Animation is Concentration....Archie Style

I've never been a fan of Archie Comics, still aren't, well...maybe Betty....or Veronica...  I digress.     Anyway....my friend Marty Murphy sent this image out the other day when the topic of "multitasking" came up....    It reminded me of that drawing of Milt Kahl yelling at a young Richard Williams when he asked him if he listened to music when he worked....     It holds a lot of truth...     I had to block out 7 seconds of animation literally overnight recently, and decided to Unplug from Pandora and my other usual distractions....   I'd forgotten what a difference it can make when you give your undivided attention to the blank piece of paper in front of you, or that rig in the default 'T' pose....     Think its nonsense?    Try it.    Just for one day.  

One eyebrow up, Open smile on other side......

.....You've probably seen the posts on the internet regarding whats been called "the Dreamworks Face"      "One eyebrow up, open smile on the other Side..."    Yeah, you see it a lot in DW films.....I'm not going to defend it...   In fact, we used to giggle about how many times we got that note in Animation dailies...  Sometimes we'd collect all the Post-it notes from the Directors with that exact drawing on it, and hang them around our Monitors...  buy 'em, trade 'em, collect them all..  lol.   I must have had 30 or more...
This Guy has some interesting things to add to the debate....  And one of my students sent me this link, to tie it into 'Lost', which of course gets my interest...    Enjoy!

"The Decade's Best!"

One of my students just sent me this photo... "The Decade's Best!" Blockbuster claims with their bold marquee. Look a little closer....whats that you see? Why its Bee Movie... Oh...and whats that? Its all rented out? That's right baby. Suck it! How would over one million viewers be wrong?   lol.

Tostitos!

Great Spot for Tostito's by Laika.... Saw this ad on TV not too long ago.... Didn't learn till just recently it was done by Laika....and after reading the article on Motionographer, I found out my friend Fernando Benitez did the Fx work on the spot. Fernando was a classmate of mine at Ringling, and we worked together on a few Pictures in Fx at Dreamworks... Its such a small world out there in animation...for real..
Here's the spot.

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

Hate the Car......Love the Commercials....

Some new spots have been running for the 2010 Honda Crosstour... Forgettable looking car, memorable looking commercials. Love the look of them, almost like the characters are made of crumpled and folded paper. Not sure what company is animating the spots yet....

*Update*... Looks like they're done by a company called "Elastic" In Santa Monica...thanks to Brendan for the link, and the new Squirrel commercial. Love it!
Who needs poly smoothing? Half the charm and appeal to these ads is the simple design and silhouettes, accompanied by the nice fluid animation. Great stuff.

Rabbids Go Home

How can you not love these guys? Simple designs, really appealing... Great little animations... Love it.

Electric Mayhem....

Maybe its the exhaustion and sleep deprivation talking... Or maybe this is just pure genius... This time of the school year, its hard to tell... You be the judge. Enjoy. :)