• Disney theme park designs by animator Marc Davis.

• Funny frame grabs from an Iwerks Willie Whopper short.

• Grim Natwick and Dave Hand talk about Norm Fergusons’s rough animation. The post goes well with this Michael Barrier piece, “How Rough Were ‘Fergy Ruffs.’

• There are more funny drawings in this Alvin Show pilot board than in entire runs of most animated TV series nowadays.

• Weightless Life was a recent four-part documentary about the history of Russian animation. The first part of the doc has been translated into English by blogger Niffiwan and posted on his blog. His post is well-annotated with plenty of links to the films and artists discussed in the special.

• A step-by-step painting by classic Disney background painter Ralph Hulett, plus an extra tip about perspective from Hulett.

• Bob Camp is in the house, and he’s started a second blog to post older artwork. Currently, he’s sharing some delightful Disney concept art by Ferdinand Horvarth. There’s more biographical info about Horvarth in this article by Wade Sampson.

• Animator/director Will Finn talks about learning how to draw like yourself and uses a couple classic print cartoonists as examples.

Previously on Cartoon Brew:
Animation History Round-Up #1
Animation History Round-Up #2

A lot of readers seemed to enjoy the first Animation History Round-Up posted here a few weeks ago, so here’s another guide to rare cartoon history recently posted online.

Commercial director Bob Kurtz talks about his legendary career, courtesy of the audio podcast Toon In!. See some of Kurtz’s commericals at his studio website Kurtz & Friends or on his YouTube page.

David Nethery shares a rare 1963 magazine article by Twice Upon a Time director John Korty offering tips on how to get started in animation. My favorite tip from Korty: “Don’t be afraid to shoot 20, 40 or 80 frames without movement.”

Jenny Lerew discovers a superrare storybook with beautiful concept drawings from the “Dance of the Hours” sequence in Fantasia.

An excellent compilation of clips highlighting the work of overlooked animator Pat Matthews from 1940s Walter Lantz cartoons.

Thad Komorowski nominates this piece of Jim Tyer animation as the “best eating scene ever in an animated cartoon.” It’s a great bit of animation but I want to hear your nominees.

Mark Evanier writes about a rare piece of Gene Deitch animation on YouTube: the opening titles to the TV series Mischief Makers (1960), produced by Deitch’s own company, Gene Deitch Associates.

Michael Sporn offers a frame grab set of Richard Williams’s animated titles for the 1966 live-action feature A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.

Certainly quite a bit different from this amusing theatrical spot for Johnson’s cleaners that Richard Williams directed in the 1960s.

(Williams ad via Poptique)

A quick plug for Mark Evanier and Earl Kress who will be live on internet radio today at 7pm Eastern (4pm PST). They’ll be on Stu’s Show for two hours, discussing TV cartoons from the late 60s/early 70s. Tune in!

Starting today, animator David B. Levy (president of Asifa-East) starts a new blog, Animondays, which he will update once a week. I’m really looking forward to this, as David has become one of my favorite commentators on animation with his clever, informative columns in the ASIFA-East newsletters and his excellent book, Your Career in Animation: How to Survive and Thrive. Here’s hoping David catches the blogging bug and adds AniTuesday, AniWednesday and so on, to his schedule.

Speaking of Mondays, next Monday night I’ll be presenting my Worst Cartoons Ever! screening for ASIFA-East in New York City. I’ll only be in the city for two days, (as I’m en route to the Ottawa Animation Festival) and I’m hoping to see as many of my old friends and Brew readers there as I can. This is a great way for everyone to meet up and say hello.

The screening will take place at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway (between Waverly and Washington Place), Room 017 at 7 PM. The program is technically for ASIFA-East members and NYU students/faculty/alumni only. However, if you are not a member of ASIFA (and you really should be) or not affiliated with NYU, please contact me by Thursday Sept 13th - and I’ll put you on the list. Should be fun… I can’t wait to inflict this bad stuff in the Big Apple.

It’s not just blogs that offer valuable animation-related content nowadays. Here are three recent audio podcasts with three super artists. I’ve listened to them and they’re all worth a download:

Toon In!, hosted by Tee Bosustow, has many interviews with animation artists. The one that caught my attention was the interview with Sam Clayberger. Clayberger was a designer and background painter at UPA between 1953-1958, produced the artwork for the Rocky & Bullwinkle pilot (along with Roy Morita), and has had a long career as a fine artist and art teacher. It’s a delight to finally hear him speak about his career since one never hears much about him, and the bonus is that he’s fun to listen to. The photo above is from Clayberger’s days at UPA.

The Spline Doctors, and in particular, animator Andrew Gordon, have come through with another solid interview with a fellow co-worker at Pixar. This time, it’s Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter, who shares much wisdom about story and animation throughout the discussion.

Last but not least, the Sidebar podcast features a lengthy chat with character designer Shane Glines. While the two interviewers are comic fans with a limited knowledge of the animation process, the discussion is lively, and Shane offers good insights into his personal journey and development as an artist.

Golden Age comics by animation artists Rod Scribner and Dan Gordon.

Even B-animation studios get love online: “Why we love Famous cartoons.”

Terrytoons animator Carlo Vinci: Artist first, animator second. A valuable lesson if there ever was one.

The greatest Warner Bros. background painter: Paul Julian.
Ample evidence here, here and here.

Lovely pre-production art from Dick Williams’s Raggedy Ann and Andy.

Rubber hosey goodness: The Office Boy, a Flip the Frog short by Ub Iwerks.

This morning, from 9:30 to 10am (PST), tune in to S.W. Conser’s radio program Words & Pictures for an interview with Pixar sound designer Gary Rydstrom. Rydstrom also directed the studio’s most recent short Lifted. Portland-based listeners can listen on KBOO 90.7fm, and folks elsewhere can listen to a real-time webcast at KBOO.fm.

The Word & Pictures audio archives also houses interviews with Understanding Comics author Scott McCloud, animation director Marv Newland (Bambi Meets Godzilla), and this recent chat with Jerry and I, which marks the only time the Brewmasters have done a joint radio interview.

Fascinating story in yesterday’s LA Times about Afterworld, a new CG animated series which premieres online this week at MySpace. The $3 million production (a significant sum for an online animated series) is comprised of 130 episodes, each between 2-3 minutes. The first ten episodes have been posted onto MySpace and the series can also be seen at Afterworld.tv. Below is an excerpt from the Times about how the creators intend to make money from the series:

Instead of a traditional licensing fee, [production company] Electric Farm gets a cut of the ad revenue MySpace generates from the show. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The company also has made money by selling international television, Internet, mobile and gaming rights to Sony Pictures International, which helped finance the project. Sony also is developing a mobile game to be released early next year based on the series.

The global rollout began this month when the Sci-Fi Channel in Australia began airing the show, which is also available in 13 half-hour episodes.

It also will air on television and mobile phones in several other countries.

Afterworld is a great example of the multi-platform future of animation. While series animation on TV is far from dead, it can no longer be regarded as the final frontier for animation creators. There are an ever-increasing number of distribution platforms and revenue streams for animated series nowadays, and projects like Afterworld are helping to pave the way and find what works in this exciting post-TV environment.