All the other stuff
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!
Wayfaring is a new site that allows anyone to make custom maps and stick pins in them for whatever purpose they want. Of course, my first instinct was to make an animation map. I started it by putting on all the studios whose locations I was sure about. I know there are many more, so if you know where you work, add it to the map. Anyone can add to it, but I think you need to register. Even before I’ve finished writing this post, two people have added Mainframe Entertainment and (now it’s gone) Aardman Animation to the map. Woohoo!
If you add a location, try to remember to at least add a tag for ‘animation’ – and ‘studios’ if it applies.
Click here for the Animation Places of Interest map.
UDPATE: Now I can have it on my site. Here it is –
I haven’t spent much time going through Google’s video search site, but I saw something interesting over there today. They’ve added a bunch of interviews from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that feature television producers. Most relevant to animation are interviews with Joseph Barbera of Hanna Barbera and Phil Roman of Film Roman. I haven’t watched them yet, as the interviews are quite lengthy, but I imagine they’ll provide some great insights.
If you do some more digging, there are brief clips where Sherwood Schwartz talks about the Brady Kids animated show, James Garner mentions his voice work for Atlantis, and Quincy Jones talks about working with Chuck Jones. One more to check out might be Joan Ganz Cooney who helped create Sesame Street, probably everyone’s gateway to animation.
I’ve had a lot of listeners say that they like to listen to The Animation Podcast while they animate. I think animating is hard enough as it is, so, personally, I can’t do it. Even listening to music takes some of the pep out of my animating muscles, so normally I work in silence. ¬°Qu?© l?°stima!
If you’re the type who is fueled by syncopated rhythms or a driving baseline (uh, yeah, I sound cool), then you’ve GOT to check out Pandora. It’s a free website that asks you for a song or artist you like and then it makes a surprisingly accurate playlist to keep you tapping your toes for hours. It plays through your browser and it really is amazing. You’re allowed up to 100 playlists so chances are good that you may discover new bands that you never knew existed.
For the last hour I’ve been coasting (that’s KOSTing in So. Cal.) along to a sweet blend of mellow seventies pop based on my search for the dearly dissolved band, Bread. Somehow that stuff doesn’t take much brain power.
I’m always on the lookout for some audio entertainment for you guys in between shows. Of course you’ll have to turn it off when my next show comes out, but you knew that. So what’s your playlist based upon?
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.
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.
Jonzeing for some audio until the next podcast? The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog has a link to a snippet of an interview with Grim Natwick who talks about working with Ub Iwerks. Finally, I get to hear someone who worked with the man pronounce ‘Ub.’ You can also read a little more about the two on the page. See what I mean? ASIFA does good stuff!
The interwebs are bringing us all a little closer. Character Design is a great new blog by Randall, I think, that features interviews with . . . well, I’ll let you figure that part out. Go check it. Now.
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.
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:
All this and the files are usually smaller! Read on to see how to get ’em . . .
