FLIP

  Here is my water-stained program from the 1984 Character Animation show, held in the tiny Bijou Theater at CalArts.  According to the math, 40 years have gone by.  Damned ma...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-list-of-1984.html

Caricatured here, a 1984 version of Steve Moore, Dan Jeup, Mike Genz, and Fred Cline 40 years ago this month, I was winding up my junior year at CalArts.  Eschewing the usual summer job...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2024/04/starting-with-bang.html

I went to kindergarten with a girl named Lisa.  I would sometimes go to her house after school while my mom was off running errands.  I had never hung out with a girl up 'til then, and ...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2024/03/my-peeps.html

I recently had a freelance job designing labels for Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing Company of Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  When they opened in 2014, I soon became a Thursday regular, getting to kn...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-twelve-pack.html

Meeting Marty at Nickelodeon. In January of 2017,  Nickelodeon had just finished construction on a brand new, shiny building at the corner of Olive and Lake in Burbank.  To celebra...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/11/im-marty.html

Gimbel's department store, Philadelphia, 1905. When the calendar turns to August, my mind always goes to the back-to-school days of childhood -  to days when summer boredom mixed with creepi...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-basement-at-gimbels.html

Bill Moore, 1981.                 Photo by Chris WahlThursdays at CalArts were brutal.  Getting to class early...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-legend-of-bill-moore.html

May 8th marked the latest premature loss to our hunched and goofy community with the death of Allen Stovall at the age of 69.  He was a veteran visual effects animator on features such as "C...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/05/godspeed-allen-stovall.html

 Natalie Wood gets served in "The Great Race"On a primal level, what's funnier than a pie in the face?  Pie fights were ubiquitous in the early days of film comedy.  But take a clo...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/05/recipes-for-pie-throwing-kind.html

  I am quite pleased to present my new short, "PeaceTime: A Soaring Eagle".  It's the second of what I hope to be a series of such guided meditations for children.  I collabor...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/04/peacetime-soaring-eagle.html

There comes a day when, sitting for a haircut, we get a long look in the mirror and see one of our parents looking back at us.  Horrified, we look away.  But forced to sit in there, we ...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2023/03/one-for-ageism.html

The 1983-84 school year at Cal Arts was my favorite, and my student film that year, "Bob the Dragon" is a reflection of that.  I was a junior that year when Hal Ambro came to teach animation...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/11/bob-dragon.html

 In 2001, producer and dear friend Leslie Hough called about developing a feature pitch for "The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussy-Cat", a children's book by Monty Python'...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/10/from-my-project-graveyard-owl-pussycat.html

   I got a call from Mona Gurgley, a recruiter from Upstart Studios, feeling out my interest in working for The Next Really Big Deal in animation.  They have big plans, BIG pl...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-no-hole-policy.html

 I first learned of Ralph Eggleston's death in James Baker's wonderful tribute post. I didn't know he'd been ill, so it came as quite a shock.   I first met Ralph at CalArts i...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/08/so-long-eggman.html

Over the past year, I have submitted my children's meditation short "PeaceTime: A Royal Frog" to dozens of film festivals all over the world.  In early April, a festival in Moscow accepted i...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/05/peacetime-for-ukraine.html

Program for the 1982 show, designed by Fred Cline.Forty years ago this week, I took part in my first CalArts Character Animation Show.  Through the course of the school year, I had managed t...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-list-of-1982.html

In my last post, Fun with Kidneys!, you heard about the new informational short I produced for the non-profit Renal Support Network, featuring the animated Kidneys Neff and Nuff.   Plea...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/02/diversion-con-rinones.html

How does one make the subject of kidney disease entertaining?  That was the challenge when Lori Hartwell approached me about making a short educational film for her non-profit Renal Support ...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2022/01/fun-with-kidneys.html

S.O.S. to all CalArts Alum on land and sea!  If you're looking for an end-of-year charitable donation and want to support the arts (yes!), consider the CalArts animation programs.  I st...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-sinking-of-113.html

 Kathleen Quaife, one of the best 2D effects animators that ever lived, passed away in her sleep last week, way too young.  I first met Katie in the late eighties, doing commercials for...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/10/sweet-dreams-katie.html

Awesome art director Jill Daniels has personal art on display now at the Baldwin Avenue Gallery, a.k.a the BAG in Sierra Madre.  Between her art show, her day job, and her Emmy's work on the...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/09/jill-daniels-art-in-bag.html

  CalArts I.D., 198140 years ago this week, my journey in character animation began.  I've been thinking about it recently, like looking through a dusty box of memories in the atti...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-freshman.html

 By Kirk WiseWas it the incessantly farting ogre that first tipped me off? Or the flat plywood sets that looked like a poorly-lit episode of H.R. Pufnstuf, minus the whimsy and imagination? ...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-ogre-mogul-and-me.html

 My old pal Jeff texted me last week, asking if I'd heard of a certain boutique animation studio, one that Wile E. Coyote might hire to make his commercials.  Jeff had applied for a mar...

http://flipanimation.blogspot.com/2021/04/linkedin-coyotes.html