Feature Film

Moonbot Studios Has Started to Develop Feature-Length Film Projects

The Oscar-winning Louisiana animation studio Moonbot recently announced that it is developing multiple feature-length film projects. It has acquired the film rights to two YA book series: the "Olivia Kidney" trilogy by Ellen Potter, which it plans to do as a live-action/animation hybrid; and "The Extincts" by Veronica Cossanteli.

Feature Film

Annecy Announces 18 Animated Features For 2014 Festival

Today the Annecy International Animated Film Festival announced the feature film selections for their 2014 edition. Eighteen films were selected—nine in competition and nine out of competition. A total of 68 animated features were submitted this year.

Disney

Disney To Debut ‘Feast’ At Annecy

"Feast," a new short by "Paperman" head of animation Patrick Osborne, will debut at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, Disney announced this morning.

Business

British Studios Locksmith and Double Negative Plan To Make CG Features

There are big developments in the UK animation industry in the wake of a much-heralded tax break received by the British animation industry that went into effect last year. Sarah Smith, the former creative director of features at Aardman Animations, is setting up a studio named Locksmith Animation. She bills it as the UK’s "first high-end CGI feature animation studio," and it is focused on creating a long-term slate of films for worldwide distribution.

Ideas/Commentary

Reflections On 10 Years of Cartoon Brew

Cartoon Brew officially launched on March 15, 2004. A decade is a long time to be doing anything, but it feels like an especially long time to be blogging daily. As we head into the site's 10th anniversary year, here are some reflections on where we've been and where we're headed.

Advertising

New Spots: Hermès by Julien Vallée and Honda by Smith & Foulkes

The following two spots attracted my attention for the inventive ways in which they mixed live-action with animation: "Metamorphosis" for Hermès, directed by Julien Vallée of Vallée Duhamel, and "Inner Beauty" for Honda, directed by the venerable production team of Smith & Foulkes through Nexus Productions.

CGI

First Look: “The Absence of Eddy Table” by Dave Cooper and Rune Spaans

No, these are not snapshots from the latest window display at Kidrobot, they are advance images from the upcoming CG short "The Absence of Eddy Table." The superbly lowbrow PVC collectible aesthetic that you see is the result of an artistic collaboration between Canadian comic artist and illustrator Dave Cooper and Norwegian animation director Rune Spaans.

Anime

Book Review: A Fresh Take on Anime History by Jonathan Clements

Jonathan Clements’ "Anime: A History" differs greatly from more populist overviews of anime available in the English-language market. This book is not about the anime texts themselves, but the surrounding industry: Clements delivers a tightly-packed account of anime production, distribution and viewership from the silent era to the present day.

CGI

Pixar Makes Painterly CG: New Research Could Change The Look of Their Films

Last summer at SIGGRAPH, Pixar presented a paper offering some clues about one of the major new directions that CG feature animation is headed. The paper, "Stylizing Animation By Example," explored how filmmakers could achieve more expressive rendering styles that disregard the perfect boundaries of computer graphics rendering and mimic traditional painting techniques.

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