A little creativity goes a long way, which is why this hand-drawn music video created by Nadia Barkate, Marion Cruza and Eider Gutierrez is such a delight. It’s for the Spanish rock group Paniks. (via BoingBoing)

A few items of note from the Pixar universe:

* Pixar story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen writes about the celebration at the studio following their Oscar win for Ratatouille. Identifications for the above photo of Pixar story artists can be found on Ronnie’s blog.

* Production designer Bill Cone (A Bug’s Life, Cars) has started a blog to showcase his plein air pastel paintings.

* How does a graphic designer fit in at Pixar? Rataouille title designer Susan Bradley explains her role at the studio in this interview.

Once each year, at the DeMille Barn in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance, “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”.

This year it takes place on Saturday, March 1, at 1pm. Tributes will be paid to:

Renee Alcazar · Roger Armstrong · Dick Arnall · Warren Batchelder · Max Becraft · Pat Boyd · Sheila Brown · Erica Cassetti · Harvey Cohen · Alberto De Mello · Greg Drolette · Walker Edmiston • Ray Erlenborn · Natatcha Estebanez · Becky Fallberg · Mary Lou Ferguson · Ben Ferrer · Lu Guarnier. Ed Hansen · Terry Harrison · Florence Heintz · Dave Hilberman · Dick Hoffman · Steve Krantz . Ryan Larkin · Carol Lundberg · Celine Miles Marcus · John Marshall · Roberta Gruetert Marshall . Tom O’Loughlin · Henry Ortiz · Brant Parker · Nicole Pascal · Charles Nelson Reilly · Will Schaefer . Charlene Singleton · Ken Southworth · Art Stevens · James Street · Iwao Takamoto · Aleksandr Tatarskiy . Caren Terry · Jim Thurman · Elbert Tuganov · Al Wilson · Jack Zander

The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. Food and refreshments, 1 pm * Memoriams, 2 pm
Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood, California.

The image above can only mean one thing: Brewmaster Jerry Beck will once again be broadcasting live on Shokus Internet Radio.

Tomorrow, Wednesday February 27th from 4pm to 6pm Pacific time (that’s 7pm to 9pm for you in the Eastern Time Zone) Stu Shostak and I will be discussing classic cartoon DVD compilations like Popeye Vol. 2, Woody Woodpecker Vol. 2 and other classic animation DVDs. If you have a specific question you want answered, call in during the broadcast and ask me, toll free (888) 746-5875. Click here to listen in. If you miss the show, it’ll be rerun for the next seven days at the same time.

Brew reader Michael Losure is a graduate student at the Texas A&M Viz lab who recently finished work on a couple of projects worth a look.

The first is a 3 minute CG short, just finished, named Goobees. It’s a darkly comic film about the inner workings of a vending machine, with a senario that’s a cross between Braveheart and Candyland. Losure and his partners — Seth Freeman, Tony Piedra, Patrick O’Brien — spent 18 months making the CG short inbetween taking classes and dealing with other college obligations.

The second is a stop-motion music video for the band Motion City Soundtrack. A fellow A&M lab student, Lauren Simpson, won an mtvU contest to direct a music video. Losure became the lead animator and editor. The resulting video, It Had To Be You, is a lot of fun - and a pretty good song. Losure adds:

I’m sending the films to you because I’m proud of them as films, not because I think the actual character animation itself necessarily meets Cartoon Brew standards. I have a strong interest in animation, but my schooling and job (I’ll start an FX position at Dreamworks this summer) are more technical. The viz lab specializes in the technical side of computer graphics - and on merging artistic skills with the technical - but there is no specific coursework in animation. I don’t think we’re very well known in the animation industry as a whole (probably because we don’t usually produce animators or shorts), but a lot of our graduates end up in various TD positions at the big animation companies (Seth and Tony are now at Pixar doing rigging and matte painting, and Patrick, Lauren and I are signed with Dreamworks for lighting and FX).

Pretty good for student work at a school that doesn’t teach animation per se. Pixar and Dreamworks are lucky to get you.

Cartoon Dump resumes its monthly Los Angeles performances tonight at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. Our February show includes our regular cast — including MST3K’s Frank Conniff, me (above left) and “Cue Card Goddess” (above right) — the worst cartoons ever made, and special comedy guest star Morgan Murphy.

It’s a great big load of fun. And don’t take my word for it… read Peter Sanderson’s rave review at Quick Stop Entertainment. Join us tonight at 8pm!

Michael Knapp, who is currently art directing Ice Age 3 at Blue Sky, has redesigned his website MichaelKnapp.com and added a blog as well. The site includes lots of his development and design work from Blue Sky’s earlier films like Ice Age: The Meltdown and Robots, while his blog offers a preview of his new comic that’ll be published in the soon-to-be-released second edition of the comic anthlogy Out of Picture.

Here’s a fun website to browse: Radio Use Only is a new site devoted to collecting and making accessible downloads of rare radio station promo discs. One highlight is this rare Hanna Barbera recording especially made for Los Angeles radio station KFWB, featuring the song (with special lyrics) “Open Up Your Heart and Let The Sunshine In” (famously featured on the 1965 Flintstones episode “No Biz Like Show Biz”).

(Thanks, Joel O’Brien)