Happy 90th Sol

My family and I went to Culver City yesterday for Sol Sigall’s 90th birthday party. Anybody in animation or a fan of the history of animation should know Sol and Martha. Martha is a noted figure in the very fabric of that history from way before her first job at Schlesinger in 1936. But a lot of people in animation tend to overlook Sol because he never worked it the field.

Sol, along with his wife, was a member of an elite group of animation legends, a roundtable who met and partied together. In fact, Sol and Martha are the last 2 members of that group. Martha once told me that it is Sol’s love of all things animation that has kept her active in the animation community for all these years.

When I was a young man, studying for the gallows, I worked a summer as a lifeguard on a beach in Sarasota, Florida. One part of the beach was given over to the old retired people. Talking to other lifeguards it was common knowledge that the average retired person with nothing to do with themselves lasted about 3 to 5 years.

Both Sol and Martha retired in the 1970s and have been active in the animation community and with the Culver City Historical Society, the Afternoon of Remembrance committee and who knows what else ever since. What is their secret? There are a team, a very active team. Sol may not have worked in animation but he is an important person in the history of animation all the same. I have learned a lot talking to Sol. Happy 90th Birthday to a good guy and a great friend.

Bozu Update

Moving forward on the sculpt for the AniMazing Spotlight Festival Award Trophy. Yes the chin goes up on the drawing and down on the sculpt. And I dropped the pencil and the glasses. There are casting reasons for all of these changes which deals with gating and venting (hot metal in / hot air out) problems.

And yes I put a little more age on the face. Wanted to get out of the Disney Bosustow and a little more into the UPA Bosustow.

Still pushing for a cartoony feel to the sculpt. This is lots of fun. Next finish the body etc., pull a mold so that we can do more than one of these if wanted and then the wax and casting.

Speaking of AniMazing Spotlight Short Animation Festival, just reviewed the first batch of films for the second quarter. There were some promising student films. One killer short. And one very professional, very Saturday morning (just like everybody else's show) that was well done but not to my liking because it was so much like what is already out there but it was still very well done. Hey, that's what you get. Looking forward to the next batch.

Good Bye Lenny

I called my grade school/high school friend/college friend roommate Steve Rothman last week looking for a contact to Burt Reynold. Steve and Burt use to deal when Steve was running theatre in Florida. I am trying to find someone to say something or write something for Dom DeLuise for the upcoming Animation Afternoon of Remembrance and Burt is the logical one.


Afternoon of Remembrance
Lasky-DeMille Barn
HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE
2100 North Highland Avenue
(in the parking lot next to the Hollywood Bowl)
Los Angeles, CA 90068-3241
March 13th
12 Noon meet and eat
Remembrance starting at 1 PM

I was shocked to hear that Steve’s father, Leonard, had just died. Sure Lenny was in is 80s but it is hard to think of a world without him. There was a time in high school when Leonard Rothman was more of a father to me than the father I was issued at birth. My father wasn’t there very much. And when he was he really wasn’t.

Lenny Rothman was loud and demonstrative and always treated me like just another one of his sons. There are some debts you can never pay. All you can do is just acknowledge them.

Award Update 4:

Update on award trophy. Starting to work on the face. Put in the eyes but still need to build up the lids etc. Started on the right hand, which is the one that is out from the body. Still have a long way to go but starting to get there.

Award Design Update #3:

Moving along on the Bozu Award design. Still haven't got to any detail but am getting the underpinning of the sculpt in shape. Next is it is time to start on some detail on the face, eyes, chin, hair etc.



The pose is looking good so far. I always leave the joints of the armature free until I am far along in the sculpt. That way I can make last minute adjustments to the flow of the figure.

What You Do Affects How You Do

The design work that I was doing for the copper etching got me thinking about icons. I paid for my second IBM compatible computer by creating hundreds of Windows icons.

Looking at all the designs I made for copper etching made me realize just how much my design perception was influenced by the need to make images clear at 30 by 30 pixels. And later at 15 by 15 pixels. It changes the way you see and the way you draw. Maybe that is a good thing?

The long and short is that I cranked out a group of icons because . . . I don`t know why. There was a time that I swore I would never create another one of these little monsters. But this was fun. Go figure.

Oh, if anybody wants any of these I will be glad to send you the ICO file. I think the animation wheel might be of use to some of my readers. And I could use a new computer so if anybody needs a few hundred icons created . . .

Early Steps To Award

Started to lay in the masses on the armature. Always the first step. Like bones under the flesh.

Created a 3/4 inch pencil to go into the right hand of the statue. That was hard work. Getting the separation between wood and led. With machine sharpened point everything is a cone. Got it by going for a knife sharpened pencil so that the led will stand out from the wood.

Also locking in the base. Off and running on the AniMazing Stoplight award trophy. Will keep you up to date.

Come and Get Me Copper

Acid etched copper plate update. Fun with N2SO4 and jewelry saws.