Monthly Archives: March 2015

8 Comments

Cintiq Alternative: Ugee 1910B 19″ Monitor Drawing Tablet review

  By

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpTHZa6eP8

If you remember a while back we reported on a Cintiq alternative called the Ugee 1910B 19″ Monitor Drawing Tablet which you can currently purchase on Amazon for only $429 and users really seemed to like. Today I was alerted to a fantastic and very lengthy in depth review of  the device itself by an artist named Holly. The review points to an unboxing video as well as two other demos of using the tablet monitor and I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the results. If I needed a new Cintiq I might actually drop the cash for this one.

You can read the full review here.

Of course you REALLY don’t need a huge tablet like this when you can still buy an LE 1600 for LESS THAN $100 at Gainsaver which works perfectly well for a cheap digital sketchbook. Also recently I purchased a J3400 from eBay also made by Motion which I’ll put through it’s paces and hopefully do a review.

If the Ugee makers want to send us a demo unit we’d LOVE to take the tablet monitor through it’s paces.

 

No comments

Megan Ann Boyd

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Megan Ann Boyd, and I’m a toy designer and illustrator!

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I don’t know if I’d call it crazy, but I worked on a small virtual pet website called NeuroGalaxy for many years. I got to make all sorts of artwork for the website, ranging from pets, monsters and items to world illustrations. There was even a time I would make site merchandise in the form of keychains- it was a great little community!

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I got to collaborate with Rovio and create the toys for the Angry Birds Stella line! I absolutely love Rovio’s animations and characters, so it was an honor to bring them into the world of toys. I’ve got all those little birdies and pigs on display in my work room.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from New Jersey! I was obsessed with cartoons as a kid, who wasn’t? I ended up Continue reading

No comments

R.I.P. Gordon Kent

  By ,

Card3B

Yesterday we lost another one of our own in the Animation industry in Gordon Kent who’d been in the business since 1977. I met Gordon many years ago at Warner Bros. on my very first job working as a character layout artist on the series Tazmania where he was the Story editor and have bumped into him off and on at studios and parties throughout the years. He was a kind and thoughtful man who had a dry sense of humor and he had a unique style of drawing which I really liked(and you can see above). Incidentally, we interviewed Gordon last year about how he got into the business.

I’ve been doing this since 1977… I worked on a show called CBS Storybreak for two seasons. I was associate producer – but my job entailed hiring character and background designers, storyboard artists and story editing (and some writing). I also was the voice director for most of them and worked with the composers and sound effects people as well as working with the engineers on the final mix. I got to learn and do a lot. That was for Buzz Potamkin at Southern Star. I also worked for him years later at both Disney TV and Hanna-Barbera. At HB I got to be Supervising Producer on a couple of movies for TV – Titles change in animation all the time – today that would be supervising director. The Flintstones’ Christmas Carol was my favorite project there. I’ve been an animation timing director since then and have been lucky enough to work on Kim Possible, Teamo Supremo, Billy and Mandy and Bob’s Burgers among dozens of other shows.

Rest In Peace Gordon Kent… you will be missed by many.

You can read the full interview here if you like.

 

 

No comments

Ben Camberos

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What is your name and your current occupation?
Ben Camberos, Illustrator and Character designer.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
I always been involved in art, i guess that would be pre press technician.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
I still have a long way to go, but i guess that would be the current job i have right now…I’m working as a character designer for a feature animated film here in Mexico.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
Im from Tijuana Mexico, and i have to admit that Continue reading

No comments

James Nethery

  By


What is your name and your current occupation?
My name is James Nethery and I’m a freelance Flash/Toon Boom Harmony animator.

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Well, the craziest was probably working at the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando as a “Custodial Host” (aka a janitor in Disney Park-speak) for a few years. I could probably start a series of blog posts on all the crazy stuff that went down on that job… from “how the heck did it get on the ceiling??!” restroom cleaning stories, to rude/angry park guests, to employees getting fired for coming in drunk/high, to insane employee policies that parks put in place. That was a fun job (and the free park admission was a major perk) but it could certainly be tough sometimes.

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
Three words: Cyanide and Happiness. That show is a lot of fun to work on and it’s great working with the guys over at Lowbrow Studios and Explosm who are a really talented bunch. I love seeing how much I can get out of such simple designs. So far, I’ve worked on about 11 shorts, two of which haven’t been posted online yet. Some of I’m animated fully, so I’ve just helped out a bit on doing animation revisions and such.  I’m also working on another project right now that’s really cool that I can’t really talk about… all I can say is that its being animated in Toon Boom Harmony and that’s its based on another very popular web comic.

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I’m from Orlando, Florida. I got into the freelance animation business basically by working my butt off on my demo reel and applying to every job I could. It was tough starting out, but Continue reading

One Comment

Carla Pereira

  By

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


What is your name and your current occupation?
Hi! My name is Carla Pereira (http://carlapereira.com/) and nowadays I am working in the filming of a stop-motion short movie. I work also as a freelance illustrator.

 

What are some of the crazier jobs you had before getting into animation?
Before working in the animation business I have tried a bit of everything! But one of the most curious jobs I took was as an artistic nude model for the faculty of Fine Arts. I worked there for many years.

 

What are some of your favorite projects you’re proud to have been a part of?
My favorite one is the stop-motion series “Clay Kids”, from Clay Animation (http://www.claykids.com/). I worked with a good deal of wonderful professionals, and I learned a lot.

 

Where are you from and how did you get into the animation business?
I was born in Buenos Aires (Argentina), but I did study Fine Arts in Valencia (Spain). I focused in Continue reading