Friday Catch Up:

Cool things happening at the ASIFA Archives. Glad that Steve Worth is taking time to address all the great progress in these pages. It is also nice to have someone else writing in this blog.

I spent the day brooding on not being able to see Were-Rabbit with my peers this next Monday. If you haven`t RSVPed then you will not be able to either, they filled up in record time. DreamWork, with a great hit like this on your hands you really need to put on a couple of screenings for the Annie voting public at ASIFA.

I also, while brooding, managed to worked on my animation, re-rendering all of my work reel just so that I could see what is missing. Looking good. Having a good time. Still missing some vital scenes.

Several months back I helped Fred Ladd pitch his Kimba Reunion to the ASIFA board. I then got very busy with Comic Con and left Fred and David Derks to put the whole project together. Which they did very will. I love projects like this where I don`t have to do any of the work. Here is a message from Fred about the event.

2005, marks the 40th Anniversary of KIMBA, The White Lion, which is our version of Osamu Tezuka's Jungulu Taitei Leo. I was recording the Pilot Film in New York City on November 9, 1965, when -suddenly!- all the lights went OUT! It was the day of the awful POWER FAILURE in New York! We had to stop recording, and return the next day, November 10, to complete the filmtrack.

So, on November 10 2005, 40 years to the day after we completed our version "The Birth of Kimba", ASIFA-Hollywood (the animated film society) will sponsor a 40th Anniversary Celebration that I'll be producing in the

Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard Street
Glendale, CA
7 PM.

We'll be showing that historic 1/2-hour program in its entirety.

Guest panelists will be:

• Famous animator Sadao Miyamoto (alumnus of Tezuka's Mushi Production)
  
• Jared Cook, translator & interpreter for Tezuka himself, plus
  
• Hollywood animator-and-Kimba-expert Shawn Keller - and
  
• Mrs Sonia Owens, original voice-cast member from that classic series (flying in from her home in New Hampshire!)

Tickets are $6 for ASIFA-Hollywood members, $8 for non-members. This event will be THE DEFINITIVE REVIEW of the famous KIMBA Series, and a frank look at charges made even today that Disney's "The Lion King" was inspired by Osamu Tezuka`s "KIMBA, The White Lion,".seen on U.S. television 30 years earlier.

Kind Regards,
Fred Ladd

Who lives down in deepest darkest Africa? Come out to the Glendale Library and find out.  ¶ 9:01 PM

  Volunteer Call: Archive Blog Redesign Now that we've begun work on the archive, we need a way to quickly communicate with the public about our progress. A static website won't cut it for that, and a separate blog splits our message into two separate URLs. I'm looking for a volunteer that is familiar with HTML, CSS and Blogger to create a cutom template to merge the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Homepage and Blog Page into one Blogger driven website. If that sounds like something you would like to help out with, give me a call Tuesdays or Thursdays between 1pm and 9pm at the Archive office... 818 842-8330.

I will be posting more Volunteer Calls soon, so if you want to help but this particular project isn't up your alley, more possibilities will be coming.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive  ¶ 2:12 PM

  Archive Update: We're Networked I'm posting this from the main Scanning Station at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. Today, a tech type person came out and networked all four computers and installed DSL. Paul Abramson stopped in to help burn backups of the Clampett cartoons... broadcast quality copy of Coal Black included! We updated all of the system software on all five computers. They're running like a dream now. Wendell Washer is going to come by sometime next week and help install cards and RAM into the iMacs.

Things are moving along nicely. I'll be ready to start working on the database next week.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive  ¶ 7:46 PM

 


Were-Rabbit Screening Cursed with Personal Bad Timing:

I am so major bummed out. I love Wallace and Gromit. I have been in love with them since Grand Day Out. I have been following The Curse of the Were-Rabbit for almost 2 years. But I work Monday night October 3rd. I am teaching a class that night at Cal State Fullerton. Nick Park is god and I am going to miss the ASIFA-Hollywood screening of his new movie.

That means that I will go to a screening with little sticky faced kids that talk through the whole film and parents with cell phones and I will be taken out in handcuffs because I tried to stuff a large size popcorn container down the throat of some one who is telling her best friend Beth about her new fall wardrobe and when Were-Rabbit finally comes on the TV in the pen somebody named Bubba will want to watch Martha Steward. It is not fair.

For those of you not fore-doomed to a life in the big house, the screening that I can`t go to is:

Monday, October 3rd 2005
Cinerama Dome at Arclight Hollywood
6360 W. Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA

7:30 PM

RSVP 818-695-6506

You and your family are invited (limit 4 tickets)  ¶ 8:29 AM

  Calling All Volunteers:

Tonight, Sept 28th, is the monthly ASIFA Volunteers Meeting at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Center.

2114 W. Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA

The meeting is at 7 PM.

With the start up on the archive this is an exciting time at ASIFA. Come be part of the excitement. We will be signing up people to work during the times that the archive is open. (Tuesdays and Thursday 1 to 9) This is your chance to be part of this important project. This is your chance to touch the history of animation.

(If you are one of my students this is your chance to get 2 points of Extra Credit - and if you volunteer to work at the archive then that is another 4 points)  ¶ 11:11 AM

  Vintage Mickey a Must Have:

Walt liked to claim that it all started with a mouse. Of course before it started there was a rabbit, and before that a little girl named Alice, and even before that a cat named Puss-N-Boots.



I just picked up the DVD Vintage Mickey at Target - $14.95. For years I have made due with The Spirit of Mickey edited version of Steamboat Willie. The scene where Mickey uses the mother pig`s undercarriage as an accordion was sadly missing from the earlier version. (above on the left)



What Walt failed to say when he was talking about it all starting with a mouse was that said mouse was a bit of a rat when he first hit the screen. In Plane Crazy, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon animated and also on the Vintage Mickey disk, Mickey tries to force himself on Minnie.

Minnie slaps him and he dumps her out of the plane, catches her by doing a loop and tries to force himself on her again. So she jumps out of the plane to get away from him and uses her bloomer as a parachute. Not the Mickey I remember from my childhood.



This is a very important cartoon. This singlehanded Ub Iwerks animation (700 pages of straight ahead animation per day) was created in 2 weeks time with Walt and Roy and their wives working all night to do the ink and paint and Ub working all day and night to save the studio after Mintz ripped off Oswald the not so lucky for Walt or Mintz Rabbit.

This is a great DVD with a lot of very early Mickey Mouse cartoons. A Mickey you are not use to seeing. The disk is not as flashy as the Disney Treasures disks but it is filled with hard to find early Mickey Black and White cartoons. Pick up the disk and see how it really all started with the mouse.  ¶ 10:36 AM

  Animation Archive: Work Is Progressing We enter our second week of operation with a formidable stack of over 100 DVD-ROM backups! Jason Jones and Paul Abramson stopped by to help out, and the three of us kept all four computers burning, backing up copies of the films donated by John Kricfalusi. We are maintaining two backups of each film, one to be stored at the archive, and another to be stored off site. We took a break from burning to view Popeye Presents Eugene The Jeep on the high definition 30 inch cinema display. Everyone agreed that the video and sound quality was amazing.

Thursday, the technician is stopping in to install the network and activate our internet connection. That will allow us to bring all of our software up to date and make it a lot easier to pass files between computers. Stop by and see how we're doing!

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive Project  ¶ 11:37 PM

  The Belgium Connection Maybe a Little Explained:

I love a mystery and it lookss like we still have one with the large readership in Belgium. Benjamin De Schrijver writes in to say that he may be some of the cause for multiple page hits but he would have to be opening his blog bookmarks page 25 or 35 times a day to be the sole reason for the high Belgium page hit percentage.

As far as I know, the animation community in Belgium isn't much bigger than anywhere else. There are - I think - 3 schools that teach animation, and I've heard of only one Belgians-only animation forum. I also don't know about too many animation studios here.

I think the biggest part of the Belgian community is more into independent, alternative animation, thanks to Raoul Servais, who was the founder of the most prominent animation school in Belgium. And on the CGSociety forums, I have the feeling that the community these days is more about rigging and vfx than about character animation.

One thing that might boost the postcount a bit is something else, though. I've got quite a list of blogs I visit daily, and I've all put them in a bookmarks folder in my Firefox browser. Because there are so many, reading all the new posts mostly takes more time than I want it to, if I visit only 1 time a day. So I've gotten in the habit of opening that bookmarks folder every time I start up or shut down my computer, so I usually don't spend over 5 to 10 minutes each time I read the blogs.

But of course this has as a result that I open a lot of blogs that haven't gotten any updates yet, which could lead up to a bigger Belgian visitors number than actually is the case. I don't know how many readers your site has, though, so I don't know if that could be responsible for as many as 6% of the total. Maybe I should start using RSS feeds more often?

Anyways, that's only one possibility. If that's the reason, sorry for the confusion, and please send an e-mail my way, so I can change my habit to RSS. If not, maybe I'm looking for the Belgian community in the wrong places, and you could hook me up with some e-mail addresses from the other mailing Belgians?

So sorry, or thanks ;-)

--
Benjamin De Schrijver

P.S. Benjamin, don`t change your blog viewing habits. I will take the extra page hits. I don`t mind the inflated numbers as long as I am not the one inflating them. So tell me more about Raoul Servais. He sounds like a fascinating and important animator that I would like to know more about.  ¶ 6:24 AM

 

Calling Readers in Belgium:

I spent the weekend animating. Did a new opening title piece for my animation, so I am feeling pretty good this morning. I have an appointment later today and my Monday night history of animation class at Cal State Fullerton. Good group, just read and graded their first assignment. This group is on the ball. We are into talkies and just a little after the Mintz take over of Oswald. The early 30s, great time, lots of fun stuff coming out of New York studios.

On other fronts I keep an eye on where my readership come from. Tracking software with pie charts and bar graphs. And I have notices something strange of late. It seems that I have a large number of readers in Belgium. Anywhere from 3% too as high as 6% of my total readership on any given day are from Belgium. That is what my tracking software claims and I believe it.

That leads me to the conclusion that there is a very strong animation community in Belgium that I know very little aboutt. I asked Tom Knott, the guy on the Board most into world animation and he said that he believed that there was a strong animation community there but could not tell me much more about it in the time we had to talk.

I thought I would go straight to the source so if you are part of the Belgium community of animators that read these pages I would like to hear from you and about you and your animation community. And I think that my readers would also like to know about you. larry@agni-animation.com P.S. make sure to put something in the subject line of the email that will let me know that this is a real email not a spam email. I don`t want to delete the good stuff.   ¶ 7:21 AM

  We Need a Few Good Volunteers Each and Every Week:

Volunteers Needed:
Important Notice for Members of ASIFA-Hollywood and members of the Animation Rescue Team.

We are looking for volunteers to work hours at the Animation Archives. The Archives will be open each week Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 PM to 9 PM.

Sign up for hours or just come in and take part in making the ASIFA-Hollywood Archives happen. We need people to sort clip magazines, sort animations and animation related paperwork, to scan artwork, to move boxes, to help decorate the offices, in short to make it all happen.

Come dip your fingers and mind in the very stuff that is the history of animation, make a difference for feature generations of animators, and work shoulder to shoulder with your animation peers.

To sign up call: 818 842-8330 and leave a message. Or you can come in during the time that the Archive is open and volunteer.

THE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED FILM SOCIETY
2114 Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 91506 * 818 842-8330
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD  ¶ 8:28 AM

  Saturday September 24th - 3:00 pm

ASIFA-Hollywood presents - the 36th Asifa-East Animation Festival Results:

ASIFA EAST FESTIVAL - AWARD WINNERS 2005

Because of the nature of this screening it is ASIFA members only but remember you can join at the door. ($60 / Student $20) Membership has all kinds of privileges and Annies season is almost upon us with all the screenings and screeners that that brings.

Don't miss this special screening of the award winning films from this year's ASIFA-EAST competition. The best animation by U.S. independents, sponsored films, student films, commercials and more!

Saturday September 24th - 3:00 pm
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Ted Ashley/ Warner Bros. Screening Room
2021 N. Western Ave.
Hollywood, CA

ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD MEMBERS ONLY: FREE ADMISSION  ¶ 8:06 PM

  Animation Archive Open For First Week ASIFA-Hollywood's Animation Archive spent its first week open to the public this week. The space is cleared out and the computers are all set up. In the next two weeks, we will be getting more furniture and installing a local network with internet access. Come on down and see what we're up to. While you are at it, you can view a large collection of rare cartoons from the collection of John K, including all 120 B&W Popeye cartoons and the best of Bob Clampett (including Coal Black and Tin Pan Alley Cats).



The Archive is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 9pm. The address is 2114 Burbank Bl, a few blocks east of Buena Vista.  ¶ 1:23 PM

  You Are Invited To Attend Our Next

IndieProducer SCHMOOZEFEST

Tuesday, September 27, 2005
7:30pm to 9:30pm

VENUE: The Forbidden City,
1718 Vine Street , Hollywood

Back by popular demand, IndieProducer is having another incredible IP Schmoozefest. Come talk to the people who actually work in the entertainment industry, who have the answers to your questions, and who can give you insight into where you want to be and how to get there. Come mix with your peers and meet the IndieProducer team too, in a relaxed party environment!

Buy tickets online, at www.indieproducer.net under Members 8 Networking to receive a $5 discount (membership to IndieProducer is free!) or pay $20 at the door.

Students pay $10.00 at the door with student ID.

Please RSVP to: info@indieproducer.net , if not paying online.  ¶ 8:12 AM

  Corpse Review:

The ASIFA-Hollywood Corpse Bride screening was well attended last night. I saw at least 25 of my current and former students, there were lots of ASIFA board members, ASIFA volunteers, ASIFA members and lots of friends. Fred Ladd and his wife were on hand. June Foray was in the audience and Fred Patten was out for the event.



It was good to see Fred Patten and he was looking good. He is getting movement back in his right side and the doctors are hopeful.

Movie Review:
The technology of the movie overwhelmed me. I loved the movement of the bride. You can`t do that in CGI. It doesn`t work the way it does in good Stop Motion. The face articulation - brilliant, ground breaking. Good job crew. My son said that he liked it more that Nightmare but I wouldn`t go that far. Nightmare Before Christmas is a mighty high bar.

A prominent voice actor in attendance complained about the voice work, stars not voice actors and I can see that point of view. But my daughter thought that the underplayed voices worked by not pulling you away from the story to marvel at the voices. There were only 3 really stand out voices as I see it, Christopher Lee as Pastor Galawells, Enn Reitel as Maggot (Peter Lorre impression), and Danny Elfman as Bonejangles (singing). But I personally was okay with the rest of the voice cast and thought they did a good job.

The story is smaller than Nightmare. A fun little piece that I want to see again about 4 or 5 more times before it leaves the big screen. There is some incredible stuff going on both in the story and in the animation.

We got a great combo flipbook / character design scrapbook as swag. (See below) I talked to some people I needed to see. And I had a very good time. Thank you Warner Bros. It was a great screening of a wholly remarkable movie. As a Stop Motion guy, and for completely greedy reasons, I hope you do great box office on this one. I would love to see all the studios thinking that Stop Motion is the next big thing.

  ¶ 12:56 PM

  Corpse Bride Screening Anticipated

Is Tim Burton going to be there? Is Tim Burton going to be there? every student that came in for the final asked. And none of them came in at the same time as students everywhere will or will not. Sometimes there is a down side to being an ASIFA Board member. Students expect me to know.

I don`t know. Warner Bros. marketing have not announced guests. At least not to me. No late night phone calls. Larry, don`t tell anybody but . . . There is no guest list at all. Take your Ethics final, and don`t cheat. For all I know there will just be a projectionist and that will be it. But then again, who knows?

The students are worked up and it is not just because it is finals week. Burton hits a cord with students. This is the most anticipated opening since Howl`s Moving Castle. Now there is somebody else that knows how to connect with the student and everybody else too.

Whatever WB does or does not do, Corpse Bride has legs of its own, even if they are skeletal. Maybe because they are skeletal. But defiantly because of Burton.  ¶ 5:40 AM

  I googled myself this last weekend. It sounds like something nasty and it can be. But be that as it may, something good came out of it. I stumbled across a Blog by my old computer illiterate friend and former Kubert school roommate, Steve Bissette. He of Swamp Thing and Tyrant fame.

Back in 1981 when Ernie Pasanen and I were doing our computer driven animatronics we had proximity detectors to clue our user unfriendly computer and get it to talk to the victim. Please type in your name! Please type in your name! would say the hideous articulate head. Then when the poor sucker would type in his or her name there was a program that would use numerology to decide how to treat the mark based on the number match.

We were very mean to the 2`s. The only group we were meaner to was the Steve group. What is your last name? Last name? Are you Bissette. Bissette evil. Sure your are not Bissette? Don`t lie to me . . . There was a special program just for Steve Bissette but we never got to use it. He was not a big computer person in those day. For a time he was talking that photographic steal your soul.

That being said, he is on the Net now with his very own Blog and he has just started teaching comic book art at one of the collages. He is having to deal with being called professor. That one always bugs me too Hey a professor professes but a teacher teaches

So stop on over and check out steve`s MyRant Blog and if you have any info on Regional Comics he is looking for stuff for is class. Party on Steve!  ¶ 5:25 AM

  A Unique Event:

MAX HOWARD- well known animation producer, who's credits include WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, MUHLAN, SPIRIT and QUEST FOR CAMELOT, wants to get the word out that he is hosting a CRICKET MATCH to benefit the Katrina victims.

The Southern California Cricket Association ("SCCA") in collaboration with the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles will be hosting a one-day charity cricket tournament to raise funds for the ongoing relief effort for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. This tournament will feature two star studded teams: Asia XI and Rest of the World XI, including local and national cricketers, in addition to International stars from the West Indies, USA, and Zimbabwe. The tournament will be held at Woodley Cricket Fields in Van Nuys, California on Sunday, October 2 - Woodley is home to America's finest cricket grounds and is nestled in picturesque Balboa Park.

Special Guests and Entertainment:
The Mayor of Los Angeles, Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, along with Consul Generals from Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the United Kingdom have been invited to this event. This event will also feature local bands, as well as fun and games for the kids, and raffles prizes.

Donations and Sponsorship:
A minimum $5 donations is requested by all guests at the gate. The money will be collected directly by Red Cross volunteers. Donation boxes will also be posted along the ground for convenience. Businesses and individuals wishing to sponsor and/or donate prizes for this tournament are encouraged to contact us for further details: faz@cox.net or 949 293 0410.  ¶ 5:47 AM

 

It is plain to see that I come from a long line of evangelistic preachers. It is Sunday in Sherman Oaks and I am preaching the gospel according to Walt and Ub to the National Fantasy Fan Club of L.A.

We had a crowd of about 20 some people, 5 of which are long time diehard ASIFA supporter who came out just to see my screening. Thanks guys, it always makes me feel good to see your familiar faces in the audience.

We looked at very early Disney/Iwerks Kansas City Laugh-O-Grams. Followed Walt and crew to Hollywood for some Alice in Cartoonland Cartoons, Oswalds, and Mickey sound cartoons.

I sparked as bit of controversy by showing a Foxy. How can they get way with such a blatant Mickey Mouse rip? In truth a good question.

Finished up with questions and then networking and a drawing for the door prize which my son did not win. I had a good time, I hope that they did too.

Photos by Tobias Loc

  ¶ 6:31 PM

 

Spent the day animating. Was fun to back working. Tomorrow it is off to the Sherman Oaks for the NFFC screening. Monday it is History of Animation at Cal State Fullerton, and then finals week as Brooks College. Then 2 weeks off from that school so maybe I can get some more animation done.
  ¶ 9:25 PM

  Bright Green Pleasure Machine:

Good news for everybody in animation, according to AWN`s FLASH Drew Carey`s Green Screen Show has been picked up. In the first run of this live action/animation show everybody I knew and every boutique studio in town was steaming away under a mountain of animation. Here is hoping that Comedy Central is talking new shows not just reruns. I am thinking very strongly about putting Drew Carey up for animation sainthood. I know a lot of people who would vote for him.

21. COMEDY CENTRAL PICKS UP DREW CAREY`S GREEN SCREEN SHOW. Comedy Central has acquired DREW CAREY`S GREEN SCREEN SHOW, which will premiere Sept. 26, 2005, at 10:00 pm. The live-action/animated improv comedy first aired on The WB last fall.

To promote the broadcast, Carey and the stars of DREW CAREY`S GREEN SCREEN
SHOW will be featured in a special, DREW CAREY FRIDAY NIGHT STAND-UP, Sept. 16 from 8:30-11:00 pm. This will include specials from D.L. Hughley, Godfrey, Keith Robinson and Mark Curry, with Carey filling the audience in on his upcoming stand-up tour and details about his GREEN SCREEN SHOW.

The concept calls for the cast to act out quirky ideas suggested by the audience in front of a greenscreen. Animation directors Acme Filmworks recruited from around the world expand upon audience suggestions, inserting the actors into the skit in an animated version of the theme or environment pitched by the audience. Sometimes the actors are morphed and animated or later with vfx. The live-action and animation talents combine to create an actual improvised show that brings to life the details going on in their vivid imaginations.

For animation fans it offers a vast array of styles from 3D to traditional, stop-motion to cutout, anime to Disney.

Carey, who created the show, exec produced it with Ron Diamond, CEO of animation provider Acme Filmworks. The show is a production of Production Group and Michigan J.

  ¶ 5:48 AM

  Early Disney Screening:

Spent the day editing my National Fantasy Fan Club screening for Sunday. (look below for directions and details) It took on an interesting twist.

It turned into a who stole what from who type of theme. Some Paul Terry to Alice comparisons, a Laugh-O-Gram to Alice comparison, a look at Peg Leg Pete as seen in an Alice and as ripped off in a Bosko, a Mickey to Foxy, and Iwerks/Disney Oswald to Walter Lantz Oswald. Also Look at the true Alice as played by Virginia Davis and the pretenders (Shirley and Gay).

Some times these things just take on a mind of their own when I am going through the stacks looking for cartoons. They just seem to fall together in a certain way and who am I to fight against the cartoon fates.  ¶ 6:33 PM

  This just in from Pam Thompson. Visual Effects Society event part II

VES Animation Event Part 2: The Nuts and Bolts of Animation Producing - October 6th at Warner Bros.

So, now that you have enjoyed the VES - Artistic Pitching for Animation seminar, why not come and join us for our next installment?

You`ve pitched it, You`ve sold it Now it`s time to produce it!

In this seminar, geared towards current animation producers and VFX Producers, we will cover what you really need to know in order to producer 3D animation as opposed to live action VFX. We will present an overview of animation budgeting, along with a chart of accounts. Our panel will discuss the various labor issues as well as cover costs averages in each category.

Our Panelists are:

• John Walker - Producer - The Incredibles - Pixar


• Amy Jupiter - Co- Producer - Open Season (animated feature) - Sony Pictures Imageworks


• Ellen Coss - Associate Producer - Over the Hedge (animated feature) - DreamWorks


• Carolyn Soper - Vice President, Production - Disney Animation

Join us for this not to be missed event

T HURSDAY - OCT. 6, 2005
7:00PM - 10:00PM
Warner Bros. Screening Room #12
4000 Warner Blvd. Gate 4
Burbank , CA 91522

Cost - $15 VES members and ASIFA members/ $20 non-members

Remember, seating is limited, so buy your tickets early. Call 310/822-9181 to order your tickets now!  ¶ 9:41 AM

  Back in the Saddle Again:

Saddle up and ride the Wild Software. I am back animating. Let me clarify that. I managed to save enough of the images that were clobbered by my friendly neighborhood virus attack that I could start to tweak the images and get back to building the scene I was working on before I was so rudely intercoused. I spent part of this last Sunday working on my animation and it feels good to be back.  ¶ 9:41 AM

  Gaming Annie Announced:

People in my crowd tend to talk about TV and feature animation as if it is ANIMATION, all of animation. In truth, TV and feature animation only account for about 20% of ANIMATION. Motion studies, education, commercials, court reenactment, medical, business presentation, and gaming folk. Let us not forget gaming.

For the last couple of years I have been one of the people on the ASIFA board pushing for a stand along gaming Annie. Last year we had gaming animation in with Short Animation. It didn`t really fit there and I think we knew it at the time but there were real reasons why we had to do it that way. This year I am very proud to announce that Gaming animation has its own Annie category.

Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game

An Annie Award for Best Animated Video Game shall be awarded to an animated video game in recognition of creative excellence in the art of animation.

Eligibility: To be eligible to receive this award an animated video game must have originally been commercially released between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.

Mechanical Requirements for Entry: A VHS videocassette or DVD with clips from the production, not exceeding five minutes in length. Be sure to label the cassette and cassette box or DVD and DVD case as indicated under Submission and Mechanical Requirements. Also please include a copy of the entry form with the material submitted.

If you work in gaming, CGI or are otherwise attached to the gaming world we are (I Am) looking for judges for this year`s gaming category. We get together and look at all the gaming animation submitted. You decide on the top gaming animations for the year and then you get really good seats at the Annies as a thank you.

If you work at a gaming company and you have some killer cut screens in your current release, hey send then on out. We are looking for the best of the best sir, and we plan on adding the honors.  ¶ 5:13 AM

  I got this from Tom Sito who got it from Dori Littell-Herrick at Woodbury.

Please circulate:

Friends and fellow artists,

I received this plea below for help at Woodbury University through the offices of NASAD The National Association of Schools of Art and Design, an organization that accredits art. It is from the School of Art at Louisiana State University, design programs.

I was very moved to hear, among all the calls for water, for food, for emergency supplies, a call for sketchbooks and markers, crayons and paint, for the artists, the art students, and the young people of the Louisiana area, who need a way to put their grief and fear and loss down in the form of art.

I'm asking how the animation community can come together and help, and asking you to pass this up the line at the studios to ask if they can help.We all know that loads of paper, pencils, markers and other art supplies sit around in studios, unused, only to get thrown away. How many of us have pulled supplies out of the trash can and taken them home. Now there is a place in need of all the supplies we can muster.

Please respond if you can. If there is a way we can come together to create a larger response, let's talk about it. Meanwhile, any aid you can send to Mr. Baron at LSU Department of Art would be great.

Thanks,
Dori Littell-Herrick
Chair, Animation
Woodbury University

Dear Colleagues,

This is the only expedient way to contact you that I can think of and am making the following appeal.

I am asking for your help in the ongoing efforts to aid the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. Here in Baton Rouge we have a great need for art supplies for the evacuees who are being housed and educated in the city and at LSU. We have four cohorts in desperate need of supplies: children and adults now living in shelters throughout the Baton Rouge area, children who are entering the public schools who budgets are currently overtaxed and overwhelmed by the doubling of enrolled
students, college art students from New Orleans now enrolled at the School of Art at LSU, and professional artists who have lost not only their supplies but their life's work. The East Baton Rouge Parish School System is a separate entity and one that I cannot speak for, but the others are those that I can directly reach in this effort. Any art supplies, especially drawing pads, sketchbooks, pencils, markers,watercolor sets, crayons, charcoal, printmaking supplies, sculpture tools, papers, rulers, t-squares, and anything else that is not toxic or dangerous (e.g. oil paint chemicals) is sought to give these souls ways to express their feelings and impressions of this unmatched national
tragedy as well as diversion and solace in their uprooted circumstances. Of course, any gift in kind to the University has tax benefits, but your heartfelt willingness to help us in this time of abject need will not go unappreciated or publicly unnoticed. I cannot possibly explain to you the depth of hardship that now exists and the necessity for life-sustaining support. Art is such a powerful
means of achieving those true expressions of loss, fear, confusion, grief, and, most importantly, hope, which words alone cannot convey. No donation would be too small.

Please, please help us by providing what you can. This is only one form of positive intervention, coming quickly from the entire country, that will enable the people and artists of the greater New Orleans area and Mississippi to sustain any possibility of a future whatsoever. All donations can
be sent directly to the School of Art office at the address below.

Respectfully,
Stuart Baron
Director, School of Art
Louisiana State University
123 Art Building
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
70803
225.578.5414 (office)
225.578.5424 (fax)
baron@lsu.edu

  ¶ 1:30 PM

 


Los Angeles Chapter of the National Fantasy Fan Club for Disneyana Enthusiasts and Collectors has invited me to do a screening and talk on the early days of Disney.

They meets at:
1:00 p.m.
Sunday Sept. 18th
in the community room of Westfield Shoppingtown Fashion Square,
13750 Riverside Drive
Sherman Oaks.

Westfield Shoppingtown Fashion Square is located north of the 101 Freeway, off the Woodman Avenue exit;

The community room is the small building at the back of the parking lot behind Ross Dress for Less at the southwest corner of Riverside Drive and Woodman Avenue.

Non-members are welcome to attend.

For more information or directions, please visit their website, http://nffc-la.org , or e-mail Paul Schnebelen at president@nffc-la.org

I will be showing some Laugh-O-Grams, Some Alice in Carttonlands, and Iwerks/Dinsey and Walter Lantz Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons  ¶ 10:35 AM

  Report of Archives Sort:

Seven people helped for at least part of today`s 6-hour session. Our main focus was a box-level sort (i.e., if we saw a whole box that was mostly not worth saving, out it went) and compacting multiple loosely packed boxes into one.

The box-level sort mostly resulted in about 10 boxes of old Annie VHS tapes that were just clips, and hence not worth saving (VHS doesn`t digitize well). We were particularly successful with compacting; I don`t have an exact count, but I`d estimate we had about 75-100 empty boxes when we were done. That`s mostly because of the WAC entries, which were very inefficiently stored. Some boxes of magazines also had a great deal of empty space which we were able to fill. At a future date, we`ll take the time to do a secondary sort on these magazine boxes, reducing most of them to clip files.

The goal was to clear out the front portion of the Animation Center so that it could be used for its intended purpose, and that is indeed done now.

I really wish I had kept notes on some of the bizarre titles we saw; if the shorts we sifted through are half as interesting as their titles, we definitely have to have a screening some day. Another treasure I want to spend more time with is a box of the Frostbite Falls Gazette, a newsletter/fanzine for lovers of Moose and Squirrel. We also ran across some neat publicity photos for Beany and Cecil, including a photo of Bob Clampett at the drawing board, and another drawing of the main characters (even Dishonest John) all wearing mouse-ear hats for some reason.

The next step is to load the boxes we sorted today into a truck, along with the Spumco archives currently at the Victory building, and put them into a temporary storage space. This will give us room to begin organizing the back room into something useful instead of a disorganized heap of stuff. Look for a call-for-volunteers for this presently; probably won`t take more than a couple hours, since all the boxes are now very near the back door.

Thanks to today`s helpers: Sharon Eisenberg, Jason Jones, Eric Graf, Paul Abramson, Linda Lee, Dave-who-wouldn`t-give-his-last-name, and I think one more whose name I didn`t get. And of course Steve Worth, who came by at the end to provide the big picture to everyone.
--
Jon Reeves
The Internet Movie Database http://imdb.com "My God! It`s full of stars!"  ¶ 6:29 AM

  Just back from Laguna College of Art & Design for an afternoon and evening with Glen Keane. I will be labeling the photos and writing up my story some time tomorrow. But for now here are the photos from the even.

Okay, here is the update. The event was great and very intimate, animator to animator. This his how I do it, this is what I have learned. Thank you Aubry for inviting me to the event before the Gallery opening.



Aubry Mintz, Animation Chair at Laguna College of Art & Design, doing an intro for Glen Keane


Very large group of student very glad to be here for the event.




3 steps to animation






Looking at sketches. The sletchbook keeps you fresh and true. The danger without the sketchbook is that you will start copying others or worse, yourself.





Sketches drawn from a moving Jeep in Africa.



The highlight was the animation that Glen did on the spot. It was great to see him feel his way through.



Tarzan drawings with the muscles added.



Notes in Glen`s sketchbook, thoughts on animal movement.



Rough animation test



Gallery show of sketchbook art, Like putting your soul up on the walls.



The guide told everybody to get their cameras out and Glen got out his sketchbook. You forgot your camera? You don`t have to really see to use a camera.



You know, you don`t really draw like Little Billy! I know, I keep telling him, Dad you are making me look bad But he just says that when he started the stripe I was Little Billy.



Girl in an airport



Glen would like to get more time to sculpt and to do his own animation.



The girl in the blue is from Israel, she is staying in L.A., she found out about the event through this web site and talked her father into driving in for the event. Look at her face, she has gotten to meet her hero.



Disney Imagineer in for the event.



There is something so real and fitting about this kid as he waits for his father to get done taking in the show. The father is waiting in line to talk to Glen.



Sketchs from a moving Jeep



Students waiting in line.  ¶ 10:42 PM

 

THE INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED FILM SOCIETY
2114 Burbank Blvd. Burbank, CA 91506 * 818 842-8330
ASIFA-HOLLYWOOD

Important Notice For Members of ASIFA-Hollywood
[September 9, 2005] The Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood is pleased to announce that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive will be opening to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 pm to 9 pm beginning on September 20th. We have purchased the necessary equipment, and are in the beginning stages of creating a world class archive dedicated to the art of animation. In case you are not familiar with our plans, we have included an informational brochure on the project with this mailing.

Thanks to the generosity of animation director John Kricfalusi, the public archive holdings are inaugurated with a wonderful collection of animated films, including all 120 black and white Popeye cartoons, along with the best work of cartoon director, Bob Clampett (Coal Black, Tin Pan Alley Cats, Great Piggy Bank Robbery, etc.) These films are available for viewing during office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Currently, the public holdings are limited to this collection, but as time goes by, we will be adding more items to the archive. For updates, see the Animation Archive Project Blog...
http://www.animationarchive.org/blogger.html

Please make a point in the next few weeks to stop by the archive and see what we are doing. In particular, students, researchers and artists are encouraged to visit . . . this archive is intended for your use. If you would like to volunteer to help the project reach its goals, Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days to stop by and help out. The more support we get from the membership in these important first few months, the faster the archive will grow.

Currently, we only have funding in the Archive budget to maintain the Tuesday and Thursday public hours through the end of the year. We are hoping that the membership will see the value of this project, and will contribute to extend and expand the public availability of this important resource. Your generosity is appreciated, and every cent donated to the project will be used to establish and expand the archive.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1 pm to 9 pm 2114 Burbank Blvd, Burbank (just East of Buena Vista)  ¶ 10:26 AM

  Tonight, Sept. 7th, is the ASIFA-Hollywood board meeting. 7PM at the Animation Center 2114 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank, CA. The public is welcome.  ¶ 5:15 AM

  The Los Angeles Professional Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH in cooperation with the Entertainment Technology Center at USC Presents:
Digital Cinema and 3D:
Business, Production, and Distribution Trends

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Speakers include: *
Marty Shindler, The Shindler Perspective, Inc. Moderator/Meeting Co-Producer
Brian Claypool, Christie Digital Systems
Neil Feldman, In-Three
Josh Greer, Real D
Glenn Kennel, DLP Cinema, Texas Instruments
Jon Landau>, Lightstorm Entertainment
Walt Ordway, CTO Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)
George Scheckel, QuVis
Steve Schklair, Cobalt Entertainment
Charles S. Swartz, Entertainment Technology Center at USC

See the work that is being done in Digital Cinema and 3D and join Marty Shindler and his distinguished panelists as they discuss the changes that have occurred in the marketplace and how digital cinema and 3D stereo may offer new opportunities in the entertainment business. Such industry luminaries as Jim Cameron, Robert Zemeckis and Robert Rodriguez have produced 3D films. George Lucas and Peter Jackson have embraced 3D films for future releases. Digital Cinema and 3D stereo may cause fundamental changes in the way content is produced and distributed. Through the use of digital cinema, 3D stereo may cause people to return to the theaters with different and compelling content. These new technologies offer new opportunities to LA SIGGRAPH members.

*Speakers subject to change without prior notice. For bios of speakers please see our web site at http://www.la.siggraph.org/

PROGRAM:
6:30-7:30 P.M. Social Hour - Free Hors d`oeuvres and beverages
7:30-9:30 P.M. Program

LOCATION:
Digital Cinema Laboratory
at the Pacific Hollywood Theatre
6433 Hollywood Blvd.
Hollywood, CA 90028

DIRECTIONS / PARKING:

• From the 101 freeway take the Cahuenga Blvd. exit Turn Right (South) on Cahuenga Blvd.
  
• Turn Right onto Hollywood Blvd.

The Pacific Hollywood Theatre is on the corner of Wilcox and Hollywood
Parking lots are available both North and South of Hollywood Blvd. on Wilcox and Cahuenga, including behind the theater.FEES / REGISTRATION:The event is free to LA SIGGRAPH members. Due to the limited number of 3D glasses available, if you would like to view the 3D content, LA SIGGRAPH members should RSVP at http://www.la.siggraph.org/html/rsvp.htm by September 27.

NOTE: to ASIFA Members:
This event is also free to members of the entertainment industry who can show a valid ID. This includes: 1. Any relevant union, guild, or membership organization card 2. Any employee ID with an entertainment company 3. Any business card from an entertainment-related (e.g., PC or IT or software) company or 4. Any film teacher or film student with ID. Entertainment industry members who are NOT LA SIGGRAPH members must pre-register at http://www.etcenter.org/ .

Walk in/one time visitors who are not LA SIGGRAPH members and who do not have industry affiliation or appropriate ID should also RSVP at http://www.la.siggraph.org/html/rsvp.htm. Visitors will be charged $15.

It is advised that LA SIGGRAPH members show up as early as possible to ensure admittance to this event. Admittance as always is first come/first served.  ¶ 4:51 AM

  From the Visual Effects Society Education Committee:
2nd Posting

You`re running out of time on this event so make sure to act today.

PART 1 ARTISTIC PITCHING FOR ANIMATION

panel comprises of :

Francis Glebas - Moderator Animation Director - Disney
Frank Gladstone - VP of Artistic Development IDT Entertainment, Feature Animation
Karen Foster - Creative Executive - DreamWorks Animation
Mark Andrew s - Director - Pixar
Roland Poindexter - SR VP of WBA (Warner Bros. Animation) Development
Heather Kenyon - Senior Director Cartoon Network
Peter Gal - Director, Development - Nickelodeon

Date: SATURDAY - SEPT 10, 2005
Time: 10:30AM - 1:30PM

Location:
SONY THEATER
9050 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City , 90 232

Tickets: $15.00 VES Members and members of ASIFA

$20.00 General Public and at door

Please call the VES office 310/822-9181 or info@visualeffectssociety.com to order your tickets today.

seating is limited  ¶ 6:09 PM

  SpyWare Scam?:

It looks like I am starting to win my virus battle. Still not sure and still have a lot of stuff to reinstall. I did have one setback this week and that is why I am still boring you with my digital sickness.

A reader sent me an email with links to an upgrade for Spybot Search and Destroy, a program that I have used for years. I am going to assume that this was a well-meaning attempt at a kindness.

The site that the link led me to listed a number of top of the line anti-spyware products but would download only an alleged rogue software product named NoAdware. See a review here: adwarereport

So I say to myself what the hell I`m running 3 programs now so lets give it a try. I run it and it runs superfast comeing up with 18 major spyware hits, 5 of them registry keylogger infections. I hit the clean infections button and got a $29.99 register to clean high-pressure sales pitch.

Now I have been running anti-spyware and virus scans 5 or 6 times a day since I got hit 3 weeks ago. Is this product so much faster and better than the top of line stuff I have been running? Or is there a strong aged seafood aroma emanating for the general vicinity of Denmark?

I passed up the opportunity to give them my hard-earned money and did a lot of spyware scans with Ad-Aware, PC-Cillin, and Spybot. I did find one registry resident piece of Spyware with a path that points straight back to, you guessed it, the NoAdware product.

It turns out that most of the false positives are Windows components whose removal would severally damage the computer operating system. First, do no Harm! How do some alleged slimes sleep at night?  ¶ 9:13 AM

  Glen Keane:

Just got off the phone with Aubry Mintz from Laguna College of Art and Design. They always have such cool shows in their on campus gallery:

  ¶ 11:44 AM

 


This month`s volunteer of distinction is Paul Abramson. Paul is always there to help, at comic con, at the Annies, lugging boxes in the heat at Klasky Csypo. He is a film school graduate currently working as a PA in live action but with a love of all things animation.

Paul, along with Jason Jones, has just agreed to be co-lead for the Animation Rescue Team. Paul is a good guy, a dedicated ASIFA-Hollywood volunteer and this month`s volunteer of the month.


  ¶ 8:42 PM

  The Power of Animation:

Most times I try not to post things that other animation sites post, but this is too cool not to talk about even it other sites have already done the same. Ryan Larkin is back and working on an animation again.  ¶ 4:59 PM

  Call to Action:

Any of you that have been in the new animation center as of late may have noticed that we have been flooded by a number very large donations starting with the Spumco and Thoren donations.

Jon Reeves, Animation Archives Team Leader, has announced an Animation Sorting party for Sunday September 11th at the Animation Center (2114 W. Burbank Blvd) starting at 10 AM and running until 4 PM.

We will be determining what is in the boxes and consolidating them to make them more compact. You are invited to come out and lend a hand. Who knows who you will meet at this kind of event.  ¶ 10:06 AM

 

ASIFA-Hollywood members screening

Tim Burton`s
CORPSE BRIDE

Dircted by Tim Burton & Mike Johnson

It all began with a grave misunderstanding . . . On the way home to his fiancee, Victor (Johnny Depp) stops to practice his wedding vows, placing his ring on a stick poking out of the ground as a joke. He gets more than he bargained for when the stick turns out to be the finger of a dead woman, and now the Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter) is after him, claiming to legally be his bride and intent on showing Victor the time of his after-life.
Corpse Bride carries on in the dark, romantic tradition of Burton's classic films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor (Johnny Depp), a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham-Carter), while his real bride, Victoria (Emily Watson), waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. It's a tale of optimism, romance and a very lively afterlife, told in classic Tim Burton style.


Don't miss this stop motion animation extravaganza!

Wednesday, September 21 - 7:30p.m.
Samuel Goldwyn Theatre
8949 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA

ASIFA MEMBERS (and a guest) ONLY • R.S.V.P. (818) 954-6190 - enter screening code 1066  ¶ 9:04 AM