Animation Nation

Another trailer for Hotel Transylvania is out. We can expect to see more as the release date of September 28, 2012 approaches. Here's the official website for the movie, along with the Forum topic where all things HotelT are featured as they've come to us so far.

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With less than two months to go before the release of this highly anticipated animated feature film, we have one more trailer to enjoy for Brave and to add to the array of art and other trailers that's been assembled over time on the Forum topic.

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Happy to share this ambitious project on AN's homepage. One of our members, Amit Tishler (kodinkenji on the Forums) brought this to our attention when he posted it on AN's Gallery. It's the pilot episode for a show his team is trying to sell. It's called "Necrofusion" and is available for all to watch and enjoy.  Amit's goal is to find investors who will help move the project forward. Here's the official site for Necrofusion. You can also follow the project on Facebook. We wish everyone involved with Necrofusion good luck and much success.

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A long time friend, professional colleague, and master visual development concept artist, Gary Montalbano has a new website to share. I've known Gary since we worked together on an infamous and obscure animated TV series 'The Spiral Zone' going way back to 1986. He's an amazing talent and creative visionary, a veteran of many studio productions, a self published author, a family man and a model of professionalism.

Enjoy the great artwork at GaryMontalbano.com.

Another extremely impressive student film from the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA School of Arts) in Montpellier, France. This was produced in 2010. The ending is unusual and not what you'd expect. It's in French with English subtitles. Credits are in French as well.

Réalisé par : Thomas Buiron ; Victor Gully ; Marina Maison ; Lucie Schaar
Enregistrement et mixage : José Vicente ; Yoann Poncet - www.studiodesaviateurs.fr

Musique : Raoul Petite

Check it out...

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There's new video out for "Dragon's Dogma", an upcoming action role-playing video game being developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles. I've never seen a dragon with a rooster's head before, as is shown in the footage below. It's cool to watch none the less. Dragon's Dogma from Capcom will be in general release in the US by May 22, 2012, May 24 in Japan and May 25 in Europe. There's more game play footage and assorted other videos pertaining to Dragon's Dogma at this link.

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One of the great legacies of AnimationNation is our embrace of issues that are of importance to the animation community, even though they may not be animation centric. AN pioneered the development of online socio-political and philosophical dialog among animation artists for many years, going all the way back to the beginning of our site in early 1999.

This is a subject of great importance that's being featured in the Forums through several topics over the past few months. We're being kept up to date on developments thanks to Adrian Foster aka Skynet, our webmaster who's been terrific in keeping the community informed.

CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) is the latest attempt by the US Government to take control of the Internet, along with many large corporations who will financially benefit by the loss of our privacy and freedoms on a level unheard of in the USA, putting us in many ways on par with a totalitarian state. The CISPA legislation has hardly been mentioned in mainstream media, in contrast to SOPA and PIPA which had a great deal of coverage and was resisted by many major online players.

To find out more, watch the video below which was uploaded on YouTube two days ago. Also, please follow the dedicated Forum topic for more information about CISPA that we've been posting since last month for the benefit of the community. 

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When I first heard about the Nerf Gun event, the most recent of the Last Saturdays gathering at Petra Gallerie in Beverly Hills last month, I imagined it was going to be a Nerf Gun shotout. I was mistaken, as it turned out to be an exhibit of amazing Nerf Gun works of art by a noted array of artists and designers. Take a look at the video below and see more at this link. Last Saturdays happens monthly on last Saturdays and are open to the public if you're over 21 years old, pioneered by the inimitable Snakebite Cortez. For more info about Last Saturdays at Petra click here.

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If you haven't seen this short yet, by all means take a look. It's a great example of why I believe some of the best animation being created today originates from France.

Check out this video. A student film from the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA School of Arts) in Montpellier, France. It was completed in September, 2010. Here's the film's website. Also take a look at the excellent making of video for Mytho Logique. From the development art all the way through, it's incredible that students can do work this good. On par with just about any animation studio I can think of. You can see it here.

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 The trailer for a new animated TV series from the Walt Disney Company is online. It's called TRON: Uprising and is set to air this coming June on Disney XD in the US. Take a look...

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