be thankful to not spend my days on ladders and roofs anymore. One fall was enough to cure me of that.
Tomorrow Jen and I are going to a local video game store for the midnight launch of Halo 3. They've got tournaments and free pizza, so who could resist. We're definitely hardcore geeks. :)
I think that's it for now. I'll try and post more once school gets started and there's more to say about that. For now I'll leave you with some more pictures of our heart meltingly cute son.

Animation Mentor

2007-07-28T02:30:00.001-07:00

I just found out a couple of days ago that I got accepted into Animation Mentor. It's an animation school that I applied to earlier this summer. I'm so excited to get started. It begins on October 1st and runs for 18 months not stop. So it should be pretty intense but an awesome time learning something I love. I just thank God for such a cool opportunity. Anyway, just wanted to share that bit of good news. :)

My Bi-Anual Blog Update

2007-07-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, I suck at blogging. I just don't keep up with these things. So I have no idea when I might update this again, but I'm doing it now.
Ah, so what has happened in the last six months? Well, our little Coen is over seven months old now! It's amazing how fast he is growing and learning. He's really been an easy baby. He eats just about anything. We gave him half a pizza crust the other day just to see what he'd think of it, and gummed the whole thing down!
My amazing wife Jen is being a wonderful full time mom right now, and it definitely is a full time job. Coen is currently not walking, and we're enjoying the peace while it lasts. Jen has been a doing a great job with the music for the youth group. We're currently taking a break for the summer, but we'll be starting up again this fall. I'm still doing this teaching. Made it pretty much through the Old Testament (or at least the main points) this year so far, and am hoping to start in on the New Testament this fall.
As far as long term future plans go, I'm hoping to start Animation Mentor this fall, and if it doesn't work out for this fall, then later in the winter. Lord willing that will allow me to get a job in animation and get off the roof. Yes, I'm still working at Portland Chimney as a chimney sweep, and no I don't wear a top hat and I've never seen Mary Poppins, and yes, Santa does some me a thank you card every year.
So that's where we're at. God is taking care of us at every turn. We're really not sure what He has in store for us in the future, but we're enjoying this ride He has us on in the meantime. :)

In Christ,

Nathan, Jen, and Coen

2007-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that Coen is almost 6 weeks old already. The time sure does fly by. It's definitely been a great 6 weeks. It starts off hard, but gets better and better all the time. He's already up to 12 pounds! Definitely a growing boy.
We had a couple days of snow storms this last week, which gave me a couple days off of work since it's a little hard to get a roof covered with ice.
Jen and I had the opportunity to spend some time last Sunday with Arlen and Cynthia Isaak and their new baby. They were the couple that we would have been working with had we gone to Brazil. It was really good to hear how things are going down there and just to catch up with them.
A quick prayer request. Pray that we can get our car fixed. It sort of broke down yesterday. I'll be driving along and it suddenly will lose all power. I completely depend on the van for work, so pray that we can get it taken care of very quickly.

-Nathan and Jen and Coen

Since March in a nutshell...

2006-12-16T20:53:00.000-08:00

Ah, where to begin. There has definitely been a lot happenining lately, and certainly a lot since I last updated this blog. I am hoping to keep more regular accounts now though, but I think I've heard myself say that before.
Anyway, to rush through recent events, in August, Jen had a basket ball size cyst removed, leaving her and the the baby in wonderful health, thank God. She is fully recovered and other than a little scar, has no side affects.
In October I, the chimney sweep, fell off a roof. And since I fell with my ladder, I impacted with all of my weight on my left shin right on one of the ladder rungs. It really should have snapped my leg in two, but God was very gracious and all it did was give me a nasty cut and an inch diameter whole in my leg down to the shin bone. Don't worry, I won't post those pictures. Thank the Lord, I am all healed up and was able to go back to work the next day.
At the end of October we moved from NE Portland, to an apartment in Gresham, which is just outside of Portland. The nice thing about that is, we really enjoy the area and our new apartment, and it puts us a lot closer to our church. We've been helping out with the youth group there, and will hopefully be starting helping with the teaching sometime around the beginning of next year.
And that brings me to our latest and most exciting bit of news, which is the birth of Coen James Glemboski. There was no helping the last name so we gave him a short first one. ;) He was born at 5:19 AM on December 11th. My beautiful wife did an amazing job and is doing pretty well, if exhausted. Coen is perfectly healthy and eating a ridiculous amount. We're really enjoying this little Christmas gift that God has given us. Having a part in creating and shaping a new life is definitely something hard to comprehend, but it is truly a privelege and something that I'm so glad to share with Jen, who is showing herself to be as amazing a mother as she is a wife.
Here's some pictures and I'm sure there will be more to follow. Isn't he the cutest baby? No, I'm not biast at all, why?

In Christ,
Nathan, Jen, and Coen

Florida Trip

2006-03-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures from our recent trip to Florida. The building is the New Tribes Mission headquarters in Sanford, Florida, which is where the wedding was held. The massively tall towers is the sky coaster that my wife convinced me to let her go on. The mostly black picture is her and Brett swinging by from a ridiculous height that the picture really doesn't capture.

Here's some pictures from our recent trip to Florida

Sometimes God just seems to yank on the steering wheel

2005-11-14T21:05:00.000-08:00

It's really amazing how fast God can change all of one's plans. In last couple of weeks God has certainly changed Jen and my plans for the future, or the next year at least. A few weeks ago we were presented with the opportunity to go down to Brazil to help out Steve and Sonia Armour with a video that they are putting together for children that teaches through the Bible chronologically. I have experience in various kinds of computer graphics and Jen is very talented musically, so we pretty much going to just be helping move the project foreword in any way that we can. Jen and I are both in a wedding in Florida on February 18th, so we are planning at this point to fly down to Brazil from there.
Obviously, if we're going to leave by the middle of February, a lot needs to happen in a very short amount of time. Here's some prayer requests

-Pray that we would be able to get things like visas and passports taken care of quickly and painlessly.
-Pray that God would provide the finances we need for travel and living once we get to Brazil.
-Pray that God would be preparing Jen and I for whatever He has for us.

In Christ,
Nathan and Jen Glemboski

Wedding Pictures

2005-10-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Some of you expressed interest in seeing some pictures of our wedding. So here they. Wow, that day was such a crazy blur that I'm looking at half of these and thinking, "Hey, I don't remember that!". That's why they take so many pictures I guess. Anyway, enjoy! Just click on an image to make it bigger.

In Christ,
Nathan and Jen

Introduction

2005-10-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

Ya know, I thought I was getting lazy after e-mail came around and I didn't have to mail letters anymore, but now, I can just post updates to a blog like this and I barely have to e-mail. Well, for better or worse, I decided to start a blog so that I could have a way to update friends and family and maybe some people I don't know as to what is going on with the Glemboskis.
Well, to start off, Jen and I are now living in Portland, Oregon. It's crazy to think that we've been married for exactly 4 months today. It's been a truly wonderful 4 months settling into marriage and just enjoying being together. Right now Jen is working at a coffee shop not to far from where we're living. I am working as a Mason's assistant, so I get to work on a lot of chimneys mostly. It's hard work but good. This last week I came down with a nasty case of strep throat which kept me in bed for nearly a full week, but thankfully, I still have a job, so that is a huge praise that I have a flexible employer.
We're really trying to get involved at Aim's Community Church which is where Jen has gone for most of her life, and we're hoping that they will be our sending church as we're heading into missions, which brings us to why we're in Portland in the first place. We're here for the next year (or less than that now I guess) saving up money to go to the last two years of New Tribes Missions training in Durham, Canada. We both already went through the two years of Bible school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and now we're hoping to go on to Missions Institute and Language Institute. After that we really don't know where God will send us. During the two years at school, they ask that we don't work during the semesters so that we can focus on the classes, which are extremely rigorous and don't leave a whole lot of time for having an extra job. That is why we're taking this year to hopefully save up. More than likely August will come around and we won't have nearly as much as we need, but that's ok because if that is where God is sending us then He will certainly provide. So that's where we're at right now. I will try to update this site regularly so check back if you like.

Here's some prayer requests in closing:
-Pray that I(Nathan) would remain healthy and be able to continue working.
-Pray that God would give us opportunities to minister and get involved with peoples lives at church.
-Pray for both Jen and I that we would have opportunities to share Christ at our work places whether directly or by our testimonies

Thank you all so much for your prayers. I hope this finds you all well.

In Christ,
Nathan and Jen Glemboski