Animation is in the air!

ADi recently had the pleasure of participating in the early judging for animation submissions to the POW fest, which will be announcing their schedule any day now.

Also, our ASIFA chapter is getting together to review submissions for our Spring Showcase, which will have a public screening in April. Keep your fingers crossed that the ADi submission makes the cut!

The Portland International Film Festival will include a session of locally-created short films, including Joanna Priestley’s Missed Aches and Kyle Bell’s The Mouse That Soared. And, though it’s not animated, our buddy Karl Lind’s 122 Random Seconds will be screening as part of the festival as well. Showtimes are February 20th and the 23rd- more information at the PIFF website.

Speaking of the NW Film Center, on March 7th they will be showing 90 minutes of Will Vinton’s claymation classics.

Finally, for those of you interested in Oregon’s rich history in the animation industry, on February 25th, the Oregon Cartoon Institute will have a public meeting at Ackerman Films, 13 NW 13th. The meeting will introduce the Institute to the public, and discuss Oregon’s animation history, as well as discuss possibilities for the future. But ALSO on the 25th is a Women in Animation meetup at McMenamins Tavern and Pool, to touch base with the chapter and share the details about the WIA panel and animation showcase at the POW fest. An ambitious person could attend both events and encompass Oregon's animation history, and also immediate future!

Looks like a busy springtime here in Portland!

What are we excited about in 2010 and beyond?

So, you’ve probably slogged through any number of blogs and slideshows about “2009, a Year in Review” or even a “Decade in Review” . Objects in that rearview mirror may be closer than they appear, but we are way more interested in what lies ahead. Right now there are three things I’m keeping a close eye on.

· 3DTV
· Digital Signage or Digital Out of Home Communications
· Augmented Reality

3DTV – unless you lived under a rock during the Consumer Electronics Show earlier in January, you must know that 3DTV is coming. The jury is still out on whether people will really like watching 3DTV with glasses at home on their new television sets, but all the major TV manufacturers have bet that a least some folks will. Samsung, Mitsubishi, Sony, Panasonic, Philips, LG and others all have products in the works for later this year. And what will you be watching? DirecTV is launching three 3D channels, ESPN is launching a 3D network starting with World Cup Soccer in June, and Discovery, IMAX and others are working on 3D natural history, science and children’s programming.

Here are some links to review and analysis of the 3DTV explosion at CES:
CES 2010 - 3D TV emerging
CES 2010: The Year of the 3D TV
3D TV: Why you'll (someday) own one whether you like it or not
The best 3D TVs you can buy this year

3D movies and 3D Games were also a big deal at CES, along with 3D – Blu-ray disk technology. No Holodeck yet, maybe next year.

In my next post – My visit to the Digital Signage Expo to learn about this rapidly growing ecosystem of digital signage networks and digital out of home networks.

Good Food (or coffee), Cool Local Artwork

Whether you're an aspiring artist, an art enthusiast, or you just want to enjoy good food or coffee and look at some fantastic pieces by local artists, you should check out the list of places below. I've had the opportunity to frequent each of these establishments and every time I've gone the service has been great, the food outstanding (primarily breakfast), and the artwork super cool. Each place circulates who and what they're showing, so it's definitely worth going back to each if for nothing else than to see what's new.

Jam On Hawthorne
2239 SE Hawthorne blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
503-234-4790

The Fine Grind
2035 SE 39th
Portland, OR 97214
pdxfinegrind.blogspot.com/

Clinton Corner Cafe
2633 SE 21st Ave
Portland, OR
97202
503-230-8035
www.clintoncornercafe.net/home_day.html

Bridges Cafe
2716 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Portland, OR 97212
www.bridgescafeandcatering.net/

Creston Cafe
4135 Southeast Gladstone street
Portland, OR 97202
503-774-3244

Robot love

Valentine's day is right around the corner...
for those of you who greet this day with an air of bitterness and disdain, don't let it deter you from checking out next month's themed show at the Good:a Gallery. "Robot Love" will Open on the first Friday of February (02.05.10) and will feature a variety of works from Portland's local talent. What's not to love about cool art and robots?

As for all you artists out there, heads up! This is a great way to show off your stuff. I'm working on a few pieces to submit, wish me luck!

Good is located at 4325 N Mississippi Ave. Check out their site (http://goodpdx.com/) for more information regarding the event and all upcoming shows.

Didja know there is a Bridge Festival in the works?

We've been working on some animations for a wonderful festival that has its' first reveal this summer; starting July 24th, 2010 the first stage of the PDX Bridge Festival begins and runs through Aug 7, 2010.

Radiating like spokes from downtown Portland, the ten bridges that span the Willamette River are central to regional identity, tying the geography and cultures of Portland into a vibrant whole. Beginning with the Hawthorne Bridge Centennial in 2010—followed closely by the Broadway Bridge (2012) and the Steel Bridge (2013) Centennials—we are excited to introduce the PDX Bridge Festival as an annual, citywide cultural arts festival that celebrates the Willamette River Bridges while harnessing the power of Portland’s creative capacity.

Our Lead Character Animator, Don Fergus, connected us with Tucker Teutsch 3.0 – the guy who is leading the charge of this whole festival, and with many discussions to understand the vision of the festival, as well as some great artistic collaboration with Mateo Gamlen, we have initially created some short vignettes showing the bridges in their current state and as they mature to their eventual festival state. They had a vision and a defined look for how they were presenting the bridges and they needed our assistance in executing the animated version. Personally, I’m stoked to see the Fremont bridge go through the flag transformation in the triangles of its’ stricture – it’d be very Central Park Gates, dontcha think? We’re also excited to be one of many sponsors of the festival – so you can be sure that we’ll be mentioning more about the event as the time draws nearer. The bridges of Portland are so iconic to all that live here; it’s the perfect time to gather and celebrate these great structures as they each hit their centennials!

Drinking and Drawing

Our ASIFA chapter is getting ready for another installment of Drinking and Drawing, an evening of collaborative animation, on January 13th.

The idea is simple: a group of people sit down at individual light tables with a stack of 4x6 cards and a Sharpie. They have 10 minutes to draw 8 frames of animation. When they are done, they leave their last frame on the lightbox and another group replaces them. The new people have to start with the frame that was left for them and draw 8 more frames. They leave their last one for the next group and so on all evening.

The event is always a real pleasure, because we get a chance to create together, and each contribution is so short that people who don’t draw well can still participate. For examples of what the finished collaborative piece looks like, check out www.drinkinganddrawing.org.

So please come down to The Someday Lounge at 7ish on Wednesday the 13th. Come to draw, or just come to hang out with some members of the local animation community. I hope to see you there!

Interactive Timelines

December 10 2009 blog
Interactive Timelines
Interactive Timelines, and other kinds of “infographics”, are great tools to help convey information visually. And the interactive controls also engage people who are kinesthetic learners who learn by doing things. People are engaged by an experience they can control and explore and it provides much richer data than a simple line with hash marks and dates.
I’m a big fan of Edward Tufte when it comes to the good information design, regardless of whether it’s static or interactive. I recommend his books, and if you can get to one of his workshops it will be a very good experience for you.

I wanted to share some examples of interesting interactive timelines and talk about why they work from a visual and interactive perspective:
Here are two that are quite similar in design and experience:
Black History Timeline
US Constitution Timeline
What I like about these is that each one takes the familiar style of a timeline that we all know and adds some richness through both the user controls and the depth of additional content. The content in these is very well organized and presented really consistently for a great experience.

I also like this timeline from the NYT about the late Senator Kennedy. It is similar in structure to the first two examples, but it adds an additional twist by including video and audio as well as photos, maps and text.

Here is a very different example from Adobe. The way you navigate is different; instead of a slider bar or arrow keys, you select a year and it expands the series of dots for that year. What I don’t know is the significance of the dot size. I’m not sure what a small dot versus a big dot means.

Of these examples I think this one from National Geographic is my favorite. In addition to exploring by time, you can also view by continent, and when you click on some of the creatures, there are cool 3d animations. Interactive maps are another great infographic tool, and National Geographic did a nice job of combining a timeline and a map into one really nice interactive experience.

If you have data to show or explain to your audiences, infographics such as timelines, maps, interactive charts, graphs or product demos and other tools can help you get your points across in an engaging visual and interactive way.