On Oct 15, 2016, two time Oscar nominee Bill Plympton will appear as a guest speaker at Oregon Cartoon Institute‘s one day symposium UNDERGROUND USA. The following evening he will introduce a program of his short films at the Mission Theater.
UNDERGROUND USA is one day public history/arts education event which focuses on one chapter of Oregon print cartooning history. It was created in partnership with UO Comics & Cartooning Studies and PSU Comic Studies, and with support from Oregon Historical Society. Continue reading... “Bill Plympton Speaks, Oct. 15 & 16, UNDERGROUND USA”
Portland, OR August 15, 2016: Bent Image Lab, announces their Augmented Reality platform, “youAR”TM, is coming out of stealth mode into alpha testing.
For the last three years, Bent has been developing youARTM along with computer vision technology and systems enabling multiuser, real-time, markerless AR content to be viewed with a single lens smartphone.
LAIKA and Focus Features’ “Kubo And The Two Strings” will open on August 19th. “Kubo” is “a clever, kindhearted boy (voiced by Art Parkinson of “Game of Thrones”) who ekes out a humble living, telling fantastical stories to the people of his seaside town. But his relatively quiet existence is shattered when he accidentally summons a mythical spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Now on the run, Kubo joins forces with Monkey (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey), and sets out on a thrilling quest to save his family and solve the mystery ofhis fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known.Continue reading... “LAIKA’s New Feature, “Kubo And The Two Strings” Opens This Month”
It’s been nearly a year since Adult Swim Toonami team tapped Hinge‘s Portland-based studio to produce show bumpers and the season finale of Toonami Intruder II, where the show’s venerable host TOM, and his AI co-host SARA, crash land on an unknown planet to find a new base of operations. The episode had something fun for both the hard core fans (who’ve enjoyed the show since it’s beginnings in 1997) as well as the casual viewers. If you want to see the finale again, here it is in full, thanks to our friends at Adult Swim. Continue reading... “Adult Swim & Hinge Team Up For Toonami”
The Portland Business Journal visited HouseSpecial behind the scenes, and met with the creative stop-motion, and CG animators that bring their commercials, films & shorts to life.
April 18, 2016 (PORTLAND, OR) Introducing Steve the Spokestopus. He’s a new animated super fan created by content production studio HouseSpecial for CustomInk, the leading provider of custom apparel and accessories for groups and communities. The multi-spot campaign is a collaboration with Los Angeles ad agency SUPERMOON (SUPERMOON.com) and debuts this month on broadcast and digital media platforms.
The NW Animation Film was founded in 2011 and has grown to become the biggest of its kind in the US – over 1300 films were submitted this year! The fest is coming to the Hollywood Theatre (May 9-15) and the Bijou Art Cinema, Eugene (May 20-22) and will feature over 64 countries and over 200 films. Sign up here for more information. Get your advanced tickets now!
VFX/PDX + OMSI Present:
Fon Davis – The Secret Models of Star Wars
Presentation follows a screening of The Force Awakens – April 9th
What better way to kick off our new Reverse Angle series, highlighting heroes working behind the lens, than a screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens followed by long time model shop guru Fon Davis joining us from LA to present “The Secret Models of Star Wars.” This is a can’t miss event that gives us one last chance to catch Star Wars on OMSI’s four story Empirical Theater screen, and simultaneously gets us primed for the onslaught of Design Week with some serious film-making shop talk. Continue reading... “Star Wars Screening + Presentation April 9th At OMSI”
AEPDX, 3DPDX and VFX/PDX are joining forces to bring you a huge double event for Design Week Portland 2016.
Alphabest is an invitational collaborative show where local individuals or teams of talented animators & video artists make a creation (15 – 60 seconds long) based on a word that begins with a randomly assigned letter from the alphabet. The 26 created pieces will be assembled for an amazing presentation.
Reel Review 2016 will be a showcase of the best reels of local talent in motion, 3d and vfx.
From HouseSpecial Director Aaron Sorenson comes the short film Jailbreak, a noir-ish nod to German Expressionism that explores the psychology of imprisonment via stop motion animation. Shot in black and white, the film has an adult twist and dark theatrical feel.
“I was influenced most directly by the silent German Expressionist films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Golem. But I was also inspired by my love of prison break films such as Escape from Alcatraz, I Was a Prisoner on a Chain Gang and Papillon,” Sorenson said.Continue reading... “HouseSpecial Releases New Stop-Motion Short ‘Jailbreak’”
LAIKA
The 
Monday, April 18th, 2016 / 6:30-10:00 /