“The Princess and The Frog,” our return to traditional animation directed by John Musker and Ron Clements, is in theaters now. Our teams are hard at work on our next CG feature “Rapunzel,” directed by Byron Howard and Nathan Greno.

We have a number of current openings at our Burbank, CA studio:

CG Character Animator
Lighters
Lighting & Rendering Pipeline TDs
Assistant Technical Directors, Lighting & Rendering
Technical Directors
Production Tools Software Engineer
Senior Development Software Engineer, Performance Optimization
Senior Software Engineer, Animation Technology
Senior Software Engineer, QE/QA
Technical Support Engineers
To apply and for more information, please visit https://careers.disneyanimation.com/job_groups/

Thanks—and Happy New Year!

www.DisneyAnimation.com
www.twitter.com/WaltDisneyAnim

This site is not dead, just on hiatus, but should be coming back up, new and improved in January 2009. Look for a tons of new things then!

-karlyl

-karlyl

Click here for more info!

SAN DIEGO, California, January 10, 2008 – The American Design Awards is inviting graphic and web designers from around the world to participate in its 2008 Winter Semi-Annual Design Contest.  The Winter and Summer Semi-Annual Design Contests which are now in their sixth year, are the flagship of the American Design Awards which attract an average of five thousand participants annually.

Deadline to submit entries for the 2008 Winter Semi-Annual Design Contest is February 15, 2008.  Applications must be submitted online through the American Design Awards website.

The top three entries in each of the twenty-two design categories will be considered for the Award of Design Excellence – this award is presented to designers or design firms who display outstanding design and creative abilities, while maintaining high ethical standards.

The American Design Awards mission is to provide a fair and ethical platform for all graphic and web designers of varying experience levels and disciplines to compete on, while providing a worldwide audience to showcase to.

With the ever-changing landscape of the design industry, the American Design Awards is also expanding its code of ethics by which designers are graded and judged.  “Ethical standards have always been valued and exercised in our competitions; this is by far the most important qualification of any designer entering the awards program” said Kevin Javid, Vice President of the American Design Awards.

“Our organization’s mission and the purpose of our events are to strengthen and emphasize ethical practices in our participants, benefiting both the designer as well as the design industry as a whole.”

For more information regarding the entry process, including the various design categories, entry fees, and timelines, please click here.

The current theme is: I Am Thinking..

To celebrate Allmightys one year anniversary, we are launching an open t-shirt design ideas competition. We want your ideas, about anything and everything. Show us what you are thinking, what interests you and what we should be thinking. Anything goes!

Important Dates:
Competition Announced: 7th January 2008
Submission Deadline: 11th February 2008, 23.00 GMT
Voting/Scoring Starts: 12th February 2008, AM GMT
Voting/Scoring Ends: 3rd March 2008, 23.00 GMT

SUBMIT DESIGNS

New to T-Shirt Design? Why not check out our T-Shirt Design Guide.
Please also make sure you read the rules.

Spline Doctors — Has several different contributors (who are teachers, apparently!), all discussing animation, from techniques to thought processes to interviews and more. They have tons of links to sites of interest. Definitely a place to visit if you’re into the production of animation.

Flip — This blog is written by an animator who has been working for six years and includes tip and tricks of the trade. It looks to be computer animation, so it’s definitely an interesting blog to note!

“The Future of Character Animation: What Do New Technologies Mean to Artists?”

This panel is designed to address the changes that advances in animation technologies are making to how animation is produced and what that means for animation artists. Performance capture techniques are here to stay, but it has also been repeatedly shown that more traditional means of bringing characters to life still have a major role to play in animation production.

What does all of this mean to the artists, performers, actors and technologists who must work together? How do studios/directors/producers/supervisors decide which techniques will bring their vision to the screen? It is our hope that this panel will creatively enlighten us with discussions of real solutions and guidelines for the individuals who do and love animation.

MODERATOR:
Frank Gladstone (Gladstone Film, Inc)

PANELISTS:
Dave Barclay (Perform FX) – Puppet Capture Technology
Steve Chiodo (Chiodo Brothers) – Stop Motion Animation
Ken Duncan (Duncan Studio) – 3D Key Frame Animation
Don Hahn (Disney Producer) – 2D Hand Drawn Animation
Kenn McDonald (Sony Pictures Imageworks) – Motion Capture Technology
Michelle Papandrew (Cartoon Network Studios) – Flash Animation

DATE : SATURDAY, Jan 19, 2007
TIME: 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
PLACE: Sony Pictures Imageworks (Ince Theater)
9050 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA

FEES:

VES Members log on to: www.visualeffectssociety.com to RSVP
Free for VES members. All unions, organizations & students discount fee @ $10.
All Non-Members fee @ $20
RSVP: Contact VES at (818) 981-7861 to RSVP
VES Members can use the link for the VES website to RSVP

Comic Con International is open for online regs as well and is also doing their artist alley deal — but act fast! Word is that the cheap hotels are already booked and alley tables are first come, first served! Note that their are links to the art show and art auction on the artist alley page. Have fun folks!

Note: For both venues, a California Seller’s Permit is required!

Snippet:

Marketing your illustrations

All your marketing efforts should point back to your web site. A web site is a place where you can centralize information, keep it up to date, and gives the client a few actionable options (contact you via email, phone, subscribe to your RSS feed so they are updated whenever you post new work, book mark a piece of art they like, etc).

So the first thing you do is make sure you have a good web site.

—
Informational

You can save yourself a lot of extra work by asking a few questions up front.

First, get the basic information:

* Dimensions
* Resolution
* Color or Black and white
* Important Dates
* etc

If this is the first time working with this person ask them:

* Why did you choose me for this project?(I like your concepts, I like your painterly style, your work is cute and works well for teenage girl magazines, your style is rough and dark and works well for this editorial piece on drug abuse, etc)
* Which pieces of work do you particularly like and why?(I like the man on the boat cause it’s funny, I like all the texture in the piece you did for Converse, etc)
* How did you discover my work?

This will give you a better idea of what the client likes about your work, why they chose you for this particular project and what they expect.

——

Check out the entire article!

Independent Exposure 2008: 13th Season

A Worldwide Screening Program of International Short Films, Videos and Digital Works

Curated by Microcinema International and Asthmatic Kitty Records

Presented by Panasonic Broadcast

Deadline For Submission: February 29, 2008

Entrance Fee: $US 5

Screenings: San Francisco, Asthmatic Kitty Unusual Animals Events, Other Events Worldwide

Grand Prize:
Panasonic AG-HSC1U 1/4″ 3-CCD High Definition Video Camera
Selected Asthmatic Kitty Discography (20 most recent releases) and Garments

Second Prize:
Selected MicrocinemaDVD.com Catalog ($500 worth)
Selected Asthmatic Kitty Discography (10 most recent releases) and Garments

Third Prize:
Selected MicrocinemaDVD.com Catalog ($250 worth)
Selected Asthmatic Kitty Discography (5 most recent releases) and Garments

What We Are Looking For: We are considering short video, film and digital-media submissions of 15 minutes or less and are seeking narrative, artistic, humorous, dramatic, animation, documentary, experimental, alternative, avant-garde, ambient, music videos, and underground works of all genres, formats, and styles.

We are primarily interested in innovative artistic presentation and storytelling.

Please read our Submission FAQ and Terms

To submit, go through the Checklist, then submit your information online and you can also pay your fee online.

For extra information, e-mail: submissions@microcinema.com

They met in Houston, Texas for a collaborative all-day, all-ages, all-free, all-good five-band gig called Unusual Animals. But that short rendezvous was not enough for either Microcinema or Asthmatic Kitty, so after a few carefully written telegrams and telephone calls, the two are getting together again to collectively present Independent Exposure 2008.

Since its inception in 1996, Independent Exposure has been a curatorial effort designed to bring the newest and most innovative short films to an untapped, broader audience by using non-traditional venues. These showcases are exhibited in non-traditional venues or “microcinemas” such as galleries, cafes, bars, nightclubs, outdoors, and other alternative spaces that support the independent arts. To date, Independent Exposure has been presented hundreds of times in 44 countries plus Palestine and Antarctica and at base camp on Mt. Everest.

Beyond regular San Francisco and Houston events, screenings in 2007 included a film festival in Ithaca, NY, a full screening of every 2007 IE edition in Alaska, a widely covered Halloween screening in San Francisco, a showing of films at Virgin Mobile Fest and a screening of Independent Exposure at one of Asthmatic Kitty Record’s curated Unusual Animals show in Houston.

Since 2005, Independent Exposure has teamed up with a partner to curate the screening programs and select prize winners and a “best-of” selection. Recent partners include Addictive TV and Hal Hartley.

Asthmatic Kitty is currently one of the most influential independent record labels in the United States, and is an ideal co-curator for Independent Exposure 2008. “From the beginning ‘musical’ film and video have played a central role in our program,” says founder Patrick Kwiatkowski. “So a curator with an eye for music is going to yield an interesting program. Asthmatic Kitty is less a label than a curator of music, bands, and musicians with a focused, yet evolving mission. They are a perfect partner and I can’t wait to see how they apply themselves to the film arts.”

“Microcinema mirrors the Asthmatic Kitty values of community and a love for innovation and creativity. Within minutes it was obvious that they were a family that we wanted to marry into,” said A&R/Development Director Michael Kaufmann

Asthmatic Kitty also brings a festival component to the 2008 series. The label hosts “Unusual Animals” in various cities around the country. It is a curated showcase of regional musical talent and in 2008 a film component will be added.

About Asthmatic Kitty – asthmatickitty.com

Born in 1999, Asthmatic Kitty Records was originally conceived as a platform for musical projects by a community of artists from Holland, Michigan, a small city on the shoreLake Michigan. Some were Holland natives, and others had come to attend local colleges and universities. While the original Holland nucleus has now dispersed to various parts of the country, the fellowship is still growing, with new friends and shared projects with other independent labels. Asthmatic Kitty is now based in Lander, Wyoming, Indianapolis, Indiana and New York City.

Current artists on the label include: Bunky – Castanets – Cryptacize – Future Rapper, et al. – Half-handed Cloud – Liz Janes – My Brightest Diamond – Rafter – Chris Schlarb – Shapes and Sizes – Sufjan Stevens – The Curtains.

Asthmatic Kitty was named after Sara, a voluptuous orange and white longhair who wandered out of the woods in 1995, pregnant, starving, and afflicted with various parasites and ailments, including feline asthma. Although she still wheezes a bit, especially when being chased by her sister Tabby, Sara today enjoys a healthy and happy life of luxury. Cast-off animals make the best pets!

About Microcinema International – www.microcinema.com

Microcinema’s first activity was producing Independent Exposure. From our activities in presenting this program a film distribution business was born.

Microcinema International is now a leading specialty distributor of the moving image arts. Microcinema International specializes in the acquisition, exhibition, and distribution of independently produced works of an artistic and socially-relevant nature. Microcinema’s mission is to seek out, curate, exhibit, promote, and distribute compelling works to a broad audience via existing and emerging mediums. Through Microcinema’s own DVD label Blackchair Collection and Microcinema International DVD, a unique and diverse catalogue of international DVD titles are distributed into retail, wholesale, online, and institutional sales channels worldwide.

– —

info taken from Drawn! the illustration and cartooning blog 

From their about page:

Artistaday.com’s goal is simple. We feel artists are under-valued, under-exposed, and generally under-appreciated. We want to bring attention to artists that otherwise don’t get the attention they deserve. If we can bring their art to one person that would have otherwise missed the opportunity to see it, we feel like we have made a contribution to the art community. If you like the artist’s work, take a second to leave a comment to tell them so. If you don’t, feel free to tell them that as well (constructive criticism is always appreciated). We don’t intend to showcase all the artist’s work, in fact we only show one or two images by the artist. Be sure to continue through to the artist’s website to find more of their work.