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Dan Meth's Blog

Archive for June, 2008


Van Guarding

June 20th, 2008

Vanguard & Producer

I’m honored to receive the Frederator Vanguard award this year. At first, I wasn’t 100% positive what “vanguard” actually meant, but when I looked it up I was flattered that Frederator saw me in such a light. The truth is that without Frederator giving me the chance to run with my cartoons, almost none of you out there would have seen my work at all. Frederator, by which I really mean Fred Seibert, saw something in my work that he liked and by gut instinct, predicted that others would like as well. He took some serious risks, put his name on the line, and then we both did what we did best: He packaged, promoted, programmed and advised. And I animated night and day for over a year trying to make the kind of cartoons I’ve always wanted to but never had the support or clients that allowed me such freedom. [Read more…]

We Were The Meth Minute

June 19th, 2008

Back when you were all watching episode the 9th or 10th episode of the Meth Minute, I was already planning episode 39. I knew it had to be epic, touching, and also something that included every character. The 80’s all-star charity video “We Are The World” seemed like a great format for such an episode. Since we started this with a song, I figured we ought to go out with one too.picture-8.png

My friend Scott Zillitto (the voice of James Brown in Sex Machine) seemed like the right man to help compose such a song. He’s a talented musician and a fellow connoisseur of 80’s cheese tunes. He came over one night and we sat at my kitchen table with a Casio and wrote “We Were The Meth Minute”.

Mind you, this is months before the the series was ending, so I had plenty of time to record each cast member [Read more…]

Cruddy Quicktimes! Anyone Know of a Solution?

June 18th, 2008

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Yikes. Is anyone else having this same problem out there? You’re exporting a Quicktime .MOV from Flash CS3 on a Mac. You play it back and BKRSHHKRK! A character on screen moves and leaves behind a trail of pixelly crud (see the above picture). I’ve been wrestling with this for months now, searching for an answer on bulletin boards and such. I believe the term is “artifacting”. Pixels from previous frames staying on screen when they shouldn’t.

The only solution I’ve so far found is to laboriously save down to Flash 8 and export it from there. It always works with no problem. But if anyone out there has found a way to successfully export perfect Quicktimes from Flash CS3, PLEASE leave a comment with your sage-like wisdom.

Thanks!
Dan

Meth Minute is … Complete!?

June 17th, 2008

Meth Minute Look BackWow, less than an hour ago I finished the last episode of the Meth Minute 39. It airs Thursday and it’s touchingly climactic as any series finale should be. As you can imagine, working on two series at the same time can be a bit hectic, and my blogging has suffered lately, but now I’m back. There’s alot to write about and I’ll get to it all, even the stuff I missed before. Onward into the future.

Meth Minute Cartoons at Pompidou Centre, Paris

June 13th, 2008

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For real, this is no joke. Of all the places I would expect to see my work, it isn’t the esteemed Pompidou museum in Paris… but it’s true. The Festival Pocket art exhibit features some art made for mobile devices, including a few Meth Minute episodes. So if you happen to be in Paris from June 13th - 15th, go check it out. Dites-eux que Dan vous a envoyé, comprendre ?

Meth Minute 39 Screening and Q&A

June 10th, 2008

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This should be fun: ASIFA East (NYC’s animation association) was cool enough to let the Frederator gang show some Meth Minute cartoon, talk about how they’re made and answer some questions from the audience. Everyone is welcome to attend and it’s FREE.
Hope to see you guys there.The Meth Minute 39 Show
Thursday June 26th 7pm
NYU Tisch Auditorium Room 006
Free!