Test post AAI list

Artist: Nicole Duet

The American Animation Institute, TAG's education program, has announced a "mini-semester" of classes starting in early January.

Registration is now open, and we encourage you to sign up as soon as you can since many of these classes will fill up. To register, call (818) 845-7000 during office hours, Monday-Friday 8:30 am to 5 pm. After registering by phone, make out checks to the American Animation Institute and send to: 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505. You place in class is not guaranteed unless you have registered and paid. Payment is due by December 30, 2009. No refunds will be given after the first day of class.

Classes are listed in full below the fold. A PDF version of the flyer is available here. (Misteaks in the version attached to the earlier e-mail have been corrected.)

American Animation Institute
Winter 2010 "Mini-Semester
January-February 2010

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Day classes

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• Head and Figure Painting

Instructor: Karl Gnass
Fee: $150.00

6 Mondays, January 4-February 8, 9:30 am to 4 pm

This course deals with the fundamentals and development of head and figure painting. Attention will be given to anatomy, structure and form followed with emphasis on character, mood and action. We will examine and explore different theories of color, the value scale, direct and indirect light and procedures used by various artists throughout history. There will be a running dialogue about composition and its importance. A one-day lecture tour of a Los Angeles museum is included. Finally, a look at personal approach, inviting the student to challenge established norms and limitations.

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artist: Glenn Vilppu

• Basic Figure Drawing and Anatomy
Instructor: Glenn Vilppu
Fee: $210.00

9 Tuesdays, January 5-March 2, 10:30 am to 4 pm

Classical figure drawing, with discussions of the application of anatomy to drawing.

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• Painting The Still Life
Instructor: Nicole Duet
Fee: $100.00

5 Thursdays, January 14-February 11, 10 am to 2:30 pm

Painting from the still life is one of the most quietly rewarding ways for students of all levels to develop the skills of a painter. This class covers fundamentals of paint handling and color mixing, and how to create the illusion of light, form and atmosphere. This class can provide either an in depth introduction to oil painting or a deepening of the student's understanding as a painter. Demonstrations and individual attention will be given. Call for supply list.

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artist: Karl Gnass

• Morphing Life Drawings Into Character Drawings
Instructor: Karl Gnass
Fee: $125.00

5 Fridays, January 8-February 5, 9:30 am to 4 pm

We will utilize life-drawing concepts, reviewing and clarifying them, to transform figures into characters for storytelling and animation. We will also work on character development and expression for portfolios.

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• 2D (Traditional) Animation Workshop
Instructors: Alex Topete and Michael Polvani
Fee: $70.00

3 Saturdays, January 16-January 30, 9 am to noon

This intensive workshop in traditional animation basics will offer students practice in thumbnailing poses, staging, refining attitudes, acting and character expressions, dialogue, timing for animation, inbetweening, creating exposure sheets, and continued emphasis on drawing fundamentals. Students can expand their 2D reel in class working on an individual project or collaborating on a short team exercise. Students may work in Flash (on theirown laptops) or with pencil and paper (using classroom pencil-test equipment).

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Evening Classes

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• Life Drawing
Instructor: Karl Gnass
Fee: $90.00

6 Mondays, January 4-February 8, 7 pm to 10 pm

A basic foundation figure drawing class. Emphasis on fundamentals of observing, interpreting and describing form. Procedures used inquick sketch, construction and fundamentals of volume and structure. The goal is to develop the ability to draw with skill and imagination.

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• Draped Figure and Costume
Instructor: Karl Gnass
Fee: $180.00

12 Wednesdays and Thursdays, January 7-February 12, 7 to 10 pm

We will take the confusion out of drapery by covering the important basic folds and how they relate to non-active folds and wrinkles. We will also explore the expressive qualities of drapery, drapery as costume, and costume as character.

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• Color and Composition
Instructor: Nicole Duet
Fee: $75.00

5 Wednesdays, January 13-February 10, 7 to 10 pm

A workshop focusing on the basic visual and aesthetic interactions of color. Topics include developing sensitivity in color perception and intensive practice in mixing color. Special focus on color harmony, dynamic color as an aspect of composition, and learning to use color to create effects of luminosity, depth and atmosphere in a painting. Students also develop a basic understanding of color as it relates to composition and form, including discussion of historical examples of color use in painting. Call for supply list.

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To register, call (818) 845-7000. After registering by phone, make out checks to the American Animation Institute and send to: 1105 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505. Payment is due by December 30, 2009. No refunds will be given after the first day of class.

Test post

Focus Features invites you and a guest to a special 3D Screening of

Coraline

Immediately following the screening, please join us for a Q&A with Director Henry Selick & Supervising Sound Editor-Designer Ron Eng
Tuesday, November 3, 7:30 pm
Linwood Dunn Theatre at the Mary Pickford Center
1313 Vine Street, Hollywood
(hosted parking available off of Homewood Avenue)

RSVP to 818-777-4627

Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. This invitation is non-transferable.

Pixar test post

Christmas post test

Christmas Eve, Santa summons the reindeer from out a forest of NOEL trees.

© 1955 by the Estate Of Ralph Hulett. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized image.

Come see Ralph Hulett Christmas cards at our art gallery, open weekdays 8:30 am-5 pm.

Here are more Ralph Hulett Christmas cards.

The Links of 'Toons

Time again for linkage far and wide on the biz that makes cartoons...

Variety details the robust and expanding French animation industry. (French animation? Mon Dieu!)

...French animation has grown up with an eye toward the international market -- because it has had to.

Coin from French broadcasters typically covers only around 15% of an animation series' production costs, so a project simply cannot get off the ground unless it attracts international presales or co-production deals.

That economic reality, coupled with a plentiful talent pool of animators trained at internationally reputed schools such as Paris' Les Gobelins and La Poudriere, in the South of France, has put French animation up there with the world's best.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Hollywood movies are putting more bells and whistles into end credits (which, as we know, can roll on endlessly), including this about Ratatouille...

As several recent movies demonstrate, filmmakers are getting creative with their end credits. They're starting to add a flourish that's akin to an exclamation point at the end of a sentence, giving viewers a reason to stay a bit longer in their seats for a memorable treat....

The end credits for "Ratatouille" came about during the design stage of the movie, when the filmmakers discovered drawings done by fresh-from-Cal Arts grad Nate Wragg. Wragg then was paired with Teddy Newton, who designed the credits for Bird's "The Incredibles."

One reason Pixar went with the 2-D credits was practicality. Bird came into the project so late in the process that all computer resources were diverted to making the main movie.

"We certainly didn't have any more bandwidth to do 3-D," producer Brad Lewis says. "We were maxed out. So that was probably a factor..."

As we did earlier this week, Rob Pegorora in the Washington Post weighs in on the high def wars:

* HD DVD's single most appealing feature is its hybrid-disc option, in which a single disc can contain both a DVD and a high-def version of the movie, meaning you don't have to buy one copy of the movie for viewing at home and another to watch on your computer. But it's been half-ignored in practice, with studios either failing to support it at all or reserving it for new releases.

* Blu-Ray is an extraordinarily lame product name (even if it's no "Xohm").

The only safe move continues to be DVD. Get an "upconverting" player and connect it to an HDTV with high-def video cables, and you'll have a risk-free solution with video quality that falls short of what's capable, but which should also be good enough for most people.

If enough customers do this, the entire format war might end in the most fitting manner possible: a nothing-nothing tie, with lots of injuries on both teams.

(Tech Digest has a cynical view of the Paramount-DreamWorks-Toshiba menage a trois here.)

The Huffington Post's Michael Giltz has some acerbic observations about Political Correctness in films, and this paragraph about Popeye the Sailor (which we've covered before):

The worst sins of these Popeye cartoons include vile stereotypes of Japanese as World War II approached and the sight of two men fighting over a helpless woman. Among the extras are many commentary tracks, quite a number of bonus cartoons and two substantial documentaries, including "I Yam What I Yam: The Story Of Popeye the Sailor, which is relatively frank about the decline of the cartoons after the era covered in this set. (By the Seventies, Popeye wasn't even allowed to hit anyone. What's the point, wondered one animator?)

From Netribution's Nicol Wistreich in the U.K. comes this report on some commies who attack our fine free-market system:

The BuynLarge Corporation's website illustrates a future where one company effectively controls everything on the planet - from industry and media to the world clock, government, and, even North on the compass. If it want's to stop paying tax, it can. It's opponants such as anarchists and anti-consumer groups, are in fact 'customers we haven't reached yet'. To top it all the site is littered with cringable stock photography and a web-standards unfriendly Flash interface.

And the source of this smart (and wet myself funny) illustration of the nightmare Stalinist totalitarian future for unchecked global capitalism? Adbusters, perhaps? Greenpeace or Armando Iannucci or Chris Morris?

It's actually Disney subsidiary PIxar and the new promotion site for 2008's Wall-E....

While we're on the subject of cgi animated features, India is ready to release its first home-grown cg feature (the sub-contracting jobs don't count...)

ICY ‘N’ SPICY is destined to be India’s first 3D full length animation feature film. It is due for release in first week of September 2007.

It is a project which was conceived more than two years back by the young and dynamic director Anil Goyal and was brought to the drawing board nearly 18 months back...

Lastly, old Disney animation chiefs don't fade away, they just move on to new venues and projects:

The newest Disney Theatrical Productions musical, The Little Mermaid — hoping to be a big "part of your world" — officially opens at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver Aug. 23. The pre-Broadway engagement began its Colorado run July 26.

Directed by Francesca Zambello, the new musical will play in Denver through Sept. 9. Mermaid will then arrive at Broadway's Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, the recent home of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Nov. 3 with an official opening scheduled for Dec. 6.

Disney Theatrical Productions is under the direction of Thomas Schumacher.

Be excellent to one another.

Starz Media Thursday

My tour today was through the spacious halls of Film Roman/Starz Media, where the Simpsons crew has returned to working on half-hours of the Yellow Family's 19th season.

As one staff person said to me:

"We're slowly getting back up to speed around here. Late on the last episode we did, but that sort of happens when everybody's working on the feature...

No doubt they'll soon be at full throttle.

Meanwhile, the King of the Hill crew has moved out of Film Roman's old home on Chandler Blvd. (cheek by jowl to the San Fernando Valley's fabled "Orange Line") and back to the mother ship next to the Burbank Airport.

Since you mentioned it ...

Mr. Reitherman

I said:

So the halls of DW/PDI are alive with the sounds of money...

And a commenter rejoined:

If you mean the halls outside management's offices, then yeah. If you mean the halls where the TDs and animators create this stuff, then no.

Joe Hale (a longtime Disney artist) said:

Know why the union gives animators "Fifty Year Awards"? Animation is the only business where you have to work fifty years..."

And Woolie Reitherman (Disney "Second Old Man") said:

Shit, I didn't get rich around here from the money they paid me. I got rich from the stock options..."

And Tom Toles said (click below):

Comics and Editorial Cartoons: Tom Toles on Yahoo! News