TAIS event: Aardman retrospective

Just a quick post to show y'all some of the goodies brung over from ol' Blighty by Aardman's own Helen Brunsdon. She's heading up to Ottawa next for the fest, so if you missed the show (free, by the way) you can catch it up there, although you'll have to buy the tickets. Thanks to the NFB for setting up a second simulcast room for all the extra folks what showed up. More to come!

TAIS Ottawa '07: Joanna Quinn

Apologies for the long absence, friends...I was at home flat on my battered behind after having a portion of it carved out (out of necessity) by one of the skilled scalpel swingers at Toronto Western. Long story short, bloggin' was the last thing on my mind last week.

Fortunately, a new week has dawned, and with it, I get the chance to fulfill some long overdue promises, namely to upload some video goodness from Ottawa '07. Here, we see Joanna Quinn, she of Charmin Bears fame, holding court at the National Gallery. Rather than show her films, make a few quick comments and call it a day, she proceeded after the screening to spread her Bounty (Charmin', Bounty, get it?) over the stage for all to peruse. My fave moment is the slow "Wowwwww" that wafts up from the crowd of spellbound animation students as Joanna shows off some multilayer 'frosted cell' artwork and explains how she achieved the soft, hand-rendered look she's so famous for.

I'll have another batch of video goodness tomorrow, featuring pumpkins. You heard me right. More later!

UPDATE: Embedded a much larger MyToons uploaded version of the vid. Hopefully, the MyToons guys won't mind an animation 'related' vid being uploaded to their site, rather than an animated short. Just waiting for the picnic vid to transcode...I'll post as soon as it's ready. Later!

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'.

Ottawa '07 official selections: James Calvert

O.k., as much as I love Mr.s' Hertzfeldt, Hodgson and Rao (sounds like a dead sexy law firm, don't it?), I wanna cover some names not familiar to mine ears this week. Today, a clip from 'Mermaid Story', directed by James Calvert. It's featured in 'Dust Echoes', a great series of evocative shorts commissioned by the Australian Broadcast Corporation based on Aussie aboriginal 'bush tales' and native lore. From the site:

"Dust Echoes is a series of twelve beautifully animated dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land, telling stories of love, loyalty, duty to country and aboriginal custom and law."

It's lovely work, puppet animation set against glowing backdrops and an equally glowing ambient tribal soundtrack. I'd come across this series quite some time ago, and methinks a similar series of Canuck aboriginal tales needs to happen. There's a long history of partnership in various international broadcast and radio projects between the CBC and ABC...a native story exchange, might I suggest? Again, no worries, it's a short clip, so I won't deprive you of the full glory of this short on the big screen at the Bytowne. Here's a link to the host site for the Dust Echoes series:

http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/default.htm

Mr. Calvert, by the by, is one of the founding members of the People's Republic of Animation, out of Adelaide. This studio is barely out of the bubble wrap (founded in 2003) but judging by the feedback and awards their work has been getting, you wouldn't know it. Here's their 2007 showreeel; judge fer yerselves, but to my eyes, there be some damn fine work here!



The PRA website is at http://www.thepra.com.au/...go have yerselves a gander.

Whoof! O.k., enuff. Madi has requested something cool...a look back at the OIAF poster art through the years! I'll see about starting a new series next week. Cheers!

Ottawa '07 official selections: Don Hertzfeldt

If Don Hertzfeldt has somethin' new ta see, it's a no-brainer that yer gonna be seein' it in Ottawa in the fall. Don's latest, "Everything will be OK", combines his trademark minimilistic stick-figger characters with some suprising and very evocative camera work...love the juxtaposition of his artwork with these composite photos and film.

Don't worry, the above is just a trailer. He shot the whole thang on film, and if yer wonderin' where he got his stock, not to mention his animation paper, just check his acceptance speech at Platform 07, also included above. More on Monday, go have yerselves a weekend! Meanwhile, I gotta model a display case for my homie Jey and a couple of XBox Live icons for some buddies in Ohio. I'm out.

UPDATE!!! You'd figger I'd know to post this, but hey, it's been that kinda week. You can get 'Everything' on DVD at BitterFilms (www.bitterfilms.com). Go get it!

OIAF '07 Selections: Rohitash Rao

This week I'll be bringin' you sneek peaks of whichever official entries to the Ottawa Fest '07 I can track down on them there interwebs. Here's one from Ugly Pictures, Rohitash Rao's crazy film concern. This idea is just so damn obvious it makes ya wonder why no one did it before 2006, and the execution is brilliant. I'll bring ya more from Ugly Pictures as I track it down on the YouTubes. Meanwhile, enjoy this acid-washed, acid-induced trip through pop history.

Ottawa '07-Official Selections

Still stingin' from that there rejection letter, great bloody girl's blouse that I am, but gotta mention the fact that the OIAF '07 official selections list is up. They gots 2070 entries this year, mines included, and whittled that down to 97 films...so's I don't feels too bad. Just click on the whacky-ass poster to go to the list.

Just browsin' through, I see new shtuff from Rohitash Rao and Signe Baumane, representin' the New York crew, and Don Hertzfeld (he of the homicidal balloon fame). As well, we've got 'The Magic Projector' and Madi's "Vive le Film" in the Canadian Showcase. Still can't believe they didn't take "Toro Bravo".

Looks to be a groovy fest this year...yes, even though I'm not in it. Well, not in a screening sense...apparently, Madi's wrangled me a press pass, so, yeah, I've booked a room and will be bloggin' from the fest. Have to put that new camera to work. I'll see to it that I gets the good word from as many animators as I can corner, and in addition to posting stuff on that there YouTubes, I'll see if'n I can't pull together the footage and whip up a DVD for all you good TAIS members. Hey, anyone else from TAIS plannin' on goin', drop me a line and we'll hook up in Ottawa.

One last note: If'n y'all goes to the OIAF site and check out the cost of a pass, you'll notice that TAIS members get a discount. WOOT! Buy yerself them passes and I'll see ya up in Ottawa. Late.