Farewell POV

It's become very clear to me that I just don't have time to keep up this blog. Big surprise I know. I think I've had 2 posts in the last 6 months. I just don't have time to write posts any more. I really don't like to make post half assd so I've decided to just shut things down all together. And to be honest, now days I'd rather spend my free time drawing spending time with Quinn.

I have archived this blog, and in the next day or two I'll be removing everything. I will be keeping this blogger address in case one day I decide to come back to it. Here's a few blogs that I'd recommend reading (just to name a few, this is not a complete list):

http://blackwingdiaries.blogspot.com/

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/

http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/

http://klangley.blogspot.com/

http://animationpodcast.com/

http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/

http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/

http://www.animationarchive.org/index.html

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/

http://bloglarry.blogspot.com/

http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.com/

http://jonhandhisdog.com/

http://www.squeaktoyfilms.com/blog/

Keep drawing, keep animating.

Comic Con and Stuff

Wow, no posts sense May, I have to apologise to all my readers who have been checking in every once in a while. Believe it or not, but this blog is not dead. I've been wanting to post, but well life has been getting in the way. I've started working on the new feature Surf's Up, Open Season opens in less then 100 days, I'm working full time on Animation mentor. I fully intend to keep this blog going, but I'll mostly be posting when I can.

Also I'll be on a panel at the Comic-Con this year helping the guys at Animation Mentor out:

12:00-1:30 Introducing Animation Mentor— Do you want to learn how to animate your favorite comic book characters? Have you always dreamed about making it your career? Get a glimpse into the online character animation school Animation Mentor, where all the teachers are studio animators and have worked on the industry’s top films. Experience the world of comic book animation from two sessions: “Designing Appealing Characters” at 12:00 (featuring lead character designer Stephen Silver, Clerks; National Cartoonist Society Animator of the Year Dean Yeagle; and animation director Glen McIntosh, Eragon) and “Adventures Behind Animating Summer Blockbusters" at 12:45 (featuring top animators Dave Burgess, Over the Hedge; Charles Alleneck, Pirates of the Caribbean II; Michal Makarewicz and Andy Beall, Cars; and Ethan Hurd, Open Season). Room 3

One last thing, this blog will be moving. I'm not sure where it will be moving to. I've been unimpressed with blogger as of late, so I'll be moving it soon. I'll leave another post to redirect you as soon as I decide where I'm going to move it to.

Richard's The Thief and the Cobbler on You Tube!

Holly CR@POLA! Someone put the original, never finish Richard Williams version of The Thief and the Cobbler up on You Tube. Well..it's the cobbled together version of the film never have being finished. Disney said that they were going to release a DVD of this film as an unfinished masterpiece. But Disney doesn't appear to be doing this anytime soon. I would imagine that Disney would try and shut this down so see it while you can. It's cut into parts so it could be played on the web of course. Some truly great animators worked on this film. IMHOP everyone should check this out. Keep in mind this production was done over the span of around 26 years. There's no CG Animation in this, all those mad camera moves are done by hand. Crazy!



If Video doesn't work, go here:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=97C1FA98D07ACC21

found

Briges talks about Surf's Up

Jeff Bridges talks to the Sci-Fi channel about the next project I'm working on: "Surf's Up"


http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=35424

"BIG SMELLY PILE OF LIBERAL CRAP"

It looks like the Colorado Bow Hunting newsgroup has seen the trailer for "Open Season" and have objected. People who refer to themselves as: Hoytslayer, Elk Scat, and Rooter object to the "redneck stereotypes" depicted in the trailer. It's enough irony to make your head spin off.

http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/tf/regional/thread.cfm?threadid=111181&MESSAGES=13&state=CO

Open Season in Japanese

Check out the new Japanese Open Season Trailer:

http://www.sonypictures.jp/previews/player/movies/openseason/

Better link, but with loud annoying flash:
http://www.sonypictures.jp/movies/openseason/index.html
Click on the top log on the left, then after the anoying flash intor click on the second log down on your right.

Pidgeon Podcast

Most of you know that Jeff Pidgeon has a kick ass blog.

But I just found out today that he's got a podcast too. Check it out.

Astrix's new Trailer

I saw this on the pidgen blog. It's got some nice looking stuff in it. I haven't seen any of the other Astreix and Obelix films (animated or other), but I've always been a big fan of the comic, I love the drawing style. Check out the new trailer:

http://mfile.akamai.com/980/mov/quicktime.allocine.fr/nmedia/18/35/84/31/18414352_fa1_h.mov

Darrell Johnson is a Golden God

I just want the world to know how grateful I am to Darrell for getting Plastic Animation Paper to work on my new tablet PC.

For more you can read this thread here:

http://plasticanimationpaper.dk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1268&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Yes you read that first sentence right. I did get a tablet PC. I've been putting together a post talking about what I got and why, but I've been having too much fun playing with my TPC that I haven't finished it up. I hope to finish it soon.

Anatomy of Facial Expressions

Check out this cool flash website about the Anatomy of Facial Expressions

http://www.artnatomia.net/uk/index.html

Very well done.

Found on Drawn!

Can I get off this Puritan Train please?

Pete Panse, a high school art teacher for 25 years faces suspension after suggesting, (just suggesting mind you, not actually doing anything) that some of his top students attend life drawing classes in order to get into an art collage:
http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2006/Peter_Panse/case1.asp

I know that most Americans are just a bunch of pricks that freak out if they see any tit. Example: we fined CBS $550,000 for Janet Jackson's alleged "Wardrobe Malfunction". Yet for the death of 12 miners we fined the MSHA $60,000. Americans put money where their mouth is, we fear the tit more then death.

The sad thing is this is it's nothing new! Every few years I hear a story just like this one. Art Teachers are getting fired every day for drawing or suggesting drawing anything that contains nudity.

Now I took life drawing when I was in 9th grade. Thanks to my enlightened mother who knew that I wanted to go to an art school. She knew that I'd never get in unless I beefed up my portfolio. Life drawing is just basic. So I took life drawing at the local community collage and I got into CalArts because of it.

The fact is, I wouldn't be an animator today if I had not attended CalArts, and I wouldn't have gotten into CalArts if I hadn't taken those life drawing classes. So if my mom feared the tit, I wouldn't be an animator. That's why this story hits me so hard.

You can argure that high school boys are just a pack of hormones looking for release. So you could wonder if the idea of sending 15 year olds to Life Drawing is such a good idea. Wouldn't going to a class where you stare at a nude model for 3-4 hours 2-3 times a week would just drive them to lock the bathroom door untell they went blind or develiped harry knuckles? It's not like a strip club, your not sticking dollar bills down her pants. The model hits a pose, you focus on your drawing, if your doing a good enough job you get high from the drawing. If your not doing a good enough job, you struggle. Either way the human form ends up becoming a challenge of form, gesture, light and shade and less of a pin cushion in your head.

I have heard some people ask why does it have to be nude. The fact is if you can't draw the form under the cloths, you'll never be able to draw the cloths over the form.




I also saw this connected to this. How do you teach art to Muslim students who can't create human images:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/13891898.htm
It just puts the whole "Americans fear the tit" thing into better perspective. We're a bunch of uptight bastards, but compared to this school, we've got it a lot easer.




found:
http://drawn.ca/2006/03/11/art-teacher-suspended-for-recommending-figure-drawing-classes/

Tools to come: Dimond Touch

Check out this cool website and video:
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/
http://www.merl.com/projects/DiamondTouch/DiamondTouch.mov

I really like the idea of just grabbing stuff on a computer screen and moving them around. But that's not what excites me. What I really like is the fact that you can use two hands. Ever sense I was a kid I thought that computers should and would eventually come with two mice. You have two hands after all, wouldn't it be easer to keep one mouse on the tool and the other doing your animation? I'm still surprised that it hasn't happened yet.

Apparently Apple has already patented this technology for their much rumored/debated up coming tablet pc:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/apples-patented-the-tablet-mac-part-ii/

I hope to see this technology soon!

(Thanks to puffarthur at Tablet Buzz for showing this to me)

If you don't draw for a living...

Jim Hill Media has a long article about John Lasseter touring/starting his new job at Disney as the new Chief Creative Officer. The article reads like a dream come true. I mean it really sounds like the best thing to happen to WDFA and WDI. Could it be true? I hope it's all true.

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/article.php?id=1829

Academy Award Nominations

The Nominations for the Academy Awards came in today, although the biggest announcement for me was that John Stewart was going to host the awards. I'm a big fan of The Daily Show, so I know I'll be watching out for him. Brokeback Mountain got 8 nominations which is pretty big news for a non-Blockbuster-FX heavy type film:

Best Animated Feature:
Howl's Moving Castle
Corpse Bride
Walace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit


Best Animated Short:
Badgered
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
9
One Man Band

Best FX:
The Chronicals of Narnia
King Kong
War of the Worlds

Best Motion Picture:
Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich

I haven't seen Corps Bride yet, (I'll be picking it up on DVD today, from what I've seen the animation is incredible), but I hope Walace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were Rabbit gets the award, it's a very solid film and one of my favorites from 2005. I haven't seen any of the animated shorts yet, I'd really like to, they usually do a screening of the nominated shorts at work I'll have to catch that. There's no question about King Kong winning, and there's no question about Brokeback Mountain winning either, I'll be surprised if it doesn't get all 8.

Added:

Cartoon Brew noticed that of all the nominated Animated Features, for the first time, none of them are CG films. I didn't notice this the first time I looked at the list, but it's true, and kinda cool. Sure they used some CG animation in Walace & Gromit and in Howl's Moving Castle (I don't know about Corps Bride) but they're not fully CG films.

Checking out aAntin

I stumbled across this website and thought I should share it. It's by animator Antoine Antin, I don't know much about him but he has some really nice looking stuff, check out his films and videos:

http://www.aantin.com/

Solid drawings, nice line, good timing. Good stuff.

Totoro

I showed Totoro to my daughter for the first time this week. She's a year and a half so I didn't know if she would like it or not. I was especially worried about the beginning, I thought it might be too slow or boring for her. But she was glued to it from the start. I think it's because she really liked watching Mei more then any other character. I assumed when I started to play it for he that the big Totoro would be her favorite but she really seemed to be into the kids more. That didn't stop her from giggling up a storm when the first two little Totoros started showing up. I was impressed, it really is a good movie. I didn't have an english copy of the film so it was all in Japinise. That didn't seem to matter.

Watching my cartoon collection with Quinn has started to be one of my favorite things to do with her. I really like to see what it is that she is reacting to. So far she seems to have good taste in Cartoons.

Check out this

Way too freakin funy:

http://cartoondavid.blogspot.com/2006/01/hoodstinked.html

I haven't seen the film, but I have to agree with his passion.

New Open Season Poster

I just saw this today, looks like there's a new movie poster for Open Season.

Jo Blow on Open Season

Looks like the articles about Open Season is starting to pick up. Here's the first big one I've seen:

http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=10047

Disnar or should it be Pixney?

Honestly I can't think of anything new to say about the Pixar + Disney deal. John Lasseter must be giddy with excitement, I know how much of a Disney fan he is. He worked there once before, imagine returning to your old job, but this time your in charge.

It's too early to tell if this is a good thing over all. Sure Steve Jobs has the biggest share of the board, but there's still 14 members, so it's not like it's a controlling share. It feels like it's a step in the right direction for Disney, but I'm going to miss the independent spirit of the old Pixar. But again it's too early to tell. I hope it turns out to be a good thing.

I thought this article laid it out pretty clearly:

http://news.com.com/Pixar+to+lead+Disneys+animation+business/2100-1030_3-6030712.html

Back From Holiday Break

I'm back at work from a much needed restful holiday break. The best part of my break was spending two uninterrupted weeks with my daughter. I took her to Disneyland for the first time. She's only a year and a half so we weren't able to do much, but I think she enjoyed it. The best part was watching her fact when we took her to the Tiki room. To see her amazement at the singing birds as really fun. It kind of blew all my criticism of the ride away.

DVDs I got for Christmas:
Walt Disney Treasures - Disney Rarities - Celebrated Shorts, 1920s - 1960s
I asked for this because of these shorts:
Lambert the Sheepish Lion
Ferdinand the Bull
Pigs Is Pigs
Noah's Ark

The Glass Bottom Boat
Because it has the short:
The Dot and the Line

Movies I able to catch:
King Kong: Excellent, I really enjoyed this film. Sure it had it's corny bits that I could have done without (Vines, Ice) But over all I liked watching it and I would watch it again. I also thought that they did an Excellent job on the FX. Good animation.

Harry Potter 4: This was easily the weakest book in the series, and as stories go, pretty weak as a film. It's main flaw, that is both int he book and the film is that Harry is always rescued and doesn't appear capable of doing anything himself. That said I really enjoyed the film and thought it was pretty well made. I really enjoyed the dragon on the rooftop sequence, that was a classic.

Narnia: I really hated to see this beat King Kong in the Box Office because I feel like it's a really weak film. Kong and Potter were both really good at describing what it was like to: A. be with a giant ape and B. fight a dragon. For me film making is all in the details not the facts. Details are interesting, facts are boring. I really like it in a film when the film maker describes the details of what something feels like. Other examples, in Poltergeist, I like how they describe what it would feel like to rip off your own face, Shining: what it feels like to have a family member go insane. It's all about how the film maker describes the thing. I felt like Narnia was all facts, and the story is just to weak to hold up the film (sorry CS Lewis, but it is). They failed to describe what it feels like to discover another world, they just report it as fact. What it feels like to fight a wolf, or what it feels like to ride a Lion. Or how about what it feels like to be turned into stone. This is all the stuff that I felt was sorely missed in this film.

Brokeback Mountain: Easily best film I saw over the break. Yha, the details I just described above are in this film *insert joke here* (no pun intended).

Web Stuff:

Animation Mentor just started it's new semester with a new web update. I have to say I thought it was good before, but it just got a whole lot better.

If you like stop motion you should really check out this website: http://www.darkstrider.net/main.html
Just the Video Clip section is impressive.

I added a new blog to my growing list: http://www.jeffpidgeon.com/ check it out. He's a cool guy, but I sure wish he'd turn on his feed:)

I also added some amazon book recommendations to this site. They're ones I like and think are related to this place. Sorry for the spam, buy one if you like it.

I was happy to see the Butcher give Open Season a good review, so far:
http://www.animationmeat.com/rantsnraves/rantsnraves.html#unique-entry-id-330

You've probibly alredy read a lot about this. There's so many animated films coming out in 2006, it's kinda weird I'd like to say it's a new golden age for animation but that doesn't feel quite right. I hope that most of these films do well. Animation has grown so big and so quickly that I want them to do well to sustain the growth, at the same time a lot of these films seem to be "pissing in the well water". I don't know if our little profession can handle all that piss. But still, I try not to worry about it and try and do the best job on the work that is in front of me, mostly I'm just happy that I have good work to do in front of me. So for me, this boom has worked out pretty good.

It looks like Pixar was unable to get their dream contract. So now it looks like the're going to merge with Disney. I think Disney will still get the better end of the bargen.

I think Cars is going to be great and will get near Nemo box office. But so far my predictions have been way off, >shurg<.

Is there anything else...I'm sure there is. I just can't think of anything.