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In a sign of changing times, animated programming produced for both Netflix and YouTube has begun to earn a significant number of Emmy Award nominations, competing alongside traditional broadcast and cable series.
At least one DreamWorks animated film has lost money for the past three years in a row: "Rise of the Guardians" in 2012 had an $87 million writedown; "Turbo" in 2013 resulted in a $13.5 million writedown; and this year's "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" caused a $57 million writedown. This is rather obviously not a sustainable trend from a business standpoint, and investors are beginning to worry about the studio's long-term prospects.
The world of animation software is dominated by a handful of industry-standard titles. However, the margins are dotted with more specialized pieces of software, often designed for animators who prefer to work outside the demands of studio production. One such program is Animake It, a piece of software that aims to provide an accessible animation experience that ties in with current trends in online content.
Tonight in New York City, two artists who need little introduction—Bill Plympton and Peter de Sève—will discuss their work and artistic process in a discussion moderated by animation director J. J. Sedelmaier.
Larry had me writing sequence scripts for "The Fox and the Hound," which turned out to be my assignment for the next six months. Part of the package was attending Woolie Reitherman's marathon story sessions, which often left me drained and dazed. There were also Woolie's marathon take-selection meetings, which left me drained and bewildered.
Animation and visual effects studio Sony Pictures Imageworks has confirmed what many in the industry had suspected for a long while: the studio is moving its headquarters from Los Angeles to Vancouver, Canada to take advantage of generous tax credits provided by the Canadian government. This move, combined with Digital Domain's jump to Vancouver and Rhythm & Hues' bankruptcy, prompted "Variety'"s VFX chronicler David S. Cohen to say that the Los Angeles feature film visual effects industry is "in full collapse."
West Coast residents are in luck: if you can't make it to an international film festival, the festival is coming to you.
A look at animation history via Cartoon Brew's archives.
"Entertainment Weekly" has published a piece on the upcoming "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" without once mentioning the terms 'animation,' 'motion capture,' or 'performance capture.'
The 45th annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival Awards took place last Sunday in Manhattan. The long-running ceremony, which celebrates achievements in East Coast animation, is making an effort to gradually transform its annual ceremony into a more upscale affair.
There is just one annual animation award in the United States that is older than the Oscars and that's the ASIFA-East Animation Festival. This year's ceremony will mark the 45th year in a row that the festival has been presented. It takes place this Sunday, May 18th, at the New School's newly built Tishman Auditorium (63 5th Avenue in Manhattan).
While Fox’s Sunday night lineup was dubbed Animation Domination in May 2005, it did not officially become all-animated until 2010. Now, the announcement of their fall 2014 schedule reveals that the cartoons will be ceding some of their Sunday night territory to live-action comedies "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and "Mulaney," which will be taking over the 8:30 and 9:30 time slots, respectively.
Our post on Andy Serkis's inflammatory rhetoric about the limited role of animators on his motion capture performances generated a robust, often heated, discussion in the comments. By far, the most informative comment was provided by 3-time Oscar winner Randall William Cook, who was the animation supervisor and designer at WETA on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy that was released between 2001 and 2003.
“DreamWorks Animation: The Exhibition” opened last month at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). Clearly inspired by “Pixar: 20 Years of Animation,” which was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York back in 2005, the DreamWorks show includes over 400 items, and covers the studio's twenty-year history right up to the present—there are displays about "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" and "How to Train Your Dragon 2," which will be released next month. It is the largest exhibition in the twelve-year history of the ACMI.
For the fifth year in a row, we are pleased to announce our annual Cartoon Brew Student Film Festival. The mission for the festival is simple: to honor student-produced animated shorts and share them with the widest possible community of industry decision-makers, fellow students, and animation enthusiasts from around the world.
Ralph Bakshi pulled himself away from his drawing desk in New Mexico to chat with Cartoon Brew about his legacy, his latest project "The Last Days of Coney Island," which he recently funded on Kickstarter, and what he really thinks about the computer’s role in animation these days.
A look at animation history via Cartoon Brew's archives.
This fall, the city of Hokkaido, Japan will present the first-ever animation festival to take place entirely in an airport. The New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival will make use of the Hokkaido airport's well-equipped facilities, including its 377-seat theater with 3D capabilities.
Directors who have graduated from CalArts' character and experimental animation programs have generated over $30 billion in box office grosses since 1985. However you slice it, that's a remarkable amount.
Fox's experiment with late-night animation didn't go as well as they had anticipated. The network will end its Saturday late-night animation block ADHD (Animation Domination High-Def) in June, less than a year after it began. It was originally created as a replacement for the cancelled sketch comedy show "MADtv."