Get Rich in Television!
We’re on TV! … sort of…
OK, so we’re not REALLY on TV– unless you’re watching tube-like shows and whatnot on line.
THEN, we’re on TV. Ok.
Back to business: Canada’s BravoFACT.com has just premiered their official, online portal to host a plethora of fun, exciting, and exceptionally cool short films produced under the Bravo! banner over the last few years. We made the cut, so we’re online again, eh? Once more, we humbly present our animated offering to the judicious Gods of Animated Hilarity.
Get Rich In Television without Really Trying! is indeed on the roster. So have a break, do yourself a favour and have fun courtesy of the wonderfully generous (and utterly tasteful) folks at Bravofact.com– they’d love to have you all come by, watch some films and share in the sheer enormity of the human experience, via their collection of short films. Laugh or cry, there’s something for everyone.
Moved to words? Drop a note below– and thanks for hanging in there.
Excelsior!
-M
Aardman Animation; Bunch of Pirates?
Aardman takes to Sailing the Seas of Cheese with The Pirates! The Band of Misfits’. What could Possibly go wrong?
Aardman Big Cheese and veteran director/ producer Peter Lord helms Aardman Animation’s latest stop-motion exploit into high seas hilarity- and it’s in stereoscopic 3D, no less! Arrhh, indeed!
Joining him in the breech is none other than Hugh Grant, adding vox to the Pirate Captain. Antagonists include Jeremy Piven as Black Bellamy, and Salma Hayak as Cutlass Liz. Brendan Gleeson has a part to play in there, shiverin’ the timbers. Here’s more from Aardman Animation and Sony Animation;
The bearded Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant)– a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas- with a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen) has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.
It‘s a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!
The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Aardman‘s most ambitious stop-motion film to date, will be created with the same beautiful hand-crafted technique that the company brought to the Academy Award-winning film Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run. The film is directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of Aardman, director of Chicken Run (with Nick Park), and a two-time Academy Award® nominee for his short films at the company. The film is co-directed by Jeff Newitt. The screenplay is by Gideon Defoe, based upon his books. Production Designer is Norman Garwood. Producers are Peter Lord, David Sproxton, and Julie Lockhart. Executive Producer is Carla Shelley.
Commenting on the announcement Lord said, “I‘m so grateful to the entire cast for their talent and energy. The characters that they‘ve created fill the screen with life and fun. As the Pirate Captain, Hugh Grant has given a stand-out performance – he combines an effortless on-screen warmth with brilliant comic timing. And as the leader of our motley pirate crew, he shows a real barnstorming, swashbuckling side of his character as well. Only Hugh could anchor this story of love, loyalty, greed, and nautical high-jinks.”
Pack yer cannons, swab the decks, and hold yer breath…The Pirates! is slated for a North American release March 30, 2012.
Animation Desk brings the Easy to Animation!
Photo: macattck @ flickr
Another Animation app for the iPad. This one is Way Cool.
Animation Desk is a sort of digital version of the traditional, 2D approach to animation; much like using digital software and Wacom-type tablets for digital image animation creation, only this thing enables your handy iPad to get into the fray. Neat-O!
Just got my hands on the latest update. So much for getting any work done in THAT meeting.
Seriously, as a working animation professional, I see this being useful in a whole bunch of ways- lots of options and so easy to use! Here’s my blast of initial production-based thought bubbles:
- work on animation/ sequence ideas quickly & on the fly, sans parking at your computer, drawing table, etc. Great for water cooler meet-ups!
- As a director, rough out actions or sequences with thumbnail drawings for storyboards, then save them in your photo gallery for storyboard meetings, et al. Cut & paste into Celtx Studio storyboard templates!
- Speaking of meetings, I can doodle and animate during long winded diatribes, switching back to serious notes when I get busted. Instantly. Who’ll be the wiser?
- sketch conceptual stuff at the cafe/ coffee shop, waiting for traffic, sitting out a ticket roadside, etc. Beats the hell out of using napkins & coasters. Or the back of your hand.
Get Up and Go Draw
The portability factor is the keen thing, here. iPad’s are inherently meant to be functional everywhere, so it’s only natural that an app like Animation Desk would surface, and surface it did! It’s a miniature, virtual version of a traditional animation desk, complete with peg bar, rear light and glass. Think of it, all that stuff is now in your hands and not in your office. With the full screen mode available, you can utilize the full size of the iPad’s workable space to draw much as you would on a sheet of punched paper. I love it; I can leave my laptop and Wacom on the desk, instead just bringing my iPad and a stylus to the park, Starbucks, pre-movie, laundromat, the tree house, dog house, where ever. Start drawing. How cool is that?
It’s a Digital Flip book… I like it!
Sure there are a plethora of similar applications out there for iPad, if not better for certain animation functions as well. What I love about Animation Desk is the ease of its elegant interface, usability, shallow learning curve, and effectiveness for translating quick sketches into individual files or animation sequences quickly & easily. Practically anybody can use it, it’s so simple. Kids can learn traditional animation concepts on this from the get-go. Neat thing is, the app has a lot of flexibility with the tools at hand, too. Sketchbook Pro it isn’t but for under 4 bucks, it still delivers animation fun and is great for sketching what you need, when you need it. It’s even cheaper than a spiral bound notebook! What’s not to love?
If You Love Something, you don’t HAVE to let it go…
This thing makes drawn animation truly portable. something I’d never imagined when I got started, outside of a traditional flip book approach. In that, individual sketches and animation sequences are saved to your photo gallery, Facebook page or Youtube channel. Super handy for sharing with teammates, production staff, friends or just for creating an archive for yourself.
It’s a nice feature for tracking changes, iterations, sequences concept development or just tracking your progress as an animator, all stored online and accessible from any machine, anywhere you’ve got the interwebs. Save all your drawings/ sequences, store them in your photo gallery, print ‘em, assemble them, and voila! You’ve got a flip book to hand out to friends and family. Make one, or a dozen; the office will love you for it.
The New Definition of Easy
Using the app couldn’t be easier; very intuitive with a super shallow learning curve. I had it in hand about 30 seconds, and had the thing working. Lotta fun. The interface is really basic, with most everything you need on the desk top: right there in front of you. Simple enough for kids to learn quickly, and for adults to wrap their heads around, too. Got a questions? Down lower right you’ll find a ‘?’– pop that, and you’ll get your fill of How To in a jiffy.
Drawing is super simple, too. Choose your pencil or brush from the menu on the right and have at it! Like eating fried chicken, it’s cool to use your fingers, or opt for a stylus, your choice. Personally, I tried my fingertip, but liked having a plastic tipped stylus in hand for more control. That’s just me. The demo shows off some animation magic happening with merely a fingertip; all up to you!
All This – and Colors, Too
How about some color? You’ve got a reasonable selection – a bunch of ‘paint pots’ show you what’s available. Nice addition when you’re onion-skinning your drawings, and looking to quickly separate the stacked layers for clarity.
Updates, too! Here are the latest, greatest ‘glad to have ‘em aboard’ updates:
- Five additional brushes! Exquisite.
- Palm Rejection! Don’t take it personally… it’s a nice feature to have. Really.
- Pressure sensitive brushstrokes! No-brainer there as per coolness factor.
The views are cool, too, with three of them being available. Yeah, three! Fun Factor tripled. There’s Desk mode, Full Screen mode and Film Strip Mode. Check the neat little video demo of the application in action below. Excelsior!
Making Monsters for PARANORMAN!
Laika is bizzy bizzy bizzy making monsters…
via THR
via Puppets & Clay
Shuffling into action following the success of CORALINE and a two picture deal with FOCUS Pictures, Laika Studio is busily exhuming the first of which is PARANORMAN, a comedy/ thriller about a small town overrun with zombies. This ought to make for freaky stop-motion fun!
Should be entertaining, and interesting as stop-motion animation, zombies, ghouls and the supernatural seem to go together oh-so-well. Spooky / fun stop motion has a long history, with Tim Burton being a sort of poster boy of the last generation. Burton’s shown up repeatedly with a myriad of creepy classics, starting with his ground-breaking short film Vincent. From there he took down the house with Beetlejuice, then clambered into stop motion feature filmmaking with Henry Selick for Nightmare before Christmas. Director Henry Selick ran solo with James and the Giant Peach (those scary sisters- egad!) and onto pushing the supernatural, pschotropic envelope with Coraline.
Currently sans Selick, but loaded for zombies with a new crew, Laika Studio is back again with more creepy hijinks in PARANORMAN, slated for release in August, 2012. Geez, what’s next?
Directed by Sam Fell (The Tale of Despereaux & Flushed Away) and Chris Butler, storyboard supervisor on Coraline. Butler wrote the original screenplay. PARANORMAN producer Arianne Sutner (The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou ) will co-produce the feature with Travis Knight (Phil Knight’s son– you know, the founder of running shoe giant, Nike? His kid runs Laika).
LAIKA (formerly known as Will Vinton Studios), has an interesting history as a producer of top-notch stop motion animated series and films- have a look at their roster of commercial director’s reels- great work all around. In that, it’s a treat to have a look at the place from an ‘outside’ perspective, so I thought this little clip would be of interest for anyone not embedded in the stop motion animation community, but are curious nonetheless. Check out the Laika Virtual Studio Tour!
Cheers, M
