People

Filipin@s: Gini Santos

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When viewing a video lecture for class, there was this one guest speaker that really got me inspired. I couldn’t help but have this feeling that this girl was Pinay.

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I was SO right! This is Gini Santos, animator for Pixar.

Gini grew up on Guam, but was sent by her father to go study in the Philippines. Initially hesitant, the beautiful country, culture and people of the Philippines grew on her. She went to the University of Santo Tomas and took up a Fine Arts Major in advertising. 

She got into computer animation when she was getting her Masters. She sent her reel to Pixar and well… here are some of the films she has worked on: Toy Story 2, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille. 

Here are two Pixar shorts she’s worked on as well. She was the supervising animator for “Lifted.”

It’s nice to know that a strong Pinay like Gini is working at Pixar…

Gini Santos , at one time, was a mentor at animationmentor.com (my school). Too bad she is no longer a mentor at my school. It would have been awesome to learn from her… maybe she’ll come back… PLEASE COME BACK!!!

New Gatorade Focus/ Tiger Woods commercials

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I am really digging the new animated Gatorade commericals. The animation looks nice and smooth. It has that Jungle Book feel, which I think Gatorade was going for. And the Baloo character is obviously Tiger’s dad, or his reincarnation. And is that Samuel L. Jackson and Scott Van Pelt doing some of the voices? Watch the new commericials here:

Good Job Gatorade! Does anyone know who did the animation on this?

Review: NKOTB “The New Kid In Class”

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New Kids On the Block/ “The New Kid In Class”/ 1990

nkotb-cartoon2One year before Hammerman came on the scene, the New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) were the latest musical act to have the honor (read: exploited!) of getting their own animated series. 

I  do remember hearing back then that the New Kids on the Block were getting their own cartoon series. I don’t ever remember watching a single episode. The reason, I just wasn’t that interested. People may not believe me, but I was NOT a New Kids on the Block fan when they first came out. Over the years, the feeling has dulled and for a good nostalgia trip I now enjoy a classic NKOTB song every now and then, but back then, I only  tolerated them because of my sister and some of my friends. Just to reiterate, NKOTB was just  not for me. 

So why after some 20 years, have I decided to go back and watch an episode of NKOTB? 

Well besides NKOTB’s unexpected return to music last year, after one of my biggest posting blunders, I posted this lighthearted clip of the NKOTB intro. Based on that clip, the show seemed really bad. Even still, I figured I should at least watch an episode to see if, in reality, either:

a) it was a good/ decent show with a bad intro,

or  

b) if it was as bad as I think it is. 

The result: I really should trust my instincts… hit the jump for the rest of the review and video of the episode. Continue reading →

NKOTB: The Animation

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Alright, I hope you all had your fun with the last post (Gee that really backfired! … Live & Learn). 

Time to get serious:

(stares at screen in disbelief…) 

I have nothing…

Well back to the sketchbook 😛 !

I’ll come back to this I promise…

Tales From The Sketchbook: *Sigh*

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Warning! This will be a very rare glimpse into the personal life of a certain Art of the Cartoon blogger:

Last night, while watching this new anime series I picked a few weeks back, there was this particular scene that came up that got me so filled with emotion, particularly romance and love, that a certain person from my past came rushing back into my head (This particular scene will most likely become a Set the VCR moment in the future). A certain person that I still haven’t really gotten over. Suffice to say, I kept thinking about HER the whole night, and I could barely sleep. It lingered a little more today, and I decided to do something about it. And the only way I know how to handle these things… head to the sketchbook.

*Sigh*/ pencil on paper/ March 2009

sighYup, I went and drew HER! I know that seems odd, but trust me, it is very therapeutic. At least for me it is.

And the only reason I am posting this is because NOBODY WILL KNOW WHO THIS GIRL IS… unless:

1) You really know me

or

2) Looking at the picture, you can recognize who the girl is.

I can disregard #2, because throughout all my years of drawing, sketching, and being an artist, nobody can really tell who I am drawing unless I tell them. That’s when it becomes clear. Plus, I still don’t think my drawing skills are that great.

Hope you enjoyed this insight into my personal life!

Feel free to guess, just know that I’m fairly positive that nobody knows who that is

PS: If you do know who that is, keep your mouth shut =P

2Pac: Do For Love (Music Video)

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While uploading my animation assignments to youtube yesterday, this random video popped up on the main screen. It was 2Pac’s “Do For Love” with Blackstreet. One of the forgotten posthumously released 2Pac songs, I remember this video back in 1997 and I thought it was a unique touch being all animation in getting around the fact that a live 2Pac wasn’t available (RIP Pac!). Still, I wasn’t too impressed with the animation back in 1997. In 2009, still not impressed, BUT now I do admire the fact that several animation techniques were used to produce this trippy video. 2D animation, 3D animation, claymation stop-motion, rotoscoping, among others came together to create something that, while not impressive in terms of animation, was still quite entertaining. Plus, no 2Pac music video ever looked like this:

“Do For Love”/ 2Pac/ 1997/ dir. ???

Listening back, I really do enjoy this song. It may find a rotation on my iphone. Plus, apparently according to wikipedia (so take this with a grain of salt),”Do For Love” actually rechopped J Dilla‘s production on a remix of the The Pharcyde‘s track Y? hmmm…..

Speaking of J Dilla, head over to my dude DJ Daps1 Thaswassup site. In preparation for his site getting to the 10,000 hit mark he has made available a Tribute Mixtape to J Dilla he made back in 2006. Congrats Bro! I’m not sure I’ll ever get to that mark. 

PS: Around the 3:07 mark in the video, where it was a mix of 2D and the 2Pac claymation, did that seem a little off to you? Maybe it was just me.

Filipin@s: Jac Lim

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International Working Womyn’s Day was this past Sunday March 8. I feel bad since I missed the event that happened in Seattle =(. 

7be10a0d6fb998a30887330dd2746d1a1Anyway speaking of strong womyn, I thought I would pass along this dope Filipina artist that I recently discovered about a week ago. Her name is Jac Lim, and on her deviantART page says she’s  currently residing San Pablo City. She’s a Game Developer, cosplayer, artist, comic stripper, facepainter, model, graphics designer, senior penciller, video editor. 

I’m not sure if she’s still doing her online web comic strip called “Pilya” which translates to naughty girl in tagalog.  Some of it’s really funny. Here’s two examples:

pilya_5_by_jactinglim1

 

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Check out some of the other “Pilya” strips here

The Notorious B.I.G. Inspiration…

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On March 9, 1997, Christopher Wallace aka Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls, was gunned down in LA. Arguably the greatest lyricist of all time, he has inspired not only myself, but countless other visual artists, especially in the street art form that is graffiti. Looking at the images below, I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that cartoons and animation had a little bit of influence as well.

 

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I know there are differing thoughts on the role of graffiti in society, so I’ll leave that heavy issue for another post, but I will say this: Your tagger name and/or initials scribbled on a wall does NOT mean it is art! Have some inspiration or meaning behind anything you put up for goodness sakes. Plus, everybody’s scribbled their name on a wall at some point, be original please.

RIP Biggie Smalls

Set the VCR: Alan Moore Speaks! (The Simpsons “Husbands & Knives” 2007)

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Alan Moore, writer of Watchmen, genius. He is one of the first writers to establish a literary and structural tone to comic books that rivals traditional novels. It’s no secret that Alan Moore is not a fan of the care-free licensing that major comic book companies (Like DC) take with writers’ characters. He has always decided to take his name off writing credits when a movie is made based on one of his many genius comic stories. With the disaster that was The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, Alan Moore became more frustrated with the whole licensing process. 

Because of this, I don’t think he gets out in public that much. Actually, for many years I just knew him as that dude with the beard…
alan_moore

Yup, thas him! That’s all I knew of him. He never really seemed human, like if I ever met the dude I would cower in his presence. I never really heard him speak or got a sense of his personality until this fateful Set the VCR Moment: (there’s the jump!) Continue reading →