Planet Dolan

Stumbled across this on YouTube...

(copyright Super Planet Dolan)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3D_ZXHwaKekKwbO_LM48OQ

On this channel, Danger Dolan, and his cute kitty pal Shima answer 10 of your most burning questions about just about anything... as long as it's some common sense question that can have a weird answer.

Dolan, who reminds me of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters, will come up with the most absurd answers to obvious questions. Shima can be counted on to come up with clear, scientific explanations... In other words, the right answer.

Have a good Memorial Day weekend. Enjoy!

Mountains colored in Photoshop

Blowin' off steam...

 

Quick sketch, colored in Photoshop.

Rocket Racoon for President

This fall, put some REAL crooks in the White House!

(copyright Marvel/Disney)

Hey, you could do worse.

Quick sketch, will try to do more.

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.

25 Animation Related Blogs that will explain more about animation

Animation Re-creation is number 16 on the "25 Animation Related Blogs will explain more about animations" on boredwiki.com

(copyright Time/Warner)

 http://boredwiki.com/list-of-animation-blogs/

Posted by Alicia Mehra.

Many thanks!

Imagining Zootopia--Part 1:Legacy

Here's another youtube channel. Let's enjoy this again until it gets pulled down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eQgypYsA5U

Making Of Zootopia

copyright Disney

Zootopia Documentary

courtesy of Cartoon Brew.

UPDATE: Sorry folks, this video was pulled.

Zootopia meets Pixar Presto mashup

Sorry, with all the death and destruction going on in the world, I could not resist bashing this together.

(copyright Pixar and Disney)

UPDATE:
Happy Easter!

The Social Commentary of Zootopia

I finally saw Zootopia, and I was surprised at some of the issues the directors took on, such prejudice, class and disillusionment. For example:

Good people fall back on old negative stereotypes.

(Every Disney movie has plot point where the hero makes a horrible mistake, and then has to overcome the consequences of that error. Judy's press interview for instance.)

"Treat me like a criminal, I will act like a criminal."

(Nick Wilde is Zootopia's Han Solo, but he is also finally coaxed away from his criminal past.)

 Characters get hurt emotionally as well as physically.
(Both Judy and Nick during their childhoods.)

(my photo from CTN 2015, characters copyright Disney)

While the world of Zootopia doesn't have our level of wars, poverty and injustices, the basic personal issues still remain:

I have an image to maintain.
Jumping to conclusions.

Not sure who to trust.
What's in it for me?

 On the other hand, Zootopia did cheer me up a little bit, when I look past their cloying cutesiness:

 Things are not what they seem.
The strong don't always prey on the weak.
People can go beyond their apparent limitations.
The past does not have to decide your future.

Imho, Some of the old cartoon jokes hurt the movie, like the population counter of Bunny Borough, but that's showbiz.

This blogger has a more severe view:

http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/03/03/zootopia-review-a-muddled-mess-of-racial-messaging...-and-cute-animalshttp://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/03/03/zootopia-review-a-muddled-mess-of-racial-messaging...-and-cute-animals

 Good points. What are our real cultural and ethnic blind spots? How do you present these issues to younger children without sugar-coating it too much?

Minor points:

Where does the protein for carnivores come from? What forests were cut down, and what mountains were strip mined to build the city? There all kinds of  logistical and technical questions that interfere with my suspension of disbelief, but Zootopia is still a clever, thoughtful movie nevertheless.

The Gnomon Workshop presents an Evening with Grzegorz Jonkajtys

Polish animator Grzegorz Jonkajtys has an interesting technique in combining miniature hand built sets with CG characters. Glad I made it over to Gnomon to see the talk.

Grzegorz's film credits include Sin City, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Mist, Rango, Pacific Rim, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Warcraft, and The Revenant. His titles were VFX Artist and Lead Animator.

(copyright Grzegorz Jonkajtys?)

After such grim short films such as ARK, where an animated Leonard Nimoy type character is trapped on a doomed plague ship, Grzegorz is bringing us a family oriented film based on a Polish character, Teddy Floppy-Ear. 

Teddy, and his friend Hare find out that a toy factory is not all fun and games. Grzegorz slips in some social commentary when the system tries to toss Teddy into an incinerator for having one minor defect, in this case, his floppy ear,

After years of CG work, Grzegorz said it was refreshing to build miniature sets by hand. He pointed out that his hand built sets have a more convincing depth and character than the usual CG backgrounds. This was his strategy in filming "ARK". Grzegorz had his crew do lighting checks with real miniature models so the lighting on the CG characters would match the hand made backgrounds in a more convincing way.

Using kit-bashing and Styrofoam containers, drinking straws and mint candy box tins, Grzegorz and his crew built the charming, and at the same time, frightening world of Teddy Floppy Ear.

http://jonkajtysfilm.com/following/all/jonkajtysfilm.com/Teddy-Bear

http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/news/2016/03/an-evening-with-grzegorz-jonkajtys-combining-cg-animation-miniature-sets/

Wander Over Yonder cancelled

Well, this is not what I wanted to hear:

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/craig-mccracken-confirms-wander-over-yonder-finished-137583.html

 

(copyright Disney)

 http://wifflegif.com/tags/177984-wander-over-yonder-gifs

 

I was enjoying this series, even though it was designed for a younger audience. There are a few, *ahem*, mature quirks in the show, but you have to look very closely.

Some of the episodes really pushed the artistic boundaries, such as "The Void" where everything this side of "Yellow Submarine" was possible.

 

http://crackmccraigen.tumblr.com/post/140529754374/wander-over-yonder-over

"WOY" creator Craig McCracken has confirmed this. Personally, I think Wander was railroaded the way the original Star Trek was put into lousy time slots by NBC during its original broadcasts. The Mouse picked up a Cartoon Network type show, and didn't know what to do with it.

http://crackmccraigen.tumblr.com/

 

No toys, no other merchandise, All I can say is "Bah, Humbug".

Speaking of Star Trek, I was hoping we would see Lord Dominator get her comeuppance. Maybe in the way Trelane did in the "Squire of Gothos".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqQa1Xhu9cQ

 

Still, I fell in love with the characters, and the designs, so Wander, Sylvia, and all the villains will still have a place in my heart. 

 

Except for Hater, he's still a jerk. 

Crunchy Bunches- A serial about breakfast!

One more web comic, worthy of further perusal...

http://www.crunchybunches.com/

Follow Munchy as he and his pals go on fantastic adventures to bring home the ultimate crispy, crunchy breakfast experience.

Wild's End Comic

Guilty pleasure time. Think of H.G. Welles "War of the Worlds" meets "Wind in the Willows".

http://www.boom-studios.com/wild-s-end-01-cover-a.html

Check it out!

Best Animated Feature 2016 - Inside Out

No surprises here.

(images copyright Pixar/Disney)

http://oscar.go.com/nominees/animated-feature-film/inside-out

I may have to watch it again. If this was a film about depression, or childhood trauma, or just how a human being becomes lost when key moments in life do not come together in the right way, then all the eye candy in this film distracted me from those points.

The 1998 copyright extension, or the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act”

Dubbed the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” , the 1998 copyright extension seems to be done at Disney's behest. Employees should chip in, because they're part of a big, happy family.

(photo copyright collegehumor.com)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/02/disney-ceo-asks-employees-to-chip-in-to-pay-copyright-lobbyists/

Hard to think of Mickey in the public domain. But it might happen someday!

Best Animated Short 2016 - Bear Story

 Okay, it's not heavy journalism, but now I want to see this.

I guess that's what the Oscars are for, more exposure.

(images copyright of the authors)

http://oscar.go.com/nominees/short-film-animated/bear-story

Wander over Yonder The Bot

Wander over Yonder - the Bot - A character dies!

Well, I didn't see this coming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-26EHu5kRQY

 Lord Dominator is not turning out to be such a likable villain. At first I thought she was so powerful that she was simply competing with the other supervillains just for fun. But now we see her ruthless side, and executes not just one, but two of her minions in a demonstration of sheer callousness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_NN46_3Pvw&ebc=ANyPxKr2_tug_gmLO8EpvEd_0qo7CdXhcF-Oia5Obzc1T2aUOvfDk6Hx9-kbgZP9aC5NQJqxNuAS 

SPOILER ALERT!!!

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/wander-over-yonder-and-jon-hamm-show-limited-anima-231835 

First, "Bot" 42 ( a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference?) is sent to a fiery death after he turns in a poor survey report. It turns out that Lord Dominator needs a special element, "Volcanium X", to power her army. Dominator then calls on her favorite evil space probe, "Bot" 13. "Bot"13 inadvertently helps cause "Bot" 42's demise when his report shows 3 planets rich in "Volcanium X". In a fit of pique, Lord Dominator tosses poor "Bot" 42 out of her ship, and lets him burn up on entering a planet's atmosphere.

After making an example out of  "Bot" 42,  Lord Dominator demands that the rest of her 'bots to move it, and resume their search for more "Volcanium X" in a hurry. "Bot"13 seems eager to please, and heads off to keep his good record going.

Naturally, "Bot"13 crash lands after getting snagged on Wander's kite. Damaged, "Bot"13 is unable to attack Wander, and Wander, naturally, tries to help him. Unable to speak clearly, Wander mishears the robot's name, and calls "Bot"13 simply "Beep Boop".

After resisting Wander's initial attempts at being friends, "Bot"13 learns to appreciate Wander's kindness, and refuses to cooperate with Lord Dominator. After deleting his files containing the location of the mother load of "Volcanium X", (which happens to be the planet Wander and Sylvia are visiting), "Bot"13 shares the fate of "Bot"42.

Only this time, "Bot"13 takes a last look at photo of him and Wander as friends.

Wander managed to stir something in "Bot"13, and helped him outgrow his obedience to Lord Dominator. Before "Bot"13 vaporizes, his memories go back to the good times he had with Wander, and states: "I am Beep Boop".

At the same time, Wander and Sylvia begin to realize that "Bot"13 did not give their position away to Dominator, and are impressed at his bravery. They look up at the night sky and see a shooting star.

Unaware of "Bot"13's situation, Wander can only say, "Good luck Beep Boop".

Poppy O' Possum is back!

And Poppy is back after a late fall/early winter hiatus!

http://www.poppy-opossum.com/comic/poppy-6-page-28/