I’m working on finishing up my syllabi for my upcoming classes at the Art Institute. I’ll be teaching both Character Animation and Advanced Character Animation. This has got me thinking about all kinds of things I want to convey to the students about not just animation, but the animation industry in general.
What are some things you wish you knew when you were getting started in the industry? What should they do first? Is there anything the newly minted animator should avoid?
Well, 2008 has come and gone (I had hoped to have a flying car by now). It’s the time of year where people make resolutions to map out their year ahead in the hopes of bettering themselves, and improving their lives overall.
For some people, that includes getting a hobby that gives them something to have fun with, something unrelated to their day job. While it may not be as high profile as the Firehouse Five Plus Two, it should be something that you have fun with. Others may set small goals which will improve their skill sets overall. When was the last time you went to a figure drawing session? Is there an aspect of cartoon making that you have been interested in but have never tried? Here are some of my animation related resolutions for the new year:
I watched the show today. What an anticlimactic airing! The show was on at 10:30 AM here on the west coast, sandwiched between “Making Fiends” (great show, by the way) and an episode of “Jimmy Neutron”.
This is almost like a case study for the failings of network animation and the rise of internet cartoons. Why wait for years for your cartoons to air, when you can distribute on the internet instantly? There are more and more people doing this, and I can totally see why. People like Amy Winfrey, Dan Meth, and Odd Todd have all done great things in animation, thanks in no small part to the internet. How many cartoons has Channel Frederator shown since 2005? Way more than the three that finally aired today.
In my opinion, television animation is in a similar place that theatrical shorts were in the 1950’s. The audience was getting smaller, costs were getting higher, [Read more…]
I have four kids. There are six people in my family. We were all sick over the last three days (but are feeling much better now). This Family Guy clip is kind of what it was like in the Bishop house recently, only we also had a tailess racoon show up and harass our dog.
I’m a senior artist on the game, and I’m super proud of the title, more so than just about anything I’ve ever worked on. I hope you guys and gals enjoy playing it as much as I’ve enjoyed helping to animate it.
After showing someone some character animation I have been working on, I was asked “Where do you get your ideas?”
My answer was “all over the place”.
Jillian Tamaki had a recent post where she talks a bit about the process she goes through in regards to idea generation. I thought it might be worthwhile to talk a bit about what goes through my head when approaching a character for the first time.
When I get a character to work on that has no animation done before hand, it’s exciting and scary all at the same time. You are defining this character, and making it appear that he/she/it is living for themselves. My process is basically the same as Ollie Johnston’s “What is the character thinking, and why does he feel that way?” Also, “Would anyone other than your mother want to watch it?”
While many animators tend to draw from literary sources, either comic, [Read more…]
I’m moving across town to a larger house, so I’m doing a lot of packing. It kind of reminds me of this classic Disney short, “Moving Day”. Completed in 1936, this short is one of the first ones to combine Mickey, Donald, and Goofy as a team, working toward a common goal.
Goofy is animated by Art Babbitt in this piece. He really pushed Goofy’s poses, flexing his body past the point of breaking, yet it all works and looks great. It would be nice to see more of this in today’s animation.
What’s with the blogging silence this week? Well, I just got back from Las Vegas. I was in Vegas for the Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) Fan Faire event. Fan Faire is basically a large party for the fans, where we have special events, give aways, and show off our upcoming games. This is why I was there. I’m a senior animator on the upcoming “Free Realms”.
This animated gif (click for larger version) shows the voting results for Presidential elections from 1960 - 2004. The results are color coded, county by county, for the entire continental United States. It was interesting to see the color shifts that happened from year to year, and how voting results seemed to pool together in sections. The graph comes from a Princeton study. It will be interesting to see what this year’s map looks like.
