Channel Frederator Blog

Jayne Vidheecharoen is a top-notch animator by nature and by trade. She recently animated the music video for “When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade” by UK band, The Boy Least Likely To.

Channel Frederator: Where did you study animation?

Jayne Vidheecharoen: I’ve been doing stop motion and flip-book animation for fun since I was little and always loved drawing and animation. But I couldn’t imagine having to draw the same things over and over again all day long.

So I went to the University of Washington for Visual Communication Design. About halfway through school I discovered motion design, which seemed like a good hybrid of design, illustration, and animation. After graduating I got a job at Digital Kitchen where I’ve been able to learn the most about animation from coworkers. I actually got to work on the Lemonade video at DK as a personal project, which was great. I don’t think it would [Read more…]

Back in Episode #178, we featured Andrew Sanchez’s thesis film “Egg Scramble”, which was super popular among CF viewers. He contacted us to let us know that he’s all graduated, and now interning at Nickelodeon! Way to go, Andrew!

Here’s the episode that made him rich and famous:

-Bailee DesRocher

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting (imagine that) that Nickelodeon has ordered a pilot from DreamWorks Animation based on Monsters Vs Aliens.

DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced the news at the 37th Annual
J. P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston.

DreamWorks and Nickelodeon announced last week their collaboration on
KUNG FU PANDA: THE SERIES and Nick is currently airing THE PENGUINS OF
MADAGASCAR, another collaboration.

DreamWorks will also have two TV specials in 2010 on NBC, a SCARED
SHREKLESS Halloween special and a KUNG FU PANDA holiday special.

-Floyd Bishop

Spongebob Squarepants has turned ten! Animation Magazine has the full story. From the article:

Nickelodeon is set to kick off a year-long celebration in honor of the 10th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants. The festivities will include production of a SpongeBob documentary, the first-ever live cast performance, a new online destination, new episode premieres and a Seinfeld-esque TV movie due to air in November.

 I have enjoyed the show quite a bit during its ten years. Certain gags stick out in my mind, such as the soup being blown in Squidward’s face, Gary catching Spongebob watching a Banana Slug on TV (and Spongebob quickly changing the channel to football), and Nosferatu flicking the lights at the Crusty Crab.

Let’s hope Spongebob has another ten year run as solid as its first ten, and lets hope that more offbeat, wacky cartoon series are given

-Floyd Bishop

Via E! and AOL
I knew that eventually the tabloid industry would begin their assault on folks in the Animation Industry and begin treating them like actual celebs. I just didn’t know how soon…
And I loooove how the press doesn’t even use their names in the titles.

[Read more…]

I wish I had a story or two about Zac Moncrief to share with you all, but I didn’t really attend his classes while he taught at Calarts. But what I can share with you was how I felt about him, his teaching methods, when I did crash a class or two of his.

Zac is a very funny person, and was a very sharing and encouraging teacher. It’s to bad he’s not teaching at Calarts still, because the kids there need people like Zac.

Zac, himself, attended Calarts and obtained an internship on the animated film, The Pagemaster. Soon after he moved into the role of assistant animator on Cats Don’t Dance. During his time on Cats Don’t Dance, Fred Seibert (who’s that guy?) had bought a pilot from Zac entitled, Godfrey and Zeek, for the Hanna-Barbera What-A-Cartoon Series.

Zac then found himself doing work on another HB series, Johnny Bravo in the story department.
Some time passed, [Read more…]

Episode 70

Peter Patrick and Persian Puss battle the evil Dr. No who is attempting the unthinkable: Stealing Peter Patrick’s LUNCH!! This short was featured as part of Frederator’s “Oh Yeah! Cartoons” shorts program, and like many creators, Vince Waller has gone on to do some pretty neat things since then.

[Read more…]

Episode #70 has arrived. After podcasting now for nearly a year and a half, we’re really finding our groove. Our days of wild promiscuity and partying in our 20’s are over. We popped out a few more podcasts in our 30s. We accepted hair loss in our 40s, libido loss in our 50s , memory loss in our 60s, and finally, in our 70s, tooth loss. Which is fine by us, since we like pudding and Cream of Wheat. Things couldn’t be better, really.

— The Jimmy Swift Band—Turnaround, submitted by Brad Cayford, Copernicus Studios. It’s always pleasing to see an animated music video where the visuals and the band pretty much blow your mind. This video is just that. Plus, it has singing puppets. And we like singing puppets.

— What’s for Lunch?, by Vincent Waller. As seen on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Pete Patrick and Persian Puss must prevent the formidable [Read more…]

A thirsty cat will stop at nothing to get him some milk! Give a hearty salute, and watch as the gags unfold.

Miles Thompson created this short as part of Oh Yeah! Cartoons. Jeaux Janovsky conducted a great interview with Miles a while back. I have linked to Part 1HERE!, Part 2HERE, and Part 3 HERE. Enjoy! Thanks Miles, for such a great film, and thanks Jeaux for such a thorough interview!

Melissa

Click here to subscribe to Channel Frederator or go to iTunes. Please send your suggestions to promotecartoons@gmail.com.

Upper left illustrated by Lou Brooks

I don’t know, I’m asking.

One of my favorite projects back in the day was one few people have ever seen. It started out as a TV network branding assignment, our agency’s specialty, for HA!: The TV Comedy Network. And it led to one of our favorite cartoons that not enough people have seen. Cartoon creator Bill Burnett was at the center of it all.
Viacom’s HA! was their answer to HBO’s Comedy Channel. They both lost the competition and merged into Comedy Central. Some of Fred/Alan’s best work for the network, the naming of Comedy Central, and the conception and writing of the cartoon were all done by Bill (also the co-creator of ChalkZone).

Once our agency helped name HA! we went to work on its branding, figuring out the belief system of the channel. Our creative director, Noel Frankel, designed the distinct shouting logo, with various illustrators and models depicting the shout. [Read more…]