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.

David Bowie got me Hooked on Coffee

posted by Steve

In 1984, I was a student at Cal Arts.  I stayed up late a lot - sometimes all night - working on my student films.  So did my classmates -most of them, anyway.  And when I think back at those times what amazes me is that I did not drink coffee.  Ever.

One night, while watching TV in the dorms with Tim Hauser and the gang, an ad came on aimed right between our eyes.  A man's voice bombastically declared, "YOU are the New American Society.  The movers.  The shakers.  YOU are the NEW Coffee Generation!"  As the man spoke, Jeff Lynne sang "Hold on tiiiiiight - to your dream. Ooooooh yeah....".  This was edited to short, MTV-style clips of celebrities.  There was David Bowie - HUGE in '84.  And the Wilson sisters from Heart. And Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite author of all time. And Ken Anderson the NFL quarterback, not the Disney artist.  And Cecily Tyson the actress, who purred, "...because coffee is the calm moment that lets you think.  Coffee gives you the time to dream it, then you're ready to do it!"  

The dorm gang gave little thought to the commercial except for Tim, who jumped up indignantly (or was he going for more wine?) and said, "They're trying to get our generation hooked on caffein!  That's disgusting!"

Tim was right!  The National Coffee Association sponsored the ad to change the image of coffee from that nasty shit your parents drink at breakfast to a lifestyle accessory for hip and happening young people of the 1980's.  A mere ten years later, Starbucks was everywhere.

We should have taken the ad as a cue.  We should have seen the potential business opportunity in catering to a New Coffee Generation.  We could have been bazillionaires.  But we were animation students, dreaming of Disney glory.  "Hold on tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.............TO  YOUR DREAM!."

Today, it takes two cups just to leave the house, then a third to nurse through the morning at work. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, "Poot te-tweet!"

 

Cecily Tyson: Actress / Coffee Pusher

Here's another commercial, where Heart uses coffee to mix a new hit.  "Go on and set your coffee mugs on the control board, gals, we don't mind."   

Tim Hauser commented:

LOL! -- Tim Hauser: mad prophet of the dorms! Thanks for the memory!!!!

(BTW -- "Caffeine" needs an "e" at the end).

  

At last - A Graphic Novel about the Hunched and Goofy

Mark Kalesniko’s graphic novel Freeway is a truly brilliant, hilarious look at the hunched and goofy lifestyle in our industry's ground zero.  His humor is wickedly honest, his storytelling unflinching.  His graphics capture the blinding stark light of Los Angeles with a pace that pulls the reader through at a wicked pace.  Freeway should resonate with anyone who has worked in the LA animation scene and experienced this less-than glamorous life in the San Fernando Valley.

-Steve

By Mark Kalesniko

Freeway tells the story about Alex Kalienka, a layout man, stuck in traffic on the 134/101freeway as he heads to work. While trying to keep calm and get to his destination, his mind bounces from one thought to another exploring his life, fantasies and fears. These thoughts show Alex imagining a golden age of animation in the 1940’s where great artists work in creative collaboration and mutual respect while contrasting with the present day reality where office politics, petty jealousies and boredom are the norm. It is this contrast of the romanticized past with the realistic present that sets a conflict that Alex tries to resolve as he drives to work. The theme, as with my other books, is what you perceive or imagine something or someone to be is for the most part the complete opposite in reality.

As with my past works, I do incorporate some autobiographical elements in my stories. Like many writers, I write what I know, or better yet, imagine what I know. The beauty of writing fiction is combining my experiences, experiences of others, and imagination to create a story that is satisfying to the reader. For instance, in the 1970’s part of the story - where Alex comes down to L.A. - that experience really happened to me. I did come down to try to break into the animation business and was so overwhelmed that I hid in my hotel room and ran home. But that is where I end the autobiographical element and bring in the fictional part of the story.  Alex is pretty much by himself at the hotel, so I added the religious character of Walter so he could have someone to tell his story to.  That never happened in reality. The same with the mystery girl, there was no girl breaking into hotel rooms when I was there, so I added her for drama and a little sexual tension. That’s what makes writing fiction fun, combining different elements to make for an interesting story.

The characters in Freeway are composites of people that I have known both in and out of the animation business. On one project I was working on, there was a rumor of a cleaning lady spotting someone running around naked after hours. I never heard if the nudist was seen again or who it was, but the image stuck in my head. Years later, when I was writing Freeway, I thought why not make Paul the nudist, as his way of venting his stress and frustration. Again I knew no such person but it made a great way to add a fun personality trait for one of my characters.

Freeway, as with all my books, starts with index cards. I write down scenes, plot points, and dialog on the cards and tack them on a board. Because Freeway has a very complicated storyline, set not only on a freeway but also in 3 different time periods, I put each time period on a different color card.  For example, the freeway sequence would be white, the 70’s sequence pink and so forth. After I had all the ideas down, I began to shuffle the cards into a coherent story using the colors to help me keep track of which story was coming up next.

Once I felt I had a full outline, I began to write the script using the index cards as my template. The script was made up of seven chapters, all titles of songs from the 1940’s. Each chapter had a certain theme.  For instance, in Chapter 3, “If You Were The Only Girl In The World,” I wanted to explore the women in Alex’s life including his girlfriend Chloe, and his obsession with the mystery girl on the freeway.

Once the script was completed, I would take each chapter and break it down, drawing tiny crude thumbnail sketches of each page and its panel placement, action, and dialog. From there I began the drawing process. On past books, I would draw right on the board, but because Freeway had so many characters, time periods, and cars, it was easier to draw roughs separately on scratch paper and trace them to the board. Once drawn, I would ink the page and it would be complete and then I would send it to my publisher who would do the lettering and balloons. If you want to see some of the rough sketches, thumbnails and photos used in my book, go to my blog at www.markkalesniko.blogspot.com/ .

Freeway took ten years to create.  My previous works took on average of three to four years, and I thought Freeway would be the same. What I didn’t take into account was the amount of research that was involved including the re-creation of the 1940’s Bunker Hill district - which does not exist anymore - or the complexity of drawing thousands of cars, which are extremely difficult to draw. Also, I wanted the book to be pleasing visually and to do that I had to render each drawing quite extensively which was very time consuming.  My hope was that when completed, the reader will be able to go on a visual trip that they can go back to time and time again.

The marketing is mostly done by my publisher. They send out my book for review and set me up for signings or talks at Comic Con, Ape and Miami Book Festival. I’ve also set up a web presence with my website, blog and Facebook to help promote the book.

You can order Freeway through Fantagraphics Books at www.fantagraphics.com/markkalesniko . Also I have a link to the Fantagraphics website at my blog, which I mentioned above, and at my website at www.markkalesniko.com  .

At the moment, I’m finishing up a 38 page, Alex story that I will be giving away on my publisher’s website.  That should be done in a couple more months. After that, I have a couple of ideas for longer stories which I will do some outlines on and then choose which one to do next. 

I want to thank Steve Moore for setting up this arrticle. Steve and I go way back to our days as animation students at Cal Arts and his support and interest in Freeway is greatly appreciated.

How to get the taxman to finance your independent animated feature film

- Posted by Alex

This post is about tax, or rather about tax-financing. But stop!....don't click away yet! For anyone in the UK trying to finance an independent film (and every self-respecting animator has a film project in there somewhere) - this is one of the best ways to do it. It's called EIS - and it is a semi-miraculous way to get the taxman to pay for your project.

What is EIS? 

EIS stands for Enterprise Incentive Scheme. It is a tax-efficient vehicle for financing new enterprises, or indeed film companies.

Tax efficient vehicle? Can you speak English please?

OK - in simple terms, here is how it works: EIS is a government tax scheme, which gives your investors very attractive tax breaks, so that they start making money long before the film does. I'll say that again: the investors start making money long before the film does.

What? ....but that's impossible, isn't it?

No. Let's say you want to raise £5m for an independent animated film. You have a great script, great character designs, a budget, a business plan - you've even done a proof-of-concept trailer. Now you just have to attract investors. First, you set up an SPV (single purpose vehicle). This is the film company that will make the film. Let's call it Awesome Films Ltd. All the rights (script, designs etc) get assigned to Awesome. Now you go to investors - that's wealthy folks with lots of spare cash -  and get them to invest.

But why would wealthy people want to invest in your film? Isn't that kind of risky?

Yes, but your film is awesome, and they are going to make money right away - even before you start making it. Under EIS, they can write off the entire amount of their investment against their income tax bill, so that they pay 30% less tax - immediately.

So they get a 30% tax break? Right away! - that's amazing!

It gets better. If your film makes money (we hope it will!) your investors don't have to pay any capital gains tax on the profits. So, they get the profits tax-free. Also, if they get run over by a bus, the profits are not subject to inheritance tax either - their children will get the profits tax-free too. So, if your film does more than break even, your investors will do very well indeed.

Ok, that's all good, but what if the film makes a loss?

God forbid. But, if it does lose money, there is more good news - the taxman helps pay for the losses. Your investors are able to write off the losses against their income tax.

Incredible! Why does the British government do this?

Because they are desperate to get new businesses up and running, to grow the economy. So they are throwing money at business startups, not in the form of grants (which are very hard to get) but in tax breaks through EIS. If you follow the rules, EIS represents a huge government investment in your business.

How do you follow the EIS rules?

Well, you will need some professional advice to help you tick all the boxes. That means you need a good accountant and/or lawyer. But it is well worth it.

How do you know this stuff?

That is a secret. But it might have to do with a lecture I attended at a leading firm of London solicitors (lawyers) last week.

- Alex

Harlow in Hollywood

By Darrell Rooney 

I’ve been a fan of Old Hollywood history almost my entire life. To me, Jean Harlow seems to encompass all the glamor, excitement and drama of those days. With her platinum blonde hair, radiant smile and satin bound figure, Harlow is an Art Deco goddess in earthly form. But the genuine warmth that emanates from her is what makes her special. Who Jean Harlow appears to be and who she really is are two very different things, and it’s this juxtaposition that I find fascinating.

Years ago, famed photographer and author Mark Vieira suggested we do a book together on Harlow. I had acquired a major collection of photos over the years and with Mark’s know how (having written at least ten books on Old Hollywood history) and my enthusiasm we embarked on this project together.  When we realized that 2011 was Harlow’s hundredth birthday, our goal was to have a book come out in time to celebrate that milestone. ‘HARLOW IN HOLLYWOOD’ published by Angel City Press in Los Angeles is that book.

Harlow reigned in Hollywood for just seven short years. First emerging in Howard Hughes’ WW1 blockbuster “Hell’s Angels,” she started as a public joke and grew into an extraordinarily gifted comedienne. She had a gift for mixing sex comedy with a curiously honest innocence. It was this combination that made her box office dynamite. By 1937 she was gone, but she paved the way for future sex symbols such as Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe and Madonna.

But who was the person behind the movie star image? Her name was Harlean Carpenter and she was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1911; the daughter of a mild mannered dentist and his socialite wife.  Movie magazines would forever portray her early life as idyllic, happy, and privileged. The truth was a little more sinister. Though she grew up in an upper middle class family, Harlean was controlled by a domineering mother; a woman of questionable moral character. Culled from interviews with countless friends and schoolmates in Kansas City, Hollywood and Chicago, what emerges is the story of a warm hearted girl victimized by a gold-digging mother, who divorces her husband, and takes her daughter to Hollywood to pursue her own goals of a movie career. As Harlean grows up, her striking beauty takes centre stage and Mother Jean transfers her dreams of stardom onto her daughter.

The bond between mother and daughter was the cornerstone of Jean Harlow’s life. Though she appeared mature beyond her years, she was incapable of separating emotionally from her Mother. While it was charming to the public to have a sex symbol who couldn’t stand being away from her ‘Mommie’ for too long, the truth was she could never keep a marital relationship because of her slavish devotion to her.

‘Harlow In Hollywood’ follows Harlow’s personal and professional lives from childhood, to her first days in Hollywood, her ascension to movie queen at MGM, her survival of public scandal due her second husband’s suicide, and her own untimely death at the age of twenty-six. Using Harlow’s own words at times, and countless never before seen photos, the goal of this book is to get a clear sense of who the real person was behind the image. Jean Harlow led an extraordinary life and left a niche in Hollywood many have tried to claim. Her name is synonymous with the glamorous thirties, and she will forever remain a symbol of Hollywood.

I’m immensely proud of this effort. It’s a large format coffee table book, 240 pages long with about 280 rarely seen photos of Jean Harlow. The photographs encompass everything from glamour portraits, production stills, personal family photos to candid photos shot by fans who ran into Harlow on the streets of Hollywood. The research done utilizes private letters and personal interviews with friends and family from Harlow’s Midwest years to her halcyon days in Hollywood. The text provides the most up-to-date, accurate and honest presentation of Harlow’s fascinating but all too brief life. It has been nothing short of a labor of love and I’m most pleased to know that it has been received and reviewed so well, but most of all, I take great pleasure in knowing that it will exist forever. I hope you will enjoy the book as much as Mark and I had creating it.

Get a copy!
And read more about Darrell's Jean Harlow collection in the FLIP archives.

Dean Yeagle's "Melange" at Book Soup

posted by Steve

FLIP featured artist Dean Yeagle is doing a book signing tonight!  Originally published in France, "Melange" is an 128 page overview of his career including many of Dean's Playboy cartoons.   If you're in the Hollywood area go see Dean at Book Soup!    His feature in FLIP was its most popular page ever.  I wonder why.......

Anyway, the book signing starts at 7 tonight!

Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, California

And buy a book!

Jerry Rees' Home Movies of Ward Kimball

by Jerry Rees

Back in the day, Rebecca and I were delighted to receive an invitation to attend a gathering at Ward Kimball's house.  Kelly Kimball was there of course.  Brian McEntee and Chuck Richardson were there.  Ward and his crew fired up full size steam engines and gave visitors rides back and forth across his property.  What a blast!  And what a shock it must have been for people passing on the neighborhood street, seeing steam engines racing toward the fence, then slowing at the last moment and edging up to the bumpers at the end of the tracks.  Most of the day was spent chatting, eating and riding the trains.  But Ward saw several of us peeking at the building where he kept his vast collection of miniature trains.  He let us in and asked "you want somethin' to run?"

He fired up several trains at once and got everything chugging.  You could tell he was having a blast!  Boy did his eyes twinkle...

Later that day he wanted to see the tapes I'd been recording.  He said he liked the footage better than the stuff a news crew had staged and shot earlier.  He found it more candid and fun.

That VHS tape has been sitting on a shelf for a whole lot of years.  After intending to digitize it for a long, long time, I finally gave it a shot.  Some of it is still in decent shape.  But there are segments lost to tape degeneration.  I could kick myself for not doing it sooner!  But over the next few weeks I plan to go back and salvage as many scenes as possible - both the big trains, and the miniatures - and post it all on my site.

The piece I shared today was just the first test (before the digitizer broke!).  I've ordered a new one and will be back at it in a few days.

Hope it made you smile!

Another great place to study animation - the University of Kent at Canterbury

I have been doing some teaching lately at the University of Kent at Canterbury, where my old friend David Byers-Brown runs an excellent Msc. in Computer Animation, a course which he built from scratch. It's a one year graduate course on a 1960s campus a short cab ride out of beautiful medieval Canterbury, where David's students are producing some amazingly sophisticated work. David and I worked together many years ago on The Thief and The Cobbler; he animated lots of excellent shots of Zig Zag the Grand Vizier, and later went to work for ILM where he seems to have mastered most of the elements of digital film-making. His students are not just trained to be animators but rather emerge with all-round skills in Maya - an excellent training for work in the visual effects industry in London. You can see their website here - check out in particular the excellent short film "The Raptor Hunter", created and animated by the very talented Dariusz Szczuraszek. - Alex

The Saga of Bjorn - bad pitch, great film

Now and again I teach animation classes at the wonderful Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, a school which I think offers one of the very best English-speaking undergraduate animation courses in the world. The school has a great spirit, marvellous dedicated staff, and produces excellent work. A couple of years ago I was working there as an artist in residence when one of my students, Benjamin Kousholt, pitched me his idea for a student film. It was all about Vikings. "Oh no..." I thought, "here we go..."  Vikings? (yawn) Going to Valhalla? (double yawn). I thought: When will these Danes stop banging on about Vikings? It's like the Norwegians and their forest trolls - time to stop digging through the cultural attic in search of antique furniture and do something new.

How wrong I was. Benjamin and his team of animators and visual effects artists put together one of the best student films I have ever seen. It's beautifully designed, well animated, very funny, and has over a million hits on YouTube. I salute their hard work and a wonderful result. - Alex

Toaster Tales #1: A Replicant in BladeRunnerland

posted by Steve

Mr. Hollywood with James Wang and Rebecca Rees in Taipei.

It was January 28^th, 1986, and I had just arrived to work on The Brave Little Toaster at Wang Film Studios, a.k.a. Cuckoo’s Nest.  I had been put up at the China Hotel, and must have arrived on the weekend as the studio was closed during my first full day there.  After breakfast at the hotel, I took a walk to check out the town. 

I was just 23 years old, and found the city of Taipei to be like the land of Blade Runner. The buildings, the lighting, the smells, and the noise let me know with no uncertainty that I was far from the animator's safe haven of Burbank. Taipei was very loud, and on the eve of Chinese New Year, firecrackers went off constantly throughout the city, with rolls running the height of three story buildings.   Most all signage was in Chinese, rendering me illiterate. American fast-food was there; Wendy's, Pizza Hut (with ketchup in lieu of tomato sauce on their pizza) and of course, McDonald's.  As I approached a life-size, fiberglass Ronald McDonald on the sidewalk, a small boy puked a strawberry milkshake at his feet - a National Geographic photo-op missed.  It was all so intensely bizarre and exhilarating, I strolled around like a Replicant, drawing stares for being a strawberry-blonde haired, green-eyed freak. 

Day one in Taipei.

Walking past a large, shiny department store, my green eyes caught a bank of TVs in the showcase window with footage of what appeared to be the space shuttle exploding.   I stopped short,  taking a closer look next to a couple of locals.  The footage was on a thirty second loop, the shuttle exploding, then back intact, then exploding, then back intact.    The locals were talking about it, but in Chinese, so why was I eavesdropping?  I went into the store to hear the TV commentary.  It was an American news report dubbed in Chinese.  I could hear a familiar voice (Brokaw?) reporting, but Chinese translation transposed on the tape made it very difficult to decipher. The Chinese news also added musical score for dramatic effect.  Really.  

Hours later, I met up with some of my American Toaster crew mates and learned that the shuttle had, indeed, exploded killing the entire crew.  Every January 28^th since, when reminded of the disaster, I flash back to the front of that Chinese department store and that bank of televisions, luring people to come shop with a loop of the Challenger exploding during Chinese New Year. Shin yen kwai le!  

Alex is Eggstatic

Last week I found myself painting a one meter high fibreglass egg for a charity egg hunt - The Big Egg Hunt - launching in London in february. You can see their website here.

It's a bit like last year's Elephant Parade in London - different artists paint the eggs (or elephants) and, after they have graced the capital with their presence, they get auctioned off for charity. The charities this year are Action For Children and Elephant Family.

The funny thing was - I've been working digitally for so long that I can't really remember how to use paint properly anymore. So I had to beg a favour from an old friend of mine - Clarissa Parish, who is an awesomely talented muralist who specialises in huge commissions like cruise ships and hotels. Here's her website:

She had to bail me out of trouble on various occasions when I threatened to screw the whole thing up. Eventually however with her help I managed to get the egg safely to its "nest" in Clerkenwell, from where it will move to a yet-to-be-disclosed location in London. - alex

Augmented Reality Without Mushrooms

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
 -"Big AL" Einstein

Last month, I was shown this video by my old pal Jerry Rees. 

My head fell off.  A week later, I saw this one, below (skip to about 1:30 to get to the interesting stuff).  

Now, I’ve been around long enough to say I’ve been around long enough.  And for the first time in years I saw something animated that really blew my mind.  How do they do it?   Jerry explains “Augmented Reality” and his work with AMUSME, a start-up new-tech company he has been working with as Lead Creative.

Jerry Rees: 

"Augmented Reality (AR) is a process that allows web cams and/or smart mobile devices to show you a live image of what is actually there (the Reality part), plus an added element that isn't actually there (the Augmented part).  Software locks the Augmented element to the scale and perspective of a preordained marker in the real space.  This "tracking" to the marker is essential in making the added element seem to be part of the physical world.  When you move the marker in Reality, the Augmented element moves right along with it.

Old school tracking markers used to be blocky black & white symbols.  We now use image recognition.  This allows the app to "recognize" almost any image, such as a face or a logo and launch the software.

The term Augmented Reality is used pretty indiscriminately by many companies, often referring to a flat overlay that doesn't track, or just a link to a traditional website or video playback. 

We are excited to push the AR envelope with true 3D animation that tracks the real world and includes original music and sound.  We aim to create involving experiences and we aim for high quality.  Since AR places extreme limitations on the amount of data that can be streamed live, we are constantly exploring work-around strategies to elevate the sense of production value.  One day soon, cloud computing and hardware advancements will work together to remove most of these limitations.  Until then we valiantly joust!

When planning out the Augmented Reality pieces, I start with sketches.  I storyboard the expected attitudes and action.  My storyboards for Owney included plans for him to sit up and beg, catch a little envelope in his mouth, toss it back to you, bark, trot and run.  The idea was for updates of the app to feature Owney doing more and more interactive tricks - to display more and more personality.

Our Maya animator Jeff Clifton started building Owney in 3D, keeping in mind his required activities.

I rendered a pose test cycle to establish a cadence for Owney's trot.  I gave this reference video to Jeff as a timing guide for his animation.  I also gave it to our composer, Ian Rees, as a timing guide for his music.

Looking at historical photos I painted the flat Owney fur textures for Jeff to wrap around the Maya model.  This was the only fur solution available to us since Augmented Reality cannot yet handle the heavy data required to move thousands of fur strands.

Jeff sent me animation dailies married to Ian's music, and we tweaked various drafts.

But Jeff's challenges went far beyond traditional animation.  He had to collaborate with the software techs who were providing us the playback tools which track our animation to the physical marker.  Not only were there strict restrictions on the amount of data, but different tracking software uses different rendering environments as well.  So Jeff had to keep simplifying the data load while laboring to preserve the quality of our character.  And he had to work within the software language parameters of each vendor.  Not easy.  But he has become a top practitioner in essentially outsmarting the medium - especially as we followed up the Owney AR release with other projects such the JFK stamp, a dynamic Captain America movie promo and more.  Randy Cartwright has become an invaluable consultant, brainstorming with Jeff on best new methods.

A web portal allowed us to view tests on how smoothly the animation moved in the AR software environment, how well the sound stayed in sync, and how well the animation locked to the physical marker as you moved it around.  There were a number of trouble-shooting passes to smooth things out.

Once we were happy, the Apple apps team ran Owney through his paces.  He got a clean bill of health!

On some of the projects I've used Photoshop plus 3D layers in After Effects to do a more elaborate animatic of how the final experience should appear.  This process has allowed some of the textures and layers I build during pre-viz to be incorporated as hybrid aspects of the Maya model and the final app.

Currently my directing duties at Imagineering are keeping me from participating full time, as I did for the first year of our AR venture.  But the AMUSME team is going strong and I keep throwing in my two cents until I can dive back in!  We've started collaborating with computer science faculty members at various universities.  So many breakthroughs are just about to happen and we are poised to secure a perch on the front of the next wave.  Fun will be had by all!"
Jerry and Stephen Michael Schwartz wrote a 69 page version all based on newspaper articles vetted by Smithsonian.  Free at the iTunes app store for iPad.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/owney-tales-from-the-rails/id488657528?mt=8

For those without an iPad there's a web version link.
Fred Cline did awesome illustrations in the classic Golden Book style.

And there's the companion Augmented Reality Owney we released earlier:
http://postalmuseum.si.edu/owneyapp/

And finally, here's a video Jerry did of the "Owney" theme, using Fred Cline's illustrations.  The song was written by Stephen Michael Schwartz, performed by country singer Trace Adkins. 


-posted by Steve

How Long Does It Take to Produce a Great Piece of Animation?

Animation takes too long. Animators spend days or weeks (months even?) polishing our work. If I look back on the shots I am most proud of, they are usually scenes that took forever to get right. I have a sense of achievement looking back on them - but I've mostly edited out the pain that went into them.

So it's a pleasure to come across work which didn't take weeks of graft to perfect. Evgenia Golubeva is one of my super-talented ex students from the character animation course at Escape Studios. Evgenia animated a short film titled "Hold Me Clothes", a stop-motion film written by her, and animated in just one day at a film festival in Italy.

Hold Me Clothes is sweet and funny and completely charming. Her work is a reminder that good animation is as much about storytelling and an eye for comic timing as it is about polished technique. Congratulations to her on a delightful film. - Alex

How Long Does It Take to Become a Good Animator?

Animation is a complex craft and it takes a long time to master. The only exception to this rule - the only animator I can think of who seems to have emerged into the industry fully formed - is James Baxter, whose first animation test I still vividly remember seeing on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?". It was a short test of Thumper the rabbit shaking his head and looking up at the camera - and it was so good that it immediately earned James a spot on the animation team. It also made me think I would never, ever have the skill to become anywhere near as good as that. 

Twenty years later not much has changed, except that these days I do a lot of teaching - especially at the excellent Escape Studios in London - and I spend a good deal of time trying to figure out what should go into a really good animation course. How does a school get its students completely up to speed - ie to a professional level of skill - within the shortest possible period of time? Many students seem to emerge from 3 years of animation study at prestigious schools with only basic skills, which most likely says more about the quality of training they received than it does about them.

At Escape the animation courses are just 3 months long, which is a very short space of time to cram in as much as we possibly can to make the course as effective as possible, to get the best possible results. This means we can't spend long on any individual exercise - no more than a day or two. One week max for the final acting exercise. In a way it's a good thing - everyone works like crazy and we don't waste any time. Every hour of every day is precious and the challenge is to figure out the fastest and most efficient way to get the best work done. Here's a link to the latest student reel - most of the students here had absolutely no knowledge of Maya before they began the course.
-Alex

Editor's Note: In September 2012 Alex launched a new online animation school - Animation Apprentice, incorporating many of the lessons learned at Escape Studios and elsewhere, with a view to bringing high quality animation training to students all over the world.

Return of the Hunched & Goofy

Last March, I got an e-mail from Alex Williams.  He had a proposal - that we should team up and relaunch my e-zine FLIP as a blog. This is it.  

Alex lives in London.  That's a picture of us during my family vacation there in August 2010.  He took us out for some spectacular Middle-Eastern cuisine.  It was Ramadan, so we had the place to ourselves until dusk.  I had just posted my final issue of FLIP as a webzine, and we talked about it a bit that night among a myriad of other things in the rambling conversation you have with someone you see once every four or five years.  My wife, Donna, was running for local office, and Alex introduced her to the poster that would become her campaign mantra:

  

This was something Churchill had posted around town when the Nazi's were bombing the shit out of London.  Donna co-opted the slogan and would win the election, beating our own local version of Boss Hogg.

I first met Alex in Los Angeles in 1998 - a cool, sophisticated cat but not in the phony L.A. way.  He's very intelligent - was once a barrister in London (or was he a solicitor?).  Besides being an animator, he does a comic strip for The Times in London called"Queen's Counsel".  When he proposed teaming up, I thought he'd offer a great counterpoint to my South Jersey tactless manner.

For you readers, expect to read more of the types of articles done in the original FLIP.  Bookmark the page if you like it, and join our Facebook page too!  We're not posting comments as they tend to be inane and give my site viruses, but if you have something valid to add or contribute, send us an e-mail. And please - spread the word!

- Steve