Charlie Chaplin has Left Leicester Square

by Jane Wright

Jane (Smethurst) Wright did traditional, hand drawn special effects back in the 1990's on features like Prince of Egypt and The Thief and the Cobbler.  She wrote to FLIP with a story of obsolescence that any old school animator can relate to, and maybe get a chill from....

Last weekend I made my way to Leicester Square for the sole purpose of taking a photograph of London’s much-loved Charlie Chaplin statue. Not being a tourist I hadn’t been there for ages; even so, looking around I wondered if I’d entered a time warp and stumbled onto the set of It's a Wonderful Life and into Pottersville by mistake. I was dismayed at the soulless place I now found myself in. Worse still, Charlie had gone.

Modern Design God Alvin Lustig

I was in an actual book store recently - not the kind where you buy coffee and scones and board games - the kind where there are books on shelves to hold in your hand and purchase if you like. One caught my eye called Born Modern: The Life and Design of Alvin Lustig by Steven Heller and Elaine Lustig Cohen, Lustig's widow.   I had not heard of Alvin Lustig - that's on me - but the design work was so interesting my curiosity piqued and out came the credit card.  

By my estimation, Alvin Lustig is the Fred Moore of modern design.  He set the style and, like Fred Moore, died young.  His bread and butter was book jacket design, but he also designed ads, business lobbies, and corporate logos including the one for  - here comes the animation connection - UPA!

Dreaming of Joe Ranft

It was eight years ago today that Joe Ranft died in a car accident.  He left a huge void in the animation world, not only for his creativity, but also for his humanity.  Shortly after Joe's death, animator Al Holter told me about a dream he had about him.  He shares it today with FLIP.....

Joe Ranft with Al Holter puppet, CalArts, 1981.

I want to tell you about this dream I had.

First, it seems to me, that telling people your dreams is about as appreciated as sharing your new diet or latest medical procedure. Some will seem to be attentive but mostly because of their fingernail digging deep into their palm.

However, I had this particular dream two days after Joe Ranft died and he made a revealing appearance.

Creating Castings for Fun and Brain Damage

I told you about my tiki room in an earlier post, and one of the last big touches was the creation of two tiki totems made of Minions from Despicable Me.  I worked on the original and the sequel.  Those little yellow freaks essentially paid for the tiki room, so I thought it would be fun to have them represented there.

Chuck and Aaron launch $350,000 Kickstarter campaign for "Art Story"

My old Florida animation kumrads, Aaron Blaise and Chuck Williams, have just launched a $350,000 Kickstarter campaign to produce a new animated film - Art Story

Aaron and Chuck are veterans of the Florida Disney studio, and produced and co-directed the Academy Award-nominated film 'Brother Bear.'

Roger Rabbit Reunion Party - Friday August 16th

Calling all Roger Rabbit alumni - on Friday August 16th Tom Sito, Don Hahn, and Max Howard are hosting a Roger Rabbit reunion party at the King's Head Pub at 12969 Ventura Blvd, in Sherman Oaks. So if you fancy reminiscing about the good old days of hand-drawn animation then grab your Rabbit memorabilia and head for Sherman Oaks on Friday.

The bulk of the animation of the original Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was made in Camden Town in London. On Friday nights almost everyone on the crew would head down to the local pubs for an evening of drinking, often followed by a trip to a local club. The Electric Ballroom was a bit of a favourite.

After the film ended in the Spring of 1988, many of the crew found themselves in Los Angeles, where Dave Spafford continued the friday night drinking tradition by turning his house in a very passable imitation of an English pub, complete with bar, darts board and pinball machines (well, maybe that last bit wasn't so authentic).

For years, any animation Brit or Rabbit veteran who found himself at a loose end in LA would head for Spaff's on a Friday night. I went myself a few times, though the last time I went I remember I didn't recognise anyone there. Dave closed it down soon after - it had had its day. But only after a long, excellent run.

Me in 1987, with Caron Creed

Anyway, head down memory lane this Friday and hang out with your Rabbit kumrads and muse over the perennial unanswered (and apparently unanswerable) question -

Why has no-one ever made a sequel?

---Alex

http://yeoldekingshead.com/

Tom Sito remembers Lou Scarborough

Louis Scarborough Jr.

Animator Louis Scarborough Jr. died in his sleep on August 5, 2013 after a brief illness. He was in his 60th year. His credits include Richard Williams’ Raggedy Ann & Andy (1977), Walt Disney’s The Fox and the Hound, Nelvana’s Rock and Rule (1983), Bakshi’s Fire and Ice, and TV series like The Chipmunk Adventures, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

James Lopez' "Steampunk"

I have witnessed James Lopez' ascent from a wide eyed kid on Rover Dangerfield to a A-list animator at Disney features. James has a pet project he's been working on in his spare time, and you know how much FLIP likes spare time projects. So James told us all about it here.....

FLIP: What is Steampunk?

James: The best way I can describe "Steampunk" is that it is a sub-genre of science fiction in which a fantasy world is envisioned according to the "visual language" of the Victorian era. In a nutshell, it's Victorian science fiction. 

Steampunk takes a unique approach toward science fiction by combining aspects of both modern science fiction and timeless fantasy and blends the two through the prism of Victorian elegance. The imaginary world of Steampunk is a truly fantastic world that is boundless in its potential for creativity. It is a world that exhibits environments of epic scale, characters of eccentric personality and whimsical gadgetry such as rayguns, flying contraptions and mechanical creatures.

Animation Apprentice, One Year Later

FLIP interviews FLIP again!  This time it's Alex's turn to talk.  His on-line animation school Animation Apprentice is completing its fist year, and Alex agreed to be put on the FLIP hot seat for this interview....

FLIP: Why does the universe need your on-line animation school when there are others to choose from?
Alex: It is true that schools like Animation Mentor do a great job, and get excellent results. But I wanted to create something that was a lot cheaper and would also help students get great results much faster. The course at Animation apprentice is only 30 weeks, and costs £3,000 ($4,500). Not everyone wants to spend $18,000 and commit to 18 months of study. 

The main reason for setting up my school was that I’ve been teaching animation in various ways and at various schools since 1996 and, after fifteen years, I felt like I had finally figured out how to do it right. The course was pretty much formed in my head – it just needed some time spent on actually making it. So I spent six months on my own, thinking, recording videos, preparing exercises - and I built the online course.

The course is delivered with pre-recorded videos, which makes it much more efficient than classroom teaching. Those efficiencies are savings I can pass on to students. But the best part of the course is the video feedback. I don’t give general comments – “do this, do that, why don’t you try this”. Instead, I open up the student’s shot and fix it in real time, recording the screen so that the student can play back the video and watch the fixes. It’s like taking your car to a mechanic and having them repair it, while at the same time recording a video showing you how to fix it yourself next time.

The Photography of Ken Bell

Canadian riflemen land at Juno Beach, D Day, 6 June 1944. Colour photo by Ken Bell

Ken Bell was my great uncle. Before WW2 he was a keen amateur photographer and, soon after Canada declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939, he joined up, offering his services to the newly formed Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit, a propaganda outfit which would record Canada's involvement in the war.

On 6 June 1944, along with tens of thousands of American, British, Canadian, and other Allied forces, Ken landed at Juno Beach in Normandy with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, on day one of Operation Overlord.

Happy Birthday Ken Harris, the Bugs Bunny animator "who could do it all"

Ken Harris was born on July 31st 1898. Were he still alive, today would be his 115th birthday.  I met him when I was just a kid, and he was already a very old man, but still doing some of the very best work of his career.  It was the mid-1970s, and Ken had come over from LA to London to work with my father at his Soho Square studio.

The Art of Holly Williams

City Street by Holly Williams

Holly Williams is a fine art painter and animation artist. She grew up in London and Los Angeles, studied at Otis in LA and later at San Francisco State. Today she lives in Highland Park in East LA, painting, raising a family, and working on commercial animation productions. In an interview with FLIP she talks about the challenges of balancing fine art, family and commercial work.

Drunken Animation

Getting drunk in the presence of an animator may be something you will regret.  Case in point: Adam Patch a San Francisco based animator who  recorded his wife telling a joke while she was drunk on wine.  He animated Two Chips to her vocal track, a very funny animated answer to Drunk History.

Dreaming of Deckchairs in London's Parks this summer

Deckchair Dreams 2013

This summer sees a revival of Deckchair Dreams, a charity fundraiser by The Royal Parks Foundation to raise cash for the maintenance of London's Royal Parks, that is to say Green Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Richmond Park - the green lungs of our city that make London liveable, much in the way that Central Park does for Manhattan.

Animation Training - Theory or Practice?

What price this piece of paper?

Yesterday's post by Steve generated a lot of thoughtful opinion on what exactly a degree in animation is worth. One of the problems that Universities face in teaching animation is what, precisely, they ought to be teaching. Should they focus on academic content, mostly of a theoretical nature, or should they teach practical, technical skills? No university likes being called a trade school, and "training" is something of a dirty word, as it sits uneasily with the academic aspirations of a Liberal Arts education. A BA is, or should be, a guarantee of reflective, critical analysis.

In practice though, what most students sign up for (or imagine they are signing up for) is proper training in the latest technical skills. Specifically, most students want training that, at the end of three years of study, will get them a job. 

So which is better? Theory or Practice? Animation professionals David Davis and Sterling Sheehy face off in the debate.

Degrees of Talent

On occasion, I get e-mails from young adults looking for entry positions in animation.  They see my company listed somewhere and, unaware that my studio is just me and my wife, they send resumes and links to their reels.  But I'm not hiring.  I don't plan to expand.  So if you're an art student or recent graduate - don't write.  I have no job for you.  

When I get these e-mails, I check them out as long as they don't seem like spam. Sometimes, their work is good.  Sometimes it is just dreadful.  I got one such e-mail just this week, from a young woman who wrote, "I am a recently graduated Animation major from the Maryland Institute Collage of the Arts".

Stop right there.  You may be an art major, but you really should know how to spell "college" by the time you graduate such.

From Pencils to Pixels - Alan Yentob tells the story of how animation went digital

Alan Yentob's "From Pixels to Pencils"

From Pencils to Pixels - In this admirable 2003 documentary, Producer Alan Yentob tells the story of how animation went digital. It's an excellent, thoughtful hour-long introduction to the medium by one of the BBC's most experienced Producer-directors.

Producer Carolyn Bates Talks Shop

Carolyn: "Here's a pic of me and BG painter, Cathy Patrick, 1973. on Emergency+4.
 Don Jurwich had taped a xerox of 'The Yellow Kid' over my desk - typical 70's un-PC.
The extreme right side pencil sharpener and phone are Walt Peregoy's."

FLIP: How did you get your start in animation?

Carolyn: Walt Peregoy hired me as an apprentice BG painter At Fred Calvert Productions on Emergency +4 the day I graduated high school. He regaled the BG team with expletive laced stories of his days at Disney and Hanna-Barbera. He admired creative passion and spoke ardently of the beauty in nature. I learned a ton and made friends with a number of folk, many of whom I'd get to work with later: Corny Cole, Libby Simon, Paul Shively, Freddie Hellmich and Amby Paliwoda.

Opening titles to Fred Calvert's Emergency +4, Carolyn's first gig.  

You can almost hear Walt Peregoy bitching.

Remembering Pres

Pres at DreamWorks. Photo: Tim Hodge

Pres Romanillos died three years ago today, on July 17th, 2010, after a long battle with Leukemia. He was an excellent animator, a supremely talented artist and a natural performer. His credits at the Disney Studio included Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Hunchback of Notre Dame. He was the lead animator on the villain Shan-Yu on Mulan. Later, at DreamWorks, he was responsible for the character of Little Creek on Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron.

The SKaB or How I Got Involved in a Community Project

In the small town where I grew up, things haven't changed much.  It's a safe town to grow up, a place where you can still walk or ride your bike to school.  Being an economically depressed area, there are very few recreation programs, so kids have to entertain themselves.  They ride skateboards and bikes that go vertical as well as horizontal, but without a designated place to do this, otherwise good kids end up riding where they should not - on the handrails of church steps, on public benches, and even on the roof of the post office.  And when church ladies,  township officials, or the postman would yell at them, these little smart asses would say, "Build us a skate park."

Cheeky, yes.  But they were right.  They are the next generation of the town's citizens and this is what they do for recreation.  And while the township had parks with swings and ballfields, there was no skate park, at least not until a small group of citizens, including my wife Donna and I,  took up the cause.

Steve-O's Tiki Lounge

Two years ago, Donna and I bought a house, our dream house on a lake. It's built on a berm, making the basement rec room level with the lower end of the yard on the lake side - perfect for entertaining.  At first sight, Donna said, "We should make this a tiki room."

Months went by before this idea went from the wish list to the planning stages.  I started out by re-reading an old FLIP article about Alan Smart's tiki room.  He took a room much like mine, with white walls and grey carpet, and completely transformed the space.  I contacted Alan, who gave me a few links for places to go to for materials.  I also did a lot of Google image browsing on tiki rooms.

Christoffer Andersen reports from the front lines of Despicable Me 2

Christoffer Andersen studied animation at The Animation Workshop in Denmark. He recently landed an internship with Illumination Entertainment on Despicable Me 2, now in release in theatres worldwide. FLIP asked Christoffer to talk about how he engineered such a wonderful opportunity to kick-start his career in animation.

Seuss for Sale!

You can stumble onto the coolest things in New York City.  Like the Dr. Seuss art sale at Pop Gallery.   None of it is original artwork, but there are a lot of very cool prints.  Some prints are from his personal artwork, some are blown up book illustrations.  Some have roughs paired with final art.   And then there's the Seuss taxidermy animals, faithfully reproduced from the originals.  There's also a six foot tall, bronze Lorax (only $34K!).

Pedro Cabeleira on the challenges of forging a career in animation

Pedro Cabeleira is an animator and visual effects artist who learned his craft at Escape Studios in London, where he studied the dark arts of Maya back in 2011, tackling as his first project an ambitious, realistic digital sculpture of Bruce Willis. FLIP asked him to talk about the challenges of forging a career in what remains a very difficult job market for recent graduates.

Speaking of Public Art.....Who Needs It?

Public art, Las Vegas.  Can-oe believe it?  

I just returned from our annual family vacation, visiting Los Angeles, the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Las Vegas in a rented, fire engine red Dodge Caravan.  Throughout the trip, from the cities to the suburbs to the little isolated cowboy towns, we took note of the variety of public art.  It stands out to us because in Southern New Jersey, where we live, public art is seen as a frivolous luxury.

In a May 23rd article in The Press of Atlantic City, New Jersey State Senator Jim Whelan "took aim at the estimated $12 million behind the art initiatives during his opening remarks Wednesday at the East Coast Gaming Congress. Whelan, D-Atlantic , said he’s frustrated to see dollars being spent on the arts when financing to advance the city is becoming more scarce.

“The question is: Is anybody asking for art? I don’t think so,” Whelan said."