We Love Wednesday:
“‘I See the Light’ from Tangled but They are Ducks” is probably what your week has been missing.
Thank you, Finnish animator Sillis, for your three weeks of work to give us minutes of joy.
Animation brings so much to life! Check out this animated short interview with Drew Lanham about his experiences growing up and returning to his dreams as an adult.
For more information, we’ve shared Ward Jenkins’ thread on his art and character design influences on Twitter. Click here to view!
- Courtney
We Love Wednesday: Soothing Animated Music Videos
We’ve made it to December. Time to take a deep breath and enjoy some soft music with this fully hand-animated visualizer for Austin Wilkerson’s song, “Things That I’ve Lost.”
Animated all on index cards by Darien Fisher, this video is the second music video (and first animated) launched ahead of Wilkerson’s Dec. 11 album, The Old Wood.
If the weekend has you dreaming of slipping away to your island paradise (via Nintendo Switch, obviously), you’ll love this FAN ANIMATION imaging a 3D animated Animal Crossing TV Series.
A small team of enthusiasts, directed by Gabriel Salas, took the project from “shower thought” to “full blown animation project,” Salas tweeted on Friday, Nov. 13. We think this cute show would be something the real Isabelle would love to share about in her daily broadcasts.
- Courtney
This Thursday, Sony Animation’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” hits theaters in the U.S.
But the film has already been making some major waves, with amazing pre-release reviews, an impressive collection of animation styles, and, as The Hollywood Reporter argues in the link above, the chance to establish animation as the ultimate superhero platform for diverse stories that “we would never see come to fruition in live action.”
“The Spider-Verse is about to forever change our perception of what Spider-Man can be on film with an ambitious multifilm franchise that looks to be the next great leap for comic book movies,” journalist Richard Newby writes.
The support Spider-Verse has is special. Sony already greenlit a Miles Morales-lead sequel and a “Spider-Women” spinoff feature film. Outside companies are also committed to Sony’s Spider-vision — Deadline reported earlier this month that Spider-Verse should already have earned more than its budget ($90 million), thanks to global brand promotional partners alone.
And by establishing each area of the Spider-Man multiverse with distinct animation styles, the potential for continued innovation in animation and storytelling has a strong foundation. As Newby argues — or perhaps, praises —Sony should take this film as an opportunity to keep giving light to new voices, outside the traditional view of the web-slinging hero Peter Parker, and outside the traditional view of who can make a great superhero movie.
This animated film is set up to make history and, just maybe, to blaze trails for animation to be seen in new ways by the general film audience. As Newby says, “This is an opportunity to see experimentation within the superhero format, to test boundaries, push limits and see what sticks to the wall like only a Spider-Man can.”
- Courtney (harmonicacave)
GRIS Beautiful 2D Trailer
This gorgeous 2D platformer developed by Nomada Studio, is releasing December 13th on Nintendo Switch and PC.
Some weekend inspiration from some of the animators and crew of director Wes Anderson’s 2018 film, The Isle of Dogs.
Looking for something to fill the inspiring animation podcast void left by @nickanimation’s podcast hiatus? I have a feeling you won’t want to miss this. –Courtney (harmonicacave)
Holly Frey will host a new podcast by Cartoon Network and HowStuffWorks called “Drawn: The Story of Animation.”
Beginning May 1, 2018, “Drawn” will interview special guests and talk all things cartoon within an 11-episode first season. These audio episodes will include a “definitive exploration of cartoons with an insider’s perspective” from “show creators, voice actors and historians.”
According to the press release from CN-parent network Turner, Frey will be joined by the following guests:
- Eric Bauza
- Seth Green
- Doc Hammer and Christopher McCulloch
- Liz Harvatine
- Mike Lazzo
- Vanessa Marshall
- Michael Ouweleen
- Jennifer Pelphrey
- Ian Jones-Quartey
- Rob Sorcher
- Tara Strong
- Rebecca Sugar
- Billy West
While some of the guests overlap with the aforementioned Nick Animation Podcast (Billy West in season 1 and Tara Strong, season 2), we expect to hear different insights from these icons of the animation industry. “Drawn” promises to explore animation history with help from “today’s artists,” with different focuses each week, from music and sound effects, consumer products and culture influence, to how cartoons get made, women in animation, and more.
This is the second podcast from Cartoon Network, whose Steven Universe Podcast is now in its second season. HowStuffWorks, an educational website founded in 1998, produces numerous podcasts, including Frey’s other podcast “Stuff You Missed in History Class.”
Rebecca Sugar, creator of Steven Universe, makes an appearance on both podcasts. Photos courtesy Turner Pressroom.
The “Drawn” podcast will release every Tuesday on all major platforms, Turner reports, including iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn and GooglePlay. A trailer (linked to Apple Podcasts/iTunes here) released yesterday.
One of the coolest independent projects we saw at CTN Expo 2017 now has a campaign on Kickstarter!
The Axiom Chronicles, a science fiction/western animated series by Edison Creative (based in Omaha, Nebraska), follows “a young outlaw, robot overlords and a highly sought-after energy source called the Axiom.”
The young outlaw’s name is Rake, and according to the Kickstarter page, “it falls to Rake to learn to control the ultimate power of the Axiom for good, and bring peace to the world he calls home.”
Character design for Rake, an amputee orphan raised on the streets of Power City, and the protagonist of Axiom Chronicles
If you’re longing to fill the void left by Samurai Jack or other Genndy Tartakovsky-produced series (the 2D Star Wars: Clone Wars or Sym-Bionic Titan, anyone?), check out the project’s trailer above.
You can read more about the project on their Kickstarter, here.
- Courtney ( @harmonicacave )
Don’t Let Time Rob You Of Your Artistic Goals
Lars Martinson is a cartoonist who spent 13 years making a comic called Tonoharu, which he thought would take three or four years to publish. In this video he shares his experience and how, as artists, we need to be careful about being too perfectionistic with our work. Martinson talks about how he refused to cut any corners or do anything in a simpler or faster way, because he felt that would be traitorous to the concept of being the true artist.
More than a decade later, Martinson regrets that he spent so much time on a single project. He explains that if he continued to follow this path, he might end up making maybe two or three projects in his lifetime before he would be too old to do more. He states: “I’m willing to completely overhaul the way I produce art, right down the very medium I’m working in.” Martinson said he hopes to reduce his output time from several years to a few months.
There’s a lot more to the video that underlines the importance of time management and flexibility in your creative projects, and it stands out as a strong guide for younger artists who have not yet made some of these mistakes. As Martinson so aptly states, time is the factor. You can’t have it back if you use too much of it on one project.