Forget animation - Puppets are the next big thing

And by "big" I mean BIG. I wish I could have seen this in person - it's mind-blowing. The perfect confluence of art and engineering. More info here, and some more photos here.

Glen Keane

So if you're into animation like me you likely know who Glen Keane is. And if you know who he is you've probably already seen the Art Of Glen Keane blog, as it's been linked in plenty of other places. This is a fan site, mind you, not his personal site. Anyhow, his art has always blown me away (see above image) and he's a great animator to boot. I referenced some of his animation of Ratigan for my work on Syndrome in The Incredibles. And he seemed really nice the one time I met him, but I digress.

Recently I had to drive from San Diego to Oakland alone, which is about 500 miles, and thank Jobs for the iPod and, by result, podcasts. Listening to podcasts made the trip a lot easier, especially the wonderful Animation Podcasts by Clay Kaytis, in which he interviews working animators and directors. My favorite so far is the Glen Keane interview (back on topic!) where he talks very frankly about his animation experience and process. He's very inspiring to listen to. One of the things he said that I really latched onto was that when you come across an animation problem that you can't solve, it's not because you're not good enough, it's because you've reached the limit of your knowledge. The solution, therefore, is to seek that knowledge outside of yourself. For him this meant going to art museums and being inspired by classical works. It's reassuring to hear that even someone of his stature hits the wall once in a while and has to work through it and keep learning.

So that's my post about Glen Keane. I hope I don't come off like a fan-boy, but... He rules!

TMNT trailer online

You gotta admit, this looks pretty cool! Well, except for the guy in the dumpster.

NFB Animated Shorts online

The National Film Board of Canada has posted a bunch of animated short films to their web site. Among them are such Academy Award nominated films as George and Rosemary, The Big Snit, The Cat Came Back and Flux. The films span from 1942 to 2002. This ought to keep you busy for a while!

The Pixar Zoetrope

Looking through my files I stumbled upon this movie of the 3D Zoetrope from Pixar's exhibition at the NYC MoMA earlier this year, and I realized that it probably hasn't been posted anywhere. So here it is! It's a 4.2 MB mp4 movie, and of course it doesn't approximate in the least how cool this contraption looks in person. This is real 3D animation. There's plenty more information on the Zoetrope and the rest of the exhibit (which I believe is in London now) at the Luxo Blog.


You can see more of my personal photos from the exhibit here.

SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival

Trailer now online (19.6 MB). Some cool stuff in there; too bad I'm not going! Here's a link to the site.

What Recruiters Are Looking For

A good article on VFXWorld featuring interviews with recruiters from major animation and effects studios:

What Recruiters Are Looking For

9 Old Men Videos

"Disney Family Album" postings on YouTube. Delicious Old-School Flavor!

"Arthur et les Minimoys"

Luc Besson throws his hat into the animation ring:


Discuss amongst yourselves.