Chris Fig

UX | visual designer | animator
Co-writer & director of Pure at @keedtv
Thoughts and opinions my own
#GigEm #ATX #AustinFC

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

The guy who founded Nike owns a movie studio that's lost money for almost 20 years straight. In two weeks it's going to lose a whole lot more, and he genuinely does not care.

Phil Knight is worth around $35 billion. He bought a small animation shop in Portland, renamed it Laika, put $180 million in before it released a single frame, and handed it to his son Travis to run. Travis directed Wildwood himself.

The losses are wild when you line them up. Missing Link cost $102 million and made $26.6 million worldwide. It won the Golden Globe for best animated film anyway. Any normal studio shuts down after a miss that size. Laika went and spent the next seven years building a 140-minute PG-13 stop-motion epic, the longest and most expensive thing they've ever tried.

And stop motion is brutal work. Animators move puppets by hand, 24 frames for every second of film. A good week gets you a few seconds of usable footage. That's why a Laika movie costs $100 million while CGI studios make theirs for a fraction, and why nobody else in Hollywood will touch the format at this scale.

So what is Laika, really? A patron deal, the same setup that got the Sistine Chapel painted. The Medici never asked Michelangelo to hit quarterly numbers, and Knight isn't asking Wildwood to open at $40 million.

Here's the part I love. Every other animated movie this year had to survive a studio balance sheet to get made. Wildwood just had to convince one 88-year-old man in Oregon that American stop motion shouldn't die.

So when the opening number comes in and the internet calls it a bomb, keep in mind the only number that's ever mattered at Laika is whether Phil Knight is still writing checks.

[AlphaFox @alphafox]

This would be the most epic wedding intro ever! 🙌

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@EndWokeness Seems like this probably isn’t the full story…

https://t.co/sCzL0X36UO

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@ramit Or in this case, a vehicle that costs more monthly than most people’s housing.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@Shawnimator @tvaziri Totally my first thought.

“Ok, ‘Don Bluth’ style…wait what?”

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

Updated #F1 timing tower tees in the shop to celebrate the #AustraliaGP, grab one to supper your favorite driver (and if your guy isn’t listed shoot me a message and I’ll put one up for you). #Lando #Norris #Verstappen #Hamilton

https://t.co/V1J5Mqm8vT

[Ted Lasso @TedLasso]

Finally found the dang password to this thing.

Sorry y’all. What’d I miss?

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

If you’re staying up late for the #AustraliaGP this weekend you might be interested in an #F1 shirt I’ve designed. Driver timing tower tees with their updated 2025 team colors coming this weekend!

https://t.co/V1J5Mqm8vT

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

New #Severance tee up in my @cottonbureau shop 💧

#DevourFeculence

https://t.co/wPyNBcDjjb

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@WeAreAustinTV Thought Uzuni showed pretty well for his first start, he’s getting involved and creating chances. But Bukari needs to attack 1v1 more and this team needs to gel if we want to stand a chance going forward.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@JonAcuff I went a few weeks ago to get fruit (which actually is worth it for us as my toddler daughter eats her weight in berries per week) and they were totally out of everything so I left empty handed. After having to park, scan, walk a quarter mile, etc., most demoralizing trip ever.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@BMooreCreativ The curves on the wing of the new version also have no reasoning. The old one wasn't perfect, but you could see how the lines were trying to tie back into the overall shape.

[NFL Memes @NFLMemes]

“Unnecessary roughness on the Texans for breathing in Patrick Mahomes’ personal bubble…15-yard penalty, automatic first-down”

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

Finished the finale of #SkeletonCrew, what a pitch perfect ending to an absolute blast of a show. My favorite Star Wars in quite a while, great storytelling & characters & a fun Amblin style kids adventure that wasn’t dumbed down. Can’t wait till my kids are old enough to watch.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@WeAreAustinTV @tombogert @SoccerwiseHQ Wouldn’t mind it at all, but I’d think we’d go more for a true winger or a CAM as a DP. Hoping there’s also some TAM/U-22 signings in the works.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@WeAreAustinTV

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@VerdeNationATX @tombogert @SoccerwiseHQ Nothing against him, he seems like a solid player but an odd choice. He's more of a striker than a winger from all accounts, I'd think we'd want to add a true attacking winger or a CAM/creator type as a priority.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@au_trout @ChiFiJo @Pearl_Dynasty @tombogert @CLMerlo Bukari, on the other hand...this should be fun.

[Chris Fig @figdigital]

@Djake_Unchained @docKev_ @yashar While you're correct on their official duties, there are still lots of things a senator could do to help.

But not what I was referring to, the point was that a Republican senator in Texas (even one as generally disliked as Cruz) is almost bulletproof.