Author Archives: Chris Arrant

“TRON: Uprising” Art Director Alberto Mielgo Will Exhibit in Downtown L.A.

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Next month, GR Works will host a solo exhibition of work by the Spanish-born artist Alberto Mielgo, best known in the U.S. for his art direction on the Disney TV series TRON: Uprising.

The show will take place at GR Works’ GR Space in downtown Los Angeles (114 W. 4th St. Los Angeles, CA 90013). There will be an opening reception on Monday, November 5, from 6-10pm, and the show will run for one week. Titled Albert Mielgo: Solo, it documents the past three years of Mielgo’s output, and will focus on his models and their working process together. “I think it’s fair to talk about them that people know how good they are,” Mielgo said. “How much they mean to me, and why I decided to paint them.”

Mielgo has exhibited his paintings in Spain and the UK. In 2010, Mielgo was a subject of the short film documentary Innocent In A Way (NSFW) by French filmmaker Alexis Wanneroy. Mielgo started his career as an animator on features like Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, El Cid: The Legend and Jester Till. In addition to that, he storyboarded on Corpse Bride, created conceptual art for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and drew the backgrounds and provided art direction for the intro of the videogame Beatles Rock Band.

Marvel Announces Iron Man Feature With Japan’s Madhouse

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Marvel announced earlier this week that one of its primary characters, Iron Man, will be starring in an all-new direct-to-video anime feature titled Iron Man: Rise of Technovore. The film, done in partnership with Sony Entertainment Japan, re-teams Marvel with the anime production house MADHOUSE, who previously did a four-part anime project for the publisher titled Marvel Anime.

In addition to Iron Man, the feature will also feature anime renditions of longtime adversary Ezekiel Stane (the primary antagonist in the first Iron Man live action film), along with prominent Marvel heroes such as Black Widow, Hawkeye, the Punisher, Nick Fury and War Machine.

“Marvel is excited to present an all-new Iron Man adventure featuring the high-tech adrenaline he is known for, in the beautifully rendered anime style of our friends at MADHOUSE,” said producer Megan Thomas Bradner. Long-time Marvel TV animation writer Brandon Auman (The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man: Armored Adventures) wrote the script, with Japanese director Hiroshi Hamasaki helming the project.

Iron Man: Rise of Technovore is already in production at MADHOUSE’s Japan studios and is planned for a spring 2013 debut, timed to coincide with the release of the live-action Iron Man 3 on May 3, 2013. Further information about this direct-to-video animated feature is expected at New York Comic Con during the Marvel TV Presents Panel on Saturday, October 13 at 4:15pm in Room 1E13.

Nerd Corps Producing Its First Preschool Series “Kate And Mim-Mim”

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Vancouver-based Nerd Corps Entertainment, known for its action-adventure series such as Dragon BoostersStorm Hawks and League of Super Evil, is producing its first animated preschool animated series, a 26×22-minute CG show titled Kate and Mim-Mim. The show is created by the husband-and-wife team Scott and Julie Stewart.

Kate and Mim-Mim is a “character-driven comedy” targeted at kids aged three to six. The show show revolves around a five-year-old named Kate and a plush toy bunny named Mim-Mim, who can grow to ten times her size. Together, the duo travel to imaginary worlds.

Announced at the MIPCOM conference in France, Kate and Mim-Mim has a UK broadcast deal in place with CBeebies and FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME) will coordinate the worldwide distribution and licensing rights outside of Canada.

Bob Higgins, FME’s Executive Vice President of Kids & Family Entertainment, said, “Nerd Corps are a hugely creative company and we’re thrilled to be a part of this series. Kate and Mim-Mim is the first of what we think will be many fantastic and fun preschool projects from Nerd Corps and we’re looking forward to introducing it to kids around the world.”

Meet “ParaNorman” Character Designer Heidi Smith

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On August 17th, ParaNorman, the second feature film from Oregon-based animation studio Laika (Coraline), will hit movie screens nationwide. The film’s veteran co-directors, Sam Fell (The Tale of Despereaux) and Chris Butler (The Corpse Bride), decided to bring in some exciting new blood (no ghoulish pun intended) to make it happen. One of the new stand-outs has been the film’s character/conceptual designer, Heidi Smith.

Smith came to Laika for ParaNorman back in 2008, just three months out of CalArts and beating out several notable contenders to develop the characters and aesthetic of this stop-motion feature. At CalArts she studied under greats like Mike Mitchell, and her years as a student were a big influence on this, her first major professional project. In fact, it went so far as having ParaNorman‘s lead character, Norman, based visually on a childhood photo of one of  her professors.

With influences as varied as Yuri Norstein, Richard Williams and Stanley Kubrick, Smith had a lot to pull from to give ParaNorman its unique look. Cartoon Brew spoke with Smith earlier this month by phone about her experiences working at Laika, working with co-director Chris Butler and seeing her drawings be transformed into maquettes, set pieces and clothing.

Chris: The ParaNorman crew said they hired you because your work looked “scrappy and unhinged,” and had a bit of “nervous quality.” How would you compare the portfolio you got this job based on with the kind of work you ended up creating for ParaNorman?

Heidi: Because I worked on ParaNorman for so long, I think the style I used changed a bit as the project developed. My style changes, and I think that’s natural for an artist. You change and you grow, and I think that you get stronger. Your observational skills get stronger; your inspirations change.

Maybe in the beginning with that portfolio and my first bit of work for ParaNorman my work was kind of more boxy; it seemed a little more rectangular and boxy. As time went on and I worked on it with the others, my style became more organic, especially in the line-work.

Chris: Seeing as how this was your first major project after graduating college and you worked on ParaNorman for two years, I’d imagine this is the most detailed and length project you’ve ever done — professionally, personally or for college. What was it like having that amount of time to grow into it?

Heidi: I think it allowed me to really explore as an artist. ParaNorman’s co-director Chris Butler was really great to work with; his passion made me passionate. It was hard to run out of creative energy working at Laika, as there was always a passion there. I really became a stronger artist for working on this film.

Chris: I’ve read that some of the characters, like Neil, pretty much stayed on track from the original designs to your finished versions, while others had quite an evolution — I’m talking specifically about Mr. Prenderghast (pictured above). Can you think back and tell us how you came up with your rendition of Mr. Prenderghast, which was reportedly far different than the original version before you came on board?

Heidi: When I read the script, I would just go with what I felt the story needed. Chris Butler didn’t give me any kind of guidelines or art; he just told me to read the script and have a go at drawing the characters.

So what I went with was my gut reaction. I would do a bunch of drawings, and then Chris and the others would tell me which ones they gravitated towards and we’d go from there. I found out later that Mr. Prenderghast was originally drawn to be a skinny person, but my rendition they went with was as a fat, hairy guy.

Chris: I heard a story that the lead character in ParaNorman, Norman Babock, is based on one of your professors at CalArts. Is that true?

Heidi: [laughs] Yes, it’s absolutely true. Norman Babcock from ParaNorman was completely inspired by one of my favorite instructors from CalArts, Norman Klein.

During my final year at CalArts, before I knew anything about ParaNorman, I told Norman Klein that I wanted to make an animated film about him when he was a kid, so Norman actually brought me an old photo of himself at his sister’s wedding. He was probably 12 years old at the time. I made a photocopy of it for reference. Oddly, after graduation, a recruiter from Laika contacts me about working on a project called ParaNorman! I thought,”Now, this is my opportunity to make my animated Norman Klein idea happen!” It was too perfect!

Chris: How would you describe the aesthetic in your work on ParaNorman?

Heidi: It has a lot of asymmetry. That’s one of the things they told me they liked about my portfolio coming into this project; they liked the asymmetry and “nervous line” of my work, as you said. It had a scratchy looseness they were looking for. One of the things they pointed out that they liked was that, for instance, in a character’s eyes one pupil might be bigger than the other. They liked it being different.

Chris: Overall, was there a specific moment in the two years you spent on ParaNorman where you feel you got on the right “wavelength” for the design aesthetic for ParaNorman? Was it a specific character piece, or a conversation?

Heidi: Well, for the longest time I spent all this time developing characters; you know, just churning them out. Around the fall of 2009 —

Chris: About one year into your work there.

Heidi: Right, around the fall of 2009 Chris Butler pulled me aside and asked me to take a pass at the props and the overall look of the town. He said he was going to eventually hire someone else to do the finished product, but he wanted me to give it a shot at giving the setting the same look as the characters. That’s when I think I felt like I was standing on solid ground.

Chris: As you said in the beginning of our conversation, this is your first major professional project out of college. What’s it like entering into such a massive production?

Heidi: I was so excited to be brought onto the project. When I was first hired, I thought I’d be joining a group of a gazillion other character designers working in tandem. When I arrived and saw I was pretty much it, it really invigorated me. I never dreamt I would be designing hundreds of characters for one movie. I was surprised at first, but it quickly became kind of a natural thing, if that makes any sense. When you think about it, it’s not that unusual; you want the movie to look like the characters, and you want the characters to look like they all come from the same world.

Chris: Although ParaNorman features hordes of zombies, this isn’t your typical zombie movie. One of the interesting things about it from a character design standpoint is how the movie shows what the zombies were like when they were human beings. As the character designer, how did you go about creating the human and zombie versions of some characters?

Heidi: That was really fun. [laughs]

Once we really got into it, I thought of it as this horrible “before and after” type think like you have on those television commercials or newspaper ads where you have someone boring on the left then they’re made up to look wonderful on the right, except for ParaNorman they’re made to look like zombies in a “before and after” kind of thing.

Chris: What’s it like seeing your drawings come to life — not drawn animation but as maquettes and puppets for this kind of stop-motion production?

Heidi: I thought it was amazing. It’s been amazing to work with Kent Melton, who sculpted all the maquettes. He was just as passionate as Chris Butler, and his work inspired my own work. He wasn’t afraid to take risks, which pushed me to do the same with my drawn work. I felt like he not only captured the spirit of the characters I designed, but he made them look better in his own way.

Chris: How did the process work between you two?

Heidi: Well, he would take a drawing and work from that. Sometimes he’d come to me and ask me to do a turnaround of a character to help him, usually of a specific feature like a nose or a helmet. He and I went back and forth to figure out what he needed, and for me to see what was possible with his work. We developed a really good communicative relationship.

Chris: I’ve been told that for the puppets, Laika went so far as to study the textures in your drawings for the clothing. Can you talk about the detail you put into those drawings and it being translated to actual fabric and puppets?

Heidi: One of the more memorable parts of this project for me was when Chris Butler asked me to do these sketches of textures. They would take those drawings and print them out and use them as fabric and what not in the costumes and sets.

Deborah Cook, ParaNorman’s costume designer, was amazing to work with. She would sometimes bring in interesting reference material she had found and bounce it off me to see how I could use it in my designs.  One instance that I distinctly remember was her bringing me this classical painting and she asked me to study the tree bark in the piece and develop a texture based on that. She really encouraged me to do really weird and interesting textures, and not anything I would’ve thought of on my own. It was really exciting to work with everyone at Laika.

NOTE: Heidi Smith will appear in person with fellow ParaNorman artists Kevin Dart, Pete Oswald and other Laika designers to sign The Art Of ParaNorman book and do a Q&A; Sunday August 19th at noon, at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. Admission is free. See the movie, then go meet the artists themselves.

Joel Trussell On Directing Tom Hanks’ New Webseries “Electric City”

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He’s lived in Knoxville, Seattle and Los Angeles, but animator Joel Trussell recently moved to a town you won’t find on any map — Electric City. Electric City is the name of the new animated series spearheaded by actor/director Tom Hanks, and it’s one of the first major animation productions specifically designed for online viewing. Premiering today on Yahoo’s video site Yahoo! Screen with ten five- to seven-minute episodes, Electric City is a co-production by Hanks’ Playtone shingle and Los Angeles animation studio Six Point Harness, who tapped Trussell to direct this unique animated series.

Trussell’s career has seen a steady uphill trajectory since graduating from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 1998, doing animated music videos to commercials and even segments of television shows like Yo Gabba Gabba. Cartoon Brew has followed Trussell’s career for years, beginning with 2005′s War Photographer music video . After doing a prodigious amount of work out of his Knoxville home far removed from the traditional animation hubs, Trussell moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to pursue opportunities for larger projects. In no short time, Trussell connected with Six Point Harness to do commercials which segued quickly into the opportunity to helm Electric City.

Chris Arrant: Electric City is the biggest project you’ve ever done — 20 episodes, 5 to 7 minutes each. How’d you get involved and did you have any concerns about such a large scale project?

Joel Trussell: For several years I directed animated many music videos (Jason Forrest’s War Photographer, M. Ward’s The First Time I Ran Away) commercials (Esurance, Nicorette) and TV/film segments (Yo Gabba Gabba, The Animation Show) while living in Knoxville, Tennessee.  In the fall of 2009 I moved out to Los Angeles and started directing some projects over at Six Point Harness Studios.  While I was there Playtone approached Six Point with a request for some spec images and budget for the Electric City series.  The owner Brendan Burch felt my experience and style would be a good match for the project and asked me to submit my visual take.  I created a handful of images based off a short script Playtone sent, and Six Point pitched me as the director for the project. After a short courtship and a few meetings with Playtone and Tom, they were into it and the deal was done.

The size of the project was collectively bigger than anything I’ve ever worked on, but it was segmented into small chunks for the Internet which I’m used to. I’ve worked for some online series in the past and with my experience in directing many short form spots, I felt confident in taking it on. The fact that this project was going to be creatively challenging actually created more ambition for me rather than fears.

Chris: What made Electric City appealing to you as an animator and director?

Joel: The project was appealing on many levels. Of course the lure of working with Tom Hanks was pretty great, but knowing that he was going to not only star in it but write it as well was totally intriguing. I’m also a big fan of working on unconventional projects no matter what the medium. I’ve worked with puppets, live action, hybrid animation, etc. and what I love most is exploring and creating new styles, techniques and ways of telling stories.  After reading the script and seeing earlier incarnations of the project… this was clearly unconventional. It’s definitely not the kind of project that springs to mind when you hear Tom Hanks is creating it…which is what makes it so rad.

Another huge appeal was the great chance to direct on a long-form project (which was the whole reason I moved to California rather than staying in Tennessee) so I was very eager to make it all happen.


Early Head Sketches of main character, Cleveland Carr

Chris: Did you regularly interact with Producer Tom Hanks? If so, how much guidance did he give you?

Joel: This was a total passion project for Tom and he was way more active than I imagined he would be. We had meetings over at the Playtone offices with him; he came down to the Six Point studios and would hang out to review animatics and artwork; and sometimes we’d just get some quick thoughts from him via email saying something like, “We need more sheep in this thing!”

We initially met over at Paramount on the set of Larry Crowne where he was in the midst of directing actors, reviewing takes, acting, and talking to us all at once and making it look graceful and effortless like a boss.  It was all very surreal.

Since he had been working on this project for several years, he had a ton of reference material for us and was able to give us specific guidance as we translated his vision into something the budget and timeline could accommodate.  Playtone producers Bo Stevenson and Joshua Feldman were also very hands on during the process making sure that we understood the details of this world.  Playtone was great to work with and very generous by allowing us to collaborate, explore and experiment with everything from the visual style to story points.

Chris: Electric City’s being promoted not just for its creative side but also its technological prowess, being one of the first major animation projects done specifically for online distribution. Did the venue of the project play any role in how you molded the episodes?

Joel: The venue was definitely taken in to consideration. We knew two main stages for this was going to be on tablets and smart phones, so our images had to hold up for larger screens yet easy to read for smaller screens. The main factors in molding the episodes were how to push the quality up as high as we could to the limit of budget and timeline parameters. Although the budget wasn’t tiny, we weren’t dealing with TV or movie sized financing so we wanted to put every dollar spent on the screen.

Chris: Was the art direction and animation scaled in any special way for its exhibition on the ‘net (as opposed to TV or theatrical)?

Joel: Only a little. We tried to keep our production value as high as possible, but we had the reality of our budget. We knew that animation would have to be limited, so we tried to board strategically focusing more on strong compositions and design rather than flowing “Illusion of Life” animation. My experience with short form work taught me how to use get the most out of economical storyboarding, quick decision making and working at a fast pace which paid off with this project and kept Playtone, Reliance and Six Point happy.


Test image for color palette and atmosphere composition

Chris: You’ve bounced around from working out of your home in Tennessee to Seattle and for the last three years you’ve been in the animation hotbed of Los Angeles. How has it been being able to live and work surrounded by so many fellow animators, and having more animation-related activities to do than in Tennessee?

Joel: Even though I was making a pretty good living at doing music videos and commercials in Tennessee, I still felt the draw of doing longer form content.  In order to do that I felt I needed to make the jump to L.A. where I could be around a crew of artists in one place rather than coordinating a handful of artists remotely. Once I came out here (despite bracing myself for the worst) I’ve totally enjoyed it and the opportunities have branched out for developing, directing and designing for places like Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network.  To be honest I don’t actually find myself doing a lot of animation related stuff outside of work, but I like being around creative people of any type.  I feel as if I only do animation related things I’ll only revisit already treaded ground. I find it more fun to find new ingredients, mix them all up, and throw them in the oven to see what the new flavor is like.  That’s one reason L.A.’s been great.  Being around so much creativity has definitely inspired my own projects.

Chris: Are there any artists you’d like to point to for their special contributions to this project?

Joel: Absolutely! First off, I have to say my small, scrappy crew at Six Point Harness in Hollywood worked with a ton of heart to make this happen. Rafael Hurtado was a master establishing the look of our show’s environments and designing almost every background. Carl Beu was an insane talent leading the way with background painting. Tony Christopherson brought a ton to the plate with his eye for coloring and lighting once we were in post. Andy Suriano and I contributed to the initial character design along with Saharat Tantivaranyoo (IMHO Hollywood’s best character design stud) who ended up shouldering and overseeing most of the character design with Angelo Vilar. Alberto Antinori was a powerhouse in the department of props and vehicles. I was also very lucky to work with the mighty Dave Wasson as the animation director and board supervisor.  Marius Alecse was invaluable as our fearless animation supervisor.  Ed Skudder made all our specialized fx animation as well as taking on difficult character animation scenes. Animator Joel Moser took command of all 3-D animation as well as a large portion of 2-D character animation. Our producer Samantha Scharff was instrumental in keeping things running smoothly and helped solve the sometimes puzzling logistics of the project.  We even had legendary animation artist Jim Smith rocking layouts with us.  It was truly a great experience that I’m glad to have been involved with.  Hope Mr. Hanks lets us do it again!

Comic-Con Animation Guide

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Less than a week remains until Comic-Con International begins in San Diego, and whether you’re a fan of animation, comics, fantasy novels, movies, or a little bit of everything, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for. Our own Jerry Beck will be at the convention as both a fan, a professional and a panelist for a number of events (see his post for details), but the animation excitement doesn’t stop there. We’ve pulled together a list of all of the panels, screenings and presentations related to animation so that attending Brew readers can navigate the halls of the gargantuan San Diego Convention Center and find their cartoon fix.

Take note: seating for all of the events listed below are on a first-come, first-served basis. Last year there were seventeen separate rooms hosting panels, with the seating ranging from small rooms with 280 seats to the largest at 6500 seats. As one Comic-Con traveler to another, I’d recommend showing up extra early for the panels you’re most interested in… and above all else, have fun!

Thursday, July 12

11:00-12:00 Nickelodeon: Butt Biting & Magical Mischief!– Meet series creator/executive producer Butch Hartman along with the casts from both The Fairly OddParents and T.U.F.F. Puppy, including Nick talent Jerry Trainor (iCarly) as Dudley Puppy. This year’s panel is totally interactive, with the fans interviewing the cast directly, plus a sneak peek from the Nickelodeon live-action movie A Fairly Odd Christmas, along with a chance to win prizes. On hand: Jerry Trainor (voice of Dudley), Tara Strong (voice of Timmy and Poof), Grey DeLisle (voice of Kitty and Vicky), Daran Norris (voice of Chief, Cosmo and Dad), Matt Taylor (voice of Snaptrap), Susanne Blakeslee (voice of Wanda and Mom), and Carlos Alazraqui (voice of Crocker). Moderated by Dana Cluverius, executive in charge for Nickelodeon. Room 7AB

11:00-12:00 Bongo Comics/United Plankton Sneak Peek– Bongo Comics and United Plankton Pictures offer a tantalizing preview of upcoming projects featuring The Simpsons, Futurama, SpongeBob SquarePants, and a few other surprises. Bongo’s creative director Nathan Kane, managing editor Terry Delegeane, and art director Jason Ho are joined by intern/fan favorite Louis Lane and Simpsons/Futurama-ologist Bill Morrison for a fun and informative free-for-all. Find out what’s in the future for Futurama Comics, what to surmise about Simpsons Comics, and what’s next for Bongo in the print world and beyond. Also, Chris Duffy, managing editor of United Plankton Pictures, will dish up some Krabby Patty-infused morsels of what’s to come in SpongeBob Comics. Room 9

11:00-12:00 Filmation and Lou Scheimer: Celebrating a Generation of Animation and TV Heroes– One of the most successful and groundbreaking television animation studios was Filmation, whose productions shaped Saturday mornings and daytime syndication from the 1960s to the 1980s. From Superman, Batman, and Aquaman to The Archies, from Fat Albert and the Groovie Goolies to the live-action Shazam! and Isis series, up to the groundbreaking He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra Princess of Power, Ghostbusters, and Bravestarr, Filmation created the shows that entertained and educated a generation. Making his final convention appearance is Filmation founder Lou Scheimer, who will reminisce about nearly 30 years of animation magic. Appearing with him are author/animator Darrell McNeil (Hero High, Shazam, Tarzan and the Super 7) director/writer/animator Tom Tataranowicz (He-Man, She-Ra, Bravestarr), and other guests. Bestselling author and documentary director Andy Mangels moderates this celebration of the studio that saved American animation in the 1970s and 1980s and show exclusive clips of never-before-seen Filmation footage. Plus, you can get a sneak peek at the September 2012 book release from TwoMorrows, Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation, co-written by Scheimer and Mangels. Room 23ABC

1:15-12:00 DreamWorks Animation– DreamWorks Animation’s chief creative officer Bill Damaschke anchors a diverse group of filmmakers to demo and discuss the artistic ambition and technical innovation that goes into moviemaking at DreamWorks Animation. Moderated by Anthony Breznican from Entertainment Weekly. Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

12:00-1:00 The Pitching Hour– Jermaine Turner (director, Disney/ABC Cable Networks Group), Ted Biaselli (VP, The Hub Network), Jill Sanford (director, Disney original series TV animation), Derek Hoffman (VP, Donner Co.), Valerie Alexander (screenwriter), Carina Schulze (Chatrone), Charlie Chu (editor, Oni Press), Lindsay Rostal (game producer, The Odd Gentlemen), Jennie Kong (VP, Miller PR), and your moderator Dan Evans III (freelance development exec, Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters) will take an idea from conception through production for various media. This process will include creating a pitch document, obtaining agents, and getting a pitch meeting. The panelists will explain, through hypothetical example and humorous stories, the process that new creators should adopt to make their way through the creative battleground of the entertainment industry. Knowing that each project is unique, there will be a Q&A to allow the audience to really hone in on the solutions to obstacles they may encounter. Also on hand is Brendan McFeely (IP lawyer, Kane Kessler) to give creators insight on protecting their ideas as they navigate Hollywood. Room 5AB

12:00-1:00 Cartoon Network and Dreamworks Animation: DreamWorks Dragons: Riders of Berk– Picking up where the critically acclaimed feature film How to Train Your Dragon left off, this weekly animated series follows the continuing adventures of master dragon trainer Hiccup, his faithful dragon Toothless, and his friends on Berk. Dragon training reaches new heights as our heroes unlock secrets about their dragons, explore wild frontiers, and discover new dragon species, all while battling fierce enemies they never dreamed existed. Come get a first look at the series, which premieres this fall on Cartoon Network, and hear from some of the talented dragon trainers who helped bring it to life. Room 6A

12:00-1:00 Machinima: The Future of Entertainment– Machinima has become one of the most talked about entertainment destinations in the world. Serving over 1.6 billion video views a month, the network has established itself with quality content and passionate viewership and is now considered the leading brand for the gaming generation. Don’t miss out on this panel with exclusive footage from Machinima’s new channel, Machinima Prime, which focuses on thrilling episodic content, including the much anticipated tentpole series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn. Be a part of mind-blowing discussions on the next wave of content creation and the new development paradigm. Catch guests from Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, the Machinima Prime Channel, and the Machinima Network. Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

12:45-1:45 MAD Screening and Q&A– It’s a MAD world, we just laugh in it. The magazine you tried to hide from your parents is an animated series on Cartoon Network. Now in its third season, this series from Warner Bros. Animation is inspired by the country’s bestselling humor magazine, MAD, and features animated parodies, crazy commercials, pretend promos, and classic gags. Take a peek behind the MAD curtain and learn what goes into bringing the funny to your television every week. Back to bring more laughs this year are series producers Kevin Shinick (Crank Yankers) and Mark Marek (Robot Chicken), along with Peter Girardi, senior vice president of series and alternative animation at Warner Bros. Animation. Join this hilarious panel for a sizzle reel recapping all the laughs from season two as well as a sneak peek at what’s in store for the show this season. MAD airs Mondays at 8:45/7:45c on Cartoon Network. Room 6DE

1:00-2:00 Voltron: Form Blazing Fans!– The classic animated TV series and toys that introduced the world to wild robot lions and a giant combining hero returns to SDCC. Celebrate Voltron memories with some of the Defender’s biggest fans, including Alex Albrecht (Diggnation, Project Lore podcast), Rob Bricken (ToplessRobot.com), Clare Grant with Team Unicorn (Geek and Gamer Girls), and other secret celeb guests. Plus an update on the live-action movie produced by Atlas Entertainment (The Dark Knight Rises); exclusive comic book reveals and announcements from VIZ Media with Traci Todd (senior editor, VIZ Media), Brandon Thomas (writer, Voltron, Dynamite Entertainment); and Voltron Classics toy info from Mattel’s Scott Neitlich (marketing manager, MattyCollector.com). Win big Voltron prizes, “Form the Head” with Voltron and be ready to share your own Voltron story. Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

1:30-2:30 Hasbro: Transformers Brand– Aaron Archer (vice president, Hasbro Design) and Jerry Jivoin (director, Global Transformers Brand) discuss the hottest Transformers topics including the Transformers Prime and Transformers Rescue Bots TV series, action figures, video games, comics, theme park rides and more. Attendees will also get sneak peeks at upcoming action figures and brand news. Jerry and Aaron will also host some Q&A for your burning Transformers questions. Roll out! Room 24ABC

2:00-3:00 Make Toons That Sell without Selling Out– Meet Bill Plympton, “The King of Indie Animation,” and learn about his new “how to” Focal Press book, Make Toons That Sell Without Selling Out. Learn the secrets behind cartoon production as Bill breaks down how to make a career outside the world of corporate animation. Also, Bill will screen some of his recent work, including Tiffany the Whale, his re-imagining of Winsor McCay’s classic short The Flying House, and clips from his upcoming feature, Cheatin’. And everyone who attends will receive a free Bill Plympton drawing! Room 25ABC

2:05-3:05 Walt Disney Studios: Frankenweenie, Oz The Great and Powerful, and Wreck-it Ralph– Walt Disney Studios hosts a Q&A panel featuring the imaginative director of Frankenweenie, Tim Burton (Alice in Wonderland); a special look at the world of Oz The Great and Powerful with director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man trilogy); and the illustrious voice cast of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Wreck-It Ralph, including John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) and Sarah Silverman (The Sarah Silverman Program), and director Rich Moore (Futurama). Hall H

3:00-4:00 VIZ Media Panel– Get the latest updates and exciting news from VIZ Media staff on your favorite manga and anime. You’ll also get the scoop on new acquisitions, upcoming releases, and projects VIZ has yet to announce. Get in line early and get a chance to win prizes! Room 7AB

3:00-4:00 I Can’t Write, I Can’t Draw, But I Love Comics!– Just because you missed out on the writing and drawing genes doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for you in the comics, animation, and gaming industries. Companies still need managers, publishers, producers, directors, mo-cap and voice-over actors, game masters, and programmers. Panelists Scott Agostoni (manager of comic creators and comics expert), animation/motion capture supervisor Derron Ross (Blur Studio), gaming CEO Mike Fischer (Square Enix), composer Jeremy Zuckerman (Legend of Korra), sound designer Benjamin Wynn (Avatar the Last Airbender), and film/mo-cap actor Joseph Gatt (J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek 2), will alert you to some of these careers and tell you how to find your niche. Moderated by Susan Karlin (Fast Company). Room 32AB

3:00-4:00 Hotel Transylvania– Animation superstar and 12-time Emmy nominee Genndy Tartakovsky, who previously created Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, Sym-Bionic Titan and Star Wars: Clone Wars, makes his directorial debut this year with Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania. Join Genndy for an exclusive sneak peek at footage from Hotel Transylvania and an exciting look behind the scenes of this very unique project, which boasts a hilarious voice cast.

Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them. On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of his best friends — Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Werewolf family, and more — to celebrate his beloved daughter Mavis’s 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem — but everything could change for the overprotective dad when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis. Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

3:30-4:30 FUNimation Sneak Peek: Mass Effect: Paragon Lost and Coming Soon– A very special look at Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, a new animated feature based on the world of EA and BioWare’s Mass Effect games, in addition to some exclusive looks at new series coming soon from FUNimation, one of the North American leaders in anime. Room 24ABC

5:00-6:00 Archer: Screening and Q&A– This animated half-hour comedy revolves around the spy agency known as the International Secret Intelligence Service (ISIS) and the lives of its self-involved employees. Series creator Adam Reed (Sealab 2021) and the show’s voice actors discuss their daunting and enigmatic work of espionage, reconnaissance missions, wiretapping, and undercover surveillances-which are all actually unmitigated occasions for the ISIS staff to undermine, sabotage, and betray each other for personal gain. Panelists include H. Jon Benjamin (Bob’s Burgers) as the highly skilled yet incredibly vain master spy “Sterling Archer,” Aisha Tyler (The Talk) as Archer’s fellow agent and ex-girlfriend “Lana Kane,” Chris Parnell (Saturday Night Live) as the easily intimidated comptroller-turned-ISIS-agent “Cyril Figgis,” Judy Greer (Arrested Development) as the loquacious secretary “Cheryl Tunt,” and Amber Nash (Frisky Dingo) as the discordant director of human resources for ISIS “Pam Poovey.” Indigo Ballroom, Hilton San Diego Bayfront

5:30-6:30 Klasky Csupo: We’re Back!– The studio that brought you Rugrats, Aaah! Real Monsters, and Wild Thornberrys, to name a few, is back and at Comic-Con for the first time ever. Arlene Klasky (animation creator), Craig Singer (filmmaker, Dark Ride), Charlie Adler (Transformers), Greg Cipes (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and Tyler Malin (transmedia storyteller)  discuss Klasky Csupo’s past and future projects, including a skateboarding zombie! Giveaways include a Comic-Con exclusive signed Issue 1 of Ollie Mongo, as well as an iPad raffle. Moderated by Phil Daniels (digital media attorney, Ginsburg Daniels LLP). Room 24ABC

7:00-8:00 Inside the Voice Actors’ Studio– Bang Zoom! Entertainment is excited to bring you this panel/workshop about voice acting that covers practical dubbing techniques, important issues such as studio protocol, and what to expect at your first audition. This is a great opportunity for attendees interested in the voice-acting profession to get firsthand advice and experience from the pros in an intimate yet dynamic setting. You will learn directly from some of the best voice actors and directors in the world and also get some inside information on how to break in and what the industry is really like. Celebrity panelists include renowned video game VO director Chris Borders (Gears of War) and multitalented voice actor Fred Tatasciore (The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes). Room 11AB

7:15-8:15 A New Generation of Spike and Mike Animation– See the greatest short animations the world has to offer: one hour of award-winning, artistic, funny, and entertaining short animated films from around the world. See winners from the 2012 Annecy Animation Festival in France, such as Second Hand and Friendsheep. Meet Spike of the Spike and Mike Festival of Animation and Gary Sohmers, the “King of Pop Culture” and Antiques Roadshow celebrity. Free Spike and Mike DVDs handed out while supplies last. Room 6BCF

8:15-9:15 Robotech Industry Panel– Tommy Yune (Harmony Gold president of animation), Steve Yun (Harmony Gold VP of new media), Steve Galloway (New Video), Svea Stauch Macek (comic artist of Macross #1), Frank Catalono (voice of Robotech’s Rand), and Saralo MacGregor (Content Film), showcase all the latest Robotech projects. Room 6DE

Keep reading for Friday, Saturday and Sunday schedules.
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Ryan Woodward Aims To Hit A Home Run In The “Bottom Of The Ninth”

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Animation professionals are pushing the limits of the field every day on the big and the small screen, but veteran animator and storyboard artist Ryan Woodward is breaking new ground right in your hands: on phones and tablet devices. Debuting last Friday, Woodward’s Bottom of the Ninth is an iOS app that is both a graphic novel and animated short film, with each comic panel acting as a frame for a short piece of the animated work. Using the skills accumulated from his seventeen years in animation, he’s broken out on his own with a small team of animators, programmers, musicians and voice-over talent to push the boundaries of what people think of as animation. Woodward has created what he calls “the first animated graphic novel,” and not just simple sliding graphics as in many animated comics, but a graphic novel featuring full character animation.

The story of Bottom of the Ninth is set 200 years in the future and revolves around a young girl named Candy gifted with phenomenal talent on the baseball field. Her father, a retired pro baller named Gordy, is training her to harness her raw talent into the skills needed to become a pro in their futuristic version of baseball, dubbed “New Baseball,” that comes complete with artificial gravity and vertical infields. With Candy’s talent she might be a shoe-in, but as anyone who’s parented a teenager or been one themself knows (don’t deny it), work is the last thing on her mind.

Ryan Woodward jumped into the animation field in 1995 fresh out of Brigham Young University, cutting his teeth in the trenches on Space Jam and the film’s polar opposite, The Iron Giant . As a young artist, Woodward apprenticed under a number of notable animators including Michel Gagné. In recent years, Woodward has transferred his talent to the CG realm and worked on this year’s The Avengers and Snow White and the Huntsman. After hours, he has continued to work on personal projects like the award-winning short film Thought of You ,and now, Bottom of the Ninth.

The first chapter of Bottom of the Ninth is available now for $3.99 from the iTunes App Store, with plans to release future chapters as in-app purchases.

Chris Arrant: Ryan, you’ve had an extensive career working in theatrical animation and live-action films, but I was surprised to learn that you’d trained under animator Michel Gagné at Warner Bros., an industry veteran who has similarly pursued his own creative path. How do you balance a busy career working on major feature films while creating ambitious independent projects like Bottom of the Ninth?

Ryan Woodward: Not easy. But guys like Michel and also Acturas Actas taught me to have passion for this art form and they taught me the value of pursuing my own dreams along with supporting great feature productions. In the end it comes down to wanting to feel human. I want to feel like I’m arriving to my potential. The studio system is great and I learned a ton there, but the need for specialists in that industry limit you to how much you want to grow in other areas, and I’ve always wanted to grow and be a much more well-rounded production artist. And when you do your own production, you have to animate, write, design, storyboard, do compositing, learn 3D software, etc. etc. and it’s awesome!

Chris: Both sports themes and female protagonists are rarities in animation. Can you tell us the genesis of the story of Bottom of the Ninth, and did you ever think of producing it as a traditional animated film?

Ryan: The full ten-app script is actually written as a full length feature. Just because that’s how I know how to write best. Then I broke it up into comic books to fit in this new world of apps. The character is a female, primarily because I have three daughters. They are my life and my true source of happiness. (and my wife of course). So it’s much more natural for me to connect with a character that’s a female. I’m not your macho Dad at all. I’ll take a snuggle on the couch any day rather than a football toss. But the sports theme is where I introduce the principle of rewards for hard work. I love great sports legends and their stories. The physical, emotional, and celebrity status problems they have to overcome is incredible and it’s important for a main character to have to learn to do hard things and overcome them. I love baseball, not because I played Little League when I was a kid, but because of that nostalgia, that American dream that it naturally has embedded in it. Also, I really love the early time period of the Twenties and Thirties and the struggles that baseball went through with racism and female rights. Those issues make for great complexities in the story. The story has a little bit of Jackie Robinson’s struggle in it, and a lot of Jackie Mitchell’s (Google her).

Chris: Back in the origins of animation, Winsor McCay’s films were compared to moving comics, but animation quickly evolved into its own medium. The idea of an animated graphic novel–that is mixing the motion of animation with the static panel-to-panel storytelling of comics–is still somewhat of an amorphous medium. As an artist, how do you see it–are we going back or moving forward?

Ryan: Man, I hope we’re moving forward. This was so difficult to achieve, and I hope I did it justice. There are comic purists out there who may feel that what I am doing is blasphemous. That’s okay. I respect their loyalties to the art form and I sincerely strived to hold onto that comic feel though out the creation of this app. There were countless times that really cool gimmicks and tricks were introduced to me, and each time I had to ask myself if it helped to keep us in comic book land or does it take us out. So many tricks weren’t employed for that reason. All the way to the last week of production, I didn’t even have a table of contents, because I wanted the reader to flip through each page. But in the end I was convinced that due to the device’s limited memory, page flipping was really clunky if you wanted to go through fast to show someone a page and that would hurt the word-of-mouth marketing. So I added the table of contents. Also, at one point I had the first five or so animated scenes all together in one clip. But I realized that watching it, the viewer was taken out of the comic book world and put into short film world, so I diced up the animation and spread it out between five new pages. That then allowed me to add in a lot more new character elements and story. The only thing that I’m still trying to figure out is how to keep the nice flow of a film, yet give the viewer the self pacing like a comic. I think I did it the best way I could for now, but I’m sure new ideas will hit me by the second issue.

Chris: You’ve done a great job of capturing the fluid grace of a baseball player’s movement–a pitcher winding up to throw the ball, a batter’s swing. I couldn’t help but think of your breakout animated short Thought of You which explored the rhythms and gestures of contemporary dance. As an animator, did you find any connection between the movement in baseball and dance?

Ryan: Absolutely. I had so much fun studying the energy the flows through a pitcher and a batter. All the way from the foot, through the hips, torso, shoulders and then the arm. Man, it is so beautiful how the human body does that and it’s just like dance. Dance is all about these beautiful lines and rhythms that flow through the body. Baseball does the exact same thing. I had a fun time stretching out the overlapping action of the batter and the pitcher as well. The body is terribly distorted in some frames but it really helps sell the transfer of energy. I really studied the body movements of Tim Lincecum [starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants] when he pitches. His torso is like rubber and it’s absolutely beautiful. With batting, there’s so much personality in there. A great comedian called The Batting Stance Guy characterizes a lot of the players’ different personalities and he was a huge inspiration as to how much personality comes in. In the next few apps coming, I’m gonna go crazy animating more batting personalities.

Chris: What kind of unexpected challenges–artistic or technical–did you face when creating an animated project for the iPad?

Ryan: Everything. When I started this, I didn’t have the slightest idea how an app was made. I just started hoping to figure it out along the way because that seems to be the way I do everything. So I got my developers license from Apple, opened Xcode and spent two full days learning coding before I realized this is not something I can just pick up. Coding is like learning Japanese. So I found a couple great coders that know Objective-C and left the magic up to them. The other big challenge was learning how to limit my ideas. In January, I had a simple idea that was only going to take three weeks. Then one idea after another, and another and another, I couldn’t help myself but do everything that I thought was cool and fun to create. Well, that totally got out of control and the app got so robust for a small team that I almost cracked and went into looney bin land. I would sleep less than 2 hours a night, I even went 3 days with no sleep at one point. Because the ideas were so fun to create, and I couldn’t put a stop to them. Finally, after my wife saw me degenerating slowly, I put a clamp on it and wrapped it up. The next issue will have a lot of these new ideas that are brewing in me.

Chris: Many artists are using Kickstarter nowadays to find funding for unconventional projects, but you self-funded this entire venture, correct? Why did you choose to self-fund instead of reaching out to the public?

Ryan: A ton of people told me to go to Kickstarter for this. And I think if I would have, it could have been really great. But I wanted to present myself to the public as a solid, professional studio structure that plans, finances, and produces totally independently on its own. Something about how I was raised in being totally independent held me to that idea. As a kid, I paid for my own scout camps, I had a paper route that funded my comic collection and quarter video game addictions (Russian Attack!). I put myself through college, and basically learned how to feel good about earning a dollar and spending a dollar. Over the past four years, I’ve done several outside projects and I’ve socked away every dime to fund “some future project” one day. That became Bottom of the Ninth and I dropped every last dime into it–with no regrets (even though it ended up costing 4x more than I anticipated and taking 4x as long). The thought of working hard, saving, and investing in my own beliefs is worth more to me than the Kickstarter cash flow. No disrespect to the Kickstarter guys though. I’ve contributed to some of their projects. I just had the fortune of previous jobs that allowed me to save up and invest in my own dream.

EXCLUSIVE: Don Bluth Talks About His Return To “Dragon’s Lair”

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Animation legend Don Bluth hardly needs an introduction on Cartoon Brew. Long story short, he started working at Disney in the late 1950s, and rose through the ranks to become a key animator at the studio. In the 1970s, he famously rebelled from the then-current vision of animation by Disney’s bosses and launched his own company, Don Bluth Studios, with fellow animators Gary Goldman and John Pomeroy.

His independent spirit led him to create animated features like The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail and The Land Before Time, but for some gaming fans, it’s his work on innovative arcade games like Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace for which he is most fondly remembered. Fast forward to today, and that’s the reason we’re talking to Bluth as Zuuka Comics is releasing a digital version of a Dragon’s Lair comic Bluth co-authored as an app for Apple devices.

Bluth is a seminal figure in animation, in many ways a canary in the coalmine for the downturn at Disney in the late 70s as well as positive turns like the use of animation in video games, now a billion dollar industry of its own. Bluth’s last feature film was 20th Century Fox’s Titan A.E., and since then he’s been keeping busy doing work on video games like 2003′s I-Ninja and his own game company, Square One Studios. In 2004 directed the music video “Mary” for the band the Scissor Sisters, and him and his partner Gary Goldman have been working on various Dragon’s Lair projects including a potential feature film and this  new digital comics app.

Chris Arrant: We’re talking to you today because Zuuka Comics is putting out a digital comic app of the comics based on your Dragon’s Lair work. First of all, what’s it like for Dragon’s Lair to be one of your best known works?

Don Bluth: Well, it has been very strange. Even as far back as our move to Ireland (1985) the young art students knew us more for Dragon’s Lair than for The Secret of NIMH. But then, Dragon’s Lair made a huge splash around the world. To us, the game was not as dear as working on feature films. We just had fun with it. It was truly a surprise when we heard back from the distributor that the three short sequences we had finished for the Chicago Gaming Convention in March of 1983 was the hit of the convention.
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“I used to collect figures and maquettes–I like collecting pencil tests now!”: A Conversation with Jamaal Bradley

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Jamaal Bradley

DreamWorks animator Jamaal Bradley has been a long-time aficionado of pencil tests, and his website Pencil Test Depot has evolved into the place for collecting and sharing pencil tests. Encompassing animators from the Golden Age of animation through today’s heavyweights Bradley’s website is a valued resource for both aspiring animators and professionals in the field.

The pencil test, though rarely seen by anybody outside of a film’s production, reveal one of the most intimate views into an animator’s thought process. It is the lifeblood of the hand-drawn animation pipeline; it is through the pencil test that an animator evolves a character’s personality and fine-tunes the movement and staging of a performance before it’s passed down the line to the assistant animators.

But in a CG world, what has become of the pencil test and drawing in general? Cartoon Brew spoke with Jamaal Bradley about his site Pencil Test Depot, the role of drawing in CG, as well as his own animation career and work as a teacher. The New Jersey-born artist currently works at DreamWorks Animation’s Glendale studio as a Senior Animator on The Croods. Bradley other credits include Disney’s Tangled and Sony Picture Imageworks’ Open Season and Monster House. Although all of his recent projects have been CG animation, he’s kept his hand-drawn animation skills sharp by relying on it for some of his preliminary scene thumbnails as well as his work as a teacher at iAnimate.

Chris Arrant: PencilTestDepot.com has become a hit in the student animation community. What led you do create Pencil Test Depot, and did you know it would make such a big impact on animation students?

Jamaal Bradley: Pencil Test Depot was around for a while before it went public. I love animation and the beauty of looking at a well crafted pencil test makes me smile externally and internally. It probably sounds corny but that’s what it does for me; like food for the soul.   I had a personal site with pencil tests on it and I had tests I received from friends, stuff I shot myself, and things I was finding on the web. I initially created it for personal growth and didn’t think about maintaining it as a blog. Only one other person had access to it and he convinced me to open it to the public.

” …Jamaal if you make it public and ask for people to donate works, you will surely get more pencil tests and I bet people would appreciate seeing the stuff you have also…”

It made perfect sense and it worked. I am very happy people enjoy the site and support it.   I didn’t think it would be a big hit, I just wanted to see what pencil tests were out there. It has been amazing to have fantastic animators like Glen Keane, Bruce Smith, James Baxter, Kristof Serrand, Sergio Pablos, Sandro Cleuzo, Pedro Daniel Garcia, Rune Bennicke, Mike Surrey, and more showing great support for Pencil Test Depot. I used to collect figures and maquettes. I like collecting pencil tests now!
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Oscar Focus: Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby Talk “Wild Life”

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BREWMASTERS NOTE: This week Cartoon Brew takes a look at the five Academy Award nominated animated shorts. Each day at 10am EST/7am PST we will post an exclusive interview with the director(s) of one of the films. Today, we discuss Wild Life with its writer/directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby:

Chris Arrant: This story centers around the concept of a remittance man, something most people don’t know about, but was pretty common in North America a few centuries ago. It sounds like a great historical fact, but what made it something you thought relevant and interesting to you two and to today’s audiences?

Wendy Tilby: We Canadians tend to think our national history is quite boring. One almost forgotten historical phenomenon was around the turn of the 20th century when thousands of these remittance men flooded into western Canada, sent by their well-to-do families because they were essentially useless. Britain was becoming a meritocracy and so these second sons could no longer expect to land positions just because they were members of the aristocracy. They tended to have a pretty good time….until the reality of surviving in the Canadian wilderness caught up with them.

We were also attracted to the idea of Empire and how education and breeding doesn’t prepare one for surviving in the very harsh conditions. The remittance men were victims of all that fine breeding and pressure from their families. But they also relished the escape and the adventure, and the dream of being cowboys.

Amanda Forbis: I don’t think we contemplated necessarily if it would be relevant to today’s audiences. I think sometimes you just find these things interesting even though you can’t nail down why exactly. But overall, there’s something inherently poignant about colorful characters inhabiting a bleak landscape.

Wendy: The other part of it is that both Amanda and I have English grandparents who came to Canada around that time and experienced similar hardships.

Chris: Were you able to talk to your grandparents about the story inside Wild Life to get their first-hand viewpoint on remittance men?
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How the Elves of Aardman and Sony Brought to Life “Arthur Christmas”

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With the release last month of the feature film Arthur Christmas, Aardman Animation and Sony Pictures Animation pulled off a memorable new induction into the pantheon of holiday film fare. But pulling off this $100 million dollar computer animated feature proved to be just as difficult — and technical — as the North Pole’s yearly machinations seen in Arthur Christmas to deliver Christmas gifts to kids worldwide.

In Arthur Christmas, delivering presents has become a 21st century enterprise with an army of elves, technological marvels, and a high-tech sleigh for Santa himself. Santa’s two sons Steve and Arthur work to coordinate the logistics while Santa himself delivers presents. The two sons are vying for the mantle of Santa as their father is nearing retirement age, but he isn’t so ready to pass the torch. An unfortunate mishap involving an undelivered toy leads the family in a scramble to determine how to deliver Christmas to one little girl.

Tackling the subject of Christmas for a film such as this can be both heartwarming and harrowing for filmmakers, as they try to get to the heart of the holiday without resorting to clichés.

“We didn’t want to set the movie in an entire world of Christmas, but to bring the holiday and its elements into the real world,” said Doug Ikeler, a visual effects supervisor at Sony Pictures Entertainment. “We didn’t want to take viewers to a new world, but rather bring this imaginary place into theirs. Although we knew Arthur Christmas wasn’t going to be clay animated, we wanted it just as tactile as the classic Aardman films with the overwhelming gritty reality of it all. ‘Tactile’ is the word I keep coming back to, bringing that to the scale, the texture and the environment of the film.”
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How Jon Klassen Leapt from Animation to Children’s Books

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Welcome to a new column by Chris Arrant who is also the editor of CB Biz. In today’s inaugural column, he profiles artist Jon Klassen:


Jon Klassen might have made his first big splash as an animator, but in recent years he’s followed the path of animators like Mo Willems and Tony Fucile and applied his illustrative talents toward the picture book medium. After working as a concept artist and illustrator on films like Coraline and Kung Fu Panda 2, the Los Angeles-based artist is focusing the majority of his time on his burgeoning bibliography of illustrated children’s storybooks like Cats’ Night Out and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series.

Klassen tells Cartoon Brew that making the leap to children’s book wasn’t as dramatic as it might have been in years past. “It’s pretty fantastic,” he said. “The tools to make illustration or film are merging closer together, and the more you jump back and forth, the more you see how they overlap even at the conceptual stage. I think that illustrators are finding themselves trying out more animation than they would’ve before, and people who are in animation are trying out more print stuff. Hopefully it leads to a lot of fresh work.”

Klassen has illustrated a number of print picture books over the years, but it’s his most recent, I Want My Hat Back, that holds a special place for him because it’s the first he wrote himself.  Released in September by Candlewick Press, it was chosen a couple weeks ago as one of The New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year.

“I’d never written anything for real before, and the formality of writing was really making me nervous, so it was a relief to try everything in dialog instead of narration,” Klassen explained. “The stiffness of everything in the book comes from my nervousness about the idea of trying a book, but it was fun to use that in the story itself. Also I wanted to do something that looked simple, and when you’re illustrating something for somebody else you get nervous about submitting something too simple for fear it’ll look lazy, so it was nice to give myself the excuse. The story really happened on its own once the tone was set. I got lucky there.”

Although picture books might seem like a long way from animation, the list of animators who have moonlighted as picture book illustrators is a who’s who of animation history: Tom McKimson, Pete Alvarado, Hawley Pratt, Al Dempster, Tony Rizzo, Eyvind Earle, Mary Blair, Paul Julian, Bob Dranko, Chris Jenkyns, and Campbell Grant, to name just a few Golden Age artists. Klassen came to work in picture books as an adult after realizing how much they influenced his early stabs at animation.

“After I got into the design and illustration end of animation, I realized how big a deal those books were and are to me. The amount of mood you remember from even pretty simple books is so cool,” he said. “I’ve wanted to do books since the beginning, probably, but it’s one of those things you sort of feel like you need to get invited to do.”

In a break from his drawing board, Klassen teaches a class at CalArts on Wednesdays titled Illustration for Animation, and he readily admitted that “it’s as vague as it sounds.”

“I’ve never taught a class before so I’m feeling my way through it,” Klassen said, “but mainly I’m trying to get them to think past the fact that they are already pretty good at drawing things and get into the reasons why they are drawing what they are drawing. They’re doing so much work on their own, technically they’re always going to get better anyway, so I’m trying to work on thinking about their approach before the drawing starts. That can be useful in all sorts of different jobs.”

Klassen’s own student animation, “An Eye For An Annai,” created with Dan Rodrigues during their third year at Sheridan College’s Classical Animation Program.

Speaking of different jobs, picture books aren’t the only place you’ll find Klassen’s work. He’s also contributed editorial illustrations to a number of newspapers and magazines, including a recent piece for The New York Times. Although he says picture books were initially his primary goal, he enjoys the unique nature of creating editorial illustrations.

“Smaller scale jobs like that, when they come along and when the schedule suits, are really fun because the turnaround is so quick,” Klassen said. “With a book you have to wait around a year between finishing it and showing it to people, and with editorial work you finish it on Thursday and it’s out on Sunday. I’m not sure it’s what I’m best at, but it’s nice when you get asked to do it.”

Cover illustration for the “New York Times Book Review,” focused on a review of “The Grief of Others” by Leah Hager Cohen.

One thing that Klassen is always asked by admirers of his work is when and where he’ll show up next in animation. Although his main focus remains on books nowadays, animation is finding a way back into his life. “I do try to keep a toe in animation, though mostly on smaller scale stuff,” he said. “With the hardware that’s out there now, book publishers are looking harder at developing stories digitally. I think one of the things they’re looking for is kind of a replacement for a page turn, something to move the story from point to point at your own pace, but without making so interactive that you stop feeling like you’re being told a story in a controlled way.”

“One of the big differences between books and animation or film in general is that with books you can play with the idea that the viewer is moving at their own speed through the story, whereas with film you are controlling their time,” he said. “There are advantages to both, but if you could bring some of what is fun about moving through the kind of space a film creates into the experience of reading a story at your own pace, it could be a really nice middle ground. It could also be really lame. I guess we’ll see.” Chances are if Klassen’s involved, it’ll be something worth our time.

Concept art for “Coraline.”

“The Looney Tunes Show” press release

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(This post is an example of the unedited press releases we now feature every day, compiled by Chris Arrant, on our new CB BIZ page. Headlines of each post are now listed in the top box on the right-hand column. Please check CB BIZ every day for a daily dose of the news direct from the source themselves)

Animation’s most beloved characters are back in an all-new series, The Looney Tunes Show, premiering Tuesday, May 3, at 8 p.m. (ET, PT) on Cartoon Network. Bugs and Daffy haven’t changed – but their living situation has. Bugs is as brazen, sarcastic and ahead-of-the-game as ever, and Daffy, despite his narcissistic, sociopathic and paranoid tendencies, is Bugs’ best friend and seemingly permanent houseguest. No longer confined to seven-minute shorts, their larger-than-life personalities (and egos) offer an irreverent, comical take on our modern world and introduce a whole new realm of possibilities. Now Bugs and Daffy can wreak as much havoc at the grocery store or the DMV as they once did in the forest.

The premiere episode, “Best Friends,” sets the scene for this unlikely pair’s dynamic. Daffy decides the duo can make a quick buck by going on the game show Besties, where best friends answer questions about one another. However, it becomes quite clear that self-absorbed Daffy knows absolutely nothing about Bugs. Daffy wants to make it up to him with a fabulous cruise, but cannot even do that right.

Throughout the series, familiar faces from the Looney Tunes universe join Bugs and Daffy. Rounding out the cast are the eternally optimistic Porky Pig, the quick and quick-witted Speedy Gonzales, the insane but lovable Lola, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, the Tasmanian Devil, Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, the Witch, Gossamer, Tosh and Mac Gopher, and the newest character of the bunch, Daffy’s no-nonsense girlfriend, Tina.

The series also features Merrie Melodies – animated music videos of original songs spotlighting everyone from Elmer Fudd to Pepe Le Pew, plus all-new adventures with the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in stunning CG. All this together in one half-hour comedy, The Looney Tunes Show delivers fresh, sophisticated humor, heartwarming moments and something Looney for everyone.

The Looney Tunes Show will join fellow cartoon icons from the hit animated series Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated on Tuesday nights. Scooby and the gang are back solving mysteries in the spooky town of Crystal Cove – including the overarching mystery of Mister E. and their Mystery Incorporated predecessors – when season two of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated premieres on Tuesday, May 3, at 7:30 p.m. (ET, PT).

The Looney Tunes Show and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated are produced by Warner Bros. Animation. Sam Register (Teen Titans, Ben 10, Batman: The Brave and the Bold) is the executive producer of both, and Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone (Duck Dodgers, Back at the Barnyard, Space Jam, Tom and Jerry Tales) are supervising producers.