Puppet Building

Go here to see the new puppet in action!
I had fun designing this guy, and I'm having a blast practicing with him.
Final construction done by the talented Jarrod Boutcher.

Bastard Wants To Hit Me

AMAZING ANIMATION! Please watch this great music video from
They Might Be Giants.

KD

Richard Rosenman's Kraft Dinner commercial is absolutely great and made in Canada!
It's nice to see more non-motion-captured, cartoony-3D-animation on television.
Click here to see the commercial.

Outtake

I just love this blooper we filmed last November for Episode 10:


Be sure to check out the new episodes here.

War At Home Freakout

Michael Rapaport shows his art collection at his house. WATCH IT ALL BECAUSE IT GETS CRAZY. Thanks to Whitey for finding it.

Leisl Adams revamped her blog, have a look:

Possum!

Buy a Possum Comic here!
See a preview of the comic here!

Random Goodies

-Jibba Jabba-
Evan Spiridellis, co-creator of Jib-Jab talks about producing independent animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

-Blank Flipbooks at Staples-
That's right. Sharpen your animation timing without the use of a Lunchbox. On the subway, in the elevator, at a wedding...
Staples Glue-Top Scratch Pads, 3"x 5", White
Ideal for notes, drafts and memos ... AND FLIPBOOKS!
* Glue-top
* 3" x 5"
* 100 Sheets/pad (packs of 5)
A PACK OF 5 COSTS $4!

-Custom Toy Lab-
This seems to be pretty good idea: Custom Toy Lab: Custom Designer Vinyl Toys, Paper Toys & Plush Toys.

CustomToyLab.com has been created to support all artists involved in the custom toy scene. The site is created by Tahir and Andy as a way for people to view all the great custom toys in one place. To celebrate the launch we are giving away a custom set of ZLIKS created by Bil BetsOvic. To enter the competition all you need to do is lave a comment on this post.

All artists are invited to get involved and showcase their toy customizing and creating talents. Custom toys can range from custom vinyl toys, hand made plush toys, designer paper toys or any other kind of DIY toy.

The blog is new: it started in February. However, there are tons of cool toys to see. Even if you aren't planning to buy anything now, it's a good place to discover new artists, like Mr Jones from Lunartik that created the lovely little fellow below, and rate the works you enjoyed. Don't miss their Paper Toys category with links to two free models to download.

Mark & Jen's New Baby Photo Album:

Isabella Maria Cappello.
8 pounds, 7 ounces.
Born March 31st, at 1:00pm.
Click on image to see more.

Some Sketches

Caricaturist, Don Pinsent:

No, Don hasn't paid me to promote his site... at least, not yet.

Another Weird Al Yankovic Animated Music Video

Comics / Illustration / Animation

-Ghostco-
A small selection of Matthew Woodson’s prints are now available for purchase, care of Thumbtack Press.

In case you weren’t aware of it, Matthew has been blogging for the past couple of months, over here. Definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in process and pretty pictures and all that other good stuff.

-New Ojingogo print collection-
Matt Forsythe is now selling the second print collection of his Ojingogo comics online! He’s also reprinted the first book of this (twice) Eisner nominated comic, so if you missed out on picking one up the first time, now’s your chance. The quality of these books is outstanding, so you definitely know you’ll be getting your money’s worth (plus, he’s throwing in free sketches for all orders). Swing by his shop page to order the books, or read it all online.

-Aaron Renier-

The inimitable creator of Spiral Bound (from Top Shelf Productions) and The Unsinkable Walker Bean (forthcoming from Scholastic Books) has a nicely designed new website, complete with a generously stocked gallery and assurances of more cool stuff to come.


-Walt Disney Exhibition in Montreal-
Here are photos from the Once Upon A Time Walt Disney: Sources of Inspiration for Disney Studios exhibition showcasing the range of illustration and concept art see them all here.


-Comics Festival 2007-
This kick-ass cover by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is one of two covers (the other is by The New Frontier’s Darwyn Cooke) for Comics Festival 2007, one of the offerings available in finer comic shops everywhere for Free Comic Book Day on May 5. (See larger versions of both covers here)

Chris Butcher hooks us up with the full lineup of creators who are featured in the book. Included is new full-colour work by R. Stevens (Diesel Sweeties), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Bryan Lee O’Malley (Scott Pilgrim), Kean Soo (Jellaby), Hope Larson, myself, and many others.

I just saw a proof of the finished book, and it’s a beauty. It’s a darn near perfect group of artists to get new readers excited about comics, and it’s FREE!

-Afro-
I saw the Afro Samurai marathon on Spike TV the other night, and I was intrigued. I haven’t seen this much “head chopping fun” from an cartoon in a long time. The over-the-top violence level is on par with such classics as 'Ninja Scroll'. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart. I normally hate all anime, with the exception of Miyasaki, Otomo, Tsurumaki, and Tezuka.

If you don't get Spike TV, check out the show here.
The DVD came out a month ago I believe.

Vista

Shown above is a demo on Microsoft's latest Windows OS: Vista. And once again with each new Windows edition, Microsoft copies styles, techniques and programming that Mac had years earlier. This has been true since 1984, Windows has always been a few years behind Mac in every development of their technologies, it took a while for me to convert, I didn't want to let the PC go, but it was undeniable how Mac (to me) was superior for the field of graphics and animation that I was getting into. I began using PCs when I was 12 years old and continued using them for 16 years. I first operated a mac about 12 years ago, liked it, but I wasn't convinced that I couldn't survive without both, I only completely converted from PC to Mac 3 years a go, I got rid of my last PC and never looked back.

Here's the Mac ad spoof for it:
Here's a great animated short - Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs: