Animating for Music Video

Once a very popular format getting your song or showcasing your band out to the masses, the music video. Here is a classic which still holds up today, "Take on Me" by A-Ha. I saved this article from HOW magazine back when it came out to understand how they made it. Here is a very dated article with lots of reference to ancient animation techniques used before CG animation was even around. Frame by frame using a 35mm animation stand, dealing with film and optical techniques that you can do on your phone these days.

Please enjoy this HOW article from the animation past!

Here is another A-Ha video using the same techinque, but the video was not as popular.

Can you believe how much work it took to make this animation back in the day? If you would like an easier version to read, send me an email to animateducated@gmail.com and I'll send you a pdf file. 

Thanks,

Jim

Walt Disney family museum discovery

This Summer, I got a chance to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. There were no special exhibits at the time, but I spent several hours spending my time reviewing the lifeworks of Walt Disney.

The very first photography that caught my attention was of Mary Richardson Disney, who was Walt Disney's Grandmother from Freshford, County Kilkenny, Ireland. 

As I wandered through the museum wondering if I might be related to the Disney family, I shot some video below...

If you enjoyed this blog post, please leave a comment below! 

Vlasic Pickle commercials

You've might have heard that women have odd cravings during their pregnancy? I've heard someone wanting pickles and ice cream, but again I believe it was a very clever advertising campaign by some company that either sold pickles, ice cream or both.

Here are a few commercials selling Vlasic pickles and that idea. These were animated in very limited animation style, before Vlasic created their Stork character who sounded a lot like Groucho Marx.

Well there you have it... How to sell more Pickles. 

New book: Wild Minds

If you are interested in learning more about the history of animation, I highly recommend "Wild Minds" by Reid Mitenbuler. Its follows a lot of the pioneers of animation like Windsor McCay, Max Fleischer and of course, Walt Disney, but there are a lot of other people mentioned as well.

It was well researched and told different parts of the character's lives without becoming stale by just presenting the dates and what occurred when like a police report. Its full of funny and sad situations which keeps you moving forward to the next interesting chapter.

Below is a recent interview I had with Reid Mitenbuler and about writing the book. 

Enjoy that? Leave a comment below!