May 2008 Archives

It appears what was once known as Yoram Gross Studios (now known as Flying Bark) in Camperdown (Sydney) then bought in error by EM (Germany) are now to be owned by Studio 100 (Belgium). A company that actually has a focus on children's entertainment!

The transaction is subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities in Germany and Austria, as well as the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for Commercial Broadcasting (BLM) and the Commission on Concentration in the Media (KEK).

Incredible that EM are the group who bought the Jim Henson Company for $680 million and the Henson family later bought it back for $78 million three years later.

In a supreme case of "oh, we get it now!" it seems that the hierarchy at the mouse house have spawned a new demon it seems. May be it will be something we can all look forward to rather than with the anticipation we all have for direct to DVD sequels of their animated features. Original stories would be great to read, if only they'd initiate what they used to do so well.

An issue foreseen by many has been that many of Australia's films are by writer/directors, something the industry it seems is trying to note that this is not a rule but an exception as there have been many successful writer/directors make it big commercially here.

One of the issues I see is that it has over the years created a lack of respect to both individual roles. Here is the full article from the Australian Writers' Guild

AWG article.

Star Wars Clone Wars is an animated CG film being released in to Cinema from August 2008. This fills the gap between Episode II and III respectively. It's heavily stylised and suitably fulfilling to the imagination and fans of the whole saga to date.

Not to be confused with the Clone Wars animated series that was done in traditional 2D style, this explores more of the story of Anakin during the Clone Wars. Jabba's son is taken hostage and Anakin and Obi Wan are off in chase of the Hutt's son.

The film release will shortly follow with the release of the 3D animated series for show on Cartoon Network. Interestingly, Fox are not distributing the film Warner Bros are.

It's probably been a long time coming. I recall starting animations in Flash back when it was version 2 and I managed to trick getting version 3 from the supplier (I actually used it when it was called SmartSketch, but that's showing my age). At the time, it was a perfect and economic way to begin animating on a budget. And it had so many opportunities to develop cross platform and multiple media applications using the libraries built for production. But Flash had a downside I was always aware of, it wasn't being designed for animators. And to this day it has grown to become the behemoth of a program it is today, with so many bells and whistles it's mind blowing. Far from the days of simple animation and action scripting. It's now bloated with large MB's of unused indented applications. The new versions of Flash only introduce new bugs.

Time for change. Step in ...

Toon Boom Studio
It really does make a difference to have a program built by people who understand your needs and don't inflate the size of the application with unnecessary things. I made the decision to convert to using Toon Boom only recently as I found myself preparing to animate after a long break. The thought of going back to using Flash after such a time was daunting. The program has changed and the interface as well. I thought if I was going to have to train myself again, I'd rather make it for a change. So with the release of version 4 I decided to commit to learn and develop with Toon Boom Studio 4. Goodbye to the bugs of Flash. Hello to a world of animation software with support.

It has been an interesting time after receiving the software, the interface is staggering to get over and locating and familiarising myself with the whole animation process in a digital fashion with the program. I'll post some noticeable differences here shortly.