I saw the siggys… I saw the idea you had… I saw the trailer. All I can say is wow, great job with all of this! It looked like an actual trailer!! And the sigs are just awesome, too. I’m sorry I haven’t commented in here sooner! But everything’s just great so far, keep up the awesome work, TDIT!!
I love the pun of ‘nui’ - you, sir, are the king of puns on this forum! 
Nice use of El Matodor, there. I totally forgot about the bull in that scene. The only Chinese reference I can think of in Pixar’s films is the take-away food container in A Bug’s Life and Toy Story. Can you think of any?
Oh, trust me, it is. I have to study writing in Chinese every week, and it’s a pain in the neck for me to have to memorize all those words! But…I’m getting off-topic here xD.
thedriveintheatre: Hey, I’ve got a few ideas for next Christmas if you want to use them. Like: [spoil]WALL-E in the repair ward, when PR-T puts make up on him, make him look like a Christmas present. Or in Toy Story 2, when Andy finds his new toys, instead of saying “Thanks, Mom!” how about making him say “Thanks, Santa!”[/spoil]
But I’m not here to tell you what to do. 
This is your thread and they are your graphics. 
Sorry for the late replies, folks. 
A friend told me it takes six years (about the average length of elementary school) to be proficient in reading and writing it. Speaking it, though, should be considerably easier.
little_chef_eva09 - Aw, shucks. Actually I’m a noob compared to others like Pixfan, BDD, Wall-E and even you! But yeah, I’m a fan of minimalism, especially if it involves clean, sweeping lines or text. I admire architecture like Vivocity, a shopping mall in Singapore, or the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (featured in The International, a movie I’m looking forward to BTW). Movies like Heat or Miami Vice (both shot by Michael Mann). Autos like the Porsche 911 (which would explain why Sally’s my fave character from Cars ). Yeah, these are my ‘artistic inspirations’ so to speak.
Or I could be just too lazy to be fancy.
Thanks for the compliments! Glad you liked my work.
Do I get a crown?
Oh, the Chinese Cabaret of Metamorphosis! I remember that one, laugh out loud! I don’t recall any in Toy Story, though. 
Well, it’s a long stretch for strictly Chinese references, but in terms of Oriental representation, the sushi bar Harryhausens in Monsters Inc (although it’s Japanese, heh) could be considered.
I also had the impression that Boost and Wingo from Cars were Asian (since they were based on the Mitsubishi Eclipse and Nissan Silvia, respectively). Chuki, the chibi Japanese reporter car, and Mia and Tia (a spoof of Japanese fans and groupies in general) are a Mazda 121 and Miatas respectively. Thanks IMCDB!
Finally, Russell from Up is possibly the first Chinese character to have a lead role in a Western animated film. 
bright dot-dasher - I tried and failed several times to read and write Chinese through several agonizing tuitions throughout my childhood. Now my parents are satisfied if I can just learn to speak the language first! 
Those are excellent Christmas ideas by the way (I like the PR-T idea!) I’ll be glad to implement them this December, if you don’t mind.
At last, the 15 days of Chinese New Year are drawing to a close, which is why I think it’s appropriate to include a tearful Mushu (inspired by BDD’s recent avatars) for my current avvie. How heartbreaking.
Well, there’s always next year! And the last day is the coolest, cos’ that’s when the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day is celebrated! Young single ladies toss oranges into the sea, in the hopes that their future husband will pick it up. Back then, it was also the one day of the year when unmarried ladies could be seen with their partners. How romantic! Thanks Wikipedia!
I’m not particularly enthusiastic about going down to the beach to pick oranges, though, and it’s more celebrated in Penang, my parents’ hometown.
On a side note, V-Day is coming! Watch your butt for Cupid’s arrows!
The Chinese food container also made an appearance in Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille. Now that you mention it, those two cars do seem Asian. I think Wingo had some sort of Asian characters on the side, even…? Ah, Russell - the little chubber. Yeah, it’s about time different ethnicities were primarily represented in a Pixar film. I swear he’s Peter Sohn except in CGI and child form, and if you take off the cap.
You’re going to have a Valentines Day avvie or sig? If so, I can’t wait to see it.
Here it is!
As you all should be aware by now, V-Day is just round the corner, and here’s my avatar, with matching tagline, for the occassion.
This is one of the sweetest images from The Art of Wall-E book (it was on the cover). I mean, it just evokes Charlie Chaplin, or Woody Allen, or Cornelius Hackl, or any of the archetypal nervous guys who just try their best to simply make a girl happy. You can see how protective Wall-E is over Eve (he practically leans over to cover Eve with the umbrella, exposing himself to the rain instead), how he doesn’t really have to try to be a gentleman, because he already is. That’s what makes it such an endearing picture.
That is true love, personified. <3
My V-day sig is from the HD trailer (The picture quality is superb! 
) of the upcoming Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
I’m excited to see how the Scrat and Scratte love-hate relationship turns out, something tells me that his new lady friend will prove a formidable opponent for our intrepid sabre-toothed squirrel. Until then, enjoy my lame pun of the freefall sequence from the trailer. This is going to be a different kind of wordless romance (they communicate through body language and squeaks, much like Wall-E!), I’m telling ya!
Happy Valentine’s Day, folks!
I love that signature! “Falling in Love”…what a clever pun! I agree with you on Scrat and Scratte, and yeah, they are kinda like WALL-E and EVE with the body language and squeaks part. I also like your avvie because that scene was so cute. Ah…animated romance appeals to me.
Aww, your avatar is so sweet, thedriveintheatre! I love that picture, and the font you’ve used is really pretty. And your signature is cool too- I didn’t realise Scrat got a girlfriend!
Really nice avatar and signature for Valentine’s Day thedriveintheatre!
And lizardgirl, you can see the trailer with Scrat and his girlfriend here: [url]iTunes Movie Trailers
- C-3PO
looks at the “True Love” avatar, tilts head
Aww! That is so freakin’ adorable. I love the colours and the heart… <3
Thanks for your sweet compliments folks!
I can see the comic potential now… Scrat will now have to fight between getting his precious nut or the girl. And maybe at some point, she’ll learn that deep down, he really likes her and she’ll repent… or not.
lizardgirl - The font for the avatar is Lucida Calligraphy, and for the sig, Tahoma and Apple Chancery. In case you’re interested. And like C-3PO said, the trailer explains their first encounter, which is on Pixar’s level of beautiful subtlety (like their wordless exchange just through facial expressions and gestures) and plot ‘sophistication’ (like the brilliant twist at the end). If Blue Sky cuts the toilet humour cringeworthy of Dreamworks, and focuses more on Scrat and his silent adventures, I think they’d have a bigger winner on their hands.
C-3PO - Why thank you! Elvis tone Thank you very much!
rachelcakes1985 - Yeah, my heart melted too when I saw “The Art of Wall-E” 's cover. It was tough figuring out how to use the Pen Tool to draw that little heart, but uh… yeah, I knew you’d like it, Rachel!
Ahem, now for my Avatar and Sig of the week (Heh, if you’ve noticed, I change mine pretty regularly): In celebration of the Oscars season (as much as I think it’s a sham due to recent events), I’m doing a tribute to 2008’s films, to be released sometime next week if I’m lucky. I’m also hoping to release The Dark Droid Trailer 2 pretty soon too. But anyway my new avatar is the ‘plug’ for my upcoming video ‘event’. Loved the brilliant image done by Kevin O’Brien from The Art of Wall-E book (which I don’t own… yet. I got this image from Flickr). Came up with suiting tagline, cropped and shrunk it to avatar dimensions.
And… my sig. Originally I planned to use the avatar’s image for the sig, and vice-versa for the Eve screenshot, but when I composited Po, Mittens and Mr Oscar in, I couldn’t fit them all into the square 100x100 dimensions of the avatar (probably due to Eve’s long tractor beam). So I made it my sig instead (not to mention advertising my work as my avatar for a change). It’s supposed to be funny (you know, Wall-E wins the Best Animated for Oscar while Po looks on, haha), but I guess it’s kind of with a tinge of bitterness too. First, Wall-E got shafted like The Dark Knight for Best Pic while The Reader came out of nowhere. Then, the Annies debacle. And finally, the Peter Gabriel incident. So it’s been a pretty rough ride for the robot to the Oscars, and unless they pull a Happy Feet like they did in 06 (which I didn’t mind, because I loved both HF and Cars), I won’t be particularly impressed if Wall-E wins Best Anim as usual. Hence the past tense “I Won!”. It helps if you picture Eve saying it in a cheesy manner like Link does in the Faces of Evil (Watch 2:00 for that immortal line! )
Very nice signatures and avatars
I love your new avatar, thedriveintheatre, but that new signature really made me laugh, mainly because of the look on the Panda’s face. He looks so shocked, as if he expected to win it, but didn’t. I imagined EVE saying it in a really sort of robotic way, probably because of the frown on her face. Good work!
I love your ads/graphics. The avatar looks cute- it’s like WALL-E’s waving goodbye to 2008 (his year) and signaling for the movie next, Up. Even though I know, since you told us, that that’s not what’s really going on, but that’s how I pictured it at first.
What I like about your sig is not only how well it’s put together, but it’s creativity. I like how Po’s face is like “Wut?!” And Mittens is like, fine with it, like she just won a bet or something.
Did I mention how I am excited for your upcoming tribute to 2008 films?
MichaelBamford - Thanks!
lizardgirl -
Po doesn’t stand a chance! Strange you’d say Eve is frowning, since she has no mouth! Man, those bots can be sure expressive!
BDD -
That was the intention! Pretty good impression!
Well, I could do better with the border around Po and Mitten’s hair (which is pretty hard to get rid of in Photoshop), but I’m glad you liked it for its creativity. I bet Mittens won the office pool, haha! Keep an eye out for the video, I’ve just started on it to be honest, but I hope I can complete it soon!
Meanwhile, here’s another sig for the upcoming The Dark Droid trailer 2, which I’ve been promising a release, for like, ages. Should be anytime now, yep. 
Meanwhile, enjoy the random scribbles of insanity by our uh… favourite black and white control-freak. You can check out another of his ‘works’ on my YT wallpaper, just click the sig.
If there’s one consolation to be taken from this year’s disappointing Oscars haul, is that Wall-E at least got Best Animated Pic. Which is a no-brainer, really. I’m disappointed the robot didn’t break out of the ghettos unlike another ‘slumdog’, but well, at least it’s a win.
To quote Pierce Brosnan from the Goldeneye trailer, “You were expecting someone else?”
I really like the Andrew Stanton one TDIT. Really cute and funny at the same time.
That Andrew one is cool. Like I said in the other thread, it’s good to have a Pixarian featured on someone’s avatar. Is that Andrew or Oscar saying “Duh”?
I like “The Dark Droid” signature. WALL•E is really cute sitting there like a little kid rocking back and forth - a contrast to the “ready for action” stance of Batman next to him. The red scribbles on the blue-black background are very striking, too.
The “Wave Goodbye to 2008” avvie is adorable! That would have to be one of my top 3 avatars that you’ve worn (and it’s hard to narrow them down). The simple colour palette and cute drawing of our robot friend makes it one of my favs.
Wait… you didn’t want WALL•E to win for Best Animated Film? Why’s that? I’m intrigued. Or you just liked KFP more? Regardless, that signature is neat because EVE looks so determined like she’s saying “Don’t even try to take this award away from me - it’s MINE!” Great PhotoShopping on that signature, too.
Oh and “domo arigato, Mr. Roboto” in your signature, as WALL•E might respond: “Do itashi mashite.”
Thanks TSS! As always, I look forward to your regular comments on my work.
rachel - It’ supposed to be Andrew saying “Duh”, as in “It’s quite obvious, who else do you think would win?”
Originally, I planned to take the image of Wall-E peeking out from his cube looking timid to contrast with Batman’s brave stance, as shown in the first draft below.
But then I realised the perspective didn’t match, we’re looking at Wall-E from eye-level, while we get a “worm’s eye” for Batman. So I switched to the image of Wall-E sitting on the cube to get the same perspective, and made it look like he was staring up admiringly at the Bat (at least, i hope it looks that way). The red scribbles were my take on the Joker’s ‘graffiti’ art on the original posters, using the Pencil tool. You can guess the identity of this vandal on my YT homepage background, but needless to say, those who had watched the trailer would know who I matched the Joker to in my rendition.
I’m glad you think of my 2008 avvie as my top three. I’ll rewear it when I get closer to the advertised video’s released date. The colour palette and drawing is all Kevin O’ Brien’s works, I can only take credit for the tagline, heh.
The “I Won” sig was similar in message to my Stanton avatar. Nobody stands a chance against Pixar (though as much as I like them, I’d like to see a rival studio win for kicks, like Happy Feet in 06), so the Best Animated Ghetto award is pretty much predictable year after year, hence Eve already having the trophy in her chamber. Po looking stunned was just my jibe at Dreamworks, and like BDD said, Mittens is from Disney, and on Pixar’s side, hence the resigned grin. Hope that explains my sig, I was rooting for Wall-E, but back when I released it, Wall-E is pretty much in the bag for Best Animated Ceiling, I mean Picture.
Do you learn Japanese? I had to look your phrase up! Heheh.
Ha-ha! That original design of that signature made me crack up. I think it’s because WALL•E looks so scared, like he’s hiding behind the logo for protection (and also within his casing.) I have to agree, the signature you chose to wear with WALL•E looking up at Batman was a better choice.
Oh, I understand the story of the “I won!” signature now. EVE was taking the Oscar in advance because the result was already in the bag. Got it.
Heheh, thank you! I mean, arigatou. No, I’m not taking Japanese lessons or anything, but I watch Japanese TV series with English subtitles so you can’t avoid picking up simple phrases here and there. (But I have to admit that I looked up how to spell the words.)
Can’t wait to see the next graphic you have coming up, thedriveintheatre!