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2D Wednesday BONUS- Brad Bird’s The Spirit pencil test

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As a 2D Wednesday bonus, I had to post this cool, little pencil test directed by the talented Brad Bird back in 1980 or so. In general, the animation is nice if a little ‘soft’. I think our general sense of timing and pacing has greatly increased since this was made but it still looks like something that would have been fun to see!

From Youtube:

In 2008 as Frank Miller’s live action feature film based on Will Eisner’s “The Spirit” was being released I wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times on the time, back in 1980, when I became involved with Brad Bird and Gary Kurtz (producer of the first two “Star Wars” movies) in trying to get into production an animated feature based on “The Spirit” In that piece, which you can read here:http://herocomplex.latimes.com/uncate… I spoke of a pencil test “trailer” for the  proposed film that was made by Bird along with several classmates from Cal Arts, most of whom were working at Disney at the time. Quite a few people who read the article contacted me about seeing the film. I did have it on an old VHS, but it was deep in storage at the time plus as I did not really own the film, I told them they would have to look elsewhere to find a copy. Later, I found the VHS and put it aside. Recently Andrea Fiamma, an Italian journalist writing on the subject, asked again if the film could be seen. As it is a small piece of animation history, I’ve decided to post it here.
Steven Paul Leiva

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Wildseed Comedy unveils debut adult animation comedy series Peter’s Place

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Peter's Place

Wildseed Comedy unveils debut adult animation comedy series Peter’s Place
#PetersPlaceSeries
Wildseed Comedy has unveiled Peter’s Place, its debut adult animation comedy series. The show is set in a pub in Manchester, the sort that would give Family Guys’ The Drunken Clam a run for its money, and is managed by Peter, a quick-witted, foul-mouthed northerner with trust issues and anxieties over the threatening expansion of the middle classes. You know the type.

The series is part of Wildseed Studio’s commitment to launch a new series every month and provide viewers with premium, original shows featuring the best new UK comedy talent.

Peter’s Place explores the dysfunctional relationships Peter has with his clientele and the bond that binds these misfits including foul-mouthed pensioner Mary who’s lonely and un-loved ever since her husband left her. Then there’s Brian, an aspiring creative trapped in a soulless job – and not forgetting Oliver who’s a bit of a dreamer that needs a guiding hand to cope with the tough realities of modern life.

Produced by Wildseed Comedy, Peter’s Place is a four-part series which viewers can watch on Wildseed Comedy’s YouTube channel from Tuesday 14 April here http://petersplaceseries.com/

#PetersPlaceSeries

Media enquiries
Harry Cymbler
@HarryHotCherry
harry@hotcherry.co.uk
+44 20 7607 2413

About Wildseed Comedy

http://www.youtube.com/wildseedcomedy 

Founded in 2014 by Miles Bullough & Jesse Cleverly, Wildseed Comedy aims to become the home of new online comedy in the UK. Our mission is to help bring fresh comedy projects to life through nurturing, developing and financing talent. We are dedicated to providing viewers with premium, original, scripted shows featuring the best new UK comedy talent, with a new series launching every month.

 

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Sky Deutschland and Studio 100 Media extend successful Multi-Platform-Partnership

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Sky Deutschland and Studio 100 Media extend successful

Multi-Platform-Partnership

  • Extension and Expansion of existing co-operation between Sky Deutschland and Studio 100 Media
  • Expansion of non-linear rights and multi-year extension of exclusive broadcast rights to the Junior Channel transmitted by Sky Deutschland

Cannes, 13th April 2015 – Sky Deutschland and Studio 100 Media extend and enhance their partnership.  Sky viewers can continue to enjoy a broad selection of children’s programs including the remakes of the classic series “Maya the Bee” and “Vic The Viking” which continue to excite young viewers with their new computer animated look, as well as others such as “Mia and Me”, “My Little Pony – Friendship is Magical”, “Bibi Blocksberg” and films and series based on the Astrid Lindgren books.

The newly sealed agreement also includes the comprehensive expansion of non-linear rights.  This enables accessibility to a larger selection of Junior programs such as “Vic The Viking”, “Maya The Bee” and “Woodlies” available through the Sky on demand services Sky Go and Sky Anytime, as well as via Snap by Sky in Germany and Austria.

Constanze Gilles, Director of Partner Channels at Sky Deutschland: “Children’s programs are an important part of the Sky brand, they delight the whole family and Junior stands for wonderful children’s entertainment with both classics as well as with new CGI-series such as “Maya The Bee”.  We look forward to exclusively presenting ‘Junior’ content both through linear and on demand services on Sky.”

“Our collaboration with Sky remains a trusting, successful partnership and we are very pleased to extend this cooperation again. Next year, ‘Junior’ will have already been broadcasting for 20 years on German Pay TV on Air, showing best entertainment for the whole family, including the classics, live action formats and now additionally CGI  productions. ‘Junior’ has since become part of the Sky broadcasting family and is now also on Sky Anytime, as well as Sky Go and Snap by Sky.”

Selective Program Highlights:

“Marsupilami – Im Dschungel ist was los”, 2 series, 26 Episodes, from 2nd February, daily at 12:15pm.

“Maya the Bee”, special screening on 1st May from 4pm and on the following five Saturdays at 10am.

“ Michel Films for Whitsun”, special screening with episodes “Michel in der Suppenschüssel”, “Michel muss mehr Männchen machen” and “Michel bringt die Welt in Ordnung”, from  23rd to 25th of May, at 10am.

About Sky Germany:
Sky is the market leader in German and Austrian Pay-TV with over 1.4 Million viewers and a yearly turnover of approximately 1.7 Billion Euros.  The company offers a range of live sports, films, series, children’s programs and documentaries.  Sky Germany employs 2.500 employees and its main offices are situated in Unterföhring near Munich. The Company is part of Europe’s leading Entertainment group Sky plc.

(as on the 31st December 2014).

About Studio 100 Media:
Studio 100 Media is a 100 percent subsidiary of Belgian firm Studio 100 Group.  Based in Munich, Germany, the company is an international production and distribution company for high-quality and non-violent children’s entertainment.  It develops and acquires new formats and is also responsible for the global marketing of its own rights portfolio as well as of third party programming.

Since 2012 Studio 100 Media has through its subsidiary Studio 100 Film been involved in producing animation feature films for worldwide distribution.  The first project was the 3-D German/Australian co-production “Maya The Bee – Movie”. Further brands under the Studio 100 Media umbrella include ‘Heidi’ and ‘Vic The Viking’ – both as classic series’ and as CGI re-productions.

In addition to the licensing business Studio 100 Media is responsible for all marketing activities and for the development and production of merchandising and home entertainment products in GAS.

ontact for Media:

Sky Deutschland AG

Pia Halbig

Consumer Communications

Tel. 089 – 9958 6342

pia.halbig@sky.de

twitter.com/SkyDeutschland

Katharina Muck                                                       Devika Patel

Studio 100 Media GmbH                                         DP-PR

Tel.: + 49 (0) 89 960 855 133                                      Mobile: +44 (0) 7773 324 159

E-Mail: katharina.muck@studio100media.com  E-Mail: devika.patel@btopenworld.com

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Toonboom releases Harmony 12

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Harmony 12Today in addition to the new tiered buying model for Harmony, Toonboom released Harmony 12 which looks to have some pretty cool features, such as more bitmap brush options,  faster rendering times and a new Light Shading feature allowing you to auto add shadows from various perspectives. Below is a video walk through highlighting the newest features.

You can find out more about Toonboom Harmony at Toonboom’s website.

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Toonboom updates Harmony and Storyboard Pro to include subscription pricing

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Harmony-subscription

Big news today in the world of animation as Toonboom has just released a new subscription model for both their Harmony suite AND their very popular Storyboard Pro software to reflect the new Cloud business model like Adobe and Autodesk have done in the last two years.

Now you can pay annually, monthly, or buy a perpetual license which is more or less buying it outright without a subscription.

For Harmony, $15 a month will get you the Essentials version which seems to be fairly robust except for the one Art layer limit and no 3d capabilities. The Advanced version gets you a number of other features including four Art layers as well as the ability to see 3d models placed in a scene by a Premium version but not access or edit them. Premium of course has all the bells and whistles that full blown Harmony has.
To see a list of different features of the various versions of Harmony available head over the the Toonboom site for more info.

Word is Toonboom will be phasing out Toonboom Studio and Toonboom Animate in October of this year.

Storyboard Pro subscription
As for Storyboard Pro, you now have the option to do a subscription which will cost you $38 per month. This in and of itself is a huge boon for storyboard artists seeking to use the software since the standalone version will set you back $950 and most freelancers can’t afford that cost easily.

 

To see more about Toonboom’s new Storyboard Pro pricing head over to their site.

Now if we could just get Wacom to do a Cloud model! 😉

 

 

 

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Welton Santos

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What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is Welton Santos  I am 2D Animator , character designer, background artist and Illustrator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I worked as a bricklayer, waiter, office boy… They were all tough jobs that nearly drove me mad. But in the end, I think I learned something from each one of them.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
That’s hard — but I really enjoyed working on the pilot episodes of ‘Popota’ and ‘Cheese Gang’ TV series. I think everybody did a terrific job and I’m really proud to be part of the animation team.

How did you become interested in animation?
As a child I already like animation, before entering the animation I did many tests of comics, but never went .. haha Some publishers were up interested more do not know what happened was not right, oh one day God took pity on me and Continue reading