Bill's Sketchblog

New blog address!

2008-07-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hi folks, after over three years at "billsart.blogspot.com" I am redesigning the blog and shifting over to a new address. That address is:

http://sketchbloginson.blogspot.com !

Why the change you may ask? Well, I've been posting a lot of links, news, and things that do not fall under the category of "Bill's Art". (I also didn't really like the way the address looked without an apostrophe - bill sart?) The good news is that Blogger has a new "import blog" feature and I won't lose any of my old posts. Hooray! Now update those feed readers! And while you're at it, take a minute to check out the actual page outside of a reader - I made a fancy new header just for you.

Woodford County Vineyard

2008-06-22T20:26:00.001-07:00

Artrage and Photoshop...trying something a little different. Though I think I worked it a little too much. Also, wow, this looks completely different in my browser than it does in PS...

David Hall's Alice Boards

2008-06-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

Thad K. has been nice enough to assemble a .zip file of some incredible Alice in Wonderland storyboards. Go check it out and leave him some love. Thanks Thad!

New Disney Book on Story

2008-06-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

Has anyone got any info on this book? It is available for pre-order on Amazon and it sounds like it's going to be awesome, but I haven't head anything about it. (Not even a cover image yet.)

Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Story (Hardcover)

Product Description
With an introduction by John Lasseter and very little else in the way of words, this first book in The Archive Series lavishly showcases the most brilliant story artwork created by such luminaries as Bill Peet, Don DaGradi, Joe Rinaldi, Roy Williams, Ub Iwerks, Burny Mattison, and Vance Gerry for films ranging from Steamboat Willie and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Alice in Wonderland and One Hundred and One Dalmatians. The art will be displayed in its full glory with all the notes, flaws, and hole-punches that were so much a part of the story development process. Featuring the best examples of story artmany never published before as well as some pieces by unidentified artists, Story will be a must-have art book for collectors, artists, and Disney fans.

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Disney Editions (October 7, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1423107233

224 pages of classic Disney story art?? Yes, please. And the best part about it is that it's going to be a series! Sweeeet!

Eric Tan's WALL E Posters

2008-06-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

These are great. You can buy them here for $165 each. Eric is extremely talented - check out his blog here. (He's also got Indiana Jones posters in the same style! Old school indy, not refrigerator-monkey-alien-Indy.)

I'm off to the Sketchcrawl up by Crissy Field and Fort Point. Hope it's nice and cool up there...

Final Wall E Trailer

2008-06-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

I am SO excited. Click here to watch it.

There's a Party in my Tummy!

2008-06-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is me...in music video form. This show is brilliant.

First Footage of Bolt

2008-06-17T08:14:00.001-07:00

It's not much, but there it is. We'll probably get a full trailer when Wall E comes out at the end of the month. Remember when this movie was directed by Chris Sanders and looked like this:

Ahhh, those were the days. Here's hoping this movie is still good!

Kung Fu Panda, 2D style.

2008-06-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

If you've seen the film, you were likely impressed by the incredible 2D opening for Kung Fu Panda done by James Baxter. If you'd like to watch a streaming version of the opening, click here. For all you animation nuts out there, Kevin Koch of the Synchrolux blog has been kind enough to create a quicktime file that you can frame-by-frame through.

When this animation first came up on screen it basically took my breath away. I haven't seen something handdrawn that looked this great in quite a long time. The closest thing would probably be the animated bits in Enchanted, (also by James Baxter), but those had the classic Disney look to them and the KFP opening is something completely different. It feels a bit like anime, a bit like Sin City, and a bit like some crazy Chinese graphic novel written by a Disney animator. Absolutely beautiful design, textures, animation, and hilarious writing.

Anyone have any knowledge about the actual production process involved with this project? I'm gonna go ahead and say it looks like full hand drawn animation that was then brought into photoshop and painted frame by frame. Though there are some bits that could possibly be toon shaded 3D work. And other stuff looks like plain old Flash or After Effects cutout style.

You may also notice that in the "Art of" book there are a bunch of unused designs for Tai Lung's army. I'm happy to see that they ended up here in the opening sequence because the designs carry over so well in this 2D style. Also, the book has the storyboards for this entire sequence - they are quite faithful to the final movie.

I have assembled 30 or so still shots from the opening, quite fun to look at. The opening goes so fast (but what a glorious 2 minutes and 28 seconds) that the still frames really let you absorb the design. Enjoy:

Edit: The end credits, produced by Shine and Baxter, are available here. They're great as well!

(They use the flag as a wipe for the next shot - how cool is that??)

(Awesome character designs by Nico Marlet here.)

(Maybe you should chew...ON MY FIST!)

(I love this frame.)

(Look! The bodies make faces!)

(Nice clouds and color!)

Ahhh, great stuff. Rumor has it that there is a 2D Kung Fu Panda short in the works at Baxter's studio. We'll see when the DVD is released.

The Dark Side of Mary Blair

2008-06-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

The ASIFA animation archive just posted some images from a Mary Blair book I've never seen before called, "Baby's House." I assume that's supposed to be a Raggedy Ann Doll but it really looks like a dismembered child shoved in a box. And look at that creepy rabbit and the expression on the teddy bear's face. (The other images are great, you should go look.)

Looney Tunes - Cheap!

2008-06-13T08:11:00.000-07:00

Amazon is having a "Big DVD Sale" (creative name) and I wanted to let everybody know that you can pick up the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 1, 2, and 4 for just $29.95. These are usually $65 new. (Don't know why 3 and 5 arent being offered.) Each collection is packed with 4 full discs of some of the best cartoons ever made...what are you waiting for?!

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 4

Kung Fu Panda = Amazing.

2008-06-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

So Kung Fu Panda blew me away. I saw an early screening of it here at the Metreon in San Francisco last Tuesday with a bunch of my animator friends and everyone enjoyed it. The story is very strong, the characters are likable, the design is beautiful, and it's the perfect blend of comedy and drama. The voice acting is great - Jack Black is terrific as Po and Dustin Hoffman pulls off Shifu with ease.

Clip:

I bought the "Art of" book a week ago and it is awesome. Highly recommended. Beautiful art from Nico Marlet, the character designer.

Illustration Friday: Baby

2008-06-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

These were done for this room, in Whirled:

Launch the full version of Whirled
Mouse over the paintings to see them in action!

Tim Burton Playing Volleyball

2008-05-29T11:46:00.001-07:00

Disney Producers vs Animators volleyball game, circa 1980. Notice Tim Burton's striped black and white undershirt with the "Batman" shirt over it...hilarious. John Musker is the announcer.

Drawing at the Beach

2008-05-27T22:12:00.001-07:00

Went to the beach in Alameda a couple weeks ago and did some sketches. That monster dude was not at the beach unfortunately...but everyone else was.

Psychedelic Alice

2008-05-23T09:16:00.001-07:00

From Buzzfeed: A strangely compelling electronica song (and video) composed of sounds from the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. Made by a 19-year-old in Australia, “Alice” kind of lulls you into a state of semi-consciousness filled with Cheshire cats and flowers wielding batons.

I love this. Download the MP3 (and 2 other Alice-related songs) here.

Belated Mother's Day

2008-05-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

Made this card for my mom. The hen is holding a teacup cause my mom really likes tea. :D

PS, I'm done making stuff with pink backgrounds, for real.

Donald Duck - Donald's Diary

2008-05-20T12:32:00.001-07:00

This Donald short takes place in San Francisco! And it's got great background design and color.

Illustration Friday: Wide

2008-05-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this was originally done for Wrinkle, but wasn't finished in time. Luckily, elephants are wide as well as wrinkly. Photoshop and Cintiq.

Funny outfit...

2008-05-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

Saw this girl on New Montgomery street today on my way to work and decided to sketch her. It was 97 in San Francisco today! That's a new record, up from 91 in 1970. Crazy.

Planet Heroes: Launchway Concept

2008-04-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting from early on in the movie when Ace takes off from headquarters.

Planet Heroes: Playground Concept

2008-04-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share some concept art images from the first Planet Heroes movie I worked on at Fisher-Price. Apparently they just finished a new one that's up on their site, haven't had a chance to check it out yet. This image is of the playground where the skateboard race takes place. The second image is a "floor plan" of the action that takes place in the scene.

Toy Story: The Musical

2008-04-17T11:40:00.001-07:00

Enough said.

I gots me a Cintiq.

2008-04-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

For my birthday I bought myself a Cintiq. And I did some doodles. :D

Amiga - Disney Animation Studio (1990)

2008-04-14T08:37:00.001-07:00

Ohhhh man how I'd love to play with this. Look at that 'morgue' full of Disney reference!! I think with a little hunting I can find this software and an Amiga emulator...

Illustration Friday: Save

2008-04-10T21:08:00.001-07:00

Went to Tilden Park in Berkeley on Easter and did this little sketch...thought it fit the topic of "Save" - Save the Earth! Such a beautiful park, so glad its there for people to enjoy.

Whirled enters public beta!

2008-04-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to finally reveal the project I've been working on for the past year at Three Rings. It's called Whirled, and is a Flash-based virtual world/social networking/gaming site. You can wear all sorts of cool avatars, decorate your house, play fun games with friends, chat, and even upload your own creations. When you've created a room you're happy with, you can embed it on your blog or myspace like I've done here. You will show up as a little ghost while logged on as a guest, but if you head over to whirled.com you can sign up for a real account. If you join Whirled, feel free to add me as a friend - my Whirled name is "Billiam" and I'd be happy to see you there! (ps, whirled is free!)

Marina Sketchcrawl

2008-03-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was jam packed full of drawing. It started at 11 with a Sketchcrawl in the Marina. (I stayed mostly in and around Ghirardelli Square.) It was a blast and I ended up with some sketches I liked. After that, Brittney and I headed over to Oakland around 7 pm to do caricatures for a fundraiser for the East Bay Humane Society. It was a singles mixer for animal lovers and there were tons of dogs there, which made it extra interesting. Our little corner turned out to be pretty popular, and left us drawing for four hours straight! (Probably because they were free...) Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pics from the event. In the meantime, enjoy these sketches from the crawl:

Figure Drawing

2008-03-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a few from last week's figure drawing session at UC Berkeley.

IF: Leap, part 2

2008-03-03T08:17:00.001-08:00

This is a Christmas gift I made for my girlfriend, but it fit the topic of "Leap" too well not to post. She's a dancer and loves leaping...and also likes pandas. The Chinese characters you see actually say "bear" + "cat"...which is panda. Did you know Pandas weren't discovered until the 1860s?

IF: Leap

2008-02-29T23:49:00.001-08:00

I don't think I've ever completed an IF topic in one day, on the first day. But today was Leap Day and I had to do it. This is a little less cartoony than usual for me. TabletPC and Photoshop.

Illustration Friday: Multiple

2008-02-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Multiple cups of tea, that is. This was a Christmas present for my mom, these are her two cats.

Tilden Botanical Garden

2008-02-23T20:56:00.001-08:00

Here's a quick watercolor from the botanical garden at Tilden Park in Berkeley. Also, I just got back from WonderCon and it was amazing! (Got to be in the same room with David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and Chris Carter!!!) Then I went to the Early Bird Painters show and met Mike Dutton and Dice Tsutsumi. Beautiful work from everyone in that show. Oscars tomorrow - let's see if Ratatouille can go five for five. Also, I saw a slew of clips from WALL-E at WonderCon and let's just say it looks like the best Pixar film ever. (But I say that every time a new one comes out...)

Some figure drawing

2008-02-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

I got myself a TabletPC last week. I'm still getting used to it, but here are a few sketches from Saturday's figure drawing session. These were done in ArtRage.

Illustration Friday: Choose

2008-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

This alley cat's got lots of delicious garbage to choose from! This is my sister's cat, James, who enjoys eating anything. (Pasta, eggplant, cookies, beans, bread, etc.)

Illustration Friday: Tales and Legends

2008-01-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

I guess this is more "Tails and Legends"...ha! Sorry. Dog pirates! Done on real paper...with real paint.

Sketchcrawl!

2008-01-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

I was finally able to attend a Sketchcrawl out here in San Francisco. I had a blast. Not only did I get to draw all day, I got to meet a ton of cool new people. And then there were a whole bunch of "Oh wait...I read your blog!" moments. Enjoy these pics from the Chinatown:

Brittney and Dave sketching...photoshop color.

There was a lot of gambling going on!

That is Daniela Strijleva up there.

Those ladies noticed I was drawing them and then they got shifty.

That's the most drawings I've done in a long time. There's still a slew of paintings from Christmas that I've been meaning to post.

Just found this on the forums...thanks for posting this!! (From left to right: Me, Dave, Brittney, Enrico Casarosa!)

FIgure Drawing

2008-01-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

Trying to get back into the figure drawing groove. I've been reading Mike Mattesi's "Force" book on figure drawing for animators. So far it's pretty awesome. These drawings were done at the Saturday morning life drawing group at UC Berkeley. It's a great group of very talented people all working in a variety of styles and mediums. If you are in the area you should check it out.

My favorite Wiimote Hacks

2008-01-03T09:12:00.001-08:00

Johnny Chung Lee, of Carnegie Mellon University, is doing some amazing things with the wii remote! Here is one where he figured out how to use it for head tracking for desktop VR displays:

And here is another where he uses the wii remote to create a low-cost multi-touch display/whiteboard!

If you go to his website he's got another video where he tracks finger movement with the wii remote...just like in Minority Report. This guy is a genius.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T22:32:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone out there is having a great Christmas or other holiday fun. I have uploaded a Golden Book full of awesome illustrations. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Mr. Disney

2007-12-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to the most important man in the history of animation!

Illustration Friday: The Zoo

2007-11-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to draw a panda. And it came out sad.

Where'd the Cheese Go?

2007-11-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

I made this random little cut-out film my freshman year of college. Actual paper on an actual animation stand! I should do this again some day.

Boo-o-wulf

2007-11-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

ASIFA-Hollywood held a free screening of Beowulf tonight in San Francisco. We sat in the theater for 25 minutes while the projectionist attempted to focus the projector and get the 3D print to work. We then sat through the first 20 minutes of the film in broken 3D, where everything was misaligned and quickly gave me a headache. Eventually everyone in the audience got fed up and walked out and they shut the film off because they couldn't figure out the problem. I wonder how many other theaters around the country this is going to happen at. Funny how they seemed to have a handle on this technology back in the 1950's, but now it's much more difficult to get working! What I saw of Beowulf was ugly, raunchy, and extremely boring. Facial expressions were lifeless and the CG animation made the movie a joke...had it been real actors, I may have taken it more seriously. I will admit I saw a small portion of the film, but there's no way I'm paying to see it in the theater.

RIP Jeff Jones

2007-11-15T13:17:00.001-08:00

Sad news today. One of the best (and most down to Earth) professors at RIT has died of lung cancer. I had Jeff Jones for Scriptwriting for Animation and had a great time in his class. There was a whole lot more to him than I realized. He will be sorely missed at RIT, I'm sure.

A Very OOO Halloween

2007-11-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

Three Rings had a late Halloween party. (You may have seen the invitation I drew a few posts ago. Check out my Mario costume!

Illustration Friday: Scale

2007-11-11T14:48:00.000-08:00

I really have no idea what's going on here...but one is big and one is small.

Illustration Friday: Hat

2007-11-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

It's a Spanish "No" hat! (The little balls jingle when you shake your head.) Does anyone know what it's really called?

Illustration Friday: Trick or Treat Pt. 2

2007-11-01T12:54:00.001-07:00

Did this illustration for a party invitation for work. (Turned off the text, tho.)

Illustration Friday: Trick or Treat

2007-10-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Sexy wizard! Wooo!! Finally had time to do something for fun. :D

John K Lesson - Constructing Bugs

2007-10-24T20:37:00.001-07:00

John K just posted an awesome lesson on constructing Bugs Bunny. Here's the original image:

And my attempt:

The test:

Wow! I thought I was doing so much better! And the one you see above is after I enlarged/moved the dogs head so I could compare it better. Things I did wrong:

1. Proportions - Bugs' neck and body are too long. Dog's head was drawn way too small.

2. Angles/Direction - Bugs's ears and neck are pointing the wrong way. Dog's cheeks are funny.

There's probably a lot more wrong with it...what a great exercise! I gotta do this every day.

Adventures of Mark Twain Clip

2007-09-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

As I was surfing through Digg today, I came across this clip from The Adventures of Mark Twain...a Will Vinton claymation film from the 80's. One of my professors from RIT, Tom Gasek, worked on this film back in the day. This particular clip always freaked me out and is definitely worth a watch.

Definitely not for little kids! You would never see something this interesting and frightening in an animated film today. Thanks for doing something different, Will Vinton! The surprising part is that this clip has over 655,000 hits, 5,000 comments, and has been favorited almost 10,000 times. Who knew this film was so popular?

More Cats

2007-09-25T09:49:00.001-07:00

Here are the other two paintings I did for the Berkeley Humane Society auction.

Wanna buy one?? The important info:

2nd Annual
Purr-casso Art Sale and Gala

When: Sunday, November 4, 2007
12:00pm - 4:00pm

Where: Hollis Street Project - Grand Hallway 5900 Hollis Street, Emeryville

All proceeds from this event will benefit the Berkeley-East Bay Humane Society. For more information call (510) 845-7735, ext.13.

Illustration Friday: Momentum

2007-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Dancing cats! This is a piece for an upcoming benefit auction in Berkeley this November. (For an animal shelter.) I am working on two more (smaller) pieces that will also be for sale. More info on the auction to come soon. Acrylic on paper, 11x11".

Illustration Friday: Captain

2007-08-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

Seeing as how I work at Three Rings, with people like this, 'Captain' was a very fitting theme. (I know the perspective is wonky, but I'm too tired to fix it!) I'm busy busy busy, sorry lack of posts.

Horton Hears a Who Trailer

2007-07-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

And just to renew your faith in CG animation (after that Alvin horror) here is the new trailer for Horton Hears a Who. This movie looks beautiful! (We'll see how the story goes...)

Alvin & the Chipmunks Trailer

2007-07-27T11:30:00.001-07:00

Alvin literally eats poop in this trailer. Enough said.

Beowulf Trailer Hits the Net

2007-07-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

The new Robert Zemeckis mo-cap adventure flick has posted a trailer over on Apple. The CG humans hold up decently for about...3 seconds. Then it suffers from Final Fantasy-itis, where all the characters look slightly too perfect and move just a little bit off. I love Zemeckis and Neil Gaiman wrote the script...I just wish it was made with real people. (I wonder how people will feel about a hot naked CG Angelina Jolie...why not the real thing, huh??) What's with making actors over in CG anyway? Yes, its Anthony Hopkins voice...does the character have to BE Anthony Hopkins? The official site says that the film will be shown in IMAX 3D and Digital 3D - sounds like the only option is 3D. If they could come up with a way to show 3D movies that didn't involve glasses, and didn't feel like a gimmick that took me out of the film...I might enjoy it.

Illustration Friday: Poem

2007-07-25T23:02:00.001-07:00

It's been a little while, but I'm back with a new one for IF. I'm a fan of e.e. cummings, so I chose one of his poems for inspiration.

who knows if the moon's
a balloon,coming out of a keen city
in the sky--filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it,if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody's ever visited,where

always
it's
Spring)and everyone's
in love and flowers pick themselves

Vintage: The Wizard's Duel

2007-07-08T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Sword in the Stone is one of my favorite Disney films. Well, that's a lie...I really only like certain parts of it. Namely, the part with the squirrels, the part where Merlin packs his house into a bag, and this part...the wizard's duel. I found this at a flea market on the Cape a few months ago and snatched it up for the awesome illustrations inside. I've created a .pdf of the book and uploaded it to Scribd. That site is awesome! As you can see, (I hope), it allows you to share documents easily. I would like to start some sort of animation library on there, much like a Flickr pool, except for documents and books. So scroll through the pages, then if you like you can download the .pdf through Scribd. (When you open it in Acrobat, or FoxIt as I prefer, you can view two pages side by side, just as the book intended.)

Illustration Friday: Geeky

2007-07-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

I unfortunately missed last week's topic of 'twist' because I was finishing up this painting for the Narnia Fan Art Contest...which is by far one of the more geeky things I've done lately. It's a scene from the book "Prince Caspian"...when Lucy first sees Aslan in the forest. The contest had some ridiculous rules about not including human likenesses...I hope I can get away with tree people.

Illustration Friday: Camouflage

2007-06-28T20:32:00.001-07:00

Under 2 hours! That's good. For me. :D

(Apologies to pascal and ian for blatantly trying to emulate their awesomeness.) And for anyone who hasn't seen it yet...Ratatouille opens tomorrow!! Victor Haboush calls it "the best animated film since Pinnochio." And that's coming from a guy who worked on Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmations. Damn!

The Neverhood...is going to be a movie!

2007-06-27T20:12:00.001-07:00

This is huge news. Amazing awesome news. Doug TenNapel's masterpiece of claymation interactive fun is being turned into a feature film, written and directed by TenNapel himself. Frederator will be producing the film (along with a new feature film adaptation of Samurai Jack!) Hooray Frederator! Your coolness factor just shot up about 1000% in my book.

For the uninitiated, The Neverhood was a PC game released in 1996 through Dreamworks Interactive. (This was back when Dreamworks took a chance on cool new ideas, rather than just making sequel after sequel...interesting that Frederator is making this film and not Dreamworks!) Check out some footage from the game:

Read the official Variety press release. Funny that the title claims "indie studio develops 2D animated films"...when the Neverhood is obviously claymation. I guess when it's not made on a computer people forget that it's 3D? Also, you can read more about The Neverhood on Wikipedia. Looks like a copy of The Neverhood will run ya about $40-60 on eBay...hopefully it still plays correctly on the systems we've got running eleven years later. On a side note, I met Doug TenNapel a couple years ago when he spoke at RIT (I even sat next to him at dinner!) and I got him to autograph my copy of the game. Maybe it'll be worth more now that there's the film coming out...and I can only hope this means another game too!

Surf's Up!

2007-06-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

So after being hounded by fellow animators I caught a matinee of Surf's Up today. Wow! What a surprise! When I first saw the previews and posters for this film I had zero interest in seeing it. MORE penguins?? But to even try to compare it to Happy Feet is ridiculous. This film had everything Happy Feet was missing - character designs, a great story, fun music, actual animation done by real animators with a ton of personality...If you are thinking about seeing it, you should. You won't be sorry. (There were a couple of poop jokes in there that were unnecessary, but they DID get big laughs from the kids.) As Brittney said, it has a whole lot of heart in it. (Something Happy Feet was also lacking.) Now the film to really compare it to would be next week's Ratatouille. I have seen both films, and honestly I think they are both great and worth seeing. Ratatouille was a little more appealing to me right off the bat, and I think it has some really impressive performances and animation. Surf's Up was consistently funny and really made me feel for the characters...see them both! Now!

And while you're at it, go check out some of the sweet pics Marcelo Vignali has been posting on his blog. Marcelo was one of the designers on the film and he is great! He also worked on Open Season. If Sony continues to get better and better (this film was waaaay better than Open Season, imho) I think they just might give Pixar a run for their money.

Bizarre Andy Panda Cartoon

2007-06-21T23:46:00.000-07:00

So today at work, Josh told me about this strange Andy Panda cartoon he saw when he was a kid. It featured a devil character and Andy Panda going to hell and being forced to eat apples. Ofcourse it is on Youtube, (in Portuguese?!) so here you can all see it. It starts out kind of strange, but really hits it's stride around 5:30. Gah.

Illustration Friday: Rejection

2007-06-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ehhhhh...

Ratatouille Sneak Preview!

2007-06-16T23:53:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a sneak preview of Pixar's new film Ratatouille. What can I say? It was amazing. Brad Bird has done it again. This is probably the most interesting and hilarious Pixar film ever made. EVERYTHING is spot on - the voices, the acting, the animation, the RENDERING...holy crap everything looks so real! But not in a creepy Final Fantasy way. In a beautiful dream world sort of way. The audience reaction to the film was terrific. (Though I did see it at Bay St. theater, which is about a mile from Pixar...so there may have been some slightly bias folks there.) Seriously, if you see one animated film this year, make it Ratatouille. And once you do, tell your friends to see it too. I can't get over it. I'm in animation heaven right now.

Illustration Friday: Suit

2007-06-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Just in time....

My Office is so cool it's in WIRED!!

2007-06-13T09:37:00.001-07:00

Seriously! Click here to read the WIRED photo-essay all about Three Rings' awesome office. It was even picked up by boingboing! Hooray!

I love working here. (Who wouldn't?!) Here's a few pics, there are lots more in the WIRED article....

All this hard work was done by the amazing pair from Because We Can, based in Oakland.

Planet Heroes!

2007-06-08T08:15:00.001-07:00

As some of you may know, my previous job was at Fisher-Price, working on a direct-to-DVD animated show called "Planet Heroes." It was a 9 month project and we produced a 27 minute episode that will be packaged with a new line of toys coming out this fall. (Or summer? I'm really not sure.) It centers on a set of heroes culled from each planet of our solar system. And half-way through production Pluto was deemed no longer a planet! That was fun. (We had to keep him in, we just added jokes about how he was tiny and a dwarf planet...let's see how many short people get mad about that.) I was a designer, modeler, texture painter, lighter, animator, and compositor on this. The only things I never touched were rigging and sound. And now there's is a great website for the product that you can access here. On the site you can watch a trailer for the episode and download the theme song MP3 and a comic book and coloring book pages, etc. You can even order a copy of the DVD for free! Here's a screencap from the site:

I painted that matte painting of the city in the clouds. Hopefully once the DVD's been out for a while I can post some of my concept art for it and no one will mind. Also, I searched YouTube for an embeddable trailer but all I found was a video some mother had made of her kid's reactions to the Planet Heroes episode. (I would post it here but it was really boring.) They were two young boys and one of them liked "the skateboard race" and the character of Ace. (The hero from Earth.) And the other liked "the hot one" which would be Dazzle, from Venus. (She is not bad looking, but I assume he meant her fire-powers.)

Illustration Friday: Your Paradise

2007-06-06T23:26:00.000-07:00

I was looking around for something old that might apply to this week's topic when I was suddenly hit with inspiration. I like books and I like quiet...so my paradise would be reading books in space. (Also, I liked being 5 years old?)

Also, if you are just stopping through Illustration Friday, take a look around my blog! If you're feeling crazy you might even add it to your RSS reader! I have some neat projects coming up that I'll be posting so come back soon.

Figure Drawing 2

2007-06-06T21:42:00.001-07:00

Forced myself to go to figure drawing again this week. I wish I could find a group of animators who do this sort of thing. I might just have to start one...except I have no space for it. I wonder if Three Rings would go for a nude model in the office...

ALSO: I have lots of things I am thinking about doing with the blog here...like scans from a different vintage kid's book each week, fun links and stuff...but I'm not really sure it's worth it. When I post stuff to Illustration Friday it seems to get lots of comments, but otherwise I don't know if anyone's actually reading this blog. In which case I'm just wasting my...fingers? (I was going to say breath, but not really appropriate.) If anyone out there has an opinion, let me know.

My Thesis: Love at First Roach

2007-06-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

Well it only took a year, but I finally posted my thesis on Youtube. "Love at First Roach" is the result of over 9 months of grueling work. My advisor on the project was Disney vet Nancy Beiman, and I have to say I learned an incredible amount working with her. Rigging was done by Greg Smith, who now works at Laika. The original idea for this film was very different, but I do like how it turned out. I needed about a year to distance myself from it, and now I can watch it without cringing so much, haha. I haven't spent too much time on sending it out to festivals, though I probably should. It did screen at Tony White's "2D or Not 2D
Festival in Washington state. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Crazy Rollerskaters

2007-06-03T22:47:00.000-07:00

So I'm wandering around Golden Gate Park today with my newfound friend Michelle, and we hear some loud music and see people dancing. Turns out they weren't dancing, they were rollerskating! There was a whole bunch of em. Apparently Sunday is "no car day" in the park and they can take over the road and blast their music and go at it. Some of them were pretty good too. ALL of them were characters. (Especially fuzzy boots-skates guy and big hair man.)

Figure Drawing

2007-06-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

I finally checked out an open figure drawing place in San Francisco. It was a small studio and we had a great model. A lot of other people, mostly pretty friendly. This is the first figure drawing I've done for many months. I am still looking for a group that focuses on gesture drawing (probably made up of other animators) and possible uses costumes as well. Any other Bay Area people know of such a thing? Or would like to start one up?

Harry Potter Notes & News

2007-05-31T22:20:00.001-07:00

Holy. Crap.
Universal is creating a Harry Potter theme park (actually just a section of their "Islands of Adventure" park) that will open in 2009. They even hired Stuart Craig, the production designer from all the films, to oversee the design of the park. They also have J.K. Rowling on board, which makes fans happy. Coincidentally, I got to see Stuart Craig give a great talk at The Dryden theater in Rochester about a year ago. He had a lot of interesting things to say about working on the Harry Potter films. Now would probably be a good time for me to dig up my moleskine and let you in on his anecdotes and advice:

Craig started out by comparing film and theater. He has a theater background and complained that film has a horrible tonal range compared to real life. (There is no black in film unfortunately.)

He added that theater is often more powerful than film simply because the performer and audience share the same physical space. (I tend to disagree - I am often more aware that I am watching actors when I am seeing a play. Also I miss the closeups.)

A film like Harry Potter must be tangible. Craig was in charge of building a recognizable world, with some exaggeration. He based his ideas of Hogwarts Castle on Westminster Abbey, Christ Church College, and referenced Oxford for the Great Hall. (Good thing they got a British designer, eh?) As Craig said, "Steal from the best and heighten reality." (This certainly applies to production design in animation as well!) He also mentioned Durham, Canterbury Cathedral, and Gloucester as sources of inspiration/shooting locations.

On the first few movies a lot was shot on location. For the fifth movie they have moved to building EVERYTHING on set. He says this allows more control over silhouette and composition...what he called, "Fantasy, but not Tim Burton." (haha.)

He also mentioned that Hagrid's Hut, the bridge, and the pumpkin patch were the only sets in the third movie to be built on location in Scotland. Everything else is on a sound stage. These ext. sets were seen as an "escape" from the Cathedral/Hogwarts Castle.

Craig says, "A production designer's job is to sell the image."

He also talked briefly about directors: Mike Newell (HP4) was the most concerned with spectacle - he was always looking for something dynamic. Alfonso Cuaron (Hp3) was "brilliant at telling a story in pictures." (Very true indeed...if you haven't seen Hp3 or Children of Men...do it.)

Craig explained that only the production designer is looking at EVERYTHING beyond the actor. He also said that filmmakers often deliver a better film than the studio wants. (Hard to believe.)

Craig also gave a rundown of his working methods:

1. Research: The real world is too complicated (and dull, and boring) to reproduce exactly. Try to point out what is telling the story. Exaggerate profiles/silhouette. (Animators should all know this.) He mentioned it in regard to the Durmstrang ship in the 4th film. He said it had to be, "the shippiest of all ship-shapes." As in, it had to read as a massive ship immediately.

2. Create a rough plan to scale. Technical drawings with measurements and angles can be used for 3D models (in the computer or practical.)

3. Incorporate your shots. Most directors direct TEXT, not IMAGES. Also, the production designer should have some say in the lighting of the scene. He mentioned that 3/4 back lighting is most appealing. Go for the widest shot possible, at the most dynamic angle. (Good advice for all artists!)

Craig also compared cinema in America to cinema in England. In America it is about the "boldness of expression." In England it is more meager, more austere. They enjoy restraint for it's own sake.

He also talked a little about the huge amount of visual effects. Apparently there was only one virtual set in HP4. (You listening George Lucas?) You can tell! The film is beautiful and feels real. (Because it is.) Craig mentioned going back to the earlier artists for inspiration. Don't look at Frazetta (sorry John K), look at Frazetta's influences...people like Albert Whitlock and Vermeer. (mmm...Vermeer.) He said something along the lines of "CG artists bastardize things" (I may be paraphrasing here) and that we need to blend the old crafts better with the new software. I couldn't agree more.

Also, going back to the theme park, someone in the article I read mentioned that they would go to a Harry Potter park over Disney world...I agree. But as much as I want to roam the corridors of Hogwarts and the streets of Hogsmeade...I don't want to see crumpled napkins and melting ice cream next to a screaming child in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Maybe I'm a little too attached to the material. ;]

And just to make this ridiculously long post longer, I was just watching an interview with this amazing 9-year old girl named Adora, who had first book published when she was only 7. She's got a mad crazy vocabulary and is witty and intelligent and types 80 words a minute. (She started writing longhand when she was 4, and typing on a laptop when she was 6.) She continues to write and now lectures and teaches! She left the audience with the message to go out and dream big and use your imagination and that we can all accomplish big things. And just how did this all start? What books where her parents reading to her that she loved so much as a kid? That's right, Harry Potter.

P.S. Book 7 is coming out so soon I think my head might asplode.

Illustration Friday: Cars

2007-05-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here's one you wouldn't see in a Pixar movie about cars. (Though it might have been interesting if it had been in there...) I was thinking along the lines of Tyrannosaurus Wrecks. (I am the king of bad puns!!)

Funny thing about this week's topic is that I was really uninspired by it and cranked this out really fast...but I actually like it more than anything I've done in a while! I should work faster and care less about stuff in the future. Also, the car is a '56 Ford Fairlane.

Photoshopped Kid's Books

2007-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

These are hilarious!

My favorite:

You gotta see them all over at SomethingAwful.

Daumier Sculptures

2007-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Honore Daumier was a master of caricature. While moving across the country I stopped in Chicago for a couple days and was able to visit the Art Institute there. What a beautiful museum! Probably one of my favorites that I've ever been to. I found this tiny room tucked away in a corner, full of Daumier sculptures and a couple drawings. These sculptures are relatively rare, as they were used mostly for reference in drawings, not as final art pieces to be sold. I love the exagerration and rough quality of the bronze casts. I searched the gift shop for a book with these sculptures in them but I don't think they are anywhere in print. So enjoy them here!

Of course when he did a self-portrait he was a little more forgiving:

A couple sketches:

Illustration Friday: Neighbor

2007-05-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

Another quick one...this is something I might come back to sometime.

Illustration Friday: Remember

2007-05-03T21:55:00.000-07:00

Cutting it close here. I was trying to think of something that I remembered from my own childhood...then I decided I would do something I wish I remembered. And this is a little inspired by Pascal Campion, I'm not gonna lie. And yes, I realize I stuck another purple tree on the left of the picture...I happen to like them there. Inked in Flash, colored in Photoshop. I was looking at some Pogo comics but I'm about 50 lightyears away from Walt Kelly.

Illustration Friday: Polar

2007-04-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

here's a quickie!

Illustration Friday: Fortune

2007-04-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hey I actually posted this before Thursday night! Woohoo! Also, I had my first day of work at Three Rings today and tomorrow is my birthday. (I will be the big two-three.) HOORAY!

Illustration Friday: Green

2007-04-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Here is a little mermaid. (Not THE Little Mermaid...just a mermaid.)

Little Guy

2007-03-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Just playing around in Flash.

Monster House: Expressions

2007-02-16T18:45:00.000-08:00

I just found this little booklet from Siggraph of how they created the mo-cap expressions in Monster House. It is very interesting because they include preliminary drawings (which I had no idea they even did!) and then in between they show the actors and then the final CGI. I have removed the actors so that you can see the direct comparison between drawing and CG recreation.

Here we have the scary neighbor Steve Buscemi character:

I actually think this might be the most succesful of the three characters they show. Though they do miss out on the exagerration of the mouth in the second two images...and check out the eyes in the middle one! He's much more menacing when we see more of the whites of his eyes. (Also, this drawing is the image they chose as the cover to this little booklet - NOT the CG version.)

Above is the boring girl character. They took some decent (yet rather subtle) expressions and toned them down until she looks like a zombie. She was definitely the one character in the film that I wished had more life to her. Again, check out the eyes - the same problem that plagued the Polar Express. (Ward Jenkins had a great post where he went back and fixed some of the frames from that film in Photoshop. What a difference! Are you listening, Zemeckis/Disney?)

And here is the token obnoxious friend, possibly the worst of the three. Though it does look like something went to the bathroom on his head, at least he doesn't look evil.

I'll be honest, I really liked Monster House for what it was. I would have loved to see it fully animated rather than Mo-Cap, but that wasn't my call. It's definitely a step in the right direction from Polar Express, but let's hope they keep refining and improving those expressions! Now, I wonder what it's Oscar chances are...

George Pal: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

2007-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

I've got a treat here for all those George Pal fans out here. If you are not familiar with Pal, go out and rent the Puppetoons DVD right now. (Also, it's only $10 on Amazon.) You won't be dissapointed! Pal was a Hungarian-born animator who was nominated for 7 Oscars (of which he received one, for his work with the Puppetoons. He also received another for special effects, but I can't seem to find evidence online that he received any others. The page from this book shown below states that he won 6 of them!)

I found this book at a flea market in Rochester, NY. It is a short companion to Pal's feature film, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," as well as to the technique of "Cinerama". If you are unfamiliar with the process (as I was) Cinerama was a moviegoing experience developed in the 50's that was akin to IMAX or other large format film screenings. Check out the wikipedia entry on it - it explains it very well. There is also an illustration from the book explaining the projection setup. Anyone out there ever see a movie in Cinerama??

Front Cover: I love the eyes on that dragon!

Cinerama setup.

I think these little portraits of the film's stars are pretty sweet.

There's some puppets!!

I have yet to see this George Pal film, as it is mostly live action. I believe that the sequence with most of the animation is "The Cobbler and the Elves." (above)

Apparently the Cinerama camera is an insanely massive thing that shot three cameras simultaneously to create the ultra-wide format of the film. Seriously, check out the picture below...it looks like a refrigerator!! You should also read the notes there on what they did with it, including rolling it down a hill in a drum and mounting it to a 30 ft scaffolding inside the Rosenburg Cathedral!

Also, did you know that 18 year-old Ray Harryhausen got his first job animating at George Pal's studio? Cool! Let me know if you like this kind of stuff. I have a few more books in my collection that I should scan in. (And as a side note, did you notice how nicely this book is laid out? The fonts, photos, illustrations...and it's in really good condition too.)

Puss in Boots

2007-01-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a painting I did for my mom for her birthday. The two cats are based on her own kitties.

Why isn't Flushed Away doing better at the Box Office?

2006-11-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

If you're anything like me, you probably were not very interested in seeing Aardman/Dreamworks' new film, Flushed Away. I was told by a friend how amazing it was and decided to see for myself. I was extremely impressed by the film, which is 99% Aardman and 1% Dreamworks. The animation, the character design, the timing and comedy and writing - it's all top notch. I might even go as far as saying that it is the best animated film this year. (Even better than Cars, in my opinion.)

So why is Flushed Away doing so badly in theaters right now? So far it has only made about $40 million, a huge loss for Dreamworks in comparison to hits like Shrek and Madagascar. Well here begins my explanation of the problems with Flushed Away. First, watch the trailer below:

1. The trailer for Flushed Away is for a different film. What you see above is Roddy (the main rat guy) with two hamster servants - characters that were eventually cut at a very late time in production. They were a bad idea to begin with and to feature them throughout a whole trailer was an even worse idea. They also decided to show the ONE pop-culture joke in the film (the Finding Nemo one) - there are much stronger jokes in the movie than that.

2. They chose to show the most boring parts of the film in the trailer. The short amount of time Roddy spends in his human house is by far the least interesting, and features the most annoying secondary character, Sid. On a side note, they also showed the least visually interesting parts of the film. Inside the sewer-city is rich and detailed and beautifully designed - the indoor-house stuff barely looks like it's textured at all.

3. What is this film about? Not once did we see the evil toad character or get ANY sort of idea what the real story is about. All we see is a snotty mouse being flushed down a toilet. They didn't even show the french ninja frogs!

4. They made a movie about talking animals. As we all know, this was the year for movies about sarcastic little animals and their battles with humans encroaching on their land, etc. Over the Hedge (another Dreamworks film), The Wild, Ice Age 2, Barnyard, Ant Bully, Open Season (and I suppose we could include Madagascar and Chicken Little in there too). WE GET IT. ANIMALS ARE CUTE AND FUNNY. Let's try something original for a change. Flushed Away is thankfully different from all those other films - it is not sarcastic or crude; it is slapstick at its best with the same sort of humor you find in the Wallace and Gromit films, but a little more appealing to Americans I think.

5. Overall nasty marketing. Whoever turned this goldmine into a dud should be fired. The trailer I posted above is an early one, which shows you the trouble they had with the script. (I heard there were over 100 versions of it at one point - perhaps that's why it cost $149 million? Either that or it was made on golden computers.) I say "nasty" marketing because many of the recent ads I've seen feel like dirty political ads. They have comments on them that say things like "Funnier than CARS!" or "Better than ICE AGE!" Seriously, people. Do you need to put down other films to make yours appealing? Those films aren't even in theaters now! It's not like they are competing with each other. Just show why your film is good instead of claiming its "better than other things".

So why should you go see Flushed Away? Because it's hilarious and a good time for everyone. I was probably cracking up more than the kids in the movie theater...but that's nothing new.

Wise Words from Brad Bird

2006-11-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

Just caught this in a NY Times article about "How to Be Funny."

How to Draw Funny Pictures By Brad Bird, creator of “The Incredibles”

Because animation is a relatively complicated process, and because it is not spontaneous, it is often mischaracterized as purely mechanical. In reality, and at its best, the art of character animation exists somewhere between silent comedy and dance. Its success depends on finding a physical expression that is recognizable yet beyond what occurs in real life.

Fred Astaire had unusually large hands and learned how to use them in a way that made his dance more dynamic; he’d fold his hands for most of a routine, then flash them out for accents at key points. Their sudden increase in size made those moves pop in a way that other dancers couldn’t match. Animators use tricks like this all the time in ways that the audience never sees but always feels. Bugs Bunny, imitating the conductor Leopold Stokowski in concert, will violently raise his arms in onetwelfth of a second (two frames of film). Every part of his body will be rock-still — save for Bugs’s quivering hand.

It is impossible for a living being to do this, but not for Bugs. He is truly Stokowski, more Stokowski than Stokowski was himself, because Bugs is the impression of Stokowski: his power, his arrogance, his supreme control over his musicians, perfectly boiled down to its essence. We laugh because it is completely unreal and utterly truthful in the same moment.

As I read on, I noticed this all-too-true tidbit from writer Patton Oswalt:

"Lately I’ve been doing punch-up on computer-animated films, but the trick with doing punch-up on these movies is that unlike the live-action script, which hasn’t been filmed yet, the computer-animated film is usually 80 percent complete by the time we see it. And when I say 80 percent complete, I mean, “We’ve spent $120 million on this, so we really can’t change anything.”

“Uh, well then,” you’ll ask, through a mouthful of takeout Chinese, “what exactly do you want us to do?”

“What we need is for you guys to come up with funny off-screen voices yelling funny things over the unfunny action.”

I didn’t know you could make comedies that way! This is comforting news. Can I take old super-8 footage of a kid’s birthday party, where none of the other kids showed up? And he’s sitting at the kitchen table, and he’s got his little birthday hat on, and a lonely little cake, and he’s crying, and just when you’re about to kill yourself from the pathos, someone offscreen yells:

“I just fell on my fanny in some butterscotch!”

Wow, you’ll think, suddenly cheerful. Someone I can’t see, or will ever see, just fell into some butterscotch and is now talking about it out loud the way no one does or has, ever!

Did I mention there’s lunch? "

Illustration Friday: Ghost

2006-10-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by Scooby Doo on this one. :]

An Evening with Syd Mead

2006-10-01T18:02:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, Syd Mead is a futurist and concept designer whose work has appeared in films like Bladerunner, Aliens, and Tron to name just a few. Last week he was in Rochester for a presentation at RIT. I made the trek out for the evening and was glad that I did. Though Mead is now entering his 70's, the man is still very active in the industry today and has a lot of useful stories and bits of information to share. What I was truly amazed by was his futurist concepts that he did while he was working at Ford in the 1950's. Somehow he was able to sit around all day creating these wild concepts for vehicles far in the future...I have a feeling that today that position no longer exists. (And not just because Ford is slowly going down the tubes.) Some of Mead's designs from 50 years ago have become a reality; notably one that functioned much like a Segway. Not that any normal person really uses a Segway. (Which makes me wonder how willing people will be to adapt to new modes of transportation.)

Mead discussed some of his work on Bladerunner, which really sounds like a great project to have worked on. Though it was hampered by budget constraints and Ridley Scott being fired at one point in production, it remains as a high point in sci-fi movie history. You know how sometimes you'll look at sci-fi concepts and not really understand what half the stuff is? Well Mead revealed that that is just part of the job. He will often throw some shapes together that have just the bare elements of a recognizable setting or object, but with plenty of extra features and dials and shapes to create a futuristic feeling. He showed one concept from Bladerunner of a bathroom in the future. You could tell that it was a bathroom because of the sink and the toilet-like device, (as well as the size of the room) but beyond that you'd be hard pressed to find anything else you'd recognize from a bathroom of today.

He also pointed out another concept (this one from a videogame) that had the classic ultra-detailed overly complex sci-fi look to it. He explained that in the future things would obviously be simpler and many tasks will be accomplished unseen (nanotechnology I assume), but for films and games people expect to see circuitry and pipes and wires and all that schmutz all over the place. To some degree I appreciate that classic look of "run-down and dirty sci-fi future," but at the same time I think it has been overdone and doesn't really reflect the way the future will probably be. (Whose to say, but as I mentioned before, there will probably be nanorobots that clean the streets and hopefully pollution will be eliminated.)

The only problem I found with Mead's work is that it still looks the same today as it did in the 1950's. His vision of the future has not developed as rapidly as technology has developed, but his rendering skills still blow me away. Mead recently released a series of DVD's with the Gnomon workshop, as well as publishing a few books from his own publishing company. I picked up the latest one, "Sentury," and got it signed by him. (Oh and I yanked these works from the net, thanks to whoever posted them.)

Ottawa Animation Festival 2006: A Report

2006-09-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

I have returned from the far away lands of the North! After three long days of animation, animators, recruiters, friends, professors, and pumpkins I can finally sit down at the computer and report on the experience. Complete with pictures.

Hooray Ottawa!! (This is by one of those Pratt guys...pretty sweet!)

I began my Ottawa experience this year by leaving Rochester at 5 AM and making it all the way up the city by 10:30 or so. After getting a little lost I finally found a place to park (note to self: parking the National Arts Center is mucho expensivo.) Once there I wandered over to the Jonathan Hodgson workshop. Hodgson is an animator that I had never heard of by name, but I immediately recognized his style when he showed his commercial work. His website has a lot of his work, go check it out. He mostly talked about how he developed as an artist and even showed a chronological slideshow of his work starting at age 6. Hodgson explained that he is very easily influenced by other artists and always had a hard time finding his own style. I think most of us can relate to that. Now I find myself being influenced by him...some of his work reminds me a lot of Dave McKean, but in a less eerie way.

PICNIC TIME!

After Hodgson's workshop I waited an hour for the bus to take me and a whole bunch of other animators over to Mooney's Bay for the annual Ottawa Picnic. Though it was my third year at Ottawa, it was my first at the picnic. It was a little awkward and overwhelming, but the food was great (annnnnd free booze) and I ended up meeting a lot of interesting people. I caught up with Lorelei Pepi, a friend and former professor from RIT. I'm still working on her new short, Happy & Gay, which will hopefully be seen at Ottawa next year. She introduced me to some great indie animators, including George Griffin, Karen Aqua, and Fran Krause among others. While at the picnic I spotted Ward, of Ward-o-Matic fame, and John (Robotjohnny) who were both at the fest under the guise of MEDIA for Drawn!. I also got to meet Amid Amidi and Jerry Beck of Cartoonbrew and some cool kids from Pratt who are interning at Frederator.

Part of the Ottawa picnic tradition is a pumpkin carving contest, with lots of interesting entries...though I'm not sure who won.

Might be my favorite.

After the picnic I was able to check in to my hotel, which was oddly named "ARC The Hotel" but had a great location just a block away from the NAC, the main screening location for the fest. The hotel was pretty fancy (they offered me a glass of champagne and Belgian chocolate when I checked in) and was able to hold all 5 of us kids staying there. Speaking of which, I was staying with some friends from RIT, Sean Keeton and Bob Rutan, as well as their respective lady friends, Pana and Gina. (I ended up on an air mattress in the corner.) Unfortunately Sean had some car trouble and ended up making it to Ottawa a bit after midnight. In the meantime I was taking in the "ToonTown" retrospective of animation made in Ottawa over the last 65 years. There was some amazing work, including Norman McClaren (there's that new DVD box set out if you're looking to buy me a present) and the world premiere of Nick Cross's Waif of Persephone. Cross's film was beautifully designed and animated (verrry Spumco of course) and had a quirky storytelling sense.

Those NAC chairs are actually not too uncomfortable.

After the Ottawa retrospective I stayed for Short Competition 3, which featured a film by my old RIT professor Skip Battaglia. Skip's film, Crossing the Stream, is described in the fest guide as "A poem in the shape of a stream," which is very well said. It was one of the very few experimental films that I could not only sit through, but appreciate on an artistic and cinematic level. Other shorts that stood out to me were Tyger from Brazil, and Run Wrake's Rabbit. Rabbit's style was a mix of 1950's Dick & Jane illustrations and Adult Swim-ish After Effects animation. It work surprisingly well together and had a crazy story to go along with it. After the screening I found another RIT prof and stop-motion animator extraordinaire, Tom Gasek, and a bunch of us headed over to Chez Ani for a drink.

Saturday brought a lot of stress early in the morning. This was the day of Ottawa's new feature, "Animators for Hire." It was arranged around six different companies (Disney, Blue Sky, Nerd Corps, Mainframe, Studio B, and Longtail). There were six tables and each table had 6 or 7 people at it with portfolio and reel in hand. We were given 14 minutes at each table and then the entire group would shift down to the next table. (Clean cup clean cup! That's how it felt, really.) The people from each company were pretty friendly, but I have to say that Disney was surprisingly the most helpful and genuinely interested in giving feedback and taking note of the different people who came by. When I have seen Disney at past fests, as well as at Siggraph the past couple years, they came across as very corporate and scary. They would not look at people's portfolios (legal reasons), and this year they would not accept reels at Siggraph. (There is a new online submission thing, which really works best in the long run.) Anyway, I was happy to talk to them as well as all the other companies there. I also met a lot of interesting animators from Canada (as well as Dubai and Brazil) along the way. Mainframe has a feature coming up and Studio B looks like they are almost overflowing with 2D work for you flash guys and gals.

After a couple hours of selling myself I gladly settled in for the Bruno Bozzetto Short Films screening. Though I had seen many of the films before they were just as funny, if not funnier, than I remembered. Bozzetto himself was there to answer questions afterwards which was a real treat. I wish I had been there for the screening of Allegro Non Tropo earlier in the week.

I grabbed a quick lunch at the conveniently located mall cafeteria and headed down to the Arts Court for the "LAIKA: How We Do It" workshop. I found a seat next to Ward and the place quickly filled up and spilled out into the hallway next door. There were a couple directors from LAIKA's commercial division and the moderator was Tom Knott, an animation veteran and LAIKA recruiter guy of sorts. We saw some interesting glimpses into the process of creating a TV spot, and they left us wanting more. Though we did get some innapropriate t-shirts:

The back says, "Animated for the very first time." HAR HAR HAR!

(I dunno if I'll be wearing that any time soon...) When I got back to the NAC I tried to get into the Bob Clampett thing that John K. was doing but it was full. I did make it to the main Bob Clampett retrospective. Seeing those films in beautiful 35 mm prints was so great. They played most of my favorites, including Gruesome Twosome, Baby Bottleneck, Book Review, and Great Piggybank Robbery, as well as Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, which I was surprised and pleased to see got a public screening after all these years. (Regardless of content it is an amazing piece of work!)

After Bob Clampett was Short Competition 5, which had some great films in it. Mr. Scwartz, Mr. Hazen & Mr. Horlocker was very entertaining and picked up a big award later on. It was a non-linear story involving three different guys in an apartment building. We first see one story happen, then the film stops and rewinds itself and we see the same story from a different perspective, which explains things and is very funny. This screening also featured Le Building, which is always a good watch, as well as Carival of the Animals which received an Honorable Mention at the fest. (Though it was very sexual it was also very playful...but a bit too long for my taste.) Then there was an anti-smoking ad with two cute dolls that are about to kiss, when suddenly their cat pukes on the floor. The guy doll stops and picks up the puke and eats it, then leans in to kiss the girl. I guess kissing a smoker is just like that? I wouldn't know, none of my girlfriends have been smokers. (Though some might have eaten cat vomit?)

The Saturday night party at Barrymore's was a ruhl good time. I met John K! As well as got a fantastic picture of Mr. Horse with a rubber nipple on his head:

I have also learned that animators like to dance and drink. A lot.

Ward and John are saying, "Oh man this wierdo is gonna take our picture and put it on his blog!" (Don't worry...I won't.)

Here's Sean (not me) and John K. I didn't want to interrupt John K's time with the ladies that were hanging all around him. (Animation celebrities are a wierd idea.)

Sunday was a bit more laid back. I hiked down to the Bytowne for Short Competition 4...which felt very long. Backyard Shadow was a short that featured time lapse photography of shadows of treebranches moving across a house. It was edited very well to some intense music. Fertilizer Soup, a short from Gobelins was beautiful and fun as I have come to expect from that school. Taste of Life featured a very promising concept (a masseuse who tenderized people and then baked them in the sauna and ate them for dinner) but was very repetitive and waaaay too long. (11 minutes) And then there was Conte de Quartier, which was animated mostly in oil paint...an amazing feat but you can only watch that style for so long. And 15 minutes is too long. Wayyyyy too long when you're at the end of a 2 hour block.

After a decent lunch at the Elephant and Castle (don't order the Curry, it's not what you expect) we saw our last screening, which was the International Showcase. I was happy to finally see Dreamworks' First Flight, which was one of the best pieces of animation I have seen come out of that studio. It was a cliche and almost obnoxious story (about a hyper-cute baby bluebird who needs to learn how to fly and a stuffy businessman who teaches him how and learns about himself at the same time, etc etc) BUT, it had a lot of heart. And I cared about the characters and it kept my attention. (Which is more than I can say for 75% of the films I saw at the fest.) Next was Disney's Little Match Girl. I just don't know. It was beautifully animated...but something went wrong here. I saw Hans Bacher's designs for this short and they were amazing. The short kinda sputters and dies. (Like the matchgirl herself, haha. I'm awful.) It's an okay film but I feel like Disney could have been a little more adventurous. It was so driven by the music that I imagined it as part of Fantasia or something...and it would have been the low point of a film like that. But the worst was yet to come. There was this film from Austria called Salome in Low Land. It was an 8-bit opera of sorts...a very heady and complicated story told in song and displayed in video-game style graphics. That sounds kinda cool doesn't it? It wasn't. It was a whopping 10:24 and I pretty much wanted to die throughout the whole thing. Someone actually stood up in the middle of it and shouted, "THIS FILM IS SHIT!" and then stormed out of the theatre. Okay, so by someone I mean me. (Just kidding. But that really did happen.)

This is a Beavertail. It looks really disgusting here, but it's probably the most delicious thing ever. Basically it's friend dough with maple butter all over it. I could eat ten right now.

And then I drove the six hours back to Buffalo! Overall it was a great break from work and I mostly enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. Though I have my doubts about the taste of the screening committee (ie Chris Robinson's taste) I still look forward to next year's fest. (Boy this post took forever to type. And I use parentheses too often.) I leave you with some pics:

It was so tempting.

Sean & Pana and Gina & Bob!

I love this picture because we look pretty cracked out. And when did Gina become an amputee?

See all my pics from the fest up on Flickr.

Ottawa Here I Come!

2006-09-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

The pic you see above was my entry for the Ottawa Animation Festival contest that Cartoon Brew held a few weeks ago. It won me a free pass to the fest! Huzzah! As you can tell I am pumped for the Bob Clampett retrospective. I think I will try to see it on Friday morning if I can make it into town early enough. Last year I was a little dissapointed with the overall quality of films I saw compared to the year before that...but this year looks to be chock full of entertaining stuff! Cartoonbrew has a whole lot more info, as well as the official site for the fest. So get 'yo butt to Canada this weekend!

Thesis & Website Update!

2006-08-28T04:32:00.000-07:00

So the massive overhaul of my website is finally done. It was actually finished around Siggraph, but I thought it deserved some mention here on my blog. Not only is there all new art (character design, layout, life drawing, etc), there are two demo reels (animation and concept design) and my finished thesis, "Love at First Roach," is available to download. (Just go to the animation page and choose your format.) The address is www.liamrobinson.com (or just click on either of the images.) Enjoy!

Illustration Friday: Play

2006-08-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

This little dog here is in honor of my sister's new pup, Sam. I had fun playing with her when I was out in Boston a couple weeks ago. Wish I had more time for Illustration Friday...but I've got a couple other big projects going on right now. Unfortunately I can't post them to the blog. Hopefully some day I will be able to! :D

Concept Art: Skull Cave

2006-07-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

Ehhh....needs work.

Illustration Friday: Opposites

2006-07-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Fairy tales have some great opposites, especially Hansel and Gretel. (Probably my favorite story.) This is actually the second version of this piece. I got some help with the composition from Simon and I think it's turned out much better. Also, I'm heading to Siggraph next week in Boston! Hooray! I'm excited to have a mini vacation and meet up with some old freinds. Any other artists heading out there?

Concept: Circus

2006-07-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

Circuses are fun...right? MAR HAR HAR

Concept Art: Market

2006-07-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

I like concept art. In fact, I'd love to be a concept artist someday. I did this piece after getting some pointers from the amazing Simon Rodgers. Thanks Simon!