KEYNOTE: Kick it up a Notch! Flash Animation with After Effects

In Hollywood, the demand for quality animation on a budget inspired Stanton Cruse to incorporate After Effects into his production process. In our next motion+connect, join Stanton Cruse as he shares quick and effective techniques for compositing, animating cameras, and adding subtle to stunning visual effects to bring out the best in your film making.

Stanton Cruse has used Flash for television broadcast animation for over 8 years. He co-founded LA based Six Point Harness studios in 2003. There he trained artists new to Flash, directed animation and animated numerous pilots and shows for Disney, Fox, ABC, Warner Brothers, Film Roman, Klasky Csupo, and Cartoon Network. He supervised Flash productions at Film Roman in 2008 including ABC Family’s A Cranberry Christmas.

Stanton is a graduate of the CalArts School of Film and Television where he studied character animation under the industries finest. He split his time between traditional hand-drawn animation and 3D production. Now working in Flash, Stanton brings the sensibility of a traditional animator to his characters, and the problem solving of a 3D technician to maximize efficiency. Stanton currently lives in Burbank and teaches Flash and Illustrator at Studio Arts.

Join Stanton for a full-day training this year at motion{u}: Full-Throttle Flash: Creating an Animated Film in a Day read more »

Jamie became a household name in the world of animation for his work on the title sequence Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events. Most known for his artistically creative stop motion animation pieces, Jamie recently directed this amazing piece, Jubilee and Her Doll Beat Cancer for the Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.

This piece was based on a true story about a little girl named Jubilee. About a year old, Jubilee stopped eating. Doctors at Children’s Medical Center diagnosed Jubliee with Neuroblastoma – a cancer that starts in the nerve tissue. After therapy and two bone marrow transplants, Jubilee’s true personality blossomed. According to her mom, she’s now quite the comedian.

Check out the Jubliee’s full story… read more »

Jamie Caliri is a director at DUCK Studios.

In this month’s motion+connect, Legendary Disney Animator, Dan Haskett shares his views and insights on the current state of animation. How has computer animation helped the industry – and how has it hurt.

Register now to attend this special motion+connect session.

about the speaker:
Dan Haskett, a Harlem native, is a master animator with four decades in the business.

With many credits to his name, he is well-known for creating the characters of “Belle” for Beauty and the Beast and “Ariel” for The Little Mermaid.

Haskett began his career setting up an animation department for a New York company that did commercials and corporate films. A co-worker told him about a man named Richard Williams, who would later go on to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Because of Williams, Haskett got an audience with Frank Thomas, one of Walt Disney’s famed “Nine Old Men” group of directing animators. Haskett was offered a job as a junior animator under Thomas on The Fox and the Hound.

Freelancing for Disney, Warner Bros. and many others since then, Haskett’s credits include Toy Story, The Prince of Egypt, Sesame Street, Scooby Doo, and has done commercial work for Kellogg’s and Nestle. He won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons. Haskett helped pioneer a resurgence of classic Disney qualities and “organic” animation.

mini-session:
Immediately following Dan Haskett’s presentation, join Alicia VanHeulen from Toolfarm for a quick up-to-speed on Giving Life to Still Image Composites. You won’t want to miss it!

overview:
7:30-8:20 PM: Dan Haskett on Animation
8:20-8:30 PM: Q&A
8:30-8:40 PM: Giving Life to Still Image Composites
8:40-8:45 PM: Q&A
8:45-8:55 PM: reels@motion
8:55-9:00 PM: giveaway: Toolfarm Expert Series After Effects Camera Training, taught by Rob Birnholz

*all times are MST | UTC-7

when: tuesday, march 9, 2010
where: online | in ABQ**
time: 7:30 – 9:00 PM {MST | UTC-7}
url: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/motionconnect/
user name: your real name (i.e., anna mae). This is and sponsor opt-in required to be eligible to win prizes.
password: not required

**live in ABQ?

Join us as we watch the event live from the Art Center Design College, located at 5000 Marble NE. Doors open at 7pm. Network and enjoy the show!

Help spread the word. Tell your friends about this event!
We look forward to seeing you online at motion+connect.

Register now to attend this special motion+connect session.

Join us for motion+connect!

Concept Vehicle Design in 2D and 3D Using Sketchbook, Maya and Mudbox

Marcel de Jong is a visionary when it comes to his concept vehicle designs. His inspired designs simply state, ‘what if?’ and ‘why not?’ From his ‘Maasai’ motorcycle that Batman would drool over, to his ‘futuristic’ bomber that looks like…well, not like any plane we’ve ever seen, you’ll have the opportunity to take a peak at how Marcel creates his magic.

In this motion+connect session, he’ll walk you through a simplified version of his workflow process in creating these amazing concept vehicles – from sketch to matte painting to render – using Sketchbook, Maya and Mudbox.

Beginning with Sketchbook, we’ll take a look at its functionality that accommodates storyboarding as well as the initial design process when laying out early vehicle concepts.

Next, Marcel will demo some basic exercises he uses to build and lay out the base model in Maya that then gets exported for detailing and texture paint in Mudbox.

Finally, all data will end up in Maya for animation setup or final rendering.

Along the way, we’ll get a healthy dose of inspiration from witnessing Marcel’s genius.

Marcel is an award-winning concept designer, a highly regarded digital effects consultant for clients like DreamWorks, Digital Domain, Pixar, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, and a favorite speaker at motion events. His feature film credits and production experience include Inspector Gadget, Sphere, Mortal Kombat, Armageddon, and Batman Returns. His work has been widely published in an array of publications including, ID Magazine, Popular Mechanics, CGW and Innovation. He is co-founder of Gnomon School of Visual Effects and is currently a Senior Solution Engineer at Autodesk Media and Entertainment Division.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

online:
time: 7:30 – 9:00 PM {MST | UTC-7}
url: http://experts.na3.acrobat.com/motionconnect/
user name: your real name (i.e., anna mae). This is required to be eligible to win prizes.
password: not required

in ABQ:
time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM

UNM ARTS Lab

131 Pine St NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106

overview:
7:30-8:20 PM: Concept Vehicle Design in 2D and 3D
8:20-8:30 PM: Q&A
8:30-8:40 PM: Managing Fonts for Motion Graphics
8:40-8:50 PM: Beauty Box: Skin Retouching in After Effects and FCP
8:50-8:55 PM: reels@motion
8:55-9:00 PM: software giveaways
*all times are MST | UTC-7

RSVP to be eligible for software giveaways. Must be present (in person OR online) to win.

Jamie Caliri - Director

motion09 speaker Jamie Caliri won yet another award: the 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design. The project? Showtime’s The United States of Tara. Jamie played multiple roles in this production, including Director, Director of Photography, Editor, and Main Digital Compositor.

the show

The United States of Tara follows the life of Tara Gregson, a wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder (DID). After deciding to take a break from her medication to discover the real cause of her disorder, her alternate personalties re-emerge. Tara is supported by her calm and level-headed husband Max, her somewhat troubled teenage daughter Kate and quirky, good-hearted gay son Marshall. Her sister, Charmaine, is not so supportive, often expressing her doubt about the validity of Tara’s disorder. The show is set in Overland Park, Kansas.

the concept

Caliri’s opening titles for The United States of Tara is based on the concept of a pop-up book – a subtle way of illustrating the relationship to Tara’s ‘personalities’ – personalities that could ‘pop-up’ at any given time. The illustrative style and the darker color palette used by Caliri evokes a feeling indicative of a ‘mysterious’ disorder – fitting for this project. Caliri worked with the show’s writers, creative producer David Finkel and also received a few helpful suggestions from executive producer Steven Spielberg on how to represent the character. “This project was a melting pot of ideas,” says Caliri. “I wasn’t given the show and then sat down and storyboarded it. Things are more collaborative in television apparently, which is fine!”

the process

Jamie Caliri - Director

Created in the cut paper stop-motion animation style that Jamie has become known for, this innovative piece is an amazing work of art. Unlike most modern-day pieces, Jamie’s projects are normally created the old-fashioned way – by hand.

When asked why he doesn’t go digital, Caliri replies: “If you’re just going to fold up some paper why do it on the computer? Some things are easier done with less technology. The nice thing was I wasn’t sweating, ‘Does this look like paper? I don’t know, we’d better get some paper plug-ins!’”

But for the stop motion aspect, he does rely on the software technology co-developed by Caliri and his brother Dyami: Dragon Stop Motion.

Jamie was hands-on with this project from the start – from constructing some of the actual pop-ups to shooting the sequence – and his unfaltering attention to detail shows through. Each pop-up illustrates one of Tara’s three personas. Tara’s ‘June Cleaver-like housewife personality’, Alice appears first in the title sequence, as she ties her apron in the kitchen. This humorous sequence shows snippets of a ‘day in the life’ as she arranges flowers, gingerly places a tissue over a cockroach before stepping on it with her ever-so-feminine pumps, and then brings out the vacuum to clean up the aftermath – all while she is baking a fabulous cake. And just what, ‘pops-out’ of this cake? Tara’s male, loud, beer-drinking Vietnam vet personality – Buck. The scene transitions to Buck in the garage, beer in hand working on his Harley. As he zips out of the garage on his bike, the trail of dust he leaves, transitions to the bedroom of Tara’s wild and flirty teenager personality ‘T’.

The scene with Alice was creating using a fully working pop-up – without any extras. The stop motion process consisted of Caliri’s team carefully opening the pop-up books until they got a good take. In the scene depicting Tara’s wild child teen persona T opening her closet, the team – art department lead Morgan Hay, illustrator Alex Juhasz and animator Anthony Scott – created a few add-ons to augment the pop-up book.

“When you see T’s room open, there are a few things in the background that slide into the closet. Those had metal in the bottom and underneath the set were little rare-earth magnets,” explains Caliri. “We could slide things along the line of the magnets while the page held itself up. The great thing was that we didn’t have to have those extra pieces in there when the whole set was crushed.”

So just how long does it take to create one of these amazing pop-ups? On the average, anywhere from one day to two weeks, depending on complexity. To create a complex pop-up page, it takes about a month. Yep – you heard right – a month for one page. Having said that, Caliri’s talented team was able to take the project from conception to completion, with the team shooting the action on two stages – in just two months.

kudos!

motion congratulates Caliri and his team on winning the Emmy award for Outstanding Main Title Design!

speaking at motion09
Jamie Caliri will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

the art of expressiveness

When I first saw Dan’s work, what caught my eye the most was the expressiveness of his animation. It made me realize – I hadn’t seen this in years. What happened to expressiveness in animation? Did we loose it when everything transitioned from traditional animation to computer animation? Is it possible to animate ‘expressively’ with digital tools? Have deadlines become such a factor in animation, that we no longer have time to ‘go the extra mile’ in adding the details and characteristics of expressiveness? Or is it just that, somewhere along the way, we’ve lost the art. Fortunately, because of animators like Dan Haskett, more and more young animators are being given the opportunity to explore this lost art – and hopefully carry on the tradition for years to come.

a brief history

With many credits to his name, Haskett is well-known for creating the characters of “Belle” for Beauty and the Beast and “Ariel” for The Little Mermaid. He began his career setting up an animation department for a New York company that did commercials and corporate films. A co-worker told him about a man named Richard Williams, who would later go on to make Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Because of Williams, Haskett got an audience with Frank Thomas, one of Walt Disney’s famed “Nine Old Men” group of directing animators. Haskett was offered a job as a junior animator under Thomas on The Fox and the Hound.

Freelancing for Disney, Warner Bros. and many others since then, Haskett’s credits include Toy Story, The Prince of Egypt, Sesame Street, Scooby Doo. He won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons and has done commercial work for Kellogg’s and Nestle. Haskett helped pioneer a resurgence of classic Disney qualities and “organic” animation.

a role model

When it comes to animation, it’s easy to say Dan is a role model. Everyone wants to be able to animate like Dan. It’s a given. But beyond this, he plays a very special role in the African-American community. As an African American animator, he serves as a role model. In a 2005 article by Esther Iverem, on the portal seeingblack.com, there is an excellent interview with Dan about what it means to be a Black animator. I was intrigued by this article, and soon realized Dan’s role and how it will be written in the history of Black America.

But what amazed me even more, was the first time I received a phone call from a young African American who learned that Dan lived in Albuquerque, speaks at motion, and is involved in our community. He wanted to get in touch with Dan – his lifelong idol. And, this wasn’t a one time occurrence. Since then, I have had calls from other young African Americans to see if I could help them get animation cells signed by Dan, and even met a young man who travel to ABQ from Atlanta to meet him in person. Dan is definitely a ‘rock-star’ in the industry and a ‘rock-star’ in the African American community.

sharing the tradition

Back for his second year, Dan is a favorite at motion. This year, he will be on a special panel of Disney (and former Disney) animators, titled The Art of Animation: Now and Then. Additionally, with hopes of carrying on the traditions of the art of animation, Dan will be presenting a 3-hour interactive session at motion09, in the promotion series.

“I’ve been able to influence a lot of young talent,” said Haskett. “A lot of people like what I do and they like how I do it and they want to learn. And it’s very important to me to create characters that have a life of their own—and apparently I’ve been successful at that.”

Dan’s an amazing man, with extraordinary talent. motion09 is honored to welcome him to the stage!

speaking at motion09
Dan Haskett will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

what are the advantages of using Flash for character animation?

Anything you can design, as an artist, you can animate in Flash – and you can do it pretty quickly. In a couple of days, you can have a fully animated scene that’s in full color, 24 frames per second, that’s broadcast quality and ready to show the world.

what are the challenges of using Flash for character animation?

Early versions of Flash (I started in version 5) had some definite limitations. But as developers were given the ability to create third-party extensions, animators began developing tools to solve specific problems. I’ll give you an example: Say you have a 500-frame scene and want to lay some keyframes down at frame 300; when you click into your character, no matter where you are in your timeline, the playhead jumps back to frame 1. This can be very frustrating if you have a long, complicated scene with a lot of layers and nested parts, and every time you click into a part you have to scroll back through the timeline. Dave Wolfe, an animator at Cartoon Network, has written an extension called Frame Edit that lets you stay at the same frame you were at when you clicked into a symbol. This saves a tremendous amount of time and brainpower.

what are the challenges of producing a broadcast quality show in Flash?

There’s a tendency for things to get rushed into animation without taking a good look at the overall strategy of how to do a Flash show. Elements that aren’t in place initially have to be introduced into the production at some point, causing a lot of back up down the line. There’s a lot of confusion about what a proper set up of a Flash show is, because it’s all so new and we’re still finding our way. But it’s important to figure out how to do it right, and I have some good ideas about that.

how do you see Flash being used, and what do you think, ultimately, its role will be?

Right now it’s mainly being used in television, and it seems to be gaining a pretty strong foothold there. At Six Point Harness, the studio I helped form, we created dozens of pilots. Studios were willing to outsource the pilots to us because we could get them done relatively quickly and cheaply.

As a natural progression of that, larger studios like Film Roman and Nickelodeon – which has its Flash show El Tigre, as Cartoon Network has Fosters – are considering Flash a more valuable tool for doing broadcast production. At Film Roman, there are dozens of shows being produced in Flash. While I think big studios will do more and more shows in Flash, I don’t see them phasing out traditional all together, that’s a well-established pipeline. But this is a transitional time and I feel like the studios are really giving Flash a chance – though nobody has decided yet if the best model is going to be in-house, out-sourced, or a combination of the two. That’s a conversation we’re still having.

how would you compare working in 3D vs. Flash?

Flash can be more challenging than working in 3D. In 3D you have a technical director who controls the models and does very elaborate, well designed set ups. When a character animator hits the rig, it’s like a driving a well-engineered car. Things are logical, they’re where they’re supposed to be and it’s actually pretty easy. When I got to Flash, there were no standards or best practices. The challenge was, how do I use what I know to create models that are well engineered and “easy to drive”?

When I began 3D animation, I approached it the same way I approached traditional. I would spend a lot of time working with the character and creating strong poses until I’d get the scene completely posed out. Then I would do pass after pass of computer interpolation to get some nice overlapping action and flesh out my scene.

When I came to Flash, I did it the same way. On my first day working on Jake’s Booty Call, a 2002 movie produced by National Lampoon, I spent a lot of time creating keyframes and poses of the character. The guys were getting frustrated with me, saying, “Okay, apply some motion tweens already, let’s see this guy go!” But I had to make sure the poses were right first. Ever since then, that’s been my approach. Any time I’ve gone away from it, it takes me a lot longer to get through the scene. I end up getting lost in motion tweens and what the computer is doing, trying to force it to do things it’s not wanting to do. Which means I’m no longer in control of what I’m creating, and the tool is controlling me.

Beyond animation, in running a production, it’s important to control what’s going on there too, and not let it get away from me – which I can achieve by spending the necessary time up front thinking about the end of the production.

you recently completed ape escape. what was that project like?

After Slacker Cats I went to Hawaii to supervise Ape Escape, which was 38 two-minute short films for Nicktoons, produced by Frederator.

The cartoon is based on Sony PlayStation’s popular 1999 video game of the same name. If you’re familiar with the game can look forward to seeing many of the same characters, including Specter, Jimmy, The Professor and others. However, the similarities end there. The episodes were written for an audience of 6 to 13-year-olds who have never played the game. The humor is very slapstick.

I was super excited to do this project, because it was a test of my skills and what I’ve learned thus far. While I’ve run some small shows in the past, I had to scale it up to a larger production like Ape Escape. It was a lot of work – but overall, a great experience.

you’ve made a commercial in 2.5D – what was that process like?

We created the characters using Illustrator as our design platform, and Flash as our animation timeline. We used After Effects to create the environments, and as the camera would move through, perspective would change, giving a sense of dimensionality – but nothing is actually 3D here. The commercial was a promotion for Max Lucado’s book Every Day Deserves a Chance. You can view it on You Tube.

I can imagine doing a project someday with 2D characters animated in Flash, that live inside of 3D vehicles created in Maya, joined together seamlessly in animation. It’s a look I haven’t seen yet. We’ve seen 2D and 3D together, I’ve just not seen 2D Flash and 3D brought together. That’s what I’m ultimately pushing for and hoping I’ll get a chance to do.

when did you know you wanted to do animation?

The first character I ever drew was Cap’n Crunch. I was a Saturday morning junkie, and I used to love Cap’n Crunch commercials – I have no idea why. When I was six years old we moved to the Azores, where there were no cartoons, only The Muppet Show in Spanish. By the time we came back to the states, Disney was doing some incredible work. In particular, I remember the opening sequence of Rescuers Down Under – a little boy runs into the wilderness to play with his friend, a golden majestic bird; the bird tosses him around in the air and pushes him along on the water as he’s water-skiing. There was a lot of unspoken drama – it was very moving, and it amazed me that I could be moved by an animated cartoon.

That experience made me want to create art that moves people and creates an emotional response. With cartoons, comedy has always been and will always be popular, but there was something about those films – the big epic scenes, the scope and scale of what they were doing – that just blew me away. It still does. I love that stuff.

would you like to do something of that scale and scope in Flash? could you use Flash for an entire movie?

I would love to be afforded the opportunity to try. I really feel it can be done. My first experience in Flash was on that movie in 2002, and we’ve come so far since then – although studios had insisted it was preposterous to think Flash could ever be used for broadcast television. Now we’re doing it and they’re asking, “how can we do it better?” Today, people scoff at the idea of doing feature films in Flash, insisting it’ll never happen. Which makes me think it will eventually happen.

in an interview at studiodaily.com, you advised novice users to approach their scene as an artist, not a technician.  “Think in terms of thumbnails, posing, and timing….compose solid drawings and endeavor to create quality animation art.” you stress the fundamentals of art over technology.

The pioneers of our industry spent the best years of their lives innovating and creating our industry. Everything they did is relevant to everything we do. We can’t forget where we came from, and we need to learn traditional approaches-our wheel may be shiny, new and fast, but these guys invented the wheel a long time ago. I’m not sure how impressed they would be with our technology, and I don’t think they’d be impressed at all if we forget what they discovered and learned. We need to retain that knowledge as we push forward into new mediums.

speaking at motion09
Stanton Cruse will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Lilian Dregalla
Working Story Creative

copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

You used Flash for character animation on Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss. Why was it the best fit for the project?

When you do an animated film all by yourself, you’ve got to streamline the process and create a system that has fewer steps than a regular production process, which has the benefit of a huge team of people. Obviously, keeping it all digital and getting rid of paper has to be one of those steps. Also, I didn’t do storyboards, I just went straight from a script to animation because I was the writer, director, producer and animator. I didn’t have to impart a vision, so I didn’t need the tools people use to communicate with each other, like layouts, storyboards and workbooks. And then getting to color digitally, it was just faster and simpler to draw directly. Because it’s vector based, Flash allowed me to work with very small file sizes yet still have the high resolution imagery I needed for film. If I worked in, say, Photoshop, I would be stuck with these giant files, and that would slow down the whole process.

When did you start using digital tools?

The Amiga was the first computer that had animation capabilities, it was very animation and video friendly. It’s gone now, defunct. But it had a fantastic program on it called Deluxe Paint. I first started going crazy with Deluxe Paint at the end of Fievel Goes West, we used it for special effects like snow and crowd scenes. That was around the mid ’80s.

It dawned on me very quickly that you could make an entire feature, certainly at video resolution, with Deluxe Paint. In fact, my first two films, Puss in Boots and Leif Erickson were done with Deluxe Paint. But for Romeo and Juliet, I had to switch to Flash to get those giant 2K files that I needed to output.

Flash is scalable, you can go up or down. Everyone always thinks about how it can be scaled down for use on the Internet. But no one ever, at least when I started, had ever gone really, really huge. Film recorders are not chewap and when I bought one, it was a real leap of faith that Flash would be able to project up on a huge screen and still look jaggy-free, no pixels. I was greatly relieved, and in fact, delighted when I saw the results. I was doing these acid tests where I would do a single pixel line and I’d have it rotate slowly. The anti-alias algorithm in Flash is so beautifully done that those pixels just rotate ever so slowly. It was perfect imagery.

It took you five years and 112,000 drawings to do this. That takes some stamina. How did you do it?

It was a labor of love. And it’s my passion. Animation, for me, has always been a great love. I’m happiest when I’m animating and drawing. I was cleaning out my old closet at my folks’ house the other day, and there was a tower of sketch books—they nearly fell down on me. I have sketch books going back to, you know, before Jesus. I’ve been drawing and cartooning my whole life. And that led to flip books, which led to, hey, wouldn’t it be great if I could make a movie of these flip books? I bought a Super 8 camera when I was 13. There was no turning back after that.

Now, five years doing Romeo and Juliet sounds like a long time, but when I think about other long form projects I’ve worked on, it’s not. I worked on Black Cauldron for six years, and Cats for six years. Historically, the timeline of an animated film has always been long.

When you were adapting Romeo and Juliet, how faithful were you to the story?

Well first off, I have four small children, so I couldn’t have a double suicide. I had to make a G-rated version. I also condensed characters. The play runs about three hours and I only had enough money for about eighty minutes (laughs). So I simplified it a lot. I’m sure William Shakespeare is rolling in his grave.

When you create a film on your own, the glory is all yours but the struggle is all yours as well. How much did you miss having things like tech support?

A lot. You do have to solve technical problems yourself because it’s just too expensive to have someone do it for you. So, I just had to wear more hats and learn a lot of things I really didn’t want to learn—like how to deal with film and sound issues. And then when we finished the film, all the printing issues. And all the legal issues. People don’t realize how much happens after a film is done. Everything from copywriting to licensing and merchandising and publicity.

Fortunately, I have a distributor for foreign distribution and another handling domestic, and they’re very helpful—but I ended up cutting the trailers and doing the posters and comic books. Ultimately, Romeo and Juliet has been a six-year project for me. The animation took four years, post took another year, and publicity and promotion took another year on top of that. It’s a never ending story.

What films did you work on when you were at Spielberg’s animation studio?

I co-directed Fievel Goes West, and I was a directing animator on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I also started on a film called Balto, but got taken off that to work on Cats. I developed Cats for six years but it ultimately got shelved. That can drive you crazy—to work on a film for six years, and then have it go on a shelf.

Was the Cats experience the reason you left London and came back to the US?

No, the whole company got moved. That was at the time when DreamWorks was being formed and Jeffrey Katzenberg had joined Spielberg. They wanted to create a large animation facility in Glendale, CA. So they brought the entire London unit over, and I was part of that big move. Cats got passed from DreamWorks to Universal and ultimately Universal passed on it. That’s when I started my own company.

What have you been working on since you finished Romeo and Juliet?

I’m working on a graphic novel Ultima-Thula, done in Flash, with a view towards selling it to the movies. In Hollywood, more and more movies are originating in graphic novels. As a 200- to 300-page full blown story, a graphic novel translates well into a feature.

If you were to step back and view the evolution of your art, what would it look like, and are you happy with it?

I guess any artist feels that he’s a work in progress—and hopefully evolving towards something better. Never satisfied with yourself and always hoping to, praying to do better work. As I look back, I get frustrated with my own incompetence. I wish that I could be better, and hopefully, each project is a little bit better.

Are you surprised at the direction your career has taken, and are there skills you have now because of it?

Working all alone has forced me to learn everything. I have to buy books on film distribution and film recorder repair and color balancing 35 millimeter motion picture film. For me, learning is really exciting and keeps me going.

Now, there are certainly different ways to measure a person’s life. I had one lawyer say to me, “But think of all the potential income you’ve lost over the years.” So, okay, he’s using income as the sole yardstick—and I probably could be a lot richer. But I’m marching to a different drummer. Fortunately, I have a wife who’s extremely supportive. I don’t think I could have done it if my wife hadn’t been behind me.

And your kids?

They’re my test audience. When I was writing Romeo and Juliet, I would pitch them concepts and if they didn’t like it, I’d come back the next night with a different take on it. I kept pitching it to them until it flowed and made sense and they were listening with their eyes and mouths wide open. And then as I was making it, every day they would come home from school and go, “Daddy, daddy, daddy!” and charge into my studio to see the day’s work. And every day I’d have another four seconds of animation done. I’d run it for them and they’d go, “Ohhh!” The film is definitely kid tested. On a four-second-by-four-second basis.

For more information, visit Phil’s website.
Phil at imdb

Filmography:
Ultima Thula – co-written, illustrated
Romeo and Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss – director, writer, animator
Leif Ericson – director, writer, animator
Puss in Boots – director, writer, animator
Boogie Woogie Whale Sing-a-Long – director, writer, animator
Casper – animation director
We’re Back: A Dinosaur Story – director
American Tail: Fievel Goes West – director
Who Framed Roger Rabbit – directing animator
The Magic Voyage – directing animator
Oliver and Company – story
Basil the Great Mouse Detective – animator
The Black Cauldron – animator, character design
The Fox and the Hound – animator
Cats – story
Wind Catcher – director, writer

speaking at motion09
Phil Nibbelink will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Lilian Dregalla
Working Story Creative
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copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

As a freelance illustrator Hohnstadt work on a variety of projects. Periodically he get calls from ad agencies, design firms, and business owners wishing to hire him to design a mascot to help promote their product or service.

‘Mascots’ are a part of our everyday lives. From the Pillsbury® Doughboy™, to the GEICO Gecko – mascots are a valuable part of marketing.

the advantages of having a mascot

Having a character or mascot to represent you in front of the public can have several advantages.

“Mascots get attention,” said Hohnstadt. “People are constantly bombarded with messages so you need to go the extra mile to stand out. Mascots get noticed. When people see a mascot they are more likely to stop and listen to what he/she/it has to say.”

“A good mascot is memorable. If an appealing character can work its way into the public consciousness it will become an instantly recognizable symbol for a product. When you look at the GEICO Gecko you immediately think of GEICO. You see the Pillsbury® Doughboy™ and think of gooey chocolate chip cookies. The company logo is barely an afterthought. The mascot says it all.”

Beyond branding, there’s more that mascots represent. As a friendly image, mascots are fun!

“They are entertaining to watch and send a positive message,” said Hohnstadt. “A likable character can instantly create a positive connection with your potential customers. It’s much harder to do that with only a logo.”

And there’s a lot of truth to that. While there are many memorable logos, such as the Nike swash, or Apple’s logo, there’s something about the mascot that adds a whole new element to the company. The mascot creates a relationship with the customer. It provides mass appeal.

“A good mascot can appeal to a wide demographic, across many age groups and backgrounds,” said Hohnstadt. “Mascots appeal to children as well as adults, extending your brand message to a wider audience. A mascot can even transcend languages and cultures.”

beyond the obvious…

Finally, there’s yet another reason to consider a mascot. Money.

“If a mascot becomes popular it opens the door for all sorts of profitable merchandise (clothing, toys, etc.) that can make you money while at the same time raising awareness of your product. Mars Inc., the makers of M&M’s, has opened several M&M’s retail stores, thanks in large part to the popularity of their cartoon mascots,” explained Hohnstadt.

To date Hohnstadt has worked on over 250 client projects, including projects whose end clients have included Disney, DreamWorks, Walmart, General Mills, Hasbro, Scholastic, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard, and Crayola.

speaking at motion09
Cedric Hohnstadt will be one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion.tv
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv

The scene opens in an airport lobby where a young couple is embracing before the woman departs on a professional trip. When her lover isn’t looking, she removes a representation of her heart from her chest. While giving him one last ‘good-bye’ kiss, she places her ‘heart’ in his coat pocket. Obviously in love, he watches her fly away. When she arrives at her destination it’s clear she has a hole where her ‘heart’ was. She delivers a well-received  presentation on her work to a packed house. Afterwards while walking alone near a courtyard fountain, she sees a small bird perched on it’s edge. As she reaches out to it, it flies straight through the hole where her heart was. Her eyes follow it’s flight up into the sky which segues into the scene of her flying home to her loved one where he’s waiting with her ‘heart’ in his hand.

beauty and practicality

The piece is beautiful – both in its design and its technical execution. And, in a very subtle way, United Airlines’ marketing message is irresistibly delivered to its market. Known for his ability to emotionally connect with an audience, Jamie and his creative team went to work on developing a magical story line filled with love, longing, and triumph. The result? A truly elegant work of art that just happens to be an advertisement.

the rise of stop motion animation

Director Jamie Caliri has a reputation for his amazing creativity when using stop-motion animation. Caliri rocketed to the forefront in 2004 for his title design created for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Since then, he has created two Annie Award winning ads for United Airlines. The first, Dragon, rapidly rose in popularity in the hearts of viewers, bringing United Airlines to a favorable position in the market, and contributing the upsurge we have witnessed in stop motion animation.

Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was one of the earliest forms of animation ever created. Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton are credited for being the first to utilize the stop motion technique in their production of The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) – a story in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In the 1960s and 70s, we witnessed a rise in stop motion animation in the form of claymation, which went on to became a very popular animation technique.

By the 1980s, major motion pictures including Star Wars and Indiana Jones were utilizing stop motion animation as a technique. Industrial Light & Magic used stop motion to create the chess sequence in Star Wars, and the Tauntauns and AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back. They went on to use the technique in a variety of other scenes in mainstream movies.

And probably very few of us were even aware that they were using this as a technique.

the art of stop motion

Whether you are a 2D or 3D animator – the technique you use is just that – a technique. You may bill yourself as a Flash animator creating broadcast network animation, or a stop motion animator creating title design – but knowing the tool is only the first step. You could know Flash inside and out, but it’s the art of the animation created that brings it to life. This is what distinguishes ‘forgettable’ animation from animation that makes an indelible imprint in the viewer’s mind.

And that’s where Jamie Caliri excels. First and foremost, Caliri is an artist. Through his work, people experience the art of animation. Through his art, he connects with his audience on an emotional level. Jamie Caliri inspires.

bring on the annies

We’re not the only ones who have been inspired. Each year, animation industry notables gather in Los Angeles for the annual Annie Awards. This past January, ASIFA-Hollywood awarded prizes for 2008’s best animation, including projects from film, television, commercials, video games, and short subjects. It was a night of animation giants, with amazing presenters and presentees such as Henry Selick, Nick Park and John Lasseter.

Among the 2008 Annie Award winners? Jamie Caliri. Caliri now adds another award of distinction to his name: the 2008 Annie Award for Best Animated Television Commercial for the spot titled “Heart” created for United Airlines. This is the second Annie win for Caliri, who previously won in 2006 for “Dragon,” also for United Airlines.

Kudos to Jamie Caliri from motion.tv for his remarkable achievements.

about heart

‘Heart‘ was shot using Dragon Stop Motion 1.0 with both Canon and Nikon DSLRs.

Directed by Jamie Caliri, “Heart,” was produced by Duck Studios in Los Angeles. Caliri worked with an incredible team, including character designs by Alex Juhasz, paper sculpting by Megan Brain and background designs by Jared Purrington. The lead animators were Scott Kravitz and Eileene Kohlhepp. Yorico Murakami multi-tasked as animator and puppet fabricator along with art department/puppet-maker man, Jeremy “The Beard” Bronson. David Candelaria took on the rigging duties and Huy Vu and Pablo Grande were the fearless art department leaders. For a complete credit list,  visit Caliri’s website.

speaking at motion09
Jamie Caliri is one of the ‘rock stars’ at motion09

10.11 – 10.14 2009 | abq | nm
motion | experience inspiration

………………………………..
author: Elaine Montoya
motion producer
………………………………..
copyright: © 2008 – 09
motion.tv