Failing in Love tells the story of a foolish turtle and his quest for love. Featuring characters from the hit mobile game, The Moron Test, this stylish animated short lives up to the game’s tradition of poking fun at epic fails.

Was eventually turned into a card ...

Movie? Card?

That’s it! Gorge well! And for those who are not celebrating the American Thanksgiving, simply celebrate the day and have a great one!!

By: Michael Alvarez

3 Stars out 5

“Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace” is the new animated movie from Star Wars creator George Lucas.  It is not only visually stunning but very funny at the same time.  

 Although 22 mins length it packs quite a punch.  You have Jedi duels and fantastic chace scenes.   Did I mention the cameos of some characters we have not seen in years(Original Trilogy).  If that is not enough the animation is so well done that it looks like real Legos breaking apart and re-assembling on screen. 

This mini movie is also a great way to introduce The Star Wars Saga to the children of this generation. So do not hesitate to watch with your children!

“May the Force be with you“

By: Michael Alvarez

3 Stars out 5

“Lego Star Wars: The Padawan Menace” is the new animated movie from Star Wars creator George Lucas.  It is not only visually stunning but very funny at the same time.  

 Although 22 mins length it packs quite a punch.  You have Jedi duels and fantastic chace scenes.   Did I mention the cameos of some characters we have not seen in years(Original Trilogy).  If that is not enough the animation is so well done that it looks like real Legos breaking apart and re-assembling on screen. 

This mini movie is also a great way to introduce The Star Wars Saga to the children of this generation. So do not hesitate to watch with your children!

“May the Force be with you“

It’s Sunday and I’m in the mood to preach a little. Beware.

A friend sent a link to this article, where the author writes about what to teach her children when they turn on the radio and hear Rihanna singing about S&M and find sexual references in everything from deodorant and shampoo commercials to animated cartoon movies like The Smurfs. (FYI, don’t agree with her conclusions at all.)

I’ve come to a conclusion a wee bit different from what I wrote a few days ago.

Yes, manufacturers are to blame for creating this clothing. Yes, stores are to blame for marketing and peddling childhood sexuality.

But do you know who bears the lion-share of blame? Me.

You.

We are to blame.

We buy the stuff. We permit their agendas with our dollars and lack of outrage. We are the parents who don’t have the chutzpah to tell our kids, “No!” when they try on an outfit too old for them or bring magazines and catalogs into the house that don’t fit our family priorities.

We are the mothers who don’t change the standard and instead try to conform to our community and what we assume is happening so our kids will be popular, think we’re cool and tell us their secrets.

We are the fathers who don’t tell their daughters they’re more beautiful in sweat pants and no make up than dolled up in a strapless dress and 2″ heels for their eighth-grade graduation.

We are the uncles who don’t change the channel when a commercial objectifying women comes on.

We are the aunts who talk about if you don’t “put out” your boyfriend will break up with you.

We are the teachers and support staff who don’t tell our students they need to cover up and assume someone else will tell them sometime.

We are the community members who are ok with high school girls wearing string bikinis to do a car wash.

We’re letting children, especially girls, believe what they wear will make them attractive. We are the ones promoting that skewed agenda by our complicity.

And then we complain to our friends about how we want our daughters to dress modestly but we just can’t find anything for them to wear… how we don’t want our daughters to be on the Pill but we’d rather have them pumping chemicals into their bodies on a daily basis than deal with the consequences of their action with an unwanted pregnancy.

We are the problem.

I read this post to Lizard ahead of publishing it because it’s not funny. I’ve gotten feedback in the past when I’m funny I’m a great writer but when I’m preachy it’s heavy. I asked him if I should hit that “publish” button.

He said, “yes.” So if you don’t like this one, blame my husband! He also wanted to mention not all of us are the problem – many of the people we know don’t send their dollars toward immodest clothing. The dads do recognize their significance in their daughter’s development.

Many people we know are part of the solution because they’re speaking with their voices, writing, dollars and feet.

I agree. But I would argue all of us know someone who doesn’t speak up. Who doesn’t try. Who does spend hundreds of dollars in the stores whose advertising uses children in images that are soft-pornography.

Why would we walk past these images every day and not raise a ruckus? Why would we let our children grow up thinking this objectification is ok?

We are the problem when we do not put forth the effort to make a difference. If we aren’t ok with what we see around us, we need to get vocal and stop blaming the manufacturers, the stores, the media… and take responsibility for ourselves!

Women, for all our ranting about objectification and loss of power, we have the power to stop this circus ride. Don’t believe me? Consider this:

Lysistrata – a ancient Greek play describing how the women got sick of the men warring all the time and went on a sex strike. They withheld intimate relations until the men quit fighting… and it worked!

Victorian times – men composed odes after glimpsing a woman’s ankle under her skirt. Really, the ankle?! Not the most attractive of all body parts, in my opinion. But yes, the ankle. Because that’s what they could see. So they liked it.

Today – Please tell me you’ve noticed a woman wearing a potato sack dress can emit as much sexuality as a woman in a bustier and fishnet stockings – sometimes more!

Attractiveness and sexuality do not have to be about clothing. The idea you have to wear revealing clothing to be attractive is not only bogus – it trains men to believe they can get away with being lazy and not working for the prize of an amazing woman in body, mind and spirit!

I’ve now rambled for 700 words. Here are my bullet points to sum it up before I hit 800 words:

1. If we’re buying the clothing, we are the problem.

2. If we aren’t teaching our children by example their clothing is less important than their character, we are the problem.

3. If we’re complaining about the problem but not putting forth the effort to change it, we are the problem.

Uh-oh. It’s up to almost 1,000 words. Thank you for sticking with me on my rant against myself and the world! I’d love to hear your feedback. Stay tuned and visit again for more stories of the weird and wacko, I promise to avoid my soapbox for awhile.

One of my attempts at playing with animation: 

In my pre-high school years I was in one of those “advanced” education programs. At the time somewhat experimental I believe. It was one of those types of programs where they took a young terrified 3rd grader for special tests to see if they made the cut.  Apparently I had a high “IQ”? I had no clue how I caught it! And seems I was going to have to go to a “special” place with others who also had the cursed disease!

Yep I went to school on the small bus!

One of the great things about this program is it did let those in it explore their creative sides. In junior high, we had some big projects to do. Each of us had to do a science project and a creative project (not at the same time). They were supposed to be multi-week projects with various stages and deadlines. For my creative project I chose to do a claymation movie. In typical me fashion, instead of spreading it out over the multiple weeks available, and planning ahead, I did the whole project in about 8 hours just prior to the final due date. Which basically meant I made it up as I went along.

I was actually kind of proud of the results.

Anyway a few weeks back I was doing a random attempt to organize my life … and my room … and ran across the movie. It being 20+ years later, I had the strong need to see it again, because it was my first attempt at animation, and the only one that ever made it to film. But I also wanted to be able to share it with others. So I began the process of converting it to digital.

As I was waiting to see it again, it suddenly dawned on my why I am so fascinated with animation.

Animation is a physical representation of my fundamental philosophy. I am a firm believer of living in the now; of creating our future one moment at a time. That is exactly how animation works. Each moment is fully explored. A shift is made (a choice), and the next moment is then explored. Before long, a whole world is created, one moment at a time.

Life is an animated movie!!

Today I finally got the digitized version of the movie back! While not exactly as I remembered it (what memory ever is), it is still fun. Hard to believe how much energy went into such a short animated clip. Makes one truly appreciate how much work goes in to the modern high tech movies of today!

Hope you all enjoy!!

This amazing animated short film is a project of love by Lucas Martell and took five years to make.  He wanted to learn 3D animation and kept crafting and polishing this gem.  Winner of the jury award in the humor category of Animation at the Babelgum Animation Film Festival.

The Cartoon Museum on Little Russell Street,  close to the British Museum, is one of those tiny hidden gems that one hopes to find  while walking around London.

On the second Saturday of every month from 10-4pm there are free drop-in cartooning activities for families and during half term excellent classes are held that children can sign up for in advance.  I’ve included the schedule for the upcoming half term below. My eight year old son took an amazing half-term cartoon animation workshop and proudly came home with funny DVD that he  had created in a day well spent.

The Cartoon Museum.

I can assure you that is anything but that.

Both 3D animation and 2D animation start the same way: with storyboards and moodboards. This tools are priceless and, more often than not, still done in it’s majority “by hand”. Sometimes, it is drawn directly into some software, using a Cintiq or a Tablet.

Background in the process of being painted in Adobe Photoshop, using a scanned drawing as reference.

So as you can see animation is a technique, not a movie genre. It’s just a different way to tell stories that might not work that well in Live Action settings.

Most people got shocked when I explained that my final film was done with 707 final drawings (That is without counting rough animation, in which you sometimes do several times a scene, until you get it right!) and that all of those drawings were scanned and then digitally painted using Toon Boom Harmony (a very animator specific software).

This is a X-Sheet, in Toon Boom Harmony. First we fill this ones by hand -before- we even start drawing, in order to plan our animation. Then we type it back into the software, making sure each drawing is in order according to this sheet.

But at least Adobe Flash does the work for you, right? (I’ve been asked that several times). Adobe Flash is a very quirky piece of software. And I know Flash since my days in University, studying graphic design.  Truth be told, Flash does help you to stay more “on model”,  the technical term for a character that hasn’t been distorted. But the way animation works in Flash is very different to the traditional way of animating, and that’s why most Flash animations tend to be “snappy” and very fast paced. That’s the way it works best.  But Adobe decided to change Flash to a more programmer friendly software, and made things insanely difficult for animators (and Graphic designers) so must Animation studios own older versions of Flash to work with.  And that means this:

A very feared screen to see while animating. The newer versions of Flash have become more stable, but less animator friendly. So we just keep on saving VERY often.

And don’t get me wrong: Flash Animation is great! I was able to (while learning how to use Flash for animation purposes) to do a film that has the same lenght as my classical film… in one fourth of the time! Yes, that’s right!!! It’s a lot faster to animate on Flash than classically.

Right now Im starting to develop an Idea to do it on Toon Boom Animate Pro, so I can compare Flash against. I’ll keep you posted on that sometime in the future.

Now you know all the work that Animation needs, and it will give you a whole new level of appreciation of masters at Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and all those studios that make a big effort to entertain you. I’ll post a couple of clips of traditional animation, just for you to see all the work involved, this time around from Disney’s Fantasia 2000 (and one of my favorite sequences!):

Enjoy! And keep in mind that EVERY frame was drawn by hand and then cleaned up… lot’s of work!

Finally, Im able to post the Flash/After Effects short film I made. We had “1 month” to learn how to animate on Flash and develop the story, as well to learn another piece of Software called Toon Boom. Long story short, I had 1 week to do the sound design and something close to 2 weeks to do the actual animation (I think it was a little less than 2 weeks, but Its a big blur now in my head…I can’t recall!)

Hope you like it, here it is:

Im happy to finally show the work of 6 months. Please, feel free to comment, share and give feedback.

Without more delay, here’s my first animated short film:

1. Janne the Director is writing a new script version of the animated short film “Maja’s Mom is Looking for a Job”. There also are some minor changes in the budget; like stuff we missed putting in the first time around. Like music.

2. Swedish Television (SVT) is casting new acts for their internet comedy site. Last year they ignored us completely, maybe because we tried to contact them during summer vacation here in Sweden.

3. In September there’s a Cartoon Forum happening in Sopot, Poland. 60 animated projects are selected and get the chance to pitch their stuff to 240 buyers from all over Europe. The application deadline is three weeks away.

Janne the Director refuses to go to Poland unless: 1. It’s in the north of Poland. 2. It turns out Izabella Scorupco comes from Poland. And that she’s there.

I have to make sure to google that later.

One of the articles that resonated deep within me was this one, wrote by Patrick Smith at the Scribble Junkies blog (his partner in the blog is Bill Plympton, so bookmark it!). In that post, Smith has 4 vital points and adds a fifth by Plympton. This article, and the one I’m quoting, are focused on animated shorts, but I think it will work anywhere else.

The first advice tells you to Be honest, be yourself, push originality and base your idea for your film on personal experience. I agree even more now than at the beginning of my education at Vancouver Films School. I couldn’t copy much, because I’m not the greatest and most skillful artist on the planet… so I tried to tell a story that was close to my heart. Now I know that it was a good call. No one sees the world in the way you see it, and that’s the plus you can give. Having heroes is a great deal of inspiration, and they say imitation is flattery but at the moment of developing an idea, that comes across as a “Me-too” look, instead of an “I-am”. That originality is what sets apart a Chuck Jones from Tex Avery, Ted Newton or Brad Bird. But what comes across as originality is that they were honest enough to let some parts of their personality shine trough their work.

The second one says: Make all your ideas as simple as possible, and try to keep films short in length I learned that the hard way, by stumbling upon the same rock twice. You can tell a story in 30 seconds, flat, with all the action you might want (for a character driven piece, full of acting, I think you need more, at least 1 minute…but then again, I might be wrong as well). I wish I knew that one from the start. Here’s a video that proves that short short film can be good:

The third advice is Make your film for yourself, don’t make it to get a job after graduation, or a series on cartoon network, this thinking will only backfire. I couldn’t agree more. You have more than enough learning how to animate, storytelling principles, timing, etc. to add the total and unnecessary pressure of thinking that this is your golden ticket for stardom (and a Job). It might be, but If you have something that they haven’t seen so far it would be better, making advice number one even more important.  Also, Joe Murray describes the process of developing animated shows in his book “Creating Animated Cartoons with Character”. There is no way on earth that you can do all of that in your student film while learning how to do it. It will come across as half-baked and rushed. And that’s precisely what you don’t want. (Powerpuff Girls started as a student film from Craig McCracken in 1992 called ” Whoopass Stew!, but he continued to develop that short idea for some time after graduating from CalArts. It debuted as a series until 1998.)

David Levy got a big break as an Indie Director/Animator after working in Blues Clues and other shows with his animated short called “Good Morning”. In his book “Directing Animation”, Levy explains that he did that personal short in a period of 10 days, with several personal and professional problems… Quoting the book, he says: “I made Good Morning because there was something I needed to express, whether I understood what that was or not.”

That led to a lot of success, both personal and professional… but he never sat down to write an “Award Winnign short film“.

And last: Most important of all… live a life filled with challenge… push yourself artistically and personally. This is the one that I’ learning right now. Sometimes, you need to do stuff that WILL take you out of your comfort zone. And going out of your comfort zone is scary, but usually is rewarding in both experience and personal fulfillment.  Go offline if you’re hooked to the Internet. Read even if you don’t like it that much. Push it, push it and then push it some more!

(The Bonus was Plympton’s philosophy of making the animated short as funny, short and cheap as possible! )

Hope this post helps a bit. It helped me as I wrote it. If you think I’m missing something, let me know and I’ll add it!

I attended many interviews right after getting my wisdom teeth pulled (thank goodness I only had three wisdom teeth!). It was a little harder, but life goes on. After the career fairs, I had stopped ruthlessly searching for a job. I am told that unless you are spending the majority of your extra time looking for a job, than you really don’t want a new job that badly. While I understand that, I was tired. Looking for jobs day in and day out is exhausting. It was like having a part-time job on top of my full-time job.

I am proud to say that I am going to be a Program supervisor for a company in my area. It will be a challenging job, but I am looking forward to that challenge! I have my orientation at their headquarters beginning next Monday. I am extremely excited to be a part of their company and to begin my career.

I like Simon’s Cat way too much to resist posting the latest one.