Flash Animation – Master Lessons from Chris Georgenes
Dimples came across Chris Georgenes brilliant Flash Animation tutorial on the old Macromedia site last year. Even if you never intend to use Flash as your animation tool, his lessons will help you. In simple clear language, he teaches attention to detail and flare that make every character special. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the original video tutorial is still available on the new Adobe site but a text tutorial is availble here. Chris has an unreal portfolio site that can be viewed here.
Dimples defies anyone to look at these animations and not grin ear to ear. Although very simple, his animated condom is full of personality.
This is a peek at Mr. Condom used in a simple ad but you need to see the animation to fully appreciate the character Chris puts in his work. We can’t help but notice the resemblance between Chris and Mr. Condom. Self portrait? Dimples wishes there was more that we could show here but everything is on his two websites linked above. Take a look at the work of a really funny and a really smart animator, Chris Georgenes.
[tags]Chris Georgenes, Flash animation, animator, cartoon, 2D animation, 3D animation[/tags]
Gitanjali Rao – Animation Rising Star
Gitanjali Rao graduated from art school in 1994 and went on to intern with Indian Animator Ram Mohan. She wrote, drew, directed and produced a fifteen minute animated film, “Printed Rainbow”, that was selected in the short film category at Cannes in 2006.
Rao’s first film was “Orange” which did not make it through the strict Indian censorship policies. The style of “Orange” is reflective of her day job creating animated commercials.
The story concept for her Cannes selection, “Printed Rainbow”, is fascinating. From Television Point:
This 15-minute short film is about a woman in Mumbai, who lives all alone with just a cat for company. “She is an avid collector of match box covers. This leads to a dream world where she does adventurous things. From one matchbox to another, she goes on weaving her adventures along with her cat. Finally she comes back to reality,” explains Gitanjali. The film has no narration and is a visual rendition of the woman. “Each frame is painted. I had to do it myself because it’s experimental animation. I have shot the first part of the film in black and white to show the dreary existence of this woman. The rest of it is in a myriad of colours. I am so excited that it has been selected and that too for Cannes,” says Gitanjali.
Observe the contrast in the image below from “Printed Rainbow” between the woman in black and white and the brightly colored matchbox.
And, the bright world of the matchbox comes alive in this still from the movie.
The Dimples team hasn’t seen this movie but we love the concept and the stills. We’re sure that there is much more to come from Gitanjali Rao. And, for a final tantalizing sample, here is a still from another short film, “Blue”.
[tags]Gitanjali Rao, 2D animation, animation, Cannes, India, animation news[/tags]
Alex Toth Dead at 77
Alex Toth was one of the most influential artists of his era. He died on May 27 of natural causes. From the Los Angeles Times obituary:
“For 50 years he did what he wanted to do — smoke cigarettes, sit on the couch and draw,” his daughter Dana Palmer said Saturday. “But in his final year there was such a great spirit in him, and he had made peace with everybody on Earth that he needed to make peace with.”
Toth did the character designs for “Superfriends,” “Space Ghost,” and “Herculoids” among others.
[tags]Alex Toth, animation, comic, comic book, superfriends, spaceghost, herculoids, animation news, obituary[/tags]
Max Fleischer – Animation Legend Out of the Inkwell
From the earliest days of animation, Max Fleischer and his brother Dave were in direct competition with Walt and Roy Disney. His studio made the first sound cartoons in 1924 but over the next two decades they gradually lost ground to Disney. Disney’s Snowwhite pushed Fleischer to produce their own full length feature which failed to make enough money to pay back the bank ending one of the most creative entertainment enterprises of the twentieth century.
The “Out of the Inkwell” DVD set, now widely available, shows some of the earliest animation methods used by the Fleischer Brothers on Koko the Clown. If you look at the animation of the 1920s, it isn’t smooth like the animation from the 1930s. Dave Fleischer was a performing clown and Max made a series of short movies with his brother dancing around in his clown costume. Fleisher used the individual frames of these movies to create the animation for Koko the Clown. The early Koko the Clown cartoons that mixed real people and animated creatures are the true antecedents of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
Grant White’s Animated Bugs With Borderline Personalites
Grant White was chose by the BBC Showcase for New Talent as one of the best new animators of 2004 for his short short film “Bugs”. “Bugs” is available for viewing on Mr. White’s website. The website itself seems to be a bit neglected. There are more animations as well as great cartoon strips on his page. Be sure to visit “Tadpoles” which is a combination cartoon strip and Flash animation. It’s all very innovative and great fun. Dimples loved “Bugs” and would like to know more about Mr. White but he seems to be a mystery man. If anyone out there knows anything about this guy, please let Dimples know.
Plastic Animation Paper – Free Software
The Dimples’ crew is all about vintage animation but we’re also all about the latest digital means to achieve that look. Above and beyond that, we’re really cheap. That’s why we’re excited about a new beta version of Plastic Animation Paper available for free download here. At this time, we do not know what limitations may have been placed on this free copy but we gather from information posted with the download link that this is a fully functional copy of what they normally sell as shareware. There is a short tutorial following the download link. We’ve heard great things about this software and suggest you give it a try. After all, it’s free.
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