Let’s begin by wishing Disney animation veteran Ruthie Tompson a Happy 110th Birthday!
She first joined the Ink and Paint Department. During the next four decades, Tompson worked in various capacities, including reviewing animation cels before they were filmed and scene planning on films such as Fantasia, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty and Mary Poppins.
More about Disney Legend Ruthie from a 2018 Entertainment Weekly profile.
“I’ll be the first to admit animators are insane.”
I’m insane. Moving dolls tiny increments for eight to 10 hours a day is not something well-balanced people do.
Stop-motion animator Jerold Howard is interviewed.
Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo Gets Animated
The world of the iconic “Usagi Yojimbo” comic books is coming to television for the first time.
Netflix is teaming with Gaumont on a CGI animated series titled “Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles,” which is based on the 35-year-old comic book series by Stan Sakai.
Rather than centering around the comic books’ protagonist Miyamoto Usagi, the series will take place in the far future and follow the teenage Rabbit Samurai Yuichi, descendent of the aforementioned great warrior, on his epic quest to become a true samurai.
Sakai will serve as an executive producer on the show…
“It is a pleasure working with Gaumont and Netflix. I am involved in each step of the production and am enthusiastic with the direction we are going into,” said Sakai in a statement. “It is wonderful to expand the Usagi universe by collaborating with so many talented people. I am working with an awesome team and I’m looking forward to finally seeing an Usagi series on the screen! I thank my wonderful fans, friends and family for their support and encouragement over the last 35+ years.”
More details from the press release via The Futon Critic.
Comic legend Stan Sakai and ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ embark on a new adventure with Netflix in an all-new animated kids series ‘Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles’
The series is produced in partnership with Stan Sakai, the legendary creator, writer and illustrator of the comic-book series who will serve as [an] Executive Producer…
Charles Brubaker Animates Ask A Cat
It’s here! First animated short based on the “Ask a Cat” comic strip.
Here, Cat answers why they love to knead on people, and also where Cats go after they die.
Making the short was an experience! I spent about 2 months making it (although the script was written 2 years ago, in 2018, with some of the storyboards done then). Animating it took about a month and a half after I got Ty’s voices, which I animated little at a time with breaks here and there.
All the animation was roughed out digitally on ToonBoom (one exception being the part near the end where Cat throws a halo, which was done entirely on Krita. That was, incidentally, the first scene I animated in the entire short). Clean-up for the pre-titles sequence was done entirely on Krita, which was rendered and vectorized back to ToonBoom. Most of the animation after that was hand-inked on paper, which I then scanned using a feed scanner, making the process very easy.
I used DaVinci Resolve for editing, adding sound effects and music track (courtesy of Kevin MacLeod’s large royalty-free library) before rendering everything.
For the record, Usagi was first animated in one of the TMNT series.