Lou Scheimer at ASIFA Hollywood

Here I am, late again, but I'd like to offer my tribute to Lou Scheimer:

                    (Popeye copyright King Features Syndicate)

Back in 1998, I had the chance to meet Lou Scheimer at ASIFA Hollywood. This evening was hosted by Tom Sito back at ASIFA's old digs on Victory Blvd. I brought along my copy of Saturday Morning TV by Gary H. Grossman. I think Lou was amused by the book, and he autographed my picture of Sabrina and Archie on page 373.

(Artwork copyright Filmation/Archie Comics, Pink Panther copyright Depatie-Freleng)

In spite of it's shortcomings, I'll always have a warm spot for Filmation shows. I remember clear back to their New Adventures of Superman in the early 60's. After working on King of the Hill for two seasons, I now appreciate the pressure they must have been under to make the deadlines for TV production. Plus, staying on model with the DC comic book characters called for some precise draftsmanship. Although later on, it became "jump cut city" on shows like Star Trek. I think it gave me some bad habits as far as storytelling goes. And I forgave the stiff, limited animation since the visuals were so great, and the stories could sweep me away as a six year old.

Archie, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Fantastic Voyage, Star Trek, Space Sentinels, Flash Gordon and Fat Albert were all cornerstones of my Saturday Mornings. Except for HB's Space Ghost, and the Herculoids, Filmation seemed to be the only studio that tackled science fiction fairly well. I just found out on Variety that Lou won a daytime Emmy for the animated Star Trek.

Only later I learned that Filmation had kept many animation artists employed when so much work had already been outsourced from the mid 60's onward. Filmation had helped some artists to break the glass ceiling to get into feature animation, or at least move on to other studios.

But to sum up, Lou Scheimer and his partners Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott got ahold of some amazing properties to dazzle my teeny brain on Saturday Mornings. Here's to 'em!

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/r-i-p-filmation-co-founder-lou-scheimer-89971.html

http://variety.com/2013/tv/people-news/lou-scheimer-filmation-founder-dies-at-84-1200742545/

http://www.latimes.com/obituaries/la-me-lou-scheimer-20131020,0,1131347.story

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0770617/

http://www.startrek.com/article/remembering-filmation-co-founder-lou-scheimer-1928-2013

Rod Scribner

I didn't know about Rod Scribner until I read Tom Sito's post about him on Facebook.
The clue was the work he did on Daffy Duck in the "Great Piggy Bank Robbery".

After his work under Bob Clampett, Scribner left Looney Tunes to work at UPA.

Wikipedia Rod Scribner went on to work at Playhouse Pictures in Hollywood. I was able to get some freelance there years ago on a Tony the Tiger commercial. I misread the Wikipedia article, thinking that Scribner founded Playhouse, but it gave me some feeling of connection learning that I had worked briefly under the same roof where Mr. Scribner had been.

http://rodscribner.blogspot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Scribner

Richard Williams at the Motion Picture Academy

Not to be glum, but that Friday evening October 4th will probably be the last time I see Richard Williams in person. As part of the Marc Davis Celebration of Animation, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave the evening to Richard. It had been a long day, and my stomach was acting up. I felt a bit trampled watching the autograph hounds mob him after the presentation. It was his night, and I figured he would make it home okay.

http://www.oscars.org/events-exhibitions/events/2013/10/this-amazing-medium.html

Richard recounted the key animated films that had shaped his career, such as the "Silly Song" sequence from Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the performance by Milt Kahl of the tiger Shere Khan from the "Jungle Book", the demon from the "Night on Bald Mountain" from "Fantasia", and John Hubley's "Rooty Toot Toot". I'd never seen "Rooty Toot Toot" before, I thought I knew most of John Hubley's work.

After outlining how these classics influenced him, Richard also took us through his work with his 1972 "A Christmas Carol", "The Return of the Pink Panther", "The Thief and the Cobbler", and of course, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". "The Rabbit", as Richard called it, earned him an Oscar for Special Achievement in Animation. Roger Rabbit was the film that finally got me to move to California, and get into animation.

We also got to see his personal project "Circus Drawings" that he finished in 2010. Richard converted sketches he did observing a small circus in Spain into a short animated film. Very dreamy, very smooth animation on "ones".

Here's the cover from the evening's program:

And here's the program from the Roger Rabbit 25th Reunion that I managed to glom onto.
(I think I got the last one!)

Still, it was good to set foot inside the Samuel Goldwyn Theater again. I still have some photos from my first Hollywood trip where our teacher, Phil Skerry, got us to let us pose with Oscars.

 

Paul McCartney's High in the Clouds animated project

It looks like Sir Paul McCartney will be involved with the production of a new feature based on his children's book "High in the Clouds". The articles state that these will be a stereo-optic 3D production, although oldies 1150 radio mentioned that the former Beatle prefers hand-drawn animation. There's also buzz that audiences are tired of the glasses, and the expense of going to 3D movies. Maybe they'll change before production starts.

http://www.oldies1150.com/News/Music.aspx?articleID=1151036

http://www.awn.com/news/films/animated-feature-planned-paul-mccartney-s-high-clouds

http://variety.com/2013/film/news/paul-mccartneys-high-in-the-clouds-heading-for-big-screen-1200682182/

Wish we could get more royalty to support animation...
Looks like it had a false start in 2009 -

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1891

My Stop-Motion project

Finally got my storyboard for my stop-mo project. Check it out here -

http://kenroskosanimationthesis.blogspot.com/

RFX Inc. Autodesk User Group Meeting at Gnomon

Pretty awesome stuff with Maya, Massive and more! I was intrigued by "reality capture": now we can generate mesh with regular digital cameras, using 123D Catch. All courtesy of RFX Inc.

http://www.rfx.com/

http://www.123dapp.com/catch

Excellent and fun presentations by Autodesk's Marcel de Jong and Mark Schoennagel.

http://www.gnomonschool.com/?p=2832

And many thanks to the Gnomon staff for setting up the show and buying the pizzas.
Nice to get out of the Valley and see old Hollywood.

Cute Stuff - Part IV - Adorable Dynamic Damsels look development

Here is some further ruff cleanup and color for the Adorable Dynamic Damsels-

And a 60's style color design.

More coloring in Photoshop

Someday I'll get this done. But beyond my personal satisfaction, I don't know if there is any market for these characters. Cubcake (the squirrel-girl) is sort of the team's hot-head, and has hit or miss magic powers. She is also the team gearhead and hot rod driver. Jet Puffin, with her power suit, has the genius of Tony Stark, but is more of the "mom" of the group. Lady Cobra is the real mystic of the group. She works as a librarian. Her coils are strong and dexterous enough to handle most of the volumes.

Hug Life Street Poster

I like Philip Lumbang's work, "Hug Life". That's instead of thug life, I guess.

He has cute characters that are bold and positive, and not just sickly sweet.

But I saw this poster over a year ago on a bus stop on Barham across from Oakwood Apartments near Universal City. It's cool, but it looks like it was done in collaboration with someone named "becca". This poster has been painted over now. The Awesome Bear is in "James Bond" mode, shaken, not stirred.

(And the "Martini Bear" seems to have a hot date!)

You can see his work and the original poster at http://philiplumbang.tumblr.com/tagged/becca

http://philiplumbang.tumblr.com/page/2

More of my cute stuff either today or tomorrow.

Cute Stuff - Part II

Here's a woodcut from a print making class back at old Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. It was done probably when Edinboro was Edinboro State College.

More weird than cute I guess. Horse and rider become blended together. This was shown in Woodbury University's faculty art show last spring.

Cute Stuff - Part I

It's been a while since I've posted anything original on Animation Re-creation. After scribbling for years, I've got some work I'm proud of. But I'm still self conscious about showing it. Here's why:

Animation artists and cartoonists seem to be split into two camps: the majority seem to be easy going... well, to put it bluntly, nerds. But I've seen a smaller group, the more macho, athletic group who practice martial arts, mountain biking and other deadly weekend pursuits. They make me feel lame as I'm shoving that extra piece of pizza in my face.

So, it appears I fall in with the majority. It's hard to pose as a too-hot-to-handle "weekend warrior" when I'm drawing cutesy stuff like this:

This is my "Cubcake" character. She's a tough, but sweet amalgamation of girlfriends from my past. She's also a mixture of squirrel, bunny, kitty and a few other critters mixed in. I figure she can give Bugs Bunny a run for his money.

C'est la Vie.

Snail with Halo- More street poster Art around North Hollywood

And this cute little guy was put up on the old Camera Craft storefront on the corner of Vineland, Lankershim and Camarillo. All the art was drawn on large post office mailers. He's got these blanked out, swirly eyes and a halo over his head; is the artist saying this fella has croaked?

They were side by side on Camera Craft; here's a lighter one in light beige and tan, with no post office mailer surrounding it.

This looks like it would make a cool toy, or a nice stuffed animal. I guess the meaning is up to me. There is no other information on the web that I can find so far. There's a whole world to the street art poster movement that I'm just learning about. From what I've Googled, this art may be in several different cities, and could have come from the other side of the country. Or the world.

Whale goes Poof - Street poster Art around North Hollywood

These posters have been around my neighborhood since the beginning of the year. I don't see any name.
They look like interesting, and fun characters.

On second thought, this whale looks like he's in distress. I also noticed a big, cartoony poster of Swiss cheese on a signal box on the corner. Someone took the time and resources to put these up around the area.

This was near the corner of Camarillo and Cahuenga. Does anyone know who made these?

More bloody spam!

Good article from Andres Tirado on spam.

http://www.tecnoxps.com/2012/08/how-much-spam-visit-your-blog-some.html

All this technology, and people have to burrow into our computers like some sort of...
Never mind.

Wander over yonder

Now this looks like fun! Wander over Yonder reminds me of Tom Terrific done in a Quisp cereal style, with a little BraveStarr thrown in. The star on Wander's hat made me think he was some type of marshall, but I guess he's just the opposite. I like the magic setting of going from planet to planet, looking for adventure. And a spot for the perfect picnic.

https://www.google.com/search?q=wander+over+yonder&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#

Looks like the Disney Channel is getting a boost now that Craig McCracken has left Cartoon Network. McCracken is the creator and executive producer of the show. McCracken had created the Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends for CN. It's not so much about the studio name anymore, but where the top talent goes

I like the contrast between Wander, who is joyful and fun loving, and his dino-horse-girl pal Sylvia. Sylvia is the first cute female character (that I've seen) who likes a good scrap and seems to go looking for trouble. Their voices are performed by Jack McBrayer as Wander, and April Winchell as Sylvia. It turns out April is the daughter of famous ventriloquist Paul Winchell.

                          (Artwork copyright Disney Channel)

A friend at the Animation Guild tipped me off about this show. It takes me back to my old back to school days, and my anticipation of the new fall TV line up. Especially for the new Saturday morning cartoons. I've been watching the previews on YouTube over and over again already.

And the primary villain is named Lord Hater. Hater? That's pretty bold for a kid's show. I hope there will be more for the adults. "Yes, Lord Vader, I mean Hater." Huh?

Hey, the show has some spunk. It's been missing in animation for a long time. I hope this succeeds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgX839ftKO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwN5HLiZ7_o

Andrew McAfee - Race Against the Machine

 Race Against the Machine by Andrew McAfee: Does technology put people out of work? As far as animation goes, studios seem to favor certain techniques and media output. But then, many of the old hand/eye jobs were sent overseas, and then made obsolete. Older artists trying to make their quota of drawings were unable to find the time to learn the new technologies. Younger, lower paid artists were brought in to take their places. Imho.

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/88631

Rocky and Bullwinkle statue taken down

The statue of Rocky and Bullwinkle on Sunset Blvd. has been taken down. From what I could find online, it seems Dreamworks has taken the statue down for restoration. The reports say the statue will not be returned to it's spot on Sunset. From what I understand, Dreamworks now owns the rights to Rocky and Bullwinkle.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/biz/dreamworks-animation-agrees-to-acquire-classic-media-66896.html

                                  (My photos from fall 2006)

Bullwinkle stands here in the newer "Wassamatta U" color scheme. (Or is it "Wossamatta"?) Older photos show him in a blue, white and light purple outfit, and Rocky wasn't holding a "Wassamatta U" pennant. Jay Ward and Bill Scott must have figured bad publicity was better than no publicity at all, right?

http://www.seeing-stars.com/imagepages/bullwinklephoto1.shtml

Still, it comes from a time when we could laugh at ourselves more easily by concocting these abstract characters. L.A. has been criticized over and over again for being an ugly city, and I'm forced to agree. Hollywood has already been turned into a stack of giant boxes, and little things with some charm or whimsy always seem to get bulldozed under. Establishments like "Tail of the Pup", and even Bob's Big Boy are vulnerable to being swept aside by developers for another Starbuck's/Subway/nail salon strip mall.

Here's a last look at our heroes walking off into the sunset. True, it was a battered piece of paper mache' and plastic that needed a major restoration, but that doesn't make it worthless. Perhaps they'll resurface someday. Stay tuned for our next episode. Right now, I can't think one of those groaner punchlines the way they could.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/07/breaking_52yearold_bullwinkle_statue_lifted_off_the_strip_1.php

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/07/bullwinkle_statue_moved_o.php

Summer Vacation

Or, what I didn't do this summer. So far. I fell way behind on animation news, technology and art in general. I did get to see the Superman display at Cleveland Hopkins airport back in June.

                                              (Superman copyright DC/Time Warner)

The biggest drama in June before my summer trip was having our new PC crash. I mean, totally dead, just a black screen with a cursor. The boot sector was totally corrupted. And the kicker was it was our only Toon Boom Storyboard Pro station at the Animation Guild computer lab.

Finally managed to copy the files using the command prompt, and then reformat the disk. What a nightmare. All the "home remedy" advice for repairing the boot sector, and avoiding reinstalling everything never panned out. I was biting my nails making sure everyone's files made it off safely before I wiped out the drive.

I think I know what caused it, but I can't go into here. I'll get on ordering backup drives to soften the blow next time. Got to spend a week at my dad's place north of Toronto.

I also got my parents old PC and laptop running again, with some vital help from my brother. I'm still a bit disgusted with all the electronics people are hauling up to their cabins. Fortunately, the local township seems conscientious about recycling. Saw a couple old PC's at the transfer station last year.

Blew off Comic-Con and Siggraph. I need something else to inspire me. Tired of the same old thing.

Here's what I started this spring. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out.
http://kenroskosanimationthesis.blogspot.com/

Ah yes, and someone "kidnapped" the Rocky and Bullwinkle statue from Sunset Blvd. Taken in for repairs they say, but it may never be returned to that fabled spot. You can read more about it here.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/animationscoop/bullwinkle-statue-removed

Go away for awhile and L.A. just falls apart!

Ernest & Celestine Trailer

I need to see where I can buy this, and just bypass the old Hollywood system that stifles so many fresh ideas. It looks good...

(Artwork copyright-)

• La Parti Productions
• Les Armateurs
• Maybe Movies
• Mélusine Productions
• StudioCanal

Here's the link to the trailer -

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ernest+and+celestine+trailor&mid=2DC0F8C9DC003C9FF7C72DC0F8C9DC003C9FF7C7&view=detail&FORM=VIRE3

Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner. Based on a children's book written and illustrated by Gabrielle Vincent.

time lapse sketching

Hello blog, haven't posted here in a while. Here's my first attempt at time lapse sketching using Video Velocity software.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj6QkdvN8DE

http://www.candylabs.com/videovelocity

Mandelbulber

Cool "3D" Mandelbrot generator.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mandelbulber/?source=dlp