Come on out if you want to learn some tips about drawing for Flash:



Minneapolis based animation and design studio PUNY presents "CLEAN STROKES: Digital Drawing Techniques For Flash." This presentation will feature various digital drawing techniques for creating art that is used in animation and video game art for clients like Cartoon Network and DC Comics. Presentation includes digital inking techniques for traditional artists using the inexpensive 4X6 Wacom Graphire tablet and a "sculpt and stroke" technique using the mouse. Extensive Q&A to answer particular questions about importing or creating art in Adobe Flash.

http://www.punyentertainment.com

When: February 21st 6:30 social 7:00 Presentation. Admission is free and open to the public. Free pizza and refreshments.

Where: FlashMN at Easel Training
More info and directions here: http://www.flashmn.com/

So I was cleaning off a camera card and found these after-hours photos. Apparently this is what happens when everyone goes home:


Max rah rah shish boom bah.


Tim's riding invisible hippo.


and here is an earlier action shot of me kicking Julia right in the face while Kevin looks on in delight. She was probably asking for it so don't get sensitive.


Julia working on a animation thing. Not an action shot? Look at all those drawings!

Matt Schufman's band "Harbor" put on a great show at 7th Street Entry. If you didn't make it to the show, check them out again at the Fine Line on March 30th.

http://www.myspace.com/harbor <-- Or get their CD on Itunes.



We also caught another local designer and musician, Ryan Cady, recently playing with Detroit's ChildBite at Big Vs. Man or Lion, why choose? Is that super-developer-cartoonist-designer-musician Donn Ha dancing as eye-ball head? No, it's eye-ball head what swallowed Donn Ha.

Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeld's Animation Show came to Minneapolis this weekend to big crowds. The last show was held at the art-house Oakstreet Movie Theater near campus but this year's was held at the newly refurbished Pantages Theater. It felt like entirely too swanky a venue for animated shorts.


...or perhaps the most suited venue, could you imagine watching all cartoons here?


Is that animator Mike Owens resplendent and holding court in the gilded balcony? Yes.


Zander Cannon flanked by Julias. One is his wife and the other is Julia Vickerman, whose excellent short film "Dealing With Women" (watch online) was also screened.

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=575

PUNY illustrator, sometimes boxer, and reigning King of Hobos Timothy Sievert's first graphic novel is now available as a pre-order through Top Shelf Publications. Top Shelf is one of the finest graphic novel publishers in the world and Tim has been working on this book, a personal allegory based on life events, for more than a year. Please pre-order this book today as pre-order sales help determine print-run and are very important in graphic novel sales.

http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=12&title=575

It was a couple weeks ago but PUNY developer, animator, and graphic novelist Maxeem was on vacation so we just caught up with a celebration. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX!

Labels: max

John K. comes across as an angry lunatic online. He wants to make great cartoons the way the mid-century masters did and that puts him as a man out of time. He ties his own noose for a lot of folks by having deadline issues, drag through the mud politics, and pitches that ring with misogyny. However, if you cut through the perceived arrogance, he knows the craft like few people alive and has a lot of great things to say..that people love or hate..but can't help but learn from:

John K on executives.

The executives never come to the obvious conclusion that a normal sane person would, that when a new show comes along that destroys the previous religious beliefs, that the reason for the success is the person who made the show.

The thinking he describes, and the psuedo-science of trend watching, exists in every industry that we've worked in; publishing, animation, advertising, and interactive. If you want to be successful in any of them, you presumably have to recognize the person-with-title...the person with cash flow...who picks the right creative for the right project and racks up the successes by giving the creative's freedom and a sense of ownership.

Stay away from the person-with-title who thinks they ARE the creative.

Labels: animation

A full year ago we did the production and animation on an anti-smoking PSA for http://www.walkingtimebomb.com/ that recently went up on their website. (Click Animal Kingdom)

The idea is that addiction is a predator in a "Wild America" nature show parody with voice over by the REAL Marty Stouffer. It was written by Hunt Adkins and designed/illustrated by Jordan Crane. There was a fast couple of weeks turn-around for the animated piece and then the whole thing was shelved for a year. When it resurfaced, several of the violent/gory predator scenes were cut, even though the fake ratings screen still says "head explosion and limb loss."

It's too bad because these were the scenes with the most time consuming and well animated. They contained multiple characters and Max did an amazing job with the documentary style camera movement on the final scene where the camera plucks the guy's leg off. When we got the script we were shocked and excited that they'd let some of the stuff in there fly..but they did..until they didn't. I'm not sure that it would be ok to show the full clips of these cut scenes (our first lost footage!) but here are a couple screen grabs:

Labels: animation

Today is PUNY illustrator Curtis Square-Brigg's birthday!

Labels: birthday, curtis, square-briggs

PUNY designer Matt Schufman's band "Harbor" has been getting air-play on 89.3 The Current and will be headlining at the 7th Street Entry on Wednesday Feb 7th. I'll see you there.

Listen to Harbor on their Myspace Page. You can (and should) also purchase Harbor's EP "High Tide" or Matt's solo EP "Honolulu" on iTunes or on CD

Labels: harbor, matt schufman

We've been raving about the private liberal arts college in St. Paul scene for years but no one listened. We liked PSYC 252 Distress, Dysfunction, and Disorde-Perspectives On The DSM (4 Credits) way before it was cool. Macalester College is now hosting the "Kramer's Ergot" group show, easily one of the best gallery shows Minneapolis ('s sidekick city) has seen in a while. It runs through Feb 25th.