Jake Friedman emailed yesterday to tell me about BabbittBlog.com, a site dedicated to all things Art Babbitt. Jake has been researching a biography of the legendary animator for the last few years, and if the blog is any indication, there’s still a lot left to learn about Babbitt.

There’s no shortage of animation tips posted online nowadays, but this mass of how-to advice isn’t particularly well organized. Thankfully, Jonah Sidhom has created the Animation Article Database, an invaluable list of links to animation tips from industry pros, organized alphabetically.

Canada’s only animator with three first names, Brandon James Scott, has an informative series of blog posts about creating Justin Time, a preschool animated series that is now in production on its second season. He takes the reader through the entire process from pitch to development to bible, and finally, production.

If you are unfamiliar with the life and work of John Halas (1912-1995), or simply know his name from his feature length Animal Farm (1954) – or TV cartoons like Do-Do The Kid From Outer Space (1964) – you owe it to yourself to watch this 12 minute tribute. Released online today in celebration of her father’s 100th birthday, Viviene Halas produced this short documentary about her dad (one of the founding fathers of ASIFA, co-director/co-producer of numerous animated shorts and commercial films, and author of several important books on animation) containing some rare footage and reminiscences by studio survivors.

(Thanks, Jamie K. Bolio)

The self-proclaimed painter of light, Thomas Kinkade, died unexpectedly on Friday at the age of 54. Before becoming a fine artist, Kinkade had worked on Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice. In recent years, Kinkade had been making Disney-themed paintings, or as he called them, “narrative panoramas”.

Posting random classic photos has become the raison d’être of Facebook, but I just couldn’t resist sharing this vintage 1948 photo of pioneering animation producer Walter Lantz and his characters. There is so much goodness here – that zany painting of Woody Woodpecker, those cool off-model Woody stuffed dolls – not to mention Lantz himself holding an Oswald Rabbit plushie, and that scary Andy Panda doll giving him the evil eye.

This publicity still was released in August 1948 by the “World Wide Photo” news service. This was a period when Lantz had broken with Universal and his studio was about to close (temporarily). The caption on the back reads:

ANIMATED CARTOON MAKING

In his office in Hollywood, animated cartoon motion picture producer Walter Lantz sits with dolls inspired by some of his cartoon stars. He holds Woody Woodpecker and Oswald Rabbit. Alongside of him are Andy Panda and another Woody Woodpecker. The last named is also shown in the painting hanging on the wall. Lantz, a graduate of the Arts Students League in New York City, began in the animated cartoon field in 1916.

(Thank you, Jim Engel)

Animator/director Uli Meyer’sCasting The Birds is not a new film, but a beautiful limited edition print Meyer’s been selling online. It’s a hand-made seven color screen print featuring a different requested drawing in the top right hand corner – making each one unique. Meyer has started a blog to display each of his one-of-a-kind birds (a few samples below). He still has 20 left (from a limited run of 50)… make that 19, I’ve decided to get one myself.

DreamWorks animators David Stodolny and Steve Meyer created this little short, filming all over the Dreamworks campus, during breaks over a three week period. Says Stodolny, “For all you animators out there. Or really just about anyone who has had a crappy day.”

British animation artist Edd Gould passed away on Sunday, March 25 from leukemia. He was the creator of the popular online animation series Eddsworld, which achieved a devoted following on numerous video platforms including Newgrounds and YouTube. On YouTube alone, his shorts have been viewed over 80 million times. The Eddsworld universe also included comics and Flash games. Gould animated all the shorts, co-wrote them, and provided some of the voices. It is not clear at this point whether the series will continue without his participation, but the rest of the Eddsworld crew has promised fans that they will finish the two-part episode that Gould was working on at the time of his death.

(Thanks, David OReilly)

Dear Glen,

Since last Friday’s news that you’re leaving Disney, you’ve launched a new parlour game What Will Glen Keane Do? Everyone is wondering: Will he jump to another studio? Will he work on his personal artwork? Will he attempt to create a feature film independently as Richard Williams is currently doing? This letter humbly offers my suggestion for what you should consider doing.

If the outpouring of sentiment surrounding your departure is any indication, you’re one of the few verifiable superstars in animation. Over five thousand people reblogged the news of your resignation on Tumblr alone. You’re riding a wave of decades of built-up goodwill, and fans are invested in your career as they are in the work of few other animators.

Animation and Disney lovers are clamoring to see what you do next, and more than anything, it seems they want to see you make a personal animated film. It doesn’t seem to matter what that film is, or whether it’s a feature or short subject—just so long as you’re directing it. This is your moment to blow our minds. You can reset the animation world with the most stunning animated film we’ve ever seen, a no-holds-barred work of pure artistry without restrictions or interference.

The timing could not be more ripe. Right now we are witnessing a paradigm shift in which artists increasingly receive their funding directly from fans, not business investors and corporations. Crowdfunding has taken off in the last year in all areas of creative culture. Video game designer Tim Schafer (Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Grim Fandango) recently concluded a Kickstarter campaign to fund a “point-and-click” graphic adventure game. He aimed to raise $400,000 and ended up with $3.3 million. Comic artist Rich Burlew raised $1.25 million on Kickstarter to reprint his webcomic Order of the Stick. Comedian Louis CK self-produced his latest special and sold it online, reaping over $1 million in just a couple weeks. He ended up donating more than a quarter-million dollars to charity.

No animator has yet to pull in the kind of crowd-funding numbers as the examples above, but then again, no animator with your name recognition has attempted the feat. By forming a direct relationship with your fans, it’s a virtual guarantee that you can do whatever you want. That includes raising the money you need to create a personal animated film, and more than enough to pay for a healthy crew of assistants, clean-up artists, and others. And, if like, Louis CK, you already have enough money to produce the work independently, just know that there are many fans waiting to see your work.

Few Disney animation superstars, past or present, have created personal animation projects. Among the Nine Old Men, only Ward Kimball ever created an animated short on his own time, and that film was only a few minutes long. You have the unique opportunity to change that history. In your resignation letter, you wrote that, “I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist its siren call to step out and discover them.”

Everyone supports you in your desire to discover the art form’s new vistas. I sincerely feel that your best opportunity for exploring that creative vision is to do it independently—with the backing of your thousands of fans and admirers.

Best of luck,
Amid Amidi
CartoonBrew.com

Longtime TV animation director and producer Jim Duffy passed away Friday night after a long bout with cancer. Duffy spent much of the last 20 years at Klasky Csupo supervising many of their Nickelodeon shows, particularly Rugrats – directing more episodes of that series than any other artist. He was Creative Producer and Director of Aaaahhh, Real Monsters, Rocket Power, As Told By Ginger, and All Grown Up. Before that he’d worked at Hanna Barbera and Marvel on various shows including Captain Planet, Smurfs, G.I. Joe and Jem.

According to his website, Duffy was born in the USA and grew up in London UK. He has been involved in the production of around 400 half-hours of animated TV series, commercials, and National Coal Board Safety Films as a director, animator, producer, writer, tracer/painter, storyboard artist, and/or designer. He has directed 3 shows nominated for Humanitas awards, two of which won. He’s also been awarded 3 Emmys out of 15 nominations. His personal films have been shown at festivals in Oberhausen, Tours, Nyon, Lucca, Bilboa, Zagreb, and Annecy.

On Facebook, Chuck Swenson wrote:

“Jim Duffy passed away last night at 3:15 am. On the good side, he went peacefully in his sleep surrounded by his family. He was truly a good friend and a good man. To say he will be missed is a gross understatement.”

In the course of reading up on Glen Keane, I ran across this extensive gallery of Glen’s figure drawings and sketchbook studies. They’re available for sale at the Galerie Arludik in Paris, but at $2,500 per drawing, all I can afford is the JPGs.

The Twitterverse reaction to Glen Keane’s resignation from Disney is all over the map. Many fans are wishing him well and excited to see what he’ll do next, while others are bawling their eyes out and some are blaming Disney for his departure. Here’s a sampling of the animation fan reactions on Twitter:

It’s the end of an era. This is the full text of Glen Keane’s letter sent out to his Disney co-workers within the last hour:

March 23, 2012

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Walt Disney Animation Studio,

After long and thoughtful consideration, I have decided to leave Disney Animation.

I am convinced that animation really is the ultimate art form of our time with endless new territories to explore. I can’t resist it’s siren call to step out and discover them.

Disney has been my artistic home since September 9,1974. I owe so much to those great animators who mentored me—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston—as well as to the many other wonderful people at Disney whom I have been fortunate to work with in the past nearly 38 years.

Over these four decades I have seen so many changes, but the one thing that remains the same is that we all do this because we love it.

I am humbled and deeply honored to have worked side by side so many artists, producers and directors during my career here at Disney, and I am tremendously proud of the films which together we have created. I will deeply miss working with you.

With my most sincere and heartfelt good wishes for your and Disney’s continued artistic growth and success,

Glen