Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Big Mega Life Drawing Post
Was doing some costume and drapery stuff today in Life drawing.
Really enjoy doing this. A lot.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Just another Disney Post
So I've been snooping around the net trying to scrounge up all the animation news possible, and there's some really great stuff going around. First up is this CNBC article on the buyout, complete with a video interview of Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger, talking about the Pixar buyout. It's a really good interview, I suggest you check it out.
Some of the hilights:
"Who brought it (the buyout of the entire company) up first?"
Iger: "I don't think it's necessary to focus on the details."
"Is it (the Pixar buyout) a reflection of your own concerns about the animation pipelines or weakness at Disney in that area?"
Iger: "It's a reflection of my confidence in the management at pixar the the people who work here."
When asked about the concerns of the two cultures mixing, Steve Jobs replied,
"We're convinced that Bob really understands Pixar."
"We've (Bob Iger and Steve Jobs) spent most of our time talking about the cultural issues. You know, the economic issues were a fairly small percent of the time."
When asked about if Pixar and Disney will remain a seperate entity, Steve replied,
"You know, that way our films have been marketed for the last many years, of course has been Disney-Pixar, and I think you're going to see that continue because I think both brands have a lot of equity. It'd be foolish to throw that all away."
One more thing is that Iger mentions that John Lasseter has a contract with Pixar until 2011, and is still in place after the buyout.
Steve Jobs is definetly right when he says "It's going to be a pretty exciting world looking ahead to the next five years."
I won't spoil the rest, and the video cuts out a few times (accompanied by funny yells) but check it out, it's worth a watch. Stupid ad before the video, though.
There's also a conference call posted on Pixar's site (audio only) about the buyout. Also worth checking out.
Also pretty cool is that the Annie awards happening today. Up for best feature are Chicken Little – Walt Disney Feature Animation
Corpse Bride, Howl’s Moving Castle, Madagascar, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Of note Milch was nominated for an Annie for best short film, unlike the oscar category.
I think it's also really cool that Psychonauts is nominated for the best animated video game, and that 4 out of 5 of the character animator nominations are for Wallace and Gromit (the last being for Narnia).
Anyways, check out the full list here.
If you haven't already heard about the Oscar nominations, I'm pretty excited about the fact that no CG films were nominated, only two stop-motion and one traditionally animated in Wallace and Gromit, Corpse Bride, and Howl's Moving Castle.
The short film category is pretty awesome, mainly because I've actually seen so many of them! Badgered, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (by John Canemaker, that was screened at Ottawa this year), The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (also screened at Ottawa and was flippin' great! - Check out the trailer here), Shane Acker's awesome film, 9, and Pixar's One Man Band. I would not be able to pick a winner out of that list...
I believe Ed Catmull is receiving a Technical Oscar today. He definetly deserves it.
Another surprise is Keira Knightley for Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Not that I'm complaining, it's just a surprise.
The full oscar nominees list is here.
I wanted to take the time to thank those who have visited, commented, and even linked to my blog (Randeep, Kelly, Sam, Andrew, Robin, and Eric. You guys are champs.(Sorry if I forgot anyone!)) I'll try to update every day with something. I definetly love animation blogs.
I also wanted to point you towards all the links on the sidebar at the right. I really try to update them every time I post, and I'm sure you'll find something delightful in my mass of links. I know the list is getting long, but there's so much goodness going around.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Disney! Pixar! Disney!
John Lasseter to middle management at Disney.
"If you don't draw for a living, then you really don't belong in this building."
Make sure to check out this article.
Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton; Monsters director Pete Docter; The Incredibles director Brad Bird; director/writer Bob Peterson; story artist Brenda Chapman; editor Lee Unkrich; and sound designer Gary Rydstrom are all listed as assets that -must- work at both companies. Guuuureat!
Also, check out this Time Magazine article that discusses that Pixar's next film may be called Ratatouille, a noir based on Will Eisner's comic, The Spirit. Also, some people have been talking about John Lasseter jump starting Musciana, a spin off of Fantasia, and Ray Gunn. Wicked sick!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Russssssty.
I'm a little rusty...
By the way, I always make a point to add some links to the sidebar. There's a plethora of kickass animation blogs around, and I suggest you check out some or all of the ones I've linked to - there's some serious talent going around.
Also, thanks for all the people coming out to check out my blog. The traffic's been great! I'll try to post as often as possible, every day if I can. And if you can, please please please leave comments! I love hearing opinions and feedback.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Painnnnnting.
Definetly could have worked on this longer, tightened it up.
Alas, no more time to devote to this...
Thursday, January 26, 2006
More Disney News!!
So, Toy Story 3 is no more, a bunch of artists speak out about their feelings of the takeover, and two posts here and here) outline Paul Briggs' first hand encounter with the new people taking over Disney.
Exciting times ahead...
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Disney Shorts
Though you can only buy them on the U.S. version of the store, iTunes now has a lot of Disney shorts up to purchase through the iTunes music store. They include: How to Play Football, The Three Little Pigs, Good Scouts, Ferdinand the Bull, Brave Little Tailor, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Old Mill, The Ugly Duckling, Building a Building, and the Pointer.
I hope One by One (because I don't want to get Lion King 2 just for this) and Destino get released like this...
Supposedly Disney is planning to release a DVD of its classic shorts this summer.
Jeff
He totally left before I could finish.
Anyways, check out his pretty cool blog. He's got some pretty awesome stuff.
Disney Buys Pixar
So Steve Jobs (Pixar's CEO) has sold Pixar to Disney for the price of $7.4 Billion U.S .
Disney's CEO Bob Iger Says: "I think this is great for Disney, not only to have Pixar be part of the company, but to have Pixar influence the company," Disney Chief Executive Robert A. Iger told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday after the deal was announced. "It's also possible we'll look at Pixar and see not only how well it's run but how well it lives and seek to overlay that influence on some of our other businesses."
Steve Jobs says: "Disney and Pixar can now collaborate without the barriers that come from two different companies with two different sets of shareholders," Jobs said in a statement. "Now, everyone can focus on what is most important, creating innovative stories, characters and films that delight millions of people around the world."
Looks like Ed Catmull becomes President of the both Disney and Pixar Studios, John Lasseter becomes Chief Creative Officer of Animation and Principal Creative Adviser of Imagineering. Also, Steve now owns the most shares of Disney of any single shareholder, since he owned approximately 3 Billion dollars worth of Pixar's shares which get transferred directly into Disney shares. I believe he joins the Board of Directors.
As a result of this, David Stainton, the current (or was current) president of animation at Disney is leaving.
A post on This Blog quips that at it's current pricing, Apple could potentially buy Disney outright, saying "Even after dropping from a high of $86 to 76, AAPL has a market cap of $64B, versus $50B for Disney."
What all comes out of this is that it seems that Disney is keeping Pixar standalone, but we'll have to see how it develops. I believe the merger still has to under government approval or something, so Pixar or the Government could potentially stop a deal being made. But it does look like it's going to happen.
Crazy crazy.
[UPDATE] A quote from Disney's corporate site: "Both Disney and Pixar animation units will retain their current operations and locations." Link here.
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