Someone emailed about our upcoming ONLINE lessons and asked specially about cartoon hands and how to construct them. So here is a demo - hot off the camera - on the topic.

Our online lessons will be out soon…

Thanks for asking!

TALKING ABOUT A WISH COME TRUE…

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We received notification that OUR WORLD was one of FOUR finalists in the animated short category at the Beaufort Film Festival- a part of a four day event called THE BEAUFORT KALEIDOSCOPE in beautiful town Beaufort, South Carolina - less than an hour from Savannah.

Beaufort has a rich film history as a location with THE BIG CHILL, THE GREAT SANTINI, FOREST GUMP, PRINCE OF TIDES and THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER being shot in that area. In the BIG CHILL, when Kevin Kline and friends take their morning jog - it is through downtown Beaufort, SC.

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Here’s a look at one of their posters….

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A recent OUR WORLD card…just found out last week the producer and good friend Alexandra Ohlsen is engaged to be married.

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Raul O Leary awaits his turn for IN SEARCH OF OSAMA to hit the big screen…

Here is a brand new character- for now, he is Animation Freak boy. Here is a demo of his head construction beginning with simple forms and then just adding and adding and adding.

The expression on the Freek Boy allows me to demonstrate the facial mask and how the brows control the eye shapes.

Here are the Animation Freek Girl and Boy characters - any ideas for names?

These characters will be used for handouts and demos for our new online animation course.

This group is ready to make films

Family Programs 2008 at the Telfair Museum

Winter Session Dates (4 weeks): Jan 28-Feb 22
Spring Session Dates (6 weeks): April 14-May 23

Character Design for Teens (Ages 13-16) New!
Experience the art of animation in this overview session for teens. Participants will explore the basics of animation, weight, speed, timing, etc, through the creation of flipbooks, stop-motion projects, clay character-animation, and drawing. The student will be the animator and director!

Instructor: Larry Lauria
Materials included. $80 members/$90 non-members
Limit 15 students
Thursdays 4pm-6pm

Character Design for Adults Ages 17+ New!
Based on the Jepson Center exhibition Leadership: Oliphant Cartoons and Sculpture from the Bush Years, Character Design will teach you techniques to sketch and design cartoon characters. Hailing from the Disney Institute, seasoned animator Larry Lauria will guide you through the basics of animation and cartoon character development.

Instructor: Larry Lauria
A supply list will be provided. $80 members/
$100 non-members
Limit 12 students
Wednesdays 10am-1pm

To register: Please download the online registration form after contacting studio coordinator to check class availability at stifelt@telfair.org or 790-8823.

Hello.

I just cleared out my COMMENT box and the 2000 plus spam messages- that plus the 1200 + from the Christmas Holidays and it is NO FUN!

If you have a comment please email me at lanimate@bellsouth.net and I will transfer it to my page.

Thanks…

Here is Ty B. bear in Central Park skating with pretzels, a hot dog - in the bg in a subway and a carriage ride thru the Park

Okay, so I’m a bit late with the New year greetings. We spent Christmas and New Years in New York City with our son and his wife.

It was the first time we had two weeks to explore NYC - most of the time it was quick trips to recruit or use post-production facilities. As the saying goes, “I love New York”. We had a wonderful two weeks exploring Queens and Manhattan. No better place to be in the U.S. during the holidays than a large city.

This first sketch is an early compilation of our New York activities.

It did snow for about 15 minutes - just enough for us to take a walk around the neighborhood

We stayed in Astoria, Queens and it was an easy 10 minute subway ride into “Midtown”. It reminded us so much of Europe- we were smack, dab in the middle of the Greek section - it was aterrific holiday.

Astoria abounds with wonderful Greek cafes- this is an early morning sketch!

We had a couple of meals in Little Italy at Cafe Sorrento. The first was with our family and the second was with an Irish friend visiting during the holidays.

Here is a napkin sketch of Ty B. Bear in Little Italy- note the flying cannolis!

Since we returned on the 3rd - we have been up to our necks in work and projects.
2008 looks like a great year!

Even more animated…

Here is another Christmas bumper we did as part of a package of holiday bumpers….long ago. The Currier and Ives look was achieved by our art director/ B.G. artist, Michael Lowery. These were early in his career and Michael always did a terrific job of translating into color some of our wacky ideas.

By the way…that final shot trucks out from a 10 field to a 23 field on the Christmas bulb.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

Here is My Christmas list of My Favorite Holiday Animation….enjoy…

Peace on Earth by MGM’s Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising (1939) nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Cosmic Christmas by Nelvanna directed by Frank Nissen

A Wish for Wings that Work (1991) Universal TV Animation, director Skip Jones

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Chuck Jones

A Peanuts Christmas by Charles Schulz Produced by Bill Melendez

Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Disney Studios,1983, directed by Burny Mattinson

Ziggy’s Gift directed by Richard Williams (1982)

A Christmas Carol, A Ghost story directed by Richard Williams, produced by Chuck Jones

Twice Upon a Christmas produced by the Disney Studios

The Box by Paul Driessen (1975)

Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer by Rankin and Bass (1964)

This is a pencil test of the TONY sequence from the animated film OUR WORLD. It was not included in the final because we had enough sequences between longer pieces of animation. If OUR WORLD is an ongoing project- then it will be added later…

All of my animation was shot in FLIPBOOK software by Digicel.

This is RUFF animation and the timing was changed in certain areas after this test…see if you can find what we changed…

Tony is based on my former producer Tony Ames- principle percussionist of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

Tony doesn’t really look like this- except for his “go for it” attitude in life. My BEST producer EVER!!!

Sometime last century, a small animation studio on the outskirts of Washington D.C. was a hub of activity. This animated clip motivated their entire process. It was the first animation produced by the Animation House, Inc. in Alexandria, Virginia.

The staff grew from 1 to 6 in about three weeks and on to about 40 artists. keep in mind this was back in the animation stone age when animation was draw by pencil in hand, those drawings inked onto cels and those cels with their beautiful hand-painted backgrounds shot under a camera stand one frame at a time….ahhhhhhhhhh, the good old days.

Freddy’s Christmas was the first animation produced. It was a huge test, a leap of faith, a coming together of kindred animated souls for the art form. Everything seemed so simple then.

It took less than two weeks to animate, paint cels, do backgrounds, do the music, voice (yes, thats me singing off key- on purpose…really), sound effects and mix, edt- out the door.

That was a great time…very special…my thanks to everyone who participated