Channel Frederator Blog

Jesse Thorn (seen above with taxidermy) hosts one of the web’s most consistently entertaining interview podcasts: The Sound of Young America. He recently corralled a somewhat-animation-themed trio of innovators at the Integrated Media Association Conference in Atlanta. The panelists were Funky Flash-ness pioneers Bros. Chaps (creators of the pioneering cult webtoon HomeStarRunner), Jeff Olsen (adultswim.com head honcho), and Merlin Mann (who runs productivity and creativity site 43folders.com, among other things). The panel was titled “Blow Up Your Brain” and it’s really worth checking out their conversation about inspiration, celebration, and other essential engines for making Internet coolness. Their comments about how they hate the word “branding” are particularly refreshing. Chock full of insightful concepts like “The mullet approach to doing social media”.

Download here.

And you likely will enjoy this G4 interview with Bros. Chaps. For more on them, see the official HomeStarRunner page and more at the HomeStarRunner Wiki.

—Anne D. Bernstein

There’s an interesting lecture coming up at The Society of Illustrators (128 East 63rd Street) on Wednesday, November 5th from 6:30-8:30 PM. It’s called “Character Design, Animation and Toy Design”. The speakers are Paul Budnitz from Kidrobot and Mark Graham from ilovedust.

Kidrobot is famous for manufacturing and distributing high-end collectible toys and other consumer goods. They ‘re also in the animation business; Wild Brain studio in San Francisco now owns a major chunk of the company. Nickelodeon recently announced that they plan to turn Kidrobot properties into a series of feature films that blend animation and live action.

ilovedust is an English “design boutique” that has developed toys for Kidrobot–keeping it all in the family! This Zulu Dunny would fit in among his fellow premium plastic pals in any designer toy collection:

On the jump…how to order tickets…

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We’re all familiar with the classic “Got Milk?” campaign, which was sponsored by the California Milk Processor Board. Now another scrappy milk-promoting trade group, the British Columbia Dairy Foundation, is promoting a video contest on YouTube.

To enter, make a video with the message “Must Drink More Milk” and upload it to YouTube. Each month, two winners will be named. At the end of the year, one Grand Prize winner will win a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air (with Final Cut Pro). Oh yeah, you MUST BE A RESIDENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA to enter.

I really like the video above, a stop motion fight scene where our underdog champion is a claymation version of one of those wobblies monsters you stick on the end of a pencil. I wish the BCDF would credit the animators and make it clear that eight YouTube videos most prominently posted were done by pros and had “real budgets” and the supervision of an advertising agency. The fight scene is by at Bent Image Lab. (Chel White, Ray Di Carlo, and David Daniels formed this Portland, Oregon studio in 2003.)

For more information about the contest, go to the milkvids YouTube page or the mustdrinkmoremilk website.

PS: For an online gallery of the classic milk mustache ads, check out this link.

PPS: Here are some earlier spots for the BCDF with animation direction by Curious Pictures.

After the jump, another Bent Image Labs video, starring Russian nesting dolls with very annoying voices. And a few videos by an actual contest entrants. [Read more…]

As the hoards converge on Comicon this weekend (and I sit in sticky, hot Brooklyn, recalling the days when the Gaslamp District was still scuzzy and you didn’t have to book your hotel room two years in advance) let me tell you about an upcoming, far more intimate event that promises to be fascinating: Pictoplasma NYC: Conference on Contemporary Character Design and Art at New York University’s Skirball Center, from September 5-6.

Described as a “character design Mecca”, Pictoplasm will spotlight “the importance of character design in contemporary visual culture.” Today’s popular graphic personalities cross cultural and commercial borders and it’s becoming commonplace to see the same character on both museum walls and pencil sets. This is an opportunity to learn, talk, and schmooze with some of today’s most innovative icon creators.

Guests include Tim Biskup, Gangpol Und Mit, and Friends With You. Saturday has the bulk of the animation talk with Akinori Oishi (Japan) and Studio AKA (UK) appearing.

Registration info and more after the jump. [Read more…]

Thanks to Boing Boing for bringing this Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, called Vinni Puh, to my attention. The state sponsored animation house Soyuzmultfilm crafted its own version of the Pooh tales back in the 1970s. They have their own distinctive style (I love the scribbly backgrounds) and the overall feeling is less delicate and more goofy than the E.H. Shepard interpretation we all know so well.

(By the way, it seems that Shepard ended up hating Pooh. Silly old bear!)

Thinking Pictures goes into detail about Russian interpretations of Pooh here. (Warning: It’s a brainy essay and uses words like Gemütlichkeit and Gemeinschaft. Mickey Mouse is apparently Gemeinschaft.)

And if you are hankering for more Soviet silliness, enjoy these additional Vinni Puh adventures:

Chapter Two (with subtitles)

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

—Anne D. Bernstein

This past Wednesday I attended a panel discussion entitled, Cross Cultural Traffic: Toying with Brands, Borders and Bootlegs.

It was hosted by The Korea Society and was a lively talk on and about Korean Toys, their origins, how they interrelate with Japanese, American, and their own Korean Pop Cultures.

The panel consisted of Eric Nakamura (publisher of Giant Robot Magazine), Joshua Bernard (editor of CollectionDX.com), and The Korea Society’s Seho Kim (creative director).

I think Eric summed it up best on his GR blog:

“The robots and such brought out a generation of creatives. Imagine a filmmaker like Joon Ho Bong, who made the Host. Did he watch monster films as a kid? Did he play with toys? Of course he must have. The geeks who collected toys are now in power at creative places, and look at what they’ve brought forward? A new world of creative minds.”

Of course, I eagerly took down notes and snapped a few pics. Enjoy!

[Read more…]

As promised, I wanted to start sharing some of Marv Newland’s unique vision as an artist.

In the mid-80’s we did a lot of work together for MTV and Nickelodeon, while my company was creating and developing those brands. Marv’s company, International Rocketship, was one of our favorite creative collaborators (along with one of my closest friends, our producer, blues musician Tom Pomposello).

Marv would draw up the craziest storyboards for us to do. Many we did, many we didn’t (I’ll start posting the actual animation as soon as I can transfer it). 20 years on I can’t remember why this one didn’t happen, but rather than blame my lack of vision, I’ll say our client didn’t like it.