Pigeon Show by William Thinnes - Burbank - Nov 2 2012

[Charles]

Pigeon Show by William Thinnes @ Gallery 839

The Animation Guild
1100 N. Hollywood Way
Burbank, CA 91505

Opens November 2, 2012
6-9PM, Screening at 7:30.

http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ ... opens.html

I've worked as an Assistant Animator and Inbetweener on many of the features produced during the 2nd Golden Age of Animation.


When I was a kid, the elders in the Pigeon Fancy looked upon me as if I were the future. As it turned out, this wasn't so. In the final years of which I would attend a pigeon show, I noticed that there were a lot of people there that were younger than me. They had to be getting into the game somehow, and the game shall always be found by future generations. I thought "The Pigeon Fancy will be fine", and I've yet to go back.

Sometime between kidhood and when I left, I was put through an extensive art training through my workplace. During this time of drawing from live models, I thought to take the lessons from class and turn them onto the subject of pigeons, of which I loved so much. This art show is of drawings from those years, and of the subject I also ceased to continue producing for. The drawings were were done live onsight wherever I found them, and rarely worked on further after the session was over.

The teachers from the classes were topnotch people from the animation industry, and I tried to maximize what they were saying in my own work. Often in class, I would focus on their direction with the other students as they went around the class, and apply it in my own drawing as if they were talking to me personally.

The output of pigeon drawings are fine for what they were, but there came to be a value in this art training that would go a long way that applies to this day. Which is the point of this event. The art show is truely a Pigeon Show, but the event held here for this evening is about the following:


I produced a 5 minute hand drawn cartoon called Distraction. This is the second animated short I've done in the last 10 years since 2D hand-drawn came to an end of continuous employment. I am screening this Animated Short on the evening of this Art Show at Gallery 839. This event has been a long time in planning, and it is a new way for independant animation artists to take advantage of the arena in which this is taking place.

Distraction is an action adventure short not intended for kids. It was hand-drawn on paper and colored in the computer. It utilizes CG Elements as props and some backgrounds. Set to a piece of music, it has no dialogue. It is about an art-theft gone international and uses 200 paintings of 25 artists from all over the country.

I've worked in 2D animation since 1985, following 4 years of film study at Columbia College in Chicago. While there, I produced an award-winning live action Documentary, as well as enough animation footage to know how to produce it in reasonable time. During my years in the industry, I made little footage, and then commenced doing so when my time was freed up to figure out how best to approach it again. I spent a couple of years playing with different software, making dozens and dozens of short-end clips. Finally, I committed a story to a piece of music. This became Murder In 3 Axe. 7 Minutes, Black & White.

Catering will be Mediterranean Cuisine by Polly'z Pantry. As artists' in their own right, their presentation of the food will complement the design of the show.

As the Union Hall has been holding similar events here for the last few years, this one too, will have good food, drink and awesome swag. Come by to say hi, see some good drawings, a groovy cartoon, and have a real "coo" time!

Friday November 2nd, 6-9PM, Screening at 7:30.


William Thinnes