Animation legend Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Walt Disney's famous "Nine Old Men", passed away yesterday (April 14, 2008). He was 95. Johnston was a phenomenal artist and widely regarded as one of the world's greatest animators. In 1935 he was hired to work at the Disney studio alongside his pal Frank Thomas. They rose to become two of...
The mascot contest is over. Everyone who correctly identified all twelve products was eligible for the final drawing. I put all the names into a baseball cap and my one-year-old daughter drew the winner (with a little help from Mommy). Congratulations to Robert Miller for winning. He will receive a free copy of the new book Hi-Fi Color For Comics: Digital...
Kelly McNutt, a talented Minneapolis animator whom I mentioned in yesterday's post, has been working with Michael Jantze (creator of the comic strip The Norm) on some fun new animated shorts. The shorts are now viewable on the new Jantze Studios YouTube site: At Your Service is a cartoon created for a client in the hotel/hospitality industry. If only every hotel...
I'm super busy finishing up a client project, so today I'll just post a few miscellaneous links: • Calling Minnesota Animators. My friend Kelly McNutt is a very talented artist and animator in his own right. Check out his blog and website. He's currently looking for some Minnesota animation artists to help him out with a client project. • Disney's Announces Upcoming...
The freelance business can change rapidly. Most of last week work was winding down and I was getting ready to do some serious thumb twiddling. Now I've suddenly got five projects on my plate. Three are due this week. Without divulging too much, my current projects include: Designing a mascot for a retail company A series of marker comps for an ad agency Some...
Here's an interview with Disney animation artist and legend Bill Peet. The interview is rather long and I haven't had time to read it yet myself. But my friend Dan sent it to me and he's usually pretty good at passing on interesting sites related to art and animation....
