Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc- Animation by American Capitalists

LIKE us on Facebook!

2012-02-01T13:31:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Animation has registered to participate in Facebook's

It's only been 2 days and we've already gotten a bunch of new followers!! You're not one of them? Help us out by LIKING us up on our facebook page!!:

And while you're at it, check out this killer new ad we just created:

Thanks for your support, everyone!

We Took Our Talents to South Beach

2012-01-27T14:03:00.001-08:00

Powerhouse Animation traveled to Miami Beach this past week to attend our first ever NATPE convention. In case you were wondering, that stands for: National Association of Television Program Executives.

We spent the week talking with important TV execs and making sweet deals (demonstrated here):

The convention was held at Miami's beautiful Fontainebleau Hotel.

Surrounded by beautiful beaches and 80 degree weather in January!

Powerhouse had our very own booth, stocked, as always, with wonderfully yellow swag such as our famous branded notepads and coffee mugs.

We were surrounded by a bunch of interesting fellow exhibitors:

We met some legendary animators and mentors such as the infamous Mark Simon.

And the immortal, err, taxidermied, Trigger and Bullet from The Roy Rogers Show!

Although the convention kept us pretty busy we did get some time to explore some of what South Beach has to offer, including some incredible and authentic restaurants on Espanola Way.

On the last day, Brad and Jason discovered that they are, in fact, Twin of Brothers... (whatever that means)

Before we left, we took to the beach one last time to leave our mark on Miami with a Powerhouse sandcastle!

Thanks to everyone who made this trip a success! We had a blast and met some great people! Viva Miami!

And, last but not least, I leave you with a photo of french fries and beer.

Cindy, Our Triumphant Warrior!

2012-01-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our lovely coworker, Cindy, successfully came out of surgery! Her operation was in the morning and she was home by 1pm the same day. Yes, she is that badass. We all love her very much, and to show our appreciation we brought her a cake and card, (card art courtesy of Frank Gabriel). We snapped a few pictures of the offerings, and included one extra of the fabulous quilt she also owns.

That's our girl.

Penny Arcade cel!

2012-01-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Animation got some really cool wall art from the fine folks at Penny Arcade last week!!!!

You too can be as happy as our art directors, Sam Deats and Megan Kluck, by getting your own Penny Arcade schwag here: http://store.penny-arcade.com/products/lookouts-art-cel

We encourage you to do so. That is all.

Risk: Factions is LIVE on Facebook!

2012-01-11T08:46:00.001-08:00

Powerhouse Animation has been busily working on a facebook version of the popular XBox Live game Risk: Factions for quite some time now and it has finally launched!!

We have been partnering with the good folks at Electronic Arts for several years now, starting with the cinematics we created for the console version which released back in 2010. Since then we have been creating piles of hilariously irreverent assets for the facebook game which includes factions of humans, cats, robots, zombies, and of course, mermaids on segways (what else?)

We have really loved working on this project and can't wait to continue along the Risk: Factions journey with the incredible team at EA!

If you like the game, check out our panel at SXSW Interactive on March 11th-- Taking a RISK: From Board Game to Facebook featuring some familiar Powerhouse faces and EA's own Spencer Brooks!

Check out the brand new trailer Powerhouse created below or on Gametrailers, and hit up the Risk: Factions page on facebook to LIKE the game or play it for yourself...

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Risk: Factions - Exclusive Launch Trailer HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Powerhouse Animation and Darksiders II!

2012-01-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

The crew at Powerhouse Animation is VERY excited to officially announce our involvement with the much anticipated DARKSIDERS II!

Powerhouse has been working with our Austin neighbors over at Vigil Games on some cinematics for the upcoming game, and while we can't say too much about it just yet we are extremely excited and think they won't disappoint.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Joe Madureira and the gang over at Vigil! They are such an incredibly talented group, and it is a blast to get the opportunity to partner with a truly artist-driven studio. Check out the teaser trailers below and stay tuned for more news about Darksiders II in the coming months!

We hope this is the beginning of a long partnership with the team at Vigil. Congratulations to all of them on some really great work!

Firetrucks!!

2012-01-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

The gang here at Powerhouse just finished up another project for one of our favorite long-time clients, the National Fire Protection Association! After several collaborations on flash games and e-cards, this time we got the opportunity to re-design an entire website for them.

The new site allows kids to explore the Firehouse with NFPA's mascot, Sparky the Fire Dog! While you're there you can learn all about firetrucks with our interactive activities and also enjoy the three custom mini games we created: Put Out the Fire, Follow the Sounds, and Color A Truck! Check out some screenshots from the site below and visit the page on Sparky.org to try it for yourself!

Thanks to the team at the NFPA for giving us the chance to work with them again!

VALOR!

2011-12-27T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Powerhouse Animation team just finished up a really fun project for mobile game company Playmesh. Powerhouse got the opportunity to create the opening cinematic for their new iPhone/iPad game VALOR!

The piece was a great design challenge for us in a variety of ways. First off, since the game is played on mobile devices, we had to compose eveything to work in a vertical format instead of the traditional horizonal composition. It also gave our motion graphics team an outlet to explore some new puppeting techniques that they had been itching to try out.

Check out the video below, or download the game for free at the Apple App Store!

More Holiday Party Photos!

2011-12-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Holiday Party!

2011-12-22T07:55:00.000-08:00

We've really been getting into the holiday spirit over here at Powerhouse Animation...

Last weekend we had our annual office Holiday Party at Cannoli Joe's! Complete with delicious Italian buffet, Secret Santa gift exchange, and the infamous Powerhouse jacket presentation, this party was "off the hook" as the kids are saying.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Powerhouse Animation!!

Blue Moon Art Contest

2011-12-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

Local radio station 101x (101.5FM) is in search of talented Austin artists and Powerhouse Animation's very own Chris Beaver is answering the call!

101x is holding a contest called the Blue Moon Art Project in which folks enter Blue Moon-themed paintings for the opportunity to win $1000! Chris Beaver happened to be in the right place at the right time, and being as brave as he is he decided to throw his hat in the ring. Here is Chris' submission... which came in THIRD at the initial viewing.

Please visit the project site to vote for Chris' piece (it's #9 on the list)!! http://www.101x.com/bluemoon/

Darksiders II

2011-12-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

Our good friends and fellow Austinites at Vigil Games just released a teaser trailer for their upcoming Darksiders II and we think it is really excellent! I don't know about you, but the gang here at Powerhouse is really excited to see how this one turns out and we can't wait to get our hands on it in 2012. Check out their trailer and keep up with Vigil for the latest news on Darksiders II!

Powerhouse triples its candy consumption

2011-12-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

One of our end-of-the-year acquisitions was a sweet 3-headed gumball/candy machine. Just so we feel a little better about all the extra candy we will be eating, we are donating all the money it makes to Artists Against Cancer. Maybe we should also contribute to the Diabetes Foundation...

2011-11-28T13:30:00.001-08:00

Brad Graeber, one of the founders of Powerhouse, was interviewed by Animation Careers. There are many interviews on the site by many folks at various animation studios:

http://www.animationcareerreview.com/articles/brad-graeber-co-founder-powerhouse-animation-believes-staff-pivotal-their-success

Wizard World Austin!

2011-11-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Austin's very own version of Comic Con was in town last weekend, and the gang from Powerhouse was able to make an appearance! Several of our animators made their way over to Wizard World to enjoy the festivities and represent the animation studio.

Stephanie and Willis reppin' Powerhouse at our booth

Sam Lotfi talking to a fan in Artists Alley

Our very own Chris Beaver was there to showcase his talents as well

Aaron Romo taught a group of future animators on Sunday! Here he is demonstrating Mickey Mouse...

There were some celebrities attending the class. For instance there was a tiny Princess Leia...

and a tiny (but very fierce) Bat...something...?

Thanks to everyone at Powerhouse that made it out to the event! It was a blast!

CTN Animation Expo

2011-11-22T09:52:00.000-08:00

Brad and Rachel were in Burbank this weekend representing Powerhouse Animation at the CTN Animation Expo!

Our first stop upon arrival in California was to visit fellow 2d animation studio, Titmouse, Inc! (they make cartoons).

One of my friends and ex-coworkers from Borders in Tucson, Nico Colaleo, is now an animator there! He was nice enough to show us around the studio. Thanks, Nico! If you aren't familiar with his work, check it out... he's amazing!

Brad and I posing with the rock 'n roll Bigfoot at Titmouse

We got our booth set up on the CTN Expo floor and are ready to talk toons for the next 3 days!

There were tons of amazing artists in attendance at the convention, including long time friend of the studio (and animation legend), Stephen Silver. Stephen let us follow him around for much of the weekend while we were in awe of his artistic genius.

Here I am with the very handsome and talented Ryan Benjamin, another incredible artist. Ryan also worked as a Powerhouse freelancer on our SOE DC Universe Online motion comics!

The incredible Kris Pearn talks to adoring fans and spreads his Canadian charm at his booth. Kris was nice enough to make a visit to Powerhouse back in June for a storyboarding workshop and we are still amazed by his talent and generosity.

Ryan Benjamin promoting his latest edition of Pancratia

Rod Guen was there too!

We also got the chance to meet the very talented Mike Yamada and his beautiful (and equally talented) wife Victoria Ying!

At the end of Day 3 we donated our Epic Mickey sign to a very excited fan who was working the Cal Arts booth. I hope she treasures this forever.

And now, several photos of french fries and beer...

Effects Animator Kevin O'Neil visits the studio

2011-11-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

Animator Kevin O'Neil (Hercules, Mulan, Iron Giant, etc) came for a visit last week, and was pressed into service to give a talk about traditional effects animation. He's pictured here with most of the crew. That's him just left of center, in the black and white shirt.

A MoCap Note from George W.

2011-11-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

Our good friends at Motus Digital in Dallas have been experimenting with some very impressive real-time animation technology and we have been blown away by their success. We had the great fortune of sharing a booth with them a few weeks ago at GDC Online and got to see the public reaction to their amazing motion capture abilities first hand.

To make things even more awesome, they recorded a personal note for us from their studio!! Check this out and share in the fascination of everything that is Motus.

A very special shout out to Motus' very own Webb Henderson who does a spectacular George W. impression. Well played, Webster.

Halloween at the Animation Studio!

2011-10-31T13:59:00.001-07:00

The gang at Powerhouse Animation got decked out today in honor of Halloween and here are some of the costume highlights...

Kellan as Marty McFly

The red unit ladies representing for Mario Bros

Nyk as Mario

Jedi Aaron

Cindy as... a punk rock Viking? Whatever it is, it's rad.

Patrick as Carmine from Gears of War

Steph as Jubilee from X-Men

Happy Halloween from everyone at Powerhouse Animation!

Powerhouse at GDC Online!

2011-10-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation headed downtown this week to exhibit at GDC Online. It was great to show off some of our more recent work and see tons of our clients in action! Thanks to the gang at Motus Digital for letting us share their space and ride their coattails a bit. Their real-time motion capture technology is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time!

Check out our booth. We got many compliments about how "colorful" it was!

My serious bling for the week:

Brad and I got a chance to hang out with our friends at the Vigil Games booth. Brad is serious business with that Darksiders sword...

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain... (Thanks, Ben, that thing was heavy)

This guy came to talk shop about our work on Epic Mickey and showed off his most excellent Bunny Children tattoo. Did anyone from Junction Point meet this guy?

Our friends at Motus Digital had a crowd surrounding them all day to check out their George W. Bush skype chat...

Ryan from Motus and I talk shop (ie. fantasy football) with a convention attendee. I'm not sure who was the source of the hysterical laughter here, but I'm guessing it was me.

Brad represents for 2D animation. Get it, Brad!

George W. waves at me from Dallas as I take his photo on the Motus monitor

I made a new friend in the MaxCDN Cheetah. Until next year, Max...

Powerhouse in the Park

2011-10-05T07:41:00.001-07:00

The gang at Powerhouse Animation has been working so hard lately that we decided to give ourselves a little break. Last Friday we took a half day at the studio and headed to Zilker Park for the afternoon for some pizza, relaxation, and of course flag football...

Intense pre-game huddles as the Red Unit and Yellow Unit prepare to match up

Doug Beck and Micah Lincoln accidentally wore the same outfit. How embarrassing for them! And intimidating for us...

Jason Williams and Patrick Quiring doing some stretching before the big game. Great job guys, don't want you to pull anything!

Powerhouse CEO Brad Graeber hydrates before throwing down on some serious flag football spectating

Some of the ladies of Powerhouse, Rachel Citron, Stephanie Delota and Bridgette Michaud relax on the sidelines while Adam Deats looks on.

Thanks for the pizza, Powerhouse!

One of Powerhouse Animation's newest members, Evgeny Lubaev, brought his family along to celebrate his son's birthday! I think Adam wants to babysit.

Bridgette and Micah show some enthusiasm for park day.

Louie Granda tries to psych out the competition with his menacing stare.

Thanks to the awesome management at Powerhouse for letting us take a much needed break and spend some quality time outside. Hopefully the super competitive red unit vs. yellow unit match-up won't make for any awkward tension around the office...

MoneyIsland on the News!

2011-10-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

Our friends over at BancVue made an appearance on the news this week in North Carolina with a featured segment on MoneyIsland! My Carolina Today did a piece on the online interactive that teaches kids valuable financial skills. Powerhouse Animation teamed up with BancVue to create several animated videos that pop up throughout game play to help lead players towards financial success.

Congrats to the team at BancVue! Go check out MoneyIsland!

Chix 6

2011-09-29T14:04:00.001-07:00

Powerhouse Animation just wrapped on our first ever project for the live stage! We had the fantastic opportunity of working with some talented folks out in NYC on an upcoming musical production called CHIX 6!

Our designs are based off of the costumes for the actresses and will be projected during the performance. We can't wait to see how this show does and hopefully we will get to see it on Broadway sometime soon. Check out everything Chix 6 on their website and stay tuned for more exciting news from this awesome comic book-inspired female empowered musical!

Little Louie is Live!

2011-09-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation worked with the team at StarGreetz to create some personalized e-cards from the one and only Louie Anderson!

Check out some of the great designs we did for the newest Little Louie character below, and visit the Stargreetz site to create your very own Louie e-card!

"Jasper" Producer Cheryl Pollak visits the studio

2011-08-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today we had a visit from our friend, Cheryl Pollak, producer of the four "Jasper The Mule" DVDs we have been animating at the studio for the last several years. This is Cheryl's 2nd visit to Powerhouse. We hope that Meredith Hodges and Bonnie Shields, who wrote and illustrated the books, will come to visit us as well!

Welcoming another new face

2011-08-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse welcomes another new face to our army.

Everyone say hi to Willis Bulliner, who comes to us from Chicago. Look at him busily working on... Hey, wait a minute. That's Facebook... Get to work, Willis!

Mr. Spriggy Represents!

2011-08-08T11:55:00.001-07:00

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of driving by the intersection of Braker and 183 in Austin over the past few weeks, here is a photo of the wonderful (and massive) work of art and advertising that you have been missing:

I feel like this pretty much speaks for itself. Thanks, as always, to our good friend Wes Hurt for his ongoing business and general awesomeness. Make sure to check out the Hey Cupcake site and definitely sign up at MrSpriggy.com to stay tuned to all upcoming Spriggy-related excitement.

Personally, the gang here at Powerhouse Animation is giddy with anticipation...

Austin Books/Brian O'Halloran event

2011-08-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

A plethora of Powerhouse Animation artists went to Austin Books and comics to celebrate an appearance of Brian "Dante" O'Halloran. Brian, always a genial and stand-up guy, signed comics and memorabilia for fans while Powerhouse Animators drew sketches of characters from the Clerk's cartoons.

(L to R, Sam Lotfi, Brian O'Halloran, Ronnie Williford (kneeling), Brad Graeber, Aaron Romo and Chris Beaver)

To help celebrate, Powerhouse Animators re-enacted scenes from the cartoons. Guess which scene Ronnie and Brad are doing:

Sam Lotfi and Aaron Romo got in a heated argument about whether or not the Grimace could actually be killed. If you don't get that joke, may we suggest this.

Nicole Petta, who took all of these great photos was able to get on the other side of the camera for shot with Mr. O'Halloran.

A good time was had by all. Forgot how much fun it was to draw these characters. Here's to hoping that one day we might get to again.

New Kickin' Momma Trailer from Hothead

2011-08-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Our friends from Hothead Games have release a new preview trailer for Kickin' Momma, for which Powerhouse created some cinemas. This game is going to be great, be sure to pick it up when it comes out this week.

The Art of Epic Mickey

2011-08-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

The Powerhouse team was extremely excited last week to receive a copy of the brand new book The Art of Epic Mickey!

It was such a pleasure to work on this project with the legendary Warren Spector and the rest of the gang at Junction Point Studios, and we are so grateful to them for this opportunity.

Go buy the book and read all about the hard work that went into making this truly epic game. Also... make sure to check out the chapter on Cinematics!

AnimationsFabrik "Monsterbacke" Commercial

2011-08-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation is excited to show this commercial we worked on with AnimationsFabrik in Germany:

Powerhouse handled all of the 2d animation in the piece. Congrats to everyone who worked on the piece, it turned out really well.

Now we just need the client to send us some of that yogurt.

Whiteboard Animation!

2011-07-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Here at Powerhouse Animation we frequently get client requests for whiteboard-style animations. Thanks to the team at Appleseed Partners we were finally able to bring this idea to life!

We made this video for local company, Cache IQ. Cache IQ provides an extremely technical (albeit extremely useful) product that may be difficult for your typical layperson to understand. We used our animation savvy to put together this introductory video that we hope brings their ideas to life in a way that is both easily understood as well as creative and entertaining.

Check out the animated overview on their site and stay tuned for more whiteboard-style pieces from Powerhouse in the future...

Lightbox's Starhawk comes to Comic-Con!

2011-07-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

Our good friends over at Lightbox Interactive are in San Diego this week promoting their upcoming game, Starhawk, at Comic-Con and it is getting a ton of buzz!

The game, which officially debuted at e3 a few weeks ago, is set to release in Spring 2012, and we cannot wait! The team at Powerhouse has been working on creating cinematics for Starhawk that are a hybrid form of motion comics and animation. The space-western universe and "wanted" poster style that Lightbox designed really lends itself well to some amazing cinematics that we are all really proud of!

If you're at Comic-Con this week, make sure to check out the Starhawk panel on Sunday, July 24th!

Also, check out Lightbox President, Dylan Jobe's post on the official playstation blog! Thanks to Dylan, Lars, Adam, and the rest of the crew over at Lightbox for this great opportunity, and good luck at the Con!

Did someone say Donkey Cannons??

2011-07-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes they did. And that can only mean one thing... Risk Factions is coming to facebook!

The wonderful folks at EA who brought you Risk Factions for Xbox Live are now bringing the brilliant irreverence of Yeti Lamas, donkey cannons, CAT-a-pults, and brain eating contests to facebook. The Powerhouse team has been ceaselessly working on bringing these wacky factions to life, and we are all anxiously awaiting its imminent arrival. Start training your robot army and get geared up for Risk Factions, facebook-style.

Check out what Kotaku is saying about it here.

Much thanks to Spencer Brooks and the rest of the EA team for allowing us to partner with them on this exciting project!

Storyboard Workshop with Kris Pearn!

2011-06-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Back in May, Powerhouse had the wonderful opportunity of spending some quality time with one of the kings of storyboarding, Kris Pearn.

You probably know Mr. Pearn from his work on such films as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Surf's Up, and Open Season, as well as the animated series Braceface!

Kris flew in from LA to visit with us and spent the day leading a storyboard workshop with the gang. He imparted much of his superb wisdom and incredible storytelling skills on us, and really inspired everyone at the studio with his talent and charisma.

We are extremely grateful that Kris was able to come visit the studio and educate us all about the art of storyboarding. Thanks so much to Kris for his time, knowledge, and enthusiasm!

For more information about Kris Pearn and examples of his work, check out his blog, The Woeful Tales of a Domesticated Man.

Another new face at Powerhouse Animation

2011-06-16T12:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we welcomed another new face to the team at Powerhouse.
Louis Norris comes to us from the Great White North of Toronto, Canada.

On a related note:
Adam Deats complained that he wasn't put on the blog when he was a new hire (neglecting to recall that we didn't have a blog back then)... So here are the Adamses (Deats and Conarroe in the background).

Risk: Factions comes to Facebook!

2011-06-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Did you love Risk: Factions that we worked on last year for XBox Live?? Well good news! Risk: Factions is coming to facebook!

The good folks at EA have been working with us once again on a facebook version of the game that is slated to release sometime in the fall. We put together a trailer for it that previewed at e3 this week. Check it out and stay tuned for more news as this approaches:

Powerhouse welcomes a new member of the gang

2011-06-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

Everyone say hello to the newest member of The Powerhouse crew. Patrick Stannard comes to us from Michigan. You can't miss him. He's the one wearing the kilt.

e3!!

2011-06-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

Brad and Rachel were out in LA all week representing Powerhouse Animation at this year's e3! Check out all the awesome stuff we saw and live vicariously through our adventures below:

We went to check out Hothead's Swarm which we just finished up some cinematic work on. Brad is so excited about this he can't even attempt to hold it back.

We also got to see the first official look at Sony's upcoming Starhawk game for PS3. We are working with local game studio Lightbox Interactive on several cinemas for Starhawk, the first of which debuted this week as well!

Congratulations to our friends at Lightbox who have been working so hard on this. It looks really great and is getting some awesome reviews on Game Rant as well as Kotaku!

We also got to take a look at the new Wii U that everyone has been talking about. Here is the new controller (in the middle, of course).

We took a break from the action for a bit to head next door to the Staples Center where Rachel got to spend some quality time with one of her heroes.
I never realized how tall he was...

At the SOE booth we stopped to watch some folks play FreeRealms and DC Universe Online-- two more projects that Powerhouse contributed to.

One game we are really excited about is Disney's new Disney Universe. It looks like an MMO for kids that allows the user to create a character based on tons of existing Disney properties (such as Aladdin and Jasmine pictured here). We saw some adorable characters based on Monster's Inc's Sully, Lilo and Stitch, and Nemo. Check out more information on the upcoming game on IGN.

Predictably, the trip had to include the obligatory Captain America photo. Here is Brad with some great memorabilia. I think he wanted to take it home with him, but I don't think it would've fit in his office.

We had a great time checking out our first ever e3 and are so excited for everyone that had great work to show off. We are looking forward to all the upcoming releases and can't wait to check out Starhawk and Swarm, amongst many others.

Don't Panic!

2011-05-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

It was a week full of big announcements for our friends at Hothead Games. Our favorite Canadian game studio just released the first looks at two upcoming releases. The folks here at Powerhouse were lucky enough to get their hands on both of these projects, and we are so excited to show them off!

On May 25th, in honor of Towel Day (the intergalactic holiday celebrating Douglas Adams), Hothead posted a blog entry in honor of the great writer, and triumphantly announced that they have a new interactive edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the works! Don't believe me?? Check out their awesome l aunch page!

Powerhouse is in the process of producing a number of animated pieces for this and we could not be more excited about it. Stay tuned to see what Hothead has in store...

In the meantime, they have also released a first look at their upcoming DeathSpank sequel called... (wait for it)... THE BACONING. Yes, you heard me right. Check out the trailer and pay special attention to the awesomely bacon-tastic logo-- Powerhouse worked with the folks at Hothead to design this, and we think it's just delicious.

We wanted to give a shout out and congratulations to the Hothead team. They are always great to work with, and we are looking forward to these exciting new projects!

Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks as Brad and Rachel venture to LA for e3...

Red Unit

2011-05-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Coming soon...

Powerhouse in the Austin Business Journal!

2011-05-13T09:57:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation was featured in an article today in the Austin Business Journal! ABJ Writer, Mick Normington, visited us at the studio a few weeks back to pick our brains and experience the wonder that is Powerhouse. He spent the afternoon with us here, learning about the magic of cintiqs... and we even showed him our super secret Animation Button.

Check out the fruits of his labor at the ABJ Entrepreneur and make sure to email, post, and tweet it to all your friends!

Sam Lotfi drawing caricatures on the news

2011-05-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse artist Sam Lotfi was on the local news drawing pictures of the newscasters to promote Free Comic Book Day. As the report says, come visit Sam at Austin Books this Saturday. Click on the image above to see the story as it appeared on K-EYE.

MoneyIsland for BancVue!

2011-04-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

BancVue, one of our favorite local clients, recently announced the release of their long awaited MoneyIsland! This great interactive world is a financial literacy tool for kids aged 8-14. Users travel through several exotic destinations to learn important financial lessons which they then utilize to move forward in the game.

Powerhouse Animation was lucky enough to team up with BancVue on this project, creating 7 short animated pieces. Each of these shorts involved a unique and creative character who leads the user through that particular lesson, like Milo the Philosophical and Sherman Q. Holmes (voiced by Powerhouse's very own Doug Beck and Jason Williams)!

Check out the demo version to watch the Introduction piece we created, and sign up for your own chance to explore MoneyIsland!

Powerhouse 10th Anniversary Party

2011-04-19T09:41:00.001-07:00

Powerhouse Animation recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary, and in honor of this momentous occasion we decided to head out to the Salt Lick to celebrate!

Check out some of our photos documenting the festivities!

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Driftwood to celebrate with us. Here's to another 10 great years!

Office Sign Now Complete!

2011-04-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

The guys from Blue Genie came back to the office today to deliver the last few pieces for our new lobby sign. The gauge on the left side moves back and forth, and it has an "Edison" bulb on it. "40 watts with the output of a 15 watt bulb." Pretty efficient, huh? They also added the final gear to the bottom of the sign, and adjusted the lighting on the top so the Jacob's Ladder looks real. In all, a very cool piece.

Our 10th anniversary present...

2011-04-05T13:16:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation Studios turned 10 years old last Friday. That's right, the company was started on April Fool's Day. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we got ourselves something we have always wanted: a sign from Austin's own, Blue Genie Art.

Blue Genie is known far-and-wide for making great 3d art and signage. If it is a cool sign, and it is in Austin, you can be pretty sure that Blue Genie made it. We felt it was about time for us to join the club of proud Austin businesses with Blue Genie signs.

Blue Genie bringing the sign into the studio.

Jason Williams, who designed the sign, checking it out with COO Bruce Tinnin.

Here it is in all of its gear-turning, lit-up glory:

The proud owners, with the new sign.

It might be hard to hear in this video, but when you pull the chain the whistle plays, as Doug Beck demonstrates:

We had some cake and champagne to celebrate.

We are having a party this weekend, more videos and pictures to come soon! Happy Anniversary Powerhouse!

Good Ole' P.U.

2011-03-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

At Powerhouse we do internal "continuing education" classes on animation once per month. We lovingly refer to it as P.U. (Powerhouse University). It gives our younger folks a chance to learn from some of the more experienced animators and maybe pick up some new tricks and gives our older animators a chance to learn some new technical skills from some of the younger folks.

We are dedicated to keeping traditional animation alive at Powerhouse, so we decided that instead of keeping these lessons to ourselves, we would spread the knowledge with the general public also, just in case we can help inspire and teach other.

You can watch the first two classes; Frank Gabriel's on limited animation dialog techniques and Ronnie Williford's on the Bouncing Ball and Flour Sack here, from youtube, or on our site. Furthermore, we are providing the files from the classes online for you to download and use. Why are being so nice? Seriously. Why are we?

Stay tuned here and on our site at the link above for future classes. Please do not repost the files without permission.

Powerhouse Animation Studio Tour

2011-03-30T11:44:00.000-07:00

If you have not had a chance to make it out to our animation studio in person, then today is your lucky day! We found an old dusty reel of Super 8 film that someone shot last week that shows you the 8th Wonder of The Animated World, Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc.'s World Headquarters.

Enjoy!

Swarm!

2011-03-17T22:07:00.000-07:00

Finally there is some footage of the Hothead's Swarm which we did some cinematic work and UI work on:

We always love working with Hothead and are really looking forward to this game coming out. Congrats to Joel and Art and the other folks at Hothead on another great looking game.

Don't Stop Vanilla Dreamin'

2011-03-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation's good friends Wes Hurt (of Hey Cupcake fame) and Rebel Rebel recently teamed up to create this amazing video about the origins of the Hey Cupcake phenomenon. I love it and think you will too. Check it out:

Vanilla Dreamin from Hey Cupcake on Vimeo.

We had the great honor of working with Wes over the past year to help get his new site Mr.Spriggy.com up and running. Stay tuned to the countdown and come back in April when the site officially launches to check out some of the awesome work we did for Wes.

In the meantime, visit your local Hey Cupcake shop or airstream and chow down on some delicious treats. Oh... and keep on vanilla dreamin'...

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN!

2011-03-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation recently got the pleasure of working with a number of local Austin companies on a fantastic project called...(wait for it)... Hobo With a Shotgun.

Inspired by the 2007 Tarantino/Rodriguez Grindhouse flick, local director Jason Eisener set out to make his very own Grindhouse-style trailer. When this mock trailer got picked up for a feature length film, Eisener got hooked up with the great folks at the Alamo Drafthouse to help promote it.

Luckily, Powerhouse was along for the ride. Thanks to local companies Gamesalad, Perfect Dork Studios, and Mondo, the Hobo with a Shotgun iphone game is now on the market!

Download it now and YOU too can deliver justice... one shell at a time.

Check out some stills from the game featuring Powerhouse original 16-bit style graphics:

Check out this great article about the game on WIRED!

And come check out our SXSW panel this afternoon (Monday 3/14) at the Austin Convention Center!!

San Francisco World Tour: Post 6

2011-03-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

GDC has come to a close...

By the end of day 2 we had to sit a bit while spreading the word:

Day 3 we had our energy back

Here is a view of our booth from above.

One weird thing at the show was a device that let you "smell" games. Our very own Jason Williams found this a little discriminating:

All in all, it was a great show. We met some great people, and are looking forward to working with several of them.

After the show we quickly broke down our booth and rushed to a meeting at Goodby. Goodby is at Grant and California, on the corner of one of the steepest inclines in the city.

After the tour of Goodby, we went out with Bryan and Brian from Booyah to discuss what sounds like a fantastic potential project:

After that we headed to dinner with our good friends from Junction Point

Three years of Shane and Ryan

2011-03-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate the 3 year anniversary of when Shane Minshew and Ryan Cullen joined Powerhouse Animation! We hired them for the first Compass Learning job we did, and now Shane is heading up the Compass Learning team here at the studio.

We drank a toast to the occasion, then chained them back to their desks.

San Francisco World Tour: Post 5

2011-03-02T22:44:00.000-08:00

GDC opened today, and everyone is taking a much needed rest. The team put in a good stretch of 9 hours of talking about animation and spreading the good news of Powerhouse.

Our neighbors, Rightscale, got a bar mid way through the day. Which helped our already pretty steady foot traffic.

The bartender was Bien, and a really good guy, willing to trade Powerhouse schwag for drinks. Unfortunately, since we never got a chance for breakfast or lunch having too many drinks would have been very dangerous.

After the con, we went down to Chinatown with a group from Bioware

Eric Estrada ate there once, so we knew it had to be good.

San Francisco World Tour: Post 4

2011-03-01T17:58:00.000-08:00

If you make it to GDC come find us at booth 605. Here is a map if you need it. That's our booth there:

Here is the floor marker for the booth.

The booth is setup and ready for the throngs of folks to descend on it tomorrow morning.

Some of the other booths are pretty fancy:

There may or may not be duct tape involved in our setup.

Wish us luck as the masses are invited onto the Exhibit Floor tomorrow. We hope to meet lots of new and interesting people and spread the Powerhouse message of joy and creativity to everyone in attendance.

San Francisco World Tour: Post 3

2011-03-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

Not a lot of time to write today, here are some images until we can fill it in:

San Francisco World Tour: Post 2

2011-02-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

Things have been going well on the tour so far.

Late last week we went by a few great ad agencies, such as Pereira & O'Dell, AKQA, Draft FCB.

We really enjoyed the fancy screening rooms all the agencies had, like this one at Pereira & O'Dell.

The very amazing Kate Lee from Draft-FCB. She gave us a tour of the studio and then was one of our guests for lunch that day. She invited us to a party at the Bay Area Boat Club on Sunday where a steel-guitar band played and we had hot dogs and the least expensive beer we have had in San Francisco. It was a blast and felt like a family reunion. We really appreciate Kate taking the time with us and making us feel so at home.

The band at the boat club, throughout the day musicians would switch out and the band morphed into something new.

Jason Williams and Rachel Citron, kicking it at the boat club.

One of the many commodores of the boat club. Check out the name. He looks cool enough to be the orginator to us.

The Tour Trio with Kate Lee and Penny.

Over the weekend we met up with Brad's wife Mandy and Jason and Brad spent several hours in a couple parks sketching passers by. Despite the reports of snow, the weather has been really great.

Lunchtime plein air

2011-02-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

A few of us went out at lunchtime to do some quick oil paintings in our cigar box pochade boxes, or to do some sketching. COO Bruce Tinnin and CCO Frank Gabriel painted while Wade Minter drew in his sketchbook.

These were quick 6 x 8" studies, done in about 45 minutes.

Afterward, we ran into the cigar store, where we bought some extra cigar boxes to make some more pochade boxes for some of the other people in the office. We hope to do this more often, since there are plenty of places near our office to paint. Plus, it gets us away from our desks and in the fresh air for a little while.

Bruce:

Frank:

Wade:

Bruce at work

Frank at work (and a turtle)

World Tour, San Francisco Leg, Post 1

2011-02-24T10:52:00.000-08:00

The world tour trio from Powerhouse Animation has landed in San Francisco. Things have been going well so far. We hear that it is going to snow here for the first time in 30 years today.

One of the highlights of the tour was getting to meet Powerhouse's agent Susan Bennett for the first time in person. Susan is representing Powerhouse on the West Coast, and has hooked us up with several meetings and reel showings the week before GDC starts.

Our first meeting was at DDB and Tribal DDB.

Susan arranged a lunch meeting that we catered and I am sure that good Mexican food might have helped draw a few more people in.

The demo reel room was really nice. Several couches along the walls and the main areas of the room, and speakers throughout the ceilings really made for a nice showing experience.

We have had a chance to visit a couple of areas of town the past two nights. On Tuesday night we walked around Chinatown.

And after our meeting at Tribal we went and looked at Alcatraz from Pier 39.

While in San Francisco, Powerhouse director Jason Williams and CEO Brad Graeber decided to record a duets album. This might be the cover image.

Delayed Doug and a featured app!

2011-02-21T14:12:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Director and sports-enthusiast Doug Beck was supposed to return to the studio today after a weekend vacation, but unfortunately got trapped in the frozen snowy tundra that is Colorado. Luckily he was able to spend his extra unexpected hours touring the famed Lucky Three Ranch, home of our good friend and client Meredith Hodges and inspirational site for her Jasper the Mule pieces that we have been tirelessly working on for over a year.

Check out some of the work we've done on our site

We also found out today that one of our beloved projects, Grammaropolis is now a featured app! The lovable characters Powerhouse created for this site can now help you learn your parts of speech no matter where you are (like stuck in a Colorado airport for example). Grab your smartphones and check it out!

Powerhouse Animation Goes Cow-tipping!

2011-02-17T15:05:00.001-08:00

The hardworking folks here at Powerhouse Animation recently finished up a project for La Crème real dairy creamer. Thanks to the team at Slingshot in Dallas this piece turned out great!

The interactive campaign allows you to abuse our poor little robot cow in a variety of creative, and progressively twisted ways in order to learn about why real dairy creamer is unequivocally better than non-dairy creamer. Don't believe me? Try it for yourself and check out the site to practice your cow-tipping skills (and make sure to set him ablaze, cause that one's my favorite!)

We also wanted to give a shout out to insightful marketing blogger and friend of the studio Pete Monfre. Pete's blog, Clarity Marketing Support, featured a great article today about our recently released World Tour piece-- and I'm not just saying that because he gave us a rave review. Thanks for your support, Pete! Check out what he had to say here.

Make sure to stay tuned to the Powerhouse blog in the coming weeks as we head to San Francisco for GDC... Bon Voyage, Texas!

Powerhouse Animation World Tour

2011-02-08T15:48:00.000-08:00

Move over Justin Bieber! Powerhouse Animation is going on tour. We are visiting several major cities and coming in a flying Viking ship with demo reels and pastries to rock your faces off.

San Francisco is the first stop on the tour. If you work in the bay area at an ad agency, we might have made a custom version just for you.

Click on the agency you work for:
AKQA, Butler, Tribal, DDB, Goodby, Organic, or Pereira.

If you work at a firm or group in the bay area, shoot us an e-mail with your agency name and we will find the one we custom made for you.

If you don't work at an ad agency in the bay area, poor soul, here is a generic version just for you:

Lyrics and animation by Powerouse Animation. The music was created by the incredibly talented Mr. Carl Thiel. He did an epic job.

So, give us a shout. Let us know if you like muffins or bear claws.

Zoo Drawing Trip January 2011

2011-01-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

Several of the Powerhouse mob went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco on Saturday to try and shake some cobwebs loose from our pencils and draw the animals. We met friends from Dallas:

T Dan Hofstedt, now at ReelFx, who was Frank's first Directing Animator at Don Bluth Animation in LA, and who Ronnie knew from his days at Disney Florida.

Steve Quentin from Janimation, who Ronnie also knew from Disney.

We had a lot of fun and hope to make it a monthly outing. There was no crowd, which was amazing, since the weather was perfect.

Left to right: Bridget, Steve, Ronnie, Frank, T Dan, Chris and Wade

More drawings are posted on the Powerhouse Sketch Blog:
http://phetch.blogspot.com/

DC UNIVERSE ONLINE RELEASE DAY!

2011-01-11T09:12:00.000-08:00

Sony's DC Universe Online that our animation studio created cinematic motion-comics for, went live this morning. Go out and get yourself a copy and look for us in the game! You might just find a "Powerhouse" running the streets of Gotham or a "Captain Capitalism" protecting the citizens of Metropolis.

This project was a blast to work on. We want to thank Mike Daubert and the rest of the crew at SOE Austin for giving us the chance to work on the game.

The goal was to create cinematic motion-comics unlike any seen before, and we are proud of what we accomplished. Special thanks here at Powerhouse goes to Sam Deats, Adam Deats, Adam Conarroe, Jesse Pyles, Sam Lotfi, Chris Beaver, and Ed Booth.

We, of course, can't show all of the work we did. It would spoil the game's storyline, and you dont want us to do that. But here are a few examples that don't spoil anything and will hopefully whet your appetite:

Green Lantern:

There are a few that other folks have put on youtube, but we highly recommend finding them in the game in the context of the story.

Congrats to the team at SOE! We are already hard at work on the the next series of cinemas...so make sure you come into the world of DC Universe Online and stay for a while!

New year, new game, new office space.

2011-01-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

Even though the calendar just flipped, Powerhouse hit the ground running in 2011. It has been a very busy year so far here at the animation studio..

First, we got our copy of the DC Universe Online game today. We are really proud of our work on the cinematic-motion-comics on this project. Alot of these are making the rounds on youtube.

We are so excited to pop this baby in. Game comes out next week! You should go out and get yours, the game is going to be fantastic.

It is such a surreal and great feeling to hold the culmination of 5 years of hard-work by so many talented people whom we have grown to love working with in your hand.

Secondly, we pushed down a wall at the studio, and expanded into some much needed new space for our ever-increasing staff.

Ms. Rachel Citron, now a full producer at Powerhouse has her own office:

You should pop by to see it, especially if you are a potential client with a new project. It's pretty cool.

I was taking pictures of the new space, and if shows on basic cable have taught us anything, the new space is haunted.

Got an orb:

Hopefully the ghost knows Flash or After Effects. We can put him to work.

Powerhouse Christmas Party

2010-12-15T08:57:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Animation had its annual Christmas party at Cannoli Joes this year.

As is the tradition, we inducted new members into the Powerhouse "gang" by hazing them and handing out jackets to the newbies:

The gang sure has gotten bigger over the last ten years. Call us if you want to rumble.

Speaking of the holidays, check out this game we made with Sherry Matthews for TxDot and remember to be safe this holiday. Click on the image to play:

More Epic Mickey Reviews!

2010-12-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

Epic Mickey continues to get great reviews and climb the Christmas sales charts.

Powerhouse powered up the new bright red Wii this week and tool some time to see our work in action.

Frank Gabriel, Megan Kluck, Sam Deats and Bruce Tinnin trying out the game.

To check out some more reviews that mention our cinemas, click on the quotes below:
"In addition to the fantastic cut scenes the in-game visuals are also impressive."

"and sharp hand-drawn animation segments appear regularly"

"This story of Epic Mickey is told through a mixture of stylised animated cutscenes that combine the unique Disney style with a rather gritty and worn down artistic direction. The result seems to be a perfect blend to create the perfect atmosphere for this kind of game. Facial expressions in these cutscenes are so simplistic too and yet convey such strong emotions – it’s just so well developed and put together."

Thanks to every one who has been sending us kind comments the past few weeks, it is great to see everyones hard work paying off. Now, go out and buy this game!

New and improved powerhouseanimation.com

2010-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc's website just got an overhaul. We have moved to a more mobile device friendly and simpler design. Please check out the site and let us know your thoughts. And while you are there, be sure to join our facebook, blog, and twitter pages.

Thanks to Phill Knoll and Adam Conarroe for all the hardwork. You guys are making us look good.

Epic Mickey is continuing to appear everywhere, we can't keep up with all the stories and good reviews. Here are a few:

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3182566&p=
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-epic-mickey/707878
and if you speak dutch: http://animatie.blog.nl/disney/2010/11/09/epic-mickey-cartoon-characters
http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/article/disney-epic-mickey-review-118061
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/video/mickey-mouse-stars-video-game-disney-epic-mickey-12274300

Epic Mickey release is this week!

2010-11-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

Epic Mickey is everywhere, and we could not be more proud.

IGN had a fantastic review of the piece.

Our favorite quote?

"An outside studio called Powerhouse Animation used a 2D visual approach to create retro-inspired cutscenes that typically introduce major new worlds, quests or concepts. These pieces feature some of the best acting, animation, and character development seen anywhere. It's remarkable to see Mickey's face contort in the simplest ways to perfectly convey an emotion, and the frequency with which Powerhouse precisely hits comedic notes is truly exceptional."

Austin Comic-Con and PHA Bowling Photos

2010-11-16T08:02:00.000-08:00

Powerhouse Animation Studios had a pretty busy week last week.

Mike Daubert, Sony Art Director, and Brad Graeber, Powerhouse CEO, hit the first Austin comic con to check out giant Superman drawings because despite working on 30 mins of cinemas for DC Universe online, they can't get enought Jim Lee!

The comic con had the Batmobile, Burt Ward, and Adam West in attendence.

Powerhouse artists' like Chris Beaver took advantage of the con coming into town to showcase their skills.

Sam Lotfi, another talented Powerhouser, sold sketch books and commission sketches to fans.

At the end of the week, the Powerhouse crew went bowling to introduce some new employees to everyone.

(LtoR)Frank Gabriel, Powerhouse CCO, Ed Booth, Adam Deats, and Jeff Freeman prepare to bowl, and prepare to discuss Powerhouse ball wipes.

Phil Knoll talks with new employee Chris Von Der Gruen

Powerhouse COO, Bruce Tinnin, and Cindy Crowell discuss the finer points of the game.

Ringtales: Behind the Scenes

2010-11-16T07:44:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post pointed out the behind-the-scenes videos about the syndicated comics that Powerhouse Animation animates for Ringtales.

You can check out the story here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/11/babelgum_animations_cul_de_sac.html

Or a selection of the videos here:

Even more videos are availvle here:

More Epic Mickey

2010-11-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

Cartoon Brew and posted this great new video about Epic Mickey, featuring "forgotten" Disney characters that populate the Wasteland in the game.

This video has tons of scenes from the cinemas that Powerhouse Animation Studios created and directed:

Time Warp Animation reaction by Ad Executives in Australia

2010-11-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

On the August 11, 2010 edition of the Australian TV Show The Gruen Nation, several ad executives discussed the animation we created:

Time Warp starring Tony Abbott from Australian Labor on Vimeo.

Here is a visual transcript of the conversation:

"The Labor Party have... turned the knob all the way up to eleven."
-Wil Anderson, host of The Gruen Nation

"The First thing I think we should do is thank the ALP for making that ad. It's just absolutely brilliant entertainment."
-Russel Howcroft,
George Patterson, Young and Rubicam

"I think it's an entertaining waste of money."
-Todd Sampson,
Leo Burnett

"Very entertaining and great animation."
-Neil Lawrence,
Lawrence Creative Strategy

Powerhouse in the Park

2010-10-25T13:41:00.001-07:00

To celebrate Powerhouse Animation Studios wrapping up work on Sony's DC Universe Online and Disney's Epic Mickey, we took advantage of the recent beautiful weather in Austin and took a Friday to go and play at Zilker park.

Thanks to Doug for the idea, Meg for the extra photos, and everyone else for a great time.

There are too many photos to label, but we will just let them speak for themselves.

Fantastic Fest- Halo premiere

2010-10-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Things have been very busy at the animation studio. We have been wrapping cinemas for Disney's Epic Mickey and Sony's DC Universe Online, and GDC has been going on this week in Austin.

Things have been so busy that we have not had a chance to update the blog. Time to fix that.

Two weeks ago at Fantastic Fest we debuted the trailer and the first episode of our project for Halo Waypoint. We are working on a Waypoint series called Apt. 117. The series is being written and animated at the studio and we are very excited to be a part of the process. We are working with some great folks at 343 Industries, and Alison Stroll from 343 came down and sat on the panel for the premiere with us.

They released the trailer today on youtube. Check it out here:

We also showed the first episode at the con.

The panel consisted of (l to r) Micah Lincoln (writer, voice, animator), Brad Graeber (Powerhouse CEO), Alison Stroll (producer, 343 Industries), Jeff Freeman (writer, voice, animator), Rachel Citron(producer), and Jason Williams (Director).

There were a lot of great questions, and we were happy with the reaction of the crowd. Master Chief was even there:

Powerhouse also had a room at Fantastic Arcade, which by night doubles as the country Karaoke room at the Highball. It features a pretty sweet Kenny Rogers on velvet.

Come see us at the Highball today and the debut of our Halo series "Apt. 117" on Sunday!!!

2010-09-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

It's been a very busy week at Powerhouse Animation Studios, a lot of the activity has been exciting, hope we can talk about some of it soon.

-You want to see live Powerhousians in person? We are live and in person at Fantastic Fest! Today-- Friday, Sept 24th 11-6pm Come watch some cartoons with us in a Kenny Rogers Karaoke room at the Highball on S. Lamar! Yes, thats right. It is pretty awesome.

-Also, (cue reverb) SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! We are having a BIG SCREEN premiere of our HALO "APT. 117" cartoon for Microsoft. We will premiere the first episode with a panel where we will discuss how the project came about etc. The premiere is at 5pm at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar in Austin. Come and see it before everyone else does!

Thanks to everyone at the studio for all the hard work lately.

Finally some DC Universe online to show!

2010-09-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

Things have been very busy at the animation studio, as we are wrapping up some motion comics for the DC Universe MMO. We are very excited to announce that Sony released an interview with Gamer Director, Chris Cao, that also happens to have a couple of quick snippets from one of our comic-art cinemas.

It's just a small peek, but look for it around 1:11 and 5:53 in the clip below.

You can read more about it, and watch the clips in HD here.

We can't wait to show you more, and see you in this game!

Epic Mickey opening trailer

2010-08-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

The fine folks at Junction showed off the 3d trailer for Epic Mickey at Gamecon this week. Check it out:

Its exciting to see this and everyones reactions to it. Though we did not do the 3d on the piece, we did storyboard and animatic a lot of it. Can't wait for more of the cutscenes we worked on to get out.

The Tony Abbott Time Warp

2010-08-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation just finished up a project for our friends down under at C & C Group in Sydney. We put together a short piece for Michael Allen and team as part of a campaign project for Australia's upcoming federal elections that will take place on August 21st. Check out the wacky Rocky Horror Picture Show parody on youtube:

Apparently it was taken down on the above, this one still seems to work:

Risk: Factions on Yahoo! front page

2010-07-27T21:08:00.001-07:00

Risk: Factions has made the front page of Yahoo!

You can read the story here.

San Diego Comic Con, 2010

2010-07-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Comic Con. If you have not yet been to the big one in San Diego, we highly suggest you make the trip. It is like nothing else. Don't believe us? Here are a couple that still don’t do justice to the sheer insanity:

We were mainly there to support our friends at Sony Online Entertainment.

It was very exciting to see the debut of the new Blur cinema and to watch the fans play the game. We were already excited about the game, but the energy at the con about the game has us more excited than ever.

If you have not seen the new cinema, you can watch it here:

Video Games DC Universe Online Exclusive Who Do You Trust Trailer

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

We got to attend some Sony panels and listen to fans ask about the game.

Sony directors Mike Daubert, Kris Kao, and Jens Anderson.

We also got a chance to catch up with other folks we have worked with including Frank Cho, William Vaughn, and Stephen Silver (below) who had some great classes promoting his Schoolism project.

We also got a chance to meet new folks, like Homie creator, David Gonzales

Hope everyone had a good con, see you next year.

Sony Online Entertainment: DC Universe

2010-07-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation Studios is excited to finally be able to announce that we are working with Sony Online Entertainment on the new DC Universe MMORPG.

Though we can't show you what we are working on quite yet; please, check out the official website. they have some great content up there including some interviews with Chris Cao, who really is doing a fantastic job, with the rest of the crew, designing a innovative game.

Check out these videos they have of some of the features in the game, including superspeed.

Here is some artwork from the official website:

Hopefully in the coming months we will be able to show more of our work. We are really excited about the way things are coming together. Plus the game is already getting some good buzz out of E3.

Trevor Romain

2010-07-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite clients is the Trevor Romain Foundation. The animation studio has been working with Trevor and his partners for several years on various projects. Most recently we have been working with Trevor and co to create 2 x 22 minute DVDs that deal with topics like dealing with deployment and dealing with a familiy member who might have come back injured or with PTSD.

You can watch a short montage with some of the animation we have done here.

Trevor has shared with us many of his stories about his talks to children all of the world at military bases and it feels good to be a part of something that helps so many and truly makes a difference in peoples lives. Not only is it an honor to work with this group, they are a fun bunch of people to collaborate with creatively.

Currently, the USO and the Trevor Romain foundation is looking for people to help sponsor "Comfort Crew" kits that go to children who are facing the challenges of deployment. Please consider becoming a sponsor, and visit here to learn more.

Follow Powerhouse Animation on Twitter!

2010-06-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

http://twitter.com/powerhouseanim

RISK: FACTIONS at E3!

2010-06-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

In other E3 news it looks like "Risk:Factions" made a good showing at the convention as well. As we have blogged about before, the animation studio did both the in-game animation and the cinemas for the project. Special thanks to Aaron Simpson, at Cold Hard Flash, for making the intro between the groups. It was a great project.

It looks like they have released several chapters of the animatic to the public:

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Also, via the magic of the internet we finally got a chance to see two of the producers at EA talk about the games and see some of the final gameplay. Both Spencer and Sarah were great to work with and we wish them all the best of luck with the game.

Epic Mickey!

2010-06-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Warren Spector and the fine folks at Junction Point Studios have made news all over the cartoon and gaming world this week, with the showing they put on at E3 for Disney's new Wii game: Epic Mickey.

Powerhouse has been directing and creating the traditionally animated cinemas for the game and we are thrilled to be associated with this project. We are also excited to finally be able to talk about this project.

Also, we just heard it won IGN's awards for the best Wii and Best platforming game at E3!

Here are just a few of the stories and videos from E3 that are floating around:

The above photo is from a story from the Austin American Statesman. You can read the entire article here.

Here is a video of Warren talking about the game, and you can see some of our cinema work:

this one has a lot of the cinema playing behind Raul:

Watch the end of this one to check out some of our cinema work:

Video Games Epic Mickey E3 2010: Developer Walkthrough Part I

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Here are some more great links:

411mania
CartoonBrew
Junction's Facebook page
LA Times

Congratulations to all of the team at Junction. All of the hard work looks like it is paying off!

Tower Defense

2010-05-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

So, hey kids...do you like the tower defenses?

This animation studio does, so we made a lot of them for various clients.

Want to play some? Click on the links below.

Our first tower defense was for Challenge Games, and called Duels Defense. This one is pretty well balanced and you can even watch some walk through videos on youtube:

This one is embedded below, but you can play it bigger here:

Do you like the politics? Do you hate the politics? Either way you might like our 27o Tower Defense that we made during election season. You can play as either Republican or Democrat, and it has Sarah Palin on a moose! Play it here.

Powerhouse also did a lot of Tower Defense games, (amongst others) for Sony's online hit Freerealms ... unfortunately, we can't just post the games but you can watch some of it below.

Enviromedia

2010-05-13T09:29:00.001-07:00

One of the animation studio's favorite clients is Austin based, Enviromedia. They are a social marketing company and do a ton of great work. We have been lucky enough to work with them on several fun animated and interactive projects. Here are a few of them:

You can play Smoker-Soaker here:

Apple vs. Flash

2010-04-29T21:02:00.001-07:00

I have gotten a few e-mails this morning asking what we think about Steve Jobs's Flash manifesto from yesterday. While I don't want to publicly speak out against Apple, lest they kick our doors in, here are some other folks speaking up on the topic.

The Business Insider had some interesting things to say about the Apple vs. Flash battle.

Testing some of what Jobs has said.

Babelgum

2010-04-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation is the animation studio that animates most of the syndicated comics for Ringtales that are hosted online. We have animated over 400 strips and they appear on youtube, i-tunes and Babelgum. I wanted to see how Babelgum's embed functionality works so here are few to check out:

Bruce Tinnin: The Art of Business

2010-04-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

Bruce Tinnin, the animation studios' COO and one of the co-founders of the animation studio was a featured artist at "The Art of Business" event.

The event was held at Laguna Gloria. The idea for the Austin Museum of Art and HBMG event is an art show of work done by c-level and senior executives at companies in the Austin area. The pieces are part of a silent auction and the proceeds are all given to charity.

Here are some pics from the event.

They had peacocks on the grounds at the museum.

Bruce with his painting.

Brad, Bruce and Jason at the event.

You can learn more about it at http://www.artofbusiness.com/ and check out more of Bruce's work at: http://www.brucetinnin.com/

Friends of the Studio 1: Kevin Smith

2010-04-27T14:05:00.000-07:00

We are going to start doing a post every now and then about people who are "friends of the studio." Powerhouse has had the opportunity to work with some great people, Stephen Silver, Frank Cho, Rachel Griffiths, Norman Lear...

But the most obvious person to start this off with would be director and all-around great guy, Kevin Smith, without whom the animation studio might not exist at all.

In 2002, Powerhouse animated a short called Heroes that Brad Graeber had written for a contest that parodied Marvel Comics:

It might be a little hard to watch now, but keep in mind this was 2002 and we were working in Flash 3.

It was fun to work on. We all did voices. It was also a break from some pretty lean times. Due to the recent downturn in traditional feature film and television animation work, there wasn't a lot of work coming into the studio and we had not paid ourselves in quite a while.

According to animation studio mythology, Frank Gabriel sent it to a friend to see it before we submitted it to contest just to see what he thought. That friend sent it to a friend, who sent it to a friend and so on and so forth. And somehow it made it all the way to Joe Quesada, EIC at Marvel.

The next morning when we came in we had several phone calls and e-mails from our internet service provider. We were a small studio and we only had an entry level website. We had gone 2GBs over our bandwidth allocation. The fines were terribly high for each MB we went over the limit. We were feverishly taking down the site and trying to figure out what happened. The fines were certainly not in our budget. Then the phone rang. It was Kevin Smith. At first we thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. It was the start of a relationship that lasted for several years and could not have happened at a better time.

The first thing we did was animate a commercial that was never produced for the film Dogma called Hosties.

At the time, we had also made a MAME cabinet that ran off of Flash. Due the previously mentioned "lean times" we were trying to sell the idea to companies to make arcade machines that played Flash games and demo reels for their lobbies. We even made an online commercial to promote it:

Mr. Smith had seen this and asked if we could make a version for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as a wrap party present for the film Jersey Girl. We wrote a proposal, which Kevin then took and added a bunch of gags and inside jokes and developed the script. We also sent ideas for a Dogma game and a game based off of the Clerks animated series. We had 8 weeks till the wrap of the film, where Kevin wanted to give the arcade machine to them.

We worked most of the hours of those 8 weeks. We were still programming the game when we drove it straight from Austin to New York City in a U-haul attached to Brad's jeep. We took turns working, sleeping, and driving in shifts. We presented the arcade machine on the last night of shooting, with paparazzi everywhere ruining multiple takes of the final scene. We installed the machine in the couples' apartment. That part is pretty hazy, I personally only remember that the refrigerator was 100% full of diet-caffeine-free cokes, and showing a bodyguard how to play Frogger on the machine.

The machines before we left for New York

Frank Gabriel, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Brad Graeber and Stephen Parker.

After NY we installed the other machine in the Jay and Silent Bob Secret Stash store in Red Bank. We met with Kevin, and for the first time started talking about the animated film. We got swag to take to the people back at the studio, Kevin signed a book "next stop feature film." It was pretty exciting.

Kevin Smith with his machine at the Secret Stash in Red Bank.

When we got back from the trip, if I remember correctly we slept for a couple of days. Then we had a barrage of calls and requests from press outlets. Here are some clips from that:

We talked budget for a film with Kevin and Scott Mosier, and did a 35mm test for the film to be produced in Flash. This was kind of a new idea at the time so they wanted to see what it would look like. Jason Mewes was not available at the time to do voice work, so we used audio from the Flying Car piece mixed with audio from the Empire Strikes back.

The piece might have some issues, but we are still proud that it was done in a few weeks by 4 guys out of pieced together audio.

We had the footage put to 35mm film and sent to LA, and we flew out and watched it at the Miramax lot with Kevin, Scott Mosier, and by Chris Bailey who had directed the cartoon series.

Phil Benson, Kevin Smith, Bruce Tinnin, Chris Bailey, Frank Gabriel, Scott Mosier, and Brad Graeber

We next wrote some more budgets for the flick but things stalled. We don't know if it was due to the test or if anybody else saw the 35mm print. We went to a couple of comic conventions with Kevin and co. and showed Heroes, Hosties, and the film test to throngs of Kevin's fans. We got to meet folks like Ming, Brian O'Halloran,Bob Chapman, and Jason Mewes. Kevin really surrounds himself with good people, and though we were definitely on the periphery of the circle, it was a great group of people to be around.

Jason Mewes watching Heroes from the stage at the Dallas Wizard Comic Convention

Next we animated the Lost Scene for the Clerks X dvd. I don't know if is some weird universal constant for View Askew projects, but we had 8 weeks on this project as well...which was 8 minutes of animation. Despite the tight timeline, we worked more with Kevin, Phil, and Scott, going over gags and boards which made the piece even more enjoyable to work on. Rolling Stone said the piece was the "best bonus feature of 2004"

Over the next few years we would run into Kevin in events here in Austin. Brad flew to New York to attend a pre-screening of Clerks 2 and his Captain Capitalism cartoons ran on Kevin's Moviepoopshoot site. We took the studio to see Clerks 2 at SXSW when Kevin came and gave a talk. We attended a midnight screening of House Party II with Kevin at the Alamo. We met with Kevin's agent at Endeavour to talk about the film and possibly doing shorts. We wrote several budgets and would pitch ideas to Kevin and co. on how we could possibly do things. We heard that there were issues with the Clerks cartoon and Disney and Miramax due to the split.

Eventually things fizzled out. We have not heard from Kevin for a while.

We don't know what happened to the Jen Saves Ben arcade machine. And yes, people ask us that every time.

That being said, it was those jobs in the beginning and the recognition that they gave us that allowed a 5 person studio to survive a time when traditional animation was almost dead. It allowed us to become the successful 30+ people studio that we are today. For that we will always be indebted to Kevin Smith.

So, much love and props to Kevin Smith...and, sir, if you ever want to pick that flick up or those characters in shorts again, please do give us a call. We got more folks now, you should see what we can do in 8 weeks.

RISK Reviews

2010-04-26T12:33:00.001-07:00

Powerhouse Animation has been working with Electronic Arts to create in-game animation and video game cinemas for their new XBOX Live Game RISK: FACTIONS.

Powerhouse is very excited to be working with EA, and had a great time being the animation studio on this project.

Here are some links to some of the reviews:
http://kotaku.com/5520708/the-robots-rise-in-risk-factions/gallery/
http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/057/057365.html
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/108/1084422p1.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/15/first-risk-factions-screens-released-surprisingly-cartoony/

And here are some of the videos they have released:

We love working on video game cinemas and have a few others we are working on for some other console games. Unfortunately, it is too early to talk about them, but stay tuned.

PHA Anniversary Party

2010-04-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation just celebrated the animation studio's 9th birthday!!
To celebrate we held a shindig that had the theme of a 9-year-olds birthday party (Rachel Citron's idea).
Apropos to the theme we had a pin-the-tail on the donkey game.

At our party the donkey was actually a mule. Jasper the Mule to be exact. The game was an homage to one of our favorite current projects, a series of DVDs starring the eponymous equine. It was only fitting that the Director of those pieces, Doug Beck, was the winner.

And took home the trophy...

Bloodsnake's Wedding

2010-04-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation's very own supervising animator Shane "Bloodsnake" Minshew took the plunge into wedded bliss a couple weeks back. Most of the folks from the animation studio made it out to the Salt Lick Pavilion to share in the ceremonies. It was a great time!

Mr. and Mrs. Minshew are introduced for the first time to the tune of "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky.

Powerhouse COO and Co-founder Bruce Tinnin and Leslie Gabriel.

Director Doug Beck and Supervising Animator Louie Granda.

Ryan Cullen and the Brothers Deats.

Powerhouse CCO and Co-founder Frank Gabriel and his wife Leslie.

Rachel Citron, Megan Kluck, Mandy Graeber, and Stephanie McCrea.

Sam Deats and Jason Williams.

We also have some video of the crew dancing...but we'll just leave that to the reader's imagination.

Image of the Week: Commerce Bank-- Penny Arcade

2010-04-23T14:04:00.001-07:00

Here is a screen shot from 2004. Powerhouse Animation created the animation for the "Penny Arcade" coin counter for Commerce Bank. These touch screen machines were in Commerce Bank branches all across the northeast. When one of us made it to New York we would try to get a picture of one, but apparently banks frown on taking pictures inside them :-(.

Here is our animation studio's very own Jason Williams with one of the machines. Jason lived and worked for Powerhouse from New York for 6 months in 2006.

Commerce is now TD Bank, and Powerhouse retooled the animation for the coin counters and for the TD Bank Wowzone.

Powerhouse seems to have a weird relationship with the phrase Penny Arcade, which we imagine does not come up that often in other people's lives.

Penny Arcade Cinemas Episode 1
Penny Arcade Cinemas Episode 2

Luck of the Draw

2010-04-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

At Powerhouse Animation we have a weekly excercise to help keep our design skills in shape. Every week at the animation studio we all create a design based on the same topic and at 5:30 on Friday we share them on the conference room big screen. We call it "Luck of the Draw."

We started out as doing caricatures of our fellow employees:

Here a some links to some of the roasts. CAUTION: theses are full of inside jokes: Frank Gabriel, Brad Graeber, Bruce Tinnin, Doug Beck, Jason Williams, Krishna Jain, Sam Deats, Megan Kluck, Ronnie Williford, Cindy Crowell, Louie Granda, Shane Minshew, Ryan Cullen, Charles Kohlmeyer, Micah Lincoln, Rachel Citron, Patrick Quiring, Ed Booth, Jessie Pyles, Sam Lotfi, Stephanie McCrea, Adam Deats, Mary Brown, Jeff Freeman, Chris Beaver, Aaron Romo, Phil Knoll.

Eventually, we ran out of employees so we bought a raffle drum and everyone threw in a topic.

Some of the topics we have had so far are:

Robots Performing Menial Tasks, Flamingoes Throughout History, Geometric Celebrities, Powerhouse Smurfs, Bizarro Powerhouse!, Bowling Alley Animations, Animal Evolution, 90s Sitcom, Alternative Media Animals, Mythological Creatures in Mundane Context.

Most of the work we do is traditional animation or Flash animation. We find that this really helps people experiment with styles, new media, and stretch their design muscles when doing character design. At an animation studio, sometimes you end up working on a project and drawing the same thing for weeks, months, even years. This gives us a chance to keep everybody sharp.

You can check out more of the Luck of the Draws as we do them on the employee-run “Phetchblog”, where you can also see other sketches our folks are doing in their spare time

Our first blog post

2010-04-09T15:54:00.000-07:00

Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. is proud to announce the opening of our new blog. We are just getting things set up, but be sure to bookmark it and come check out things soon.

It might have taken us 9 years to get here, but better late than never, right?

We have been keeping a news section at the website if you want to learn more about the animation studio.