Monday, September 29, 2014

ASSORTED BITS OF OTTAWA 2014



I think I've made it 
abundantly clear that the
2014 OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL 
ANIMATION FESTIVAL
was 
Das Boomba.

So allow me to share some more
pics
tidbits
ephemera
and 
doodles
from my trip.

Here's a sketch 
did while I was being
interviewed for the 


The schedule for those of us on
 the feature jury wasn't too bad:

But it was busy enough that I didn't get to
see too many other screenings.

DID 
make it to
PEN & INK:
CREATING CHARACTERS WITH NICKELODEON

Specifically, it was about Nick's upcoming new show
PIG GOAT BANANA CRICKET!
Creators Dave Cooper,
and Executive Producer David Sacks
told us all sorts of fun stuff about what goes into the making of
this weirdo show.


They even did a live-drawing of a new character
where the audience was encouraged to 
suggest what body parts it was made up of:


And the name I suggested,
BACON-n-KEGS
(because of it's beer keg body and
umbrella with a piece of bacon on the end)
was picked,
which was kind of cool.

While we're on the topic of
live-drawing,
kind of stuff, 
we were out late one night and
introduced us to an interesting game.
We were each given five pieces of paper.
On the first piece of paper we were instructed to
"write anything in the world"

For example:


Then everyone passed their 
stack of paper to the left.
On page two we were instructed 
to DRAW what was written on page one.


The stack was passed again
and we were told to 
describe what was 
drawn on page two:


And on page four
the next person had to draw what 
was written on page three


And then one more time...


Essentially it's a surreal form of 
whisper down the lane.
I'd show you some of the other drawings,
but I'd get arrested.

Here's another caricature someone did of me.
At least I think it's me.
It might be Jay Leno.


And then there's the
forever awesome
ANIMATOR'S PICNIC.
As if eating and drinking 
in a park
on a beautiful fall day
isn't enough,
there's pumpkin carving:











{sigh}

The Ottawa International 
Animation Festival...

It's enough to make 
David O'Reilly hug
festival director
Chris Robinson:




Wednesday, September 24, 2014

GETTIN' JUDGY WID IT AT OIAF 2014



If you hang out with a lot of judges,
then you probably overheard them 
talking about me recently.

Because
there was a lot of
next level 
block rockin'
straight-up 
hardcore
JUDGING
all up in
Canada last week!

YES!
I had the honor of serving on the 
Feature Jury
at the

AND I PASSED
MAD
JUDGEMENT!

But I couldn't do it alone.
I had two sooper talented
colleagues.

The first was
Ottawa's own
Patrice James:


As Director of the
she knows a thing or two about film.

She also knows how 
to kick some style.

Patrice was our rock,
totally keeping us on topic
and making sure we didn't accept any bribes
of candy from
unscrupulous filmmakers.

The third of our trio 
was the 
insidiously brilliant
3-D animation deconstructionist
and
independent filmmaker


Mr. O'Reilly
and I spent many hours
chatting over root beers,
fixing the world's problems
and fighting crime in Ottawa.

Hopefully we'll do so again here in LA.
Because he rocks pretty hard.

You can't really beat a jury 
like that, can you?

No, you can't.

There were five films in competition this year.

by Mait Laas, Estonia


Luc Chamberland, Canada


Jaques-Remy Girerd & Benoit Chieux, France


Otto Guerra & Ennio Torresan Jr.. Brazil


Sheila Sofian, USA


Our choice,
by unanimous decision,
was
Seth's Dominion.

It's truly a charming, beautifully made documentary;
a mixture of live action interviews with the 
and perfectly animated versions of his comics.

Here's a picture I snapped of 
Luc Chamberland.
the film's
equally charming director
accepting his award.


This was my first time judging in a festival.
And I had so much fun 
I'm not sure I can go back to
NOT
being a judge!

Eleventy billion thanks to 
festival director
Chris Robinson
and
EVERYONE
at the 
OIAF
for having me this year.

Ottawa rocks!




Tuesday, September 16, 2014

THE 2014 NAUTICA MALIBU TRIATHALON

I did something really 
DUMB.


I swam 1/2 a mile.

Then right after that biked for 
18 miles.

And then immediately afterwards
ran 4 miles.

WHY ON EARTH
would I do
THAT
when I could instead be 
sitting on the beach,
in a comfy chair
reading a book
and eating ice cream?

I'd like to say I was tricked into doing the
2014 NAUTICA MALIBU TRIATHALON
 but I did it of my own free will.

Disney has a HUGE
tri-team and are ALWAYS 
looking for people to rope into it.
Since I was already swimming twice a week
and running the rest of the week,
I was thinking of
possibly
I dunno
maybe
giving it a try.
(but not)

Then my neighbor 
Darren
asked if I wanted to 
give it a shot.

And I said 
um
well
okay
i guess?

The next thing I know I
spent 5 months 
getting ready.

It was a great
challenge.

A goal.

LIKE GOALS.

I set a lot for myself:

Working on a new show pitch.

Learning to read music.

Not picking my nose and eating it.

There's always 
SOMETHING
I'm trying to do.

And last Sunday
I completed a
triathalon:


It was hard,
but not awful.

I was grossly unprepared for the swim.
I only got to practice swimming in the ocean a few times
and when it came to the real thing I wasn't
able to get a good rhythm going.

The bike ride was fine.
The hills stink,
but every uphill has a downhill on the other side.
My chain came off twice,
but it only took half a minute to get it back on.

The run wasn't bad either.
But after doing the other stuff beforehand,
I was ready for it to be over.

And when it was
I rejoiced:


I think my favorite part of the event 
was the people.

There were
men, women, boys and girls
of every
age, shape, size, and ethnicity.

So many body types, colors and reasons for being there.
Everyone was beautiful.
And everyone was there for the same thing;
Challenging themselves
and helping raise money
for 

My next goal is to
go to the
and
NOT
train for a 
triathalon
starting...

NOW!










Thursday, September 11, 2014

HEY, IT STILL GOT 5 STARS


There's really
nothing but
awesome reviews on
Amazon
for this book
Mr. Willems
and I 
rocked a while back:


There's a 101 and counting!
But this is my 
absolute
favorite:


RIGHT?!

I know you already have
five copies.
But you really should 
another three
or four
over




Monday, September 8, 2014

THIS IS MY LIFE



This is the kind of stuff that 
happens at my house
before school:


Are you surprised?

2x4 technology
FOREVER!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

IT'S GOT THAT OLD SKETCHBOOK SMELL


Dang son,
I can't seem to get through sketchbooks
like I used to!

There are just too many
sooper secret projects
happening!
Hopefully I'll be able to tell you 
about some of them soon!

In the meantime,
let's dial the
wayback machine
to early 2006
and
take a peeksie
through
this:


This was around the time
Head Writer of Wrongs 
Andy Rheingold and I were
getting close to finishing up
writing stories for
season six of KND.


Yeah,
it was kind of stressful.
Back then I wasn't drawing much.
I was mainly beating out stories
over and over again
until the structure felt right.

Here's an early stab at
Operation: CARAMEL



Tick tick tick...


Here's an very early start to
Operation: GIRLFRIEND:



And here's a space sausage:


Before I even knew
Wow Wow Wubbzy
creator
Bob Boyle,
I already thought he 
rocked:


True this:


A visit to Nickelodeon:


My heart gets all smooshy when I 
find stuff like this in old
sketchbooks:


On the other hand,
I have 
ABSOLUTELY
NO
POOPIN'
IDEA
what this 
letter is in 
reference to:


And yes,
this sketchbook was 
powered by
Scramble Energy:


I love saving passages from books I like and 
taping them into sketchbooks.


Not sure if this was before or after
OPERATION: NAUGHTY:


Billy Wilder rules the school:


I really liked reading
in 
Shonen Jump.
And I still think this spread,
with all it's diverse characters,
is pure milk chocolate:



Before my iPhone,
this was how I kept track of things
I needed to do:










WTF?
Thor Bunny?


This 
STILL
makes me 
giggle:



And finally,
it's always a good idea to
write down things your kids say
because
ADORABLE:


And that's all I got for ya.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could show you a
NEWLY FINISHED
sketchbook 
in the next 5 years?!

I'll work on it.