Disney story artist Paul Briggs has started an unusual art project/blogsite called Dog Days of Animation. Says Paul:

It all began back in 1996 when I wanted to ask a colleague in the animation industry for a drawing. I was embarrassed to ask because I knew the pressure of being an artist and having to “think” of something to draw. So, I decided to use this photo of a random dog that I took one day in a flower shop. I had no connection to the dog so therefore there were no expectations of the subject matter from my end as well. All I wanted was the artists to represent themselves.

Most of the drawings are done by Paul’s Feature Animation colleagues at Disney - including Chris Sanders (above), Alex Kupershmidt and Aaron Blaise. Twenty drawings have been posted so far, but Paul tells us he has over sixty drawings in total that he’ll be putting up over the next several months. If you’re interested in participating or want to see a photo of the original dog, visit this page.

It’s always refreshing to see stylized applications of CG animation as opposed to today’s ubiquitous photoreal approach. “Under the Cherry Tree” is a new music video that combines cut-out characters (which look to be done in CG) within a dimensional, yet stylized and evocative, setting. It was conceived and directed by Dael Oates of Animal Logic for the Australian electronica/rock group Telemetry Orchestra. We also wrote about the group’s earlier music video, “Suburban Harmony”, a few months back.

Overman, the director of the unbelievably popular Machinima film we mentioned yesterday, MALE RESTROOM ETIQUETTE, has posted an entry on his blog in which he theorizes why his film has become so popular. Lots of interesting ideas in his post. I particularly agree with this final thought he offers:

In closing, someone asked me recently, “What is a good machinima?” My answer, which may get published elsewhere too, was this: A good machinima is a film which is not intricately wrapped up in it’s own “machinima-ness”… I believe the best thing machinima can do for itself is forget that it is machinima and remember that it is film.

Forget LOONATICS.It seems the classic Looney Tunes characters are getting another makeover, in a slightly different manner, with Warner Bros.’s full support. Three weeks ago, I noticed a mysterious new mural on a wall near my home in Hollywood (on LaBrea, near Melrose). It featured Bugs, Daffy, Tweety and Sylvester in an operating room - a strange, but cool, piece. I looked into it and it turns out to be the work of a Dr. Romanelli (an artist, clothing designer and “brand reconstructionist” also known as DRx) who has been engaged by WB to spearhead a new line of urban marketing and alternative merchandise.The DRx line will include everything from a clothing collection (by upscale Japanese clothing label Over The Stripes), to a high end DRx/BUGS vinyl toy (by Span of Sunset). The official launch of this art project-slash-marketing effort will commence this Friday with an opening at the 181 Martel gallery space. I got myself invited. The gallery will also be unveiling a limited edition DRx/Looney Tunes Converse Chuck Taylor sneaker that night. I know a certain orange furry monster who might like that for Christmas.

This blog post about the making of the recent animated film CURIOUS GEORGE, written by one of the film’s supervising animators, is pretty depressing, but probably not any more depressing than how the typical US animated feature is produced nowadays.

I’m super-excited to announce that I’ll be headed to Scotland for the Projector 2006 festival, which takes place next week from October 11-14. The festival takes place in Dundee, Scotland, about a one-hour drive north of Edinburgh. I’ll be doing a “masterclass” about 50s design on Friday, October 13, and will also be presenting a couple different programs of rare 1950s animated shorts. If you’re anywhere around the festival, these are screenings you’re not going to want to miss. Even though I’ve personally seen all the films in the 50s programs, I’m anxious to attend the screenings myself because there’s nothing quite like seeing amazing animation design projected via film onto the bigscreen, the way it was meant to be seen.

A full schedule of Projector events can be found at ProjectorFest.com. Festival director Susie Wilson has put together a strong slate of screenings and talks that also includes Chris Landreth of RYAN fame and sound designer Larry Sider, a frequent collaborator with the Brothers Quay. It promises to be a lot of fun. I’m also going to try and check out Edinburgh for a day or two. If there’s any good animation sights to see over there, let me know at amid [at] animationblast [dot] com. Below are some of the shorts that I’ll be screening at Projector:

If anybody is in need of some tough love from Dr. Phil, it’s probably Hayao Miyazaki and his eldest son Goro. This Reuters article about GEDO SENKI (TALES OF EARTHSEA), the first film by Goro Miyazaki, is quite revealing, sad and funny all at the same time. Among the details revealed in the piece:

Goro Miyazaki says, “For Hayao Miyazaki, now that I’ve made one movie, as far as he’s concerned I’ve become a sort of rival.”

The opening scene of Goro Miyazaki’s film has a prince stabbing his father to death.

The elder Miyazaki didn’t directly tell his son his thoughts about the film, but relayed them through a Studio Ghibli producer.

Goro Miyazaki wrote a blog entry about his father titled, “Zero Points as a Father, Top Points as a Director,” and claims that “From the time I became aware of things up to the present, we have almost never talked.”

I must say though, in one sense it’s refreshing to see somebody like Hayao Miyazaki who cares so much about his art that he’s willing to put it above his family’s happiness. Great works of animation like SPIRITED AWAY and PRINCESS MONONOKE certainly aren’t made without sacrifice. Perhaps animation would be better in the States if more people were willing to make those type of sacrifices for their films.

UPDATE: Just in case it wasn’t clear that the entire post above was written with tongue firmly planted in cheek, let me say that I was not seriously suggesting that the quality of American animation directly correlates to how little time one spends with their family. I feel silly even writing that, but judging from the number of emails I’ve received, a lot of people didn’t quite get that (due to my own poor communication skills).

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NY TIMES on the CG Glut

October 3, 2006 2:57 am

The NY TIMES published a piece today about the glut of poorly performing animated CG films. That’s hardly news to anybody working the industry. The article has your typical pass-the-buck quotes from execs, like this one from Nickelodeon’s Julia Pistor: “I think audiences are saying, ‘I’ve seen a lot of computer animation and it’s not so special anymore.” Of course, Julia. Audiences must surely be tired of the computer animation technique itself, not by the poor decision-making of animation execs who have continuously greenlit poorly conceived, derivative, stupid films over the course of this CG animation goldrush. On another note, the most interesting “news” revealed in the piece is that DreamWorks and Aardman have had a falling out and FLUSHED AWAY will be their last film together. To my knowledge, that’s the first time this news has made print.

Note: Use BugMeNot if NY TIMES registration is required.

(Thank, Mark Gilson)

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