Duncan Studios' Project on Kickstarter

Duncan Studio is turning to Kickstarter to independently fund their interactive storybook, My Beastly ABC's.





Ken Duncan told FLIP:


"The iPhone/iPad app market is growing daily, and we wanted to experiment with something that would be graphic and simple as there are currently some limitations on the amount of full animation that can be accomplished.  Our intention for creating a storybook app was to make something fun and educational for kids that would deliver interactivity not achievable with the traditional book format.


We came up with the My Beastly ABCs concept to design stylized creatures from around the world, interwoven into a story of a boy who has difficulty getting to sleep because of the beasts he encounters.  The viewer is able to interact with the beasts and discover, as the boy does, that they are not to be feared. The goal is to not only encourage kids to read, but to create an enjoyable piece of entertainment with a comprehensive narrative.


We were very fortunate to get Jim Dale, world famous narrator of the Harry Potter books, on board as our story's reader/performer.  He narrates the story from the boy's point of view, an adult looking back at a time when he was young.  The entire process, so far, has been very gratifying because we were able to conceive and approve ideas with a small crew, not with a long, multi-layered approval process. 


The current plan is to release the app later this summer.  We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to complete and market the project at the highest quality level possible.  The desire is for our studio to continue developing more original apps, with a focus on personalities and unique styles."

Visit Ken's Kickstarter page and donate if you can.  

Help independents like Duncan Studio thrive .

Disney MGM Studios, Summer of 1989 - Part 2

Roger Rabbit by Rob Minkoff - Rob corrects my animation drawings 

One of the best things about working at Disney MGM Studios was being able to go on all the rides for free. In the evenings after work the Park thinned out and, as employees, we could come and go as we pleased. My personal favourite was the Hollywood Tower of Terror a fantasy ride based on the old Twilight Zone TV series. I rode it endlessly and could never get enough of the butterflies-in-the-stomach final plunge. 

Disney MGM Studios, RollerCoaster Rabbit and the summer of 1989 - Part 1

Me at my Disney-MGM desk, animating a scene from Rollercoaster Rabbit

In the summer of 1989 I managed to get a job as an animator at the newly built Disney MGM Studio Theme Park in Florida, set up by "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" Production Manager Max Howard. Max was hired by Disney to build the new studio from scratch, and he quickly set about making a series of short "Roger Rabbit" films with his enthusiastic but fairly inexperienced crew. 

Kelly Asbury - loving his new jeans

Part of the Studio's production expenses were paid by the Park itself, as visitors would pay to watch the animators at work. We called it the goldfish bowl - guests would walk through the studio all day long and watch us draw. The inexperienced and the unlucky had to sit by the window - closely supervised by camera-wielding tourists.

Some of the animators claimed to be able to line up dates by gradually moving through the studio exchanging nods and winks and finally phone numbers with the girls "on the other side". For me it was heaven - my first proper animation gig since Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a paid summer job in a sunny paradise and a chance to learn and get better at my craft.

Rob Minkoff tells Jim Beihold a thing or two

We were led by the incredibly talented Rob Minkoff - who patiently took the trouble to fix my drawings and squeezed far better work out of me than I thought I was capable of - invariably the sign of a great director.

Master Animator Mark Henn - quality and speed

Lots of extremely able artists got a head start at Disney MGM Studios. I was lucky enough to work with Kevin Turcotte, Kelly Asbury, Mark Henn, Jim Beihold and Tom Bancroft, among many others who brought their huge talents to the studio. 

It was a huge privilege to be there and like everyone else who passed through its doors I thought it was a tragedy that such an excellent studio was eventually closed down by Disney.

-Alex

You can see the second part of this article about Disney MGM studios here, and read more about it in this classic FLIP article.

CalArts Time Warp

Last week, I was in Hollywood visiting friends and taking in some sights with my family.  One of our last stops was a trip north to my old alma mater, CalArts.  It had been at least twenty years since I last set foot on campus.  At the gatehouse, I showed the guard my old ID.  He laughed, said "This was three years before I was born." and opened the gate.  Asshole.

Seeing the campus was like taking a time warp from 1985 into the 21st century.  There's the original buildings, same old parking lot, same old eucalyptus trees, but it's dressed up with new stuff.  There's a funky performance hall for the music department with a small outdoor amphitheater just to the left as you drive up.

The main entrance steps are where I once met Terry Gilliam, who was screening his new movie "Brazil" at the tiny Bijou theater on the second floor.  I couldn't get in, there was such a crowd.  But Gilliam was standing out on the front steps having a smoke.  He chatted with me and a couple of other guys about his battle with Universal over the film cut. I thought my geek head would explode.   That's the kind of cool stuff that happened at that school - geek moments with great artists.

Walking through the main building, its almost exactly the same - same signs, same color coding for the different floors.  The sub-level was still covered with graffiti.  The students still had that unfed, unbathed look.

The second year Character Animation room still had sophomores in it, but no animation desks. They were working on Cintiqs atop two rows of fold out tables. It was Sunday morning, so only a few students were up and working - they had clearly been up all night.  One student was asleep on her desk.  Another student  was nice enough to listen to me yammer on about "Well in my day, we used an Oxberry!" while thinking, "I have to finish my film by Friday, please shut up, old dude."

The dorms were mostly the same.  The jacuzzi's been filled in - no doubt by the health department.  One the east side parking lot, the sprawling lawn has been replaced by ugly, pole barn style buildings with industrial metal siding.  They're small sound stages.

Driving off the lot, I thought of my old teachers: Jack Hannah, Bob McCrea, T.Hee, Hal Ambro, and Elmer Plummer, all gone now.  They worked with Walt Disney himself, and often treated us to personal anecdotes about The Man.

As I drove down Lyons Ave, to the strip mall where Vincenzo's Pizza  and Mongolian Barbecue still catered to student appetites, I thought of my classmates: Brenda Chapman,  Fred Cline, Butch Hartman, Tim Hauser, T. Dan Hofstedt, Mark Kalesniko, Dan Jeup, Kevin Lima, Rob Minkoff, Kirk Wise, and many others who have gone on to be industry leaders.  CalArts was as much a growing up experience as anything else.  I didn't fully appreciate it then, as I was too busy being a "stupid animator" as we were often called by the other departments.  We were goofy, travelled in packs, and totally immersed in character animation, 24/7.  Paradise, man!

-Steve

Read more about CalArts life in this classic FLIP article!

Faberge Big Egg Hunt comes to Covent Garden

"Pandora" by Martin Aveling

The Faberge Big Egg Hunt is almost over - bids close on Easter Monday for your chance to own a one meter high hand painted fibreglass egg - how can you possibly resist? All the eggs have been gathered together in Covent Garden over the Easter weekend for one last push to break the world record for the world's largest-ever Easter Egg Hunt. Some of them are truly amazing - my personal favourite is "Pandora" - hand painted by the very talented wildlife painter Martin Aveling. The photo doesn't really do it justice - the surface texture has been beautifully rendered so it looks and feels like a real giant egg.

And I was thrilled to see that my egg - The Great Eggscape - is still alive after 6 weeks in the rain - apart from a few sticky handprints it was completely unscathed. One wet cloth and a gentle scrub later and it looks as good as new.

Sarah on egg cleaning duty

Bids close at 5pm on Monday 9th April. Go on....you know you want one! - Alex

The Oyster Cracker

I had my first gallery show last month and want to show off my posters.  But first, backstory.....

Oyster heyday of the Delaware Bay

I live in Port Norris, in southern New Jersey, where the Maurice and Delaware Rivers meet.  A hundred years ago, it was an oysterman's paradise.  Hundreds of schooners under sail dredged enough oysters to fill 300 train cars every week during the season.  In the 1950's, a disease decimated the oyster beds.  The town was ruined.  In 1962 I was born. I would grow up watching once proud ships dissolve in the muddy banks and buildings vanish in the marsh on which they had been built.  In 1981, I got the hell out.      

The schooner A.J. Meerwald

Fast forward to the 1990's. A woman named Meghan Wren created a non-profit called The Bayshore Discovery Project out of her love for the river.  The group purchased a 1928 schooner called the A.J. Meerwald, which they restored to its 1928 self.  They also purchased a waterfront building known as The Shipping Sheds. This is where, in the heyday, the oyster boats docked, the oysters placed in barrels, then loaded onto awaiting train cars.

After many years of slow, steady progress, and lots of volunteer effort, these sheds have at last been restored, and are now used for educational purposes as well as social events.  Last fall they began a monthly Second Friday event, where there's music, fresh shucked oysters, art, and hanging out at the docks by the river.  A very nice night out.

The Shipping Sheds then and now.

So when Meghan asked if I would design a sign for their new cafe, The Oyster Cracker,  I jumped at the chance to be part of this cool place. I used the opportunity to try different styles, playing on my Cintiq.  There were enough ideas for a poster show as part of their Second Friday event last month.  They were very well received and we sold almost a dozen prints.  Check them out, FLIP friends!

Cracker Box                           Royster

R. Crumb                                Jesse

Super Oyster                          Silhouette      

Folk Art                               Rebus

Linocut Red                        Linocut Blue

They're available for purchase, $60 for an 18 X 24" print.  A third of all proceeds goes to The Bayshore Discovery Project.  A third goes to the print shop.  And a third goes to the Steve Moore beer fund - please give!  Order now! Maureen at the Bayshore Discovery Project is standing by.  Click here!

-Steve

Tax breaks for UK animation?

According to The Guardian, last week's UK budget will bring huge tax relief for British animators, in an effort to stop jobs and production moving overseas. Details of the new proposed tax break are a bit sketchy, and will be subject to obtaining state-aid approval from the European Commission. If all goes well, UK production of animation will qualify for a 20% or 25% break depending on the production budget. Combined with the EIS tax incentive scheme this could be a really important boost for our industry.  - Alex

Deja Vu

I recently stumbled across Andreas Deja's blog - Deja Vu - which is crammed with excellent posts, especially on Disney's Nine Old Men and their enduring legacy and contribution to the craft of animation. Twenty years ago I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Andreas on "Scar", the character he designed and supervised on the "Lion King". Andreas was kind enough to let me join his team one summer at Disney in 1993 when I was still a student, eager to spend a summer working in LA to try to get better at animation and to earn some spare cash. Looking back now I can't believe how lucky I was - or how little I really knew. Despite my stumbling inexperience, Andreas was a generous mentor and under his careful guidance I managed to complete a number of shots on the film, work which I am still proud of 20 years later. 

I learned a great deal from Andreas, but the most important thing that he taught me was that no matter how good you are as an animator - and he is very very good indeed - we all stand on the shoulders of giants. Andreas's fascination with the work of Disney's 9 Old Men shows how much we can still learn from the Golden Age of Animation - if we will just take the trouble to study it.

- Alex

ObamaCare and Me

Yes, I'm weighing in on health insurance.

My wife, Donna, and I did not have health insurance when she was diagnosed with cancer last year. (see earlier post.)  She had left a job with insurance, and was looking into buying private insurance when it all hit the fan.

Thanks to the Affordable Health Care Act (a.k.a. ObamaCare), we were able to get insurance even with Donna's pre-existing condition.  If opponents of this law had had their way (and they eventually may),  we would have been denied insurance, and would have faced severe financial stress while trying to fight a life threatening disease.

There's been an awful lot of nasty rhetoric being tossed around, decrying this law as unconstitutional. An invasion of privacy.  An attack on our freedom.

I thought they were talking about Facebook.

This is about health insurance.  Not Communism.  Not the Taliban.  Not gay whales.  Not Mo-Cap.   Health insurance.  We are being forced to get insurance. Insurance companies are being forced to insure the sick.  That's the deal.

Some gnash their teeth in panic, imagining that their fears and prejudices come to life and gang-bang them in the name of ObamaCare.  Donna and I experienced this law in the real world, first hand.  It helped us.  That's not a Democratic thing nor a Republican thing.  It's a human thing.
-Steve

And now, a cartoon.....

Bimbo's Initiation

Not unlike getting a law through Congress.

Space Stallions!

Another awesome student film from The Animation Workshop - the hilarious Space Stallions, produced by another talented crop of recently graduated Danish film-makers. I have been coming to teach at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark for many years now, and I always love coming back; the school has a terrific energy and has become one of the best places to study animation in Europe. All classes are conducted in English, and international students are welcomed. The school has recently added a CGA (computer graphics art) course with a strong emphasis on technical skills, and the CG artists work together with the animators in their third year to produce a "bachelor project" - a final year film which aims to combine excellent animation and story telling with a high level of technical skill. Every year the films seem to get better and better, and the recent results speak for themselves. Enjoy! - Alex

Butch Hartman's YooToon Studios

My old chum Butch Hartman is chumming for new talent.  Butch has become the King of Cartoons at Nickelodeon with his Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, and T.U.F.F. Puppy series getting heavy rotation in the programming day.  And yes, I have given him grief over the obnoxiously loud soundtracks in his shows, but he's still kind enough to listen, then tip me for polishing his Bruno Maglis.


He has launched the YouTube channel "YooToon Studios".  Butch explains:


"YOOTOON STUDIOS is an area where aspiring animators of every age, shape and size can get their work seen by Hollywood professionals. If their videos get lots of attention we'll give them a small budget to make even more! The bigger the audience, the bigger the budget! Also, I'll be doing my own original stuff, too. Videos should be between 10 seconds and two minutes, ideally. But, hey, if your genius exceeds two minutes, let's see it anyway!"


And that's the carrot in a nutshell.  Get to it, kids!
-Steve

"Walt's Dead - You Missed It"

Those were the words of Ward Kimball, spoken in 1980 to a small theater full of Cal Arts students.  He might as well have been preaching atheism in a cathedral.  Students were not only hurt, but outraged that this "nine old man", this apostle of Walt, could deny their dreams of Walt's Second Coming.  They were, after all, the new generation being groomed to restore and continue the Walt Disney legacy.

Thirty two years later, that generation is still dreaming.  In the Fantasy Disney Studio in their minds, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, and seven other guys become the new nine old men, and John Lasseter becomes Walt, bringing back old school animation for good,  and the artists move back into the old animation building, with the old desks, and marry ink and paint girls, and have lunch at Alphonse's and martinis at the Pago Pago.  Sigh.

When Glen Keane announced last week that he was leaving the studio, a chorus of shrieks rang out.  How could he do that?   The blablogs were on fire with comments on his announcement - barking up opinions as if Glen actually owed them an explanation for what was, in fact, a personal decision.

I don't know Glen, personally.  But I know he's done the best character animation of his generation and has nothing to prove.  He gave thirty six years to a studio that, during his tenure, grew, as if on steroids, into a pumped-up, corporate soulcrusher.  They'll go on making animated films (or not), but its homey, midwestern roots are gone, save for some very nice people working there, dreaming, dreaming, of the Fantasy Disney Studio in their minds.

"Walt's dead. You missed it."

-Steve

Brenda Chapman's New Website

Good ol' Brenda Chapman has announced the launch of her own website:
 www.brenda-chapman.com/.  And like everything she does, she did it right.

Brenda had this to say about it:
"I've learned that I really enjoy writing. It's a good place to try things out. And it's a chance for me to give a little back. I will never ever ever ever live up to Joe (Ranft) and his generosity with people who went to him for advice. He never turned anyone away who wanted his mentorship. I don't know how he did it, or found the time - but he did. So if I can do that on my own small scale, it's really to honor Joe. - I don't mean to sound mushy or mundane, but again, there it is."


I've known Brenda since we were CalArts kids.  Even in her student work she brought a humanity to her characters that played very real.  That's not something you can calculate, it has to come from the heart.  Few people in our business can tap that, but she can.  While the rank and file in our industry are busy aping each other, she brings her own perspective to her work.  


This is a good thing.    


-Steve
   

The Official Lawyer's Handbook

Even though I have spent 20 years in the animation business, I had a short lived career in the early 90's as a barrister - that is to say a lawyer of the wigged variety - made famous (ish) by John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda. I still write and draw a weekly cartoon strip about lawyers in The Times - you can see it at www.qccartoon.com - the site is full of law jokes, law cartoons, and law humour. And, from time to time I publish a new collection of the cartoons for my legion of fans (my Mum and her friends).

My latest book, published by the excellent JR Books, is a collaboration with the hugely talented American writer and ex-lawyer Daniel R. White - who is the main reason why The Official Lawyer's Handbook is as good as it is. Anyway this is my favourite book so far, and even if you don't think lawyers are funny, you still might enjoy laughing at them, especially if you have recently emerged from divorce or bankruptcy. You can find the book here at amazon.co.uk, and I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing and drawing it - Alex

2 D Goggles - or the Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

One of the many privileges of our business is the pleasure of working alongside talented colleagues. I first met Sydney Padua at Warner Bros where we worked on Brad Bird's wonderful Iron Giant. Since then we have bumped into each other on many animation and VFX features including most recently The Chronicles of Narnia - Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where Sydney did some beautiful character work on Eustace, the dragon.

Syd does not neglect her own personal projects and has developed her own highly successful online web comic about the Victorian inventor and computer pioneer, Charles Babbage. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage has developed a huge following and even the science establishment is very keen to get involved - making science interesting for kids. She recently did a TED talk which you can see here. Syd is an inspiration for every animator who dreams of getting on with their own personal work - while simultaneously balancing the need to do commercial work and of course earn a living. Her web comic is beautifully drawn and very funny, and you can find it here. Personally, I can't wait for the graphic novel. Enjoy! - Alex

FLIP on Flops

I didn't see John Carter.  But I have worked on my share of flops. My heart goes out to the really talented people who poured so much of themselves into a production like that.  It's like you've raised a child to walk the high wire, and on his first step out,  he falls to his death.

Peers stare in silence.  They'll mumble privately to each other, "The kid was too fat." or "The kid didn't know what he was doing." or "They should have given the kid a better name."  but publicly, there's an awkward silence.  They put their heads down and go back to work.

When one of our peers fails, there's a shiver of fear that resonates through the creative ranks.  In our industry, failure is made very public.  Media people seem to drool over the opportunity to take smug, dismissive shots at a movie that didn't work.  They haughtily highlight every flaw, and belittle the filmmakers for their incompetence.  People all over the world get to witness this beating to their own amusement, adding their own asinine comments without the slightest idea that the movie was made by good, talented people who just couldn't make the sum of the parts come together as a whole.

And then there's a private fallout in the studio.   Studio brass forget your name.  Your agent forgets your number.  Friends forget to be friends, wanting to avoid any conversation about the whole mess. Is it any wonder that creative people are afraid to take chances?

In FLIP #17, director Dan Scanlon talked about the fear of failure in the industry:

"I find a lot of professionals artist are afraid to make something on their own because they fear it won't live up to the standard of the projects they contribute to at work. They're afraid when people see what they create without the company behind them. Afraid it will appear that they're the one who's been pretending to help lift the couch. But remember, the projects you work on professionally are made by many, many, extremely talented people, but that doesn't mean each one of them should be able to take the reins and knock it out of the park on their own. Give it a shot, and if you fail - so what? Revel in it, and most importantly, learn from it and do it again. Besides, even if your peers say your project sucks, take comfort in knowing they're still secretly jealous that you made something."


Dan was talking about independent filmmaking, but the fear that he speak of - of not being able to succeed outside of the walls of the animation studio - still applies.  The comfort zone of a big studio is hard to step away from, particularly as you get older and have families to support.  The goal shifts from having a career in animation to having a job in animation.  It's just how it is. 


But for me, the real fear is not failure, but getting too comfortable.  I remember my early years in animation, encountering old veterans with tons of great advice on technique, but terribly stale creative ideas.  I felt kind of bad for them, worse than I feel for Andrew Stanton, the director of John Carter.  At least Andrew was trying something different.   He took a big chance on a very big stage. 


-Steve

Where to learn creature animation?

One of the problems that the Visual Effects business in London has had for many years is how to find suitably trained animators - photo realistic creature work is very demanding and the skills involved can be quite different from animating character performances. One school that offers an excellent training (at very reasonable rates) is Rob Hemmings' admirable Animation A-Team. He focuses exclusively on training animators for creature work, aiming squarely at the likes of Frame Store, Double Negative, MPC and Cinesite. The reels his students come up with are hugely impressive - you can see their work, and his website here: Enjoy! - Alex

A Lorax Anecdote Not from the Publicity Dept

I started working for Illumination Entertainment four years ago, when they were just starting out.  I work from my studio in New Jersey, in my hometown of Port Norris.  I used to live in L.A., worked there for over 20 years.  What a hell-hole.  With my wife, Donna, I bought a 120 year old commercial building, which we renovated and set up shop.  I have a half-mile commute to work.  I do storyboards on a Cintiq, which are uploaded to Illumination HQ in Santa Monica.

I started on "Despicable Me", then rolled right over onto "The Lorax", and now "Despicable Me 2".  Some California colleagues have bad-mouthed Illumination for not giving Americans jobs.  Because America ends at the San Gabriel Valley.  

"The Lorax" director Chris Renaud and me near Mac Guff Studio in Paris.

A Pixar friend who's drunk on the company Kool-Ade accused Illumination of using sweatshop labor.   He's referring to Mac Guff, the CG studio stuck in that horrible third world city of Paris, a stone's throw from the slums of the Eiffel Tower.  I visited it with my family in 2010.  They pay their animators in cigarettes!  Well, they smoke a lot, anyway.  

Right after our Paris trip, my wife started having stomach pains.  She was running for local election (and won!) and figured it was a stress-related ulcer.  At the end of December, after a series of tests, she was diagnosed with colon cancer.  It was bad. 

In January 2011, she began chemotherapy at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Every other week, we would make the fifty mile trek northwest to the city .  At a cubicle-like infusion station, I would plug in my Cintiq and do Lorax storyboards while my wife sat in a recliner for six hours, having toxic chemicals fed into her bloodstream to save her life.

At first, nurses would stop in their tracks, fascinated by what I was doing.  "Are you drawing?"  they would ask.  "Amazing!" they would say.  My work never saved anyone's life.  After a few months, they got used to seeing me.  Now I'm just "that Despicable Me guy".  Donna has the same nurse each time, Annette.  I can't understate how incredibly kind she had been.  Beyond administering chemo, she will sit and chat and make a stressful experience not so stressful, all while getting her own work done.   That's a whole different kind of talent. 

Nurse Annette and me with my Cintiq at Infusion Studios.

We kept Donna's condition quiet for a long time, because some people FREAK OUT when you mention cancer.  But I did tell Illumination.  Dave Rosenbaum, the story supervisor, and Chris Renaud, the director, could not have been more understanding and supportive.  We were in the midst of production on "The Lorax". With all the production madness going on on THEIR end, they never had a problem with my wacky schedule.  That meant a lot to me.    

So when I see trailers for "The Lorax", I think of Jefferson Hospital.  Parts of every sequence I did were done during chemotherapy, in what I now call "Infusion Studios".  That big, sweeping shot when we first see the Truffala Valley? Infusion Studios.

The massive animal exodus?  Infusion Studios.

Ted's escape from Thneedville?  Infusion Studios.  

Ted visits Audrey and gets flipped?  Infusion Studios.

And so on.

Two major surgeries and a year of chemo later, Donna's doing great.  I couldn't board a better ending.
-Steve

Donna loves Paris.

The Story of Animation

Another excellent new short film, this time directed by my old friend and former Blue Sky alumnus Dave Tart (we worked together on Chris Wedge's excellent Blue Sky Studios' release Robots).

Dave collaborated with the excellent Tumblehead Animation Studios in Viborg, Denmark to produce a short UPA-style film about the animation process - designed to help clients understand what actually goes in to the making of an animated project. It's short, funny, and very very well made. I'll be bookmarking it for the next time I need to explain things to a client, so I don't have to educate them at great length about what exactly is involved in the process of animation.

You can see The Story of Animation at Vimeo here:

...and you can see more about the up and coming Tumblehead Animation here:

Enjoy! - Alex

Saga City - a charming animated short by Luc Chamberland

Check out this delightful animated short - Saga City - by my old friend Luc Chamberland, whom I worked with many years ago on "Joseph" - the sequel to DreamWorks' "Prince of Egypt". Luc directed the animation in Vancouver and did an awesome job - now he is a Director at the National Film Board in Montreal. You can see Saga City here at the NFB website. Enjoy! - Alex

Come and Join the Big Egg Hunt!

This week saw the launch in London of the Faberge Egg Hunt - the world's biggest ever Easter Egg Hunt. The event aims to raise funds for two important charities: Action for Children and Elephant Family, inviting tourists, locals and visitors to hunt down the strategically placed giant eggs all over the capital.


Alex of course cannot reveal the secret location of his egg, but visitors to London's South Bank near Hungerford Bridge might be searching in the right area.

You can see a pdf map of the South Bank eggs here: And if you really get stuck, there's a cheat sheet here. And you can even bid on the eggs too! The auction begins online here: Go on...you know that what you really need is a giant Easter egg in your living room!

And, with 10 coats of marine varnish, you can even leave it outside. - Alex

Tales from Usher House Studios

posted by Steve
Here's one from the archives, called "Project Pod John".  It's the story of a studio's attempt to create a John Lasseter of their own......

http://www.flipanimation.net/fliplissue7.htm

This was probably my favorite of the articles I wrote for the original FLIP.  I took a twisted meeting that  really happened and twisted it some more.  Give it a read, you've probably had a meeting like this yourself!  More tales from Usher House are yet to come!

Hearts & Hammers, Episode 1

I've had a couple of e-mails lately from people looking for my old Hearts and Hammers short. I did four of these back in the '00's, but they've been offline for a few years. If you're not familiar with the short, it's simple: a man and a woman discuss love while holding their hearts in one hand and hammers in the other.  Its a Valentine's Film for people going through a rough patch.

So for you, Tony Sprando of Bend Oregon, and for you, Trish Baird of location unknown, here's the first episode of Hearts and Hammers.....

Gary Miereanu - Publicity Hound

posted by Steve

Gary at snowy Lincoln Center last night.

I first met Gary Miereanu in 1997, when I was at Disney TV Animation.  He was in the publicity department, and I was a red-hot director of a whimsical short called "Redux Riding Hood".  When you're a red-hot director, you get introduced to people like Gary, and they write stuff about you.  Some of it's true!  Gary is an enormous guy with an enormous heart.  He's always been a pal to me, even after my fifteen minutes as cartoon celebrity were up.

He does publicity for Warner Bros now, covering their premieres and such.  But what is truly, TRULY impressive, is that he's in New York City right now, covering the Westminster Dog Show for the LA Daily News.  My wife and I have become hooked on this show, and I was gobsmacked last year when I learned that Gary was there, in person, on the floor, photographing the event.

Gary explains: 
"Four years ago, on behalf of Warner Bros , I scheduled a premiere for one of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies.  I've watched the Westminster Dog Show every year it's been televised,and never thought I'd get the chance to attend. My original career was that of a sportswriter and photographer, and I've covered everything from six Super Bowls to World Series to NBA and NHL championships and so on (for Sport Magazine, and dozens of magazines and newspapers). So when I realized that Westminster was the same week as the premiere, I called my old newspaper -- The Los Angeles Daily News -- and offered my services to shoot the dog show. And they agreed. By coincidence, Warner Bros. has had a premiere for me to run each of the last four years (including tonight) in New York during the week of Westminster, so we've kept the ball rolling. And it is truly two of the most fun days of my year."

photo from 2011 Westminster Dog Show by Gary Miereanu

Gary wears a bright yellow shirt to the event so his wife and kids can spot him on TV.  He's a big dude, so finding him is not like finding Waldo.  Now you, too, can play along! 

Gary adds, "As one of my best pals says, 'You can see that shirt from space!'"

The man in the yellow shirt on the front page of the New York Times last year with the 2011 Best in Show dog.  

See shots of this year's show here....

See more shots of last year's show in the LA Daily News


Watch the Dog Show tonight (Monday):
8-9 PM (Eastern Time) live on USA Network
9-11 PM (ET) live on CNBC


And be sure to watch for Best in Show Tuesday night:
8-11 PM (ET) live on USA Network

Valentine's Nth

It's time once again to go up to the attic and pull this film out of the box for the hunched and goofyhearts out there.  Actually, its been on Vimeo for months, but who knew?  The Indescribable Nth is a short I made independently starting in 1993 and completing in 1999.  Production was done at Character Builders Studio in Worthington, Ohio.

I started this film during a time when animated features were telling dramatic stories with human characters designed with realistic proportions in realistic settings.   There was a ton of production value and great craftsmanship, but that meant squat if the character acting failed to move the audience.  I felt that little bit of information was lost on executives.  In the '90's, epic scale was in, which in an animated film is what - a tiny animated character on a large background?   Clearly, the lesson they took from The Lion King's success was: more wildebeests!

So I wanted to make a little film that told an emotional story with extremely stripped-down designs that, according to the geniuses in charge, were only good for yuks.  But we managed to bring the audience to the brink of tears with a series of simple line drawings.  And that, to me, is what makes character animation magic.  Not to short-change the other elements of production - all are important to create the whole - but the actors are the eyes through which the audience experiences the story.  (I hear a chorus of my peers yelling "DUH!!" right now.)

I have to take my hat off the the gang at Character Builders, who put as much passion into making this film as I did.  They were a greatly underrated bunch back then and I am proud to have worked with them. Look how many ended up at Disney and Pixar!

Share The Indescribable Nth with someone you love.  But you're still on the hook for a Valentine's gift.
-Steve

The Indescribable Nth from Steve Moore on Vimeo.