MICHAEL SPORN

Another

legend 

has left us.

Michael Sporn

His name was synonymous with animation in New York.

He

hired, taught, nurtured, advised, mentored, 

and/or remained friends with 

so many in the 

New York animation community

over so many decades.

The thing I remember most 

about Michael is that he 

seriously,

really and truly

wanted to make films

that would change the world.

I'd periodically get into good-natured arguments 

with him about this.

Why wasn't it okay to just want to make people laugh?

What's wrong with a film about

FARTS?

That's not to say Michael didn't like funny films.

(or farts)

Quite the contrary.

But he thought that

animation,

as a medium,

had so much more to give:

Heart

Intelligence

and especially

Social Awareness

I can think of very few people who

saw animation as such a pure art form.

And I'll always respect him for that.

You can check out some 

of Mr. Sporn's work over

HERE.

And

if you get a chance,

take a long walk

through

his

SPLOG.

Rest well, Michael.

You defined what it was to be an

animator in

New York City.

KND STORYBOARDING 201 (part deux)

Hey, I'd

NEVER

lie to you.

So

as promised,

here is

PART TWO

of

Guy Moore's

KND STORYBOARDING 201

guide:

in hindsight...  i'd prefer numbuh two and five  looking in the same direction of the zip pan or cut. not sure how i missed that.

I've said it before and I'll say it again;
GUY MOORE ROCKS! I loved him for putting this together and I loved stumbling across it in the KND archives all these years later. If you missed part one, GET OVER HERE!
And if you like this kind of stuff (and who doesn't?) go check out STORYBOARD SECRETS. Sherm Cohen is one of the most talented and knowledgable storyboard gurus around and he can learn ya lots!

KND STORYBOARDING 201 (part 1)

While the rest of us were scrambling about on season 4 of  Codename: Kids Next Door storyboard artist and  director  extraordinaire Guy Moore was holed up in his office plotting out the  rough storyboard for the sooper quadruple huge KND movie OPERATION: ZERO!
And if you passed by said office you couldn't help but stop and point at  the drawings taped to the wall and yell AAAAWESOOOOOOOOOME!
Yup. Mr. Moore knows what he's doing. So before we brought the rest of the storyboard team onto the movie, we decided to have him put together  a little pre-movie  refresher course called KND STORYBOARD 201
Don't ask me where 101 is. But here, for your enjoyment is the first half of 201:

Keep it locked here for  PART TWO!

RO RAO PAINTS ON TRASH

Rohitash Rao makes a lot of cool stuff:

Commercials Illustrations Indy films Books and lately  ART ON TRASH! Yup. He finds stuff on the street  and then paints on it:

And now you can

check out this video

showing 

all of his paintings from

last year:

So rockin'.

ELEPHANT AND PIGGIE IN WASHINGTON DC!

So over the holidays 

we were here:

And while there

we went here:

Because my sooper pal

Mo Willems

gave us these:

For this:

The lobby had lots of stuff:

Like this:

And these:

And those:

And yeah... 

these, too:

The stage was really cool

and looked like this:

The actors were really fun and looked as such:

Mr. Willems' 

latest play was so great

The Washington Post 

SAID THIS

Unfortunately,

if you want to see this

it's too late.

It was for a limited run only.

But I was sooper glad

we happened to be in DC

for the show!

SO GREAT

to see

Elephant and Piggie

on stage

at the 

Kennedy Center!

Way to go, Mo!

THE SKETCHCARDS OF 2013

Another holiday season,

another batch of free sketch cards sent out

to the awesome operatives who ordered stuff from 

the mighty printlab.

I'm painfully stoopid

when it comes to taking a 

picture of each one I do.

Over the last couple weeks

when you heard a thunderous

GAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

that was me screaming after sealing another 

order without taking a pic of the sketch card.

But here,

for your enjoyment,

are the ones I did

get:

Even though the free sketch cards are gone,

you can still order awesome stuff from the

printlab.

Take a look over

HERE!