GLOBAL MECHANIC BLOG » production stills

Icons of Animation

Global Mechanic — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:52:32 +0000

The Icons of Animation catalog, with the earliest surviving color Mickey Mouse cel on the cover..

Recently, we had a nostalgic encounter with some art from Christmases past.

Perusing through Profiles In History’s most recent auction catalog, we saw the likes of original works like Richard Scarry’s Rudolph and Gustav Tengrenn’s The Night Before Christmas, both starting at a minimum bid of $4000.

Particularly eye-catching production cels: Heckle and Jeckle, Max Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels, and Tezuka’s Astro Boy. Wow.

The Icons of Animation session will be happening on December 17th, in Beverly Hills.(Not in California? You still have twelve days to bid online.)

And of course, if you can’t cough up the moolah, you should check out the entire catalog anyway.

Impromptu Ideas

Global Mechanic — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:50:54 +0000

Preliminary character sketches for our upcoming film Impromptu, based on the paintings of Matisse. Check back as we update our progress.

STEALING THE INTERNET: BEHIND THE SCENES

Global Mechanic — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:31:54 +0000

After weeks of making a series of big messes in the studio and on our laptops and big-shot computers, we’ve finally sorted out all of the mislabeled files and come out the other end with the production stills from our most recent 10 Commandments short, No. 7: Thou Shalt Not Steal. This shoot was a little bit more hectic than other shoots. First of all, animating bananas is one of the hardest things to do besides maybe animating water without something to hold it. So we had to get creative. Also, bananas are soft like apple sauce. They wilt quickly under hot lights. Not pretty (As you can see from one of the photos where the banana goes brown on us). Furthermore, we spent quite a bit of time making the set this for this short; almost as much time as we spent shooting the film. But in the end, it all worked out. We learned a lot. So here are some behind the scenes production stills for you to take a look at. Enjoy:

-Justin

KEEPING IT HOLY: BEHIND THE SCENES

Global Mechanic — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:26:08 +0000

How dee,
Today we’re going to be showing you some production stills from the last 10 commandments short. It was a hairy shoot. We thought we would try and get the video out before the super bowl (because of the football theme) so we only had a week to finalize the idea, make props, test shoot, shoot and then do the editing and foley. It was a challenge to say the least, but we got it done and we’re proud of what came out the other side. Take a look at some of our photos (the quality isn’t exactly fantastic. We were using the nice camera to make the film so i just used my iphone for these stills):

So there you have the basic layout of the set and some of the art room. The two are very close together in the studio which is great because you can come up with an idea for a prop/set dec, walk 20 feet, make it and then have it back in the set pretty quickly. I thought it might also be fun to show you guys some close ups of the details in the short (like the photos and the beer can design). Take a look:

Okay, that’s all for now. Check back soon and we’ll have another 10 commandments short with some more production stills and maybe some more design images as well.

-Justin