(Artists, clockwise from upper left: Zartosht Soltani, kaNO, Chris George, Patrick Smith, Todd K. Lown, Liz Artinian)

The 3rd annual edition of Too Art for TV opens this Friday, December 5, from 6-9pm at the Erebuni Gallery in Brooklyn (158 Roebling St. Williamsburg, NY) followed by an after-party at the Trophy Bar. The show is described as:

An annual exhibition designed to promote and encourage the fine arts in the animation industry. We believe that artists in the animation industry have extraordinary artistic skills and a unique perspective on pop culture at large. We hope to continue to provide a reliable home for animation’s creative minds otherwise “owned” by networks and studios.

Too Art for TV was founded by Liz Artinian, the color supervisor on The Venture Bros.. This year’s show, the largest ever, will feature the work of thirty-six artists. It runs through December 15. For more details including a list of exhibiting artists, visit the show’s website.

Background-painter-turned-fine artist Bill Wray (Ren & Stimpy, Samurai Jack, The Mighty B) is the subject of a one-man show opening at the Bakersfield Museum of Fine Art on Thursday, December 11. The show, titled CA-99, will continue through February 2009. It’s also worth noting that on the same day, the Bakersfield museum will debut an intriguing exhibit called Harlem Renaissance that will focus on African-American artists of the 1920 and 1930s.

The day after the opening, December 12, Bill will be conducting a day-long plein air painting workshop in Bakersfield. Tuition is $80. For additional information about the class, visit the Bakersfield Museum website.

My friends at Chronicle Books are having their annual “Friends and Family” sale. Through Friday, December 5, every book ordered from their website is 35% off and includes free shipping. To receive this discount, simply use the promo code FRIENDS at checkout. In addition to their currently available books, there are two new titles that can be pre-ordered on their site: Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts and my own The Art of Pixar Short Films. Also available at 35% discount is, of course, Cartoon Modern. Speaking of which, I got the itch recently to start a new blog about Fifties animation design. There won’t be a lot of writing on it; it’s just a place where I can share cool artwork. The new site is at cartoonmodern.tumblr.com.

L.A. area Cartoon Brew readers are invited to attend the Asifa Hollywood membership screening of Waltz With Bashir tonight (Tuesday 12/2) at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. If you can make it, you must call the RSVP and leave your name. I’ll be doing a Q & A with the film’s writer/director, Ari Forman, at 7pm, right before we screen the film.

Update: The screening is tonight, Tuesday, December 2, 2008 7:00 p.m. at Mann’s Chinese 6, 6801 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, California. To RSVP, please call (323) 634-7031. Mention Asifa Hollywood or Cartoon Brew and you’ll get in!

Bio-Bak is the wacky and inventive Flash portfolio site of Dutch artist Coen Grift. It’s packed with bits of animation, sound effects and puzzles. I spent at least half an hour navigating the interactive playground that Grift has set up and enjoyed every moment of it.

(via Waxy)

The nominations for the 36th annual Annie Awards were announced today. Kung Fu Panda recieved 17 nominations including Best Animated Feature and individual nominations for character animation, character design, directing, music, production design, storyboarding, voice acting and writing. Walt Disney Animation Studios, led by Bolt, received 9 nominations and Pixar, led by Wall-E, received 8 nominations.

The nominees in the production categories are:

Best Animated Feature

Bolt – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation
$9.99 – Sherman Pictures/Lama Films
Wall-E – Pixar Animation Studios
Waltz With Bashir – Sony Pictures Classics/Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films

Best Animated Home Entertainment Production

Batman: Gotham Knight – Warner Bros. Animation
Christmas Is Here Again – Easy To Dream Entertainment
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – The Curiosity Company in association with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Justice League: The New Frontier – Warner Bros. Animation
The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning – DisneyToon Studios

Best Animated Short Subject

Glago’s Guest – Walt Disney Animation Studios
Hot Dog – Bill Plympton Studio
Presto – Pixar Animation Studios
Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin
Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – Aardman Animations Ltd.

Best Animated Television Commercial

Giant Monster – Curious Pictures
Long Legs Mr. Hyde – Curious Pictures
Rotofugi: The Collectors – Screen Novelties
Sarah – Z Animation
United Airlines “Heart” – Duck Studios

Best Animated Television Production

King of the Hill – 20th Century Fox TV
Moral Orel – ShadowMachine
Phineas and Ferb – Disney Television Animation
Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II - ShadowMachine
The Simpsons – Gracie Films/Fox TV

Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children

A Miser Brothers Christmas – Warner Bros. Animation
Avatar: The Last Airbender – Nickelodeon
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon Network Studios
The Mighty B! – Nickelodeon
Underfist: Halloween Bash – Cartoon Network Studios

This years Winsor McCay recipients, previously announced, include Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career contributions to the art of animation.

Winners will be announced at the 36th Annual Annie Awards ceremony on Friday, January 30, 2009, at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA. A complete listing of all the Annie Award nominations is posted on annieawards.org.

Cracking good news! Wallace and Gromit, who haven’t starred in anything significant since the 2005 feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, are returning to action in a new half-hour short entitled A Matter of Loaf and Death. The video above offers the first footage from the new short that has appeared online. Loaf and Death will debut on TV in Australia on December 3. UK TV premiere should also be this month with other countries to follow in 2009. A description of the new production:

The new film reunites Park with writer Bob Baker who co-wrote both The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave. Sally Lindsay (Coronation Street) will be the voice of Piella Bakewell, alongside Peter Sallis who voices Wallace. In this new masterpiece viewers will catch up with Wallace and Gromit who have opened a new bakery – Top Bun – and business is booming, not least because a deadly Cereal Killer is targeting all the bakers in town so competition is drying up. Gromit is worried that they may be the next victims but Wallace couldn’t care – he’s fallen head over heels in love with Piella Bakewell, former star of the Bake-O-Lite bread commercials. So Gromit is left to run things on his own when he’d much rather be getting better acquainted with Piella’s lovely pet poodle Fluffles.

(Thanks, Matt Jones)