August 2013

Week Links 32-2013

2 Comments / Week Links /

What a hectic, hectic, terrible week. If it wasn’t the start of studying for this PE exam in October, it was the blog here getting hit by a mysterious bug. Of course it had to happen on the day I was without internet and hence couldn’t properly resolve it. By the looks of things, it was an issue with the previous theme; now completely removed. Thus the hunt begins for a new one, probably to come on Monday. Anyway, here’s some week links for you all.

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Week Links 32-2013Read More »

Week Links 32-2013 Read More »

The Significance of ‘The University of DIC’

4 Comments / Business Models /

Over at Animation Magazine, Michael Mallory has a rather informative post about what he refers to as the ‘University of DIC’. As you should be aware of, DIC was an animation studio responsible for such shows as Inspector Gadget, the various Sonic the Hedgehog series’ and a whole host of other, primarily low budget animated shows. Despite being bought up a few years ago, the company’s influence continues to live on.

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The Significance of ‘The University of DIC’ Read More »

Three Simple Rules For Creating A Popular Animated Show

Opinion /

There’s a ton of blogs and guides out there to creating the perfect animated series. However, most of them focus on the actual animation itself; they neglect all the periphery stuff that is also needed to make a series work. If you’d like to read something professional, I highly recommend any of David B. Levy’s books as a great starting point to what the industry is like from an animator’s perspective. I, of course, am not an animator, so will instead offer the alternative viewpoint.

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Three Simple Rules For Creating A Popular Animated Show Read More »

Comparing Eastern and Western Animation: Cost Versus Variety

9 Comments / Analysis /

When it comes to producing animation for television, there are two differing approaches that are used. Go really cheap and make a lot of shows, or make one really good show with lots of actual animation. Neither approach is better than the other in the grand scheme of things. However, it’s hard not to notice that Japan produces a far greater variety of animation than the US, despite being a far smaller market.

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Comparing Eastern and Western Animation: Cost Versus Variety Read More »

Is YouTube Starting to Suck

4 Comments / Business Models /

The very question is, in and of itself, potentially inflammatory in this day and age. YouTube is, after all, the all-but-crowned successor to the television. On the flip side, it is the bane of every network and movie studio out there; lashing out much the same as old Hollywood did when the television itself came along. Here’s the question though: is YouTube starting to suck? And when I say ‘starting to’ I mean in the slowest, most unnoticeable form imaginable, and when I say suck, I don’t mean viewers, I mean become bad. Let’s take a look.

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Is YouTube Starting to SuckRead More »

Is YouTube Starting to Suck Read More »

Animation Anomaly Podcast Episode 2

2 Comments / Podcast /

Since last week’s podcast didn’t elicit any hate mail or death threats, there’s another one this week. Plenty of articles were worthy of inclusion and hopefully you find my gibbering not too ingratiating.

  • 00:00 – Why we’ll see even more Ice Age sequels [article link]
  • 06:30 – Animated films and the cult of self-esteem [article link]
  • 14:00 – How Disney clamps down on the unlicensed use of their characters on birthday cakes [article link]
  • 18:00 – Passive Female Characters and Strong Female Characters [link 1, link 2]
  • 22:00 – The A.V. Club interviews the head of Animation Domination High Definition [article link]

Please give me any feedback at all on how I did; the podcast is still a work in progress! 🙂

Audio file download

 

Animation Anomaly Podcast Episode 2 Read More »

Animation Anomaly Podcast Episode 1

5 Comments / Podcast /

Thanks to everyone who suggested that I give this podcast gig a go. Consider this episode the prototype rather than a fully-fledged episode.

Here’s a brief summary of the Animation Anomaly Podcast episode 1:

  • 00:00 – Introduction, the PTC doesn’t like FOX’s ADHD block
  • 08:30 – Viacom continues to sue YouTube. What that means for animation and residual payments.
  • 13:30 – Disney is heavily reliant on cable TV subscriber fees, but that won’t last forever. What does that mean for their animation division.
  • 17:30 – The real reason Disney bought Pixar, Lucasfilm and Marvel.
  • 24:00 – Brad Bird on changing the cinema experience.

PS. Please do leave some feedback below to let me know how I did 🙂

Audio file download

Animation Anomaly Podcast Episode 1 Read More »