Deus teaser
Olly Reid sends in this teaser trailer to something called Deus. He won’t say anything more about the short, but colour me intrigued. Can’t wait to see more.
Wes Anderson’s Speech at the NBR
Here’s Wes Anderson’s acceptance speech at the National Board of Review on January 11, 2010. I found this highly entertaining. The same goes for the film itself. Loved it.
UPDATE: Someone had their cellphone ready and shot the speech as it played at the event:
Eric Daigh
Eric Daigh creates portraits with pushpins. Here’s a close-up view of “Meghan IV”. I usually don’t care for flash based portfolio sites, but in this case the zoom-in feature is essential.
Cordell Barker’s animation master class
We just posted this video of Cordell Barker (Cat Came Back – which you can watch below – and his new film, Runaway) giving an animation master class in Toronto.
Barker – who was nominated for an Oscar for this film – has a lot of great storytelling tips. He talks about comic timing (jazz timing), framing (comedy is a wide shot) and contrivance in storytelling, among other things.
Letterheady – The blog for interesting letterheads
Yes. Please. Thank you. Letterheady is a blog for interesting letterheads. Star Wars. Albert Einstein. Winston Churchill. More.
30 animation tips from Ollie Johnston
John Lasseter shares 30 tips from legendary Disney animator Ollie Johnston. Some of my favourites:
- It is the thought and circumstances behind the action that will make the action interesting.
- Concentrate on drawing clear, not clean.
- Everything has a function. Don’t draw without knowing why.
(via Frank Chimero)
A letter to a young cartoonist from John K
I don’t always agree with John K’s views on animation. He’s a formalist, and values a certain kind of drawing ability over style and ideas, which I think are just as important. But I can’t help but admire the guy for this — Letters of Note has posted a hand-written letter that the Ren and Stimpy creator sent to a young cartoonist in 1998. Then 14, Amir Avni is now finishing up his final year at Sheridan Animation.
Heart
Inserting animated creatures into real environments, camera shake and all, seems to be quite a thing (see: De Monsters), but I haven’t grown tired of it.
Case in point: Laurent Clermont’s Heart.
Inhabitants of the Morae River
The Morae River is a project by Brynn Metheney wherein she is illustrating the wildlife and ecosystem of a fictional landscape. It's a wonderful fusion of fantasy and science. Says Brynn:
I conceived the Morae River Project in spring 2008 when I realized I wanted to organize my creature work the way biologists do. I needed to put them into a context where they could evolve and shape their environment as real animals do, to try to make them as seem real as possible.
Team William – You Look Familiar
If you haven’t already seen the video for Belgian pop band Team William’s You Look Familiar, enjoy!
Directed by Joris Bergmans and Michélé De Feudis, the video takes its cues from classic Max Fleischer cartoons with a little Super Mario Brothers thrown in for good measure.
