The Lead Incense

Pixar's Brave concept art and sculptures

2012-02-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

Scoop! I found this today:
Bleeding Cool

To all of you 2 people reading this blog, enjoy!

Animation: the career of the future!

2012-01-06T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's 2012, can you smell the end coming?

15 years ago I took my first animation teaching job in Montreal, part time, while directing season one of Caillou. Back then the animation industry was expanding rapidly and we were desperately in need of new blood. Since then, more animation schools have popped up worldwide, and every year legions of hopeful graduates come out to the market place and... well here is a scene from Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky. This could be a good analogy of the young animation graduate meeting a legendary animation artist in 2012.

The name of the beggar: Watt Dabney.

Scariest part is that he looks like me, too....

It's a hit!

2011-03-06T15:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I am confident that by the time you read this, Gnomeo and Juliet will have smashed the $100 million mark, a first for a Canadian made animated CG feature.
This is my first ride on a hit comet and it seems promising for the future at Starz and for the animation community in Toronto. The work will start pumping in at Starz Animation Toronto after such a mega hit worthy of... say what?!!!... Starz was just sold?...To the guy who owns the Golf Network?... And their roster is now consisting of VFX for live action special effects TV and films?.... And the entire feature animation staff has been laid off?...

And this news came the same week that other news were trudging out the old Cinar scandal and the big Weinstein\Rainmaker lawsuit about Escape from Planet Earth.

It feels awesome to be a Canadian animation artist right now. Unrewarding!

Stereoscopic 3D: out come the villagers with torches and pitchforks!

2011-01-25T17:46:00.001-08:00

Rodney Dangerfield did this bit: "you know when you're really old? When your family talks about you in front of you. Have you seen those families? The guy is standing right there and they go "WHADDYA WANNA DO WITH POPS?!!! I mean, pops can't stay here!!!"

This new book burning fest that came out about how it's the end of stereoscopic 3D, it's not working, it's not making money, it gives people headaches, That's the new threshold of "old people speak".

People are touting this article by editor Walter Murch who, I guess, must be God almighty himself since his word is gospel to a lot of people decrying stereoscopic 3D as a failure. And since he wrote it on Roger Ebert's blog it is now considered sacrosanct.

He mentions the problems with focus and convergence, oh well, stop the presses and scrap this piece of dung, IT WILL NEVER WORK.

What's fascinating is, the people rooting for 3D's demise are not the ones presently working on stereoscopic 3D projects. People I know who work on those are discovering new things, new methods of working and they are not complaining, quite the contrary.

The simple reality is, stereoscopic is not going anywhere any time soon. Once a gaggle of big conglomerates have decided that this is the direction they're going, they may sink billions into it without seeing much profit in the immediate future, but they will see it through. And Avatar sealed that deal.

I remember when people were decrying another different kind of 3D being rammed down our throats, while saying it will not replace traditional animation, and that the organic, natural feeling of traditional was preferable to the cold, numerical, robotic soullessness of the newer media. Well they kept at it until it turned a profit, while crappier product was tossed aside to the discount bins, as the traditional model was squandered and wasted by greedy dilettantes.

So, to those who are now blowing on the kindles of the fledgling bonfire in hopes it will engulf stereoscopic 3D and take it far far away, I say: how do you like them apples?!

And get a haircut you damn hippies, that Rock and Roll music will be long gone and forgotten by the time you get drafted. Computers and electric cars, what a bunch of malarkey...

Holiday wishes for the new decade

2010-12-19T16:49:00.000-08:00

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This holiday, I would like to take stock of the past 10 years as the 2000s are coming to an end and the 2010s truly begin.
What is in store for the animation industry. Will raging against 3D be as futile as raging against, well, what we used to call 3D which is CG animation?
I feel a new tide coming, there is one every 5 years at least and every decade there is a big huge tidal wave and I hope I won't wash away.
I have been floating around like flotsam (and Jetsam) in this ever transforming industry in the past 5 years and this time, I feel I should be pro-active and forward thinking.
The 2010s are going to be for the daring, not the shy. For he or she who anticipates, not react. Whatever lessons you have learned in the past 5 to 10 years won't help you.
One thing is always a certainty: if you think you are safe where you stand, you're probably not.

The Social Network

2010-10-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. The new job and new puppy are taking most of my time. But not Facebook. I unhinged myself from it 2 years ago because life is too short and if I want to spend my time doing something more productive than catching up with old friends and acquaintances and "super poking" Super walling", playing "Pirates" and who knows what other fad there is to catch up with. I don't miss it. In fact, someone told me to get on Twitter, I got in, I got out. Pointless!
Actually, it feels like I should enjoy these Facebook free moments before some stupidity makes it mandatory to be on Facebook in order to a) keep making a living, b) get proper medical care, c) taxes and d)death.

Before this damn thing becomes a microchip implant in all of our bodies that we carry around from birth 'til death, although we will still be on its database long after we departed this earth, so any troll can debase our memory as they please, I will go see the movie about the creation of this monster that made its creator into a billionaire.

For me the real story of Facebook is about that, if you stay outside of it long enough, you'll see that the secret to wealth in the 21st century, is to come up with a way to create a finger pointing a certain way, yell "Look over there!" and get as many eyeballs around the world to look at what you're pointing at. Companies will pay a king's ransom to put their product placement in the trajectory of these eyeballs. What you're pointing at? What products? Who gives a shit! Just collect eyeballs, you know, like collecting marbles.

I am still working at getting my puppy dog not to look at my finger when I point and say "Look over there!"

Caine's pebble

2010-07-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

"As fast as you can.... snatch the pebble from my hand."

This post is not about Kung Fu, the show. I would say it's about mastery of a lost art.

Here is a promo for the new Looney Tunes show, the latest "reboot" if you will (pun intended).

Chuck Jones was the Master Kan of cartoon timing. He new the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. He knew how fast you had to be to snatch the pebble out of his hand.

Today's "Grasshoppers" just look at Master Kan, say "Screw it" and walk away. And somehow, that's the new mastery.

Enjoy

Crowdfunding: Kickstarter vs Indiegogo, which of the two is "border patrolling" the internet?

2010-07-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

I am presently looking at crowdfunding websites Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Both sites are interesting since they are about creators funding their own projects and keeping ownership, by promoting their concept/project on a blog type page with a range of funding scales in return of anything from some thanks and recognition, swag, dvds, invitation to the premiere or an executive producer title.

The creator retains all the rights to the property. Funding is generated by the general public, fans, friends, family members, total strangers, and it can also provide the donors with a tax deduction.

There are several success stories but there are some major differences between the 2 websites which I will quickly address here:

First, Kickstarter seems to have a better appeal from the home page layout, good success stories, (relatively) big bucks involved. Joe Murray of Rocko's modern world fame got his funding approved raising 124% of the funds for a series of three 3 minute episode of a series that he wants to broadcast on a new cartoon web channel.
His total tally: $20, 874.
He raised it during an allotted time frame that cannot go beyond 90 days. After 90 days, if the target funding isn't reached, the projects remain unfunded and the donors get their money back, which leaves the project's author with nothing. The author can try to get their project funded elsewhere. If successfully funded, Kickstarter keeps a small percentage of the funds raised. Funds can be donated from around the world

Second is IndieGoGo, nice layout, broad appeal, lots of success stories to a much smaller monetary scale. The highest amount I saw raised in Indiegogo for a project, not an animated project at that, was $11000. The average amount successfully raised seem to hover around the $2000 mark across the board. Animator Mike Valiquette successfully funded his project by raising 110% of his funding.
Total tally:$2 275.
He raised it during an allotted time of... however long it takes since there are no time limits for funding, and in this case, even if the projects funding never reach the goal, donors do not get their money back. Indiegogo keeps no percentage of the funding. Funds can be donated from around the world.

So, which of the two is more your speed?

Oh, I should mention in closing: Kickstarter is only available to projects made in the United States. You need a U.S. bank account and a U.S. place of residence. Oh, but the incoming funds can come from around the world, thank you very much!

So like it or not, the rest of the world has to go with Indiegogo. Hope your project is not too expensive and you're not in a hurry to produce it.

It's a recruiter's world, you're welcome!

2010-06-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I have time to write a new post and it could be about a subject that you might have missed. For me, it popped up on Linkedin and followed the link to this blog.

From my place of work to all the big studios I apply to, the constant for the job seeker is the recruiter. The recruiter contacts you, the recruiter receives your resume and demo reel. You meet recruiters at big events like SIGGRAPH, animation festivals, Comic Con etc... They are nice, personable people, in many cases, people you would hang out and have a beer with.

So when I followed the link to the blog called Recruiter Musings it was quite the eye opener.

I am thankful for the blogger Michael Spiro's candid revelation as to why one's experience means squat if you don't have the right buzzwords on your resume or why applying for an out of town position is like sending resume straight to a shredder.

Sending your resume to an online job offer, going through the online applications, as it turns out, is moot. No one looks at those according to Mr. Spiro.

It's as if your resume should be written in the mindset of playing a game of "Snakes and Ladders" where any wrong turn will have your resume deleted from potential employers' recruiters.

And beware of complaining about this state of the industry, it's unproductive and if your rants go viral, you will be ousted from the business, banished from the universal workforce. Condemned to becoming a perennial jobless hermit with your name being the new buzzword for "Do not hire". This is why I LOVE the way all this works and I am so grateful to have my resume even be considered, and ferociously check for typos. And this is not a rant, at all. I mean, I am sure all this is exaggerated. Black lists are so 1950's McCarthy era.

The solution according to Mr.Spiro:

"savvy job searchers do not rely on simply applying to online job postings, but rather spend most of their time networking, finding ways to go around HR, and talking with actual decision-makers at their target companies."

I will start showing up more at events, keep in touch with contacts, friends in the business and visit some studios, even those who would not openly welcome me, because a cold call in person might be awkward, but sending a resume based on the faith that someone will read it and consider hiring me is akin to that TV show Wipeout: It's full of ridiculous traps and pitfalls, you will mostly lose while getting hurt, debased and ridiculed.

If you read further down Mr.Spiro's blog, you will see that humor is the best medicine, with all the cartoons he has that lampoons job applicants.

My Youtube channel

2010-05-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

I just have a little time to plug in my youtube channel. I feel like a kid all excited to tell you to"check out my animationssssssssssssssss"!!!
It's actually a few short scriptfilms I made with a website called xtranormal. They have these templates of characters, locations, voices, movement, expressions, music and sound effects and you write a script, cut your shots together and build a rudimentary little sketch. The UK male voice I use for my old guy is hilarious in that computerized monotone delivery.

I wrote these little sketches and the recurrent theme deals with the woes of an aging animation professional in today's marketplace. A wailing wall for old animators if you will.

Here's the link:WalternateBishop

The State of Canadian Animation

2010-03-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have gone 3 months without blogging. Been busy. Also I am starting to believe that, unless you have a strong following or commercially viable websites, daily tweets and Facebook are relegating blogs to the back.

Last week the big news was about CORE closing. And nearly at the same time, the news of Cookie Jar, formerly Cinar, laying off 35 animation related jobs to concentrate on live action. That's in Toronto. At the same time Pixar, Sony Imageworks, The Motion Picture Company and Digital Domain are all opening shop in Vancouver.

I think it's finally happening. The Canadian Animation industry is nearing the end of its run, animation jobs in Canada will now mostly be about working for the Canadian branch of an American company. If the company you are working for is Canadian owned and does service work and doesn't own the intellectual property, the clock is ticking, the writing is on the wall.

TV animation going extinct

2009-12-07T08:54:00.001-08:00

Feature animation is a lot of "Hurry up and wait" time. I am taking this hole in my time frame to update this blog.

As the first decade of the new century of this new millennium comes to an end, here is the change we will have to brace ourselves for in the coming "teens". No more broadcast television as we know it. the bucking trend right now is to get content online to play on your TV.

I have heard some Canadian TV animation companies complain that the Canadian broadcasters are going to order their content from the US. We have seen the ads about "Save local TV" which really aims to "save our shareholders' asses". I am not a big fan of cable and satellite providers, but they don't create what goes in the idiot box they just funnel it through.

And while every traditional animator rejoices at the coming of The Princess and the Frog, and with it, the return of hand drawn animation, really, who will this benefit?
Any hand drawn features happening soon? Any studio just poised to hit the ground running with their hand drawn projects as soon as the box office numbers hit?

Will Disney rehire traditional animators and artists en masse after a windfall of Lion King proportions?

One thing for sure, TV animation production is going the way of the dodo no matter what. Time to aim your ideas through the broadband, hoist it up the flagpole in the hopes someone salutes.

How hard would it be to create this on our own?

The last time animation artists had free parking

2009-11-19T13:48:00.000-08:00

The last time I was able to park for free at my workplace was August 25th 2004, Bragg Creek, Alberta. Ever since then, everywhere I worked in Toronto I had to pay for parking.
At Calibre from 2002 to 2004, I parked on the lot at the A building of Toronto Film Studios, for free. Before that I would work from home with the occasional trip to downtown Montreal, where, in Old Montreal, you pay for parking. Before, directing at Cinar, I had a free spot. At Toon Boom, in the lower parking lot of the Teleport de Montreal, I also had an assigned spot. At Crayon Animation, parking was free on the premises at the St-Ambroise street studio. Back in Toronto, at the Animation House, free parking in the parking lot. Nelvana, I could park for free if I arrived early enough and found a spot on the lots around Atlantic ave. Michael Mills, free parking in the lot. Cine Groupe, free parking in the Presbitary parking lot. Before that time I was bussing it. I had no car the year i lived in Europe, but Amblimation had a parking lot, free for employees.

The price of parking daily, weekly or monthly in Toronto takes a serious bite out of one's (net, not gross)wages, hopefully it's tax deductible. We are taking much less home if we have a car and have to commute, what's next? We will have to pay admission to get in the city, like you're entering Disneyworld?

Up for some air

2009-10-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been back and keeping my nose to the grindstone doing layout previs, on those occasion it's best to clear your head and pick up the guitar again and leave the heavy creative thinking for the next layoff period which always looms.

However, next time I have some free time to myself where my ideas are not instantly the property of whoever owns my services for a duration. I have some pots boiling and ready to go, script done, storyboard nearly all done, voice recording almost... I will be creating the assets for production and hopefully get a project off the ground.

But for now it's long hours, maybe some time down the road for rehearsing for an upcoming Music Night IV, which doesn't seem to take shape too quickly.

Pitching an idea is not all doom and gloom

2009-10-01T05:26:00.001-07:00

This was a discussion panel with TV production executives in L.A.

Television Animation Development

My guess is they are reaching out for fresh ideas.
In the comments afterward, they seem to indicate that ripping off someone's idea is possible if they like the idea but hate the creator or don't feel they could work with him/her. So, if you can sell yourself, that is half your pitch. Don't be married to an idea you might lose or that might only appeal to you.

Avoid sentences like "Hilarity ensues!" or "Wackiness ensues" at all cost! Do not use the verb "ensue" at all!

In conclusion

2009-09-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

I have been working overtime hours so I couldn't complete part 2 of the translation from the Claude Robinson Interview. I think the bulk of the pertinent information was in what i had translated anyways.

The lesson to be learned is that no business person looks at a creator as an individual with an idea. They deal with numbers. It's a numbers game, get as many creators, corral them in a database and pick and choose, drive the price down and, if they think they can get away with it, outright steal the intellectual property, but do it in a way that the creator won't feel like he/she has been wrong, unless you can assassinate his character in the process.

The court of justice as well as the court of public opinion will side with the business mogul unless the creator can find hard evidence of fraud or illegal activity in an matter even remotely related to his/her cause and have political opponents of the businessperson's government sponsor use it as ammunition in the Chamber of Commons.
(It's a good idea to keep watching CPAC)

Epilogue: The Robinson case (If you have an idea to pitch, read this first)

2009-09-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

I was given the link to an interview that was done in 2002 on Tele Quebec on the news show "Francs Tireurs" (Straight Shooters).

The interview in French was with Claude Robinson and was hosted by acerbic Quebec critic Richard Martineau.

If you ever wanted to pitch your idea to a production company, you have to see this. I have translated half the show , I can't put subtitles but it's worthwhile to watch it to see the intellectual property that is discussed in the interview. I will translate the rest hopefully before the link goes dead, I left it on a cliffhanger so you will not be disappointed. The second half of the translation, coming soon.

Francs tireurs

Translation:
Richard Martineau: Claude Robinson, good evening. Before I start with the questions I will present you to the audience, because not everyone knows who you are.

-you are a graphic designer and you alone, a simple citizen with the help of your attorney Marc-Andre Blanchard, have shook up the Cinar empire.

-Cinar, for those who do not know them, is a production company, often referred to as the “Canadian Disney”, who produces children television shows, a lot of animated series such as Caillou and Wimzie’s house, which is actually a puppets show.

-At one time, Cinar was worth US$ 1 billion in the stock exchange and for the past couple of years, Cinar has been plagued with a lot of legal troubles. We learned. among other things, that this company run by Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg would have defrauded the Canadian government for several millions of dollars, defrauded Telefilm Canada and other subsidies organisations for several millions of dollars as well, used namesakes to get subsidies, in short: an integral crookedness inside the operations.
And it is a little because of you, you have put the first “bomb” under the Cinar “foundations”, by accusing them, among other things, of plagiarising, of stealing one of your ideas for a show called “Robinson Sucroe”.

-We have learned recently that Cinar as paid back the money that was defrauded to the government and so, there won’t be any criminal charges held against them.
My first question is: how do you feel about that decision? Knowing that now that they have paid back the money they acquired illegally, there won’t be any criminal accusations against them.

Claude Robinson: I will correct you on two points from your introduction: when you say I am responsible for all this, I don’t think the state recognises it in that way. I never received a “thank you” letter or any such recognition for the reimbursement of the money. So that’s probably not my doing.

How do I feel about the fact that there will be no criminal charges against them?
I find that incredible! Does the crown attorney (district attorney in Canada) not have the same proofs I have? For example: A man walks into a bank with a gun, steals the money and runs away with it. Then later on, he learns that someone has identified him as the robber of that bank, so he goes back and gives the money back and says “ here’s your money back, now drop the charges” and then they (the justice system) don’t press charges and let him go on with his life?!!… Well, that’s exactly what is happening and it sends a dangerous message…

Richard Martineau: But if you try to defraud the ministry of Welfare, the welfare checks and all… they are going after you with everything they got!

Claude Robinson: Between you and me, the crown prosecutor is much more afraid of big firm lawyers defending big corporations like Cinar then the little state appointed lawyer from “Judicial Aid” that helps the welfare recipient. Besides, the little guy , the welfare recipient, he is not financing the political party that is in power. Remember that Micheline Charest presided over dinner fundraisers for (then Canadian Prime Minister) Jean Chretien.

Richard Martineau: (in English) “Friends in high places”.

Claude Robinson: I spoke to crown attorney Bilodeau, I asked, actually called and asked: why are you not pressing criminal charges? They thought it was a bit of bravado on my part to call him (or her). I said I don’t understand since you are the one who filed the complaint (?legal?) in 1999 to the MUC (Montreal Urban Community, or Court?) and now it’s no longer my complaint file, there is no more plaintiff. What happened to it? did it fall between to chairs? I would like to get some information on that. Is the MUC taking over the investigation? This is not over. Tell me whatever you want, it’s not over. Well, it’s one of the details…

Richard Martineau: You are suing Cinar for $2.5 million on the accusation of plagiarism. Because you allege they stole the idea for a television show called, at the time, Robinson Curiosite…

Claude Robinson: Now, stealing the idea is one thing, but stealing the expression of the idea, meaning the drawings, the style, character designs, intimate details of each character…
I have 8 principal characters and they are all found right up there on the screen (in their version of the series). And the funny thing is that Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg, I know them personally. They know me personally as well even though they may not remember me now as they claim, selective amnesia can strike some people…
It’s funny that the 6 people I am suing do not remember me, everybody remembers except them, oh well…

The things is, I hired Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg at the time I was (associated) with Paul Viens and Pathonic (company name)…

Richard Martineau: …who were the co-founders of Cinar (Charest and Weinberg).

Claude Robinson: …but they were operating out of a little flat apartment on the corner of Dorchester blvd as it was known then ( now Rene Levesque blvd) and Alexandre de Seve street. (Jean P: interesting side note, this was an arm stretch away from Cine Groupe studios)

Richard Martineau: It was a tiny company at the time. (in 1986)

Claude Robinson: Tiny, tiny company that was recommended to me by Telefilm Canada, of all people, because they (Cinar) had entries into the United States. So I hired these 3 people, Micheline Charest, Ronald Weinberg and a guy named Seth Williamson (?) who is not involved or named in the lawsuit, he is not held in accusations of any sort in these proceedings, but who was their American partner.
And we would travel to… while paying them US$30 000, to Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg, that’s US$5 000 per month for 6 months.

Richard Martineau: So you hired Cinar’s services as consultants at the time, to help open doors to the American market.

Claude Robinson: They introduced me to some of the biggest names in broadcasting in the U.S., Disney Channel among them. The show was exciting, the presentation had 72 boards and lasted a minimum of 1 hour or 1hr 30min, 2 hrs depending on people’s level of patience, showing the marketing aspects and presentation details. I remember the presentation at Disney because right behind me were posters of Mickey and Donald and here’s little me pitching my series to (then Disney Channel president) Bruce Ryder(?)

The presentation is a hit, I got a standing ovation, in fact, the guy got out in the middle of the presentation and got 7 other executives and brought them back in the room and asked me to start over!

At the end of my presentation, my clothes were soaking wet from sweat.

Richard Martineau: Big show in front of Disney who is interested in broadcasting the series on Disney Channel.

Claude Robinson: We leave their offices with a letter of intent (offer) of US$ 100 000 per half hour episode, it was not a final offer, these were the preliminary discussions that were very serious. We get on the plane and I have a disagreement with my associate at the time as to the share of the profits. And it’s ridiculous. Micheline Charest for a while prior to this, kept repeating to Paul Viens (his asociate) “ Who in their right mind would associate themselves with an author?! That makes no sense! You should associate yourself to a distributor like ourselves. We have contacts everywhere. Authors are a dime a dozen, you can make offers at every street corner. If you associated yourself with us you have access to a whole network, you have a bank of authors we can buy off. You associate yourself with one author, he will have maybe 2 or 3 creations (œuvres in French) in him, tops.”

So, we’re on the plane after this great success over there (Disney) and Paul Viens tells me:
“Listen, we’re no longer 50/50. The arrangement now is 70/30.”

I said “Pardon?!!!” “We have an agreement of 50/50!” And that no longer sat right with him.

Richard Martineau: And this was your partner with whom you would have produced the shows.

Claude Robinson: Cinar weren’t my producers, they were just consultants.

Richard Martineau: Big conflict in the plane on the way back from Disney…

Claude Robinson: Let me just mention a little detail: Curious Island Productions, the production company that my associate and I were going to open was a company that was going to produce educational, non-violent children programming. And, lo and behold, this is a positioning that closely resembles the Cinar mission statement, but at the time, they were only distributors. Did they not use my company’s mission statement and claimed it as their own? Did they overstepped their functions as consultants? All of this is in the lawsuit. We won’t prosecute them here, but these are questions to be answered.
It’s not just theft of author’s rights (intellectual property) there is fraud as well.

Richard Martineau: So, coming back from Disney, it’s all good, they make you an offer to broadcast, and then arguments with your associate and the project falls, your at a dead end.

Claude Robinson: That’s right. My project is frozen for 5 years because, in good faith, I had deposited a trademark with my associate, the trademark is not the artistic creation itself, and the split was 50/50, which what was understood to be but he ( my associate) no longer agreed with. And that froze me and my project for 5 years.

Richard Martineau: So you can’t do anything, can’t use your project…

Claude Robinson: We moved forward with something that my now ex-associate and I agreed on at the time and went to a production company called SDA, and there we will present the project in Cannes, France at the MIP-TV. So in 1987 I went to present it over there and the MIP is an extraordinary venue where all these people know each other and they return there every year. We hired a company called Film Transit, a gentleman there introduces me to many people, among them the BBC and Ravensberger who are now the co-producers (of Robinson Sucroe) and the people I met from BBC and Ravensberger are named as co-producers on the credits. And they say they don’t remember me?!
Christophe Izard, the so called author that signed my creation now, I presented it to him at Cannes (back then). And I gave him my documentation, I was that naive! I thought I was dealing with an honest person.

Richard Martineau: (picking up a newspaper pamphlet ad of the series and showing it to the camera) And this is what you presented them with.

Claude Robinson: And that is just one small element, we had this “newspaper” and distributed it at the show entrance…

Richard Martineau: (reading out loud) “The Adventures of Robinson Curiosite” April 1987.

Claude Robinson: That’s right. And Christophe Izard, I clearly remember giving him the big presentation, I remember where he was sitting, I can tell you who was sitting next to him and who was standing in the back. I can tell you which room we occupied.
Richard Martineau: So at the end of the 1980s, you’re at a dead end and you forget about the project for a while…

Claude Robinson: No, not at all!

Richard Martineau: Well, not necessarily “forget it”, but you put it on ice then…

Claude Robinson: It wasn’t forgotten. There was the aforementioned trademark that will only be freed up in 1991, after 5 years. And only after this 5 year delay would I be allowed to use the property again, free of objections and ties etc…

Richard Martineau: And then one day, you’re watching television and you see your character on the screen. Tell me about that day.

Claude Robinson: Putting you in context, I just had an agreement with Phillips to produce a series of CD ROMs and CD-I for Robinson Curiosite from approaching them in 1994. On September four 1995, I always do surprises for my wife, and I did a thorough house cleaning of our place, she was at her parents place and thought it would please her to see the whole house cleaned upon her return. I was exhausted so I sat down on the sofa , it was the afternoon, and I clicked the remote and as the channels change, once it landed on Canal Famille (Family Channel) I see the ad trailer for the show (Robinson Sucroe).

My wife found me on the sofa at Nine o’clock at night. I couldn’t speak. I was in shock, knocked right out.

Richard Martineau: You had no idea that this was all in motion.

Claude Robinson: Not at all. And the worst is that the character that I drew, I drew myself. It’s a self caricature. It’s a transposition of myself (persona). And I was poking fun at myself, my name is Robinson, I can call my character Robinson, it’s my right even though it’s obvious that I am not the Robinson Crusoe.

Richard Martineau: And on that day, September fourth 1995, you saw “yourself” on television.

Claude Robinson: And I told myself “that can’t be! That’s my creation on television!”
I mean I instantly recognised it. But that’s one thing if I were the only one who recognised it. But people I presented the project to afterwards, I would trick them and put in the VHS of the Cinar show and they would say “Great! You had a demo made of your concept!” I mean not just anybody but influential people in the industry, so instant recognition on their part as well.
I fell ill.

Richard Martineau: From all this?

Claude Robinson: Uh, yes!
Richard Martineau: You were hit hard and didn’t take it well.

Claude Roobinson: I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.

Richard Martineau: As if someone beat you up.

Claude Robinson: I don’t have any white hair. The white on my beard, this whole section turned white over the span of a month and a half. I never had white hair, in my family it’s not in our genes to have early grey or white hair. I lost 32 lbs in one and a half to 2 weeks. I couldn’t eat, I was vomiting every 2 minutes…

Richard Martineau: You didn’t watch TV?

Claude Robinson: To this day I have trouble working on a computer. When I look at the television I zone out, I don’t hear what is being said. Working on a computer it’s like looking at a TV screen, it became an object that wronged me. On September 8, I forced myself to sit down and watch the show that was announced (on Canal Famille) and then I read the credits and I was astounded, it was unreal! You see the name and you know them all, you presented your idea to all these people and there they were taking credit for it.

Richard Martineau: Claude, would it be possible, with Robinson Crusoe being adapted hundreds of times by different people over the years, is it possible that many other people had the same idea you had and then adapted it in an animated cartoon?

Claude Robinson: I would tell you that Robinson Crusoe is a specific character, and his friend Friday, also a specific character, the context and the tone is very specific.
If you look at Disney’s Snow White, other people also made their version of Snow White. However you could not plagiarise Disney’s version of it. The seven dwarves in Disney’s Snow White did not exist in the original story. (note: The Brothers Grimm version had the seven dwarves, however the distinctive personalities given to Disney’s seven dwarves are not necessarily the same as in the Brothers Grimm version)
Disney put its own specific style and tone to the story of Snow White and this one of the things that entitles them to their copyright.
Or else you would say that Tournier who wrote “Robinson et l’Inde du Pacifique” would be denied the title of “creation” (œuvre). That’s becoming ridiculous.

Richard Martineau: But you, yourself, had recognised a lot of elements in the (Robinson Sucroe) series.

Claude Robinson: Not just elements, this was my creation on the screen. That was it! The 8 principal characters in the series are my 8 principal characters in my creation.
One of my character who was obese and had a short temper, short fuse, and when he expressed his ire he would jump up and down and you would hear “Boom! boom!boom!” and so the character’s name was “Boom Boom”. What is the character’s name on the screen for their show who is obese and has a quick temper and a short fuse? His name is “Van Boom Boom”!!! Is that a coincidence?
Using an idiomatism (an expression that can’t be translated, that loses its meaning when translated, that’s what idiomatism means) like “Vendredi Ferie” (Friday: bank holiday)
To me it was a celebration of intelligence, and it’s the name I gave to a character and I created an ethnic character who, in my series, would be the most intelligent person, voluntarily, I wanted to make something that was real sharp. To go against racist stereotypes at the time and with the best of intentions. And I was told “ Well, it’s obvious you have never lived in New York City, as if a black man could be intelligent!” and that was from one of the people I am suing right now. That’s some gall!
(note: The co-founders of Cinar met in New York City, but is either one necessarily who he is referring to?)

Richard Martineau: Do you get up and dust yourself off after a shock as you have experienced?

Claude Robinson: You don’t get up!

Richard Martineau: You realise you have been totally screwed…

Claude Robinson: I ended up at Douglas (Montreal’s psychiatric hospital). My family doctor told me “ This is alarming, Claude! You are letting yourself die, literally!” So she sent me to Douglas Psychiatric hospital, and there, two physicians meet with me.
One of them asks me “What is the problem?” I tell them, I’ve been screwed, my copyrights were violated and my idea stolen…” He asked “Who did this to you?” and I said “The BBC, Ravensberger, France Animation and Cinar.” Then he asks “ Do you often get these feelings of persecution like that?” I answered, look, this is real. Imagine, you are in a monumental problem and you are dealing with it, how are you going to prove
To people that these huge multinational corporations have screwed you?! And that the individuals at the heart of these multinational corporations are dishonest, crooks?
How will you prove this?

L'Affaire Robinson: Conclusion

2009-08-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

Robinson WINS!

I hope next time an artist gets his property ripped off by an evil corporation, justice won't take 14 years to be served. My guess is Cinar had a lot of people's RRSPs tied to it, making it delicate for the banks to extricate themselves and dissociate from them. Tough titties: Don't invest your futures with crooks.

Now Cookie Jar has a big check to write.

Next time, the judicial system should take 2 years tops.

The French text repeats verbatim what the judge said:

Judge Auclair:

«Il faut envoyer un message clair aux contrefacteurs que la cupidité
sera punie et qu’ils devront s’attendre à plus qu’une simple
condamnation de dommages compensatoires sans pénalité, s’ils sont
découverts.

«En l’espèce, la conduite des défendeurs est outrageante, préméditée,
délibérée. Même au cours du procès, ils ont persisté à dissimuler
leurs actes répréhensibles.

«L’objectif de l’octroi de dommages punitifs est de prévenir des cas
semblables et de punir ces bandits à cravate ou à jupon, afin de les
décourager de répéter leur stratagème et de sanctionner leur conduite
scandaleuse, infâme et immorale.

«En l’instance, l’octroi de dommages exemplaires enverra un message
clair aux producteurs que : la fraude, la contrefaçon, la copie, les
mensonges à la Cour ne sont pas tolérés et que les créateurs sont
protégés, ces derniers étant souvent démunis financièrement, n’ayant
pas la ténacité, l’énergie, ni la détermination nécessaire pour faire
face à une guérilla judiciaire, sans compter les coûts que cela
implique.»

«Les défendeurs Charest, Weinberg et Cinar savaient et connaissaient
l’importance de l’œuvre Curiosité pour le demandeur, la passion et
l’énergie qui l’animaient et tous les efforts qu’il y avait
consacrés. C’est sans scrupule qu’ils se sont moqués de lui.»

«Rares sont les individus qui, dans l’adversité, continuent leur
combat et s’acharnent à vouloir faire triompher la vérité.»

In Short, because of Cinar's underhanded conduct to try and hide their actions, the judge also awarded "examplary" punitive damages to be paid to Claude Robinson and warns producers in the entertainment industry that they are now being closely watched.

Yellow Subversive

2009-08-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a sub that would make Subway's Jared sick. Robert Zemeckis is redoing Yellow Submarine. A remake, rehash if you will, of the stylish 60's animated feature, one more fad that hitched a ride on the Beatles fame bandwagon, but charmed the kids who watched it on TV growing up all those years ago.
You know what movie should be remade? the Back to the Future franchise. The 1985 Bob Zemeckis feature was a huge hit and its sequels made some dough, but it is losing a lot of its luster. I am sorry to say that in 2005 we still didn't have any friggin' FLYING CARS!!!!

This new Back to the future would take us back to the year 1985 (I am thinking of a 2015 release) where our present Marty McFly would go back to the age of Reaganomics, poofy hair and parachute clothing to make sure his parents meet at an Oingo Boingo concert dance. And the future 2035 will still not have any flying cars, but teleportation will be huge as well as, well, TIME TRAVELLING!

The flying cars? N-E-V-E-R-G-O-N-N-A-H-A-P-P-E-N!!! There's no bailout big enough to bring those to life.

Animation industry = Logan's Run

2009-08-10T06:53:00.000-07:00

Check out this post from The Animation Guild.

Freedom 50

In animation years "20" is the new "30", "30" is the new "40", "40" is the new "50" and "50" is the new "dead".
In show business too, look at Michael Jackson and Billy Mays...

L'affaire Robinson: Part DEUX

2009-07-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

Back in the winter I wrote a post about the court proceedings of Claude Robinson vs Cinar regarding the series Robinson Sucroe and Claude Robinson's series idea Robinson Curiosite.

As far as I could tell from following the press links, the proceedings ended March 21 this year, and then... nothing.

No verdict to be found, no further proceedings, the Google search trail ran cold.

So, did Claude Robinson win his case? Is the jury still deliberating?(closing in on 5 months? I hope they get conjugal visits!A "hung" jury?)

The Quebec media who were on that witch hunt with torches and pitchforks, putting their support behind Claude Robinson against the rotten evil corporate empire in rubble who used to be regarded as the Addams Family of companies in its heyday, have kept absolutely quiet on the subject ever since that March end date.

Were they denied the favored outcome of giving Claude Robinson his due? Were they robbed of their chance to put the last stake in the heart of a company that has long since been sold, renamed and jettisoned to Toronto under an entirely new management who is clear of all the previous wrong doings?

It's still the media's job to report any outcome or no outcome, even a "wait and see", stay tuned until further notice, etc...

But silence?

The people have a right to know. Mainly, the 200 plus animation artists who made a decent living at a company that employed them year round and were thrown on the streets after a scandal erupted, exposed by a scorned creator who, having expired all other avenues, found a way to cripple a giant so that once brought down, they could be taken to court, no longer under the protection of the government, the banks retirement funds, the NYSE and the court of public opinion.

A lot of good people lost their livelihood so Robinson could have his day in court.
They don't want to hear that it was all for nothing, or that Cinar and France Animation were innocent of any wrong doing.

And Daniel De Foë can stop spinning in his grave. It was HIS creation, dammit!

Comic Con, SIGGRAPH and Ottawa Animation Festival

2009-07-24T05:59:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, if I had free time and money I would go to all three!!! Also, if I still lived in my parents' basement and didn't have to worry about mortgage and bill payments...

SO my next option would be, pick 2 out of three. Then it's no contest: SIGGRAPH and Ottawa Animation Festival. Comic Cons make me queasy.

The SIGGRAPH has new technology, big studios are present, job fair, networking.

It's in New Orleans this year, I don't have the Air Miles to go there for free. Hotels, and food, hmmmm, well I can't afford to give myself a per diem now can I?

Okay, one out of three. The Ottawa Animation Festival. It's a fairly short drive, I can stay in Hull overnight, I speak the language, Big studios, networking, who knows?

Hopefully I will be gainfully employed and won't be able to attend, as usual, but that part is never certain.

Decisions, decisions....

The great monetizing experiment

2009-07-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

I removed the ads. Whoever clicked once I thank you. It got me $0.23, in a 3 month span.
So, obviously, I will start to explore other avenues to make money on the internet. I am no Perez Hilton (thankfully).

I will continue with trying to build my website, time being an issue, and start putting some short animated gags on it to get the ball rolling.

And heed the advice of this man:

Bill Plympton

Plymptoons

Building a website

2009-06-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well, I started building my website. There is a reason why I kept putting it off, it's frustrating, time consuming work! So I will keep it very simple until I get the leisure time to polish it.

First order of the day is to put up a link to my demo reels on it.

Something to do in between actual work and daily chores.

The Ad Genie

2009-06-08T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hmm, I notice that the ads I get on my page seem to match whatever I type in the subject line. I say "Felix the Cat" and Google ads bring all sorts of Felix the Cat links. I say, Free animation software and lo and behold...

So here goes:

FREE HOUSE!

FREE AIRFARE!

FREE VACATION!

FREE LAPTOPS!

FREE CAR!(SHELBY GT 500)

Hmm, I may have rubbed the lamp but do I only get 3 wishes?

Independant Animation Production: free!

2009-05-26T05:48:00.001-07:00

I had lunch with one of my former supervisors last Friday and we talked about computers and the need for software.

He told me that once the hardware is bought, if you produce your own film, you don't have to pay for software ever again. It's all free and legal. Production, graphic, audio, editing, rendering: FRRREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Don't believe it? Try typing OSALT in your next Google search. OSALT stands for "Open Source Alternatives". One of the softwares everyone talks about is Blender, a free 3D software package that does as good as Maya, even better than Maya in some instances. You can even edit your film on it. If you want a more powerful editing tool, you can get Cinelerra, a powerful editing suite that works on Linux, a free operating system that has barely any learning curve, and for audio recordings, audio editing there is Audacity, a free ware that works on all platforms. You also have graphics alternatives to Photoshop, Illustrator, Toon Boom, but I believe they are not as extensively developped, but still, every other software I mentioned, that's a saving of at least $10000.00 to $20000.00

So my advice is: Get some fast Quad Core box and big honking monitor and reclaim the animation industry for yourself, with no overhead.

Enjoy more Vavoom

2009-05-21T10:10:00.000-07:00

While I ponder away at the existential question "Should I go Mac or PC for my next box", enjoy some more big mouthed humour and uber-limited animation from the 60s.
I wager that cartoon was responsible for a slight percentage of bad acid trips, man.

Vavoom!!!!

2009-05-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Something jogged my memory to the 1960's Felix the Cat TV shows and this particular character: Vavoom.

I was about 6 years old and the Felix the cat cartoons would play before I left for school and this particular character who would level mountains just by yelling "Vavoom!" made quite an impression.

It reminds me of one of the worst episodes of child cruelty only kids can come up with at that I have ever witnessed.

One morning I arrived at school where all the kids are outside playing before the bell rings, summoning kids to their classrooms. This cold winter morning, all the kids were dressed with the winter coats, parkas, typical Canadian winter wear.
But this time, all the kids, boys mostly, from 2nd or 3rd grade, were surrounding and walking around this kid with a parka yelling "Vavoom!" in unison every 3 seconds, in rythm.

The kid, who had a big mouth and big teeth, did not particularly enjoy it. But more kids joined the party and kept taunting him: "Vavoom! Vavoom!", I was one of them. (what did you expect? Ghandi Jr?)

That shtick lasted a week. The "Vavoom!" kid was still at our school, the taunts just ended.

But until recently I wondered why we never saw these Felix the cat cartoons ever again afterward. My guess is too many schools had many kids with big mouths and big teeth and sensitive parents.

Pixar in Vancouver

2009-05-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

They are placing ads for UP on this blog. It's a good sign.
The Vancouver studio will be dedicated to short subject and films for DVD, amusement parks etc... If it's located in Kitsilano, English Bay or downtown it should be a nice place to work at. If it's in Surrey, security will need to be beefed up and employees will have to wear bullet proof vests to go to and from work.

I would love to move there, in the near future if opportunities for my wife and I concur, she would love to be near her mom.

Well, I wouldn't mind animating Mr. Potato head for the next 3 years if it could all happen and the stars are aligned, but, we'll see.

Cha-Ching$$$$

2009-05-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I just decided to monetize this blog, to see if money will actually start to appear in the near future, from this blog.
An ad is an ad, nobody lingers on it, there is a sudden urge to go to the bathroom when we see one, unless it is an ad we helped produce while working on commercial animation.

But this could also work in the way of the "one red paperclip" guy who ended up with Alice Cooper's house in Saskatchewan as an ultimate trade up.

I could also try and sell stuff on eBay, open an eBay store and unload any junk I can find in the house. But the phishing emails got to me, so many people are in it to steal, it just isn't worth my time.

Then supposedly Craigslist breeds serial killers, or so do I see in the Boston TV Channel News.

So hey, blog ads seem like a cheap option and who knows? If you visit this site, click on one of them, That could mean a nickel for me.

While I can't advertise on my own, I can certainly recommend.

And I greatly recommend my buddy Craig Wilson's comic "Jimmy Ricochet" which I truly enjoyed and if you're like me and avoid the comic cons like the plague, save yourself some time and check out the link:

boardguy: Jimmy Ricochet-Issue "0 ?"

Twittering moron

2009-05-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while.

Well, this just to say that I have done tried out Twitter and hardly see the point to it. Except the twittering I decided to follow. Here are my faves:

Jon Favreau: He is on set shooting Iron Man 2 and is diligently letting you know what he is doing and it's fairly interesting. Not sure if I should send him a reply or not and for what? A-

Stephen Colbert: Clearly the funniest and most original quips, entertaining. B+

Rob Riggle: Very entertaining and regular. B

Rob Corddry and Jon Hodgeman: verbal diarrheists, occasionally funny. B-

Penn Jillette: Informative. C+

John Cleese: Rarely tweets and it's a bit inside-y. C

Eddy Izzard: 100% self promotion, his shows, where you can buy tickets etc... C-

Funny_or_Die: I don't want to waste time clicking on your f...ing links, ok? D+

Friends, employers and acquaintances: has e-mail stopped working? how about a phone call? D

Strangers who follow your tweets: Get a frigging life, I swear!!!! D-

The Onion: Annoying, self promoting, "click on links" and worst of all: unfunny. F

I have cut the Onion loose, what a waste of time.

And so is Twitter, so far.

Freedom 55

2009-03-17T17:37:00.001-07:00

A look at early retirement for Generation X, Y and Z.
That sunshine? that's the bailout.

WATCHMEN SPOOF: Mad Magazine comes through

2009-03-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well it was almost immediate. In response to my plea to spoof the Watchmen movie, Mad magazine came through with a satire that pretty much used some of my gag ideas, a reference to the Blue Man Group in bed with Silk Spectre II, anything to do with DR. Manathan's giant blue... something. But I still think they missed out on Ron Pallillo. Welcome Back Kotter is running somewhere in Syndication, so he is still relevant...

Mr Mel Brooks, please, spoof the Watchmen!

2009-03-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

With Ron Pallillo as "R-Horshack"!!! OOH! OOH!OOH!!!

I will see Watchmen, but what everybody is talking about is how faithful it is to the book. How director Zack Snyder pulled off a masterpiece that the fans of the original story will appreciate, how this once deemed "unfilmable" story is the triumph of new technology over old Hollywood.

It's just screaming to be spoofed. A call out to the Wayans, the Cohens, the Zuckers, heck, Mel Brooks while he is still alive, one last hurrah for the old master.

Mr Brooks, if you ever read this, this will prove to be the easiest decision to produce a film you have ever made, think "Spaceballs" meets "Robin Hood: Men in tights".

In this one, you get the soft porn that is a Swedish supermodel having a go at it with a furry in a Big Bird suit. This is only topped off by another one with the same Swedish supermodel having a foursome with the Blue Man Group.

The aforementioned Ron Pallillo as R-Horshack, reprising his Welcome Back Kotter role but delivered under an ever changing mucus filled Kleenex of a mask that morphs as he keeps sneezing into it.

A giant blue wang that can stop Russian nuclear missiles dead in their tracks, a retirement glass condo seniors community built on Mars, with the guy from the Blue Man Group as condo association president.

A Super Comedian who kills only if he's onstage and bombs, fending hecklers calling him out: "Hey aren't you the same guy who played "Iron Man"? Or the guy with the funky haircut in "No Country for Old Men"?

And of course the superhero billionaire dubbed the smartest guy on Earth who just swindled the world in the most elaborate Ponzi scheme that just brought down the planet, yes, that's Bernie Madoff!

Mr Mel Brooks, I hope this reaches you, the more pompous the project, the more it deserves your own special attention.

That new studio smell

2009-02-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I will be back at it for the second season of By the rapids. Actually, it's the last 6 episodes of the first 14. The mandate is to elevate the quality of the animation and I have just been hired as animation supervisor at Big Soul.
So I am leaving the company I presently work after next week.

The challenges will be there, but I must say, I still get a kick out of working on By the Rapids. The little studio that can is still a very pleasant place to work for, it still has that fresh new studio smell, and it is quickly becoming a place where people want to join the team.

More later

L'Affaire Robinson

2009-02-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

This title seems to belong in the Tintin adventures collection, but it is about the much publicized plagiarism case against Cinar by Claude Robinson, regarding the theft of his intellectual property, "Robinson Curiosite", in the form of a production of an animated series "Robinson Sucroe".

Back in May 2008 I received a call from Claude Robinson, as he had called me years before about his lawsuit, except this time, his lawsuit was on, and he was to call me in as one of his witnesses. He said the court proceedings were to be conducted between September 2008 and March 2009, and that I would be called in at some time during that period to go and testify.

I follow the proceedings from afar, the latest coming to me through an article in Animation World Network, which prompted me to dig further. I found all the articles relating to the lawsuit at this website:

http://www.sartec.qc.ca/temporaire2/robinson-presse.pdf

(copy and paste, this blog doesn't want to load up my links for some reason)

Almost all are in French, but it's quite interesting.

It talks about going to Paris to get the testimony from the French author of Robinson Sucroe, of proof of plagiarism. Also it recounts the testimony of ex Cinar people that were familiar with Claude Robinson's work. I learned a lot that I didn't know before.

There are 2 months left to the proceedings, I don't know when or even IF I am going to be called to testify. But really, what can I testify to?

I worked briefly on Robinson Sucroe in the function of layout artist on 2 episodes before I left Cinar (Crayon at the time) to take on another project. I also did sheet direction on one episode as a freelancer.

I knew not of even Claude Robinson's existence at the time, in February 1994.

In September 1995, I was working for Toon Boom Technologies (now Toon Boom Animation)
as their head animator/demonstrator/trainor with the Tic Tac Toon software when I first met Claude Robinson. He was a jovial individual and excited at the prospect of doing a production potentially using our software. He proceeded to show me his Robinson Curiosite, drawings and synopsis, in general.
After making an exciting pitch about it he asked me:

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

That's when I opened my mouth and let fly. I told him of my working on a project at Crayon and mentioning that it was being advertised on Canal Famille. I didn't think it was any more than a coincidence at the time, after all, Robinson Crusoe was written centuries ago and the properties that were created since, based on it, are legion. But I did not know the back story.

It's true that even if I hadn't said anything, he would have found out anyways. Several years ago, Claude phoned me to tell me I had nothing to do with his discovery of the whole sordid thing. Fine, I don't mind being kept clear of any involvement. But, that's what my testimony would be, considering I would have to swear on the Bible.

But there is more that I remember from that encounter at Toon Boom Technologies, after I opened my mouth. It was Claude's reaction, one that seemed out of place from such a jovial character. It's one that you can only experience if you have ever created a property, pitched it, and seen other people drop the ball with it, steal it or mangle it as they pleased.

The reaction was like someone getting kicked hard in the groin.

In this case, by someone the size of Shaquille O'Neil with size 17 shoes and a running start.

That, I will never forget, and completely understand.

Bonne chance, Claude!

Good, cheap, fast and h#ng like a horse.... pick FOUR!!!

2009-01-29T17:44:00.000-08:00

Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

I am talking about seeing more and more blustering malarchy by some animation production people at large that claim to go beyond the "project triangle" in offering clients to have their cake and eat it too.

"Good, fast, cheap... pick THREE!!" is the latest of the inane claims that challenges what we regard as "good". When tripe and mediocrity sells because it is done at a low cost and in record time, how can you resist jumping on that bandwagon?

Recently I visited a studio that was having a fire sale of its equipment, forced out of business for dealing with a wacko client who, when faced with the project triangle, pulled out and gave the contract to a company that boasts it can bust that triangle to smithereens. " Yes we can!" is now being served in all sauces and flavors.

I say, it's time to rein our businesses in, it's time to man up and take charge of our own creativity. Let the clients come because they want precisely what we produce, not because we wager to be able to make their wax wings hold to the sun when they jump off that cliff and take us down with them, because we sooooo desperately need the work.

It's a tall order, I know, but remember: "Yes, we can!"

The curious case of Benjamin Forrest Button Gump...OH SNAP!

2009-01-05T17:01:00.001-08:00

During my brief bout of being single in my 40s, I went out with this woman who was very attractive, and I thought I really like her, but when she put glasses on, she looked like Howard Stern. And no matter what happened during the date and what ever we were discussing, only one thing was going through my head: "HOWARD STERN! HOWARD STERN! HOWARD STERN!"

Okay, I just had the same feeling after seeing a film that I found really great, in every way, certainly an Oscar contender, except, throughout the film at every new passage of time, one thought was screaming through my mind: "FORREST GUMP! FORREST GUMP! FORREST GUMP!"

In the Curious case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt plays a man who was born in an old man's body that grows younger as he grows older. It takes place in a southern state of the USA and the movie covers his entire life. Growing up as an oddity in a huge house with his mama and meeting the love of his life as a young child, she will be in and out of his life as the boy grows and goes around the world, goes to war, works on a boat with a gruff officer who is partly his mentor... By the way, I am still talking about Benjamin Button here, focus! The main character provides a narrative throughout the film, using a thick southern accent, and the technology used to make the image help the narrative are just groundbreaking for the time.. okay, now I am talking about Forrest Gump..... Well, and Benjamin Button.

Everyone dies and even though the message is different, my experience of watching this movie is the same as watching Forrest Gump. Well what did I expect? Life IS like a box of chocolates...

Happy Holidays

2008-12-17T06:08:00.002-08:00

A little gag I did for the season. Hopefully we get through the next year in better shape then we ended this one. They say it will get worse before it gets better, and in the past I have never been immune to these reversals of economic fortunes. I hope for the best while the worst is coming.

Happy New Year to all!

Back on the personal project

2008-11-26T11:48:00.000-08:00

It's good to be back on my film, trying to finish the storyboard clean up.
Then there will be a scratch track, and then voice casting and recording with voice actors, character set ups and rigs, backgrounds, get everything ready to roll.

Now I need funding. Some funding solutions came my way and I am looking into them. I consider what I have done so far, from creation to my own time put on it as investment and expenses in the budget. Hopefully the funding that I will need to jump through hoops for will not be in vain. As in "Your company must have produced 3 projects in the past 5 years and showed some profit", "Your project must meet all the target points established by our selection criteria and you must invent the media it's going to be presented in, no known form of media must be used, unless it's from the future... and you've been there and back already so you know whether or not we will award you these funds..."

I remember my university days when I lived with my financially struggling parents and was awarded no grant or fund to study, while my girlfriend whose father was a rich medical specialist was given the full education ministry's mother lode. "On ne prete qu'aux riches" is a motto that has resonated in my head ever since. Or as Mark Twain said "A banker is someone who gives you an umbrella when the sun is shining and takes it from you when it starts to rain".

In this economic depression era we're entering, it's going to be tough to make a liar out of Mark Twain.

Hoochie Mama!!!

2008-11-19T06:19:00.001-08:00

Wasn't that Frank Costanza's new mantra after "Serenity now!" stopped working?

Actually, these were designed on ToonBoom Harmony as Disco Dancers for a webisode for the Adam Sandler movie "You don't mess with the Zohan". They were rejected because they were considered "too hoochie". Eventually, the webisodes seem to have been rejected altogether.

"Hoochie" was a new expression for my French ears but let's see: they are not Cougars, I know that, not enough mileage on them. They are a bit "zaftig" in the upper "chestibule", okay. They are not strippers although they dress sexy, they smile and are obviously enjoying themselves... Oh wait a minute!These are Montreal Disco girls!!!
Everywhere else they would be considered loose,cheap and easy I think that's what "Hoochie" refers to: Drunk and loose women.

Eventually the actual design they wanted was more "college girls" (cough... barely legal...cough). College sure has changed since my days, where the girls were either wearing parkas and maxi long skirts to the dance floor, or they were considered, hmmmmm.... what's the word?... HOOCHIE! Voila.

Second Season of BTR

2008-11-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

I hope this guy is driving, 'cause he's too drunk to fish!

I am on the last mad dash to the finish on season 1. Season 2 has been green lit, but that may mean a lull in between where I will scramble to find income.

In the best case scenario, I manage to survive and use that time to advance my project to the point where I can try and find funding for it so I can start production in the summer of 2009.

We'll see how the coming weeks will look.

One thing for sure, I will have more time to blog.

By The Rapids

2008-10-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

copyright Big Soul Productions

Well, my new job has kept me busy lately. I am working at home on my Cintiq and using Toon Boom Digital Pro, animating on the series "By The Rapids" which is the English translation of the Mohawk name Khanawake, the Mohawk reservation south of Montreal. I work from home but drop by the studio once or twice a week, they're a real good bunch. Some ex Nelvana, ex Montrealer, recent graduates and interns round up the crew. Others also work from home and we all live nearby. I can go the BG artist's house rather than go to the studio if need be, it's cheaper on gas.

Funny thing is I lived in Ville LaSalle for 2 years, right on the shore of the St-Lawrence river facing Khanawake. And in my early days working at Michael Mills in Westmount as an assistant animator, I would share an office at the back of the studio on the second floor with Sonny Hong. And every afternoon at 3:00pm we would turn the dial to Mohawk radio for the "Breaking Glass" rock music broadcast. This was even better then CHOM FM at the time. And we could only get the station from our room.

I still know some of the Mohawk expressions. Gway - Gway! Saygum!

We will be done soon with the first 7 episodes and hope for a second season.
The shows should air soon here in Canada on APTN.

The Band played on

2008-09-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

Every new animator I meet seem to also be a musician. In a big studio, if you stay long enough, it's only a matter of time until you start jamming and getting enough people interested to practice as one band. Then one evening, the studio decides to do a Music Night, featuring your motley crew (hehe) and other musicians putting on a show, with the rest of the studio looking on in exchange of drinking a few beer and free pizza.
And if it's a hit, they will ask you back, but this time, more serious musicians join in. But that first night was a lot of fun.

http://www.ericmurray.com/musicnight/

Charlize

2008-09-04T05:18:00.001-07:00

I just drew this one from memory. Not because it's the TIFF, but because of an anecdote that only came back to memory and to realization about 6 years ago.

This takes us back to 1990 in London England, where I was working for Amblimation/Universal Pictures Animation studio. This was on a Steven Spielberg produced feature called "American Tail II: Fievel Goes West".

It wasn't unusual at the time to see big name stars wander about the studio, especially if they were doing voices of the film's characters. John Cleese visited the studio, so did Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. But enough name dropping, for now.

One particular anecdote that happened was about an A-list movie star that had yet to emerge but graced our studio with her presence for about 3 weeks in August 1990.

On an August Monday morning as I entered the studio, past the security guard, I entered the reception area that, on that day, was crowded with seemingly every male animation artist in the studio. It was like the biggest turn out of artists in one small room as I have ever seen. Through the crowd, I see some of the artists reviewing a black portfolio. I was thinking, maybe a star animator had just got in so I made my way to the portfolio.

When I took the portfolio in my hands, I get the wind knocked right out of me, for these were not drawings, but pictures of a scantily clad supermodel, unknown but jaw dropping beautiful, stunning! And it went on for page after page. I asked: "Whose portfolio is this?"
-"Mine." replied a feminine voice coming through the crowd and from the reception desk. I looked up and saw our new receptionist. The woman whose pictures were filling the portfolio I was holding.
-" I was modeling in Milan before I came here." She added.

I went to introduce myself and here stood this 6 foot tall glamazon in front of me,talking with a strange accent.

I asked her what her accent was.
-" I am from South Africa." she replied.

After that, the powers that be scowled and everyone left the reception area to get back to work.

As days went by I would stop by and chat with Charlize every once in a while (hey, I was single). When one day, Alfons, a spanish assistant that looked like Antonio Banderas playing Forrest Gump, was sitting next to me in the reception room. A group of assistants went by us on their way out for a farewell lunch for one of them, Jim Capobianco, who was leaving for bigger and better things in the USA (Pixar storyboard artist extraordinaire nowadays. I told you I wasn't finished with the name dropping.)

I asked Alfons innocently "Where are they going?".
Stoically, Alfons answered: -"They are going out to the restaurant for "Yeem"'s farewell party." and then, with a violent smash of his fist on the table he screamed:
-"AND I CANNOT GO!!!!"

This startled Charlize and I into a restrained laughter. Alfons continued.
" I thought "Yeem" was one of my closest friends, but I was wrong!"

As it turned out, the person who organized the dinner made a point of not inviting Alfons. It was not Jim's idea. I proceeded to tell Alfons that he should go and crash the party anyways. Which he did, and Yeem was nice to him and all went fine.

But after Alfons left I stayed back and had a good laugh with Charlize. We started talking about restaurants. How hard it is to find a good one in London. How I managed to find a good Mexican restaurant.
-" I love Mexican food!" she added.
I simply added: "Well, would you like to go to this restaurant with me tomorrow evening?"
-"Sure, I'd love to!" was her reply.

As I went back to my desk it hit me. I just asked the receptionist on a date and she said yes.

I go to two of my assistant friends, Shari and Isabelle and tell them of what happened. Their eyes popped wide open and they hugged me!
-"That's wonderful! She is a knockout! But don't tell the other guys. Keep it quiet! Don't tell anyone! Don't jinx it!"

And the next day I went to work still in a daze. But was shocked right back into my singlehood reality as I entered the reception. There was Charlize standing next to a mustachioed dude that looked like Freddy Mercury. She introduces me to her boyfriend from Milan.

So that's how my dinner date with Charlize Theron almost happened.
And soon after that, she was gone, we got a new receptionist.

I only recognized the Charlize I knew when I saw The Legend of Bagger Vance, where her hair was dark and there was no mistaking her. And reading her biography, unless she has a 6 foot tall doppelganger also from South Africa who modeled in Milan back in the late 80s early 90s, it's her, I am sure of it.
Although her age would have made her 16 years old when I asked her out (OY! Jailbait!!!)So I guess I dodged that one, but her age would have come up sooner or later. Maybe the boyfriend was there to chaperon our date and I still owe her a Mexican dinner.

Or maybe everyone out there reading this thinks I am making this up. At the very least, let me thank you for giving that much credit to my imagination. But it did happen. All the witnesses are spread out around the world, who knows if anyone else has any recollection of the temp receptionist and who she turned out to be. But anyone who wishes to do the research is welcomed to it.

I still stand by my story.

I once asked Charlize Theron on a date, and she accepted. My wife thought that was charming.

Ogie Oglethorpe

2008-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Back at a studio where I used to work, there was a change of management. Production was going down the toilet and able artists who were wise enough to take a week off to go to SIGGRAPH got job offers and started jumping ship by the dozens. For the rest of us who couldn't find rafts, we climbed back of the Titanic watching it bobbing down with us.
At that time, the lucky ones would let the rest of the studio know that they were leaving for greener pastures and give us lovely little nuggets of wisdom which is only a barely covered way of rubbing it in.
With a few fellow workers we would e-mail each other whenever someone in the studio we had never met sent us their good cheer as they left (like, who cares, dude, we never, like, knew you!)

And thus I came up with a fictional employee, named him Ogie Oglethorpe (If you care to know, watch Slapshot, the hockey movie with Paul Newman). And Ogie on the day that his turn came to leave the studio, sent a message to his many close friends, hoping no copies would make it to the powers that be, and they be pissed.

Ogie, as opposed to his other leaving colleagues, would tell it exactly like it is. Here is the reproduction of Ogie's last day e-mail:

How come everyone who leaves always has a pearl of wisdom for the rest of us poor suckers like:
"Keep your life happy", "Don't feed the evil wolf within", "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" bullshit when what they reallly mean is:
"So long suckers! I have been hired elsewhere because I'm better than you all stuck here until your next demotion!"

For once I would like an honest pearl necklace of wisdom if you're gonna shoot your wad at us that you are leaving for bigger and better things.

Here goes:

"Hey everybody, today is my last day at (insert latest hostile-takeover-by-evil-corporate-consortium name here).
There are no words to describe my joy and glee at finally being freed of my creative shackles in this God forsaken place
and being hired at a new job that recognizes my ability and experience and takes it in consideration by paying me
the wages I so deserve. And I am promoted to booth, when was that ever going to happen here?
Without a U.S. citizenship, chances are pretty much shot to shit.

But I am not bitter, I will always remember your grey faces of doom, awaiting the inevitable layoffs and collapse
of this bloated joint, at least you tried to get out. But nobody wants to hire your sorry asses.
Or maybe you just know your limitations and are actually eyeing that Tim Horton position, hoping to be at least
hired to replace the guy who opens the door.
But let me cut to the chase: you suck, I rule! And now let's all go to my farewell lunch because this is no
fun unless I get to rub your noses in it in person.

Sincerely,

Ogie Oglethorpe"

From the home office in Oakville, ON

2008-08-15T05:50:00.001-07:00

For years I wondered if I would ever again return to the days of working from home.
A Cintiq, some professional animation software and, provided I show up at the studio when need be, this is going to be alright!

Now I get my ass in gear for another productive day at home. Hopefully it will all come out fine and dandy. Now the only micro management I get is from my dog. But he's got a long leash.

9 and a half minutes

2008-08-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, when I undertook a little personal project after gearing up with a Cintiq, ToonBoom Storyboard Pro and Digital Pro, already owning Photoshop,Maya and Movie Magic Screenwriter, I quickly came up with an idea. I committed to do thumbnails the size of movie posters first, not just to waste time, but it did. After loading up the timeline at the end of my story, I am still in the process of cleaning up the storyboard and slugging the thing and it looks like it will clock in at 9Min:30secs.

I think I am going to need some financing to complete it, and be more diligent with my working hours on it (like finish the damn board already!)

Also, I will probably need help with color backgrounds and getting a crew of animators involved, choosing to be a director over being a do-it-all-yourself Renaissance man.
I will provide a voice and then cast and hire voice actors, find a musical score and will need foley, sound mixing, color correction...

And then I have producers from India fishing for me to outsource the work.

Things would be so much easier if I were rich.

Ownership Down

2008-07-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

This article from 5 years ago deals witch pitching a pilot. This is for sitcoms as opposed to animated shows. Pitched by a prominent writer. A Seinfeld writer, no less. If you think it gets easier once you're at the top of your game and on top of the world, being one of the writers responsible for the "Greatest sitcom of all time", read 'em and weep.

www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,845704,00.html

Here's an extract of the article:

"Still, after ILYK... I was hot to do another show, so I wrote a pilot without telling anyone about it: The White Album, a dark, comic, serialized murder mystery. When people read it, they kept saying ''It's sitcom noir — a whole new genre!''

The script went to networks. They loved it. They all rejected it. The reason, according to inside sources, was that the networks didn't have ''creative ownership'' over it. In less breathtakingly incoherent terms: Writing the show before telling them about it made them feel jilted. It's been said that in the history of the world, no one ever washed a rented car. In TV, rented cars are totaled."

Why so serious?

2008-07-21T05:18:00.000-07:00

This is not just about The Dark Knight, but about humor in animation, comics and cartoons in general, or the tendency to have as little of it as possible.

I must say, there are a few of Heath Ledger's Joker antics that were a welcomed comedy relief in an otherwise too serious story. His psychopathic humor can be funny and something to get that's different from Christian Bale's annoying low throaty rasp as Batman, more like the Darth Knight and grating as hell, or the visual gag that is Gary Oldman's commissioner Gordon who looks like the live action Ned Flanders.

In the coming attractions: the Watchmen, the movie they said couldn't be made (or shouldn't). And then the new rehashed Star Trek.... Geez, where's Ogre Palowakski when you need him!

Well, with the insane box office superhero movies are making, Hollywood has given us the biggest atomic wedgie shakedown ever and the public is shelling out its lunch money as if the principal and the teachers had flown the coop.

All this makes me feel that going after humor and funny in animation wasn't a wise career choice. Oh sure, Iron Man was much lighter in tone thanks to Robert Downey Jr and John Favreau's own comedic sensibilities.

I just hope that at some point I will see something animated or from a cartoon property that is HILARIOUS without being marketed for children or have it's funniest character be cast as the villain.

No wonder the superhero rubbed off at the beginning of Watchmen is aptly named "The Comedian".

As we pull down the elastic waistband of our briefs from our collective foreheads and recompose ourselves, I say: Let's bring funny back.

And... storyboard part 3

2008-07-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Here in this follow up are more physical gags and wild action. If you ever dated someone for the first time who owned a dog, you experience first hand, upon entering your date's abode, that the pooch dispenses quickly with the etiquette and goes straight to the... point.

Storyboard continued

2008-07-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Here is another section with more emphasis on characters and camera position.

Storyboard

2008-07-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

These 4 pages are from a storyboard I did for a series I had created in 1999. The show was optioned for 3 years and almost happened. I had done a show bible, designs, 3 full episodes scripts, 13 outlines and a 30 second animated teaser for the MIPCOM.
While waiting back then I decided to thumbnail the pilot and storyboard the first act. I set the location for the series in my hometown of Montreal, I went a bit overboard with the skyline shot. The following house design I did was patterned after the Square St- Louis area near St-Denis street. I will publish more pages soon.

Joyeux 400e, Bonhomme!

2008-07-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Sandwiched between Canada Day and Independence Day in the USA stands the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. The provincial capital of Quebec and the "Cradle of North America".

Growing up I often traveled back and forth to la vieille Capitale, to visit family, on a school tour, hockey tournament, carnaval or for a week-end vacation or two.

Quebec City is one of the most colorful places in North America both for its people and architecture which I can only refer to as uninhibited Old France. Quite a contrast to conservative hogtown, and I've been here long enough that a trip to Quebec City might give me a good case of culture shock.

There is enough there to inspire creativity: the sceneries, the atmosphere, the adventures with the local population and yet, all the cinematic world has to show for it is Alfred Hitchcock's "I confess" and using it as a backdrop named after the French town of Mont-Richard in Steven Spielberg's "Catch me if you can".

I think more can be done than that, other than Triumph the insult comic dog's visit and Celine Dion. Hopefully, these 400th birthday celebrations will help.

Le "One-Eyed-Jack"

2008-06-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

In this post I will talk about a subject that is dear to all artists working in the animation field or any other visual media: the eyes.

We have them, love them, need them, couldn't work without them, can't imagine the repercussions of anything happening to them.

Throughout my life I had all kinds of adventures happening with my eyes, from one day needing glasses to wearing a patch over one of them. At 19, I dabbled in home renovation at a friend's parents' farm house, starting with demolition of the bathroom. A smarter, wiser worker would wear protective gear like, say, EYE GOGGLES!! I got the big hammer on the tiles and on the very first crack a piece of ceramic went flying into my eye, requiring a trip to the emergency clinic. I got some medication and an eye patch, and the end of my home renovation aspirations.

A few years later, it was cleaning up the ashes from a fireplace in an apartment complex where a fake, composite log had been consumed. As the chemical ashes went airborne, a piece of mica got caught in my eye. To the clinic, they took the piece out, medication, eye patch once more.

Then a few years later a bit of conjunctivitis, clinic, meds, patch...

Then nothing for 20 years, until about two and a half months ago, as I was finishing a job on a series that is still on hiatus, I started to feel dry eyes, so I put in some Visine. Then I would wake up every morning at around 4:30 to 5:00 AM with a burning pain in my right eye. I thought an eyelash got in there, so I got an ophtalmic bath solution which gave me a mild relief. But every morning around 5:00 AM, awoken by a pain in my right eye as if someone had rubbed a rock in there. I went to the clinic, the doctor found no foreign object, declared it was an eye infection and prescribed some anti biotic eye drops. He said the problem shall resolve itself in 5 days. I got some relief from that after a few days. However, after one week, I was awake at 5:00 am every morning all over again. I continued with the drops for another week and decided that I was due for a visit with an ophtalmologist for a better eye exam. At this point I have had this eye problem for two and a half week.

My ophtalmologist made the right guess. She told me that the cells that regenerate during the night were not doing so which caused the burning in my eye at the end of a night's sleep. So she booked an appointment for me at Toronto's Bochner Eye Institute with a cornea specialist, Dr Raymond Stein. He would have the high tech gear and expertise to take care of this problem. She told me to throw away the antibiotic eye drops since this was not an infection. My appointment with Dr Stein was to be 3 weeks later, since he was only available on a Wednesday, and 2 weeks from then I had a job interview so I couldn't have booked the eye exam at the institute just then. So I had to live with this pain for another 3 weeks.

Anyone worried yet? If it were your eye, that is.

3 days before my exam at the Bochner eye institute, the pain became constant, not just upon waking up, but throughout the morning. Well I rushed to the emergency clinic, and to my dismay, I got the same Dr that had prescribed me the antibiotic drops.

This time he really scrubbed in the eye, and he might have just used a cheese grater, that's how much it hurt, and then he declared, it was an eyelash caught in there and that he got it out!
I thought to myself "Baloney!" he never showed me the culprit eyelash and even if he tried, at this point my eyes were watering like a fountain. I got a patch on, he prescribed some steroid eye drops and off I went.

When I finally got to the Bochner Eye Institute. Dr Raymond Stein took a look at my eye with his fancy lens and laser and said: "Yes, your cells are pretty loose in there. It's a condition called Epithelial Basement Membrane Dystrophy and it's very common, could be genetic also, but not necessarily. We will do a Karatectomy and you'll be fine."

I was then advised to throw out the Steroid drops and just put some lubricating eye drops until the surgery.

Surgery! Holy Sheet!

But then I read about the condition and the operation, which is done with an Excimer laser. The laser helps loosen the bad cells on the cornea which the doctor then brushes off.

I also heard that the Bochner Eye Institute was the clinic that worked on Tiger Woods laser eye surgery and Tiger Woods himself was doing the radio ads for it. The Institute walls had signed memorabilia from the Toronto Raptors' one time star Vince Carter and the Leafs' ex captain Mats Sundin (Go Habs GO!) as former patients.
I was feeling reassured. It had been 2 months of that pain in the eye already and the operation was scheduled for 2 weeks later.

Finally, last tuesday was the big day. My friend Harry Rasmussen drove me to the appointment as I was told not to drive myself that day, my wife Melinda joined us, taking an early leave from work.

When the time came, I had the patient gown over my clothes and a cheese factory worker's bonnet on my head (Anyone cares to remember Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe's infamous "Cheese factory hat" promo picture in the mid 90s? Google it!)

As I sat down in the chair, they put anesthetic eye drops in my eye to freeze it, put the "Clockwork Orange" device to keep my eyelid from blinking. Then came the Excimer laser, which looked like staring at 2 bright spotlights close together, but without the staying power of staring at 2 actual spotlights. And the doctor proceeded to brush off the bad cells on my cornea, it felt like someone using an ink brush, really painless. "Well, that was easy!" Dr Stein announced. "The cells were nice and loose, easy to brush off, and now we just put a bandage lens over your eye and that's it. Here's a prescription for some eye drops and make an appointment for next week, we'll remove the bandage lens there." Bandage lens: not eye patch! Sweet! The whole thing took less than 4 minutes!

When I walked out my wife looked at me and said "Didn't they operate yet? where's the eye patch?"

So the next day. I could drive, I could read, I could work the computer, just put some drops in daily.

And so far, the bandage lens is holding, it's just a little blurry since it's not a corrective lens. No big deal.

In conclusion, I know that some may feel that in this animation industry, talking about any kind of eye operation could jeopardize future employment, well, that's "baloney!" And NO, you don't get this condition by staring at a computer monitor all day.
If you get laid off or passed over a job for this, it's like passing you over for having a hangnail. I'd call that illegal!

Here is the link to the Bochner eye institute, if you have a pain in the eye, don't just live with it.

http://www.bochner.com/

Something CG

2008-06-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

These are captures from the series "Shoebox Zoo" second season.

I was on set CG supervisor on the live action shoot In Calgary AB, and back at the studio, after the virtual cameras were in place, I would make one key pose for the animators as part of my job functions as Animation supervisor. I learned a lot of Maya hands on working on this project.
My buddy Avi Katz also created a helpful tool which could save a pose in a library, to be called upon for a later shot. I still have that mel script, I can create the rudimentary buttons of what later evolved into a fancy "Pose Panel" tool with a lavish interface, which is sporadically still in use at the studio that had it.

Oh yeah, CG is a piece of cake!

iLaunched

2008-06-18T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, this isn't my first attempt at blogging. Hopefully, this time, I will push this one out to sea and let it float. The name is from a series idea that a few friends and I tried to develop 15 years ago and went nowhere. The name was coined after a weird lighter that looked like a lead stick, like the ones used for life drawing, with an incandescent tip, that somehow stays lit for a long time in a little locket that is obviously fire proof.

On my previous blogging attempt, I couldn't seem to be able to put images on, which is helpful, spruces up the page and shows more of what I can do. We'll see how it goes this time around.

So, this assignment was a design I did of a sexy henchwoman for a web series. Done on Toon Boom Harmony.