Friday, August 28, 2020

Ed Counts, Animator

We lose track of some folks, and then discover the lost track will be forever derailed. I met Ed Counts at an animation retreat in 1998 where we swapped techniques and tapes. We had some nice conversations after that about his experience getting Stephen Webber as a composer for his (then) latest project, the mysterious recording process at a remote Skywalker Sound studio, how he aged his print - and how exhausted his dot matrix printer *and* his daughter as his enlisted colorist. The result was "Zoetrobics," and until I can find my VHS copy of his work (Joey Learns to Fly, some Sesame Street clips), this youtube link will have to suffice.
I discovered today that Ed apparently passed away in 2009, at the age of 63. He had been instructing animation courses at Western Kentucky University. Here is "Zoetrobics," from 1998:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJwDrCS6JQk

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Another 1979 revisit - experimenting with color balance filters and PD music

Two minutes of your life you'll never get back:


Vegas Studio V15 (anything after that is a hard drive suck!) and music from an Edison diamond disc from 1924.  Don't snore too loudly, you'll wake the neighbors....

Friday, August 21, 2020

Another GIF test...

...eventually, these will be strung together into an incoherent narrative... it's all the rage these days... 



Thursday, August 20, 2020

1971 - Trying to Merge Chaucer and Marx

I meant well.  2000 drawings later, still didn't know what it meant.  But this bit was worth saving, IMHO.
Goodbye, Mr. Marx.  I feel fortunate to have stomped on the same planet as you for 22 years.



Thursday, August 13, 2020

When I Should Have Been Studying Biochemistry

The Kreb Cycle was so convoluted for finals week, I typed this instead, with a 20 year old's obsession with the Marx Brothers and their (then) recent biography by Joe Adamson.  It may have been printed somewhere, but if so, they had the good sense not to digitize it for future review by Russian trolls.