KAFI: They likes me!

O.k., If it seems like I'm goin' a bit overboard in my excitement, this is the first full-fledged honest-to-gosh animation fest I've been accepted into, and the fact that it's KAFI, one of the biggest n' best, just knocks my socks off even further. You might remember that this lil' toon was created for Jeromy 'Doc' Adams (the voice) for his 'Extra Life' gaming charity, which incidentally raised over 100, 000 semolians for pediatric cancer research. Hopefully, I had a lil' to do in spreading the word about the event with my 'toon. Here's the YouTube:



I'd like to thank Doc for his awesome sound and v.o. work, and Eric Zermeno for his tips on colors and characters. Doc's gonna be doing the event again this year in October, so be sure to sign up, play them games and heal them kids!

And yep, I've already got plans to do another promo; I'll keep ya posted. Here's a letter from Doc explaining his motivation behind the event, and hence, mine. More later!

KAFI 2009 official selections announced!

O.k., slow to the post here...the .pdf of official selections for the 2009 Kalamazoo Animation Festival International were posted about a week and a half back, but I've been busy with stuffs, some of which you'll see in the next post. From the website:

"These films were selected from over 555 films from around the world for competition screening-judging in the Commissioned, Independent, Student and Web categories. This year's films have a variety of styles, story lines and techniques from the young artists (12 and under) to the seasoned professionals and independents. All films selected as a Finalist will be shown on the big screen during KAFI at the historic State Theatre in downtown Kalamazoo."

Congrats to one and all who got the nod! Gotta see if'n I can't make it to this one...if not, I know Madi at least will be in attendance. And now, for a related announcement.

Oldelaf - le Café

From France, a cautionary tale to end the week...go easy on the Juan Valdez juice, er you'll wind up murdering a granny. From the French (obviously) band Oldelaf, directed by Stephanie Marguerite and Emilie Tarascou. Subtitles pour les maudis anglais (tabernac) courtesy of the French Kisses blog. A biento!

TAIS Gallery updated!

Tara, our erstwhile admin, just wanted me to let y'all know that the TAIS Member Gallery has been updated! It now includes links to the sites and works of:

Charuvi Agrawal, Willy Ashworth, Nassim Azadi, Lise Beaudry, Veronika Belianina, Marc Beurteaux, Lukas Blakk, Guillermina Buzio, Daisy Chia, David N. Cobden,Grant Dix, Mark Dowsett, Stephanie Dudley, Jabari Elliot, Cesar Forero, Alexander Gelis ,Bryce Hallett, Patrick Jenkins, Susan Justin, Lisa Murzin, Craig Marshall, Allyson Mitchell, Justin Murphy, Madi Piller, Barry Sanders, Ruth Tait, Jeffrey Tran, Bob Wiseman, Christine Whitlock and Dong Yuxiao. Damn, that's whole lotta peoples. Go check out their stuffs!

I'll be doing profiles of all the artists in the Member Gallery this year...here's a taster. Lil' film called "Dundas n' Bathurst", created in just 20 days by TAIS members Charuvi and Jeff Tran. Got top prize at TUFF. Enjoy!

Get yer bran

Video from nutty nutbars The Bran Flakes. Animated in the Flash by Susan DeLint, link courtesy of our homey Fred. Enjoy.

Comparo: Terra vs. Skywhales

Bit of a brew-ha-ha here over the trailer to what the folks over at Cartoon Brew consider to be yet another in a string of me-too 3d features, complete with a credit roll larded down with 'voice talent' and ho-hum designs. 'Battle for Terra' has an interesting concept, though...always wanted to do the 'alien invasion in reverse' story, wonder why no one's ever tackled it before in any real way. And if a studio has, please, let me know.

The film brought to mind (the mind in this case belonging to Chuck R.) a short film from way back called SkyWhales...essentially evoking the same kind of alien imagery as Terra, an alien race living side-by-side with giant flyin' critters. Anyhoo, both are presented here for your delectation. More to come!

Lazyboy pimps Newgrounds

Lazyboy is an animator from Israel, most famous for his cartoons created for pervy podcast Distorted View, and for being highly, badly, umm...well just watch this cartoon.

Newgrounds is a website for content creators to share animations, games and novelties made in Flash. It's free for anyone, and one of the greatest online animation communties we have. Yeah, it's pretty much wall-to-wall porn. Badly drawn wall-to-wall porn. Just watch the toon, dammit. Thank you.

p.s.: If you're thinking of downloading and listening to the Distorted View show, ahhh, don't. Just, don't. Let it go, trust me, unless you've got a carbon-fibre soul and kevlar eardrums, you don't wanna expose yerself. O.k., you done been warn'd.