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The 40th anniversary of North America's biggest animation festival is here.

The post Ottawa International Animation Festival Starts Tomorrow appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The creepy "Teeth" topped the field of competitors at the world's only animation festival taking place in an airport.

The series will be directed by a rotating group of directors.

Next week, the Cinefamily in Los Angeles will present its Animation Breakdown festival comprised of nineteen events over six days.

Editor’s Note: Last Friday, we posted about how Microsoft has recruited Superjail! co-creator Christy Karacas to promote their Surface tablets. The video that Christy starred in was nicely produced, but noticeably short on details about how he uses it and what he thinks of it. Thankfully, Christy left a terrifically informative comment on that post in which he shared his thoughts about the Surface tablet. With his permission, we are republishing his review below. It’s particularly timely, too, since tomorrow in New York City, Microsoft will unveil the new Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets.

Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet Review by Christy Karacas

For people who want to know, I think it’s a great tablet and I have been using it very often during Superjail! season four production. I use it for sketching/thumbing/boarding on the go. The most important thing I’m looking for in a tablet is a natural drawing experience/interface. I use a Wacom Cintiq to make Superjail!, which is great in my opinion, but obviously that’s a big and powerful non-mobile workstation I can’t take with me.

If you download the Wacom driver for the Surface tablet, the pen pressure/sensitivity is great and I’ve had no latency issues—meaning you can draw very quick and fast which I like to do—and the line doesn’t lag behind the actual pen in your hand. This was a problem I had with previous tablets/laptops.

Prior to this, I owned a Toshiba Portege tablet PC, and used it often to thumb/board during season one. The pressure sensitivity on it kind of sucked and so did the speed, but I would still use it as an option when not in the office or out of town. After season one, I stopped using it. (It was also very heavy and huge by today’s standards…haha). I would only work at the office or home and if I thumbed outside of work, I would do it on paper and then re-draw it in Flash which was kind of a pain in the ass. But when boarding, I like to get away from the office sometimes. I love storyboarding in cafes or bars so I can let my mind wander, people watch, get ideas, etc. I work so often I find a change of workspace inspiring and necessary.

As far as ‘negatives,’ I honestly don’t have any. My biggest hurdle was getting used to Windows 8 as I have a Mac at work and still run Windows Vista at home. I wasn’t used to the ’tiles’ system that is the interface of Surface, but it was just a matter of getting used to it. There is an automatic brightness sensor so when I was drawing sometimes my hand would cover the tablet and the screen brightness would change, but I just disabled that setting so it’s not an issue.

I haven’t and don’t think I would use the Surface for full animation because of its screen size (being a tablet) but I wouldn’t really want to animate in a public space anyways. I would want to work in the quiet of my room or studio. But I do really like storyboarding/thumbnailing in active cafes/bars/even the subway-I don’t know why but I get really good ideas in the subway—and for that, the Surface is great. I boarded a huge chunk of the premiere of Superjail! season 4 on the airplane to San Diego Comic-Con. I was able to email the .FLA file to my storyboard team right on the plane directly from the tablet—super convenient and allows me to get work done, send it to the storyboard artists and keep production flowing while I’m away. The battery life also impressed me—better than my iPhone which I seem to have to charge twice a day.

I think iPads look really nice, but they don’t have the pen driver support, only those blunt ‘stylus’ type pen interfaces that I can’t stand. Also, the iPad can only run apps, not true software like Flash which I need to make Superjail! I know there are more and more tablets on the market these days so there are probably going to be lots of new options.

The Microsoft guys approached me and let me play with it, I loved it and agreed to do the video. Also I have to say that I am really sick of Mac constantly updating their OS. It’s really annoying, and for some reason I find Flash runs better on PC. My PC at home has NEVER crashed making this show—not once! But the Macs at work sometimes do crash when we have a really heavy file. Flash really wan’t designed to do this kind of animation, but that’s a whole other discussion.

So yeah, for directors and storyboard artists, or anyone who wants to sketch digitally away from their workstation with a really sensitive natural pen interface, the Surface has worked out really great for me and I love using it.

Okay, I’m stumped. I get mail like this all the time and I try to be helpful. But this one just sounds so strange, I want to know what it is myself. It all started a few days ago when I got this email from animator Christy Karacas (Superjail):

Jerry,
I’m writing to you because there was a cartoon I remember seeing at the public library as a kid and have no idea what it is but really want to see it again. I remember a line drawing of a pair of legs, a giant eyeball (maybe a spider?) running around a castle. It was hand drawn. I know this sounds weird but thought you were the one to ask… I remember thinking this was really awesome-i feel like you might know it. thanks either way.

I requested more information. Was it a short or a feature? Anime or Saturday morning cartoon? Christy responded:

No it was a short film… I wish I could remember more about it. I’m so curious what it is… Not sure, but had a hunch it might be European. I saw it at my public library as a double feature with The Red Balloon as a kid…but…yeah, I dont really remember much more. I THINK there was no talking but not sure… I could draw how I remember the characters if you want?

Yes, please!

Hey Jerry-
These are SUPER QUICK SKETCHES (Ugh, the talkback will be about how shitty they are… hahhaah!), but I remember them running around a castle… up stairs I believe… and I think the eyeball was a spider. I can’t remmeber if it bounced around or changed size… maybe i am crazy and i should just do a ‘remake’ from my memory… a mash-up of sorts… create the animation from my childhood as best as I remember it because I can’t find it? hahaha. Amid-if you see or read these let me know if you know what I’m talking about…
Thanks!

If this rings a bell with you… please let us know in the comments below!

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Christy Karacas

Artwork by Devin Clark

Tonight is the opening reception for PulpO, an exhibition featuring new work by eight animation artists. It takes place from 6-9:30pm at the Tulum Gallery (244 North 6th St., Williamsburg, NY 11211) followed by an after-party at the Knitting Factory.

Notably, three of the featured artists are show creators: Christy Karacas, co-creator of Superjail!; Devin Clark, creator of Ugly Americans; and Jackson Publick, creator of Venture Bros.. The other artists are Liz Artinian (who also curated the show), Robert Bohn, Jared Deal, Kelly Denato (who made headlines for her recent lawsuit), and Chris George. More details about the show HERE.

Artwork by Kelly Denato

Artwork by Jared Deal