Author Archives: Amid Amidi

About Amid Amidi

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THIS SUNDAY: ASIFA-East Animation Festival

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New York’s biggest animation award, the ASIFA-East Animation Festival, takes places this Sunday, May 3, at 6pm. This year is extra special as its the 40th(!) annual edition of the show. The festivities, comprised of an awards ceremony, film screening and reception, are FREE to all. It happens at the New School’s Tishman Auditorium (66 W. 12th Street). I attended last year and thought the event had a great vibe–casual, low-key, and lots of fun–which is an accurate description of the local animation scene as well.

Hamster Squaredance

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Hamster Squaredance is one of the more visually distinctive music videos I’ve run across in a while. It was created for the musician Mr. Hayday by New Zealand-based Laurent Antonczak and Patricia Burgetsmaier. The lengthy description of the project on their Vimeo page does leave me slightly confused though:

The framework of “Hamster Squaredance” explores an aesthetic and conceptual relationship of rhythm and narrative by developing a new visual approach for displaying on small screens, mainly iPHONE. Furthermore “Hamster Squaredance” explores a new narrative structure (short-duration, screen limitations, narrative synchronised with music) and reinterprets the aesthetics of computer game industry from the early 80s into nowadays trend. While using basic, modular and simple graphics, which denote the early stage of computer development and its graphics, it develops yet highly crafted visuals, using the most advantageous elements of photography, illustrations and mix-media technique.

“Hummingbirds” for Kopparberg Tropical Cider

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Finnish studio Anima Boutique produced this series of refreshingly stylized CG spots for Kopparberg cider drinks. The director and designer of the spots, Eliza Jäppinen, tells me that they “were lucky enough to work with an art director, agency and clients who wanted something new, and also meant it.” She first created a series of illustrations for a print campaign and subsequently these spots were produced in CG. Credits besides Jäppinen include:
2D Animation: Heli Ellis
3D modeling & Animation: Olli Rajala (Anima Commerical)
3D animation: Olli Rajala (Anima Commerical)
Producer: Anttu Harlin
Sound: Timo Anttila (Humina, Agency: Zeeland
Zeeland team: Migu Snall, Mikko Vaija, Anna Korpi-Kyyny, Riitta Bergman

TONIGHT: Toronto Animation Industry Night

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Tonight is the second annual Toronto Animation Industry Night presented by Toronto Animation Live. I’m not familiar with the organization hosting the event; their stated purpose is to serve as a networking organization “dedicated to the growth and development of the Toronto animation industry.” This evening’s event, which combines networking, music and screenings, begins at 7pm at the Century Room (580 King St. W). Tickets are $5 at the door if you rsvp by email to info at torontoanimationlive.com. Otherwise, it’s $10 at the door for walk-ins. Their ad promises complimentary food and beverages. If you have attended the previous one, or if you attend tonight, let us know what you think of it in the comments.

How to Make a Baby

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Cassidy Curtis, an animator at PDI/DreamWorks, and his wife, Raquel Coelho, created this charming pixilated short that also serves as a document of a pregnancy. The extensive notes on how they made it are worth reading:

Animating over such a long period of time, using an increasingly pregnant woman as one of your puppets, means basically throwing out everything you might normally do in an animated film. For example, early on, we had this idea that we should wear the same clothes every time, for continuity’s sake. But as Raquel’s pregnancy developed, we soon discovered that the extra effort required to change in and out of our uniforms was going to interfere with the goal of shooting as many frames as possible, and might even prevent us from finishing the project at all. We dialed down the perfectionism, and in the process ended up having a lot more fun with it.

(via A Cup of Jo)

Ten Episodes of Karnival by Jun seo Hahm

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Karnival

We first wrote about Jun seo Hahm‘s series of super-short shorts Karnival back in 2007 when it was starting up. Since then, Jun has completed the series with ten episodes, all created in his distinctive hand-drawn vectorized style. Some of the later ones, like Flashlight Dog and Toaster, really make me smile with their perfect combination of the whimsical, cute and disturbing. The ten shorts can be seen at Karnival.tv.

Closed Zone by Yoni Goodman

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Yoni Goodman, the director of animation for Waltz with Bashir, created this public service announcement for the human rights organization Gisha–Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. It’s a good example of how to use animation to communicate an important political issue with clarity and precision. There’s also a short making-of video in which Goodman talks about the piece, as well as a website for the film at ClosedZone.com.

(Thanks, Mats Grorud)

Animation with Food

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Videokrauting, created by Italians Nicola Ferrarese, Corrado Agnese, Valentina Mantello and Marzia Pellegatta, is a tribute to videogames animated entirely with sauerkraut. References are made to Tetris, Pac-Man and Prince of Persia.

They’ve also made Super Mario with beans and Asteroids with tomatoes. My favorite work by these filmmakers is an original creation however–D’Altra Parte è Così by Nicola Ferrarese. This two-minute film (posted below) uses simple stop-motion tricks to transform the ordinary and mundane–a spoon and other everyday objects–into a nail-biting action-packed episode.

(via Kotaku)

Chuck Jones’s Version of The Jungle Book

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Did you know Chuck Jones made an adaptation of The Jungle Book? Sadly, I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t. It’s even available on DVD.

This clip below offers a taste. Like most of Jones’s work from the 1970s, it’s dripping with cloying preciousness. And yet, it’s difficult to dislike it. Even Jones at his Jonesiest is a cut above the rest of the animation that came out of Hollywood during that decade.

(Thanks, Jupey Krusho)

Call for Entries: Too Art for TV

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Too Art for TV

Too Art for TV, the annual art show exhibiting the fine art work of New York’s animation community, is gearing up for its fourth edition. The application deadline for this year’s show is April 30. The show is open to anybody who has worked in the animation industry, and while the focus remains on artists in New York City, they are also open to entries from animation artists outside of the city. Full entry details are available on the Too Art for TV website.

An Exclusive Excerpt from Friends, Fans and Followers

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Fans Friends and Followers

Fans, Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age may be this year’s must-read book for anybody who makes creative content on the Internet. Everybody, including the Brewmasters, constantly preaches that the future for artists is on the Internet, but how exactly can an artist establish a fan base, generate revenue, and create a reputation on the Internet?

Scott Kirsner, Variety writer and editor of the invaluable CinemaTech blog, breaks it down in his new book by offering case studies of thirty visual artists, comedians, animators, documentary filmmakers, musicians and writers. I haven’t seen the book yet, but I’m sure that it’s not going to offer many easy-to-follow formulas. Even the traditional media gatekeepers, with their hundreds of millions of dollars, have yet to figure out a formula for taming the Internet. What the book will likely show though is that there are countless different models that indie media makers, including animators, can use to connect with an audience online. Unlimited opportunities await artists on the Internet, and this book should serve as an invaluable handbook for any creative soul who is brave enough to venture into this uncharted frontier.

The website for Fans, Friends and Followers offers the book for purchase in multiple formats including Kindle and PDF, and a paperback version is available on Amazon.

The author, Scott Kirsner, has kindly provided Cartoon Brew an exclusive excerpt from an interview in the book with JibJab founders Evan and Gregg Spiridellis, and how they’ve found unconventional ways of generating revenue from their animation work:

Continue reading →

David Stainton’s Website

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David Stainton

When one thinks of David Stainton, the former president of Walt Disney Feature Animation, what are the first two descriptive terms that come to mind? According to his website DavidStainton.com, it should be “creative leadership” and “strategy.”

To his credit, Stainton IS very creative when it comes to rewriting history and making his reign during one of Disney’s lowest creative moments seem like an accomplishment. The bio on his website includes these fancy bit of revisionism:

At Feature Animation, David transformed the division financially, creatively, and technologically. During his tenure, he cut overhead, production costs, and operating losses in half. At the same time, he revived the culture of creative excellence at the studio with a new line-up of films. Finally, his leadership drove the historic transition from hand-drawn to computer-generated animation at Feature Animation and his other divisions, bringing animation at Disney fully into the digital era.

So how much of Disney’s creative inadequacy was directly Stainton’s fault and how much of it could be attributed to the dysfunctional corporate infrastructure that had been in place since the early-1990s? That’s a question that will have to be answered by those who are much more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the studio. It was a new one on me though to read in Stainton’s filmography that Hunchback of Notre Dame was based on his pitch and adaptation. That fact alone should have been an adequate warning that he didn’t have the first clue about what types of material are best suited to animation.