Animated Thoughts: Heavy Metal - Gremlins

So last year, I tracked down a copy of 'the Art of the Movie Heavy Metal', the only book I am aware of that is dedicated to the production of the feature-length animated film Heavy Metal which was released in 1981. In my animation history class, I talk about the film and go into a little detail on the production as well as an animator that I met who worked on the film back in the day (Joseph Gilland, animator and author of the Elemental Magic VFX books).

Back when I was in graduate school, I spent long hours by myself, whether working on my thesis film, classwork, or my part-time job as a software engineer. And it was during those days that I discovered a man who would become my favorite Bible teacher: Chuck Missler. Chuck had a unique style, to me at least, of studying the Bible: he went book-by-book, chapter-by-chapter, and verse-by-verse from Genesis to Revelation. Chuck always did a lot of extra work in providing context to what he was reading including (but never limited to) historical information, scientific knowledge, archeological discoveries, current events, military technology (a naval academy graduate, Chuck used to work in the defense industry), and even some of the 'woo-woo' stuff like aliens and UFOs. No other pastor, priest, professor, or Bible teacher I had ever encountered taught the Bible like Chuck did. And after listening to his multi-volume set about the book of Genesis on cassette tape (remember those?), I went back and re-read the first half of Genesis. It was like I had never read it before, even though I had read Genesis multiple times over the prior fifteen years. The words just leaped off the pages and came alive, forming connections with the background information that I had learned through Chuck's Bible study. Whereas before, they were just words on a page, now it was like I was a blind man who was watching a full-color movie for the first time. It wasn't just names and places, I knew who these people were and the world that they lived in.

It was a singular experience that I have never forgotten and have only experienced a couple times thereafter.

And while I didn't feel that same sense of awe and wonder as I did back then, re-watching the Gremlins sequence after reading the Art of the Movie Heavy Metal did provide a lot of nice 'ah ha' moments as I looked for details within the film that reinforced what I had learned regarding the film's production process.

Like how they got photos of an actual B-17--including the interior--from an B-17 in California--the purpose being that they wanted to be more authentic in their set design. Or how they wanted to make it look like the plane was really flying, so they used an 'anicam' setup with black and white negative film stock to film a scale model of a B-17 that was painted black with white lines. The resulting effect was an image of the model looking like it had black outlines, which was then transferred to the cels and painted.

I guess there's no real point to get at as I write this conclusion--other than, I suppose, reading books on a films' production or watching the 'making of' features on the DVDs can really give you a greater understanding of and appreciation for how films are made.

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Animated Thoughts: New year, New thoughts

After a disappointing and uncertain 2020, I started the year out strong: was brought back to teach Animation History at Central Michigan University and they're looking to bring me back in the Fall to teach again. The two-hour commute is a bit grating, but it's only once per week and I really enjoy the course material. That and I am having fun bonding with the students over our mutual love of animation. If you have the time, I highly recommend Maureen Furniss's book: A New History of Animation.

Conventions are still pretty much on hiatus, though even more seem to be going online this year. Gen Con is doing surveys to gauge public opinion, but a lot of us think that it's likely that Gen Con 2021 will be virtual like last year. It's nice that a lot of these con organizers are doing "something" but online cons are still not the same. I just don't feel the same sense of community from a virtual convention. But, I sheepishly must admit, it is nice to have more money to spend on games and such since you're not paying for travel and hotels.

It looks like ASIFA Hollywood has moved the date for the 2021 Annie Awards. It's now being held on Friday, April 16th and they've gone completely virtual this year. As I normally watch it online--streamed through their website--there's really no change for me this year. I'm just happy to watch the show any way that I can.

And TAIS workshops and courses are in full swing and scheduled out to April. I'm a little crestfallen that I missed out on the Animated Documentary workshop. I was just too busy getting ready for teaching at CMU. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out a little time this year to take a TAIS workshop or course (or two) and make that investment in my skillset and knowledgebase. Gotta keep moving forward no matter what the future looks like.

As the fortune cookie once told me: "May you live in interesting times."

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Animated Thoughts: 2020 End of year wrap-up

2020 was a tough year for everyone. When the lockdown hit, my workload doubled. In addition to working from home at the forensics job, I had to record my lectures and teach the rest of my animation history class online. And if that wasn't enough, I found myself in the middle of a full website backup and migration that a Smudge Animation client needed as the features she used to operate her online education business were being discontinued in the latest server upgrade. Add to that, all the Flash animations I had created for her needed to be redone in a new format since the Flash Player was being decommissioned by Adobe. And if that wasn't enough, the new site solution was so good, so easy to implement and maintain AND integrate with her webstore that she didn't need me to manage her website anymore and that account closed.

I need to fold those clothes, Fuzzy...

On the good side, I was able to handle it all. On the bad side, it left me even more exhausted and burned out. 

As I watched friends and neighbors treating the lockdown as extra vacation time and free time with their families, all I could think of was "I wish I had the time to go outside and get a little exercise, or catch up on my reading, or binge watch a series on NetFlix, or work on that 'honey-do' list of things that needed to be fixed around the house." But whenever I started to feel a little resentful, I reminded myself that I still had a job and extra work coming in, thus eliminating a lot of the uncertainty that many others were experiencing. And as I'm pretty much a shut-in to begin with who has been preparing for a non-linearity event like this since Y2K, the lockdown was more of an annoyance than the life-altering experience that others were dealing with. If nothing else, life has taught me that a little gratitude paired up with a self-served slice of humble pie is always good at changing your moods for the better.

So, in that line of thought, here's a couple things that I was thankful for this year:

• The Toronto Animated Image Society workshops moved online so I was able to learn a couple new animation techniques from home: replacement animation and digital rotoscoping using Photoshop.
  
• During online Gen Con, I picked up a great deal on the three core rulebooks for Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Shortly thereafter, I discovered a vibrant online community of people who play D&D by themselves--with lots of rules for playing homebrew adventures, prepublished adventures, and adventures specifically written for solo play--and an online forum where we can all share our gaming experiences and war stories.
  
• The Ottawa International Animation Festival expanded their duration from four days to two weeks and the online service they used allowed us ample opportunity to watch screenings, panels, and retrospectives.
• Because of the lockdown, I was holding paychecks until the clients paid. Then it all came in over a two-week period late-Fall and I found myself flush with cash--just in time to have the roof completely replaced on my house. Within one day, it was done and all I had to do was write the check.
  
• My last cat, Fuzzy, passed away the week between Christmas and New Years. And she died the way I wanted her to: I was there with her to the very end, petting her, and telling her how good it was to have her in my life for the past twenty-two years.

Fuzzy, napping on her last day with us.

And with that somber note, my 2020 comes to a close with a lot of hope that no matter what mountains and valleys I may experience in 2021, I will persist. For as Grandma Wilson often said: "this too shall pass."

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