Above is a link to a fascinating documentary on Coney Island. Beautiful and horrifying, the story of Luna Park and Dreamland was the birthing place for Little Nemo's adventures in Slumberland, Winsor McCay's fabulous comic strip which ran from 1905 to 1925. All the lavish architecture and circus atmosphere of Slumberland was realized in these two parks that thrilled and terrified visitors through out the early 1900's.
If you are unfamiliar with either Coney Island or Little Nemo, they are well worth looking into. Both are the stuff of dreams.
Okay the date has been announced for the mystery project I posted about earlier on this blog. The background design is very nicely done and some use the mutliplane feature to stunning effect. I enjoyed animating on it and hope you check out "Hoops & Yoyo's Haunted Halloween"!
‘HOOPS&YOYO’S HAUNTED HALLOWEEN’
Hallmark Channel Original Animated Special Friday, October 26 (7p.m. ET/PT, 6C)
Sometimes I see things that blow my mind. Here is a guy, Willard Wigan, who sculpts pieces so small they fit into the eye of a needle. He sells these things for unbelievable amounts of money.
What blows my mind is that he can do it and that people have the money to buy them.
Check out his gallery and the videos on him here:
I've mentioned how difficult it used to be to gather reference material for a project. I recall my mother, who was a commercial artist as well as doing fine arts, had big boxes of clip-art that she tore from magazines all broken out into categories like "Cars", or "Cats". Then inside that would be sub-categories like "Cats Running" or "Cars from 1950". We had a whole row of our home library, (Yes, it used to be common to have a wall of book-shelves in your home), devoted to National Geographic and other books on travel and other countries. We had the Encyclopedia from A to Z for more research. I say all this to contrast how easy it is to do a browser search and find anything today on the internet.
Here are a few of the many interesting pictures I found on the internet to inspire my personal film about a magical circus.
I've been very happily working on a new Holiday Special TV project that's wrapping up soon using Harmony by Toon Boom. Harmony is pretty amazing and I may have to upgrade my home system from Toon Boom Animate to Toon Boom Pro because it has many of the same features. That's how they get you, once you've tried it, you need it.
So what is this project all about? Gee, I wish I could say but I'm sworn to secrecy until it airs. If only I could leave a hint...
I haven't had much time to work on my circus film, but I try and grab moments here and there. This baboon is not cleaned up or detailed and only the under sketch of what will be a painting done in ArtRage. I will save the paintings as PNG files and bring them into Toon Boom along with a mulitiplane background later.
I've commented on this site before about how the digital age has changed animation and how some of the procedures have taken away the zen moments; those times when you are mindlessly doing a chore like painting cels, and you find yourself happy and content. Well, I've been getting up early in the mornings to work on my personal film and I've discovered while re-registering some drawings for a sequence that I was in the moment and at peace. I've also found pleasure in gathering research for my circus film where once it meant collecting tons of books from libraries and spending lots of cash at bookstores. Now the net provides me with endless information and sparks ideas from the most diverse places. I'm happy to be in this moment of time and amazed at how wonderful it really is. There are way too many images to share but here's one I really like.
A friend wanted me to restore a picture for his mother. I guess that's them at the lake. I told him there may not be enough information left but I would try my best. It looks like it's a foggy day but it is better than it was.
The stop-motion special "Jingle All the Way" was accepted into the 2012 Annecy Festival lineup. Congratulations to director Chel White and the team at Bent Image Lab. This was a fun project to work on and another is planned for the Hallmark Channel with pre-production happening now.
I've just discovered that you can watch 3D on Youtube. Look for the red 3D and by clicking on it Options will open allowing you to watch in anaglyph (red and blue glasses) or other settings. I like the 'No glasses' approach of free-viewing where you cross your eyes and focus on the image that forms in the middle but many don't.
I may want to start back into my 3D Flash stuff again.
I can't believe I haven't posted my completed nod to the greatest band in the world. I had offered posters and Tee-shirts and all kind of products with this image on my Zazzle store but they made me take it off. It's kind of funny because there are all kind of Disney imagery on there and I doubt the sellers are given permission to use them.
Its been awhile since I've done any stereo conversions so I dug up an old life drawing of mine and gave it a whack. If you have the blue and red lens glasses, you're all set. If you don't the double image is a free-view style that can be seen in 3D by crossing your eyes and focusing on the image that forms in the middle.
It’s never been mentioned in anything I’ve read about the making of Disney’s “Fantasia”, but was this film influential in any degree? Heinrich Kley is clearly an inspiration and only recently being acknowledged but what about “La Joie de Vivre” (The Joy of Living), by Anthony Gross and Hector Hoppin?
Could this 1934 film have inspired the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker sequences of the 1940 film “Fantasia”? To me the sprites of “La Joie de Vivre” looks strikingly like the fairies in Fantasia with their long legs and relationship to nature. The nude bathing scene in particular has all the proportional designs of the fairies and echoes of the ice fairy can be seen in their involvement with the lake. The sprites of “La Joie de Vivre” make flowers grow and dance among leaves. They also disguise themselves as flowers and the Disney’s fairies are introduced emerging from flowers, and have similar interactions with nature. There seems to be many parallel elements to me.
I see “La Joie de Vivre” as a viable springboard to “Fantasia”. It also reminds me graphically of what Lionel Feiniger, (“The Kin-der-kids”) might have looked like animated. I also see some “Yellow Submarine” too.
I did a preliminary sketch that was all scratchy and some friends like the quality. I worked over the top a little and decided to leave it loose and that this was good enough.
