Category: Elsewhere

I promised myself I wouldn’t do the apology for not blogging/podcasting, so forget it. I’ve been working. 🙂

On a little break I came across these clips that I just had to share. Each and every one of them is a goldmine of reference, containing those juicy moments that would challenge any animator. They’re clips of people discovering how to play the new Nintendo Wii. They are put in this room and given the controllers with no instruction. The range of emotions is beautiful to watch, and many times I found myself smiling as much as the people on screen. I hope you’re as captivated as I am by their expressions, body language, and reactions to their discoveries.

I found myself so immediately engaged in watching these people and it reminded me of the Freddy Moore quote from The Illusion of Life:

They love to see the drawings move and the characters think! Remember that! It’s what they like to see in our scenes. It’s what they liked with Fergy’s Pluto, you know. We should always let them see the characters think!

It’s also an ingenious bit of advertising to not focus on the graphics and tech, but on the people enjoying the game. Isn’t that what really matters anyhow? What a great way to sell the darned things.

Enough blabbing. I’ve got more work to do.
Click here to watch and study. I wish there was a way to save these.

My favorite clip is the Japanese couple. The woman’s reactions are priceless!

In case your favorite charity is yourself, I’ve added a link in the sidebar for some of my animation recommendations at Amazon. At this point they only provide space for me to choose nine items, but trust me, they’re all worth owning. There are also links on that page to browse through suggestions (Amazon’s, not mine) for different animation related books, DVDs, music, and software. A fun thing they provide is Listmania where other Amazon customers make related lists of their favorite things. I considered that the page might be a big annoying Amazon ad (which I don’t want cluttering the site), but I’ve actually found it to be a nice way to browse for stuff I didn’t even know I wanted. Ooh, they’re crafty, those Amazonians.

Plus, if you purchase through that page, Amazon throws some change my way so we all feel good.

Something I’ve been meaning to post about is Walt’s People Volume 3 by Didier Ghez. Please support Didier in continuing this important series by purchasing a copy of any of these volumes. You can find it on the first page of the “Store.”

Also, don’t wait to visit Didier’s new blog Disney History.

I’m sorry to report that I won’t have a new show for a short while. We’re in the middle of a production crunch at work and I’m trying to find where all the time went.

I am happy to report that I’m going to the San Diego Comicon this weekend. In no particular order, here’s a list of the people I don’t want to miss. I plan on picking up a bunch of sketchbooks this year. The animation presence at the Con has been growing every year and this list reflects that. It’s a lot of people I’ve known in animation, or people whose work I’ve enjoyed online. I’ve tried to list where all these people will be on the show floor, as well as their weblinks. Sorry for any misspelled names, I put this together between playblasts. If there’s anything else you think I should see, leave it in the comments.

Stuart Ng Books – 5113

— Out of Picture – Peter de Seve and Blue Sky artists, Sat 12:30-2:30

— Pierre Alary – Sat 4-6 sun 2-3:30

— Ricardo Delgado sketchbook

E-ville press – 4802

— Enrico Casarosa, Ronnie del Carmen, Scott Morse, Jeff Pidgeon, Jim Mahfood, Louis Gonzales

Flight comics – 1131

— Rodolphe Guenoden

Stephen Silver – H6

Thinking Animation – Jamie Oliff – 720

1 on 1 Animation – Mike Polvani, Wayne Carlisi – 720

Rick Maki – 721

Ragnar – 722

John Nevarez – G3

Broadview Graphics – Robh Rupel – 5105

Ovi Nedelcu – at Image Comics booth – 2729

Chris Turnham – F3

Tim Biskup – 4937

Bruce Timm – 4901

Electric Tiki – Tracy Lee – at Sideshow collectibles booth 1929

ASIFA Hollywood – 5434

Conduct Happiness – Joe Moshier, Chris Sonnenberg – 5514

Academy of Art University – 4601

Alcatraz High – Bobby Rubio – 1943

Animation Magazine – 319

Atomic Monkey Inc. – 3948

Bakshi Productions, Inc. – 5003

Bill Plympton, The Animation Show – 5496

Billy West – 1332

College for Creative Studies – 519

Douglas R. TenNapel, Inc. – 1218

The Entertainment Art Academy – 1021

Gagne International – Michel Gagne – 2003

Gama-Go – 4838

Gary Ham/Dean Yeagle/Scott Tolleson – 1416

Happy Tree Friends – 3348

Louie del Carmen/ Octavio Rodriguez – H3

Sony Pictures Imageworks – 3935

Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Р1437

Toxictoons – Eric Pigors – 321

Van Eaton Gallery – 501

Westlund Productions, Inc. – Dream On Silly Dreamer – B8

Craig Elliott – 4912

Steve Gordon, Mitchell Bernal – 4609

And some talks I may duck in to see:

State of the animation industry – Sat 12-1, room 4

Quick draw – Sat 12:30-2 room 6CDEF

Bradbury, Harryhausen, Ackerman – Sat 1-2, room 20

Comics podcasting – Sun 11:30 -1 room 8

EDIT: Almost forgot to add:
Club Coconut – Chris Sanders – 2044

EDIT 2: And another one – thanks Cartoon Brew:
John Kricfalusi – at Every Picture Tells a Story – 4721, Sat 2-5

UPDATE: TOTAL RAISED $500Skip to the end of this post for the final update.

In September, I’ll be participating in the 2006 Nautica Malibu Triathlon to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. As part of a relay team, I’ll swim a half mile in the ocean and then hand it off to my teammates who will bike and run to the finish. In honor of the movie Cars, we’ve named our team the Tri Tractor Tippers. Say that three time fast.

It is for charity and I would really appreciate your support. I know that a great bunch of people listen to this show and if just a small percent of the audience donates any amount, no matter how big or small, it will be easy to reach my goal of raising $300. All donations are tax-deductable. I already feel good knowing The Animation Podcast may help bring something positive to this cause.

Click here to go my donation page and see how much we’ve raised.
(more…)

John Nevarez consistently delivers fantastic drawings and an un-ending list of blogs to check out. You’ll be happy if you check the first on his list from yesterday for some work from a past guest.

Amid mentioned this on Cartoon Brew on Sunday, but listener Jeff Zirky doesn’t want anyone to miss it and I think he’s right. The Disney Family Albums aired on the Disney Channel in the ’80s and unless you taped them then, they are hard to find. Not any more, thanks to the wonder that is YouTube. Here’s what Jeff had to say:

If you click on the link below, you will find 3 of the Disney Family Albums. Frank Thomas, Marc Davis, and Ward Kimble Video interviews, in parts. This is not just inspirational, but a great sorce for learning. For example Frank talks about how he took the difficulty he had in life, and put it into his scenes. This is a great tool for creating charater.(Reminded me of your Nick Ranieri interview when he talkes about his scene in Rescuers.) I hope you share this with all of your listeners.

Check them out while they last.
Here’s the link.

Thanks Jeff!

The BBC Motion Gallery is a fantastic resource for video reference with comprehensive categorization of all its movies. I’ve spent hours combing through the clips. If you’ve got a Mac and OSX Tiger, they’ve released a Dashboard search widget to make finding just the right clip a snap. Separate search words with spaces and it will pare down the results. I searched ‘dog fight’ and it came up with a charming clip of prairie dogs fighting. Amazing!

Here’s the download page.

Thanks to The Unnofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) for the link.

All right, one more post before the next show.

Here’s some more animation related talk to check out.

I’ll put this one first because the series starts tomorrow. As the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation exhibition travels to The Science Museum in South Kensington, London, they are kicking off a series called Talk Animation. If you’re in London on April 3rd you can catch the first in the series:

Loren Carpenter, Senior Scientist at Pixar Studios, will talk about his Academy Award winning work in creating new technology that has enabled Pixar productions to be so fantastical, yet believable. Loren will also be talking about his work on the jaw-dropping 21st Century Zoetrope, one of the main features of the Pixar: 20 Years of Animation exhibition.

There are a bunch of different talks to attend. Go to The Science Musuem’s site for more details. LINK

—–

I’ve mentioned Smarter Than the Average radio show before. Their second show airs on April 3rd at 7pm GMT. They say the show will be dowmloadable the following day as an mp3 with ten extra minutes. For all the details go to the Smarter Than the Average site. LINK

—–

When I started the podcast, FPS Magazine told me that they had been thinking about podcasting too. Well, they’ve done it! Go to the FPS site to hear their first show, an interview with independent animator Phil Mulloy. LINK

—–

If you’ve ever been to any of the previous Marc Davis Lectures hosted by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, you know that they are some of the best produced animation lectures you can attend. This year the featured guests are The Brothers Quay. If you’re not familiar with their work, once you see it, you’ll suddenly recognize how many filmmakers were influenced by their work, not just in animation, but films like The Cell and even that modern masterpiece *cough* Saw. The Marc Davis Lectures sell out every year, so get your tickets early. LINK

—–

And of course, you must already know about The Splinecast. They’ll have an interview with Pixar art director Ralph Eggleston coming up. In the meantime, you can read Ralph’s answers to listener submitted questions here. LINK

Well this is nice of them. I’m one of the featured podcasts on PodcasterWorld.com. I wish I could tell you how much this means to me, but I just heard of PodcasterWorld. Only PodcasterWorld knows how long the adulation will last. Nonetheless, with about 17,000 podcasts out there, I’m honored to be plucked from the crowd.

“Smarter Than The Average” is radio program that airs on Resonance 104.4fm in London. They broadcast on the internet, but I missed the original airing of the first show when it played a couple months ago. The good news is, the hosts Julian and Jonathan have reconstructed and posted the audio for all to enjoy. It’s a fun, hour-long show where they play all kinds of animation related audio, some familiar, some not so common. Give it a listen and if you like it, tune in when they broadcast “Smarter Than The Average 2: The New Batch” on April 3rd, repeating on April 10th.

Here’s the link to audio of the original show.

Update: fixed the date (I had it wrong). Thanks Chris for pointing that out.