Commentary &T.Hachtman 07 Jan 2007 08:18 am
Christmas Past
I took down most of the Christmas decorations. It’s the time I always realize how great it is to be an animator; you get all these nice and original cards. Rather than just put them all in an envelope to save them, I thought I’d post these three. I received so many great ones, but I don’t want to be boringly excessive. Thanks to all who took the time.
A 
B
(Click any image to enlarge.)
The window on the cover is cut out to see through to the Eiffel Tower on the inside.
Drawn just for me, no doubt.
(former head of ASIFA-East and once-owner of NY’s The Optical House.)
After retiring, he studied botanical painting and
always sends these beautiful paintings of flowers.
It’s also always great to hear from him.
who does a lot of originals for friends.
All this Christmas card stuff gets to be hard work. I like sending them out late so that the cards come closer to Christmas, but it ends up taking three or four days to send them out, and it becomes a mad rush. I always swear to do something special – starting to think about it earlier, but it always ends up rushed.
I do love seeing and receiving some of the excellent ones out there. There once were more original and unique cards, but with Photoshop more are printed up quickly. That’s my method, and that’s also my problem. I used to copy out the lines and color the cards individually. I’m getting older and lazier. Maybe next year.
At any rate, the point is to say “Hi” and touch base wishing each other good tidings.
I do like it.
Charles Solomon has an entertaining article in today’s NYTimes about animation’s confusion with MoCap and rotoscope. It interviews, briefly, a number of popular professionals such as Brad Bird, John Canemaker and John Lasseter.
on 07 Jan 2007 at 12:48 pm 1.Mark Mayerson said …
Thanks for pointing out the article in the Times. Besides relating to my thesis, it speaks to a lot of what’s been discussed in the last few weeks.
on 07 Jan 2007 at 1:38 pm 2.Hans Perk said …
To say that animation is everything that is not live-action, to me is like saying that cheese is everything that is not bread. When animation is translated “imparting with a soul,” then that rules out the soul-less reproduction of reality using any graphic means. For example, a film like Renaissance can ONLY be considered (by some) as “experimental animation” for its architectural backgrounds, not for its people – they are as soul-less, as dead, as the kids that never make eye contact in Polar Express…
on 07 Jan 2007 at 6:29 pm 3.Michael said …
Having not seen Renaissance, I’m not sure whether the characters in it have a “soul” or just a graphic styling. I know it’s Mo-Cap, so I go into it not expecting to like it any more than I did Sin City. Is it a good film?
on 08 Jan 2007 at 6:25 am 4.Hans Perk said …
It’s very graphic – I found it to be pretentious (they called it “Performance Capture”) and soul-less, down to the tracked MoCapped eye movements. I would have preferred it in live action…