Sunday, July 25, 2010

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Character Design blog


There is (as always) awesome artwork to be seen at the Character Design blog. Go through it if you haven't already. Rob Laro's work is very sweet indeed but there is so much more (like this super cute baby Chewie, or this cool piece). Check out the Comic-Con post... I could go on and on and on. There is so much cool stuff out there, go check it out!!

Model Sheets: Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955


Lots of sweet Tex Avery model sheets at comicrazys.com

Brian Wells from Rhythm and Hues Visits Art Institute Inland Empire

Oldie but in case you haven't seen it yet.

Brian Wells lead animator at Rhythm and Hues discusses animation and his approach and what they look for in an animator at Rhythm and Hues


Brian Wells from Rhythm and Hues Visits Art Institute Inland Empire from santosh oommen on Vimeo.

Hand References



There's a great post at drawninblack.com with tutorials, videos, poses and much more for hands. Very cool!

Friday, July 23, 2010

'Megamind' Comic-Con Footage

Childhood cartoons

One of the greatest best-of clips on youtube! Childhood memories, holy moly. Most of them are in German, some were in French (see tweets). I think I only watched G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K. in English back then.



Another one:



and part 2 of that one here.

reset

reset from szymon kabala on Vimeo.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Spungella Animation Workshop updates

Hey everybody,

the Fall 2010 Workshops are going to start in about a month and a half. Payments and paperwork stuff starts in about 2 weeks, so during that time it's normal for people to ask to be on the waiting list, others cancel, some switch between Tuesdays and Thursdays, etc. etc.

So if you're interested, send me an email using signup (at) spungella.com and let me know what workshop you'd like to join (Fall On-Site or Online or even next Spring).

The two On-Site Fall Workshops are full (but there's a waiting list just in case someone changes his/her mind), the Online Workshop has plenty of room left.

The Spring 2011 On-Site Workshop is pretty much full already, but as always, if there is continuing demand I'll open up a second workshop.

I also wanted to thank all the past, present and future animators who sign(ed) up for it!!! I'm really amazed that there is so much demand and how trusting you guys are even though most of you don't know me at all. I will continue to make it worthwhile and as always, if anybody has any comments, requests or questions, don't be shy, just let me know.

Thanks!!
JD

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Animation Tag Attack

- found via @azizk

Each participant gets 4 weeks to produce between 5 and xx seconds of film. When the time is up, the clip gets uploaded to the blog and the next one in line takes over. It is up to each individual creator to pick the style and media they want to work in - and to decide how they think the story should evolve.


Head over here to check it out!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Dragonboy short


Awesome work!!

Dragonboy is a collaborative thesis done by Lisa Allen, Bernie Warman and Shaofu Zhang at the Academy of Art University.

For more information and still pics, please visit:
dragonboythemovie.com


Dragonboy from Dragon Boy on Vimeo.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Spring 2010 SOS Workshop #2 is DONE!


Wow, time really flew by with this workshop! This was officially the last week, even though we finished the week before.

You guys keep spoiling me! It was another group of talented and interesting people and another weekly evening of laughter!

Thank you everybody for participating!

Cheers
JD

- pic source

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Academy expands visual effects category


Head over to Hollywoodreporter to read about the new rules and outlines for animated features and VFX movies.

This is really interesting:

Also, as movies like a "A Christmas Carol" and "Avatar" break new ground with motion- and performance-capture techniques, the Academy has ruled that motion-capture alone is not an animation technique, stipulating that animated films must be created frame by frame.

The rule now reads, "An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.


You know, that's a good thing. If studios want the award for the feature category, they can't continue to advertise mocap as this magic tool that does everything for you. Mocap gets so heavily tweaked by animators that it eventually turns into frame-by-frame technique anyway or it gets dumped from the get go. And I'm not even going to talk about creature work (wait, they didn't mocap the banshees in Avatar???).

So if they want the award, they have to admit that and stop using those buzzwords like "cutting-edge technology". Yay for keyframe!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Despicable Me Clips

Yahoo! Movies has 10 new clips!

Megamind Poster


Hahahaha! I love this poster! After so many sites talk about the Dreamworks face I can hear the marketing department go: "Oh yeah?! Well here you go! BAM! Suck it!"

- found @ iwatchstuff