Computer advice needed here!

Whenever an Animan video goes on sale, Animan always receives 2 or 3 e-mails like this one:

"HI I'm having trouble with the video  it downloads but when I play it it's only the first couple of minutes then stops . Thank You" (This was for a WMV file).

So I write back, "I think your computer is timing out before the download is finished--try Googling and see if you can find the solution."

Since I've never had this problem, I don't know what to answer. If any of Animan's pals out there have some good computer advice for this problem, please send it here, and Animan will make sure it gets posted!  THANKS, GUYS!!!

This E-mail Address Doesn't Work!

Of the several orders I get for videos, there are always one or two that bounce back when I try to send the video links. Since I can't use these addresses, the only way I can communicate with the sender is to write it here, like a sort of public bulletin board.

I'M GOING TO KEEP THIS BULLETIN BOARD HERE--IF ANYONE SENDS ME MONEY BUT HASN'T RECEIVED A LINK, I'LL MENTION IT HERE.

BEFORE SENDING MONEY TO ANIMAN, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS ACTUALLY WORKS!  THANKS, GUYS!

"SUPER HERO" VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE!

At last, the long wait is over! "Super Hero" is now on sale for $7 USD. If this is your first time to buy an Animan video, the instructions are here:
http://animancartoons.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-do-i-buy-videos.html

This video was a long time in production, as all of you well know! I hope everyone thinks it was worth the wait. In later posts, I'll talk about why it took so long, etc. As for me? I'm very pleased with it.

Meet "Super Hero"!

This is Nooky Man (aka Nookie Man), the star of Animan's upcoming video fantasy, "Super Hero". Here's a little information about the gentleman.

1)  He comes from the planet of Nook.

2)  He has no memory of his home planet.

3)  His super powers and his survival are dependent on his sexual activities.

Animan is still hard at work on "Super Hero", but promises that the video will be ready before the end of this month!

I don't know exactly when the term "nooky" as a synonym for female genitalia and sex came into use, but it's pretty widespread now. 

Just recently, I came across this interesting picture from a Batman/Superman comic:

Batman is saying that he has no time for sex--so why is he telling Superman? And why does Superman seem so disappointed? 

Interesting......!

Something While You Wait...

Animan is hard at work on the upcoming video, "Super Hero". I'm determined to have it ready some time before the end of this month, and I'm really pushing myself to the limit.

Whenever anyone visits this blog (even me...), they are met with a disclaimer saying that this blog contains adult material. I don't take this as permission to create the raunchiest-looking gay blog in the universe; I prefer not to show any pictures that are too "revealing". There are many adult blogs out there that show EVERYTHING, and they show a LOT of it! No wonder a great many of them disappear, seemingly overnight. So, Animan is always careful to not cross the line.

In a way, it could be a good thing. Since the remaining scenes in "Super Hero" are all X-rated, I would hesitate to post stills from them here. It piques everyone's interest, and stimulates everyone's imagination if I don't reveal too much. So that is Animan's policy. It keeps the viewers anticipating, and it keeps the blog afloat, without interference.

Today's eye candy comes from an old Greyhound Bus ad (circa 1956). Animan decided to step in and take away the young man's swimsuit for the world to enjoy. This is fun with a retro-feel to it! 

Crazy Stuff on Ebay

I found these two pictures in my computer, so I thought I'd share them. These are pictures of books I saw on Ebay and the titles were so intriguing, I thought I'd share them.

The first is an ancient book (looks like around 1902?) "Sowing Seeds in Danny". Say, that would make a great title for an Animan video, wouldn't it? But Danny would have to be a rough 'n' ready stud, and the "seeds" would have to be of a special type.

This next one is really wild. It's one of those "paint books"--you touch the drawings inside with a wet paintbrush and the colors appear. I'd guess that it was printed around 1952-54. In those days, "gay" meant "cheerful" and "carefree" most of the time, and rarely meant "homosexual"--which is the opposite of the way it is now. I love the title: "Gay-time"! The boy in this picture is skinny and not very masculine--which is the old stereotype of gay men. And the goat's head is imitating an action well-known to "gay" guys. The goat is giving him a butt in his butt! The last homoerotic element in this tableau is Farmer John in the background. He seems to be enjoying the show, and it looks as if he's getting some ideas for later. Whether it was intentional or the artist unconsciously put this title with this picture, the Gay-time painting book cover is definitely a homoerotic masterpiece!

Filming Sleeping Beauty

This picture was taken at the Walt Disney Studio in the late 1950's. They are filming the feature-length animated movie, "Sleeping Beauty".  The camera is at the top, looking down, but it can't be seen here. The drawings are held down with a plate of glass in a black frame called "a platen", and it helps the characters to not cast shadows.

Now, here's the same photograph, upside-down so you can see the drawings better. The scene is where the two fairies Fauna and Merryweather are having tea and cookies and discussing their problem. This movie was filmed in an ultra-wide screen process called Technirama 70. Look at the giant size of the cel that one (cute) fellow is holding! The whole movie was drawn and painted on thousands and thousands and thousands of these jumbo-sized cels. Of course, the backgrounds were just as big (if not bigger), and they needed to paint about 500 of those!

The character images are the property of their copyright holders.

Vintage Disney Cels--Good and Bad

In a previous post, I talked about animation cels. I found these examples online, which were all used in Disney cartoons.
The first is from 1937, "Little Hiawatha". If you look at the headband, skin and trousers, you'll see some discoloration. Also, the white paint on the feather was flaked off in one area. Paint has also flaked off in the area over the character's nose.

The next cel is also from 1937: "Don Donald".  This cel is in very poor condition, and paint is flaking off all over. There are certain galleries that specialize in repairing cels, and some of the restorations are breathtaking. They are probably VERY expensive!

The last two cels are from "Sleeping Beauty", which was released in January, 1959. Since the film took more than 6 years to make, it's possible that these cels were made between 1954 to 1958. Sleeping Beauty was the last feature film at Disney's to be traced by hand. All the features after that up to "The Rescuers Down Under" used cels which were traced on a xerox machine, so they aren't as beautiful.
If you notice the colored lines used to trace the character, you will see that they are done with a high level of artistry that had evolved at Disney's over the decades.

 These images belong to the respective copyright owners.

Creating New Characters

Here's an interesting little clip I found on YouTube. This comes from the Walter Lantz Studio, which gave us those great Woody Woodpecker cartoons. I remember seeing this clip when I was a kid, and dreaming of the day when I would be making animation.

MESSAGE TO y**ick51@comcast.net

Dear sir,
Today you sent me this wonderful e-mail:

"Dear Animan,

  I've thoroughly enjoyed your wonderfully erotic animations Twist party and Sophomore Class/ the Coach. I'd like to know how to obtain your most recent releases. And if you accept Paypal payments?

Thanks for sharing your grand artistic gift. Your videos appel in a way that most so-called gay porn doesn't.

I'll look forward to hearing from you."

I immediately answered this e-mail, and now have received "undelivered mail returned to sender".  

It's the Comcast block for spam. It has prevented me in the past from answering fan inquiries about the videos, and has even made sending the video links a virtual nightmare!

In fact, I made another post for it before.

http://animancartoons.blogspot.jp/2012/08/joeng-comcastnet.html

So Mr. y**ick51, if you could, please send your message to me from hotmail, gmail, or yahoo, because all of these do work with my server. And I'll be delighted to answer your eloquent and heartwarming e-mail! Thanks.

--Animan

Bruce Blitz Makes an Original Animation Cel

Several years ago, I had the chance to see Bruce Blitz's TV program on cartooning, and it was always great fun!  Here's a program he did showing how to make your own animation cel. It's very informative!

The History of Cel Animation

In the old way of making animation, cels were the acetate sheets onto which drawings were inked and painted, before they were photographed. Computer-produced animation has made cels obsolete and unnecessary, but it's still fun to go back and take a look at the way things used to be done!

Drawing Step by Step

Here's another background I wanted to share. Drawing these cityscapes takes a long time to do. In night scenes,  the colors are dark, and there's a lot of trial and error in getting just the right color combinations, to achieve the atmosphere I want. The animated characters have to stand out, and be easy to see.  The windows are very important too, because they suggest people out there, and there are lots and lots of windows! A cityscape at night with lighted windows makes us feel the presence of lots of people, but they are people we will never know.
Just a guess, but I predict this video will be done before the end of November. On my last two videos, "Junior College Men's Camp" and "Carmen" I predicted the finish date, and both times I finished earlier than that. So I'm hoping I'll finish early again. As you see, there's a lot of drawing going on--and I want this video to be as exciting as possible. Fortunately, Animan's friends don't mind a little waiting if the video is truly going to be good. I want it to really be worth waiting for (I always say that!)