Dec 30, 2025
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Cohen’s Cartoon Cacaphony
by Karl Cohen
The staff at the new Atomic Fiction animation house have worked on most major CGI efforts in the last 20 hears: shown here "Jurassic Park." photo courtesy:Atomic Fiction Former ImageMovers Form Atomic Fiction
After Disney closed Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital in Marin last summer, its employees were shocked by the suddenness and fearful of the Great Recession (see CS article). But recently, three former employees have regrouped and created Atomic Fiction in the animation Mecca of Emeryville. They are Kevin Baillie, the company's new president and VFX supervisor, creative director Ryan Tudhope (and also a VFX supervisor) and Jenn Emberly, a performance capture and animation supervisor.
The company has nine employees including another alum, Doug Chang, who was the production designer at ImageMovers. He is developing "Robota", an independent film that he will write and direct. Like Wildbrain that was formed by former employees of Colossal when it was closing, Atomic Fiction is offering a full range of services. Their first work will be seen in Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It" with Jennifer Aniston scheduled for release this year.
In a cartoon trope dating back to Betty Boop, cartoonist Berkeley Brethed is rendered by his character Opus. photo courtesy: B. Brethed Bloom County's Berkeley Brethed at Cartoon Art Museum
A retrospective exhibition at the Cartoon Museum, on Mission in San Francisco, will cover the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Berkeley Brethed from his beloved comic strip "Bloom County" to the upcoming Disney film "Mars Needs Moms," which is based on his children's book of the same name. The exhibit runs from February 5 to June 19.
"Mars Needs Moms," the motion capture feature produced by Robert Zemeckis at his ImageMovers Digital studio in Novato, opens March 11.
Brethed will be at the museum for a reception on April Fools Day. He is coming to SF in connection with the release of the 4th volume of "Bloom County: The Complete Library" at WonderCon, one of the nation's largest comic book and pop culture conventions. Each volume features the many quirky citizens of Bloom County including Opus, Bill the Cat, and Milo Bloom. The Cartoon Art Museum will be selling a limited edition catalog to accompany the exhibition.
Brethed's first regularly published strip, "Academia Waltz," appeared in the "Daily Texan" in 1978. The strip attracted notice from the editors of the "Washington Post" who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, "Bloom County" made its debut and featured some of the characters from "Academia Waltz," including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John.
In 1987 "Bloom County" earned Berkeley the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until he retired the daily strip in 1989, stating, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators."
Brethed replaced the strip with the surreal Sunday-only "Outland" in 1989, which featured some of "Bloom County" characters, including Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat. He ended "Outland" in 1995. Eight years later, Berkeley began producing the comic strip, "Opus," a Sunday-only strip that featured Opus the Penguin only. He colors the cartoon himself with Adobe Photoshop.
Got Music?
If you need music for a short, feature film, ad, or video game think of Nik Phelps. He has created music for Nina Paley and dozens of other animators around the world. No project is too small or too large. Contact .
Surprise, Surprise: Toy Story 3 Wins Gold
As expected, "Toy Story 3" is winning oodles of honors, including the Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, the Teen Choice Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. At the People's Choice Awards, "TS3" took the Favorite Family Movie Award. Indeed, it even made Quentin Tarantino list of the best films of 2010—with a bullet at number one—while the great "Tino" listed Disney's "Tangled" as only five—a real romantic. For a more realistic rating, the Rotten Tomatoes gave "TS3" the Wide Release Golden Tomato award, called it the Best Reviewed Movie of 2010, where it received a 99% rating. (On the other hand, it should be noted Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues" got a perfect 100% rating.)
An image by Vince Collins from his movie 'Canned Heat.' photo courtesy: V. Collins Collins Creates
Vince Collins has a new work on YouTube and a Facebook page focused on his art. Under the "Whole S Tab" is an unusual biographical statement along with several unusual images. Click on the movies tab and see some of his recent work including his new film "Canned Heat." Some of his earlier works are on YouTube include "Fantasy," "Euphoria" and "Malice in Wonderland." Check it out! Posted on Jan 18, 2011 - 09:34 AM
by Karl Cohen
The staff at the new Atomic Fiction animation house have worked on most major CGI efforts in the last 20 hears: shown here "Jurassic Park." photo courtesy:Atomic Fiction After Disney closed Robert Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital in Marin last summer, its employees were shocked by the suddenness and fearful of the Great Recession (see CS article). But recently, three former employees have regrouped and created Atomic Fiction in the animation Mecca of Emeryville. They are Kevin Baillie, the company's new president and VFX supervisor, creative director Ryan Tudhope (and also a VFX supervisor) and Jenn Emberly, a performance capture and animation supervisor.
The company has nine employees including another alum, Doug Chang, who was the production designer at ImageMovers. He is developing "Robota", an independent film that he will write and direct. Like Wildbrain that was formed by former employees of Colossal when it was closing, Atomic Fiction is offering a full range of services. Their first work will be seen in Adam Sandler's romantic comedy "Just Go With It" with Jennifer Aniston scheduled for release this year.
In a cartoon trope dating back to Betty Boop, cartoonist Berkeley Brethed is rendered by his character Opus. photo courtesy: B. Brethed A retrospective exhibition at the Cartoon Museum, on Mission in San Francisco, will cover the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Berkeley Brethed from his beloved comic strip "Bloom County" to the upcoming Disney film "Mars Needs Moms," which is based on his children's book of the same name. The exhibit runs from February 5 to June 19.
"Mars Needs Moms," the motion capture feature produced by Robert Zemeckis at his ImageMovers Digital studio in Novato, opens March 11.
Brethed will be at the museum for a reception on April Fools Day. He is coming to SF in connection with the release of the 4th volume of "Bloom County: The Complete Library" at WonderCon, one of the nation's largest comic book and pop culture conventions. Each volume features the many quirky citizens of Bloom County including Opus, Bill the Cat, and Milo Bloom. The Cartoon Art Museum will be selling a limited edition catalog to accompany the exhibition.
Brethed's first regularly published strip, "Academia Waltz," appeared in the "Daily Texan" in 1978. The strip attracted notice from the editors of the "Washington Post" who recruited him to do a nationally syndicated strip. On December 8, 1980, "Bloom County" made its debut and featured some of the characters from "Academia Waltz," including former frat-boy Steve Dallas and the paraplegic Vietnam War veteran Cutter John.
In 1987 "Bloom County" earned Berkeley the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. The strip eventually appeared in over 1,200 newspapers around the world until he retired the daily strip in 1989, stating, "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators."
Brethed replaced the strip with the surreal Sunday-only "Outland" in 1989, which featured some of "Bloom County" characters, including Opus the Penguin and Bill the Cat. He ended "Outland" in 1995. Eight years later, Berkeley began producing the comic strip, "Opus," a Sunday-only strip that featured Opus the Penguin only. He colors the cartoon himself with Adobe Photoshop.
Got Music?
If you need music for a short, feature film, ad, or video game think of Nik Phelps. He has created music for Nina Paley and dozens of other animators around the world. No project is too small or too large. Contact .
Surprise, Surprise: Toy Story 3 Wins Gold
As expected, "Toy Story 3" is winning oodles of honors, including the Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, the Teen Choice Awards and the Critics Choice Awards. At the People's Choice Awards, "TS3" took the Favorite Family Movie Award. Indeed, it even made Quentin Tarantino list of the best films of 2010—with a bullet at number one—while the great "Tino" listed Disney's "Tangled" as only five—a real romantic. For a more realistic rating, the Rotten Tomatoes gave "TS3" the Wide Release Golden Tomato award, called it the Best Reviewed Movie of 2010, where it received a 99% rating. (On the other hand, it should be noted Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues" got a perfect 100% rating.)
An image by Vince Collins from his movie 'Canned Heat.' photo courtesy: V. Collins Vince Collins has a new work on YouTube and a Facebook page focused on his art. Under the "Whole S Tab" is an unusual biographical statement along with several unusual images. Click on the movies tab and see some of his recent work including his new film "Canned Heat." Some of his earlier works are on YouTube include "Fantasy," "Euphoria" and "Malice in Wonderland." Check it out! Posted on Jan 18, 2011 - 09:34 AM
