With SIGGRAPH 2007 now wrapped up, I thought it might be appropriate to link to the video below about a CG animated short that debuted nearly twenty years ago at SIGGRAPH 88. The film, Pencil Test (watch it here), was created in-house at Apple Computer to display the capabilities of the Apple Macintosh II. The film below is the ‘making of’ that explains how they did it. Interestingly enough, Andrew Stanton (director of Finding Nemo and the upcoming Wall-E) receives a credit on the finished film as illustrator and storyteller, and John Lasseter has a credit as “coach.” And one more cool note: the applications engineer who appears in the short, Nancy Tague, is now Mrs. Nancy Lasseter.

UPDATE: A Brew reader who prefers to remain anonymous writes, “The woman building the character is Galyn Susman, producer of Ratatouille. She’s really awesome, and has been at Pixar since before Toy Story.”

(Thanks, John Karel)

Emshwiller Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz is a new joint-biography of artists Ed and Carol Emshwiller. Carol was a fiction writer, but of interest to animation folk is the life of Ed Emshwiller, a multi-faceted artist who established himself as one of the most well-known sci-fi magazine cover illustrators during the 1950s and early-60s. From there, he turned his attention towards experimental filmmaking, and eventually began to experiment with CGI. One of his pioneering CG experiments, Sunstone (1979), can be viewed online here. In 1979, he became the dean of CalArts’s School of Film/Video and served in that post through his death in 1990. In 1983, he founded the school’s Computer Animation Lab. For more details, see this book review by Fred Patten.

(Thanks, Billy Bond)

First, let me again apologize for foisting my face on the blog, but it’s an image from my latest starring role. The big news is that starting today, anyone – even you – can be in a JibJab video!

Starring You allows you to upload your own heads, cut them out, and star in a JibJab! They’ve made five template movies to begin with and this sample (starring me and Walt) gives you an idea of the possibilities. If you want to try out the tools and see the other movies just go to JibJab.com

Anyone can make a movie, but you have to register with JibJab to publish. You can then email your film or the links, post them on your blogs, MySpace pages, Facebook accounts… anywhere! And it’s completely free. Check it out.

Calling all animation haters! The second episode of our new web series Cartoon Dump is now up at CartoonBrewFilms.com. Somehow we are managing to keep up with our schedule to deliver a fresh episode once a week. This week, Compost Brite reads her fan mail!

The big news in Dumpster-ville is that we’ve arranged to perform Cartoon Dump live, one night every month, at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood, California. We’ll be there every fourth Tuesday of each month starting August 28th. (Mark your calender for Sept. 25th, Oct. 23rd and Nov. 27th in 2007). If you are in town, or planning a trip to L.A., please come by and meet the cast and crew in person. We will be introducing new cartoons, new characters, and guest “famous name” comedians each month.

The advent of blogging has added a new dimension to the discussion about animation, especially as it pertains to artists themselves talking about the industry. What can and can’t an artist working in animation say about the state of the industry? More importantly, what should and shouldn’t one say? Those are difficult questions and while there’s no definitive answer, CG animator Keith Lango has some interesting thoughts on the topic in this blog post entitled “Dangerous Opinions.” Well worth a read.

The Spline Doctors have posted a new podcast interview with Mark Andrews (head of story on Ratatouille and The Incredibles) and Pixar story artist Ted Mathot. Haven’t listened to it yet but I think it’s safe bet that the interviewer, Pixar animator Andrew Gordon, asks better questions than this guy.