If this posed picture of Eric Robles’s desktop tells us anything, it’s that the character of Kyle will bear a striking similarity to that of Lucrezia Borgia.

One of my daily blog checks is to Craftzine. Craftzine is full of crafty, and even artsy-geeksy goodness. Today they posted about Sketchy Coworker. Now if there’s one thing I know a lot about, it’s sketchy coworkers. To my delight, it turns out that Blogger X (no info can be found on the site about who it is and what they do) posts all of the sketches he does while in office meetings. This is definitely one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of-this moments. I’d love to see more blogs of this sort, and I imagine there are more out there. Does anyone know of more? Jeaux Janvosky, this has your name alllllll over it… - Carrie

I was talking about the recent Transformers film with a few friends the other day, and it was suggested that the designs of the characters from the 1980’s cartoon would not translate well into 3D.

Soundwave is here to prove them wrong. Here he is as he appeared in the cartoon series from the 1980’s:

And here is the movie trailer from the recent film:

So the question is: could the film have been done with the same designs seen in the cartoon, or were the revisions necessary for the believability of the movie? What do you think?

-Floyd Bishop

So with Channel Frederator showcasing Alex Kirwan’s Oh Yeah! Cartoon, “Magic Trixie”, last week, and on the heels of Jeaux’s interview with the creator, Alex lent me these two original backgrounds to scan and post. Most of the short’s bgs are scattered to the far winds, but these two were relatively handy. Emmy Award-winning Dan Krall handled the bg designing while Emmy Award-winning Seonna Hong painted the keys (these production bgs were created by someone in Korea of whose Emmy Award-winning record I’m unaware). It was Seonna’s first credited animation work. In this pair, the purple and beige colors are on the backgrounds; the Zeroxed line art on cell overlays.

– Eric

Yeah, I know… you haven’t seen Episode 1 yet. But take a look at the epic backgrounds that assistant Daisy Edwards has been creating. Looking at these makes me feel like I’m directing a 12 million-dollar summer blockbuster instead of a no-budget web toon. Who knows, maybe these cartoons will lead Space Cowboy to actually being a movie. I’d have Daisy to thank!

-Dan Meth

Animation Paper, Wacom Tablets, Bears!?!? Oh My!
It’s Bear-Ly Tuesday here on Channel Frederator and it’s a weird thing to be surrounded by bears in the office today.

I feel like they’re all ravenous Yogis and I’m the lone Pic-a-nic basket.

Want a quick tip to survive a bear attack in the wilderness?
Make sure you bring your Ipod so you can stop them in their tracks… by hypnotizing them with the newest episode of Channel Frederator!!!
Subscribe to us today any way you can.

Your life could depend upon it.

— Freewheel, submitted by Eve Weinberg and Ryan Suffern
Animal Conciertos and great animation. That’s really all I need. Oh and Bears with Ferris Wheels.

— Crouque-Monsieur, submitted by Alex Toon
Crouque-Monsieur was a funny short. And will make me check twice before using the restroom. Er, rather check the toilet before using the restroom. You’ve heard the urban tale of crocodiles in the sewers? That’s all I’m sayin’.

— Pirate Beargade, submitted by David Michael McClain
This broke my brain. I called my pal Ben Ross over to see if it would break his brain too. It did. I’m pretty sure it will break all your brains too. Really.

This Thursday on The Meth Minute 39, forget 2 girls 1 cup. Dan gives us 1 airplane and 1 dog with his newest short, cavalcade of laffs 2.

I’m okay. I started setting bear traps around the office.
Spread the Fred,
- Jeaux Janovsky

Cool things We’ve been Eyeing on the Web Lately:
It’s Adult Swim-Centric this week on Coooool Stuffffff.

Those Squidbillies BG’s are amazing. Now you can go look at them on the Blog of Squidbillies BG artist Ben Prisk.

Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show. Those guys do great jobs. At. Making. Me. Laugh.

Tired of those boring Myspace Pages and all the bland social networking pals you have? Now you can be cyberfriends with Adult Swim’s Williams Street!! Check out their Hip Myspace page!
(and add us too, while you’re at it.)

Soundtrack to this Newsletter: Growling Bears

By Eric Robles

– Eric (Homan)

This is how we do it, on RAW Art Today.

John Fountain

Vince Mascoli

Niko Anesti

Fabian Dores Pais

~Zagorski

Joan Osborne > How Sweet It Is

Joan Osborne never quite registered on my radar. She was a wonderful singer who sang a hit I liked (the bluesy video for “One of Us” was great) and she was one of the modern day highlights of The Funk Brothers’ Standing in the Shadows of Motown, but nothing really made her break through for me. In fact, I’ve been meaning to post this CD since I started this blog, but somehow nothing compelled me to complete the thought.

One day a few years ago I was out having a business breakfast and in the background there was a song playing that had a familiar feeling, but I knew I didn’t know it at all. I never pay attention to the words but I wanted to know about the track and the lyric “how sweet it is” kept repeating. I knew it wasn’t the Marvin Gaye song, but jeez it had the same words. I went back to the office and Googled like crazy until I realized it was a new CD by Joan with all of my favorite era covers. Her versions of song by Stevie Wonder, The Spinners, Otis, even Timmy Thomas. This was my kind of album. iTunes away. (Produced, by the way, by the versatile John Leventhal, Roseanne Cash’s husband, a fellow downtown Manhattanite, as it turns out.)

“How Sweet It Is” isn’t to everyone’s taste, the Amazon reviews tell me, but I don’t really care. For me it’s great, and Joan’s a wonderful singer. Check it out.

Joan Osborne > How Sweet It Is

This Flintstones style guide was one of the last projects I oversaw as the last president of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. But it was probably one of the first things I wanted to accomplish.

Shortly after I joined the company I had an enlightening dinner with John Kricfalusi where we got to know each other. In addition to discussing some first principles of cartoon making (where I told John to my thoughts about doing classic-type shorts and found out he’d thinking along the same lines; I guess there are no original ideas) John told me about his frustrations about the ‘evolution’ Hanna-Barbera’s classic characters had taken since the early 1960s. He introduced me to master designer Ed Benedict, one of his heroes, who’s designed everyone from Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and The Flintstones. And how HB’s cutifying and firming up the modeling of the characters had actually completely robbed them of their personalities.

John made perfect sense to me and solidified an ignorant instinct I had about the lessening of the vintage Hanna-Barbera shows that started losing their power around the time of The Jetsons. It became one of my missions at the studio to restore the power of the great, funny drawings in the company’s heritage. So, in addition to the resurrection of the a shorts program I tried to instill a passion for the great designs that built the joint.

Boy was it hard. For thirty years the culture had re-developed around the cute, squat, and dull designs that emerged around the early/mid 60s; it had convinced itself that that art was the ‘good stuff’ and the earlier models were crude, inexact, and ‘bad.’ But, as the young artists started to re-populate the ranks, their interest in the original designs and animation started to take hold and eventually led us to master artist Craig Kellman (now working primarily with Genndy Tartakovky’s Orphanage).

Not more than 25 in 1996, Craig was commissioned by HB Licensing Creative Director Russell Hicks to completely redesign the licensing guide that had come out just the year before. And wow did he take to it. Hundreds –probably thousands– of drawings poured out from Craig’s desk. Superior drawings too, too great for someone of his tender age. But, one by one, anyone could see their power and their humor, and soon enough we completely republished the style guide, a “redux” if you will.
Check out the drawings above and you’ll see how much Ed’s influence was on Craig, but also the pathetic, enemic versions that have dominated for the last 50 years.

From “On the Rocks”

Alas, we were a little too late. Seemingly within minutes after publication Ted Turner sold Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network to Time Warner. No one there really gave a crap about old or new designs, and the Cartoon Network executives with senior responsibility were more interested in their employment than the studio. A few of them –Mike Lazzo, Linda Simensky, and Brian Miller– thankfully had enough juice to get a 90 minute special,”On the Rocks,” produced using the models. But, by then, The Flintstones had lost their mojo and the film went pretty much unnoticed.

But, don’t fret. The designs exist forever, and one day The Flintstones will come back, with a passionate advocate steering them to wonderful comedy greatness. In the meantime, enjoy some of Craig’s designs.