Gobelins shorts

Cooked Art has a youtube collection of the latest animated shorts. As always pretty cool! Here's one of them:



Head over there for more!

Keith Lango's Otto now animated

Two months ago Keith Lango showed us Otto, now he posted the anim test and I love it! Great timing, lot of fun! (thanks for the tip anonymous!)

The Secret of Monkey Island - Special Edition

I have to post this here! :)

Back before Jack Sparrow and before someone stole the idea of a Monkey Island movie and made Pirates of the Caribbean there was the PC game The Secret of Monkey Island.

Back in the day LucasArts made point & click adventure games and I grew up with classics like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Fate of Atlantis, Full Throttle, The Dig, etc. etc.





I loved the music and I loved the pixel art animation. It was so gooood!

Well now, they are releasing Monkey Island as a Special Edition and the really cool part is that you can switch between the old and repainted version on the fly. YEAH!


Go the main site and check out the video section which has a good making-of clip of the whole re-making process.

Now, if the sales are good, LucasArts will continue to release those games. Imagine playing Fate of Atlantis on your iPhone. YEAH BABY! (I actually already did on a jailbroken iTouch and it was so awesome!!!)

colin's giraffe, a tribute

I know this is totally random, but remember the best clip ever, Colin's Bear?

Well, right now, this clip is making the rounds and it's weirdly fascinating:



To that I responded with Colin's Bear and what came back after that is just too awesome: Colin's Giraffe.

Critique - Angry Walk

Alright, the walk:

It still looks great! I see you tweaked the hips and even though I was hoping to see more hip up/down, I know that it's difficult to see with those shapes. It still works though the way you have it.
Did you tweak the thumb on his left hand? Still feels a bit wimpy with the thumb on top, give it another shot to create a nice looking fist (bring the thumb down to the side).
I like how you tweaked the feet during the passing poses, nice!
There's something funky going on with his left foot. Was that already there when you showed it in class? Sorry if I missed that. Look at x1 to x4. The foot doesn't travel back at all, it just sticks there, which doesn't work for a cycle. The other foot is correct though, so make sure it works for both.
During the plants on x1 and x14 it would be nice to get a tiny little head wobble/rotate down movement, to feel the impact and weight. No huge overlap, just a sign that the steps impact the head.
Last thing, keep a subtle body/root Y up movement after x8 to x12, as well as from x20 to x24. Right now the body goes up and then stops the up movement a bit too quickly and then stays in that position during the above mentioned range. Make that transition a bit smoother, don't flatten your Y curve too quickly.

Nice job!

Color Keys for Pixar's "Up"

Cartoon Brew points to Lou Romano's blog, which has his color script for the movie "Up" on it. Very cool! Beware of Spoilers!

The Art & Feel of Making it Real

This book by Mark McDonnell looks really cool! I know what I'm getting next! - more info @ John Nevarez' blog

Animation Mentor Newsletter - June 2009

And here we go, another AM newsletter! This month you get:


- Progression of Studio Styles Through Time: Disney, UPA, Pixar
- Animation Mentor in the News!
- Mark McDonnell’s new book, The Art and Feel of Making It Real: Gesture Drawing for the Animation and Entertainment Industry
- Short Film by Issam Zejly
- Mentor: Paul Allen
- Student: Heather Kilber
- Tips&Tricks: What is a Moving Hold? by Shawn Kelly

On Film Acting - Carlos Baena

Great post with clips @ CarlosBaena.com, go check it out!

More game trailers

I know, I know, why not live-action at this point, but besides all that, check out the crazy sweet renders for the Assassin's Creed 2 trailer!

And Cartoon Brew points to The Last Guardian. Pretty cool too!

Aziz Kocanaogullari’s Masquerade

Masquerade from Aziz K. on Vimeo.

Academy of Art University School of Animation alumni, Aziz Kocanaogullari’s Masquerade animation video is featured on the Designspotter blog. Congratulations!!

[updated] Great positive comments, awesome! The short was even on Kanye West's blog!

You can check out his portfolio site here.

Interview with animator Guilherme Jacinto

Head over to sacurrent.com and check out the interview with Guilherme Jacinto! Here the intro:

As a young, aspiring animator, Guilherme Jacinto moved from his home country of Brazil to San Francisco to study at the Academy of Art University in 2003. With zero credits to his name, he hoped he could break into the very competitive animation industry on talent alone. You could say he started his career on the right foot when his very first professional job came to him by way of Pixar Animation Studios. His assignment: to work on a little film called WALL-E.

You can also visit his portfolio site here.

Hayao Miyazaki in Berkeley

Jeff Lee sends in this cool new info:

The Center for Japanese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley is proud to award internationally acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki with the 2009 Berkeley Japan Prize, which honors individuals from all disciplines and professions who have, over a lifetime influenced the world's understanding of Japan. In conjunction with his in-person acceptance of the award, Hayao Miyazaki will be honored with a series of events held on the UC Berkeley campus, celebrating his timeless body of film work.

For more info, go to ieas.berkeley.edu.

Toy Story 3 - Teaser

I'm sure you've seen it by now, but just in case you haven't, Apple has the new Toy Story 3 teaser. Thanks Michael Mahy for the tip!

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Trailer

Check out the trailer for the new Star Wars: The Old Republic game. That looks so cooool! Full movie like this please!!

- pic source