Discussion about the early history of animation tends to focus on Walt Disney and Looney Tunes, ignoring good old Max Fleischer. Fleischer was the man behind Betty Boop, Popeye, and other Depression-era classics. We could talk about those for a week, especially the censorship of Betty Boop, but one of the most critical parts of […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Animation
A grueling look at making The Simpsons, start to finish
Digital techniques have greatly sped up the rate at which animation is produced. South Park can turn out a full episode in a week, and some topical YouTube videos can be cranked out even faster. But the producers of The Simpsons have opted to keep things slow, spacing our production over nearly a year to […]
Continue reading75 years later, celebrating Bugs Bunny – and looking at his contentious history
Today marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros.’s de facto cartoon mascot and a symbol of the golden age of animation (and maybe LeBron James’s future co-star?). Though Bugs is an immediately recognizable icon today, it took hundreds of theatrical animated shorts and countless years of Saturday morning television shows to get there. […]
Continue readingAnimation fan? Check out hard-to-find shorts from The Animation Show of Shows
Yesterday in our new acquisitions post, we mentioned The Animation Show of Shows (HU DVD 12101 – 12154), a giant collection of world animation we recently added to our shelves. We want to talk a little before about this series; it’s a remarkable showcase of diverse talent that any animation fan should seek out. The […]
Continue readingLearn the secrets of Disney animation in 3 minutes
Walt Disney once employed a team informally known as the “Nine Old Men,” nine of the greatest animators of all time and the artistic forces behind nearly the first forty years of Disney animation. If you watch classic Disney movies today, their bold and fluid animations are still astounding and a great artistic accomplishment. Two […]
Continue readingAnimated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium | Off Book | PBS
Here’s a great little piece on animated GIFs from the PBS art series, Off Book. Animated GIFs: The Birth of a Medium | Off Book | PBS
Continue readingCreate a cool animated photo montage in After Effects
This 14 step online tutorial from Layers Magazine teaches you how to create a really cool animated photo montage. It’s structured in a way that easily enables you to switch out the photos in the animation for new ones as well. Your final result will be a short animated Quicktime movie. Check it out! How […]
Continue readingLive Action Test Footage from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland
Film archivist lostvocals4 has posted live action test footage for the mad tea party scene in Disney’s 1951 animated rendition of Alice in Wonderland. Upon comparing the live action test to the final film, the archivist discovered much of the test audio was used in the final film. lostvocals4 says: “Walt Disney often filmed actors […]
Continue readingFox Considering An All-’Simpsons’ TV Channel
THE SIMPSONS: Season 1 – Season 3 – HU DVD 6581 – 6591 Where can The Simpsons, television’s longest-running American prime time, scripted series, go from here? If Fox executives have their way, everyone’s favorite yellow family might get their own TV channel. At a recent media conference, News Corp.’s Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey […]
Continue readingMust-see animation: Bayeux Tapestry (2009)
A simple concept done to perfection. The Battle of Hastings as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry with sound effects. link The producers, Potion Graphics, also came up with this entertaining short, Fear with Alfred Hitchcock.
Continue reading