The Housing Crisis made simple. And adorable.

Found this lil' gem online while, uh, searching for lil' gems online. Heh. This one was created by Stephen Neary ('member Chicken Cowboy?) for NPR's Planet Money. A neat 'nick note's' rendition of the U.S. housing crisis and a great straightforward explanation of the 'toxic assets' what led to it, it also includes some great writing (courtesy of the show's hosts), nice sound design by one Rob Arnott and of course, some really clever animation from Mr. Neary. Really like the sketchy/solid style and color design as well. Nicely done! Go on over to his blog and say hey, as in hey, we want more shorts like this one, please mister? O.k., gotta go earn my keep. More to come!

Lego Stop-Mo a Go-Go. God I'm a dork...

If you've got a kid who loves the Legos and the animation, you could do worse than getting him/her one of these lovely lil' Lego Stop-mo cameras. O.k., it's not exactly Dragon software and a Canon SLR (see, I know stuff!) but it is a nice lil' straightforward camera that comes with some basic capture software and two lil' Lego men. Plus it's cute as hell.

Some caveats based on reviews I've read. Image quality is a lil' grainy, but o.k. in a kind of super-8 lo-fi kinda way. See the sample animation below, courtesy of Kid's Tech Review.



The 4-way button on the back is cool, but there's no labeling, so figuring out what does what will require a bit of a read. The software is the same situation, not quite as intuitive as it could be.

It's also a lil' pricey at 100 semolians. A more practical purchase might be a half-decent webcam and a free download of Framethief or AnimatorDV Simple. Still, if you want an all-in-one package for that kid in your life with animation aspirations, it ain't bad.

Flip gets flipped to October

Don't know if I've ever mentioned Frozen North. They're a local Toronto game developer that were slated to drop their first game, 'Flip's Twisted World' on the Wii. Drop date was Sept. 21, which has come and gone. So, whence Flip?

Well, got an email back from one of the dev. team. Turns out you'll have to slot this game as an early Halloween treat. Manufacturing woes have knocked Flip back a month to October 19th.

The guys at Frozen North have been workin' their collective asses off on this, their first game, and if Jim Sterling over at Destructoid is any judge (and he is) it's going to be well worth the money of any TAIS game fans and your families. Plus, the MSRP of $29.99 will be easy on the pocket book.

It's local, it's Canadian, it's they're first Wii game, and it's inexpensive. Go get you one on the 19th of Rocktober. Don't worry, I'll post a reminder. Meanwhile, check out the trailer above. More to come!

MegaPupsh!

Beginning of the week, better get yer cute on. Got a copy of Capcom's Mega Man artbook for a friend. Flippin' through the 8-bit era goodness, got inspired to sketch up the Nemu-Nemu pups as Mega Man and Proto Man, with bird buddy Pollo as Beat. Pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. More actual news to come!

Eleven in Motion Gallery and DVD launch

Wherf, what a summer. Launched a new Iphone game, sitting on our biggest Flash game ever, so the blog has been neglected. Apologies! More postings in the fall, starting with this announcement. Eleven in Motion, a special melange of abstract painting and animation, will be happening this month! Painting from the 50's meet the animation talents of 11 Canadian contemporaries. The event includes a DVD launch, so you can take in the show, then take it with. Go to the TAIS site for all the details. More to come!