The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival

Tip #3 Avoid sleep, people, and your job. There can be nothing more distracting than life and all its little annoyances. Cut yourself off from the world and get to work.

Tip #2 Avoid straight smooth lines. There is nothing more authentically independent then shaky lines. It also tells the audience,” Hey this is animated, look at all them drawings I did!”

–Hadley

Like most of us animators we have about a hundred unfinished films lying around. Whether it is some actual test animation, a story board, or just a scribble of an idea in a sketchbook, here are some helpful tips to get that film finished quick, easy, and guaranteed to achieve success.

Tip #1 Skip every other frame. Nobody will notice if you take out every other frame besides the hardcore animation fans, and you can just say they have no life for pointing that out.

Coming soon, tip # 2!

–Hadley

Like everyone, I lack proper enthusiasm for Mondays. I greet them with much the same reaction as the frightened character in Munsch’s famous “Scream.” Coffee doesn’t help, avoiding work by downloading music on iTunes doesn’t help. The only thing that gets me through is dipping my big toe into a tiny little puddle of passion beneath my desk. In other words, I try to remember how much I love cartoons and how important they really are to the future of our culture—cartoons really can change the world. With that said, please join me in a little Monday relief, watch a cartoon AND send YOUR cartoon into the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. It will make the day go a lot quicker. Your Friendly Co-Producer, Rita

My parents recently sold an old anvil of ours in a garage sale. It reminded me that in this modern day world the anvil has lost its place as a frequently used gag. It also reminded me of the time I was a kid and tried to drop our old anvil on our cat. Fortunately for the cat anvils are heavy and I wasn’t very strong.

–Hadley

Going back over the cartoons in the past two years of the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, a subject matter we see over and over again is that of cavemen. While ultimately very different, many of the shorts deal with the contradiction of giving Neanderthals some sort of frustration with which more modern day cavemen can associate (more or less). Like the poor prehistoric guy in Paul Yan’s “Egg Hunt”. Paul’s film was a favorite during last summer’s festival, and you can see it again by clicking here. Thanks, again, for the film, Paul. And to the rest of you filmmakers out there: 33 days to submit you work for this year’s extravaganza.

– Eric

There are a couple of things needing to be updated here (like the new festival title, listing last year’s judges, adding a bunch of links, etc.), but the Wikipedia entry for The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival does have a lot of great information about the festival. Most helpful is a handy-dandy list of all 132 films we’ve screened in 2004 and 2005 (although the filmmakers’ names are absent).

– Eric

Instead of the classic “Bunny,” we thought we’d offer you a special Easter tribute with pandas! More specifically, Jessica Borutski’s uber-cute black and white fluffballs from last year’s hit entry, “I Like Pandas.” To enjoy pandas instead of bunnies this weekend visit, www.jessicaborutski.com.

Hi Everyone,

I’m finally writing to say hello. I’ve been wisely letting my wonderful co-producer Eric Homan do all the blogposting work. Well, actually, my real excuse for not posting is way too much travel. I just got back from Cannes, France and the MIPTV television market. In addition to my own meetings and such, I squeezed in a little run around the show floor to look for potential entries to the Nicktoons Network Animation Festival. Gosh! There’s a ton of interesting made-for-television shorts from other parts of the world.

Broadcasters from both Europe and Asia are much more open than broadcasters in the States (although this is changing!), to running short animated series for all ages. A typical shorts series will be between 1 and 3 minutes in length with a total of 12-52 episodes.

Here’s a cool one I picked up from the Czech Television booth. Directed by Jiri [Read more…]

Not only was it the winner, it was the clear-cut winner chosen by our esteemed panel of judges. La Revolution des Crabes by France’s Arthur de Pins took home top honors at last year’s Nicktoons Network Film Festival, giving Arthur - count ‘em - 10,000 US dollars. I don’t know what that is in francs, but it must still be a lot. Who will take home this year’s top prize? Got me, but it sure won’t be you if don’t submit your cartoon.

– Eric

PS Do yourself a favor and visit Arthur’s Website.