October 31, 2013

Cårven Der Pümpkîn

Sarah's Story

H-Man by Miyu Productions

October 28, 2013

Trailer for "Monkey Bizness" a comic drawn by French animator Pozla



H-Man



Animated opening for upcoming live action short web-series.
Directed by Ugo Bienvenu and Kevin Manach (Miyu Productions).

October 24, 2013

Smoke and Mirrors: Elemental Alchemy

Join master special effects animator and author of ‘Elemental Magic’ Joseph Gilland in an in depth look in to creating special effects.

October 20, 2013

"Lead Me" by Meradi Omar.

Masters of Anatomy



An Anatomy Book drawn by animators, illustrators and comic-book artists who have worked for Disney, Pixar, Dream Works, Marvel and DC. Pledge money here to get this incredible book.

October 19, 2013

R.I.P. Animation Maverick Lou Scheimer


On October 17th, the prolific animation giant Lou Scheimer, founder of Filmation studios, has passed a the age of 85.  Under his guidance, the studio produced countless hours of children’s programing for both Saturday mornings and syndication, leaving an indelible mark on the memories of countless children of the 60s, 70s and 80s.

The studio created many non-science fiction/fantasy series, perhaps most famously ‘Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids’ the first animated series starring African American characters, co-created by Bill Cosby who hosted each episode.  That series won many Emmy Awards for its forward thinking premise and strong moral messages, a theme that many subsequent Filmation creations would incorporate.  In 1977, he won a Primetime Emmy for ‘A Fat Albert Christmas’.

Though not sci-fi or super hero-related, he did adapt ‘The Archies’ to animation which ended up creating four actual Billboard Top 40 singles, ‘Bang Shang-A-Lang’ (#22), ‘Sugar, Sugar’ (#1), ‘Jingle Jangle’ (#10) and ‘Who’s Your Baby?’ (#40).  This cartoon was later paired with a more supernatural series ‘Sabrina, the Teenage Witch’.  Both shows were reinvented several times by the company over subsequent seasons.

But the studio crafted many more science fiction/fantasy oriented shows that many will recognize.  In the 60s, these included various seasons that featured alternating headliners Superman, Batman and Aquaman.  In addition, the studio produced cartoons based on ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ and followed that up with ‘The Fantastic Voyage’.

In 1974, Scheimer won a Daytime Emmy for ‘Star Trek’ an animated continuation of the classic sixties show.  Other shows produced during this decade included ‘Mission Magic’ (Rick Springfield’s big break!), ‘Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle’, ‘The New Adventures of Flash Gordon’ and ‘The New Adventures of Batman’.  Filmation also ventured into live-action programming with ‘Ark II’, ‘The Ghost-Busters’ (not to be confused with the Bill Murray 80s comedies), ‘Space Academy’ (starring James Dohan a.k.a. Scotty from ‘Star Trek’) which morphed into ‘Jason of Star Command’ and most famously ‘Shazam!’ and ‘Isis’ (also known as ‘The Secrets of Isis’).

In the eighties, Filmation produced ‘Blackstar’, a science fiction/swords & sorcery combo that predated ‘Masters of the Universe’.

The most notable of Scheimer’s contributions to the eighties was without a doubt ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ and its spin-off ‘She-Ra, Princess of Power’.  ‘Masters of the Universe’ was a toy line produced by Mattel who approached Filmation about creating a cartoon to feature the various action figures, playsets and vehicles, basically enticing kids to want to buy the corresponding toys.  Not content to simply churn out a mindless commercial, Scheimer insisted they build in those morals and lessons so many of his previous shows had included.  Not just tacked onto the end, but woven into the actual storylines, so that at the end of the episode, the moral made sense.

Both the toys and cartoon were a smash hit!  Mattel and Filmation created ‘She-Ra, Princess of Power’ a female-centric spin-off starring He-Man’s long lost twin sister, giving girls a butt-kicking role model to emulate.
It’s certainly worth mentioning that, as more and more animation was being outsources to Japan, Korea and other foreign countries, every frame of animation created by Filmation was crafted in-house in their Los Angeles studio, where all the voice acting and music was also recorded.

Not only did Lou Scheimer executive produce the Filmation shows, he provided several voices including N’Kima on ‘Tarzan’ and Dumb Donald on ‘Fat Albert’.  He also composed music for several of the shows.

Filmation folded at the end of the eighties after another toy tie-in ‘BraveStarr’ failed to catch on, but Scheimer continued working.

In recent years, his health began to fail, as he underwent quadruple bypass surgery and he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.


Anybody past a certain age remembers ‘Fat Albert’, ‘The Archies’, ‘Shazam’ and ‘Isis’, 'Bravestarr' , ‘He-Man’ and ‘She-Ra’ and most probably many more of these programs including the licensed properties.  Not only did Scheimer create kids entertainment, he did it with the goal of not just entertaining, but educating and instilling solid values.  The world could use more people like that.

Source PlaidStallions & ScienceFiction.com

Another memoriam: he-man.org

A heartfelt tribute to Lou Scheimer from dedicated fan Dan Eardley:




Most of the Lou Scheimer documentaries have been removed from YouTube, but I did found these:






The history of He-Man:








Lou Scheimer (1929-2013)

October 18, 2013

'Brick by Brick' Kickstarter



Samples of his work here and here.

Donate to the kickstarter campaign here, to receive the book and many other rewards.

"Call Back" by Side Films

"Kick-Ass" - 3D Animated Comic Sequence

A technical breakdown of a 90 seconds long animated 3D comic book sequence made for the first 'Kick-Ass' movie. VFX artists worked closely together with John Romita Jr. Romita and his team (Tom Palmer and Dean White) to create the illustrative material that was used to execute this 3D animated comic book sequence.

"Chocolate Bacon" by Asavari Kumar

"Crabby Day" by Sara Ho

October 17, 2013

Life in the Analog Age - Volume 3

Gabe Swarr's third volume of his comic has arrived, collecting the entire third year of Life In The Analog Age, and it's even better than before.

He taps into a vein of nostalgia that only exists in your childhood memories, the sights, smells, sounds and feelings get re-created and re-told in this three-toned comicbook. His stories are told in such a genuine way, you can't help but relate to the characters and place yourself in the author's thoughts and draw parallels to your own memories from youth.

This is the final book in the trilogy of collected weekly comics. This stand-alone edition is filled with long and short stories all about Little Bear Kid's everyday life during a time of simplicity and self discovery.

-116 page, full color, Manga sized (5.25" x 7.5")
-includes all 25 “Advent Gift” strips
-19 page story “Hero”
-exclusive 24 page story “Dumpster”
-2 extra side projects
-bonus behind the scenes images & photos

This book released October 2013 is available in traditional form ($12.99) and for digital download ($4.99) at the Life In The Analog store.



Sample:

October 16, 2013

This trailer for Blade Runner as a 1940s film noir is genius



Blade Runner was always kind of a noir film, but Chet Desmond's black-and-white re-imagining of what the movie's trailer would look like had it been made in the '40s is simply stunning.

Bee and Puppycat - The Series!



Contribute to their cause here, and help to get this awesome series.

Listen to an awesome interview with the creator here.

Niko and the Sword of Light - Animation Scene by Shaz Lym



October 15, 2013

Superman - 75th Anniversary Animated Short



From the minds of Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) and Bruce Timm (Superman: The Animated Series) and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, this short follows Superman through the years, from his first appearance on the cover of Action Comics #1 to Henry Cavill in this year's Man of Steel.

Carpark

"CROC//EXILE" by Reza Iman