MyToons has 5 OIAF passes up fer grabs!

Them fine folks over at MyToons have snagged themselves 5 animapasses for this year's Ottawa International Animation Festival. Now, you 'member how much of a blast last year's fest was...



You need to go, 'specially since I cannot (work, n' all that.) So, go on over to this blogpost and send in yer comments on why you'd like to go. Best ones picked by the MyToons judges will get the golden tickee. So, what you starin' at me fer? Go!

MONSTER my bad...

I promise you guys the second part of MONSTERJAM, then vanish for a week...I'm a real bad pooch. My bad, it's been, well, one of them weeks where nothin' seems to get accomplished for no good reason.

At least the fellas over at MyToons are on the job. They've got a new contest going to promote their hi-def content...go have a gander, and I'll be sure to post the remaining monster madness next week. Honest. Meanwhile, have a look at this week's winner, and go over to MyToons and enter and/or vote!

Stefan G. Bucher

Sorry, my loyal yet lascivious lovers of monster mayhem...MONSTERJAM: Part the Second will have to wait 'til the coming of the next week. Many apologies. You'll be happy to note, however, that Part the First is currently the 2nd featured animation on the MyToons main page. Thanks to my monstrous minions for making such marvelous motions. More to come.

In the meantime, gaze in awe at the fine works of master monster maker Stefan G. Bucher, and while you're at it, go purchase his fine yet fuzzy tome "100 Days of Monsters". A book and a DVD for a mere twenty...bargain, says I. Go, enjoy, and stay cool. Special thanks to MyToons for their support and for the excellent article on Mr. Bucher. Cheers!

MONSTERJAM pt. 1-YouTube edition

Apologies to all you blog-goers out there having trouble with the MyToons embed. If you can't get it to run in your browser, you need to install Adobe Flash Player 9 (MyToons updated it to the latest when they went HD!). I've also uploaded a copy of the MJ to my YouTube page if yer still havin' troubles. Enjoy!

MONSTERJAM: Part the First

Witness the fruits of monstrous labors. No more words.



Part the Last comes in one week. Prepare yourselves!

MyToons goes HD

The guys from MyToons have slapped a major upgrade onto the site, with toons in glorious High-Def now, thanks to an updated player and site layout. From the Animation Snack newsletter:

"MyToons has been redesigned and is now the first global animation community to offer you the ability to upload and view your animation in High Definition – the top of the line, all digital format for broadcasting, streaming and viewing video. Consider this the new age “black and white to color” transition – and it’s all at your fingertips. Find out more about HD here.

MyToons is here to make your life fun and easy – check out our other new features!

Channels: Watch up to 19 different animation channels, add animation tags, and share with your friends – all without leaving the homepage!

Filter Feature: Play the animations, artwork, and games you’re craving with our new filtering feature – just organize by “Time,” “Sorting,” “Category,” and “Style.”

Rating System: Rate animation, artwork, and games on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. Gold Star or No Star? Let ‘em know what you think!

Start Page: Get a fresh start with our new, one-stop control board! Manage, edit, and personalize your stuff – all from the “My Start Page” button on the homepage!"


Noice. Go and check out all the hi-def goodness.

Dave Redl: Family Pants

Sorry for the long post hiatus...things are gonna be heating up here at TAIS as we approach the MONSTERJAM and Animation Showcase submission deadlines. Madi's been running around doing her crazy woman routine, promoting the event and grabbing submissions. And I've been working behind them scenes with MyToon's Michele Krier and Raleigh Melancon to get the word out. Speakin' o' which, a lil' 60's flavoured slapstick featured on MyToons front page for your delectation today. Family Pants is based on Dave Redl's experiences with his dad. Hopefully, the events depicted here are not historically accuarate. More later!

Well, I've been alluding to this for a few weeks, so before I heads off to grab a copy of Condemned 2 (scary as hell) I'll make the big announcement. The Toronto Animated Image Society is proud to announce...MONSTERJAM!

Yep, we've organized a new anijam this year, and this time around the theme is monsters. Animated 10 seconds however your want of whatever story you want, but it's gotta be about monsters. Send us a 720x480 Quicktime (give me a shout if you've got conversion or upload issues) along with a couple of stills and your contact info by May 30th. We'll edit all your creepy goodness into a big-ass anijam film that'll be first screened at the National Film Board in June as part of TAIS' Animation Celebration. Afterwards, we'll post it up on MyToons and submit it to Channel Frederator, and it'll be featured on the TAIS main site.

Did I mention prizes? The guys at Monster Factory and The Beguiling were kind enough to throw some goodies our way to use as prizes for the coolest, creepiest entries. We've got hand-made monster stuffies and author-signed copies of Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi and Kean Soo's Jellaby! I'll post some pictures of them goodies next week, as well as keepin' you posted on all our entries here on the blog, as well as supplying you with the occasional sneak peak.

Special thanks go out to the folks at Channel Frederator and MyToons for the promise of pimpage for this event. Don't just sit there, there's monsters to animate...go, go, go!

MyToons Bumper Blastoff winners!

MyToons 'Bumper Blastoff' contest has wrapped up, with winners taking home big cash, major kudos, and a chance to get their portfolio a looksee by the dudes at INTERspectacular, Freestyle Collective and Nailgun. (I think I've got Nailgun on vynil somewheres...) The grand prize winner is 'Furnick', animated by David J. Suroviec. Nicely done. Kudos to all them award winners and runners-up. Great contests the dudes at MyToons come up with...gotta whip up something for their next one.

Speakin' o' contests, I'll have a big-ass related item of noozy goodness for y'all later today. Stay tooned. Meanwhile, enjoy David's short while he basks in the bucks. Later!

MyToons: Bumper Blast contest

Just a quick post before I bivouac my ass indoors for the weekend with a copy of Smash Brother Brawl. Updates and nooz from our homies over at MyToons...new features include buttons for small, medium and large embed sizes for those of you havin' problems sinking their 350 x 500's into your blog posts. And they've wrapped up their 'Bumper Blastoff' contest! The idea here was to animate a bumper (10-30 second promo) for the site, with seven grand and a bunch of goodies on the line. (Man I wish I had had the time to do this. Ah, nootz.) They'll be announcing the winners on March 12th. Meanwhile, enjoy some of my faves, and I'll see you all next week.

MyToons does the Tube

A quick shout-out to congratulate our homies over at MyToons for their recently inked deal with YouTube! The deal creates a dedicated MyToons channel on YouTube to get all your indy animation fixes on...nice! Hop on over and check out the goods. Cheers!

Nick Hilligoss: L'animateur

Speakin' of stuff found on MyToons (sorry, no embeds yet), here's a delicious slice of Grand Guignol cake from master animator Nick Hilligoss. His sly take on Adam and Eve is told through some of the smoothest puppet animation this ol' pooch has ever lay his eyes on. When he's not droppin' jaws on video and animation sharing sites, he's busy at the dayjob...workin' for ABC in his native Australia. Current project: A stop-mo animated series called Good Riddance, "which chronicles the exploits of an eco-friendly pest controller and his uninvited house guests, a streetwise gang of rats." I'll see if'n any of it's done. If so, I'll post it tomorrow. Man, they've got some animation chops down under. More later.