Post 545 - ASIFA International Announces Its 2023 International Animation Day Poster

 

(from Bri Yarhouse, IAD coordinator) 

Announcing the 2023 International Animation Day poster designed and illustrated by the legendary Georges Schwizgebel!

Born in 1944, Switzerland. 1960-65 School of Fine Arts and Decorative Arts, in 1970 he founded Studio GDS and began producing and directing animated shorts. From The Flight of Icarus (1974) to Darwin’s Notebook (2020), he has directed around twenty films, almost all of which have won international awards. Two appear on the list of the 100 most outstanding animated films established in 2006 at the Annecy festival, 78 Tours (1985) and The Ride to the Abyss (1992).

About IAD:
The International Non-Profit animation group ASIFA (Association International du Film d’Animation) created International Animation Day (IAD) in 2002, honoring the birth of animation. IAD recognizes the first public performance of projected moving images: Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optique in Paris, on the 28th October 1892.

ASIFA coordinates and helps promote the free exchange of films with IAD celebrations all over the world, putting the art of animation in the limelight in a global celebration of animation.
ASIFA, founded in 1960, and chartered under UNESCO, strives to unite the world in peace and mutual understanding across all borders by celebrating our uniqueness and shared humanity through the art of animation. For more information see ASIFA.net

Post 490 - International Animation Day - Celebrated a bit early in Edmore - October 23, 2022

Watching the student showreel from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant:

 

"The Magician's Cat" - tribute to Georges Melies by Aris Melachroinos of Greece

 

More of that frisky feline!

 

A modest display featuring Winsor McCay

 

And only a mile away from his father's final resting place:

Lesson learned from the venue - get a better projection screen!

 

Post 487 - Animation Celebration In Edmore Michigan Sunday October 23, 2-4pm

 Local Animation Day Celebration to Highlight Historic Animator
Winsor McCay Had Connection to Montcalm County and Edmore

    Each year in October, the international association of animators known as ASIFA celebrates the anniversary of the first theatrical exhibition of projected animation.
    That first theatrical exhibition occurred nine years before Walt Disney was born.
    ASIFA’s International Animation Day (IAD), commemorates that primal evening in Emile Reynaud's Parisian Theatre Optique in October of 1892.  This is ASIFA’s 21st celebration, returning to face-to-face gatherings after two years of on-line conferences.  International events and showings are being planned throughout the month of October.
    Reynaud’s projector was his unique invention, combining mirrors, magic lanterns, and a pair of film reels cranked back and forth like a modern nightclub DJ.   His hundreds of hand-inked drawings on a perforated film strip presented tales of a clown and his dogs, “Poor Pierrot,” and a really good beer.
    When the Lumiere brothers began their 35mm filmed “realities” a few years later, Reynaud abandoned his work, saddened audiences were more thrilled by oncoming trains than by his animated stories.  
    Animation as entertainment re-emerged as early filmmakers deconstructed the primitive projections in the early 1900s, and that caught the eye of Michigan native Winsor McCay, who had grown up in Spring Lake and Stanton, setting a restless pen to paper and becoming a published illustrator by age 11.  
    His father, working as a real estate agent in Edmore, sent his restless son from their Stanton farm to Ypsilanti to learn business, but young McCay took a single class on perspective instead and ultimately began a breathtaking series of fantasy comic pages for Hearst in New York.  During his lightning sketch performances in vaudeville, he witnessed early experiments from the Edison and Gaumont studios and decided to breathe life into his “Little Nemo,” show “How a Mosquito Operates,” and create an early masterpiece of interactive theater, “Gertie the Dinosaur.”  By 1914, he had crafted work at a level that emerging studios would not approach for nearly a generation.
    The commercialization of his art, restrictions from Hearst, and the advent of sound have, sadly, made McCay relatively unknown today.  After McCay died in 1934, Disney took McCay’s son, the model for “Nemo,” on a tour through his new California studio.  “This,” said Disney, “should have all been your father’s.”
    McCay’s father and other family members are buried in Edmore, surveying the traffic along Wyman road.  
    “What better place than Edmore to celebrate animation and McCay,” notes ASIFA chapter secretary Jim Middleton, also an area coordinator for international animation day.  “He remains an inspiration to this day for many aspiring animators.”  An overview of Winsor McCay’s work will be among the presentations for international animation day, and many examples of his comic art will be on display in an upcoming event in Edmore, Michigan.  The animation day celebration films will include student works from around the state, independent productions from ASIFA members, and animation examples from Australia, across Europe, China, and the middle east.   
    The free event will be held at the Curtis Community Building in Edmore, just off M-46, from 2-4pm on Sunday, October 23.

Post 444 - 2021 International Animation Day Celebration from ASIFA Central

International Animation Day commemorates the first public performance by Charles-Émile Reynaud of his Théâtre Optique at the Grevin Museum in Paris.  That October 28, 1892 premiere represented the beginning of modern animation, and the date has been celebrated by animators with showings and performances since 2002, coordinated by ASIFA International and its many chapters around the globe.

Animation? You want ANIMATION?!? For the International Animation Day (IAD) celebration this Thursday, October 28th, ASIFA Central is providing a Vimeo-hosted program of 17 short animated films from the local group and the WHOLE WORLD. This program is available for single or group viewing, and if you are interested in accessing this LIMITED TIME OFFER to create an instant 'toon party or fill in an hour of cultural class time, here's your chance! Seating is limited to only the first 300 who apply! Who do you have to kidnap for this? How many cartloads of zinc must you provide to the program coordinators? IT'S FREE. FREE FREE FREE. "All you have to do is email the ASIFA Central Secretary, Jim Middleton, at jim.middletonrx@gmail,com and ask for the SECRET INSTRUCTIONS on WHAT IT TAKES TO BE THE TALK OF YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. Why, just look at what you can see --

THE PROGRAM (61 minutes, 66 for the "Special Edition")

1. Toast for ASIFA - Deanna Morse, Christine Veras, Steve Leeper, et al - 1:11

2. Two Little People - ASIFA Australia - Xin Li - 3:00

3. Springtime in CoVid Land - Julie Goldstein - 2:08

4. Mala - Too Otaghia Group - Iran - 2:15

5. Large Scale Absurdities Volume 3 - “Docile Town” - Kimonos Animation Studio - Charalambos Margaritis - ASIFA Hellas - 4:21

6. Horsepower - Christine Veras, et al - 1:00

7. Notun Fasal (New Harvest) - Sovan Dutta - ASIFA India - 2:30

8. Tchisti - Sarah Tabibzadeh - Iran - 4:25

9. Candy Shop - Patrick Smith - ASIFA South - 2:30

10. Espresso Doppio - Mika Koskinen - Finland - 3:54

11. Eli - Jeff Martell - ASIFA South - 3:32

12. Connecting - Melissa Bouwman - 2:06

13. Happy Banana - Ali Raies - Iran - 8:20

14. Animated Doodle - ASIFA Hellas - 4:00

15. NamaStay - Margo Pierce - ASIFA South - 2:45

16. time passing : passing time - Polly Wolly Doodlers (Jim Middleton, Deanna Morse, Gretchen Vinnedge, Suzanne Zack) - 5:05

17. A Tale of Self-Preservation - Shannon Fleming - ASIFA South - 5:30

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!! If you act before midnight, December 15, you'll also get access to the SPECIAL COORDINATOR CUT, featuring a "you are there" installation experience for "time passing : passing time" as seen by DOZENS UPON DOZENS of Cichlids at the Water Colors Aquarium Gallery during the recent ArtPrize in Grand Rapids!

You will curl your toes with GLEE. You'll want to cavort! Frolic! Scamper!

But you must act NOW! (Well, before December 15th, anyway) Drop an email to jim.middletonrx@gmail.com while he is still permitted access to a keyboard!

Post 395 - 2021 Barely Winter ASIFA Central Newsletter

 Because typing is always good therapy!

ASIFA Central Notes - 22 February 2020

So IAD is coming in October, we have up to 15 international participants, a deadline of 1 June 2020, and what are the rambling notes to that effect?

Wooden Denture Day 2020 - Saturday group chat Google land, beginning at 3pm and running to about 3:45pm.  22 February 2020

Present: Jim and Brad, Deanna and Gretchen, Mike Long, Josh, Christine Veras, Steve Leeper in between storyboard discussions,
THE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT OF 2 MINUTES IN DURATION FOR THIS ASIFA YEAR OF ANIMATION
Think in terms of the Swiss IAD project, a 50 minute epic with various styles and stories linked by a common thread.

Great Recreation of an animation that was lost
In the past the through line was the poster…
Maybe a line connects us
To this day, a spoken word piece, poetry jam the Mi

To this day Shane Koyzan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa1iS1MqUy4


Think of a project that represents the region, but can be expanded to represent the interests of ASIFA internationally.

Food, music. Art - what is regional to us in the midwest? Tater tot hot dish?
Well, that brings up - Memories of food
While 2 minutes is short, it is also 4 tv commercials - the 2 minute limit is a strict limit, so if 120 seconds for ASIFA Central is the limit, and there are a dozen participants, that means each one will only get a 10 second spot to get the thought across.

Think of a Pot Luck - Pick Your Poison - MOVEABLE FEAST

A List of Notions
Theme and structure - In the past, we have used the poster, and this time we can go of on our own with the interconnection.  (We don’t have access to the poster as yet)
We create a through-line (Steve L) - maybe it’s a literal line... Steve thinks of a film To This Day, Shane Koyzan (above)  - spoken word artist, poetry jam - but the through line is provided by the spoken piece.  Covers the gamut - it doesn’t matter, as long as the artist sticks to the soundtrack.
What’s it like to live in the midwest? (We’ll include Texas/Brazil in this - we are an extended family, this ASIFA central)
Potholes -  Corn Cars and Cows...
The questions asked and we see the animated response.
At the end, the spoken and read words - a la Norman McLaren and the end of “Neighbors”
Recipes from the home land
Tater tot hot dish.... the food and how it’s made
Break it down into sequences - if we can get 12 sequences into the 2 minutes - 10 seconds each
Is there a common recipe?  Corn?

Is a shared canvas a possibility - food to a dinner – and each one creates

With the ending being a long buffet of the individual sequences - can we run with a theme of a particular food?

5pm on March 7th - bring the ideas to THE TABLE!!!!  Remember - It’s a hard two minute limit.

Distinctive, yet universal - so the local and the international ideas are satisfied!!!!

Steve: there is a poem by Christine Rosetti - what can I bring?
There is a wonderful spirit to that - at the end, we are serving up the film

Get links to applicable animation and poetry and add to the document -

Check out ASMR Korean animations
(an FYI for the benefit of your humble typist)  ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response) - noun - a feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, as experienced by some people in response to a specific gentle stimulus, often a particular sound.
"ASMR is triggered by things like whispering voices, paper tearing, and scalp massage"

(Check out Brad’s link to Swiss 50 minute piece) - (he has sent the link in an earlier email)

Again, back to food, 10 seconds each, straight visuals…?
Coney dogs, Moveable feast, shared feast, potluck

Links:
Corgi Christmas Feast (ASMR)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JszWL2IpCOA

Brazilian Animation, recreation of “O Kaiser”
https://vimeo.com/117124801

Georges Schwizgebel sequence at 50:50 video starts at 25min.
https://vimeo.com/294903960
PW: H****
(Shared by Brad on the email)

Really Rough Pencil tests

Experiment with importing, exporting, and editing - using inexpensive and outdated software, knock-off technology and wrinkled, yellowing tracing paper, because after all, I'm cheap.... an upcoming group project in the guise of an AniJam.

Version #1:

Work process:
The original image is a painting, on canvas, that has been roughed out in 3D for a 10 sequence template.  This permits a right-to-left tracking shot for the project.
It was provided as an mp4, with a 1920x1080 resolution.
I wanted to make the contribution a 2D animation, so.... some work-arounds....
In keeping with my habit of doing things in the most convoluted, irrational method possible with outdated technology, I was able to dissect the animation template provided by inputting it into Sony Vegas (v14, I kept that somewhat up to date), then exporting it as sequential images in four formats (JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, just to have all bases covered), then importing those images into (gasp) FLASH CS3 to build a reference layer.  In effect, a panning motion rotoscope.
My use of FLASH these days is not to build a "Flash Animation," but rather, to construct the animated sequences for input into Vegas or some other video editor (I have used Premiere in the past, but it went a bit wonky on its codec, a problem that has reportedly been corrected from Those Who Know Better, but I'm at a stage where my time is spent more in doing instead of twiddling....)
An additional layer atop that was created, with the intention of drawing my 3-second sequence as a test using an "Artist 12" digital tablet.
The tablet worked well, at least for the higher-resolution FLASH environment the project required.  The FLASH pencil tool was used for this portion of the project.
Scribble time - about 90 minutes.
The under-neath, background later will be removed on completion, to create a "green screen" with an export of the Flash sequence as a series of 1920 x 1080 images.  That'll go to the ASIFA coordinator for assembly,
And, after this, ready to collapse by 9pm, such a party animal am I!

Test #2 - first clean up

And, finally with some more detail and color:

And, some more details while experimenting with color splashing at the end:

And some more details:

And some background tests for the second sequence --

After this, time to shuffle frames, adjust timing, and do a Photoshop run on the drawings....

And this should be "it" - 18 May, 2019

Well, there are ALWAYS retakes, you know....
Like this one, so Andrew Z's segment doesn't get obliterated....

And, for the final product, assembled by the phenomenal W. Brad Yarhouse, here is the Vimeo link to cut and paste:

https://vimeo.com/350186551

or click on the bit of linkery below!

Vimeo Link to ASIFA Central AniJam for 2019

Or a dumbed-down mp4 version that may play below: