'3 Misses' by Paul Driessen

Animator's Guide to Health and Wellness - Part 2: Back Pain & Posture

Animators, visual effects artists, compositors, CG artists, digital painters, and all those who do long, long, long hours sitting at a desk using a pen tablet, your posture can suffer greatly if you're not conscious of your sitting position. You're looking into a monitor, hands on a keyboard, or gripping that Stylus Pen for large amounts of time while sitting at a computer, barely moving all day long, it can make your neck and back sore.

Here's a good little video for exercises to help with your back and posture.




Here are exercises for preventing tendinitis and carpal tunnel, and they apply very well for animators, VFX artists and CGI artists & technicians of all kinds doing long days of work gripping that stylus pen.




In this clip, the focus is on a few hand stretching exercises that are essential to every guitarist's warm-up routine, of course these stretches apply very well to animators as well. These types of exercises can really go a long way to keeping your hands healthy and in good condition.




Reminding animators and artists to sit up straight, pull their shoulders back, pull their necks straight usually isn't too effective or long-lasting. We all sit for long periods of time, deeply focused on our work, not thinking about our postures or the grip on the pen. Eventually we all slouch down, our heads and necks stick out in front of us, whether we work with a tablet-and-monitor, or looking down at an angle on a Cintiq or some other graphic monitor system, or down on a flat table using good 'ol paper and markers.

So the big thing is to take breaks, get up and walk around, because the main cause of your neck sticking out, your shoulders rolling in, your eyes getting dry & sore, and your back curving forward is from many, many hours of sitting motionless at your work station.

So get up and stretch your hands, arms and back, walk around, give your eyes  a rest, just for a few minutes, a couple times a day. Don't forget to do some of the exercises shown above, at a minimum of once every evening. It will help with blood circulation, prevent some strain on your back and neck, and help correct your spine from buckling.

From the book DRAW STRONGER:

See more...
Animator's Guide to Health and Wellness: Part 1

Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit

Wesley Louis drew 'Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit' as a comic when he was 13. It was time to realise the dreams of a geeky kid by animating the intro to the best TV-series that never was. 'Super Turbo Atomic Ninja Rabbit' A love letter to Saturday morning cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s.

Check out the awesome VHS version:



The making of this amazing intro to a mock 90s animated series:

Once upon a time in 1991, a young Wesley Louis sat down with some colouring pencils, and started drawing a comic book about an armored rabbit with superpowers and a sword. Little did he know he had taken his first step on a journey that he wouldn’t see completed for another 24 years.

In 2013 Wes found the comic stuffed into the back of an old folder. 10 pages that, though unfinished, and slightly ravaged by time, perfectly captured all the joys and obsessions of a 13 year old child of the 90’s. Desert chrome, speedlines, ninjas, saturday morning cartoons, it was all there. The blueprint for his career, scrawled onto yellowing paper with a startling degree of skill.

He brought the comic into work and there was something about it that he and the crew couldn’t put down. Yes it was nostalgic, but more than that, it was a fully realized world, of heroes villains, and monkey sidekicks with guns.

Wes started to imagine what it’d be like if it were a real cartoon from the 90’s and before he knew it he had storyboarded the intro sequence. Rina May and Box of Toys Audio put together a rock solid theme song, and pretty soon everyone was hooked.



See more behind-the-scenes and shot breakdowns here.

Credits:

Created and Directed
WESLEY LOUIS

Executive Producers
LEE PAVEY
JAMES SINDLE
DANIEL MARUM
GILES CHEETHAM

Storyboards
WESLEY LOUIS

Additional Storyboards
TIMOTHY McCOURT

Character Design
WESLEY LOUIS
JONATHAN DJOB NKONDO

Graphic Design
MAX TAYLOR

Animation
PETER DODD
JONATHAN DJOB NKONDO
DUNCAN GIST
WESLEY LOUIS

Effects Animation
MATT TIMMS

Clean Up Lead
DENISE DEAN

Additional Clean Up
DUNCAN GIST
AMIX FILM STUDIO

Background Artist
CALLUM STRACHAN

Additional Backgrounds
BJORN ERIK-ASCHIM
KRISTIAN ANTONELLI

Layout
BJORN ERIK-ASCHIM
JONATHAN DJOB NKONDO

Colour
DUNCAN GIST
HELENE LEROUX
MAX TAYLOR
TIMOTHY McCOURT

Compositing
MAX TAYLOR

Music and Sound
“SUPER TURBO ATOMIC NINJA RABBIT THEME ”

Written, Composed and Performed by
RINA MAY

Music Production and Sound Design
BOX OF TOYS AUDIO
CHRIS DIDLICK
MAGNUS ARWENHED
BEN LAVER

“WTL Productions” Voiceover
ASHAN LOUIS-PHILLIP
SAMAYA ALEXANDER
JOSHUA FONTAINE

Special Thanks
AUDREY LOUIS, ANTOINE JAMES, LOUIS NATALIE PLATT, CHRIS KING, SAM TAYLOR LAURENT, ROSSI GABRIELLA, CERENZIA ELECTRIC, THEATRE COLLECTIVE, NO GHOST COLLECTIVE, HANAE SEIDA, AZIZ KOCANAOGULLARI, JENNY WELLS MERVIN, LOUIS NANOU, BLAIR GOULD, TOM SHEARING, DAN JESSOP, ROSA NUSSBAUM

SOUP’CIÈRE

Film Fanatic Friday: The Director's Chair – John Carpenter

Reels from Old School Classic Animators - Part 2

Robert McKimson




Bill Littlejohn




Grim Natwick




Manny Gould




Bill Tytla




Don Patterson




Ken Muse




Fred Moore




Preston Blair




Irv Spence
(version 2)




See Part 1 here.

Jeremy Polgar - Animation Reel

Gunship: Tech Noir - Stopmotion-animated music video by Lee Hardcastle

Nova Seed

See this trailer for the new hand-drawn 2D animated feature by Nick DiLiberto from Gordon Pictures.

A Good Man

5 Baffling Uses of CGI in Movies

Swap Meet

Collaborative short film by Caleb Wood, Charles Huettner, David Prosser, Elli Vuorinen, Grace Nayoon Rhee, Jonathan Djob Nkondo, Kyle Mowat, Lee Kyu-tae, Lilli Carre, Loup Blaster, Nicolas Menard, Nelson Boles, Shin Hashimoto, Shen Jie.

'Life Smartphone' by Xie Cheng Lin

'Gravity' by Clemens Wirth

"100 Years - Armenian Genocide" - by 2veinte

Film Fanatic Friday: Apocalypse Now

Line Test from "Appearance and Reality"

Appearance and Reality, Inbetween Line Test, Scene 09 from Living Lines Library on Vimeo.

Appearance and Reality, Inbetween Line Test, Scene 17 from Living Lines Library on Vimeo.

Colapesce "Reale" - music video by Ground's Oranges

'Bri-kà-Brok' by Davy Durand

Podcasts @ Studio352

Victor Ens and Nic Debray are creating an extensive series of animation podcasts, each focusing on a different part of the culture of our industry. Both artists are seasoned traditional animators and have worked on films like The Illusionist, The Congress, Le Jour des Corneilles, and Song of the Sea. Topics covered so far include Talent, Starting a Scene, How and Why of Becoming an Animator, Beauty in Animation, Weight, Digital vs Paper, Tiedowns, and Realistic Animation.

Via OnAnimation

Dying In Space: The Musical | TURBO FAST (Season 2 Preview)

'Weird Gang' - Rough Animation Clips by By Victor Ens

The A to Z of YouTube - The 10th anniversary video by Hoku & Adam, Flying Object, and Partizan

"Fears" by Nata Metlukh

BG Paint Process by Nick Cross

Film Fanatic Friday: Taxi Driver

"Back & Forth" music video directed by Porthé for 20syl

"La Faillite" short film by Jean-Jean Arnoux and produced by ChezEddy

The Lion Guard - Preview

"Iwako" by Felicien Colmet Daage & Pierre Pinon

Supercolisor "Planetário" Music video directed by Edgar L. Costa at Bonk studio (Brazil)

Retronator: Pixel Art Academy

Make a pledge here.

"Ecomagination" commercial animated by Buck studio

"C'est quoi l'animation" (What is Animation ?) a short by Paul Cabon for "Ciel" campaign from Ciclic

Making of ParaNorman: Angry Angie

Kassos - Season 2

Film Fanatic Friday - Justified: Inside the Writers’ Room

Chris Farley as Shrek (1997 Story Reel)

Master Penman: Jake Weidmann

Are Kids Shows Better Now Than Ever Before?

Over The Garden Wall - The Mini-Series

Online links to many of the people who worked on the show:

Show Creator

Pat McHale 

Story

Amalia Levari

Tom Herpich

Art Director

Nick Cross

BG design

Chris Tsirgiotis

BG paint

German Orozco

Clarke Snyder

Levon Jihanian

Character design

Mikkel Sommer

Phil Rynda 

Seo Kim

Prop design

Dylan Forman

Design Clean-up

Miranda Dressler

Storyboards

Zac Gorman

Natasha Allegri

Jim Campbell

Cole Sanchez

Steve Wolfhard

Nick Edwards

Storyboard Revisions

Fran Krause

Production Coordinator

Adrienne Lee

Hidden elements found in the episodes - spoilers, make sure you've watched the entire series before viewing:



A step-by-step process video of the Highwayman dance from Chapter 4:

Uncle Grampa by Nick Cross

What is Cinematography?

Why CG Sucks (Except it Doesn't)

Jorge A. Capote

Art Department "Walls" - music video by Hugo Moreno, Hanne Galvez, and Bernard Som at ChezEddy

More Episodes of Monkey Tie by Supamonk Studio

Teasers for "DOFUS Book 1" – Julith

Animated feature film directed by Anthony Roux & Jean-Jacques Denis, and produced by Ankama Animations.

David Gilmour - Rattle That Lock

Director: Alasdair + Jock
Producer: Richard Barnett
Production Company: Trunk Animation
Creative Director: Aubrey Powell @ Hipgnosis
Producer for Hipgnosis: Fiz Oliver
Associate Producer: Daniel Negret
2D Animation: Layla Atkinson, Alasdair Brotherston, Stuart Doig, Carlos De Faria, Alex Potts
3D Animation: Clélia Leroux, Rok Predin
Art Workers: Rachel Callinan, Ana Garcia, Théo Gremillet, Laura Ireland, Reina Shibahara
Illustration: Jock Mooney
Compositing: Alasdair Brotherston, Andy Hague
Audio Post Production: Fonic
Sound Editor: Marty O’Brien
Sound Design and Mix: Barnaby Templer
Grade: Matt Hare @ Glassworks
Producer for Glassworks: Paul Schleicher
Music: David Gilmour/ Michaël Boumendil / Lyrics: Polly Samson

"The Seed" student short-film by Yeojin Shin, Audrey Yeo, Hyungsoon Joo, and Jigyu Yoon

Coda

In this animated short by Alan Holly, a drunk man dies, and then Death finds his soul in the park. Refusing to let him just wander, Death takes him on a journey to see “many things.”

Scott Menville gives great advise on becoming a voice actor

Birdbox Studio Showreel