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.

Tis the Season!

This weekend, we had a dialogue recording session for our upcoming Watchcat Holiday short "Tis the Season". We recorded actors Andrew James Jones and Rick Almada. Andrew is our new voice of Watchcat, while Rick will be doing several voices including an old lady, a young guy and the big bad guy. 

Had some unforeseen technical difficulties while I was working on this in 2017. I will be ahead for Christmas 2018.

Xmas2017_Sc02_Sc08ROUGH from Toondini on Vimeo.

Vampire Makeup

My Linked In work anniversary states; 2 years working at Watchcat Films, funny it feels more like 3. Thanks for all the congratulations.

The day after our annual Halloween party, I had to do some makeup to turn unsupecting actor Michael Hatch into a Vampire character for a friend's feature film project called Noir.

We wanted a Nosferatu type of vampire which was suppose to look more like this.

However, when we saw the actual makeup package only included foam pieces of a forehead brow, cheeks and a nose; no bald cap, no pointy ears and no fangs, we had to make a change. We ended up using a foam ape face instead, with a separate bald cap and larger pointy ears.

After attaching the bald cap, I glued on the ears. I had to add tissue paper and liquid latex to reinforce the ears to the bald cap and cover several holes. I was considering adding some wire to secure the ears so they wouldn't wiggle as much. Luckily, the vampire is shown very briefly in this black and white sequence, so the ear motion wouldn't be seen.

The day before, I painted the mouth area, gums, teeth and added the long fangs to save time before the makeup session. Those are plastic fangs are from a pumpkin carving kit, which I glued into where the foam fangs were. The ape mask was then glued into place, blended to the face and bald cap. I used tissue paper and liquid latex to create skin all around his neck and hands.

Once the head was done, I had to makeup Michael's hands and apply sharp false nails to his fingers. The entire makeup process took about 3 or 4 hours to complete. 

Michael was very patient throughout the whole process and in the end, gave a great performance. Here's a clip.

Vampire King from Toondini on Vimeo.

Michael was so good as a vampire, we had to use him in another part of the film as a Nazi Demon after slipping him into a German uniform and helmet.

One more pose before returning to the world of the humans.

 
Need some makeup in your next film project?

Happy Holidays from Watchcat Films

Watchcat Episode 2

Here's something I finally finished, Watchcat Episode 2.

Sonic Boom!

Animated Sonic Boom in this spot with animation direction from Michael Foran.

Honeynut bee by me!

Here's the latest Trix commercial, where 3 famous animated General Mills cereal mascots react to a real talking rabbit. Calabash Animation in Chicago hired me to animate Buzz the Honeynut Cheerio bee using Maya. It was a great opportunity and a fun spot to work on!

 

Watchcat Clip

Here is a clip of final scenes from Watchcat Episode 2.

Final22_25 from Toondini on Vimeo.

Hand Drawn and scanned into Toon Boom, imported into After Effect, 1/4 cup of nutmeg,

1 tea spoon of butter, and baked at 370 for 4 1/2 minutes in Premiere.

Meet the Patels Animation Design

I did the Character Designs, storyboarding and created animatics for the animated segments in "Meet the Patels". Here is the official trailer, which begins with some of myanimation, don't blink...

Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, gives me animation credit in his article. Here's a link to the film's website and where you can see the film too.

Happy Holidays from Watchcat Films!

Paper Dragon

Here's a recent stop motion origami I made using DragonFrame software, a piece of paper and two hands.

Paper Dragon from Toondini on Vimeo.

For all you Origami Gurus out there, I did a little cheating, but that will be our little secret...

Poster Design and PSA

 Here's a PSA updated for the Burbank Recycle Center...

First Selfie

Here's actual proof of how the first selfie was invented!

First Selfie from Toondini on Vimeo.

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