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nobinobita 544th Post
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| "Re(1):nobi: animation time plus" , posted Tue 23 Jun 11:07
quote: Yo nobinobita (and all other art fans):
Longlonglong overdue, but I was diving through old threads here after the random thread talked about old posters and past jokes and finally downloaded "Shadows." I think I must have only caught a part of it before due to Quicktime exploding. Anyway, it's outstanding! Story and production are both great. Have you guys done anything more with it after getting those well-deserved awards?
What's the scene like for animators in the US these days, both for game formats like DS (which I think you mentioned) and for animation in general?
Heya Maou,
Thanks so much for your kind words. I'll pass them on to everyone else that worked on that film. That was something I did at school with a bunch of other friends and acquaintances (you can see the dozens of people in the credits). I helped with the character designs and overall art direction and story, but it was the animators that really brought it to life.
My good friend Darius did most of the animation on the shadow (excluding the very end bits), and he also did the final character design on the shadow as well as some storyboards. You can see his blog here:
http://burntmoth.blogspot.com/
He's a terrific draftsmen, drop him a few kind words if you could, it would really brighten up his day I think.
Here's a link to the most recent traditional(ish) animation that I've worked on:
http://anthemcg.com/en/video.php
It's a music video for this awesome New York indie band called Paperdoll. I directed the video, came up with the basic concept, helped with some of the character designs and I did all the backgrounds myself. If you like the song, please don't hesitate to check out their website or buy some of their tracks from Amazon.
http://paperdollband.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Ballad-Nerd-Pop/dp/B00168IJEY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1207106725&sr=8-1
They are the very best unsigned band I've ever heard, and they're the second best live band I've ever seen behind Muse. If you like solid, 80s pop infused rock music, there's not a dud on that whole album. Fo realz. Tell your friends!
As for what the animation scene is like in the US right now... hoo boy... I could talk for hours on end about this, but the thrust of it is that it just really depends on who you talk to. You'll get alot of varied responses on the state of the industry depending on what company the person is at, or what sector they are in.
I guess I'll start with TV animation.
Most people I know that are in TV animation are basically living in despair. I don't want to get too specific, but if you've ever seen a show and wondered "who the hell makes this garbage??? Do they actually think this is funny???" the answer is usually no, the animators hate working on the show, the writers are just phoning in the jokes, but as long as they continue to get decent ratings while being produced at rock bottom costs, then the show will go on. It's pretty depressing, because there are alot of talented folks out there working on aggressively crummy shows where their true talents can't shine. Seriously, I know people who have been told "this animation looks too good, make it crappier to match the rest of the show". It's a vicious circle cos it pays the bills, but you never get any better and you don't get any good material to improve your reel so it can be a real dead end.
But, even so, the most dedicated animators find ways around this. I know quite a few people who continue to do freelance animation on the side, working on indie features or commercials. Commercials can be alot of fun cos they usually have a great budget to timeline ratio (more money for less time = more time to refine).
And on a more positive note, there are still some good TV shows around. Flapjack on Cartoon Network is actually quite good and funny and its genuinely cute too. It's also rather weird and grim at times, but not "edgy" or annoying. It's a good show and I'm sure the people working on it are happy. Fosters Home for Imaginary friends was also quite good. Everyone I knew that was working on that show loved every minute of it. It was widely regarded as the best Cartoon Network show of the last few years (at least in east coast animation circles).
So TV is mostly full of broken dreams with a few pockets of sunshine.
I'll chime in later with my thoughts on animation for games and film at a later date. Those should be slightly happier posts.
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