Animation Pencil Tests

Recently I have been transferring a collection of VHS tapes full of animated pencil tests from commercials and TV series.

Here's a very famous pencil test of the Soup Scene from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves".  Walt Disney cut the scene at this stage because the film length was getting too long. Enjoy viewing this is amazing bit of animation history.

Take a look at this link to view more pencil tests.

They Do Exist!

Happy Holidays from Animateducated!

I began this YouTube channel called Animateduated, (pronounced animated educated) a few years ago with the idea of interviewing Animators, Directors, Artists, Authors and other creative folks. Recently it hit 400 subscribers and is gaining more. Here is a promo explaining what interviews I did in 2020... 

To gain any actual income from a YouTube channel, you must obtain over 4000 public watched hours and have over 1,000 subscribers before you can have ads placed on your channel. At this posting, we are up to 527 and have 417 subscribers. 

At this current rate, we should reach our goal in about 9 years, unless I can post a video of my cats doing something really hilarious, which could go viral and that goal could be reached in a week or so. I've discussed this idea with our cats, but unfortunately, they have decided to cease being cute or silly whenever I try to record them.

Below is the final interview for 2020, featuring Stop Motion Animator, Teresa Drilling. Teresa animated Leon the Snowman in "Elf" and is featured in a Netflix documentary called "The Holiday Movies that Made Us". 

If you enjoy these interviews, please let a comment below, subscribe to the YouTube channel or click on the ads on this blog to show your support. Every ad click throws a few cents into our digital tip jar! Happy Holidays!

The Tiger Rising animations

Here are two sequences I animated using Toon Boom Harmony for an upcoming feature entitled "The Tiger Rising".

Tiger Animation01 from Toondini on Vimeo.

Animated Interviews

I started a podcast of sorts called The Ambassador Goodtime Ear Tango Radio Hour which started off playing music based on a theme and then having a guest interview. 11 episodes were produced in 2018 with a variety of guest from Authors to Animators.

I've been teaching animation at Woodbury University and the show grew out of a content need for the newly formed WU Radio at Woodbury. I'm using this format in a way to introduce animation students to people who have or are currently working in the animation industry.


I'm always looking for new guests to come on the show or to be interviewed over the phone. Its great to meet people and hear some of their stories from a film they worked on or a book they are currently writing. Here's a recent interview with Bob Kurtz, who created the 60 second Chevron commercial and learn it was all done in two weeks!

The 3 remaining artists from Hanna Barbera productions, also known as "The 3 Tooners", Tony Benedict, Willie Ito and Jerry Eisenberg came into the studio. They told a lot of funny and interesting stories during their days in animation. From sliding on Bugs Bunny production cels on the floors of Termite Terrace during their last day at work to working with the great Iwoa Takamoto and more.

Here's a recent interview with Disney/Dreamworks Animator Kathy Zielinski who is now working on The Simpsons.

If you are interesting in animation history, past or present, please visit Animateducated on Youtube to see more of these animated interviews. Subscribe to the channel to for future episodes when they are posted. 

You can visit the EarTango Facebook page to see what is coming up or go to the Animateducated blog for more info.

If you would like to be a guest or have any questions, please contact me at heyjimr@gmail.com

Thank You,

Jim 

Jim Draws!

Here's something I've been working on lately for fun called "Jim Draws". Where I draw something, talk about it and you get to watch. Earlier episodes were shot on a camera with a bad auto focus, but this episode was shot with a better camera. Take a look and let me know what you think of it.

Happy Holidays from Watchcat Films!