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Pixar re-rendered Toy Story in 3D, a task which involved opening 15 year old files from systems still in development.

From http://www.awn.com/articles/reviews/pixar-goes-3-d/page/2,1

our first and maybe greatest challenge was gaining access to 15-year-old files and figuring out how to port them forward to run on modern technologies [...] We use the term bit rot in general to refer to digital assets decaying over time. As Toy Story was being made, there were tons of fixes and adjustments and enhancements, so, by the end of the film, you might not have been able to render a shot from the beginning of the process and have it look the same without some work.

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605

I couldn't bring myself to read more than half of this, as the author seems grossly misinformed on Copyright, but the bit about paying money to private registries sounds a bit worrying. Does anyone know more about this?

This one's been lurking through congress lately. Basically, it's so big media conglomerates can use things they find on the web and places like YouTube without having to pay for them. It's all about protections for them and none for artists and creators.

More to read here.

http://mag.awn.com/issue8.08/8.08images/goodman02_ PinkyBrain-01.jpg

indicate what is REALLY running inside of Windows. Click Here

Sounds a lot like "Supermodel Shootout" from Indie Game Jam 2. Exactly like it, in fact.

http://www.indiegamejam.com/ seems to be down at the moment, but there's an article at http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Special+Feature s&article_no=1745&page=3.

I'd love to extend the battery life of my laptop but not if it is like the fuel cell in Terminator 3: http://mag.awn.com/issue8.04/8.04images/T301_T3_fu elCell_explosion.jpg

They're looking for a web designer.

One of the most important aspects of Aeon Flux in the original shorts and the series is that Trevor Goodchild is not the bad guy, Aeon Flux is not the hero, and there are no classic melodrama heroes/villains.

http://anp.awn.com/chungint.html

If you are not inclined to follow the link, here's a very cogent quote:

"The disclaimer that MTV runs at the beginning of the show now is not my idea...the show is not necessarily about good and evil. Trevor is not necessarily evil, Æon is not necessarily good...they are like any human being with their own traits and good points and bad points. In some episodes Trevor is actually doing more positive things than Æon is and sometimes the roles are reversed." -- Peter Chung

See, this is where the movie fails and this is why Peter Chung should have gotten greenlighted to do this as the animated movie he wanted to do.

the freckles are signal, not noise.

If the producer doesn't want them on the final disc, then they're noise. Besides, digital noise reduction is just as harsh to signal.

here's a non-registration-required before-and-after example.

Sorry to answer my own post but after a bit of Googling I found the answer. The book was Digital Harmony (published 1980) by John Whitney

Now, if I can just find someone to extract this stupid fish...

I think part of the occurrence with TS2 was that Disney views animation sequels as direct-to-video cash cows. Unlike other animation sequels Pixar went all out on it and convinced Disney to move it to theatres, but it was still not counted as a 'feature' but as a 'sequel' for contractual purposes.

This article confirms that it originally was a direct-to-video project, as does this one. I thought Pixar had to fight harder, but I may have just read a biased story at the time. There was a story during the contract 'negotiations' that Disney would develop Toy Story 3 on it's own, but I don't know if that's still true. Probably, though; they own all the characters from the original contracts and aren't ones to not milk something to death.

Do you think Disney is just a few cartoon studios and some crappy theme parks?

Well, they used to have a few cartoon studios until they fired everyone.

Their movies and theme parks account only for a *small fraction* of their money.

Lucky for them.

While at that site check out some other megalopolies, you may be surprised at who owns what.

Well, soon Disney will sell their stores and Monday Night Football. They've already lost both animation divisions, and now they're making movies about theme park rides. Disney isn't what it used to be.

Actually, according to the guy who performed those sounds for WB, it's "hmeep hmeep".

Ever noticed that with the sole of the exception of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut - a television show usually peaks by jumping to the big screen. Decline and inevitable cancellation usually soon follow.

For example: X-Files, Beavis and Butthead Do America, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

And don't forget all the children's shows:
Transformers the Movie, GI Joe the Movie, Masters of the Universe, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Ducktales(!), Rugrats...
(Ok, not all these shows were cancelled but someone could definitely make the case for "decline").

I feel like I'm forgetting someting...help me out here people...

Also, I Googled up this interesting article:
The Challenges of the Big Screen Cartoon

The anime show Great Teacher Onizuka (better known as GTO has been picked up to air on SHO Next. If you've never seen GTO, it's a hilarious show about a former street punk who takes on a job teaching high school.

Dreamworks already announced that they're giving up on 2D animation. The only major studio doing cel work now is Sony, which is gearing up to have a full feature animation department staffed by people who came over from both Disney and Dreamworks. They'll be doing CG, too, but one of their first major pictures will be Tam Lin, directed by Roger Allers and Brenda Chapman (The Lion King and Prince of Egypt) and written by Neil Gaiman, with conceptual art by Brian and Wendy Froud.

Unfortunately this is out of the prime moderation window so I don't know how many people will read it.

The problem with disney today is that it's run by people that just don't get it. They see films like Finding Nemo doing really well and figure that people want to see 3D instead of 2D.

The truth of the matter is that we want to see beautiful art, but much more importantly a compelling and fun story. Finding nemo was successful not only because the artwork was great, but because the story was really good. Unfortunately for the pointy haired ones "it's the 3d".

Here's a great story that touches on these subjects.

For those that haven't already figured it out (or haven't clicked the links) Disney is dropping 2D animation and going completely 3D. This is extremely sad for those of us who work in illustration and animation, for many of us disney has been a source of inspiration for many years, it's sad to see it all end.

ahhh, here we go. This pretty much sums up what i was refering to not but you will see what i mean:-p

you could be a great computer animator and be handicapped by the abilities of your computer

A great computer animator can achieve fantastic results on an M-5 Anti-aircraft Gun Director if they want to. All animation is creating the illusion of motion over a series of stills. Great animators take that further by introducing suspension of belief, making you forget the methods or the technology behind the illusion and be drawn into what the illusion creates in your mind.

For character animators, that means you react deep down and emotionally to the illusion as if it were actually alive, and forget for the moment that there are a bunch of pixels that took 20 minutes to render flitting by at 1/24th seconds.

How accurately light reflects off of a variety surfaces is only important if your attempt to suspend disbelief depends on it. If you're depending on it, and you don't do it right, then yeah, it interferes with the illusion and sticks out like a sore thumb. But the proverbial "great animator" will work within, and even exploit, the limitations of their technology; they won't be handicapped by it.

I believe you're referring to More.

Here's the artist's official website: Yamamura Animation

Actually, they had originally licensed the Pooh characters, but in 2001, Disney bought out the remaining copyright (long article, search on "Pooh") for $350 Million. The linked article doesn't mention it, but this $350 mil didn't cover "everything." I believe that this deal explicitly excluded the actual texts that Milne wrote, so you won't see a Disney copyright statement on the Dutton (in the US) indicia.

"In the Japanese animation industry, there are three types of producers: (1) the executive producer, who collects funds for the production; (2) the line producer, who manages the production; and (3) the producer who plans the production. I do all three of those roles. I try to train the young people at I.G. who want to become producers in the same way: to manage all three categories. This production method is one strong point about Production I.G., and helps explain why we have been able to last this long while targeting solely the Japanese market."

Ishikawa's production company: [link]

"I definitely see the American market as part of my future. The Japanese animated films that are most commercially successful are the ones that are targeted toward the U.S. and other English-speaking territories. Seventy to eighty percent of non-Japanese profit comes from English language sales."

Ishikawa's "Blood: The Last Vampire", which would've won an award but wasn't longer than the required 70 minutes, so it was ineligible. [link]

From a question & answer session:
Q: Would it be a fair prediction that your next feature will be 70 minutes or longer?
A: (laughing) Yes. The Academy, you know...

"In the Japanese animation industry, there are three types of producers: (1) the executive producer, who collects funds for the production; (2) the line producer, who manages the production; and (3) the producer who plans the production. I do all three of those roles. I try to train the young people at I.G. who want to become producers in the same way: to manage all three categories. This production method is one strong point about Production I.G., and helps explain why we have been able to last this long while targeting solely the Japanese market."

Ishikawa's production company: [link]

"I definitely see the American market as part of my future. The Japanese animated films that are most commercially successful are the ones that are targeted toward the U.S. and other English-speaking territories. Seventy to eighty percent of non-Japanese profit comes from English language sales."

Ishikawa's "Blood: The Last Vampire", which would've won an award but wasn't longer than the required 70 minutes, so it was ineligible. [link]

From a question & answer session:
Q: Would it be a fair prediction that your next feature will be 70 minutes or longer?
A: (laughing) Yes. The Academy, you know...

Tezuka was inspired by posters/reviews for Lang's Metropolis. He hadn't actually seen the film itself, so I don't think you can really say that he was inspired by it.

However, I am opposing that opinion. As much as I enjoy Japanese Animation ... I'm arguing that not all American stuff is in the gutter

Now I really must challenge this incredibly small-minded viewpoint (and I'm not even talking about that "Not all American stuff is in the gutter" throwing-a-bone maneuver); there's an entire planet outside of America and Japan, you know!

Go to a Spike and Mike festival. Read some of the articles in Animation Blast. That might at least give you a start to finding some of the whole continents of artwork being imaginatively brought to life, that could eat Batman for breakfast, and that aren't 'anime-like' or in fact like anything else on Earth.

In Japan, the animation industry is more vital by far than the live-action motion picture industry. It has to do with a lack of soundstage space more than anything else, although modern computer compositing techniques might change things there at last. I hate to be a broken record, but "Princess Mononoke" was the biggest movie in Japanese box office history until "Titanic" came along. That means that it wasn't just kids with their butts in seats there. Actually I wouldn't show "Mononoke" to anyone under 13...it's bloody, it deals with certain things parents don't like their children knowing about, like prostitution and different concepts of god other than that approved by the Southern Baptist Convention, etc. etc.

Even in Europe animation is not considered just kidvid. Animated features and TV series geared exclusively to adults have been produced for decades in Europe.

There has been progress over the years, but US and Canadian animators still have that Cartoons=Kidvid stigma to overcome. It's a damn shame. Animation is just...COOL.

Michelle Klein-Hass
Associate Editor, Toon Magazine
Former Webkeeper, Animation Nerd's Paradise
Current Author, MsGeek.Org.

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