Channel Frederator Blog

Eben Zboch, director of “Walter’s Bed”, tells us a little about his Oren Lavie inspired stop-motion short.

Channel Frederator: Where did you get your animation education?

Eben Zboch: At a young age, my animation education began as trial and error. As I got older, I began to realize what I was doing and gained a passion for animation and film. I am now taking classes at my local community college on film and I am applying what I learn to my newer films.

CF: Who or what has influenced your work the most?

EZ: I am influenced by films and studying them helps me progress in my work. A local animator here in Charlotte , John Lemmon, who has worked on many commercials, has been a mentor and friend in my progression.

CF: How did you develop the concept for this film?

EZ: I developed the concept of this film through studies of a music video by the musician [Read more…]

Here’s an interview with Jon Humphreys, Creative Director of UK based animation studio The Neighbourhood. Be sure to scope out his film “Stories from the Neighbourhood” in this week’s episode of Channel Frederator and the cool “making of” video below!

Channel Frederator: Where did you get your animation education?

Jon Humphreys: I have done many things over the past 15 years, my education is a melting of all the activities I have been involved with. I studied architecture at University which gave me an understanding of 3D space, I have worked as a graphic designer and illustrator where I taught myself how to use digital tools communicate ideas. I first started using animation about 12 years ago making 2D medical animations for CDROM in Macromedia Director, hand crafting tweens and developing patience that animation requires. That naturally led to using 3D tools as they became more readily available, 3Ds4 which went on to [Read more…]

NYC based studio //kneeon! is responsible for the cool creative music video for “The Gold” by John Brown’s Body. The video was directed by Kelly Goeller and Mike Healey and over a dozen animators contributed to the film. They have asked to collectively go by the name //kneeon!

Channel Frederator: Where did you get your animation education?

//kneeon!: We are animation students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. We have been working together on animated projects for about 4 years now, which led us to co-found //kneeon! , a production company specializing in both animation and live action.

CF: Who or what has influenced your work the most?

K!: Our influences range from Michel Gondry’s music videos to Norman McLaren, Vik Muniz to Rachel Ray, and from gradients to comic sans.

CF: How did you develop the concept for this film? Where did you find all of the animators who contributed their work?

K!: //kneeon! was approached by Seth [Read more…]

Lately, I’ve been trying to find themes for each of Channel Frederator’s episodes. This week I choose “awesome” as my tie in. ‘Cause these films are awesome! You might be asking yourself, ‘Self, what kind of stuff falls into the category of ‘awesome’?’

Yourself might answer:

Cupcakes = awesome
Doggies = awesome
These films = awesome

Hope that helps. Have an awesome time watching this week’s awesome episode.

John Brown’s Body - “The Gold”, submitted by Mike Healey & Kelly Goeller - This cool collaborative music video from //kneeon! is out of this world.

“Walter’s Bed”, submitted by Eben Zboch – A young film student inspired by Oren Lavie takes stop-motion-on-a-bed a step further with this fun film.

Black & White, Episode 44: “Bearly Worth Watching”, submitted by Jon Izen – Quick and quirky describe this one of many random, hilarious shorts in the “Black & White” series.

“Stories form the Neighbourhood”, submitted by Jon Humphreys – An awesome promotional video for UK [Read more…]