Mark Fiore – Editorial Flash Animator
Mark Fiore is one of our favorite animators. His cartoons are always funny, always hit the mark and are extremely well executed. He started out as a traditional editorial cartoonist but switched to flash animation in 2001 and hasn’t looked back since. You can see his work on the San Francisco Chronicle web site. The current cartoon on global warming is must see flash animation.
[tags]mark fiore, flash animation, 2D animation, editorial cartoon[/tags]
Tony White – ANIMATION from PENCILS to PIXELS: Classical Techniques for Digital Animators
Tony White has done it again. If you’ve scanned the pages here, you know that Darling Dimples holds Tony White’s classic 2D animation primer, “The Animator’ Workshop“, in the highest regard. It’s an indispensible tool. This week sees the release of White’s new 500+ page opus, “Animation from Pencils to Pixels”, which bridges the gap between tradional hand-drawn 2D animation and the new computer-assisted techniques. From the publisher’s page:
Just add talent. This book gives today’s digital animators all the lessons they never had-classical animation techniques used by the most original animators of our time. Animation from Pencils to Pixels is the most comprehensive book on the principles, processes, and profession of animation ever written. Within the covers of this one book is just about everything required to conceive, produce, direct, animate, assemble, publish, and distribute an animated film. The tips and techniques in this book are timeless and applicable whether you want to make a 2D or 3D film, or a Web-based animation or a game. The book includes a comprehensive DVD containing a full version of the author’s film, “Endangered Species,” which showcases the great and classic moments of animation’s history. In addition there is an extensive analysis section on “Endangered Species,” explaining how the film was made on a scene-by-scene basis, using movie clips and other demo material to illustrate the text. Completing the DVD is a unique and informative section on ‘repetitive stress disorder’ for animators (mega-hurts), which will help make the entire process of animation a much more enjoyable and pain free experience for the long term professional. The appendix of the book includes a complete course structure, which educators and independent students may follow.
Get your copy while they’re hot.
[tags]tony white, 2D animation, animation, pencils to pixels, digital animation[/tags]
BAF06 – Bradford Animation Festival
The best animation festival across the Atlantic is the Bradford Animation Festival in the UK presented by the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television. The festival announced their November 2006 guest list:
Confirmed guests for 2006 so far include Joanna Quinn, Dave Burgess from Dreamworks Animation, Andreas Hykade, Marc Craste, Suzie Templeton and Chris Shepherd. If that’s not enough to whet your appetite BAF06 will also be hosting a special tribute to Paul Berry, taking a retrospective look at the work of Halas and Batchelor and commercial animation comes under the spotlight with an all-star discussion panel.
The highlight of that list is, of course, Joanna Quinn. Her multi-award winning film, Dreams and Desires will be shown at the festival.
A major figure in the world of animation, Joanna’s distinctive drawing skills, characterisations and humour, mark her out as a truly unique talent. Her graduation film, Girls Night Out won three awards at the world-renowned Annecy animation festival in 1987. She received Oscar nominations two years in a row, the first for Famous Fred in 1998 and again with Wife of Bath in 1999. In 1987, Joanna formed Beryl Productions International Ltd. with producer and writer Les Mills. Based in Cardiff, her highly talented team have produced a plethora of successful commercial work for clients that include Charmin, Whiskas and United Airlines.
She’s a super animator with a truly distinctive style. They don’t get any better. You can get a taste of her animation at Beryl Productions. Watch her showreel at your own risk. She’s so brilliant you might not be able to pick up your own pencil again. Don’t miss this festival if you’re in the UK from 15 – 18 November 2006.
[tags]Bradford Animation Festival, BAF06, Joanna Quinn, 2D animation[/tags]
Plastic Animation Paper 4.0 Released – 2D Animation Software
Our favorite 2D animation software, Plastic Animation Paper, has just released version 4. This is a full featured piece of software that allows you to create your wildest dreams and the best part is that it is totally free. Dimples has been playing with this software for a couple of months now. It’s great. You can do almost anything with it.
Learning to animate with this software is like going to an animation school without the tuition. It’s an education in itself. Dimples doesn’t mean to imply that the software is difficult. It’s nearly pain-free. You can begin creating simple animations immediately. When you progress to more sophisticated projects, Plastic Animation Paper will be able to move with you. Frankly, it’s all you need to create a great demo reel.
Have you been thinking about animation school? Look no further than the tutorials at Plastic Animation Paper’s website. Here are the lessons that are currently available:
- Lesson 1 – Quick introduction to the screen layout and basic drawing tools.
- Lesson 2 – Your first simple PAP animation. Animating rough blue and planning red.
- Lesson 3 – How to do a walk cycle. Timing with clones, light table, working in passes.
- Lesson 4 – Optimize your workflow using Setup and marking menus.
- Lesson 5 – Using Cutouts – basics. Introducing the Range. Your cycle from Lesson 3 is going for a little walk.
- Lesson 6 – More Cutout tricks. And animating a scene! – starting with your cycle and adding on from there.
- Lesson 7 – Layers. Get the details on all the brand new layer functions of PAP version 3.2.
They say they’re going to post more tutorials and I’m assuming these will be upgraded to reflect the changes in the upgraded version of the software. Try Plastic Animation Paper. It’s free. Just think about whose head you want to explode and draw it. (Who doesn’t like a good animated exploding head, after all?) Create your Quicktime movie from your masterpiece and post it on Youtube. It’s stunningly simple with PAP.
Don’t trust Dimples? Read this test drive of Plastic Animation Paper at The 10 Second Club.
Ottawa International Animation Festival ’06 Sept. 20 – 24
This is the 30th anniversary year of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. It is the finest animation film festival on the North American Continent. This is a unique event in the world of animation and very worth your while. Besides, it’s in beautiful Ottawa. From the Ottawa Start:
Adding local flavour to the Festival, four Ottawa animators are included in this year’s selected films. John Mark Seck‘s Vissi d’arte, a gritty urban retelling of the tragic Puccini opera ‘Tosca,†and Chris Dainty’s Emma Graves, a quirky tale of talking tombstones,will make their world premieres in the Canadian Animation Showcase. Also selected for OIAF 06 are two talented high school animators: Michelle White’s Blinky Goes to the Movies, a light-hearted look at old movies, and Boris Maras’ Flash-animated Nedrick’s Misadventures in the Montgolfier will be competing as part of the TELETOON Canadian Student Animation Scholarship program. This program, now in its 9th year, gives young animators from across Canada an extraordinary chance to be recognized for their skills.
Other notable films include:
…Joanna Quinn’s hilarious ode to film-making, Dreams and Desires, which won the Grand Prize at both the Annecy and Zagreb festivals earlier this year; The Carnival of the Animals, a delightful musical erotic fantasy by Michaela Pavlatova; three-time OIAF Grand Prize winner Andreas Hykade (Ring of Fire) returns with The Runt; legendary New York animator George Griffin’s disturbing deadpan comedy, It Pains me to Say This; the Canadian premiere of Rabbit, Run Wrake’s magical adult fairytale; and Never Like the First Time by Swedish animator extraordinaire Jonas Odell, in which four people recount their first – and very different – sexual experiences.
There’s no where else in the world where you can view such an impressive list of animated films. If you can’t make it to beautfiful Ottawa (which is awfully damn hot this year, by the way) you can still participate in the fun via the OIAF podcasts. Mark you calendar now.
[tags]OIAF, Ottawa International Film Festival, animation[/tags]
Martha Sigall – Living Life Inside the Lines
Looking for a great story from an animation legend? Look no further than Martha Sigall’s “Life Inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation”. Martha started as gopher at Leon Schlesinger’s Pacific Art and Title when she was only 12 years old. She started painting animation cels when she was 15. This was a job that women were sometimes allowed to do in the animation studios of the 1930s. Certainly, none were allowed to be actual animators. From an interview at Comicon.com:
…in the very early days of animation, almost everything was done by men. Men even did the inking and the painting. It wasn’t until the early ‘30s, at least in Hollywood, that women started doing these jobs. There was very much gender discrimination in the business at that time. Women were not allowed in the Animation Department, Layout, Story, and Camera departments. There were some women in the Background Department, but it really wasn’t until World War II, when the men left for the service, that women were accepted into these other departments.
In “Living Life Inside the Lines“, Martha provides an insider’s view of the glory days of Warner Brothers animation:
She recounts her wild and wonderful experiences with the Warner Bros. cartoon crew, working and laughing all day with the animators, partying all night with the Looney Tunes gang on the bowling and baseball teams, and participating in weekend scavenger hunts. She was president of the in-house “Looney Tunes Club,” co-wrote the company gossip column, and performed in the company’s theatrical troupe.
This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in animation history. The book is widely available. Get your copy now.
[tags]Martha Sigall, Looney Tunes, Life Inside the Lines, 2D animation[/tags]
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