Puppet Up! on the Henson.com Podcast

The latest installment of the Henson.com podcast is available and features the cast of Henson's Puppet Up improv puppet troupe discussing how the group got started and their upcoming tour of Australia. They are also playing a special one night only gig March 4th in Anaheim and TBS.com plans to offer up Puppet Up! web videos later this year.

For more info on Puppet Up! and their upcoming performances visit the Puppet Up! web site. I think combining Puppets and Improvisational Comedy is genius!
Here's a funny sample clip:

Funny Commercials:

Girls's Costume Warehouse

Winter Wonderland

Thanks to Ben, for these.

Carlo Giovani

The outstanding Brazilian artist Carlo Giovani, creates amazing three dimensional illustrations using paper, Lego, fabric, and food for use in animation, motion graphics, T-shirts and just about anything else you can thing of. I especially like his papercraft work.

Does this make sense to anyone?

G. Millar

Part one of our cross-country trek to find new talent is complete.
Our first stop was the Miramichi college in N.B.
Lots of amazing talent there and what a kick ass animation program!
I met the instructors Kevin and Rick. I wish I would have met their figure dawing teacher Geordie, his stuff was on display along with many of the students' artwork, it was all phenominal! Here's just a few samples of his own work:

Tom Sweep

If you've never heard of Michael Dudok De Wit, you are definitely missing out! His use of line with the animated form is out of this world. It's rare to see an Independent animator give us films that are both beautiful to look at and technically animated at such a high level. Here's an early film of his. Enjoy!

What Hands Can Do

Volkswagon has a very neat looking commercial that was made with hand shadows. Not an entirely new idea. I can't help wonder if they were inspired by this other hand shadow commercial. But the design of this ad is wonderfully complex and beautifully executed.

Costumed

Some nice photos...

Have a closer look...

Anime Simpsons?

Ever wondered what The Simpsons would look like drawn as anime characters? Me either, but after seeing The Simpsonzu by *spacecoyote, I'm all turned around on the issue. The style's more realistic (well, more realistic than The Simpsons) form brings many of the character traits to the fore: Otto looks more terrifying than harmless; Mr. Burns looks decrepit; Krusty is the stuff of children's nightmares and Marge actually comes out looking like a babe.

I was sent this by a friend and usually we would look at, say cool, and move on. But so many people have been passing this around and linking to it, that it found its way in to the Springfield universe and *spacecoyote has been hired by Matt Groening's Bongo Comics to work on a manga version of The Simpsons and 20th Century Fox is talking to her about working on the Futurama revival... and she's Canadian!

Luc Besson's Angel-A Trailer:

Luc Besson breaks new ground in his filmmaking with Angel-A, a movie about a schlub who finds a tall, strikingly beautiful but supernatural woman to accompany him on his exploits. If you remember his sci-fi adventure The Fifth Element, this is the same thing but exchanging sci-fi for art house. If there's one regret in Luc Besson's life, it's that he didn't create Bewitched.

Long Live Hirshfeld - The Line King:

Tire Art

Chewing Gum