Tomorrow evening, July 28, illustrator/toy designer James Jarvis will be having an art show/book signing at Meltdown Comics (7522 Sunset Blvd., LA, CA 90046) from 6-10pm. On display will be numerous pages of development and prepatory drawings (example below) from his recent book project VORTIGERN’S MACHINE AND THE GREAT SAGE OF WISDOM. Reportedly, there’s interest right now in transferring Jarvis’s work to animation. His drawings and toys definitely lend themselves to CG design, and I can imagine his stuff working well if it was animated properly. For more info about the show, visit MeltComics.com or call 323/851.7223.

One of my last-second purchases on Sunday, just before I left the San Diego Comic Con, was snagging this copy of the November 1936 issue (at right) of POPULAR SCIENCE magazine. I love old magazines. This one was in a stack of several PS issues, but it had an article that totally justified the $15 price tag: two pages describing the mechanics of Max Fleischer’s patented three dimensional Stereo-Optical Process.Fleischer Studios isn’t even mentioned in the piece, albeit Max is refered to in the last sentence. But among the great graphics and interesting tidbits, the article reveals:

“Several sets can be prepared on the rotating table at the same time. As soon as the filming of one set is completed, the table can be swung to the next.”

The level of detail in these sets has always amazed me. The shots usually last only several seconds - but always ignite gasps of awe from audiences, even today. In fact, there’s nothing in computer graphics today that can compare to the magic in those Fleischer three dimensional sequences. I’ve scanned the article for you to read, below. Excuse the moray pattern which causes parallel lines to appear over the pictures. Click on each page for a larger image.

A prominent Pixar animator emailed me last night with the subject header “This is real” and a link to this must-read-to-believe SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE review of MONSTER HOUSE. I don’t know anything about the reviewer, Mick LaSalle, except that I’ll never be able to take another word this guy writes seriously. It’s one thing to have a subjective view of a film - it’s another to be so glaringly ignorant of the art form you’re discussing to completely dismiss one hundred years of accomplishments and proclaim something so obviously inferior as a technological advance. Here is the most egregious part of LaSalle’s review:

Animated films always had the advantage of being able to go anywhere and show anything, to defy the laws of physics and follow the imagination as far as it could go. But they never had the ability to show the human face. There was never any point to a close-up in an animated film — there was never really anything to see. But with the motion-capture process, real actors give their performances with computer sensors attached to their face and body, and that recorded information becomes the template for the computer animation. If an actor is bug-eyed, the character will look bug-eyed. Moreover, if the actor is thinking or is full of doubt, the technology will be able to render subtle qualities of pensiveness or doubt in the animation.

Imagine what Disney might have done with this in the creation of the Seven Dwarfs. Imagine all the things that will be done with this in the future. “Monster House” looks like the ground floor of something important.

So the only question that remains is, Who’s going to break the news to Ollie Johnston, the last of the Nine Old Men, that all those classic Disney features he animated on were a waste of time because he never had the ability to show an emotive human face? Poor guy, if he’d only had motion-capture to help him animate.

UPDATE: Storyboard artist Jenny Lerew weighs in with an eloquent response to Mick LaSalle’s less-than-eloquent review.

Who says Stop-Motion is dead? I just got Ken Priebe’s great new book The Art of Stop-Motion Animation, and it pretty much details, step by step, everything you need to know to move clay, cut-outs, puppets and inanimate objects frame-by-frame in front of a camera. Over 300 color pages, loaded with great research (including a thorough overview of the history of stop motion shorts and features). Mike Johnson (co-director of Corpse Bride) wrote the Foreword, and a CD-Rom is included with helpful examples of stop-mo reference. If you are interested in making films, this book has a lot to offer.

One of the highlights of the San Diego Comic Con this year was my chance to play straight man for comic genius Robert Smigel. That’s me (”the nerdiest of the nerds”) on the right in the photo above (look close you’ll see my Oswald Rabbit and Hornswiggle buttons). To see a video of me and Triumph (the Insult Comic Dog) at the Con, go to http://www.nbc.com.(Thanks, Earl Kress)

Buck Biggers, co-creator of Underdog, Tennessee Tuxedo, King Leonardo and the Go-Go Gophers, will appear in-person at the monthly Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention on September 10th. He’ll be selling and signing copies of his book How Underdog Was Born. And if you are lucky, he’ll sing the Underdog theme song - he wrote that too.

The cult of John K. comes to the Bay Area.The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco is hosting a presentation by John Kricfalusi this weekend. A retrospective of Kricaflusi’s work, entitled John K. Saves San Francisco!, will also be screened at the Castro Theatre on Friday and Saturday, with separate kiddie-show and adult-skewed cartoon screenings.

The presentation at the Cartoon Art Museum will allow Kricfalusi’s fans to hear about his twisted animation experiences and meet the man himself in a unique meet-and-greet event, and give attendees a chance to ask questions or have their DVDs signed by this off-the-wall and talented artist. Visitors will also have the opportunity to win free screening tickets for the showing at the Castro Theatre that evening. Kricfalusi will also be donating a piece of his original art to the Cartoon Art Museum’s permanent collection. This event is free and open to the public, and co-presented by The Castro Theatre.

John K. will do live introductions for each cartoon Friday night at 8pm and Saturday night at 7pm. For more information on the Castro Theatre screenings and admission prices, contact 415-621-5288 or visit www.castrotheatre.com.

“Montreal -40°C” is a recent music video directed by Louis-Philippe Eno for the Montreal band Malajube. It doesn’t break much new ground, but it creates a nice mood within a sparse setting and the integration of live-action and animated elements is well executed.

(via Feed)

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