Jelly Telly

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Yikes! It’s been almost a week since my last post. My apologies. Things have been pretty crazy here. Earlier this week I even had to pull an all-nighter to meet a big deadline. (I must be getting older. Those all-nighters are getting a lot more grueling than they used to be.)

Fans of VeggieTales might appreciate this: Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, is starting a new venture called Jelly Telly. The ground work is still being laid, but the plan is to create a launching pad for quality Christian entertainment for kids. You can read all about it on Vischer’s blog. Click on the “What is Jelly Telly?” button and you can read a fascinating 5-part post about the current state of children’s entertainment and specifically Christian media. It’s long but well worth the read.

To get things rolling, Jelly Telly is looking for Flash animators and motion graphic artists to create bumpers using the Jelly Telly logo. They can’t pay for the work, so you’d be signing away all rights for nothing but a little exposure. Still, if you are excited about the possibilities Jelly Telly could provide you might want to take part.

Or, if you just want to share artwork and ideas or follow the goings-on, join the Jellyfish Labs online community site. Here’s my page. However, before contributing be sure to read the Terms of Use. They basically state that any artwork and ideas you submit become the property of Jelly Telly. I wish that wasn’t the case but I suppose that’s the only way they can effectively prevent themselves from getting sued down the line.

Normally I strongly urge artists to avoid contests, promotions, and other gimmicks that require them to give away their work and ideas for nothing. However, I really believe in what Jelly Telly is trying to do. Besides, this is not the normal “give me artwork for free and maybe you’ll get some (worthless) exposure” scenario. Usually when someone wants free artwork it’s because they are looking to take advantage of young up-and-comers who are desperate for a chance to get a little experience. Vischer is different. He acknowledges that there’s a lot of poor-to-mediocre Christian media out there and he’s looking to raise the bar. The sense I get is that he is primarily interested in contributors who have a lot of talent/experience and who can afford to give a little free work because they are already established. So as distasteful as it is to me in this case I’d say if you want to give it a try, go for it.  I enjoy dabbling in Flash and might even try to develop a bumper myself, under two conditions:

1. I come up with a simple but clever idea.

2. I find a little free time.

Right now it would take a minor miracle for the second one to happen, but here’s hoping. In any case, I’ll be watching the progress at Jelly Telly closely and hoping it takes off.

New Animation Book From Eric Goldberg

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Many animation fans will recognize the name Eric Goldberg. He’s an accomplished animator and director with a long list of credits in advertising, television, and feature films. He is best known for animating the Genie in Disney’s Alladin and for directing Pocahontas, and is one of the “top-drawer” animators currently working in the biz.

Goldberg has just written a book on animation, Character Animation Crash Course!, that will be released at Comic-Con next month. To give you an idea of Goldberg’s revered status in the animation industry, the foreward is written by none other that Brad Bird (Oscar-winning director of The Incredibles).

While there have been many animation books published in recent years, few go beyond the dry basics of walk cycles, lip sync, etc. Judging by the title, I’m hoping this will give us more than just the nuts and bolts and take us into the realm of true character animation. It’s one thing to make a character move. It’s entirely another thing to make that character appear to think, feel, and act.

Here’s the details, courtesy of the Creative Talent Network:

Well, the animation book Eric has been writing for 25 years, based on his animation notes, has finally arrived! Character Animation Crash Course!, published by Silman-James Press, is available for pre-order at the CTN Artist’s Storefront. It’s 240 pages of cartoon goodness, all geared to getting great performances from your characters on the screen. It comes with an accompanying CD that has animation movie files of selected sequences in the book. You can watch them in real time, or frame-by-frame, and they all include X-sheets, inbetween charts, circled keys, and underlined breakdowns, so the tests can be analyzed while you read the book, revealing how the principles actually look in movement and why. Also, Eric will be premiering this book at the San Diego Comic-Con, signing copies at Stuart Ng Books #5012, Friday July 25th from 2 – 4, and Saturday July 26th from 11 -12.

This looks like it will be a must-have resource for any serious animator. As mentioned above, you can pre-order the book from the CTN storefront. If you prefer, you can also order a copy from Amazon.com.

Pixar Announces Upcoming Films

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In a recent New York Times article Pixar announced its upcoming slate of animated films. (You have to register to read the article). The list includes:

Wal-E (official site) — A film from writer/director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo) that tells the story of a robot stranded on earth all-alone in distant future. Large chunks of the film will have no dialogue, just pantomime and sound effects. If anyone can pull that off and still engage the audience, it’s the masterful animators at Pixar. After all, as the author points out, the Road Runner and Cyote never talked either. Wall-E hits theaters on June 27.

Up — Described as “a comedy about a cranky, cane-wielding 78-year-old who transports his home to exotic locales by attaching hundreds of helium-filled balloons”

The Bear and the Bow — Pixar’s first fairy tale,

Cars 2 — Pixar’s second attempt at a sequel. Their first, Toy Story 2, was actually better than the original. Let’s hope the same for Cars 2.

Pixar has one of the best (if not THE best) track records in Hollywood: Every single one of their films has been a box office smash. They have yet to produce a flop. I can’t think of any other studio in Hollywood can make that claim. Including Disney. So I’m very excited to get hints at what they’ve got coming down the pipe.

Chinese Publisher Steals American Artwork

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United States copyright law currently goes a long way towards helping protect artists from those who would steal and publish their artwork for profit. (Unless Congress passes the Orphan Works Act, in which case American artists will be doing a lot of nail biting and hand wringing. But I digress.)

Unfortunately once you leave American shores its another matter. Copyright laws vary from country to country, and if someone halfway around the world wants to steal your artwork and publish it for profit, there’s not much you can do about it.

Just ask Luc Latulippe and the artists over at the Little Chimp Society. A Chinese publisher (the “Great Creativity Organization”) recently stole hundreds of their art samples off of the internet, plus a few artist interviews, and published them in a 350-page book being sold online for over $100. The book translates the interviews word-for-word and even includes a CD containing all the artwork. The book even has a fake ISBN number. You can read all about it here.

Since filing a lawsuit against the Chinese would be expensive and likely fruitless, the only alternative the artists have is to spread the word about the thieving publisher, Great Creativity Organization, and the book’s distributor (the Azur Corporation), in hopes that the bad press will rise to the top of Google searches and assassinate their reputation. I want to help out, so I’m writing this blog post to spread the word and linking back to the original story (it’s called a trackback, and search engine’s love ’em).

If nothing else it’s also a good reminder that any artwork you or I publish on the internet is fair game for thieves and crooks all over the world. I’m not advocating that artists stop posting artwork. Just remember that once you put it out there, you can very easily lose control over what happens to it.

Illustration Friday: Baby

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This week’s topic over at Illustration Friday is “Baby”. This is an old doodle from my files, I just added a quick splash of color. It’s part of a concept piece I did for a client project last year that never got off the ground. At the time our sweet, adorable daughter Anna was only four months old so I was drawing from personal experience.

Speaking of babies, I should also mention that a few weeks ago my wife and I learned we are expecting baby #2 in January. We learned Jennie was pregnant with Anna on Easter Sunday, with the due date falling on Christmas Eve.  This time we learned we were pregnant on Mother’s Day. Insert your own Hallmark joke here.

Illustration Friday is free and anyone can take part. Check out their website for more info or to see what other artists are doing with each week’s topic.

This and That

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I’m still swamped with freelance work. Besides putting in long (but fun!) hours on a summer-long animation project, I’m designing toys for one client and designing a mascot for another. I’ve got a few other possible projects in the works as well. But I want to make sure I still post regular updates to this here blog.

I’ve recently finished up some artwork for a few other projects but have to wait until the clients give the OK before I can post any. I’m hoping that will be sooner rather than later. There’s some fun stuff to show!

In the mean time, here’s some misc. odds and ends:

Congrats to the NCS Award Winners — Three cartoonists I happen to know won divisional awards recently at the National Cartoonists Society annual awards dinner in New Orleans. Tom Richmond won for his advertising illustrations (Tom has a great blog you should check out). Hallmark artist David Mowder won an award for his greeting card work (check out David’s Flickr gallery). Stephen Silver won an animation award for his character design work on Disney’s Kim Possible. (Silver also teaches a fantastic character design course online at Schoolism.com). Kudos guys!

Harvey Korman R.I.P. — The Emmy-winning comic actor from The Carol Burnett Show has passed away. I was just a little kid when The Carol Burnett Show was on prime time, but I have fond memories of giggling at their antics. The skits were performed live and I’ve since learned that it was always one of Tim Conway’s goals to try and crack up Harvey in front of the audience. There’s nothing like watching two comic geniuses trying to keep straight faces as the wheels come off. My sympathies to Korman’s family and friends.

The Freeloader’s Toolbelt — If you are pinching pennies or just like to get stuff free, you might be interested in this long list of resources for snagging freebies.

Stuff I’m Reading — I picked up a couple of books recently under the delusion that one day I’ll actually have time to relax and read them.

Hey Whipple, Squeeze This (3rd Edition) (Amazon.com link) is a best-selling book on advertising by Luke Sullivan. I saw Mr. Sullivan give a presentation recently in the Minneapolis area and really enjoyed it. He talked about the challenges of producing above-average creative work in advertising while still meeting the strict needs and limited budgets of un-creative clients. Hey Whipple is a great read for anyone interested in the creative side of the advertising industry.

Sit, Ubu, Sit by Gary David Goldberg (Amazon.com link) is a new autobiography-slash-instruction manual from one of the big names in 1980’s television. Goldberg’s long list of credits includes The Bob Newhart Show, Lou Grant, M*A*S*H and Brooklyn Bridge, but he is best-known as the creator of Family Ties. The dust jacket includes accolades from none other than Stephen Spielberg. I’m fascinated by books that give insights into behind-the-scenes Hollywood and I’m really looking forward to this one.