SIGGRAPH opens:

Today the huge computer graphics festival SIGGRAPH opens at the downtown LA Convention Center. In animation studios it is a Holy Day of Obligation for techies and CGI artists. Around this time art departments notice that regardless of deadlines or schedules, their people start disappearing from their desks as they make their Haj to the Great Floor.

SIGGRAPH began in the early 1970s as a few die-hards experimenting in electronic graphics who congregated once a year to share their new discoveries, mostly by writing out code in long hand on paper for one another. It has grown to a massive, slick trade show.

George Lucas is the keynote speaker this year. Conferences begin today and the exhibition floor runs from 2nd -4th Aug. Despite it`s size and commercial nature everyone still hopes to hear about a new discovery that might be announced.

In past shows univ and private researchers demonstrated breakthroughs like translusence of textures- a CG representation of a glass of milk doen`t look like flat white paint, or CG fire effects, a tough problem for years because animated fire actually was over exposed 120% on the film emulsion to look hotter than real, while you can`t overexpose on digital.

Everyone tries to get into the hot parties. Old timers remember years ago when ILM held their party at the Richard Nixon Birthplace. Many of the quaint old vaudeville palaces of downtown LA will ring with the sounds of Beck and Rob Zombie as the Digerati celebrate. So, have fun and if you are in the vicinity check it out. Next year SIGGRAPH 2006 will be in Boston.

Tom Sito  ¶ 9:43 AM

  Aki Improv:

My good friend Aki Umemoto is preforming tonight:

Just to remind you that Aki is performing with "Splinter Cell" at the Creative Grounds at Atwater Village: 3042 Glendale Blvd., 90039. It's this Saturday night at 8pm and it's only $5 at the door. To get there, take the 5 fwy N. to Los Feliz and get off at Glendale Blvd, make a right and it's right there. Hope to see you there!

  ¶ 8:55 AM

 
LAST NIGHT at the Motion Picture Academy`s The Art Of Animation:

We all had a great time at the Animation as Performance Show at the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. We saw rare footage of how they built the Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, The indomitable Brad Bird was there talking about the Incredibles.

Highlights from animated classics from Max Fleischer's Koko the Clown to Chris Wedges' Ice Age to Dumbo. All shown in crisp beautiful digital projection.

Eric Goldberg did a presentation of how he developed Phil the Satyr in Disney's Hercules and screened a rare 3D Genii from Aladdin done for Tokyo Disneyland.

Animators Kathy Zelinski and Randy Cartwright did a comparative documentary Tools of the Trade, describing the differences between traditional animation techniques and CGI.

Frankly, I was surprised we got it all in. I was concerned the evening would run really late. But it all went off without a hitch. I made new friends, Jan Pinkava the creator of the Oscar winning film Geri's Game, and Steven "Shaggy" Henley who did some wonderful Gollum scenes.

The evening was a sell-out. There was not a seat to be had in the thousand-plus Goldwyn Theater. They had to turn away a large crowd that still wanted in. Congratulations to Bill Kroyer and the Academy planning committee for a wonderful night!

- Tom Sito  ¶ 8:50 AM

  The Links Go On:

JJ Sedelmaier, whose off beat humor and work I love, just sent me a group of links to his widely varied work located across a wide area of subjects and web sites.

jjsedelmaier
shards
cycling
tribune
mantropycontrol

Some of these links are serious and some are tongue in cheek. All are very well done and true to their theme. All have been added to my animation links lage.  ¶ 7:34 AM

 

Another 99 Cent Review:

I have been back to the 99 Cent Only Store and there are good picking on the DVD shelves again but not as good as before.

East West Entertainment has hacked out a number of sub standard DVDs with title animations so poorly done that they are not even good enough for a Jerry Beck Worst Animation Screening when he is feeling very mean. The Boy that Cried Wolf is a dog which the disk forces you to watch by auto starting it as soon as you pop in the disk. But who cares. Hit the next button. The only reason to buy this DVD is the Bonus material.

They list:

Ant & the Grasshopper (which is no where on the disk)
Superman, the Bulleteers
You`re too Careless with Your Kisses (Rudy Ising 1932 - very Cob Web Hotel like)
All This and Rabbit Stew (bad print)
Bosko`s Party (it plays the end twice - very sloppy editing folks)
Daffy the Commando (Fritz 1943 - the reason I bought the disk)
Robin Hood Makes Good
To Duck or Not to Duck

Daffy the Commando is a jewel of war time propaganda animation that even has rotoscoped shots of Hitler getting clobbered by Daffy Duck. Good stuff. You`re too Careless with Your Kisses is another gem.

Too bad that these people have never heard of chapter breaks so it is real hard to get to the good stuff. The production is cheap and shoddy and down right careless. But still 99 cents for Commando and Kisses is a deal and if you don`t have Bosko`s Party this will do in a pinch.
  ¶ 10:36 PM

 

Daffy makes a landing  ¶ 10:33 PM

 

Daffy gives it to the SS  ¶ 10:31 PM

 

Daffy gives it to Adolf  ¶ 10:29 PM

 

You`re too Careless with Your Kisses   ¶ 10:28 PM

  Righting a Link Wrong:

I just got this cool e-mail from Fred Seibert of Frederator Studios. The animation studio that feeds a lot of killer shows into Nick and also works on the Nicktoon Fest often reported on here.

Your right Fred, it was a big oversight on my part and I will add these links as soon as I get a change. But until then I hope that posting your links on this blog goes a little ways to right my oversight.

P.S. great development stuff on all of these but the teenageroblog site is really killer bees.

hi larry,

i notice that none of our sites are up on your link site, and, knowing it was merely an oversight, thought i'd send them over to you:

http://frederator.kz/

http://teenageroblog.blogspot.com/

http://wubby.typepad.com

http://frederator.kz/newtoons/

thanks,

Fred

Fred Seibert
Frederator Studios
419
Park Avenue South
Suite 1007
New York City 10016
212 779 4133 xx

  ¶ 5:54 AM

  Saturday July 30th - 3:00 pm
ASIFA-Hollywood presents
PARAMOUNT CARTOONS
Rare prints in 35mm

This special screening of rare Paramount cartoons in 35mm Technicolor will feature ten classic cartoons - with all their original theatrical title cards - and a brief history of the studio (Famous Studios) that succeeded Max Fleischer in 1942-1967. Dismissed by most animation historians, this screening will show off Famous Studios full range - and original colors - in rare vintage prints, unseen in over 50 years. Casper, Herman & Katnip, Baby Huey and others will live again!

Hosted by Jerry Beck

Saturday July 30th - 3:00 pm
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA

ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS FREE • GENERAL PUBLIC: $10 admission  ¶ 9:43 AM

 
Following the Bees:

I was talking to Mark Kausler yesterday and I am happy to report that his nitrate print of the 1938 Mexican film Las Abejas (The Bees) is at UCLA and in the process of being copied. It may be a while before it is in a form to be shown to the public but the elements will be safe and the restoration will no longer be under the ticking specter of deteriorate film stock. Here is a link to the original story: the bees.

Be sure that I will keep you informed on the steps of the process as it develops (no pun intended). This is the first time I have been this close to film preservation. I hear that there is a certain watching paint dry pace to the process but I am finding in riveting.  ¶ 5:39 AM

 

You know what is really sad? A personally autographed book in a book sale. Why would you ditch a book that you went to the trouble of getting signed? My wife picked this one up at a Library parking lot sale. So what is it Michael, don`t like Ziggy any more?
  ¶ 7:05 PM

 

Want To Be An Active Member?

ASIFA-Hollywood cordially invites you to its monthly MEMBERSHIP MEETING!

July 27th 2005

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center
2114 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank (4 blocks east of Buena Vista on the South side of the street)
7:00pm

This is the meeting where it all starts. Come be part of the work crew that makes events happen. This month we will be doing a post mortem on this year`s ASIFA programming and presence at San Diego Comic Con, we will be looking at the Animation Rescue Team and the Archive project and how you can be part of them, we will be planning upcoming events, networking with our peers, and eating pizza. This is where the heart of ASIFA lives, be part of the life blood of animation.  ¶ 7:26 AM

 

Still Time to Get on the Ship:

I have been e-mailing back and forth to Bob (Porky`s voice) Bergen this week mostly to thank him for doing the end part of our State of the Animation Industry panel at Comic Con (a week ago yesterday).

He picked up a lot of reservations for his voice seminar / Ensenada cruise for this coming February but tells me there are still some berths available. If you would like to hone your voice acting skills and take a cruise to the Mexican Riviera then head on over to connection to cruise or Bob Bergen (dot) com  ¶ 10:22 AM

 

Animation Links:

I just updated my Animation Links page. I even checked it to make sure that all the links are active and none have become gateways to porn sites, a thing that happens when domain names are abandon. (when Animation Magazine changed their domain name a few years back the old one was snapped up as a porn portal to an Asian porn site where all the girls were half dressed as Disney characters)

I have just added a bunch of animation blogs to my links page. Everything is grouped by category for ease of use. I made the page for my own use then started sharing it with my students and now I am linking it to the ASIFA-Hollywood blog for your use. Look for the link toward the bottom of the right hand column just above the hit counter.  ¶ 9:45 AM

 

ASIFA Blog Hits 20,000 Hits

It might not be that much to the big sites with 100,000 hits per day but ASIFA blog just reached 20,000 hits since I took over back in late December. And I`m proud of those numbers.
  ¶ 2:55 PM

 

Laguna Beach Censorship:

My former animation student and good friend, Lynn Kubasek, just got censored. Way back on May 28th I talked about her banners being hung in the Laguna Beach Art Festival (see: banner ).

Well, it seems that Ms. Kubasek put the unclothed female human figure into the fish design of her banner and this is a puritan damaged country. Naked is dirty!.

Somebody or group complained that if you got up really, really close you could see, my god, drawings of naked women.

They finally kowtowed to the inevitable . . . censorship. Ah well, seven weeks is much more than a gallery show and here, the point is proved that Laguna Beach has become gentrified and is no longer an Artist Community but an attempt to embellish the nouveau riche (in Newport and Crystal Cove).

What does this have to do with animation? It is this same bullheaded puritan attitude that caused the Orange County School Board and their stooges to block the use of Muybridge, the Human Figure in Motion in my animation class back in 2000.

The most important book in motion studies and I can`t use it in my class because the body is dirty and sinful. Give me a break, I am surprised that they let doctors study anatomy. It is this attitude that keeps the porno sites in business. Every third booth at Comic Con was much runchier than anything Lynn put up. (end rant for today)  ¶ 9:30 AM

 

The devil is in the details  ¶ 9:28 AM

 

Aki Umemoto, shown here holding down the non theatrical / TV part of this year`s State of the Animation Industry panel at Comic Con, has a number of improv shows coming up. Creative director of Mattel by day, he takes on this secret identity in is off hours.

HI all!

I've got two improv shows coming up. The first one is with a new troupe called Splinter Cell and we're playing on:

Saturday July 30th
8pm
Creative Grounds: Coffee Shop and Stage,
3042 Glendale Blvd.,
LA, CA 90039.

$5 at the door.

The second show is with the April's Fools Troupe:

Sunday, August 21st
8pm
Suzy's Bar and Grill
1141 Aviation Blvd.
Hermosa Beach, CA

It's in the strip mall at the corner of Prospect and Aviation, right next to Big Lots. This show is free, just order food or drinks.

After the August show, we'll be playing every second Sunday at Suzy's at 8pm. If you can't make the August show, please try one of our monthly shows. Suzy's is going to be our home for awhile, so please tell your friends.

Hope to see you at one of the shows.

-aki-

Come on out and see ASIFA people do in their off hours.  ¶ 6:56 PM

 

Jerry Beck Warning the 2000 plus Just How Bad These Cartoons Really Are!


Hunting For Hits:

Jerry Beck said over at Cartoon Brew that he would link to any site that had his picture from Comic Con and since my stats go way up every time he does I thought we would look at his Friday night 3rd annual Worst Cartoons Ever.

When Jerry Beck says the Worst Cartoons Ever! He means it. Last year he slipped in a good animation or two just to keep us breathing but this year he was remorseless. One clunker after another with a three part Rocket Robinhood to break up the pain with even more pain.

(and I talked him into bring his worst cartoons to comic con, he didn`t want to, but no, I said they would be a big hit and it is - forgive me for I can never forgive myself - it you hurry you might still be able to get a copy of this year`s screening)
  ¶ 9:31 AM

 

Rocket Robinhood is very bad. Every time someone talks to him they use his full clunky name. It was bad, I mean bad and we got to see all three parts of the story arc, oh yes we did.  ¶ 9:25 AM

 

Might Mr. Titan is a youth fitness so we could be good little soldiers propaganda limited animation early 60s thing. Be afraid, everybody knew the theme song and sang along 2000 strong. These cartoons came from Mark Kausler`s collection and the films have since deteriorated so as far as we know Jerry has the only copies. Be afraid.  ¶ 9:23 AM

 


Super President what else do I have to say.  ¶ 9:20 AM

 

Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero  ¶ 9:18 AM

 

Big World of Little Atom Fred Ladd, I`m sorry but this in not your best work. Put a book in front of the lips so that you don`t have to animate speech.  ¶ 9:17 AM

 

Spunky and Tadpole Like a very bad Calvin and Hobbs with a dumb hobbs and they do secret work for the president and they aren`t drawn or animated that well.  ¶ 9:15 AM

 

Bucky and Pepito There was some talk of coming up with a worst animation award and naming it a Singer  ¶ 9:09 AM

 

Captian Fathom from the people that brought you Clutch Cargo with the lips of Tinker Bell.

  ¶ 9:07 AM

 

King Kong This makes the hack work of Dino look good. I don`t know if Jerry still has DVDs of this screening for sale but I got mine. I could not pass up the chance to do this kind of damage to my students.  ¶ 9:06 AM

 

One of the things I scored at Comic Con was a copy of Kevin Alteri`s Gen 13. I saw all the preproduction stuff back in 1998 and then it just never showed up.

When Jim Lee sold Wildstorm, Gen 13 got locked away in the vault and Kevin got the shaft.

Poor Kevin brought in a $20 million feature for $1 million and was all set to be the new star director and then it got buried.

This is a great piece of work that should be seen. There is a comic book, Anime, adventure feel that is timeless and should sell if it got half a chance.

Maybe if this feature had cost the $20 million it should have then they would bring it out but because Kevin brought it in so cheaply they just don`t respect it. It is a good film and should be released.  ¶ 8:35 PM

 
I didn`t see any copyright info on this DVD so I`m not really sure where or how it got out, I`m just glad it did.  ¶ 8:21 PM

 
I grew up on superhero comics, this is a comicbook you can watch.  ¶ 8:17 PM

 
Remember Batman the Animated Series and how good it was, this is better.   ¶ 8:16 PM

 
Kevin Alteri`s Gen 13  ¶ 8:13 PM

 

Back to School Daze:

I`m back at school with a new group of students and a couple of old groups of students. Just got a DVD of an animation from one of my former/current classes. Little thing called Highschool Hell. They gave me the right to post clips on the blog. (only fair since I am the model for one of the character) but I can not find a way to convert VOB files to AVI, MPEG, or MOV files.

That is really not the truth, I have not found a free way to convert VOB files and I am so broke after Comic Con. Yes I made money at Comic Con selling my animation studio construction book but I also spent that money on a number of very rare DVDs that I will use in my history of animation classes so I kind of broke even. The key word here is broke.
  ¶ 6:19 PM

  Con Wrap:
So Comic Con has come and gone and I still have not laid it to rest. The State of the Animation Industry panel I hosted on Saturday went very well. I had a very impressive group of guests.

In fact they impressed each other. I got a very nice e-mail from Eddie Mort . . . well see for yourself:

Hi Larry

Just wanted to thank you for inviting me to be part of the ASIFA panel today. It was great to hear everyone's thoughts, and I really enjoyed the experience, as well as the audience involvement.

It was also great to finally meet Donovan Cook: As I mentioned, my first job as a layout
artist was on his show 2 Stupid Dogs in 1993. It was such a weird sensation sharing a panel with such a talent like Donovan - particularly as I was a lowly trainee when he was directing!

. . . .

Thanks again. I really enjoy being part of ASIFA and hope you`ll consider me again for any similar
programs in the future.

Best wishes
Eddie

Isn`t that the way, you never really think of your heroes having their own heroes but they do. I know that there were people there going wow, Eddie Mort is on that panel and he is going Donovan Cook, wow! While Donovan is a wow and a real nice guy.



When I first met Forrie Ackerman, of all people, I was tongue-tied star struck because of all the years of reading his monster magazines. You never know, I have hung with a lot of big names but Forrie punched that star button in my head.

Speaking of big names, it was a joy to have Martha Sigall and Mark Kausler do panels for me on Thursday. Mark brought in cel setups from It`s the Cat that he offered for sale. I still have 3 of his unsold setups left everything else was snapped up.



If anybody wants them, they are $100 each and I will have them for about a week and a half before returning them to Mark. larry@agni-animation.com  ¶ 3:51 PM

  The Daze After Comic Con:

So here we are, back in the real world. Yesterday I got up and cooked breakfast, returned calls, did a rough count of the Comic Con profits and went back to sleep until 1 PM when I got up and cooked lunch for the kids and then went back to bed until it was time to cook dinner for my wife before she got home for work.

In the next few days I will be talking about the cool things that went on at Comic Con and correcting the typos in the couple of posts I managed to submit during the sleepless daze that is the largest pop culture convention on the continent. It is good to be back, but hell I`m already planning next year!  ¶ 7:58 AM

 
Martha and Sol Sigall book signing on Friday. We sold every book they brought. Thursday Martha gave a presentation with me.   ¶ 7:29 PM

 
Darth Lego  ¶ 7:26 PM

 
Hall E on Thursday  ¶ 7:23 PM

 
J.J. Sedelmaier`s demo reel  ¶ 7:21 PM

 
J.J. Sedelmaier`s demo reel  ¶ 7:20 PM

 
J.J. Sedelmaier`s demo reel  ¶ 7:19 PM

 
J.J. Sedelmaier`s demo reel  ¶ 7:18 PM

 
J.J. tells it.  ¶ 7:15 PM

 
J.J. Sedelmaier screening and panel Friday night. Thank you Jerry Beck, it was one of the high lights of the show for me.  ¶ 7:14 PM

 
Bonno Rothman gets weird  ¶ 7:09 PM

 
the guy in the hat gets weird  ¶ 7:06 PM

 
Steve Rothman, who I first met in an 8th grade art class, his lady JoAn, Bonno and some guy with a hat.  ¶ 7:04 PM

 
Marcus Adams ran the booth this Comic Con making it possible for everything else to happen. Thanks Marcus. You and Jon Reeves saved my life this year.  ¶ 6:58 PM

 
Paul and Paul  ¶ 6:54 PM

 
Paul Abramson by Angelo  ¶ 6:52 PM