Via: Filmofilia
A full review is forthcoming but in the meantime, you should go see it to. It not only met but exceeded our expectations as it must have done for the little kid who gave a hilarious running commentary throughout.
Paranorman: A Hearty Recommendation To Go See It Read More »
A while back I wrote about the Tube Open Movie project and I’m happy to report that it is simply the latest in a series of similar projects. Sintel is a short film that was funded by the Blender Foundation as a showcase for the software’s capabilities. Enjoy!
Sintel: A Blender Open Movie Read More »
CGI and puppetry. They aren’t as mutually as exclusive as you might think. One would think that CGI is animation first and foremost, right? It certainly shares a lot of history with our favourite technique, but its continued development and technological improvements seem to be pushing more towards the realm of puppetry.
A great analysis by Lei Adeline over at Smart When Shouting takes hard look at the similarities and the distinctions between the two camps with a conclusion that the reliance on puppetry (especially with motion-capture films like Ted) will spur audiences to better connect with them than films leaning more towards traditional animation.
I agree with Lei insofar as their is a distinction between animation and puppetry that does require audiences to relate in different ways. Animation is inherently “imaginary” whereas CGI (particularly live-action hybrid films) are inherently attempting to make things “real”, as a puppet is.
So is this advancement of CGI to be considered a potential pitfall? I would say not yet anyway. Pixar has become successful by focusing on distinctly non-human characters with which there is much more room for traditional, ‘cartoony’ animation (look at Presto as an example). Heck, even in the Incredibles, Elastigirl was anything but a puppet. However, with other studios and even Pixar itself focusing more on human characters, it is inevitable that they will move towards using puppetry as a base for their characters.
This is sad in many ways, not least because the wonder of animation is in making characters move in a life-like fashion while creating the movement one frame at a time. In exchange for this weakness in the production process, we get some wonderful walking cycles (and in the case of the Nine Old Men, some eccentric ones too).
The worry is that characters will have a propensity to move in more predictable ways, like real actors rather than animated characters. Although it should be noted that Flint Lockwood in Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs was animated with the Muppets in mind, he was the exception, even in that film.
I still cringe whenever I see Flash animation where the characters move on hinge points unnecessarily. A nod of the head sets off a motion that somehow ropes in the rest of the characters body. It drives me daft that such antics are what we are potentially heading towards.
Traditional animation is freedom from such “rules” in that the animator has complete control to do as they pleased (relatively speaking of course). That freedom is seen in every movement (even the bad ones or the screwed-up ones) and adds an extra dimension that puppet-CGI eliminates.
It remains to be seen how things will eventually turn out. Maybe we’ll see CGI animation technology advance to the point where it too acts in a more traditional manner. But until then, CGI is still on the fence.
Is CGI Really Animation, or is it Puppetry? Read More »
So by now you’ve surely read the news that DreamWorks has agreed to a deal with FOX to distribute their theatrical releases for the next 5 years. While that that creates a lot of relief it’s also worth pointing out that the deal is only for 5 years, which as I can safely tell you, isn’t a lot of time at all. So if we think long-term, what will it mean for DreamWorks and what will happen once those 5 years are up? Here’s a few thoughts.
Although Jeffrey Katzenberg didn’t get a cut in the fee he pays to FOX, he did get a concession in the online/streaming department. This concession of 1% will pay dividends over the coming years as more and more content moves online. The studio already has a deal with Netflix and you can expect similar moves onto other platforms to follow suit. Getting a discount will give them the extra space they need to eek out that competitive advantage over Disney and others.
The terms are far from ideal in overall terms, but in reality, DW is simply playing for time. Come 2017 the theatrical distribution landscape will be markedly different; mainly thanks to the likes of Sony passing out free digital projectors to cinemas. With that in mind you can anticipate that the costs and risks associated with distribution will be different too, and it may come to pass that DW can self-distribute or at least be in a good position to bargain hard with FOX if the deal works well in their favour until then.
There’s been some hubbub about the future of Blue Sky in all of this, but to be honest, they can stand to benefit too. They are wholly owned by FOX so there’s no way they’ll be allowed to wither while an independent party makes off with the big bucks. If anything, it should get renewed interest from FOX and perhaps a bit more leeway to produce riskier movies instead of the latest Ice Age installment. Hopefully, FOX will see that calculated risks often pay off nicely, just as they’ve done for DW. It may just take the odd situation of FOX people actually handling them to realise this.
All-in-all, it’s exciting times ahead for everyone, including Disney.
Long Term Implications Of The Dreamworks and FOX Deal Read More »
While it’s older and more famous brother has the one and only Duff, Futurama take a slightly different tack when it comes to beer. Here’s a Futurama beer appreciation post for your pleasure.
Technically not a beer, but a funny reference nonetheless
Many thank to the Brookston Beer Bulletin for their list of fictional beers!
A Futurama Beer Appreciation Post Read More »
Starting this week is the first in a series of posts on the characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The reason is simple; they’re a fantastic and eclectic bunch that merit some discussion and analysis. First up, Prince Zuko and Uncle Iroh. Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead.
They’re the odd couple in many ways. The young, brash Zuko and the calm, sage Iroh. Yet these characters are two peas in a pod and their relationship is one of the best in the entire series. The story behind it is simple, Zuko is banished and Iroh is sent to accompany him as a pseudo trainer/chaperone but the underlying tension is what makes things so wonderfully complex and human.
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The Avatar Character Analysis – Iroh and Zuko Read More »
With all the talk of Kickstarter these days and how it’s enabling creators in ways never thought of before, I thought comparing animated Kickstarter projects would make for a good blog post. The three in question are John K’s Cans Without Labels, Vegtoons and Lunatics. All represent the goal of getting something animated in production, but all three take a different approach to the Kickstarter process and their ultimate goal.
The goal is to create an animated cartoon, naturally, but while Cans Without Labels and Lunatics focus more on the entertainment side while Vegtoons is more evenly balanced between entertainment and education. So far so good.
Where things really start to differ though, is what each project hopes to use the funds raised for. Cans Without Labels and Vegtoons will use them to actually create a completed cartoon. That’s things like the animation, backgrounds, sound, music and so forth. Both projects have their voices recorded already. Where they diverge is that Cans Without Labels is a once-off (at least for now). In contrast, Vegtoons aims to be an entire series. The aim here is to fund the first episode through Kickstarter and then use that as a proof-of-concept for an investor to take a chance on a full-fledged series.
As you can probably tell, I haven’t mentioned one yet. That’s because the Lunatics project is by far the black sheep. Instead of raising money to create the vast bulk of the project, the creators are instead asking for only enough to complete the next stage of the production process. In this instance it is the voice tracks and the animatic, both of which are fully budgeted in the description. This kind of piecemeal approach may suit independent projects like Lunatics which can’t benefit from the celebrity and experience of John Kricfalusi or the studio and talents of Cartoon Saloon.
The context for all three projects are also relatively different. Cans Without Labels is meant for entertainment plain and simply. Vegtoons aims for a mixture of entertainment mixed with education and Lunatics is primed for entertainment but with a heavy leaning towards the “what-if” theory.
Clearly we have three different projects gunning for three different audiences. That speaks to the value of Kickstarter in providing a platform for a variety of projects. Now obviously something that is pure entertainment like Cans Without Labels will fare better for the simple reason that it appeals to a wider audience, but for the other two, Kickstarter provides an even platform on which to attract potential backers.
This is where things get really interesting. All three are aiming for the same ultimate goal, but all three believe that the cost to get there will be different.
Vegtoons reckons they can complete a full episode for about $20,000 (they’re asking for $16K to complete the first episode). Presumably that’s for an 11 minute cartoon in the style of flash animation we’re all used to on TV.
Lunatics is asking for just $4,235 although that covers only part of production. An original Kickstarer project attempted to raise $100,000 for a complete episode but was unsuccessful. As noted in the current project’s description, that was perhaps a bit of an adventurous goal for a small, independent project. As a result they have re-launched with the piecemeal approach and appear to be having much more success raising the necessary funds.
Cans Without Labels blows both out of the water with its $110,000 budget (and $136,724 raised). In contrast, to the other two projects, this is for a single cartoon, Both Vegtoons and Lunatics are aiming for a series (with the latter actually aiming to squeeze two episodes out of their original budget).
Will the quality differ? Undoubtedly, but with all the modern technology at people’s disposal, it does seem to be hard to justify a budget of a hundred grand for a single cartoon. Vegtoons will use Flash and Lunatics is aiming to use as much open source software as they can to keep costs down.
Although two of the projects are ongoing at this point in time. It is clear that two of them are focusing on the people associated with the projects (John K. and Tomm Moore) while the third is choosing to focus more on the goals and results. Not to say that the first approach is wrong (it’s the reason Disney made sure his name was present on every film he made), but in particular with Cans Without Labels, its easy to choose style over substance.
Comparing Animated Kickstarter Projects Read More »
After You is a short film by Irishman Damien O’Connor that centres around the (surprisingly exciting) life of a hotel doorman in Dublin over the course of his 60 years on the job. While the full film (as awesome as it is) isn’t online yet, you can enjoy the trailer to whet your appetite.
After You: The Trailer Read More »
Now I will admit that I have yet to see Disney/Titmouse’s latest series, Motorcity, but what I have heard has been mostly positive, so I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt here. Last week, I cam upon this post over on Tumblr (I know, I know, grain of salt etc.) that extols fans to watch and talk about the show. The reason is simple; :”It’s not doing very well”.
This apparent lack of success is measured thus:
According to wikipedia, the show only scraped up half a million views for its premiere episode, and since then each new episode premiere has averaged at around 0.3 million views. That’s only 300,000 people an episode, and reruns are probably getting even fewer views, as the fanbase is tiny and almost every single episode has been leaked onto the internet prior to airtime. The show’s on hiatus right now and could be in serious danger of getting canceled soon.
In a country of 300 million, 300,000 does seem like an appallingly low number. However, things are not as bad as the post’s author makes it out to be.
A cursory glance around the interwebs reveals that Disney XD (the channel on which Motorcity is broadcast) actually doesn’t have an audience much larger than 300,000. In fact, that’s about as high as its ever gotten (Q2 2012 viewer numbers was 390,000). So in fact, Motorcity is performing pretty much in line with the channel’s overall performance.
So if the show is performing as good as the network itself, there is little reason to freak out over the ratings is there? No, there isn’t. Now naturally more viewers is better, but networks always aim for a specific number (that is never known unless the show tanks) and in this instance, I would doubt they were aiming for a million viewers for the simple reason that the network itself doesn’t support that many viewers.
What certainly isn’t known is how viewers are faring on other platforms such as DVR or streaming. Those numbers are likely to be of much more value because as yesterday’s post alluded to, many young ‘uns spend a lot of time watching content online, far away from the Nielson box.
So to conclude, Motorcity’s viewer numbers are not so bad as to get in a tizzy over. If the show was to be cancelled over low ratings, it would have done so already.
UPDATE: So it would appear that the show is now officially cancelled, but don’t forget that this post was written months ago at a time when all the indicators pointed to a successful season. Remember that networks can cancel a show at any time and for practically any reason. By all accounts, Motorcity was performing commendably.
There’s Little Reason To Freak Out Over Motorcity’s Ratings Read More »
I read over on Pando Daily last week about AwesomnessTV, a YouTube that’s gunning for the tweens and their eyeballs. It’s an interesting concept that with the serious funding it just announced is clearly aiming for Nickelodeon and Disney territory. That’s no bad thing; the more the merrier and so forth. It got me thinking about whether it will be the prototype for any subsequent network.
Sure Disney and Nick have the young ‘uns sewed up, for now. But what about the kids born today? They will be growing up in a world where network television is a dying (or dead) beast and their may not have the same brand loyalty that today’s kids do.
AwesomenessTV has an advantage in being internet-based. As the Pando Daily article points out, the networks inhabits a space where a lot of teenagers and tweens reside already.
The question I’m interested in is whether or not it can be considered a prototype. While we will undoubtedly see animated content aimed at kids and teenagers for the forseeable future, Mark Mayerson has a post yesterday where he laments the increasingly fractured media landscape and what lower budgets will mean for animation.
I don’t entirely disagree with him, but I do see a difficulty in the medium term as to how funding is obtained. If AwesomenessTV can create a viable funding model and retain an audience, we might have a winner on our hands.
Is AwesomenessTV THE Prototype? Read More »
From time to time, you see lists for the most influential people in animation. However, a lot if not all of them include those of us that have departed this world for the next and in any case, Walt Disney is always on top. So today, I present to you the top 10 most influential living people in animation (in not particular order).
Being hip before it was cool, Bill has been an independent since before I was born! To be an independent animator is to be one hard working fellow. Continuously putting out witty and serious works, Bill is an inspiration not only for his films, but also for his master classes, festival and society appearances and the blog he co-writes with Pat Smith. All in all, Bill shall continue to be an influence on animators for a long time to come.
Let’s cut to the chase; CGI animation likely wouldn’t be around in the form it is today if it weren’t for Ed Catmull. A lot of people will give John Lasseter the credit, but it was Ed who saw the potential for computer animation long before anyone else. Today, Pixar sets the bar in terms of animation quality against which all others are measured. If that isn’t influence, I don’t know what is.
Do you like primetime animation? Good, because while Groening might not be entirely responsible for the idea, he is certainly a large part of the execution. His success with The Simpsons has spawned King of the Hill, Futurama, Family Guy and just about every other attempt at televised mainstream animation that you can think of.That’s not small feat.
Just celebrating a birthday last week (as I write this), Deitch has worked on Tom & Jerry as well as Terrytoons although perhaps most notable (and the reason he’s here) is his work for UPA which continues to influence animation to this very day.
After the 9 Old Men came Glen Keane, who is very much integral to the Disney look over the last 20 years or so. His art has helped shape many a young animator’s portfolios and he has been an essential link between the old Disney and the new. Although he has departed the Mouse House, it’s safe to say that Keane’s influence will continue to be felt around Burbank for decades to come.
Although Nicktoons kicked it all off, creator-driven TV shows didn’t get into full swing until Fred helped launch the Cartoon Cartoon series on Cartoon Network while head of Hanna-Barbera. Smash hits like Dexter’s Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and the Powerpuff Girls are still viewed with awe. After those hits, Fred has continued to crank them out through the What A Cartoon and Random! Cartoons which launched even more hits for Nickelodeon (including my personal favourite). Moreso than that, Fred has been an innovator, moving into the online world with the prototypical series The Meth Minute 39.
This one kinda goes without saying doesn’t it.
Think of a modern superhero cartoon. I bet you thought of one that Bruce Timm has his hand in didn’t you? If not, you can be sure that his influence exists somewhere down the line. Ever since Batman: The Animated Series hit the TV screens, it has been night on impossible to escape the look of Timm’s DC animated universe (DCAU). He’s still going strong so anticipate his influence to continue.
A young man in relative terms but The Secret of Kells went above and beyond what everyone expected and introduced a whole generation of people to Moore’s lush visual 2-D style. Although it isn’t seen very much yet, expect to see a lot of Moore’s influence in the years to come.
Still kicking around and remaining a considerable influence on special FX and stop-motion animation even in the face of blue-screens and CGI. Ray Harryhausen’s long career establishes his place on the list simply by being so long! In addition he worked on pioneering films such as Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad; films that continue to be studied today.
The Top 10 Most Influential Living People in Animation Read More »
