Les Clark

Les Clark is one of the lesser known of the Nine Old Men. Les was once an ice cream server, which was where he met Walt. Shortly after that meeting, when Les was graduating from high school, he asked Walt for a job. Walt had him bring in some drawings, and then hired him for a short stint at the studio. The temp job turned into a career.

The cartoon shown above is from 1927, the year Les started at the studio. He went on to create many memorable performances, including Mickey Mouse in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from "Fantasia", and the show opening featuring Tinkerbell from the classic Disneyland TV series.

I plan on doing a post on each of the Nine Old Men over the next few weeks. Keep watching this space.

Ren & Stimpy premiered this day in 1991

Happy birthday to one of the best (if not the best) animated, animated television series in modern history.

Mechanical modeling and cartoony action

Here is a sneek peek at our work on the animated opening for Nickelodeon/Frederator's "Random Cartoons" cartoon show. The logo itself is made up of ping pong balls aranged in a random pattern. The device pictured above is how the ping pong balls get hurled around the room.

You can see a WIP animation of the contraption here:

http://www.bishopanimation.com/movies/random/random_anim_test.avi

The contraption was designed by J Chad Erekson
Modeled by Veronica Harper and Mike Kopa
Rigged by Chris Boylan
Animated by Kevin Wisdom

Let us know what you think!

Happy Birthday, Saturday morning kids shows!

56 years young!

The American Broadcasting Company first aired Saturday morning television shows for children on August 19, 1950. The network introduced two shows: Animal Clinic featured live animals, while the variety show Acrobat Ranch had a circus theme. Placed against a Western backdrop, acrobats Tumbling Tim and Flying Flo lent an air of spectacle to Acrobat Ranch. In one segment, Host Uncle Jim presided over a game in which children from the studio audience competed for merchandise prizes.

Back from Siggraph

Whew! We're back from Siggraph, and what a week it was! There was so much to see, and so many new pieces of software to check out. While Maya 8 was impressive, and the Davey Jones presentation was very cool, I think the best bit of animation I saw at the show was from the upcoming Sony movie "Open Season".

I saw a presentation at the Houdini booth, showing how Houdini was used for a water sequence. Although it was high technology, it looked like a bear and a deer going down a river on a log. The technology served the story, and not the other way around. Very nice. I'm looking forward to this film now more than any other upcoming film.

Speaking of CG, check out the new Disney logo:

I like it alot. It reminds me of the old Disney shows hosted by Walt Disney. If the presentations on "Meet the Robinsons" are any indication, the future of Disney Animation is very bright.