Greetings, My Friends.

Well, spring is here and along with it, the spring quarter! At De Anza, that is! And with it, the "head" of the animation program at De Anza, Marty McNamara, has gone on a little hiatus and left several visiting animation teachers in his stead. Two of which are former or current stop-motion guys! One is former Vinton animator and local animation director, Scott Nordlund, who knows all the tricks of the Claymation trade including the fabled strata-cut technique, among many other cool things. The other is Carl Willat, of Carl's Fine Films who is an animation director who has probably directed every Hershey's Kiss commercial you've ever seen.

A fun fact: it turns out Carl is a huge fan of Criswell, and has even met him! Yes, Criswell, the famous and often bizarre prognosticator of "Criswell Predicts" fame. Criswell is the man speaking in my first short, "Skullwell Predicts".