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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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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HONESTY - Character Education Animation

I have this great friend named Kymberli Barney who once drew me as a gangsta. You might leap to the conclusion that this is frivolous but in my animated world, I equate it to being Knighted. Kymberli can see the essential qualities in a person or a situation, through the clouds and confusion.

I draw many. Few draw me. Kymberli did tho.

She also happens to be the rather brilliant teacher of the Middle School Humans of BHiveU. Which leads me neatly to my next point:

I opened up my shop on Teachers Pay Teachers earlier this year, and while I've been a "pro" artist for over thirty years, it's been a struggle to figure out where I fit as a content provider to educators. Are my specific skills best applied drawing clip art? I'm definitely happier doing story-based projects, and things that provoke empathy, and that's what I do here on my blog, or in my books and films. So when Kymberli suggested I do some PickleWeasel 'character education' drawings and animation for the teacher market, it lit me up. Thank-you Kymberli!

Fun with watermarks.

The first six posters are already up in my shop: Honesty, Trust, Kindness, Cooperation, Perseverance, and Accomplishment. It was pretty challenging to depict these character traits in a single still image, I had to dig deep.

And here's my special announcement: HONESTY is now an animated film. Here is a preview:



Synopsis:

When PickleWeasel meets someone he likes, he decides to cut some flowers to give as a gift. But, when he discovers the flowers belong to someone else, he finds himself in a pickle. What to do! Pretend he doesn't care? Run away? Or be honest? PickleWeasel learns how to listen to his conscience and choose honesty, even when it's difficult.

This HONESTY life skills animation is a fun too to help you teach kids the value of honesty. So important, right? And there's lots of room for discussion of alternate outcomes and feelings in this story. If you want to see the whole thing, check it out here.

Thanks for supporting my work!

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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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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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The Footprint - Trailer

My company, Little Animation, makes earth-friendly animated educational content for children. And when I say "my company" I really mean "my family". It's like an animation mom'n pop shop over here.

Our latest project has been a few years in production, (due to being independently financed) and now I'm thrilled to report The Footprint is completed.

The official trailer:


The official description:

"The Footprint is a 21 min. animated film featuring Earth, Little Rosie (from the Little Earth Charter) and special guest Org, a cave-kid from prehistoric times. Org accidentally time-travels to the present day where he notices that there's plenty of everything! With a little help from the narrator, Rosie and Earth teach Org about his eco-footprint. The story is a playful introduction to sustainability issues such as water, food, clothes, transportation, toys, and energy, with a little musical segment on each. The take-away is to avoid wastefulness, with a few tips and tricks along the way. An educational project for children aged 4-8."

It's available for institutional distribution (schools, libraries etc) by CinéFête, and just in time for Earth Day - April 22nd.

Props to Cindy Filipenko for her excellent writing, the wonderful Rosie Emery for inspiration, the Oscar nominated Alexei Kharitidi for his design, storyboards and animation, my fearless editor Robert Yates, Oisín Little (The Huz) for awesome sound design and music, our three terrific children for the vocal characterizations of Rosie and Org, and my brother Colin Pearson for his exuberant voice-over skillz (which some of you may recognize).

I'll probably make The Footprint available for homevideo download via Gumroad. If you're interested in this, let me know.

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PickleWeasel books are coming soon!

I've been frightfully busy getting my next four books lined up. Yup, you heard right: FOUR books. For kids. Because I somehow ended up with several hundred drawings of PickleWeasel.

101 PickleWeasels! (working title) are comin' atcha in the first book in just a few short weeks. Print and Kindle versions. In time for Christmas and gifts and stuff. The rest of the series will follow over the next year, so you can collect the whole set, just like a proper book series. I am smart.

Here is a sample layout:

As usual, PickleWeasel is acting out, and you have to guess what he, she, they are up to. Some of the words are easy and some are a little more challenging (even I learned a few new words making this book) with the option to "hide" and "reveal" the answers with your very own thumbs. Plus the answers are upside down, since I know that some of your kids pride themselves on upside down reading skills.

And just because I can, I put this flippable animation in the corner. Swaaag!

Please stay tooned.

xojc

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The Great Ice Bucket Challenge Dilemma.

Everyone's deep in discussion about whether or not viral fundraising is cool or uncool. Well, it's been weeks and no one has nominated me to dump ice-water on my head for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Am I so unpopular? Do I smell funny? Am I...invisible? I sit and watch all the epic Ice Bucketeers getting doused and I feel somewhat left out.

To wait or not to wait...? That's the real dilemma.



Animated ice is c-c-c-c-cold.

I don't have a lot of extra right now, but hey, I'm doing fine without wine, so I can probably live without a few other things. Here's where my money went:
ALS Canada
MS Society Of Canada

If you have something to give, however small, remember that every little bit helps. You never know when you, or someone you love very much will be struck by a debilitating illness such as ALS or MS.

Hugsies!

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Exercise & Bras.

I've been making a few incremental changes in my life lately. Most of them are small things, like quitting drinking, spending time with loved ones, and brushing my teeth before bed. But they also include exercise. I am smart.

So today I'm going to talk to you about exercise and bras (my favourite fashion item). Have a look at the animated GIF here:

When I go running I wear a regular bra with a sports bra on top. Even so, I noticed that when I run around the park my bra straps fall down. I have to interrupt my rhythm to push them back up but they just fall down again. This is so frikkin' annoying it makes me want to give up! The health benefits of exercise are surely outweighed by the stress of having to return those dumb bra straps to my shoulders over and over. Right?

Anyways I was thinking, maybe I could do some kind of exercise that builds up my shoulder muscles. The muscle bulges would keep my bra straps from falling down again.

OK geniuses, what kind of exercise do I need to do to achieve this goal?

Sometimes I do a mini-workout first thing in the morning. It can be tempting to roll out of bed and do jumping jacks in my pyjamas before I'm completely awake.

It never occurred to me that my un-tethered gazongas might render me unconscious with their wild swinging.

Jumping-jack TKO.

It was a big mistake and I won't be doing that again.

Next time I'll just put my bra on, on top of my jammies.

Exercise is good for you!

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Hugs.

This is a film about hugging.

There's been some debate about the difference between real life friendships and Internet friendships. Some folks believe that one is somehow less meaningful than the other; the reasoning being that if you haven't met them in person, it doesn't count.

But there are many people who stand by their Internet friends as more loyal and supportive than friends or family from real life.



I wanted to address that difference, by making this film. For me, the screen is really the only thing that stands between us, and yet it is there nonetheless.

Someday I will hug you in person.

What do you think about friendships on the Internet?

Pass this hug on - click to tweet.

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Disco Hamster Syndrome.

Do you wake up in the middle of the night with disco lights flashing in your eyes? You may be suffering from Disco Hamster Syndrome (DHS).

I'd do more of these gifs but they make my eyes bleed.

My friend Mona has her own personal hamster. She doesn't get much sleep, but her DHS does give her lots of great writing mojo for blogging. Her kitchen adventures alone are gaze-worthy - she should have her own damn cooking show (if you can call it 'cooking' heh heh).

Moxie-Dude is one of the blogs I check out whenever I wake up with disco lights flashing in my eyes. Also Mona is a rockin' press-release writer. I'm just saying.

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I am Santa.

SPOILER ALERT: Don't show this to your kids if they still believe. 

Usually I'm too busy to contribute to Neil's Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concerts, and this year is no exception. But last night, at around 11 PM, I thought I'd throw some animation together with this Christmas lullaby I wrote for my kids when they were little.

Yeah, I was thinking maybe just a couple of drawings...but when I next looked up from my animation, it was 6 o'clock in the morning. Oopsies.

Guys, I did it again.

The song is called "I am Santa" and it riffs off the idea that these kids are supposed to be good in order to get treats. By the way, I subscribe to the philosophy that people should just be good, period. Parenting is hard. It's hard to teach little people how to be good. It's hard to watch them grow up and not need you anymore...

When I wrote this song, my daughters were eight and eleven years old, so they already had inklings about Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. But my son was only five and even though he sang along with a big smile whenever I played it, he didn't actually figure out what it was about until he was ten.



Uh.... now I'm nervous. Because it's just a dinky little acoustic recording. But whatever, it's from the heart and the thirteen-year-old boy loved it. So this is for him.

For a splendid array of seasonal spirit, songs, poems and videos by real authentic actual people, go see Neil's Eight Annual Blogger Christmahanukwanzaakah Online Holiday Concert, CitizenoftheMonth. It's one of the best blogs out there, at any time of year, and I'm not just saying that.

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F-Bomb.

WARNING: Cursing.

In real life, I swear like a sailor. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian... although plenty of Canadians never use four-letter-words. I'm one of the ones who does; yes, there are days when every single sentence that comes out of my mouth is punctuated by an expletive. I even make my kids blush sometimes.

But on the Internet, I rarely use colourful language. I think it's something to do with my professional background producing animation for kids. Also, I can't deny a lingering fear that no brands will want to work with my blog if I let loose...even though I don't really shill for The Man out here. Nonetheless, the fear persists.

So I pepper little asterisks into the occasional hot-words hoping to cool them off: but whenever I read through my archives I think it f*cking looks like dishonest sh*t.

Filter is on! Mostly. Self censorship sucks.

There's some stories that just can't be told without dropping an F-Bomb, dammit.

Like many, many bloggers before me I've arrived at a fork in the road: do I continue to substitute the eff word with "freaking", "FUQ", and "fark-a-doodle"? Or do I push the boundaries and use my true, honest and uncensored voice?

Today, now, here on my blog, I will drop the F-Bomb. And I will do it with reckless abandon and, hopefully, inimitable style.



If you don't like it...then simply fuck off.

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ZOMBIE Mom.

Patty Sullivan on Twitter asked me if I'd do a drawing of a Zombie Mom for a project she was working on. I'd already done a series on Zombie Appliances and I thought a parody of The Evolution of Man would be hilarious as The Evolution of Zombie Mom.

Just before Mother's Day I started thinking it would be really fun to animate the Zombie Mom evolving. The phased degeneration of the walk-cycle appealed to me as an animator. Then the 13 year old boy came down with a pretty horrifying case of stomach flu and kept me up all night all week with the barfs. This literally brought me back to my early daze as a mother and I found myself moaning, lurching and craving brains.

Needless to say I was too "undead" to get the animation together for Mother's Day. BUT I think this will work in my favor because while Mother's Day only comes once a year, ZOMBIE Mom's Day is, let's face it, every single one of those other 364 days.

So tadaaa, here's my video:



Zombies are fun to draw. Up til now I've only been an animator. Now....I'm a re-animator. Ha.

If you feel like the walking dead because of a child in your life, Zombie-moms.com is for you. Patty Sullivan and some friends put together this site where sleep-deprived parents can go for advice, support and stories. Jump into their tweetstream on the #ZombieMoms hashtag.

Irony: I was so out of it I didn't notice that the Patty I've been emailing about zombies is THE Patty from Kids' CBC. Yeah, she's an award winning tv broadcaster and bonafide celeb and my kids adored her. How did I not realize it was her?? I blame the zombie virus.

Happy ZOMBIE Mom's Day!! What's the most undead thing you've done as a parent?

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Harlem Shake (PickleWeasel Edition).

This meme is perfect for limited animation. Creds to my firstborn daughter for walking me through its nuances. So much fun, I animated it in one crazy day.

Also... PickleWeasel.

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PickleWeasel PROMO!

So they say that if you're releasing an app, you should really do a teaser promo to show it off and get some buzz going a couple weeks prior to the release. Lucky for me, I'm an animator!

Here's the PickleWeasel promo. It's kind of a boy meets girl story. With a PickleWeasel in it.
 

I'm surrounded by fabulous voice and musical talent. Props go to my 15 year old daughter and her friend Nat voicing this "boy meets girl" story. And The HUZ with his unforgettable tunifications. *applause*

Fun-Fact: The Guess-Games in the app were drawn in DrawSomething. I put PickleWeasel in all my drawsomes; 500 drawings later...you get the picture.

We're planning on launching the iPad version on January 21st from the App Store, and iPhone/Android will follow in the spring. Lots of fun stuff to come including a launch party, the chance to be drawn into the upcoming PickleWeasel music video, and an iPad Mini giveaway. I'll keep you posted here but you can always find out more about the app at PickleWeasel.com.

Don't be stingy with the sharing now. Go forth and make buzz.

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