The Making of Cars

Why oh why do I not live in San Francisco? Seriously... other than my career, my family, and paying for things like electricity and running water, I have no reason to still be in Seattle. Things like this special "The Making of Cars" event taking place at the Academy of Art College make me think I may be able to live without running water.



We are honored to have Pixar Animation Studios present the detailed inside information on the making of Cars, their latest animation film. Featured speakers and topics to follow!

I mean honestly... do you really need running water? If you ask me, it's highly overrated.

The Making of Cars Event Details

Moutons

Another wonderful find by the RE-Animation blog is this short film called, "Moutons."



Some really nice art and a pretty cute little story round out this relatively long short-film. I especially like the animation of the little crustaceans that are knitting throughout the film.

Worth a few minutes of your time for sure.

Moutons Short Film

Moutons Website

RE-Animation Blog

Every Slug Dance Now

Want to see the slugs from "Flushed Away" dance and sing to the tune of "Everybody Dance Now"?



Well of course you do. Why wouldn't you?

I just wanted to pour salt on them.

Everybody Dance Now (Ultra-Salty Slug Remix)

The Very First Noel

My Mentor for this quarter at Animation Mentor, Ray Chase (did you know he has his own website?), has just finished up a new project in time for the Holidays, called "The Very First Noel."



In this version, the star of the film, Andy Griffith, plays a sheriff who must stop his bumbling deputy from accidentally putting Jesus in jail. I may not have the plot 100% correct, so head over to the website for more details, a trailer, and more great images from the film.

The Very First Noel Website

Ray Chase's Website

Reel FX Website

ShipMite

Animation Mentor grad, Brandon Beckstead, has posted the final version of his short "ShipMite" over on his blog.



Mr. Beckstead is the first to admit that he's no expert at texture work or lighting, and that his focus for the short was the animation. In that case, I'd say that overall this short about a tiny bug is a big success.

I crack myself up.

ShipMite Movie

Brandon's Blog

Fly Me to the Moon

Though it looks like their server is getting slammed right now, resulting in some pretty slow load times, you should take a moment and check out the website for the new film, "Fly Me to the Moon."



My only beef is that the heads look a little too similar to those in "A Bug's Life," but that may just be because the eyes are very similar. Of course, the eyes may be very similar because that is in fact what a bug's eyes look like, and I just don't know, having never stared a bug in the face. I'm pretty sure this isn't the case though...

Fly Me to the Moon Website

The Ant Bully DVD Info

According to DVDActive, "The Ant Bully" will be placed on the shelves of your local Blockbuster by some emo kid on November 28th.



Extras will include seven 'hilarious' animated shorts, additional scenes, an It Takes a Colony featurette that explores the filmmaking process from a tiny perspective, and an Ant Habitat TV screensaver.

Looks like pretty good bang for the buck, and since the film didn't do so well at the box office, despite overall positive reviews, maybe a strong DVD release like this will help ease the pain of knowing that the film pretty much killed DNA Productions.

Additional Info and Artwork from DVDActive

Open Season Quick Review

It's funny that "Open Season," to my knowledge, did not employ any of the motion capture technology found in Sony's other animated release from this year, "Monster House," yet seems far more alive.

Centering around a domesticated bear, named Boog, (Martin Lawrence) and an overly-hyper deer, named Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), "Open Season" entertains with a good mix of toilet humor (the riding a bike line is a real winner), and tender moments. The acting is great, and the visuals are, at times, stunning. Even the sometimes annoying Kutcher and Lawrence come off as very likeable and appealing characters.



Where the film falters a bit is found in the fact that the plot seems to be all over the place at times, hopping between the domestication of Boog, the love interest of Elliot, the inner struggle of the game warden not wanting to let go of Boog, the rebellion against the hunters, the journey home, and so on. It seems that the creators would have done better to narrow their focus a bit and save some of the other stuff for a sequel, should one ever see the light of day.

Overall though, "Open Season" is at very least worth the price of a matinee ticket, and head and shoulders above some of the recent 3D releases.

One Call's Bloody Commericals

Imagine, if you will, the Happy Tree Friends doing TV Spots for a broadband company, and you'll get an idea of what the commercials from Bug are all about.



I can only imagine if these spots aired in the States, and the number of groups that would come out protesting the horrible treatment of CG Gophers (he's a gopher, right?).

"It's only a matter of time before kids see these commercials and think it's okay to give gophers coffee and attempt to force them to set up underground networks," they'd say.

And they'd be right...

One Call TV Commercial #1

One Call TV Commercial #2

Bug Website

RE-Animation Blog

Bick's Pickels Spot

A nice little commercial can be found on the 3dm3.com forums for Bick's Pickles (say that 5 times fast), from the same company that brought us those awesome Robin Hood commercials with the two kids sitting at the table talking about cookies and such.



To be honest, I think my favorite part is the kid. He's more of a cartoon than the alien reporter ever could be. Not only that, but I'm pretty sure by the way he chews on it that he hates pickles in general.

I'm pretty sure I could be arrested for that last sentence.

Thanks to the always marvelous RE-Animation Blog for the heads up on the commercial.

Blick's Pickles "Offspring" Commercial

Richard Rosenman Advertising and Design

RE-Animation Blog

Open Season Declared on IMAX

"Open Season" is fairing quite well in the land of Warren Miller and documentaries about British Columbia Cariboo mating patterns, as it pulled in $1.45 million in it's opening weekend in IMAX theaters.



Now while that may not initially sound like much, $1.45 million translates into a $22,000 per-screen average, which is pretty impressive.

Or is it?

I really have no idea, but $22,000 per-screen sounds like a lot to me, and people tell me it's a lot, so frankly it must be.

I guess I should just be glad that people aren't telling me that eating 6 month old mayonnaise is a good idea.

AWN Open Season IMAX Article

Mike Walling Interview

All around cool guy, mentor at Animation Mentor, Animator for "Open Season," and former "10 Quick" victim right here on Bleeding Pixels, Mike Walling, was interviewed by the folks over at Strut Your Reel recently.



A couple of big [pieces of advice] were keeping things simple, clear and graphic. Simplicity is always more in animation. I think the biggest AHAA moment I had was some advice I got from my supervisor about thinking graphic. He showed me that every frame is a pose so keep them all looking appealing from a graphic stand point. In other words, don’t let the computer do too much of the inbetweening.

Strut Your Reel's Mike Walling Interview

Barnyard DVD Cover

DVD Active has updated their "Barnyard" DVD release info to include the box art for the film.



Lots of info on the extras, including the all new "Kevin James Shower Time" short.

Okay... I lied about the short, but there is still lots of good info on the DVD release.

DVD Active's Barnyard DVD Info

Site Upgrades

So Blogger, which this fine blog is hosted on, has made some updates to their site, which allow for some cool new features. The tradeoff is that for the next day or so, while I get things ported over to the new system, you may see some wonky things here on the site, such as content missing from the right bar there.

Stick with me, as the news stories should continue to roll in from time to time. My hope is that I won't lose too much in the way of my old info, and that the site will be better for it once I'm done.

You can already see the changes sneaking in now, such as the "Labels" tag put under each story. I went back and added labels like this to my last 50 posts, so that now you can click on one, for example "Sony," and it will bring up all of the Sony articles that have been published on the blog.

Pretty sweet.

The Art of Open Season

Everyone should head out to their local bookstore and pick up "The Art of Open Season."





What makes it so good you ask? Well... it's all of the amazing art and concept work for "Open Season," with none of the Martin Lawrence or Ashton Kutcher!

That's worth the price right there alone, if you ask me.

The Art of Open Season on Amazon

The Character Design Blog

EDIT:

Though the cover for the one posted on Amazon is the one shown below, they are in fact the same book. I would imagine just different printings.

Fartbot

Floyd Bishop, one of the animators on "Ice Age," has started up a company called Bishop Animation, which provides animation for TV, film and videos, among other things. As a sample of his company's amazing talent, he created a robot.

That farts.



Swing on over to the official site to see some of their work,

Fartbot Short Animation

Bishop Animation Website

Bishop Animation Blog

RE-Animation Blog

Sugar Rush

If you guys have 2 or 3 minutes to spare, I really don't see how you could spend it better than watching Guillermo Careaga's "Sugar Rush."



We've all felt this way in the gym. The difference is that I wind up with my head stuck in the vending machine slot, since my gym shorts don't have pockets, and I never have change to buy the candy bars. So there I am, head stuck in the slot, yelling at the poor boob who works at the gym about the fact that they probably shouldn't have chocolate candy bar vending machines at the gym.

Guillermo Careaga's Site

Sugar Rush Short

The New York Times Scares the Pants Off of Animators

The New York Times has published an article spotlighting the recent struggles that some 3D animated films have had at the box office recently.



This summer’s “The Wild,” from the Walt Disney Company, proved anything but for moviegoers, bringing in only $37 million at the domestic box office. The bigger disappointment was “The Ant Bully,” produced by the actor Tom Hanks and distributed by Warner Brothers Entertainment. That movie’s powerful ant wizard could muster only enough magic to garner $27 million.

By contrast, the debut of “Open Season,” the tale of a defiant grizzly bear and feisty mule deer who battle hunters, brought in $23 million over the weekend for Sony Pictures Entertainment, putting it in first place. But only the coming weeks will tell whether it will be widely embraced by moviegoers.

It's an extensive, and often scary, article for someone like me, who has dreams of being an animator, but it really isn't anything we haven't heard before. Heck, even this idiot managed to write an article about a similar topic, that still holds true in light of the NY Times piece: If companies choose to make quality animated films with solid stories and characters, they will find an audience, and they will turn a profit.

In any case, I've decided on a new dream... I'm going to become a professional body waxer. My first class start next week, so I'm off to buy wax and paper strips.

Wish me luck!

The New York Times Animation Article

What's In A Name

Today I decided to change the name of this here blog to "Bleeding Pixels." The reason for this is simply that I didn't want it to carry my name any longer as I am totally ashamed of this blog and the work I've done on it over the past 5 months.

Actually, the real reason is that the focus has shifted off of me and squarely onto the world of 3D Animation where it belongs, so there was no sense in having my name on it at all. Nothing is going to change, and it will sill be updated on weekdays as I find things to post. There also shouldn't be any need to update your shortcuts or links, as the actual URL will remain the same.

ONWARD!

Open Season Opening Weekend

It looks as though "Open Season" brought in around $23 million this weekend, and took the number #1 spot at the box office.



Here is what Box Office Mojo had to say about the opening:

The influx of computer-animated movies in 2006 has lowered the bar for the format. Whereas before, Open Season's $23 million opening would be considered weak compared to the format's pre-2006 average of $40 million—Shark Tale consumed $47.6 million on the same weekend in 2004—it now seems solid after the recent low returns of Everyone's Hero and The Ant Bully among others. Sony Pictures Animation's next feature is the penguin mockumentary Surf's Up on June 8.



It really is quite amazing to think about the fact that "Shark Tale" brought in $47.6 million on its opening weekend, despite being beat up on by critics. I really thought that "Open Season" would also open in at least the $30 million, if not $40 million, range, but it didn't come close. If other films that have opened at this range are any indication, "Open Season" will probably wind up grossing between $70-$85 million at the box office. Nothing to scoff at, but certainly not up to the level of CGI films in recent years.

The true test is going to be when an established franchise, such as "Shrek the Third," or a film by like Pixar's next film "Ratatouille" is released. It will be very interesting to see if films such as those can hit the mark set by CGI films to this point, in terms of box office revenue.