Animation Prezzies pt. Deux and a Half

More goodies for the animator or animation fan on yer shoppin' list:

Character Animation Crash Course by Eric Goldberg
Animation Unleashed by Ellen Besen with Bryce Hallett
Elemental Magic by Joseph Gilland (books)

Between Eric's practical step-by-step breakdown on timing, character elements, overlaps, etc., Ellen and Bryce's story and dramatic structure guidance and Joseph's amazing and clear advice on traditional effects, it's been a damn spanky year for animation books. I'd recommend any or all of these, and they're all available fer buyin' at The Labyrinth. Not sure if they've got 'em on hand at The Beguiling, but no doubt they can order ya up a copy of each. If ya gotta, all three can be had from teh Amazons here, here and here. Go! Learn! Become mighty 'mators!

I'll have more gear and books and shtuff for you in the new year...right now, I'm off to get me a copy of 'A Boy and His Blob'. Cheers!

Animation Prezzies!

Just thought I'd whip out a quick list of goodies that you might consider for those luvved ones on yer Xmas list this year. Or Hanukkah. Or Qwanza. Or Friday the 18th. Whatever, these are great gift ideas for you animation lovin' compadres out there.

RUN HAMSTER RUN (IPHONE GAME)

If you've got a friend with an Iphone who's an animation nut, this hand-drawn puzzler from animation Erin Humiston is just the thang. Produced by Erin and a small crew in Florida, it's available now at the Itunes App Store! Gift a copy, then get a copy for yesself...that's an order. Courtesy of Cartoon Brew.

A BOY AND HIS BLOB (NINTENDO WII GAME)


Released in October, this game for the Wii features hand-drawn side scrolling action in a more anime-inspired vein. Fun for adults and kid-friendly as well, you navigate around obstacle and enemies by feeding your pet blob jellybeans...different flavors, different effects. From WayForward Technologies, developers of the fabulously fun Shantae game (tons of hand animation, great stuff!)

Whoops! Running long with this post...more goodies to come!

Aardman does Flipnote

Here's a couple of sweet lil' treats from our homies at Destructoid...seems there's a great lil' animation tool for the Nintendo DSi called Flipnote Studio, and in order to show it off proper the powers that be at the big N summoned the forces of Aardman Animation to create spots actually animated on the DSi! Nice! Apparently they've commissioned a whole bunch o' these to promote the DSi itself and upcoming Zelda game Spirit Tracks. I'll keep you posted. More to come...

Kevin Manthei sez hey!

First off, apologies all 'round for the singular post last month...super busy at the day job, managed to take a week off for vacation and to take care of some last minute shtuffs, and now that it's all done I'm all yers, you blogomites you.

Timing is pretty good, for lo and behold I popped open the emails yesterday to find a note from the indefatigable Kevin Manthei, the sonic guru behind many a fine 'toon soundtrack, including personal fave Invader Zim. You'll remember I was talkin' to him way back in the Soundtrack phase of 'First Time Out', my lil' bunnies and bots film. Seems he was waltzing through old emails, and wanted to know how I was doin'. Thanks for checkin' in, dood!

Here's a sample of his tawdry wares. If you want to check out more of his audible aristry, drop by his website! More to come...