News Flash 2022

Welcome to the New Year of 2022, a lot has been changing and even though we haven't added any new "WatchCat" episodes to this blog, we are amazed to see that people are still popping by to look at it from time to time.

Covid changed life for everyone, but a few good things came out of this terrible situation for us.

Greg has become the manager of a bar/videogame retro arcade called "Player One". He and his co director are still working on finishing their feature film, "Noir". They are in post production, get the visual effects worked on by a small team of pros who have done work the Marvel films. Its been a slow, but steady process which we hope will be completed this year, fingers crossed.

As for myself, I was working part time for AAA as a driving instructor while teaching part time animation. This was a great Summer job situation for me, but it ended when the Pandemic began. A freelance job popped up where a friend of a friend needed some 2D animation. In the film, the main children actor would be drawing a tiger while in class. As he does so, the drawing suddenly comes to life and plays with the kid's pencil like a kitten.

It was a great experience to return to animating 2D again and I later learned that the film starred Dennis Quade and Queen Latifah. 

I also began teaching my animation classes again but online since the University had closed their campus and sent students home. It was difficult at first, but I believe it also showed the world that it is still possible to work from home. A lot of my friends working at major studios like Disney, moved their equipment to set up their new offices into their homes or apartments.

I also got another online opportunity to teach as a 2D mentor for an Australian based school called CG Spectrum.  I gave it a try and discovered I really like teaching there because its not based on grades. Students take the lessons online and are given a weekly critique of their work from a mentor. I review their work and give them personal feedback to help them improve the projects they are working on.

As well as teaching online, I am continuing to work on building my YouTube channel oddly called, Animateducated (pronounced animated educated) I interviewed more interesting artist, including another Jim Richardson who is a well known National Geographic photographer and his work is awesome! And also I contacted Winsor McCay from the great beyond in my Halloween episode of 2021. Click the photo below to see these interviews from 2021.

 

So there you have it, if you would like to subscribe to Animateducated to help build my YouTube channel. Or you can click on the ads of this blog and show your support for Watchcat. Every ad click generates extra income to the blog, so make sure you click the ads a few hundred times each time you visit.

Thanks again and Happy New Year!