Animation

The NYT profiles Brigham Young University's animation school. ... Out of nowhere, B.Y.U. — a Mormon university owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — has become a farm team for the country’s top animation studios and effects companies. Unlikely as it sounds, young Mormons are being sucked out of the middle of Utah and into the very centers of American pop-culture manufacturing. Praising the program in a speech on campus in 2008, the president of Pixar, Edwin Catmull, noted: “It’s the perception not just of Pixar, but also at the other studios, that something pretty remarkable is happening here.” (During the production of “Brave,” for example, a 14-person team tasked with rigging the complicated musculature in horses and wrangling Princess Merida’s curls included six B.Y.U. alumni.) ... Makes sense to me that Brigham Young turns out top-flight artists. Many are older when they start their education, and they don't get slowed down or hampered by booze or drugs. And being older they have a clearer idea of where they want to go with their careers and the road they need to travel to get there. Adding, TAG Prez Bob Foster just pointed out to me that some of the best animation artists he's worked with have been Mormon. So there's a history of quality work that goes back a few years.

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Jack Bruner. Laid out by Hugh Hennesy and Don Griffith. Secretary Marie Dasnoit.This Final draft dated 10/8/54.

Ash Thorp has been busy. In addition to banging out amazing design and illustration work, he’s launched a podcast, The Collective. The third episode, featuring Danny Yount, just launched. Other episodes include GMUNK and Anthony Scott Burns as guests. Check them out below. UPDATE: The Danny Yount podcast has been taken down for some editing. It will up again soon. Posted on Motionographer

Ash Thorp has been busy. In addition to banging out amazing design and illustration work, he’s launched a podcast, The Collective. The third episode, featuring Danny Yount, just launched. Other episodes include GMUNK and Anthony Scott Burns as guests. Check them out below. Posted on Motionographer

Continuing our week of Epic artists, we take a look at the designs of Blue Sky visual development artist Sandeep Menon. Sandeep works as a designer, drawing and painting concepts for objects, vehicles, environments and structures. Sandeep studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California where for one project he developed concept art about a future India which included flying elephant cars and robots designed with traditional Indian motifs integrated into their structures. Sandeep previously worked as a product designer in India, which gives him practical experience in designing functional, real objects that he can apply to his current work designing fantasy worlds. See Sandeep’s animation design work on his blog.

Veteran visual effects supervisor John Knoll has been promoted to the position of chief creative officer at Disney-owned Industrial Light & Magic, reports Variety. Working directly with ILM president Lynwen Brennan, Knoll will ensure creative consistency throughout the planning and production stages of ILM projects. The move is similar to John Lasseter becoming chief creative officer at Pixar following Disney’s purchase of the company. Knoll is held in high regard throughout the visual effects industry. He was a visual effects supervisor on the Star Wars prequels as well as the first three Pirates of the Carribean films. He has worked on countless other major projects at ILM stretching back to Willow and The Abyss, and including films in the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible franchises. Knoll is also known as the creator of the software package Adobe Photoshop, which he developed with his brother Thomas in the late-1980s. Besides serving as a creative voice in the production process, Knoll told Variety that he will leverage the company’s talent pool by encouraging interaction between crews working on different projects. He also said that he will remain hands-off in many instances: “We have well-established supervisors here that certainly don’t need me to interfere with their project. Michael Bay comes because he wants to work with Scott Farrar. J.J. [Abrams] comes to ILM because he has a great relationship with Roger Guyett. These things are already working and I don’t need to interfere. [My role] is just to help from a facilities standpoint to make sure they get the resources they need, and to troubleshoot problems.”

Deadline: August 15, 2013 The 9th GIRAF (or the Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival) is looking for Animation submissions, in all styles, genres, lengths, and mediums. Our programs are a strong eclectic mix of animation, representing the best of the medium from Claymation to CG. We focus on presenting indie, experimental, and underground animations that push boundaries through new techniques, unique visions, and stimulating subject matter.  Our 2012 program featured visiting artist Nick Cross! We DO NOT CHARGE A SUBMISSION FEE, and encourage short and feature length local, national, international, and student submissions. Animators can submit online at: http://giraffest.ca/submissions/

Thea Glad used Flash and After Effects to produce her second year final project at Kingston University. It’s titled Pretty Little Things, and its a comment on workplace sexual harassment. No dialog, only slaps, stares and poor behavior.

Machine Networks by SCI-Arc ?Instructors: Brandon Kruysman, Jonathan Proto Work by Ryan Tyler Martinez and Philippe Arias Spring 2013 ----- Music by Jad Atoui Black Sea series. Produced between Beirut and New York , this series reflects on the influences left behind in Beirut and the new perceptions acquired in New York . soundcloud.com/jad-atoui/ ----- Film by Ryan Tyler Martinez ryanmartinez.tv/ ---- Learn more at sciarc.eduCast: Ryan Tyler Martinez and Kruysman-ProtoTags: sciarc, robots, machine networks, architecture, art, paint, Brandon Kruysman, Jonathan Proto and Ryan Tyler Martinez

Bill Peckmann forwarded this wonderful package of comic stories. They’re three Junior Woodchuck stories by Carl Barks; classic ones, at that. It’s always great fun to revisit the Donald stories by Barks, so without any more wasted time, here we go to Bill: In 1951, Donald Duck comic book artist Carl Barks had stepped up to the next level of his extraordinary creative powers. Lucky for us little ankle biters then, that was the year he introduced Duckburg’s memorable kid’s organization, the “Junior Woodchucks”. (Boy, did we all long to join up also!) Here from that year are two of the first JW stories. It only went uphill from there, the JW’s eventually got their own comic book.These couple of stories are reprinted and re colored from Gladstone Publishing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The first “Junior Woodchucks” story appeared in “Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories” #125, Feb. 1951. This second story is from “WDC&S” #132, Sept. 1951. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 “Walt Disney Comics & Stories” #132 gave us little squirts an extra bonus; not only did it contain a Donald Duck story by the “good guy artist”, there was also a second story in that issue illustrated by his deft hand! Even though the “Grandma Duck” story wasn’t written by Barks, it still has the master’s touch in all of those beautifully rendered panels. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28