I’ve often praised Alberto Mielgo’s background paintings on the Brew. He’s the art director on Disney’s upcoming Tron TV series, which is largely the reason I’m excited about that show. It shouldn’t be surprising that an artist of his caliber wouldn’t restrict his skills to the animation world. This short documentary directed by Alexis Wanneroy (who also happens to be an animator at DreamWorks) takes a look at the creation of one of Mielgo’s recent paintings, in which porn actress Belladonna modeled for him. If you can’t tell by the video thumbnail, it’s probably NSFW, but it’s also a fascinating look at the artistic process of one of the most original artists working in animation today.

Love the quirky movement, realistic eyes and mouths, and crunchy hand-made look of this student short. Here are some details about Zséman from one of its four filmmakers, Nadja Andrasev:

This was our fifth semester stop motion paper cut animation film just completed at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. We were given a basic rough storyline with an open ending and had to make the films in teams of four people, with one person as visual designer (in our case, Milán Kopasz). There were some basic guidelines, for example having to use lip sync. We decided to write gibberish as dialogue, therefore there are no subtitles. Three films were made in our class based on the same basic story (the other two were digitally animated).

CREDITS
Made by: Hanna Carlson, Milán Kopasz, Maja Szakadát, Nadja Andrasev
Design: Milán Kopasz
Lighting: Katalin Mészáros
Voice: Bálint Gelley

Despite our moderation efforts, the comments section on Cartoon Brew can occasionally feel like a free-for-all. However, we also recognize the value of providing this forum. Readers feel comfortable and safe to comment about the animation industry in ways that they don’t anywhere else on-line. I was reminded of this when I took a look at Ross Perlin’s timely expose Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy. There’s a paragraph in the book where he quotes extensively from readers who commented on this Brew post about illegal internships at animation studios.

Illegal internships are a major issue in the animation industry and I hope to address this topic in greater depth in the coming year. Too many employers abuse the concept of internships, and make interns perform demeaning tasks that don’t pertain to the industry, or use interns for extended periods of time to perform tasks that they would otherwise have to pay staffers to do. Entry-level animation artists in New York are worse off today than anytime in the past twenty years, not just due to internships, but also because of minimum-wage positions for artists that have pushed salaries down to 1980s levels. The current situation is untenable in the long term and needs to be addressed openly. Reading Perlin’s book looks to be a good first-step for any college student who is considering an internship and wants to protect themselves from being exploited by unscrupulous studios.

To “Pat and Kenny” everywhere, Seasons Greetings from Freddy Moore and Cartoon Brew.

(Courtesy the collection of Tim Walker)

One more Holiday post highlighting our readers across the globe…

First, from Diego Zucchi from Italy’s Alienatio:

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Next, from animator Raphael Sousa and director Marcus Vinicius of PlanoZ in Rio de Janeiro

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And finally, from Spanish animator Khris Cembe:



Robert Crumb meets the Estonian school of animation in this delightfully creepy short by Gobelins student Kevin Manach (previously on Cartoon Brew). He made Vésuves during an exchange program at CalArts.

Alan Menken’s song “Be Our Guest” from Beauty and the Beast sounds familiar to a theme from the first movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. It’s a good thing that the Walt Disney Company respects the purpose and intent of public domain laws that allow artists like Menken to be inspired by earlier creative works. Oh wait…

(via Nick Cross’s Twitter)

And if you don’t know who these characters are, I refer you to this CBTV post.

(Courtesy the collection of Tim Walker)