TEASER

bear animation on Vimeo

Have been pretty busy between working freelance and trying to get this shot tied down-- i knew it'd be a while until i would get it complete which is the way i wanted to present it, but i thought i owed it to everyone to show where it's at as of right now.
As far as critique, the one change i am going to make is a little bit of lip sync stuff arounf the "get outta here". Fast dialgoue can be tricky- and where i put the blink on the word "simple", i feel takes away from his expression and the sorta of "eureka" feeling i wanted, like, he's think "well isn't it obvious". I feel like taking the blink out, and closing the eyes before the accent on the I of "simple" and the overshooting them will give me a more truthful performance. so anyway, check it out and stay tuned!

IT'S COMING!

IT'S COMING!!!!!
Hey everybody! The tie down is coming i promise-- this ones gonna take some time though! I'll do my best to post what and when i can but haven't had much to say yet. but believe me i will once i can show ya'll this tie down version! hang in there everybody and we'll see ya on the next post!

Random nuggets of joy

I've had a lot of time to sit around and think about what i might not have covered in the last few posts on animating a shot, so i've come to a boiling point now and i think i'm ready to spew out some thoughts.
Here's a debateable topic: Animate with lightbox on or off? As with MANY things in the process of animating this is what i've learned, EVERYONE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY! James Baxter animates with it on, others like John Pomeroy animate with it off. not all the time i'm sure, but that's at least what i've witnessed these 2 do. and yet, they are both great. answer... it's up to you- it's good to know the pro's and cons for having it on all the time.
PRO'S:
easy to track spacing
helps with keeping volumes
helps keep a good context in your mind of where you are

CONS:
Sometimes your drawings can get kinda flat
you stop flipping
things start to become mechanical

Me, i animate with it on most of the time, but, i always have my lamp angled "just so",so i can focus on the drawing i have on the pegs a little better. Like i said, it's seems to me that everyone does it differently.

Spacing: Here's an interesting subject that i'll cover more once i delve into tie down more, but spacing is something i've discovered few animators understand even though it's the difference between weight and no weight, laugh or no laugh in a scene. It's very technical but once you understand it you can start using it artistically. The bottom line for me and spacing is mostly about "where to put what", meaning, where do i use half's and where do i use thirds. It'snot easily explained, but i'll say this. Anytime you are slowing in and slowing out i typically use a 3rd on the very last inbetween to the key drawings. however if a character is slowing down but not to a complete stop and then progresses to speed up i will just use halfs. confused-- don't worry about it, i'll explain more later.

Ahhhh, here's a frustrating one! KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID! Everyone in animation knows this K.I.S.S. things. I think this is the critique i've heard more from animators i respect than any other critique. As animators we kinda wanna impress, ya know? show all our amazing "skills" to qoute Napoleon... but it's really a matter or being confident enough NOT to do something fancy to linger on a pose. I have found that this for me is atough line to draw sometimes. You can go too far in any direction really.... "if i hold it back too much, it'll have no nuance. If i don't simplify enough my poses won't read." Unfortunately there is no answer-- it's case dependsant, but the answer for each scene revolves around what the point of the shot is. and believe me you guys, i'm preaching to myself! If the scene benefits from those eye darts your throwing in there, then great, but if it's distracting then take'em out no matter how well executed they are. Something i heard alot from Tony Derosa was "work within the pose". I used to get confused cuz his stuff would seem so boiled down to me-- and THAT'S the point! He boils things down to their essence and works within the poses. working within the pose can be anything the character does while in the pose (head shakes, blinks, slight breathing). Look at the stuff on Sher Kahn, Milt could drawing anything and move stuff like no one else, yet, that's the most subtle stuff he ever did! What used to impress me was stuff that moved brilliantly (good weight and such), but now what blows me away is subtle acting that makes you feel something. It's kind of scary really-
Okay, just had to get that off of my chest! I am hoping that the next post can be a continuation of the "tutorial series!". I just finished 2 jobs and actually have time to work on my own stuff. yeah!! take it easy all!

Post 2 and a half: Breaking it down

Sorry for the delay on this post everyone! Blogger wouldn't let me upload pictures for the longest time, but now it's all figured out!

Now that you've all had a chance to look at the rough piece of animation, i'll go through how exactly i came to that point in the process. I mentioned that a turn-around is ideal to put behind you on your disc to flip from for refrence of model. I did up a quick turn around for anyone who wasn't sure what one was. I also did a quick version of a short hand drawing. This is a very useful device to employ when your roughing something out. It's a very loose version of the final design. It's just to get the expression in and block out the volumes. You can really burn through footage fast when you have a short hand version of your character to draw which brings me to my first point of roughing out a shot: LOOSEN UP!

This is NOT the stage for making pretty drawings yet. Personally i think that roughs are quite beautiful when done well and with honesty. Here are things you should not be overly concerned with at this stage of the process: details like hair, nostrils, nuanced facial animation, eye darts, perfecting the dialogue, every single wrinkle in the clothing and every single inbetween. What you SHOULD be focusing on is: performance, gestural drawing, rhythm, consistant purportions, flow, and, you guessed it, performance!!! oh yeah, did i mention performance? It's important to think about your animation in a certain way. I believe this can some up what we do, animate feelings! Meaning, don't think "ok i gotta pick up the leg, move it here"--- naw naw naw, C'mon! animate feelings man! Yes, mechanics: spacing, arcs, on-model drawing contribute to good performance but they are merely a support FOR the performance. I personally feel this way, without great mechanics you can't communicate your great performance properly and yet if your animation is wonky because you don't understand good technique i think it could potentially pull someone out of the performance. Likewise a beautifully animated character from a technical stand-point only tickles the brain, not touch the heart. So while you need to be mindful to a degree at this stage of the process of techincal things, your main goal is making that funny little character breath and live. This is why most people work pretty rough at this stage-- I will admit that these ruffs of mine are a bit more complete than i usually do, but this time around it felt right. I work loosely because your first pass is like trying to capture the essence of the emotion of the scene. The essence of something is the core, all things shed off-- kinda like a quick sketch. So, step one: Find your story-telling poses. This is always your first step. Finding those poses that will tell the audience what your character is thinking and feeling. You should have done this to a degree already in your thumbnailing process, but everyone works differently and there's no telling how you'll come to that final pose. Sometimes i thumbnail everything out, and then spontinaeously i find something better as i'm roughing it out and then don't even use my thumbnails. Or sometimes I just stick exactly to what i thumbnailed. it's always different. So, i guess the point in all that is to allow for spontinaeous moments but also it's wise to have a pretty clear idea of what your shot is to be eventually. Make sense? How you get there can and will change from shot to shot.
So basically you have your rough poses... and as you can see in the pics they are pretty far apart time wise:frm 1 to frm 59. I call these anchor drawings... they are starting and stopping points, but a lot needs to happen inbetween them. For example, from 1 to 59 the character is just listening to another character say "So what's the flight situation". I have a lot planned for this but i will not execute it untill tie down. Things like breathing, looking around and such. The main thing is to not draw too much attention to himself just yet-- whenever another character is talking and in the same frame (as there will be eventually hence the nudge pose at the end of the shot) you keep the other character "alive" but subdued. I really like using eye darts and breathing for thinking (which you won't see until tie-down). That's all this character is doing at this point, he's thinking about their situation. Thus he hits a brewing point and at frm. 59 lets out the word "simple".
Something else i look for is when an actor takes breath's in their performance, i know i mentioned it for thinking moments but i just plain like it in performances too. It helps give you the sense that the character is alive. It's easy to over-do so you gotta be careful with how much you use it but i like to try and build them into the performances on a consistant basis.
So you hit up all your main story telling keys, roughly time them and then move on to filling it all out a bit.

The next step is to break down your anchor keys with some other keys. This is where you build in arcs, breathing, extra thinking poses, head turns. Basically flesh it out-- you really need to be planning ahead for what your eventually going to tie down. Ultimately it's the performance your after but if something is so indecernable (a.k.a so stinking rough and off-model) that you are having an impossible time tying it down maybe you ought to complete your ruffs a little more before you go to tie down. everyones different of course, but i know I've learned a lot from this phrase "Value your ruffs". It's a Glen Keane term not surprisingly-- Some animators treat their ruffs as a means to an end... no no no no, ruffs are an art unto themselves! why do you thinkeveryone loves a good Glen Keane ruff... it's his heart and soul that's why! I digress!

So basically all your doing from here on out the end of the first pass is fleshing things out a bit. You dont want to waiste your time on details that don't matter yet, but you do want to give enough information to tell your director what the shot will eventually look like.

Incidentally, the sooner you can get some numbers going on your animation (i.e timing) the better!

Okee doke peoples! That's it for now-- i do plan on taking a little break from this online teaching stuff for a little bit since it's gonna take me a long time to tie this stuff down on top of work and stuff. So, i might post here and there about some other stuff but rest assured i will finish this series. Looking forward to completing it! take it easy!

Post 2: ROUGH IT OUT

hand drawn animation - video powered by Metacafe

Before i forget i DID NOT DEISGN THIS CHARACTER. This is Steven MaCleods of www.clockroom.blogspot.com. This character is from HIS film from CalArts this year. It's one of those designs that just roll off your pencil, really wonderful shapes! i love him Steve!

Here it finally is! In the next couple days i will go through it piece by piece and breakdown exactly how i approached this rough stage. Remember everyone, this is just a rough. There's a LOT tweeking that has to happen from here (mainly pulling things back a bit), this is just your heart and soul on the paper. the next step is refining it all in tie down. but look for my next post where i will break it all down for everyone. enjoy!

Step 1 and a half: Before you rough out your shot (Tips and Tricks)

Welp, here we are again on the second post of the "animate your own shot" saga! This post will mainly be a sorta of common sense kind of lesson. There are some helpful Tips and Tricks that i employ while getting ready to animate a shot. and by the way, these are in no particular order. OK! you've got your road map, you've got your conviction and your gusto, and a lot of coffee! your almost ready to start your amazing shot that young and old will admire for centuries to come! The very first thing i do AFTER conception of a shot (this sounds like Health Ed), is write up your X-Sheet. Richard Williams does a fine job of explaining this in his book, but using your X-Sheet is a great way to think through your timing. Sometimes you want to do funny little hand gestures ontop of your main pose and aren't sure if the hand will settle in enough time for your main pose to read, this is where you start to gestimate whether it'll work or not. It's hit and miss. The more you animate the more your know what'll work and what won't. And also, number your X-sheet all the way to the end on the odd numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc... I've had animators tell me that at ALL cost keep things on odd numbers. This never made complete sense to me, what they meant is "if you keep it on odd's then you can keep it all on 2's and make less work for yourself". As long as that works for your scene fine, but if something needs to be keyed out on 3's just do the work! If you don't want to work hard why are you in animation for heavens sake? but also more practically if you plan things on 2's and they stay on 2's it's easy to throw things on 1's without having to renumber like made. Plus, it's easier to find where your at in the shot if you have a problem arising. Your drawing number IS the frame number on this system and makes things easier on everyone.



Another tip for ya is to blow up or down a xerox of the model sheet to match the size of the character your animating and tape it to the top of your disc (as shown in pic above) so all you have to do is flip to the back to check on how your drawing the model (a turn around is ideal). Trust me, no matter how big or how small your shot is DO THIS! There is a great story i heard from animator Derek Thompson. He worked at DreamWorks on Prince of Eygpt... one day he walked into James Baxters office and started small talking and asked him how he got his work "so solid". James didn't say a word, stood up, walked down the hall to the xerox machine, tapped on it as if to say "like this" and walked back into his office. All with a smile on his face. He meant that he uses the xerox machine in ways like this to maintain the model. If James finds it useful, i think WE ALL need to be doing this.
Also, and this is a matter of opinion, do turn off your music, radio, dvd, whatever it is. I LOVE to "watch" or listen to movies while i work. I do it all the time, but NOT while i am doing my first pass. Your first pass is really your heart and your soul and if your like most you need concentration to find the scene somewhere inside you. It may not be the prettiest version of your scene, but it sometimes is the most honest. Personally when i know the shot is working acting wise, i put on a film that helps me zone out but not until i have it.
I know this post must seem slightly boring and thin compared to the last, but this is just a simple tips and tricks post. The NEXT post (in 2 days!) you get to actually see what the roughed out shot looks like and i'll talk about how i approached it. Until then be thinking about questions you might have and i'd be happy to answer them!

Teaching at CalArts

Phewwwwww- these 2 free-lance gigs are killing me man! Am thankful for the work but sheesh, i need a little me time know what i'm sayin'? This post is mainly for my CalArts students... I just wanted to let you all know how much fun i had last semester, it truly was MY pleasure to get nerdy about animation with you guys. But alas, teaching first year was not to be for me this coming semester. Mike Ngyuen will be returning to teach 1st year so Cynthia asked me if i'd be willing to step aside............... AND TEACH 2ND YEAR BABY! Oh yeah, we get to nerd out for a whole other year! And boy do i have some RAD RAD assignments for you guys! You guys are gonna get your brains so swelled with animation goodness that all you'll be able to do is respond to people in animation terms. "so how long will you be gone for? Ohhhhh, about 3000 frames" or, "Could you reach that for me? Sure, let me time it out on my X sheet first. Let's see, anticipate, squash down, stretch up, delay arms...
But seriously folks, it's gonna be RAD! Be looking for the next post on the "How to do a flippin' cool shot" serious. I am gonna cover a little more practical tips and tricks in what you do right before you start animating next. stay tuned!

Step 1: Planning your Shot

Soooo, the long awaited "Start to finish" series of posts has officially begun! I am sorry for the time it has taken, but i have been gone, am working 2 freelance gigs (and am thankful for the work), and plainly i wanted to make sure this was as good a post as it could be. So i've put a lot of thought into it!
Let me start this post out with the comment that this is only ONE way of animating. there are as many ways of animating a shot as there are animators! So, find what works best for you and then modify it. The wonderful thing about art and animation is that it is so very personal-- make it your own! I can't say that i use even my own methods all the time. Sometimes certain scenes are very simple shots that don't need elaborate planning. I am doing a 30 frame shot for a commercial right now-- very very simple, i didn't even thumbnail it. However, i find when a shot is "lengthyer" and more specifically offers certain acting/staging challenges I NEED to explore on paper. but before any thumbnailing happens i am going to tell you to do something that a Production Manager would HATE me for, but here it is: THINK! The last thing you should do when starting a new shot is pick up your pencil. You HAVE to internalize what you are about to execute. If you can't do either one of these things you're scene will not be successful.
A: Visualize
B: Internailze
Ollie Johnston has been qouted as saying "If you can't see it, you won't be able to draw it. I believe that seeing it and feeling it (internalizing it) are related but not necessarily the same. I think they are related in that if you can't feel it, then you won't be able to invision it clearly in your head. So, think about your scene. Ask questions: who is he what's his personality, where does this shot take place in the arc of the story, who did he just talk to and what was the last emotion he/she felt, what's the arc of the scene, where's the entertainment value in this shot. BE RUTHLESS with yourselves in your exploration... if you find yourselves slavishly applying Preston Blair formulas to your shots then your scene is already dead. Yes, sometimes books like that help with technical things but right now i'm talking about conception of a shot! Get OUT of your studio, take a walk, ride your bike, read, whatever inspires you!
I personally like to take walks and really think through my shots... by the time i'm done with my walk i am ready to start writting down some ideas. Also, this is a great time for research. Now this i will say with no apollogy... everyone needs to research. I don't care who you are but so much comes from studying and researching that you couldn't possibly have brought to it any other way.
So to sum it all up-- get juiced up and excited about what your gonna do. I know that i cannot animate something unless i believe in it wholeheartedly! Have the guts to challenge and idea you think is weak (with grace of course) and be willing to be wrong. that's the big one, throw your pride out the window man! I learned that one the hard way!
So... now that you've though all about your shot and have conviction and just KNOW that your scene is going to be revered through the anals of time you can begin to plan and thumbnail! Ideally before you start thumnailing or even thinking about your shot you should have your dialogue memorized. All of the ups and downs... where the accents are. KNow it in and out. What i start doing at this point is finding some gestures that tell the main key points of the scene. It doesn't have to be many poses, in fact it's usually better when you simplify. Tony DeRosa's main comment on most of my animation has been to simplify it-- so start scribbling and finding those gestures that explain what the character is feeling and thinking.
Here are some pages of thumbnails i did for the shot i will be animating. It is here where you find your gesture, plan your staging, write down ideas... let it all out. Try things that are outrageous-- you never know where your thoughts might carry you. Oh, and don't worry about making pretty drawings-- these are just thoughts, i use stick figures a lot when i am thumbnailing. Especially when i don't know the character too well yet.
The line of Dialogue reads: Deer:"So whats the flight situation?" Bear: "Simple (pause)... there's no way on earth we're getting out of here tonight(pause and laughs). we'd have more luck playing pick up sticks with our butt cheeks that we would getting a flight out of here before midnight" ( i tried posting the dialogue put could not)

I mean come on, look at these drawings! they suck! They're not meant to be pretty, they are meant to be honest. I think sometimes it can be a downfall of animators to mistakes nice poses for "thinking". I've done it for sure-- certainly poses can evoke thinking, but i really feel like think is shown mainly in change. i.e A character is in a situation where he is being asked to make a difficult decision. He is tense, shoulders up, chest inflated, brows down-- he realized he needs to make a certain decision and is at ease with it. He relaxes his shoulders and exhales and lifts his brows. There is not a huge pose change in there, just a change of shape that shows us his thinking. You are working within a pose with something like this-- now sometimes you want to have some sort of change of line of action to make your idea clear it's just knowing where to do it. I am only skipping around these topics because i will cover more once we get into the animating portion of the posts (the FUN part).

I hope that's a fine start for everyone! Please please feel free to ask question if you have them either e-mail me or just post it and i'll reply. So get excited, get inspired and have fun everyone!

forgive me, please!

* NOTE TO VIEWERS: THIS ANIMATION IS NOT PLAYING AT THE CORRECT FRAME RATE. CHECK BACK SOON TO SEE IF YOU I GOT IT FIXED!*
Everyone who has a blog needs to look at their sitemeter and track who's been to your blog. I just recently started doing this and it is SO fascinating who's been here! it doesn't give names but it does give countries, cities and sometimes even company names. Last week people from Disney, Dreamworks, ILM, Pixar, Germany, Peru, Nepal, and even Iran were on this site! pretty crazy, i forget that this is accessable to the entire world. literally! Go check out who's been looking at your work!
Sooooo,you all are going to kill me, or stop visiting my blog but i am affraid this post will not be about roughing out your scenes. I have been thinking long and hard about it and have come to a dicision about how to show everyone what i am talking about. I am just gonna animate something for everyone. I am gonna walk everyone through the steps of how i particularly animate a shot from thumbnails to finished inbetweened tie downs. the reasons for this are multiple. I got a little work, praise God! but more over i will be gone for about 2 and a half weeks starting tuesday and unable to post on the blog.
What i thought i'd do is show everyone this finished bit of animation i did for my reel. I posted the half finished version but never showed the entire thing. this is now considered an old test by me, and the characters model has changed. I didn't have him quite nailed down at this piont. There are bigger oops's but i don't need to piont them all out do i? I hope you all enjoy this. I'll be sure to post one last time before i leave on Tuesday. Until then, have a great two weeks!

Geeking out to the max!

Here's a little drawing Glen did in my "Art of Tarzan" book for me on the day i visited the studio. The note says " To Matt, Keep persuing your goal. God Bless you as you do"

I haven't done a lot of geeking out on this blog, i figured while i try to think through what it is i want to say about ruffing out a scene i'd put up some cool drawings from some of my influences.
This first one is from Glen Keane. Glen was my foremost influence in my youth- i've known who that guy was since i was 8! His passion for this artform always was contageous, even from 2000 miles away. anyhow, i had never met him until i was 18. I was in my frist year at CalArts, and anyone who knew me knew i was a Keane nut. in fact, Max, Glen's son was in my class and was even in my cubical. I didn't get to know him too well, he left after 2 months. anyhow, i got the opportunaty to meet Glen in my 1st semester of being at CalArts. I packed all my portfolio stuff up perfectly, had it all arranged: quick sketches, life drawings and then everything else.
I got the Disney and waited down in the lobby for Glen's secretary to some and meet me. It was the first moment that i thought maybe this guys not what i think he is. I mean, i've met a lot of the guys considered to be "the greats" of our day and unfortunately not all of them are admireable people. I started to get nervous that maybe my childhood hero was not Santa but Satan! well, maybe not Satan. I picked up my stuff and went with Penelope (Glen's secretary) up the his office. She was super sweet, offered my some coffee and told me i have to wait for a while until Glen was ready. We rounded the corner and Glen was waiting for us-- I was relieved, he was actually santa claus! My memory kinda blanked out for a bit, i remember being really thirsty and sweaty all of the sudden. beyond that i recall him being extremely gracious and giving of his time. before he even opened up my portfolio he asked me a bunch of questions about me, where i'm from, what kind of artwork do i like. He made me feel like he was actually interested in me and my growth as an artist and a person. He proceeded to open my portfolio and slowly go through it page by page. I've never wanted a pair of diapers more than at that moment. It was gut renching- but he was gracious... VERRRRY gracious. He encouraged me, told me what he liked, didn't like and then proceeded to show me what he had been doing. He pulled out a sketchbook and started flipping through it page by page telling me stories about these people he'd see at the park or whatever. It was thuroughly inspiring to a young lad- He then shut his door and went to his computer and pulled up the sequence from Treasure Planet he was working on. It was the first time we see Silver in the kitchen. I was blown away-- i remember trying so hard to memorize everything because i knew i wouldn't have this happen again.
Then all of the sudden Johnny Resnick from the Goo Goo Dolls walked in with the producer of the film and i was swiftly ushered out by Glen's secretary(and understandably so). While Glen was talking with them I got a tour of the other animators office. Even though it was all a thrill for a young guy, my mind was still on all of those beautiful drawings in Glen sketchbook and walls. Well, the tour was over and i started to make my way out of the building and I heard "Matt, hey Matt!" It was Glen at the foot of an animators office signaling me to come in. I was sure he was talking to another Matt in the room, but i thought i'd better get in there before that other Matt did! I went into the office and proceeded to watch Glen critique an animators work, Bert Kliens in this case. Little did i know that Bert would hire me just a year later for Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
All in all it was a memorable day- even just thinking about it is inspiring enough for me right now. The next post will definately be the long awaited "1st pass" tutorial. until then take it easy!
Matt

ummmmm, here look at this.

hand drawn animation on Vimeo
Not my most brilliant shinning moment but fun none the less! I am a big Wallace Tripp fan, thus a BIG Chris Sanders fan. I really liked Lilo and Stitch and have always felt like it is slightly over looked although i did feel it was appreciated. If there was any film besides Beauty and the Beast or Lion King that i would have liked to have worked on i think it would have been Lilo.
I animated this at Toonacious Family Entertainment (Tony Bancroft's studio). I was glad that they kept everything here in the states since the budget was so LOW. The triumph of the shot was certainly not my animation but the great job Trevor Tamboline did on the clean-up. I typically work tight enough that all you need to do is trace my stuff but the time frame of this job was super short that i didn't have time to tie down a whole lot. Trev did a great job, and i thought the EFX made the shot stand out a bit too.
The other fun bit about this job was working with Alex Kuperschmidt. Toonacious got him to do a few scenes and hit up some drawings for model. I didn't get to communicate too much with him, but i think he's an amazing talent that is, again, quite over-looked! Everyone ought to go to Lilo and Stitch and really study his timing. Very interesting to see how he bends the rules.
OKee doke folks! Till next time!

Ian Worrell

I realized i haven't done much plugging for other people this year in the blogging realm. As some of you know i teach animation at CalArts. This year i was blown away by one film in particular-- "Icarus and the Tree Herder". Ian Worrell is the student that created this little gem of filmmaking. check out his blog and all his amazing artwork! http://ianworrel.blogspot.com/

model sheets!

A momentus thing has happened in the progression of this short film! MODELSHEETS... it's been a LOOOOONG road to find this guys, but i believe i have after a year and a half of searching. I am not necessarily a designer. i love design, and find it fascinating, but i don't consider myself a natural at it. It has taken a lot of blood and sweat to find these.

The characters are there, the story is coming together, the design is taking form-- this is so much fun! oh yeah, i still have to find a job! well, i hope everyone enjoys these!

by popular demand!

For all of you Disney Geeks out there! In my last post in the comments section someone asked what kind of desk i used, and here it is! I use a Disney desk from the 60's... or so i'm told. I got it for free from a friend. it probably looks much different than it did back in the day. it was in bad shape when i got it, i had to sand it, and refinish it myself. but it's a great desk with a lot of history and lineage to it. I wonder who worked on it before me?
Anyway, that's just for all you Disney geeks and freaks out there--

Welp, one down , one to go!

hand drawn animation on Vimeo

This one is DONE! Hopefully the player will play this one correctly at 24fps unlike the last one. hope you all enjoy!

FINALLY! SHEEESH--

Sorry everybody! the last 2 days i've tried to upload the same clip and everytime it would upload as just a black screen. Uggggh, plus i have a dial-up and it takes FOR EV ER!
So today i thought i'd show a little shot i did for an unnamed project i worked on. This was probably my most favorite shot... it was fun to get in there and really play with the timing, making it slightly stylized. I was doing this animation for refrence so i didn't have to tie it down, this is sorta rough for me though (as far as a finished product is concerned though).
enjoy everybody!

New Pencil Test

A few people have been bugging me to put up more pencil tests. I've wanted to put up some Curious George stuff, but i figured i'd wait till' it had it's run in the theaters. Just to play it safe. This was a fun shot to do... in retro spect, i would have done some stuff differently but this was done in the crunch of the film and i didn't have a lot of "searching time". I only had a week to do it and it's mostly on 1's as you can see. I think it turned out ok, but as we learn and grow our work just seems to get dated huh? at least mine feels that way to me. Whenever I can, I love to move the character in and out of the foreground. We as hand drawn animators already have the challenge of making people forget about the fact that they are watching drawings so this depth can help with it. CG has had a positive affect i think in this way that they have forced us not to cheat. CG can obviously do all the technical stuff automatically, but in handdrawn it takes real skill to do these things. I think CG has forced us to not fudge anything to keep up... personally i think it has been a good thing.
On another note i got my copy of King Kong! I'm one of those types who watches DVD's, or rather listens to them as he works. I get a little obsessive about new films. Especially ones from directors and studio i highly respect. The same has been true of watching King Kong. I know the reaction was kinda mixed, but i loved it and still do now. That T-Rex fight is pretty freaking amazing man-- geez, talk about clear staging and knowing where you are from cut to cut. Those guys know what they're doing that's for sure. but for anyone who knows me knows i am a sucker for the tender parts even more so... i can't get any work done when those parts come on man. I just have to abandon myself to it, get sucked into it, and start to feel something. Maybe someday i'll get that chance to animate something really tender, as well as some kick boot-tay action sequence!
This kinda brings me to another thought that i've shared repeatedly. I wanna see hand drawn animation do something like this again. I think Iron Giant had a lot of what i'm talking about... heartfelt moments (the climax of the film), cool action stuff (when the Giant goes bazurk!) and fun humor (playing in the lake). Oh PLEASE Brad, come here and make Ray Gunn. You gotta man!!
Anyhow, enjoy the pencil test and have a great weekend everyone!

emotion dictates design

I few people have asked me about the last pencil test i posted... they've asked a similar question. "Why do you have the eyes change shape so drastically?" well, for starters in order to see any change of emotion or attitude, change is required. I think it was Milt who said animation is all about change followed by some expletives. but also cuz it fits the style-- emotion dictates the design with this particular style i am going for. I learned this from Frank Molieri! The greatest animator you've never heard of before. I met Frank back on Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Frank, i believe is one of the most gifted draftsmen i've ever met. and nobody knows who he is because he's never worked at Disney or Dreamworks... but i assure you he can draw better than most those guys, not to mention he's been like an "animation older brother" to me. when everyone was freaking out about the so called "death" of hand drawn animation, who was staying cool and calm and helping me out as much as he could, Frank! That guy has done more for me than many artists. This is turning into a tribute instead of what i intended-- anyway, frank is awesome and worthy of respect. So like i said, Frank really taught me about how to play with shapes. I've put in some example here that Frank did of bugs (i can't think of anyone who draws him better). Look at the graphic quality to his drawings... he does things that aren't necessarily "natural" or "real", but he makes you believe it.
Look at what he did to the over all shape of the head... it's just a simple shape dictated by the emotion. Also note the cool Fleischer arm!

Notice how the eyes are skewed here... and the shape of the eye lids. so freaking beautiful. oh yeah, and clear hand shapes...
Yep Franks amazing-- oh i forgot, look at the mouth of the drawing on the top, he's totally breaking the rules. I love it man! Hopefully i should be able to finish up the last pencil test (there's still another half of it to go) and i'll post it for you all!

Happy Friday!

Hi everybody! it's Friday baby! but not just any ol' friday! It's my birthday... yes, it is this day 24 years ago that i came out of my mother holding a pencil. Oooh, ouch! She still doesn't like me holding pencils in front of her... makes her nervous.
It's just been a lot of the same old same old for me this week. Waaaaay busy trying to get my portfolio all finished. I was editing my reel and decided i needed one more good acting shot, so i have taken it on myself to animate about a 12 foot shot in a week!! it's been nuts trying balance everything, but God is gracious and gives as we need, not to mention my wife is gracious too!
So here's a piece i did for the character design portion of my portfolio. I really am fascinated with the film noir genre: detective movies and stuff. So i was drawing this detective character. It actually made me think of Ray Gunn, Brad Birds baby. He pitched that thing down here way before Incredibles but no one wanted to do it because of the fact that it WAS film noir and they thought audiences wouldn't go for it. but like most everything, if it's handled with balance and sincerity i think the audience feels and believes it. plus, ummmm, it's Brad! So here's to you Brad, please come down here and make that movie!!
So until next Wednesday which'll be the day before i go up to Pixar to visit a friend and see what's happening. If i can, i'll take pictures and post'em and narrate through my Pixarian adventure! Willermess out!

COULD IT BE?

DISCLAIMER: OOOPS! i see that my comp did quite go as intended with the extra layer floating in the top right of the screen. Lemme fiddle with it and see if i can get you all a new render by tomorrow! it makes sense i promise
It's finally done! well, as done as it can be for now. I didn't get a chance to opaque the tail or correctly comp it (it's actually underneath him on accident, should be comp'd ontop of him). but i think overall it was a successful test for the character design. I've since been able to improve the design because of the work i did on this shot (longer legs etc...).
Ya know it's amazing what your shot looks like in color, even temp color like this. it REALLY brings out all the mistakes and makes your spacing clear as day. sometimes when things are just pencil drawings you can miss a lot if your not careful.
well, this week besides work i started boarding my film! it's been a blast visualizing this story that's been swimming in my head for about a year and a half now. it just needed the time to brew i guess.
Curious George did fairly well last weekend! Better than expected actually, i was pleasently surprised!
anyhow, gotta get ready to teach for tonight. take it easy everyone and have a great weekend!