Academy Reveals 21 Contenders for 2014 Sci-Tech Oscars

Last Friday the Scientific and Technical Awards Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a list of 21 scientific and technical achievements in 16 different areas, which have been selected for further awards consideration.

House Special Launches in Portland

A new commercial studio, House Special, launched in Portland, Oregon last week. The company was started by Lourri Hammack, Kirk Kelly and Al Cubillas, who ran Laika’s former commercial division Laika/house.

Venice Film Festival Selects ‘Boxtrolls’ And Two Animated Shorts

The Venice Film Festival, which is the world’s oldest film festival, announced the line-up today for their 71st edition. The festival is known for not giving much consideration to animated cinema, but they always throw in a few animated films.

How Will Vinton Lost His Studio to a Rapper Named Chilly Tee

Laika does amazing work as an animation studio, no doubt about it, but the studio’s history is somewhat less admirable. The company was built on top of Will Vinton’s eponymous Portland studio in a shrewd corporate takeover by multi-billionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight. After Knight took control of the company in 2002, he placed a failed rapper named Chilly Tee with slight experience in animation, who also happened to be his son Travis Knight, in charge of the entire company.

This Bear Animation Is Not Computer Animated

This short animation of a seemingly CG bear climbing stairs is garnering a lot of attention on the Internet because it’s actually a CG bear printed as 3-D models and then animated in stop motion.

Stef Choi

Artist of the Day: Stef Choi

Stef Choi is an artist living in Portland, Oregon. She creates illustrations, videos and other multimedia projects as part of her collaborative enterprise Belly & Bones that she runs with Tony Candelaria.

“ParaNorman” talkback

From coast to coast, the reviews are coming in and its looking good! Betsy Sharkey in The Los Angeles Times says ParaNorman is “the most …

“ParaNorman” Smears

Here’s something I’ve never seen before: sculpted smear models. Over the past decade, 3-D printers have transformed the art of stop …

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