Dogpatch Press

The five-decade tradition of Saturday morning cartoons is gone.  On Flayrah furry news, Ringtailedfox shares a thoughtful story about  the demise of “animation on over-the-air television”. It marks a cultural shift. Times are changing communication business, media and fan culture.

The specialized art of hand-drawn animation seems gone in Hollywood.  But not to artists.  Some world-class artists are boldly working to produce 2D animated feature films outside the system.  They don’t bear standards, in the sense of status quo… they’re carrying the flag of pioneering indie spirit.

Two such indie productions have new updates.  They’re of high interest to furry fans.  Directors of both did interviews for Dogpatch Press.

Dawgtown update

Dawgtown is an ambitious animated drama about captive dogs fighting for freedom, with voice acting by George Foreman. Director Justin Murphy’s interview talks about his background and the movie plan.

Here’s new animatic work in progress, matching rough storyboards and sound to develop animation:

Michel Gagne opens production blog made for Saga of Rex supporters

Michel Gagne is known for work on animation for Don Bluth, Warner, and Pixar.  In 2012, Kickstarter backers supported his own animated movie, The Saga of Rex, discussed in his previous interview here.

Michel’s recent post at Cartoon Brew’s Facebook:

When I did the Kickstarter campaign to create a 4-minute Saga of Rex short film back in late 2012, I offered a production blog subscription as one of the tier reward. Once the KS was funded, I started a private blog on wordpress and shared it with the project’s backers.

The blog lasted six months, from February to July 2013 and documented the process of putting the short together. In weekly posts, I revealed some of my techniques, discoveries and hurdles, and posted several tutorials, “making of” videos and artwork. I thought it would be a shame to let all this go to waste so I decided to make the blog public in the hope that it might be appreciated by animation students and enthusiasts.

Here’s the newly opened Saga of Rex Production Blog.