Katharina Duve and Timo Schierhorn made this witty and visually surprising music video for Die Vögel’s “Fratzengulasch” by digitally manipulating found imagery. The artwork was created by the two directors along with M. Reent and J. Siebels.
(via Vimeo Staff Picks)
I think it’s really exciting when animation breaks the confines of the rectangular screen and shares the physical space around us. MÖBIUS by Melbourne, Australia-based design and public art installation firm ENESS is among the more impressive examples of “environmental animation” that I’ve seen. It’s described by its creators as a “collaborative stop motion sculpture”. Dozens of people were required to animate the 21 triangular structures around Melbourne’s Federation Square over a period of six days. The ‘making of’ vid below gives a sense of the project’s scale.
Credits after the jump:
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The outpouring of love and affection after Corny Cole’s passing has been tremendous. In the past three days, over one hundred artists have shared their appreciation for Corny’s friendship and teaching on our obituary post. Take a few minutes to read through the comments in that post. You may be touched, as I was, seeing the profound effect he had on the lives of so many artists.
Dozens of former students have shared lessons they learned from him, such as these words from Scott Morse:
Man, what a punch in the gut. Corny was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met. As an 18 year old kid I learned so much from him…the basics of timing, which end was up on an animation disc, how pans worked. I learned how a seasoned professional can pay reverence to another seasoned professional by watching him interact. I also learned that it’s OK to take the wind out of the sails of a cocky professional through Corny’s playful outlook on the world. I learned that it’s OK to draw with a pencil taped to a stick using your left hand. I learned that sometimes art can be about someone you love by watching how Corny would invest years in ballpoint pen drawings on frosted cells to pay tribute to his late wife. I learned that even if my drawings sucked, Corny still thought I was great and had potential. I learned that a studio can sometimes be nothing more than a place to work: it’s about the people.
Rest in peace, Corny, you’ve earned it.
It’s not just younger artists expressing admiration either. Bob Inman first met Corny over fifty years ago:
Good bye dear friend. You have had a huge influence on my life. I met you when we were both students at Chouinard School of Art in the 50’s.
One day you called me and said “Get over here there is an opening in the background dept at UPA.” I got the job thanks to you and it changed my life. I was working at the place in a boring technical art dept & very frustrated. Thanks to you Corny, I spent next 17 years working in animation as a key background painter. Then I had the courage to devote myself full time to fine art painting.
Yes, Corny, old friend, you were the big reason I became the artist I am today. Thank you for being you.
Dan Haskett perhaps put it most succinctly:
Corny spent a lifetime smashing holes in the boundaries of Hollywood animation. He did this with a devastating talent, a good heart, and a devilish wit. No more pain, Corny. Just loving memories. God Bless.
Cole’s death has also spurred some wonderful tributes. Legendary director Bob Kurtz posted Corny’s animation reel:
Also, historian Michael Barrier posted a fantastic interview that he conducted with Corny Cole in 1991. It’s packed with fresh insights about the early years of Corny’s animation career, and especially about working at Warner Bros. For example, I never knew Corny was Abe Levitow’s inspiration for the animation of Daffy Duck in Robin Hood Daffy. In the interview, Corny also offered the following thought about how he felt he differed from his boss Chuck Jones:
[Chuck Jones] was so much into reading, and my artwork was based on what was actually out in the street. I was drawing people on the street, going down to Skid Row and drawing; my idea of art was to draw what was out there, and his idea was that you had to be well-read. I used to have to drive him home, because I was living in Manhattan Beach at the time; he would go visit his mother on Thursdays and Fridays, and stay with his mother down there. So I would drive him home, down to Manhattan Beach, and he would give me a long lecture about reading, that I had to read. I’d argue with him; I’d say, “The art world is out there in the street.” We had arguments on this. Of course, I didn’t read that much, and he didn’t go out and draw from life that much. He was living in this fantasy; he was like Ralph Phillips.
The image at the top of this post shows Corny (at far left) surfing at Malibu in the late-1950s. The photo is from Tom McBride’s website about vintage SoCal surfing.
On this day, twenty years ago–August 11, 1991–Nickelodeon debuted The Ren and Stimpy Show, and animation hasn’t been the same ever since. The show, created by John Kricfalusi and produced by Spumco, reinvented the idea of television animation. Its incalculable influence on the animation art form and industry remains present and highly visible to this day. Share your memories of the show and how it influenced you.
John Lasseter believes that, “No amount of great animation will save a bad story.” Not every exec at Disney appears to share the same values though. Speaking at SIGGRAPH last Sunday, Andy Hendrickson, the chief technical officer at Walt Disney Animation Studios, offered his opinion by emphatically stating that when you’re making a tentpole feature like Toy Story 3 or Alice in Wonderland, story is overrated:
“People say ‘It’s all about the story.’ When you’re making tentpole films, bullshit.”
He supported his theory by citing Disney’s recent Alice in Wonderland as an example: “The story isn’t very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn’t hurt.”
So according to Hendrickson, here’s the Disney formula: VISUAL SPECTACLE+JOHNNY DEPP-STORY = $$$. At least he’s honest about how Hollywood works nowadays. Give this man a promotion and corner office post-haste!
The craft of hand-drawn animation, virtually absent from American bigscreens (Winnie the Pooh and The Illusionist being the notable exceptions), has a far stronger presence in TV series work, advertising, and especially amongst independent filmmakers. This Sunday in Brooklyn, animators Bill Plympton and Pat Smith catalog some of the recent hand-drawn achievements in the latter area with their first-ever Scribble Junkies Festival of Drawn Animation, which they aim to turn into an annual event. Depending on the reaction to this premier edition, Pat tells me that they want to expand to multiple screenings next year, as well as accept submissions.
The screening, which takes place at the Nitehawk Cinema (136 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn), will present recent independent work by filmmakers Ryan Woodward, David Chai, Caleb Wood, Colleen Cox, Rebecca Sugar, Don Hertzfeldt, Brothers McLeod, and Fran Krause, as well as the two festival organizers. There’s a reception at 7:30pm, screening at 8:30pm, and an after-party and awards ceremony. Tickets are $11. Regular event updates can be found on Bill and Pat’s blog Scribble Junkies.
Cold Hard Flash brings news of a legal case that JibJab is pursuing against Toyota over this spot:
Click the following link to download a PDF of the complaint for damages to the California District Courts. JibJab is holding Toyota responsible for the ad, instead of Hoffman Lewis, the ad agency that produced the spot. The website TubeFilter summarized the document’s complaints:
1. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. “…intentionally, knowingly and wilfully copied the JibJab Works in order to personally benefit from the widespread customer recognition and acceptance of said works and to capitalize upon the market created by these works.”
2. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. made “unauthorized use of the JibJab Logo in interstate commerce and advertising…”
3. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.’s “use of the JibJab Logo in its commercials is likely to confuse, mislead, or deceive consumers, the public, and trade as to the origin, source, sponsorship, or affiliation of said products, and is intended, and is likely to cause such parties to believe in error that [Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.]’s products have been authorized, sponsored, approved, endorsed or licensed by JibJab…”
4. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. “intended to capitalize on [JiBJab]’s goodwill associated therewith for [its] own pecuniary gain.”
It should be noted that the offending spot is actually a visual mash-up of two different JibJab productions–the cut-out style animation of Founding Father’s Rap and the Starring You Tap Dance in which users can insert different heads on top of a live-action actor.
Personally, as unoriginal as I find the ad agency’s use of these techniques, copying someone’s graphic style–especially ones like these that aren’t exclusive to JibJab–would be a dubious case. However, Hoffman Lewis made the fatal mistake of also copying JibJab’s well-established animated trademark (the heads of the brothers who say “Jib” and “Jab”). In my eyes, that changes the dynamic of the entire commercial because it signals a clear intent on Toyota’s part to deceive viewers into thinking that JibJab created the spot.
Obviously, let me say that I’m no lawyer, but I have served as an expert witness for major corporations in similar infringement cases. Often times, the “this company stole my idea” claim is frivolous, especially when it’s coming from an amateur artist or writer with no industry experience or understanding of how the business works. In this instance though, I feel that JibJab has a legitimate concern. Judges seem to agree so far too: Toyota has twice requested a judge to dismiss the suit, and both times the judge has nixed Toyota’s motion.
It’ll be interesting to watch how this case plays out through the legal system and who ends up on top. Perhaps it’ll also serve as a wake-up call to all the ad agencies who freely take their ideas from existing animated films produced by independent filmmakers and small companies that lack JibJab’s resources to defend themselves.
(Disclosure: JibJab is a sponsor of Cartoon Brew’s 2011 Student Animation Festival. I learned about this case though by reading about it on Cold Hard Flash.)
Check out this impressive preview of one of the “cast members” from the upcoming $20 million-plus How to Train Your Dragon arena show that opens next March in Melbourne and Sydney. After striking out with the Shrek musical (which is performing better in London than New York), DreamWorks appears to be on the right track with its second stage effort. They’ve outsourced the show’s creative direction to the Sydney, Australia firm Creature Technology Company, the animatronics arm of Global Creatures, which previously created a successful arena show based on the BBC series “Walking with Dinosaurs.”
From the Brisbane Times:
[The show will include] at least 24 dragons for a show that will include acrobats and aerial artists, projections and flying creatures. The five-tier set will be backed by a 60-metre screen and the action will unfold on 1000 square metres of stage studded with projectors to provide an immersive experience. . . . ”DreamWorks didn’t want us to be the same as the film. They wanted us to create something new and magical,” [said the show's director Nigel Jamieson.] ”We were looking for people with physical skills and humour, and clowning, but also with youthful skills. So we’ve very much taken up the hip-hop and parkour kind of thing. It’s a very different sort of cast and DreamWorks have been very supportive of that.”
The aerospace industry doesn’t seem to do much nowadays in the way of
inspiring people with futuristic space-inspired art
The video, which celebrates the awe of space shuttle lift-offs, is an eye-catching experimental piece that teeters on the abstract/representational border. The composition it accompanies is “Foam on the Waves of Space-Time” by a.d.l.r. (aka Nick Morera). Whether Asendorf’s distortions qualify as animation or not, his pixel sorting technique done with Processing has relevance and applications to the progressive animation artist.
Asendorf also created a pixel art generator for the iPhone/iPad called ASDFBMP that makes it easy for artists to create their own generative artwork.
(via Jeff Scher’s Twitter)
Add the home of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz to the list of famous animator and cartoonist homes that have popped up on the real estate market recently. The 7,894-square-foot, 6-bedroom home was built in 1949 and is situated on two acres in northern California’s Sonoma County.
According to AOL Real Estate, Schulz purchased the home for $250,000 in 1973 from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa. Schulz and his wife Jeannie sold the home in 1996. The second owner listed the place way back in November 2009, and the price has now dropped from $2.9 million to $2.275 million. From the photos, which you can VIEW HERE, the place appears to be in need of an overhaul.
The home has a nice stained-glass window in a “chapel” room, which the real estate people suggest can be removed and replaced with a big-screen TV. They’ve even created a mock-up of what this new den of Godless debauchery could look like:
More photos of the home after the jump:
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Seth MacFarlane, who has made a career of creating nuanced and thoughtful animated programs that broaden the horizons of viewers, is lending his expertise to the scientific community. He’s teaming up with Carl Sagan’s widow and astrophysicists Steven Soter and Neil deGrasse Tyson to create a sequel to the milestone science series Cosmos.
The new series, Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, is “the story of how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find our place in space and time,” according to the press release:
By exploring never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, the series will take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. The most profound scientific concepts will be presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.
The thirteen-part series will debut on that bastion of scientific inquiry, FOX, beginning in 2013. Between this and his reboot of The Flintstones, there’s seemingly nothing that MacFarlane can’t do. Perhaps someday he’ll surprise everyone by actually doing something well.
(Photo credit: Gage Skidmore’s Flickr)
Face Animation Test by Jonathan Campo (US)
Taste It by Ronda (Argentina)
One Day Animation: Nose Drop by Toby Jackman (UK)
Visual Experiment #1 by Simon Holmedal (UK)
Face Morph by Dan Britt (UK)
Let’s Face Symmetry by 2veinte (Argentina)
Video footage of the disastrous financial moment after the jump:
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A new piece of animation by Ian Miller. It may be a Cheap Joke, but Miller’s animation skills are no joke.
(Thanks, Brian Lonano)
Remember Officer Bubbles, the Toronto cop who tried to sue YouTube because he didn’t like cartoons that satirized his abuses of power? Well, some police officers in the US are trying to outdo him in the crooked cop department. The prosecutor and police department of Renton, Washington are trying to arrest a person who used the animation software Xtranormal to create animated videos that exposed the Renton PD’s long history of misconduct. (One of the cartoons is posted above.)
Though the city’s name was never used in the cartoons, Renton police didn’t appreciate their dirty laundry being made public and claimed that the videos constituted “cyberstalking,” a felony that could earn the filmmaker five years in prison. Legal experts say the charge “absolutely does not apply” to the filmmaker, and have called the First Amendment-bashing behavior of the Renton PD an “extreme abuse of power.”
That hasn’t stopped the police from creating a search warrant (posted below) to go after MrFuddlesticks, the name of the YouTube account that posted the animated videos. A local Washington judge James Cayce rubber-stamped their warrant, which will force Google-owned YouTube to hand over information revealing the identity of the filmmaker.
Seattle TV station KIRO 7 originally reported the story and they’ve also filed a follow-up report. The Seattle Times also has an article about the story.
Unfortunately there’s no happy ending to this story, but at least everyone can have a good chuckle at the city of Renton’s quixotic attempt to ban satire in the United States.
(Thanks, Jerrett Zaroski)
