We are currently in production on twelve episodes of a new series for Cartoon Network titled Robotomy.  It’s directed by Superjail’s Christy Karacas.  Traditionally animated with some great designs, here is a sneak peak.

In March I traveled to Suzhou, China to visit Hong Ying, the animation studio currently working on Robotomy.  I had the pleasure of meeting some of our talented crew including our director, producer and supervisors.  It was inspirational to see the traditional animation process at work on such a large scale!

The Venture Bros Season 4.2 is rolling out the goodness with 7 more half hour episodes and an hour long season finale.  Check out some screen grabs for a taste of the magic to come.

On Sunday October 18 at midnight, Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] premiered season 4 of The Venture Bros.  The first eight episodes of the season will air through the end of the year.

The show looks sexier than ever!  The design crews headed by George Fort and Stephen DeStefano and the color department, headed by Liz Artinian did an amazing job crafting the Venture world.  And thank Siobhan Mullen and Stephen DeStefano for all the action packed goodness their teams crammed into the storyboards, and Nick DeMayo and the direction team for making it come to life.

 And of course, thank Jackson and Doc for whole thing.

 The next eight episodes (for a total of 55! Yes, 55!) are in production now and will air summer 2010. 

 Catch The Venture Bros. Sundays at midnight or on adultswim.com during the week!

From time to time we share inspiration in our staff meetings. This first piece from CollegeHumor.com features great 3D storytelling and amazing character animation. It answers the question, “What if the lamp accidentally killed the “I” in Pixar.” The “X” button at the end is hilarious and cruel. Pixar Intro Parody

This second 2D traditionally animated piece features a soldier with an ill fitting helmet. He gets himself and his country into a predicament in a series of unfortunate events.

This is an amazing piece of animation.
VIDEOGIOCO: animation and concept by Donato Sansone
sound design by Enrico Ascoli. Thanks @Bigspaceship.

By far one of the most interesting panels during Advertising Weekwas “Google’s: Experiments in Creativity,” given by Andy Berndt, Managing Director of Google Creative Labs. He prefaced his whirlwind speech with the disclaimer his department, “Does not sell anything. Is comprised of creative people. Likes idea people and tech people and those who are both. Should not really be giving speeches.” He sped through this presentation (get it before Google’s legal dept. takes it down) which really highlights some great uses of Google’s open APIs as well as other platforms like YouTube. Lesson: If Google thinks its cool, it probably is.

Amazing stop motion work from Brigham Young University design students and faculty for the Typophile Film Fest 5. Thanks to John Robertson from Curious Pictures for sharing.

embedded by Embedded Video

vimeo Direkt

I came upon a really interesting article on Organic’s Three Minds blog about Dustin Curtis and Alaska Miller’s experiment to visit all of Jet Blue’s 43 cities in 30 days capitalizing on an all-you-can-fly promotion for $599. Here is their letter to Jet Blue which sets the stage. First, I was struck by Organic’s insights on how Jet Blue should take advantage of the PR which I agree with, “it would be great to see JetBlue post a parallel story, maybe the story behind the trip: notes from flight crew, details on what’s going on with weather, mechanicals, Obama landing at JFK, etc”. Secondly, in going to the 30 day flight site I was impressed with the design, and the attention paid to it, each day as it evolves. Lastly, I clicked through to learn more about Dustin and ended up clicking through his well thought out and designed magazine blog .

From time to time we will share videos we find inspirational, funny or just plain bizarre. Two out of three ain’t bad. Thanks to Cartoon Brew for this piece, Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend: