2006 FATKAT FLASH OLYMPICS NIGHT

Finally!! After a long wait, we get to see who won this damn contest! OooOH the suspence! OoooOH! the prizes!

Thanks to all for their patience, we had some hurdles to overcome in getting this all together. Special thanks to every kat who entered and especially the judges; Aaron Simpson of Cold Hard Flash, Rita Street of Radar Cartoons, Tony Grillo of Flinch Studio, Olaf Pytlik of Dacapo Productions and of course our very own Big Show - Andrew Blodgett for filling in.

Extra Special thanks go out to Gwen Mitchell, who did a great job at producing the contest and keeping on people's asses for their submissions. Next year promises to be even better as Aaron Simpson has offered to help out in the planning as well. AWESOME!

Now to the winners!
To them go new video ipods, Fatkat jackets and a free trip to the 2006 Ottawa International Animation Festival!

This year was filled with surprise twists, a dead tie in the pitch department!

For Best Animated Series Pitch:
Keith Dury, for "Uncommon Ground".


"What has 2 thumbs and looks amazing in a new varsity Fatkat Jacket?"

This guy :o)

For Best Animated Series Pitch:
Dan Helle, for "Kyle Heckler in Hell".

In another unexpected surprise, our powerful femme took home the first place finish in not only the best animated spot, but also the best animated short.

For Best Animated Spot (Fatkat Commercial):
Melanie Albert, for "Heaven".

For Best Animated Short:
Melanie Albert, for "The Moonchild)

Other winners include:

Andy Coyle
Second place in the short division for
"Bad Kitty and the Invasion of the Star Flies".

Jared MacPhee
Second place in the spot division for
"Brand".

Congratulations to all you kats, nice job! Now enjoy pictures of you guys getting loaded!

Tracy and her hubby arrive!


Heather stares down Milky... with good reason too.


Jon and Michaud celebrate a win at Fatkat Trivia!


The crowd gets restless...


Geremy looking great in his sportsjacket.

A party crasher arrives...



Oh Andrew, the patience you have...

Look how proud Elder is of getting a pic with this guy, man it's like he just won a car. HAHA!

Dougie after blowing $678.oo on the VLT machines.

Big Show getting his nosh on.

The Terrible Trio scheming up something dastardly.

Patrick starts to tie one on.

The folks start to get lubed up.


Geremy going over his plan to have everyone in a thong by night's end. It almost happened too.

Thanks to everyone who helped me make this a great event, Dallas Daigle, Liz Hogan, Nikki, Andrew, my fabulous producers, the great folks at Easy Home and of course Dooly's for use of their equipment and space.

OH!

SUPER BIG THANKS TO TONY & STEPHEN GRILLO OF FLINCH STUDIO FOR THE AWESOME KEG O' BEER!!! - Be sure to thank them next time you see them. Or Hell, write up an email right now and confess your love. DO IT! :o) Get to the Choppah!

See you next year!

Gene.

PS: Check out this video of our very own Patrick Proulx hitting kareoke like it ain't no thang!

HAPPY TREE FRIENDS ON ITUNES!

Wow check out From Hero To Eternity on ITUNES! - episode 3 of 39 new shows we designed and animated for Mondo Media!

BOOooO! No Fatkat Credit, BOOoo! :o)

Awesome stuff!

Gene.

THE GREAT FATKAT BLOGGER SEARCH!

After a year and a half of heading up this blog, I believe I may be getting a bit stale, I think it's time for some new blood to contribute to the Fatkat Blog. I'm not looking for a replacement, just some help to keep it fresh yo!

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. Someone who is familiar with Blogspot, uses it alot and is willing to update on an almost daily basis.
2. Someone who's willing to put in the time to come up with some Blog worthy material. Planning and attending events, making them unique enought to post about.
   
3. Someone who has access to a digital camera that shoots decent video (yeah, you can use mine I guess) and knows photoshop well enough.
4. Someone with sharper wit or a sillier sense of humour then I do.
5. Someone who works at Fatkat.

Interested? - Tell me why you're that person in the comments below or an email to info@fatkatanimation.com

Peace in the middle yeast,

Gene.

Deadline for the search is September 1st!

A SKINNY ON A FATKAT - ANDREW EMBURY

Ok, so I know it's been a few months since I got to do this. Real sorry, but I'm getting back on the ball now that I have a bit more time to play with and I've now gotten some awesome producers to take over production. Much better then the hack that was there before....me!

This week's Skinny on a Fatkat is on our very own Andrew Embury aka "Beans".

Beans has been here at Fatkat since early 2005. He's held most positions, usually cranking on 3D work or 2.5 D (after effects jobs). He's done some real awesome work while here at Fatkat and is about to do some more!

Recently he's been tapped to do some animation work on the fourth season of Odd Job Jack for Smiley Guy Studios. He's doing a bang up job from what I hear from Andy Coyle too. Kudos bugger!

Here's a conversation I had with Beans a few months ago.

Gene:
When is your birthday?

Beans:
December 9^th, a ways out there

Gene:
Why do they call you Beans?

Beans:
When I first started as an intern here at Fatkat I used to say cool beans a lot, and then gene got pissed and said shut up beans

Gene:
yeah I remember that.

Gene:
now shut up and answer my next question

Gene:
What do you like least about your job?

Beans:
The hours of the day, too little

Gene:
hehe I hear you dude.

Gene:
What do you like the most about your job?

Beans:
Animating, I always dreamed of becoming an animator, always growing up to disney classics and warner bros. And since I wasn't trained traditionally as an animator I never thought I would have the opportunity, but here I do

Gene:
Right on dude, from what I see you've been doing real well too.

Beans:
It's my dream and passion to be the best, and I won't settle for anything less

Gene:
shut up beans.

Gene:
:) you cheezy bugger.

Gene:
Blue or Red?

Beans:
Red

Gene:
5 or 4?

Beans:
How about 42?

Gene:
do you pee the bed?

Beans:
Nope, adult diapers for me baby!

Gene:
what do you think about the new tool album?

Beans:
I think it's their best as a band

Gene:
me too

Gene:
ok dude, thanks for your time. Send me a few images of your work would ya? 4-5 of yoru best shit.

Beans:
That'll be really hard

Beans:
But I'll try my best

Gene:
oh ok.. whatever you got. :) screen cap's from projects whatever...it's all good.

Beans:
Awesome, thanks man

Beans:
As I know what you're up to...

Gene:
hehe

Gene:
eat it

And here are those screen caps man, great stuff! - We look forward for a few more years with you yet my friend and some awesome animation on upcoming TV Series!

Some great 3D stuff was done for this above spot for the Nova Scotia Liquour Commission.

Beans got his first big break in character animation on this Pepsi commercial for Flinch Studios.

Again, Beans hammered out some great looking 3D work on the above spot for the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

This was the model of the mascot he did for the Columbus Blue Jackets,
Beans also did all the post and 3D work on spots and show openers for Eastlink Sports!

Great job Beans, keep rocking it Buddy!

Gene.

FATKAT & AMBERWOOD TEAM UP

Amberwood Animation and Fatkat Animation team up on this Pre-school Demo. Debra the Zebra is a new project from Amberwood Animation out of Ottawa Ontario, Canada.

This series follows the adventures of a 6 year old Zebra who's stripes go horizontally instead of vertically.

Produced here at Fatkat Animation Studios earlier this summer.

Cool stuff! Go Amberwood!

FROM THE OFFICE OF KEITH EVANS

Buddy Bolton's Lost Wildlife Pictures.


Theses are just weird and creepy, thanks to Keith Evans.

Look at the scaling on buddy's neck! - AH!

Gene.

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S... ...ALMOST OVER!

Wow, it seems we just started this series and now it's almost over!

What a great production so far, loads of talent working on these shows, from the fabulous folks at byte interactive to the amazing guys over at Dacapo Productions. This series is so much fun to work on too, serious laughs in there. I'm so proud to be a part of it.

With just one episode to go I hope the hits don't stop, it seems to be ripping up the charts on Google Trends.

Big thanks go out to Jimmy Richards and the commercial crew here at Fatkat for cranking on these episodes!! - Big thanks out there to Jay Surridge & Dave Rigley for being there when I needed them too!

Go check them out!!
Please let me know what you think! Epecially if you have suggestions on how to make them better! :o)

~g.

THE TALE OF HOW

Awesome work by the folks at www.theblackheartgang.com

~g.

BUDDY BOLTON'S "TASTE THE RAINBOW"

A beautiful double rainbow, how nice! - I wish I knew more about them, if you can see it from the other side, how they're made...

...well that answers the last question...

next question, what do rainbows smell like?

MUHAH!

Thanks for the pictures Buddy.

~g.

FATASTIKO WEEK A GO GO| PT.4 - PAINTBALL 2

Let's go paintball'n again! On the way, Buddy and the gang were driving 186 mph and doing heroin when the Bathurst Police pulled him over.

They shared their snort with the cop and they got off easy with just a warning.



Perhaps it was, when the cop peered in he couldn't see Buddy as he had his camo-hat on.


Chris gets suited up.

Nice, we'll never see you in that!

Keith gets suited up too!
After the battle, Jon showing off his wounds.

Quite possibly the cheesiest smile ever caught on film.

Then it happened, yup after all the speeding I do, I finally got nailed. Seems Karma caught a wiff of me laughing at Buddy getting pulled over and paid me back. I knew it was coming, but did nothing about it. $288.00 fine for speeding and some extra cash for not having my license within arms reach. (It was in the trunk, I didn't know about that!). The nice constable let me off with a warning thank geebus.

Next time I'll leave more then 30 minutes to get home from Bathurst. :o)

~g.

FATASTIKO WEEK A GO GO| PT.3 - FAT BOAT

Today we took the whole crew at Fatkat plus our guests, Keith, Buddy and Chris from Big Hug Productions out for a tour of the Miramichi River and of Beaubear's Island!



Nice hat Nikki!







Andy's heart will go on.

Tracey is all decked out...





A picnic at Beaubear's Island!









An American Bald Eagle's Nest!






Buddy gets his birthday cake!


Beans pulls off the sasquatch video pose...

...and then blows apart his mango status.




Milky gets his neck caught in some plastic from a 6 pack.

Elder's girlfriend Eliza came up from F-town for the trip.