Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- William Benzon is probably the only writer – on the internet or off – who has connected Hosni Mubarek with an animated character. Wile E. Coyote. It makes for a good read, and you should check it out on his site, New Savannah.

Dustin Grella is out to make a film a day for the month of April. He’s basing these films on inforation contributed to him. Let me allow him to speak for himself; here’s what he wrote me:

I’m working on new project called the Animation Hotline. I’m going to do this for the month of February, maybe longer if the response is good. I’ve set up a voicemail service where people can leave messages. Then I am going to select a few of these to animate. I’m going to try to do one every day. I’ll try. They should definitely be under thirty seconds, but preferably around ten or fifteen seconds. Just a few sentences, an idea, a word that you think sounds cool, a line from a book that you like, something you heard in the hall that afternoon, a secret that you don’t want anyone to know, or maybe you do, something that bothers you, something that… you get the idea, right? Basically anything. You can do more than one, you can do as many as you want. You can do it a few times a day. If it
runs long term, I might have regulars that I do often. I don’t know. Of course, the idea is in its infancy and will change ten times by the end of this email. Everything will be anonymous, unless the person leaves his name and wants to be recognized.

Dustin’s set up a VIMEO site for the films (which can be viewed there.) Go here.
He’s also set up an an animation hotline number is: 212-683-2490.

- For me, the animation quote of the week came in a puff piece about Pixar in yesterday’s NYTimes.

Melena Ryzik, the author of the piece, was told: “A character in the film is kind of like a puppet,” Bobby Podesta, a supervising animator at Pixar, explained. “Imagine having Pinocchio in the computer that you move around frame by frame, but instead of having a dozen strings, you’ve got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. It gets very nuanced.” No kidding . . . ”

(The “no kidding” was part of the article, but I’ve been repeating it every time I look at the piece.) A new kind of animation Pixar does, puppet animation. I doubt Sylvain Chomet would have ever said the same about any of his work.

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Lionsgate and Hulu have gotten together to give us more Flash films. Here’s their press release:

Lionsgate Digital, hud:sun media and creative genius Todd Goldman have partnered to bring you an outrageous new animated Web series titled, “Trailer Trash,” airing exclusively on Hulu.com beginning March 7.

Every generation has its iconic animated characters and for its foray onto the Web Lionsgate enlisted the writer of classics such as “Beavis and Butthead” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” to ensure the quirky series resonates with Web audiences.

Inspired by Goldman’s cheeky David and Goliath clothing line and following “Blah Girls,” an animated Web series he co-produced with Ashton Kutcher, “Trailer Trash” depicts beer-bellied character Billy Bob and his family as they dim-wittingly pass time at the trailer park.

You know it’s good; Ashon Kutcher co-produced it.
Go here to check it out.

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