Animation

Theatrical box office is off to a rousing holiday start. ... The combined B.O. of “Fast and Furious” and “Hangover” — along with Fox-Blue Sky Animation’s $93 million family film, “Epic,” with a projected $40 million four-day opening — should propel Memorial Day weekend box office to record heights, surpassing the $273 million benchmark set in 2011. ... I guess we're slowly edging out of the recession.

It used to be that the only place animation could be screened was on a rectangular screen, be it a large theatrical screen, or more modest TV and computer screens. Things are changing though. Today, animation is projected onto irregularly-shaped three-dimensional buildings and trees in nature. It’s painted on subway tunnels where it can be viewed from a moving subway car. And now, thanks to MonkeyLectric, animation can be seen on bicycle wheels: Over the past few years, the small Berkeley, California-based company has developed a number of prototypes. The Monkey Light Pro Bicycle Wheel Display System is their most advanced product to date with over 256 full-color LEDs on each wheel. Their system allows users to upload approximately 90 seconds of animation in a variety of media formats including AVI, MPEG, MOV, Quicktime, and FLV, and to display it to the public while riding a bike. To start manufacturing the Monkey Light Pro, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign with a funding goal of $180,000 by July 21st. They’ve already raised over $68,000 during the first three days of the campaign. The lights aren’t cheap—prices range from $495 to $795 per wheel depending at what stage of the campaign the product is ordered—but that’s a small price to pay to advance animation beyond the rectangular screen and share it throughout the city streets.

Bernard Waber 1921-2013 Bernard Waber was an author/illustrator I worked with twice animating his two most popular books for HBO. He was an enormously sweet fellow who enjoyed coming to my studio to see his projects in production. He wanted little to no involvement in that actual production but we tried to involve him just as well. Mr. Waber died last Thursday at the age of 91. The favorite story I tell about him is that HBO had little party for him on the celebration of the completion of Lyle Lyle Crocodile. It was a pleasant party with several of the animation voices present. There were half children and half adult, and there was a guy dressed like Lyle who wandered about the party. At one point a large cake shaped like Lyle the Crocodile was brought out and Mr. Waber was handed a knife to cut the cake. Staring at his cartoon creation he couldn’t cut the cake, so he handed the knife to the guy in the Lyle suit to lit him do the duty. With that, the Lyle impersonator cut off the head of the Lyle cake and began to dole out pieces. It was an interesting moment few people took notice of. Mr. Waber was a delightful person, and his art was truly fund to draw. I miss now knowing that he’s no longer around. It’d take the fun out of animating any of his other, many books. ___________________ Epic of Course The MP Academy hosted a screening of Blue Sky’s film, Epic. Director, Chris Wedge attended the screening for a Q&A afterward. (Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera went sour and I wasn’t able to get a photo.) Last weekend, Candy Kugel got the Academy to offer seats to anyone who’d seen it on my blog. However, the day before the screening, we were told that only guests of members would be allowed to attend. Sure enough come showtime, they allowed all the young people who’d shown up to see the film. Good thing too since there was a poor turnout from Academy members. However, with the ASIFA members anxious to see the show rhere was a decent sized crowd. It was a rather generic Q&A, but it went well and quickly. Chris Wedge is a very amicable guy and made a positive out of the program. The film itself is an attractive and very quick paced action-adventure film. It should do pretty well especially with music celebrities like Beyoncé (who isn’t ready to become an actor just yet.) I have to say that I’m a fan of Blue Sky’s work. There’s always a real attempt to do something more than give something generic; they really want to make something rich. And, maybe because they’re so far from the people in LA, they do things that are totally original and theirs. All those Ice Age films are good examples, but add Rio or the Horton movie, you get a good idea of what I’m talking about. Now with Epic, they’re doing a giant of a movie that takes place in Wiliam Joyce’s world of little people. Fighting fairies that go to war on the backs of hummingbirds. It’s original, to say the least. Unfortunately,it can’t take the backbone of Myazaki’s Princess Mononoke where the majesty of the forest is shown amidst all the battles. Yes, the forest and the woodland creatures are both beautiful and endangereed, but we have to see and understand this as part of the life and and death of battle, It isn’t enough to be part of ecosystem (albeit one we don’t know about), but it would be more courageous to show HOW they fit into that system and why they are so important – as are those endless battles. And the excellent art direction. ___________________ Another Epic – one from 1995 This article by Barbara Robertson in CGW Magazine August 1995, is an excellent report about the ways and means of making the first cgi animated feature, Toy Story. Ms. Robertson writes about the programs used, the methods of lighting and even their casting of the cartoon characters. (Rather than casting each character–that is, assigning a

Late Night Tokusatsu Sketchiness....©2013 T.N.Perkins IV All rights reserved.

This sounds familiar: Actors Ed Asner, Clancy Brown, Dennis Hayden, and George Coe are among the 15 plaintiffs who filed suit today in federal court against SAG-AFTRA for not properly disbursing $110 million in foreign residuals they say have not been paid out. Asner is the former SAG president (1981-1985) who very publicly opposed the SAG-AFTRA merger along with other ex-union board members. The 52-page filing also claims that the merged union has deliberately withheld information and kept the money in trust and spent portions on first class travel and lavish parties and big salaries for current union officials. ... Funny thing. TAG was involved in a similar lawsuit against the WGAw thirty-six months ago. Individual writers were suing over money held in trust, and we joined in. Soon after, there was a settlement: A state court judge has finalized the settlement in the tangled 5-year-old WGA West foreign levies case -- including a promise that he'll closely monitor how those funds are distributed. ... The WGA has agreed to use its "best efforts" to pay all foreign funds within three years. ... The WGA will have to allow the foreign money to "escheat" to the state for works not covered under WGA contracts if it can't locate the writers or their heirs after three years. ... The WGA West will hire consultants for a one-time review to make recommendations on how to improve the processing and distribution of the funds. ... The final settlement, which followed extensive objections to last fall's preliminary settlement, is much narrower than the WGA had sought. The settlement brought about changes to the way the Writers Guild disspersed the money. (I started getting more foreign levy checks.) But many plaintiffs continued to be dissatisfied with the payouts. Sounds like Ed and associates share the same gripes many writers do.

Inside DreamWorks Animation's Lakeside building, it was (pretty much) the last day of production for many on Turbo ... A supervisor on the second floor said: It's quiet around here. Go over to the far side of the floor and there's hardly anyone there. Everybody's finishing their last shots and people without another movie to go on are packing up. ... Some of the departing staff that is getting laid off asked me about dismissal pay, asked how long health coverage would last (answer: 12-14 months in most cases), asked about going on honorable withdrawal with their TAG membership. A departing artists said, "Working here the last few years is a good calling card. I've gotten three of four job offers because of it." Meantime, the studio is busy with cross-promotions: 2013 Indianapolis 500: Dreamworks Animation and IndyCar team up for "Turbo" film "Turbo" is taking center stage this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The movie will be screened on Friday night at the Speedway as well ride shotgun with driver Townsend Bell in his seventh-career Indianapolis 500 start. ... DWA leaves no wheel unrotated.

A lot of nice moments in this rotoscope music video for Singular “Revoke” by Bangkok-based Famefamous (aka Nitcha Tothong) Posted on Motionographer

Wire and paper stop motion animation on Professor Kliq's music. Track name is "Plastic and Flashing Lights" professorkliq.comCast: Patator and Professor KliqTags: stop motion, professor kliq, patator prod, victor haegelin, animation, fil de fer, wire, black, vinyle, reflection, cube, noir et blanc and electro

Directed by Gerry Geronimi assisted by Jack Bruner. Laid out by Tom Codrick. Secretary Marie Dasnoit.This Final draft dated 10/8/54.

This is the only animator-for-hire ad you need to read on Craigslist this week. Click image to embiggen: (Thanks, Josh Ryan, via Cartoon Brew’s Facebook page)