2020: The Year In Animation

I made a short animated film about how relentlessly bad the year 2020 is/was. It's been literal shit! Therefore the animation features the song "Literal Shit" by the band Apache Tomcat; go check them out on Free Music Archive, they are cool. 

I grew up in the sixties and Saturday morning cartoons had a profound impact on me. Sometimes I think my personality was shaped by Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc. Most definitely there are traces of influence in my own little indie films in terms of timing and character takes (though greatly simplified in execution). When I started making this film, I was really just thinking of animating a series of shots of me trying to "destroy the 2020". It was only halfway through that I realized I was also including pratfalls (because they're funny). Like Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, 2020 has been a series of desperate shots and humiliating pratfalls. It served the story to go with it, so I leaned in.

The song (which I found first and animated to on a timeline) is only about 30 seconds long, and the shots are super tight. I LOVE that fast-paced animation. I added the extra "downtime" at the end, which builds some tension before releasing back into the fury of the music. Actually the film will loop endlessly if you let it. I really hope 2020 does not loop endlessly. *sob*

2021 better be better.

Seriously, 2020 has been a world-wide disaster and a year fraught with personal terribleness. There's a raging pandemic! People are divided! The planet is on fire! Friends and family are suffering and dying. I animated this while simultaneously dealing with mononucleosis, full surgery to remove pre-cancer in my boob, and a gall bladder situation - and I consider myself lucky. Because it could have been way worse.

What do you consider yourself lucky for this year?

ps. wear a mask please.

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Film Festival Laurels - updates!

Yes! My film "Papa Pasquale" has been selected to screen in the Footcandle Film Society's Children's International Film Festival in North Carolina.

The true story of Folino family's migration from Italy to Canada in the 1950's has collected a few laurels since it's release.

Stream Papa Pasquale here.

More news: my recent short film "HONESTY" (featuring the irrepressible PickleWeasel) has made Official Selection in the VAFI & RAFI 9th International Children and Youth Animation Festival, Croatia.

PickleWeasel has to learn how to listen to his conscience: should he be honest or run away?

Stream HONESTY here.

If you're making little films and you want to get them out there, entering them into festivals is so much more viable now than it used to be. Everything goes online; no more sending hard copies and filling out complicated forms. Many festivals are free to enter, and some cost a little. If you're considering a festival tour for your film, get yourself a budget, research the festivals that showcase films like yours and narrow down which ones you think are a good fit. Check out FilmFreeway and WithoutABox to get started.

Support independent film, go to a film festival.

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HONESTY laurels!

My short film that I animated for kids to learn about honesty, has picked up a few more festival screenings and one award. So I figure it's time I update the credentials, because my fleet of personal assistants have yet to materialize.

Collecting laurels is fun.

Here we go:

• Ajayu International Animated Short Film Festival 2017, Peru - Official Selection.
• The World Animation Celebration 2017, Los Angeles - Official Selection.
• Canada Shorts 2017, St John NB - Official Selection, WINNER Award of Distinction.
• Providence Childrens Film Festival 2018, Pawtucket RI - Official Selection.
• KidFilm Festival 2018, Dallas - Official Selection.
• Athens AnimFest 2018, Athens Greece - Official Selection, European premiere.

HONESTY was specifically animated with kids in mind, so I entered it into a few childrens film festivals. I'm especially pleased that it got into KidFilm and wow, delighted it made it into Providence - that is such a cool festival, they really care about the filmmaker and give valuable feedback. That Providence Children's Film Festival runs from Feb. 16-25, so if you in the Pawtucket Rhode Island area, get your tickets here.

Thus far this film is entered into about fifty festivals, and I've got twelve rejections and six selections. Rejections hurt, but they help you figure out what festivals your film is right for. I learned this while doing the festival run on my last film, "Papa Pasquale". Celebrate the laurels!


Once I finish my graphic novel, "Ball", I'll set my sights on my next little film. I can't wait to get back to animating.

Support indiefilm for $4 : HONESTY is available for streaming on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

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A laurel for HONESTY

My new little film "HONESTY" has made official selection in The World Animation Celebration. This festival is presented by Animation Libation Studios and Animation Magazine and hosted by Sony Pictures Animation in Culver City, California. These are serious industry voices and players; it's an honour for me as an artist, for my TeachersPayTeachers distribution presence, and for PickleWeasel.

It's the first laurel for HONESTY, but I'm especially excited because I used to read Animation Magazine back in the early '80s. Man, I was doing ink & paint in those days! That's how long I've been in this industry.

My film explores the inner struggle we may face on the pathway to choosing honesty. Animation and video are valuable tools for teachers of many subjects, including life skills and character education. See HONESTY here on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

I don't know yet which program my film will screen in at the WAC, but for animation fans there will be some real gems; they're selecting from 45 countries! FUN.



The World Animation Celebration takes place at Sony Pictures Animation: 9050 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, California. ​ Doors open 11:00 am Sat & Sun. Tickets available here on FilmFreeway.

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Mother's Day Flip-Cards Are The Bestest Cards.

A couple of months ago I hopped on Teachers Pay Teachers and set up shop, making clipart (clip art? One word, two words??) for teachers.

Like any new business venture, it takes time to build both a catalog of art for sale and a customer base. I'm drawing furiously! There are obviously some great artists out there already well established in the market so how do I find my niche?

And so, for Mothers Day, I give you ...FLIP-CARDS!

Yessss! Mother's Day Flip-able greeting cards - I am so smart.

Once assembled, these babies animate when you flip them up and down. I used drawings from my book, Motherhood, which is on Amazon, but I think I'll soon be posting a download in my shop as well.

I'm still figuring out all the do's and don'ts around selling clip-art and printables on TPT. The learning curve is kinda steep, even for an established stick-figure-drawer like myself. But I'm thinking more animation-based products is where I'm headed.

Each card is $1, or you can get the set of 4 for $3. Don't wait for shipping or delivery, just download, print and BAM, you're making something awesome for the mom in your life. That's my sales pitch; I hate marketing my stuff so I'll shut up now.

Love you!

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"Papa Pasquale" - Awards and Official Selections.

Happy! My film "Papa Pasquale", the true story about an adventurous young man who immigrates to Canada from Italy in the 1950's, has made the rounds of a few festivals and won a couple of awards.

Here's the updated list:

• Anim!Arte 2015, 12th International Animation Festival of Brazil, Official Selection.
• Canada Independent Film Festival 2016, Montreal - Official Selection, WINNER, Best Animation.
• The Humboldt International Film Festival 2016, Arcata CA - Official Selection.
• WINNER Ledo Matteoli Award For Best Film With An Immigration Theme.
• SOHO International Film Festival 2016, NYC - Official Selection.
• The Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2016, Canada - Official Selection.
• Athens Animfest 2016, Greece - Official Selection.
• USA Film Festival 2016, Dallas, Texas - Official Selection, Finalist.
• Salento International Film Festival 2016, Italy - Official Selection.
• INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION AWARDS 2016, Rio de Janeiro - WINNER, Short Film Competition
• Montreal International Film Festival 2016 - Official Selection.

• Detroit International Festival of Animation 2017 - Official Selection.

The Detroit festival is coming up on April 7th and 8th, wish I could make it, but alas! I cannot (sad face).

Otherwise I'm pleased as punch.

And ...since the topic of immigration is important right now, I'm making the film available for download through Teachers Pay Teachers. Good fit for social studies and history. There's a very small fee to help me towards my next animation project, "Flowers", so please enjoy!

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PickleWeasel Shamrocks.

Took a little break from making a zillion clip art drawings to do some animation for you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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"Papa Pasquale" festival selections.

"Papa Pasquale", my animated short about the amazing life of Italian-Canadian Pat Folino and his twelve siblings, has been honoured by two more festival selections.

Official film poster with laurels, yay!

The 49th Annual Humboldt International Film Festival has chosen my film in the animation category; it will screen in Arcata, CA, April 20th to 23rd 2016.  I think this festival is cool because not only have they been going since 1967, but they seek films that inspire social and environmental change. AND they have a special award called the Ledo Matteoli Award for Best Film with an Immigration Theme. Hurrah! Fingers and toes crossed for that.

I'm also thrilled to announce that "Papa Pasquale" has been officially selected by the Italian Contemporary Film Festival! It's an annual celebration of Italian heritage, arts and culture, taking place June 9 - 17, 2016 in a number of Canadian cities including: Toronto, Vaughan, Niagara, Hamilton, Montreal and Quebec City. Since I'm half Italian (the top half), this selection means so much to me. I'm excited about the film potentially screening in multiple locations. More people should know about the Folinos' amazing story.

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Papa Pasquale Wins Best Animation at CIFF16.

So there was a film festival on the weekend, that was not the Oscars: the Canada Independent Film Festival. My little film, "Papa Pasquale" won an award - Best Animation.

Here's some pictures.

The award was presented to me by this little darling...

 ...which was totally sweet.

I was smiling ALOT. This picture was taken by my friend Julia Chiarella-Genoni AKA Ask Mama Moe. I was really happy because a bunch of my family and friends came out to cheer for me.

Ralph Zarboni came to the screening; it was he who brought me the story of Papa Pasquale (Pat) Folino, and who made the film possible. Awesome.

The award is really quite pretty...crystal. It's heavy...and sharp! Don't drop it on your foot.

This was the inaugural event of the CIFF - Congratulations to them! I'm so honoured; and what a thrill to see one of my films on the big screen.

Comments are here.

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Shortlisted.

"Papa Pasquale" has been shortlisted for selection in the 58th Rochester International Film Festival 2016 - the world’s oldest continuously-held short film festival. Amazingly, they actually take the time to give a considered critique of the films. This is rare.

Here's an excerpt from their supernice letter:

"Papa Pasquale was well received by a group of thirteen viewers. It is the iconic story of immigration that many people can related to in one way or another. (One viewer expressed his wish though that the story line engage a twist, turn or conflict, beyond a simple retelling of this experience.) A lot is packed into the 4:23 minutes with images that are clever, tender and humorous. Viewers especially noted the boot of Italy kicking the donkey as well as the scenes of the factory/beauty salon and travel modes. The Tarantella provides a cute “refrain” that nicely structures the transitions in the story."

Valuable feedback people!

*smiling*

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Anim!Arte laurel for "Papa Pasquale".

Proud, pleased, thrilled, delighted and totally gobsmacked over here: my new film Papa Pasquale has been accepted for the Official Selection of the 2015 Anim!Arte 12th International Animation Festival of Brazil. It will be screened in the International Professional category of World Cultures; the schedule's not available yet but the event runs from December 1-6, 2015.

Papa Pasquale is the true story of an Italian immigrant who comes to the west in the early 1950's and makes a life for himself as a hairsylist, eventually bringing over all of his twelve brothers and sisters. You can read more about it here.

A personal detail: the film was made possible by my wonderful cousin, Ralph Zarboni. He came to me with the idea of the film as a way of paying tribute to his friend Pat Folino, and I couldn't resist it. We had a private screening at a gala celebration in Toronto to honour Pat and his family in September. There were some dignitaries present, including the charming former Senator Consiglio Di Nino, who I got to meet, and the (then) Minister of Finance Joe Oliver who gave a really nice non-partisan speech. The best part about the screening was not the standing ovation - WHY YES THERE WAS A STANDING O - it was getting to finally meet all the people I'd been drawing for two months. Awesome.

The screening at Anim!Arte will be the World Premiere for Papa Pasquale. It's entered in a few more festivals so the film is not out on the Innerwebs yet. Having said that, I'd like to make it available for my fans and friends so if you want to see it / review it, be sure to reach out and I'll get the private link/password to you.

I have no idea about how to do film festival laurels so I just put it on all four stills.

YAY.

Comments are here.

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Finishing my new film, "Papa Pasquale".

Picture-lock. Final mix. Final outputs. After three months of 90 hour weeks, it's time to push this baby out.

"Papa Pasquale" is an animated short about a family of immigrants to Canada from Italy, set in the 1950's. The film will have a private screening gala celebration in Toronto on September 24th (Next week!). There will be some members of the Italian community, some press, and I heard there will also be a few Canadian dignitaries present. I'll be a guest there, but the focus will not be on me; it will be on this incredible family, the subject of the film. Still, I will really enjoy watching their reactions, and meeting them for the first time.

It's a timely release, as we are now in an election in Canada - a country made up of First Nations and immigrants from all over the world - immigration being quite a topical issue at the moment. 

Excitement.

Comments are here.

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Animating a maple seedling.

Hurtling towards the deadline in two weeks, but I want to share my process for animating a falling maple seed in Adobe Flash.

There are different kinds of animation to consider in the art form: acting, action, and motion. Usually we spring from what we know, the laws of physics, gravity and so on - animators can be true to reality, or really move away from it. In this case, I didn't want to go too far, but I also didn't want it to be stiff or obviously roto-scoped (traced from live-action). And of course, it has to fit with my signature style, which is visually simple. And supposedly effortless. Haw haw haw.

Although the animation plays along the timeline, I stacked the frames here and left the pretty onion skins so you can see how I mapped it out. Using two ellipses as path-of-action guide, I created a single drawing of a maple seed and deformed it in a series of key frames.  This spinning loop sits in a dedicated symbol, which I then animated fluttering downward on the main timeline.

Comments are here.

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Save as.

WARNING: Animator speak.

Two nights ago I had an animation disaster: while working in Flash CS5 on a commissioned film, the file suddenly corrupted. It refused to revert so I forced close and reopened it. When I checked it there was a ton of missing body parts and elements, every symbol had doubled its number of layers and extended one layer for twice as many frames. FREAKY.

Poor Nonna lost her knickers.

To make matters worse, the doubling was causing the file to choke making it super difficult to do anything. I’m talking "click… (wait 5 seconds) …object selected". And then it would freeze, "file not responding". Ugh.

I thought I was going to puke.

WTF?

To those of you who said “don’t you back up?” Of course I fucking back up, ffs. I’m not an idiot, geez. Mostly. I save every few seconds, and there's a raid automagically backing everything up in case one of my drives dies. But I hadn't actually saved as in a while...the earlier version from a few days before proved less than useful because I just work so dang fast yawl. Goddammit

To the three animators who reached out to me privately to offer assistance with the winrar extension fix, thank-you so much. Kiyoshi, Antonio, Jason, it really meant a lot to me that you speak the same language as me. That fix didn’t work in this particular case though.

So I did what I always do in times of great need: I texted The Huz (blissfully away camping in the Tadoussac) and I cried. He cooly reminded me that I could always decompile the latest swf render. Which I had backed up into my approvals folder. HURRAH for not being completely stupid!

If you work in Flash you probably already know about Sothink Decompiler. It basically takes your swf render and backwards-engineers it to give you a “functional” Flash file. And by “functional” I mean scrambled beyond recognition. I used it and all the symbol names in the library have been obliterated and replaced by ‘shapes’ in a million layers on the main timeline. What was once named “donkey” is now exploded into shapes 253, 254, and 255. And there are hundreds and hundreds of shapes! 

But fear not. I am brave.

Delving into my corrupted Flash file I began deleting the doubled layers. I started with the cycles that were re-used in multiple characters, like the dancing legs, running legs and so on. When the file began behaving a little better, I systematically checked for missing body parts, sourced the correct shape in the decompiled Flash file, and copy pasted it into the correct symbol in the corrupted file.

Relief.

I just finished all that and restored my file completely. It took two days. The moral of the story is to 'save as' every couple of hours. Save as, motherfuckers! It could save your ass. Hee haw.

Comments are here.

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Montreal gets an International Animation Festival.

In 1983 I was infected by the animation bug. I got a job inbetweening on a tv show, worked like a dog, drank like a fish and attended every screening and I could. Decades flew by.

I'll be honest with you: I lost my taste for animation festivals a couple of years ago while attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). Let's just say I was unable to stomach continuing to fork out for the ticket, the travel and the hotel for the privilege of viewing films selected by a single person, whose taste and demeanor differed so vastly from my own. I did miss the camaraderie of seeing old friends, but we only ended up complaining the whole time about the terrible films and the "selection committee of one", so it was just a downward spiral of facepalm.

Animator facepalm.

I went rogue; the cash I'd normally throw at animation festivals was redirected to blogging conferences - a whole 'nother world. I had way too much fun, and though I never quite fit in on account of being "an animator who blogs with drawings", I did manage to carve out a tiny niche for myself. And made a few rock solid friendships along the way.

Still...I'm kinda starved for animation. And not the kind you can see on the innerwebz.

I don't know how we missed it, but neither myself, nor my animation friends here in Montreal knew about Le MIAFF: The Montreal International Animation Film Festival until it was a week away. Just by chance I flipped the car radio from NPR to the CBC and heard an interview with the festival director, Laurie Gordon. And I'm like wtf, an animation festival in my hometown?

I missed the deadline to submit any of my recent films, but there's always next year. I'm still not sure who else (of my circle) is going to Le MIAFF, but I'll be there and I'm especially looking forward to the He(art) screening, with Don Hertzfeldt's multiple-award-winning World of Tomorrow.



Le MIAFF starts tomorrow, April 16 - 19, 2015, at downtown Concordia.  If you see me, please come say hi.

Comments are here.

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The FUQman T-shirt

FUQ. It's not what you think.

At long last I have found a print-on-demand site that has a print area large enough to almost accommodate FUQman's impressive abs.

Behold the back of the shirt:

I dare you to name one other Super Hero shirt that includes instructions on where to attach the cape.

Okay, it's a little pricey for a t-shirt. Print on demand is hard to pay the rent with; I only get $4 on every FUQman t-shirt that's sold, Printfection gets the rest.

But remember folks: I didn't just make the shirt; I made a film and a music video. I created a universe...a way of life! (...actually, The Huz did that bit). And you get what you pay for here : a totally original Super Hero shirt. Represent Independent Thought! Surge with Exasperation at the cookie-cutter Antics of Mankind! Resist the Evil Lords of Irony! And stuff!!

Chins will wag.

"What the FUQ are you wearing?!?"

Whereupon you can roll your eyes and say, "Aww.....FUQmaaaaaan!"

And then you just send them here.



And here...



Because everyone knows what FUQ stands for.

Get your FUQman t-shirts here; men, women and kids styles.

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The Animated Mammogram.

WARNING: Squished boobies.

In animation, we have this thing called “conservation of volume”. This means that while an object can change shape, it’s volume should be respected (unless it is moving towards or away from the camera). In the classic case of the bouncing ball, for example, the effects of gravity on the ball affect its shape as it travels, but the size of the ball remains the same.

This animation tidbit was running through my head as I was about to have a mammogram.

A kindly Alien being named Sylvie placed one of my breasts on the slab.

She told me not to move, not even to breathe...what is it with these Alien probes? You hafta hold perfectly still for all of them?

Then she lowered the presser thingie down on top of it.

Lower…

and lower…

and lower.

I thought, "surely she's going to stop right about now?" But no, she just kept lowering the gizmo and squeezing the living fark out of my girl.

I literally thought my tit would split.

Amazingly, they bounced back to their usual shape afterward. I hadn't lost any volume either. Thank goodness for good bras!



I'm rather fond of my boobs and I'd like to make sure they're ok. What do you all think about mammograms?

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Green scream.

Hopefully you're seen some greening out in social media profiles today. I add my voice to those in solidarity with the visual FX artists who labor on most of the films you see and love. Films like the Oscar-winning Life of Pi. Without VFX those films would look like this:

This is the hidden cost of make believe.


And it's not just VFX; it holds true for most of the animation industry. Though I hafta say, visual FX and compositing takes place at the end of the production pipeline. Everything impacts there in terms of budget and schedule. Those artists typically fund productions with their blood, sweat, tears and love.

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Shy Animator Writes Press Release!

This is me trying to write a press release. I am in hell. Here's the first line:

"MONTREAL (insert date), 2013 – TV creator/director JC Little introduces PickleWeasel..."

Yawn. That's pretty damn boring JC. Spice it up and don't forget to plug yourself.

"Established animation director, cartoon gangsta and social media sensation JC Little brings her humor and creative talents to a new audience with the launch of her comic & drawing app - "

Too long, didn't read.

"Creative genius launches - "

Wait what? No, no, no you can't call yourself a genius, it's tacky and egotistical. Everyone will hate you.

"Animation industry veteran - "

Seriously? How old are you?

"Animation industry survivor - "

Too negative. 

"Animation industry fossil - "

Funny... but still too negative.

"Animation industry stalwart and cartoon blogger JC Little introduces PickleWeasel, a comic and drawing app, now available for iPad on the App Store."

What the hell is a "stalwart"? Meh. It's still not right - you actually suck at this. 

Let's have a look at the headline now. A good headline will catch the media's eye so they'll want to do a story on the app. Your app is unique - but you're not allowed to use the word 'unique'. Don't forget you hafta make it all SEO magical too - ram those keywords in there!  

"Animated series creator JC Little launches comic and drawing app "PickleWeasel" available for iPad on the App Store."

"TV series director kicks the iPad's ass with mojo-vational PickleWeasel app! Available for iPad on the App Store."

"PickleWeasel abandons blog post to go mobile - Comic & drawing app available for iPad on the App Store."

"Suspicious green cartoon escapes animator's blog! "PickleWeasel" available for iPad on the App Store."

"Audacious toon stars in mojo-boosting app "PickleWeasel"

"Mysterious brine found leaking out of the App Store! "

"PickleWeasel claims responsibility for sudden App Store crunch!"

"Vinegar Aroma baffles Apple!"

"The only app with a PickleWeasel in it!"

"Fossilized animator launches hybrid cartoon character into the mobile world!"

 "Star-crossed PickleWeasel set free by Insane Creative Genius!"

"PickleWeasel : There can be ONLY ONE."

...eh bugger it. Just do a drawing.

Hyper-creative human makes a PickleWeasel app for fun and scribbles on the iPad.

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The End of the World! Almost.

The End of the World came early for me...at least that's what it felt like. This afternoon I was happily animating away on my PickleWeasel app promo-demo when Adobe Flash started being buggy. This happens with software right? I saved, closed the file and re-opened it a few minutes later.

I saw this:

Flash can not parse this document? Ack. My file was corrupt. A creeping terror swept through me and the blood drained out of my face. I felt like every minor chord in the Universe was ringing dissonance in the depths of my soul. I couldn't even make a fist. Those Mayans!

I'd been working for a week on this animation, so to have the file corrupted was like losing a piece of my heart. Something I'd created was gone.

I turned to Twitter and asked for help. And Twitter delivered! So many fabulous people made suggestions and offered to help. I also reached out to @Adobe hoping they would respond.

This is kinda technical, but The Huz managed to decompile the .swf of rendered "work-in-progress" animation, which was all I had left. It was a partial success; the decompiled file looked nothing like my original timeline. Working in Flash is so...personal. I would have had to do quite a bit of slogging to work with it in that state.

A few minutes later, @Adobe did come through on Twitter. They put me on to @Adobe_Care who pointed me in the right direction. I fixed my Flash file and now I'm happily animating away.

Relief! It's not the End of the World until tomorrow! Thanks Twitter.

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