Ok so here is something I know everyone in animation will like. A Pressure sensitive iPad pen! It’s pretty ingenious. It uses hi frequency sound to control the pressure. You can check it out here or check out the video after the break. This one is not fully funded yet but close and has 25 days left on kickstarter.
So I’m not sure how may of you out there are into photography but I came across this kickstarter project that looks really cool. It’s a very sophisticated time-lapse controller for your SLR. The firmware will be open source. Even though the project is already fully funded it still has 34 days left, so you can still get in on the fun if you want.
Video after the break.
Hi all we’ve had some new jobs posted today so check them out! I also wanted to wish every one a happy new year for 2012. The past few years have been hard on our industry especially for the independent film makers out there. I’m starting to see things looking up so let this be a great year for us all! Of course it will only be good until the Mayan Apocalypse of 2012. 
But a good year none the less.
"Kakania" by Karen Aqua
I still find it difficult to wrap my head around a world where you might be lucky to have one opportunity a year to see multiple animated films. This is what Linda Simensky (V.P. of Children’s Programming at PBS) described at the Karen Aua retrospective and Q&A, held by ASIFA-East on October 11th. She coveted her attendances of The International Tournée of Animation, where she would get to see about 20 animations, and since the 1980s, Karen Aqua almost always submitted one film. In this extremely new age of YouTube, these facts are hard to swallow, and after watching about 12 Aqua animations in a row I was exhausted by the devastatingly elegant displays of talent and art.
Ani-jobs.com jobs forum is up and running! So what does that mean? It means we’ve transitioned all the posts and user accounts from the old board to the new board. (Hurray!!)
Well kind of. If you can’t login with your old username and password then click the forgot password link and the board will send you an email to reset your password. Then you should be able to log in.
Things that are better, and things we’re still working on:
Well the board is way way better. It’s cleaner, faster and more professional. So please use it!
We are still working on the integration of the board and the wiki. In the old system you had 1 user account/password. We are having difficulty implementing that with the new board. So currently you can not log into the wiki it is (read only). We are however working on it and talking about implementing a new system entirely. I’ll keep you updated.
Several of you have contacted me looking to change your info on the wiki. As I just stated we ARE working on that and I will keep you updated.
Thank you all again and good luck in the job search!
Craig
Ani-jobs.com
Where is the job forum!? Good Question. Long story…. Basically the job forum was built on an open source system called phpbb. The good part about this software is that it’s free, it’s open source and it has a huge user base. The bad part about it is, being open source it’s more vulnerable to hacking and spamming and there is little to no support if you have a problem that isn’t covered on their own forums.
So what happened? Well we had some server issues that started to spiral out of control leading to a server wide crash. This crash seemed to corrupt our template causing posts/ jobs to not show up properly. I thought I fixed the issue by changing the template but there was more to it (isn’t there always). Changing the template got the board back up but started taxing the server again to the point where the whole thing was coming down bringing several other sites down with it. Needles to say our Hosting company isn’t a big fan of ani-jobs.com.
So what’s the solution? Glad you asked. There is another option. It’s called vbulletin it is a commercial forum and is the industry standard “best in class”. It costs money, it has Tech support, we are switching over to it!
What does the switch mean to you? We’re not sure yet. We know we can port the forums over and the posts. We are not sure about the user accounts. Worse case scenario, you may have to recreate a user account and you will need a seperate account to post in the forums from the resume cafe. Best case scenario, everything will just work (HA! like that ever happens).
Bottom line. Give us a few days we are working on it. I will tweet and post when everything is up and running again.
Thank you and good luck in your job search.
Craig Russo
Commissioned Portrait, Featured in Spectrum 18
I first met Marc Scheff in 2009 when I join his Meetup group Figure Drawing for Illustrators. At the time it was held in the super cool, always artsy, and full of suprises Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn NY. Coming in, I had a lot of practice with the art students league of NewYork and other figure drawing meetup groups. People would always come from all corners of the class to see what I, this new kid, had drawn. I always got compliments and even admirers— I’m pretty good at drawing crowds, but little did I know that would all change that one fateful day.
Digging into the gesture drawing during the earlier period in the session as a general habit I like to look around to see everyones pose, some were nervous, others were confident, Marc however was so relaxed and even having a casual conversation while simultaneously drawing. My experience told me that usually people that talked during such ceremonies didn’t really draw like angels. Looking at Marc’s drawings told me one great lesson: Even an angel would sell a part of their soul to have the touch of gold and marks of flawless precision…and to think that a guy from Harvard University who majored in computer science would take on such a path that at times comparably, can be financialy tumultuous. Success has been very kind to him. His painting “Me King” made it into Spectrum 18 this year. Marc’s clients range from Gameloft, Electronic Arts, and Playdom Games just to name a few— he leads a life where his creative passion and financial security are both liberating and harmonious. His humble approach to art, background, and his awesomeness( Marc just recently finished some new paintings and we are the first to present them!!!) makeing this interview extra sweet! Enjoy!
These are The Big 12 Questions I asked Marc…
Escape Studios Headquarters here in the UK is having another special open day for professionals and students a like. This time 3D Creative Director from world reknowned studio The Mill, Jordi Bares is taking the helm for the day and telling us what we need to know about being a VFX artist and why/how education can help.
This week I had the opportunity to interview a talented animator and mentor, who’s truly open to sharing his thoughts and experiences working in the film industry. He has worked on a number feature films and has always pushed to not only learn, but to educate others when it comes to character animation and the technical side of setting 3d characters up for animation. Having conducted many workshops related to his expertise and continuing to be an inspiration for both present and upcoming artists. He is a recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Digital Media Arts College and a Maya Master Award recipient as well. I inquired what he thinks about animation and the industry itself. This is what he had to say…
Are you what I am looking for?
Sounds a bit like something out of a princess movie! Are you what I am looking for? (If you cued singing birds and dancing butterflies cut it out! I’m trying to be serious here!) My name is Tim Girard. I am a creative writer focusing on short stories. I have two animation projects developed, a horror story in the works and a bevy of stories waiting to be told. I have been an independent writer for more years than I can shake a stick at and recently began working with www.xomba.com as a freelance writer as well as Yahoo and a host of others. While I enjoy writing articles my true passion is in storytelling. As a freelance writer it is difficult to garner the appropriate, money making attention we all crave. On one of my recent endeavors I decided to go it alone, become a true independent artiste and I began the search for animation artists. In the process I learned a few things. From one artist to the next I would like to pass what I have discovered off to you in the hope what I am seeking will help you, the artist, the company, the aspiring animator, to hone your craft and be as marketable as possible.
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