Friday, January 9, 2009
14
Portland Shorts
Written by Zach in Art Film News

No they aren’t apparel items for the store.  Cory, Justin, and I are all creating small animations (15-30 seconds) that you’ll be able to see on our website in the next few months.  We’re also learning what requests are reasonable to make of Danny McKnight, the After Effects Genie [Side note: if you happen to see Danny, don't ask him what he thinks of Justin Gerard.  Also, it's probably best not to look Danny directly in the eye.  He could interpret it as a sign of aggression].

Anyway, we’re learning a bunch in the process, and hopefully the things will add some razzle-dazzle to the site.

Here’s a piece from Justin’s.  He’s doing a lot of segmented drawings so Danny can piece them together in After Effects.

justinsanimation1

 

Here’s a screen shot from Cory’s computer.  He’s posted a little about his progress on his blog.  I think he’s trying out a puppet style type animation with some help from his good buddy, Mr. Photoshop.

corysanimationlores

This is mine.  I’m trying for a more traditional feel and to be frank it’s driving me nuts.  Also, I may have trouble getting people to understand that you’re looking at a scarecrow and not an oddly drawn man.  If you couldn’t tell that it was a scarecrow leave me a comment.  If you could tell straight away, maybe you could say that as well.  

scarecrowbackgroundzach

scarecrow

Thursday, January 8, 2009
3
Farewell Mr. Mantooth
Written by Matt in News

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Matt Mantooth, he was our lead designer for the past two years. Just about everything in our portfolio that isn’t drawn, painted, or animated was designed by him. One of the kindest and most soft spoken people I’ve ever met, and he is a phenomenal designer. Alas, he is moving on to bigger and better things. 

 He’s going to work for Oobe, a local apparel design company here in Greenville, SC. I have a hunch that Matt is going to rock the custom apparel world in the not-so-distant future. 

 So with that, we wish Matt a kind farewell, although we will forever be kindred spirits. I hope he still joins us at Barley’s for lunch every week…and I also hope his car breaks down on his morning commute halfway between Anderson and Greenville during a hail storm. 

 Matt, this video sums up our feelings for you.

Monday, January 5, 2009
0
NoiseTrade + Steven Delopoulos + Portland Studios
Written by Matt in News Podcasts

 
icon for podpress  Portland Studios NoiseTrade Development Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A couple weeks ago Mashable awarded NoiseTrade.com with the prestegious “People’s Choice Web Award” for the music category (even beating out Pandora and last.fm)! Our very own Portland Studios Interactive team developed NoiseTrade along with Derek Webb and his team, so we’ve put together a quick interview with Mark Johnson & Paul Johnson of our interactive team to help explain what NoiseTrade is and why/how the heck Portland Studios developed it (isn’t Portland Studios an illustration/animation company)?

We haven’t done many podcasts, and I can’t say that we’ll keep doing them, but it’s fun experimenting. Let us know what you think.

The music leading into the podcast is by Steven Delopoulos. Steve is a good friend of ours, and we’ve done several projects with him. Here’s his NoiseTrade widget below (please do download it, it’s really good stuff):

… and we can’t post something about Steven without including the animated music video we did a few years ago. Cory Godbey (assisted by Chris Koelle) animated this in Photoshop by hand.

Friday, January 2, 2009
2
Favorite Posts of 2008
Written by Matt in News

Happy New Year everyone! Recently, Mashable.com put out a request for bloggers to submit their favorite posts of 2008, so I asked Zach to pick out a few highlights. We ended up submitting the Civilization & Tea post, but I think all of these are worth a second look. For those of you new to the Portland Blog, this is a great way to catch up.

I think this one encapsulates what we strive for.  I like the unity of theme: civilization, art, and tea. Let Them Drink Art

Tea Painting by Cory Godbey

 

From Zach:

I liked this one that dealt with the national debt.  One guy actually commented, “What does this have to do with Portland Studios?”  It’s a good question, but I still like the post. The Answer is Blowing in the Wind.

I like this next one because it’s a shameless piece of character assassination.  As a Side note, Justin was not amused.  Justin’s Strange Name Change. 

I like this next one because so many people contributed, and because cowboys are fun. Cowboy It Up. 

The next one I liked because it contains a quote from Jim Perrin, who is a spectacular writer.  I also like the topic. Bannf

I don’t know if the next one should be included, but I just adore the picture of the kid with the in-your-face apathy. Half Heartedness and Self Preservation. 

The next one is funny to me, because I was clearly grasping for something to write about.  Knowing nothing about health, I chose to write something that has nothing to do with Portland Studios, and something that is entirely outside my scope of knowledge.  I’m speaking of course about Sugar. Post on Sugar.

The next one qualifies as the most inconsiderately long blog post in the english language.  I still like it. Beauty is the New Ugly. 

Friday, December 19, 2008
1
Merry Christmas, From Portland Studios
Written by Matt in Art News

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Every now and again, our Interactive Team gets an urge to make a flash game. This time around, they decided to thwart Christmas with their magical code-writing abilities. I hope you enjoy it! 

Play the Game here!

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