This is the second of the HSI animations. I used some old footage off of archive.org for the people standing in line. It was actually an old PSA produced in 1945 by the Office of War to promote how the United States peacefully elected a new leader, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

This is the first in a series of twenty animations I’m doing for Housing & Services Inc. to be screened at a fundraiser in December. They will be celebrating twenty-four years of housing and management programs for lower income households and New Yorkers with special needs. Their mission statement reads, “We believe everyone needs a home.” They are being totally awesome and letting me have the freedom to do just about anything I want. I’m going to keep it really similar to what I’ve done with the Animation Hotline and have the clients and staff call and leave messages. 

I just installed a new sheet of slate in my studio yesterday, so tomorrow will be my first animation on the new slate. It has a few scratches in it, so I don’t know if I’m going to try to clean them up or if they are going to just fill in with chalk naturally.

This is another of the ‘hint fiction’ stories. I’ve gotten about twenty of them so I am going to try to do as many as will work. I’m not going to post a comment about not posting but I will post a blog about posting comments about not posting…

sorry.coryarcangel.com/​

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, published by W. W. Norton and available wherever books are sold.

robertswartwood.com/​

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I’ve started working on the ‘Hint Fiction’ anthology animations. I decided to use Robert Swartwood’s story first because he put the anthology together, but also because I thought this one was hirarirous. I was going to draw an old senile toothfairy bumping into the walls, but then about half way through the animation I decided to give the narrator dementia instead. I think that is why I am so excited about this series. Hint Fiction is defined as a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story. There seems to be an almost endless amount of ways I can tell the story because there are so many options. 

I was at a birthday party in Brooklyn and I told someone what I was doing and she said that I should look up these 25 word stories. I emailed Robert Swartwood and he emailed his tribe of writers and had them leave emails. So for the next two weeks we’ll be doing stories from the anthology, read by the writers. 

Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, published by W. W. Norton and available wherever books are sold. Contributors include:
Jenn Alandy, Nick Arvin, Samuel Baldwin, Max Barry, Kirsten Beachy, L. R. Bonehill, Ryan W. Bradley, Gary A. Braunbeck, William Brazill, Yvonne Brockwell, Jeremy D. Brooks, Randall Brown, Ken Bruen, Stace Budzko, James Burt, Frank Byrns, Ron Carlson, Jonathan Carroll, John Cashman, Adam-Troy Castro, Douglas Clegg, Danielle Combs, Chris Compson, John Connors, Hannah Craig, Brian Crawford, Blake Crouch, Kirk Curnutt, Tara Deal, Gay Degani, Nicky Drayden, Stephen Dunn, Stuart Dybek, David Erlewine, Camille Esses, Merrilee Faber, Nada Faris, Jamie Felton, James Frey, Janet E. Gardner, Roxane Gay, Shanna Germain, Tess Gerritsen, Bill Graffius, Charles Gramlich,Val Gryphin, Jennifer Haddock, Jane Hammons, Ann Harleman, Bruce Harris, Donora Hillard, David Hirsch, Robin Hollis, Kevin Hosey, Eric Hsu, Gregg Hurwitz, Ben Jahn, Ha Jin, Jason Jordan, David Joseph, Michael Kelly, Jack Ketchum, Jack Kilborn, J. A. Konrath, Christina Kopp, Minter Krotzer, Joe Lansdale, Don Lee, Min Jin Lee, Rachel Lopez, Sarah Lyons, K. J. Maas, Nick Mamatas, Lewis Manalo, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Michael Martone, Natalie McNabb, David Miller, Sarah P. Miller, Ty Miller, John Minichillo, Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz, Christoffer Molnar, Madeline Mora-Summonte, Rose Rappoport Moss, Barry Napier, Joyce Carol Oates, Brendan O’Brien, Daniel A. Olivas, Will Panzo, Edith Pearlman, Benjamin Percy, Sophie Playle, Jason Rice, Samuel Rippey , Katrina Robinson, Jenifer Rosenberg, Jess Row, Robin Rozanski, Kathleen A. Ryan, Marcus Sakey, Joe Schreiber, Jessa Slade, Noel Sloboda, Andrea Slye, Kelly Spitzer, Agnieszka Stachura, J. J. Steinfeld, Peter Straub, Jake Thomas, Bob Thurber, Jade Walker, Ben White, Amber Whitley, Sue Williams, F. Paul Wilson, Robley Wilson, Mercedes M. Yardley, Mabel Yu, J. Matthew Zoss 
robertswartwood.com/​

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

Animation for Longshot Magazine.  They called at about 3PM yesterday asking if I could get them an animation ready for 3PM today.  I told him he was crazy, then I told him yes.  The topic was easy for me because I have an intimate relationship with debt.

Longshot is a 48 hour magazine, where they sent out the theme this afternoon, then they get all the stories in tomorrow by 3PM, then they edit it overnight and have the whole thing ready to go out by 3PM on Sunday.  I’m interested to see what they come up with.  

We did the audio for the animation in the same style as the Animation Hotline, where they called in and left a bunch of different messages then I edited what I could use and drew on top of it.  

If you don’t know, the Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content.  If you have a short message, story, ridiculoti, give me a call!

http://www.animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

Finally the rains came and the heat subsided. My studio isn’t air conditioned so it was really difficult.  I kept having to take baths to cool down.  Jeff Roth left me this message. It’s a lot longer than this, but the frame by frame rotoscoping takes a really long time, so I edited some out of it. I’m going to add a Muybridge horse to the middle of it, but this is what I’ve got for now. 

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

It’s so hot outside.  It’s so hot outside.  It’s so hot outside.

I posted a new animation last night at 11:11, but thought I would post an older one this morning again, you know, summer reruns.  This is also one of my favorites.  I feel like it says so much in just a few words.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not yet, but ‘Prayers for Peace’ did end up winning the Next Great Filmmaker Award.  It has helped so much.  Thanks for everyone who took the time to vote.  I sent out a big e-blast that said that my thank you present would be to finish 100 animations by mid-August.  That’ll mean one every day until then, we’ll see.  

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

This one was a strange animation to do. Similar to the person telling the story, I don’t know a whole lot about Islam or Muslims and aside from most of the negative stuff I hear in the news. Of course I know better than to believe what I hear in the news, but it still raised a bunch of questions for me. Then I started to worry that maybe I’m not allowed to draw anything referring to the Muslim religion. I remember a big commotion a while back because someone drew the likeness of Muhammad. That’s when I realized there is still a lot of fear that comes up when I think about this stuff. It’s uncomfortable. The sad part is that I think more than anything it is simply the fear of the unknown, and if I took just a minute to educate myself the fear would become substantially less.

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline 

This is an animation I did back in February, but I thought it would be nice to post it up on the blog so it gets shuffled back to the top so more people can see it.  I like this one so much just because it is dripping with sensuality, even though nothing even remotely sexual was mentioned.  The student, the teacher, a bar, shouldn’t be dong this, but, I have an excuse this time.  I couldn’t help but put a big pile of dripping red in there, dripping over the pages of a student writing anthology.  Maybe I shouldn’t have ripped it up, but I kind of considered it recycling. It just seemed appropriate on so many levels.  

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not yet, but ‘Prayers for Peace’ did end up winning the Next Great Filmmaker Award.  It has helped so much.  Thanks for everyone who took the time to vote.  I sent out a big e-blast that said that my thank you present would be to finish 100 animations by mid-August.  That’ll mean one every day until then, we’ll see.  

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I wanted to make this ten times longer, with them staring and her and her showing off her tattoo, so long that it starts to get uncomfortable, but short is good too. I still haven’t got that cable, but I was able to renew the Muybridge book, so I’ll hopefully be starting those again on Tuesday. 

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I don’t know what is going on here, I guess it’s a lion on a park bench with a mustache.  Kinda reminds me of Colonel Mustard in the Lounge with the dagger.  It also reminds me of a creeper guy in the park, although he’s not that creepy.  And lastly it reminds me of Cheryl’s facebook profile, rrrow.  It takes a really long time to make one of these so I have a lot of time to think.  The bad news is that I still haven’t been able to get that cable for the projector.  I think I’m going to have to wait until Tuesday.  My Muybridge book is due back at the library on Friday, but maybe they’ll let me renew it.  

Animation Hotline is a series of daily animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

http://www.animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I spent the day building a case so I can start using a projector again, which means I can start doing those Muybridge rotoscopes. Yay! Jeff Roth sent me the projector so I’m going to do a bunch of horses for him as soon as I get it to work. I still need to get the cables though, it has a funny connection, and not ha-ha funny. 

In answering you question, more of my friends and family call than anyone else, and some of them (Maia and Thatcher) leave ten messages at a time, so I simply have more to choose from. I’m not a hater, if you leave a good message I’ll animate it. Right now I have about fifty messages that I’ve selected that I want to do, and I plan to do every one of them if I have the time. That being said, please continue to leave messages, because I try to use the freshies if I can.

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

This one was a sort of an experiment. I’ve been story-boarding everything lately, which is something I never used to do, but today I tried to just do something spontaneous without a storyboard and without a narrative. On the one hand I don’t think it turned out all that great, but on the other hand without experimentation the whole project will get stale.

The first time I did the animation I used all of KK’s underwear, but I realized that she would get really pissed if she went online and saw all of her underwear in this animation. So instead I used a pair of mine. They’re clean, I checked. I figured out that if I do one a day and only take two days off, I can still hit the goal of 100 of these by mid-August. I did the red, white and blue background because it is 4th of July weekend and it reminds me of when I was really young and those colors seemed so exciting to me. I was six years old in 1976 and it was the United State’s bicentennial celebration, and my grandma Memmie knitted all the grandchildren red, white and blue mittens and scarves. I still have the scarf, but it’s really tiny, so I just wear it as an ascot.

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I don’t know if this is what Delphine had in mind when she left this one. I think she was most likely thinking about some diner food, and that was what I was going to do, a little girl getting hungry and angry, but then as I got into it I thought this one was better. Plus I was listening to Radiohead and they always forge rebellion. 

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

Jerry and Bob were the first people I asked to leave messages when I first started the project. I might have started the whole project just cause I wanted to animate their voices. Jerry gave me three poems. “Bird on a Branch” was one of the first animations I did, then this one is a poem he wrote for Summer Solstice, which oddly enough I used today, and the other poem I’m going to use on Autumnal Equinox. Two awesome days for so many reasons. 

For those of you that don’t know, I did win the Next Great Filmmaker Award. I was plugging it here for the entire month the contest was running. When I won I said I was going to use the money to make new animations, and said I would have the hundredth micro-animation finished by mid-August. It’s going to be a lot of work, but it will also be a lot of fun. That means I’m going to need a bunch of new voicemail messages.

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I’ve been trying to use these Muybridge photographs, which means I’m rotoscoping everything, and I had forgotten how time consuming rotoscoping is. Even the most simple images are taking two days to do. I have a re-found respect for anything rotoscoped.

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

I went to the Museum of the Moving image in Queens the other week and I was watching all the Eadgear Muybridge photographs and I really wanted to start using them in my animations. I just got a book from the library yesterday and it was this amazing 800 page archive of thousands of his photographs. This was the first of the experiments to use his photos in the animations, so it didn’t come out perfect, but it worked. I went to visit Jeff Scher’s studio a week or so ago, so my first foray into rotoscoping after a few year hiatus is my homage to his work.

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

vimeo.com/​channels/​animationhotline

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

Please vote for Prayers for Peace for the Next Great Filmmaker Award contest. I’m one of five films that have been selected for the contest and if I win I’ll get $5000, which should be able to finance this project for a few months. It’s so easy to vote, just follow the link, plus you could win an iPad2 just for voting. How awesome is that?!

biffma.com/​nextGREAT

Even though this one doesn’t have anything to do with Peru, it is the same guy (or at least sounds like the same guy) that left that message, and I’m guessing that it is the same girl that he’s talking about. Hopefully he will leave the conclusion to what happens, or maybe they fell in love and ran off to Maui, because Maui is for lovers. Also, I’m trying to figure out how to do a pastel to paper transfer mono-print, so if anyone knows how to do that, I’ll give you my first attempt!

Animation Hotline is a series of relatively often animations where I use messages left on my voicemail for content. When you get a chance please leave me a message, and honestly it’s best if you leave more than one because sometimes what you think is the perfect message might simply be impossible for me to animate in one day. This project is only as good as the messages that you leave me, so if you feel so inspired, call!

www.animationhotline.org

To leave a message call…
inside US: +1 212-683-2490
international (skype): animationhotline

Please vote for Prayers for Peace for the Next Great Filmmaker Award contest. I’m one of five films that have been selected for the contest and if I win I’ll get $5000, which should be able to finance this project for a few months. It’s so easy to vote, just follow the link, plus you could win an iPad2 just for voting. How awesome is that?!

biffma.com/​nextGREAT