cow

ive been in vancouver for the past 11 days, so now that im back home, here is a quick cow drawing until i get on something a little more fancy.
mooo.

the week in news...sort of

county ghost was featured on cold hard flash this week. you can check it here if you havent already. episode 2 is midway through and im feeling a bit better about it than i was about the first, so we will see if i still share that sentiment once its completed.

i was in ottawa for the animation festival this weekend. i think the standouts for me were the aardman shorts, and a really nice film by kyle marshall that was part of the canadian showcase.

and lastly, i noticed that a site called "i am bored" has been somehow streaming cuddle sticks to 3200 people without me knowing about it. lord i wish i could understand how they got a hold of my file considering its only been uploaded to youtube and 4mations from my computer, and not available for download anywhere else that i know of. in any case, its a weird feeling. i guess i should just be happy that it is 3200 more people that might not of watched it otherwise...but still...

county ghost

alrighty, i figure now is as good a time as any to introduce a new web series that ive been working on called "county ghost". seeing as how its a solo project, im doubting that the episodes will come out on any sort of schedule other than when i finish making them, but the prospect of keeping 12 episodes so that i could release them weekly just didnt seem to make all that much sense to me right now.
in any case, here is the first one. its actually been done for a few weeks, so there are a lot of things i really dislike about it (especially that the new youtube encoder doesnt hand pans very well so the animation looks really choppy in there during the movements), but i decided to just leave em in and spend that time moving forward on the next episode rather than going back to sugar coat the first.

alright, enough yapping...

episode 1...

this weeks update...minus any sort of drawings or artwork

ill be at the ottawa animation festival this weekend if anyone is interested in hooking up for a beer or beavertail or anything like that. it will actually be the first year that i dont have an itinerary to follow, so im looking forward to some relaxing evenings of animation screenings and some supposedly 27 degree weather!
in other animation festival news, cuddle sticks is showing this weekend in denver at the frame damage animation festival if anyone is anywhere near there and wants to help cheer on the madness.

ohoh, also, before i forget, since youtube wont let you replace videos, i stopped using my old youtube account and started a new one at http://www.youtube.com/user/MikeGeigerAnimation so that i could upload my stuff in youtube high quality! wowzers does it ever make a whopping difference. so if you have a chance, please feel free to check out the high defness, it is like night and day compared to their old compression...still drops frames during pans or other heavy movements, but at least it looks good doing so.

branding

as i begin to produce more independent work, i find myself with the urge to start branding myself and my work in an attempt to keep it all somewhat organized. its been an oddly hard struggle because the last thing i want to do is start saying that "mike geiger" is a brand, just seems really cheesy for me to do, but low and behold...here we are.
although it seems like a good idea to use a "cartoony" name for myself and my work, my first concern was that a lot of names that sound good now, may not be good in a few years. how many times have you had a brainchild that you looked back at only a few weeks later and said "what was i thinking".
on that same note, coming up with a name that i was happy with that also happens to be available with a .com beside it is next to impossible. unless you want 10 or more letters in your name, chances are whatever you come up with plus .com is already taken.
on top of that all, considering i am already registered as mike geiger and i already own mikegeiger.com, seems logical to avoid the complications of being called "some sorta funny but not really original" cartoon name and just stick with what my parents gave me.
so, there ya have it. mike geiger. i guess i should at least be happy my name is not something way worse...

4mations

cuddle sticks is the featured video on the 4mations website today. if any of you would want to go ever there and give it a click, or better yet a rating (of coarse i would prefer a higher rating, but do me as you may), that would be great.

and if your wondering about that kitty in the skull thing...thats their logo. believe me, i wish i came up with it first, but ill give the credit where the credit is due, and thats to the fine people at the 4mations.tv site.

some trees to hold ya over...

ive actually been really busy lately with a ton of new stuff, unfortunately, nothing that makes sense to post on the ol blog at the moment...
so to hold you over until the time when these things are ready to post (really...really...soon), here are a few drawings of some trees from my sketchbook.

european vacation

cuddle sticks is announced to be in contention for best of british award, UK audience award and international jury award at the encounters fest in england this novemeber.
if paris hilton were typing this, im sure she'd refer to this news as "hot".

collideascope...

i heard the unfortunate word today that collideascope animation will be closing its doors as of this october.

super sad news.

i had worked in animation during the web boom before starting at collideascope back in 2001, but they were my first real experience in "saturday morning cartoon" animation and really the people that opened the door for my career.

i know everyones first animation job is always kinda a special one, but i feel like the move from the west to east coast, and working on a production with a crew of people made up of almost entirely rookie animators, gave my experience a uniquely exciting vibe.
i can still very vividly remember walking into the studio for the first time and being so intimidated by all the people that would eventually become my friends over the next nine months.

in any case, its sad to see such a positive and genuine studio go.
one of the few places i can say ive worked where you felt that passion for animation present with your first step in the door, and a complete lack of that "industry" vibe that made the place so pleasant and fun to be in.

a lot of credit should go to ron and curtis and james and breandan for helping make that place a great creative learning environment for me and a lot of other animators that im sure still feel the benefits of spending time there.

heres an audioless sequence i dug up of some animation i did on ollivers adventures while i was at collideascope back in the day. good times...

star wars clone wars the animated adventure...

so, i got asked to go check out the new star wars movie today...

after sitting patiently through the entire movie, i feel it would only be fair that george lucas let me throw up into his mouth...just so we're even.

above is my rendition of the first hour and forty minutes of the movie...but animated way nicer... and yes, i realize my drawing isnt animated.

the fred

the tais monster jam that i took part in is featured on the fred this week. my part in the production is already on here a few posts down, but here she blows anyways...

klik

i received word that cuddle sticks will be playing in the open competition at the klik animation festival in amsterdam this september. looks like a really cool event.