The AnimWatch Blog

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, and so it is with AnimWatch.

For the past four and a half years, I have tried to provide a place that took independent animation seriously, but found myself speaking to a mostly empty room. In the past year, I partnered with AWN.com and pretty much exhausted myself trying to build this site and its readership. I produced giveaway contests that were poorly attended. I created the AnimWatch Podcast which had very few listeners. And I created my answer to the 10 Second Club, The AnimClips Challenge, which suffered from very poor attendance, and extremely low participation. It was ultimately destroyed by another challenge site. “Steamrolled”, to use Keith Lango’s term.

I have been discouraged many times, and come near to killing the site several times in the past four and a half years. I’ve kept AnimWatch going despite its personal cost to me in terms of time, energy and money, because I felt a site like this was important even though it cost me far more than it gave back. Yet, the whole site continues to suffer from chronic low readership. After all my work to change that, I guess I can look myself squarely in the mirror and admit I tried everything and nothing worked. If there were an easier way to run a site like AnimWatch, someone else would be doing it. The fact that no one else is doing it should tell me something.

So, this is the ragged end of low readership. I built it, and few came. Considering its lack of readers, AnimWatch is not worth the work it takes to run. OK. I get it, already. Uncle.

But the biggest reason I’m making this decision is that I’ve come to the conclusion that where films are concerned, there are only two kinds of people: those who make films, and those who only talk about it. And after four and a half years of talking and writing about other people’s films, I need to take that energy and put it into telling my own stories. So, that’s what I’m going to do.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be removing many segments of the site, only leaving up the feature articles and spotlights, because I consider those valuable resources. Not sure how long I’ll leave them up, but probably until mid-2008 anyway. But virtually everything else will be coming down, including the forum, in the interest of removing distractions from my life.

I’m sure many of you will find this disappointing. I’m sorry to disappoint you, and am genuinely grateful to so many of you who have cared, who have been loyal AnimWatch visitors from the start. It’s a shame there weren’t more of us. But, oh well. I know there’s nothing quite like AnimWatch out there, but there are still plenty of other forums, and places to talk about your films.

I’ll see you Out There.

We’ve added a film profile and a feature article to AnimWatch.com.

The profile talks a little bit about how the film was made, and the feature article is an in-depth interview with Lucas Martell, the director of the film, in which he talks about how the film came to be in the first place.

Could you use a solid, longer clip of character animation in your portfolio? Of course you could. As fun as these little 10-second talking head animations are, they don’t prove much of your ability to handle a scene. If you want to show what you’re made of, you need a longer scene.

But maybe you’re having trouble coming up with an idea. Or maybe you don’t have any sound.

Fear not. We’re happy to introduce the AnimClips Portfolio Masters Series. We are releasing longer clips of sound you can use for your portfolio.

Like the rest of the AnimClips audio, they were created here in the studios at AnimWatch, and are free for you to use in your portfolio and online. Edit them as you need, and use them freely. All we ask is proper credit.

More info HERE (#1) and HERE (#2).

There are currently five AnimWatch profile films up at the AnimWatch Theatre video portal. There will be more films next week, but for now, you can watch:

- Doll Face by Andy Huang
- After You by Christopher Cordingley
- A Barbaric Tale by Richard Vaucher”
- Day Off the Dead by Lee Lanier and Jeffrey Dates
- The Bear Hunt by Vance Reeser

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FILMS…

Lucas Martell’s Pigeon Impossible is exactly the kind of film that made me start AnimWatch. Here is a beautiful film under construction, and it is so fun to watch it develop. Every screen capture, every test animation, every glimpse behind the curtain is one more jolt of excitement.

Lucas has been keeping us all up on his progress in the AnimWatch Forum. As he rounds the corner on the last bits of production, we felt the time was right to put up this profile. So, for those of you looking for just a bit more info on Lucas and his film, HERE it is.

The AnimWatch Theatre video player is in beta. Go to the MAIN SITE and click on THEATRE in the menu bar. Right now, it’s running a bunch of stuff from the AnimClips Challenge.

I’d be interested to hear your comments here as we finalize the player.

We’ve posted a new film profile at AnimWatch - The Itch, by Joe Green.

The Itch is a fun little piece that puts across a simple idea in a simple way that actually resonates at a deeper level. The Itch is an Annoying Persistent Presence, standing equally well for an obnoxious acquaintance that won’t go away, or a sickness you can’t shake, or a compulsive behavior or addiction, or even age. I think that’s the beauty of the film’s approach, both visually and thematically. Green didn’t concern himself with modelling every pebble in his world, and he didn’t concern himself with tying his story up in a neat little bow. It’s one of those films the audience can relate to on a variety of levels.

We’ve added a new film profile… Cheese by Peter Harakaly.“Cheese” is Harakaly’s third short film. He completed all his films (Fishin’ Impossible, Bedtime story, and Cheese) at VFS as his final projects. Unlike the first two films, “Cheese” is all 3D animation except the visual effects, which were done in Flash.

The film is a throwback to the cartoons of the 40s and 50s. What could be more iconic of that era’s animation than a mouse trying to get cheese off of a mousetrap without getting whacked? The film even has a bouncy musical soundtrack right out of that simpler time.

Lindsay Thompson’s short film “The Look of Love” is a fun little romantic comedy with a Pixar Animation visual sense and a Bridget Jones sense of humour. The main character is very appealing - cute, and a little clumsy. Yet the man sharing the diner counter with her could not be less interested. What’s a girl got to do to get a little attention?

We’ve added a film profile at AnimWatch.

Sem Assink, who has graced the AnimClips Challenge with his incredible animation work, is responsible for our latest profiled film, “Hold the Line”. It’s funny, and poignant, sometimes at the same time.