You know, I’ve seen it coming for a while, and I’m the one who blogged it, but I still didn’t catch the fact. Anyway, we’ve just passed Frederator Blog Post No. 5,000. Of course, I’m too lazy to track down when we first went online with this, but it was probably sometime in 2005. Now, I’m no mathlete, but I figure 5,000 divided by 2005 equals about 2 ½ posts per hour. Not too shabby. Thanks to all our contributors and readers and commenters. Here’s to the next 5,000.

– Eric

Our good Friend of Frederator, Aaron Simpson, recently had Plastic Surgery.

On his website.

The facelift looks great IMO, but there’s been a bit of mixed feelings with folks I’ve talked to.

We want to hear what you all think.

CHF also has a new mascot by the name of ‘Federov’, a cosmonaut bear. Here he is imagined by designer and animator Jez Hall.

Whatever you feel about Aaron’s revamp, I know I’ll still be going there daily for my Cold Hard Flash Fix.
At least I can be content in the fact that I made Aaron blush.

-Jeaux Janovsky

This interview was a treat for me to do because Alex Kirwan was one of my first champions and also the catalyst for me to get into Calarts’ animation program. His character design class was one of my fondest and funnest memories of Calarts. Alex was and still is one of the nicest, most genuine, brightest talents in the animation industry.

How long have you been animating/drawing/painting?
I’ve been an animation professional since I was eighteen, that’s about twelve years. My first animation experiments were with some Godzilla models, clay and a super-8 camera when I was about ten, but the concepts (and to some extent, the execution) started growing more elaborate pretty fast. Drawing goes back as far as I can remember, but don’t all kids draw?

Did you go to school for Animation and design or are you self taught? If so, Where? If Self Taught, how did you get your education?
I went to The Perpich center for Arts education, an art high school in Minneapolis for a couple of years. Most of the animation training there took place on an Amiga computer at that time, the digital animation equivalant of an Atari system, but I chose to create a short film on paper as a final project. That film later evolved into one of my Oh Yeah! shorts. Much of what I know about cartooning and animation I learned from my father, Dave Kirwan. He’s a lifetime cartooning, classic cartoon collector and animation history expert. He’d animate bank commercials during the day and then bring punched paper and the Preston Blair how-to books home to me.

Who are some of your influences?
Winsor McCay, Walt Kelly, Ub Iwerks, Jamie Hewlitt, Starbucks.

Houdini, Harry Potter, David Copperfield, David Blaine, Trixie. Who would win in a Magic Fight?
Houdini, he once escaped from the carcass of a squid. No really.
Not sure if he used magic though.

One of my favorite Oh Yea Cartoons Era shorts from Frederator was Magic Trixie. All kinds of awesome all around.
When and how did you come up with the idea?
I was listening to some European circus-like music by a group called Die Knodel and the characters started springing into action in my head.

How was it working on your own short?
Terrifying. It’s the only way to find out which things about film making you’re still ignorant about.

What were some of the hurdles and obstacles you had in your way, and how did you deal with them?
My first couple shorts for Oh Yeah! didn’t turn out how I thought they would. They were garish, talky and unfunny. With Trixie I evaluated what I loved most about my favorite cartoons growing up. I studied Tex Avery shorts, Fleischer Color Classics musicals and Gerald McBoingboing, as though I had never seen them before, trying to figure out why they were so entertaining. I tried to apply the sort of energy and pacing I found in those shorts to a loose structure I could hang visual gags on. Some of it worked, some of it didn’t, but to this date it’s the one thing I’ve worked on that feels the most personal.

I would see your name sprinkled here and there on other OY shorts.
What other ones did you work on? What did you do on them? What was it like working with other creators?
I worked on almost all the Mina and the Count shorts with Rob Renzetti, cleaning up his board thumbnails. I also worked in a similar capacity with Dave Wasson on Max and the Pigeon incident. I boarded on Larry Huber’s Man with No Nose, and Snap Out of Water, and I later worked my way into incidental character design on shorts like Zac Moncrief’s Baxter and Bananas and later lead designer on My Neighbor Was a Teenage Robot. I learned a tremendous lot from all those guys.

Have you shown your art in galleries? Where have you shown your art?
I will have a number of paintings in Gallery Nucleus’ A Band of Bugs show alongside some of my all-time favorite animation artists in February.

What are some of your hobbies outside the world of animation?
I paint, sculpt, collect squeaky toys. That sort of thing.

What projects are you working on currently?
I’ve been helping out on Nickelodeon’s Mighty B!, a beautiful, super-cartoony creation.

Do you have any advice for someone wanting to break in or just beginning in the Animation industry?
The quality of your ideas are as important as the quality of your drawings.

Thanks for the interview Alex! Keep on Rocking!
Check out some Alex Kirwan Frederator Memorbilia Here:
Alex’s Postcards
As well as other OY! coolness too:
OY! season 1
OY! season 2
OY! season 3

-Jeaux Janovsky

Yo, by Eric Robles.

– Eric (Homan)

You - our crazy animating, cartoon loving crowd. You guys made the first New York City Drinking & Drawing a total success, and we love you for that! With that in mind, we want your feedback more than anyone else’s.

What did you think? What could we do better, or differently? What was the favoritest stuff about Drinking & Drawing? How often would you want to see Drinking & Drawing happen? We thought monthly, but is monthly too much?

You tell us what you think, guys. We really value your feedback. - Carrie

Have a look at this film by Julian Cardozo. Julian created this film as an After Effects experiment. It was created during the first semester of his Sophomore year at Ryerson University.

-Floyd Bishop

Brown Johnson was on our blog back when we were on Blogger and I called her one of animation’s great star executives. Today, Variety reports she’s been named President of animation at Nickelodeon, our home studio for kid projects for the last 12 years.

Brown’s going to make a great difference in the cartoon business, she’s still a great star.
…..
Johnson takes reins at Nickelodeon
Exec named president of animation
By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

Brown Johnson, the architect of Nickelodeon’s hugely successful preschool division, has been tapped to tackle the company’s animation business.

As part of an executive realignment at Nick, Johnson has been named president of animation for Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group. She’ll be charged with overseeing development and production for all animated programming across Nickelodeon, known for hits including “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

At the same time, Johnson will continue to handle preschool programming — which includes Nick Jr. and the recently expanded 24-hour cabler Noggin.

Johnson will commute between New York and Los Angeles, with an emphasis on getting to know Nickelodeon Animation’s large West Coast studio in Burbank.

Until now, Nickelodeon development exec VP Marjorie Cohen oversaw both animated and live-action programming. But with the channel continuing to add more live-action product to the mix, Cohen will now focus on that world. That allowed Nick to create an animation presidency for Johnson.

Johnson will continue to report to Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon and MTVN Kids and Family Group.

“I feel that animation is still the core of our business, and it does deserve somebody at its helm,” Zarghami said. “We’ve got a fantastic studio in Burbank, and it’s been bugging me that we don’t have anyone who hangs their name on the door as the one responsible for it. That studio will become Brown’s studio.”

Johnson said she’ll spend much of the coming weeks getting to know animators and producers handling work for Nickelodeon.

DreamWorks, for example, is behind the upcoming “The Penguins of Madagascar.”

Johnson also takes over the animation side just as the division expands its output and starts focusing on other platforms, such as mobile and VOD.

Nickelodeon airs about 90 hours of animated programming per week. The network’s animation studio will increase its output by 50% this year — with 225 half-hours delivered. Studio will also produce 29 hours of CG animation this year.

Johnson first joined Nick in 1988 as exec in charge of production, before turning her attention to the preschool world in the early 1990s.

The newest Meth Minute Cartoon is my tribute to the strange animation of Eastern Europe. I’ve always been interested in all things Eastern Bloc, probably because my family lineage originates from Hungary, Belarus, Romania, etc. If we had never immigrated to America, I might be making cartoons like this:

When I had finished the animation and was looking for a background soundtrack, I knew it needed some E. European instrumentals to keep it authentic. The choice was obvious: My Hungarian-born grandfather Abraham Meth’s very own opera overture.

This past November, we flew to Arizona to see Grandpa’s opera (composed in the late 1950’s) performed by a professional orchestra. Although it’s the story of Moses and the Exodus, I had a feeling it’s instrumental overture would be perfect for my cartoon about anthropomorphic hands that spill coffee on each other!

The performance was recorded and the CD came to me in the mail hours before the cartoon needed to be edited and distributed all over the internet. A couple splices of the music with the cartoon and it was appeared to be cosmically destined.

Collaborating with my 95 year-old grandfather on a film was awesome. He was a student of Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly at the Budapest Acadamy of Music in the 1930’s and wrote music and drew all his life. Abraham Meth is where I inherited any of my musical and artistic traits from so I guess it’s all come full circle.

-Dan

I wanted to shout out the team that really puts Drinking and Drawing together.

A lot of you know Dan Meth (above, center) from his series and his blog. D+D started as his solo experiment during The Meth Minute 39 and morhped into the Platform event, and now an animator jam across the globe. Go Dan!

Nothing like D+D gets done without a dedicated and kick ass producer, and Carrie Miller (right) fills both bills. She’s been with Frederator/NY for a few years now (after a stint at Camp Chaos) and produces The Meth Minute 39 and The Channel Frederator Awards. D+D is a bear to put together, and now with satellite events starting around the world it keeps her busier than anyone should be.

Lee Rubenstein (left) was a Frederator intern when he helped Dan out that first experiemental, woozy, night, and he’s hung in there even as he’s joined Next New Networks as their production artist. His spirit keeps us all going.

Thanks Dan, Carrie, and Lee. We’re depending on you for more animator fun.

–Fred

Ok, worst post title ever. Just put up my new website with new drawings galore! Check it out!

Steve