n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 29, 2012, 1:06 pm
Steven Spielberg appeared to be surprised when The Adventures of TINTIN was announced as the winner of the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.  Perhaps  because he had directed the live actors who created most of the action of the film (some say 70%) and he knew that the role of the WETA ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 15, 2012, 1:40 pm
I bought these champagne flutes because they looked good on the shelf.  From above, you couldn’t see that the body of the glass was too long, much longer than the stem and too wide too.  I was mainly concerned with finding glasses that didn’t have a lip around the top.  I like a clean feel wh...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 1, 2012, 3:19 pm
JANUARY:  Communication Michel - The death of a friend.  Animation for Amateurs - How it's done.        FEBRUARY:  More Than Groceries - Managing with heart. Love in the Movies - Valentine's Day.Has Pixar Lost its Touch? - Guest post BY John Lechner. Animation at the Oscars - Animation does...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Nov 25, 2011, 11:36 am
Directors get fired from animated features all the time for various reasons: they go over budget, they take too long or they have “creative differences” with studios.  Glen Keane got replaced after working for seven years on Disney’s RAPUNZEL, renamed TANGLED,  Jan Pinkava  was replaced on ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 2, 2011, 5:11 pm
Three years after Wall Street quants caused the global economic crisis with their CDOs, sub-prime mortgage-backed securities and other finagling, we are in a worse mess that's getting worser, what with algorithmic, high frequency and rogue trading.     Groceries and everything else costs much mor...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Sep 11, 2011, 2:44 pm
In 1927, while preparing Steamboat Willie, the first animated film with synchronised sound, Walt Disney invented the storyboard, a form of writing in pictures, similar to comic book panels.     The storyboard quickly caught on and now most live action films are boarded as well as written.  Look...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Sep 4, 2011, 2:28 pm
     Since we know that mocap and CGI characters have a creepy, disturbing effect on audiences because they look like corpses, zombies and prosthetic limbs, wouldn’t it be logical to explore and develop an art that everybody loves and that doesn’t creep anyone out: traditional animation?  ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Aug 28, 2011, 1:17 pm
     There’s something magic about a drawing that moves on the screen; we happily suspend disbelief and laugh at all kinds of pencil-generated silliness and cartoon exaggeration.  But there’s something creepy about a well-known cartoon character in CGI (Popeye, Mickey, Smurfs) and downright...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 7, 2011, 1:52 pm
I've created a new blog devoted exclusively to my book, "ANIMATED" without the distractions of rants and raves about food, art and crooked bankers.  Take a look, leave a comment, follow the blog and add the link http://bit.ly/jbui5F to your reader if you like. I'll still be ran...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jun 26, 2011, 1:18 pm
The Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank Inside the main lobby. Inside the blue hat.  See the light coming in the rear window?   Formerly Roy Disney's office, now a conference room. The secret staircase Corridors 1 and 2  Disney animator’s desk Just kidding, this is a real Disney 2D animat...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jun 19, 2011, 3:31 pm
The entrance on Buena Vista Drive. These traditional animation departments have moved across the street and only the signs are left for historical interest:  The commissary with outdoor patio, wisteria and pretty good food. The beautiful old animation building now houses producers. Dopey Drive (n...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 22, 2011, 5:13 pm
French women do everything modern women do, but, astonishingly, many still defer to men, allowing themselves to be treated like inferiors, children and servants.  Even though most French women work, are financially independent and sexually responsible, they continue to tolerate men’s antiquated, ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 8, 2011, 12:44 pm
      Photo: Louise Bourgeois' sculpture "Maman"       I’ve often wondered what abused children feel about Mother’s Day.  What do they think about all the advertising exhorting them to pay tribute to their mother for all the loving guidance, encouragement, protection and support she�...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Apr 24, 2011, 3:44 pm
Last Sunday a group of animators had a viewing party on Twitter while watching THE LION KING and we all agreed it's one of the best animated features ever made.  Some of the things that make it great:  * the stunning opening sequence will give you goose bumps, starting with exotic bird sounds, a d...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Mar 20, 2011, 3:16 pm
An inescapable part of living in Los Angeles, is the traffic.  Driving in it, avoiding it, being stuck in it, bemoaning the ochre-tinted sky and smog-laden air it causes.  A city built for cars, not people, LA is all about traffic.  If Martians landed in this city, they would think its citizens w...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Mar 20, 2011, 2:45 pm
An inescapable part of living in Los Angeles, is the traffic.  Driving in it, avoiding it, stuck in it, bemoaning the ochre-tinted sky and smog-laden air it causes.  A city built for cars, not people, LA is all about traffic.  If Martians landed in this city, they would think its citizens were ca...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Mar 13, 2011, 1:23 pm
We’re fast approaching chocolate season, otherwise known as Easter, derived from the Old English Ēostre / Ēastre and Old High German Ôstarâ, a Germanic goddess who has given her name to the festival of Easter which occurs in late March, but which we usually start celebrating in January, if not...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Feb 27, 2011, 4:59 pm
Just like last year, there's a lot of Oscar-nominated animation in 2011.  And, like last year, an animated film has been nominated for Best Picture, outside of the Best Animated Feature category.  And this is as it should be.  Especially since the same film was the highest grossing film of 2010 ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Feb 20, 2011, 12:10 pm
The author of this week’s guest post is author illustrator, animator and interactive designer, John Lechner.  See his work at johnlechner.com HAS PIXAR LOST ITS TOUCH?   Toy Story 3 was the highest-grossing film of 2010, showered with praise from audiences and critics alike. It would seem that ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Feb 13, 2011, 11:57 am
Love is hard to capture on film.  I don’t think you can actually write love for the screen, the emotion has to come from the talent and chemistry of the actors, with some help from a skillful director.  Close-ups of eyes and lips and other body parts, while beautiful and interesting, don’t tra...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Feb 6, 2011, 4:23 pm
At first glance, it’s just another US supermarket: a large, flat building, with a purple and vermillion sign, shopping carts parked in front, automatically opening doors, metal detectors, some electronic self- checkout stations and some speedy, human cashiers.    There are the usual piles of sh...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 30, 2011, 12:21 pm
In my Manhattan apartment, overlooking pillars of rain moving across Central Park, the phone rings. “Hello.” “Hi Sweetie.  I’m afraid I have some terrible news.”  It’s Sam calling from Paris.     “I’m sorry to tell you Michel died this––”     Sam continues speaking b...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 16, 2011, 3:46 pm
Background painting for Pochahontas, Walt Disney animation. Do you think animation is a bastard branch of the arts––not real cinema, not real art?  Do you think it’s great fun to work in animation?   Do you think people who animate are crazy?  Here are some interesting facts about some of ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jan 9, 2011, 9:37 pm
Whether the motives of the shooter of 20 people in Tucson, USA were political, racist or some other mental derangement, the possible cause of the recurring mass killings might be due not only to the availability of guns, but to a more profound cultural problem: failure to communicate.   Starting wi...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Dec 26, 2010, 2:33 pm
In Paris, I once went, with two girlfriends, to a lecture by wonderful French director, Claude Chabrol.  It was a meaty, exuberant, sensual talk about all the little extra observations that go into making a film, enriching the screenplay, the mise en scene, the cinematography.      At the time,...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Dec 19, 2010, 4:06 pm
 A couple of weeks ago, after a storm had washed the smog from Los Angeles skies and the pollution from the palm trees, leaving each frond twinkling, I drove over to a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard to meet a friend I hadn’t seen for eight years.     Since we’d last met, Daisy (not her...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Dec 12, 2010, 2:41 pm
It’s a commonly held belief/snobbery/stupidity, that those who amuse and entertain are less intelligent and important than those who teach and cure and govern. Comedians are considered foolish because they make us smile. Good grief, where’s the logic in that? Why is laughter considered frivolou...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Dec 5, 2010, 2:09 pm
There are some parts of human anatomy that are  poorly engineered.  I'd like to replace them with some features of other life-forms: 1) Sharks’ teeth (polyphydont dentition), whereby old, damaged teeth are constantly replaced with new ones.  This would eliminate dentists, who are very odd pe...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Nov 28, 2010, 12:13 pm
Do you blog about whatever interests you, do you write from the gut?  Or do you write about what you think will appeal to the most readers? I’ve tried both and most satisfying, of course, is the writing from the gut that appeals to lots of readers. The best part about writing from rage, despair ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 31, 2010, 1:52 pm
In pencil animation we just draw clothes on a character, then animate them.  But in CGI, costumes for the characters are more challenging.  Because the clothes, like the characters, will be seen in the round, they have to be designed like real clothes, cut from patterns and “sewn”, all in the ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 24, 2010, 1:27 pm
Bless Chuck P for removing the bad taste left by Updike’s endless, mind-numbing descriptions of everything in sight, every face and every ugly, self-absorbed thought in his horrible character, Rabbit Angstrom’s bigoted little head.  Too much description, even as well-written as Updike's, leaves...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 10, 2010, 1:36 pm
I love writing about the art of animation. Traditional, pencil animation, that is. It’s a very sensual thing, holding a pencil in your fingers, the wooden angles against your knuckle, feeling the texture of the paper, hearing the hiss of graphite, inhaling the graphite smell. It’s intellectually...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 3, 2010, 1:52 pm
This morning, a big, soft mist has settled over Los Angeles and finally broken the heat with its little cat feet.  As the heat-induced tensions lift and float away, I realise just how oppressive heat has been and to what extent it curtailed mental and physical activities.  Could this be wh...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Oct 3, 2010, 1:45 pm
This morning, a big, soft mist settled over Los Angeles and finally broke the heat with its little cat feet.  As the heat-induced tensions lifted, I realised just how oppressive the heat had been and to what extent it had curtailed mental and physical activities.  Could this be why most of the gre...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Sep 26, 2010, 11:56 am
I decided to make my first animated film in Paris. The fact that I didn’t yet know how to animate did not deter me. First, I had to get money to produce the film. I approached the money men, two Canadians. They said they were very busy, but that they’d listen to my pitch if I took them to Versa...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Sep 19, 2010, 10:35 am
Like many of our social rituals, the marriage proposal has been defined and distorted by television.  We’ve seen so many sit-com actors sinking to one knee, making an unbearably pompous speech bursting with painfully self-aware truisms and clichés, that it seems we're somehow obliged to emulate ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Aug 8, 2010, 12:27 pm
Enough dumbing down.  Time to smarten up instead.Time to clobber little kids with Latin and Greek, French and Mandarin and English and to stop saying that any old grammar and spelling is acceptable.  Let’s set demanding tasks and draconian curricula at an early age and let’s encourage excellen...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Aug 1, 2010, 11:46 am
Although both are forms of communication, art is emotional, abstract and open to interpretation, whereas writing is more direct, precise and explicit.  You can say exactly what you mean with words, but with art you can only suggest. Making art is also much easier than writing.  It’s soothing and...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 25, 2010, 1:53 pm
I love the power of writing fiction. Making up a story, then doing my darnedest to make you believe it’s true.  It's a writhing, never-ending series of inventions.  And isn’t invention another word for lies? Fiction is all lies, after all. And lying involves a lot of effort. First, I have to c...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 18, 2010, 7:57 pm
Giant Incandescent Resonating Animation Festival (GIRAF) Wednesday, Nov 3-7, 2010 at Plaza Theatre, Calgary, AB Call for Submissions http://www.giraffest.ca/ GIRAF is the only exclusively independent animation festival in Canada, with a focus on experimental and self-produced animated film. GIRAF p...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 18, 2010, 12:24 pm
STANDING BROAD JUMP THUMBNAILS – ANIMATION ALCHEMY®   TOM ROTH is a 2D and 3D animator  and CEO of ANIMATION ALCHEMY.COM  which provides reasonably-priced tutorials on how to do CG animation and how to apply 2D techniques to 3D animation for a more life-like effect. NL:  I was made awa...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 11, 2010, 12:15 pm
As a writer, I read a lot of blogs. And, as a designer and artist, I often find myself subconsciously re-arranging the layouts, fonts and colors of the blogs I read.   I cant help it, it's déformation professionnelle.  When I find a beautiful, well-designed blog, I clap my hands and Tweet it. ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jul 4, 2010, 1:13 pm
First, you need to leave the country you were born in. Get into a vehicle of some sort and drive, fly or sail across a border. Get out of the vehicle and bang, you’re a foreigner. Easy. The funny thing is, nothing has changed about you. You’re exactly the same person. But now you have an accent....
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jun 20, 2010, 2:49 pm
I never gave my father a tie. I gave him books of crossword puzzles. He was a tall, slender, beautiful Viking of a man with a terrific sense of humour, very creative and intelligent.  He and I enjoyed the same things, laughed at the same jokes, we both loved crossword puzzles and books.  We were v...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jun 13, 2010, 6:58 pm
In her beautifully-written blog post, Maureen Johnson argues against personal branding.  She says: “Don’t shove yourself into that tiny, airless box called a brand—tiny, airless boxes are for trinkets and dead people.”               I agree.  Pretty much.But then, Maureen Jo...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - Jun 6, 2010, 11:55 am
Have you noticed that your groceries still cost twice as much as they did last year, that people are still moving out of your neighborhood in droves, that you still can’t get a loan at your bank, that many of your friends are still unemployed, that whole countries are now going bankrupt?     �...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 30, 2010, 1:50 pm
What prompted this post, was a woman who approached me at a party the other night saying: "Are you an actress? I'm psychic and I know these things."  She refused to believe my denials, so maybe she's right, maybe I've been an actress all my life and just didn't know it. In LA, it’s considered a g...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 23, 2010, 12:29 pm
There must be something in the water in Spain, birthplace of at least two famous chefs who practice food physics: José Andrés, who has eight restaurants in the US and Ferran Adrià who, of course, has El Bulli.  Considered the best restaurant in the world in 2007, 2008, 2009, El Bulli, became fam...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 15, 2010, 5:04 pm
Barack Obama is a good-looking President and a caricaturist’s dream: stick-out ears, big teeth, big grin, you couldn't ask for more: David Miliband is also a handsome man and just look what a good caricaturist can do to him:But, even though Nick Clegg is just as handsome as the others, ...
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n lumiere posted an article on ANIMATED WRITINGS - May 9, 2010, 12:30 pm
If you haven’t already, don’t buy your mother anything on this commercial holiday.  Not flowers, not lunch, not a card.  No matter how wonderful she is.  It’s your mother you want to celebrate on this day, not your local economy. Pick her some wild flowers, paint her a card, write...
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