moving animation backgrounds: February 2012

Monday, February 27, 2012

Oscar Thoughts

Today is traditionally the day when everyone complains how boring the telecast was, how awful the fashions were and how out of touch the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is.

I've stopped watching the Oscar telecast, finding it much more efficient to read the list of awards the next day in 5 minutes or less.

My take on the Oscars has always been that it's just a fancy marketing tool. A film that wins or loses is the same as film it was before the win or loss. Perception may change, but not the actual film. And as perceptions keep changing over time anyway, an win or a loss is just a blip in the how the world judges a film or the people who made it.

While La Luna lost for best animated short, it will have the last laugh. Being paired with Brave this coming summer, it will be seen by more people than the winning film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.

Rango's win will probably allow ILM to make another feature, but the film's influence will be slight for the immediate future. This year's releases are essentially done, so it will be next year at the earliest that any Rango qualities deemed attractive will be filtered through other studios' animated features. Personally, I found the film's tone wildly inconsistent and its references to other films distracting.

I called the probable Rango win last November (though Tintin was the wild card and it didn't even get a nomination). It wasn't difficult as the field was so weak last year. Admittedly, I got the nominations very wrong. However, the nominations were better than I expected. I'd much rather see drawn features like A Cat in Paris and Chico and Rita get nominations than The Winnie the Pooh Film.

Let's hope that this year will be a better year.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

iAnimate Games Workshop

Well this news is just out...all following info from the Ianimate Newsletter!

"After all the hard work and popular demand, we are proud to announce our new iAnimate Games Workshop series that will begin in May 7th 2012.

Richard "Ric" Arroyo (Lead Animator) has designed the curriculum and has head hunted top professional animators from different gaming studios to be your Instructors. They will share the knowledge, experience and techniques that they have used to create some of the most thrilling games. The primary goal of iAnimate games is to teach the principles of animation, but you will also learn the lingo, the process and workflow needed to work at a game-development studio."

iAnimate Games workshop series from iAnimate on Vimeo.

"iAnimate Games will run parallel to the iAnimate Feature Workshops. All iA-Game students will have full access to the iAnimate site including all rigs, lectures, demos, forums, software and Rhinohouse.com discounts etc.

IAnimate Games has three Workshops in the series, starting with Workshop 1. We will be adding the second Game Workshop in September and the third in January 2013. You must go through these Workshops in sequence because of the specific game animation process. In order to qualify for iAnimate Games you must submit a reel with a good understanding of body mechanics. David Hubert (iA instructor and Dreamworks Animator) will review your reel and will email you with instructions on how to secure your place. There is a very limited number of places available so if you're ready, come and join us on this great adventure."

Head on over to Ianimate.net or on Vimeo and check out the new workshops!
Enjoy!
JP