Happy Halloween

Thanks for all your questions to ED. We had a great interview with him which should be up shortly. Sorry for lack of posts. Things are very busy here. We had a great costume contest for Halloween at work. Former Spline Doctor, Angus Maclane and I took first and second place.... He was a half order of chicken and I was global warming. Expect some new posts soon.

-Andrew

Upcoming Spline Cast

Our next Spline Cast is pretty exciting if I say so myself... Dr Burke set this one up. Our guest will be Ed Catmull, founder and President of Pixar and Disney Feature Animation. Anyway, I am posting this so that readers can send in some questions. We will pick a few of the best ones. Just send them to the comments section with your name or if you want to remain anonymous, that's fine. Obviously, we are not gonna ask him any questions that deal with upcoming films or company stuff.

Thanks to Dr. Burke and to Ed for doing this.

-Andrew

Design the Spline Doctors Website

Ok,

Lets face it, the Spline Doctors web site needs a face lift. We dont know much about web design but we do know about animation. We are seeking an individual who can help us redesign the website/blog and in turn we are offering tutoring in the art of animation (and some swag). Anyone interested should email gordo@splinedoctors.com. We would like to see the web site design work you have done and a portfolio of your animation. At the end of the month we will pick the winner. We think its a very fair trade and good exposure. We are also looking for people who do music to design the opening and closing of the Spline Casts. We are looking for something other than a stock garageband loop. Anyone who can help, please email us.

-Andrew

Re-Doctered Spline Casts

A lot of people complained about the volume on the Spline Casts. One of our sound engineers at Pixar helped fix the levels and re-exported them. He also fixed the Pete Docter Spline Cast so that it actually had the bi-naural head effect working. It sounds really cool. Listen to it with head phones and you will experience how it was meant to sound. Here are the links to past Spline Casts. I'll update them on iTunes when I have the chance. They are all audio only and the Pete Docter Spline Cast is in a semi-rough format. All the great info is there though.

Stanton part1
Stanton part 2
Stanton part3
Mark Andrews/Mathot
Animation Round Table
Art Round Table
Brad Bird
Nate Stanton
Pete Doctor
Ralph Eggleston
Spline or Line

Animation Mentor Fall Showcase

Our Good friends at Animation Mentor have posted the works of their fall show. Carlos gave me a look, and man is it good. Amazing job to all the students and teachers. Animation Mentor really is committed to animation education. They really care about the students which is not the case with a lot of animation schools out there. I expect it will only get better and better. I'd love to hear any comments from students about the program.

http://www.animationmentor.com/index.cfm

Some Cool 2d animation software

The best thing animation students can do is to do 2d animation before they enter the vast world of 3d animation.It teaches you the basics much quicker and really helps you understand the process. Here are a bunch of 2d animation software packages that are out there for the computer. I like using these packages because it lets me experiment more and try out different techniques. Its also easier to make changes.

Here they are:

Pencil - A free open source program


Mirage - Alot like deluxe paint 4 for the Amiga only better! (TV Paint is the european counter-part)


Flipbook - widely used 2d program. Very simple and robust


Feel free to submit any other 2d animation programs that you know of.

-Andrew