Re-Imagineering: A Matter of Character

Re-Imagineering: A Matter of Character

At the Re-Imagineering blog there's an excellent post on character and keeping true to personality by Merlin Jones. A most excellent read!

Live action Simpson's opening

If you're a Simpsons fan, ya gotta check this out. It's a pretty elaborate recreation of the Simpson's opening in live action. Based on the real-life Marge driving on the right hand side, I'm guessing it originates from somewhere outside the US. Somebody spent some dough making it. Check it out!

I dunno about the "Chicken Little" DVD cover

I dunno about the Chicken Little DVD cover. And here's why:

1. That isn't his character. Chicken Little is lovable because he's the underdog. Not cocky. Not cool. He looks standoff-ish. Not friendly. I wouldn't want my kids talking to him. If I had kids. And if they could talk to a cartoon chicken.

2. A Men In Black II parody? Really? A parody of an image from a 4-year old horrible franchise ending sequel? Is that a good comparison to make? I guess there was the whole aliens aspect of the story. I think.

3. Where is the Ugly Duckling? Why is the porcupine, who felt forced into the film, there instead of her? She's the main female character! C'mon, get the girl vote!

I'll still buy the DVD. I look forward to watching it again, and I enjoyed the animation a lot when I saw it both in a normal theater and in 3D. Yeah, it had story problems, but there was great stuff to see. But I'm buying it in spite of the DVD cover. It doesn't help sell it.

Disney back in 2D game

Note: I'm passing along info I've heard from a few different colleagues. I'm not one to pass off opinion or rumor as fact. The second paragraph is my speculation...

Disney is getting back in the 2D game. Going forward, it's going to be considered as another tool or medium, as it should be. Directors that want it and stories that will benefit from 2D will be. Also, word is there are already a bunch of 2D shorts in development that are ready to show before films, ala Pixar's shorts. (Hopefully they're going forward with new stories rather than re-hashing the same "classic" characters. Mickey worked best in 2D 60 years ago, and hasn't to that degree since).

I'm guessing that "Rapunzel Unbraided" will be the first new Disney 2D film. I've seen how Glen Keane has been having teams work to push the 3D round peg into the 2D square hole. They were trying to give the (2D shape/form = 2D line) control you have in 2D to a 3D environment, which is at best quite a struggle. I saw some footage and it looked more like a CG Barbie cartoon. The classic 2D Disney princess didn't make the translation. Glen Keane is amazing. Hopefully he'll now get to work in the medium he's mastered!

Red vs. Blue states... errr, HDVDs!

So first it was the red vs. blue states debates. Now it's going to be the competing HDVD formats. I was reading about the launch of the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. Seems that the Blu-ray packaging is going to have a blue box, with regular color art on the front. Wanting to make a strong distinction, HD DVD (can't we drop the first D?) is going to apparently package the entire thing in a red transparent case. I dunno about how that's gonna look - hopefully the art goes on top of it - I'm guessing it's gotta. All I know is when there's two formats that do basically the same thing, the consumer is going to lose. Anybody remember VHS vs. Beta? DVD vs DIVX? Best Buy is predicting that one of the formats will die - try to buy the right one!

Forwarding: Digital Domain Seeks Animators

Us Siggraph LA people were sent the following this week, if anyone's looking for work. Hopefully they're really hiring!
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Digital Domain is seeking Character Animators. Qualified candidates must possess a minimum of 2 years experience in Commercial and/or Feature animation. Artistic sensibility needed in the areas of modeling, lighting and animation. Work should demonstrate ability to define character personality, create fluid motion, organic movement, and storytelling. Additional requirements include classical training, traditional character development, and knowledge of inverse kinematic systems, constraints and expressions.

Software: Maya, Renderman and Mental Ray.

Qualified candidates should submit their website to: jcaggiano@d2.com or reel, resume and shot breakdown to:

Digital Domain
Attention: Recruiting/Animators
300 Rose Ave.
Venice, CA 90291

More Tak news in Variety!

Tak was mentioned in Variety, and they featured the above picture, so now I can share it with ya. I put it together in 3D, and then our Supervising Producer Audu Paden worked his painting magic to make it that much sweeter. Read the full article here or check out these Tak related excerpts:

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Nickelodeon has greenlit two animated series: CGI toon "Tak and the Power of Juju," based on the THQ videogame, and the network's first flash animation project, "El Tigre."

Kids' cabler is expected to announce the pickups Thursday during its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York. Both shows are set to premiere in early 2007.

Greenlight for "Tak" is the result of a collaboration long in the making between Nickelodeon and THQ. They partnered several years ago to kick-start a "Tak" franchise by first launching a videogame revolving around the titular character and later a TV series. Since the initial partnering, three "Tak" vidgames have been released with nearly 3 million units sold.

Nick has ordered 15 episodes of the cartoon developed by Jed Spingarn ("The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius") and Avalanche Software.

"Tak" already lives in various other forms in the Nick universe. Character is featured in interstitial programming as well as in a comic strip in Nickelodeon magazine. Exec VP of development and original programming Marjorie Cohn said clips and character sketches from the upcoming skein will also bow online on Nick's broadband channel, TurboNick, before the show's linear network premiere.

Skein revolves around the adventures of a 14-year-old boy in a mythical jungle paradise. Hal Sparks will provide the voice of Tak, while Tommy Davidson and Colleen O'Shaughnessey will voice Tak's friends Keeko and Jeera, respectively.

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El Tigre is a great looking show that was going through the pilot process at the same time we were, in the same small building. They're our pilot amigos. I'll put the excerpts about it below. It's got the art stylings of Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, both who have sweet web sites you should check out!

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Nick also has picked up 13 episodes of "El Tigre," a Mexican folk art-inspired comedy with a spaghetti Western twist from husband-wife team Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua ("El Macho"). Half-hour revolves around Manny Rivera, whose idols are a superhero and a supervillain -- his father and grandfather, respectively.

Cohn said the look of the flash-animated show made it "pop" from other cartoons on the air. The character's mischievousness was also infectious: "Manny's struggle is that being good is good, but being bad is fun," she said.

So what's a "skein" anyway?

At the Family Guy talk a couple of nights ago, Seth MacFarlane busted out the word "skein". Both my wife and I looked at each other like "what the ...?" Well, thanks to a Variety article that I'll post in a minute, I now know. Apparently Tak is a skein - the definition being "a TV series".

Family Guy Cast Talk Last Night

"That's 30 Balls!"

"Mmm, actually only 29..."

That was Alex Bornstein, the voice of Lois, and the guy who's the writer/voice of Cleveland and Herbert, talking about the source of the smell of the writers' room of Family Guy. Seems to be a common problem in an industry dominated by men. At Film Roman, we called it Weinersteam. I hope I didn't cross some line there - the Family Guy people started it!

The talk was great. They showed two episodes. The first was PTV - their take on the FCC and censorship. The second was the recent one where Herbert (the old pervert) falls for Chris. Watching animation with a large audience like this always astounds me. I laugh at very different things. Any time there was any physical humor, the audience went nuts. I laugh more at the writing. I first noticed this when I saw Bunny at an Oscars shorts screening years ago. The audience was going crazy laughing at just how the bunny moved. It was wild. I tend to think more of story, but it's easy to forget that people can just laugh at how some strange creature moves. Not a bad thing, as my short features plenty of odd creatures moving in unique ways.

Thanks to the whole Family Guy cast for putting on a great talk. It was really inspiring and entertaining.

More Tak News Revealed!

Excerpts from the press release going around the net:

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At its 2006-07 upfront presentation today, Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, launched into a new era of creating entertainment for kids in the digital age.

Tak and the Power of JuJu (15 episodes -- premieres in 2007 onNickelodeon) Developed from the successful video game series, Tak and thePower of Juju is a CGI animated adventure comedy series created in conjunctionwith THQ, Nickelodeon and game developer Avalanche Software which follows theslightly skewed comic adventures of fun-loving, mischievous 14-year old Tak,who has gained access to the magical, mythical realm of the always colorfuland powerful Jujus. Set in an out-of-this world jungle paradise, Tak and hispartners in adventure, Keeko and Jeera constantly find themselves in overtheir heads, but somehow always find a way out by relying on their nativewits. Hal Sparks stars as the voice of Tak, with Tommy Davidson as Keeko andColleen O'Shaughnessey as Jeera.

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Since they had crews filming us at work a few weeks ago for it, people at the upfront presentation probably also got to see some bitchin' footage of me animating characters, spinning models, moving from wireframe to shaded view - you know, truly inspirational and captivating stuff. heh.

So, there you go. More Tak news!

"Tak" Pilot at Cartoons on the Bay

We just found out the pilot for "Tak" is going to be show at the Cartoons on the Bay Festival, as part of the International Showcase section. It's pretty wild. We thought it might never see the light of day as we're making the show look even better right now for series. If you're going to the festival, check it out!