Friday, December 28, 2007

Happy New Years n' shtuff!



Yeah, I know yer all probably sick of the turkey by now, but hey, it's Aardman. Sorry for the lack of posts as well, it's been a bit of a workin' vacation this year. Monster posts updating y'all on the TAIS general meeting, upcoming events and more. Just a quick note on the TAIS meeting...I was re-elected blog beast, and all the board members, sans Marc Beaurteaux, whose gotta pay them bills, have signed on for another year. This last year has been an absolute blast, what with the blog, all the TAIS events, my film, all the stuff cooked up by the other TAIS members and all them animations and animators discovered on the interwebs. Really lookin' forward to 2008. Now go home and watch some cartoons, dammit! Cheers!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Emilio's Christmas



Hey, it's no Charley Brown's Christmas, but at least the theme music by Matt Rach rocks. Grab a glass o' nog, settle down with them loved ones and have yerself a Merry Ho-Ho on me. And thanks one and all for indulgin' this screwy pooch this year and visiting the blog. Cheers, mates!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Cintiq 12wx: Not so grand fer canucks...



O.k., this really gives me the shits. Wacom comes out with an awesome new bit of kit, the sketchbook-sized Cintiq 12wx, which reviewers say is the greatest thing since bananas met peanut butter. 'Cept Wacom don't ship to beaver-land, and Canadian resellers, gentle, helpful upstanding souls all, have taken the opportunity to fleece the ever-luvin' hell out of their countrymen. The 12wx retails for $999 bucks stateside and our dollars are almost at par. Yet check out the markups...as little as 70 bucks and as much as 300 over the retail. Nice. I emailed Wacom...I'll letch'all know what they has to says. More later.

UPDATE: Teach me to jump to the conclusions. Got an e-mail from a reseller and he sez the markup is for duty and shipping. I'm gonna assume that the smaller the shops, the higher the markup. Plus, this ain't exactly a mass-market piece of kit, so the smaller shops can't be getting many in, hence the markup. The larger shops must be takin' a hit just to sell 'em. Hmmm...looks like I may have to work my Ohio connections to get me hands on one of these without payin' an arm and a leg extra just to get it here. Meanwhile, the reseller fella I was talkin' bout sez he complained about the situation to Wacom in hopes of bringin' the price down. Haven't heard back from Wacom, so I'll be givin' this fella the benefit of the doubt. On account of he wrote back. More as this story develops!

UPDATE on yer UPDATE: Hookay, shot a voicemail to the fellas at Vistek here in T'rawna and Silicon Cowboys out in BC about availability and shipping. As soon as I gets the skinny, I'll let y'all know where the best bang for your Canuck buck is.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Merry Cookiemas from TAIS!


Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW


Madi and Bryce have a sweet lil' surprise for us, a stop-mo animated greeting created with cookies from the sultans of sweet Queen of Tarts. Originally this was meant for the ARC Holiday party (going on tonight at the Gladstone!) but they ain't hooked up for the video tonight. No worries, here it is in all its cookie-fied glory. Amazing stuff considering they whipped it up yesterday. Nice work! More holiday goodies to come.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Minushi on DVD!

Tyler Gibb, he of the self-animated sci-fi feature Minushi, has a great holiday surprise. The film is out on a special edition 2-disc DVD! You get the full film in Dolby 5.1 (wonder how many orcs he had to slay to pull THAT off) as well as full director's commentary, subtites and "Details", his production documentary that runs through all the nitty-gritty involved in creating a feature-length film solo. Just in time fer Christmas...and it's only 19 bucks! Bargoon. Go buy it at the Minushi e-store!

Friday, December 7, 2007

VGCats: Still Alive



Just had to see if embedding this would work. Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats fame has taken himself a serious shine to the Orange Box. So much so that he put on his animatin' hat and whipped up this lil' treat for us happy webcomic fans. It's a flash video of the Portals theme, written by geekling troubador Jonathan Coulton and sung by the voice of GlaDOS, Ellen McLain. Check it out! Now I just gotta get off my butt and finish MY toon. More on that later. A great way to end the week, neh? Hit up VG Cats for more video-game based cartoon insanity. Later!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Zero Punctuation: Assassin's Creed



Again, not technically animated, but I don't really give two licks of a hamster's hind end, cuz it's funny. And it pertains to the video game industry, which is animated in spades. So it counts. This week's target? Assassin's Creed by Ubisoft for the XBOX 360.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Cintiq 12wx: it's a grand, baby!


Hate to nick shit from John Martz over there at Drawn, but all you TAIS members gotta know about this. The Cintiq 12wx is a sketchbook-sized version of Wacom's awesome draw-on lcd monitors, with a 12.1 inch diagonal screen...essentially you've got 8 1/2 x 11 inches to draw on. The bonus is that the unit is small and light enough to be spun round on a table top, so hard-to-draw angles are no sweat. Everything I've heard about performance is telling me that this is the same Cintiq quality that has made this the digital art tool to have, just more compact.

Here's the kicker: the e-mail I got from Wacom yesterday lists this lil' darlin' at $999 canuck bucks! It ain't cheap, but it's definetly sumthin' you could save yer nickels for over a few months and own. Good on ya, Wacom! I'll be getting one of these lil' beauts for me birthday, I thinks. There's a bit of a demo courtesy of them there YouTubes below. And here Christmas is right 'round the corner. If you've got a flash animator or digital artist on yer shoppin' list, a slightly overweight wallet and a need to be a holiday hero this year, well, hop on over to the Wacom E-Shop and get you one!

Kivioq's Passage



Just had a chance to go through Grant's blog in depth. Besides more lighthearted fare, Grant is also working on an epic. It's an historical piece, telling the tale of the doomed Franklin expedition through the eyes of an Inuit hunter. Damn, this looks ambitious. I'll try n' see if I can't squeeze a few more details about the production out of the good Mr. Dix in the next few days. Meanwhile, here's a sneak peak.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Grant Dix stop-mo to go!



I was doing a search for info on animation grants for an L.A. animator lookin' to hop across the border to work in Toronto, and look what I done found. Grant's Animation. Get it? Man, I love it when Google does that. Grant Dix is a stop-mo animator from right here in T'rawna. His latest appears above...yer gonna love the toilet-cup gag and the sneeze fx. Hell, he even worked some bloopers in there...nice! Hey, Grant, howzabout submitting this film to Frederator, hmm...?

Here's an open invite to drop by TAIS in the new year. I'll keep an eye on Grant's blog, letch'all know when he posts some new stop-mo goodness. More later!

Monday, December 3, 2007

UberStreet Studios

Just got an e-mail from the fellas over at UberStreet Studios, a small New York shop specializin' in commercials and music vids. UberStreet is the stompin' grounds of one Dan Pinto...you'll remember him from his film 'Hedgehug', featured in the Nicktoons festival and Channel Frederator's ep. 96.

They've just updated their website, so you can go over and check out Dan's work, as well as that of co-founders Bryan Brinkman and Matt Gaston. Dan's currently helpin' ol' Bill Plympton out on his new film 'Idiots and Angels.' Go take a gander, throw some more work their way!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Kaj Pindal's Birthday Anijam!



Let's end the week with a special sumthin' for a special someone. Master animator Kaj Pindal celebrates his 80th on Dec. 1st, and TAIS members Ruth Tait, Madi Piller, Bryce Hallett, Craig Marshall and meself whipped up a special birthday greeting just fer him! Extra kudos to Bryce for editing and prepping everything for the film, which was screened for Kaj at the big event at the NFB cinematheque last night. Go Kaj!

What can I say about the man and the event? Well, I'll leave that up to fellow animation blogger and industry vet Mark Mayerson...he's posted an excellent summary including a list of words from well-wishers over at his Mayerson on Animation blog. Glad to see another local animation blogger! Mark's the cat behind Monster by Mistake, and has been workin' in the animation industry for almost 30 years, so he can say more about Kaj and better than this scruffy pooch. Raise a glass to one of Canada's best. Cheers!

Yo Jeaux! Q and A with Fred


Jeaux Janovsky over at Channel Frederator (remember them? Toon podcast, cool-ass red robot? Yeah, that's the guys, swell fellas.) tossed a few questions my way about 'First Time Out', featured in Fred 108. Here's me chewin' his ear off:

1) How long have you been animating Neil?

I got out of school summer of '95, been workin' since then, so...sweet joosy jebus, 12 years?!? Man, I'm old.

2) Mech-rabbits battling makes for awesome. What was the inspiration of this short Neil?

Too many episodes of Gundam Wing. After seeing yet another mechstravaganza where big awesome robots were being piloted by blank-eyed teens with all the emotive properties of a squashed banana slug, I thought to myself "Man, why don't they create a toon with giant mecha suits piloted by sumthin' that could actually USE a giant mecha suit?" Then an episode of Hamtaro came on, and something clicked. Or snapped, depending on yer point o' view. Originally, the main characters were actually gonna be hamsters, and I may still do that. If I do, it'll be one big valentine to Go Nagai.

3) The short could very well be a cut scene from the GunBunnies video game, do you have any video game aspirations for these cute and cuddly hardcore mech battling robots?

You hit the video game aspirations right on the nose, man! 'First Time Out' was meant to be a great lil' short film, but I also wrote and designed it to introduce the characters and story as a game environment. I'll be posting a 'proof of concept' of sorts, including a demo of how the game would play on the Wii (my platform o' choice) to the GUNBunnies website in early 2008. (www.gunbunnies.ca)

All of the vehicles and characters are game-ready art assets...I could drop 'em into an online game tomorrow if'n I wanted! I originally meant the film to be a realtime machinima piece, running online in Shockwave 3d...couldn't figure out how to code the cameras and lighting, so I decided to render it, but I kept all the art assets 'low poly' to evoke the look of an early/mid era GameCube or PS2 game. The realtime demos still exist, and I'll be putting 'em up online as well when I do the update. I'll update everyone on the RAW site when that happens.

4) What's your favorite videogame?

Tim Schaeffer's Psychonauts. Best combo of animation, design, story, music, voiceover work and gameplay ever, hands down. All that plus Richard Horvitz. Woot.

5) What are you currently working on?

A short lil' Christmas thang in Flash, featuring Emilio the Whooping Llama, a gaming podcast mascot character I designed about a year ago. There's a sample walk cycle and animatic snippet on my RAW page. (http://raw.channelfrederator.com/profile/TempleDog) Hoping to have it ready to submit for the Fred Xmas Xtravaganza, but if not, I'll post it on RAW.

I also included this pic...Zav in her battle armor with shield and OmniRifle. Originally, Zav was going to be the main character, but I decided I wanted the fact that all the characters are bunnies (or bunny-like aliens) to be a suprise reveal at the end of the film. So now she's relegated to a small role standing next to Deg (the green 'tech bunny') in the simpod hangar at the end of the film.

Thus ends self-promotion Fridays here on the TAIS blog. More later!

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Pes for Christmas: The Pes Fireplace!


Just in time for the holidays, it's the Pes Fireplace! Yep, Pes, one of my fave New-Yawk animator-type people, has come up with this cheery holiday looping fire animation, done up with candy-corn and pretzels...perfect for animation-themed christmas shindigs, which is why I'm getting a copy for the TAIS Xmas party!

By the way, the TAIS general meeting and Xmas party are both on the 18th of December. All board members must attend. I'll be bringing the Pes. Go on and by one...10 bucks, cheep!

Emilio Xmas Toon: Animatic sample



O.k., just to show I've been doin' SUMTHIN' besides playin' Super Mario Galaxy these past few weeks, here's a sample of the animatic for my Xmas short. I'm not bein' too clean, here...this isn't going over to Korea or nuthin' so I can afford to be quick n' sloppy. Decided to just sketch the panels in Flash with the Wacom. Probably the way I'll be doing animatics from now on, it's a great way to work out ideas quickly without having to scan in post-its. More later!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Fred 108: Masturbation and GUNBunnies! (no, not all at once...)



Oh, damn. This week's Frederator is the shiz-nizzle. We've got a music video about goths. A surreal black n' white bumper. A filthy scot tellin' you how to be a man. And GUNBunnies. Yep, 'First Time Out' is the third featured short in this weeks installment. Which means a whole SCHPITload of peoples are gonna be watchin' it. Ever been happy as a clam and nervous as a bridegroom at a mafia wedding? Good thing I had a light lunch. Kudos to the Frederator crew...hell, I only done submitted it two weeks ago! Now, watch and enjoy!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Joe Murray's site done be ups!



Looks like good ol' Joe Murray, he of Rocko and Lazlo (dunno what's with the names ending in O, must be a fetish) finally came back from wherever he done went and posted a brand-spankin' new shiny website. Go n' look. Seems he's workin' on a short film right about now, lookin' forward to see it.

Friday, November 23, 2007

¿QuĂ© Gigantes?



My attempt to end the week by distracting you with some abstraction has yielded less than favorable results. I'll endeavor to track down some more experimental offerings next week. Meanwhile, howzabout a slice of the surreal? "¿QuĂ© Gigantes?" is a cyber-hallucinatory take on Cervante's illustrious hero Don Quixote's encounter with the windmills. I'll post some more work and info about the filmmakers next week. Later!

Thanksgiving greetings from Lev!


Here's a greeting card from animation's kid fireball Lev Polyakov. 18 and already workin' on his THIRD short film, due out in early 2008. Crazy, man. Happy turkey day, dood! And greetings to the animeister, Jerry Beck, for the post. Cheers!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Nick Hilligoss: L'animateur



Speakin' of stuff found on MyToons (sorry, no embeds yet), here's a delicious slice of Grand Guignol cake from master animator Nick Hilligoss. His sly take on Adam and Eve is told through some of the smoothest puppet animation this ol' pooch has ever lay his eyes on. When he's not droppin' jaws on video and animation sharing sites, he's busy at the dayjob...workin' for ABC in his native Australia. Current project: A stop-mo animated series called Good Riddance, "which chronicles the exploits of an eco-friendly pest controller and his uninvited house guests, a streetwise gang of rats." I'll see if'n any of it's done. If so, I'll post it tomorrow. Man, they've got some animation chops down under. More later.

Apple Nikki





Apple Nikki is the online nom de plume of Sasapitt Rujirat, an animator workin' out of Thailand. Stock n' trade? Cute characters, buttery smoove camera work and a knack for pickin' out catchy tunes. That piece in Zoey is from fave PSP game Loco Roco by the way. Loverly stuff. Rediscovered Apple Nikki's work through MyToons, which I just signed up fer. Enjoy!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Down with the Rabbits at the ReelAsian fest!



Just a lightnin' quick post about an event TANIGHT!

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Losing control, afraid of emptiness, or hungry for imaginative mayhem? Head
down the rabbit hole for these fantastical shorts. Beautiful black and white
drawings, wacky cardboard cutouts, surreal adventures, and stylized
nightmares all make up an unusual late night platter of frightening
irrationality.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Fri, Nov. 16 10:30pm
Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex)

Co-presented by Asian Community AIDS Services (ACAS), Toronto After Dark
Film Festival, Toronto Animated Image Society

10 Free tickets for TAIS MEMBERS - first Come first Serve _ (Show your TAIS
card !)


------------------------------
Toronto Animated Image Society
60 Atlantic Avenue, suite 102
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 1X9

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Marc Beurteaux animates big. Real big.



Former TAIS board dood Marc Beurteaux (say it with me, Bee Air Toe. Good!) had to jump ship for a full-time gig a couple of months back, and in a recent blog post he reveals what this full-time gig involves. Animating cars. And trucks. And fire engines. All of 'em the real, big-ass, full sized things. Sadly, no footage yet, but I'll keep y'all posted. Hey, Marc, e-mail me some joosy details, dood!

Citizens Against Safety Goggles get StupidFaced



Well, it looks like merry animation nutbar Mike L. Mayfield is at it agin'. He's created a series of shorts for Fuel TV, featuring his most loveable, cuddly character to date, Uncle Hell. Marv Newland would be proud. Hey, has Marv seen these? I posted about these back when I first discovered The Rooster Project, my fave CASG film. The short series is called 'Stupidface' and feature the adorable Uncle Hell shillin' some fine nonexistent merch. Nice to see Mike still carryin' the torch for animation in the 'Lupo the Butcher' vein...More later.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Prophet Buddy on Itunes and TAIS board meeting



Just to letcha know three things. One, Prophet Buddy, a most excellent flash animated short series, is available free on Itunes. Two, there's a TAIS board meeting at TAIS h.q. on Thursday at 6...all board members must attend! Three, I'm the dude what got the first comment on Prophet Buddy on Itunes. Yay, me. More later.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Xmas toon production blog: Walk Cycle

I've been dyin' to do my own Christmassy-type cartoon show, so I decided to kill several birds with one animated stone and do a Xmas toon featuring a character I designed for the fellas over at the Gamer Cast network! Here's the model sheet with the clean up line layed down.



Here's the filled and shaded version, showin' the parts exploded. Keepin' it pretty basic here; the point being to have some silly fun and keep the production time to a fair minimum while still getting some good, silly animation down.



Here, som preliminary nested animation frames, for the arms and the legs. Gonna try to push the broad actions with Emilio on this one. My animations tend not to be wild enough, so I'm just gonna go nuts with this one.



A quick walk cycle to test out the character's look on the move. The Black n' White stroke line on the outside is very cool, but very time consuming...gotta see if there's some way to keep it while speeding up the post process required to add it to each frame. More later!

Friday, November 9, 2007

Killer Bean Forever


via videosift.com

Oft times, when I describe my desire to make my short, "First Time Out", I tell people I wanted to make my own "Killer Bean". Jeff Lew's Hong Kong Blood Opera bean fest still remains one of the most popular indy animated shorts ever, and served as big-time inspiration for yours truly.

Not good enuff fer Jeff, though. He's been workin', according to his website, '14 hours a day, seven days a week' since his stint on the Matrix movies some 4 years ago to bring us a full-length CGI animated bean adventure.

That's right. We're livin' in the age where one dude, with the talent and the sheer bloody-minded Chutzpah, can make his own damn feature animated film. Damn. I may just have to break down and make my own, now. Here's the trailer...enjoy!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

TAIS Nooze! Sorry, I mean News...



And now...TAIS news update! Sorry for the lack of posts. Here's a spinning head of Kaj Pindal to make you feel better. Without further ado:

Upcoming Events :

1.1- Reel Asian International Film Festival : Animation Program

1.2- Kaj Pindal : Tribute and 80th Birhday celebration!

1.3- Patrick Jenkins : New Documentary Work

-------------------------------------------------------

1:1- Reel Asian International Film Festival :

Animation program presented by TAIS : Down The Rabbit Hole

Friday , November 16
10:30pm Screening
Innis Town Hall – 2 Sussex Ave.
10 Free Tickets at the door for TAIS members (first come first serve)
30% discount on regular ticket admission with TAIS card = $7

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.2- A Tribute to Kaj Pindal:

An evening of film and discussion in honour of Kaj’s 80th Birthday !
Thursday, November 29

6:30pm Screenings & Presentations
8:30pm Reception
NFB Mediatheque, 150 John Street (corner Richmond St. W.)
FREE EVENT

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.3- TAIS proudly presents 2 new works of Patrick Jenkins, animator and documentary filmmaker.
- Of Lines and Men: The Animation of Jonathan

This documentary explores Jonathan Amitay’s life and how his personal experiences growing up in Palestine/Israel during the Second World War shaped his approach to animation.

- Death is in trouble Now: Explores the powerful artwork of Toronto Artist Mark Adair who creates gothic sculpture on contemporary themes like war, pollution and sexual politics.

Saturday, December 8
6:30pm Reception
7:00pm Screening
NFB Mediatheque, 150 John Street (corner Richmond St. W.)
FREE for TAIS members - $5 General Admission
------------------------------
SUPPORT TAIS BECOME A MEMBER!
------------------------------
Toronto Animated Image Society
60 Atlantic Avenue, suite 102
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 1X9

tais@bellnet.ca
www.tais.ca
416-533-7889

Friday, November 2, 2007

Pilar at GIRAF3



Just a quick post to end the week. Congrats to New Yawk's own animatin' female firecracker, Pilar Newton! She managed to get three of her Kaballa Toons programmed into Quickdraw's GIRAF 3 Fest. Nice! And yes, I'm flippin' jealous. But my Happy Beaver arrived, so everything's cool. More later.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Dave likes my shit!


Check out more of Dave's toons on umop.com


Anybody what's seen my Gonads Wiimix short knows I'm a fan of one David C. Lovelace. The music-composin' flash-animatin' n'er-do-well behind one of me fave online toons, Retarded Animal Babies, is a staple of hooligan culture site Newgrounds. His latest coup is animating a video for Weird Al's 'Straight Outta Lynwood' album. Currently, Dave's into web comix. His latest appears above.

Besides toons and tunes, Dave's also whipped up a few fonts in his day. One of 'em, Pentomino, is the interface font I used in 'First Time Out'. I wanted a font that looked sci-fi: angular and stylized, but not legible...the font should be cool enough to give the setting some credibility, but not legible enough to distract the viewer into reading every monitor and screen that goes by.


As you can see, Dave's font fit the bill perfectly. Good on ya, Dave! Somebody remind me to finally get off my ass and buy me a copy of his RAB DVD.

Dave emailed me to let me know he's linked the Youtube vid off Umop's home page. I mentioned that it was nice to see Puppy still workin', and Dave's enigmatic reply:

"Oh yeah, Puppy's working. He's working very... very...HARD in the next episode... "

This can't bode well for everyone's favorite oversexed hound. I'll keep you posted with all the latest developments.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

First Time Out



O.k., here it is, film fests be damned. A few production notes: started in 2002 as kind of reaction to the proliferation of cutesy toons from Japan (Hamtaro and Tokyo Pig, shtuff like that) and too many episodes of Gundam Wing. The main jist of the project was: Why not give a giant fighting robot to something that could actually use it? Like 1 1/2 foot tall day-glo bunnies?

I originally envisioned the project as being a machinima piece, fully realtime online in Shockwave 3d with code controlled cameras and all kind of fancy realtime bells n' whistles. When I couldn't get A) a coder or B) the time to learn Lingo, Shockwave's coding language, I re-examined the piece and decided that having a bunch of fancy-shmansy realtime interactivity wasn't going to add to the story or characters at all. So, I decided to just render the whole thing out. Modeling and animation was done in Plasma, a web-only version of Max discontinued before Autodesk bought out Discreet. Animated maps were created in Flash and exported as Mpegs, then mapped on in Plasma.

Bit ass backwards on this one...I designed and modeled almost all the characters and props before doing an animatic in Flash...I knew what elements and characters I wanted for the short, but the story needed to evolve visually. I created a full animatic in Flash over the course of 8 months, refining the story and dumping a whole lot of dialog in favor of action in the process.

Initial designs and model sheets were done in '02, with the modeling taking place in 03/04. Took a break, then started the animatic in July of '04, finishing in September of '05. In April of '06 I started the first scene, and finished animation in May of '07. Enter Drew Frohmann, that most excellent half of the most excellent comedy duo of Rub (Rob Collinet, Splashworks art director) and Tug (Drew), who together comprise the team known as Hot Dog Boy. Drew had a gig at a sound studio, Pirate Radio and TV, and Rob suggested he might be able to help out with sound.

We recorded the dialog at Pirate (3 1/2 hours and 63 takes for around 1 1/2 minutes), with Dan Branco designing fx, Chris Tim and Tim composing, Bill Turchinetz supervising, and Spenser Hall putting it all together in Pirate's Dolby 5.1 lab. Drew and production diva Tyna Myaerzke made it all happen after hours. All just for the kudos and a piece for the ol' demo reel...they, of course, rock the ass. Got the final mixdowns from Spense on Sept. 17th, just before heading off to Ottawa, where I managed to get a copy into the hands of my two college profs, Don Perro and Paul West, as well as Pilar Newton, Jerry Beck and Lev Polyakov.

That's that! The plan right now is to try Kalamazoo and Platform, amongst others. Haven't had much luck finding a fest that the film fits into, but I gotta keep pushin', cuz me Pirate mates worked too damn hard to allow this stuff to not get heard. Let me know whatcha think...feedback welcome, people! And thanks for watchin'.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

GIRAF3: nope.



Sweet joosy jebus. Here's sumthin' every animator looks forward to seein' in his inbox on a cold, wet October mornin'...another rejection letter. Yay!

-----------------
Dear Neil,
Thank you for your submission to the 3rd Annual Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival (GIRAF3). We regret to inform you that your work entitled, “First Time Out” was not selected for screening at our festival.

We were impressed by the amount and quality of submissions we received, and unfortunately our programming resources only allows us to program a certain number of films. We strongly encourage you to submit again to GIRAF4, as we will be expanding our festival to accommodate even more screenings next year.

As a thank you for submitting to our festival we would like to offer you a complimentary one year associate membership with Quickdraw Animation Society. This Membership will keep you posted on upcoming events, workshops and opportunities at QAS. It will also give you free access to our library of over 3000 animations and books.

The 3rd Annual Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival, takes place this November 2 + 3, 2007 at Quickdraw Animation Society. GIRAF celebrates the spirit of independent and underground animation, showcasing Canadian animators and presenting animations from around the globe. GIRAF is the only festival of its kind in western Canada; it plays an essential role in the promotion and education of animation in our community.
We look forward to reviewing your work in the future.

Sincerely,
Keith Murray
Programming & Communications Coordinator
Quickdraw Animation Society
----------------------------------

Hooboy. O.k., sure, it may have been a mismatch. 'First Time Out' is big robot combat action and QAS, like TAIS, tends to skew more towards the art side of animation (hey, Richard Reeves...thanks for that there DVD, dood!) Plus, apparently the ratpack over at QAS got theyselves a shitload o' cheese this year. From Keith:

---------------------------------
Hey Neil,

Sorry we didn't get a chance to fit you in this year. We had to turn down a lot of really amazing stuff, we were really overwhelmed with submissions this year and just didn't have the budget to program them.

I'm sending out a press release today, i'll make sure you get it.

cheers,

Keith
---------------------------------

Still a kick in the balls. Whelp, there goes me dreams of premiering my film in a Canuck fest. Phuck it, I'm gonna post it to YouTube and my Frederator Raw account tomorrow, then y'all can see what I've done been fussing about. Plus, I'll give y'all the rundown on the GIRAF3 lineup...cuz I'm not really a pissy bitch. Not really. More later.

Friday, October 19, 2007

More Madi Madness! Zinebi 49

The woman just don't stop! 'Toro Bravo' is an official selection in the Zinebi 49 International Documentary and Short Film festival in Bilbao, Spain. Fest runs from Nov. 26th to Dec. 1st...it's a juried competition accepting both foreign and Spanish-language films...so Toro is covered coming and going! I'll keep y'all posted as to where Toro shows up next. Meanwhile, an open call to anybody who visits the blog regularly. Got a film screening somewhere? Picked up a prize at a competition? Lemme know, and we'll profile y'all here on the TAIS blog. Cheers!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Madi Madness: Toro Bravo and Poetry Projections 2


O.k., one last post to fill y'all in on what's happenin' with Madi's films. Besides having a new film in the Poetry Projections 2 screening, Madi's film 'Toro Bravo' is also screening at the St. John's Women's Film Festival, and was picked up by the Cucalorus Festival in North Carolina and the Filmpool Festival in Sask-Atch-Chew-Wan (pronunciation key provided at no extra cost to you.)
Go Madi! Still no word on GIRAF3...I've sent them the e-mail, hopefully have an update for you tomorrow. Late.

Graham Annable: Last Duet on Earth



I believe I've mentioned this dude before. Graham Annable is a Youtuber of renown, posting his own animated films, replete with a twisted, dark comic sense. He's taken to posting a weekly strip on the Telltale Games site (home of perennial faves Sam and Max as well as the game adaptation of Jeff Smith's immortal Bone comics). Although he currently hangs his hat in the Bay area of them United States, he's a Sheridan alum originally from Sault St. Marie. His stuff is frequent front page material on Youtube...here he gives us a musical spin on zombie horror. I'll see ifn' I can't get a few words from the man hisself on what he's currently workin' on. Meanwhile, click the link above and check out his blog!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Happy Beaver is mine!!! Muhhahahaha...

Okay, after seein' this lil' dood on Jeff Pidgeon's blog yesterday (hopped over from that there Drawn article on his toy collection), I just couldn't help meself. I jumped into Firebird and got my erstwhile buddy and all-round good fella Jey to order me up one. Hey, and Jeff's even gonna sign the box! Happy, happy, joy, joy! Here's a few shots courtesy of a website called Plastic and Plush.

Few notes: It's a 5" rotocast vinyl (whatever that be meanin') figger with no movable parts (like it's gotta move...look at that toofy grin! Tail detail is beauty too...John K. would be proud). Although it's a character that Jeff designed hisself, along with the box-art, the modelin' kudos go to a fella by the name of Vin Teng. Note that there's only gonna be 500 of these lil' fellers made up, so get yers now! It'll cost ya just over fitty bones to get your very own Happy Beaver just in time for the Holidays. Or, y'know, fer whenever...whenever's good, right?

Jeff's had a perty storied career....just check out that IMDB page! Hopefully Happy is the first in a long line of figgers he'll be whippin' up for us, him and Ving. Meanwhile, I read that once all the Orange Happies sell out, we may be seein' him in other colors of the rainbow. Good on ya, Jeff! I'll post a pic of Happy on the Bloor Subway once I gets him. Late.

p.s.: Hate to be spurious here, but doin' a search for 'Happy Beaver' and 'Plastic and Plush' or any combo thereof without your Google filters on is not recommended for the faint of heart or the non-ironically inclined. Just use my handy article links, and be safe from all them yiffers out there.

Madi Piller: Poetry Projections 2


Just a quick post about an upcoming event, featuring a new film by TAIS head honcho Madi Piller!

------------------------------------------------------------
The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT),
in collaboration with the International Festival of Authors (IFOA) present:

Poetry Projections II
Sunday, October 21, 2007
3:00pm – 5:00pm
York Quay Centre, Studio Theatre
Harbourfront Centre

LIFT and the IFOA present the premier of ten new collaborative works bridging film and poetry. Each project has been commissioned by LIFT as a pairing of a poet and a filmmaker, each with distinct voices in their medium. The collaborative pairs have each produced a short film to engage a visual dialogue with the poets’ work, most of whom will read live.

The program of ten new works will be preceded by a selection from the 2005 program and followed by a discussion with the poets and filmmakers on cross-disciplinary collaboration. Reception to follow.

Filmmakers and Poets:

Carl Brown and John Barlow
Dan Browne and Goran Simic
Kelly Egan and Souvankham Thammavongsa
Philip Hoffman and Gerry Shikatani
Heather Keung and Patria Rivera
Shana MacDonald and Margaret Christakos
Annette Mangaard and Ray Hsu
Vicky Moufawad-Paul and Suzanne Robertson
Madi Piller and Priscila Uppal
Gariné Torossian and Louise Bak

Admission: Free

Poetry Projections has been made possible through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts– Media Arts Section and The League of Canadian Poets.

For further information about the program or to arrange interviews with the artists contact:
LIFT’s Director of Operations Ben Donoghue at 416.588.6444 or director@lift.on.ca

Please put “Poetry Projections II + your request” in subject heading.

For further information about IFOA contact:
Print: Becky Toyne at 416.973.5836 or ifoamedia@harbourfrontcentre.com
Broadcast: Shane Gerard at 416.973.4518 or ifoamedia@harbourfrontcentre.com

-------------------------------------------------
It's this weekend, it's free, it's got Madi in it, plus a whole bunch of other great filmmakers, teamed up with some of Canada's great prose-slingers. So, go get all cultured n' schtuff.

Monday, October 15, 2007

NFB celebrates World Animation Day!



World Animation Day. The best damn idea what I never heard of, and the fine folks at the National Film Board of Canada are having a week-long celebration to honor the blessed event...in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Winnipeg and Moncton, no less! Workshops, special screenings, get-togethers, you name it, and TAIS is hip-deep in that action! The NFB is holdin' a swingin' shindig on the 26th, and yers truly will be there, camera in hand to grab some of the action. And a vodka martini. Check out the animation, then go to the NFB website for more of them details. Cheers!

Jeff Pidgeon: have Beaver, will travel



I hate toy packrats...y'know, the doods what will obsessively collect toys n' action figgers n' stuff just so they can have the whole series, r' whatnot. Guys with a discernin' eye, who pick up shtuff because it looks great, now, they're fairly rare.

Doods who collect and create, now they're a rare breed indeed. Meet a member of the species, or at least his work. Jeff Pidgeon, animation writer from California, is also an avid collector of the cool and cute, as well as a designer. Check out his super-groovy Happy Beaver vinyl, seen here posin' in Vancouver, all travellin' gnome styles. I've sent Mr. Pidgeon the e-mail in a brazen attempt to aquire one of these limited edition orange rodents fer my very own. I'll keep y'all posted. Meanwhile, check out Jeff's collection on Flikr. Link courtesy of the master of all things drawn, John Martz.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Crash of the Titans intro by Atomic



Aaron Simpson, dark master of the Flash, just posted this over at Cold Hard Flash. Tipped him off to this lil' slice of puppet-styled goodness after playin' the game last week. The doods at Radical, the dev. co., did their level best...it's a great playin' game. But it's no where near as groovy as this lil' intro. Ah, well, it was a client job. Enjoy!

TF2: Meet the crew







Ya gotta wonder, seein' these, if'n the doods at Valve are thinkin' of gettin' out of the gaming biz, and getting into the features. Any studio that can give us 5 kick-ass games on one disc, the recently-released Orange Box, and still manage to pump out shorts of this calibre (pun intended), well, it just makes me smile, is all. Pay particular close attention to the Engineer, my current fave of the lot. Gotta love a guy who can custom build a passle of great hardware and still pick a guitar...'specially with them gloves on. More later.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Friday, October 5, 2007

TAIS nooze to ends the weeks...



Friday night before Turkey Day weekend, gotta train tomorrow mornin' at 8:30 a.m., and my ass is STILL in this damn chair. Phark. Enuff gripin', here's some good news for y'all...check out what's comin' up from TAIS!


1.1 Patrick Jenkins, animator and documentary filmmaker has 2 new documentaries. Catch the premieres on BRAVO TV !

- Death is in trouble Now: Explores the powerful artwork of Toronto Artist Mark Adair who creates gothic sculpture on contemporary themes like war, pollution and sexual politics - premieres
Sunday OCT 7 at 8pm on BRAVO! Television

- Of Lines and Men: The Animation of Jonathan Amitay - premieres Sunday OCT 14 at 8pm BRAVO! Television
This documentary explores Jonathan Amitay’s life and how his personal experiences growing up in Palestine/Israel during the Second World War shaped his approach to animation.
-----------------------------------------------
1.2 Kino Art Festival :http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif The Best Films from Russian Animation Film Festivals!
Sunday October 7, 2007 - 11:45 am at the NFB cinema. 150 John Street, Toronto. $10 General Admission.
-----------------------------------------------
1.3 Toronto After Dark Film Festival and Toronto Animated Image Society presents : AACHI & SSIPAK
Jo Beom-Jin’s debut animated feature AACHI AND SSIPAK is a raucous and riotously rude piece of work, a film that delights in every bit of violence and potty humor.
Jo Beom-Jin, South Korea, 2006, 90 min, Korean with English Subtitles, 35mm
Saturday, Oct 20 2007, 4.45pm, Bloor Cinema
$8 Matinee.
------------------------------------------------
1.4 The National Film Board of Canada and The Toronto Animated Image Society are proud to present:
Madame Tutli Putli : Behind the scenes with the directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
FREE EVENT
October 25, 2007 - 7:00 pm at the NFB Cinema – 150 John Street, Toronto.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

New Docs by Patrick Jenkins!



Just got the word from TAIS homie Patrick Jenkins, 'bout some stuff he's been workin' on!

I have two new documentaries that are going to be shown on BRAVO! Television (Canada only). Here are the air dates:

- Death is in trouble Now: The Sculptures of Mark Adair - premieres Sunday OCT 7 at 8pm on BRAVO! television
- Of Lines and Men: The Animation of Jonathan Amitay - premieres Sunday OCT 14 at 8pm BRAVO! television

As well I'm going to be interviewed about these two documentaries on the CKLN Radio (88.1 FM) "Framelines" with Barbara Goslawski this Friday, Oct. 5, 2007 at 2 p.m.

Patrick Jenkins
-----------------------------------

(If you don't have BRAVO! (I don't), don't despair, we will be screening the two documentaries on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 8 at a Toronto Animated Image Society event at the National Film Board's John Spotton Theatre in Toronto.)


I'll have more on that Dec. 8th screening closer to the day. Cheers!

The TDog Barks at Midnight...o.k., 2:41. Fred 100



It's 2:41 a.m. on Oct. 3rd, the day after Frederator 100, and I gotta get this off me chest.Plus, I accidentally put the wrong ep of 'Ask a Ninja' on my Play-Yan, so I had to go and get it off the compooter.

It's yer 100th ep. You coulda done so damn much with it. Kept what you guys felt were the best toons you saw submitted this year and spring 'em on us en masse. Do a student show with those wacky CalArts and VanArts kids, and the other great student work we've seen on Fred. A 'Best of Fred' show covering the cream of the crop, yer faves from ALL the eps. Another 'FredEx' style anijam or a viewer's fave collection. 100th ep. Ripe with potential. So much you could do to celebrate the fact that 100 episodes later Frederator represents one of the best ways to see short-form indy animation online.

Instead, you give the whole ep to one dood. One freakin' dood. I could go off on a tear about Doug Bressler here, but I won't...cuz he makes me laugh. Hard. His 'Ask A Ninja' eps are still some of my faves...not the greatest animation mind, but when you've got his sense of comic timing and his instinct for visual gags (retarded bear in the circus), the rest don't matter for shit. Doug ain't the issue.

Neither is Weird Al. Weird Al is a geek god, a dorkling demiurge who helped me laugh my way through the eighties, which were a long dark time for me. Like the Sheppard subway line on a February morning dark. Nope, Al ain't the problem either. Ya could have given the whole ep to any animator whose ever had a short in Frederator's run, and this pooch would still be barkin'.

No, my issue is this. The whole freakin' episode goes to one guy...JUST ONE GUY?!? And to top it off, it's not his best stuff, Al's neither. This big, long 11-minute plus rambler that goes on for ever, doesn't have a punch, and arrives nowhere in particular. And to top it off, this vid has been circulatin' round online since Aaron Simpson posted it in the Cold Hard Flash blog, what, eight flippin' months ago? This is how you choose to celebrate the 100th episode of Frederator? A music vid that doesn't show off the best the animator and the musician have to offer, and one that's almost a year old, widely played online and off. That's what you've got?

Wasted, guys, totally. Next time a landmark episode is comin' up, do a poll online, or sumthin'...take some freakin' suggestions, doods. Cuz this shit was weak. Weak, weak, weak.

And, yah, I know...free podcast put together for the love of doin' it every week. I love the idea of Frederator, still do. Anything you guys want from this pooch to boost the podcast, name it. Still, I gotta call foul. You've got better, I know, I've seen it. I've got the episodes archived, guys. It's great stuff, and I'm
lovin' it, but not this episode.

O.k., I feel better now. Don't worry Fred, still luv ya, but damn, the shit you pull sometimes. All right, let that flamin' feelin' begin.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

OIAF '07: 10 Reasons #4-Michael Dudok Du Wit



Here's "The Monk and The Fish", from perennial fest fave Michael Dudok Du Wit. You really need to see this on the big screen or a good LCD tv to appreciate the great color in this one...sorry for the semi-good YouTube imagery, but it seems like one of the only ways to watch his stuff, for he's not on any compilations that I know of...I'll do more digging. Meanwhile, check out that calligraphic line work and dead-on musical timing. Someone once described this as 'an allegory of acceptance'...personally, I just like the goofiness of a peaceful monk transposed into a Wile E. Coyote-style conflict with a fish he just can't catch. Either way, it's great stuff, and Helene's fourth fave film...if I'm to take the list on the OIAF site in order, of course. More later!

OIAF '07: 10 Reasons #1-Jacques Drouin



Helene Tanguay, the NFB's own earth mother and worldwide spokesperson for animation had herself a special screening at this year's fest. The topic: 10 reasons to love animation, a.k.a. ten of her fave films. She started the set with Jacques Drouin's masterwork 'Mindscape'. Wasn't able to track it down online, but I did find some of his other work, an excellent antiwar piece called 'Ex-Child'. That incredible flowing sandlike graphite-on-paper textured look comes courtesy of his mastery of the Alexeieff-Parker Pinscreen, a massive version of the moveable pin screens on those novelty clocks you can find at Radio Shack (sorry, The Source). The amount of work and attention to detail in a Drouin film is staggering...his flowing, rippling images have become an NFB hallmark. More of Helene's faves later!

Monday, October 1, 2007

'First Time Out' second shot: GIRAF3



O.k., new week, new post! Please forgive the mess...managed to do something in Blogger's template thang last week that completely screwed up the layout...I'll iron it out this week. Meanwhile, my second film fest submission sees my film going off to GIRAF3, a crazy two-day nutterfest put on by the fine folks at the Quickdraw Animation Society, our big sister in the prairies. Got the impression that this was more of an abstract film fest, with luminaries such as Richard Reeves having made an appearance at the previous fests. Still, gotta roll with them punches, and I really want the film to premiere at a Canuck fest. Wish me the luck.

Friday, September 28, 2007

OIAF '07: Signe Baumane



Tried to get one of Signe's 'Teat Beat of Sex' shorts for this post...she had a bunch of 'em to show in Ottawa, and they're due out on DVD in October. Have to get a copy for the TAIS library. Meanwhile, here's Signe being, well, Signe. An animated interpretation of a Borges poem in typical sweet, sexy style of Signe. I'll try to post Signe's Q & A session from OIAF '07 next week. Cheers!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

OIAF '07 notes: Aachi & Ssipak



Back agin' with a few words on the features shown at Ottawa this year. Ottawa features are, well, they've been really hit n' miss in the past...can't even remember the features from 2005 and 2006, quite frankly. Then, something like this year happens...two really strong features showed up in our Nation's Capitol. Persepolis, I'm not gonna talk about. Cuz better folks than me have already weighed in...it's a damn important film, go see it, and grab the DVD when it comes out.

This film I can talk about though, cuz I've been waiting for freakin' YEARS for the likes of it...an unapologetic, punk-ass, balls-to-the-wall action sci-fi freakfest, Akira by way of Stephen Chow as designed by Marv Newland. Just check out that (grainy, sorry) trailer. First released in 2006, it had it's North American premiere at a fest in Seattle, and blew everyone out the door in Ottawa. Haven't seen it? It's comin' to Toronto, for the Toronto_After_Dark film festival in October. Man, my cup runneth over. Can't say much now, but TAIS will have a hand in seein' that Aachi & Ssipak get a warm welcome. Fest trailer below. Cheers!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

OIAF 'O7: Yuichi Ito luvs bunnies



Quick post to letcha know I'll be makin' some slim posts this week on the fest, with more meatiness to come as soon as I've had a chance to A) recover from my vacation, B) get some quality time in with Halo 3 (see A) and C) edit my footage into something cohesive and shit. Meanwhile, here's Ito-San and his No Rabbits...man, I want these stuffies! Sorry for the sideways video...fergot to reorient my cam; Hey, it was 9:30 a.m., and I hit the sheets at 1:30...yeah, Ottawa rocked several shades of ass. Late.

Monday, September 24, 2007

OIAF '07: A merry blur...

Whoof. First off, apologies for not posting anything beyond that first small post on Wednesday...gotta bring me a wi-fi equipped lappy next time. But, fear not, for I have managed to procure some awesome snaps and excellent footage which will slowly find it's way here as I edit it over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, enjoy this sampling of snaps from the fest.



Puppet fabber Jared_Hart wants you to touch his spider. With a lil' luck, we might have him up on this side of the lake to share his mojo on the art of spider-puppet building. And other stop-motion goodness as well, of course.


Curse you, Tickled Pink toystore. Can't walk past that joint (it's in the Byward Market) without picking up a puppet from Diabolo_Puppets...a most excellent penguin, in this case. I now have two puppets with which to eventually create my puppet podcast project...mebbe I'll have time this Christmas?



Yuichi Ito thinks bunnies rock...I concur. Ito-san (that's right, isn't it?) is the
proud papa of the NoRabbits...featured in the kid's competition, although he swears they're not just for the chillins'. Oh, and to answer your enevitable question, no, I din't get no NoRabbits stuffies...nuts.


Here's my shot of the show, the kid's from Art_Institute_Pittsburgh go all vogue on my ass. The book they're holding is "Oranges and Pliers", a cookbook assembled from recipes gleaned from different animators between 2006-2007. Ten bucks for John K.'s Meat recipe? Bargain. Here's the commercial they done put up on the YouTubes. Go get yerself a copy...'member, it's got MEAT.




People linin' up outside the Bytowne Cinema on the opening night. The feature that night was Persepolis, based on Marjane Satrapi's autobio graphic novel of her life growing up in revolutionary Iran, and the fallout of having to deal with lovin' a country in the grips of a bunch of extremist asshats. A film that manages to be profound and screamingly funny and bleak and hopeful all without comin' across like an idealogical sledgehammer. Go. Watch.


The Evil Universe J.J. Sedelmeier demands that you bow before his sartorial might. Besides workin' on a serious southern-fried 'stache, J.J.'s studio is still crankin' out commercial goodness, as well as Tek Jansen episodes. Two of 'em were in competition.



Here's Joann Quinn, she of Charmin' fame with a 35 mm reel of her short, "Dreams and Desires: Family Ties". I got some great footage of Joanna amidst assembled awestruck animation junkies at the National Gallery...after her retrospective, she spread out the collected bounty of her animation drawings on the stage for all to peruse, then fielded questions from one and all. She, of course, rocks.


One last pic from before I left, actually...this is the schwag I concocted for the show, 10 256-meg Sandisk USB keys with plastic sleeves to hold my contact info and compass carabiners to complete the package. Each one has a 218-meg Quicktime of my finished short, as well as a title card talkin' bout the production isself. Din't give 'em all away, but lucky recipients were Lev Polyakov, Pilar Newton, my profs Don Perro and Paul West, a rep from AniBoom and the Saguenay fest (which I'll talk about later) and Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew fame. Next, I'll be submitting the short to Giraf3 (organized by Quickdraw) and Platform.

Hookay, 'nuff said fer now. I'll be posting video goodness over the next few weeks, and probably be compiling all my goodies into a DVD for the TAIS xmas party. Meanwhile, head on over to the OIAF site and check out the prize winners! Late.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

OIAF '07: First day!





First day! Got off to a damn rough start, going to the wrong damn subway station. Madi said Don Mills, I went to York Mills. What can I say, I'm a freakin' retard. Here's a few quick pics of Madi at the Arts Court building, Chris steppin' out of the office after an interview, and Joanna Quinn at the Chateau Laurier. Gotta get over to the Bytowne for the 7 o'clock screeing of Persepolis. More later!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Joanna Quinn, Teletoon pitches, and Pirate sound...




Bunch o' stuff to end the week here, kidlings. First off, if you've been by the OIAF site you've noted the Joanna Quinn retro. Well, if yer in Toronto, you get the chance to see the lady's films and mebbe meet n' greet at a free NFB event, sponsored by TAIS! Details in the poster above. For the uninitiated (a.k.a. anyone who hasn't turned on or passed by a t.v. in the past ten years, guy), Joanna is a U.K. animator famed for her flowing sketchy style and wicked sense of humour and timing...and, yeah, the Charmin' Bears...which thanks to her are pretty damn charmin'. Anybody with the skill to make a bear wiping it's ass in the woods look wholesome is a force to be reckoned with, my lil' snowflakes. She'll be holding court with NFB's animation main-man Michael Fukushima. Go. Her last film was a freakin' riot, and beautiful all the while.

Next, Teletoon is takin' pitches for their 'Detour' block. Reps will be prowlin' about the TAC and the festival proper all week, so buy 'em a pint and send in them show pitches, bitches. Go to Teletoon and click on the PressRoom link for more juicy details.

Finally, the dudes at Pirate (I'm link crazy, cuz I know how now! I is on teh interwebs!!!) got me the stereo and 5.1 tracks for 'First Time Out', just in time for me to whip up some special OIAF '07 promo USB keys (hopefully) this weekend...I'll letcha know what happens this Monday. Right, go home and play the videogames and eat the pizza.

Friday, September 7, 2007

TAIS Interviews: Dan Pinto



O.k., everybody what knows me knows I'm a sucker for animation, videogames, motorcycles, martial arts...and anything cute. Seriously, take a look at some of the crap on my desk...12 year-old girl or 37 year-old animator?





But this post ain't about me n' my desk clutter. (Meowth Rawks!) You know who does him some good cute? Dan Pinto, that's who. Frederator fans will know his work...ep. 96 featured his freaky-cute film "Hedgehug". A few words from the man hisself...

1) It's yer thesis film, correct? Tell us about yer school a bit.

I went to University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I majored in Animation. It's a small intimate department with a bunch of cool teachers. I even got to study under Paul Fierlinger.

2) What's the deal with the Nicktoons thang?

Umm... I got into the Nicktoons Festival. I got invited out to California but couldn't go. A bunch of other awesome shorts got in. We competed. I didn't win anything. The End.

3) What're ya workin' on now?

I start working (real paid work) soon. I got commissioned to do a global-warming PSA, and I want to start my next film.

4) Any chance of seein' yer stuff on a future 'Avoid Eye Contact' compilation?

I don't think I'm that good...yet.

5) Speakin' o' which, whassis I hear about workin' with Signe Baumann?

I start working for her this week. It's gonna be awesome!

6) A final word for your adoring public.

I don't think i have a public, much less an adoring one.

Somebody get this kid a public. And a spot on the next "Avoid Eye Contact". Seriously lookin' forward to what he and Signe come up with. And it's great to see new doods able to get their stuff seen by Nick, even though he din't walk away with the goods; Lil' advice from T-Dog...eyeballs watching yer film trumps a silly trophy any day o' the week. Hopefully, we'll see more Dan stuff on Frederator and the Youtubes in the future. And hedgehogs rawk.

TAIS Nooze



New newsletter from TAIS head-honcho Madi Piller...special NFB event featuring Joanna Quinn and a new fest to take a gander at. Plus, a reminder: 20 bucks off OIAF passes for TAIS members, so if yer goin', get yer pass, dammit! Check out them details:

1. EVENT :

The National Film Board of Canada, United Kingdom Trade and Investment and The Toronto Animated Image Society are proud to present: Joanna Quinn

Since her bold splash onto the world's auteur animation scene in 1987 with the Annecy hit Girls' Night Out, Joanna Quinn has arguably been one of the United Kingdom's most successful animation filmmakers. While audiences may not always know they're watching her animation brilliance, Quinn's presence on festival screens and home television screens is ubiquitous. From her ads of the Charmin bear (do they really do "that" in the forest?) to her multi-award winning most recent short, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, Joanna Quinn is everywhere. Please join Quinn and NFB producer Michael Fukushima in conversation about her varied works, her choices in balancing art and commerce, and the sources of her wonderful writing and humour. Presented in partnership with United Kingdom Trade and Investment.

FREE EVENT
When : September 18
Time : 7:00 pm
Where: NFB Cinema ­150 John Street Toronto

-----------------------------------
2. SUBMISSIONS :

GIRAF 3: Ginormous Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival!
November 2 + 3, 2007

GIRAF celebrates Independent + Underground Animation, showcasing Canadian Animators and presenting animations from around the Globe. looking for submissions in all forms that celebrate the spirit independent animation. We welcome creative ideas that bridge disciplines of animation with new forms of contemporary art, including performance, installation and new media projects...

Please submit your project entries and completed entry form no later than:
5:00pm, Friday October 06 . 2007
For short film submission form:
http://qas.awn.com/media/GIRAF3short.pdf

For installation project submission form:
http://qas.awn.com/media/GIRAF3installation.pdf

--------------------------------------------------------------

3. OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION FESTIVAL

TAIS members have $20 discount on your OIAF pass
You have to show your valid membership card

FOR more OIAF the BLOG on the www.tais.ca

------------------------------
Toronto Animated Image Society
60 Atlantic Avenue, suite 102
Toronto, Ontario
M6K 1X9

tais@bellnet.ca
www.tais.ca
416-533-7889

Technorati taggin' and Mike L. checks in...



Just a quick post to let y'all know what Mike L., the upstanding head of Citizens Against Safety Goggles, is up to. Seems he's got a new character, "Uncle Hell" (any relation to Mr. Hell?) and will be premiering 4 new toons over four weeks, starting tanight (!) on FuelTV's show "Stupidface". Don't see it on the schedule (must need updatin', go to www.fuel.tv) but trust him, it'll be there. Go watch. Bein' Canuckioid, I gots to wait for the Youtube. Meanwhile, here's some edyoumacashun 'bout bees.

Oh, you smartpants out there will notice the Technorati thang in the post URL...just tryin' to spread the woid is all...letcha know how it works out. I'll be posting about young Dan Pinto later today, don't think I done fergot. Late.

Technorati Profile

Thursday, September 6, 2007

BioShock review by Zero Punctuation



O.k., O.k., technically this isn't 'animated', but it's a great example of how a lil' design and motion and a lot of great writing can spice up that high-tech lo-fi hackneyed ol' web chestnut, the video-game review. This dood's rants became so popular that he eventually got 'discovered' by a brit culture mag, The Escapist, which now hosts him. For those viral marketing students out there, you can learn two things from this:

1) viral marketing HAPPENS. Like a bowel movement. Force it, and all yer gonna get is ...well, if yer out of college now you should know already. Just remember that ol' viral hemorrhoid known as 'All I want for Xmas is a PSP'. Right.

2) You don't have to force it, just find a funny yob like this guy and pay him some cash to keep doing what he is doing, but doing it on your site. Don't pay him to try to shill your stuff, that'll phuck the whole deal up faster than jamming a Prep-H butt bullet up yer nether regions.

Hookay, enuff. Have a bit of an interview with 'HedgeHug' animator Dan Pinto for ya tomorrow. Late.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

OIAF Poster Madness: Gary Panter (2005)



We'll end our poster retro with a fine piece of abtract goofing by one Gary Panter. And, yep, it's still available ifn' ya wants one.

What can I say about Gary Panter? Nothing, really...hate to admit I don't know the man's work, so I went and got me a net edyoumacashun. Turns out that's he's one of the most influential designers and illustrators of the past fitty years. No shit...I can see his influence in Keith Haring, Rodney Allen Greenblat and mebbe a lil' in Joe Murray's stuff. But what do I know? Let's hear from the man hisself:



Thanks to Youtube vlogger Rabid of Lo-Fi St. Louis (http://lofistl.com) for this great interview. I gotta admit, not knowing the man's larger body of work, I kinda dismissed the 2005 poster for it's goofy primitive look. Seeing his paintings in this lil' gallery snippet, however, is a real eye-opener...I'm really jealous of stream-o-conciousness guys like Gary. The stuff in his head seems to lie down on the canvas untranslated and pure, without the typical design nay-saying getting in the way. Here's some more Gary goodness, a short that I believe hails from the ol' Liquid Television series that MTV done did, back when they were all creative n' shit.



His last big thang...design for a set of "Simpson's Movie" Vans matte shoes...can't tell ya how cool THAT is. So, go out and grab yerself a pair of Vans kicks done up by Gary, and a copy of that OIAF poster for some instant street credibility. Nice.

O.k., that wraps up our look at OIAF posters past and present! Remember, kidlings, a lot of these are still available at the OIAF store. Go get 'em!

Enuff shameless fest shilling...gotta go get me a spindle and see about burning some DVD's of my short. If yer up in Ottawa, look for the large goateed mass dressed all in black with a white gumstick MP3 player round his neck, and mebbe I'll show you what I done! More later.