It’s nice to see our little neck of the woods get a bit of attention from mainstream media now and then, especially with meaningful and thoughtful commentary about films that while known to many in the industry, for the most part are unknown to most everyone else on the planet.

KPCC, a Southern California public radio station, has published an excellent audio review, complete with transcription, of the new Animation Show of Shows short film DVD collection.  The piece, by Charles Solomon, simply and succinctly gets to the heart of what makes independent animation so special. 

By Tim Kridel

It takes guts to quit a good job to launch a company, especially during the worst economy since the Great Depression. But that’s what George Christopher and Suresh Kumar did in late 2011, when they launched Blue Innovations, a Chennai, India-based developer of apps for Android, iOS, Windows and other platforms. Their experiences are worth pondering if you’re a developer considering striking out on your own.

Childhood friends, Christopher and Kumar were working at separate software companies in 2009 when they started to develop apps in their spare time under the name 5dollarapps. Soon they were winning competitions and awards such as Intel’s Black Belt, successes that helped convince them to rebrand their effort as Blue Innovations and turn it into a full-time company. We recently spoke with Christopher and Kumar about how they decided when to quit their day jobs and what they did to increase their odds of success.

By John Tyrrell

Emotions have been running high in the HTML5 application development space in recent months. With the current worldwide explosion of mobile and web app use currently underway, many feel HMTL5 is the bright future of cross-platform development.

The vision is simple: one single, straightforward web programming language that allows the creation of anything from a basic service app to a complex game that works across any platform without the need for native development. In theory, HTML5 is a developer’s dream, reducing costs, leveling the playing field and, for app and game studios in particular, opening the floodgates to a wealth of new potential development talent. But in practice, as is often the case when disruptive new technologies enter the marketplace, the road ahead for HTML5 has some twists and turns.

One of the hottest HTML5 debates centers around game development. Games are complex beasts that generally require specialized coding and the creation of native versions for each platform they are deployed on. The idea that HTML5 could eliminate these hurdles is exciting to the countless coders around the world who are working to embrace the emerging technology.

While New Yorkers may have to put up with cacophonous and disjointed announcements on their subway systems– where the voice seems to be screaming at them– the British tube has long been understood to be a more civilized system. The tube was made famous thanks in part to its soothing, silver-voiced announcement to please Mind the Gap.

 

By Nancy Phelps

Devoted solely to student work, the festival is the brainchild of well known animator, illustrator, and renaissance man Rastko Ćirić in conjunction with Vuk Maksimovic, master wood carver and furniture maker, who is the representative of the Fortress for this project.  It also received support from the Serbian Ministry of Culture.

Denial is a mask, a shroud, a garment we wear when nothing else seems to fit.  It’s what keeps us in place, holding on long after we forgot why we were holding on in the first place. Denial represents protection against the unknown. What we fail to recognize is that denial is just another form of perception.  It forces us to face our fears hoping to garner some control over any loss we are all destined to face.

 

It seems like a contradiction -- one is spontaneous, invented on the spot while the other requires countless painstaking hours to create.  Yet when unscripted audio is met with the appropriate animated imagery, the results are often hilarious, heartwarming and highly entertaining.

 

Maybe because the country’s founders had lost so much during the Holocaust, they chose to fight so hard for their new country, build by them from zilch. Over time and endless conflicts, wars and over numerous generations, they succeeded establishing a nation of a booming economy, impressive technologies, research, innovation, culture, prosperity, military potency, freedom of speech and, some say, a true democracy, most of anything and everything any country could hope for. All this except of course for the precious peace, stability and safe future for its current as well as the future generations.

Nifty ode to Montreal from animator, Sebastian Laudenbach.

Oh hum... NFB dominates Animation category of Canadian Screen Awards again. Kinda like hearing that the Harlem Globetrotters won their last game.