The Animation Podcast

Category: News & Info

Updates about the site and things you may want to know

  • A slight adjustment

    I love having a site that people enjoy, and I’m flattered when other sites see fit to link back to what I’m doing, but I have seen a couple examples out there of other sites blatantly re-publishing my every post, word for word, images included. I feel that using my work as a source of content without my permission is downright despicable and I certainly wouldn’t consider myself a “Contributor” to any site that takes without asking. Don’t worry if you’ve merely blogged about The Animation Podcast, I like you guys. The real offenders are quite aware of what efforts they make to misappropriate my work for their own profit.

    So, like Jim at Seward Street, who is in the same boat and equally unflattered, I’ve made a slight change that I hope you will tolerate. If you subscribe to the RSS feed, you will see that each post will have a copyright message attached to the end. It not a big deal, but I like it when it shows up on those sites I’m talking about, just to let people know what they are reading when they happen to go there.

    Also, this has caused me to reconsider how I link to good stuff you might like. Now I will point you to the place where I originally hear about something cool, instead of directly to the file. I’m not doing this to cause you more work, but to honor the work that others do on the web.

  • iLife ’06 – good news for all of us

    Three things real quick-like:
    1. I’m still alive and I haven’t quit – because I can’t quit you!

    2. I just got iLife ’06 and the new podcast features in GarageBand will make my life so much easier!

    3. That means I won’t dread the tedium and time of packaging a podcast (the way I like, with chapters and pretty pictures), so this darn three-months-between-shows-wait will be a distant memory. YEEeeeHah!

  • An about me page

    I guess I should have done this a while ago, but I always have felt that this site isn’t about me, but the guests on the shows. I’ve finally gone and made a page with all the juicy details about how I came to work in animation, as that subject (not me particularly, but in general) seems to be an area of great interest for many people who have contacted me. I think that’s what they wanted. At least I hope so. When someone asks, “What do you do?” they want a little something more than, “I do this thing,” don’t they? Well, I know I like a little history thrown in, so that’s what I did. Enough already, there’s a link in the sidebar as well as here.

  • Where are you?

    I know, I know. You want more shows. They will come, I promise. In the meantime, I just took a break and set up a Frappr map. You can go there and add yourself so we can all see who’s listening and from where.

    Be sure to use the Shoutout box to tell something about yourself like your homepage, where you work/go to school, what is your favorite type of animation. You can add a picture (or a creatively drawn rendition) of your mug too! And by mug I mean face, not coffee.

    I started it off, but it’s so lonely on that map. Fill ‘er up!

    If you ever want to change what you’ve put up there, send me an email and I’ll delete your name so you can start fresh and clean. By the way, I’ll add something that looks more like me when I’m at home with my scanner.

  • ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

    After working in animation for eleven years, I decided that it was time to participate a little more in the animation community. This site is an tangible, um audible, result of that decision (hope you like it). Something else I decided to do was to finally join ASIFA-Hollywood. So earlier this week I dropped off a couple applications at their offices in Burbank (one for me, one for the intro voice). I figured what the heck, I’ll go for the Patron membership since it supports what their site calls the “Animation Preservation Project.” I didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded reasonable enough. ASIFA-Hollywood does other cool things like the Annie Awards and the 2D Expo. Plus, for the months before I was hired at Disney, every Tuesday night I went to ASIFA’s little office on Victory Boulevard in Burbank for the cheapest figure drawing in town (not counting sneaking in to Art Center classes). I made my first good drawing there.

    So anyhow, imagine how good I felt today when I read Cartoon Brew and learned about the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project. So that’s what they were talking about. What a fantastic idea! Hopefully our new membership will help get them a little closer to their goals. If you want to help by donating money or time, you can find more info on their blog. You might also consider becoming a member too.

    Thanks to Jim for pointing out that they are hoping for some linkage to their blog.

  • Enhanced podcasts are coming

    From this point on, each show will be produced in two formats. The mp3 version you’ve come to love will still be available via the links on this site and through this iTunes page (iTunes required).

    The second format is the same audio, but in the AAC format. This allows me to do a few great things like:

    • break the show in to chapters that are selectable
    • add images that play along like a slideshow
    • include links to relevant sites

    All this and the files are usually smaller! Read on to see how to get ’em . . .

    (more…)

  • International Talk Like a Pirate Day

    Ahoy mateys! Alas, thar be no new show today, and ye should be thanking yer lucky star, for this be “International Talk Like a Pirate Day!” Aaaarrrggh! I’d be daft to turn a blind ear to that siren’s song, and I’d be havin’ t’ talk in a sea dog voice. Today, I be too busy a shiverin me timbers and a swabbin’ the poopdecks. Return another day for me podcast booty, you land lubbers.

  • Long time no hear

    First I want to welcome any visitors who have recently found the site. And for those of you waiting patiently (as far as I can tell) for the next show, thanks for hanging in there.

    All this time and no posts or shows and I’m just here to say life’s been busy. Funny how getting organized can take so much of your time. I’m working on making a more regular schedule for myself so I can do more shows and we can all be happier. I’m planning on putting out another show before the weekend so look for that. In the meantime, I’m not only recording new interviews, but I’m pinning down people for future interview dates. I’m also working on a few changes on the site so the shows are easier to find in one place. So things are moving along even if you, the end user, aren’t enjoying the effects yet.

    On a side note, this may be my last week on Chicken Little. The movie’s wrapped up and we’re really just doing ancillary work at this point. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it’s received. Making it this far has left me a little travel-weary and focusing on the podcast has been hard. It’s been a long fun trip and my tank is almost on empty but it’ll be energizing to see the fresh landscape of American Dog. I can’t wait to get going on that and have more time for the podcast too!

    UPDATE 8/27: Well guys and gals, I can guarantee that there won’t be a new show until September. I was working me ass off trying to pull it all together, but time wasn’t on my side. I’m taking a week off and like I said above, I plan to come back at it with some serious scheduling in hand. So I’m off to reset and refresh. I’ll see you in September. By the way, I won’t be able to moderate any new commenters, so don’t feel bad if you comment and it doesn’t show up. I’ll get it up there in a week.

  • RSS is the way to go

    Once again, Jim at Seward Street is absolutely right. The best way to stay up to date and not blow your morning jumping from webpage to webpage is to use the power of RSS to bring all the new posts to you. I know there’s a huge number of you who visit my site every day to see if there’s anything new. I appreciate the visits, but you could save yourself a whole lot of time if you’d just subscribe to the feeds you want and check them all in one fell swoop through Bloglines, NewsGator, or My Yahoo!. (And those are just some of the web-based choices.) I like Bloglines, but I also like the fact that NewsGator lets you go back and review already read posts. In Bloglines, once they’re read, they’re gone.

    It may seem odd to point out something that will effectively dissuade site visits, but I’m all about ease of use and it doesn’t get much easier than RSS. This will give you more time to animate – in theory ;). Not everyone has a feed for their page (pretty-please, Animated-News? I take that back. Here’s the feed to copy.) but many do. Keep reading to see some of the feeds from this site.

    (more…)

  • Another event during SIGGRAPH

    I got an email from Rick May at the CGCHAR forums asking if I could plug their event on Wednesday the 3rd at SIGGRAPH. It’s a presentation by a very talented group of animation pros including Doug Bennett, Henry Anderson, Jason Schleifer, Andrew Gordon, and Carlos Baena.

    I’d love to be able to go to this.

    Here’s a flier with more details.

    UPDATE: Did I mention it’s FREE?