Schoolhouse Rock "Windy"

OK. Haven't added a post in a while and I will say it is because we have been busy working away. That's partially true. The other reason is we just find it hard to get used to this new idea of having to blog about our work. Does anyone even read this stuff?
Anyway, as mentioned previously, we completed a Schoolhouse Rock cartoon for wind energy and it is supposed to be out on DVD March 31st as part of Schoolhouse Rock EARTH.
Here is the storyboard that we did for the cartoon. We did all the designs except for the Wind and the Windmill which were designed by Phil Kimmelman and Phil gave us a lot of freedom with the board. We tried to be as faithful as we could to the original cartoons and had a lot of fun with the process.

Bolt! in 3D

I took my kids to see Bolt the other day, Disney's latest CGI feature. Not a Disney/Pixar film just Disney and it seems that Disney CG may be finally making a mark of it's own. It was thoroughly enjoyable for me as well as the kids. The skewering of Hollywood (smarmy agent, pigeons who write) were all spot on and the dog who thinks he really has superpowers plot was fun. The acting was nicely done and I quickly forgot that John Travolta was the voice of a cuddly little dog. The only thing that I found annoying was the whole 3D aspect. I guess we could have seen it in regular good old-fashioned 2D but I figured it would be much more fun watching a movie with uncomfortable plastic glasses on my face. There really was no reason to see this in 3D. Yes, maybe it was slightly crisper and nice to see some of the detail in 3D but there was nothing in the film making that seemed to make it tailor made for 3D and that's fine.
The only truly good use of 3D I ever found was in the Muppets 3D show at Disney MGM where a little CG character comes up to your face and says you are the only one in the theater he is really talking to. That was clever and great use of the gimmick. Worst use of 3D ever? Captain EO. That is the closest I ever want to come to seeing Michael Jackson up close and in person. Why hasn't he sued his plastic surgeon yet?

What are we doing?

What are we doing, you ask? Well, glad you felt comfortable to come right out and ask. We have actually been very busy the last month or so and hope to continue being busy into the New Year. We have a few different projects we are currently working on but that I cannot say too much about right now.
One of the jobs we are wrapping up animation on is a new Schoolhouse Rock cartoon for Phil Kimmelman one of the original SR animation producers. Phil recently got the order for a bunch more cartoons on the environment and we are thrilled to be able to be one of the studios to help Phil out. We are doing one on wind energy and it's been a blast boarding, designing and animating. The whole batch of cartoons will supposedly be coming out on DVD in March '09. It's great getting to work on these cartoons again. David worked on three Schoolhouse Rock cartoons (Mr. Morton, Busy P's and Dollars and Sense) back in the early 90's when they decide to resurrect the shorts. We'll reveal more about the other projects as they get rolling along if the powers that be let us. Some people can be so secretive.
In the meantime here are what the two main characters (Windy and the Windmill) look like as designed by Phil Kimmelman.