Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Last week, Saturday, we heard all day about the hurricane, Hanna, which had turned into a Tropical Storm and was about to strike NYC as it ripped up the East Coast. We were advised of enormous rains and heavy winds. I spent much of the early morning preparing my studio – which is subject to flooding since it’s below ground level – in the event of a flood. I moved Lola, our studio’s kitten, to my home to fight it out with Alex, my house cat.

The flooded corridor that leads to my studio’s front door – 10pm last Saturday.

The storm came and dropped 4½ inches of rain in about four hours. I came back to the studio about 10pm to see the damage, if there was any. The answer was not much. There was a lot of water in the corridor leading to the studio, but the sandbags held any water out. I was pleased.

This week we have replaced images of Hanna with the horrific pictures of Ike. Texas was getting smashed, and despite the fact that so little damage had inconvenienced me, I was able to feel upset at the images that started to come in from Galveston and Huston. My heart goes out to them, and I can only hope the worst of the hurricane season is past us. Times are changing, and we have to start thinking seriously about this climate of ours and the earth that’s feeling our abuse.

- From bad news to good. I was riding high when I learned that Hans Bacher is back. His late and glorious sites which honored animation design and art, has been revived. Gone is the low cal Google Blogspot; in is the more durable and solid WordPress. I’ve added the link and have visited the site a half dozen times. I urge you to do the same.
The site is called: one1more2time3.wordpress.com

And speaking of Hans Bacher, let me remind you of his brilliant book, Dreamworlds. I think this is the foremost book on the art and design of animation filmmaking. There is nothing even comparable on the market. If you’re serious about animation as a craft, you should already own this book. It’s filled to the brim with images of stunning artwork from many well known features. It informs about color, design, storyboard, composition – everything all animation artists should know, and it’s in depth. It’s the equivalent of Dick Williams’ book on animation; but this is on design.
Let me repeat, this book is a beauty.

I couldn’t resist posting this video I found on YouTube from Jim Lefevre. If you go to his website, you can find other vids showing how the piece was done. It’s quite original.
This video comes to life about 42 secs into it.

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