PENCIL LINES
Journeys from the desktop of a traditional animator in the digital age!
PENCIL LINES
THANKS TO EVERETT!
Answering a number of questions after the event.
My thanks go out to the folks of Everett Library who made Saturday's presentation event so enjoyable. I have a great affection for the Auditorium there as we used it a number of years before for the Henry Cogswell College senior graduation show with great success.
Aspects of my previous work, the work of DigiPen students and my plans for the future through the Animaticus Foundation seemed to be very well received and (as can be seen by these pictures, kindly shot and donated by Ken Rowe) a good number of the audience stayed on to ask numerous questions and share their support. I will be offering the same presentation to the Seattle Flash Users Group in the near future so I'm hoping that it goes as well as this one did.
Thanks also to all the folks who showed up despite the incredibly sunny, spring-like weather, showing their appreciation for my love of the great art of traditional animation! Thank you too for helping us raise some welcome contributions to our "The Adventures of Uncle Lubin" production fund!
And even more questions... that were of course more than welcome!
Tony. :^{)}=-
THANK YOU ANIMATION MAGAZINE!
Just saw that my new book, "How To Make Animated Films" was listed as one of the "Ten Essential Books for Animation Students and Fans" in the February 2010 edition of "Animation Magazine". If feels good to be rated up there with some of the great classic books that we all know and love, such as "The Animator's Survival Kit", "Illusion of Life" and "Timing For Animation"!
Thank you Animation Magazine!
And if you're tempted to buy it on Amazon, please click HERE.
Tony :^{)}=-
FROM AN ONLINE STORE NEAR YOU!
A 'new & improved' DVD release of "Endangered Species" is now available online! This DVD presentation by Animaticus Foundation also includes the British Academy Award-winning "Hokusai ~ An Animated Sketchbook" as well as an archive collection of favorite animated TV Commercials (many of them award-winners).
All proceeds from this release will be donated to the Animaticus Foundation's first feature film development, "The Adventures of Uncle Lubin". The planned 1-minute teaser will hopefully lead to a fully-funded movie production, together with an 'atelier' style apprenticeship opportunity for talented young post-graduate students who will be able to work side-by-side with incredible, seasoned animation professionals.
So if you want to support us with this much needed initiative please purchase "Endangered Species" online at Amazon. (Although if you're at the Everett Public Library presentation on February 6th you'll get it signed with a 40% discount!)
Tony :^{)}=-
FUN EVENING!
Spent a great evening at the Redmond Arts Festival last night! As part of a panel consisting of ex-Disney artist, Dan Daly, and DigiPen COO, Raymond Yan, we discussed the past, present and future of animation ("Animation Through the Ages") with the 100-plus audience. Showing clips of our work, our student's work and highlights from December's "2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival" the enthusiasm for this intro event augers well for the rest of this weekend's Redmond City Hall activities. Check out the art of Microsoft and go backstage at Gas Powered Games today, as well as see other great goodies. Also, hands-on activiites are available at the DigiPen Arts Campus and Digital Double mo-cap studio! Well worth a visit!
Tony :^{)}=-
SYMPHONY OF SCIENCE
I just have to share this wonderfully inspired piece with everyone. Further commentary is not necessary, except to say that there are others songs at symphonyofscience.com on YouTube if you want to check it out.
Tony :^{)}=-
PUBLIC APPEARANCES
The poster created by the Everett Library to promote the event.
Just a heads-up that I've agreed to do a special presentation at the Everett Public Library on Saturday, February 6th (as well as appear on a discussion panel at the Redmond Arts festival on Friday, January 15th.)
I've always had an affection for Everett, WA since I was offered my first formal teaching position in the USA at the Henry Cogswell College after receiving my Work Permit and Green Card in 2001. I therefore was very eager to come to the Everett library and show my work while talking about the present and future possibilities for animation (especially traditional, hand-drawn animation) in the future.
Looking forward to meeting you there!
Tony :^{)}=-
GOLDEN OLDIES!
While clearing through some of my old storage files recently I came across this promotional binder cover for the first TV Drama Series I ever directed for British television. "The Ink Thief" was an in-house developed project at my Animus studio in London. The 7 x 26-minute series starred Richard O'Brien ("Rocky Horror Show") and a host of animated characters.
The series was very much a low-budget, no-time effort but it was successful on British Television, making No. 5 in the ratings and getting an honorable mention at the "New York Film & Television Festival" (competing against such series and "Quantum Leap" and "X-Files" - shows having ten-times the budget we had!)
I don't for one moment believe we ever really captured the full potential of this dark but fun-filled concept (simply because of our very limited budget and schedule) but I could see it being a major cult movie classic if it were developed for a star of Johnny Depp's status for example!
Anyway, here's a glimpse of the back cover too...
Other goodies I found while rummaging were very much related to a previous incarnation of my current 'Uncle Lubin' project development. (www.unclelubin.com) For example, here's a sample of a promotional leaflet for the project, when it was in a previous, very-different incarnation, entitled "Screwloose"...
And here's a beautiful earlier design of the main hero in the story, Uncle Lubin, gorgeously crafted by British designer, Alan Kerswell...
I loved Alan's design but felt it was a little too haughty for Lubin... and probably had a little too much pencil mileage for us poor animators to handle!
It was great finding all this memorabilia after so many years!
Tony :^{)}=-
IMPROVING STARBUCKS!
I've since submitted my ideas more formally to the www.mystarbucksidea.com website (entitled 'FUN COFFEE-RELATED CARTOONS ON THE WALLS' in the "ATMOSPHERE & LOCATIONS" section) in the hope that it might be more widely adopted. The "HAS-BEANS" cartoons were particularly popular among the locals, so perhaps if you have a mind for voting for my idea it might spread the word much further. Of course it probably won't get anywhere at all but it might at least provoke the corporate-minded Starbucks folks to think outside the box and make the Starbucks drinking experience more fun and not just a method of customer merchandizing!
Here's another poster I produced, hand-drawn with hundreds of beans making up the image.
(A free coffee for anyone who can say just how many?)
Tony :^{)}=-
OVERLAPPING ACTION
When at the Vancouver aquarium over this Christmas break I was suddenly aware of the incredible demonstration of 'overlapping action' ('follow-through' animation) that the jellyfish were demonstrating. I therefore decided to film a couple of them so I could share it with anyone who is interested.
Tony. :^:{)}=-
FOR ROY!
'Scene 01' layout ~ teaser for "The Adventures of Uncle Lubin".
I feel sad that I'll now never be able to show Roy E. Disney the film I had once discussed with him. However, in actually creating the inked layout for 'Scene 01' of the teaser currently in development, on the day he passed from us, I feel it appropriate to dedicate it to his memory. It is such a small gesture in the greater scheme of things but I like to think that with this first layout, we are initiating a process that will lead to the creation of a film that honors the very best of traditional, hand-drawn animation... something Roy spent his whole life fighting for at his beloved Burbank studio. In starting as we mean to go on I hope the entire film will live up to the love and artisty I intend to put into this scene in Roy's memory.
Tony. :^{)}=-