Twittering

Don't laugh at me, I've created a twitter account. I did it so I can see what all the fuss was about. You can see my updates on the left of this page (all you rss readers might not see it), or if you have twitter you can add me to your list.

Comic is from Penny Arcade.

Aardman's Animal Planet Shots

Aardman has done a bunch of great bumpers for Animal Planet. I really like the deigns and the animation on these shorts. I assume that they are animated on glass, anyone know?

http://animalssavetheplanet.com/?page=home

WTF of the day

http://www.davidoreilly.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/vipers-video-quicktags/resources/flvplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2F84.19.174.44%2Fcam-son-sample.flv

Ollie Johnston

The last of the nine old men Ollie Johnston passed away today. All my best to his friends and family.

The more I read about Ollie Johnston the more I realize how little I know. A lot of blogs have been writing great things about him. One of my favorite is Brad Birds:
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/brad-bird-on-ollie-johnston

I like how he keeps everything in perspective.

Wii Remote Hacks

I already use a Wii remote to help me with my Animation Mentor critiques, photoshop, and TVPaint, but I essentially just use it as a wireless keyboard replacement. I had no idea it could be used for so much more. Johnny Lee has turned the Wii remote into an interactive white board and a 3D Game display. If your interested in this kid of stuff, check out his talk on TED:




TED has turned into a kick ass place for people to present ideas. I really like the videos they publish.

Lego 3D Zoetrope

You know that 3D Zoetrope that Pixar made for MoMa? I talk about it here.

Well someone decided to make one out of Lego. Check it out:
http://www.v27.org/files/LegoZoetrope.htm

Little Nemo Polot 1984

A pilot for the much anticipated but never made movie Little Nemo has surfaced on the web. It was directed by Yoshifumi Kondô and it was done at Studio Ghibli. If you've been to Cartoon Brew in the last few days you might have see this, this one is a little different though, it's a little longer and without the narration.



Cartoon Brew has this to say:

It was an American/Japanese joint project, with no less than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata involved in the pre-production stage (1982-83).

George Lucas, Chuck Jones, Gary Kurtz, Ray Bradbury, Chris Columbus, Moebius, John Canemaker, Leo Salkin, Paul Julian, Ken Anderson and Frank Thomas were attached to this film at one time or another.

If all of that is true, this film could have been legendary. I can remember when I was in school one of my teachers, Corny Cole brought in a drawing he did when he was asked to work on preproduction for the movie. I'm not sure how long he was on it I only saw the one drawing. It was on a huge piece of paper that took up an entire wall. It was a drawing of the dream city. I was a big fan of comic books and comic strips as a kid. I ran across a lot of Nemo Comic at my local library so I was fairly familiar with the characters and the look of the comic. This drawing looked a lot like the comic, except that it was all drawn in ballpoint pen (Corny's preferred method of drawing, he even animated with the damn thing). The drawing was very inspiring, I wish I could see it again.

Here's an example of what Corny's ballpoint drawings are like:

The Pixar Story April 22

On April 22 Starz will be showing "The Pixar Story" boy Leslie Iwerks. I've seen this film and I have to say it's really good, very inspiring. It also lays out John Lasseter's plans for Disney and hints on his plans for the future.

In any case I really recommend watching it.