There’s a new animation reel website in town called ReelBarrow. Mosey on over for some reel inspiration pardner. If that ain’t enough for ya, don’t forget about this Vimeo group too.

Mario Furmanczyk recently revamped his website from an inspirational journal chronicling his time at CalArts to a full fledged social network for animators. The site already has almost 500 members and is growing quickly. There’s some wonderful art being posted there from all over the world. Students and professionals from various studios and schools are able to connect in a way previously impossible. Stop by and sign up today. This is the start of something big for the community.

Mario now animates at Disney. Here’s some of the exceptional work he did to get in the door.

Hey guys! Pete here, sorry for the absence, crunch time has approached us on the movie I am working on right now. I promise some great posts soon for Dan’s awesome blog. However, I did want to mention the Facebook message that Dneg animator, Samy Fecih, sent to all BYOA members:

Hi guys,

So here it is, for the people who confirmed to me by private message, please try to be at :

45 Mortimer Street
London
W1W 8HJ

For 5.55pm on Monday 13th, I will pick people to go upstairs at 6pm, no later than that, people who will be late will not be able to go up, so don’t be late !!!

There will be a very brief presentation of Dneg animation work, then we will receive two Animation Supervisor to talk about the animation on their project, the projects will be Hellboy 2 and Ironman 2, following the talk, there will be a Q&A then you will be all taken to the venue for the BYOA Event. This should take overall a little bit less than an hour.

As for the Event itself, as I said previously, it will be as usual at the Jewel Bar, 1st and 2nd Floor 4-6 Glasshouse Street W1B 5DQ London.

The 1st floor will be as usual for the event, so feedback and a lot of people socialising and drinking beers and we should have a lot fo talented animators who worked on projects such as Aladdin, Hercules, Jurassic Park 2 and much more …

On the 2nd floor we’ll have the lightbox, so show a little bit your 2D skills, an animation (cycle) will be done by everyone, and we will try at the end of the event to project the final animation, and we will put it on the website and the Facebook page, but also recruiters, here to answer your questions and take your reels, they will tell you what they are searching for and could give you some tips about how to avoid to get your reels rejected straight away (who said loud music ?).

I hope you will enjoy

Samy”

So if any of you will be in London tonight, grab your work, and have a drink for some fun. See you there!

P.S – I will be the nervous guy with a shaved head wearing a T-shirt that says, “Scotland’s for me.”

Bring Your Own Animation is an event that takes place every month at a Soho pub in London. A fantastic idea for professionals and students to gather together to talk shop and show off their work. There is also a monthly event in Paris, for any of you in that area! I won’t be able to make this month’s edition but I’ll be sure to make it in November! For more info check out the website or facebook group.

So apparently Brad Bird is set to direct Mission Impossible 4. I’m with Thad on this one…How did everyone miss this?

Last night I was forunate enough to attend a triple bill screening of the original Star Wars trilogy at the VanCity Theatre. This was the first time I was able to see all three films back to back, and on the big screen. The night started with an introduction by Dennis Murren, who worked on all six films as part of the Special Effects team. A New Hope started at about 7:30PM, and Return of the Jedi finished shortly after 2:30AM. Fox shipped restored 35mm prints (beautiful!) up here for the Spark FX Festival currently in town. I hadn’t seen the film in quite a long time, so it I found it amazing the amount of information I took in this time around. I’m not sure if that is due to my eye for filmmaking now as compared to last time around, or the effect of the big screen, but I think it’s probably a bit of both. I noticed a number of beautiful shots in Empire that I’ll have to post later. I also whole-heartedly agree with most fans now, that Empire stands strong as the best of the six films, something I never gave much thought to before.

I truly believe that films are meant to be seen how the filmmakers themselves intended: In a dark room, on a large screen, with a fully attentive audience. The ambience of such an audience appreciates the movie going experience immensly, but that sort of thing is, saldy, almost non-exsistant today. But that’s another post. Anyway, any time I get the chance to see classic films on the big screen that were before my time, I jump at the opportunity (Looking forward to The Godfather 2 next month!).

I’ve been reading a lot of books on filmmaking and animation lately, and subsequently watching a lot of films, both old and new. I plan to post about the books I’ve read and films I’ve watched, as well as my notes, but I’m just so focused right now that I’ve been neglecting to post. I guess I’m putting myself through a sort of self-educated film school. The best kind really, I’m having such a blast.