Channel Frederator Blog

Extra Life is a 24-hour gaming marathon to fund pediatric cancer research and treatment taking place this Saturday, October 17th starting at 8am in your respective time zone.

For more information on how you can participate, visit the Extra Life FAQ page.

You can do it in your jammies, in front of your game console, with the energy beverage of your choice in hand. Find a sponsor and start playing!

Do it, gamer. Do it for the kids.

-Bailee DesRocher

Today is the last day to catch Brad Benedict’s Side Show exhibit at Wal Art (1639 South La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles). Includes animation peeps like Chris Reccardi, Dave Wasson, Ric Heitzman, and Everett Peck. La La Landers have about an hour to run over. Otherwise, see the artwork online. (Artwork above by Wasson.)

“Game Over” (Art of the Gamer Generation) is a group show that runs through October 29th at Giant Robot in San Francisco (622 Shrader Street). (Artwork above by Justin “Scrappers” Morrison.)

And…the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City just announced two upcoming Kim Deitch events:

Cartoon Movie Night (October 30, 7 pm)
Kim Deitch will host a Cartoon Movie Night featuring rarely seen animated cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s hand-picked for the occasion from Deitch’s own personal collection. MoCCA will also display for one night only selected specimens from Deitch and spouse Pam Butler’s extensive collection of antique toy cats.

Deitch Q & A (November 13, 7 pm)
Q & A session with Deitch and exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. Deitch will present examples of recent work and will also preview images from his current works in progress.

Also at MOCCA, a one-day only preview of Heritage Auction Galleries’ November 2008 Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature Auction, to be more specific…

MAD Contemporary Art Treasures: The Most Classic Original Art from MAD Magazine (October 29, 10-5)

More info after the jump… [Read more…]

Chris Prynoski (creator of MTV Downtown, among other things) has curated a show honoring gaming god and father of Dungeons and Dragons Gary Gygax. It opened last Saturday and will be up until September 27th at Titmouse Studio (6616 Lexington Avenue, Los Angeles). Lots of my old friends from MTV Animation have contributed artwork. Just a few of the participating gang of geeky alum (and I mean that in a loving way): Christy Karacas (Superjail), George “not a typo” Krstic and Jody Schaeffer (Megas XLR), Kaori Humara, Richard Mather, Cheese Hasselberger, and Antonio Cannobio. Plus, that guy who created The Tick. And Gabe Swarr, who is everywhere.

—Anne D. Bernstein

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.)

A video of the festivities from the World of Wonder site is here.

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).

[Read more…]

Animator and software developer Friedrich Kirschner has figured out a way to do 3D scanning with a webcam, some Legos, a plastic bowl, and milk. It’s called Milkscanner. It’s a silly sort of stop motion that actually works!

The Lego structure holds the webcam. Your object of choice is placed in a the bowl of milk (filled up to halfway). More milk is added three teaspoons at a time. Each scan is a “slice” and it appears that you can get a pretty accurate outline from this calcium-rich contraption. (You have to flip the object to finish the scan.)

For the latest version of Milkscanner, go here.

Friedrich Kirschner has his own website here, which spotlights lots of cool Machinima innovation. (Machinima is the process by which movies are filmed using game engines.)

And go to this Vimeo link to see a variation on the technique where people are dipped into a kiddie pool that is filled [Read more…]

If you’re a fan of video games, live in Los Angeles, and enjoy being packed, sardine-like, into gallery spaces with hoards of fellow pop culture fanatics, then you might want to check out the opening of the fourth annual I Am 8-Bit show. The event is at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery at 6650 Hollywood Boulevard, this Thursday (August 14th) from 8 until midnight.

The official website currently offers minimal specifics, but you can get an idea of what’s in store by perusing this photo gallery of last year’s opening, as covered by i-mockery.com.

A collection of artwork from previous shows was published by Chronicle Books back in 2006. I Am 8-Bit: Art Inspired by Classic Videogames of the 80s is available from the publisher’s website for $22.95. An additional volume will come out in 2009.

Despite the lack of a contributor list, if you just can’t wait, some of the artist’s involved have posted pix of their creations in advance of the opening. Click here for a sneak peek at Joystiq.

PS: World of Wonder is the production company responsible for many reality television “classics” such as Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, One Punk, Under God, and Wife, Mom, Bounty Hunter, as well as some serious docs. Seem like cool people, actually…

Find out how Tori Spelling is currently connected to geekdom, after the jump… [Read more…]

The San Diego Comic Con has come and gone. It was pretty busy, with the entire show selling out. Preview Night was just as busy (if not more so) than any other day. I would love to see some sort of expansion of the Con to cut back on crowd size. Maybe a professionals only night, or perhaps making the Con a full week?

[Read more…]

Channel Frederator is giving away a Cintiq for its Cartoon of the Quarter prize - submit your animation to channelfrederator.com get the most viewer votes and you could win your own Cintiq!

In this video animator Gabe Swarr demonstrates how to use a Wacom Cintiq with 21 inch LCD screen. Gabe Swarr is one of the many animators who submitted to Channel Frederator and recently won our Cartoon of the Month prize. You can check out his work at dummcomics.com and at iam8bit.net

Video by Dave Seger.
Thanks guys!

-Jeaux Janovsky

I thoroughly enjoy my regular check-ins at American McGee’s Blog; he’s a video game designer currently living in Shanghai. I am not a gamer myself, but the artwork for American McGee’s Grimm (scheduled for release July of 2008, published by online game service, Game Tap) looks quite engaging.

The preview for his twisted take on classic fairy tales is here.

There’s an interview with McGee here. And one here, which you can choose to read in English or Polish!

The game will be comprised of 24 individual episodes, released weekly. (Oh yeah, and if you are on a Mac, you’re out of luck, because it will only be playable on PC.) Each episode re-imagines a well-known fairy tale. At the top of the episode, you will see the story in a happy, clean, and PC (the other kind of PC) version. The player’s challenge is to turn the fairy tale “dark”. The experience ends with a [Read more…]