Animation Nation

Feels like there's a ressurgence in stop motion animation going on. Quality content is being produced. Case in point, this short film via Mike Boas of MadDogMovies.com and the Rochester Audio Visual Association in New York. Mike also works with Animatus Studio in Rochester.

Check out this ode to B horror movies. '(Baby) It's You!', directed by David Cowles, Jeremy Galante, and Brad Pattullo. Excellent musical performance by The Boys, with puppet costumes by Victoria Rose Zalewski. Additional animation by Michael Genz and Rob Sassi. It was filmed at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Here's the forum topic.

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A great way to get September off to a fine start. Matt Groening, the renowned creator of The Simpsons and Futurama will be judging Shooting People's Film of the Month competition.

September is Animation Takeover month at ShootingPeople.org. They're looking for the best, most imaginative and downright mind-blowing animators around the world to showcase themselves and have a crack at this unique chance to get feedback from one of the industry's greats. Upload your film starting today, September 1st. The top three films at the end of the month will be sent to the desk of Mr. Groening for his winning decisions.

You must be a Shooting People member to enter, so head to their website to sign up. For more info and links you can also visit the topic on the AN Forums.

There's so much great content coming to us from the forums that's worth featuring on AN's homepage we're experiencing a backup. Switching to this new format has really made a positive difference. 

Here's something that was posted by longtime ANer Jeff Nevins. You may recall Jeff's project was featured here on August 5 regarding TangerinePop, a company that produces online video games. Jeff posted a music video produced by Ghostbot, an outstanding commercial animation studio located in San Francisco. It's just been released. The video's entitled "Good Girl Bad Girl". It's a lot of fun to watch and I bet it was a blast to work on.

Here's the topic on the AN Forums which also features credits from the film. Check out the video...

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Yesterday evening at our monthly AN Night we had the pleasure of having with us among our guests Christopher and Christine Kezelos, Australian filmmakers who currently reside in Los Angeles. The husband and wife team are live action filmmakers who recently made the jump into animation via the stop motion technique. They created a beautiful and moving film entitled 'Zero' which has been making the film festival circuit since last year and is now available for all to see online.

Chris and Christine with be our special guests for AN Night in Burbank on November 29, 2011 where we'll be having an exclusive screening of their next film "The Maker". Visit the topic on the AN Forums to see a trailer for the film and to watch video of the making of Zero. You can also visit their website at ZealousCreative.com  to see more of their work.

Zero has won no less than fifteen major awards in its journey through some of the world's top film festivals in 2010. Take a look at the film and you'll see why.

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Wacom's latest product has just been made public as their YouTube video went up only yesterday. Longtime ANer Glen Moyes just posted this topic on the Forums and I'm eager to share it with all our visitors to the homepage.

Imagine drawing with a pen on paper, then being able to digitally transfer what you drew to your computer as a vector file by plugging in a devise that has captured the memory of your drawing. It may have been a futuristic vision at one time, but it's a reality today. Take a look at this video and see for yourself. The Inkling in action...

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The image above on the left is from an article dated November 26, 2004. The one on the right from another article dated August 19, 2005.

This is nothing new. Reports of abuse of workers, skirting labor laws, child labor, slave labor conditions, incredibley long work weeks, this is behind the sweatshop practices in factories in China which produce most of the toys that are marketed on the planet, including virtually all the toys sold by the Disney and Mattel corporations. 

For years, these companies have stated that they will investigate the situations at the factories they employ to produce their toy products, and yet the allegations continue to come to the public through the press.  Will anything ever be done to ensure some basic standards in the toy factories these companies utilize or is humanity something that doesn't suit the bottom line.

Initiated by long time ANer Greg Boone, the topic is being developed on the AN Forums. Please follow the link to read articles and commentary associated with this important issue.

We've always had a special place in our hearts for animated music videos on AN. Lately I thought to feature a few that have gone under the radar with us over the past few years. This topic on the AN Forums is being developed with several videos to enjoy, starting out with "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John with vocals by Victoria Bergsman of The Concretes. It's been on YouTube since 2006. In that time it's accumulated 20,613,050 views as of this writing, a testament to its continuing popularity.

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Discovered this on YouTube yesterday. It was uploaded only three days ago. It's a stop motion video created by Eran Amir in Israel. The video consists of 500 people holding more than 1,500 developed sequential photographs at different locations, resulting in a movie within a movie. Very cool. Music is by Maxmaber Orkestar. The topic can be accessed on the AN Forums as well. 

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Here's a fine studio that reflects the great legacy of America's excellence in animation. Planet Texas is an animation design and production company for broadcast, games, interactive and educational media. Here's the topic on the AN Forums and here's their  2011 demo reel...

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In reference to Walt Disney's famed Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1928, I started a topic on the forums a few months ago in regards to an upcoming animated project from DisneyToon Studios entitled "Planes", which is a continuation of the vehicle characters theme we've come to know through Pixar's "Cars". We can expect to see Planes in the Spring of 2013.

I've featured several versions of airplane characters that have preceded the Disney project in this topic on the AN Forums  which I'm sure folks will find enjoyable, along with a just released teaser for Disney's Planes.

Of all the versions of plane characters showcased in the topic, I'd say that the most intriguing interpretation of the concept is a short film created by animation students in China a few years ago. Uploaded to YouTube in 2008, it's very well done and quite surreal. I'm posting it here for our readers to enjoy.  

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