And the Bozu Goes To . . .

Since Tee will be announcing this at the AniMazing Stoplight Festival site today I am going to start talking about it in these pages. I am currently in the early stages of designing a trophy for this year`s festival winners. The award will be named the Bozu in honor of Tee`s father, UPA founder, Stephen Bosustow.

Tee sent me a whole lot of images of his father, both drawings and photos. In the drawings and photos there was a certain physicality that was very appealing.

Here is the sketch that is driving the design of the statue. This is a Disney era caricature, which means it is before 1941.




This photo shows Zack, Dave and Stephen working on a storyboard, which makes it before 1947. (I am just showing Stephen)



Matching the wire armature to the drawing is easy in some senses and hard in others. Bronze casting calls for certain changes to make the casting process easier. Flow of metal, gating and venting all become an issue, as does cleanup of the castings.



Changes in design to go with gating and venting: left hand moved onto left thigh to keep the spread fingers, pencil moved to right hand to get it from behind the ear and to close the right hand so that the fingers are not a problem. (small items that stick out from the statue cause problems in casting and are in danger of breaking off if the statue falls)





The base of the statue is an animation wheel. The figure will be jumping off the page. Which is fitting for UPA, the studio that rocked the animation world in the late 40s and early 50s. (Or as Walt liked to call them, those Commies down the river!)

Holiday Snaps

One of the moms of one of the Silverado Library Story Hour kids just emailed me these photos of my wife hanging out with the man in the Big Red Suit from back before Christmas time. Who knew that Santa was such a player? And so good looking too.

Puckman Conquers the World

Been fooling around with acid etched copper as of late. Below are the designs and the etched plate. I did about 80 designs but the packman design was the killer image of the batch. Not kidding about the 80 designs. Just got started and couldn’t stop. Not sure how this applies to animation. It does kind of apply to gaming.





Packman, named Puckman in Japan but changed for U.S. markets because of the danger of vandalism (scrape the end of the "P" off to make it an "F"). Packman took over the world and popularized videogame like nothing before it.

There is something about the simple design esoteric of the missing pizza slice circle that puts the Packman image up there with the Smiley Face and the Playboy Bunny as an iconic archetype design.

There was a whole lot of videogame history before Packman but I put all that into the category of videogame pre-history. The modern era starts with the round yellow one.

Thinking a lot about videogames as of late. Been doing early volunteer organization work for the IndieCade display at this year's E3. So maybe it is only natural that Packman would find his way into my jewelry designs?

Speaking of designs I have thrown in a couple three pages of designs from this project.

3 Heads Better Than

Just found this old photo taken by one of my students. I am holding my severed head from my XFs daze next to the painting on my head on the Wall of Fame. And of course I have my head on my shoulders. A thing I had going for me in that by gone time.

Been emailing back and forth with Gil, my TA from that time. He got in touch with me before Christmas. He is getting back into animation. Good to be in touch with people from that time. It was a great program while it lasted. Lots of great students who I hear from now and then and even see once in a while at Comic Con.

Last Rant Against False History Videos

Yesterday I got a comment on blog postings I did at the end of last year about false animation history videos on YouTube, misinformation and mispronunciations presented as truth and the so called documentary filmmaker who knows his videos are flawed but finds nothing wrong in continuing to post horribly inaccurate information. The comment is posted anonymously but I know it is from the filmmaker, Aaron H. D____ it has his favorite response "get over yourself".


Saturday, November 28, 2009
truth-is-not-out There (contains links to the histories (sic) - number 3 has the most mispronunciations but they are all a mess)

Sunday, November 29, 2009
history-mess-goes-on

Tuesday, December 1, 2009
dont-take-history-so-seriously-man

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Don`t Take History so Seriously, Man!":

dont be such a jerk, man. film and animation are to be taken seriously but they should always have a fun, lighthearted escapism in the subtext. not all the projects we've done for school are perfect but they've moved us forward. get over yourself.

Posted by Anonymous to Animation Un-LOC`d at January 22, 2010 8:02 AM

Dear Aaron, thank you so very, very much for upgrading me from douchebag to jerk, which is what you called me when I suggested that you remove your massively flawed animation history videos from the Internet.

I have no idea why you felt compelled to contact me a full 2 months after the fact to comment on my blog posting about your damaged and damaging animation history videos. What was your goal? Did you want to get me to remove my reviews of your crappy animation unhistory videos? The copies of your crap history videos on my blog are just embedded links from where you posted your “old school projects”. Without the videos to link to, the reviews are meaningless.

You still don’t get it. You are knowingly publishing incorrect information about the history of animation. I am not talking about fun or lighthearted escapism or even animation. I am talking about history, fact, research, truth. I still think that to knowingly continue to publish erroneous information is wrong. People are going to find your "old school project" and think you know what you are talking about. More misinformation is going out every day and you are to blame for the lies of your videos from the moment you knew they were in fact lies.

The fact that you created these massively inaccurate histories when you were a student and didn’t know any better is neither here or there. You now know that your history videos are wrong from beginning to end but you continue to leave them up on the Internet.

You are knowingly spreading false facts. And not just small ones but giant flawed untruths. And you seem to think that am animation historian has no right to be upset about yet another source of misinformation on a subject already overrun with bad half-assed research.

You know that your films are filled with misinformation and god-awful mispronunciations. You are a documentary filmmaker and yet you knowingly continue to publish lies. And you vent your rage on the people who dare to call you on them.

These films should be a total embarrassment to you both professionally and personally and if I am helping to make them so, then good for me. But you tell me to get over myself. You call me a douchebag and jerk because I dare to question your wisdom in continuing to publish your flawed history videos for the unsuspecting world to see and believe.

I will do you one better; I am completely over you as a member of the filmmaking and academic community. You’re a non-person. I have more respect for people who claim that the holocaust never happened than I do for you. At lest they think they sick theories are the truth. You are knowingly publishing false history. You are not even pathetic. I have nothing but contempt for you and your scholarship (sic).

Let’s Hear It For The Roys:

I have been keeping in touch with Tee Bosustow as of late on a number of projects we are working on. Some of the projects involve looking at a number of photos and sketches of his dad, UPA founder Stephen Bosustow. I am starting to get a feel for the man. It set me to thinking on what Stephen Bosustow needed to turn UPA into a powerhouse like Disneys.

Stephen Bosustow had the creativity and the commitment to quality. He had the love of animation. What he didn’t have was Walt’s brother Roy. Think about that. Neither Walt or Stephen were that good with the business side but Walt had a brother enabling his creativity and keeping the company going. And that is why Disney is still around and UPA is a lovely memory.

Roy Sr. is the unsung hero of the Disney Story. Everybody talks about Walt and they even have an exhibit at California Adventure dedicated to “One Man’s Vision”. But none of it would have worked without Roy Sr. It use to be known as the Disney Brothers Studio. Damn it, it still should be. I have 2 major heroes who are both named Roy Disney. The first one made the dream possible and the second one kept the dream alive. Walt is not Walt without his brother Roy.

Tron Infighting

I watched Tron last night. My copy of the DVD was given to me in the form of a gift card from Donovan Cook, director of Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, as a thank you for getting him into Comic Con at the last minute.

Last October at the AniMazing Spotlight Festival Bill Kroyer went step by step on the insane process of animating the CGI with no render feedback and how he wrote giant Exposure Sheets with tilt, pitch and yawl and background movement and then punched in every number for every scene.

The Sunday L.A. Times had a big article about Jeffrey, Michael and Roy and their infighting and how it saved and then destroyed Disney Animation.

So what does Tron have to do with infighting at Disney you ask? Don’t ask. The Old Guard hated and feared Tron and wanted it to fail. And they were not passive in their desire.

Saturday I was at the Afternoon Of Remembrance meeting and I talked with Martha Sigall about her good friend and my acquaintance Auril Thompson. Auril was Effects Ink and Paint Supervisor on Tron and the Disney Ink and Paint people of that time hated her with a seething passion.

I spent an afternoon talking to Auril about Tron about three years ago. What most people don’t know is that all of the live action scenes inside the computer was painted on cels printed from the live action footage. What Auril did not know was that Disney Ink and Paint had already reported the process impossible in an attempt to kill the project before Auril was hired.

Auril made one demand before she was hire and that was for a parking space right in front of the door. This also pissed off the Old Guard Ink and Paint who had already closed ranks against her; “no room, no room!”. The premium parking space did nothing to endear the new kid to the Old Guard. You can almost hear the backbiting. So the Ink and Paint for Tron was set up in a basement area well away from the Old Guard Ink and Paint.

Auril Thompson and her crew went about doing what the Disney Ink and Paint Department said was impossible much to the chagrin of the Old Guard. It wasn’t easy. Auril told me about one time towards the end of the film when they had to farm out scenes to a Korean Ink and Paint house. The Koreans shipped back a scene that had not been properly dried before it was packed and all the cels stuck together into one big block of paint and plastic.

Take these few statements about working conditions for the Tron Ink and Paint Crew and multiply it by a thousand and it is a miracle that the film was made at all. Of course it is a miracle that any animation film is finished. But Tron had an up hill steeper than most. Tron can be seen as the first step in the rebirth of Disney Animation and it was not an easy labor.

Gaming Biz

A few days ago the police busted an escaped drug deal who was hiding out in Canada by tracing his World of Warcraft account. (dv-depot) blizz-helps-bust-wow-playing-drug-dealer (crunchgear)wow-playing-drug-dealer Just couldn’t start over with a newbie character under another account. Maybe he will get to play in prison?

A lot of sites have reported this event. But what they haven’t talked about is the massive success of WOW, as it is known, and the general success of games both online and off.

Little know fact, games have made more money than movies since the 80s. Lets look at World of Warcraft. There are a reported 11.5 million subscribers to WOW.

What does that number mean? 11.5 million subscribers times $15 per month equals $172.5 million dollars per month in subscription fees or $2.07 billion per year. That is just one online game, one game. Wake up and smell the vectors. Games are very big business.

Speaking of videogames, I am announcing a new feature today. New to you. It has been on my server for a couple of years but it was only open to my history of gaming students until today.

I have added the link it to my links list:



This a history of videogames site and has among other features a Videogame Hall of Fame with bios on some of the greats in gaming, fun difficulty VS strength charts and a killer gaming timeline going all the way back to the founding of Nintindo in 1889.

Want a Little Whine With That?

I normally have a great bunch of students and I did again this last semester but there is always one. Here we are just about through the first week of the New Year and I have just received my 4th grade begging email from this one student. Now he is listing extra credit events that he did not report during the semester and bringing out swine flu for the first time. (reminds me of the number of students who suddenly had relatives in the Twin Towers back in 2001) My job is to get students ready for the workplace and this guy isn`t ready. But I took all this time to answer this guy so I might as well get a blog post out of it.

Quoting R__ A______@csu.fullerton.edu:

I went to several gallery openings on and off campus. One of which I put on early in the semester on campus.

I went to the orange county tattoo convention. I've been attending meetings discussing the terms of an upcoming imagineering international contest. I'm participating in a group consisting of illustrators, painters, sculptors and architects. Also, went to a guest speaker, but it was a fine artist.

I didn't know if all networking events had to be specifically pertaining to commercial arts. Being a fine artist, I participate and attend art shows regularly where much of the networking I do occurs.

Also, I was sick with the flu, but being that I have no health insurance, there's no proof the flu i had was H1N1.

This kind of stuff should have been taken care of during the semester. There was a time and a place to list all of these extra credit events but you did not bother.

All the procedures of the class were explained during the first session and were also covered in the syllabus. When I was teaching high school I forced students to sign a document stating that they had read the syllabus but this is college you`re an adult.

If you had put the kind of effort into the class work during the semester that your are doing post semester you would not need to try to retro-beg and nit pick your way into a passing grade.

Even your possible swine flu seems a bit contrived and grasping at straws at this very late date. I did have another student who missed more than the allotted number of classes because the doctor was testing him for swine flu. He contacted me at the time of the sickness and brought in a doctor`s note. He therefore got credit for the missed class.

And before you go into the no money for health care argument again there is a health center on campus and students have to pay a health fee each semester. Quote:

“Basic medical care is available to all currently enrolled CSUF students. The Student Health and Counseling Center is supported by general fees and student funds, and operates like a prepaid health plan. The cost of the basic care given in the Student Health Services, except for augmented services, is covered at no charge. Emergency care may be obtained at any of the 23 California State University campuses.”

You didn`t put the effect into the class when you had the chance. You couldn`t even bother to list the events that you attended. You only come up with the swine flu excuse after all else failed. That says it all to me. I can`t see that there is any reason for me to make an exception in your case.

You earned the grade you earned. On top of that you have made me waste my time telling you what you already know. You do the work and attend my class and you pass my class, do don`t do the work and attend you don`t. If you displayed this attitude in the workplace you would not hold onto a job for very long.

Larry Loc

AniMazing Spotlight

Just before New Years I finished critiquing and judging 17 new animations for the first quarter composition of the 2010 AniMazing Spotlight Animation Festival. This is an event that my friend Tee Bosustow put together.

The cool part is the critique. Some of these films are works in progress asking for feedback. Tee and his team have put together a review panel with a number of animators from around the world. I am humbled to be included in this list:

Nancy Beiman
Jack Bosson
Nick Bosustow
Carolina López Caballero
Gene Deitch
Bill Dennis
Paul Dopff
Weiling Guo
Lennie Graves
Jim Keeshen
Larry Loc
Dave Master
Bill Matthews
Ellen Meske
Frank Mouris
Monique Renault
Malcolm Turner
Paul Wells
Sharon Wu

Here is the web site for those of you interested in following or joining the competition: http://www.animazspot.com/animazspot

Another Brick in the Wall

Just found another batch of photos from my ROP Animation Wall of Fame: