By Kira Formina

We said goodbye to Pixar, then hopped back into the van, stopping at Tippett Studio in Berkeley. Tippett - the people famous for special effects, particularly monsters and creatures, pretty much all the major films from Star Wars to Twilight - is oddly located in a simple residential street, several streets in fact. Two of the buildings are across from each other, and the third is a few blocks away.

We are greeted by Tom “Gibby” Gibbon and a few others. Suddenly the talk turns shop, as Tom and Tim discuss puppet making and stop motion animation (fun fact: Head over Heels puppets were 3D printed with most of the face left soft and malleable for expressions. The head of Madge, the wife, kept falling off as the scenes were filmed upside down, with Tim having to constantly readjust it. He says if you pay attention, you can see it change levels throughout the film.)

 

By Kira Formina

It’s Friday and that means Pixar! Located in the quiet part of Emeryville, this impressive brick complex has an air of both importance and whimsy before we even enter.

But upon entering....the main “lobby” can be compared to a small airport in size and to a grand old Protestant cathedral in look - the high beams stretching to the two story high ceiling, the half-windowed roof, the woodwork; everything makes you want to stand and look around without talking for a few minutes.

But to half the nominees on the tour, this was nothing new, and there was quite a bit of talk to be had, in fact. Minkyu (Adam and Dog), interned here for three months; and both John Kahrs and David Silverman said it “brings back memories.” All three kept bumping into old friends and colleagues literally every step of the way; “you can’t walk ten feet!” was John’s remark.

John was given particular attention due to a recent “hottest directors” list circling the web. Every single person greeted him with “ginger hottie!” as per the description given him not too long ago in the article.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Silly analogy not-withstanding, once again, Disney has done the animation community proud by digitally restoring and releasing one of its all-time classics on Blu-ray.  Almost twenty years in the making, Peter Pan was originally scheduled as Walt Disney’s second animated feature.  Work began in the late 1930s, but the effort was shelved with the start of World War II.  Picked up again in 1947, the film finally was released in 1953.  In celebration of the film’s 60^th anniversary, Disney has just released this animated classic bundled with a great selection of featurettes and some deleted scenes and songs.

 

By Catherine Morrissey

February 8^th, 2013, marked a turning point in recognizing excellence in the international kids business:  instead of handing out ONE Emmy statue for the best in “Children and Youth” the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences took a dramatic course change, and handed out SIX (6!) of their impressive statues at a dedicated International Emmy Kids Awards event held in New York City at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers.

Maybe a result of the dramatic expansion of kids channels around the world (from 64 channels in 2000 to over 275 channels in 2010), or as a new revenue stream for the Academy (as some muttered quietly under their cynical breaths), whatever the truth is, sometimes it doesn’t really matter why there’s a new awards event.   True, several countries have their equivalents of the International Kids Emmys.  But  others including France have nothing at all.

 

This year's group of Oscar-nominated animated short film directors exemplifies creativity and diversity in their approach to design, story and animation style.  In a series of in-depth and personal interviews, they share their insights and opinions about their films, from initial ideas to production techniques and challenges.  Read them all exclusively on AWN.com.

 

By Kira Formina

Today, February 14th, is Valentine’s Day, and there’s plenty of love in the air aimed at the directors of the nominated animated shorts.  Two more have joined us today - Paperman director John Kahrs and Adam and Dog director Minkyu Lee.  We are all greeted by host Victor Fuste in the PDI/DreamWorks lobby. The group decides to have lunch during the screening and come up for the Q&A session afterwards.

The main subject of discussion is Mr. Peabody and Sherman, scheduled for release on March 7, 2014. The story of the sophisticated dog genius and his adopted boy companion spans back to the 50’s, originally part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle animated series.

 

By Kira Formina

It’s the first day of the Northern-California leg of the annual AWN Oscar® Showcase Tour, a crisp, foggy morning in San Francisco. At about 9:20 am, already running a few minutes late, the four of us pile into the van on the way to Electronic Arts. Ron Diamond, the inexhaustible host and promoter of this unique event, takes the wheel as Tim Reckart navigates, while Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly and I are in the back.

This year, Ron is bringing five Oscar nominated shorts to the studio screens: Minkyu Lee’s Adam and Dog; Reckart’s and O’Reilly’s Head Over Heels; PES’s Fresh Guacamole; David Silverman’s Maggie Simpson in the Longest Daycare; and John Kahrs’ Paperman.

 

If you spend time analyzing successful people, you will tend to find a repeating list of similarities. Attributes like talent and charisma often get the most ink, but more often than not, a person’s drive and the quality of their education is a far better determinant of a bright future. Successful educators nurture this type of person, or set someone on the path to becoming one by creating a learning environment that is as engaging as it is relevant to their student’s future ambitions. And when it comes to careers in art, animation, and digital content creation, students that learn on industry-standard technology – like Wacom’s Cintiq – are more prepared for the professional world, and its elevated expectations.

A product of British Columbia-based Capilano University’s two year, Commercial Animation program, Gemma Reeks-Coad is living proof of how the right tools, in the hands of the right artist, breed success.

 

2012 was an amazing year for animation short films. This year’s Oscar nominees share one thing in common: they are all silent films, each demonstrating the power of pure storytelling with only visuals and music! The nominees are: “Paperman”,  “Fresh Guacamole”, “Maggie Simpson in the Longest Daycare,” “Head over Heels,” and “Adam and Dog.”

 

There is a bright side. The West Bank is evolving, Ramallah is booming economically. Unexpectedly, in a middle of the West Bank a new development named Rawabi is sprouting in the mountainous land, out from the sand. This newest undertaking, clearly with some, even if only a silent approval of Israel, is special not only because it is design to bring a sense of stability, hope and prosperity to the Palestinians but also because of the green approach utilized in its current construction. Thus, as the mountains are being torn to make room for the city, the material excavated from them is recycled into the building blocks from which the structures are erected. Nothing, so it was explained to me, is being lost in the process by which one organic matter of the long past is being inverted into another, one of the future.