Big news in animation today as DreamWorks TV has just launched it’s channel on Youtube. I see this as a big thing for a number of reasons. One, in that studios are beginning to bypass networks with their fickle preferences and long development schedules, and two they’re now developing their own programing which translates to more work for animators and artists in our business simply because some one has to MAKE that content. There are a number of animated pieces up there now including four new animated short series.
Jimmy Blue Shorts; created by Zachary Aufdemberg.
Talking Gorillas; about a trio of gorillas that wreak havoc on their wildlife preserve
Incidentally we interviewed the creator Ron Yavnielli recently here on Animation Insider.
The Report Card; News for Kids created by Jimbo Mattinson.
Finally there are a large number of clips from How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Puss In Boots and many other DreamWorks IP’s and I imaigne there will be more from their newer films as time goes on.
All in all, I think this will be a spot for the animation community to watch. Check it out!
As you may be aware Apple’s upcoming iOS8 will finally bring pressure sensitivity to the platform which is fantastic news for us artists! Engadget.com is reporting that Fifty Three’s Pencil new stylus will actually be able to give you lines as thin as a mechanical pencil! The article goes on to say you’ll be able to shade with the side of the stylus which is something I have yet to see digitally anywhere. Now if they have palm rejection, I’ll be in heaven!
Game Skinny.com is reporting about who in the gaming industry is the best and worst to work for based on employees in 2013.
As it turns out Valve and Riot are among the best to work for which is valuable information for our readers to say the least!
From the site:
We all have our impressions of how good a video-game company is, but, for most of us, those impressions are formed mostly from personal experience as consumers and from a kind of Internet groupthink. (“Valve is good. EA is bad. Everyone knows that.â€)
Here’s insight from the people in the trenches, who have an insiders’ view of exactly what goes on behind closed doors and can offer some brutally honest assessments of what it’s like to work for the giants of video gaming.
The Digital Tutors blog is reporting that a new version of the free Photoshop add-on AnimDessin2 v2.0 is available. It brings a simpler, more traditional animation workflow. Developer Stephane Baril designed the add-on’s interface to closely mimic the workflows of traditional animators like Disney animator Glen Keane. However, the Adobe plug-in’s reference to old-school animation is only one of its impressive features.
I haven’t been aware of this extension until now but it looks pretty dang cool! Check it out!
SurfaceProartist.com is reporting a review for a relatively unknown new Cintiq competitor called the ThinkVision LT1423p Touch Mobile Monitor and while they seem to like it more or less there are other reviews on the Lenovo forums are iffy. I will say that some of those reviews seem to stem from not understanding the device.
The ThinkVision LT1423p is a 13″ penabled touch screen tablet which you connect to your PC or Mac to draw on much like a Wacom Cintiq albeit smaller and not as reliable as you’ll see below. The device apparently uses two USB3 to power it so if you don’t HAVE USB 3.0 you’re done with this mini review right now. It also appears to work wirelessly but the reviews on that were poor so I wouldn’t trust it. The pen is total crap (like the Lenovo Helix’s) too but I would imagine any Wacom penabled pen will work so that’s a relative non issue. I have always been impressed with Lenovo’s build quality and the video supports this.  The video reviewer talks quite a bit about troubles with the drivers, which is odd to me since Lenovo usually places quite a bit of attention to detail with their own software. This makes me feel like it’s almost a throwaway device and they don’t support it much which worries me a bit.
I’m actually pretty impressed with the drawing lag or lack thereof, which seems to be very low if you check out the video at around 10:29 or this point and it’s one of the reasons I’m even pointing to this device at all.
The corner tests seemed good as well, and what I mean by that is that you can draw all the way to the very corner of the device without losing connection of th pen or having the cursor stray from the pen’s point which isn’t always the best even on Cintiqs I’ve tried, especially the 12″ one. This being a touch enabled monitor, I’m pretty sure the Palm rejection is crap since no one seems to be able to get that right yet. Luckily on a PC it’s sort of a non issue since you can disable to Touch driver, but on the Mac, I’m not so sure how you’d disable it but you could use a Smudgeguard glove to disable the touch which is actually a decent tradeoff and works beautifully.
The forums led me to the Youtube video above which were fairly positive albeit some hiccups with driver issues.
“I’ve confirmed pressure sensitivity works in Photoshop, Sketchbook Pro (x86), Paint Tool SAI, OneNote, Sticky Notes, and Sculptris. I’m guessing this isn’t much of a surprise for any of you.
All in all, this seems like a solid product. I have an Intuos 4 Large and use the monitors shown in the youtube video as a reference to measure my subjectivity. The screen looks great, and is responsive. I have detected some parallax effect, but that was anticipated. It is worse when the stylus is not tangent (90 degrees) to the tablet surface. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by how little the offset was after calibration. My biggest hardware complaint I would have to be the dinky stylus, but thankfully other compatible ones are available.
EDIT: Eraser and second side-switch functionality do not work on this device, even if the stylus has those features itself. This is based on testimony from others in this thread, as well as my own. I spoke with Wacom representatives in person, and they told me that the device supports those features, but it’s in Lenovo’s court as to whether or not to activate them. ”
On behalf of DreamWorks Animation, we are pleased to share the FIRST trailer for their upcoming animated comedy,THE PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR.  Get ready for the Penguins’ biggest mission yet, in theaters this Thanksgiving!
Cast: Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, Chris Knights, John Malkovich, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ken Jeong, Annett Mahendru, Peter Stormare
SYNOPSIS
Discover the secrets of the most entertaining and mysterious birds in the global espionage game: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private now must join forces with the chic spy organization, the North Wind, led by Agent Classified (we could tell you his name, but then … you know), voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine, voiced by John Malkovich, from taking over the world.
