Author Archives: Mike

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Jobs: 2D Background Artist – Preschool Show

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From AnimatedJobs.com

We need about 20 backgrounds done. It could start immediately and then after an initial test, work around your schedule for the next couple months. Pay is $2k.

We’d do it in two parts – super-short term as a test for the first background, and then the rest all together.

For style, think Peppa Pig – clean, quick and colorful.

Please submit a link to your website, three background images you’ve made that are indicative of the quality level you can create for this budget, and you’re availability. Use the subject line: Background Artist: [Your Name]

I’m at jeremy@g-dcast.com

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Portfolio Entertainment’s Globe-Trotting Kids Series Land in New Markets

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DOKIPROMO_03_v06Portfolio Entertainment’s Globe-Trotting Kids Series Land in New Markets

New kids sales include DOKI, The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! and RoboRoach

(June 5, 2015 – Toronto, Canada) – International distributor Portfolio Entertainment has signed multiple deals for three animated series from its kids catalogue with broadcasters in Canada, Norway and UAE.

The animated hit series DOKI (26 x 30’) has been sold to NRK in Norwayand TVO and Knowledge Network in Canada. The series centres around curious Doki, as he and his five friends travel the world, exploring distant lands and cultures while answering important preschool questions.

The UAE’s E-Junior has acquired season two of the celebrated preschool series The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!(20 x 30’). Inspired by Dr. Seuss’ beloved Cat in the Hat, the series follows best friends Sally and Nick on magical journeys into the natural world. With the Cat as their guide and Thing One, Thing Two and their Fish along for the ride, every outing becomes an unpredictable adventure.

Additionally, RoboRoach(52 x 30’), a high-concept animated series about cockroach Reg and his half-robot, half-cockroach brother Rube has been purchased by BBC Kids in Canada.

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Animation Vets honored at UCLA’s 24th Annual Film Festival

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THREE-TIME ACADEMY AWARD-NOMINATED PRODUCER MICHAEL DELUCA, ACME FILMWORKS’ RON DIAMOND AND ACADEMY AWARD-WINNING SCREENWRITER GRAHAM MOORE TO BE HONORED AT THE UCLA SCHOOL OF THEATER, FILM AND TELEVISION’S 24th ANNUAL FILM FESTIVAL

The weeklong festival celebrates the outstanding achievements of UCLA TFT students, while honoring some of the industry’s most distinguished talent

LOS ANGELES (JUNE 04, 2015) — The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (UCLA TFT), one of the world’s most prominent academic institutions for entertainment and performing arts education, announced today that three-time Academy Award-nominated producer Michael DeLuca, Acme Filmworks founder Ron Diamond and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Graham Moore will be honored at its 24th Annual Film Festival, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Kanbar Entertainment and SAGIndie. The festival takes place June 5-10, 2015 at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

UCLA TFT alumnus Ron Diamond will receive the Crystal Anvil Award during the Festival of Animation on Saturday, June 6. Diamond is the founder and executive producer of the Los Angeles-based animation studio Acme Filmworks, which brings together renaissance animation filmmakers and agencies to create the right fit for advertising campaigns. Acme has created such memorable promotions as the Levi’s women’s jeans campaign and the long-running Charmin campaign featuring Acme’s iconic bear. Other notable Acme clients include director Ridley Scott, AT&T, United Airlines, Ford, Principal Financial Group, Hilton Hotels and Microsoft. Diamond is also the co-founder of the animation news site AWN.com and serves as its president. He is currently preparing his 17th annual Animation Show of Shows, representing his picks for the year’s best animated short films, which he tours around the world for animation professionals and students.

Graham Moore will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting Award during the Screenwriters Showcase on Monday, June 8. Moore’s screenplay for The Imitation Game (2014) won the Academy Award and WGA Award for Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, after topping The Black List in 2011. Moore recently adapted The Devil in the White City for Warner Bros. and Leonardo DiCaprio. He is currently writing original television pilots for HBO with director Michael Mann and SKY Atlantic with director Marc Forster, the latter which received a 10-episode, straight-to-series order at NBC. Additionally, Random House will publish Moore’s second novel, The Last Days of Wonder, about the early days of electricity, in fall 2016.   

Michael DeLuca, an esteemed production executive and prolific producer with nearly three decades in the film business, will be honored with the Vision Award during Producers Marketplace on Tuesday, June 9.He has been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year and three times for a Producer’s Guild of America Award for David Fincher’s The Social Network, Bennett Miller’s Moneyball and Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips. Earlier this year, De Luca produced the box-office hit Fifty Shades of Grey, for Universal Pictures, where he currently has a production deal. De Luca will produce the next two installments of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

Student films from many notable alumni have showcased at the annual UCLA TFT festival including Shane Acker (9); Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar); Gil Kenan (Monster House, Poltergeist); Justin Lerner (The Automatic Hate); Justin Lin (Fast & Furious franchise, upcoming Bourne sequel), and Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Lights, The Secret Life of Bees), among others.

More information about the festival can be found at www.tft.ucla.edu/festival.

About UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

The vision of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is to serve as a premiere global interdisciplinary professional school that develops outstanding humanistic storytellers, industry leaders and scholars whose diverse, innovative voices enlighten, engage and inspire change for a better world. Consistently ranked as one of the top entertainment and performing arts institutions in the world, UCLA TFT offers an innovative curriculum that integrates the study and creation of live performance, film, television and the digital arts. The distinguished graduate and undergraduate programs at UCLA TFT include acting, directing, writing, producing, animation, cinematography, lighting design, set design, costume design, sound design, moving image archive studies, and the school offers doctoral degrees in theater and performance studies and cinema and media studies.

Media Contacts:

Sandy Hall

shall@tft.ucla.edu

(310) 206-6835

 

Noela Hueso

nhueso@tft.ucla.edu

(310) 825-0965

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In Search of the British Animated Sitcom

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Check out this opinion piece from Miles Bullough (co-founder of Wildseed Studios who recently signed a deal to produce new Disney XD animation Counterfeit Cat, and who used to be the Head of Broadcast at Aardman Animations).

Miles has written a piece about the state of animated sitcoms which explores some of the issues in creating them and why it has been so difficult for the UK to create a long term animated sitcom (a bit like the US did with The Simpson or Southpark.) There’s also a nice history charting British animated sitcoms throughout the years.

At Wildseed we’re determined to have a tilt at cracking the animated British Sitcom. I had a go in the 90’s when I Executive Produced Carl Gorham’s ‘Stressed Eric’ with Absolutely Productions. It burned very brightly for its 13 episodes on BBC2 but really we wanted it to be still running now, like The Simpsons or Southpark or American Dad. That’s the prize – a long running show that somehow captures the zeitgeist and is taken to the public’s hearts.

That hasn’t happened in the UK yet despite several credible attempts. The general feeling now is that may never happen, the conditions and opportunities in the UK TV market just don’t exist to support the creation of a long running animated adult sitcom.

Part of the challenge is economics. Animation is generally expensive and slow to produce and the slots for long running narrative shows in the UK just don’t come up that often. Soaps and panel shows take up all oxygen and can be produced quickly and far more cheaply than animation and on an industrial scale. For successful shows in the US, orders of 20+ episodes per year are commonplace, bringing economies of scale and giving shows the chance to find and keep an audience.

The characteristics of the US shows that we all admire and seek to emulate are reasonably simple to grasp: the shows are incredibly relatable – usually centering around family units living in un-extraordinary circumstances with recognizable social and personal structures – only Futurama really ditched that formula which is what in many people’s view made it into niche, sci-fi fare. There are really no examples of shows featuring talking animals (as the main cast) or which are set in fantastical worlds that have taken off in the mainstream.

The writing on the US shows is extraordinary and those writing teams attract the best minds in the US to them. The pace of the episodes is relentless, Southpark fizzes along so fast that some of us can barely keep up. All have great central characters, often a patriarchal figure, they all have kids in them and there is enough in the stories for kids to relate to (usually laughing at the parents) but the shows are never childish despite their huge following amongst the young.

 

To read the full article click here…

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Promote Yourself: “What About Moose?” Book launch

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Illustrator Keika Yamaguchi has just finished illustrating a very cute children’s book called “What About Moose?” You can meet her and the writers via details in the flyer below.What about Moose book launch

You can find out more about Keika  from the interview we did with her back in December.

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Old But Good Tech Thursday: ASUS EP121 Computer Tablet Review

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ASUS EP121 Computer Tablet Review
by Herb Moore (interview)

Let me first state that I really like my ASUS EP121 computer tablet, and that’s saying a lot coming from a Motion Computing LE1700 tablet that I worked liked a mule and really enjoyed working on.  If you’re expecting to read a “bashing” review of the ASUS EP121 tablet, it’s not going to happen here.  That’s not to say that it’s perfect, but read on and you’ll understand what I’m getting at.

I use mainly three software programs to create my illustrations and animations: Flash CS6, Photoshop CS6 & Sketchbook Pro 6.  Flash & Photoshop can tax many good computers but work extremely well on the ASUS tablet.  I have on occasion used both programs simultaneously and the tablet keeps clicking along just fine.  I do create artwork in Hi Definition from time to time as the need arises, but if I don’t need to work at that level then I won’t. I love a lot of color and intensity and I use a lot of layers to capture the effect & look I want, so I’m not afraid to try to push the computer.

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The tablet boots up very quickly with little to no hesitation initially. Once I open any software, though it appears to load very quickly, there does tend to be a slight delay in being able to go ahead and work, as if something still hasn’t completely loaded. I tend to try to be a bit more patient when initially booting up just in case my eagerness is the problem. Even after working for several minutes, there may be a quick pause or two where the computer seems to freeze then it kicks back in, but it’s quite brief and from that point on there are no more problems. The weight is heavy & solid enough for me, (lighter than my Motion Computing LE1700), but doesn’t require me to workout at the gym just so I can hold it.

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The pen/stylus that came with the tablet is very light, and at first appearance the tip seemed to be too large for the detail I wanted, but I soon learned that it handled the finest details I threw at it just fine. Admittedly, at first I preferred to use the pen/stylus from the Motion Computing LE1700, (I love that pen), but seldom do I really “need” it. I’m quite happy that I stayed with the original pen/stylus as it performs very well.

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The screen on the EP121 is great to view my artwork, as well as display my art while I work on it, and it displays excellent color & details to any of my highly rendered artwork and animations. It’s very sharp and impressive.

Since I store everything I create on Dropbox I need to mention that the Wi-Fi works flawlessly. I prefer not to use my tablet for any Internet communications, to avoid any possible contamination, and transfer anything else I may need onto the tablet via flash drives.

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Finally, the battery life is fantastic and lasts several hours, whether I’m illustrating in Sketchbook Pro or Photoshop, as well as when I’m animating in Flash. Also, the recharge time is excellent even while I’m using the tablet.

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In closing, I tend to latch onto what I truly like to use & then I try to wear it out through intense & laborious work. I push hard and create thousands of illustrations and numerous short Flash animations. I seriously doubt my ASUS EP121 tablet will wear out anytime soon so only time will tell who breaks down first: me or the machine!