Summer 2010 SOS Workshop is DONE!

And BAM! Another Workshop is over! This one got us the now classic Spoon Killer, Hong Kong guy and Who's-in-Vegas? moments among many other classic sessions. You guys rule and once again it was a laugh fest for three hours. Thanks for participating!

THANK YOU!!!

The Price Is Right - Million Dollar Winner - Expression Change

Great find Anand!

Plight of the Bumble Bee - Pencil Test

(Thanks Lisa!)

Gaston Lagaffe

We gave my parents an iMac in Switzerland so that we can iChat (videoconferencing is so good for people living apart) and of course my mom has rediscovered the web. Before it was slow dial-up (which you pay per minute), now it's 24/7 broadband speed. Needless to say, she loves it, rediscovering old songs, books, looking up where she used to live on Google maps, etc. etc. Well, one other thing she's finding on youtube are clips of Gaston Lagaffe. From wiki:

Gaston is a comic strip created in 1957 by the Belgian cartoonist André Franquin in the comic strip magazine, Spirou. The series focuses on the every-day life of Gaston Lagaffe, a lazy and accident-prone (his surname means "the blunder") office junior. It is very popular in large parts of Europe (especially in Belgium and France), but except for a few pages by Fantagraphics in the early 90s (as Gomer Goof), there is no published English translation.

Gaston was, amongst Lucky Luke, Spirou, Marsupilami, Asterix & Obelix, Le Scrameustache, Les Schtroumpfs, etc. etc. etc. one of my favorite comics. So now my mom found these youtube clips:





And one image that made me laugh out loud (yes, I LOLed), was this one:


The ENERGY of that ass kicking! So good! :)

And Louaye adds this in the comments section, a collection of really strong poses with a clean silhouette:

click on image to embiggen

There is some cool timing in this clip:

Waiters who are Nauseated by Food

I found that via dynamicanimator's tweet, who wrote:

Performing an action in pursuit of an objective while overcoming an obstacle. An excellent example:

And yes, great example!

Animation Mentor Newsletter - August 2010

This month you get:

- Silver Is Gold: A Look at Character Designer Stephen Silver
- Graduation Rocks with Pixar's Lee Unkrich. Plus, BBQ Fun!
and if you're part of AM you can watch the complete 2 hour graduation ceremony including Lee Unkrich's speech (which was awesome btw.)
- Trading Punches: A Short Film by Animation Mentor Alumnus Eric Grajo
- Featured Mentor Mike Stern
- Featured Alumni: Justin Segal
- Tips and Tricks: Walk Your Rig Before You Run By Glen McIntosh

2010 Emmy Nominations: Outstanding Animated Program

This year the nominations for the Outstanding Animated Program category are:

Disney Prep & Landing
South Park
The Simpsons - Once Upon A Time In Springfield
Alien Earths
The Ricky Gervais Show - Knob At Night

I just received an email and it seems like Alien Earths won! Congratulations! Here's the press release

RADICAL-3D CONGRATULATES NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TEAM
ON BEST-ANIMATED SERIES EMMY NOMINATION FOR “ALIEN EARTHS”

Radical 3D’s Dave Jerrard named for Emmy nomination

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 25, 2010 – Radical 3D is pleased to announce that its work on the National Geographic special, Alien Earths, one of National Geographic’s most highly rated specials, has received a prime time Emmy® nomination for “Outstanding Animated Program”. Created by Dana Berry , “Alien Earths” uses CGI animation to visually explore planets beyond our solar system. Radical 3D was the lead VFX house on the production, creating more than 70 percent of the shows visual effects.

“Our 2 lead animators, Dave Jerrard and Joe Lawson did an amazing job in bringing to the screen compelling visuals of alien worlds and outer space” stated Jason McKinley, owner of Radical 3D. Jerrard created over a dozen alien earths, several star systems and gas giant planets. Lawson took the lead in the planet surfaces and the destruction of an entire world in a massive planetary collision sequence.

“The result was a riveting journey through space that emphasized the grandeur and magnificence of an amazing universe. “Clearly,” continued McKinley, “the quality of work our production team contributed is reflected in the program and the nomination.”

Radical 3D animated, rendered, and composited over 30 minutes of stunning imagery and created over 70 percent of the shows animation over a period of six months.

“Radical 3D’s animators understood the capricious demands of television documentaries,” stated Dana Berry, producer of Alien Earths and CEO of Skyworks Digital. “Their expertise and accommodating attitude, combined with their undaunted sensitivity to budgetary constraints, has made Radical 3D our default choice for all of our animation needs.”

This is Radical 3D’s second major nomination this year after its work on Tom Hanks’ production “Beyond All Boundaries” was nominated for a VES award.

"Probably the largest challenge was to make what is essentially a variety of spheres – the stars and their planets look not only realistic, but visually stimulating,” explained Dave Jerrard. “We were always treading the line between representing things in a cinematic way while not straying too far from scientific accuracy.”

The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards will air on NBC on August 29, 2010.

About Radical 3D

Radical 3D is a leading creative 3D animation and digital effects company specializing in visual effects, 3D animation, digital environments, compositing, character animation, and 3d stereoscopic. Clients include Lucasfilm, Fox Television, Imax, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, Warner Brothers, and Disney. In addition to Visual Effects, Radical 3D created, co-produced and developed all the visual effects for the ground breaking series “Dogfights” for the History Channel, which was the highest rated series on the History Channel during its first season. Radical 3D also co-produced and created the visual effects for the Animal Planet mini-series “Animal Armageddon.”

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game

I love pixel art and anything related to old school 8-bit stuff. Check out the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World game:



This led me to Paul Robertson, who was a lead animator for the game. Check out this post where he showcases some of his artwork.



He also links to Jonathan Lavigne, who has an awesome blog with tons of cool artwork. Check out the trailer for Ninja Senki, a game he's working on.

Ninja Senki Trailer from pixeltao on Vimeo.

Love the music! (by Yan Thouin)

Summer 2010 SO Workshop is DONE!

Aaaand that's it for the Summer SO Workshop! This one was packed!

And it was again really cool to see all the awesome work you guys did! You were very dedicated and it was a pleasure to work with you!

THANKS!!!!!!

Sandro Cleuzo Pencil Tests

Head over to Inspector Cleuzo's blog and check all the cool pencil tests! There's work from the Disneyfied Family Guy episode as well as Enchanted!

Family Guy Disneyfied from sandro lucio on Vimeo.

Reminder: Don't steal other people's work...

I know, it's sounds (again) like a very obvious thing, but try to be as original as you can in your creative efforts and don't copy/steal other people's work.

A while ago I was made aware of other animators copying my animation (old post about it here). I was flattered by the fact that someone thought my work was good enough for that, but of course I wasn't too happy about it either since I don't think it's the right thing to do, especially career wise. You can use existing animation and recreate it so that you can learn from it, sure, that's fine, but keep that to yourself and at home. Don't put it on your reel.

Funny enough, back then, this fellow "A" copied my "Battery Bunny" clip. Now, I was just made aware of that this guy "B", is copying "Battery Bunny" as well (and my "Boxlift" - including the pants raise movement even though his character has no pants...). But that version looks very familiar as well!

It looks like guy "B" stole the clip from guy "A", which is already a rip off.

Mind. Blown. :)

ACTUALLY. Thanks to observing commenters, mind has been un-blown, since it's the same guy. Duh! I must have looked at too many clips... Fail...

But to be fair, the guy is actually mentioning the fact that he took ideas from other people. At least he's honest about it. So it's more about his animation skills, not creative skills.

Oh nevermind...

P.S.: more proof that stealing is evil, this is post # 666!!!! Coincidence???

Dilla

Love the music! The dog reminds me a bit of Muttley/Mardel. :)

dilla The Film from mikey sauls on Vimeo.

- found @ Cartoon Brew

Epic Mickey Opening Cinematic

Found this at Cartoon Brew and thought it was really cool. Really want to play that game, hopefully it's good!

Summer 2010 Spungella 100 Frame Animation Contest Winners

Wow, what a long blog post title...

Here are the entries for the "Time Travel" 100 Frame Animation Contest:

Spungella Animation Contest - Summer 2010 - "Time Travel" from Jean-Denis Haas on Vimeo.

And the winners are:

1st place: Joseph Taylor
2nd place: Louaye Moulayess
3rd place: Roberto Pita

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Do you need Yo Yo Reference?

Holy moly.

- found @ Geekologie

Contest Voting

Thanks again for the submissions! There are 15 clips and voting is starting today. I'll post the clips tonight and the results tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned!!

ianimate.net - The Character Animation School

A new online animation school called ianimate is going to open up in September this year! Great news for animation students! Sounds like the semesters are flexible and the prices seem very competitive. Take a look! (thanks Ting for the tip!)

Summer 2010 Contest Submissions

The submissions are landing in my inbox! Keep them coming! They are looking great!!

- pic source

Salesman Pete and Meet Buck

Thanks Bernie for the tip! And check out their blog and site for more production info!

Meet Buck Trailer from TeamCerf on Vimeo.

Salesman Pete Trailer from Salesman Pete on Vimeo.

100 Frame Animation Contest Details

No more submissions.
Contest is closed.

For those who are confused (sorry!), here one master post explaining the details of the contest.

- Topic: TIME TRAVEL

- Time frame: Monday August 9th to Sunday, August 15th (send clip on Monday 16th)

- Length: 100 frames
- Movie size: around 1280x720 or what looks good, just not something like 160x120 :)
- Any medium

- Anybody can participate

- Prizes:
1st prize:
- $50 for Amazon + $25 iTunes card + Mindstorm iPhone games
2nd prize:
- $10 iTunes card + Mindstorm iPhone games
3rd prize:
- Mindstorm iPhone games

- Previous contest and examples here, here and here

Did I forget anything? Any questions?