Yoinks and away!

This is what I feel like whenever I leave for Amherst.

I also saw I am Legend tonight; I loved the beginning (not so much the ending), but one of the things I really like about that movie is storytelling without hitting the viewer over the head with it; instead of explaining what's happening flat out, they leave a bunch of small clues as to what happened before. Which means that some frickin' telepath in Hollywood read my mind years ago because that's how I was going to build up a character for an animated feature I hope to make eventually.

I also managed to find a way to hook up an old VCR to my computer; last night I enjoyed the old Raggedy Ann and Andy "Musical Adventure" from my youth. Did you know that Richard Williams did that? I didn't. I usually don't say "style" too often, but after watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Thief and the Cobbler, I was completely taken by surprise because the acting and the animation didn't match the styles of those other films.

Apparently Art Babbit and Eric Goldberg worked on that too.

I need to find an animator from the golden age that's still alive so I can latch onto them and sponge as much knowledge as I can from them. My attempts to at least send Ollie Johnston a thank you/fanboy letter fell through last spring. And then he died a couple weeks later. It's funny how all the people who's work I idolize die around the time I'm learning about them, or how they died shortly before I started studying their work, as if this process of learning is sucking the souls from their bodies. Should I stop before every animator drops dead?

I made this for someone on albinoblacksheep. Someone correct me if I'm wrong:

Chris Sanders?

It's 3:21 AM. I've been staring at cutouts in flash since 8:00 and I need a break.

So I shall squander it on asking this question: Where is Chris Sanders and what is he doing? Last I heard of him, he was working on an amazing project called American Dog (currently Bolt) when he was effectively axed by John Lassiter. While I agree with Lassiter's judgement that a 1 eyed cat and a radioactive bunny isn't exactly... Disney... I hate to see such a great concept and such great characters dumbed down to its current standing.

So I know where Bolt is heading, but I haven't heard about Mr. Sanders at all. I really hope he does find another studio to push his unique and ediger style.

fun fact: Flash does NOT like large image files (or 30 of them). I was crashing every 5 or so minutes because of this until I decided to just use placeholder graphics for the high res images and boy, has my life been easier.

[edit]

Wow, I'm an idiot. A quick google search turns up his site:
http://www.chrissandersart.com/

Apparently he's working for Dreamworks now. I can only hope he's got more artistic freedom over there. Am I dumb for hoping that he's going to help steer Dreamworks in a non-Disney direction?

Golly gosh darn gee willickers

So I was supposed to do a stop motion/object animation with sausages. Lots of sausages. And then it dawns on me last night, when I went to go shoot a test, that I have neither the space nor the right equipment to do what I want. The problem is that I'm trying to green-screen the sausages out so I can compile it on top of a video of a fiery grill, but:

1. I need glass. A big ol' pane of glass. Glass is very expensive, and I don't have any money
2. A lack of proper equipment. Ideally, I'd like to hook up an SLR camera to a computer on a dolly to keep track of the shots, but all I have is a point and shoot camera.
3. Did I mention the lack of money? I need lighting equipment and a green cloth to green screen (who would have known that those green bedsheets in the closet weren't the right shade of green/ don't provide enough contrast?

So now I'm completely selling out and I'm just animating this in flash with PICTURES of sausages. I can already tell right now that this isn't going to look as organic or have as much charm as a traditional frame by frame animation is.

....on the plus side, hey, I can at least eat the sausages now.

Olympics!

I'm not going to post any of my political beliefs on this blog, but I have to say that the Olympics are surprisingly entertaining. Namely, watching the womens' sporting events. I really wish I had more time to watch them

...for sketching of course! There's a lot of good action poses in them there events!

Otherwise, for those of you that constantly visit, you'll have noticed something new up top. That will hopefully go towards helping fund my college education. So, before anyone says it, yes, I've sold out (although when I first put it on, the first ads were "Pixar" "MGM" "animation" and "cartoons" so it's not looking to be THAT bad)

Viewers/Critics

I'm currently working on a cartoon with my older brother (he writes the scripts and I'm directing and animating for this one). But it's not in flash! Oh no, I'm doing this the traditional way.

Gentlemen (and I do use the term loosely), I welcome you to Blunderland Studios (AKA my messy room at home.)





Since I don't have a 35mm film camera and plastic cells, this scanner/printer does it for me. Only it doesn't fit my 12field paper completely :[




I, for the life of me, cannot flip Cartoon Colour white bond paper. I have no clue why; the paper just clumps up and either doesn't flip or 5 or 6 pages flip at once. Perhaps the ability to flip paper is the hallmark of an experienced animator. I suppose I'll have to just stick with rolling until I develop this talent.


_____________________________


As a judge for the Albinoblacksheep Tournament of Flash Artists contests and as the occasional reviewer on Newgrounds (sometimes I'm the only actual REVIEW out of hundreds), I've often wondered where my place is in reviewing other people's work. Who am I to point out an animation error, or a that the timing is slow, or that the cartoon needs more work?

Should the viewer have any say about a final piece of work? This question's been bugging me for a couple years now. Most forms of art, say, like something you find at the Museum of Modern Art, or anything hanging up in a gallery in the Chelsea District of New York or in Province Town, is usually untouchable, as far as criticisms go. Even in my art classes, if something was painted or drawn a certain way, it was that way for a reason. In this case, I find criticisms and critiques to be near useless; often times the "artist" is able to summon some verbal diarrhea as a defense; If you, as the viewer, didn't understand it, then you supposedly lack an appreciation for art, or you don't understand the artist's meaning behind the piece, meaning you're not an artist.

So here arises the issue of audience, once again. Does the audience have a right to form opinions on the piece? Do they have a right to voice their opinion? Is one opinion more valid than any other? And then what about cartoons and animation? Does ANYONE have a right to criticize a piece of work? Is the opinion of a 60 year old lawyer that's never worked on cartoons less valid than a 40 year old animation enthusiast, or a 13 year old Naruto fanboy? Who should I look to as having more authority than anyone else?

Back when I first started asking myself this question, I would have said "No, not everyone knows what they're talking about. You don't understand what I'm trying to do here." But now I'm a little more open. Obviously I'm going to trust whatever a professional animator or director says, but I think it's unwise to completely disregard the opinions of anyone, no matter how far removed they are from the field. If THEY point out something, what's to say that someone else won't think the same thing? The key is to remember who you're making this for. Yes, you're making it for yourself, but it's also intended to entertain the masses! In this case, EVERYONE'S opinion and criticisms matter, not just professionals.

World politics on a production blog?

I think this is photoshoped. I could be wrong though.