Animation Mentor to Release New Free eBook
Available April 7th
Save the Date and Plan to Join Free Webinar on April 18th
eBook Contributors and Animators Wayne Gilbert and Keith Sintay Share their Professional Knowledge, Personal Tips and Answer Questions from the Audience
This is the Chance for your Readers to Learn Character Animation from Professional Animators
About the eBook
Ideal for people who love animation and enjoy learning about the art of animation, Animation Tips and Tricks, Volume II-2009 Edition takes it to the next level by offering budding animators a wealth of career advice, real-life insight on the working life of an animator in addition to valuable tips on everything from making a demo reel, making a scene, acting, bringing characters to life, workflow, and a whole lot more.
This eBook is written by Animation Mentor cofounders Shawn Kelly (ILM) and Carlos Baena (Pixar) and includes features by Animation Mentors Keith Sintay (Digital Domain), Aaron Gilman (Weta Digital) and special guest Wayne Gilbert.
*The eBook will be available online Tuesday, April 7, 2009. Please contact us if you would like to obtain the link to eBook before it goes live for easy online publication.
About the Webinar
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009 (replay available after April 22nd)
Time: 1:00-2:30 PM (Pacific Standard Time)
eBook contributors and animators Wayne Gilbert and Keith Sintay share their professional knowledge, personal tips and answer questions from the audience.
http://www.AnimationMentor.com

Eric Goldberg's Animation Crash Course Coming Soon!!!
Unfortunately the book took another eight years to get from Eric's mind into our hands, but I think the wait will have been worth it. I just got email from Eric and his book , Character Animation Crash Course! is coming out on Amazon next month. You can pre-order it now. The bonus is Eric decided not to just recompile his notes, he is giving us a cd full of animation tests and x-sheets to go along with all the examples he had to begin with. You will be able to examine stuff frame by frame, and see in real time all of his fabulous animation examples.
From the looks of it this will be probably one of the most informative books on animation to ever be produced. If you are a student of animation I would run, not walk, to get this book. Eric is a master of the cartoony style of animation we all know and love, and if you want to master cartoony animation there is now a way to see inside this master cartoonists brain. It will go alongside The Illusion of Life, Richard Williams’ Animators Survival Kit, and the Preston Blair books as one of the go to books for learning the craft of cartoon animation.
Here is a blurb from the email Eric sent out today announcing the availability of his new tome:
Anyway I'm about as stoked as anyone can ever get about this book. I can't wait.
Pre-Order it on Amazon
-hoops


5 Second Animation Day
As you may know, last Thursday was Valentine's Day.
Well at Titmouse Studios in Hollywood, it was also
"5 Second Animation Day". This is a day that all employees are not to work on the regular in-house projects for the studio, but to take the day to come up with a completely original animation piece at least five seconds long. Any type of animation is allowed. Traditional, Flash, 2D, 3D, stop-motion, mixed media, pretty much anything you want. Licensed music is available to use. Use of the sound booth is open to record anything you wish. The sky is the limit. Judging by how late some people stayed to work on their projects (6am the next morning) this was not simply a day of play. A lot of effort was put into these pieces and it showed in the final product.
The genius of the idea for "5 Second Animation Day" came from above. Yes, this idea came from the head honchos of Titmouse itself, Chris and Shannon Prynoski. The artistic spirit that runs throughout Titmouse flows from top to bottom. It was their idea to have a day to break the monotony of the day-to-day grind and give their artists a day to let loose and see what they could come up with. Titmouse is neither the biggest, nor the most affluent studio in town, yet they still found a way to give their artists some time to blow off some steam and still be creative.
I guess the big question is, why haven't other animation studios done this? Or maybe they have (any recently)? If you know about any or just have a comment about "5 Second Animation Day" at Titmouse, please feel free to comment.
As of now, the films are not available online. If they become available, we will provide a link to them.
- steve (a Titmouse employee and participant in "5 Second Animation Day")


Character Designer Lecture at CSUN

*Review for pre-selected CSUN student work only. Submit work for condsideration to: Prof. Trujillo, AC 402, by Nov.14 6pm. California State University Northridge, CSUN, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. Art Department on Halsted St. Park in Student Lot E-6. PayBox in Lot $4 Art Dept. Ph: 818-677-2242
- steve


Thinking Animation
The book they have teamed up on is called Thinking Animation: Bridging the Gap Between 2D and CG and is described as a one-of-a-kind book that emphasizes how artists can use traditional animation techniques and principles with today's computer generated animation technology. The list of animators contributing to this book is a big one, filled with names most in the animation community will recognize: Henry Anderson, Bernd Angerer, Carlos Baena, Mark Behm , Chris Bailey, Tony Bancroft, Dave Brewster, Tom Capizzi, Brian Dowrick, Cory Rocco Florimonte, Dan Fowler, Angie Glocka , Eric Goldberg , Ido Gondelman , Evan Gore, Scott Holmes, Cathlin Hildalgo-Polvani, Victor Huang, Ethan Hurd , Ed Hooks, Mark Koetsier , Bert Klein, Keith Lango, Laura McCreary, Darin McGowan, Cameron Miyasaki, Mike Murphy, Floyd Norman , Eddie Pittman , Mike Polvani, Fred Raimondi, Nik Ranieri , Leigh Rens, Keith Roberts, Troy Saliba, Joe Scott, Tom Sito, David Smith, Roberto Smith, Javier Solsona, Mike Surrey, Richard Taylor, Conrad Vernon, Roger Vizard, Don Waller, Larry Weinberg, Paul Wood, Bill Wright and Dave Zaboski.
I haven't got my hands on the book for an in depth review but it looks like it will be a welcome addition to my animation library.
Check out the details on their site here:
Thinking Animation
Good luck to Jamie and Angie! I know this is one book I will be ordering.
-hoops


Eggman Cometh
- steve


Remixing The Magic
Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Hours:
Tuesday - Saturday 11am-6pm
Sunday & Monday closed
- steve and hoops


News Feeds
- steve and hoops


Bring it on!
Nothing captures the moment as well as Floyd's cartoons from his book Son of Faster Cheaper. One in-particular that stands out in my mind is this one on page 86. I still get a kick out of it, but now it's even more fitting as a prediction come true."As a guy who has been lucky enough to work for both companies, I can truly say this merger will be a benefit for both Disney and Pixar. As a Disney old timer, I can tell those who wonder what the difference is between Disney and Pixar, that culture difference we keep hearing about -- Pixar is simply the way Disney use to be before Eisner and his managers screwed everything up. With true creative leadership in place Disney will be free to thrive again.This is good news for everyone in animation.'
©2003 Floyd Norman. All Rights Reserved
- the other jon and steve!

Pixar board to approve Disney takeover
Here's hoping nothing but good things come to the animation industry from this merger.
- steve and hoops


Principles of Motion



Great new reference for animators
-hoops


The origin of the species
Click here for the article
- steve


Don't Pick On Me
Great job guys!
- steve


Channel Frederator
Great job guys! Keep up the great work!
- steve


Animation Archive
John Kricfalusi recently donated his archives to ASIFA-Hollywood. Included with the donation were original storyboards from Ren & Stimpy, copies of layouts dating back to Mighty Mouse, production manuals, and boxes and boxes of reference binders. We also have the production files from Mike Lah's Quartet Films, with material related to television commercials (Tony the Tiger, Snap Crackle Pop, Green Giant, etc.) dating back to the 1950s.
We're looking for volunteers to sort, catalog and help us make the material available for use by the public in our Archive facility in Burbank. If you, or anyone you know is interested, please contact me at sworth@animationarchive.org.
You can find more info on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive at...
Thanks,
Steve
We are behind anything that preserves the artwork and knowledge of the art form known as animation. Good luck with the project Steve!
-steve and hoops


Prelude to Eden pt3.
- steve and hoops


Prelude to Eden pt2.
from Gagne International:
Little did I know that putting Prelude to Eden on-line would create such a frenzy! In just a couple of days, the film has been downloaded several thousand times, far exceeding my bandwith limitations. I wanted to offer a high quality version for anyone to own, but the whole thing has sort of backfired and now, I owe a hefty penalty fee. At the rate people were downloading the film, I would have to pay about $1000 a month in additional bandwidth requirement. I have no choice but to take the film off line. I'll investigate some options and see what I can do.
Michel is going to investigate some other options and try and make the short available again at another time. I'm sure he'll let us know when it's ready.
- steve and hoops


Prelude to Eden

- steve and hoops


'Bride' Stripped Bare

An extremely informative article online about Tim Burton’s new stop-motion feature Corpse Bride from Editor's Guild Magazine. Have a look!
- steve


How Art Meets Technology
- steve and hoops


Animator Mark Koetsier Debuts Jet Pack Benny
Had lunch with good friend and fellow animator/story artist Mark Koetsier this week. I've known Mark since we both were animating at Bluth. His current day job is a story artist at Dreamworks (although I don't hold that against him). He gave me a peek at his new story book, Jet Pack Benny, of which he has a garage full of copies. The art is fun and the story looks like a good read for the kids. Jet Pack Benny follows the adventures of a rascally squirrel who like The Rocketeer has his own jet pack. All the illustrations were done by hand in pastel and evoke classic Disney pre-production art.
Mark will be at Comic-Con in San Diego July 13-17, 2005, and his book will be available at the Stuart Ng booth 5013.
Take a peek yourself by checking out the book at:
http://www.jetpackbenny.com
Hope you all love it.
- hoops

Happy Canada Day!
Big Star voice actors ...
I want to see great characters when I go see a film. Many times, if I see a big name attached to an animated film, it actually makes me want to see the film less. That's not to say there aren't some great actors out there that can do great voices. PIXAR seems to have a knack for casting. But more often than not, celebrities are getting these roles based on their name and not their voice acting skills. Check out this really great interview with Billy West by Kyle Ryan about voice acting. I'd have to say that I agree with Billy on many of his points. What do you think?
-steve


Happy Birthday!
-steve and hoops


Site of the Day!
;-)
Big thanks guys!
-steve


Great Reception
Hoops and I had lunch with our pals Ken, Chris and Mike last week in Pasadena and saw their set up at the new studio. They showed us some of their tools for reviewing their work and doing research and their cool new projector. Hey Ken, ever get Firefox on that machine? We wish them good luck in their future projects.
If you haven't already done so, head over to Animation Podcast and download the first and second parts of the interview with Andreas Deja. You don't need an iPod to download or listen to it. Just an MP3 playing program like iTunes. We are looking forward to many more great animation interviews in the future. Keep up the great work Clay!
Hoops was able to get a couple more of the Walt Stanchfield's ready so go get 'em!
-steve


Practice makes perfect
-steve and hoops


It's new!
We hope that along with the new design and new areas, we can continue to help young and experienced animator's further their excellence in the field of animation.
Our new homepage features news and articles from our site along with aggregated news from around the web. We hope that this will help those looking for news about animation find it. We still intend to post new articles with reviews of new movies as well as observations about the animation community. As always the Butcher will be swinging his cleaver around when it's required.
One feature you now have is the ability to comment on any of the articles or reviews. So grab yerself a Gravatar and start ranting! It's free!
We'll continue to talk more about the new site and areas over the next few days. So have a look around. It's got that new car smell!
-steve and hoops


'Twas the night before Christmas
Not a creature was stirring, not even a PA
The pencils were stowed by the portfolio's with care,
In hopes that Walt Disney soon would be there;
The artists were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of great scenes danced in their heads;
A wonder of timing each scene with real snap,
A half decent job that just dropped in their lap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the steel bars and threw up the sash.
The moon shone brightly off the ABC signs glow
Giving a the lustre to the pavement below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But what looked like Walt Disney and something else queer,
Tied up executives, dressed really slick ,
I knew in a moment that they must be a clique .
More rapid than eagles his prisoners came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and handed them blame;
"Now, Eisner! now, Jeffrey! now, Shumacher and Ball!
On, Lafaro ! on Ovitz! You all made it fall!
From the top of the hat! to the top of the wall!
Cheapquals are sickening I should fire you all !"
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the prisoners flew,
With the weight of their guilt pushing them through.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little goof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney they all came with a bound.
He was dressed in a suit, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of execs he had flung on his back,
And he put them all down and then gave them a whack.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His fine little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the stash on his lip was as white as the snow;
The stump of a cig he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a firm little belly,
He stared hard at Eisner who then turned to jelly.
He was angry about something that charming old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Beatings so violent my stomach would jerk,
Then laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney they rose;
He sprang to his limo , then gave out a shout,
He opened the door and then kicked them all out.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
"Let them build empires on another mans house ,
this one was built on the back of a mouse"

Ferngully 10th Anniversary


-Steve

