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Back in the 1950’s, the Kool Aid man was not much more than a pitcher with a face. As time went by, Kool Aid Man gradually became a guy in a suit with an animated mouth. The commercials began to feature other animated elements as well. In a few of the commercials, Bugs Bunny and the Monkees even helped out as pitch men.
While I’m not sure the wall wrecking Kool Aid Man sells the powdered drink mix any better than his hand held ancestor, it was interesting to see the progression of the character though the years.
I’m really excited to announce this month’s winner of the Cartoon of the Month prize! We had 8 films from episodes 136, 137 and 138 in the running this time - a bit low because of the Channel Frederator Awards, but nonetheless stiff competition! In the end, Pushkin took home the prize! Pushkin is a great stop motion film brought to us by Trevor Hardy of Fool Hardy Films. I took a few minutes to do a mini-interview with Trevor below. Check it out and then, if you haven’t had the chance to watch it, or haven’t seen it in a while, go watch Pushkin again in Channel Frederator episode 136.
CF: What inspired you to create Pushkin?
I came up for the story line for Pushkin after losing my own cat who thank fully returned a while later but with bent whiskers??? (Don’t ask me?), whilst writing pushkin I watched Sylvain Chomet’s brilliant film, ‘The Triplets of Belleville’ and of course his sets and atmosphere totally inspired me and helped carve the look of the world Pushkin would live in.
Last week, I posted about the (then upcoming) gaming-inspired art show “I Am 8-bit”. Well, the opening was last Thursday and reports of fun are pouring in from blogs all around. Destructoid and Kotaku, for example. (Crowd photo from Kotaku.)
There’s also a Flickr set where you can check out the mayhem that ensued—and peruse halfway decent photos of all the art. Many animation peeps participated. (Photos below by oldmanmusings, btw.)
“Zelda and the Great Deku Tree” by Carlos Ramos (Dexter’s Lab, Chalkzone, Robot Jones).
A piece by Steve Lambe (El Tigre, Fanboy and Chum Chum).
And just for the fun of it, yet another goofy picture of Gabe Swarr.
After spending a few years and 26 half-hours in Miracle City, Dave Thomas has returned to The Fairly OddParents fold as the show’s Storyboard Director. He’s a big part of the show’s history, too – way back in 2003, Dave won an Annie Award for his boarding of the episode, “Pipe Down”. Yesterday, to kick off yet another production season of FOP, he presented the show’s first-ever digital pitch.*
It’s great to have you back, Dave.
– Eric
*In the old days, an old-fashioned paper storyboard would be pinned up and presented to the crew and the network. Now, even though the paper board still gets pinned up, every panel is scanned in and projected on the big screen, just short of an animatic.
There’s a great interview with animation artist Pascal Campion over at Character Design Blogspot. Pascal has a uniquely delicate style which flawlessly integrates complex arrangements of background and character. Most of his work is done in Flash:
I use color differently than most artists I know, more like a painter actually. I don’t do a clean drawing . I just sketch very loosely something in flash, and I clean it up in color! Which is why my colors are as essential to the piece as the composition itself because they ARE the drawing.
Written by Scott Kreamer and storyboarded by Octavio Rodriguez. Octavio had been a Fanboy storyboard revisionist, but when a boarding spot opened up (there are six of them), he stepped to the plate and hit this one out of the park. Welcome to the starting line-up, Octavio. (Click through for larger sizes.) — Eric (Homan)
