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2D Wednesday “Brutus the Bound” from Exit 73 Studios

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A nice trailer for a series called Brutus the Bound from Joe Colson who we interviewed last year.

Very reminiscent of Samurai Jack (in a good way)… and it makes me want to see more!

Brutus, a great warrior from a distant planet, is ripped from his past and taken to the future of an evil Overlord. The Overlord holds Brutus’ family hostage, and binds Brutus in a temporal harness, forcing him to become an Infinite Gladiator, fighting opponents throughout time and space.

EXIT 73 STUDIOS
website: exit73studios.com
facebook: facebook.com/Exit73Studios
soundcloud: soundcloud.com/fox-5-1

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Production Credits
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Created By: Joe Croson
Animation: Exit 73 Studios

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Artists Alert: From the Illustrators Partnership The Return of Orphan Works

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Artists Alert: From the Illustrators Partnership
The Return of Orphan Works

Part 1: “The Next Great Copyright Act”
JULY 1, 2015
For more than a year Congress has been holding hearings for the drafting of a brand new US Copyright Act. At its heart is the return of Orphan Works.
Twice, Orphan Works Acts have failed to pass Congress because of strong opposition from visual artists, spearheaded by the Illustrators Partnership.

Because of this, the Copyright Office has now issued a special call for letters regarding the role of visual art in the coming legislation.

Therefore we’re asking all artists concerned with retaining the rights to their work to join us in writing.
When and Where
Deadline: July 23, 2015

You can submit letters online to the Copyright Office here.

Read the Copyright Office Notice of Inquiry.
Here are the Basic Facts

“The Next Great Copyright Act” would replace all existing copyright law.

It would void our Constitutional right to the exclusive control of our work.

It would “privilege” the public’s right to use our work.

It would “pressure” you to register your work with commercial registries.

It would “orphan” unregistered work.

It would make orphaned work available for commercial infringement by “good faith” infringers.

It would allow others to alter your work and copyright these “derivative works” in their own names.

It would affect all visual art: drawings, paintings, sketches, photos, etc.; past, present and future; published and unpublished; domestic and foreign.

Background

The demand for copyright “reform” has come from large Internet firms and the legal scholars allied with them. Their business models involve supplying the public with access to other people’s copyrighted work. Their problem has been how to do this legally and without paying artists.

The “reforms” they’ve proposed would allow them to stock their databases with our pictures. This would happen either by forcing us to hand over our images to them as registered works, or by harvesting unregistered works as orphans and copyrighting them in their own names as “derivative works.”

The Copyright Office acknowledges that this will cause special problems for visual artists but concludes that we should still be subject to orphan works law.

The “Next Great Copyright Act” would go further than previous Orphan Works Acts. The proposals under consideration include:

1.) The Mass Digitization of our intellectual property by corporate interests.
2.) Extended Collective Licensing, a form of socialized licensing that would replace voluntary business agreements between artists and their clients.
3.)  A Copyright Small Claims Court to handle the flood of lawsuits expected to result from orphan works infringements.
In your letter to the Copyright Office:

It’s important that lawmakers be told that our copyrights are our source of income because lobbyists and corporation lawyers have “testified” that once our work has been published it has virtually no further commercial value and should therefore be available for use by the public.

So when writing, please remember:

* It’s important that you make your letter personal and truthful.
* Keep it professional and respectful.
* Explain that you’re an artist and have been one for x number of years.
* Briefly list your educational background, publications, awards, etc.
* Indicate the field(s) you work in.
* Explain clearly and forcefully that for you, copyright law is not an
abstract legal issue, but the basis on which your business rests.
* Our copyrights are the products we license.
* This means that infringing our work is like stealing our money.
* It’s important to our businesses that we remain able to determine
voluntarily how and by whom our work is used.
* Stress that your work does NOT lose its value upon publication.
* Instead everything you create becomes part of your business inventory.
* In the digital era, inventory is more valuable to artists than ever before.

If you are NOT a professional artist:

* Define your specific interest in copyright, and give a few relevant
details.

* You might want to stress that it’s important to you that you determine
how and by whom your work is used.
* You might wish to state that even if you’re a hobbyist, you would not
welcome someone else monetizing your work for their own profit
without your knowledge or consent.

Because this is a complicated issue, we’ll follow up next week with some expanded thoughts of our own.
 
– Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner
for the Board of the Illustrators Partnership
The Illustrators Partnership has filed multiple papers with the
Copyright Office regarding this issue .

You can download them from the Copyright Office website:

Remedies for Small Copyright Claims

January 17, 2012

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Initial Comments, February 3, 2013

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Reply Comments, March 6, 2013

Orphan Works and Mass Digitization

Additional Comments, May 21, 2014

Please post or forward this artists alert to any interested party.

You can read the initial post here.

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Eva Bruschi

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My Name’s Eva Bruschi and I’ve just started working as 2d Layout artist for a feature film, that is “Iqbal – Tale of a fearless child” dedicated to Iqbal Masih. This is a co-production with Italian Gertie, Editions Montparnasse, Spectra Animation and 2d 3D Animation. I’m very honoured to be part of this team.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I used to work in a special archive made of lots and lots of audio and videos recordings which contain stories from italian popular music and traditions.  There we had to digitize all the old analogical recordings made by researchers all around Italy, from the 50s till our days.. and sometimes there were crazy weird things to listen to! I’ve been there for almost 4 years 🙂

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I’m proud of having been part first of all of “Ice Banana” team, the short film made by my class at Scuola Internazionale di Comics. Then I’m very proud about almost all the projects I’ve been working (yes, I’m an enthusiast!), starting from other feature films like Pinocchio by Enzo D’Alò in which I did animation assistant and Gladiators of Rome 3D by Rainbow cgi in which I was storyboard artist, until smaller one like some Italian TV series, with many drawings to do in a very few time! 😀 Those projects gave more certainty and awareness of my own work, even if the road has just started!

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Florence, in the beautiful Tuscany and here I attended Scuola Internazionale di Comics like I said before. The school gave me the artistic and technical fundamentals and introduced me to Continue reading

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FIRST SECOND BUYS THREADWORLDS; A NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES BY BRYAN KONIETZKO co-creator of Avatar; The Last Airbender

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FIRST SECOND BUYS THREADWORLDS; A NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES BY BRYAN KONIETZKO

New York, NY (July 6, 2015)—First Second, an imprint of Macmillan, has acquired world rights to an all-new graphic novel series by Bryan Konietzo, the co-creator of the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series. The first volume will be on sale in 2017.

Threadworlds is set on a group of five planets that share a single orbit. The Earth-like worlds are teeming with life, and they have all evolved their own unique intelligent species, each in a staggered state of technological progress. The hero of the story is Nova, a budding young scientist from the most primitive of the Threadworlds. Stubborn and brilliant, she lives out of step with her superstitious, oppressive empire, where girls are forbidden to read and write. But nothing can quell Nova’s passionate curiosity and awe of the universe. Her epic adventures, told in five volumes, follow a chain reaction of scientific discoveries as they ripple from planet to planet. Scientific pursuits sweep her up in a thrilling journey that links the fates of the planets and unite the powers of their brightest minds in a pursuit for truth and progress.threadworlds-03

MarkSiegel, Editorial Director of First Second Books, says, “The seven seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender andThe Legend of Korra have delivered some of the most beloved and inspired storytelling of our time. WithThreadworlds, Bryan further spreads his wings as an author and an artist, taking us to startling new worlds and creatures at once alien and brimming with familiar humanity. It’s daring, it’s deep, and like Avatar, it’s that rarest thing these days: a thrilling adventure that isn’t in the least cynical. And gasp-out-loud wondrous artwork to top it all off. I love what Bryan Konietzko does.”

“I have dreamed of doing a graphic novel project since art school. My career took a different path for the last seventeen years, but I am finally getting around to it! Co-creating and producing Avatar and Korra was an incredible experience, but as an artist and writer I have longed to find a more intimate connection with the making of my work. The artists on our animation productions were so incredibly talented and inspiring that I got the itch to strike out on my own and test my mettle in this neighboring medium,” said Bryan Konietzko. threadworlds-02

“Once I came up with the idea for Threadworlds and spent some time thinking about its main character, Nova, it became less of a choice and more of something I simply had to do. The things Nova wants to learn, I want to learn. I am compelled to go on this journey with her and explore these worlds together. And I am lucky to have found a wonderful home for this project in First Second Books, a unique publisher with an awe-inspiring stable of creators. My editor Mark Siegel’s enthusiasm and integrity have been great sources of motivation for me to take this plunge. Wish me luck! I have a lot of writing and drawing to do,” he added.

Entertainment Weekly has more information about the project (and some amazing art): http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/02/Bryan-Konietzko-threadworlds-preview

Bryan Konietzko graduated with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design’s illustration department in 1998 and moved to Los Angeles. He wore many hats in the TV animation industry before teaming up with fellow RISD alum Michael Dante DiMartino to create two internationally acclaimed series, Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Bryan served as executive producer and art director on both productions, co-writing scripts with Michael when his schedule permitted. In 2014, Montserrat College of Art awarded Bryan with an honorary doctorate of fine arts. He is also an electronic musician under the name Ginormous and an avid nature photographer. His wife, Lisa, and their dog, Gunther, keep him healthy and happy.  Threadworlds is his debut graphic novel.

You can read an interview with Bryan here.

Macmillan Publishers is a global trade book publishing company with prominent imprints around the world. Macmillan publishes a broad range of award-winning books for children and adults in all categories and formats. U.S. publishers include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Flatiron Books, Henry Holt & Company, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, Picador, St. Martin’s Press, and Tor Books. In the UK, Australia, India, and South Africa, Macmillan publishes under the Pan Macmillan name. The German company, Holtzbrinck Deutsche Buchverlage, includes among its imprints S. Fischer, Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Rowohlt, and Droemer Knaur. Macmillan Publishers is a division of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, a large, family-owned media company headquartered inStuttgart, Germany.