[ p l a c i d c h a o s / A M ]

It took awhile but I'm now up and running on a new server. Now to just find the time to re-design both the site and blog, as well as upload a bunch of new content. Sometimes I'm envious of insomniacs.

From AWN

"Frederator Studios has launched ReFrederator (www.refrederator.com), the
world's first daily vintage cartoon video podcast.

ReFrederator will feature classic cartoons from the public domain such as
Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, Daffy Duck, Betty Boop, Little Lulu, Porky Pig,
Donald Duck and Felix the Cat, as well as fairy tales and musicals. Every
7-9 minute podcast will feature a short-form classic cartoon and
promotional packaging and branding from ReFrederator. New episodes will
appear daily Monday through Friday, grouped into weekly themes.

The first week of the new series features a Mother Goose theme, beginning
with a 1935 Humpty Dumpty cartoon from Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney's personal
friend and first employee, followed by Mighty Mouse in WOLF! WOLF! from
1945 and the Oscar-nominated PIGS IN A POLKA from director Friz Freleng.
The week will wrap up with POOR CINDERELLA, the only color Betty Boop
cartoon, and FONEY FABLES, a series of short vignette parodies of classic
Disney stories.

Programming for ReFrederator is headed by producer Eric Homan and
illustrator, cartoonist and scholar Dave Kirwan (www.davekirwan.com).
Consultants include animation historian Jerry Beck
(www.cartoonresearch.com) and writer Melissa Wolfe. The launch programming
was edited by Barry Hirschberg.

In addition, on Tuesday, April 18, the studio celebrates the showing of its
100th cartoon on its flagship Channel Frederator video podcast.

For a free subscription to Channel Frederator or ReFrederator, search
Channel Frederator or ReFrederator in the iTunes Podcast Directory, or
visit www.channelfrederator.com or www.refrederator.com and click
"subscribe."

Frederator founder Fred Seibert is one of the world's leading independent
cartoon producers and the exec producer of six hit series on the
Nickelodeon Networks, including its number one show THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS.
Prior to forming Frederator Studios, Seibert served as president of
Hanna-Barbera Cartoons where he led the return of cartoons to the
television mainstream."

What a swell idea!

From AWN

"SIGGRAPH 2006 ANNOUNCES COMPUTER ANIMATION FESTIVAL SCHEDULE.
The Computer Animation Festival jury for SIGGRAPH 2006 selected 97 films
and two award winners from 726 entries for exemplary use of
computer-generated imagery and animation and compelling storytelling.

The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival is an internationally recognized
event that engages and inspires artists and technologists alike. Each year,
it serves as a mirror of what is possible today and a window into what can
be achieved in the future.

"Word is out that the Computer Animation Festival is one of the premier
venues for showcasing artistic talent in the film world. In fact, we
witnessed a remarkable 25% increase in submissions from 2005 to 2006, and
with that increase the competition amongst films is fierce," stated
Terrence Masson, the SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival chair from
Digital Fauxtography Inc. "The bar of excellence has risen even higher and
this year's crop of accepted pieces is diverse, thought-provoking, and
technically superb."

SIGGRAPH 2006 will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, July 30-Aug. 3.

The Electronic Theater, held in the Grand Ballroom of the Boston Convention
& Exhibition Center, will hold screenings July 31 (7:00-9:00 pm), Aug. 1
(1:30-3:30 pm and 7:00-9:00 pm) and Aug. 2 (1:30-3:30 pm and 7:00-9:00 pm).

To see the entire list of the Electronic Theater program go to:
http://news.awn.com/index.php3?newsitem_no=16712

For more information on the SIGGRAPH 2006 Computer Animation Festival,
visit www.siggraph.org/s2006/main.php?f=conference&p=caf.

SIGGRAPH 2006 will bring an estimated 25,000 computer graphics and
interactive technology professionals from six continents to Boston for the
industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on
research, science, art, animation, gaming, interactivity, education and the
Web. More than 250 international exhibiting companies are expected.
Registration for the conference and exhibition is open to the public.

ACM SIGGRAPH, the leading professional society for computer graphics and
interactive techniques, sponsors SIGGRAPH 2006."

I highly recommend attending this years conference if you haven't been to one before, or even if you have. A lot of knowledge to soak up, ideas to inspire, and people to meet. Well worth the price of admission in my opinion...

Andrew Loomis wrote some of the best art instruction books ever, however as you may know, they are no longer in print and nearly impossible to find. SaveLoomis.org is a great resource, with html versions of all six of his books. Pdf versions of the books used to be available, but have become very hard to locate. I was fortunate enough to secure pdf versions of all six books and have since put them on my server for others to download and learn from. To my knowledge all of these books, which were published between 1939-'61, are in the public domain and thus are free to distribute.

To download a .rar file containing all six books click here, otherwise click the image of the book you are interested in.

My stating that it's been a while since I've posted anything on here could be viewed as a bit of an understatement, as many folks would say that a six month hiatus counts as more than "a while." Regardless of the technical definition of "a while" I think I'm back for good, or at least for another post or two.

To the those of you that have actually been here before, (yes, all three of you) I apologize for my long absence. I simply became too busy to justify spending time posting my work and random blabberings, though with everything I was busy doing you'd think I'd have more to show for it...

That being said, it's not like I haven't accomplished anything in the last six months. For one thing I quit my lousy excuse for a job and have since purchased legal/legit copies of all my software and have been making my way solely as a freelance designer. And though I can't say I'm getting rich off of it just yet, my wife and I have been able to avoid the ramen diet and I've been able to afford all the chocolate milk I could ever want. In January I became an adjunct faculty at CCAD (Columbus College of Art & Design), teaching Computer Animation 1; an intro to all aspects of Maya related CG-ery. I've also managed to stay afloat, though barely, at AnimationMentor. I'm now in the midst of the fourth semester and have been staying busy trying desperately to catch up to everyone else who seems to be mastering this art of animation so much quicker and effortlessly than I.

Even though I'm as busy as ever I hope to slowly upload my work from the past six months so that anyone interested can follow my progress. Expect to see a newly designed main site in the near (hopefully) future. And who knows, maybe some of that fresh design will find it's way over to this side of the fence, though I wouldn't hold your breath. It should be noted that this blog is pretty low on the list of priorities, especially with a certain recruiter coming to cow-town soon; I really need to spend my time getting my stuff together and polishing it to a nice sheen.

Lastly, all of the new work I'll be posting will be encoded with Apple's new H.264 codec. I like it, it's small and purty. So if you want to view the new stuff go here and update your QT player.

So in short, I'm back. For now.