These two clips totaling 20 minutes of a 90 minute film. You can rent the entire movie instantly on Netflix or Amazon.
Showing posts with label Animation History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Animation History. Show all posts
Lee Unkrich on Win, Lose or Draw
To mark the milestone of reaching 100k followers on Twitter, longtime Pixar creative and Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich posted this “embarrassing” video of his 20-year-old self appearing as a contestant on the popular 80s game show Win, Lose or Draw. Unkrich steps up to the board at 7:00.
via the daily what
Chuck Jones, "I Dare You..."
Writing to a class of students in January of 1992 in an effort to promote the art of reading, legendary animator Chuck Jones recalls the books which helped inspire the creation of Wile E. Coyote and Pepé Le Pew, just two of the many cartoon characters he had a hand in bringing to the screen.
Transcript follows. Image courtesy of Davey, however the letter does also seem to be up for sale on eBay at the moment.
Transcript
January 24, 1992
[Redacted]
Knowing how to read and not reading books is like owning skiis and not skiing, owning a board and never riding a wave, or, well, having your favorite sandwich in your hand and not eating it. If you owned a telescope that would open up the entire universe for you would you try to find reason for not looking through it? Because that is exactly what reading is all about; it opens up the universe of humour, of adventure, of romance, of climbing the highest mountain, of diving in the deepest sea.
I found my first experience with Wile E. Coyote in a whole hilarious chapter about coyotes in a book called Roughing It by Mark Twain. I found the entire romantic personality of Pepe Le Pew in a book written by Kenneth Roberts, Captain Hook. I found bits and pieces of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and all the others in wonderful, exciting books.
I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
Chuck Jones
via Letters of Note
Living Lines Library
Lines by Andreas Deja
Rescuers Pencil Test from FantasticAdam on Vimeo.
Lines by Milt Kahl
The Living Lines website is an amazing
Kaj Pindal : Laugh Lines
Opening Text for Empire Strikes Back
Behind the scenes look at the opening text
crawl shoot for Empire Strikes Back.
just because...
Tissa David
I am flooded with emails from ambitious female animators entering the field and asking me for advice and mentoring. Sooooo, I wanted to give props to one female animator I have always admired and wished could have been MY mentor - Tissa David.
There is a sensual flow to her work that I just love. the lines of action drip with fluidity. I would love to animate like this woman one day.
The animated short above is an Ani-jam with over 30 NYC animators working to the theme of "eat or get eaten." Tissa David's section of the jam is at about 3:30 minutes into the short. She animated a dog eats pasta and you can see the gorgeous lines there as the pasta forms from a tornado whirlwind to the plate.
Micheal Sporn (one of my favorite animation bloggers)
posted the movie above on his Splog.
It's a great cycle Tissa David created for the animated short "Eggs."
Below is the Eggs short in it's entireity.
Thanatos & eros as a feudin' couple, love it. It gets off to a slow start but hang in there. From The Great American Dream Machine, a very cool 60s style (read free spirit) series on PBS in 1971. In the sub-plots the medical futurism seems very prescient.
Eggs Cast and Crew List:
* 1970
* Directed by: Faith Hubley, John Hubley
* Cast (in credits order): David Burns, Anita Ellis
* Produced by: Faith Hubley, John Hubley
* Original Music by: Quincy Jones
* Film Editing by: Faith Hubley
* Art Department: Nina Di Gangi, Nathan Garland, Susan Goldberger, Faith Hubley, John Hubley, Peter White
* Animation Department: Tissa David,
* Other crew: Jean Williams
Tissa David was born in Transylvania in 1921. She attended the Academy of Beaux Arts in Budapest, where she also co-owned an animation studio. She began her animation career in Budapest, Hungary in 1943, and escaped the Communist takeover of Hungary by moving to Paris in 1950 and directed the animated feature Bonjour Paris in 1953. She worked in Paris until 1955 when she moved to the United States. She has been working in the New York area since 1956 doing animation and direction for UPA, the Hubley's Storyboard Films, Inktank and Michael Sporn. She was a lead animator on Raggedy Ann in 1977.
Links:
Michael Sporn's Bio on Tissa David
Dave Nethery's Page about Tissa David
ASIFA Hall of Fame - Tissa David
Still hard at work - Tissa David IMDB
Animation Blog - Tissa David
Milt Kahl: The Animation Michelangelo
Dear Readers,
I apologize for being so absent. My new job has kept me quite busy, but I am coming up for air to tell you about this great event!!! I am HUGE Milt Kahl fan and the rest of the panel is definitely one you don't get to hear from every day!!! Hope to see you there!
I apologize for being so absent. My new job has kept me quite busy, but I am coming up for air to tell you about this great event!!! I am HUGE Milt Kahl fan and the rest of the panel is definitely one you don't get to hear from every day!!! Hope to see you there!
As part of the Marc Davis Celebration of Animation,
the Academy presents a centennial celebration of
“Milt Kahl: The Animation Michelangelo”
Hosted by Andreas Deja.
Panel moderated by animation critic Charles Solomon.
Featuring Kathryn Beaumont, Brad Bird (F/V 76), Ron Clements, John Musker (F/V 77), and Floyd Norman.
Renowned for his unparalleled draftsmanship as well as his exacting nature, Milt Kahl (1909–1987), one of the “nine old men” Walt Disney relied upon to bring his creative vision to the screen, was the animator to whom the other eight turned when they had trouble with a character or scene.
Two of Kahl’s renowned colleagues, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, write in Disney Animation:The Illusion of Life, “Unlike many irascible temperaments who have filled the halls of history, Milt had a very sweet helpful side, when he chose. He gave unstintingly of his time and talent when it was to help the picture and almost as often to help a fellow artist who had a problem. However, he expected everyone coming for help to have worked hard and tried everything – to have done his best before coming.”
Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, when Kahl was responsible for the final design of many characters, he complained of being “saddled” with the animation of challenging, non-comic human characters such as Alice, Peter Pan, Wendy, and Sleeping Beauty’s Prince. But Kahl secretly relished the fact that it was his talent and drive that made these characters come alive.
This celebration of Milt Kahl will feature an insightful analysis of his animation drawings, rare film interviews with Kahl himself, and clips of his work from such Disney favorites as “Mickey’s Circus,” “Pinocchio,” “Bambi,” “Peter Pan,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Jungle Book” and “The Rescuers.” The clips will be interspersed with commentary from those who worked beside him and were inspired by him, revealing the rigorous process and fiery personality of a true animation legend.
Panelists
ANDREAS DEJA, one of the top animators of his generation, brought to life characters as diverse as Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast,” Scar in “The Lion King,” and Lilo in “Lilo & Stitch.”
KATHRYN BEAUMONT was the voice artist for Alice in “ Alice in Wonderland” and Wendy in “Peter Pan.”
BRAD BIRD has won the Animated Feature Film Oscar® twice, for his work on “The Incredibles” and “Ratatouille.”
RON CLEMENTS and JOHN MUSKER served as co-directors and writers on “The Great Mouse Detective,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” “Hercules” and “Treasure Planet.”
FLOYD NORMAN preceded his lengthy television animation career with experience as an apprentice/assistant to Milt Kahl on “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Sword in the Stone” and “The Jungle Book.”
All guests subject to availability.
Event Information
When
Monday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Where
Samuel Goldwyn Theater
8949 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills , CA 90211
Directions, Parking & Theater Policies
All seating is unreserved.
Evolution of the Batman Logo
Watch Batman Logo Evolution
More:
History of the Batman logo
from 1939 to present by Todd Klein
Something about the modern version for Nightfall 1993 is really interesting to me...
Ray Harryhausen Creature List
Groundbreaking visual effects designer Ray Harryhausen refined and elevated stop-motion animation to an art. His Dynamation technique of matting animated creatures into live-action settings revolutionized the use of stop-motion animation in visual effects.
Arguably, Ray Harryhausen's creations aren't the most realistic in the realm of special effects, nor will his films ever join the ranks of cinema's classics. Yet Ray's touch can be instantly recognized. His creations are absolutely alive; in each frame his creatures move, twitch, breathe, act with a personality and pathos that can only be ascribed to a direct connection to Ray.
I vividly recall my early encounters with Ray's creatures. I can't admit to ever being convinced that any of Ray Harryhausen's creature animations were actually real. They were better than real, hyper-real, and their performances still remain riveting in spite of today's advances in special effects. Few other low-budget monster movies of the time match the technical competence and respect for the subject as Ray's films. Ray is clearly behind each character, manipulating each frame to present on a movie screen what had previously existed only in his imagination.
Ray was a master of his medium, applying skills as diverse as sculpture, illustration, painting, optics, history, and acting. Take any of his best-known creatures - The sword-fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, the Cyclops from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, or Clash of the Titan's Medusa, for example. Ray conceived and designed each shot; sculpted, cast in latex around an articulated metal armature, painted and detailed the stop-motion puppet; staged and lit a miniature set of his construction; and infused it with poetic animation. Lacking any practical pre-visualization tools, he knew if a shot succeeded only after the film was developed. He executed his shots single-handedly, working months at a time, in tiny converted storefront studios.
Beyond the sheer spectacle of his films, Ray never lost sight of the realities of commercial filmmaking. Shot in exotic (and cheap) locations with local crews, his techniques were tailored to deliver effects on time and on budget. His business sense led to scripts both visually rich and commercially viable, and kept him consistently employed from 1953's The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms until his retirement after 1981's Clash of the Titans.
I've maintained my Ray Harryhausen Creature list on the web for several years. It originated as a contest entry to Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. The Ray Harryhausen Creature list emphasizes Ray's work in feature films. Not included are his early Mother Goose shorts; test reels and unrealized projects; and some stop-motion effects shots (such as the discus toss in Jason and the Argonauts), live-action effects (like the Iguana stand-in dinosaur from One Million Years B.C.), miniatures (including the Mysterious Island balloon), makeup & prosthetics, and animated replacements for humans caught in creatures' clutches. Ray Harryhausen deserves further credit for his groundbreaking work in composite effects, demonstrated to great effect in The 3 Worlds of Gulliver.
Animated Soviet Propaganda
The Communist movement in art created such a distictive style that even Al Hirschfeld gave up lithograph for ink as a medium in his editorial cartoons. In those years, the look of a lithographs were identified with communist propaganda art and he liked his subject matter too much to entangle himself in political satire.This should be a really interesting set of DVDs to watch.
~ Angie
Part 1 of 4 of the Documentary "Animated Soviet Propaganda" From 1924 to perestroika the USSR produced more than 4 dozen animated propaganda films. They weren't for export. Their target was the new nation and their goal was to win over the hearts and minds of the Soviet people. Anti-American, Anti-British, Anti-German, Anti-Capitalist, Anti-Fascist, some of these films are as artistically beautiful as the great political posters made after the 1917 revolution which inspired Soviet animation. A unique series. With a unique perspective. Includes interviews with the directors of the animated films which are still alive and commentary by a leading Soviet film scholar. Two hours of documentary and six hours of animated films. | |
Scott makes me smile
Scott Holmes is a kick ass animator working on a mocap show right now and its quite the soul crusher. So, I wanted to send a little shout out to my homie, 'cuz he makes me smile and helps me through bad days with his sarcastic wit. I asked him to draw me a giraffe on a chopper and he did...he has some other bad ass drawings on his blog So Cal Weirdo.Scott also was the content editor for our book and didn't get paid what he was worth. He kept Jamie and I honest and I thank him for his guidance and tough love during the editing process. I can't wait til he gets his shirt line out there...I am gonna buy all of them and get my girl platoon to buy them out, as well. This is the home of his shirts Weirdo Apparel. Check it out yo!
luv ya man,
Ang
Beach Chair / Flags and Waves (Pixar, 1986)
Thanks to The Frederator Blog for posting this!
Beach Chair / Flags and Waves (Pixar, 1986)
RETTA (SCOTT) DAVIDSON
There is an interesting article Jerry Beck brought up on his blog cartoonbrew and I don't usually like to repeat posts, but in case folks are unaware...There has been a lot of talk of the mystery of female animators at Disney, or lack there of.
Here is just brief bit about Rhetta Scott - the animator Wade Sampson talks about most in his article - or at least info I could find on the internet:
RETTA (SCOTT) DAVIDSON, longtime Disney animation artist, died June 12, 1998. Her maiden name was Scott and she was the first female animator at Disney (on Bambi). Starting at Disney in 1939 as an inker and painter, Retta became an inbetweener during the Second World War, becoming one of the few females in a (then) all-male workplace. Late in the war she joined the Navy and worked in a Washington D.C. film unit. She retired from the animation business in 1985. She spent time in between her career at Disney's in the 40's and the late 70's freelancing for other studios.
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