I know what you’re saying to yourself right now: he’s finally lost his marbles and has started posting suggestive photos of voluptuous black women and calling them hippos. But actually the above photo is a rare piece of Disney animation history. It’s a photo of actress Hattie Noel who was the live-action reference for Hyacinth Hippo in Fantasia.

This is one of the “lost” pics from her modelling sessions for Disney artists. For obvious reasons, it’s a bit of Disney history that you never read about in their official histories. Over the years, I’ve seen a couple other reference shots of her, but this one has ended up on eBay (or at least a copy of it has, since the seller is only offering a printout and not the original photo).

(via Disney History blog)

Mike Nassar has written a super-detailed blog post documenting every step of how he and a few other artists produced Timmy’s Christmas, a one-minute Flash short completed in a week. Kudos to Nassar for being so open about his techniques and production pipeline. Whether one is already an expert in Flash or not, it’s fascinating to read such a comprehensive account of how a Flash cartoon was created.

Animation and comic artist Ryan Sias just published a new installment of his Silent Kimbly webcomic with a cheesy animation-related pun that would make Tex Avery proud.

Heads up, East-coasters! Several worthwhile anime screenings are scheduled for later this month.

The Japan Society, in New York, presents Dawn of Japanese Animation from February 13th through the 16th. Digital Meme will coordinate the screening of 38 animated films culled from Japanese Anime Classic Collection, a DVD anthology released last year. It will be the first time ever such a large number of prewar Japanese animated films is shown in the US. Each screening will be accompanying with a live benshi narration by Ms. Midori Sawato. More details here.

---

The Japan Information and Culture Center in association with the DC Anime Club will be presenting the screening of two anime specials from Production IG: xxxholic (pictured above) and Tsubasa Chronicle on Thursday Febuary 28, 2008 at 6:30 pm. The screening will take place at the Japanese Embassy, at 1155 21st Street, NW, in Washington, DC.

Both Movies are based upon manga by Clamp, and both movies will be shown in Japanese with English Subtitles. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and granted on a first come, first served basis. Reservations are required. RSVP to jiccrsvpwinter08-at-embjapan.org
For more information visit the Japanese Information and Culture Center website.

Animator (and Animation Guild Local 839 prez) Kevin Koch has a useful post on his blog entitled “Faking It”, which addresses the topic of what’s an animator to do when assigned to animate shallow and superficial characters. Having working in the animation department on seven DreamWorks features, Kevin is certainly well qualified to speak on the subject. Koch offers a number of solutions, including just doing the job as well as you can:

“If you’re not in a position to make story/character contributions, if that superficial character and shallow, unbelievable story aren’t going to improve no matter how many suggestions you make, then just do the best you can. There are times when I have to remind myself that I’m a pro, I’m being paid to do a job, and the least I can do is a solid professional job. Think of those shots as a technical problems. Look for ways to emphasize the basic principles of animation. Are the arcs as full as they could be, can you pack in a touch more overlap and follow-through, are your poses as clear and well staged as they can be? If you’re stuck having a minor character walk around for no particular reason, make it the sharpest walk in the movie, without upstaging the main action. Remember the oft quoted line, “There are no small scenes, only small animators.”

“Electro” (download 16mb file) is a stand-out commercial for French station Radio Nova directed by Romain Segaud (previously on the Brew). Segaud’s earlier student works like Tim Tom and Bip Bip displayed great promise and this latest spot continues the development of his unique digital style. I can’t wait to see where he takes it next. Character design on this commercial is by Laurent Nicolas, and the production company is Passion Paris. Complete production credits at Motionographer.com.

This video is impressive: a guy, Nick Pitera, sings both the male and female parts of the Aladdin song, “A Whole New World.” As the video has become an online sensation these past couple months, there’s been a lot of debate about whether it’s really him singing, and the consensus seems to be that he’s legit. Just to make this more animation related, Nick Pitera is also a computer animation major at Ringling College of Art and Design. Ironically, the last post on his art blog is about animating lip sync. More videos of him singing and some biographical info can be found on his YouTube page.

(Thanks, Dai Kun)

Remember how cool those Warner Bros. Studio Stores were - at least for the first ten years of their existence, before they went all Scooby Doo, Tweety and Taz, all the time?

Cartoonist Juan Ortiz (the man behind the brilliant retro Silver Comics line) was one of the staff artists creating the incredible merchandise sold in the Studio Stores of the 1990s. Ortiz has now started a new blog, The Warner Bros. Store Is Closed, with rare production artwork, product images and behind-the-scenes commentary.

(via Misce-Looney-ous)