April 1996 Volume 1, No.1 Barry Purves' Rigoletto © Bare Boards Productions. ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE Volume 1, No.1 – April 1996 Editor's Notebook by Harvey Deneroff 3 Creating the Memories by Bill Kroyer 5 ANIMATION WORLD NETWORK One of Hollywood's leading directors and computer animation pioneer provides a personal history of computers in animation from the 6525 Sunset Blvd., days of Tron to the present. In so doing, Kroyer discusses the problems and opportunities posed by the marriage of art and technology. Garden Suite 10 Hollywood, CA 90028 The Emperor's New Clothes by Barry Purves 10 Phone : 213.468.2554 After ace puppet animator Barry Purves was displaced on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks ! by the folks at Industrial Light & Fax : 213.464.5914 Magic, we asked him to write something about his experience in Hollywood. The result is not what we expected, and instead he provides a wondrous soliloquy on the nature of animation, both of the traditional and computer kind. Email : [email protected] 3-D Animation in France by Olivier Cotte 15 Olivier Cotte, creator of Terra Incognita, provides a rundown on what's going on in 3-D computer animation in France. Fantôme : The First 10 Years by Harvey Deneroff 18 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE A talk with Georges Lacroix, co-founder of Fantôme Animation, about his company and the popular Insektors TV series, [email protected] which is a reminder that there is life for computer animated shows beyond ReBoot. Technician of Suspended Disbelief : Rick Dyer, Shadoan and the Frontier of Animated PUBLISHER CD Entertainment by Eric La Brecque 21 Ron Diamond, President In the early 1980s, Rick Dyer engineered an interactive revolution when he married feature quality animation to video Dan Sarto, Chief Operating Officer games with titles such as Dragon's Lair. He is still, at this time with Shadoan and talks to Eric LeBrecque about it. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Europe-A Storyboard Success by Iain Harvey 25 Harvey Deneroff Europe has traditionally been an also ran vis-à-vis the American film and TV industries. When it comes to animation, they also have to deal with Japan as well. For the past five years, the European Union has been trying to fight back ASSOCIATE EDITOR/PUBLICITY with CARTOON. A report from the trenches by CARTOON V.P. Iain Harvey. Frankie Kowalski Sinomation : Shanghai Animation Studio-Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 28 CONTRIBUTORS : by Kenneth Hutman Giannalberto Bendazzi With many studios in East Asia eagerly trying to adopt to unfamiliar methods and styles in seeking work from Western Olivier Cotte producers, Shanghai Animation Studio, one of China's oldest, has a different idea. John H. Dilworth Shamus Culhane by Mark Langer 30 Iain Harvey Shamus Culhane's career spanned nearly the whole history of animation. Mark Langer pays tribute to Culhane as Kenneth Hutman both as a man and as an artist. Mark Langer Eric La Brecque 25 Years Already ! by Nicole Salomon 33 (English) 35 (français) Bill Kroyer The French resort town of Annecy is home of the premiere international animation festival ; but it also boasts of a no Barry Purves less illustrious animation workshop. Nicole Salomon recalls her experiences with the workshop, which has just celebrated Nicole Salomon its 25th anniversary. René Laloux. Drawings That Move By Giannalberto Bendazzi. 37 Le WEBMASTER René Laloux, best known for directing such animated sci-fi classics as Fantastic Planet, has now come out with a history Guillaume Calop of animation. Giannalberto Bendazzi reports. DESIGN/LAYOUT : On a Desert Island With... compiled by Frankie Kowalski 39 IMP Graphic Our peripatetic associate editor has asked the Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short Subject about their experiences e-mail : [email protected] and what films they would want to take with them if stranded on a desert island. The first of a series. ADVERTISING SALES And the Envelope Please... by John H. Dilworth 41 North America : Wendy Jackson A space aged look at the whole Oscar experience from nominee John Dilworth's point of view. Europe : Vincent Ferri News 42 Asia : Bruce Teitelbaum Next Issue's Highlights 43 2 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996 hen I was hired as the public, about how cartoons interactive animation who talks Editor of Animation are made. (How many drawings about his newest CD-ROM, Shadoan. W World Magazine, my does it take to make a A more general survey of what's assignment was relatively animated film has been a stock happening in Europe is provided by simple : question posed to animators producer Iain Harvey, who shows Produce a literate, independent almost from year one.) the role played by the European on-line journal about animation. Union's CARTOON initiative. More It was to include material While animation has focused on one particular studio, is of interest to a wide moved aggressively Kenneth Huttman's story of how one variety of readers over the last few Chinese studio is trying to keep its from around the years out of its traditions alive, while at the same time world, including professionals, ghetto-like existence and squarely trying to deal with the needs of aficionados and those whose into the mainstream, the public's (and Western producers. concerns about animation may be the industry's) curiosity with more “casual,” but nevertheless animation technology and technique A tribute to the late Shamus serious. Among other things, it was remains more intense than ever. It is Culhane by Mark Langer, to be a magazine which allowed also something that vitally concerns people in animation, especially filmmakers and producers alike, who Giannalberto Bendazzi's look at a new animation artists, a venue in which now have to come to terms with the history of animation by filmmaker René they could express themselves and consequences and opportunities Laloux, and Nicole Salomon's com- communicate with one another. It presented by the digital revolution. memoration of the 25th anniversary was an assignment I gladly accepted. These issues which are addressed of the Annecy Animation Workshop rather strongly by Bill Kroyer and rounds up our first issue, along with Animation World Magazine is a Barry Purves, filmmakers of distinctly the first of Frankie Kowalski's first new venture in more ways than one. different pedigrees, but remarkably roundup of animators' “Desert Island” Attempting to publish a magazine on similar concerns. favorites (this time, focusing on the Internet is in itself something of Oscar-nominated filmmakers). an adventure. As such, we expect our Despite the impression that may magazine evolve and grow as time have been left by Toy Story, high goes on. In the meantime, we are quality 3-D computer animation is having a lot of fun doing it and hope being done all around the world. Thus, inally, I would like to personally that you will enjoy it as well. we asked computer animator Olivier thank Ron Diamond and Dan Cotte to provide an introductory FSarto, who were crazy enough survey of what's going on in France, to hire me as Editor. Not so crazy one of the leaders in digital animation, (although she may not agree) is my or most of its history, animation while Georges Lacroix elucidates on Associate Editor, Frankie Kowalski, has been considered a marginal in an interview I did about the whose enthusiasm and talent have part of the film and television delightful French TV series, Insektors, F kept both me and the magazine right industries, whose product was which is also done in 3-D. on target. mostly suitable only for children. It has also been a labor-intensive craft, that Our digital roundup also includes Harvey Deneroff has always evoked a wondrous sense an interview by Eric La Brecque with Editor-in-Chief of curiosity, by both journalists and Rick Dyer, one of the real pioneers of Animation World Magazine 3 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996 4 ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE April 1996 Creating the Memories by Bill Kroyer This article is adapted from the I Really Feel Sorry For You Kid… keynote address Bill Kroyer gave at I finally ended up at Disney in the Ojai Animation Conference, in 1977, which was an interesting Ojai, California, on July 22, 1995.The place to be then. It was the link to Conference, designed as a retreat for the Golden Age. You are probably the animation industry, was hearing about how we are going sponsored by the International into the second Golden Age, which Animated Film Society, ASIFA- I think might be true. Yet, in those Hollywood, in association with the days everybody sat around and Ojai Film Society.When Kroyer gave moped, feeling bad about the fact the talk, he had recently started that they missed it. working as co-director on Warner We used to have guest artists Bros. Feature Animation's first film, come over who would say, “I really now entitled The Quest for feel sorry for you kid, you missed the Camelot, which is being co-produced Bill and Sue Kroyer Golden Age. Your life is worthless. by his wife, Sue Kroyer. Why bother ? You weren't there !” Some of the Nine Old Men were If you asked them still there in 1977, including Frank why they were not Thomas, Ollie Johnson, Willie oday, animation is exploding. innovating, they'd say, Reitherman and Eric Larson. But the And with billion dollar “Because we do studio was still stuck in a time warp, Tanimated films, direct-to-video what we do best,” technically and creatively. If you and CD-ROMs, there are big profi- which meant they just asked them why they were not ts to be made.