Author Archives: Amid Amidi

About Amid Amidi

test

“Making Stuff” by Darren Robbie

By
on
3

Aardman veteran Darren Robbie (aka Chopsy) had the idea to make Making Stuff during an agency commercial pitch:

The line came to me while pitching on some commercial or other, and trying to explain what I loved about animation, and what was particularly hard with certain kinds of animation—trying to get that emotional connection out of a basically inanimate object. I think I was also attempting to explain to some agency people that, yes, I could animate a particular foodstuff (even though I didn’t have that on my reel) because, guess what…I’m an animator!

Robbie manages to pack a fun mix of animation techniques (stop motion, time-lapse, pixilation, hand-drawn, sand) into the film’s brief 90-second length.

CREDITS
Camera: Sam Morris
Modelmaking and studio space: Gary & Cat at ScaryCat Studio
Production assistance: Kev Harwood
Post: Emma Kingsnorth at UN1T
Music: Dave Reynaud
Audio track: Mcasso Music Production Ltd.

Activision Shows Off Impressive Real-Time Rendering for Animated Characters

By
on
14

Video gameplay is about to get a lot more realistic. Game producer Activision unveiled this new demo yesterday at the Game Developers Conference. Uncanny or not, the progresss in computer animation has been remarkable. Real-time rendering techniques today look far more impressive than any rendering from a decade ago:

This animated character is being rendered in real-time on current video card hardware, using standard bone animation. The rendering techniques, as well as the animation pipeline are being presented at GDC 2013, “Next Generation Character Rendering” on March 27. The original high resolution data was acquired from Light Stage Facial Scanning and Performance Capture by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, then converted to a 70 bones rig, while preserving the high frequency detail in diffuse, normal and displacement composite maps. It is being rendered in a DirectX11 environment, using advanced techniques to faithfully represent the character’s skin and eyes.

More details on Jorge Jimenez’s blog.

How Old Animation Directors Were When They Made Their First Film

By
on
20

“Animation is a young man’s game,” Chuck Jones once said. There’s no question that animation is a labor-intensive art that requires mass quantities of energy and time. While it’s true that the majority of animation directors have directed a film by the age of 30, there are also a number of well known directors who started their careers later.

Directors like Pete Docter, John Kricfalusi and Bill Plympton didn’t begin directing films until they were in their 30s. Don Bluth, Winsor McCay and Frederic Back were late bloomers who embarked on directorial careers while in their 40s. Pioneering animator Emile Cohl didn’t make his first animated film, Fantasmagorie (1908), until he was 51 years old. Of course, that wasn’t just Cohl’s first film, but it is also considered by most historians to be the first true animated cartoon that anyone ever made.

Here is a cross-selection of 30 animation directors, past and present, and the age they were when their first professional film was released to the public.

  1. Don Hertzfeldt (19 years old)
    Ah, L’Amour

  2. Lotte Reiniger (20)
    The Ornament of the Lovestruck Heart

  3. Bruno Bozzetto (20)
    Tapum! The History of Weapons

  4. Frank Tashlin (20)
    Hook & Ladder Hokum

  5. Walt Disney (20)
    Little Red Riding Hood

  6. Friz Freleng (22)
    Fiery Fireman

  7. Seth MacFarlane (23)
    Larry & Steve

  8. Genndy Tartakovsky (23)
    2 Stupid Dogs (TV)

  9. Bob Clampett (24)
    Porky’s Badtime Story (or 23 if you count When’s Your Birthday)

  10. Pen Ward (25)
    Adventure Time (TV)

  11. Joanna Quinn (25)
    Girl’s Night Out

  12. Ralph Bakshi (25)
    Gadmouse the Apprentice Good Fairy

  13. Chuck Jones (26)
    The Night Watchman

  14. Richard Williams (26)
    The Little Island

  15. Tex Avery (27)
    Gold Diggers of ’49

  16. Bill Hanna (27)
    Blue Monday

  17. Joe Barbera (28)
    Puss Gets the Boot

  18. John Hubley (28)
    Old Blackout Joe

  19. John Lasseter (29)
    Luxo Jr.

  20. Brad Bird (29)
    Amazing Stories: “Family Dog” (TV)

  21. Hayao Miyazaki (30)
    Rupan Sansei (TV)

  22. Nick Park (30)
    A Grand Day Out

  23. John Kricfalusi (32)
    Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (TV)

  24. Pete Docter (33)
    Monsters Inc.

  25. Ward Kimball (39)
    Adventures in Music: Melody

  26. Bill Plympton (39)
    Boomtown

  27. Winsor McCay (40)
    How a Mosquito Operates

  28. Don Bluth (41)
    The Small One

  29. Frederic Back (46)
    Abracadabra

  30. Emile Cohl (51)
    Fantasmagorie

“Old Portents & Hand-Out Hijinx” by Ben Crouse

By
on
Reply

Ben Crouse’s Old Portents & Hand-Out Hijinx is an atypical collection of vignettes that stack up into a funny film. The short’s fragmented construction feels like the contemporary equivalent of its viewing platform, the Internet, which is a similarly fragmented, non-linear experience that contains a surprise around every corner. Crouse doesn’t show much inclination toward cinematic or animation technique, but the film’s strengths lie in its memorable ideas and solid comedic voice.

Rubber House Animated The Iron Sheik and Hacksaw Jim Duggan

By
on
3

The boys at Melbourne and Sydney, Australia-based Rubber House Studios have attached some funny cartoon visuals to this tale narrated by Eighties wrestling star The Iron Sheik. It’s the first in a series of “Very Animated People” shorts that Rubber House is producing for the new YouTube comedy channel Jash.

CREDITS
Starring: The Iron Sheik
Director: Greg Sharp
Art Direction: Ivan Dixon
Animation: Rubber House
Supervising Producer: Jensen Karp
Producers: Page Magen and Jian Magen
Produced by AJ Tesler, Nicholas Veneroso
Animation Producer: MJ Offen
Audio Editor: Brett Kushner

Lucasfilm Exec Blogs About Laying Off Animation Artists

By
on
53

If you’re an animation studio executive and you’ve just laid off a a crew of artists, what’s the first thing you should do? Going on Tumblr to blog about it should be nowhere near the top of that list. In fact, you shouldn’t even be thinking about whether that’s something you should be doing. Don’t tell this to Colum Slevin, Lucasfilm Vice-President, Head of Studio Operations, who decided that he would blog his company’s layoffs.

The layoffs probably weren’t Slevin’s decision. They are owed to the inevitable restructuring resulting from Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm. Disney’s cancellation of the Clone Wars TV series caused an initial round of layoffs last week. After crew members working on the show were let go, Slevin made this post on his Tumblr account:

In another context—like an Oprah TV special—this might have been a nice thought, but the fortune cookie-worthy sentiment is more than a little icky coming from a well-paid executive who doesn’t have to worry about where he’s getting his next paycheck.

Executives love to promote the idea that studios are families, which is a silly analogy for countless reasons. For starters, families don’t lay off their own members. That’s why it’s a good idea for execs like Slevin to reserve the paternalistic pep talks for their own kids, and avoid telling former employees that they have Character (with a capital C no less) and showing them garish personal photos—though the latter does bode well for Slevin’s bid to become a Creative Exec.

UPDATE: The post has been deleted from Slevin’s Tumblr account.

(via RebelScum.com)

(Photo of Colum Slevin by Joel Aron)

Introducing A New Way of Submitting Films and News Tips to Cartoon Brew

By
on
3

We’re deeply appreciative of Cartoon Brew’s readers who suggest dozens of films and post ideas to the site every day, through Twitter, Facebook, emails, and especially, our news submission form. This week we’re auditioning a new tool that will hopefully make the submission process both more efficient for us and more interesting for you.

Our News Submission page is now a public forum in which your news tips are shared with the rest of our community instead of being seen only by us. Everybody can vote on the news items they like, and we’ll also be keeping a close eye for items that are suitable for front page posts. And for those of you who prefer to submit privately using the traditional form, you can do so here.

Annecy Announces Film Selections for 2013 Festival

By
on
1

The world’s longest-running and largest animation festival, Annecy, announced short film and TV selections today for its 2013 edition, which will take place June 10-15 in Annecy, France. This year’s competition will consist of 52 shorts, 51 graduation films, 35 TV series and specials, 11 music vids, 23 commercial projects and 4 educational/industrial films. Feature film selections will be announced at a later date.

Films that were rejected from competition still have an opportunity to screen at Annecy +, the renegade Annecy offshoot organized by Bill Plympton and Nancy Denney-Phelps. The seventh annual Annecy + takes place on the Friday of the festival. Submissions are being accepted until May 13. Submission details on Facebook.

(Annecy 2013 poster design by Arthur Collin)

LAIKA/house Signs Carlos Andre Stevens To Director Roster

By
on
Reply

LAIKA/house, the commercial arm of ParaNorman production studio LAIKA, announced today that they’ve added Carlos Andre Stevens to their directing roster. Stevens was most recently a director/creative director at LOGAN/NY, and prior to that worked at Seattle-based Süperfad.

In the press release announcing his arrival, Stevens said that his decision to move to LAIKA was based partly on the city’s lifestyle amenities:

“New York City was terrifically fun, but I need more nature. I was a competitive downhill and freestyle skier growing up, so I love the fact that I can be at the beach, in lush forests and on snow-capped mountains in less than a two-hour drive from Portland. Skiing ignited a passion for risk-taking that I continue to seek out in both my professional and personal life. The quality of life in Portland enriches creativity.”

His reel and various commercials directed by him can be seen on LAIKA’s website.

The Documentary About Bronies is Here

By
on
21

A pleasant surprise arrived in my mailbox yesterday: a copy of the new documentary Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony directed by Laurent Malaquais. The project raised $322,000 on Kickstarter last year, making it the second-most funded documentary in the crowdfunding site’s history.

The title tells you everything you need to know about the film, which surveys the unexpected fandom that has formed around the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Screen time is allotted to a wide range of individuals who identify with the fandom, including Bronies who serve in the U.S. military and Bronies who live abroad in countries like The Netherlands, Germany and Israel. Friendship is Magic creator Lauren Faust, and voice actors John de Lancie and Tara Strong participate in the documentary; they are credited as executive producers along with Michael Brockhoff.

I haven’t had a chance to watch the whole thing yet, but considering my association with the fandom, I’m looking forward to learning more about it. If you want to see the film for yourself, various DVD/Blu-ray/digital download options are offered at BronyDoc.com.

“The Croods” Opens In First Place With $43.6 Million

By
on
22

DreamWorks’ The Croods opened in first place at the U.S. box office with $43.6 million. That is almost the exact same opening as Chris Sanders’ last film, How to Train Your Dragon, which opened with $43.7 million in 2010. It is also much stronger than the studio’s last film, Rise of the Guardians, which earned $23.8 million during its opening weekend last November. The Croods netted an additional $62.6 million from its foreign debut. Russia, which as we’ve established is crazy for DreamWorks animation, was the film’s top foreign market and generated $12.9 million in box office earnings.

In other box office news, The Weinstein Company’s Escape from Planet Earth is winding down its theatrical run. It grossed $477,522 in its sixth frame, upping its total to $53.4 million. GKIDS expanded Goro Miyazaki’s From Up on Poppy Hill into 6 theaters and grossed $59,693. The film’s two-week U.S. total stands at $131,927.

Nearly 600 people took our Croods box office poll which asked readers to guess how much the film would earn during its opening weekend. The correct choice—$42-44 mil—was the sixth most popular answer, guessed by 7.35% of readers. Here were the top five guesses:

10.93% of readers guessed $38-40 mil
10.04% of readers guessed $40-42 mil
9.5% of readers guessed under $25 million
8.78% of readers guessed $36-38 mil
7.53% of readers guessed $30-32 mil

This is What A Woody Woodpecker Radio Show Would Have Sounded Like

By
on
5

Randy Riddle has uncovered an extremely rare bit of Hollywood cartoon history: an an audition for a children’s radio series based on Walter Lantz’s creations like Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda.

Listen to it now:


The half-hour pilot, titled "Sally in Hollywoodland," was recorded June 3, 1947, but apparently never went beyond this single test episode. Highlights include a creepy-sounding Woody at noraml recording speed, as well as performances by Billy Bletcher and a young June Foray. Had the show gone into production, it would have been the first time the Lantz characters appeared on air.

The show features Norma Jean Nilsson voicing the human protagonist Sally, Theodore Von Eltz as Woody Woodpecker, Billy Bletcher as Wilbur the Wolf, June Foray as Oswald the Rabbit, Sarah Brenner as Andy Panda, and Herb Lytton as Wally Walrus.

(Thanks, Eric Wilson)