I have no idea how to draw characters. I’m going to have to work on that. I knew it was hard, so I keep avoiding it, but I thought this one would be easy, I was wrong. Drawing a character and making it look recognizable in the next frame is practically impossible. I don’t think I’ll be working for Disney this week.

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

Comma used to be a really skinny guy when I first met him, but over the past fifteen years he’s been working out and now he’s really big. It’s that thing that he’s sort of gravitated to as his thing.

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!

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

Laura Bidwell left this on the machine when I first started the project. It was a really difficult message to visualize because there was so much motion. I decided to use items from the past and make it more about memory than trying to recreate the narrative.

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!

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

The animations are really starting to get a lot easier. I was really happy how a few pieces of this turned out, the light coming across the sofa and the little red glow after the light bulb gets turned out.  The imagery itself for this piece isn’t as long, but I think the dark periods go well with what Jon was saying.  I think this is one of my favorites (do I say that every day?). 

I’m trying to mix it up a little bit, from over-zealously loving life, and a few that are a little more real. I’ve been getting a ton of messages, which is great, more to choose from. These are really only as good as the messages people leave me. So the more messages the better, the only problem is I’m obviously not going to be able to get to all of them. So if you left a message and haven’t seen the animation yet, leave another. Thatcher leave one just about every day, so I’ve just got a ton of his to choose from, and one might touch my fancy one day and not another. Thanks for all the feedback though. Oh yeah, I’m completely out of black pastels and don’t have any money to buy more, so the sooner I get that kickstarter up the better.

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!

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

Grahame Wienbren left this one for me a few weeks ago and I tried to animate it when I was sick and on cough medicine, but after staring at the screen for eight hours, took a sick day and went to bed. Today I did all sorts of new stuff that I’m excited about. I animated a fire for the first time and it turned out pretty good. I learned a few tricks that I’ll use next time I try it.

Grahame is an artist and considered one of the pioneers of interactive cinema. You can check out some of his work on his website grahameweinbren.net

This is me trying to animate on cough syrup a few weeks ago, when I was sick, and this is how I animate not on cough syrup.  The first drawing (left) took me six hours, the second drawing (right) took about fifteen minutes.

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. I post a new animation and a more detailed description of each, here every day at 11:11am. This project is only as good as the messages you leave, so give me a call!

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

This guy left a bunch of messages all right in a row and the biggest problem was deciding which one to use. I wanted to go with this whole physics explanation of a star, but couldn’t think of how to animate it. Maybe some other day.  

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. The project is only as good as the messages that are left, so leave it! I post a new animation and a more detailed description of each, here on my blog every day at 11:11am. To watch entire archive of Animation Hotline animations go to my website.

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

This was one of the first messages I received, and I was so excited about it that I tried to do it first, but after working on it for a few hours I had to set it aside and work on something else. I just wasn’t able to animate it. For whatever reason, today I felt like I was going to be able to do it, so I picked it back up and drew 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. I post a new animation and a more detailed description of each, here on my blog every day at 11:11am. To watch entire archive of Animation Hotline animations go to my website.

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

I like this guy’s voice. He left another message that was also funny, but it needed to be animated right there on that day and I didn’t get to it.

Disclaimer: I got the joke at the end about the spelling of ‘weird’ off of a Rubber City Clothing t-shirt. I’d image that they got it from somewhere else, but if they didn’t, then it’s made me laugh for a few years 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. I post a new animation and a more detailed description of each, here on my blog every day at 11:11am. To watch entire archive of Animation Hotline animations go to my website.

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

Poor Dylynn left this one on my answering machine and she’s been waiting for who knows how long, maybe since the middle of February now.  Thanks Dylynn for being so patient.  As far as posting daily, I think this makes four days in a row now.  I’m starting to get into a little groove now.  I’ve been going to bed extra early and getting up extra early, excited about the next animation I’m going to make.  Today’s went pretty fast and I was able to get it done in just over four hours. 

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. I post a new animation and a more detailed description of each, here on my blog every day at 11:11am.  To watch entire archive of Animation Hotline animations go to my website.

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

My hands are always really dirty and sometimes I get self conscious about it, but there really isn’t a lot I can do about it, especially when I’m working with pastels.  I could wear gloves, but then I don’t feel I’d have as much control. 

I haven’t been getting as many messages.  I think the people that were leaving them stopped because they thought I stopped on March 1, which I did for a little bit there, and hopefully the message will start up again because I’ve started up again. 

I love this guy’s voice.  He didn’t leave his name, so I don’t know who it is or how I can let him know that I used his phone message.  That’s sort of a gray area, trying to contact the people who left the message.  Most of the time I don’t even try, and just hope that they check back, or hope someone else tells them. 

I got pretty excited about this project today.  I’m going to put together a kickstarter campaign and I was going to do it NOW, TONIGHT, but we decided to wait until Saturday because I haven’t written anything, nor have I done a lot of research as to how I should put it together.  I just feel like this is a project that I can really make happen for a long time, years, and even though it is still in its infancy, I can still tell that if I treat it right it will last.

My idea is to try to get it into newspapers and NPR websites.  I don’t know if that is going to happen or not, but right now I feel like that is the ideal place for it.  It will be content, similar to what the funny pages were to the newspapers, now that the newspapers are all online, it is something short, sweet, and easily digestible.  Peanuts or Family Circus didn’t change the world, but you gave it a few seconds of your life every day.  Some days it was good, some days not so good, some days political, some days funny, but always there.  The kickstarter campaign would cover the first year expenses, but then hopefully it could pay for itself by the second year.  If not, then at least I tried and I would move on to another project. 

Ursula is about to have a baby.  I think it is due in two weeks, but that was a few days ago, so it should be soon.  I think they are going to name the baby Pedro, but it’s just a guess.  I don’t even know if Pedro is in the running as far as baby names.  The good thing about Pedro it is a good choice no matter if it is a boy or a girl. 

I’ve started the animations again.  I’m not going to write about them on vimeo or on facebook, but this is a blog, so I feel like I can express myself a little more on this one.  Animation Hotline was an idea I started at the beginning of February, and I was going to do it for one month, but it was such a positive experience on so many levels that I would be a damn fool to give it up.  Although the past few days I haven’t done one, for reasons that are still unknown even to myself.  I think I’ve been desperately trying to pay the rent lately, so I was hoping to spin this one into gold, buy alas, it’s animation, not gold. 

What I am going to do though, is post a new animation every day, hopefully at 11:11, just because this year is 2011, and I think it will be cool to post an animation at 11:11 on 11/11/11.  I’ll write more as I go along, but I think that is plenty for now.

This is a phone message from Dave who hates money.  I don’t particularly hate money, I just don’t like it when I don’t have enough of it. I’ll be setting up a kickstarter page for the project soon.

Animation Hotline is a voicemail where you can leave a message and I’ll try to animate it.  The number is 212-683-2490 or internationally on skype: animationhotline

I Have a Dream, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (exerpt)

Smoker Animation

This is part of the Madison Square Park series. I don’t know what took me so long with it. I shot the reference footage last winter and then just couldn’t animate it. Finally, when I was coming home from Savannah in November it was all I could think about. Now the slate is clean and I’m ready for new projects.

What would have been Devin’s 27th birthday was on July 20, 2010.  Enjoy!

dusty

Madison Square Park Sunset.  This is a very slow (and long) animation.  As slow as a sunset.  I would say not to watch the whole thing but then I’d get some wise guy that would watch the whole thing. 

This is a Atari 2600 project I’ve been thinking about for a while but never had the chutzpah to go in there and mess around with Assembly Language.  It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be.  And after I got the hang of it, it was as exhilarating as learning how to ride a bike for the first time.  I had always thought it was too difficult to even mess with, but then I got in there and was doing it.  I stayed up till the sun was coming through the windows because I was so excited.  Then after taking a quick sleep, I jumped out of bed and rushed over to start messing with more code.  I still don’t understand Assembly Language, but I took the piece as far as it is going to go for now. It’s running on an Atari emulator, Stella, which is available as a free download for just about any operating system.  It takes a minute to figure out the interface, but after you do, you can play just about any Atari game in the history of the console.

I’m still going to change a few things with the project, but I’m pretty happy with my progress thus far.  Plus I’d like to figure out how to actually get it inside a real cartridge, but I’m going to save that for a rainy day.

Here is the Tiananmen Square binary file if you want to run it on your Atari emulator. 

Eight Years?  Today marks the eighth year of the Notes to Self project.  For the past 2920 days I’ve gotten up and written a two page (~1100 word) letter to myself, stamped and sealed it, then mailed it to the house that I grew up in on Tompkins Road in Ohio.  My parents collect the letters then give them back to me (because they are addressed to me) and then I have about eight or ten boxes holding these still sealed envelopes.  I’ve put them up in galleries and even made a little animation on the fronts of a few of them and now, even eight years into the project, I still enjoy it.