Channel Frederator Blog

Angie Jones began her animation career at a San Diego studio with more than 150 traditional animators 12 years ago called Lightspan. Although she was trained at Atlanta College of Art in Fine Arts, she readily embraced animating with the computer. She has worked on numerous productions, including Stuart Little 2, Disney’s 50th Anniversary commercials, Oddworld: Abe’s Exodus, Garfield, Dino Crises 3, Pan’s Labyrinth, Zoom, Scooby Doo Too, XMen 2, and National Treasure.

Angie recently co-authored a book with Jamie Oliff titled “Thinking Animation”.

What are some projects you have been a part of?

My animation career has gone back and forth between the sweet and the scary, over the years. I started in film on Stuart Little 2 and then moved to XMEN2 and Freddy VS. Jason, back to more sweet talking characters like Scooby Doo 2, Garfield and The Geico Gecko. Then, onto realistic crowds of Egyptians at war in National Treasure and 13 foot, evil bats in The Cave and then twitching little evil faeries for Pan’s Labyrinth.

The next couple years were filled with supervising and animating on 5 Disney commercials with the classical characters like Mickey, Donald, Goofy and even Stitch. I like the variation of going back and forth between the creepy, “I am gonna beat you up or eat you” kind of animation and the sweet comedic timing of cartoony characters. It keeps me challenged and on my toes. The creepy stuff comes a bit easier to me because of my background in games, especially at Oddworld Inhabitants. I learned so much from Lorne Lanning about mechanics of movement, especially with creatures that are anatomically, not of this world.

Can you describe your technique?

I believe you have to be somewhat malleable in today’s animation production. Many folks from the traditional side of animation have crossed over, but also live action directors are getting into the mix. You have to be able to communicate your ideas for the shot clearly to in order to get anything approved. Animation is a visual medium and you must be able to communicate visually but also in a way the folks in charge will understand.

I prefer to block out my scenes in a stepped or linear fashion. But, I also work out the entire pose down to the finger tips. I am always thinking about the line of action and every single bit of the space being used by the character. This sometimes frustrates supervisors who want to see a more layered approach to the animation…meaning animate the center of gravity and torso and later layer on the limbs and appendages. I have a hard time not thinking about all of the parts when animating. So, if that is the case, I work out my bits a little more before actually showing the piece. Some live action directors or supervisors who have only worked on the computer do not understand blocking and have a hard time understanding the ideas behind the action when it isn’t fluid during playback. So, you change your work flow to something the supervisors can read. It’s all about selling your ideas the best way you can, or else you are just a wrist.

What do you do to help fight creative blocks?

I think most artists, do the same thing. Take a walk and get away form what you are doing for a while. I sketch or just go watch people doing their everyday routine at lunch time or while I grab a coffee. I also like to talk to other artists. Many artists isolate themselves while working on a piece; but I think whether you are animating, writing a story, painting or venturing into any creative endeavor…you are doing a great injustice to not share your ideas with others you respect and trust to get a different perspective. It’s so easy to put blinders on and not open up as an artist to what someone else might see in your work. If you do open up, that fresh eye can create so many new doors to what you are working on and can really break you out of your rut. I have two people in particular I count on for their insight.

Do you have a favorite type of project to work on?

I am leaning towards the super cartoony stuff these days. It just seems to be a big challenge for me right now. CG rigs are more elastic and are being pushed as to what they can do. The photo real is always interesting, but cartoony is a caricature of that. If you cannot make a character walk convincingly in the photo real world, then you cannot do it as a cartoony style either. Its like the foundation in all arts. Picasso painted amazing still lifes and portraits before he ever created his more cubist style. I see cartoony animation as a parallel. Once you master mechanics of motion, try plussing that into something really outrageous. I find both acting and zany cartoony motion really interesting. I think I have Eric Goldberg to thank for some of this because he opened up a whole world to me on the Disney spots. Goldberg changed my whole perception of how to animate with a computer and really pushed the boundaries of what I thought CG animation could do.

Is there a different part of the animation production process you have always wanted to try?

Nope. Animation is what I love and what challenges me. I am fascinated by all the other artists and how many of them combine the two sides of their brain - artistic and technical…but I dig animating. I don’t think I could light, or texture or model if I tried.

What is your favorite cartoon, animated film, or animated commercial SEQUENCE (not the movie or piece itself, but specific sequence of animation)?

This is a very hard question. To just choose one. I have many for many different reasons.

I guess the first character or scene that comes to mind is Medusa in The Rescuers. OMG what a fantastic character! Most of us dream of getting just one juicy shot to animate with a character like that. You see, when you have 60 anims on a show - rarely do you get more than “keep it live” shots. These shots are necessary to keep the plot going, but don’t really have an real meat to them. With Medusa, I keep thinking about the scenes where she goes from softly and so sweetly talking to her pet alligators to her screaming and demanding she have the diamond. The gestures and the poses are just amazing! I guess I am on a Milt Kahl thing lately, because he did most of that stuff.

As far as character alone. I am a big Tim Burton fan. I LOVE family dog. The Family dog original pilot is awesome. I put it on our blog. The design is Tim Burton’s and I just love it’s simplicity. The design itself reminds me of the muppets or even some of my experience in gaming because its so simple and clear. The important bits are there to convey who the dog is and how he sees his place in the world without him moving at all. This simplicity is something i tried to create with my character Spicy Cricket ( http://www.spicycricket.com ). I love the Family Dog character itself because he seems to be the only real sane person in the house. Brad Bird wrote the original pilot, but left the show once it was on the air, so the writing for the pilot is better than the rest in my opinion.

And well, I have to also say anything with Daffy Duck is fantastic because nothing is more fun to watch than a frustrated, greedy Duck.

What was one of the worst jobs you had before you got into animation?

Hmm, I have had a lot of jobs. I was a short order cook for about a week on a college campus in south Georgia. That was awful. Cooking greasy food for a bunch of drunk college kids - yuk. I was a night monitor for a dorm at the same little college before I went to art school. My job was to make sure no boys went upstairs un-escorted…that was an easy job where I sat at a desk and could work on my art projects all night. The girls in the dorm called me “art girl.”

I also worked as a maid in a hotel…I even worked as a cashier at the Winn-Dixie in high school. For those of you who are not from the south, Winn-Dixie is a grocery store.

My college years I spent as a waitress and/or bartender and that is hard work, but I could do it again. Many of my previous jobs were hard labor, but you could see what you accomplished by the end of the day. In animation, you don’t get that as quickly. It’s not until you finally see it lit, rendered and up on the screen that you see what you created out of nothing.

To see more of Angie’s work, visit one of her sites: Spicy Cricket and Thinking Animation

-Floyd Bishop