So I got some work done on the sets today. I bought some contact paper to line the floor (wood pattern for hardwood floors) and cardboard walls (a nasty small flower pattern on white. It was all they had at Home Depot, but I’ve seen worse wallpaper.). The contact paper is a lot more glossy than I figured on, so I’m afraid relection in my shots. We’ll see what happens. I bought some 1/2″ half round to line the doorway from the living room to the dining room. It’s looking pretty good. A lot of the lessons I learned from making “The Evil Trunk” and its props have really paid off.

So I hit the animation portion of the Atlanta Underground Film Fest at Eyedrum last night. Really great. The animation ranged from wonderful to god awful, but I enjoyed every last second of it. Some of the hightlights:

JUXTAPOSER by Joanna Davidovich: I’ve seen this before but never knew Joanna was based out of Atlanta. Great short. Funny, original hand drawn animation. A pleasure.

NEVER LIVE ABOVE A PSYCHIC by Steve Gentile: Great hand drawn black and white short. No dialogue, but excellent use of sound effects and character pantomime.

ROBOCTOPUS by Robert Paraguassu: A mix of rough handmade props and scanned hand drawn animation. Very funny and right up the alley for [adult swim].

Not shown during the main lineup was “…like an art student” from the crew at the The Lillie B. Ross Society. Rotoscope and some CG effects. Friggin’ hilarious. Check it out for yourself on their site.

The rest was a mixed bag. The artsy shorts had a heavy mix of the Bros Quay and David Lynch. Why does all stopmo have to look like Will Vinton or the Quays?? I have to be careful of that.

The real treat of the evening was the flash tutorial put on by Brian DeTagyos, lead animator for Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. He showed us how an episode is put together. Really cool tip he had of using different color masks for diffent layers so body parts don’t get mixed up. Neat onion skining tricks. He also puts the animatic on his its own layer as a constant reference. Nice.

This was followed by a sneak preview of “Frisky Dingo” by 70/30 the same studio that did Sealab 2021. It was introduced by Mack Williams and Neal Holman (who also animated SL 2021). Frisky Dingo looks GREAT and is funny as hell. It officially premieres on Oct 15 at 12:30. Don’t miss it! The Q/A afterward with Mack and Neal was great too. Really nice guys. I’m so easily friggin’ starstruck.

My laptop arrived today. I’m posting from it now. It’s so… FAST. I’m rendering garbage just for the sake of it.

I also found out from the ATL branch of the ASIFA that there’s a local animation fest about fifteen minutes away tomorrow night! Short notice but check this out:

Brian DeTagyos, the famous HARVEY BIRDMAN animator, who will demonstrate Flash for you, AND Mack Williams and Neal Holman, the SEALAB 2021 animators give you a sneak peek of their new series, FRISKY DINGO, and talk about it too!!

Atlanta rocks.

Here’s a pic of where it stands right now. Sorry for the garish background.

No posts, because I’ve been out of town, but I’ve actually gotten quite a bit done. Worked a lot more on the Tooth Queen segment and have come a long way from the rough cut posted 7/26. The clothes came in and look great. I ordered them from The Doll Clothes Super Store. 3.95$US for a full suit?? get the hell out of here. Screw sewing.

I’m now working on the chair upholstery. Some old work t-shirts are working well so far.

Oh, and some freelance work has paid off with a new laptop that’s going to be one HELLIFIED animation workstation. Dell Latitude D820, 2 Ghz Dual Core, 1GB RAM, 80GB drive, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro w/15.4″ WXGA screen. It should be here by tomorrow.

Here are two pics. The first is positioning Uncle to measure out the chair and then the final chair frame. Just need to drape it in some cloth and it should be done. The chair itself is just balsa pinned together with straight pins.

Working in some sets and props now. I think I found an avenue for some clothing for Uncle and Nephew which means no more sewing!

Getting back to the Tooth Queen segment hopefully this week.