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Rebecca Dart lives in Vancouver and works on animation productions as well as creating comics and drawings for personal projects.

A difficult subject for artists to draw well is the horse. Rebecca renders horses, warriors and all sorts of fantasy creatures in powerful, confidently inked brush strokes that make it seem effortless. Perhaps her horse drawing ability aided her in securing a job as part of the crew that recently rebooted the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic television series, although you won’t see her art from the show on her blog where she has decided not to post any Pony-related concepts.

Instead, you’ll find her slice-of-life comics:

And various pieces from Rebecca’s art book, Battle Kittens, which features fearsome weapon-wielding ladies riding gigantic kittens into battle.

Many more mythical and original creatures are in Recca’s Flickr collection.

Rhizome.org published a great interview with David OReilly about his recent Adventure Time episode “A Glitch is a Glitch” and the challenges of making convincing styistic glitch:

“In general, doing stylistic glitch is easy compared to doing good character animation. Mixing the two gets very tricky though. One of the hardest things was corrupting the scene near the end of the entire broadcast so that the earlier clip is superimposed over Finn & Jake to give them an idea (i.e., using glitch as a kind of thought bubble). It was easy to storyboard that idea, but making it work properly took a lot of grind…It was all generated from ‘real’ glitches—but since everything is run through compositing software and sort of controlled you could also say it was all fake. The glitches needed to begin locally—inside objects—then spread out until they became part of the scene itself. The local stuff was done by generating a ton of sprites that had random pixels move outwardly to create the colorful flourishes we associate with video compression. These had a decent amount of control—a blob of glitchy stuff could move around a scene, for example. Once the scenes were fully animated and rendered the global full-frame glitches were done. There was some jpeg corruption added on top of the battle scene at the end.”

Eric Robles, creator of Fanboy & Chum Chum, recently made a micro-short for Nick called Zombie Brothers, which can be seen on Nickelodeon’s website. It was part of the same shorts program that resulted in Carrot and Stick along with numerous other shorts.

Robles also created his own ‘making of’ video with a Flip Cam to document the stop-motion production that took place at Screen Novelties:

Seth MacFarlane’s The Cleveland Show had been widely expected to be canceled, and The Animation Guild recently confirmed that the show is finished. The show had a respectable four-season run on FOX comprising 88 total episodes.

Fox Animation Studios is still humming along with Family Guy and American Dad so MacFarlane remains busy, though an undetermined number of Cleveland Show rank-and-file will likely be laid off.

(Thanks, Graham)

Raphaël Chabassol, who also goes by Mokë, works in London and has a portfolio of animation design and direction work here, including a page that features his character designs from the second season of Cartoon Network’s The Amazing World Of Gumball.

Considering its multimedia art direction, Gumball seems like a fitting show for Raphaël to work on. His blog shows off his broader interests and personal work which include illustrations, prints, tattoos, mural art and dimensional character pieces.

Colin Howard is working as a character designer on Steven Universe, the new show in production created by Rebecca Sugar. You can see Colin’s current Tumblr here. He seems like a good match for the show, as many of Colin’s sketchbook drawings and characters seem to be built of the same cartoon materials as Rebecca’s—similar lines, forms, and convincing solidity.

For more drawings and recent CalArts school work, Colin has another blog here. Perhaps of special interest to future animation school applicants, you can peek at Colin’s even earlier blog, which he describes as his character animation application work.

Nickelodeon’s weekly ratings serve as a sobering reminder of the network’s perputual stasis and its inability to produce a hit show for well over a decade. But this wasn’t always the case. In an earlier era, Nick used to be the dominant name in children’s entertainment, pumping out hit show after hit.

That classic era of Nickelodeon is the subject of “It’s the shizNICK”, a group art show that will open Friday, April 19, from 7-11pm, at the iam8bit gallery (2147 W. Sunset Blvd., LA, CA 90026):

Nickelodeon—a network brave enough to broadcast bold, awesome, epic and irreverent programming that embraces the free-flying spirit of being a kid, ignoring the conventional rules of TV development and just… well… going for it!

An entire generation was raised on Nick’s onslaught of 90′s awesomeness – truly weird, funny, and honest entertainment that speaks for itself:

The Ren & Stimpy Show, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Rocko’s Modern Life, Salute Your Shorts, Doug, Double Dare, You Can’t Do That on Television, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rugrats, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Hey Dude, SpongeBob SquarePants, etc.

The list flows on, but you get the picture. Nickelodeon has had a lasting cultural influence, far deeper than any other cable channel can claim.

The line-up of artists exhibiting in “It’s the shizNick” is impressively eclectic:

Opening night festivities will include DJs, drinks, an “Animated GIF Theatre”, a photo playset, and, of course, green slime. Full details on the Facebook event page.

Iam8bit provided Cartoon Brew with an exclusive preview of some of the art that will be exhibited:

Ryan Quincy worked for well over a decade as part of the South Park production crew as an animator, animation director and supervisor. On the side he also created several music videos over the years which can be seen on his website.

After a long period of development and pitching that began in 2008, which included three shorts produced for FOX, Ryan’s show Out There recently premiered as IFC’s first animated series.

Ryan shared some artwork and photos of whiteboard doodles from the production which is written and boarded by Ryan and a small team in Los Angeles, and then sent to Bento Box Entertainment’s satellite studio in Atlanta, which draws from the talent pool established there by the various Adult Swim productions.

I was considering using some business-jargon to describe this bi-coastal production to a draw contrast with shows that ship animation to Asia–“in-sourcing” came to mind–but while trying to verify if I was using the terminology correctly I came upon this gem on Wikipedia, and decided to call the whole thing off:

The prefixes to “-sourcing” and “-shoring” remain in flux: Outsourcing gave rise to the term in-sourcing, and offshoring resulted in on-shoring. However, onshoring is sometimes called in-shoring. Insourcing is sometimes named “backsourcing”. Insourcing may be done by “onshoring”, “offshoring” or just “remotely”.

Anyway, the animation is done in Atlanta.

Ryan says that he drew from his childhood experience growing up in the midwest U.S. when he created Out There. The quirky designs of the characters also stem directly from the type of doodles that Ryan says he has been drawing since he was a kid, drawing inspiration from the work of Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Ub Iwerks, Jim Henson and a stew of others.

Derek Iversen, a writer on SpongeBob SquarePants, writes with some news:

Today Nickelodeon released Carrot & Stick, a short that I created with Miles Hindman last year. Marc Ceccarelli did the storyboard and Joel Trussell directed, and we couldn’t be happier with the result!

The two-minute pilot short can be seen on Nickelodeon’s website. It was recently selected for competition in the Annecy animation festival’s TV Specials category.

Joe Pitt, a designer on Wreck-It Ralph and director on the Disney show Gravity Falls, posts personal and professional work on his blog, such as this behind-the-scenes look at the process of developing the perfect design for gnome barf.

Recently he moved over to the position of Lead Character Designer for Craig McCracken’s new show, Wander Over Yonder, also in production at Disney.

Joe also synchs his blog-flow of art with Twitter, where you can occasionally see work like these pieces below from a personal project in development.

When it comes to the classic Filmation television series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, it’s not much of a stretch to find homoerotic subtext in its ham-fisted dialogue and hyper-masculine, brutish-ness. However, there are times in the sci-fi hero’s quest to fight the forces of evil with his “fabulous secret powers” that it seems to move beyond mere inadvertent sexual suggestion and right into “oh, that’s just gay” territory. Here are five of He-Man’s gayest moments.

1. “The Cosmic Comet”

In the very first episode of He-Man: MOTU, titled “The Cosmic Comet”, the evil Skeletor harnesses the power of a wandering comet that, ever since its mate was accidentally destroyed, has grown bitter and evil. Under the sorcerer’s control, the comet attempts to stop a self-deprecating old wizard called The Comet Keeper from rebuilding its destroyed lover by attacking him with genital-less, ‘roided out rock men. He-Man wrestles with the evil comet long enough for his friends to fill the new one with their love, defeating Skeletor and enabling the happy couple to once again travel the galaxy in harmony. And just when you think this storyline couldn’t be more of a head-scratcher, you discover that both of the comets are actually male.

2. “Quest for He-Man”

In the “Quest For He-Man”, our hero falls through a rainbow colored time corridor and into the environmentally devastated world of Trannis where he encounters Plundor the Spoiler. A lisping, rabbit-headed captain of industry with an unexplained penchant for polluting the seas and killing off his planet’s wildlife, Plundor is immediately enamored by the “powerful looking brute” and offers to make “great use of his muscles”. He-Man politely turns him down in a way that only he can: by straddling Plundor’s “liquid filled” rocket and riding it into the stratosphere. Literally.

3. Any appearance of Duncan, Man-at-Arms

Ok, this is example is pretty general, but we’re including the overall presence of Duncan, aka Man-At-Arms, the royal family’s master of weapons. A middle-aged man with bare midriff armor, a Seventies ‘stache and nothing better to do than go on long trips with Prince Adam and keep his secrets? The whole thing reeks of human growth hormone, a secret past and late night slap-and-tickle in the darkened corridors of Castle Grayskull.

4. “The Laughing Dragon”

In He-Man: MOTU’s sister series, She-Ra: Princess of Power, She-Ra, in an episode titled “The Laughing Dragon”, encounters a socially put upon Dragon named Sorrowful. With hopes of recruiting his help against the Horde army, the show’s token male, Bow tries to intimidate the tormented reptile into finding its courage. However, even the bullied beast can’t help but mock the archer, who has inexplicably chosen to wear a belted pink frock, with limp-wristed jabs at Bow’s masculinity. An anti-bullying episode, where even the bullied bullies someone else for being different? As you can see, Bow’s catty companion, Kowl is not impressed.

5. “Fisto’s Forest”

And lastly, I draw your attention to an episode called “Fisto’s Forest”. He-Man & Co. is called to help some forest people whose diminutive leader, the Elf Lord, has been imprisoned by a bushy bearded bully named Fisto. Fisto, whose name can’t help but bring to mind vats of aqueous cream and neoprene gloves, is killing off their crops by using his over-sized metal fist to create a blockage in the river. The whole situation is only made more vivid by Fisto’s choice to douse his opponents with a sticky white goo as a means to subdue them.

From a report on ComicBookResources.com:

Cartoonist Bruce Timm has stepped down as supervising producer at Warner Bros. Animation to develop his own projects. He’s been replaced by James Tucker, a veteran of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League and, more recently, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

It’s the end of an era.

(Thanks, Paul Burrows)

From a report on ComicBookResources.com:

Cartoonist Bruce Timm has stepped down as supervising producer at Warner Bros. Animation to develop his own projects. He’s been replaced by James Tucker, a veteran of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League and, more recently, Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

It’s the end of an era.

(Thanks, Paul Burrows)

C.H. Greenblatt is the creator of the Cartoon Network series Chowder, part of the production crew on the Disney series Fish Hooks, and the creator of a new series pilot that has recently been completed for Nickelodeon called Bad Seeds.

C.H. keeps a blog with funny drawings and sketchbook doodles here. An older blog here stretches back through the Chowder production era, beginning in 2006. He also contributes to the Unofficial Official Fish Hooks Blog here, which offers a glimpse into the the production of that show.

C.H. is generous with advice. He often responds to readers’ questions on his blog, and the answers offer valuable insights into his methods.

A recent post included a sneak peek at some of the background artwork and background characters from the Bad Seeds pilot.

Venture Bros. is returning to Adult Swim with new regular episodes after a two-and-a-half year hiatus. The season 5 episodes will debut at midnight on May 19th.

In a statement on StarsWars.com, Lucasfilm and Disney announced today that “Lucasfilm has decided to pursue a new direction in animated programming.” Their first move is to cancel production of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars in anticipation of Episode 7. The show, directed by Dave Filoni, aired 108 episodes over five seasons on Cartoon Network. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that future Star Wars TV animation will appear on Disney-owned channels like Disney XD.

Lucasfilm said on StarWars.com that they are still producing “bonus content”:

While the studio is no longer producing new episodes for Cartoon Network, we’re continuing production on new Clone Wars story arcs that promise to be some of the most thrilling adventures ever seen. Stay tuned for more information on where fans can soon find this bonus content.

They also released this personal video message from the show’s director Dave Filoni:

Bill Plympton made a new Simpsons couch gag, titled “Film Noir,” that will premiere on this Sunday’s episode of the perennial TV series. The whole thing is posted online and can be seen below. Plympton also made a Simpsons couch gag last year.

Bill also just released the trailer to his new short Drunker Than a Skunk adapted from a poem by Walt Curtis:

This press release that arrived in the inbox this morning was interesting to me because I wasn’t aware that Technicolor, which has a long and illustrious history as a technology company, is making a push into original content development. In addition to The Deep, they are developing Berkeley Breathed’s Pete & Pickles, and Atomic Puppet, a co-production with Mercury Filmworks. Should these projects move forward, the animation would be produced at Technicolor’s studio in Bangalore, India.

Paris (France) – January 22, 2013 – Technicolor (Euronext Paris: TCH) has optioned the rights for the international hit graphic novel series, THE DEEP, created by writer Tom Taylor (Star Wars: Blood Ties, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Injustice: Gods Among Us) and illustrator James Brouwer (Justice League Beyond), and published by Gestalt Comics.

The Deep: Here Be Dragons graphic novel won the Aurealis Award (Australia’s annual literary awards for science fiction, fantasy and fiction) for “Best Illustrated Book / Graphic Novel” of 2011 and was also nominated for “Best Children’s Fiction (illustrated).” Technicolor Digital Productions aims to develop and produce 26 half-hour episodes of THE DEEP, which follows the incredible adventures of a family of underwater explorers. The CGI-animated series targets Kids 8 – 12 and their families. Each self-contained episode of THE DEEP will bring the family a step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the deep sea; and every story will be filled with action, adventure, incredible sea monsters, fantastic vehicles, unbelievable bravery, and the odd family squabble, of course!

“THE DEEP is one of those unique properties that truly appeals to all ages and genders by delivering compelling entertainment in the form of enthralling adventure, heart-pounding danger, laugh out loud humor and incredible discoveries all wrapped in unbreakable familial relationships,” said Steven Wendland, Vice President, Technicolor Digital Productions. “It’s the family we all dreamed of being a part of when we were kids and are anxious and excited to share with our own children now.”

“Technicolor is the ideal animation studio to bring THE DEEP to life,” added Robert Chandler, Executive Producer, THE DEEP. “The CG team at Technicolor has the ability not only to visually knock your socks off, but also to deliver moments of tenderness, character and heart. That’s why THE DEEP and Technicolor make a great partnership. It is that special combination which leads to creating great series and stories.”

THE DEEP follows the Nekton family, comprised of the independent and fearless 12 year old Antaeus, Ant to his friends; his analytical 15 year old sister Fontaine, an astute navigator; and their parents Will, an oceanographer and former Olympic swimmer, and Kaiko, a marine biologist who is fiercely protective of all sea life, including Ant’s pet fish, Jeffrey. Continuing a long family legacy, the Nektons live aboard a state of the art submarine, The Aronnax, while exploring unchartered areas of the earth’s oceans. Each member of the family has unique skills and are all equally passionate about sea life conservation. They seek to solve the ultimate mysteries that appear to be connected to a place we know as Atlantis.

THE DEEP was created by multi-award-winning playwright, screenwriter and author Tom Taylor, best known for his many Star Wars graphic novels and comic books for Lucasfilm and Dark Horse Comics; and illustrator James Brouwer who has worked as a pre-production and concept artist on a range of film, television and games projects for major studios. Brouwer moved into comics in 2011 with The Deep: Here Be Dragons and has since illustrated for DC Comics.

Technicolor Digital Productions produces high-quality CG animation for feature films, television, direct-to-video, commercials, video games and location-based entertainment through its industry-leading production facility in Bangalore, India. The group launched its original content development initiative in 2010 and is currently in development on several projects, including Berkeley Breathed’s Pete & Pickles, and Atomic Puppet, a co-production with Mercury Filmworks. Complementing its services business with original content creation, Technical Digital Productions continues to work with major animation clients including Nickelodeon, DreamWorks Animation, Electronic Arts, Mattel, Rockstar Games, Sony Computer Entertainment America and Square Enix.

The show may be cancelled, but this list of animation rules – “60 and counting” – for artists on Fox’s King Of The Hill is a great read.

Some of this is show policy, some of it is good common sense. All of it gives us insight into how the visual sense of show was achieved – and what the “guidelines for life in Arlen” were like. No “limp wrists”, no “Josey (sic) and The Pussycats” action, and lots of rules for eating and drinking…

Click here to see the whole list.

(Thanks, Kiff Knight)

Cartoon Network has unveiled a poster for Steven Universe, the new animated series by Rebecca Sugar:

Slated to debut in 2013, Steven Universe is a coming-of-age story told from the perspective of Steven, the youngest member of a team of magical Guardians of the Universe. The animated series was conceived as part of the shorts development initiative at Cartoon Network Studios, and is created by Emmy and Annie Award-nominated writer and storyboard artist Rebecca Sugar (Adventure Time). Sugar is Cartoon Network’s first solo female show creator.

See more Cartoon Brew coverage about Rebecca Sugar.

The Flintstones have been duly celebrated throughout the years, but one part of the Hanna-Barbera series that hasn’t received much attention is its iconic architectural setting: those brilliantly appealing and organic circular ranch houses topped with pancaked granite slabs.

The designer of the prehistoric Flintstones universe was a man named Ed Benedict (1912-2006), the same man who designed the show’s characters.

Benedict dreamt up the Flintstones homes almost entirely from imagination. He was once asked if he used any reference to design them. He replied, “No, with the exception of on the interior of one of the samples I made, I did look up some prehistoric stuff—cave paintings. I just looked up in there and got the old typical buffalo looking thing running across a wall, just to get the flavor of it.”

Benedict had had a bit of practice with this kind of work. He had designed cavemen and cavehomes once before for the 1955 Tex Avery short The First Bad Man:

The cave homes in The First Bad Man, built into the sides of rock formations, look uncomfortable compared to the domesticated setting of the Flintstones, replete with garages, front yards with flower beds, swimming pools and living rooms with couches. Benedict probably didn’t come up with the original idea of allowing the Flintstones all the creature comforts of suburbia, but the credit for making the idea work visually belongs to him.

The Flintstones designs in the image gallery below were created by Benedict for the original network presentation. These pieces established the general look and feel of the Flintstones universe and served as a guide for the layout artists who were charged with building out the world in each episode. A rare photographic print set of these drawings is currently being auctioned on HowardLowery.com.

The answer is 56 writers (and 3 story editors). The show was THIS.

In early January, I posted a clip from Family Guy that one of our readers thought was making of the drawing style in the Fox show Bob’s Burger. Yesterday, I received an email from Alex Carter, a producer on Family Guy, who explained the backstory of the gag. Alex explains that Bob’s Burger creator Loren Bouchard suggested to the Family Guy crew that they “take a shit on my show.” So if you’ve been losing sleep over this gag, rest assured, they’re all friends.

My thanks to Alex for writing to clear the air. Below is the full text of his letter:

Hello Cartoon Brew amigos! My name is Alex Carter, a writer for Family Guy. Don’t stop reading, just continue. A recent episode I wrote, called “Space Cadet”, contained a somewhat controversial joke when it aired in January. The joke involved Chris getting a failing grade in art by submitting an art project showing the face of Bob Belcher, from Bob’s Burgers. Some of you guys here decried us for bashing an “actually good show”. But, I just have to admit some stuff.

First, Loren Bouchard, the creator of the show, was in on the joke the whole time. Everyone here in the Fox writing department knows each other pretty well. Bob’s Burgers was in between production between the show’s second and third seasons, so Loren went to a pitch meeting one day to see how our show works. We were pitching out ideas for “Space Cadet”, and Loren told us his idea that Family Guy, would, in his own words, “take a shit on my show.” And things went on from there.

Second: How did we discover the whole controversy? Well, after episodes air, we look on review sites and see what went right and what went wrong. That way, it will help us for future episodes. And Brian, one of our writers, showed me a link to Amid’s article about the incident. I was a little upset, so I was hesitant to e-mail you until now. I just want to say that even though I may disagree with your opinion, Amid, I respect it.

Third, some of you mentioned that it was “all Seth’s fault”. I just want to make something clear: Seth has had no involvement in the writing process nor the animation process since about season six. If you want to blame someone, blame Steve Callaghan and Mark Hentemann. They’ve been running the show for three seasons now, and they have a very tight grip on the show’s content. So, if you see something you don’t like, don’t blame Seth. But this season, Rich Appel was brought back on the show, Steve left for American Dad, and Mark was demoted to producer, and it’s been a little freer than other seasons. Let me say this, I think you guys might enjoy next season.

Thank you guys for taking the time to read this message (if this is posted on the site), and want to let you know I read Cartoon Brew every day. It’s a nice place, and I hope it continues for years to come.

Sincerely,
Alex Carter
Supervising Producer
Family Guy

I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge that the TV series Beavis and Butt-head premiered twenty years ago today—March 8, 1993—on MTV. The show’s crude production values and even cruder humor look quaint today in a South Park/Adult Swim/Webcartoon world, but it was a bold experiment in its time and cleared a path for much to follow.