October 13, 2004

• Ken Bautista has a Pixar blog (via Cartoon Brew)

  Image on the left is from Jean Kristau’s  “Mexique” photocollage series.

  Mike’s Amazing Cakes

  Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog now has his own website!

  Has anyone tried The Rasterbator? - “The Rasterbator is a web service which creates huge rasterized pictures out of relatively small image files. The pictures can be assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size!”

  Eddie and I had the pleasure of having drinks with George Krstic on the weekend. (George is co-creator of Cartoon Network’s Megas XLR) There is a special 2nd. Season Big Screen Preview of Megas XLR this week: Friday Oct. 15th, 10:30 AM @  AMC Burbank, 140 East Palm Ave. (Theater 7) We’ll be there!

  
  © Zagreb films – still from Surogat

  We might also go to the Z is For Zagreb screening (animated shorts by Zagreb studios)- Oct. 30th. Will there be any Dusan Vukotic films (eg, Surogat & Cowboy Jimmy)?

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  In the Comments section of Momus’ blog on the “Uncanny Valley” phenomenon, (via cartoon brew) there’s a mention of cute “featureless” cartoon characters and how they are easier to empathize with because the viewer has more room to project. (The antithesis: creepy Polar Express-style CGI characters which alienate the viewer for being too realistic and leaving almost nothing to the imagination.) 

  One comment on cute/iconic characters:

  “It seems that you can get away (literally, in the case of Gloomy Bear) with murder as long as you have the same basic head-to-body ratio of a toddler, a puppy, a kitten, etc. Just as an exercise, try redrawing the Bug’s Life bug or Gloomy Bear with a realistic adult insect / bear head-to-body ratio. They instantly lose almost all of their appeal.” - momus

  Realistic is not as much fun. As every traditional character designer/animator knows, the CUTE formula is simple and it works!

  
    © 2001 Fwak! animation

  • 6:02 pm
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