Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!

Today, July 27, 2015 is Bugs Bunny's 75th Anniversary: "A Wild Hare" premiered on July 27, 1940. Directed by Tex Avery, story by Rich Hogan, music by Carl Stalling, editing & sound effects by Treg Brown, character designs by Robert Givens, BG designs by John Didrik Johnsen, animation by Virgil Ross, Charles McKimson, Robert McKimson, Rob Scribner, and voices by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan. The great rabbit of the Golden Age of Animation is born!

Merrie Melodies - A Wild Hare (1940) by Cartoonzof2006

And here's something that was made only about 25 years ago...

 

Something New for July!

Its hot in the garage studio today and so here's something hot off the animation disc which answers that age old question, how the first selfie was invented?

First Selfie from Toondini on Vimeo.

Got comments?

Animation Garage Band

 
I've also been busy cleaning out my garage and set up my animation drawing table to get back to work on the next episode of WatchCat. There will be a lot more action scenes and I want to animate it on paper, scan in the drawings and clean up them up digitally. It might take me more time to finish, but I think the different animation styles will work better.

OLD SCHOOL

 The Animation work bench; impressed?

  My trusty Animation disc and table

NEW SCHOOL

I also do work in this century as well, my Cintiq now sits next to its Animation table cousin plugged into my laptop and ready to roll.

  

BACK TO OLD SCHOOL...

Real Animators do it with pegboard...

Here's my set up for shooting pencil tests using monkeyjam software and a small webcam.

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After I have the animation drawings, I can plug the webcam into my laptop and shoot a test to get an idea of the timing and motion. Here's a very rough test using this set up, see what you think...

Test Scene 21 WC02 from Toondini on Vimeo. 

All I need to do now is to install an air conditioner or a really big fan and I'll be animating in cool comfort during the hot summer. I have a feeling, I will be animating in the evening when its cooler. Either way, I hope to post more work in progress soon.    

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New Episode, New Blogsite

WHOA!!!! Listen up everyone, we are moving this blog to another locale! So carefully stay together and click on click on this highlighted link to insure a safe transition to our new Blog. And be sure to leave a comment there and say hello!  

Weeks later... 
We have discovered that we haven't gotten many people to fellow us to the new blogsite and we're not sure why? All we can figure out is that our cat misspelled our website address below, which should read: iamwatchcat.weebly.com. He can really jump, but is a bad speller.

So if you want to follow this blog, please let us know. Your feedback helps us know that you like us or really like us. Send us your feedback! Should we stay here instead? What do you think? Can you help us? 

Jim and Greg
heyjimr@gmail.com 

9 Lives and Counting Down

I've been trying to support my friends project called Noir, by pushing their IndieGoGo Campaign on this blog. They only have 8 days left and counting to raise as much money as they can to make their film a reality. They have the cameras, lights, even a sound stage along with a great cast of very talented Actors, but they need your financial support, anything to help off set production costs down the road.

NOIR - Femme Fatale Promo from Lee Anthony Smith on Vimeo.

If you supported Noir or would like to, please click on the link above. Thank you in advance!

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Ok, so back to our blog. 

We are planning to move this blog to our new WatchCat website where we hope to keep everything in one place. This new blog will continue to document the making of the second part of our first episode. And before we start asking for your financial support, we want to make sure we can deliver the second episode and continue to build an audience, just like you! And as always, your feedback is very important to us, even if its a few words. So don't be shy...

And so, here are some more rough storyboards continued from our last post. As you can see, this next episode will have a lot more action. Enjoy!

 Next time, we will welcome you to our new blog location! See you then...

  

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NOIR needs your help!

Before I go any further, be sure to check out Greg's Noir the Film IndieGoGo Campaign.
They put up a new video explaining the film and asking for your support. If you love mysteries, monsters and movies, you will want to help these two guys. Here's the video and a link to the campaign!

NOIR Indiegogo Pitch from Lee Anthony Smith on Vimeo.

While cleaning up my garage, I came across some free time inside a box full of styrofoam peanuts. I used this extra time to work on the storyboards for the next WatchCat episode. Here are several scenes showing our bad guys tell their side of the story to police and what happens to them while they inside the house.

These are some of the rough storyboards which I will go back and refine before I make an animatic. If you have any suggestions or comments, please let me know because I value your feedback. It let's me know if the story is being understood or if I need to go back and fix something. 

I will be posting the rest of the storyboards if I get a few comments on this batch. Thanks for your support!

Jimr 

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let us know you appreciate animation , Thank You!

Stay in the Light!

Lots of gears are in motion right now as both Greg and I are busy doing other things. For one, Greg's Indie Go Go campaign for "NOIR" is up and running. Here's a link to this independent feature film that needs your help asap.

As for myself, I'm still working on a freelance project that I have been documenting the process on  Animateducated blog.

We are happy to welcome two fine artists who are tag teaming to help us produce the next WatchCat episode. Introducing Rachel Morels and Anika Fisch! They are both currently attending Woodbury University, taking tons art and animation classes, eating, sleeping, breathing animation and helping us with background artwork. 

The background below was created from my rough layout drawing by Rachel Morales. Here's a link to her website!

Here's a rough motion test...

At the end of the scene, the camera moves towards the Police station and will dissolve into an interrogation room where we will see one of the bad guys.

Here is a rough layout drawing of the interrogation room.

 

The final background was created by Anika Fisch. Here's a link to her website!

And for all you animation geeks out there, we can reuse this background in a later scene by simply flipping the image.

So there you go, please visit the Noir Indiegogo campaign and stay in the light!