Looking For Animators?

I occasionally get requests from companies looking to hire freelance animators. I'm not able to animate much these days, so I thought I'd offer a couple of online options for people looking for animators. I usually send interested companies to these two places.

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New Short from Adam Phillips

Adam Phillips of Bitey.com has been hard at work learning Toon Boom Animate. Here's a lovely short displaying his efforts.

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Animated Pet Obesity

This is a great encapsulation of everything my waistline is going through.

This cartoon was created by Simon Tofield, via SimonsCat.com.

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Make Your Own Shirts

In previous articles we've discussed a variety of ways to use your cartoons to make money, with the long-term goal of being able to support yourself full-time with your animation.

One of the first money-making ideas that many animators and cartoonists approach is making and selling customized T-shirts.

This article discusses the many customized T-shirt companies available to animators and cartoonists.

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24 Hour Turnaround for South Park?

The episode of South Park that occurred the day after the election contained many scenes that directly referenced the results from less than 24 hours before the episode aired. How is it possible that they were able to create a full 22 minutes of animation in such a short time?

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Stop Motion Cadbury Suicides

In what is apparently a rather twisted nod towards the Bunny Suicide books, the Cadbury creme eggs off themselves creatively.

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"Monday Mornings" - Music Video and Interview

Stephen Sloan is a Toon Boom animator with some wonderful cartoons on his site, Upon Animation. This week he released an amazing music video for a song created by Kupek, the band of Bryan Lee O'Malley. If you're not familiar with O'Malley's work I highly recommend his Scott Pilgrim comic book series, due out as a movie starring Michael Cera in 2009.

Stephen was kind enough to answer some questions about the music video.

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Simon's Cat - TV Dinner

Another great entry from the "Simon's Cat" series.

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Top Animation Programs

Ranging from free to the price of a small car made of cardboard, these programs will get you started with a career in animation. We've discussed various free cartoon software in the past. This article is intended to be a definitive list of all available animation programs. You many notice that some of these programs are not primarily for animation. Some, like Flash, are designed for other tasks. However if animation can be created with the software it will be considered for this list.

If you know of an animation program that's missing, please mention it in the comments below, or send me a message. In return for your assistance we will happily link to your site.

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Stop Motion Spaghetti

Friday brings us this best of the web stop motion animation.

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Star Wars Cartoons

Atom (formerly Atom Films) announces the finalists for the Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge.

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Toon Boom Sale - $299 Until July 17

Toon Boom Studio 4 is now on sale for $299.

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Animated Movie Review - Kung Fu Panda

As new animated movies are being released this summer, let's take a closer look and review Kung Fu Panda.

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Toon Boom Time Lapse

A timelapse video of about 2.5 hours of work in Toon Boom, with a voiceover describing what's happening.

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Meet the Scout

This continuation of the "Meet The" series is meant to promote a video game called Team Fortress 2, produced by Valve.

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Guinea Pigs and a Winnebago

These are the two best of a new animated series being released on YouTube. Extremely entertaining, new episodes are due out each Thursday.

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Pirates!

This is an impressive short animation from the makers of the previously featured Burning Safari animation.

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Pearce Sisters

This Aardman Films animation was nominated for an Academy Award. I remember seeing a preview for it before the Oscars and being impressed.

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Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge

Is it possible to not be a fan of Star Wars? While the newer prequels lack some of the shiny luster of the originals...

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Animation Contests - $13,000 Up For Grabs

Two animation contests have been brought to my attention this week, with prizes too substantial to not share.

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Final Cadbury Demise

To follow up on the previous Cadbury suicides, this new mass suicide animation was released. I imagine a slew of interns carefully setting up the eggs on mousetraps for the grand finale.

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The Cat Came Back

After a successful first cartoon featuring a cat as an alarm clock, the fine folks at Tandem Films (specifically, Simon Tofield) have brought the cat back for another morning adventure.

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Tales of Mere Existence

The power of this simple animation from Lev Yilmaz (ingredientx.com) really comes from his voice.

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Free Cartoon Animation Software

While many cartoon animation software offer free trials, this list of animation programs is completely open source and free!

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Learn Self Defense

I've praised Chris Harding's work in the past, both for his animation and new web comic We The Robots. I wasn't expecting to find Learn Self Defense online but there it was on MySpace.

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Calico Monkey Version 3

Welcome to the latest edition of Calico Monkey. We're getting back to our animated roots. Won't you join us?

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Batman: Gotham Knight - Filling in the Gaps with Animation

There seems to be a pleasant trend with several movie companies using animation to fill in the gaps in their storylines. Next up is this impressive preview of an new Batman adventure.

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Animation Tips You can Learn From South Park

While the animation and character design of South Park is certainly simplistic, there are several useful tips you can use to make your own cartoons even better.

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What Happened to the Toon Boom Tutorials?

A new Toon Boom Tutorials site is live and I hope you'll help me spreading the word.

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Geri's Game

Reminisce with me as we recall the magic that is Geri's Game, a short created by Pixar in 1998, when the internet was just a young pup.

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Looks Like You've got a Case of the Humans

A short animation outlining in graphic detail the effects that humans have on the world. Created by Three Legged Legs.

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The Animation Show Introduction

Welcome to the Show, by Don Hertzfeldt, is the work of a crazed man that uses simple shapes to make me question my own sanity.

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Toon Boom Computer Arts Article

An article I wrote about Toon Boom appears today in the February issue of Computer Arts Magazine (issue 145).

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She She She She's a Bombshell

During a long ride home from a concert, a young man fails to realize that too much talking can be annoying.

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What to Expect in 2008

A review of 2007 and a look forward to 2008. Some big changes are brewing and you're invited for the ride.

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Link Karma for December

Many new creative sites worth following have appeared on the horizon the past few months. Let's take a look at three of them. Set your bookmarking fingers to stun...

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Monkey Music Video Contest

Having "monkey" in my domain name is finally paying off. Sarathan Records is sponsoring a music video contest for the song "Monkey" by the group Two Loons for Tea. The prize is $2,500!

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Grant Orchard - Park Football

This is a simple but impressive animation that shows what can be done with the most basic of tools.

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Adam Phillips' New Brackenwood Cartoon

Adam Phillips has released the newest episode of his Brackenwood series, and has been in a couple of featured artist interviews this week. He's also a new member of the Toon Boom community, and we need to welcome him warmly.

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Cat Alarm

This recent cat cartoon is making the rounds on YouTube this week, and is an excellent candidate to make your Friday just that much better. Enjoy.

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Deadline, 3D Animation from Aardman

Aardman Animation's first attempt at digital animation is short and something special. I approve of their attempts to branch out.

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Pitch Your Idea to Aniboom.com

Aniboom.com is asking for pitches for original cartoon content, perfect for Toon Boom users. The potential $20,000 prize is nothing to sneeze at either.

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Burning Safari

It's Friday, so it's time for another internet showcase. Here's a short animated cartoon from a French company called Gobelins. It's oozing with style and humor, and is to be appreciated, preferably with cheese. Cheese makes everything awesome.

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28 Ways to Make Money Creating Cartoons

Creativity is all fine and good, but can you pay the bills with your cartoons? Here's a list of 28 ways to make money creating animation.

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Team Fortress Character Introductions

In an effort to build some buzz for an upcoming video game Valve Software created three animations introducing several of the characters. Their high production value makes these a must see.

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Free Animation Desks

Free animation desks are being offered on Craigslist.org . Get 'em while you can.

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World of Warcraft Cartoons

Simple yet hilarious cartoons can be created with Flash, especially when the sound quality is high. Take a look at these two great Flash animation examples from Sean McBride.

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Animation Software

There are a couple of programs that can be used to create cartoons. They range in complexity though, so let's talk about the specific programs in a bit more detail.

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Friends of Calico Monkey

There are several visitors to Calico Monkey that need to be given more credit than a simple link on the Friends page. They keep me going when I hit a rough spot...

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User Story on ToonBoom.Com

Toon Boom sent me a questionnaire a while back, and once I filled it out they created a User Story about me.

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