Artistry Gone Awry

How the dinosaurs disappeared

2012-01-07T23:37:00.000-08:00

Love the reactions in this piece and the eye animation is superb. :)

Anatomy of Fights

2011-12-24T01:41:00.000-08:00

To those that are not subscribed to animation mentor on youtube, go over there and subscribe now!!! Or you will miss out on clips like this one. Just warning you now....

Scotch and the Invention of Love

2011-11-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

Haha, I love in the end the outline of the people and the tree make the Loc Ness Monster

La Marche Des Sans Nom (the march of the nameless)

2011-11-25T02:29:00.000-08:00

La Marche Des Sans Nom (the march of the nameless) from Jean Constantial on Vimeo.

I like the first close up shot of the man in the suit, but the whole thing is clever and well designed.

Descendants

2011-11-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

Descendants from Goro Fujita on Vimeo.

Very nice facial animation, and the storyline was very intriguing.

Family dog, Brad Bird

2011-11-23T03:03:00.000-08:00

This is the first time I've seen family dog, but it is priceless. The character's are there as soon as the time that you see them. The hardest thing about animation is as any other performance is to win over the audience in the first 15 seconds of the character has on the screen. Each one of the "characters" has a well fleshed story line, The dad who want's to lie in front of the tv and get away from the family,The overworked wife that has noone to rant to except the dog, The little girl who is busy playing dress ups with her toys, and last but not least the boy that has the most fun when he is tormenting the dog and evading doing any chores around the house.

The Lady and the Reaper

2011-11-20T01:06:00.000-08:00

The lady and the reaper from Hormoz Zamanpour Siahkal on Vimeo.

I have watched this before but I did not post it on the blog, very funny animated short.
Nice use of fast action and and facial expressions and as well as a nice story line

Congrats to Frank Gansk for his progress reel Click Here to see it. The first piece very floaty although looking back nice keyframes in blocking have been removed but the last piece beautiful! Gave me goose bumps :)

Hilarious, little short

2011-11-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

Australian Animator Sarah Watt

2011-11-05T18:25:00.000-07:00

Died on Friday, Aged 53
Tried to look for some of her animations online since I have seen her animation before but failed... miserably.
But here is her talking about making acting "real"

This is the official article at abc Click here
Two interviews with Sarah Watt at Link 1 and Link two

Simple Humour never Dies

2011-11-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

To the Animators that are having an hard time trying to dream up plot devices, what about something as simple as a magnet?
Always keeping things simple means the plot line doesn't run away on you, that you finish on time and the animation doesn't suffer the fate of only being finished a day late and you have suffered the lack of sleep and nearly a caffeine overdose.
A very good use of smearing the frames to convey the fast action and the jokes are hilarious, take a break from worrying about animation and laugh out loud :)

The Animation Mentor Showcase 2011

2011-11-01T23:45:00.000-07:00

The Animation Mentor Showcase is out! Always the work is top notch and always amazing.

It is nearly the end of another year, sorry to all that read my blog that I haven't posted in awhile. I just haven't been feeling the animation spirit you know...

Thanks to Frank, Ian and Jane for making me feel welcome the other day when I decided to drop by, no one can make you feel much better than the teachers that taught you the secrets of animation. Good luck to all the soon graduates of the Southbank Institute of Technology.

If you missed me send me a comment, I will love to hear from all of you again.

Tangled 6th Jan

2010-12-21T19:39:00.000-08:00

See what you think of the trailer, I have been WAITING since FOREVER to see this movie. To quote wiki, some facts:
To date, it is the second most expensive film ever made, and the most expensive animated film, with a budget of $260 million.
Glen Keane is one of the Executive Producers and is the Animation Supervisor of this movie.
Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 121 reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10.
I hope that it doesn't disappoint.

The Riddle

2010-09-28T00:30:00.000-07:00

Nice concept and clever use of cycles

Long time... Need to animate more....

2010-06-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
If you haven't seen yet the James Baxter's Animation lecture over on Seward Street, you are missing out!

James Baxter Animation Lecture - Day One: Acting
March 26, 2008
For those who are unaware, James Baxter is returning to Dreamworks Animation in the Summer of 2008. Having completed two successful hand-drawn projects at his own studio (Enchanted and the opening credits of Kung Fu Panda), James finds himself wanting to concentrate solely on the art of animation. To commemorate his return and in an effort to improve the quality of animation at the studio, Dreamworks sponsored a three-day seminar for their animators.

The first day concentrated on Acting in Animation.

I transcribed my notes from today’s lecture. James used a lot of clips to make his points. In the interest of time I’ve written out the important parts. If I get a chance I’ll post the actual video clips. As today’s lecture concentrated solely on acting you’ll find a lot of what James said in his recent podcast with Clay at Animation Podcast.

Hopefully you’ll find these notes relatively coherent and useful:

Performance
Animators are the ones that throw the switch; the ones who make an audience forget that they are animated characters.

The most important thing is to try and find the truth. But you can’t do this by “method” animating. You can’t be in the moment for the length of time it takes to complete a scene. Actors do, while animators describe.

Best note of the day: You don’t have to do improv classes (Yeah!)

When you act out a scene, it’s important to remember that it is your body you are acting with, not your character’s. Your character can do things your body can’t (and is probably better at them as well).

Bill Tytla was the first animator to take acting in animation seriously.

Real Acting
Stanislavsky was the one who focused actors more on their preparation rather than on acheiving results. Method acting is the process of moving away from thinking about what you are going to do in a scene and instead, focusing more on what you need to do to prepare to make the scene honest and true. In this way, you allow the spontaneous to happen.

Meisner believed it wasn’t enough to rely on sense memory - that your memories were inadequate for the task of acting.

Sandy Meisner’s famous quote that great acting is - “the ability to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”

James showed a clip comparing Ben Kingsley’s acting in Ghandi with that of his performance in Sexy Beast.

Approaching a Scene
Many things to consider in your preparation for a scene:

The context of the scene in the sequence
How does a character move physically; what sets them apart from others in the same film?
Best way to stage a scene. Consider the correct angle to sell an emotion. In CG, it’s easy to lose the point of a scene behind all the lighting and rendering.
Aware of the composition of a scene.
Staging
Referring to the Shere Khan/Kaa sequence in Jungle Book.

Milt has set it up so you only look at one thing at a time. He crafted the scene so that when Shere Khan pops open his claws, everyone is looking there. Nothing else is moving. (Waste of time to always be moving all the background characters).

Your eye reacts to movement, color and contrast. Use those to direct your audience’s attention.

Fred Astaire good at that - staging a dance so you look exactly at what he wants you to.

Posing
For James, the life of a scene usually leads him from a very emotional point to a very technical one. Emotional as he figures out the acting; technical as he makes it look good.

Need to block things out with enough juice to communicate your intentions to the director.

Showed the Pinocchio scene with the tail popping out to point out: clear line of action and a clean and natural balance and rhythm to the poses.

Not a ton of different attitudes within a scene. Usually there is one or two major poses per scene. Used Horton as an example of animation having too much to it. Loved the scenes with JoJo because you could actually focus on what he was doing.

Remember the timing within a scene - make sure you have enough time to do the action that you want. Don’t force something in there just because you think it looks cool.

James’ Perfect Animator
James’ perfect animator exists somewhere between Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, and Ward Kimball:

Milt for pure draftsmanship, posing and technique.
Frank for truthful acting.
Ward for shere graphic ingenuity.
Ward Kimball is the one that constantly pulls James away Milt and reminds him that animation is not real; you can actually do whatever you want.

Comparing the work of Frank Thomas to Milt Kahl
Frank Thomas always considered the “actor’s animator.” While Milt used poses to communicate his intentions, often focusing on a single drawing, Frank used actions to communicate the intentions of his scenes.

Milt’s scenes tend to have very strong “tentpole” poses; what happens inbetween them is often the same motion (headshakes, hand gestures, etc.).
Frank was more concerned with the feeling and flow through a scene. He made drawings that wouldn’t necessarily work on a model sheet, but in motion they feel right.

Showed a sequence with Madam Mim from The Sword in the Stone where she speaks to Wart on the table. The “one little finger” and “ugly” scenes were Milt and they look very familiar (move like other characters). Beautiful but reminiscent. Frank’s scene is the one directly after where she walks by Wart looking down at him from the corner of her eye. Milt would probably never have done this kind of acting, but it feels more truthful to the scene.

Showed sequences from Jungle Book comparing the different ways of approaching animation on Baloo. The scene of Baloo screaming “Bagheera!” at the edge of the cliff was Milt’s. Baloo gets up and starts punching the air. Milt seems more considered with making awesome drawings that animate beautifully. Seems to get carried away with the mouth shapes on “mangy monkey.” Frank probably would’ve used that opportunity to have Baloo connect more with Bagheera.

Then he showed the scene of Baloo waking up Mowgli - very different acting choices.

Analyzing Live Action
If you find yourself watching a greatly acted scene but not knowing exactly why it works think, how else could they have done it? That helps you figure out what kind of preparation they had to go through and helps you to see the kinds of choices that had to be made.

A Real Actor
Then Allison Janney showed up and I stopped taking notes - too captivating!

One thing I did write down that she said: Find what is important to your character (what they themselves think is important). If it’s not in the script you have to make it up.

A good technique to help you stay true to the character.

If you want more of the lecture Click Here

Do you have what it takes?

2010-02-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

As the second years start to head back to Tafe and start their final year as being animation students. I want to give them some advice that I had learned or stumbled across in the time that I have had outside being taught in a class.
So here goes, do you think you have what it takes to be an Animator? There is plenty positions out there full of great Animators already. Why would they need another one? unless you show that you are dedicated to the task, passionate about what you are animating, handle criticism well, good with people and keep on re-training yourself outside of work hours... If you don't have these, or might be able to learn those abilities you might as well just walk away now.
You will get your first job in the industry by who you know not what you know (unless you have made a 'pixar' quality showreel and this might be achievable to the 0.5% of the student Animators out there at the moment...). So network as much as you can with the industry, we are lucky that there is so many networking opportunities available to us such as the Brisbane Industry Drinks which gets held every 6 weeks or so and plenty more available down in Sydney if you can afford the plane ticket. Going on these safaris with contact card in hand and remember not to type up your details the last thing before bed. Also try to collect as many cards as you can, you might never now when you might use them but they are still valuable.
Second year might look far away now but it is only 576 days to learn as much as you need to know, don't leave all the animation up to the last three months before the end of tafe to wack up something...

Would you know what is the difference between a walk or a run?

2010-01-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Found a great tutourial on walking and running and exactly how are they different? If you would like to know Click here.

Muppet Labs Experiment 5T832: Ghost Hunt

2010-01-18T02:11:00.000-08:00

HAHAHa.... I am so evil, poor beaker :(

Lavatory - Lovestory 2007 - Oscar 2009 Animated Short Film

2010-01-17T02:45:00.000-08:00

Cute and original little film.

Notes from Bill Plymton

2010-01-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Note: These are not mine, I found them at http://s7.zetaboards.com/Brackenwood/topic/429323/1/ if you want to look at them in their original form. Thanks to whoever posted them.

-Most, if not all, of the 2D animations we looked at lacked shadows or significant shading. This is the quickest way to give your characters depth and weight (volume or "heaviness"). He cited "Spirited Away" as a good example of this; many of the characters had at least 3 tones of color depth. On some characters it went up to 5 or 6.

-Make sure there is contrast in the picture between your characters and the background; you don't want your character to blend in when they're stationary (unless they're a chameleon or a ninja). Contrast using motion, color, saturation, or other elements that differ from the rest of the scene are going to be what catches your viewer's eye first.

-Vice-versa of the last point: Make sure things that you don't want the viewer to fixate on aren't begging for attention. For example, in one clip that we saw, there were two characters dancing in a restaurant. Everything in the background was very desaturated and cool-colored except for a bright yellow trumpet. All the audience could look at was the trumpet, not the characters. This is an important point of composition and it happens to the best of us; make sure that the overall picture is readable and pleasing.

-Even if you aren't making a "cartoon" per se, your designs need to be attactive, dynamic, and eye-catching. Caricature important expressive features of your character; if your character emotes mostly through wiggling his ears, you may want to make his ears a little larger than normal to make the emoting more visible to the audience.

-The more you draw a character in motion, the more refined at suited to motion it will become. If there are inherit anatomy or design flaws to the character, they will become apparent. Bill Plympton recommended making AT LEAST 100 sketches of a character before animating with it.

-If you use extreme caricature in your design, make sure that the important symbols (eyes, ears, nose, arms, tail, etc) are still recognizable.

-Use the power of framing and cutting between shots; if two characters are talking to each other, cut between them to provide focus for the viewer's eye.

-Bill Plympton spends his first hour awake each morning thinking about the continuity, extreme poses, and composition for the animation that he plans on doing that day, and he doesn't sit to animate until he has done this thinking. In other words, THINKING TIME IS PRODUCTIVE TIME (just don't procrastinate)!

-Lastly, expose your work periodically to other artists or people you trust. They might be able to catch any glaring flaws before they get too far into development. It's easy to be blind to your own mistakes.

Next Bill Plympton gave an over-all lecture on how to succeed as an independent animator. Remember, this is principally advice for if you plan on becoming INDEPENDENT, although it can also help if you want a better chance at being directly hired into big-name studios:

-Look for any sort of work that will put money in the bank so you can set aside time for animating later, learn technology, make connections with people in the biz, build a portfolio. These are the basics to making it solo.

-Plympton's rules for independent success:
1. Make it short: 5 minutes or under.
2. Make it cheap. Use cheap found voice talent, use music by the local band, use donated equipment, don't be above handouts. DO NOT GET DRAGGED INTO PAYING ROYALTIES UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO SPARE! Be respectful of using other people's work.
3. Make it funny.

-You can break ALL of the above rules and still be a success, but it might come at a cost. "Ryan," who won the Oscars, lost LOTS of money making their film.

-Do NOT send your unsolicited material to any studios! It sits in huge piles by the office door and never gets watched. If you DO want to get noticed, enter into film festivals.

-Bill Plympton's list-o-festivals (IOW, big names hang out here):
1. Student Oscars (They don't get many entries, hence less competition).
2. Annecy (Good, responsive audience).
3. Sundance (Popular; good publicity).
4. Cannes (They don't take a lot of animation, but what animation they do take REALLY gets noticed).
5. Others: Ottowa, Zagreb, Hiroshima, Utrecht, Cleremond-ferrand, Newport RI, Florida Orlando, Woodstock, etc.

-If you do make it into a film festival and someone makes you an offer for your material, DO NOT settle on a deal right away. Talk to their past clientele and beware of long-term exclusive contracts. Negotiate with them so that they must exhibit your work at least once every six months to a year or they lose their contract with you. If they are legitimate, they should do this with you.

-If you are marketing your film on the web, build a website for it, market it on forums where you can, and build a fan base. If you become popular enough, you'll get offers. Make sure you copyright EVERYTHING that is yours, since theft is so easy on the internet. Write "COPYRIGHT (year) (full name)" at the bottom of every website page and at the end of every film.

-Avoid dialogue where possible. This makes your films more marketable in foreign territories, and you don't have to spend time dub/subbing your work into 20+ languages to make you competitive at festivals.

-For more films festivals, check out "filmfestivals.com"

-Remember that animators, like many artists, can be quite marketable in lots of fields if you decide to be flexible. You can animate for commericals, educational aids, films, games, tv -- anything that moves in media was done by someone, and you can do it too. If you have an overlapping talent, such as illustration in Bill Plympton's case, you can market that skill if the animation field goes flat for a while.

Avatar

2009-12-19T00:14:00.000-08:00

The director planned to create photo-realistic computer-generated characters by using motion capture animation technology, on which he had been doing work for the past 14 months. Unlike previous performance capture systems, where the digital environment is added after the actors' motions have been captured, Cameron's new virtual camera allows him to observe directly on a monitor how the actors' virtual counterparts interact with the movie's digital world in real time and adjust and direct the scenes just as if shooting live action; "It’s like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale."[49] Cameron planned to continue developing the special effects for Avatar, which he hoped would be released in summer 2009. He also gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology.[50] Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.

Other technological innovations include a performance-capture stage, called The Volume, which is six times larger than previously used and an improved method of capturing facial expressions. The tool is a small individually made skull cap with a tiny camera attached to it, located in front of the actors' face which collects information about their facial expressions and eyes, which is then transmitted to the computers. This way, Cameron intends to transfer about 95% of the actors' performances to their digital counterparts. Besides a real time virtual world, the team is also experimenting with a way of letting computer generated characters interact with real actors on a real, live-action set while shooting live action.
Read more here.

Alma by Rodrigo Blaas

2009-12-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

The power of Youtube

2009-12-18T03:14:00.000-08:00

Fede Alvarez, a Uraguayan filmmaker and animator who created a YouTube hit with his low-budget sci-fi short, Panic Attack!, has signed a deal with Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures to develop and direct an original genre project. While Panic Attack! only cost several hundred dollars, his deal with Ghost House is reportedly in the six- against seven figure range (meaning that he’s being paid $X00,000 and if the film gets made he gets a bonus amount which would bring his salary to $X,000,000). The same day Alvarez posted his video, Hollywood came calling as they were impressed with what he was able to accomplish with such a low budget. read the rest here.

"Breaking" into Games

2009-12-12T03:35:00.000-08:00

For those out there who have an eye on working in the Games Industry. The IDGA has set up this site for all aspiring "young" people who want to know how to get in. Why not have a look? Click here.

Nearly the end of another year, Oh My..

2009-12-10T23:53:00.000-08:00

The latest offering from the Muppets "The Ringing of the bells". So in good faith I offer you a Merry Christmas or a very Happy Holidays and hope next year is better then this one for one and all.
One thing I do think the Muppets do very well is a clear sense of personality and entertaining relationships developed by the characters playing off against each other.

Wise words from another Animator

2009-12-02T04:35:00.000-08:00

"Alina: Getting into the industry could be challenging, doesn't matter what job you are applying. The key is to be persistent. If it's the job you want, chase after it. As long as you are constantly improving and learning, you will achieve your dream. There is different between game, animation and live action reel. Even among the same genre, you need to tailor your reel differently, say if you are applying for a
cartoony project versa a hype real style project. Always research on what the particular studios you are applying for is seeking at the time they are hiring, and edit your reel to fit their requirement. If
you know anyone work at certain studios or the HR hotline, no harm to ask them for more information."
(and)
"As for animating a scene ... I usually try to understand the character's motive; listen to the soundtrack a few times, try to relate to the emotion of the character; consider the story as a whole
and what's the character thinking ... Then I will block out the key pose, pay extra attention to the storytelling pose etc.. After the key poses, then do the in-between pose etc.. To me the thinking and
planning process is very very important. Unfortunately in game production, the animators don't always have as much time as they like to think and plan. Very often in game, they require animators to
complete 8 sec animation in a day. This is a much quicker turn around then say feature film production. It forces the animators to think and animate very quickly. The pro is the animator learn a lot of clever
short cut of doing things; good at improvise ideas; develop board efficient acting style. The con is the level of detail usually suffer due to the fast turn around and short deadline."

From Alina Chou, The full interview is on Andrew Kin Fun Chan's blog. Read more there.

Interview with Animation Directors, Lucas Martell and Joaquin Baldwin

2009-11-28T00:28:00.000-08:00

It's starting to become a competition between Frank and I to see what useful and interesting stuff we can find on the internet. Sorry, Frank, I found it first :(.

The Cat and the Juggler

2009-11-19T04:39:00.000-08:00

Is it really that hard to make a short film? No not really, you just have believe that you can do it and get it done.

These guys have done a wonderful job, I wish I could hopefully be at that animation level next year. Practice and Persistence, that is the key to success.

The Saloon

2009-11-15T00:55:00.000-08:00

Interesting gestures and character interaction.

My Favorite Brunette

2009-11-10T16:29:00.000-08:00

Was watching this last night. In this day and age it is refreshing how random this movie can get. The one thing that this movie does really well, is that with some clever direction and plot you can tell a really good story with so many twists and still have the audiences attention and also how much this movie spells out somethings but leaves some things in the dark...

I think that is what we have lost in this age... with movies with no plot, ironing out the twists in the storyline because we think the audience will not understand what we are trying to say and killing people with endless sequels just to make more money.

What can we do as humans?

2009-11-07T03:24:00.001-08:00

As Einstein said: "What you can do is only limited by your imagination".
But as Animators we have to figure out how humans move and the only way to do that is to study humans, to start we are human, but we tend to think that we can't do somethings, well.. check out the videos underneath and then change that thought for good :).

Animation Advice

2009-11-06T04:40:00.000-08:00

Can you give some advice to young people who would like to work in animation?
Pete Docter: I get a lot of people telling me, "I'm thinking of making an animated film." Well don't think about it...DO IT! Today's technology makes it easier than ever to create films right in your home. I had a teacher tell me, "You've got 10 thousand bad drawings in you before you get to the good ones. So get drawing." The same goes for films (though, as you're making them, they're all works of genius).

Bob Peterson: Several things. First of all, just start animating! Don't wait for someone to say it's ok. When I was younger I drew a comic strip that appeared everyday in my college newspaper -- I got to draw a lot and get a ton of feedback from readers. This was invaluable to me as a storyteller today. Always carry a notebook to do sketches. Watch and analyze animation. Go to conferences and get to know people -- it is who you know sometimes that does get you the job. The best advice is to make sure to get good life experiences -- we draw from our experiences every day in story and animation!

House on small cubes

2009-11-02T22:10:00.000-08:00

The Illusion of Life

2009-11-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

Want to work at Pixar?

2009-11-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

To learn more about working at Pixar, Alex Orrelle gets asked a few questions. Click here

Stairway to Katan

2009-10-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

Work in Progress

2009-10-31T15:58:00.000-07:00

A Documentary on Tex Avery

2009-10-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Interviews with Animators

2009-10-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Good use of Personality

2009-10-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Words of Wisdom.

2009-10-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

James Baxter on the “Process”

- the more you get to the place where you have a pretty good idea of what it looks like without testing it, the better.

Process wise- the ability to project ahead. When you time out your keys in the lunchbox, determine which drawing is really gonna be there. You got to commit and write the number down on the piece of paper. If it works, then you’ve learn something. You get a better idea of what it’s going to look like in the end.

It’s all about analyzing what you’re doing. Trying to break down the little things in what you’re doing. He structures his scenes not only around the extremes of what’s happening but also structuring in terms of what’s happening in the torso.

Structuring a scene - deciding which drawings are going to be on which frames and committing to them. “Tent poles” - where everything comes together to a solid structure.

On perspective runs - just plan out the perspective on one sheet of paper by drawing indictors for where the heads are.

On a woman running with dress - draw what’s going on underneath the legs first and then overlay the dress.

Animating tension/acting in a scene. - takes some acting chops, actor’s ability. To come up with the right acting choices to sell the idea. Da Vinci’s quote, “Drawings should be done in such a way so that there is no confusion as to what’s going on.” Honesty. *

Q: What do you think about video reference?

JB: Could be good and bad. Just realize the pitfall. The character will be doing what you’re doing. The character might not be you. Just keep that in the back of the mind. He never acts in the mirror because it assures that the character will end up looking like him too much. It’ll be his mouth shape, not the character.

If you want to read more interviews with great Animators. Click here.

Inanimate Objects; What point do they come alive?

2009-10-19T04:20:00.000-07:00

Saw a the wind moving an dandelion seed along the ground today, though in my head I knew the reason why it was moving but it was appealing and after awhile I forgot that I was watching something that wasn't alive and wasn't moving of it's own accord.

Basically,it was following the basic rules of life which I wrote down on the spur of the moment and here they are (If there are anymore that people think of, they are welcome to post in the comment section);

A) Thought (Time for reflection, the object stops still for awhile)
B) Change of direction and momentum (suddenly slow down and moves in a different direction or speeds up)
C) Clear sense of Personality (how does it move to express itself, and the weight it carries i.e does it need more momentum to move?)
D) Change of Thought (disorientation or the thought that was going to be carried out gets forgotten, moves slightly in one direction and then moves another and then slows down to a stop)

Matt Munn, talking about the move from student to a job as an animator

2009-10-17T02:54:00.000-07:00

Keith Lango Tutorials

2009-10-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

Words of wisdom

2009-10-13T23:50:00.000-07:00

From the Guy that made Pigeon Impossible, Lucas Martell

"As animation nears completion, I’ve found myself slowing down and its taking way longer than I had anticipated per shot. The taskmaster side of me hates that, but its also been a great insight into how my brain works. I’ll go through phases where I’m really motivated and can crank out shots extremely quickly. These always seem to happen when I’m not doing other freelance jobs and so production takes on more of a “work” atmosphere. I need to put in my 8-10 hours a day in order to feel like I’ve accomplished something worthwhile that day. However, most of the work on PI has been done after hours and on the weekends. I’ve learned that when I’m busy with paying jobs, I really can’t force myself to work or crank out the footage. The only way to get anything productive done is to approach it as a fun learning experience. It’s kind of like tricking my brain into working. Instead of sitting down with a specific goal in mind, I’ll usually just scrub through a little piece of the animatic. When some little thing sparks an idea, I’ll play around with it and usually before I know it, I’ve started posing the shot. That’s usually the toughest hurdle. Once I’ve started something, its easy to keep working on it but getting over the “blank piece of paper” syndrome is a lot tougher. I hope my brain doesn’t catch on before this project is finished."

The Cat Piano

2009-10-13T19:04:00.000-07:00

The Cat Piano from PRA on Vimeo.

2009 Demoreel

2009-10-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Cassandra Ward Showreel 2009 from cassie ward on Vimeo.

My Demoreel for 2009, please do have a look.
As always all comments and criticism is appreciated.

Tissa David

2009-10-03T02:11:00.000-07:00

Probably the one of the most inspiring pioneer women animators,

This is her Bio from the Micheal Sporn Animation website:
Tissa David has long been the foremost woman animator on the East coast; her career spanning more than sixty years. Born in Transylvania, Ms. David escaped to Paris in 1950, where she worked for Producers Jean Image and Paul Grimault. In 1955 she moved to New York where she worked as Grim Natwick's assistant at UPA.

Her animation for John Hubley included commercials, shorts and a feature. Cockaboody, Everybody Rides The Carousel, Eggs, Dig, and Of Men and Demons were some of the illustrious projects she animated for the noted animation director.

Tissa, along with Art Babbitt, Grim Natwick and Emery Hawkins, was one of the master animators of the feature film Raggedy Ann and Andy, directed by Richard Williams in 1977. In 1978 she began work with R.O.Blechman, animating on his PBS specials Simple Gifts and A Soldier's Tale.
Her animation for Michael Sporn Animation includes the entire half hour of The Marzipan Pig. She did storyboard and animation for The Red Shoes, storyboard and layout for Ira Sleeps Over, and animation for The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. She has worked on many of Michael's other films as well.

(Of course it didn't add that Eric Golberg was her assistant animator on Raggedy Ann and Andy, though.)

This is some of her work:

Frank Thomas-Baloo and Mowgli

2009-09-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

Inspiring Animation

2009-09-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Heh, yeah... posted alot up here today, I hope everyone is enjoying what I post up here. Any comments on what I should or not post up here would be appreciated :).

Ollie Johnson - One amazing animator

2009-09-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

Found some videos about Ollie Johnson on the net thought I would post them here for everyone to look at.

Joma Santiago

2009-09-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

Saw this guys work on Youtube, very nice sense of movement and character.
Would like to find out a little bit more about him, but oh well, here it is, some of his work.

Sweet Animation

2009-09-27T19:21:00.001-07:00

CHARGED - Animated Short Film from Collin T on Vimeo.

Could you do this?

2009-09-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

Studio 4°C

2009-09-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

Stumbled on this studio the other day rather interesting.
This is what wiki says about them;
Studio 4°C is a Japanese animation studio founded by Koji Morimoto, Eiko Tanaka, and Yoshiharu Sato in 1986. The name comes from the temperature at which water is densest. They are known for marrying the spirit of independent festival animation with a more mainstream anime aesthetic. In addition much of their output is considered superflat with some artwork from Morimoto being featured at Takashi Murakami's exhibitions.

If you want to check out their official site Click here.

They do some ethereal and beautiful stuff, posted some of their work here for you to have a look at.

Comedy and Animation?

2009-09-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

I had to post this as well. love his use of his hands, hands are not an extension, they are are tool for conveyance of an attitude and thought. The poses are clear and direct and for kudos hitting the right notes.:P

Odds and Ends

2009-09-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

Interest to blog to flounder though as well. Man V.s Art

A great blog, worth flipping through. Asterisk Pix

Wisdom from a two Animators, To check out.

Another well written Animator's blog by Erik Westlund. Pushing Poses.

Saw this and had to post it... for animators this parody/education movie on copyright hits the spot

Gesture Drawings

2009-09-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I might as well post these up here, these are just quick "scribbles" that I have done that I liked because of the attitude and since I haven't done a lot of drawing for awhile, I thought I needed to exercise my drawing muscles. But I will now stop talking... enjoy or comment.. It is up to you. :)

Did it on purpose, why?

2009-09-15T01:26:00.000-07:00

It is true with all of us, we make excuses about our animation.
Someone that is trying to help us make some in roads into our animation walks up and says "wouldn't it be better if you did this instead of this?" and we just look at them and say "oh, I did that on purpose".

First off, you haven't got anything to lose by trying to implement change, actually it makes you stronger. You should constantly be seeking what is wrong with your work and try to improve it. I have heard more than one great animator say "ask people for a critique" and what is so wrong about taking advice anyway? the person is spending valuable time that they could be doing something else instead, like animating?

Also it doesn't take that much time to actually find if it will look good or not, if you are animating traditionally, just put a page on top and start roughing in the suggested changes if you really think that nothing has improved you go back to the old drawings. simple enough? If you are doing computer animation, just save your scene and then start working on what the person has said and then if you haven't thought that it is not right go back to old scene.

Don't shoot people down in flames, they go out on a limb to help you out and if you don't want to actually step out of the "lazy animator" and see if they might be right and then tell them "it was there on purpose" then sooner or later they will know that they are not wanted and will not give their opinion.

The role of the animator is always to be wondering "why? why am I doing this? why am I doing that?" by not doing this you are officially letting yourself down by letting the laziness creep in under the doormat and dominate your animation.

I am sure that none of the nine old men was ever happy with their animation, they would struggle for days roughing out one pose so it looked perfect, yell at animators if they had something wrong in their scenes, spent every waking and sleeping second, living and breathing the art of animation.

Just remember that your only boundary is yourself. Go out there, learn, fail and then get up and start all over again. Animation is not for the faint of heart and so challenge yourself not let others set the challenge for you.

Over and out.

The constant search for Inspiration

2009-09-13T04:04:00.000-07:00

One of the most important things as animator is sourcing motivation and get it to flow through those veins, to feel your heart pump and fingers start tremble and those eyes light up, when you're animating a scene. The hard part is to keep the motivation high, and not to let those animation "blues" be bringing you down.

Inspiration is possibly the most motivational,
Things that make me feel inspired;

The Old Disney Masters linetests and other great pieces of animation that are floating around (I try to get the opportunity to go through it frame by frame, "oh, that's where they did this or that" I say to myself as I am doing it),

Animation Podcasts, they are very easy to listen to while you are doing animation and it is inspiring to listen to these legend animators talking about their "break" into the industry and listen to what they have worked on too.

Animation Books and Animation Tutorials, they do give you the inspiration to step up the game and give the chance for you to put your best foot forward... learned much more about the graph editor that I did before and that gave me more time to think about my animation instead :).

Teaching someone about something that you have learned about animation and talking about animation is really good too, it gets you ingrain the knowledge a little bit deeper and also give you chances to remember what makes you so passionate about animation.

Cats don't Dance

2009-09-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

I came across this today, some of the animation is absolutely brilliant, I wish that I had gone through it frame by frame.
Check it it out.

Is it Helping your Animation or Killing it?

2009-08-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

We all have them, from as soon as we get up in the morning to as soon as we go to sleep at night.

What am I talking about? Habits.

The two ways that we learn, That we do something that scares us enough to remember not to do it again or by the force of repetition (Habit).

The way we approach our animation, if we don't rely on good and better habits then we can and keep relying on the "old" way that we know, then are we just pounding away with our head on the proverbial brick wall?

The thing is that animation is a time consuming task, no wonder we pick up so many bad habits when it comes down to it.

What we need to do is track them down and destroy them, write down on a piece of paper your perceived bad habits when it comes to animating and write next to them the new habit that you want to replace it with.

Here is some pointers when it comes to Replacing Bad Habits from pick the brain.com

One Habit For 30 Days – Steve Pavlina, popularized the 30 Day Trial. You focus on one change for thirty days. After that time it has been sufficiently conditioned to become a habit. I’ve used this as the basis for most of my habit changes. It definitely works to sculpt the automatic programs that run in the background of your mind.

Use a Trigger – A trigger is a short ritual you perform before a habit. If you wanted to wake up earlier this might mean jumping out of bed as soon as you hear the sound of your alarm. If you wanted to stop smoking this could be snapping your fingers every time you feel the urge for a cigarette. A trigger helps condition a new pattern more consistently.

Replace Lost Needs – If you opened up your computer and started removing hardware, what would happen. Chances are your computer wouldn’t work. Similarly, you can’t just pull out habits without replacing the needs they fulfill. Giving up television might mean you need to find a new way to relax, socialize or get information.

One Habit at a Time – A month may seem like a long time to focus on only one change, but I’ve found trying to change more than a few habits at a time to be reckless. With just one habit change you can focus on making it really stick. Multitasking between three or four often means none become habits.

Balance Feedback – The difference between long-term change and giving up on day 31 is the balance of feedback. If your change creates more pain in your life than joy, it is going to be hard to stick to. Don’t go to the gym if you hate it. Find diets, exercise, financial plans and work routines that are fun to follow and support you.

“But” to Kill Bad Thoughts – A prominent habit-changing therapist once told me a great way to nuke bad thinking. Anytime you feel yourself thinking negatively about yourself, use the word “but” and point out positive aspects. “I’m lousy at this job – but – if I keep at it I can probably improve.”

Write it Down – Don’t leave commitments in your brain. Write them on paper. This does two things. First, it creates clarity by defining in specific terms what your change means. Second, it keeps you committed since it is easy to dismiss a thought, but harder to dismiss a promise printed in front of you.

30, 90, 365 – I’d like to say most habits go through a series of checkpoints in terms of conditioning. The first is at thirty days. Here it doesn’t require willpower to continue your change, but problems might offset it. At ninety days any change should be neutral where running the habit is no more difficult than not running it. At one year it is generally harder not to run the habit than to continue with it. Be patient and run habits through the three checkpoints to make them stick.

Get Leverage – Give a buddy a hundred bucks with the condition to return it to you only when you’ve completed thirty days without fail. Make a public commitment to everyone you know that you’re going to stick with it. Offer yourself a reward if you make it a month. Anything to give yourself that extra push.

Keep it Simple – Your change should involve one or two rules, not a dozen. Exercising once per day for at least thirty minutes is easier to follow than exercising Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays with yoga the first day and mountain biking the third day, except when it is raining in which case you will do… Simple rules create habits, complex rules create headaches.

Consistency is Key – The point of a habit is that it doesn’t require thought. Variety may be the spice of life, but it doesn’t create habits. Make sure your habit is as consistent as possible and is repeated every day for thirty days. This will ensure a new habit is drilled in, instead of multiple habits loosely conditioned.

Experiment – You can’t know whether a different habit will work until you try it. Mix around with key habits until you find ones that suit you. Don’t try to follow habits because you should, but because you’ve tested them and they work in your life.

Notice to the Women Animators out there!

2009-08-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

Hi Girls,
I thought that I would post these up here for you, since I did find them useful myself.

The first article is about how we tend not give the right impression when it comes to our body langauge. Click here to read.

The next article is about the habit as a women to underestimate yourself by judging yourself on what other people think. Click here to read.

These are from the Women in Games International mailing list, a mailing list dedicated to discussing the trails and tribulations of working in the industry from a female perspective.

Have you got your 10,000 hours?

2009-08-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a friend for bringing this up...

For someone to know something to an intuitive level, to be really great something you need to have done something for 10,000 hours.

All animators start out the same, you probably don't believe me, but they do... Just pick one, your IDOL, the animator you look up to.

Have a look at their collage work, they started out absolutely the same as you. The only difference is how many hours they have put in...

Work hard and you will Succeed!

Cool Stuff

2009-08-09T15:36:00.001-07:00

What Makes a Good Pose? Click here to find out!

An Interview with Animator DJ Nicke, An awesome Interview! Check it out.

The Blog of Aaron Gilman, Don't go past this one.

The Blog of Kevan Shorey, this one too.

An Interview with Animator David Gibson, Check this out.

Some great Articles on the art of Animating, You have to see this!

John Lasseter - Advice for Aspiring Animators.

2009-08-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

John Lasseter Q&A Any advice for aspiring animation student?
Uploaded by disneypixar. - Explore international webcam videos.

The Learning Curve.

2009-08-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

I came across the other day about there scientifically being "plateau's" in learning. So when we actually are learning we are learning like this:

http://www.puttingzone.com/graphics/Figures/learningcurve3.gif.

So therefore we take much more time between one stage to the next learning and we also have times were we seem to not of progressed at all or might of taken a few steps back. Also with this we tend to come rather discouraged and upset with ourselves about not "advancing" at all.

How to Be an Original blog has a few helpful pointers about beating this problem

"Beating the plateau
Even when the plateau is not really a plateau (you’re still making progress), how can you beat the feeling that you’re not making progress? Here are some suggestions:

* Focus on the fun
Focus on enjoying what you’re doing, rather than on the progress you want to make. You have left the beginner stage, you’re at intermediate level already, now have some fun!
* Take some time off
If you get frustrated with the new sport (or every other learning process), take some time off. If you’re losing the fun, don’t pursue your learning goals relentlessly. Take some time off to regain the fun, but don’t quit!
* Celebrate your intermediate level
You’re not a beginner anymore! Be proud! At this time you can change from learning to gaining experience. At the intermediate stage and beyond gaining experience is the learning process. You have the rudimentary skills, now repeat them a lot to integrate them into your system. And by doing so you’re building confidence.
* Accept that there is not learning plateau
The learning plateau is not real, it’s a mental concept. You are making progress, it just doesn’t feel like it. Accept that there’s no learning plateau and reframe it to the concept of slower progress of more advanced stages. There is no learning plateau…"

Animation Movies, that I can't wait to see..

2009-07-05T02:54:00.000-07:00

The Release dates are Australian.

Coraline 6 August 2009 Trailer

UP 3 September 2009 Who hasn't watched a trailer for this yet? If you haven't

Astro Boy 22 October 2009 Trailer

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 26 November 2009 Trailer

Where the Wild Things Are 3 December 2009 Trailer

The Princess and the Frog 26 December 2009 Trailer

Shane Acker's "9" Still don't know when it is going to be in Australia.

Would love for this to be released in Australia, The Secret of Kells Trailer

If you seen anymore, that have looked amazing don't hesitate to tell us in the comments section.

Something to Note-The underrated Bouncing Ball

2009-07-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

For a few weeks now, In the morning, everyday now. Before I get into animating what current project I'm doing at the time.

I sit down and animate a Bouncing Ball, yup, that's right. The most useful thing to actually practice your animation teeth on. I take about an hour to do a 70 to about 200 frame, Bouncing Ball.

It is good, it short enough to keep up the interest, it breaks up the day by introducing something new, and you can do anything you like with it.

And for the people who are actually tired of working with a boring ball, what about one with a tail? Click hereOr if you want to throw facial animation into the mix? Click here

And who says that bouncing balls can't be cool?
Obviously hasn't seen this animation from Cameron Miyasaki. Click here to view it.

And lastly some of the examples of Bouncing Balls, from yours truly.
I hope you enjoy them. :)

Cool Stuff

2009-06-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

A collection of Inspiring Demoreels Click here to view

Carlos Baena's Recommended list of Reading Material Click here

Inspiriational Blog Click here

Nick Bruno on how he approaches a shot Cick here

Something to Note - The Door to The Unknown

2009-06-13T18:11:00.000-07:00

The Door by Cassandra Ward

It's funny but it is very true, no matter what course you are from they don't tell you about how different it is to cope after you have graduated. The thing is that you step out into the real world and suddenly your looking very unsure.

The thing is to set up the basic steps before leaving the safety of the course that you are in.

Update everything and establish a good presence online.
It might be quite strange but a lot of people forget this. Look at your stuff, update your Resume, write up a Shot Breakdown for your Showreel, write out a basic Cover Letter and then put it in a file and then put it somewhere on the desktop of your computer and possibly on your flash drive that it easy to Access when you have to submit anything for a job. If you're having any trouble with this, Pixar has got a really good tutorial on this. Click here to see it.

For you're presence online, Make sure that your Demoreel is Uploaded, that you post with regularity on your blog and you join a networking site like Linked In For example. Take time to set up some Job Alerts so that saves you time looking everywhere at once and I also signed up to The Animation Magazine online and also the The Animation Mentor E-Letter and last one is The Women in Games mailing list.

Establish Connections and a Network outside The Course.
Find out if there is a group of Animators or just Creative people that group that you can go to meet other animators. For Example these are ones where I live, There is a Creative Group that meets once a month called Digital Laborers Federation and there is also Liquid Head, regular short film screening in Brisbane.

Also Email other animators if you want to get in touch with them, to ask them a question or two or to get them to Critique your work.

Find some more Resources so you can keep on learning after you have finished your course.
Now this is probably the most important out of all the steps. Always have time to learn more since you can only apply what you know, to your work. When you have finished of a new piece of animation actively seek out someone to show it to since that will help you find the little flaws that you need to fix in the way you animate. Try to get more then one person since everyone will see different flaws that other one has missed.

Invest money into growing your collection of Animation Books and other rescourses to help you grow in your knowledge of animation. Try buying volume one and two of Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfeild or the Jason Ryan Animation Videos or attend his Webninars every month as well as the Keith Lango Tutourial Service and this list could go on forever if I let it. Just keep learning and applying it.

Always take your sketch pad and draw people everywhere, buy sketchbooks en mass and try to get the cheapest that you can. I can't believe how much I have actually gained in knowledge about animation this way.

Last point look for valuable resources on the net when you happen to be online, true there is a lot of junk out there as well as good stuff but there is some treasure too!

Cool Stuff

2009-06-09T21:56:00.001-07:00

Some really helpful notes on Planning, Keeping it simple, and Justifying all that you do Click here

Thoughts on what you need to put into your animation Click here

Notes taken From Richard Willams Master Class Click here

Animation Notes and Projects Click here

Character Animation Theories and Principals Click here

Cool Stuff

2009-06-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

A useful article on what are moving holds and how to get the most out of them. Click here.

Thirty dot points on what to keep in mind while animating Click here

A great workshop to step your animation through. Click here

The trails of Character animation and not thinking that since you know the tools.. To read on.

Online notes taken from the weekend workshop by Ed Hooks who has wrote "Acting for Animators" To read this, Click here

Since I think that I might just be boring you with links. TADAAA!

Animation Quote of the Day.

2009-06-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I believe that visualization is the key to all creativity. To do it properly, I try to shut out all distractions and go inside my head to listen. The pictures may not come at first. I seek out a place where it is quiet; where I feel comfortable. I have such a place on my back porch behind several potted plants. The dogs and cats generally join me there. The energy is perfect. It is in this place that I'm most likely to hear the muses speak. I never draw while I'm there. In fact, I like my conscious mind to shift into neutral; it's a safe moment reserved for the romp of unbridled thoughts. If at first you don't suddenly begin seeing fantastic visions, it's okay. Be patient! The good stuff will come. I guess it's a lot like meditating. Here is a word of advice: Keep your mobile phone far away.

(and)
Well, the best source of inspiration is your very own life experience. Actors have an exercise that helps them draw upon that resource titled "emotional recall." Some parts may be outside the actor's own life experience in which case, he/she must do interviews and lots of research. It is always a challenge to find the character. I lament that many animators don't do this exercise thoroughly enough and resort to mugging; drawing funny faces. Pulling faces is definitely not acting!
Don Bluth.

A subject that all animators know about, just remember do drink a lot of water. Coffee tends to dehydrate you and if you don't drink enough fluid it can leave you a little bit worse for wear.

Cool Stuff + Quote

2009-06-04T04:42:00.000-07:00

The secret ingredients

An animation is basically a sequence of different images at a given time that gives the illusion of movement. But the illusion of movement is not a mechanical question. To go from point A to point B you can think on a straight line. But real life is not that way. There are curves. I mean, give the illusion of movement in a believable way the animator must take account some of the classic ingredients:

* Timing: Not all the actions occurs at the same speed. Even the speed changes from the beginning, the middle and the end of the action.
* Weight: Objects have weight. A good animation should reflect it. The weight feeling is accomplished by the combination of the drawing and the timing.
* Anticipation/Reaction: By using a good anticipation, the spectator should predict what’s going to happen later. The reaction is a natural way of express the believability of the actions.
* Overlapping: Actions doesn’t occur one each time. They always happen overlapping with other actions.
* Posing: By carefully selecting the key poses, the spectator can feel the storyline without need to have visual feedback of the in betweens. Human brain can make up the middle images if the poses are good enough to describe a good action.
* Exaggeration: Usually exaggerate the matters of things helps on the rest of ingredients. Exaggerate the ingredients allows make them more noticeable for to the spectator. Excerpt from an article, click here to read more

A really good In depth guide on doing a walk in 3D Click here

Tricks to Animating Characters with a Computer, by John Lasseter. free ebook, click here to read it.

Cool Stuff

2009-06-01T03:18:00.000-07:00

A great recourse of videos, updated daily, and great reference for animators.
Click here

Site full of animation help and advice. Click here

What the industry thinks when studying showreels for employment, what you need to work on. Click here

Animation Quote of the Day.

2009-05-30T16:24:00.000-07:00

What qualities do you think people need to succeed in the animation industry?

They need to have good ideas and be able to execute those ideas. They also need to have good acting sensibilities. The good ideas are the most important thing, the ability to come up with fresh characters and movements. You see a lot of the same stuff over and over. Interview with Andrew Gordon, Pixar animator.
Click here to read it in full.

Cool Stuff

2009-05-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

A interesting article on students not getting as much as they could out of their animation, Click here to read it.

For those who don't know already, animation is not the highest paid job. Take a look, at the animators that work in Japan. Click here

Comic relief for this post, an awesome blog by a Storyboard Artist at Dreamworks Animation, Willis Carrier. Ninjerktsu

Cool Stuff

2009-05-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

How to reason or work out your acting choices in your animation before animatingClick here for the link

Also why the 12 principles of Animation are a guide only, a paper on using the LABAN movement to further your animation skills Click here for the link

The some of best animation off the Aniboom channel on Youtube:

This was done by a expert animator, notice all the overlapping action and the squash and stretch on objects.

An AM gradute film.

Graduate student from Ringling Animation school.

Intresting Concept, and use of render.

Another AM student, I couldn't resist. :P

Liked this one nice poses, but still definatly student work since the model sheet goes out the window but still.

Animation mentor graduate film.

Animation Quote for the Day.

2009-05-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

I think it’s VERY important to look outside of animation and learn new things. Practicing a lot is great because it will strengthen your understanding of how the medium works and get you more comfortable with your workflow. However, it won’t enrich your mind with new ideas and concepts. People-watching, reading a good book, and pretty much just living your life will teach you A LOT about animation.

You can find tons of little nuggets in your everyday life which somehow relate to animation. Well-polished movement that’s nice and snappy is visually pleasing, but that’s not what makes us laugh and cry… It’s the acting choices and the ideas that do. This is not something you learn by sitting in front of your computer screen and moving things around, you get it from observing life itself! A excerpt from an interview with Rani Namaani, an Animator at Dreamworks Animation. see full article

Cool stuff 4

2009-05-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

A really good post found on the 11 Second club on the fear of proceeding past the blocking stage Click here. For all the animators that are trying to work in 3D.

From the creator of Arj and Poopy.

Interview with Bernard Derriman Part one and Part two

Cool Stuff 3

2009-05-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Dry Erase White Board Marker (Pack of three $10)

This is the best tool ever when it comes to 3D Animation, you just draw on the screen and then when you are finished with what you draw on the screen with a dry cloth and your monitor is not harmed in anyway.

What you can use it for;
. To Plan out Arcs on different parts of the body.
. To Trace limbs, to figure out problems I.e. popping, moving in the wrong direction or to a specific place you need them to go.
. To Push the poses by drawing over the top of the existing pose in Maya.
. To Figure out how much spacing you have or what spacing you want to have.
. To Make notes on the screen, when you are watching it play through.
. To Trace the outline to check out the silhouette.

If you are worried about your screen being marked for the rest of it's life then you can put a clear sheet of plastic over the screen and tape in place. But it doesn't mostly leave any marks. :D

Something to note no.4

2009-05-14T05:24:00.000-07:00

Getting the Right Frame of Mind.

As an animator, I find that it is very easy to lose your positivity, creativity, even lose that sense of confidence in yourself to feel like you will never get any closer to being a reasonable or maybe even a awesome one if even you put the effort in.

The truth is, that animation on any given day takes a lot out of you. It wouldn't be so much fun if it didn't. It zaps your persistence, patience, peace of mind, emotions, motivation and so the list goes on.

The thing is to understand that you as the animator have to put the effort into being in the right frame of mind.

Be highly positive about your day in general and see how much that impacts on your animation and it also feels really great. :)

Have belief in yourself as an animator, that by failing you are succeeding (I know, it's sounds rather silly to a human being, since we are conditioned to want to win). I.e. that by attempting to experiment and pushing things to breaking point while animating, that even if doesn't have effect the that we needed, that we have extended our boundaries and therefore have become better animator and can create better animation through the experiences we have gained.

Keep an open mind and adsorb what is happening around you, I as you might not know, work nearly the whole day on Thursday at a small takeaway in a busy shopping center. Today when I had my break, I sat down to draw the people that passed me, I only had a few seconds before they walked past me and so I had to nearly had to sketch down my first impression of them. It was kind of funny as what was in my sketch book was some funny squiggles of outlines of people and with nearly an oval for a head every time, but I could tell that they were all different people, different genders, and their poses were different too since I was just copying what I seeing onto the paper as fast as I could. The thing is by capturing the world by sketching or adsorbing little moments of someone else's life as we watch them is valuable since we draw on this as animators in any future animations that we create.

Have a understanding that things are not going to happen overnight and that you need to persist if you want to get anywhere (oh boy, this is a hard one!)

There is a world full of people that have never felt the joy of animating or actually attempted to actually step out of the boundaries that they have been comfortable in and actually tried to live by their own terms.

You might ask why this might have a point to what I trying to explain, let me elaborate on this. Animating is like running a marathon without totally finishing, you make the laps and clock in better then the lap before and then you keep on running.

You learn and then that knowledge gets put into your animation and then you have to keep on striving, a critique later, a little bit more knowledge gets added too and we keep on going.

The thing is that we never know as much as everyone else and to pretend would be useless and a waste of time. You or I, will never wake up morning and create the most perfect animation in the world, to even think this is just plain kidding yourself.

You as the person in the chair there, reading this, you need to put your future in your hands (the teachers or the the rest of the world are not there to keep pushing you to extend yourself, you alone have to do that for yourself), work as hard as you can, and keep on working, never give up or give in because this your life and what do you want do with it?

I don't know about you, but I know what I want to spend my life by...

Animating awesome animation.

Who is with me?

Cool Stuff 2

2009-05-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

Was searching for inspiration today,

Found some awesome stuff.

For those among you that love traditionally Animation this is from a CalArts student, Jennifer Hager 2007, This is beautiful student animation.

Animation Tricks
A blog full of more animation help to help your animation truly shine, Although to the less experienced, please get a firm grasp of your Animation Principals, before taking on most of this stuff.

The Scrachpost
A awesome site, full of help for Graduates facing the big bad world, from Demoreels, Resumes, Big Bad Interviews and etc.

Animation Quote for the Day.

2009-05-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

I found this on the web, while I was trawling, It's so true...

“There’s a natural tendency for every creative person to want to get something perfect before they show it to anybody else,” agrees Lasseter. “It’s inherent in who they are. What we have to do is encourage people to show us their dirty laundry before it’s perfect. We live by this phrase coined by my creative partner at Pixar, Andrew Stanton, which is, ‘Be wrong as fast as you can.’ You are going to be wrong in your first treatment, your first draft, your storyboarding. But you are going to get so much faster to being right by showing it often. That’s very hard for creative folks to do.”_John Lasseter. Full Article

Oktapodi 2007 Animated by Students from Gobelins Animation School in France.

Animation Reels- Games

2009-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

For those that are interested in doing games animation or mildly interested.
TJ Phan Animator- EA
In a Interview with TJ Phan Click here to See the Full Article
"TJ suggests that students should consider the specialties of animation and work toward selecting and pursuing their choice while in school…

“Decide what it is you want to do--whether it's concept art, animation, characters, or environments. Commit and take it all the way during your time at school. Be inspired by what's around you. Evaluate all critiques and suggestions openly and truthfully, yet don't neglect your instincts as well--we all have an inner voice to share. Never stop learning. All of this will carry over as you start working in your field.”

TJ reminds ACME students to rely on the basics when working on new projects…

“Regarding animation, whether it's 2D or 3D, I find it helpful to remind myself that it all comes down to poses and timing. It's easy to get too caught up in offsetting keys or tweaking curves. Whenever I find myself lost, I usually find my way back by referring back to the basics. And of course, be sure you know your character, the story point and how your piece fits into the bigger picture.”

Kiel Figgins Character Animator- Moving Picture Company
Click on the names of the Animators to view their Reels

Cool Stuff 1

2009-05-08T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi, I was thinking that this week that I would post about the cool animation stuff I find/buy whatever.

The 1st for this week (free).
Is an Article from The Animation Mentor's Newsletter, about Animating for Games and What to put in your Showreel when applying to Games Company Click here If you don't get the Animation Mentor Newsletter, do sign up for it since it does have some great stuff in it. Click here to Sign-Up

2nd for this week ($78 Australian dollars inc.postage+ tip. buy them together, cheaper!).

Finally! I have got my books from Amazon last night.

I brought both of the 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes, Volume 1 and Volume 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures by Walt Stanchfield. They are massive books and what I read last night made my jaw drop!

For who doesn't know about this book, here is the description straight from Amazon.

Published for the first time ever, Drawn to Life is a two volume collection of the legendary lectures from long-time Disney animator Walt Stanchfield. For over twenty years, Walt helped breathe life into the new golden age of animation with these teachings at the Walt Disney Animation Studios and influenced such talented artists as Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Glen Keane, and John Lasseter. These writings represent the quintessential refresher for fine artists and film professionals, and it is a vital tutorial for students who are now poised to be part of another new generation in the art form.

I will be bringing them into Tafe on Monday for anyone who would like to see them.

Last/3rd thing for this week (€37).

Signed up for DJ Nicke's daily animation briefings straight to my email, training all the essentials of animation for three months straight Click here to Sign up.

Something to note no.3

2009-04-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, over the days I have been furiously animating over and drinking copious amounts of coffee. I found a big side effect of doing lots of computer animation.

Dry Eyes.
THIS is not a good thing, I was wondering around work with my eyes feeling like they had gone on a trip to mars and back.

What causes it is, not blinking enough while in front of the computer and other environmental factors like air conditioning to boot. It effectively does what it's name suggests dries out the surface on the eye, leaving you with very sore eyes.

Although there is a very easy cure. Eye drops:)! and trying to remember to take breaks every 5 minutes and blinking more often.

So if you are deciding to do lots of animating in a stint, be forewarned and follow the steps above. :P

March Animation - Walk Cycle

2009-04-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

This a walk cycle from March, just got around to animating the camera and rendering it out. Please as always feel free to comment and criticize anything that has been posted on this blog.

11 Second Entry for March

2009-04-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Another entry for the 11 Second Club, I finished 99 out of 117.
Could of been be better :).

The thing about being an animator is you're constantly battling between the quality of your animation and the deadline that you have to adhere to.

I suggest to any animator to join the 11 second club, whether you enter the competitions or just vote on the entries at the end of the month or either visit the forums to check out peoples work in progress and the critques they get back.

Something to note no.2

2009-03-30T04:08:00.000-07:00

Hi, to anyone who might read this.
I usually find things that inspire me or or other animators advice on the net all the time. I print them out and tack them on my wall where I can read them when I'm passing by.

The Quote I like most, that sums up animation goes like this;

"Here's to the joy of learning and growing as an animator. Always be brutal, always hear what others have to say (with no prideful stiff-necked rejection of it), always tear your stuff apart, always adapt and grow."
-Keith Lango http://keithlango.blogspot.com/

I try constantly to try harder to get a better quality of acting in my animation. Also to take risks to extend myself further by trying to understand what other people are bringing to the table as fully fledged animators. Lastly and the most important thing of all...

To ask these people to show me what they have done.

What do you lose by emailing someone and asking if they have time to help you to become a better animator?

Nothing.

The worst thing is they can say no, but what if they say yes? you have got a extra chance to become a better animator. You, have a chance to ask someone who might inspire you and the best thing of all?

You might actually learn something. :)

Aliensong Victor Navone 1999

An Interesting article on the Making of Aliensong.
The Making of Aliensong

Something to note no.1

2009-03-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hi, I thought I might post this up on my blog.

Up to recently, like most students I thought I would get better animation if I kept on churning out animation and then wonder why wasn't improving.
You may ask "why?" wasn't I doing the right thing? You must get some results, right?

Wrong.

One day it hit me, why weren't I improving? simple answer.

I was rushing my animation, simple fact. As students we rush to the point it looks like animation then rush to to the end and then step back and wonder why it looks crap.
You need to get nice poses, but nice poses don't work without nice timing and spacing, and then it looks only half alive without secondary action, overlap and drag etc.
You also have to give each of those time, don't rush it since if you slack out on even one of these the whole thing crumbles to dust.Coupled with attention with detail your animations should look better for it.
Give animation the attention it deserves and you will get results.

Image from:
http://anim.tmog.net/pics/108.jpg

"I spent about 100 hours planning, sketching, blocking, refining and polishing this shot." michalmach.com
image from http://www.michalmach.com/media/AM/showcase_shot_thumb.jpg

11 second club feburary competition-finished piece

2009-03-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

The finished piece destined to go on my showreel. As always, criticism and comments are greatly received.

11 second club entry for Februrary

2009-02-27T17:34:00.000-08:00

Hi to anyone who has the time to read my blog.
I am posting my entry for February's 11 second club.
As always feel free to leave any comments or criticism, it always helps.

My Showreel Nov 2008

2008-11-14T01:24:00.000-08:00

A compilation of some of my work in 2nd yr at TAFE. I will be sad to leave TAFE, everyone is so nice:).

Showreel from cassie ward on Vimeo.
As usual, feel free to leave any comments and critism/suggestions on this blog.

5th EAP Fighting with a staff

2008-10-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Staff fighting from cassie ward on Vimeo.
This animation was done with thumbnails instead of live action reference.
I mostly use life action reference so this was different, but as still as fun and challenging.

4th EAP Box on

2008-10-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

Box on from cassie ward on Vimeo.
Enjoy, and please feel free to post any comments or feedback on any of the posts made on this blog:)

3rd EAP Throw

2008-10-10T14:05:00.001-07:00

Throw from cassie ward on Vimeo.

2nd Eap Jog

2008-10-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Jog from cassie ward on Vimeo

1st EAP

2008-06-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is my first eap... please feel free to leave critism and comments..:)

Kick Jump from cassie ward on Vimeo.

Look and React

2008-06-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Reaction from cassie ward on Vimeo.