BITENECK BEATNIKS TEASER TRAILER ON YOUTUBE

Now in glorious YouTube-O-Vision

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PAINTER X

I have some possible comic book work on the horizon and have been experimenting with painter cross platforming with photoshop and it's been fun. The way I'm working is starting projects in photoshop (which I'm familiar with), blocking out colors, and then opening psd files in Painter and hopping between the two. What I love about Painter isn't so much the brushes, although the brushes in Painter are many and fantastic, rather it's the extended possibilities of manipulation and the palette for mixing up paints (taking me back to mixing up paints on a tile at art college).

I used a little bit of Painter in Grimmwood, but only for the canopy. I hope to use more.

INDIANA JONES AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL!

The title for the new Indiana Jones movie has been revealed. More info about the Crystal Skull itself can be found in the above clip from Arthur C Clarke Mysterious World episode.

As is traditionally the case with Indiana Jones, the MacGuffin is the artifact. What the Crystal Skull is reportedly said to be able to do could be an indication of the movie's plot:

The Maya people said it was used to will death or to heal. And if like an older medicine man or witchdoctor was getting too old to perform a ceremony a young man was chosen and both laid in front of the alter and the high priest would perform a ceremony and the old man's knowledge would go into this young boy and the old man would pass away peacefully and this young boy would get up as a very knowledgeable young man. This crystal skull has tremendous power, but it also gives you a warning that something's going to happen.

Which is all pretty interesting stuff. Could Labeouf be the young man? And could John Hurt, allegedly playing Indy's mentor, Abner Ravenwood, be the old man and via this method passes on his knowledge to young Labeouf? Face it, John Hurt dies in practically every movie he's been in.

BITENECK BEATNIKS TEASER TRAILER!

Here's some of the background art I recently produced for the new Biteneck Beatniks teaser trailer which can be seen over at the Sardine website.

Sardine Productions in Canada did a fantastic job of combining Curtis Jobling's character designs with my background designs. Sardine not only put in some terrific work but an incredible amount of enthusiasm and love for the project so it was a lot of fun to work on.

GRIMMWOOD UPDATED

Now these blogs have labels, I am considering whether to shift all the stuff I have over on the Grimmwood blog (what little of it there is) to here, given how intermittently I work on that project. Anyway, here's 15 seconds of Grimmwood, just to show there's life in the old girl yet.

The wolves are what I call 'spider-weasels' due to the way they move. Their legs move like spider legs and their bodies slink like weasels.

No audio.

Here also are the full backgrounds from the segment ...
Grimmwood and all production work is © 2006-2007, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.

SONG FOR JEDI

OVER THE HILL WINS THE McLAREN AWARD AT EDINBURGH!!!!

The animated film I recently produced, 'Over The Hill', won the McLaren Award for New British Animation this evening at the Edinburgh Festival. I AM ECSTATIC!!! Peter Baynton, the film's director, traveled up to Edinburgh this evening to pick up the award!

I'M NOT THERE

Staggeringly, this is Cate Blanchett dressed up as Bob Dylan for the film 'I'm Not There', which is on my 'must see' list. The film, directed by Todd Haynes, focuses on six different stages of Dylan's life and for each of these stages he's played by six different actors, including Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Richard Gere. The film also features David Cross, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Here's a 2 minute clip from the upcoming film which I managed to find floating around on YouTube.

ALIENS ON LIFE WITHOUT THE SOPRANOS!

AtomFilms.com: Funny Videos | Funny Cartoons | Comedy Central

MORE DOCTOR WHO CASTING RUMOURS *SPOILERS AHOY*

News of the World have reported that Joan Collins is set to appear as The Rani, and The Sun claims that Ben Kingsley is going to be playing Davros. I shall eat humble hat if any of this turns out to be true, however, there is an intriguing rumor flying about that the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, is going to appear in Series 4 in a Multi-Doctor episode.

EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK

VS.

MIKE WIERIGNO

Sadly comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away this Sunday of a sudden heart attack. Wieringo was 44 years old.

John Siuntres of the excellent World Balloon has posted a tribute to the life and career of Wieringo, an interview from 2005.

ANIMATION TREASURES!

Drop what you're doing and go check this amazing blog out.

THE SELFISH GIANT

I love how the selfish giant's castle is sign posted! Thanks to Colin Fawcett for pointing me in the direction of this gem. I rather like the background art and snow and frost and the Wagnerian accompaniment to the arrival of the north wind and hail.... in short, lovely stuff.

THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL

The Little Match Girl was the last film made by Disney to use CAPS,Disney's digital ink & paint system. The film was supposed to be a part of Fantasia 2006 (The Music Project) which was canceled.

It also features the glorious music of Alexander Borodin (String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno, Andante).

JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER ANIMATED PREVIEW

Justice League: New Frontier Animated Preview. Very much looking forward to seeing this. Thanks to Will Kane for the heads up.

A NEW DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE? *HERE BE SPOILERS* (UPDATED)

Rumor has it, via The Sun (which, while not particularly reliable for any other sort of news, has proved to be right on more than one occasion regarding the new series of Doctor Who) says that James Nesbitt is the next shoe-in for the role of The Doctor in BBC's Doctor Who.

James Nesbitt currently appears in BBC's Jekyl, which I've managed to completely miss (but my sister assures me that she'll be getting me it on DVD for my Birthday), which is written by Doctor Who writer (and one of the best writers of the show) Steve Moffat. Interesting. I've not really seen James Nesbitt in anything but Cold Feet and Yellow Pages commercials so we shall see, but it certainly seems to make sense to me. I wonder if all planets have a County Antrim also and Nesbitt will be keeping his accent? David Tennent is expected to leave at the end of season 4 as is, rumor has it, Russel T Davies who will apparently stand down as show runner, and Moffat is rumored to be taking over the reigns (which, given how terrific "Empty Child", "Girl in the Fireplace" and "Blink" have been can only be a good thing).

UPDATE: According to Outpost Gallifrey, Steve Moffat has chimed in on the discussion forum there, saying:

The James Nesbitt story is a total fabrication. Made up. A fantasy. Just a guy sitting at a desk and just inventing stuff.

I wasn't going to say anything, but I'm getting embarrassed for the deeply wonderful Jimmy Nesbitt. So tell everyone please, cos it's getting very silly.

Steven Moffat

So, the James Nesbitt story has been denied, but I notice no denial of Steve Moffat taking over as show runner! Could it be?

OVER THE HILL AT RUSHES SOHO SHORTS FESTIVAL

“Over The Hill” is appearing in its first festival; Rushes Soho Shorts which takes place in and around Soho cinemas and venues this week. We heard yesterday that the film is a finalist in the Animation category, which is excellent news. The film will also be showing at the Edinburgh festival later this month.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH!!!!

We're laughing now, but ... please tell me people have heeded the warnings from films like Terminator, The Matrix and I Robot?