It's not fair

When your brother gets any attention

Are there GUUUURRRLLLSSS on it?!

Storyboard panel from my film.
More to come

2009 Highlights #2: All About the Annie Awards

During the past summers, when on break from college, I've made it a habit to come volunteer at the ASIFA-Hollywood Archive, Since it was so much fun, It didn't cross my mind to get anything in return for it...until this year's Annie Awards!
I was awarded with a Certificate of Merit,
There were 3 other winners in this cathegory: Alex Vassilev (Computer genius, Ace volunteer and roomate =] ) Kathy Turner and Mike Fontanelli.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2752219648/rg4173502976

In this picture, ASIFA-Hollywood president and geniuinly wonderful guy Antran Manoogian presents us to the audience at UCLA'S Royce Hall. We had the Honor of going on stage after Nick Park, who got his Winsor McCay Life Time Achievement Award. He also won an Annie for Best Animated Short : Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, well deserved!

Picture by Claudio Riba

Wallace and Gromit have always been among my favorite cartoons, Upon meeting Mr. Park I said "Your Lordship! This IS an honor!" we shook hands and he laughed with delight. For such a highly acclaimed creative genius, I could not believe how humble he was! We ended up chatting about mutual TV favorite "Doctor Who"

Picture by Dan Riba

Hero of all independent Animators: Bill Plympton

Mr. Lawrence: Great cartoonist and super nice guy, perhaps best known as the voice of the evil Plankton on "Spongebob"! He directed "The Huanted World of El Superbeasto", soon available DVD

I'm still inspired by all the people I got to chat with back stage and at the cocktail party: Vincent Waller, Dan Riba, Shawn Patterson, Jorge Guttierez, Henry Selick, Matt Groening, Peter Avanzino, Tom Minton, James Baxter...It was such a fun night, there's nothing quite like a Hollywood award show.

Kalicature

Went to a party at John K's house last night, despite the hangover I can still draw a caricature of Kali from memory :)

New inks for John Kricfalusi

Pencil art by John K.
Digital Inking by me

Digital coloring by John
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2009/05/amir-inked-jinks.html
http://funkyhb.blogspot.com/2009/05/pixie-and-dixie-and-mr-jinks.html

Steven Pinker reveals "The Stuff of Thought"

Steven Pinker is my kind of scholar, He uses his science in highly creative ways to explore what makes us tick. Professor Pinker has a wonderful gift for the art of explaining, and he does so in a fascinatingly comprehensible and humorous way.

In his book "The Stuff of Thought" Pinker looks into language as a window to human nature. By far the most interesting chapter is "The Games People Play" in which Pinker explains why we resort to the most common hypocrisy: innuendo, euphemism and double-speak.

Below, Pinker lectures various chapters from "The Stuff of Thought" at Google, "The Games people play" is at the 40 minute mark. Previous chapters about causality (18 minute mark) and swearing as a window to emotion (20:35) are also great.




In "The Blank Slate" Pinker tackles the fallacy of the human mind as a blank slate (meaning that nothing is innate and all is learned, no nature, all nurture) A notion first attributed to the philosopher John Locke.
Pinker debunks this gracefully and even provides an answer to why this fallacy is sometimes appropriate for politics "When the concept of fairness is confused with the concept of sameness".




I also heartily recommend his previous books "How the mind works", and " The Language Instinct" the latter explains universal grammar and the innate capacity for speech (there is also a good audio book version of "The Language instinct" read by Lalla Ward)

2009 Highlights: part 1

Part 1- Assisting Brock

Every year I have helped a 4th year friend with their film, last year it was Randeep Katari, Two years ago Nick Thornoborrow, and this year- Brock Gallagher, who has been an inspiration to me throughout my time in school.
I was fortunate enough to do clean-up on some of Brock's finest scenes, boy I learned a lot from flipping his animation drawings!


Brock is brilliant at every aspect of film-making, he is not only a wonderful animator, story and gag man, he has the skill to see to the core of things and bind them together in the best possible way, that's why his film is cohesive in every respect, One of the best cartoons I've seen in recent years.

Go watch his film- THE PEASANT AND THE ROOT!

Brock has also been generous to contribute his voice talent for the brother character in my upcoming film.

Picture taken by Peter Emslie at Geoff Milne's recording studio

Part Two: the Annie Awards

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2752219648/rg4173502976

I will write about this in detail when the ceremony will be posted on the ASIFA-Hollywood Archive blog...

Part Three: interviewing animation legend and wonderful friend Kaj Pindal

In progress...

Jonathan Miller sheds light on why we exaggerate

"The Body in Question" is a classic TV program by "that British man for all seasons", Sir Dr. Jonathan Miller. I found episode 3 (titled "How do you feel") particularly interesting.
Miller explains a series of experiments which established a map of how the brain sees the body, it looks like a cartoon character.

note: first 48 seconds show footage of surgery

John Kricfalusi often uses the term "emotional weight", and I am very pleased to see this term has scientific credibility. the parts we tend to exaggerate indeed have more "sensitivity points" as mapped by the brain. it makes perfect sense for why it is natural for cartoonists to exaggerate.

IMO Jonathan Miller is one of the most fascinating and admirable people alive, listening to him is always pleasurable and educational.
Sir Dr. is a real Renaissance man, gifted and skilled at so many different areas, to which he always puts his inimitable personal stamp. It is not by coincidence that he has the most important skill of all-- the ability to see to the core.
His superb analytical skills and critical thinking enables him to apply his varied skill and talent to any topic.

Some of my personal favorite Miller discussions:

Humor/Why we laugh:


Stammering (at 7:17)



"Major" film producers (at 6:00) :



On the fallacy of post-sixties education systems- "everyone being equal is an emphasis on equal talent" ( at 1:25) (This can also be explained in Steven Pinker's book "The Blank Slate- A modern denial of human nature")



On science as a candle in the dark: how medicine removed his fear of death:



Link to the complete series of chats with Dick Cavett


And an interview by Kristy Wark

"The Barley Way" Pitch

SET UP:
Yehezkel, The teen Science genius Discovers an earth-like planet with his home made super telescope.

He rushes outside to tell his father and brother, who are pre-occupied playing soccer with their heads.

"DAD! JOSEFFAT! I discovered an EARTH LIKE PLANET!"
They pause to look at him "Are there girls on it?" asks Joseffat "Or Beer?" asks dad.
"I could only find vegetation and liquid water" replies Yehezkel
The attention is yet again stolen by Jossefat "Hey dad look at me! Forget about that science stuff, check out my soccer ball!"

Dad is captured "That's nice about your lil' planet, son... But I can't pass on a good soccer game!"
Discouraged, Yehezkel walks off... and Jossefat adds insult to injury by saying "You find something worthwhile, and MAYBE we'll listen!"
"Oh you'll see!" retaliates Yehezkel "I'll beat you at your own game!"

BODY:

Players assemble in a junior high soccer arena, preparing for a big match, Yehezkel at the goal.
In the audience, Dad is rather anxious, he turns to his smug looking boy asking "Jossefat, you think your brother is ready to be a goalie?"
-"HAHA...Probably not!"


The game begins with a super strong kick from the other team, Yehezkel's players run away in fear of this, but he stays determined to protect the goal...but the ball then causes his beheading and hospitalization.


PAYOFF:

"WHY did you do it SON?"

"Well, *sniff* I just wanted you to be proud of me..."

"But don't you see, I already am proud of you!"

Yehezkel is lead to believe he's had dad's appreciation all along....but wait!

"NASA found proof of life on your planet!"

"GIRLS MADE OF BEER WHO PLAY SOCCER!"

*to the sound of a referee's whistle, the alien girl anticipates, and uses her head to successfully nudge a football coming from off-screen"

"That's a good one, eh son? Haww Haww!"

We truck out of the hospital as rocketships leave the earth by the dozens.

THE END.

Copyright © Amir Avni 2009
Background for panel 8 taken from Astronomy Picture of The Day

Get them while they're fresh

Sketches, baked in class this morning

T'was the day after Christmas!

Action Analysis

The 3rd year Action Analysis animation project criteria allows you to do ANYTHING...as long as it's one of the 9 allowed motions, I chose the "pull". The length is the mandatory 5 seconds.
I suggest playing more than once, as the player is still buffering first time around.

Stop Motion walk

Here is an in-class exercise from our Stop Motion course. I aimed to bring a "Rubber Hose" mentality to it. 5 minutes before the end, the puppet's leg broke. My instructor, Chris, Advised to make a gag out of it. So I did a subtle "Take" using white sticky-tak on the black board behind the puppet for the lines indicating alarm. The puppet's leg is held by a magnet under the stage. Stop motion is fun, it's very tangible and straight forward.

Mice

Usually I don't like to just post a bunch of drawings, so I kept one theme for this assortment.





This post is dedicated to Amber, who told me I don't post enough.

I will get working on a proper post time permitting.

Who's "WHO"

There's both wonderful and terrible news about the upcoming 5th series of Dotcor Who:
1. Steven Moffat takes the role of Head Writer/Executive producer (practically the show leader)
2. David Tennant will not be returning to play the role of the tenth Doctor.

All episodes of the Doctor Who revival have had wonderful direction, music and design, but what separates good episodes from great ones, comes down the writing and acting. When the latter are done well, all aspects of the show’s making blend in prefect synthesis. The combination of Steven Moffat’s writing and David Tennat’s performance has provided my favorite work of fiction in a long time, because no matter how far-fetched, they made it feel real.

MOFFAT

I was first made aware of Steven Moffat when I discovered his hilarious sit-com “Coupeling”. Moffat has the skill to make fictional character feel real, by adding layers of humanity to them. By humanity I mean a rich canvas of emotion, and an understanding of how humans think and operate. Humans are emotional based, their rationale and view of the world depends on their emotional structure. An emotional structure isn’t flat. Emotions blend into each other like colors on a mixing palette: joy with angst, warmth with sternness, etc…This prevents the formation of flat characters.

Moffat’s Doctor Who stories are quite profound, they always have more than one element going. My favorite is “The Girl in the Fire Place”, Embedded below:

"The Girl in the Fireplace"

Directed By Euros Lyn, Music by Murray Gold

part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5

Plot-wise, it is about clockwork droids from the 51st century stalking a woman from the 18th. What makes this story compelling is the development of romantic bonding between Madam de Pompadour and her “Guardian Angel”- The Doctor. This is challenged by the way the two characters experience time.

Notice the plot isn't completely understood until the very end, but the film is captivating from the very first moment. It makes sense emotionally, and that's why we don't feel lost.

Moffat keeps the viewers on their toes by throwing in many questions and irrational plot developments, until finally he ties all the elements in beautifully unexpected ways.

All of Moffat’s stories have this in common: “Blink”, “Silence in the Library” and “Forset of the Dead” Are creative, layered, and unpredictable. They are emotionally involving, they invite the viewers to take active participation by asking questions, They save the logical"solving of the case" to the very end, and deliver a cathartic resolution. Fiction writing at its best, I look forward to seeing more of it!

TENNANT

Sadly, I can’t look forward to see David Tennant lead Moffat’s upcoming stories, as he is leaving the show at the height of his success:

"I think it's better to go when there's a chance that people might miss you, rather than to hang around and outstay your welcome…I don't ever want it to feel like a job, so I want to move on when it still feels exciting and fresh and that means I'll miss it."

Tennant’s Reasoning is a sign of a capable and versatile actor, but the fact he’s leaving is hard for me to accept. Tennant is a key factor of my identification with the show, It wasn’t until I saw his characterization that I became hooked.

“…In his four years in the role, Tennant has made it his own. His doctor – the 10th – has artfully combined the best parts of his predecessors within an engaging personality all his own. Tennant's doctor has been both physical and cerebral, funny and yet full of angst; he has been the most human of all the Doctors.” (http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/comment/Wha39s-like-us--David.4652347.jp)

Tennant’s portrayal of The Doctor made me feel like I was there with him. I was entranced by his infinite dedication to make sense of phenomenal mysteries, I admired his relentless obsession to protect his loved ones, and I laughed along his joyful enthusiasm upon solving a case.

Forest of the Dead- Resolution
Uploaded by toonamir Click "HQ" to see in better quality.

Warning: This video contains spoilers if you haven't seen the episode, it is meant to illustrate the article.

No matter how catastrophic, no matter how unfavorable the odds are, The Doctor could always re-gain control, and reach a cathartic and delightful resolution. Just as plain text, these descriptions may sound like ordinary hero clichés, but the difference is: David Tennant made them feel real. His character was both an agent of great adventure, and a dependable father figure, he made any situation, no matter how uncanny, sheer fun.

The Lucifer Effect

--Hi!

For the past 2 months I have been balancing Inking for John Kricfalusi‘s new George Liquor cartoons, and 3^rd year of Sheridan College.

For my return post, I’d like to share one of the best lectures I’ve heard recently: In “The Lucifer Effect”, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo (originator of the Stanford Prison Experiment) Provides an amazingly in-depth explanation of good and evil. At the core is the power of the situation, and our reaction to social conditioning.

How can good apples become corrupt by a bad barrel? How can blind obedience and uncritical conformity lead to evil doing? What is heroism, and how can it be triggered in the same situations? Find out in this real eye opener!

I've attached 2 versions of the lecture: Google (full length) and TED (short), the Google version is much better if you can dedicate the time for it. Both contain a slideshow of violent images, which can easily be skipped, if you find material of the kind disturbing, the lecture can be understood without it.