Talking Before Trilogy with Editor Adair
John Knoll Promoted to Chief Creative Officer at ILM
I got a chance to see the first 40 minutes of Monsters University earlier this month at Pixar along with the studio’s first photo-realistic looking short, The Blue Umbrella. Both make use of global illumination, providing a whole new level of realism than we’ve seen from the animation powerhouse. Read more
Disney will unveil “a never-before-seen, hand-drawn, black-and-white Mickey Mouse short,” Get A Horse!, at the Annecy Animation Festival. Read more
Previs got its props April 15 at the Academy’s “VFX Convergence” presentation (“Pre-and Post-Visualization: Beyond Storyboarding”). Hosted by editor Michael Tronick at the Linwood Dunn Theater, Previs continues to get more expansive and sophisticated-looking, thanks mainly to machine speed and procedural pipelines that allow for enhanced realism. Read more
A Monster in Paris comes to Blu-ray and DVD this week from Shout Factory, a gorgeous ode to early 20th century cabaret music and The Phantom of the Opera. I interviewed director Bibo Bergeron (Shark Tale) about returning to Paris after DreamWorks to make this labor of love. Read more
How sad and ironic: A week after the wonderful Who Framed Roger Rabbit 25th anniversary celebration at the Academy, Disney laid off nine hand-drawn 2D animation vets as part of its studio-wide downsizing. Read more
On Saturday, I participated in a very unique live and interactive festival at USC: “The Science of Fiction: World Building in Action,” sponsored by USC | 5D Institute. The brainchild of production designer and 5D co-founder Alex McDowell (Man of Steel), I collaborated with professionals and students in creating a futuristic LA 2020 and learned more about how and why we build worlds for a more immersive narrative experience. It was “a giant circus trick” creating a new world in a day. Read more
Animation historian Jerry Beck (formerly co-owner of Cartoon Brew) has launched Animation Scoop, which will be part of the Indiewire blog network, where I will serve as contributing editor, writing about animated features with interviews and behind the scenes pieces. Read more
After 25 years, Who Framed Roger Rabbit still remains one of the boldest and most exciting achievements in animation history. It paved the way for the second Disney renaissance, launched a year later with The Little Mermaid, proving that ‘toons could be hip again theatrically, that they weren’t just for kids, and that hand-drawn 2D could hold its own dramatically — and culturally — with live-action. Read more
The Creative-Cartel will unveil a potentially game-changing new workflow software, Joust, at NAB next week in Las Vegas. Joust streamlines management of the digital workflow by tracking dailies, images, scenes, and meta-data, saving time and money and bringing greater efficiency to production. Read more
