New Mix by Eddie: Who’s The Bad Man, Who Can Draw?
Month: August 2003
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DJ MORT’s thoughts for the day:
Meet Unknown Artist! This musician of negligible talent has one aim; self-promotion on a global scale, whilst physically composing as little music as possible.
The plan: How many times in Winamp does an mp3 default to ‘Unknown Artist’ when not properlly labelled? Why, just today in my Winamp browser, Unknown Artist has been credited for ‘ Viva Las Vegas’, ‘ Astounded’ and ‘ Boogie Down Bronx’. Such versatility!
Go, Unknown Artist, Go…
Wrestling Mask © Unknown artist
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The things you find when you spring-clean…
By Eddie – Rough sketches of wrestlers for one Burundis episode: ‘Frodo the Giant’, ‘Mustapha the Butcher’, ‘The Junkyard Gerbil’ and Guby as ‘Roid Rage’. Well it’s obvious who these are based on
By Lili – A gift to Eddie when we first met four years ago. We had an idea called ‘Kat With Kream’ about a female crimefighter on rollerblades (based on Miss Fury)
Eddie: What Lili fails to mention, is that the figure on the left is a self portrait, and the one on the right is me in a wrestling mask – and with dreadlocks!
FREE ANIMATION TABLE!
We are giving away this old drawing table for FREE. It doesn’t look shiny and new but it’s perfectly functional. It comes with a perspex disk (with attached metal pegbar), and a fluro light at the back.
If interested, email us at info@fwakanimation.com.au or ring (02)92660809.
Note: it’s a big and heavy so you’ll need to pick it up with a van/ute/truck. We’re located in Sydney CBD
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Animation Nation Bulletin Board: FLCL vs Teen Titans?
There’s a fine line between “homage” and “plagiarism”. From two well-articulated posts on this discussion thread:
…all the reality twisting looked beautiful in FLCL. There’s no clash between the standard models of FLCL’s characters and their many distorted versions; the opposite case to “Teen Titans”. The wildtakes often look very goofy, BUT the episode always retained a grim downbeat tone. That grim tone came from the background music and the lead character’s bleak perspective on his neighborhood; two things that never changed no matter how outlandish the characters look. There’s a purpose to FLCL’s wildtakes; to subvert reality so that we can see reality as cynically as the characters do. In “Teen Titans” there’s NO purpose to its anime cliches. TT does wildtakes just because they look cool. Pure posturing. And “Teen Titans” looks sleazy for plagiarizing FLCL’s distinct artistic style. - Inkan
I’ve loved FLCL for years… when I heard TT was going to have a heavy FLCL “influence” to it, I was excited… after all, why NOT be influenced by something so marvelously ground-breaking and (yes) avante garde as FLCL…
I’ve been raving about this for what seems like an eternity… one of the biggest problems with the animation industry in this country is the inability or outright refusal of those involved to try anything new.
This is one of the few problems that can’t be entirely blamed on executives… artists in this industry are so damned busy paying “homage” to HB, UPA, WB, Disney or their favorite anime that they can’t seem to find the inspiration to do something original.
Everything is either “borrowed” or “stolen” from other sources. -imacynicl1(P.S. Also see our previous post about FLCL influence.)
Well, there ARE original shows with original never-seen-before styles in development. There ARE people doing stuff that doesn’t look like anything else.
But it is also true that every kid today wants to do something that has been done before because they think it’s cool, period. There is no desire to experiment beyond this.
I was saying to Eddie the other day that cartoon animators fall into two broad catergories:
- Animators who go for the OLD-SCHOOL CARTOONY-CARTOON style. Bob Clampett, Golden Books, Rubber Hose, UPA…These are animators who pay homage to the Golden Age Past. Most characters are whitebread humans or squishy-squashy animals.
- Animators who look towards JAPAN. Classical or Pop. Anime, cyborgs, ninjas, samurai warriors, Furi Kuri effects….Look at Batman Beyond and Teen Titans. Most characters fight and there will always be at least one Asian-looking teenage female character.
Ah… I’m becoming cynical already
. But this is why it’s so all the more exciting when you see shows that look like nothing that has been done before. -
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I think we’ll be taping Hanna Barbera’s Alice In Wonderland on Cartoon Network this weekend, Saturday 6pm. (Sammy Davis Jr sings What’s a Nice Kid Like You)
Today was supposed to be Studio-furniture-reorganization day, but it’s turned into Computer Problems day. I think we’re just not geeky enough to deal with this.
Lili: 12.2% – Geekish Tendencies
Eddie: 2.9% – Poser
Peter: 7% – PoserTake the The Geek Test
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From today’s Wrestling Observer – headlines:
–There is a fake Santo movie out called “Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.” The story of the movie is that Christ returns to fight Vampires, and when he has problems, he calls on Santo to help him. Only this isn’t really Santo, but a fat guy wearing a Santo mask. But in the movie, he’s pretending to be Santo. This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Santo in this movie is a pro wrestler and helps Christ ward off the Vampires. The guy playing Santo is prominently displayed on the video cover, and is all over the second half of the movie. There is a big spot where Santo finds out the hot looking girl really isn’t a lesbian, but is bi, so he gets all excited thinking he’s got a shot.
Eddie: Looks like I better seek clearance for Santito pronto!
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Homestar Runner Figurines! And all sold out already.
Still Counting Down
I’ve started making enquiries into furnished accomodation in L.A. (furnished, because we really don’t want to be spending money on a bed, couch, desk, fridge, pots & pans etc. when we arrive). Within an hour of sending an email to Oakwood Aparments, I received a phonecall from one of their representatives asking for all our details – where we will be working, what we need in a room etc … Talk about service. It’s 3am in California right now!
Before leaving the country, this is what really needs to be done in the next 2 to 3 weeks, in THIS order:
- Reecord voice for One Thousand Year Old Egg
- Music (to be composed by Michael Dunn)
- Sound Effects & Sound Mix (by Scott Collins at Sixty40)
- Post/Output (by Simon at Harrow)
- Deliver to Cartoon Network Asia Pacific
- Resize FLAs (by Eddie)
- Post/Output (by Simon/Harrow)
- Tape Duplication (Video8 Broadcast)
¡Mucha Lucha! Update
The ML Direct-to-Video feature “The Code of Evil” has just gone into production over at WB Animation (concurrent with Season 2 series production).
Ron Hughart is the Creative Director/Producer; and Miles Thompson (of Koochee-Koo) and Sandra Equihua (of Mexopolis) have recently joined the crew as Character Designers. There are also new storyboard artists and BG designers but I don’t know all their names.
Closer to home … the Cartoon Network Australia website now hosts the Build-Your-Own-Wrestler game! Thanks, Michele!
And because I can’t resist … here is a *sneak preview* of a character from ML Season Two. (the ‘Day of the Dead’ episode)
¡Que cañon!
Character design by Jorge Gutierrez.
Copyright © 2003 WB Animation -
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This one’s for all you Webloggers…
(or anyone interested in checking out Typepad)As you may know, Typepad is now officially released to the public with list of features, screenshots, pricing at their website.
All Typepad Beta Testers have been offered a 20% Lifetime Discount if we sign up. This 20% lifetime discount also extends to TWENTY FRIENDS of each Beta tester.
So, as a beta tester, I can invite twenty people to be eligible for the discount. Interested? Leave a comment, or email me.
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A new mix by Eddie.
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Move over, Tyrone Power…
Animation Magazine news: Keenan Gets More Creative At House Of Looney (you need to be subscribed to Animation Magazine to have online access. Try this – U: lilichin P: amination)
Christopher is the executive at WBA in charge of ¡Mucha Lucha! creative direction. He is also a Las Vegas expert and enjoys a dirty martini.
The Countdown is on…
It has really hit us now. We started packing today – clearing out wardrobes, trying to decide which books and DVDs to take to L.A. and which one to leave behind. I’m asking questions like “What do we do with my fifty pairs of shoes?” and “Should we pack the doona?” (For the benefit of our non-Australian readers – a “doona” is a quilt) The apartment is in chaos. We will need to buy new suitcases to replace the ones that have been damaged by airport security.
One tip we learnt from our friend Tony (who works at LAX) is to forget about locking your suitcases when checking them in. The security people will force the locks open anyway, and you’ll only end up with a ruined unlockable case.
We’ve decided we’re going to travel as LIGHT as possible. We’re going to approach this trip like nomads. We may be in L.A. for a year, two years, or …three months. Who knows.
(Memo to Self) Some Things to do:
- give notice to our real estate agent
- buy new suitcases
- get new passport (I have to travel to Malaysia next month)
- buy portable (USB) storage devices for our work files
- more RAM for Eddie’s laptop
- donation of old books and clothes to used-books and used-clothing stores/charity.
- donate fridge, futon sofa, and TV to friends
- find somewhere to store the vespa
- hire car to transport all boxes of stuff from home to the studio
- hire removalist: move big pieces of furniture from home to studio
- reorganize the studio, filing, storing etc.
- pack all ML-related reference material: books, mags, tapes, posters, masks, toys
- pack all art-reference books
- pack animation discs
- pack entire CD collection (how the hell do we do this? Why can I see us being stopped by Customs?)
- enquiries: LA accomodation
- mobile phone account: enable global roaming
- get haircuts
- organize a farewell party
Eddie: “This suit has got to go!”
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