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News: New Mickey Mouse cartoon! “Croissant de Triomphe”

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Check out this FANTASTIC new Mickey Mouse cartoon by Disney. I’ve been hearing about these for a few years now and really excited to see the results!I would argue that these look better than the originals. Apparently they are doing a total of nineteen new Mickey Mouse films!

Here’s an old Mickey commercial from 1955 which while fuzzy comes close.

For those out of the US you can see it here.

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News: Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling

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These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coates, a Pixar Story Artist. Incredible insight into the inner workings of the story juggernaut that is Pixar!

  1. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
  2. You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
  3. Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
  4. Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
  5. Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
  6. What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
  7. Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
  8. Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
  9. When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
  10. Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
  11. Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
  12. Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
  13. Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
  14. Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
  15. If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
  16. What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
  17. No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
  18. You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
  19. Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
  20. Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
  21. You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
  22. What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.
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News: Titmouse Facinator Plugin Demo

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Here’s a small demo of an incredible plugin called Facinator developed by Titmouse; creators of Megas XLR, Metalocolypse and Motorcity which allows artists to manipulate 2d Flash heads as though they were 3d models. The video is not new but there aren’t many hits on the video so I think it’s safe to say many have not seen it.

If you anything about Flash animation you know it’s very easy to make it look like a big bag of suck. Conversely, Titmouse does it all kinds of right! Here’s a small peek into why.  What the plugin does is essentially allow you to grab the head and rotate the playhead inside the clip so that it appears that thew character is moving his head. genius! especially once you look inside that clip and see all those hundreds of keyframes.

Incidentally , we interviewed the studio’s owner, Chris Prynoski back in 2011.

 

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News: 3 Dimensional Pen!

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How about this? A 3d pen you can draw stuff in a 3 dimensional form all for $75 bucks! Pretty cool! talk about a different kind of 3d film!

Boston toy company Wobble Works uploaded a pitch video to Kickstarter of its newest toy, the 3Doodler, awaking a sleeping desire to write in 3-D.

The 3Doodler, a plastic extrusion pen that resembles a hot glue gun, heats up plastic filament to about 270 degrees Celsius, or 518 Fahrenheit. But unlike a glue gun, the plastic cools almost instantly, allowing you to lift the 3Doodler off the paper and draw in air.

You can read more here!

 

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News: Estonia’s First Feature-Length 3D Animation Screens Today

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Tallinn’s Solaris Cinema is today screening “Lisa Limone & Maroc Orange,” the first feature-length, stereoscopic animation produced in Estonia.

The stop motion animation, directed by Mait Laas, is essentially an opera dealing with the topics of illegal immigration and slavery in modern times, reported ETV.

The sound track includes Italian, French, English and Estonian languages. Voice-over work was done by well-known Estonian singers and actors.