Longstreth

A pinball kickstarter for a group that has offered the pinball community a great deal over the years.

For all your snake pretzel needs

There are so many animation apps out there that it’s easy to forget a time when the most basic software wasn’t affordable. Within today’s wealth of tools, Loop (available for $0.99 on iPad) stands out for its spare, hand drawn interface and simplified features. Created by Universal Everything, it allows users to trace over video frames, choose pen widths and do some quick-and-dirty onion skinning.

What I like most about this app is that it was inspired by UI designers who like to use pen and paper during the creative process. For many non-animators, animation is a key tool in the ideation process–there are times when a sketch just isn’t enough to convey a vision to your team. Loop values fast sketching and expressiveness over polish, making it a potentially valuable tool for animators and beyond. Visit the Loop gallery to see how people are using the app so far.

To entertain the men, Captain Robert Scott took a gramophone on his South Pole Expedition. Chris, one of his dogs, was apparently also a fan, September 1911.Photograph by Herbert G. Ponting, National Geographic

Cat and white rat abide in peace. When different species grow up together, they often lose their enmity, April 1964.Photograph by Walter Chandoha, National Geographic

“It’s you who’ll be killed!”

A mailman stops and comfortably sits in a mailbox to eat his lunch in Hays, Kansas, November 1951.
Photograph by Jack Fletcher, National Geographic

Just by looking at this “bar code”, can you tell what animated movie this is? Go on, take a guess:

Give up?

It’s Bambi.

For a few years now, MovieBarcode has been one of my regular stops on Tumblr. The moderator (who prefers to remain anonymous) takes every frame from a movie, skews it to be only a pixel wide and lines them up in a row, creating a barcode-like image of the entire film. While many live-action films don’t necessarily need color to help tell the story, the majority of animated productions go to great lengths to plan out a clear color script. In many ways, the color is as vital to a movie as the characters and story. Color can set the mood, intensify the drama or action, clarify with contrast, and even define a character. Just pick up any Pixar “Art of” book and you’ll see how much thought is put into the color and lighting of a movie, through the use of color scripts, color keys and color association.

Take a closer look at the Bambi barcode again. For those who are familiar with the movie, can you tell just by looking at the colors what sequences are taking place? The light blue for the ice skating sequence? Deep red for the forest fire? Desaturated grays and blues for the death of Bambi’s mother?  And what about the color of the characters themselves? How well does the black and white skunk stand out when Bambi first meets him in the predominantly yellow flowerbed? Or Bambi’s bright orangey hue against the pale greens of the forest behind him? All these things are planned out to the most minute detail to make sure that the viewer can clearly see what is happening on screen.

Let’s make things fun by testing your animation knowledge. Here’s a few more animation barcodes, now try and guess what movies they are from. Some are pretty clear, and some might be a little tricky. For those that are stumped, click on the images to see which movie it is.

How’d you do?

The glow of an atomic bomb test draws Las Vegas casino workers, March 1953.Photograph by Volkmar K. Wenztel, National Geographic

Here’s the first trailer for the new series of Mickey Mouse shorts that will debut on the Disney Channel on June 28.

(Thanks, Axel D Camacho, via Cartoon Brew’s Facebook page)

"Stop! You must stop!"

This summer, Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida will open a Simpsons-themed area at its park to complement its existing Simpsons ride. The new space will allow visitors to walk around Springfield and spend their hard-earned dollars on Simpsons-related food, like Duff Beer, which will be brewed exclusively for the park. Simpsons creator Matt Groening has said in the past that he wouldn’t allow actual Duff beer to be brewed because he didn’t want to encourage kids to drink.

The press release describes how parkgoers will be able to buy other food items as well: “[You] will be able to grab Krusty-certified meat sandwich at Krusty Burger, snatch the catch of the day at the Frying Dutchman, get a slice at Luigi’s Pizza, go nuts for donuts at Lard Lad, enjoy a ‘Taco Fresho; with Bumblebee Man and imbibe at Moe’s Tavern.”

The area will also feature a new attraction—Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl—as well as the statue of Springfield founder Jebediah Springfield. Cick on the image at top for a close-up rendering of the new area.

It used to be that the only places where animation was screened was on rectangular screens, be it a large theatrical screen or more modest TV and computer screens. Times are changing though. Today, animation is projected onto irregularly-shaped three-dimensional buildings and trees in nature. Or it’s painted on subway tunnel walls where it can be viewed from a moving subway car. And now, thanks to MonkeyLectric, the bicycle wheel has become a new and unlikely distribution platform for animation:

Over the past few years, the small Berkeley, California-based company has developed numerous LED bike wheel display prototypes. The Monkey Light Pro is their most advanced product to date with over 256 full-color LEDs on each wheel. The system allows users to upload approximately 90 seconds of animation in a variety of media formats including AVI, MPEG, MOV, Quicktime, and FLV, and to display stable full-wheel images to the public while riding a bike.

To begin manufacturing the Monkey Light Pro, MonkeyLectric has launched a Kickstarter campaign with a funding goal of $180,000 by July 21st. They’ve already raised over $68,000 during the first three days of the campaign. The lights aren’t cheap—prices range from $495 to $795 per wheel depending on what stage of the campaign the product is ordered—but that seems a small price to pay for the opportunity to extend animation beyond the rectangular screen by pedalling your cartoons all over town.

If there’s anything that can both dazzle my senses and make me crave Oreos, it’s this 90-second animation for Oreo’s new “Wonderfilled” campaign, directed by Martin Allais and his production company Studio Animal. Animated to a jaunty tune performed by Owl City, the spot is filled with wonderfully stylized animation, a fantastic sense of design, fun transitions, and eye-popping colors from beginning to end. And much like the classic commercials of yesteryear, it makes me WANT to buy the product it’s selling.

CREDITS
Global Marketing Communication:  Jill Baskin
Brand Marketing Director: Janda Lukin

Agency Credits
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Alexander
Group Creative Director: Jorge Calleja
Creative Director: David Muhlenfeld
Creative Director: Magnus Hierta
Senior Art Director: Brig White
Planning Director: John Gibson
Managing Director: Steve Humble
Senior Broadcast Producer: Kathy Lippincott
Broadcast Producer: Heather Tanton
Broadcast Junior Producer: Caroline Helms

Production Company: Studio Animal
Director: Martin Allais
Producer: Maria Soler Chopo
Illustration: Martin Allais
Storyboards: Martin Allais
Animatic: Pere Hernández, Javi Vaquero, Matt Deans
Animator: Pere Hernández, Javi Vaquero, Pablo Navarro, Dani Alcaraz
Tracing and color:Ezequiel Cruz, Macarena Ortega, Eva Puyuelo, Joel Morales
Compositing: Santi Justribó Martin Allais

Music
Music (performed by): Owl City (Adam Young)
Voiceover talent: Owl City (Adam Young)
Original Music and Lyrics: David Muhlenfeld (English Major, LLC)

I made a short comic about cat sitting, and it’s up on narrative.ly!

Did you know I’m a professional cat sitter? I started shortly after arriving in New York. Now I have about 20 semi-regular clients. I’m a cat person, and this help pas the rent. If you’re curious, you can check out my Cateye Kitty Care website.

 

 

Hey, you guys want to go behind the scenes?  See what happens behind those scenes?

The Scorsese tribute show that Spoke Art curated at Bold Hype Gallery in New York last weekend was a sweet success.  The piece I created for the show was called “The Five Points Experience”.  It was inspired by the epic fight scene at the beginning of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs Of New York.

Spoke Art will be releasing a limited edition print of “The Five Point Experience” at 5pm PST today! So go the Spoke Art site and prepare for that.

Would you like to go behind the scenes and see what went into this piece?  Well,  let me take you there, my friends.  You deserve it.

1. INSPIRATION

I very much enjoyed the opening fight scene from this film.  It reminded me of those classic Bruegel paintings depicting the everyday craziness of medieval life in the streets.  People hanging out, fooling around, fighting, chatting, selling things, standing on their heads,these have been some of the most exciting paintings for me to look at ever since i was a child.  Old newspaper illustrations of the five points gave the impression that the New York streets of the 1800′s were just as packed with crazy activity.

Check out all these medieval guys having a blast together in the streets…

 

The New York streets were just as packed with activity as these medieval villages… 

 

And here is Scorsese’s Five Points.  Bill The Butcher’s gang is getting all pumped in this first shot here.

 

 

 

2. DRAWING TIME!

I took all of this reference to the cafe and sketched dudes fighting and having a rough time along with some loose layout sketches…

 

 

 

3. COMPUTER TIME

I scanned all these doodles and composed them into a nice little piece.  Very loose of course, so i don’t get bummed on myself if the final painting doesn’t turn out exactly like the drawings.  I like to use the doodles as they are exactly and just blow them up so they retain that same energy.

 

 

Put some rough values in there so see how the groups of dudes looked there. It is hard to tell when it is just line work.

 

This is what i printed out and traced onto the watercolor paper…

 

4. Tracing Time

I traced that thing right onto the paper with my pencil and my light box.  It was no big deal.

 

5. Painting time

Then it was painting time. I started by choosing some colors that might go nicely together and tried to stick to those for the rest of the time..

 

 

I like to do a big wash of the background color first.  And then i put all the skin tones in.  I don’t know why i do this.  It’s just a superstitious thing that i do.

 

Then i just put all the basic colors in there.  It looks like a mess usually and I always get a little worried at this stage.

 

 

When i can’t handle it any longer i mix a good line color and paint the line work.  I am thankful for this point because then they start to look like little dudes with little lives…

 

 

 

Paint that house. Don’t forget the house.

 

 

Finally i could relax and begin bringing out the value contrast a bit and make those darks way darker.  Make those pants really pop there.

 

 

6. CALLING IT DONE!

Eventually, i just need to call it done because I could noodle on this thing forever.  So after adding some gouache spots of white for snow, i call it done!  And it looked like this!  And still does to this day!

 

oh, wait! THE FRAMING!

I found this amazing old frame in a thrift shop and my friends over at Make A Frame in Brooklyn turned it into the sweetest little piece.  I was super happy about how it turned out. I could see it chilling in an old bar in the Five Points perhaps.

Thank you, everyone for reliving the magic with me. If you are interested in a print of “The Five Points Experience”, you should jump on it today at 5pm PST at Spoke Art!

Ok! Later days!

scott c

 

 

 

Yay! Hot pizza comin' through.

Director and animator Lucas Zanotto proves with his creative new app Drawnimal that drawing with a pencil on paper and digital apps are not incompatible technologies. The iPad/iPhone app not only teaches the alphabet and animals to children, but cunningly encourages kids to draw around their devices to create a complete image of an animal that will then perform an animated action. For more info, go to Drawnimal.com or download it from the Apple store.

Not like this:

It's easy to forget.

In the beginning of Primates, a young Jane Goodall has the opportunity to witness a chicken lay an egg.  This moment of observation reveals not just where that egg came from, but the significance of observation itself!  So much of the science in Primates is about sitting, and waiting, and looking, and listening, and documenting...and making connections.

Crazy amazing coin that snitches flip before each match. Mad props to the IQA. @mugglequidditch does this right.