Animation has never been more popular than it is today. Pixar changed the look and production of animated films, but the love of cartoons lives on through hand drawn characters brought to life. On Saturday, June 3, the Ojai Film Festival will offer two workshops for both lovers of cartoons and young people wanting to learn the craft. The workshops and film presentations are for young people wanting to try animation and a second workshop for lovers of the art form. Both workshops take place at the Ojai Library Meeting Room all afternoon.
Hands-on Animation Workshop
with Cathy Karol-Crowther and Jim Kesshan
For Children 10+
Saturday, June 3, 2 – 4 PM
Ojai Library Meeting Room
Cost is $15
A professional animator since 1973, Cathy Karol-Crowther started as a background artists and assistant animator for TV specials, commercials, titles and theme parks before completing eight animated short films. A member of the Short Films and Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures, she is also a well-respected teacher at Santa Monica College.
An animator/producer, Jim Keeshen has taught animation and story classes for 25 years at Santa Monica College and leads a popular lecture series with guest speakers in animation and film.
The workshop begins with a brief talk about animation and what it is along with short demonstration of early animation techniques. A 30-minute hands-on workshop making animation strips and flipbooks follows. Once the work is complete, testing of selected worshop-created animation will be shot onto a professional Animation Test System and then the animation can then be recorded onto individual’s smart phones.
Kids can bring their own pencils and erasers, pens, markers, and colored pencils.
“I Love Cartoons” screening with Mark Kausler
Saturday, June 3, 4:30 to 6:30 pm
Ojai Library Meeting Room
Cost is $15.
“Cartoons occupy a special place between two and three dimensional design,” says feature animator and animation historian Mark Kausler, “and a direct route from the animator’s heart, through the pencil point, to the screen.” Kausler’s intention behind the “I Love Cartoons” program is to showcase the terrific artistry and passion found in the best hand-drawn and painted cartoon films. The program will be exhibited on 16mm prints. Drawn animation had a rhythmic flexibility and an intensity of facial expression very different from the often doll-like appearance of digitally produced animation.
“I’ve always felt a tremendous empathetic reaction to hand-drawn cartoons,” says Kausler. “To fully appreciate them, you have to commit something of yourself, your imagination, while viewing them. It’s like appreciating radio programs that built stories and personalities out of sound, cartoons built characters and stories out of LINES.”
The June 3rd program starts with a “Newsreel Theater” show, four cartoons selected at random. The second part is devoted to television and cartoons created for that medium. Kausler will feature commercials animated by Rod Scribner and Bill Littlejohn, and a Tom Terrific serial called, “Snowy Picture” drawn in part by Jim Tyer and directed by Gene Deitch.