Another Day

Clearly we're doing something wrong to be so busy, yet so broke.  Next time around, criminal activity (or maybe just politics) will be the way to go.

Thursday we had a shoot for project, yesterday we were the shoot for someone else's project.  A New York based producer for Saudi TV KSA2 did a little profile on the studio.

She was interested in animation's relationship to art -something I can discuss at length, being pithy for a 2:00 profile is another matter.

We did show off some of our work for Infor to demonstrate process.  These are animation drawings (clean ups) by Christina for one of the pieces.

Wild

Martha Colburn stopped by to show some new films.

One, "Triumph of the Wild" is being acquired by the MoMA.  We walked up a block in the snow to check out the HD transfer/color correct from her 16mm negative.

From there she's recording to 35mm and various tape/digital formats.  Tape formats only stay standard for about 10 - 15 years.  1 inch, Umatic, D1, Digibeta, now a few formats a vying for HD tape supremacy -HDCAM SR and the older D5.  Pure digital is ok, but drives will break down faster than tape. 

Buddha Tour

Dan Sonnett from Sonnett Media came by yesterday.

He's building the companion website for PBS and David Grubin Productions' "The Buddha" for which we're creating 20 minutes of animation.

The site will contain a lot of our work and also "behind the scenes" into the process.

rough storyboard of composite and transition

Brian and I walked him through the process.

Research, boarding, rough designs.  That's Dan in the foreground.

Marina Dominis, doing the thumb thing as proof she's an artist, working up production art/models for one of the final sequences.

Dan is incredulous when Carolyn Green tries to explain how many drawings it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

Brian explaining to Elliot Cowan how much he loves him.

The site should be up a running with a lot of animation content in a couple of months.

Crazy For You, But Not That Crazy

I showed Betty Boop's "Crazy Town" in class the week as an example of Fleischer animation from the early 1930s.

I explained a little about Grim Natwick, and the evolution of Ms. Boop and vesitigial dog boyfriend, Bimbo.

The film is full of Fleischerisms (just not the train track in the background), and I really liked Bimbo's walk in it.

I'm guessing it's by pre-Shamus Culhane.

Click to enlarge.

This is a 14 frame walk.  

It's possible that the generations of pulldowns and transfers have caused me to miss a drawing -but I doubt that I'd miss two.  Not even the same one twice.

Oh, and on ones (except where the pulldown adds a frame).

So right off the bat, we're dealing with a 14 frame walk.  

Not 16 frames.

 So maybe that's why it's compelling.

#6 is sort of a sneak, but in the rubber-hosey version of a leg, the sneak is a slide.

And with #7 the slide becomes a pop.  

His knee is in the same position, but his foot tilts north -allowing for #8: the contact drawing.

*******

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The second half of his walk is slightly different from the first.

#9 is faster than #2 (the distance between 8 & 9 is greater than the distance between 1 & 2).  So #10 is farther as well.

This time/distance is "made up" in drawing #11 which "settles" for a frame at the "passing point" -Bimbo's tallest moment.

This sneaky rubber hose shuffle reminds me of a confession by Tony Eastman.  It took him a few weeks to figure out how to make "Kids Next Door" walk because of their outsized feet.

Bimbo has similar deformities -but his bone/muscular disorder that allows his joints to bend in inconceivable manners compensates for that.

Here's the clip (the full walk scene).

And in other news (and in an effort to keep up with our visitors log -sorry to those I've missed), Maciek Albrecht stopped by yesterday on a social call.  Strangely enough, I (not pictured) was also wearing a yellow shirt. 

Meeting Wednesday

I wish yesterday was Monday, not for the joy of complaining about it and yearning for lasagna, but so I could title this post "Meeting Monday".

Alliteration makes for EZ headlines.

First, Elliot Cowan stopped by for a morning social call.

Then another really long meeting.

Followed up by trip to Gerald Mark's studio with Michael Kantor.

above, 3D spaceship (glasses required)

If there were any justice, we'd be handed several million dollars to produce a pop-off-the-screen Boxhead and Roundhead.   Not because the world needs it (although we would like it very much), but to give some sort of ironic form to this otherwise scattered entry.

People In The Neighborhood

Dame Darcy stopped by yesterday to give me a copy of her new book, Gasoline.


I've read it in a draft form. It's an interesting piece -what is really remarkable is the production.

Merrell has done an outstanding job with reproduction. There are a maybe a dozen or more full color plates which and black and white illustration on every page. Many pieces look like ink originals. The cloth binding has a run of metallic gold. It's really a stunning print job.

This year I've decided to photograph all of the special guests that come into the studio. Here's the first edition.
Lisa Hammer (below) came by to meet up with Dame Darcy before heading off to some gothical olde tyme Victorian thingamajig.