Great, Now I'm a Podcaster...

Yep, it's true.

Chris Niosi, Chris Zito & myself have started a weekly podcast! Each week we're gonna talk about animation, cartoons, comics & such. Roundtable discussions, debates, news, opinions.... that kind of stuff.

The name of the podcast is.... wait for it.... TOON PLATOON! Yeah, I know, I've already used that name before on the art competition blog I used to run. But now that I shut it down, I thought that I shouldn't let the name go to waste. It's still fresh. & it fits well, too.

Anyway, here's the link: The Toon Platoon Podcast

We definitely will improve, I promise. 

Beasts o' Burden

Sometimes, when I don't know what to draw, I'll draw random parts or shapes & make weird, random, Seussian-like beasties like these. I can tell if I'm having an off drawing day if they don't look weird enough to me. These I were pretty satisfied with.

It All Started Here

On Saturday, I took a trip up north to White Plains for the opening reception of It All Started Here, a New York animation exhibition curated by Howard Beckerman & J.J. Sedelmaier. 

The centerpiece of the whole exhibit is this 25 foot standee of Gertie the Dinosaur. I couldn't stop looking at it. 

Yes, dinosaurs are big, indeed.

Here's a quick glimpse of the Blue Sky Studios section of the exhibit. So many cool pieces.

Inside this vault, examples of NY commercial work were shown, with a reel of them projected onto the wall. 

& the hall was jumping.

I met a lot of really cool people. Some I've met before, some new faces, & even a few colleagues. 

There's so many great pieces here, I could hardly contain myself. Complete storyboards, maquettes, drawings (including a Betty Boop by Grim Natwick). I took plenty of pictures of the show, but the last thing I want to do is post the whole exhibit up here, I don't want to spoil it. You'll have to see the exhibit yourself to see the whole deal. I'm definitely heading back again before the show's over.

Here's the exhibit's website: *CLICK*

The show goes until February 28th. Make sure to check it out before it's all over! You'll be sorry if you missed it.

 

Sick Sick Sick

It's official... winter now sucks.

In December it's great! White Christmases, snowball fights, snowmen, holly jolly fun in a winter wonderland! But then comes January, & Old Man Winter's social security checks are late & he's awful grumpy about it. Time to turn some noses runny.

This week seems to have hit me the hardest. It's my first week back at SVA & getting to class each morning seems like one of those "15 miles through the snow, both ways, barefooted, eating dirt" stories. The dorm folk have it real bad. The heat seems only on for a few hours each day. It was so cold in my room I couldn't sleep. I put on 3 layers of shirts, but that didn't help. I bet it was warmer in my fridge than in here. I wouldn't be surprised if the water in my toilet froze over. This place is COLD!

& speaking of cold, because of it, I now HAVE one. The kind where you can't even talk above a whisper, which is great when you have classes where you're supposed to talk & converse with other people. Luckily it's Friday, so I've got some time to rest up & get rid of this thing.

I hope I get better soon, 'cause I got big plans for tomorrow. I'm heading up to White Plains to check out "IT ALL STARTED HERE!", a NY animation exhibit run by J.J. Sedelmaier & my teacher & good friend Howard Beckerman. It looks to be a really great show & I'm looking forward to meeting with people at the reception. Maybe I'll see someone there I know! Here's the plug from Cartoon Brew!

Now I'm gonna pop an Airborne & some Nyquil, grab some tissues n' juice & watch Woody Woodpecker cartoons in bed. Night!

Yanni the Yiddish Yak

"Oy gevalt!"

Rabbit Punch

The other day, I was watching some Warner Bros. cartoons I had on my computer to pass the time. One of the cartoons I came across was Chuck Jones' Rabbit Punch (1948).

I came up to the scene where Bugs tricks the Champion into thinking he broke his leg, disguises himself as a doctor, traps him in bandages, winds his punch ( ala Popeye's "twisker" punch) & socks him. 

But the animation of the punch itself took me completely by surprise. 

"What the hell was THAT?"

I went back a few seconds & looked at it frame by frame. Looking at the individual frames, I couldn't believe my eyes. Hands down, this has got to be the most stylized punch animation I've ever seen.

Bugs measures up...

anticipates...

accents the anticipation...

here's the windup...

(20 inbetweens on 2's - 40 frames later)

(24 frames later) & the pitch!

WHAM!

HO-LY COW!

I love how his fist turns into an inner tube. & what great swirly dry-brush lines on that, too. Does anybody know who animated that scene? I know most Chuck Jones animators are usually easy to identify, but I forget my bearings sometimes. Maybe Ken Harris?

I have a Quicktime clip of the animation, but I don't know how to put it up here on the blog. I don't want to upload it to Youtube or through the Blogger Video service, just a link to the clip in its own separate window. John K. does it all the time, does he use a pay service? Can anyone help me out with this problem?

Questions, Questions, Questions....

KWAK!!!

To go along with $OOpah NIN10Doh! (which, by the way, has reached about 200,000 views at the time of this post), here's a picture of the Ice Climbers I quickly shelled out in Flash for the trophy scroll sequence right before the end credits. It goes by so quick you can barely make it out, so I thought I should post it here so you can take a good, long look at it. This also marks the last appearance of the Topi in the movie (there's 4 other appearances before this). KWAK!!!

I also made trophies of R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) & Mr. Game & Watch, but they aren't as great. Nothing really much to see, anyway.

$OOpah NIN10Doh! is COMPLETE!!!!

For real this time.

--->"Clicky McClickington III"<---

I just want to say that everybody who worked on this did a fantastic job! We all put a lot of work into this thing & you all should be very proud. Congrats to EVERYONE!!!!

This is what I like best about animating & drawing cartoons : you're doing something just for the fun out of it, working alongside a group of people that talk, think & care about the same things you do, getting a few laughs here & there & in the end it goes out & makes other people happy too... that's the greatest reward there is.

& also, a late "Happy 20th Birthday" to the brainchild behind this crazy thing: Chris Niosi! Congratulations, my good friend!!!

By the way, see the little furry dude in the picture above?... be on the lookout for him when you watch the movie. He pops in & out throughout the course of the film. He's like the Aracuan Bird, except fuzzier & that he has boxing gloves. 

Also make sure to check out all the behind-the-scenes stuff I've posted before HERE, (but watch the movie first!)

**UPDATE** 1/5/08 10:00 pm (EST)

The movie's only been up for less than 3 days & we've already reached a little over 100,000 views!!!! That's simply astounding!!! Pats on the back, all around!