From the opening last night…

Sydkyo: Two cities, one exhibition

From the brochure:

Sydkyo is a collaborative exhibition by Parisydneytokyo and Etisoppo, combining their photographic work with the work of 12 Japanese illustrators…The aim of Sydkyo is to stimulate creative links between 2 cities and to turn distance, language barriers and borders into a new visual language.

The collaborative process between artists in Sydney and Tokyo took place via emails back and forth. 

Michael Barrier on TNN’s ‘Ren & Stimpy‘
(We still haven’t seen a full episode)

The Kopavi Trike (the wha-at?) Check it out. Eddie wants one, of course.

images from etisoppo mini-magazine

We’re going to the ParisSydneyTokyo exhibition opening tomorrow night in Surry Hills. (Hosted by the etisoppo design community)

SUPER MAHI TIKI figure!

This Super Mahi Tiki figurine is about 9cm tall and made of plastic. Interested? Let us know in the Guestbook —->

*Will take better pictures later.

TYPEPAD PLUG

Anyone interested in weblogging should check out TYPEPAD. Ben and Mena Trott (the creators of Movable Type) are now seriously publicizing this new hosted blogging tool/service.

Here are the first bunch of Typepad Screenshots! (click on each image) More screenshots will be added over the next 5 days.

P.S. I’ve been on the beta-tester list for Typepad and am experimenting with something over there. The features are very cool:

• Detailed template builder (eg, how many columns, order of content, totally customizable sidebars including sidebar link colors…)
• Multiple weblogs and photo albums for each user
• Create multiple typelists (create lists of links, currently watching/reading/listening, thumbnail images etc. to add to your sidebars)
• Open commenting. Whenever someone posts a comment to your blog, you also receive this via email.

Having said all this, the fwak blog will be staying right HERE with Xanga Premium…  Hint hint to John:When is the photo albums feature coming?

ANIMATION TRAINING
for young people

We received this in the mail today:

Win one of two Qantm scholarships!

Want a career in multimedia, games programming, animation or graphic design? QANTM is looking for a male and female year twelve student with the drive and ambition to make it in the world of New Media.

We don’t know anything about the scholarships but having briefly checked out the website, it appears that Qantm offers a Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment: Animation Major and a Diploma of the Screen: Specializing in Animation.

More info on the website > click on the Qantm Education link

THE FUZZ Update

We’ve been sending out copies of The Fuzz to film festivals since its completion last August, and screenings have taken/will take place at these film festival events:

• Melbourne Short Trips 2002 (Australia)
• AEAF 2002 (Australia)
• Tromadance 2002 (USA)
• Animac 2002 (Spain)
• Clermont-Ferrand 2003 (France)
• Commonwealth Film Festival 2003 (UK)
• Arcipelago 2003 (Italy)
• PIFAN 2003 (Korea)
• Eat My Shorts (Canada) 2003
• Cardiff 2003 (Wales)
• Badalona 2003 (Spain)

When we send out the tapes, we also include Directors Bios, Cast and Crew List, Stills, Production notes and a Synopsis.

Now most festivals will publish the default Synopsis in their program guide, but not the Korean PIFAN Festival… whose interpretation of the film is the most original we’ve seen so far. From the festival booklet:

…After a day of work, Fuzz sometimes goes to a strange bar with sexy dancers or a karaoke roon. At other times he goes to see erotic films or hangs out with teenagers and takes over the town…

Sexy dancers - yeah, that makes sense.

Teenagers? We’re not so sure

Well, nothing much to blog about, so here’s another recently-watched-movie post.

Eddie:

Lost In LaMancha is a pretty demoralising experience.  It’s great to get an insight into the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the attempted making of a movie with European money (yep, I can’t wait for Fwak!’s first Euro Co-production), but ultimately what do we learn from this?  Terry Gilliam is a brilliant, yet disorganised creative genius?  Well, duh…

Worth the admission price to see the giant with the flailing man-boobs!

We’re going through a bit of a Terry Gilliam phase. Watched Brazil not long ago, and tonight we’re going to hire out Twelve Monkeys.  (forget Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen)

We saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind last night at the Verona. I was probably too young to have heard of Chuck Barris or any of his TV shows in the 70′s, but that didn’t matter at all.  Overall this was a FUN movie, especially if you suspend disbelief and go along with the ’glamorous’ spy stuff. Loved the fashions and the soundtrack.

Eddie: Ah, but I wasn’t too young!  My brother Patrick and I used to always watch ‘The Gong Show’ - we loved Gene, Gene, The Dancing Machine!  And the Unknown Comic!  I loved COADM!  Hey, wasn’t there a ‘ Gong Show Movie’ in the ’80′s?

*edited

Eddie’s review of Gangs of New York:

Martin Scorsese loves blood.  There’s so much blood in this movie; he even stages a gang battle in the snow, so you can really witness the blood in full effect.  And everyone in the cast bleeds – everyone! 

This is a great movie, but without Daniel Day Lewis, it would have been just a good movie.  He really makes this film.  And was he even nominated for an Oscar? Scorsese kinda gets into Spielbergian territory with a million extras and a million things going on all of the time, but even his excess couldn’t wreck the story, the setting, or DDL’s portrayal of Bill The Butcher. 

And while we’re on the subject of Gangs, where were The Jets?

RANDOM NEWS

A new food for astronauts – The Washington Times (Linked from SpaceToday)
It’s called Pizza Poppers and it’s made from…“protein-rich wastewater leftover from tofu manufacturing and its ability to be crispy while producing no crumbs that can adversely affect sensitive electronics aboard space stations”. Sounds positively tasty.

Silence of the Lambs, the musical. Uh huh…

Duct Tape Superheroes 

Comic-Con 2003 Design Panel

We didn’t make it to the San Diego Comic-con this year in spite of desperately wanting to be there. One highlight would have been the “Secret of Good Character Design” panel with our talented friends Jorge (ML character designer) and Gabe (ML storyboard artist).

Thankfully, someone has gone to the trouble of taking notes! 

*These notes (below) can be downloaded from Cedric Studio’s website.

*******************************

THE SECRET OF GOOD ANIMATION DESIGN

Notes from the panel discussion at Comic-Con 2003, San Diego.

Panel Members:
Shane Glines (Batman Beyond, Superman)
Ricky Nierva (Monsters, Inc., art director for Finding Nemo)
Jorge Gutierrez (Disney Development, also Chalk Zone and Warner Bros.)
Gabe Swarr (Big Pants Mouse, Spumco, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros.,)
Carlos Ramos (Time Squad)

The secret to good animation design is a pretty open ended question.  There is no secret.  Hopefully this discussion will help clarify some things that will improve your designs.

Q: Briefly, what do you guys think makes good design?  What are the pure, across the board elements of good character design for animation?

• At Pixar, they always say story is king.  But in the art dept. good design is just as important.  The design has to support the story
• Good design helps you to look beyond just the design and see what the character is all about (color, clothing, posture, etc.
• Study the work of Maurice Noble, who was a Master, a legend of character design.
• Good design is based on what kind of story you are trying to tell.  (i.e. Beavis and Butthead’s crude design style matches the type of humor of that show.  Finding Nemo’s characters saying Beavis and Butthead dialogue wouldn’t work.)
• General appeal.
• Personal taste.
• The director’s vision (design is very collaborative)
• How simple or difficult will it be to animate and draw?
• Funny to look at
• Has contrast in shapes (big and small, square to round, skinny to fat, thick lines to thin, straights and curves).
• All proportions should not be equal.  Vary them!  i.e. Eyes high on the head plus short legs plus long arms, etc.
• Fun to look at
• Will hold an audience’s interest
• Remember the animators have to animate it.  Will the character move well, or will it cause the animators to struggle and have problems?
• Since animation is such a team effort, you don’t really get to design for yourself.  All of your work gets refined and adjusted by directors, other artists, etc., which often results in your vision being compromised. 
• Its an honor to work with a visionary and creative director/team, but things do get watered down in order to please everyone.
• You always have to take it past excellent, from a 10 to and 11, and then from 11 all the way to Z.  In other words, make it great, so that after the team/committees/decision makers water it down it still looks good and holds up.

Q: When you design, do you go as extreme as you can in anticipation of it being watered down?

• The secret is to try and stay ignorant of what else is going on and just doing your best work.

Q: How do you fit your style into a project or show that already has a specified look?

• Its really difficult.  You still can start out really exaggerated, after which it can be brought down.
• If your designs are going to be translated into CG, keep that in mind.
• Your drawing skills have to be excellent.  A poorly drawn character will not be improved just by building it in a computer.
• Work on putting your own personal stamp on a design.  Don’t just do what everyone else is doing.

Q: Do you think audiences recognize a good design, or do you have to dumb down your designs for the general public?

• Judging by what is popular, it seems the general public has low standards for character design.
• Its all in the eye of the beholder.  What one person finds appealing another might not.

Q: Do you think a design can be so strong that it draws attention to itself instead of the character?

• yes.
• You can have a design that works great for the show and is successful in the show’s context, and at the same time it is not a very aesthetically pleasing design (i.e. the Simpsons).

Q: What is good design in today’s cartoons?  Who are today’s best designers?
[NOTE: I'm not sure of the spelling of the following names.  I was just trying to type them as they were ratlled off by the panel].

• Lynn Naylor
• Craig Kellman (Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls)
• Anne Sasick–childrens books
• Dan Clowes–8 ball comics
• Ralph Steadman
• Look at illustration and comic books
• Russel Surrel
• Chuck Jones
• Maurice Noble
• Geefwee Boedoe ( Monsters Inc. character designer)
• books that collect the best in advertising art (especially the 40′s and 50′s)
• Mayan and African design
• don’t just emulate other animation designers, because that gets old.  Look outside animation to other influences.
• This industry is feast or famine and it is always changing.  In order to be flexible and original and keep working, you have to draw from lots of sources.
• Don’t just hide in your cave and watch movies and draw all the time.  Get out there and live life, play sports, fall in love, etc.  That’s what good filmmakers draw from.  They don’t just copy other movies and other artists.

Q: Are there any specific rules to keep in mind for designing for 3D vs. 2D?

• In computer design, a big mistake is to try and just move an object around.  The secret to good design is to pull back and be more graphic and simplified.  Less is more.
• A really good design is will continue to hold up for future generations no matter how much computer technology improves. 

Q: What kind of background does a designer need?

• of the five of us, 3 of us went to CalArts and the other 2 worked at Spumco.
• Working with Maurice Noble, or a good mentor in the business.
• Pushing yourself to meet people, get feedback, and always seek to do better work.
• The most important lessons in drawing are the ones you will learn the hard way.  Mistakes are always the best way to learn.
• A lot of people have an attitude that if you went to CalArts, then you have an automatic ‘in’ in the industry and you have carte blanche.  But there are lots of other places you can come from and succeed also.  Be passionate and surround yourself with other talented, passionate people, and you will be fine.
• You have to sit down and actually try and apply the theories you are learning, otherwise you will never truly learn them.

Q: Have you ever had to redesign a character after you were really happy with it?

• yes.  But a character is a character.  His personality never changes, you just look at it through new eyes. 

Q: Do you use any tricks or shortcuts to help you arrive at a good design?

• I use a lot of ornamentation, to trick the eyes into thinking the character is good.
• Use a thick marker to concentrate on thick masses and shapes first, and ony after the overall shape is designed do you go in and add the details.
• Have an overall appealing shape! Then focus on how the smaller forms work within that shape.
• Disney has scientifically broken it down to “triangles = bad guys, this shape = funny guy, etc”.  Whether that works or not is debatable.
• The best designs are often spontaneous.  They come when you are bored or just wildly doodling.
• The challenge is to harness the energy in your spontaneous doodles into your actual designs.
• When the cast of characters are lined up next to each other, they should compliment each other.  I.e. If one is big, the other ones shouldn’t be big also.  If one is angular, another should be curvy, etc.
• Turn the character upside down and/or backwards, and see if the overall shape still looks appealing.
• Do your research!  Know your character inside-out, and then design from the inside out.  Know what they love to eat, who their best friends are, what they do when they wake up in the morning, etc.  All of this will help you come up with an appropriate, effective design.

Q: Should a show or movie have one set style or one set designer, or a conglomeration from lots of different artists?

• Often the problem comes from not having a strong art director or other person who can filter through the designs in accordance with the director’s vision.

[go to website http://www.animationblast.com to see the images that they couldn't show at the presentation due to technology problems.]

-From Cedric Studio’s website.