Late last year, I was invited to host a series of launch parties for Toon Boom’s new Animate software. Well, the partying hasn’t stopped, and tonight in Mexico City you can learn more about the software at a party hosted by Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, the creators of ¡Mucha Lucha!. Details are below and visit the official world tour website to get info about upcoming parties in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Rome.
MEXICO CITY
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
6 pm – 9 pm
Museo Mexicano del Diseño (MUMEDI)
Francisco I. Madero 74, Colonia Centro Historico
Mexico D.F.
Also, check out Eddie’s walk-through of some multi-plane animation:
On his blog, Cartoon Network animation director Eric Pringle offers a swan song for the departing crew from Craig McCracken’s Cartoon Network series Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. With 54 episodes behind them (many animated by Dublin-based Boulder Media), he wraps up the 5+ years he spent at the studio with a parting gift – a 6-page PDF tutorial of how to animate Bloo. I know I’m not alone in saying that Eric’s Emmy-award winning crew helped raise the bar of what Flash animators could do and will do in years to come. Happy trails, Foster’s team!
FWAK! Animation’s Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, the amazing duo who created ¡Mucha Lucha!. and the Flash-feature Los Campeones De La Lucha Libre, have started a great new blog – TOONBOOM-BASTIC. It’s all about the new Toon Boom software Animate, which launched late last year. You’ll see the twosome building shots, displaying software features and discussing their opinions on Animate, as well as Storyboard Pro. Here’s a video illustrating a cool trick with the Z-axis that helps create simple depth to a character.
I’ve been in touch with several artists over the past few months who’ve cracked open a fresh copy of Toon Boom Animate, and the reaction has been altogether strong. Same goes for Eddie Mort and Lili Chin (the creators of ¡MUCHA LUCHA! and Los Campeones), who have been putting the software’s camera to the test. Below is a glimpse at one of their multiplane shots being built, and there’s more over at their blog.
And if you missed one of the three Toon Boom Animate launch events (in LA, NYC and Toronto), here’s a 3-minute recap from the Toronto event:
Strike up the band! Waltz With Bashir, an animated feature film directed by Ari Folman, was nominated for an Academy Award today. The Flash-animated film was nomimated in the Best Foreign Language Film category, along with 4 other live-action films. It’s nothing short of a “coming out” party for Flash-animation, and we pass along our biggest congratulations to the production team.
It should be noted that the film WASN’T nominated in the Best Animated Film category, a nod that many thought it would achieve. There’s a great deal of politics going on behind the scenes at every year’s Academy Awards, so it’s hard to say how or why it was omitted from this list of 3 (WALL-E, Bolt and Kung Fu Panda), but I found a great write-up at spout.com that breaks down some of the strategies the filmmakers may have used.
Late last year, I was invited to host a series of launch parties for Toon Boom’s new Animate software. Well, the partying hasn’t stopped, and tonight in Mexico City you can learn more about the software at a party hosted by Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, the creators of ¡Mucha Lucha!. Details are below and visit the official world tour website to get info about upcoming parties in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and Rome. 
On his blog, Cartoon Network animation director Eric Pringle 
Strike up the band! 
