Counting down to Christmas

Making a project on a tight deadline is a real challenge and 
I was hoping to have our Watchcat Holiday card for this posting, but I've been fighting Murphy's Law all the way on this one. I will post it in the next few days, so be sure to check out our Watchcat Facebook page when it comes out.

https://www.facebook.com/watchcat/

We would like to thank Andy Jones and Rick Almada for their voice work in our upcoming Holiday short, "Tis the Season" and Soloman (Sal) Carreiro for his animation help as well.

Sal's an animation student at Woodbury University in Burbank,CA, who returned to his home in Fall River, MA, to help clean up Scene 5; the Bad Guy punch to camera. It was a small scene, but we really appreciated the extra help. Thanks Sal!


BTW, the scene was based on this footage of Chuck Norris punching at the camera.

And speaking of the Bad Guy.

The winning entry of our "Name this Bad Guy" Contest goes to Peg Foley of Albuquerque, New Mexico for her entry "Toodles McGee!" Peg wins an official Watchcat button!
Congratulations! 

Thanks again to everyone who have been clicking on the ads. Last week, we got $3.00 in ad clicks raising our total to $59.22. Only $40.78 more clicks and Google will send us a check which we intend to donating to a local Animal Shelter.

So click on the ads and click often. Thank You!

19,000 all time blogviews and growing! 

Next posting will be on last Watchat Wednesday of 2017, be sure to join us for Watchcat: Year in Review

You like? Let us know and Happy Holidays!  

Rough Animation finishing up.

Things are going well as all the rough animation is finishing up. Its nice to have only 6 scenes to deal with instead of 45 or 50 as in the previous Watchcat episodes. My good friend, Alejandro Torres has created a nice wintery looking house which you will see more of at the end of the short. Here's a photo of the "house in progress".

Last week, we got a really nice email from Lindsey Villagomes, who we met at CTN Animation expo this year. We gave her our Watchcat Episode 2 postcard and she was kind enough to send us this feedback.

Hello!

I met you both at CTN this year and I just wanted to say that WatchCat is amazing! I absolutely love the atmosphere it sets up as well as the sense of humor. There was so many times that I would just burst out laughing from expressions on the character's faces to certain things character's would say. It's a great project and I can't wait to see more in the future! :D And I will for sure be spreading the word of WatchCat around!

Lindsey

This came at a time when I was considering saving the Holiday episode for next Christmas. After reading Lindsey's letter it let me know that at least someone took the time to let us know they liked what we are doing. It also helped me keep on track and get this Holiday episode done in time.

And so, here's our rough animation for Lindsey and other people who like what we are up to.

WC03 rough anim xmas2016 01 from WatchCat Films on Vimeo.

Chime in, let us know what you think of this post. Too shy to comment, then click on the ads to help us give money to a local animal shelter.

Cats in Literature

While researching the subject of Famous Felines in Animation, I am reminded of a few favorite cat characters from literature. Click on this book cover to hear an excerpt of the story...

First published in 1939, T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is a wonderful collection of poems about cats and is illustrated by one of my favorite artist, Edward Gorey. Many years later inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber to...

Many years later, this book inspired Andrew Lloyd Webber to compose "Cats", the longest running musical in the history of the British theater.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a shy math professor at Oxford University when he began telling the stories as Lewis Carroll, that eventually developed into the Alice books. The Cheshire Cat was one of the characters that Alice runs into throughout the book.   

 

                   
Which kind of reminds me of the CatBus from Hayao Miyazaki 1988 anime classic My Neighbor Totoro...

 And I could go on and on, but what about you dear reader? Do you have a favorite cat character that you like? How about any photos of watchcats in your neighborhood? Please let me know...