Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, and Dru Pagliasotti are calling for academic papers on the phenomenon of yaoi and BL anime and manga fandoms in a global context. Here's the CFP:

This edited, interdisciplinary volume seeks to examine the new representations of same-sex attracted males in boys' love and/or yaoi -- that is, male same-sex romance or erotica as featured in manga, manwha, anime, videogames, fanfic, fanvids, artwork, and other media derivative of the genre's Japanese origins. The collection's primary focus will be the ways in which fans in countries and cultures other than Japan interpret and use these genres, although the editors are open to contributions about boys' love fandoms in Japan as well. We want to provide a broad overview of scholarly essays and research in yaoi / boys' love studies and so encourage work from all disciplinary perspectives. Scholarly work about slash fiction is welcome, too, insofar as the genre is discussed within the framework of boys' love / yaoi.

Papers should be between 5,000 to 20,000 words in addition to any illustrations and well-grounded in theory and methodology. Shorter works will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Potential approaches might include:

o Controversies and Legal Issues
o Fandoms and Fanfic
o Theoretical Models of Gender and Sexuality
o Genre Development and Adaptation
o The Publishing Industry
o Concepts of "Race" / Ethnicity in Yaoi and Boys' Love
o Queer / Gay Discourses of Yaoi / Boys' Love
o Comparison of Boys' Love and Yaoi Expressions in World Regions

Submissions must be previously unpublished (conference presentations are acceptable) and in English. Manuscript format, especially citations and references, should accord with the Chicago Manual of Style -- see ChicagoManualofStyle.Org.

We encourage you to submit preliminary proposals by July 31, 2008, although these are not mandatory. Notification of preliminary acceptances will be sent by August 30. Manuscripts and artwork must be complete by November 15. Please note that all final decisions will be made upon seeing completed works, not proposals or abstracts.

Proposals, papers, and questions should be emailed to anthology AT yaoiresearch.com.

Further information and discussion can be found at www.YaoiResearchWiki.com.

The collection will be published by McFarland & Co. in 2009.

Labels: anime, books, call for submissions

Countless column inches, magazine pages and pixels have been devoted to the question/problem of racist black stereotypes in animation, and at some point someone says these cartoons need to be framed or presented in their historical context. It's unstated, but that phrase often means "Let's acknowledge that these cartoons were produced in a less enlightened time, and that the images are offensive. But man, are they funny. Can we go back to watching them, please?"

Not that the first sentence is untrue, but it's a simplistic reading at best. If you really want context, then start with Henry T. Sampson's That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960, which catalogues the many American cartoons that used these images, along with plot descriptions, production credits, and industry publication reviews—necessary and welcome, but maybe a little too clinical. The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954, in contrast, takes the same kind of data as That's Enough Folks and shapes it into a decades-long narrative.

Lehman recounts a chronological history of film animation from its beginnings at the hands of J. Stuart Blackton through most of the Golden Age of animation, weaving in descriptions and explanations of the types of racist images used. This really does put things in context, as for the first time we get to see how the evolution of these images and the gags behind them corresponds to the evolution of animation, movies, pop culture and society at large.

After I finished the book—at 137 pages it's a quick read—it occurred to me that The Colored Cartoon is, in itself, an answer to many of the questions and misconceptions that have swirled around this debate for at least as long as I've observed it. Why is it okay to make fun of Elmer Fudd, who is white, but not black characters who chase Bugs Bunny? The seemingly obvious answer is that Elmer Fudd's skin colour isn't the source of the humour, his ineptitude is. For those that argue that a black character's ineptitude isn't necessarily racist, Lehman's long-range view breaks down the different types of stereotypes and why even the most innocuous-looking depictions were part of a larger trend. Is the call to stop broadcasting cartoons with these images a recent example of political correctness run amok? Hardly. The NAACP—you know, black people—have been protesting these cartoons since World War II. (If you'd read Donald Bogle's Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, you'd know that. But if your reading list is restricted to animation books, The Colored Cartoon will fill you in.)

The Colored Cartoon isn't perfect. Far from it, in fact. While I liked how Lehman sometimes talked about simple economic or technological issues (like the trouble early animators had with lip sync) and how they affected what was seen and heard onscreen, I was less enthused by some of his conjectures that were presented as fact. Was Bugs Bunny a descendant of African-American mythical trickster figures like Br'er Rabbit? Sure, I can get behind that interpretation. Does that make him, and his trademark cool, an example of black culture being mined and transformed for cartoons? Maybe, but that leads to the thorny question of intent. While animation artists like Bill Littlejohn and Martha Sigall weigh in throughout the book, they don't offer any insights here, which leaves Lehman's assertion as an untestable theory.

I'd have preferred if the book was longer (but then, with good books I usually do), held back on the theorizing and gave us more animator interviews, more in-depth stories of activism (I like Lehman's frank description of the NAACP's missteps, and I'd like to see more interviews in that area) and more industry insights—for starters. Still, imperfect doesn't mean bad. At the very least, The Colored Cartoon is a start—a start at providing the often-cited context for this debate that will allow it to move on to a different level. That alone makes it a worthy entry in this still-nascent field.

Where to Get It
Buy The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954 from Amazon.com

Labels: books, Looney Tunes, reviews

When I read the first Mechademia volume, I felt that it maintained a tenuous balance between different kinds of scholarly essays on manga and anime. Mechademia Vol. 2: Networks of Desire has about the same amount of works—23 contributions compared to the original's 20—and more of a focus.

The subtitle of this volume accurately describes the book's theme, and essays are divided into four sections (Shojo, Powers of Time, Animalization and Horizons). Each essay spins "desire"—and sometimes its own section title—in different ways.

Five essays in particular are standouts, and worth the price of the book on their own. Deborah Shamoon's "Revolutionary Romance: The Rose of Versailles and the Transformation of Shojo Manga," Toku Masami's "Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls' Dreams" and Keith Vincent's "A Japanese Electra and her Queer Progeny" combine to provide a rich, textured history of the origins and progression of shojo manga and their depictions of same-sex relationships. Miyao Daisuke's "Thieves of Baghdad: Transnational Networks of Cinema and Anime in the 1920s" offers a fascinating look at the "Japanification" of Noburo Ofuji's 1926 Bagudajo no kozoku (The Thief of Baguda Castle, incidentally part of the Cinémathèque Québecoise's early-anime retrospective), which was a sort of remake of the American live-action feature The Thief of Bagdad.

For me, the crown jewel of the book is Mizuno Hiromi's "When Pacifist Japan Fights: Historicizing Desires in Anime," an look at how the evolution of postwar Japan's militarism, nationalism and masculinity were expressed in 1977's Space Battleship Yamato and 1995's Silent Service. The piece was so compelling it made me want to rewatch Gasaraki and further appreciate Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig, both of which featured conspiracies to remilitarize Japan. It's worth noting that this essay is the longest in the book, but reads so smoothly it feels like it's the shortest.

Otherwise, the book is hit or miss depending on the kind of scholarly essays you prefer. As a fan of Occam's Razor, I'm a bit wary of essays that read a lot of symbolism into anime that the creator makes no claim to. Granted, there are those shows like Haibane-Renmei and Neon Genesis Evangelion where the creators are specifically adding layers of meaning, but I had to roll my eyes when Christopher Bolton read various shades of meaning into 2000's Blood: The Last Vampire's use of CGI for mechanical objects, specifically airplanes. While it's true that this was a pioneering blending of CGI and cel in anime then, the same techniques had been used elsewhere in the world for almost 15 years in pretty much exactly the same way. It's a symptom of my long-standing complaint that at times anime aficionados wall themselves off from animation history at large.

This same issue comes up in William L. Benzon's review of Takashi Murakami's Little Boy: The Arts Japan's Exploding Subculture book and exhibition, but in a good way: After thoroughly examining Murakami's thesis of how Japan's unique national trauma (the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and their defeat in World War II) explains the frequent use of apocalypse in the country's fiction, he turns around and says he doesn't buy it. Why not? Because "apocalyptic art and fantasy are in no way unique to Japan. For example, apocalypse has been a persistent theme in postwar American culture," despite the fact that the U.S. was never bombed during the war.

It's exactly this kind of intellectual awareness and honesty that anime scholarship (hell, anime fandom) needs more of. There are many things about anime and manga that are unique, and there are many books (including Mechademia) that celebrate that. But if we really want to position these media within the cultures of the world at large, then we need more work that looks at them in relation to what's going on outside of Japan, and there's no better place to do it than within the rigorous structure of academic writing. I'm happy that Mechademia is starting to encourage this kind of thinking, and I hope the next volume takes it further.

Labels: academia, anime, books, manga, reviews, shoujo

I passed by the Drawn and Quarterly bookstore this evening just before their grand opening event and I had to hold onto my wallet for dear life. Drawn and Quarterly began life in the early 1990s as an alternative comics anthology of original and utmost quality, then came the comic book series, and graphic novels that were varied and, may I say in the best possible way, designy. The sense of design that all of the various artists had, in addition to unique styles and great storytelling, set the D+Q selection apart from many of the titles out there, and also, I think, gave courage to many artists and publishers to consider the quality and scope of what could be printed and how it could be told.

Drawn and Quarterly's artists Adrian Tomine, Joe Matt, Chester Brown, Seth, Gary Panter (of Pee Wee's Playhouse) and others offer visuals and stories that surely are fodder for the animator's imagination. [EDIT: I don't just speculate: I forgot that Clyde Henry Productions are creating a live-action/animated film adaptation of Chester Brown's surreal Ed the Happy Clown.] The store does not stop at stocking only their impressive list of titles. Classic graphic novels, like Maus and Love and Rockets, and hidden gems abound.

The more overt animation related selection included titles like John Canemaker's Winsor McCay, as well as McCay reprints, and Nine Lives to Live: A Felix Celebration by Otto Messmer.

Copies of Bone were also available, which I've already mentioned for its appeal to animators and animation fans. The Lute String by Jim Woodring and D+Q's translated Complete Moomin by Tove Jansson (which I happily purchased) also break down the boundaries between comics and animation. Both artists' work directly inspired multiple animated adaptations and often in a different parts of the world than where it was originally created, expanding the stories' reach.

Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore
211 Bernard, Montreal

If you're just getting started, my D+Q recommendations:
Optic Nerve by Adrian Tomine
Jar of Fools by Jason Lutes
The Fixer by Joe Sacco
Louis Riel by Chester Brown

Labels: art, books, comics, Montreal

Last year, the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art (also just known as Museum of Tokyo or MOT) held a notable exhibition, The Art of Disney. A beautiful catalogue was also published for the exhibit featuring works that were once thought lost. This summer, the DVD catalogue of the exhibit was released in Japan as well.

I decided I was going to see whatever exhibit was showing at the museum when I was in Tokyo, as I like to do in any new city I visit. It ended up the major exhibit was also animation-related this year: a retrospective of work by Art Director Kazuo Oga.

Kazuo Oga worked on a diverse animation projects such as Barefoot Gen, Dagger of Kamui and Wicked City before creating the background art for My Neighbor Totoro at Studio Ghibli. He went on to work on all of the subsequent features for the studio, and last year, directed his own film for the studio, Taneyamagahara no Yoru.

The lush scenery he creates with his brush is truly breathtaking, and the museum selection was as dense as an of the green forest background he is known for. The sheer number of pieces was more than I have seen for comparatively-sized art exhibitions of any type, and I have never seen its like for animation artwork, mostly from the Studio Ghibli archives. He captures the spirit of the countryside, but also of everyday Japan with a balance of love and accuracy.

Almost all of the art is unphotographable. Near the end of the exhibit, after a room of multiplane setups, there are a number of backgrounds that are blown up so that people can pose in front of them, but most people just step back in wonder to take a whole new look at the art. (I couldn't help posing with Totoro, though.)

Afterward, everyone was invited to fold an origami Totoro in an open room, with mini-backgrounds. Here's mine.

Like the Art of Disney catalogue, a catalogue has been published for this exhibit as well. A DVD is forthcoming for the end of the year. The exhibit has been extended until September 30. If you find yourself in Tokyo, you won't want to miss it.

Labels: anime, art, books, Disney, events, exhibitions, Japan, Studio Ghibli, Totoro

Review written by Aaron H. Bynum

As profound an impact as Osamu Tezuka has had on the artistic and commercial cultures of manga publishing and the production of Japanese animation, it nevertheless remains true that in no place other than Japan is the late Tezuka acknowledged in scholarly media with constant fervour each passing year. A man whose ambition knew no bounds, Osamu Tezuka is one of Japan's most recognizable icons, while at the same time the nation's best-kept secret. He was a veritable "one-man dream factory," as author and translator Frederik L. Schodt wrote in his new book, The Astro Boy Essays. Known to the Western world mostly through his manga creation of a little rosy-cheeked robot boy named Atom, Osamu Tezuka was an individual of colossal imagination.

Read the review

Labels: anime, astroboy, books, Japan, Osamu Tezuka, reviews

Review by Mark Mayerson

While Pixar is one of the most advanced computer animation facilities in existence, before they bring their programming smarts and processing power to bear, they start with the art.

The Art of Ratatouille concentrates on displaying that art. The book is full of drawings, paintings and sculptures showing how the characters and sets evolved before the nuts and bolts of computer animation were applied.

Read the review

Labels: books, Pixar, reviews

Looks like there are a whole lot of books coming down the pike in the next few months, starting with a wave of computer animation titles in July. One, the second Digital Art Masters volume, is the only one to focus specifically on finished art, while the remainder are how-to guides to Houdini, 3ds Max, Flash, Lightwave and After Effects. A few reissues and new editions are also in the mix from September onward, including a new edition of Animated Films and the paperback version of Japanamerica, in September and November respectively. October's got a nice surprise, though, with a book called The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Short Films—which I hope will tackle its subject matter with a bit more verve than That's Enough Folks, the only other book I'm aware of that exclusively focuses on the subject. Later in the month there's also Jerry Beck's Hanna-Barbera Treasury, 108 pages of finished and pre-production art, which should be just enough to tide us over until February's biography of legendary designer Maurice Noble.

New titles:

July:
7/13 - Houdini on the Spot (paperback) (Book)
7/15 - 3ds Max 9.0: Accelerated (paperback) (Book)
7/15 - Learning Flash CS3 (paperback) (Book)
7/16 - Digital Art Masters: Vol. 2 (paperback) (Book)
7/24 - Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Video Studio Techniques (paperback) (Book)
7/24 - Flash CS3 Professional for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide) (paperback) (Book)
7/25 - Essential LightWave v9: The Fastest and Easiest Way to Master LightWave 3D (paperback) (Book)
7/30 - Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional Classroom in a Book (hardcover) (Book)

August:
8/12 - Animation Now! (Taschen 25th Anniversary) (hardcover) (Book)
8/21 - Berenstain Bears: Get Organized (DVD)
8/21 - Crazy Cartoons (DVD)
8/27 - Machinima For Dummies (paperback) (Book)
8/28 - Bolek & Lolek Are Camping (DVD)
8/28 - Bolek & Lolek Combo Pack (DVD)
8/28 - Bolek & Lolek on Vacation (DVD)
8/28 - Van-Pires Transform: Swarm Storm (DVD)
8/28 - Van-Pires Transform: Uncool Fuel (DVD)

September:
9/3 - Adobe Flash CS3 Professional Studio Techniques (hardcover) (Book)
9/4 - Robot Chicken: Season Two (DVD)
9/4 - Robot Chicken: Seasons One & Two (DVD)
9/10 - Adobe Flash CS3 Professional How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques (paperback) (Book)
9/11 - Fantastic Four Vol. 2 (DVD)
9/17 - Adobe Flash CS3 Revealed (paperback) (Book)
9/18 - Animated Films (Virgin Film Series) (paperback) (Book)
9/18 - Black Lagoon Vol. 3 Limited Collector's Edition (DVD)
9/18 - Body Language: Advanced 3D Character Rigging +CD (paperback) (Book)
9/18 - Do You Know the Milfing Man (Adult) (DVD)
9/18 - Family Guy Vol. 5 (DVD)
9/18 - Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Complete Season 1 (DVD)
9/18 - Josie and the Pussycats: The Complete Series (DVD)
9/18 - Ramen Fighter Miki Vol. 1: Miso Mayhem (DVD)
9/19 - Adobe Flash CS3 Professional: Video Training Book (hardcover) (Book)
9/25 - Anime Studio: The eFrontier Official Guide (paperback) (Book)
9/25 - Cool Devices: The Collection (Adult) (DVD)
9/25 - Imma Youjo: The Erotic Temptress Vol. 2: Perfect Love Doll (Adult) (DVD)
9/25 - The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye Vol. 2: Tending Wounds (DVD)

October:
10/1 - Colored Cartoon, The: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films (hardcover) (Book)
10/9 - Ben 10 Complete Season 2 (DVD)
10/9 - Ben 10 Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD)
10/9 - Metalocalypse Season One (DVD)
10/15 - Flash CS3 Expert Answers (paperback) (Book)
10/16 - Squidbillies: Season One (DVD)
10/23 - Hanna-Barbera Treasury, The (hardcover) (Book)
10/23 - Meet the Robinsons (Blu-ray)
10/23 - Meet the Robinsons (DVD)
10/23 - Rozen Maiden Traumend Vol. 1: Puppet Show (DVD)

November:
11/13 - Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. (paperback) (Book)
11/30 - Adobe After Effects Master Class (paperback) (Book)

December:
12/18 - Rozen Maiden Traumend Vol. 2: Revival (DVD)

February 2008:
2/1 - Stepping into the Picture: Cartoon Designer Maurice Noble (paperback) (Book)
2/6 - Digital Video Essentials: Adobe After Effects 8.0 (paperback) (Book)

Date changes:

November:
11/13 - Basics Animation: Digital Animation (Book)

December:
12/24 - Maya Character Creation (Book)

Labels: books, releases, upcoming releases

Well, that didn't take long. It's only been a few days since ImaginAsian launched their weekday morning anime programming block, and they've already announced the first six DVD releases for the three series (Cat's Eye, Super Dimension Century Orguss and Nobody's Boy Remi). On another front, it looks like there are a couple of good books coming over the next six months. Two in particular, Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution and To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios sound like must-read material.

New titles:

July:
7/10 - Cat's Eye Vol. 1 + series box (DVD)
7/10 - Nobody's Boy Remi Vol. 1 + series box (DVD)
7/10 - Princess Princess Vol. 2: Chorus of Cuties (DVD)
7/10 - Super Dimension Century Orguss Vol. 1 + series box (DVD)
7/24 - Naoyuki Tsuji Animation Collection (DVD)
7/24 - Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Animated Collection (DVD)
7/31 - Cartune Exprez (DVD)
7/31 - Emilys First 100 Days of School (DVD)
7/31 - Hand Maid May Box Set (DVD)
7/31 - Hare+Guu Box Set (DVD)

August:
8/7 - .hack//Roots Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/7 - .hack//Roots Vol. 3 + MP3 case (DVD)
8/7 - Cat's Eye Vol. 2 (DVD)
8/7 - Dick Tracy Show Vol. 1 (DVD)
8/7 - Dick Tracy Show Vol. 2 (DVD)
8/7 - Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (Blu-ray)
8/7 - Godzilla: The Original Animated Series Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/7 - Happy Tree Friends Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/7 - King Kong: The Animated Series Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/7 - Nobody's Boy Remi Vol. 2 (DVD)
8/7 - Simpsons: Complete Tenth Season (DVD)
8/7 - Super Dimension Century Orguss Vol. 2 (DVD)
8/14 - Noein Vol. 5 (DVD)
8/14 - Tokko Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/14 - Trollz 2-Pack: Best Friends/Magic of the Five (DVD)
8/14 - Trollz: Best Friends for Life (DVD)
8/14 - Trollz: Magic of the Five (DVD)
8/16 - Character Emotion in 2D and 3D Animation (paperback) (Book)
8/21 - Big O II Complete Collection (Anime Legends) (DVD)
8/21 - Casper's Scare School (DVD)
8/21 - Galaxy Angel AA Vol. 2 (DVD)
8/21 - Kimba Mini Set Vol. 1 (DVD)
8/28 - ATOM Vol. 1: Touch of Paine (DVD)
8/28 - ATOM Vol. 2: Enter the Dragon (DVD)
8/28 - Curious George Takes a Job and More Monkey Business (DVD)
8/28 - Growning Up Creepie Vol. 1: Creepie Creatures (DVD)
8/28 - Land Before Time: Amazing Adventures (DVD)
8/28 - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Treat (DVD)
8/28 - Rozen Maiden Vol. 3: War of the Rose (DVD)
8/28 - Samurai Jack Season 4 (DVD)
8/28 - Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles: Seeds of Revolution Vol. 3 (DVD)
8/28 - Tutenstein Vol. 3: The Fearless Pharaoh (DVD)
8/30 - Anime Intersections: Tradition and Innovation in Theme and Technique (paperback) (Book)

September:
9/1 - Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution (paperback) (Book)
9/4 - Alvin and the Chipmunks: Scare-Riffic Double Feature (DVD)
9/4 - Chill Out Scooby-Doo! (DVD)
9/4 - Inu Yasha Complete Movies Box Set (DVD)
9/4 - Inu Yasha Season 4 Box Set (DVD)
9/4 - Inu Yasha Season 4 Box Set Deluxe Edition (DVD)
9/4 - Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (DVD)
9/4 - Naruto Vol. 15 (DVD)
9/11 - Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Complete Season 2 (DVD)
9/11 - Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2 (DVD)
9/11 - Tom & Jerry: Spotlight Collection Vol. 3 (DVD)
9/11 - Tom & Jerry: Spotlight Collection Vols. 1-3 (DVD)
9/18 - Full Moon Vol. 6 (DVD)
9/18 - Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (DVD)
9/25 - Bleach Vol. 6 (DVD)
9/25 - Hikaru no Go Vol. 10 (DVD)
9/25 - Naruto Vol. 16 (DVD)
9/25 - Ranma 1/2: Season 3 Box Set: Hard Battle (DVD)

October:
10/1 - Computer Animation, Second Edition: Algorithms and Techniques (hardcover) (Book)

November:
11/1 - To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios (hardcover) (Book)
11/16 - Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (paperback) (Book)
11/19 - Foundation Flash Animation Techniques (paperback) (Book)

Date changes:

June:
6/21 - House of 100 Tongues (Adult) (DVD)

August:
8/7 - GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka Semester 1 (DVD)
8/14 - Initial D Season 2 Box Set (DVD)
8/14 - Slayers Season 1 (DVD)

September:
9/14 - Data-Driven 3D Facial Animation (paperback) (Book)
9/18 - Basics Animation: Scriptwriting (Book)
9/30 - Opportunities in Cartooning and Animation Careers (paperback) (Book)

October:
10/31 - Learning with Animation: Research and Implications for Design (paperback) (Book)

December:
12/26 - From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Culture in the Mind of the West (paperback) (Book)

Indefinitely delayed:
12/12 - Boobalicious Vol. 2 (Adult) (DVD)
12/12 - Break Time Vol. 1 (Adult) (DVD)
12/12 - Dark Chapel Vol. 2 (Adult) (DVD)
12/12 - Insatiable Vol. 2 (Adult) (DVD)
12/12 - Ringetsu Vol. 3 (Adult) (DVD)

Labels: anime, books, Osamu Tezuka, releases, upcoming releases

Review by Mark Mayerson

Understanding how to use tools to reach a goal is the basis of the animator's craft. The trick is to know why you're doing something and sometimes a computer can get in the way. Character Animation: 2D Skills for Better 3D works both the 2D and 3D sides of the street, using drawings to get the reader to think about motion principles before tackling the complexities of software.

Read the review

Labels: books, CGI, computer animation, reviews

Ed Hooks is an actor and acting coach who has been helping animators understand the importance of acting theory to improve their craft. He is also the author of Acting for Animators, the first book that was written solely on the subject and has taught the principles of the book to animators the world over.

He will be in Montreal on June 11 at Centre NAD to teach his Acting for Animators workshop. Ed was kind enough to answer a few questions I had for him.

Tamu Townsend: The first group you instructed were animators on the crew of Antz. How has your workshop changed since then? Besides all of the knowledge you have conferred to animators, what have they taught you and how has it affected your workshops and approach?

Ed Hooks: In 1998, Pacific Data Images had recently been acquired by DreamWorks and was in pre-production for its first feature, Antz. Ken Beilenberg, the Special Effects director, happened to be one of my students in my ongoing Palo Alto acting class for actors. One night after class, he asked me if I would be interested in teaching an acting class on-site for the animators at PDI [Pacific Data Images]. He explained that the animators at PDI were working on their first feature film, that they had previously only worked on commercials, and they needed acting training. I'm the kind of person who rarely says "no" to something, and so I agreed.

Mind you, I did not know squat about animation at that point. I knew I was a good acting teacher, but that was as far as it went. After that talk with Ken, I shortly thereafter wound up standing in front of a group of about 25 animators at PDI. I made the mistake of trying to teach them acting the same way I taught it in my acting-for-actors classes. I was arrogant enough to belive that there was only one way to teach actnng. I brought in scripts, had the animators get up and "cold read" them, assigned them scene partners and told them to go home and rehearse, to commit scenes to memory. By the third week, I had lost about half the class. That was when the Human Resources people at PDI took me to lunch.

"This isn't working, Ed," they explained.

"I can see that," I replied.

"But Ken says you are a good acting teacher and so, if you want to try something else, we'll keep paying you."

I went back to the animators and started all over again. "I know a lot about acting," I said, "But I obviously do not know much about animation. If you guys will tell me exactly what you do, I will do my best to bring what I know to bear on your work process." And so they sat me down at their computers and showed me what they did, which was an eye-opener to me.

I went back to the drawing board. How could I teach acting theory to people who did not, in fact, want to be actors? Very few animators even fantasized about appearing on Broadway or in a Robert DeNiro movie. Indeed, probably more than eighty percent of the animators were too shy to get up in front of people. This was a different situation than I faced in my regular acting classes for actors. I decided to teach the animators at PDI with a combination of lectures on basic acting theory, supported by clips from live-action movies.

That was how it all started. Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. What I do today in my Acting for Animators workshops had its beginnings back there at PDI in 1998. I have expanded and refined on it, of course, but the basics of the class began there. Since those early days at PDI, I have taught for most of the major animation studios and game companies. Each time, I try to improve on what I did the last time.

A year or so after I taught for PDI/DreamWorks, I started looking for books that addressed the difference between actors and animators. There were none, and that is what led to Acting for Animators. To this very day, I continue to refine what goes on in the class, but I now have a concrete understanding of what animators do and how it differs from what stage actors do. I continue to teach stage actors but, when I teach animators, I essentially change hats. Actors operate in the "present moment"; animators, by contrast, do not really have a present moment. Animators have twenty-four-frames-make-a-second. Animators have the illusion of a present moment. One must therefore teach acting theory to actors in a different way than one teaches it to animators. I learned the lessson, with the help of PDI/DreamWorks, the hard way.

TT: Do you feel that animators that use different techniques - 3D, 2D, stop-motion - will get the same use from the course? Are there certain components that may speak more or be more important to one person because of the technique he or she uses?

EH: Acting theory is acting theory, and it doesn't matter what animation technique you use: it is all about storytelling, and the process is ancient, going all the way back to Aristotle. I teach that the origins of acting lie in shamanism. An actor steps in front of the tribe, draws a circle in the dirt and says, in effect, "Listen to me. I have something to tell you." The tribe gathers round, hoping to learn something about survival on earth. The story is everything. It doesn't matter if you are using 2D, 3D, stop motion or... whatever. If you have something useful to say to the tribe, it will be well taken. If you do not, it will not.

TT: Mark Mayerson would like to know, when you are doing talks at studios, if you make recommendations for keeping characters consistent given that multiple animators will be working with the same character. That's obviously a problem that live actors don't have to deal with.

EH: I recommend that, at the beginning of a project, the animation director establish a "character bible" that contains everything there is to know about each individual character. Usually, the character bible is a three-ring notebook. It contains drawings of the characters, biographies, descriptions, et cetera. All of the animators working on a particular character should refer back to that bible. It should be kept in some place that is open to the entire production team.

TT: Do you have a specific teaching experience you would like to share?

EH: One of my students- Sharon Coleman- received an Academy Award nomination in 2006. Ms. Coleman was in my class in Swansea, South Wales and again at the National Film School in the UK. I had the opportunity to monitor her progress, from initial idea all the way to final 2D execution of Badgered. I was fortunate to be able to give her advice at several different stages of development. Sharon is a brilliant storyteller and animator, currently working for DreamWorks in Los Angeles, but at that time she was a student. I am proud of my input into her project.

My worst experience would probably be at a game company- not to be named. I was hired to teach an Acting for Animators class and, before the class started, the company owner took me into his office to explain what he wanted. He showed me a sports video, a football thing. He explained that he had himself performed as a mo-cap [motion capture] performer for some of the crashes and falls. He wanted me to teach his animators to do "good acting" such as he was doing in his mo-cap suit. Oh, Jesus! The man was very nice, but he didn't have a clue about acting! Taking falls on-camera had nothing whatever to do with acting theory. I can remember grinning at him and assuring him that I would teach them how to do it right. Then I went into workshop and taught my regular class.

TT:After Montreal, where will you go next in 2007?

EH: For certain, I will be working at Swansea Animation Days in Swansea, South Wales, and at Animex in Teesside, England and at FMX in Stuttgart, Germany. It is looking like I will be going to Australia for the third time in late September. The last time I taught in Oz was for Animal Logic, which was at the time working on Happy Feet.

Labels: books, interviews, Montreal, schools, workshops

I've been remiss, because I haven't yet mentioned that Bitter Films Volume One: 1995-2005, the collected films of Don Hertzfeldt, is one of the funniest and most enjoyable DVDs I've watched in a while. You could make a convincing argument that shorts like Billy's Balloon (in which a rogue balloon beats the tar out of its toddler owner) and catchphrase-inspiring lines like "My anus is bleeding!" place Hertzfeldt's work squarely in the frat-boy demographic, and I'd have a hard time disagreeing with you. The thing is, Hertzfeldt combines delightfully deadpan dialogue with a minimalist (read: stick-figure) yet expressive drawing style and a real talent for planning technically elaborate sequences that fit the story without screaming "Aren't I awesome?" Dive in to the copious extras and you'll probably come away more impressed than when you went in.

Speaking of DVD compilations and independent animators, you don't want to miss Liquid Tales, the collection of Patrick Smith's work. In some ways Smith's work is the opposite of Hertzfeldt's—it's colourful and scratchy and distinctively rendered—but it's no less enjoyable or personal. But hey, what say I show rather than tell: check out Puppet, his latest film, on Yahoo.

I've always said that a key difference between live-action filmmaking and animation filmmaking is that it's possible, though unlikely, that a live-action director can shoot a ten-minute film in ten minutes, while it's utterly impossible for an animation director to do so. J.Walt Adamczyk, who contributed to our January 2006 issue, insists on proving me wrong. His Spontaneous Fantasia, a one-hour animated program that he creates live, will be showing in a 180° full-dome theatre at the Glendale Community College Planetarium for four days in June, for a mere ten bucks ($6 for the under-twelves).

Don't know how this book slipped under my radar, but it looks fascinating. Orwell Subverted: The CIA and the Filming of Animal Farm digs into the CIA's hand in the creation of Halas and Batchelor's 1954 feature adaptation of George Orwell's novel. Author Daniel Leab not only dug through production archives and interviews, but CIA papers uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act. By the way, you can get 20% off the rather hefty $55 list price if you call 1-800-326-9180 (it's toll free) and mention the code OSRC.

Labels: books, CGI, computer animation, features, reviews, shorts