Plato from Léonard Cohen on Vimeo. A meditation on 2D vs 3D, based, of course, on Plato’s assertion that the objects we see in this world are only reflections of some deeper reality beyond.

Lots of interesting ideas in this piece, but it takes a phenomenal amount of patience to sit through it. I think it could have been edited to great effect. Still, it’s really well done, so this is the last AnimWatch find of 2011. Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Man, I just don’t know what is going on… Alma is a really neat little film from 2009. I don’t know how I missed it.

For the first few seconds of this film, I thought it was stop motion, and I was wondering to myself why people don’t make films in CG to look like stop motion, because stop motion is more charming, and more honest and more artistic and blah blah blah. And then I realized, holy crap, this isn’t stop-mo – it’s CG!

I love the look of this film, and the storytelling is very strong. What a creepy tale… Rodrigo Blaas is an excellent director. And nice friends – Skywalker Sound!?

Heart from Jamie Caliri on Vimeo.

And in case you missed the first one, it’s called Dragon:

United Airlines, Dragon from Jamie Caliri on Vimeo.

And here’s a nice behind-the-scenes on the Dragon spot. (Crummy resolution, but nice backstage info, anyway).

Link courtesty of Kali Ciesemier. Thanks, Kali!

OK, so here’s where I lose ComicGeek Street Cred: I have never been able to get into Tintin. I know that clever people who speak loudly at comic book conventions are even now shaking their heads ruefully that I Just Don’t Get It, but I don’t. I liked the drawings, but the story didn’t draw me in. That said, I was intrigued to see what Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson could do with such a popular property. They took it on as a fully-animated feature film, and it’s getting ready to hit US theatres on DEC 21, 2011.

So far, I don’t know what to think. The early footage I saw left me with that Bad Zemeckis Uncanny Valley illness, but some of the footage looked human enough to be guy-in-a-suit. Which means they’re getting close.

I will say the vibe of the movie, at least from the trailers, appeals to me. It’s dark, the light is playing nicely around things, the character design seems consistent with the comic. And there’s a nice Indiana Jones / National Treasure story backbone to this thing which appeals to me greatly. Interestingly, I might be the opposite on the movie from where I was on the comic – where the story appeals to me but I’m not sure about the look. Hmm.

What do you think of what you see in the trailer?

One of my favorite books when I was a kid was The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. Now, they’ve done a lot to this, added a bunch of stuff including, it appears, a love story. Yeesh. Not sure about the story on this one, though it’s from the team that brought us Despicable Me, which I liked.

But the lighting on this thing is fantastic, and I love the visual design. Really fun to look at. Add to the Must-See list?

I know this is not new from some of you. I’d meant to post about it earlier in the year, but then I forgot. This is a nice little film from The Animation Workshop, a Danish animation program I really need to keep an eye on. Like the French Gobelins, and the German Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg GMBH, Animation Workshop is delivering really nice, original student animated films. Digging through their thesis films is a treat. Definitely one to watch.

Pixar’s next film – Brave – looks fan-dang-tastic. Mulan in Scotland? Maybe. But also, Aye, Laddie, and wha’s no’ ta liek?

Hopefully, this will make up for the scars on my eyes from Cars 2.

I once worked with an ad agency who had a lot of promise. They admired my idols, StudioAKA. We talked a lot about their spot “The Big Win”, in which a simple Lotto ad was transformed into a work of Art. We were all in awe of how StudioAKA had done that, particularly in light of how unimaginative many clients initially are.

Without even knowing the details of how that spot transformed from the one to the other, based on my experience with imaginationless suits and visionaries, I can imagine one way the meeting might have taken place:

CLIENT: I want a spot popularizing the National Lottery. Maybe a guy with a bag running around town handing out money.

VISIONARY: Smiles.

CLIENT: Say what?

VISIONARY: He’s not handing out money. He’s handing out smiles.

CLIENT: Say what, again?

VISONARY: And it’s a doctor’s bag. He’s running around town, handing out smiles out of a doctor’s bag, because ultimately that is your product. You’re not selling money, or even the chance to win money. Not really. You’re selling the dream of money, that momentary rush before the numbers are called and you could still win.

He’s a doctor because he makes you feel better. All your problems could be over. You could afford a new house, one without a leaky roof. You could afford a new car, one without a failing transmission. You could go to your boss tomorrow and just be done. Your life could change completely, and all for the price of a one-dollar ticket.

And it’s not the money. Not for that fleeting moment, it’s not. It’s that feeling, that joy, that elation. They say money can’t buy happiness, but we know better, don’t we? Win the lottery. Strike it rich. Be happy. And that’s what you’re selling: Happiness.

CLIENT: Well… I see what you’re saying, but I still think we should focus on that bag of money. It’s the Lottery, after all…

VISIONARY: Give me a chance to mock this up. I think you’ll like it.

CLIENT: Well… if you really think so…

Aaaaand… scene.

Now, I should tell you, that is not quite the way it happened. In this case, both the agency and the client wanted StudioAKA to do something memorable, so there was latitude to develop this ad properly, and studio head Philip Hunt lists this spot as one of his favorites and well he should. These spots don’t always go this way.

But why shouldn’t they go this way more often?

What’s the lesson here, boys and girls? In my purely hypothetical example, the Visionary has to push the Client to see that more is possible. This has nothing to do with knowing where the Client might bend or break, and everything to do with what kind of company you want to be, what kind of artist you want to be. There are those who innovate, who push the envelope, and then there are the ones who simply do what they’re told. There are plenty of studios like that overseas and you can’t compete with them on cost. They’re cheap because they are simply factories.

No innovation. No pushing. The customer is always right.

Except, frequently, they’re not.

Yes, they pay the bills, and yes, they should get something that represents their product in the best light. They should get their moneysworth. But we, as artists, have a responsibility to show them what they might not have thought about yet. The dirty secret about clients is that frequently they don’t know what they want. They have to be shown that we can all do something better than what they’re asking. Something memorable. Only in so doing do they actually get their moneysworth.

The problem with the agency I worked with was that they only wanted to do what the client wanted. The client had come to the agency because they had seen my work and wanted my look and feel. Only, when I began doing designs for their spot, the agency began telling me that the client didn’t want those designs. They wanted the characters to look more like Pixar.

Now – when a client tells you that, and they have been drawn to you because they’ve seen your distinctly non-Pixar look, they’re either asking for something they don’t know how to put into words, or they’ve come to the wrong place. But the agency didn’t want to go back and discuss it with the client. They wanted to just stop the conversation. The client wants it thus, and that is that. The problem is, there are plenty of artists out there who will give you a Pixar-on-a-budget look. For a lot of artists, that’s all they can see. If you’re one of them, how do you distinguish your work? And in my opinion, if your client wants that look, those other artists and the client were made for each other.

It was the perfect place to stretch a little, show some range and some backbone. Try to be more like StudioAKA, or even – *gasp!* something new! – instead of Outsource House #247.

But the insidious thing is that it’s easier to just do what the clients want. Play it safe. Don’t rock the boat. And your portfolio will be full of nice, safe vanilla. Via con dios.

Finally, watch this clip:

That is a great scene from Mad Men, in which Creative Director Don Draper meets with timid potential clients from a bikini company who don’t want to show their bikini in their ads for their own bikinis. Don Draper has had enough of doing tame, timid creative. The client is asking for vanilla while trying to sell chili sauce. Maybe Don’s going over the top. Maybe he’s being a complete jerk.

But I would rather be like Don Draper than a groundhog afraid of his own shadow. At least Don Draper’s not vanilla.

Ten years ago, a friend loaned me his copy of 3D World Magazine, issue #14. The mag was running a feature article on Brian Taylor, an artist in Dundee, Scotland, who was making a little animated short with off-the-shelf software on his consumer grade computer in his spare time.

The project was Rustboy, of course, and like most artists who saw anything to do with the thing, I fell in love with it. I was drawn to the color palette, the vaguely Tim Burton vibe of the design. Most of all, I fell in love with the romantic notion of an artist striking out, making a film the way he wanted to, on his own terms and in his own time. Best of all, Taylor was tracking the progress of his short’s development online, complete with a behind-the-scenes area, a very actively-attended fan forum and a development journal. The site went viral as soon as it went live, and fans flocked to Rustboy.com.

I’d like to think Rustboy launched a thousand projects, artists suddenly rushing to their favorite off-the-shelf animation software, inspired by Brian Taylor and putting up blogs to share their unique visions with the world. And I know that Rustboy launched AnimWatch, a website I started in 2003, tracking the development not only of Rustboy, but also many other films that caught my eye in those days. Some of the films went on to be completed, run the festival circuit, win awards and wind up distributed via DVDs, online, or through iTunes. Many more failed completion. The demands of an expertly executed animated short are often incompatible with the demands of full-time employment, family obligations and a life, and these little side projects are often sacrificed to keep life on an even keel.

Rustboy went further than most, inspiring professionals and amateurs alike. Along the way, Taylor garnered serious attention and job offers from Hollywood at various points in the project’s life. And the fans couldn’t get enough. Taylor even released a behind-the-scenes book which was snapped up by many a Rustboy devotee.

And then, in 2006, the trail suddenly went cold. Taylor stopped updating the website, stopped attending the Forum, and everyone feared the project had been canceled. The truth turned out to be more interesting than that. Ultimately (inevitably?) Rustboy had attracted more than just job offers from Hollywood. The project had attracted a feature-film development deal.

But then what happened? The only official word from Brian Taylor since January 2006 was the cryptic note at his online journal, saying that things were in motion for the feature film, he’d be redesigning the site soon, and other than that, he couldn’t say anything about it.

Until now. Brian recently posted the complete Rustboy Opening Sequence on YouTube:

His posts about the video had the air of a postmortem about them, and that prompted me to write to him about the project, to see where it stood after 10 years. Sadly, he said he was basically done with Rustboy and had long since moved on. That exchange began a conversation that resulted in the following interview:

OGDEN: Did Rustboy fall victim to Hollywood’s notorious “Development Hell”, or to “One-Man Show Fatigue Syndrome”? (Or a combination?)

TAYLOR: I think “Development Hell” would be a fair way to describe Rustboy activity in recent years.

Going back to the early days when I was working on the film alone, I did receive a little funding but it didn’t go very far. The problem back then was that I simply couldn’t afford to devote the time required to work on the film while attempting to earn a living and pay the bills at the same time.

OGDEN: Is there any chance you would ever go back to Rustboy and try to resurrect it as a one-man show? Kick Starter should net you enough money to start it up again, maybe even finish. Would it work if a private investor provided a small budget for you to complete it?

TAYLOR: In a word, no. The thing that folks out there probably don’t realise is that a company has grown around Rustboy over the years. It is not ‘my baby’ any more, and hasn’t been for a long time – there are other people involved. Kick Starter would not be an option for all sorts of reasons, including legal issues. This whole thing has gone way deeper than that, but I can’t go into it in any great detail here. One thing I should point out though – Rustboy isn’t necessarily dead. Once a project like this weaves its way into the “Hollywood” system, there are always other possibilities to explore.

OGDEN: Without making you delve too deeply into the dirt, what lessons from this experience can you impart? What went wrong? What is to be learned here?

TAYLOR: In my opinion, the problem was trying to turn the movie into something it wasn’t meant to be. I believe that Rustboy’s appeal was largely down to the sense of loneliness and isolation, and a slightly dark overall tone. These were the very elements that were being stripped out in order to appeal to mainstream family movie sensibilities. If you take that away, there is very little left that has anything to do with my original concept. I’m not blaming anyone for this – it’s just the reality of big budget movies. They have to appeal to a wide audience to justify the cost involved. However, the positive side of this experience was learning from my mistakes. I would go about things differently in future, and enter into deals on different terms.

OGDEN: And to be fair, what went right?

TAYLOR: What went right was meeting some interesting people along the way and making a lot of useful contacts. I am now working with one person in particular on other projects.

OGDEN: If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently with Rustboy, if anything?

TAYLOR: Well, I wouldn’t even attempt to do a short film, (not on my own anyway) and if we’re talking feature films, I wouldn’t have come up with Rustboy in the first place. I would work on a concept and story that was intended to be a feature film from the outset.

OGDEN: Are you still passionate about animation, the process of getting down and doing it? If not, what are you passionate about?

TAYLOR: I’ve never considered myself an animator. It was just a means to an end in the early days of Rustboy (an unfortunate term considering the end has yet to come). I feel that my strength is in the concept, pre-production, look and feel side of things. That is the direction I intend to pursue.

OGDEN: What are you working on now that Rustboy is done?

TAYLOR: I can’t say at the moment, but if you read between the lines in my answers above, you should be able to figure out that I have something else in the works.

OGDEN: Thanks for taking the time out to answer my questions, and I know everyone’s eager to see what you get up to next.

But I feel like I want to share something with you here – an animated comic version of Cubicle Pigs which is being brought to you by a partnership between me and Jake Strider Hughes (Hughes is the man who brought you the Watchmen and Walking Dead motion comics, both of which I highly recommend.)

Jake’s put his considerable talents to trying to bring my Cubicle Pigs drawings to life, and super-talented voice-over actor and Robin Williams lookalike Jerry Stone helped out with the voice acting. You can see a work in progress here. Even though it’s rough and unfinished, I can see a lot of potential here, and we intend to finish it as soon as we can.

Jake and I would be interested in hearing your thoughts and feedback about this motion comic, meanwhile. Add comments here.