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Upcoming
Event
2D
OR NOT 2D Animation Festival
I'm
excited to
be lecturing at the 2D
OR NOT 2D Animation Festival on
Saturday November 3rd at 3:40pm.
The event is located at the Historic
Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave,
Everett,
WA 98201.
From
the official
website:
This
year's 2D OR NOT 2D Animation Festival
is promising
to be even bigger and better than last
year! Competition entries have doubled
and we've again attracted some of the
finest presenters that any self-respecting
animation fan could wish to see! Keynote
speakers include Don Hahn (award-winning
producer for Disney and Tim Burton)
and internationally-syndicated artist
Michel Gagne (celebrated for his books,
TV and Movie design/animation work).
Read
more...
October 25th, 2007
Spectre's
Bride Article in Monday Magazine
Monday
Magazine has just published a
nice article about the upcoming
performance of "The Spectre's Bride".
Remember, only 5 more days before the
big show. Get
your tickets now! Here's an excerpt
from the article:
 But
perhaps one of the most striking
aspects of the
shadow puppet
portion of the "The Spectre’s
Bride" are the haunting designs of the
puppets
themselves. While the hours of painstakingly
cutting out intricately designed cityscapes,
willow branches and zombies is credited
to the folks at the VPC—including
Capet himself—the man behind the
designs is Michel Gagné, a renowned
animator whose credits include the likes
of The Land Before Time, Ratatouille
and the popular Flight graphic novel
series.
“We knew his aesthetic was what
we wanted so there was very little need
for conceptual discussions,” Capet
says of working with Gagné. “In
most cases, it was the first or second
thing he drew that we went with.”
Once Gagné completed the designs,
Capet set out to begin transforming the
renderings from full-colour pages into
flat cutouts. Given budget restraints—and
Capet’s hands-on approach to all
aspects of the show—that meant
doing things like printing out all the
shadow puppets on Capet’s home
computer and spending countless hours
in a storage room in the basement of
St. Patrick’s school armed with
X-acto knives.
While the assembly
may seem low-tech, the results are
far more engaging than
the latest CGI-ridden blockbuster movie;
moving cutouts and LED flashlights, manned
by Gosley and members of the Victoria
Puppetry Guild, are used to simulate
pans, zooms, fade-ins and even moonrises.
The images will be projected onto a small
screen, which will be filmed by an HD
camera and then displayed behind the
choir and orchestra to illustrate key
parts of the story. Indeed, it’s
a far cry from making butterflies with
your hands and a flashlight on the wall
of a tent.
--Amanda
Farrell, October 24, 2007
Read
full article here.
October 24th, 2007
Insanely
Twisted Shadow Puppets Wins Awards
at Flash
Animation & Motion Graphics Conference
I'm
happy to report that Insanely
Twisted Shadow Puppets has been selected
as a winner in the 2007 Best
in the SW : Flash Animation & Motion
Graphics Awards in three categories:
 -
Best of Show
- Best of Show: Animation
- Best Animated Interstitial
To
see the complete list of 2007 Best
in the SW Award winners, click
here.
October 23rd, 2007
New
Exhibit at The Trilobite Show
 For
as long as I can remember, I've had a mysterious
obsession with trilobites. In 2005, after
having a discussion with my friend Andrew
Scott and realizing our mutual admiration
for these aliens from the past, we decided
to create "The Trilobite
Show".
To kick things off, I designed a website
and Andrew and I put together our first
on-line exhibition:
"A
Tribute to the Trilobite".
Now,
I am pleased to present our
second on-line exhibition,
this time featuring the incredible trilobite
photographs
of Peter
Cameron.
© Peter
Cameron 2007
Andrew
and I are planning a lot of amazing "Trilobite
Exhibitions" in the coming months. I'll
keep you posted here so you don't miss
anything. Hail to the trilobites!
October 21st, 2007
"Spectre's
Bride" Update
The
preparations for the upcoming Spectre's
Bride show are coming along. Here's a
little excerpt from Simon Capet's "Spectre's
Bride" blog:
"We
have been working non-stop since mid September
cutting 110 pound card stock into hundreds
of intricate images designed by Michel Gagné.
Gnarly and twisted forest trees, craggy houses
and crooked townscapes, grave stones and
zombies."
"Using
LED flashlights casting light on the card
stock figures, we are creating black and
white, 3-D worlds that amaze. A number
of people – including various media
people— have
been trooping through the warren, watching
the images on a large rear projection screen.
The
reaction, without exception, has been: “Wow.”
 The
puppeteers will be under the stage, in
a small room, moving the images and casting
the shadows on a rear projection screen. A
HDTV camera will then transfer the images from
the screen to a projector in the Farquhar Auditorium,
which will cast it upon the screen. All this
while the choir, orchestra and soloists will
be performing. Live theatre always has an element
of risk. And this production, with its hundreds
of cardboard cutouts all timed to the orchestral
score, is riskier than most.
I
can hardly wait. I know it will be astounding."
--Simon Capet, October 18,
2007
Read
full entry here.
October 19th, 2007
Bell
Con = Success
The
first Bellingham
Comicon was a big success! 1500
fans from Whatcom County, and as far as Seattle
and Vancouver, attended the event. It's nice
to have a venue like this about 15 minutes
from our home.
Just
before the convention, I was interviewed
by Jonathan W. Sodt from the Whatcom
Independent for
an article
about the convention.
Some of the interview made its way in the
article,
but
other
parts
were left
out.
Jonathan
posted
the full unedited
interview on his site, Chronicles
of Fenmere.
October 15th, 2007
My
Wife's New Project
 Some
of you have probably noticed the "Nan's
Green Planet" icon on the left side bar
of this site.
For
the past few years, Nancy (my beloved wife) has
been trying to make our home
as eco-friendly
as possible. She's taught me how to re-use,
reduce and recycle as much as possible, and she
always
selects home products that are bio-degradable,
and non-toxic for the environment.
 Nancy's
constant search for better and more effective
environmentally-friendly products have lead her
to Shaklee, the only company in the world that
has been recognized as having a zero footprint
on the ecology.
In
her continuing effort to help heal the planet,
she has joined Shaklee as a distributor.
I'm happy she has found
something
she's
passionate
about
and
fully
endorse
her
venture and I hope you will too.
Visit
www.NansGreenPlanet.com for
more information or write to her at nansgreenplanet@yahoo.com.
October 10th, 2007
Bellingham's
First Comicon
 This
coming Saturday, I will be signing at Bellingham's
very first comic book convention: Bell
Con! Come
and say hi!
Bell
Con 2007 is on October 13, 2007 at The
Majestic,
1027 N. Forest Street, Bellingham,
WA 98225.
It is 60 minutes south of Vancouver, BC and 90
minutes north of Seattle.
For
more info contact Jason at 360-778-1033. TICKETS
are
$5.00 a person and are available the day
of the event. It is between 10am-4pm.
October 5th, 2007
Upcoming
Lecture
 I
will be doing a lecture at the Whatcom
County Museum of Art on October 11th.
This event is freeand open to the general public
so if
you're in the neighborhood, please come by.
Here
is the description on the museum's official site:
THURSDAY
OCTOBER 11th
10:15AM
MUSEUM DOCENT PROGRAM
Michel Gagné,
Animator/Artist
----------------------------
Whatcom Museum, Rotunda Room, Free
----------------------------
The artist will present a slideshow on his whimsical
cartoons, special effects, and films. He has
published 12 fantasy books that are enjoyed by
both children
and adults. His cartoon videos have appeared
on the Nickelodeon Cable-TV channel.
----------------------------
Whatcom Museum
191 Prospect Street
Bellingham WA 98225
(360)676-6981.
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