Italian animation legend Emanuele Luzzati has died at age 85. He collaborated with Giulio Gianini on numerous cut-out animation shorts including the Oscar-nominated films THE THIEVING MAGPIE and PULCINELLA, as well as AN ITALIAN IN ALGIERS and THE MAGIC FLUTE. Luzzati also had a prolific career outside of animation, both as a book illustrator and a theatrical set designer. Animation director Michael Sporn is offering some worthwhile insights about Luzzati on his blog. Be sure and check out Mike’s post about Luzzati’s passing as well as the image set from THE THIEVING MAGPIE. More Luzzati art will be posted on Sporn’s blog in the coming days.

Romain Segaud (b. 1980) is one of France’s most exciting up-and-coming animation talents. He was the co-director of the awesome student film TIM TOM (mentioned here earlier) and the music video BIP BIP (pictured above). Now he has a website - RomainSegaud.com - featuring most of his animated films and commercial work. I love all the fun inventive movement he manages to get into his digital photo cut-out style.

(via Fous d’Anim)

Did you know Warner Bros. animator Ken Harris has a website dedicated exclusively to his work? Me neither. The site is MasterAnimator.com and there’s an interesting variety of goodies there. It seems to have been put together by somebody who knew him towards the end of his career while he was working for Richard Williams in the 1970s. There’s a lot of stuff on there that’s probably not Harris’s best work, but look around and you’ll find some cool things like these walk cycles from THIEF AND THE COBBLER or this expressive Jones model sheet from MUCH ADO ABOUT NUTTING (1953).

A number of the winning films from this year’s Annecy animation festival can be seen on-line in their entirety. Here’s links to the ones I’ve found:

Special Distinction award: Run Wrake’s RABBIT

Annecy Cristal (the top short film prize): Regina Pessoa’s HISTOIRE TRAGIQUE AVEC FIN HEUREUSE (TRAGIC STORY WITH A HAPPY END)

Best graduation film: Matthew Walker’s ASTRONAUTS
(Note: download film to your desktop for best results).

Special Distinction (Graduation Film): Tony Comley’s ABIGAIL

You know it. You have it. You’ve studied it from cover to cover. Preston Blair’s ANIMATION is the book on character animation basics. First published at the height of Blair’s career in the late 1940s, this Walter Foster Art Book has become a classic, and a must-have, in every animator’s library.Now, Steve Worth at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive has scanned a copy - my copy, obtained from the late Dave Tendlar - of the original 1947 edition of the book, titled ADVANCED ANIMATION. This legendary first edition is rarely seen because it was quickly pulled from the market. Blair illustrated the book with characters from films and studios (mainly MGM) he’d worked on, without bothering to get permission to use the trademarked characters. He had to redraw most of the book to keep it in print. That’s the version most of us have - until now. Go to the Archive to see the the book as it originally appeared, the first half here and the second half here. Enjoy!

We received a lot of positive feedback when we did “Jazz Cartoon Friday” so here’s another themed collection of cartoons. Today is, of course, Cinco de Mayo so let’s celebrate by taking a look at how Golden Age animators depicted Mexico (and Mexicans) in classic cartoons.

First up, the introduction of Panchito from Disney’s THREE CABALLEROS (1944).
The scene was animated by the one and only Ward Kimball.

SENOR DROOPY (1949, MGM)
Director: Tex Avery

MEXICALI SCHMOES (1959, Warner Bros.)
Director: Friz Freleng

SNAKE IN THE GRACIAS (1971, DePatie-Freleng)
Director: Hawley Pratt
Not exactly a classic, but the Tijuana Toads were created
by John Dunn, who is featured prominently in the almost-finished ANIMATION BLAST 9.

LITTLE RURAL RIDING HOOD (1949)
Director: Tex Avery

(Thanks to Kevin Langley for posting this on YouTube)

Sharon Colman’s short film BADGERED, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, can now be viewed online HERE.

(via No Fat Clips)