Secret Still

Having just seen the movie last night, how fitting is it that this morning I come across this great post from Lou Romano about all the work he did for Pixar’s new movie UP?  First, let me say, the movie is great. It’s more action-packed than I was expecting, but that’s not a bad thing at all. Go see it as soon as you can get the time. Try for the 3D version, too, because that adds to the magic. You should know that the Lou Romano post has some spoilers in it, especially because the trailers were nice and vague. Fine by me, I hate knowing everything that happens in the movie just from watching the trailer. All that being said, the Romano post does have some amazing art and insight into the creation of the movie, so the choice is yours whether or not to read it and spoil a little of the movie. I say it’s worth it, but I’m sitting on the other side of having seen it. Here’s a solution, why don’t you rush right out and see it now, then come back here and check out the artwork. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

The Art of UP

By now I’d imagine most of you have seen Coraline, whether 3-D or good, old-fashioned 2-D, and it was a pretty damn good movie. What I think is even better though is the amount of information about the creation of the movie that’s available online. There are making of videos on youtube, stills, character creation shots, and practically every artist that worked on the film has put their Coraline work online. If you didn’t stay to watch the credits, you might have missed out on the staggering list of artistic talent involved in this film. Luckily for you and me, Drawn has a nice post about some of the Coraline artists. From that post I went to check out Jon Klassen’s work on the film, and was blown away. I want to live in those drawings. In a real way, not just by staring really hard at them when I’m stoned. But yeah, I’m gonna do that, too.

Jon Klassen’s Coraline

This is not normally the realm of subject that I post about, but Drawn! led me to the blog of Oswald Iten this morning where I became engrossed for over an hour. Iten is going through the movie 101 Dalmatians (animated, not the live-action abomination) frame by frame and analyzing the use of color in the film. It’s a seriously in-depth look at color theory and composition in 101 Dalmatians, and boils down to lessons you might never have learned without shelling out some major dough. I’ve watched this film plenty of times in the past, and have noticed a small number of points that Iten talks about, but most of his discussion is miraculously eye-opening. I’m gonna have to drop Dalmatians in to my Netflix queue immediately, and then spend some quality time pouring through it. And another weekend is lost.

Color in 101 Dalmations

It’s people like CAL ARTS grad Nate Wragg that keep me fighting to be first in line for every Pixar film. I have yet to come across an artist that works there who isn’t fantastic. Wragg is no exception. Clever, well-balanced, and perfectly drawn, his work embodies the illustration style that I think of as my ideal. It’s certainly not my style, but that’s great because I hate my style. Wragg has a style that I equate with a new form of sumi-e, using fewer lines, generalizing shapes, and letting the colors create the rest. Those are the same reasons that I can never get tired of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and Samurai Jack. You can bet I’m about to drop some dimes on a couple of his prints. Sleep well, Nate, knowing that your art will be watching me make sweet, tender love to the mother of my not-yet-conceived offspring.

Nate Wragg

I’m a little late in posting this one, but Sweet GIFs is giving the animated GIF a makeover for the 22nd century.

Sweet GIFs

While trolling through the choppy waters of Boing Boing this morning I came across a link to a blog post about the John Sutherland animated film Rhapsody of Steel. The image caught my eye because I remembered seeing it before. Where? I can’t remember. It’s likely that I watched the film while I worked in the Peabody Awards Archive, since odd ephemera like that was laying around everywhere. Whatever the origins for me personally, it was still amazing to read the blog post and be reminded of how amazing this film was. It was Rhapsody of Steel that first got me interested in the work of Maurice Noble and Eyvind Earle, two amazing animators, that pretty much started my fascination with the beauty of cartoons. You can still find quality artistry like theirs today, though it’s rare (see the work of Craig McCracken, Gendy Tartakovsky, and Stephen Hillenburg). There are more Sutherland films available on Archives.org, which is, if you haven’t been using it, an amazing resource, plus Rick Praelinger is a nice guy.

Filmography: John Sutherland’s Rhapsody of Steel

Not the one from Kids In The Hall. This Scott MacDonald is also Canadian, but he’s a killer cartoonist and illustrator. I’ve got a crush on his work. Like Alicia Silverstone in that movie The Crush, not like pulling pigtails.

This is his blog.

And his Flickr.

I found him via Drawn!

Frederator, creators of some of my favorite cartoons, have a site called Channel Frederator devoted to all the animated short videos that they love. You might have seen the series The Meth Minute 39 around the old information superhighway. If you have some free time or, more likely, you’re avoiding doing something then spend some time enjoying their content.

Channel Frederator

For some reason videos made entirely of typography never lose their appeal to me. For some reason the part of me that gets laid wants to punch the part of me that just wrote that sentence in the face. The turmoil of mankind continues.

Also, I think Abbott and Costello were fucking amazing.

I can still remember standing in the arcade for hours playing Tekken. Most of the time it was me versus the computer but sometimes a chump would come in off the street play against me. I think I lost once or twice, but I always won the re-match. It was a small town and what the hell else was I going to do during the day? Street Fighter was never my game. As far as I know Jeremiah is the undisputed champ of Capcom’s original gem. I’ve never beaten him. Or maybe once with E. Honda or something. Jeremiah and the rest of you out there who lived and loved that game are in for a real treat today. It seems that Capcom have released the teaser for the upcoming release of Street Fighter IV, and I almost cried it looks so badass. I’ll say no more. The video can speak for itself.

video found via Kitsune Noir