Conceptual Artist Ron Cobb Passes At Age 83

 California native Ron Cobb has died September 21, 2020 at the age of 83. Cobb began in 1956 as an animator for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. Among other films, he created aliens for the famous cantina scene in Star Wars. Afterwards, he contributed his design work to other hit movies such as Conan the Barbarian, Ridley Scott’s Alien, and the beloved DeLorean sports-car/time-machine for Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future.

Mostly unknown, except to his fans, Cobb represents another unsung hero of science fiction and fantasy movies. Movies that would have suffered without his talent and hard work.

(original copyright, Ron Cobb 1976)

http://www.roncobb.net/artwork.html

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/star-wars-alien-back-to-the-future-designer-ron-cobb-dies-20200922-p55y4u.html 

 https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0167803/

Lightbox Expo photos

Some snapshots from the first Lightbox Expo held at the Pasadena Convention Center. They had a good sized crowd on Friday. It looks like ProCreate from Apple was a major sponsor. Fun time, lots space, many demos going on. The hosts went all out for a big convention. This may be a rival to the CTN Expo this year.

The burning question: who are the organizers of Lightbox?

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/artist-centric-lightbox-expo-debut-september-2019-1155037  

Jim Demonakos, founder of the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington, and Bobby Chiu, who set up Imaginism Studios in Toronto (Ontario, Canada)

https://www.imaginismstudios.com/

https://www.emeraldcitycomiccon.com/

 

I thought this was going to be a much smaller venue, but animation artists, students, schools, studios and vendors were all in attendance. Good mood, lots of energy there. And I only heard about it through Facebook. This event seemed to be arranged and promoted solely through social media. I was just used to the buzz generated around CTN.

Procreate from Apple had the largest display, promoting their artistic app for the iPad.

 Alan Bodner had his table there with his original art, and art from his time as art director at Warner Classic Animation.

Almost continuous demos going on in the hallways...

 Wacom, with their latest Cintiq tablets...

 Sony pictures, with their Oscar winning
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!

 

 Warner Brothers Animation Group, and their beloved heroes of old...

 ASIFA-Hollywood had a good position with their table...

Netflix, looking for talent, and/or pitches...

 And an amazing amount of crowds in the other hall, waiting for demos and lectures!

Again, to me, this convention seemed to come out of the blue.
And yet, it got some decent media coverage:

https://variety.com/2019/artisans/news/lightbox-expo-spotlights-industry-artists-1203325672/

https://www.animationmagazine.net/events/lightbox-expo-brings-the-ultimate-art-celebration-to-pasadena/

Some more fun stuff:

 From left to right, artwork above by Tuna Bora and Pernille Ørum.

 And from left to right, artwork above by Robert Kondo and Stephen Silver.

Why the giant pug means death, maybe because Hasbro has aquired Death Row Records. 

Whatever you do, don't stare into its eyes too long!

Good mood, and a great creative vibe!

I applaud Jim Demonakos' and Bobby Chiu's success, 

and looking forward to next year.

The first LIGHTBOX EXPO Pasadena 2019

I may check it out...

https://www.lightboxexpo.com/

(copyright LIGHTBOX EXPO)

(from their website)

LIGHTBOX EXPO

SEPTEMBER 6-8, 2019 

"Over 250 of the best artists from the ANIMATION, LIVE-ACTION, ILLUSTRATION and GAMING industries coming together for the ultimate celebration of art."

LOCATION: PASADENA CONVENTION CENTER

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/events/the-first-lightbox-expo-is-taking-place-this-weekend-in-pasadena-179111.html

Visual Effects Artists Rough Timeline

Here's a rough chart of the visual effects artists and animators I put together during my years at Woodbury University. From what I learned, these are some of the key the people who built the foundations of the computer and traditional animation we have now, and their connections with each other as the film business progressed.

And give a big thanks to organized labor this Labor Day, especially in a business like animation!

Computer Graphics Master Academy - THE ART OF CREATIVE COMPOSITION AND ART DIRECTION

The CGMA, the  Computer Graphics Master Academy, had their seminars and gallery exhibit at the Animation Guild's Gallery 839 on Saturday June 8th 2019.

https://www.cgmasteracademy.com/about#about-school

(copyright Computer Graphics Master Academy)

Will get updates on art photos asap

UPDATE: Here's a brief rundown on the instructors:


Mike Hill

Art Direction, Design Consultant, Mike Hill Design

 Mike has designed work for film, TV and video games.  His film credits include Blade Runner 2049, HBO’s Game of Thrones, the upcoming Halo TV series and Dune feature film.

https://events.cgmasteracademy.com/speaker/mike-hill/ 

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5423889/

Dean Gordon

Art Director / Sony Pictures Animation

Dean is a veteran of the Walt Disney Animation Studios working as as an art director and background supervisor. But his most recent work as art director comes from Sony Pictures Animation's feature film “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Nuff said!

 https://events.cgmasteracademy.com/speaker/dean-gordon/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3090027/

Khang Le

Ceo and Game Director, Dreamlit Entertainment

Khang has developed game titles such as Project Offset, Hawken and Dreamlit Entertainment’s most recent announcement of TOWERS. Khang's other film and game credits include Star Wars the Last Jedi, Rouge One, Ready Player One, The Black Panther, The Dark Crystal, Age of Resistance, Issac Asimov’s Foundation and Monster House.

https://events.cgmasteracademy.com/speaker/khang-le/

https://www.dreamlit.games/

* * *

https://animationguild.org/gallery839/find-it-inside-art-by-kelly-perez/

https://www.facebook.com/cgmasteracedemy/?__tn__=%2Cd%2CP-R&eid=ARBvj9XU4HW7Lu11B3ApwTYni7FXYuZdg_tZfRwdKVpYN1ReKiAesLAHCf5tSU3m3Llkc2IOMLXx5Uqr

Disney Acquires 21st Century Fox for $71 Billion

Grrr... The next mega-merger! So the Mouse finally owns the rights to the original Star Wars? Someday soon there will be just only one channel/theater/website. Less choices, less jobs!

None of the links below talk about lost jobs and only mention employees briefly.

Shows you where their priorities are.

UPDATE:

"Thousands of layoffs expected"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/read-the-memo-disney-ceo-bob-iger-sent-to-employees-after-closing-the-dollar71-billion-fox-deal/ar-BBV0D1Y?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

(copyright Disney, of course)

https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/disney-fox-deal-complete-1203167374/?fbclid=IwAR30g3HSqxs0_UD2dUeesGohV3WLlZhV9HuFbIz46EmL27iaBmTHpyjKtCA

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/disney-closes-dollar71-billion-deal-with-fox/ar-BBUYFq5?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/business/media/walt-disney-21st-century-fox-deal.html

http://www.talkmedianews.com/featured/2019/03/19/ryan-joins-board-of-foxs-newly-established-public-company/

CTN Expo 2018

 It's November, and the rock concert of all animation conferences will be here again at the Burbank Marriott Hotel. Various Schools, Lectures, Seminars, Book Sellers, Artists, Celebrities, and the Big Studios will be there to celebrate the Animation Industry. I hope you can enjoy it.

https://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/

 https://www.facebook.com/ctnanimationexpo/

(my photo from CTN 2015, characters copyright Disney)

Martin Landau - Artist - Cartoonist!

And a belated tribute to Martin Landau.

(Martin Landau hitting the inkpots! photographer unknown)

I didn't know the commander of Moonbase Alpha was also an artist!
The writers on these links really do him justice.

Rest in Peace Martin Landau, your presence on screen brought me hours of pure enjoyment.

http://potrzebie.blogspot.com/2010/11/martin-landau-cartoonist.html?m=1

http://www.newsfromme.com/2017/07/16/martin-landau-r-p/

The CTN animation eXpo 2016

 Here we go again-

http://www.ctnanimationexpo.com/axFaq.php

Jodorowsky's Dune (2014) - HD Trailer

I just found out about director Alejandro Jodorowsky's plans for Frank Herbert's book from a Dune quiz on Facebook. The art by Moebius, and the storyboards look fantastic. I think this would have been far superior to David Lynch's creep-out movie. Now if I can just find it!

Disney, DreamWorks Animation Appealing Hollywood Studio Antitrust Lawsuit

More news on the alleged collusion between the studios...

http://www.awn.com/news/disney-dreamworks-animation-appealing-hollywood-studio-antitrust-lawsuit

Disney and DreamWorks Animation Want Appeals Court to Stop Fight With 10,000 Animation Workers

Ripped from the pages of the Hollywood Reporter!

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/disney-dreamworks-animation-want-appeals-901156

And from the Animation Guild:

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2016/06/time-barred.html

Behind the Scenes of Zootopia: Gnomon Alumni Panel

It was a packed house in the old Quonset hut auditorium as the Gnomon School of Visual Effects hosted five Zootopia artists, sponsored by Walt Disney Animation Studios. While the buzz for Zootopia may have cooled off a bit, the advances Disney has made should give them quite a lot of momentum at the box office for a while.

https://www.gnomon.edu/community/events/behind-the-scenes-of-zootopia

 Alberto Abril (Animator), Chika Saito (Modeler), Diana Zeng (Lighter), Dylan Ekren (Modeler), and Tyler Bolyard (Look Development Artist) each spoke about their time working on Zootopia, and their learning experiences at Gnomon and the other schools they attended.

They all seemed to have enjoyed working at Disney, and I must admit, I kind of envy their talents and the opportunities that they have had.

Studies of animals in the wild were shown, along with a pencil test of Walt Disney's Robin Hood. Special plugins for Maya, such as Xgen were discussed, along with lighting strategies, not to mention good old-fashioned hand drawn art for development.

Just the development of fur and hair seemed to consume a lot of time and resources. There was some "recycling" as one basic species model of a gazelle/deer was tweaked with different horns, fur color and different outfits to create extra background crowd characters.

(my photo from CTN 2015, copyright Disney)

Unfortunately, there will be no streaming of this presentation due to copyright issues. 

However, I did do a little digging to bring some examples of their work.

Here is Chika Saito’s Modeling Demo Reel 11/30/12

https://vimeo.com/55329417

 Alberto Abril's reel,

 http://www.albertoabril.com/

 Diana Zeng's blog,

 http://dianajzeng.blogspot.com/

 Dylan Ekren's work,

https://www.artstation.com/artist/dekren

And Tyler Bolyard's Facebook,

https://www.facebook.com/tyler.bolyard 

Just being on the grounds at Gnomon is always interesting. Their campus is the old Television Center Studio lot in Hollywood. The buildings are characters in themselves. There's a mixture 1930's and 1940's architecture that has a "Diesel Punk" feel to it. Add in the extra plumbing and cables with Gnomon's high tech interiors, you have some cool, gritty movie exteriors right there.

I'm trying to find out more about the history of the place, but it's past seems kind of murky right now. Which makes it that more interesting. UPDATE:

http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/16421261/6311-Romaine-St-Los-Angeles-CA/

The original home of Technicolor, set in a 1920's Art Deco style. There has to be more than a few ghosts haunting that building.

Marvel settles with Jack Kirby estate

(Photo taken by Suzy Skaar for "The Art of Jack Kirby" (Blue Rose Press, 1993)

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/movies/marvel-settles-dispute-over-superhero-rights-with-jack-kirby-estate/#/0

It's taken me more time than I thought to comment on this news item, and I hope I've learned a bit more about the artist/employer relationship. When it comes to Jack Kirby, and all the work he has produced, it stirs up a lot of passion in comic fans.

And that's not a bad frame of mind, but it may not be useful when dealing with our current business climate. (My commentary will naturally be biased towards the artist.)

When Disney acquired  Marvel Comics, it seemed like mixing oil and water. I could not see how Disney's wholesome, family image could be balanced with Marvel's gritty superhero themes. Except for the profit motive, of course.

Marvel Comics had been owned and passed along by quite a few different corporations over the years since the first Lee/ Kirby days.The issues of who created which characters, and who signed their rights of ownership away as work for hire seemed to settled.

No one knew who would create the next Mickey Mouse or Superman, so these guys cranked this stuff out just to earn a paycheck. Comics were considered disposable, like old newspapers. Case closed, or so it seemed.

However, I learned recently from a debate on LinkeIn that the families of Siegel and Shuster, the creators of Superman, had been getting some kind of royalties, or share of the profits that the Superman character had generated for DC comics over the years. 

"With great power comes great responsibility"

(Simpsons copyright Fox)

Even though I'm a comic fan, I missed this information somehow. My assumption is the public having an image of the families of the creators of Superman being "left to starve" created bad press. And so a new arrangement was made to cut the heirs of Shuster, if not Siegel, in for some of the profits. Guess I need to hang out at more comic conventions. 

Oi.

Getting back to the settlement with the Kirby estate, a commentator on LinkedIn noted that this Lee/Kirby feud may have been old baggage that Disney did not want to lug around anymore. I can just picture their reluctant hands going down a little ways into those deep pockets and tossing the Kirby descendents a few bones. 

Whether the DC/Siegel and Shuster settlements set some kind of legal precedent will take more digging on my part. (Hooha!) But knowing the image Disney wants to portray may have spurred them into pouring oil on these troubled waters, even though it's quite late in the game.

Another thing that surprised me was how a faceless organization like Time/Warner could have made such a "warm and fuzzy" move with the Superman heirs. By faceless I mean that Disney had Walt, and Marvel had Stan Lee. But Time/Warner has no real "faceman", other than Bugs Bunny. 

Rant time: Business is business, and a deal is a deal, but maybe the world is getting tired of these huge media conglomerates winning ugly. Or else these corporations just want to avoid any more embarrassment.

But here's to Jack, still the King!

Rage against the Machinima

 Happy New Year blog

Artists, protect your rights!

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-01-10/news/machinima-maker-studios-YouTube/

Machinima