Christmas animated Ecard for my clients

I thought it might be fun to make an animated Ecard to thank this year's clients, so here it is!

A gift fit for a princess

I was asked to create a cartoon portrait for a family whose daughter loves princesses. I personalized it by caricaturing her, and even including her dog. I think it turned out really cute! Her parents think she'll be really surprised when she opens it on Christmas morning....

Aaaa! I'm a finalist! :D

Wow. I just found out that I'm one of the finalists in ToonBoom and MyOuterSpace.com's "Out of This World" animation contest. I'm so excited!!! I win a free copy of their Animate Pro software, which will come in handy for my future projects. Yippee! I worked really hard on this, so I'm quite happy.

Now I'm hoping to make it to the final round, because the winner gets a job on an animated series. How cool would that be? Please help me out by voting (you can vote once a day, every day for the next 12 days) for my animation, "Wait, there's something behind me, isn't there?" at this link:

http://contests.toonboom.com

Mine has my name on it, and a picture of William Shatner posing with Fuzzball from Captain EO (blast from the past!). So please rank me highly if you like it! Thanks!

Gummie Bears, bouncing here and there and everywhere....

Has anyone else been noticing how many of the classic 80's/90's cartoons we grew up with are making a comeback? I've been seeing Care Bears, My Little Pony, Smurfs, and Strawberry Shortcake around the stores, just to name a few. So I was happy to hear that an event celebrating Disney's "Gummi Bears" series will be held soon!

According to Cartoon Brew magazine, the event on Saturday, Dec. 11th will be "a two-hour webinar featuring photos, artwork and interviews with the creative team that brought this show to life." I've participated in webinars before, and really enjoy having the ability to ask questions and hear behind-the-scenes stories all without having to change out of my pajamas, haha!

The downside is that the event will be charging $20 for access, which I'm not sure I can afford at the moment, (Perhaps if I cut someone off my Christmas list? Mom? Grandpa maybe? Just kidding) but it's limited to only 50 people, so don't miss it if you were a huge Gummi Bear fan.

You can find more info at the article: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/a-gummie-bear-web-reunion.html

Review of Disney's "Tangled"

I finally had the opportunity to go see "Tangled" last week, Disney's latest 3D animated movie. This was shortly after reading the article in the Los Angeles Times that stated that "Tangled" would be Disney's last princess/musical flick (noooo!!!!), so I definitely had some mixed feelings walking into the theater. Also, since I work mainly in 2D animation, I was a little grumpy about the fact that this film was in 3D...I hate to see 2D die! I had been seeing the previews for "Tangled" for the last few months, and kind of thought that Rapunzel looked a little too "Barbie-ish" and plastic.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually saw the film...my initial impressions were so wrong! This movie was one of the few I saw this year that actually made me laugh out loud, yet it wasn't so slapstick and "dumbed down" as a lot of children's movies are these days. Rapunzel is a strong, spunky heroine (and I loooved the fact that she's an artist...hmm, wonder why?) She was not as Barbie-perfect as I thought she'd be portrayed, and her abundance of emotions gave her a lot of appeal. Mandy Moore was a nice choice to provide her voice, giving her more of a down to earth feel than previous princesses. Maximus the horse stole the show, and I was greatly impressed by his animation (trust me, you've NEVER seen an animated horse do the things that Maximus does!) Mother Gothel makes a great villain, in a wonderful "Mommie Dearest/Ursula" broadway diva way.

I have to grudgingly admit that the movie did, indeed, work well as 3D animation. I found myself entranced with studying the textures onscreen and marvelling over the little details like grass and Rapunzel's hair. It didn't lose the "Disney quality" that a lot of classic 2D features had, and I think the whole film was improved by the extra use of space. I saw the film wearing 3D glasses, and liked the layering of the film's elements and how they didn't try to make it too "gimmicky."

To sum it up, I highly recommend this film...Disney seems to have gotten it right again, finally! I hope they'll continue to tell good stories like this one in the future.

And all I can say about the ending is....*SPOILER ALERT*

wow, finally a princess that I resemble! I know what my costume next year will be..... :)