This November, Pictoplasma returns to New York City, bringing a colorful parade of speakers, characters, films and art along with it. Focusing on the art and craft of character design, this year’s lineup of speakers spans the globe, including Geneviève Gauckler (FR), Allyson Mellberg Taylor (USA), BeatBots (JP/USA) and Jon Burgerman (UK). They cover a wide range of media and disciplines, such as illustration, graphic design, game design, fashion, art and robotics. In addition to the conference, there will be four days of events, screenings, installation and other madcap fun across the city. Get the full details on the Pictoplasma site and register early. Oh, and if you’re reading this, then we want to thank you by giving away one free pass via a random drawing. Leave your name and an e-mail address in the comments below before 12 pm EST Thursday, Oct. 6. One entry per person, please. We’ll announce the winner later this week. See you there! UPDATE: Comments are now closed. We’ll announce the winner soon! UPDATE #2: We have a winner! Congratulations to Waleed Zaiter and thanks to all who participated. Stay tuned to our Twitter and Facebook pages for more opportunities!  
Carol Browne
Our recent interview with Ash Thorp sparked an intense discussion here and elsewhere on the web that went well beyond Ash’s personal take on work/life. We thought it’d be a good idea to share some of those comments here. But first…Ash’s interview was just that: one person’s voice. We plan on sharing the perspectives of other successful professionals, many of whom have radically different approaches to the work/life issue. We’re also organizing a poll to get your voice in the mix. The Bigger PictureNo matter with whom you identify in the comments that follow, there is a profound frustration mounting in the field of motion design. It can no longer be ignored or accepted as “just the way things are.” It needs to be brought into the open and discussed in as much detail as possible. In many ways, this frustration is not new. Visual effects professionals, for example, have been grappling with labor issues for some time now. The Visual Effects Society is striving to define and solve pressing issues, most of which have grown out of the film industry. A Pimply-faced TeenagerMotion design sits at an awkward intersection of animation, graphic design and visual effects, drawing on the histories and business models of each of those disciplines. As a definable “industry,” motion design is young. Dedicated motion studios and practitioners didn’t arise in large numbers until the early 2000s. Before then, the field was dominated by post houses who sometimes had a few “motion guys” on staff. (This model still persists, but it’s much less prevalent. There are also many more “motion ladies” these days.) Motion design has its own set of problems, its own unique challenges — not the least of which are defining itself and delineating its boundaries. It’s a lot like your typical pimply faced teenager dealing with the angst of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. During this time, every decision has formative potential, shaping the future of the field in ways that won’t be obvious for years to come. The CommentsWhat follows is a sample of comments from Motionographer’s interview with Ash Thorp. We’ve tried to present the full spectrum of perspectives. rtwerk said: Cathartic to read his thoughts on balancing life and work. I’m just now making my own transition, adjusting priorities for our newborn daughter. Right on the money.
leonza said: Long hours are unfortunately a part of our industry, but voices acknowledging this will hopefully shed some new light on how we can balance our personal life and work life. I’d like to think one day my daughter will understand why dad has to pull 12- to 14-hour days. This art form is an amazing thing, but at what cost one will never know.
Federale said: It seems a bit extreme and not something to be celebrated without some healthy questioning. In an industry where personal recognition and career come first, before health and family, it’s a bit scary that no one stops to think … what does this kind of thing reveal about the industry? I keep running into companies that are willing to work their artists to the ground, driving salaries down and pushing for longer days, all because of a career-first kind of mentality.
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Back in June 2004, Reason Magazine printed a custom cover for every issue of their magazine (circulation: 40,000). Each subscriber received a magazine with a satellite photo of their neighborhood on the cover, and their home circled in red. An uncomfortable surprise to find in your mailbox, for sure. More recently, Chris Milk and Google created the interactive musical experience The Wilderness Downtown for Arcade Fire, which utilized HTML5 and Google Maps to put your house directly into the music video.  
Hybrid production company B-Reel, who also worked on The Wilderness Downtown, just finished Chaos in Your Town for State Farm Insurance. The experience uses the same “enter your address” starting point to create a customized version of The Mill’s “State of Chaos” campaign. We’ll see if giant robots shooting lasers at your house proves as successful as their last viral hit — OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” music video. The New York Times article on the Reason Magazine stunt ends with the quote, “What if you received a magazine that only had stories and ads that you were interested in and pertained to you?” Seven years later, we have RSS readers that bring us only the news we want and iPad apps like FlipBoard and Zite. Not so far off. For custom content, the inevitable next step is not having to type in your address at all. The applications would just read your computer’s IP address or your mobile device’s GPS location and auto-populate their content with the pertinent data. How hard would it be to have your cable box “know” where it is, and have the commercial streaming to your television integrate your Google Map imagery? We’re curious to hear your thoughts on how successful this technology is as a marketing tool. How about as a storytelling tool? Will it become another expected facet of production (in the same way we’re often asked to produce complementary TV commercials, internet banners and print ads)? Does anyone find it disconcerting to have their data used to market to them? 
A few days ago, we shared the portfolio of designer/illustrator Ash Thorp. Ash recently finished a year-long tour of duty at Prologue, where he crafted much of the stunning work featured on his site. In our email conversations, Ash mentioned that while working at Prologue, he commuted daily from San Diego—a round trip of several hours, depending on California’s legendary traffic. This left little time for his wife and child at home, but Ash justified the schedule by thinking of it as his “year of complete potential.” That phrase struck me. Did the year deliver? If so, now what? How do you shift down from high gear? I turned these questions to Ash, and he shared his perspective on things. I think a lot of you will relate to much of what he says, regardless of the marital status and number of dependents you claim on your tax forms. Balance — it’s so damn tricky. Especially for a person like me who is always driven and excited to push myself into change and unfamiliar territory just for the growth and the lesson. That’s living life to me.
Read on → We posted a preview of Newton back in May. The time has arrived — you can head over to Motion Boutique and try or buy the new stand alone app. I haven’t been this excited since Particular 2.0 and seeing the potential that plug-in had to offer! 
In Tilburg, a small town in the south of The Netherlands, a wonderfull festival is hidden. Playgrounds Audiovisual Arts Festival is a festival for innovative and creative digital art. During the two-day festival Playgrounds presents an impression of the latest developments in technology as well as creativity. The festival programme offers an inspiring mix of inventive films, documentaries, animation, graphic design, artist talks, character design and performances.
The line up so far doesn’t fail to impress: Edouard Salier, Mate Steinforth, Alex Trochut, Physalia, Encyclopedia Pictura, Ben & Julia, David Wilson, Neil Huxley, Heyheyhey, Matt Lambert, Studio Takt, PIPS:lab and more to come… It’s a real by-the-astist-for-the-artist festival. People come, not only to learn and see the talks, but also to have a good time in a creative environment. Drink some beers, relax and talk with the artists. Onesize, Tokyo Plastic, Matt Lambert, Dvein, Post Panic and Pleix are more or less house-guests and if they’re not too busy they will try to come. The festival will take place on 6 and 7 october in Pop podium 013 in Tilburg. So If you’re in the Netherlands or you would like to go there, be sure to visit! Also there’s a small kick-off on 5 october at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. for more info go to www.playgroundsfestival.nl 
Hi Motionographers! We’re at SIGGRAPH 2011, here in beautiful Vancouver. SIGGRAPH is the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual conference on computer graphics, where you can find the most recent academic research and commercial software/hardware developments for computer graphics and interactive technology. This year, upwards of 20,000 artists, research scientists, gaming developers, engineers, filmmakers, and academics have descended on the conference. Check out our first dispatch on the Technical Papers Fast Forward event here. More Motionographer SIGGRAPH posts to come, including 3D scanning and printing as it relates to motion graphics, all about lenticular displays and building glasses-free 3D displays, and, of course, highlights from the Computer Animation Festival.  Photo by Kecko
Recently, we posted a review of Frank, an online tool that facilities the holding and booking of freelance talent. In the comments, though, many readers diverged from talking about the software and engaged in a spirited discussion about the hold system in general. (What’s the hold system? Read this.) Several readers suggested that we highlight some of the arguments around the hold system, so that’s exactly what we’re doing here. Following are snippets from the original comment thread.
Defining the Problem(s)
sistarr: I go along with the hold system begrudgingly, but I really despise it, especially when post-houses abuse it by putting five to 10 people on hold just for the sake of having them available. Also, I just don’t like the idea that I need to get “permission” from someone else to take a job. Book me or don’t book me or pay me a fee for the inconvenience of being on hold.
Read on → Editor’s note: Like all our reviews, this is one is uncompensated and written purely out of curiosity about a new service that might be useful to some of our readers. As a freelancer, there are two major hurdles to getting booked: 1) being sought after by employers, and 2) actually getting booked. Most freelancers focus the majority of their energy on the first task—as they should—leaving the second task to producers. But the system of holds and the back-and-forth communication required to get a successful booking sometimes means things fall through the cracks. If you don’t believe me, take a peek at the typical producer’s calendar. Total. Nightmare. To alleviate some of that confusion for both freelancers and producers, the folks at Haus created Frank. It was made specifically for booking freelancers in the motion design context, but it’s being used by more and more folks for other things (like babysitters and substitute teachers). Read on →
Editor’s note: The following interview and review are by guest contributor Cheryl Yau, a 2012 MFA candidate in SVA’s Design Criticism program. Catch the next screening tomorrow, June 1st at the SVA Theater.
New York in Motion is an ambitious attempt to facilitate a rich conversation within the industry of motion design. Bringing together the most prominent players in the field, the film explores the power and inspirations behind the medium. The hour-long documentary is a bricolage combining interviews, shorts and stills in a curated series of hand-held footage and time-lapse photography. I had the chance to speak to the director, Graham Elliott, about his film-making process. — What motivated you to make this film? I’ve been working in Motion Graphics for many years and am also teaching it at the School of Visual Arts. It struck me that even though it’s all around us, my students did not really know what Motion Graphics actually was. And thinking about it, I realized that I was somewhat hard pressed for a definite answer myself. There have been so many changes and developments in the last 15 years and you can point to things and say, yes, this is part of it and this and this, but where does it all come together? Motion Graphics is definitely the next big thing in the creative arts, and it’s already happening big time, but what really is it? I was interested to find out what the people who are actually creating the amazing stuff around us have to say and had the idea of making a kind of short film/documentary. I ran the idea by Richard Wilde, dean of the SVA Graphic Design & Advertising department that also heads an ever-growing Motion-Graphics division. Richard and SVA president David Rhodes immediately shared my excitement and through their support we got the film on the way.
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