I meant to post this a few weeks ago when it came to my attention straight from the aristocratic horse’s mouth, but here’s another slice of spiffing-ness from that doyen of chap hop, that suave em cee, Mr B. the Gentleman Rhymer:

follow him on twitter here

Shere Kahn - as animated by Milt Kahl

have I really not posted anything here since January? I’ve been busy animating cats and keeping my blogging under 140 chars in length, that’s my excuse! anyway, I’m back in the more traditional and verbose form of blog in order to post a link to another blog I’ve just been made aware of: Pencil Test Depot is the work of one Jamaal Bradley, he’s made it his mission to scour the webs looking for those most wonderful things:- 2d pencil tests, mostly from classic (and some not-so-classic) animated Disney films, including the work of Milt Kahl among others. These snippets are like crack for 2d animators, showing the rough stages behind some very famous sequences indeed. I’ve always preferred the looser nature of my own rough work, and love to see that in other people’s work too, so this blog is one I’ll be keeping a very avid eye on!

This ad has me more confused than almost anything I’ve ever seen before:

Yes, that’s right, you just saw Iggy Pop selling car insurance. Iggy ‘I’m so punk i used to slash myself open with broken bottles onstage’ Pop, advertising swift’We normally have comedy chickens in our ads’cover Insurance. Now is this the biggest sell out in the history of once-rebellious celebrities rolling over and playing nice with the establishment, or is this the most punk thing he’s ever done ever?  I mean, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, take dennis hopper’s endorsement of the Ford Cougar in the 90s:

There we have an actor made famous by his anti-establishment stance and wild-living ways, selling cars for one of the biggest names in the business, I’d say that counts as a big fat sell-out (the steve mcqueen/ford puma ad doesn’t count in the same way, the man was long dead by the time that little ‘gem’ popped on to the scene.)  But this Iggy/Swiftcover number? I’m not so sure.  The thing is, Insurance ads are normally cheapy cheapy affairs, with some loud mouth idiot walking around a white studio shouting at us, some dodgy cgi character with ‘attitude’ claiming we can save money or even worse, Michael Winner smashing into old ladies, then leering at us and insisting he’s ‘actually a very good driver’ *shudder*, but Iggy Pop, prancing around with his leathery old chest on show, is a very different beast.  I get the feeling that by doing this Iggy is showing that he cares so little about others’ opinion of himself that he’ll happily prance about like a tit for swiftcover.  Punk. as. fuck.

wow, besides leaving my wife alone and my children fatherless, I could die happy now, for I think I’ve seen possibly the greatest thing I will ever see in my life. Paul Robertson, a 2d games animator, has created “Kings of Power 4 Billion”, a headlong brain and eye straining stream of bugnuts batshit crazyness that will have your eyes bleeding and your brain oozing out of your ears and what’s more, you will LOVE IT! View the craziness below, but be warned, if you’re prone to photo-sensitive seizures/care for your retinas or eardrums/have no love for 16 bit pixel art genius of the highest calibre/have a weak stomach/all of the above, then this may not be for you. ps. i really mean it about the photo sensitive seizure part.

enjoy:

Ben's work tends to make me feel the same way I do after a hard trek up a mountain on a clear day, and that's a very very good thing.

My good friend Ben the Illustrator has just added a new range of wonderful prints to his arsenal of aceness, ‘Wish you were here’ is a brilliant set, showcasing Ben’s love of nature in a colourful, vibrant way.  I love ‘em, and if I had the cash and the wall space, i’d have ‘em all!
http://www.wishyouwerehereart.com/

wow. just, wow! this is a fan made insert for gremlins 2 (you know, the bit where the gremlins break the 4th wall and splice themselves into a john wayne movie/have a ruck with hulk hogan?). And it’s amazing! Jaw droppingly well done, I particularly like the goonies bit, seeing as I always loved the gremlins reference in that film. *applauds*

it’s been a while since my last post, sorry about that those few people that follow the blog (all 2 of you!), I just came across this little beauty (via motionographer), it’s a look at human history using the wonderful object that is the lego minifig (he’s celebrating his 30th birthday this year, same as me! happy birthday miniman!)

http://current.com/items/89193650_giant_inflatable_turd_causes_havoc_in_switzerland

I came across this this morning, it’s a lovely little digital toy created by one of the guys who worked on the ecozoo, a particularly whizzy piece of flash/papervision work.

Crisis at the font conference