Oh, Twitter

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Twitter has been super buggy today. I had to laugh when I saw this moments ago. First time for me, anyway. Most of us have seen the "Fail Whale" before, or the missing page "ghost" bird. Here are those and some others. It's a fun use of illustration to communicate something that would be cause for alarm for most of their audience. Lightens the mood, I suppose.

Adventures in Cartooning

via BoingBoing

This fabulous book was just brought to my attention by Bill Gonzalez (thanks, Bill!). I haven't gotten my hands on a copy yet, but it appears to be one of the more creative and charming approaches to teaching comics that I've seen in awhile. Perfect for any aspiring cartoonist, young or old. And any fan of comics!

BoingBoing sums it up nicely:

"Adventures in Cartooning is a comic that tells the story of an elf who teaches a kid how to draw comics -- a kind of Understanding Comics for kids. It's incredibly charming and full of sly wit, and the combination of the story (and there is a real story here) and the instruction is perfect inasmuch as the story illuminates the techniques in the construction. Taking kids through the basics of layout, dialog, and doodling, Adventures in Cartooning is an inspiring text for any kid who loves comics, regardless of artistic abilty."

First Second Books offers a preview on their website --> here

Where the Wild Things Are!

Have you seen the trailer yet!? Take a minute and watch! Personally, I think it looks amazing!

An Interview With Waltz With Bashir Animation Director Yoni Goodman

via Cold Hard Flash

One of the more engaging and interesting discussions on the process of animating in Flash that I've read in a while. I especially appreciated the shout-outs for Flash MX ;) They also mention exporting animation as a PNG sequence as a way of getting it into After Effects. I have yet to see Waltz With Bashir, but everything I've read and seen has been nothing but praise.

--> Read here

Also, many thanks to Aaron at Cold Hard Flash for doing a nice write-up on FableVision's animations for The Powder & the Glory.

Famous Artists Course in Commercial Art: Color Theory

via ComiCrazysThe folks over at ComiCrazys have either come across or taken the time to scan a whole chapter on color theory as it applies to painting. New territory for some, a refresher course for others. I'm pretty sure I've come across this book at some point. View here.

An Interview with Ralph Eggleston

First off, special congratulations go out to Wall-E, Eve and the gang for snagging the Oscar. Dave Schlafman just passed along an interview with Ralph Eggleston, production designer on the film. He details some of the artistic goals and production challenges of the the film. I especially enjoyed reading about his thoughts on color. He gets into texturing, too. Well worth the read.

--> Design With a Purpose, An Interview with Ralph Eggleston

Deadlines got you down?

...take a note from Glen Keane, Disney animator extraordinaire. There is a great article about him on Lineboil.

My favorite portion of this article:

Do you have any routines for uncorking your creativity?

GLEN: Get away. That’s what I need to do when I am stuck. I go for a long walk and refresh my soul. I go to a museum to remind myself that I am an artist and need to think like one. Often the thing that can happen to someone working for a big studio like Disney, or any studio for that matter, is that you can forget why you love this art form. It can quickly become about meeting a production goal. Schedules and deadlines are important, even essential, because they create a fire and heat that seem to force you into your best ideas. However when you feel creatively empty and uninspired, the deadline mentality will say “It’s okay just let it go. So what if it’s not your best work - you’ll get another chance next time. Hand in the scene and at least you can feel good about hitting the numbers.”

I reject this voice and instead do something that feels entirely counter-intuitive. I take that seemingly all too precious time and walk out the door of the studio, hop in my car and drive to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. I marvel at the Rodin sculpture at the entrance. I study the Degas pastels and figurines… I start to remember that I am an artist first and animator second.

Demanding the Grade

Just read an interesting article in the NYTimes:

--> Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

—that's not Brian ;)

“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it,” said Ellen Greenberger, the lead author of the study, called “Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” which appeared last year in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

“I think that it stems from their K-12 experiences,” Professor Brower said. “They have become ultra-efficient in test preparation. And this hyper-efficiency has led them to look for a magic formula to get high scores.”

I know I always worked hard for my A's in high school. The curve was much more prevalent in college, and I do recall certain students going up to the professor—disgruntled that they got a B. Average work deserves a C...there's no sense in inflating someone's sense of mediocrity. But it must be tricky at colleges, where students are often treated as customers because they are seen as paying for their education.

Comics Grammar And Tradition

I just came across this post about comic book lettering that talks about all of the "rules" (which were made to be broken, sometimes) involved with laying out text in speech bubbles in comic books. It's very cool how much of a "language" there is involved with this, and how much a few marks (i.e., the "breath marks") can tell us.

Ditch Digital

Floyd Norman has a rather bold suggestion sure to stir controversy:

"I’m going to apologize in advance for today's column because I'm sure that it's going to make a lot of people angry. I have a plan that some might call radical. But it’s a plan that I’m afraid we need. Tough times demand tough decisions, and here’s one to consider:

Get rid of digital animation at Walt Disney Animation Studios."

--> Link to column

His argument is from a business perspective, mainly that Disney should leverage their history (the brand they established over an entire century) and return to what they have always excelled at. Especially in a world where practically everything is CG, and they already own Pixar. Interesting read, for sure. Thanks to Sherm Cohen for sharing the link over Facebook.

The Art of Storyboarding

Walt Disney: "At our studio we don't write our stories, we draw them."

Alfred Hitchcok: "A storyboard artist has to be a good storyteller."

Andrew Adamson: "This is an expensive writing tool, but a really inexpensive production tool."

via Presentation Zen

Noteworthy

Looking through the list of animations that were at Sundance this year, Max and Mary caught my attention. It's by Adam Eliot- who made Harvey Krumpet (if you haven't seen that- it's a good one to look for!)
Short summary- It's about two lonely people connecting. That was short wasn't it.

Here's a link to a proper review-

And

Here's a link to the official site-

I can't find any kind of release date so we could see it in Boston- but once I find out I'll update here.