Commentary 10 Dec 2011 07:10 am
Linkage
- There will be a memorial service for Vinnie Cafarelli at Buzzco on January 6, 2012 from 4:00 to 9:00pm. More information will be relayed at this site when we get closer to the date.
I’ve been visiting a lot of sites and blogs lately and would like to share links and make a few comments about some of them.
Let’s start with the sites/blogs I visit every day, some of them several times a day, knowing there’s a lot to take in or there will be updates. I’m sure you visit most of these as well; they are the staples for the animation community.
The Daily Stops
Cartoon Brew, of course, is the place to get a lot of information first. Jerry Beck and Amid Amidi each has a specific taste, and together they combine to make something that captures a very wide audience. There is a lot of first-hand news flashes as well as material they’ve culled from other sites. The only annoying part of the site comes in the “comments” section where the crazies come out to make their inane comments. Of course, it doesn’t bother me enough to not read most of them.
Mike Barrier for many years was the publisher, editor and prinicipal writer for the most important magazine devoted to animation, Funny World. (I’ve been rereading several issues – currently #13 – and can’t believe how much information I’m still getting out of some of the writing.) The site is every bit the same as the magazine, except it comes more frequently. The writing and research is first rate and the material presented is always deeper than others have offered. This is a necessary stop for anyone even remotely interested in animation. He’s fiercely opinionated, but often has good reason backing up that opinion. (Though he still admits to liking POLAR EXPRESS.) His writing style is the best on the web with a superb vocabulary and well considered choice of words.
I don’t miss a day without visiting this site even though Mike sometimes will take a month off (notifying us in advance) from writing. However, I want to get the new posts the moment they’re up; it’s that important to me.
- Mark Mayerson‘s blog is my third stop, daily, on my rounds. His comments are always sharp and well thought out. His writing is done in a businesslike approach – no frills and no nonsense. His news items are often off the mainstream and definitely worth visiting. The finest part of this site is when Mark comments on a film or short or analyzes the makeup of a scene (see his 14-part take on a short sequence from Ford’s Stagecoach.) Often even Cartoon Brew lifts news items from Mark’s site. The comments section is usually from those who are knowledgeable, so they’re worth reading.
- A Film LA is Hans Perk’s great blog. This is a wonderful resource of a site. Hans posts drafts to many of the Disney films.. He also posts invaluable items from the Disney archives. I love this site for the information I pull from it and study.
Eddie Fitzgerald is one of the most creative guys on the Internet. His blog, Uncle Eddie’s Theory Corner, keeps changing about four or five times a week, and it’s always a genuine treat. He creates photo-montage essays that either are outright hilarious or somewhat serious. Just in the last two days he went from “THE AMAZING SLUMS OF RIO” to “HOW GERMANY GOT OUT OF THE DEPRESSION” to “SHOULD ANIMATION CHARACTERS WEAR WIGS?” From recipes to animation analysis to photo-cartoon comics, you never quite know what you’re going to find here, but it’s always fun.
John Kricfalusi‘s blog is a must read for animators. He often gives advice, which is usually skewed to his particular style of cartoony animation. It’s a different world if you’re a Disney-esque animator, but it’s vital that even you know what’s on his mind, because it’s always written from a sure knowledge of animation theory. I would have loved seeing what he might have done with Aladdin’s Genie. Eric Goldberg did a perfect job, but John K might have take it to the farthest reaches.
The Animation Guild Blog (TAG Blog) is the animation guild’s blog which is primarily written by Steve Hulett. It changes at least once a day, and focuses mainly on the business side of animation. There are also excellent audio interviews with animation veterans who talk about their history. At times the creative side of animation is also discussed. This is an important blog to read to get information from. I find the comments generally well informed and the discussions there usually on a high level. However, most of the commentators generally label themselves as “anonymous” which is more than a little annoying. It gives a good indication of the fear floating politically in the business.
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At least Weekly Stops
Signe Baumane‘s site, named after the feature she’s creating, Rocks In My Pockets, contains some of the best writing on the web. Signe’s stories from her life read like fantastic adventures through a unique universe. They’re all so personal and so vivid in their imagery that they could only have been written by an animator.
I’m hooked on this site and I turn up religiously to see if something new has appeared.
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- I’ve gotten to enjoy Gene Deitch’s blog, Gene Deitch Credits. He gives commentary about a number of the people he’s come in contact with over the years and writes short essays about each of the individuals. I enjoyed his take on John Hubley, Jim Tyer, Jam Handy, Bill Hurtz and especially Phil Scheib. As a matter of fact, I like them all. So little of worth is usually written about some of these people, and Gene’s personal comments are usually gold. I do wish some of them were longer. However, that’s better than wishing they were shorter.
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Countdown of the 50 Most Influential Animators in Disney Studio History
- Someone who tends to overwrite is Grayson Ponti at 50 Most Influential Disney Animators. His idea of putting out a list of the top 50 animators in Disney history is an ingenious one – except, of course, that you ultimately run out of numbers. This will happen soon, since he’s down to the top two. He’s announced a follow-up blog when he completes the top 50.
Each entry is extensive in length and usually filled with typos and hard-to-comprehend writing errors so it takes a bit of time to wade through the posts. It must take quite a while for him to write these pieces, it’d be worth his rereading them to correct errors.
Often, however, there are a lot of interesting comments that Grayson posts that make you think back to some of the scenes of the animators under discussion. I can’t say I’ve disagreed with much that he’s written, thus far.
Another problem I have with the blog is that he lifts images from many other sites without giving appropriate credit. Many of the drawings and cels lifted are in personal collections, and he should let his readers know.
- Dan Caylor has a good site called On Animation. It offers a lot of videos and news briefs. Many of these videos (all in a large format) will also show up in places like Cartoon Brew, but there are those I’ve only been able to see at this site. A good example is a wonderful piece showing the back stages of Aardman‘s puppet making for their film Pirates. This is a 17 minute piece that really gives an in depth look at the size of the puppets, not to mention the size this production. Quite informative.
The site is well worth visiting to see what new film shorts have been posted.
Steven Worth had created the site for the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archives. That site is still up, but the links weren’t working and you couldn’t access the archive. Now Steven has started this site, Animation Resources, and is quickly posting all those original links from the old site. There’s too much valuable artwork to not see it accessible; so it’s great that we can now get to it.
Recent Finds
I came across this French title designer this past week and was quite impressed. You can see a number of Laurent Brett‘s title sequences at the site. The link appeared on the Steven Heller post about the film titles for OCS 117 on Imprint magazine. However, I found all of his work quite interesting.
Laurent Brett‘s title design.
There are so many other blogs and sites that I can’t continue here. Perhaps I’ll pick it up at another time. I suggest you scroll through my blogroll on the right of this page to see what else is there (in case you don’t know about one or two of them.) I’ve barely scratched the surface. Andreas Deja’s blog, DejaView, is a miracle of animation drawing, Scribble Junkies is another voice for Bill Plympton and Pat Smith, Hans Bacher’s beautiful blog, One1more2time3, is necessary viewing, Alltop is a great way to surf the top few animation blogs. There are so many more; I will continue this.
on 10 Dec 2011 at 7:38 am 1.Stephen Macquignon said …
Blogs can be a great tool to show off your newest work or catch up on what is going on with others
on 10 Dec 2011 at 11:00 am 2.David Nethery said …
If these blog sites you listed above were neighborhood markets, pubs, the local library, etc. then I guess we’d be neighbors who would see each other every day. Living in the tiny global village of Animation.
The main difference between your list and mine is that Your Blog is usually my first stop of the day.
on 10 Dec 2011 at 12:22 pm 3.Michael said …
Thank you, David. It’s kind of you to say.
on 10 Dec 2011 at 12:33 pm 4.Daniel Caylor said …
I second what David says. Your blog is the only blog that consistently has great content every single day.
Thanks for the nod Michael, means a lot coming from you. I gotta credit my contributors though, they post a lot of great stuff!
on 10 Dec 2011 at 12:49 pm 5.Steven Hartley said …
What about my blog (Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie)?
on 10 Dec 2011 at 3:50 pm 6.Grayson Ponti said …
Dear Michael,
Thank you for bringing those criticisms to my attention. As for the typos I try to proofread some but it can be rather difficult since I’m so often behind schedule. My site is almost done but in my next website I’m going to make more of an effort to look over. As for the pictures that has been a very frustrating problem for me. Usually the pictures I use I find through google images and are still from the films. I oftentimes have little idea who these are from and because of the quantity it can be a little difficult for me to track everything down. At the end of this current countdown I’m going to do my best to do justice on this by giving credit to as many people as possible both for the images and for the text.
In the scenes one I’m going to make an effort to do a constant bibliography with each post so I won’t scuffle any feathers. Thank you for including my site and I’ll take these into consideration with the next blog.
All the best,
Grayson
on 10 Dec 2011 at 4:03 pm 7.Jeronimus Dekker said …
When I sit down behind my desk to start working on my film, this blog (Splog) is the first site I visit — and pretty much the only site until I maybe take a break. It’s like an inspiration machine. I feel like a painter who learns of a new color every day.
on 10 Dec 2011 at 5:32 pm 8.Eddie Ftzgerald said …
Wow! Thanks for the kind words! I blog for what may be the same reason that you do, to give something back to an exciting industry that’s taken me in and made me feel like I’m part of a family.
Thanks too, for the tips about interesting sites out there. I’ll visit them all. Your own is my first stop every day.
on 10 Dec 2011 at 5:51 pm 9.Hans Perk said …
For me, too, the Splog is my first stop. Then breakfast, and then the rest. Thanks for your kind words, Mike! We aim to please!
on 10 Dec 2011 at 7:46 pm 10.David Levy said …
I tip my hat to you, Michael, for your excellent blog, and for the fact that it’s a “daily.” Really impressive.
on 11 Dec 2011 at 12:49 pm 11.Tom Minton said …
What Eddie said about blogging because he wants to give back to the industry is also the reason that Benny Washam taught animation every week out of his Laurel Canyon house in his later years to then-young aspiring animators like Eddie, me and many others who weren’t getting the tools we needed from our day jobs toiling on absurdly limited animation, hampered by the presence of a stock footage system. The blog world has opened up a veritable treasure trove of specific animation information that was previously hard to come by and not available to everyone. Now is a terrific time to be a student, despite this moribund economy. I recently ran into writer/blogger Mark Evanier and congratulated him on the staggering daily output of his blog, News From Me. Mark replied that he was very good at coming up with things that generate no money. All of those years of passing on his animation knowledge netted Benny Washam zero monetary gain too, but it’s value to the many he helped was priceless. As others have posted here, your blog is among the finest going on the subject, Mr. Sporn, not just in general but because it brings a needed East Coast perspective into the mix.
on 12 Dec 2011 at 4:17 am 12.Stephen Worth said …
I check out the splog every day too!
A blog that I love that you didn’t mention is Comedy For Animators. Google that one up! Lots of great info on pantomime acting.
on 13 Dec 2011 at 2:07 pm 13.Charles Kenny said …
I’ll echo what others have said before me in that your Splog is the first internet stop for me every morning (and helps brighten it up too!)
You’ve listed some truly first rate sites that anybody even remotely interested in animation should visit regularly.
Also, fair play to you for posting every single day for so long and for maintaining such a high standard as well. That’s a sign of dedication and commitment that so many artist’s blogs are sadly lacking.
on 13 Dec 2011 at 5:34 pm 14.Jenny said …
That’s a wonderful compilation, important and eclectic.. I couldn’t and (so wouldn’t)summarize any of them better myself. I’m sure for any of the ones mentioned yours would be at the top of their lists, too.