Powerhouse Christmas Party

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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!

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

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

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

Risk: Factions has made the front page of Yahoo!


You can read the story here.

San Diego Comic Con, 2010

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

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.