Vermin >>>Updated<<<

************UPDATEDUPDATEUPDATEDUPDATEDUPDATEDUPDATED*************



Most of these sketches were done years ago, way before RATATOUILLE, for a pitch called NETRATS, an internet language-school for kids. It never happened, and the whole thing ended up as a bilingual edition of National Geographic for kids and eventually as a TVshow. I was no longer involved with the design. The host of this program is a CG-rat and there are 2D clips in the show as well. The CG-part was designed and animated by my very good friends from 4K studio in Berlin, he 2D-bits by Trickompany Hamburg, I believe.

























Since Uli is posting rats, I of course have to do the same thing. Here are some rodents from over the past years, enjoy...

* Just noticed that theres something wrong with the colors ....hmmmmm

Armand says hello...

...and I would like to raise your attention for his wonderful blog, where he , among many other things, has posted some great pages from the Mulan workbook.
I just recently saw that movie again on the Disneychannel and I have to admit, thats it still holds up. Its still great, storytellingwise, otherwisewise and most of all : It still looks good and elegant, don't ye think ?

Link above.

Nancy Beiman says hello .....

...and wants us to know , that she just published a book on Story and CharacterDesign. I haven't read it yet, but I sure will and I hope so will you.Nancy is a friend and veteran animator/director and storygirl, and has worked on a.o. Treasure Planet, Feivel and many, many other things. I'm sure her book is available through the usual sources and definatly worth the read . Thanks for letting us know , Nancy !

Sundaymorning

Time to call your parents ...

Mr. Mouse goes to work

...by Rune Bennicke, check it out !

Al Gore's group of radical liberals known as scientists.

Click the link

Funakoshi

A student in Ludwigsburg drew my attention to the work of Katsura Funakoshi. I love his sculptures in their apparent simplicity.Enjoy.

More Jippes

Just found these on the WWW...

Alfred J. Kwak...here comes another one ...

What's wrong with these guys ?


...and another one.End credits this time.


...is this some kind of contest or the birdflu or what ?

Doodle

I have no idea who is drawing with my hand when I'm on the phone, but it's definatly not me !

John Watkiss

Cleaning out my harddrive I came across these wonderful artworks by John Watkiss and a.o. the stuff that he did for Tarzan. I'm sure , you've seen it before somewhere. He did one of those a day and then something. The man is a real genius, and that includes all the pros and cons, and he knows it. But funny enough I got along pretty well with him, and I visited him an a regular basis in his then Glendale-home. I thought I'd share this with you, so I'm not the only one today to feel talentless.








Selfportrait.






His son, Lawrence.



He repeatedly proposed to do a portrait of me and I could bite my own ass, that we never got around to make it happen.
There's more stuff on his own site, link above...

Bedside Books

Not an easy read in this kind of weather,...nevertheless.
And it's got not so much text and many, many colorful pictures, everything it needs to get the message across to you know whom.
Why not buy it together with this one ? :
It doesn't get more controversial than that :

Seen it - love it

...wanna see it again !

UPDATE*UPDATE+UPDATE*UPDATE*





You know what, Flutopia ? I was thinking the same thing, but I think, that they actually did a very good job, look at the acting of the hand together with the voice, how he follows the accents of the laugh for example. Only thing that worries me a bit , is the thumb, but otherwise....I've seen worse. All in all I love the trailer btw. Funny to compare it to *Flushed away*, not only stylewise but also storywise, both deal with good food and gross things, but where Flushed relies on an embarrassed laugh by showing actual sh**, or at least makes you believe you've seen it for a moment, Pixar gives us this wonderful dialog, very emotional, they just know how to do it and be funny.....its like repulsve versus witty.



Just one more, to put us all back in place....

Annecy

See you there !

The problems I have with .... ***UPDATED***

....CG hands for example. They are one of the greatest turn-offs in contemporary movies for me. They remind me of puffed up rubber gloves .







Look at the sheer artistry of a designed, stylised and dynamic handdrawn hand for comparison, it shows an elegance, I completly and painfully miss in CG.







I pulled this sheet from the web a year ago or so, and have completly forgotten , where I found it. My apologies and appreciation to whoever put this together, great job, and it perfectly illustrates my point : there isnt a single finger, wrist or arm, left hand -right hand, that's not corresponding with any of the other elements. A style of drawing you can only achieve, through cheating by drawing.Please understand me correctly : its a shortcoming of the medium, not the animator !


ULI MEYER has sent over some examples of his work on CG hands, but I am too incompetend to open them. Instead I am posting this vintage pic of the master himself, bewitching his drawingboard with voodoochants in the morning.



Andrei ( link on the right ) has sent over some sketches of his newborn son's hands. Marvelous work ! Enjoy...