A Loaf of Bread, a Container of Milk, and a Stick of Butter

A memorable Sesame Street animated short for sure (how could you forget?!) But seriously folks, check out this walk cycle. Here's a perfect case of the way a character talks and the way a character moves completely defining the character. It's also a perfect case of coming up with a great cycle (which definitely took time to create), and then getting a ton of use out of it.

According to YouTube, this was produced by Jim Simon's Wantu Enterprises, the same company that made equally distinctive animation for The Electric Company and Vegetable Soup.

WTD?: Plot

The word this week for What the Doodle? is "PLOT."
Here's what the FableVision crew came up with.

Renee Kurilla

Keith Zulawnik

Bob Flynn

Allie Biondi


Watch animation in full resolution.
Ryan McNulty

John Lechner

Doodle 4 Google

"Welcome to Doodle 4 Google, a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what new designs they come up with. This year we're inviting U.S. kids to join in the doodling fun, around the intriguing theme "What I Wish for the World."

VOTE HERE

Above doodle by Johnny Zuk, Age 6!

My doodle, "Music Brings Joy to Doodle" is what I wish for the world because music makes everybody happy. In the world, all kinds of different people have a favorite song because there is so many different types of music.

FITC

Hi Everyone! If you have a chance, read Renee's notes about our trip to Toronto for the Flash in the Can- once you're done with that, read mine if you'd like :) And enjoy my doodles.

WTD?: Vinyl

A bunch of us in the FableVision studio thought it would be a good exercise to pick a completely random word and create a visual representation of it. We're calling it WTD? (What The Doodle?) The random word generator we used spit out VINYL. At first we were all like, huh?...wtd? But I think the results are fun. This is something we want to keep doing, so check back for more (and maybe give it a try yourself!)

Bob Flynn


Allie Biondi


Keith Zulawnik


Ryan McNulty


Tami Wicinas


Renee Kurilla


Samantha Oliver


Be sure to visit everyone's sites, too!

FITC Toronto 2009

On Monday and Tuesday of last week, Allie and I attended the FITC (i.e. Flash in the Can) Conference in Toronto. The presentations were about an hour each and continued from the early morning until the evening. Surprisingly, many of the presentations I saw were not even about Flash and concentrated more on the theme of "Outside the Lines."

Twitter: @FITC
Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?sid=9f2f1c061ad372d6a614ff92664dbcc0&gid=4259426660&ref=search
Website:
http://www.fitc.ca/

Crowd Shot:


Grafitti Wall:

FITC '09: Graffiti Wall from Andrew Procter on Vimeo.

Designer/ Print Material - Joshua Davies
http://www.joshuadavis.com/



The presentations I attended:

DAY 1:
1. Flash Interfaces and Console Games
2. Ins and Outs of CS4
3. Digital Creative Agency - Big Spaceship
4. Pretty Pictures
5. MTV Jackass on AIR

DAY 2:
1. Life. Work. Philosophy.
2. There is No Box
3. Things I Learned About being Creative
4. Bridging the Gap Between 2d and 3d in Flash
5 Technology and Storytelling
6. Sound Visualization in Nature and Code

I thought about how to sum up my experience and eventually chose to do it in one sentence:
What I learned most at FITC is that FableVision should be presenting at these conferences as well as attending them! I propose we do a proposal:http://www.fitc.ca/proposals/

Observations: -twitter, flickr, facebook = HUGE

------------------------------------------
DAY #1

Flash Interfaces and Console Games
Scaleform.com, BIOWARE, and developer Grant Skinner

XBOX Creds: Mass Effect, Fable II Pub Games, Uno Rush, etc.

Image: Fable II Pub Game

-usie the Unreal Engine / flash inside 3d environments
-described GPU tessellation and 3D render targets
-putting flash in 3d engine allows high resolutions up to 6000 pixels wide at 30-60 fps
-optimized playback
-showed flash video playing in 3d environment, vector and 3d together
-UNO Rush uses Flash as main interface with 3D on top

Game artist/ developer job inquiries: Gamasutra.co, IGDA.org

Grant Skinner (master developer):
http://gskinner.com/blog/
http://www.gskinner.com/site2_5/
@gskinner



Ins and Outs of CS4
with Richard Galvan of Adobe

-CS4 now applies animation to an object and not a keyframe - delete the object - the animation PATH stays
-to extend your animation but NOT the timing hold shift and drag color box to end of timeline
-don't hold shift to extend entire animation time
(audience was ooo-ing and awww-ing...but I know that CS4 is buggy like nothing else :)

This applies a tween to a symbol using code:
fly.addTarget(butterfly2);
(motion present)addTarget(symbol name);

IK Fun:
-properties > runtime - publish - you can drag a bone symbolized objects arms and legs around




Digital Creative Agency
Big Spaceship, Brooklyn, NY Twitter: @bssmot / @bigspaceship

This company RULES.
http://www.bigspacship.com

Quotes to remember:
-"everyone is creative" - they don't use the word "creative" in their titles
(NOTE: Presenter, Joshua Hirsch's title is Minister of Technology)
-"don't hire assholes"
-"fun begets quality"
-"experiment constantly and not just for clients"
-"no DIY - DIWO (Do it With Others)"
-"don't use stock images, make your own"

Check out:
-Pretty Loaded (http://www.prettyloaded.com/) FUNNY!
-Hope Vs. Despair (Twitter project) REALLY FUNNY!!!!!!!
(Note: used Python instead ActionScript bc the developer thought AS would be too easy!)
- Big Spaceship Intersticial (modeled after the HBO logo from the 80s)
-30 Days of Night Website

30 Days of Night from Big Spaceship on Vimeo.

-Royal Carribbean 100suitcases.com



Pretty Pictures
Adobe Illustrator Artist Presentation

Marcos Chin
http://www.marcoschin.com/


MTV Jackass on AIR
Be on the lookout for this new Facebook compatible APP. "Superpoke on Steriods"

Note: I received a T-shirt that says "Poo Grenade."

-AIR applications that integrates with social networking sites
-play pranks on your friends (poop on them, pee on them, do other things I can't mention to them)
-video with transparent bg on your desktop
-Johnny Knoxville wearing a bread suit, gets eaten by giant pigeon
-created a liquid engine they called "fecal dynamics" pee, puke, blood, poo
-made it so you could splatter AND smear
-"pull my finger" you pull someone's finger and poop splashes on the screen (mm hmm)

Note: Gross.


------------------------------------------
DAY #2

Note: EVERY SINGLE PRESENTATION today used the word "hello" in their powerpoint or keynote.

Life. Work. Philosophy
HelloHello.bz
DoctorHello.com

Image: Dr. Hello, himself

Observations: Starting the day off on a light note. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) Ambient music. Deep. Good thing I have coffee.
Blah Blah Blah...he talked about Socrates and Plato. Interesting stuff...but at a Flash conference?

Notes Dump: -What guides me when I make a decision? -Every action is a reaction to something. Sight > Draw Hear > Write Touch > Dance Taste > Sing Smell > Cook -We are driven by love and fear. -"Fear is Contagious"


Dr Hello Quotes himself:
"There is no such thing as fearless, however, one can work to become fear free."
"What does a creative individual has?" (Has, I swear)
"Passion is Love in action."
"To imagine is the first step to reaching new possibilities."




There is No Box
http://thereisnobox.ca/
Jason Theodor (logo designer/ professional brainstormer)

Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/jted/jason-theodors-creative-method-and-systems

CrEaTivIty and BrAinStOrMiNg help-
This guy has been putting together his presentation for YEARS. Not kidding. It's his on going project and the slide show is supposed to soon be online.

"Creativity means not copying."

(Note: He used a wii remote to flip through presentation!)

Notes dump:
-QUANTITY!
"Ideas are like rabbits, write them down."
-Brainstorm in short bursts, you can't expect people to be creative for one solid hour and that's it
-Distraction is OK
-Don't try to be smart
-Use whatever is available
-Pretend you're a (dog, child, tree, clown) and write it down
-Look around, use the environment
-Lose your ego, come up with your worst idea

Example( Looking for a baby name?) Look around.
You're at: A grocery store/ GO:
Apple, Chex Mix, Banana, Cookie Crisp, Cranberry, etc.

"On beyond zebra..." Dr Seuss

- Use brainstorm tree to dig out childhood memories



Things I Learned About Being Creative
Mikey Richardson
http://www.amoebacorp.com/

- Don't bring pizza to a brainstorm meeting, everyone gets distracted by pizza and you spend the first 20 minutes talking about pizza
- Eat the broccoli first!!! ( do the boring/annoying stuff first)
-Make gold out of crappy opportunities


Design Firm
Designed Pop Shoppe Website: http://www.thepopshoppe.com/flash_site/main.html

"No Canadian presentation is complete without a photo of Wayne Gretskie"

And there he is.

Bridging the Gap Between 2D and 3D in Flash
Firstborn Media
http://www.firstbornmultimedia.com/

Some of their sites:
XM Radio
http://www.wildridexm.com/
M&Ms
http://www.jointhehunt.ca/

3D Engines-
Papervision 3D: http://blog.papervision3d.org/
FIVE3D: http://five3d.mathieu-badimon.com/

code I learned: var.mySprite:Sprite3D=newSprite3D();




Technology Paving the Way for Storytelling
Matt Lambert
1st Avenue Machine, NY, NY

http://blog.fitc.ca/post.cfm/technology-paving-the-way-for-story-telling

Discovery Channel: Footprint



Sound Visualization in Nature and Code

Jared Ficklin -Rubin's Tube (This is amazing)

Image: Jared Ficklin!

Foul Owl Karaoke (This is also amazing)
http://www.foulowl.com/

Creative Thinking: Make It a Habit!

Dr. Oliver, a geophysicist, has some thoughts on creative thinking.

Read the article --> here

Some highlights:

There is something mysterious about creativity. We can describe it, admire it, strive for it and experience it, but we can never understand just how or why a certain innovative idea springs up at a particular time in the mind of a particular individual. Indeed, most people never expect to understand or master that process. Let's hope we do not, for our world would be far more dreary if we ever fully harnessed the creative process and learned to produce results only on schedule or on demand.

Force your mind to see things differently — in a new light, from a new angle, from another scale of time or distance, or from the perspective of someone with a different background. Explore beyond the bounds of your expertise — you may have the exact perspective needed by a colleague in another field.

Schedule regular times for creative thinking. I walk to and from work daily, about 35 minutes each way. After many years of following the same route (sometimes I do vary it!), the journey is routine, but I've dedicated the walk as a scheduled time for free, creative thinking, for dreaming, for envisioning what might happen, for devising imaginative solutions. I jot down my ideas immediately after reaching my destination.

On that last note, our morning and evening commutes are very routine times when you could easily shut off the iPod or radio and just let your mind wander once a day.

I picked up this link from a tweet by animator Mike Geiger (@mikegeiger)

Mike Rauch on Talking UP to kids

Mike Rauch is a New York-based animator heading up the Rauch Bros Animation Studio. Here's what he says about children's media:

"Outside of entertaining the audience, the most important purpose of film for children and their families is to inform them and encourage them to think about the outside world and themselves. Media for kids should engage and respect them as intelligent people. This tells children that their thoughts, their ideas, and their lives matter. It shows parents and adults that listening closely to what kids have to say is one of the most important things they can do."

Great thoughts! I would say right in line with our philosophy here at FableVision.

Here's a teaser of the film "Q&A" that Mike and his brother Tim have submitted to the Chicago Children's Film Festival.

"Q&A" teaser from Rauch Brothers on Vimeo.