MyToons Get With The Times trip to NY

The Clear Channel screen

Last weekend was a blast. Thanks to MyToons for sending me to NY and putting my animation on the Clear Channel big screen! Raleigh Melancon at Mytoons, was so great in planning and setting up this trip. I brought a friend and we had a great time kicking around NY. I also took the opportunity to network a little.

We stayed at the Millenium Broadway Hotel in Times Square which was really convenient. It was just a block away from the Metro, and a block away from the big screen which I visited several times. I chatted up the front desk clerk, Terrance, and when he heard about the contest was really cool and upgraded us to a "superior" room on the 51st floor.


View from hotel room

We walked over to the screen. Times Square is really kind of overwhelming at first. Animation, ads, vids and screens everywhere. Feels like Bladerunner. It took us a second to figure out which screen it was on. But sure enough within a couple minutes, there it was! And immediately, I could see what great exposure it is. There are hundreds of people around, including families with kids. There are these big red riser steps that overlook the main drag and people are just standing there taking in all the pretty pictures.


Times Square view from the riser steps


Jane, all huge and stuff


Me, on the riser steps below the Clear Channel screen

Raleigh set up for us to have dinner at a place called 2 Times Square. The restaurant overlooks Times Square (window is basically looking out the same direction as the red riser steps). And has a view of the big screen. It was then we realized that the animation plays every 10 minutes (actually it turned out to be at 5 and then 10 minute intervals), which was WAY more than we expected, and every time it came on, we broke out the camera. For some reason, even though the view is amazing and interior is fantastic, the place was empty. Which worked out because we took a bunch of goofy pictures.


2 Times Square bar area


2 Times Square


This picture was taken from our table




Oh my god, there's a resemblance

The next day, Friday, I went out and used my digital camera to take some videos. Which turned out to be difficult because I couldn't quite figure out when it would come on.....There are so many repeating commercials (every other ad was either Quantum of Solace or the EA Game "Left For Dead"), that it was hard to anticipate when it would start.



After that, I had arranged a couple meetings to meet people I had only interacted with over email or by phone.

First I took a taxi to Frederator to meet Carrie Miller and Fred Seibert. I have submitted a few animations to Channel Frederator which lead to Carrie calling me up and commissioning a small bumper for the 2008 Frederator awards. They had a very cool office and Carrie and Fred were super nice. Fred Seibert took a couple minutes to chat and give me a lot of great creative and business advice as a freelance animator. He totally relates to what you go through. I was kind of hoping to catch Jeaux Janvosky there, but he was in my home state, California...go figure!


Carrie Miller, Me, and Fred Seibert in the Frederator offices

Then I walked about a mile and a half through SoHo to meet Megan Butler At Scholastic, the producer of a Leapster title I am working on for them. I met the other producers, in-house designers and technical people as well. Looks like a fun place to work!


With Megan Butler and the (much) smaller screen of the Leapster


A Happy Tree Friend handing out flyers (maybe their show isn't selling well on DVD?)

On Saturday and Sunday, I did random things like visit the NY Modern Art Museum, and saw Monty Python's Spamalot...which was SUPPOSED to have Clay Aiken(!), but there was a sub for that show :( . It was hilarious anyway.



No shortage of weirdness at the NY Modern


The Shubert Theater

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Everywhere I looked, I saw lots of reminders to vote....


Christina Aguilera, made up within an inch of her life, makes her case


Vote for Obamama!

This is officially the longest blog post I have ever written, but wanted to show that the trip ended up being a blast. Once again, thanks to MyToons for everything!