Illustration by Andy Rash
Illustrators/writers Dan Yaccarino and Andy Rash came by Frederator/NY to talk with Carrie and me about some new television and movie projects they’re working on. I’ve known and admired Dan for quite a while now but I was meeting Andy (and seeing his work) for the first time. It won’t be the last.
Thanks for Andy for kind permission to post his art.
The other day I was enjoying some of the interviews Eric and Bailee have been posting, which kicked me to reading some of Jeaux’s and Mike Milo’s and Floyd’s, and it got me wondering. I know we’ve run almost 400 films on Channel Frederator and that we’d interviewed a lot of under exposed filmmakers and artists… But, how many exactly?
One hundred and forty five. Right, 145. And they keep on coming.
There aren’t too many places that play such close attention to the people making animated films, unless they’re Walt Disney or John Lasseter (not that there’s anything wrong with that). And while we can’t begin ton compare our archive to some of the in depth work done by folks like Michael Barrier, Amid Amidi, Jerry Beck, and others, it’s a darn good start I think.
We’re going to keep it up. In addition to the weekly Channel Frederator animated filmmakers, I’ve always thought the dedicated folks who work day to day in our crews deserve a spotlight, and we’ve started that up with the Fanboy & Chum Chum crew. Adventure Time’s crew will be coming up, and we’re going to try and backtrack into our shows like The Fairly Oddparents and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!
And don’t be surprised when you start reading interviews with some of the (truly) misunderstood production crew and network executives that work on our shows. It takes a lot of people to make even one film, and I think we should try and get to know a little more about them all.
If you’re interested in getting in on the action, we’re always looking for new interviewers too, it’s a lot of work to keep this effort going. If you’re interested, just drop a note to our New York producer Carrie Miller, and she’ll try and get you going.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.’”
(via jsullivandesign)
Eric, Kevin and I went over the Casa Butch at Nickelodeon Studios where Butch Hartman told us a little about some of the movies he’s been developing. Thanks Butch.
Year of the Ox. Series 11, 2008, painting by Randy Saba
Randy Saba’s a filmmaker and artist who’s been a FOF (Friend of Frederator) since he worked as a production assistant on Oh Yeah! Cartoons and ChalkZone in the late 90s, and as he continues as production manager on The Fairly Oddparents. His film Wishy Wormy was featured on Episode 24 of Channel Frederator.
For the last couple of years I’ve been honored to receive his wonderful, annual paintings dedicated to the Chinese New Year. This year Series 11 is the Year of the Ox. Thanks Randy!
Carrie and I were happy to host a New York visit from senior designer Meghan Killeen and owner Robert Feldman from Earworm Media, based in Milford, New Jersey. Earworm specializes in web design and animation for clients, and themselves. Their series Dr. Shroud is hosted over at Joost and you can check out the episodes there. Thanks for coming by guys.
Publish at Scribd or explore others: Culture wubbzy
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is doing so well in it’s second season (so well that it’s a state secret right now; I’ll share the details when I can) that I was looking back on it’s origins (that’s the original pitch bible above). And I was being fascinated with how true to it’s original vision creator Bob Boyle has kept it.
Regular readers of my blog know how much I enjoy Joey Ahlbum’s work, so his 2008 holiday card was a perfect excuse to share some more of it.
Elliot Cowan & Rebecca Angelou from fredseibert on Vimeo.
Elliot Cowan stopped by Wednesday with his new wife (congratulations!), artist/designer Rebecca Angelou. I got to see her work for the first time and go over a few projects with Elliot. Elliot’s “Boxhead & Roundhead” was last seen on Channel Frederator in May on Episode #134 oops, in October on Episode #149.
“Victor the Delivery Dog” title sequence, by Niki Yang
Well, not really. But ever since I got into the cartoon business the classic way of introducing a short animated film keeps animating me.
In anticipation of our belated debut of the Random! Cartoons shorts (December 6 on Nicktoons, in case you were wondering), I just posted 31 of the title card sequences over on our site. (Yes, there are 39 different shorts, but some of the sequences are animated, some just haven’t made their way to me yet.) Most of them were designed and illustrated by the shorts’ individual creators. I think you’ll enjoy the wide range of approaches they’ve taken as much as we do.
And as a bonus, here are some frame grabs from our original shorts program, What A Cartoon!, from before I was smart enough to save the original artwork.
