Kelly L. Murdock begins the discussion of working with files and accessing content paradise from Poser 8 Revealed.

Learn the skills and secrets to writing great animation.  Inspire the rest of the creative team to be brilliant – and grateful to see your name on script after script!

Animation is collaboration by conveyor belt, and it starts with your script. 

Award-winning writer/executive producer DAVID STEVEN COHEN (Courage the Cowardly Dog, Arthur, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Steven Spielberg’s Balto) will show you techniques for crafting indelible characters, solid stories and great scripts that are more than blueprints – scripts that inspire the director, storyboard artist, editor and musical director. Cohen will demonstrate how you can maximize a show's basic concept (while avoiding common mistakes) and create a script that moves visually, rhythmically, emotionally, and comedically - one that communicates vividly without collapsing under the weight of words. Underscoring it all is flexible thinking and the collaborative process: the agony and ecstasy of sharing creative vision. Focus will be on writing character-driven animated comedy for television, with some forays into features.

DAVID STEVEN COHEN was the head writer on all four seasons of Cartoon Network's Courage the Cowardly Dog and has written for many other series, including Arthur, Viva Piñata and ALF Tales, of which he was co-creator and executive producer. As executive producer of Nickelodeon's The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, David was nominated for two Emmys and won a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Children's Script. He co-wrote the animated feature Balto and has also written many songs for animation, collaborating recently with Jody Gray on the song-score for Clifford's Really Big Movie. David's live-action work includes Phil of the Future, Living Single, Strangers with Candy, Parker Lewis Can't Lose, ALF and Pee-wee's Playhouse. First introduced to opera by a certain Oscar-winning rabbit, David wrote the libretto for the opera Lilith, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 2001.

Emmy-winning writer Jeffrey Scott reveals how K.I.S.S. (Keep it Simple Stupid) can be the key to writing better screenplays

In the latest excerpt from The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation, Ken A. Priebe continues his lesson on building puppets, focusing on puppet anatomy.

Kelly L. Murdock concludes his overview of editing and posing figures in Poser 8 in this excerpt from Poser 8 Revealed.

Emmy-winning writer Jeffrey Scott explains how to get the most out of today’s best-selling screenwriting books and become a better writer

“Digital Storytelling: World Building in a Digital Universe” is the sixth annual seminar on the creative use of technology in film, television and games, focusing on how visual effects and digital set design are used to advance storytelling and world building in feature film, television and games. Speakers from the Norwegian, Nordic and International film and games community gather in Oslo to present their work.

The keynote presentation will be on photoreal digital actors, presented by Associate Director of Graphics Research Paul Debevec of the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies. His pioneer work in image-based lighting, and later development of a series of Light Stage devices for digitizing the shape and appearance of human faces, has been instrumental for the VFX of films such as "The Matrx", "Spider Man 2", "King Kong", "Superman Returns", "Spiderman 3", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "Avatar" to name a few. In 2010 he received a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award with Tim Hawkins, John Monos, and Mark Sagar.

New of this year are presentations from European game industry professionals, from motion capture actor Pascal Langlois (Ethan Mars in “Heavy Rain”), to film director working with motion capture John Dower (Xbox 360 “Milo & Kate”),  Matt Woodward from CCP Games (Eve Online) and Owen O’Brien from DICE (Mirror’s Edge). Norwegian character animator Arne Kaupang will present work on the sci-fi movie “Paul” on behalf of Double Negative, and the usual suspects from the top Norwegian and Swedish VFX studios are making a big VFX Omelette: Camera Magica, Gimpville, Storm Studios, Storyline Studios, Hocus Focus, Fido (Sweden), Qvisten Animation and Rune Spaans.

Digital Storytelling is arranged in cooperation with the Norwegian Film Institute and will take place in the Tancred Cinema at Filmens Hus, Oslo Norway on April 13th. The seminar is followed by the opening of “Visions for a Story World 2011″ an exhibition of concept art and design in film and games in collaboration with Grafill Animasjon. On April 14 and 15 two VFX workshops on NukeX for Norwegian visual effects and film professionals will be led by Matt Leonard of Sphere VFX. At the close of the seminar the Norwegian Society of Visual Effects (NFX) will present the 2011 Best Visual Effects Awards.

The 10th Kecskemet Animation Film Festival (KAFF) is a parallel competition of European animated features and TV specials as well as Hungarian short animated films.

In addition to film screenings musical and theatrical shows, exhibitions and professional discussions will take place in town during the festival. Kecskemet is a city with 100,000 inhabitants and with a lively cultural life, 80 km south to Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

KAFF is a member of the European Coordination of Film Festivals.
For more information, visit www.kaff.hu or e-mail us at kfilm@kecskemetfilm.hu.

A professional sound designer offers a series of online webinars on designing sound for film.

Jeffrey Scott explains how to use Microsoft Excel to help screenwriters develop their story structure

As you know if you have been reading my blogs, I don’t typically write about myself. It’s that time of year for reflection I guess and I thought to share of my own personal background and experience. As we ponder our career choices in life, we usually are faced with making decisions about our life’s path as we graduate college and enter the work force or sometimes opportunities present themselves even earlier in life.

Title: Pitching Animation with Max Howard and Mark Simon

Date: Thursday, March 24, 2011
Time: 9:30 EST/ 6:30 PST

Length: 2-3 hours
Cost: $95
Early Bird Rate: $60 (until March 3rd)
Where: Web slide show with audio. 
No travel required - Phone in, Skype in or Login

Bonuses: Sample animation treatment, workbook & more
Register online at http://www.sellyourtvconceptnow.com/seminar-max-pitch2011.html  (or if you need a shorter link:http://www.HitMakerSeminar.com) 

 

In this Hit Maker Seminar, Max & Mark will reveal:

How to pitch animationWhere to pitch your animationWhat you need for your pitchHow to land great pitch meetingsThe biggest pitch mistakes to avoidThe #1 element you MUST have for your pitch8 Steps to creating a story that will sellHow the animated film Igor was soldDiscover your USP - Unique Selling PointThe questions you must be prepared to answerHow project titles matterWhat you need to do before your pitchHow Mark pitched 35 times in one day

Bonuses:

Sample animation treatmentWorth more than the price of the webinarSample animation 1-sheetWorkbookSample Submission Release Form

4 ways you'll benefit from this webinar:

You'll prepare the right materials for your pitchYou'll be more confident in your pitchYou'll discover the the Hollywood insider secrets to pitching like a proYou'll avoid project-killing mistakes 

Jeffrey Scott gives step-by-step instructions to effectively turn Microsoft Word into a powerful screenwriting program.

Jeffrey Scott reveals a screenwriting tip that can not only save writers time, but can make them quickly realize they have already written a lot more than they know.

Jeffrey Scott discusses the major differences between live-action and animating writing, and why, to a great extent, the television animation writer functions as a director.

Kelly L. Murdock starts his overview of editing and posing figures in Poser 8 in this excerpt from Poser 8 Revealed.

Special Guest: Ottawa International Animation Festival - Part 2 The Big Bang, Opposable Thumbs, Fire, the Wheel, Chop-Sticks, Animal Husbandry, The Mona Lisa, Gigli, Head-On, the Frenzer Foreman Animation Forum. Now, the most exciting conclusion to the most anticipated part 2 part of the most recorded audio podcast by the Frenzer Foreman Animation Forum at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2010...

Pamela Kleibrink Thompson offers fresh inspiration after visiting Ringling College last weekend.

Today, Escape Studios, one of the most successful and well-respected CG academies in the world, announced the appointment of Lucasfilm training legend Tad Leckman, who created the Jedi Masters Program, as Academic Director for Escape Studios’ new Los Angeles campus.

Joe Strike sits in on Stephen DeStefano's storyboarding class at MoCCA, part of the museum's ongoing educational program.