Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

Click on image to enlarge

Reclining Nude Anaglyph

2011-12-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

This is the latest of my life drawing conversions. I've done a free-view style of this too but you'll need the colored glasses to see this one.

(click image to enlarge)

Fab Four

2011-11-28T07:43:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't posted my completed nod to the greatest band in the world. I had offered posters and Tee-shirts and all kind of products with this image on my Zazzle store but they made me take it off. It's kind of funny because there are all kind of Disney imagery on there and I doubt the sellers are given permission to use them.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

(Caricature of The Beatles by Joel Brinkerhoff)

Jingle

2011-11-01T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's the promo for the Holiday Special I did some animation for. Don't confuse this with the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the same name!

Jingle All the Way from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo.

Anaglyph and Free-view

2011-10-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since I've done any stereo conversions so I dug up an old life drawing of mine and gave it a whack. If you have the blue and red lens glasses, you're all set. If you don't the double image is a free-view style that can be seen in 3D by crossing your eyes and focusing on the image that forms in the middle.

(Click images to enlarge)

Art Prints Available

2011-10-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

Click on image to find this art available at my Zazzle store.

After the Hunt by JDBrinkerhoff
See another framed artwork on Zazzle

Thanks to those who have already bought items. Please check back as new things keep being added. I've included some of my free-view style stereoscopic paintings, (nudes and still-life's), that can be viewed in 3D without special glasses too.

Dark Horse

2011-10-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

Still learning digital paint. I'm finding caricature to be pretty tough. I think it's become bad portraiture. I don't know.

(Caricature of George Harrison by Joel Brinkerhoff)

"La Joie de Vivre" influencing "Fantasia"

2011-10-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

It’s never been mentioned in anything I’ve read about the making of Disney’s “Fantasia”, but was this film influential in any degree? Heinrich Kley is clearly an inspiration and only recently being acknowledged but what about “La Joie de Vivre” (The Joy of Living), by Anthony Gross and Hector Hoppin?

Could this 1934 film have inspired the Tchaikovsky Nutcracker sequences of the 1940 film “Fantasia”? To me the sprites of “La Joie de Vivre” looks strikingly like the fairies in Fantasia with their long legs and relationship to nature. The nude bathing scene in particular has all the proportional designs of the fairies and echoes of the ice fairy can be seen in their involvement with the lake. The sprites of “La Joie de Vivre” make flowers grow and dance among leaves. They also disguise themselves as flowers and the Disney’s fairies are introduced emerging from flowers, and have similar interactions with nature. There seems to be many parallel elements to me.

I see “La Joie de Vivre” as a viable springboard to “Fantasia”. It also reminds me graphically of what Lionel Feiniger, (“The Kin-der-kids”) might have looked like animated. I also see some “Yellow Submarine” too.

(Character designs for Fantasia)

Boris Goodenough

2011-09-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

I did a preliminary sketch that was all scratchy and some friends like the quality. I worked over the top a little and decided to leave it loose and that this was good enough.

(Caricature of Boris Karloff by Joel Brinkerhoff)

Zazzle Store

2011-09-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

Yup, I set up a store on Zazzle. You can get my stereoscopic, free-view style paintings that can be viewed in 3D without glasses or anything, and other of my original works.

Click on the title or go here to see and hopefully buy my stuff! http://www.zazzle.com/jdbrinkerhoff.

Unka Walt

2011-09-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

This came out creepier than Walt ever was.

(digital caricature of Walt Disney by Joel Brinkerhoff)

Mellow Costello

2011-09-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Caricature of Elvis Costello

(digital painting started in Corel Painter and finished in Photoshop by Joel Brinkerhoff)

All You Need is Photoshop

2011-09-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've played with Corel Painter and I'm having the same trouble blending as I do with ArtRage. It just seems to swirl the colors around in a very uncontrollable manner. I know many people doing great things with both programs so it must be me. I will need to pick their brains for the proper technique. For Now I will stick with Photoshop.

Digital painting of John Lennon by Joel Brinkerhoff (Click image to enlarge_

Time to look into Corel?

2011-09-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

I did this caricature of Tom Waits in Photoshop which doesn't have the control I'm looking for in digital painting. I have ArtRage and have seen impressive work but I just can't use it for blending. I've known about Corel Painter for sometime but only now found I own a copy that came with my Wacom tablet! Time to start playing with Corel Painter.

(click image to enlarge)

Digital VS Old School

2011-09-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've been exploring the paperless digital graphic art alternatives to old school methodology and am still on the fence about the whole phenomenon. The convenience and flexibility of digital graphics is something I greatly treasure and will probably always rely on for exploratory design work. The actual execution of finished art is something I'm wrestling with. I seem to spend more time digitally trying to mimic what is pretty easy with the old fashioned pen or brush.

The example illustrations shown here are how fluid and varied Jack Davis was able to get his lines simply using a brush. The other two color drawings are mine using a digital paint program and I am not at all satisfied with the line quality. I didn't care much because they were exploratory drawings but I could not let these go as finished art and would have spent a lot of time tweaking line thicknesses.

I work with incredibility talented illustrators and they seem to have adapted pretty well to the digital revolution. I do see them spending a great deal of time laying down and deleting a single stroke until there is something they like. Would it be more efficient working old school? We still need to get that image digitized to be usable today though, don't we?

Brush work by Jack Davis (click on image to enlarge)

Digital designs by Joel Brinkerhoff (click on image to enlarge)

Trot Chart

2011-08-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

I made this chart and movie to help me figure out which leg was passing on which side for a show that involved a little dog as its hero. This was really pretty helpful.

Nine frame trot shot on two's. Click on image to enlarge

Old School...

2011-08-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this bit of video documenting the making of Canadian Broadcastings 1978 production, "The Devil and Daniel Mouse". It's a pretty representative example of how animation was done and the incredible amount of work involved.

Of course all that has changed with the digital age. I think there is better control and less waste today but the Zen like quality of old school cartooning is missing.

Back to Stop Motion

2011-07-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, Hallmark has given an air date: Friday, November 25 (8 p.m. ET/PT, 7C) so I can talk about this now.

It's been awhile since I have posted anything about anything. Partly because I took a much needed vacation, and mostly because upon my returned I took an offer to do some stop motion again for a Holiday Special called "Jingle All the Way".
It's very cute and has a lot of heart and I hope it will become a perennial favorite like "Rudolph" but, oh my, I forgot how physical stop motion animation is, and I've been just too tired to do anything else afterward.

The first week had me climbing onto a table top to reach the characters for every frame, (I think it was a shot well over 100 frames too), and the first night I has a massive leg cramp that made me stifle crying out and waking my wife. I've lost five pounds so that's not bad, but I've also lost sleep worrying about how to get shots done.

I've had a chance to work with some new technology that wasn't around before called Dragon Stop Motion which is pretty cool and allows you to plot out your shots with more accuracy. I also have renewed admiration for all the talent involved in a stop-mo production. It takes a fairly sizable crew to light and build sets and keep the puppets in good repair.

It's also humbling to work with the other animators. They're all so talented and young. I asked one of the crew if they had worked on "The PJs" which was a stop motion TV series that ran three seasons. She laughed and said she hadn't been born yet! Man, I'm old.

I'm mostly looking forward to watching this with my grand-kids, (yes, I said grand-kids. I told you I was old.). I also want one of those Jingle Xmas ornaments for my tree!

Hallmarks Jingle Xmas Ornament

The Hallmark Book the Special is based on.

Read more about the production here:http://tv.broadwayworld.com/article/Jingle-All-The-Way-Premires-Exclusively-On-Hallmark-1125-20110727

Northwest Animation Festival

2011-05-20T07:35:00.000-07:00

My film "Pop Goes The Weasel" will be showing opening night, Friday, June 3, as part of the Northwest Animation Festival. Please come see it if you're in the area.

Piggy Bank

2011-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a ceramic bank for a friend. This is the design I came up with. Maybe I'll post the finished sculpt later.

Click on image to enlarge

Pop Goes The Weasel

2011-04-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

This is the finished short done on my home setup. It's entirely digital and would have been very expensive to do using the traditional way with paper and camera. I had some difficulties technically but the flexibility really payed off when I thought I was done and noticed Weasel was misspelled! Going back into the file and rearranging the letters fixed the whole title card without re-shooting.

Just found out 'weasle' is an Old English spelling and would have been okay. Geez...

Stereoscopic Paintings

2011-04-18T08:33:00.000-07:00

Now for some more shameless self promotion!

Clicking the title will take you to an inexpensive paperback collection of of my stereoscopic paintings that I'm self publishing on Lulu.

These are striking colorful stereoscopic nudes done in free-view style paintings that can be seen in 3D without glasses or special equipment.
Or paste link into browser: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/stereoscopic-paintings/15474411

The Metaphor

2011-03-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned my personal film. Part of the trouble with a personal film is finding the time to do them, but some people knit or play golf, and I make stupid things like paint or do a short film. It’s a ‘short’ short film with the title running almost half the screen time but it’s still taking quite some time to do, partly because it’s already done in my head, (and looks so much better in there too).

The film came fully realized as I was listening to royalty free music. Even then I knew it was a metaphor and would be familiar to almost everyone. My inner-eye vision of the style and action for the film were dated clichés and the ending a natural conclusion to this line of thought. It seemed as though this cartoon had been made already, so why do it? Because it’s the kind of thing I don’t get to do in my day-to-day work as an animator. I don’t get to draw and I don’t get to do pantomime. That’s enough reason for me and it keeps me from getting into trouble elsewhere.

I’ve got five or six more shots till the startling profound ending. To Be Continued!...

Laying Pipeline

2011-02-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

I am thrilled and challenged by the reality of having essentially a virtual animation studio in my home. It’s been a cyclical journey for me trying to reach the look of ‘Golden Age’ animation.

Having worked in traditional animation during the late 70s the amount of resources needed was considerable starting with reams and reams of punched paper. Factor in the acetate cells, paints, camera, and an area to house all this including workspace and I can’t even imagine the expense.

Now after 30 some years I have all the tools at my fingertips and no trees were harmed or houses mortgaged.

I'm in the process of making a pipeline for a short personal film and have decided to use an 8GB thumb drive to transfer project files between platforms; a PC with Wacom Tablet, and a Tablet PC with Wacom technology for cleanup animation. I’m using Flash for quick and dirty animatics and color studies, ArtRage to do final backgrounds and Toon Boom Animate for principal animation.

I did a combination storyboard\animatic that was broken out into scenes using QuickTime Pro so I know my shot lengths and the sound tracks were extracted from each scene. I made folders for each scene that contains the scene animatic QT, audio file, ArtRage BG file, and ToonBoom work files so everything needed is in it’s own folder.

Here’s a low resolution scene showing the steps from storyboard, to layout and pencil test, to finished color.

What is so great about this is I can go in and make changes even after the fact without having to re-shoot or use more materials!

If you want to do animation, there really isn't any excuse not to now that it's all in the box.

Poor Mans Cintiq

2011-01-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

I've been looking for a way of doing paperless animation and have settled on a software. Now, the difficulty has been drawing with a Wacom Tablet which is okay for a lot of things but not precises enough to do good in-betweens and clean-up. Everyone uses the 21" Cintiq for this which allows you to draw directly on the screen. They also make a 12" but the expense has been too much to justify. After checking into tablet PCs I found the LE1600 by Motion Computing but the cost was still pretty high. Now after a few years I found a used one on Amazon and got it for almost nothing! It has Wacom technology like the Cintiq and is also another computer as opposed to just being a drawing screen! I've got just the project to run through it!

Painting Phases and Faces

2011-01-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

These are the steps from photo to finished oil portrait recorded after each drying time. I put some cornball music with it to jazz it up a bit.

Hunting Weasels...

2011-01-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

Doing some design work for a personal project.

Click on images to enlarge

Animators, Bookmark This Site!

2011-01-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

Péter Nagy's new website the Living Lines Library has compiled pencil tests, model sheets, and other things hand drawn related and placed them on an organized site for your enjoyment. The way things are laid out you can easily find what you are looking for.

Click on the title or past this link to find it: http://livlily.blogspot.com/

Retouching Family #2

2011-01-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

A friend of the family saw my restoration of our kids done with Photoshop, (it's an earlier posting on this site somewhere), and asked if I could lighten a picture of their grandmother? All they had was a copy of an old newspaper clipping. It was pretty streaky with a herringbone caused by the Benday dot patterns newspapers use to get halftones. There was something that looked like a feather in her hair but it maybe part of that herringbone effect so I downplayed it and left it out. The whole thing should have been repainted but I didn't have the time and the end result is a little ghostly. It's not my best work and I haven't heard back from them yet but it was free so they can't complain too much.

Click on image to enlarge

Balaam and His Donkey

2011-01-02T18:58:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a contemporary retelling of Bible stories to make them relevant today. Something layered that could be enjoyed by a wide range of ages like "Bullwinkle" which worked as satire for the adults and entertainment for youngsters. The style could be easy to replicate using Flash and driven by dialogue allowing the reuse of artwork. I thought it was something I could do alone without help

I can't say this was successful, and I think the poor production qualities like sound and music, plus the recycling of artwork, and the length of the story worked against me.

Anyway here it is for better or worse. And yes, I did all the voices too.

He Drew as He Pleased

2010-12-31T17:52:00.000-08:00

To start 2011 with a bang, here's a link to legendary Albert Hurters rare and expensive book of drawings, "He Drew as He Pleased".

I had sent Daniel Caylor scans of the book found at my local library and he posted them in their entirety on his site "On Animation".

Clink on this postings title or use this link to find it.

http://www.onanimation.com/2010/11/04/albert-hurter/

Hope it's going to be a good year for everyone!

Successful Gift Portrait

2010-12-25T13:50:00.000-08:00

I've been told Joanne was able to recognize her children so the gift was successful. What a relief.

Click on image to enlarge

From The Brinkerhoff Family

2010-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this is last years card but I didn't have time for a new one and we still mean it. Click on 720p for HD

Merry Christmas

2010-12-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Jungle Prayer

2010-12-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

I've been playing with a Kalimba. It's an African instrument which is also called a thumb piano. It inspired this recording I made using Cool Edit Pro to multi track myself playing and singing. I also found a way of putting audio on the web in stereo.

Listen!

Old Memories

2010-11-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

I found this digging through old stuff. The picture on the back is pretty impressive as everyone is in focus. I recognize almost everyone I worked with but there are a lot of folks I never knew and some folks are missing including myself I think. I may be one of those eyes peeping over a shoulder though there should be a bald head or ball-cap.

Click Image to Enlarge

Anaglyphic and Free View 3D Life Drawing

2010-11-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

Click Image to Enlarge

This is my first attempt at stereoscopic life drawing with texture. it's not completely successful but it's a start.

It also confirmed my frustration with the anaglyph method because the colors shifted enough to muddle things so I've included a cross eye free view style also.
A more accurate anaglyph version of this can be found clicking the title "Anaglyphic Life Drawing" or going here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29289570@N00/5204200579/

Portaiture

2010-11-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

Click image to enlarge.

I haven't done any portraiture in years. These are brothers but I'm surprise by their different head sizes and I know it's accurate.
This is an oil painting for Christmas so I hope the person getting this doesn't know about my blog.

Missed History

2010-11-14T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today, thirty-one years after its original release, Will Vinton’s now classic and award-winning animation of “The Little Prince” was presented at the Hollywood Theater with some of the original voice cast members reprising their roles live, along with sound effects artists and live music.

I couldn't make it but I dearly would have loved to. After 13 years with the Will Vinton Studios it would have been wonderful to talk once again with these gifted, creative people.

Megan Kahrs, another former employee, was there and posted some pictures on facebook which I'm using without her permission.

The middle picture starting with the mustachioed Mr. Vinton on the left, includes Joan Gratz, who won her own Oscar for the claypainted "Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase", and master animator/director Barry Bruce who defined the look of Claymation.

If you've never seen "The Little Prince & Rip Van Winkle" or "The Adventures of Mark Twain" they are available here: http://willvinton.net/filmDistribution.htm

This blog is peppered with posting on Will Vinton, Joan Gratz, and Barry Bruce if you're interested.

Retouching Family

2010-11-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

My wife found this damaged photo of our two oldest kids. She was very upset so I did a little Photoshop on it. You have to love that Clone Brush!

Click on images to enlarge

Finding Stop Motion

2010-11-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

I tried to build a stop motion demo reel with the bits and pieces I have kept but found most was in an unusable format. The usable things are the commercial bits at the beginning with Barbie and all. I found some badly compressed sequences on YouTube of my work from the TV show "The PJs" shot at Will Vinton Studios. It looks awful but I captioned the characters I'd done and the whole process brought back a lot of memories.

"PJs" ran three seasons and was controversial from the start. From an animation stand point it was very well organized and people were top notch making it happen. This was gorilla animation and I can't remember the exact daily frame count needed to stay on schedule but it was well over a hundred frames. It meant no 'pop-thur' where you put the puppets through a few trial shots. Many times it involved group shots with the entire cast, each one having their own idiosyncrasies.

It's a very different kind of animation than commercial or theatrical.

Team Work

2010-11-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sandro Cleuzo has a great blog and this posting talks about the team work at Disney when Frank Thomas and Milt Kahl were still animating. Even a master like Frank would go to a stronger hand to get better results. The first image is by Frank and the second is an improved pose by Milt. See more and read the whole article by clicking the title.

Frank Thomas

Milt Kahl

Dark Void

2010-10-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

I animated this sequence for the game The Dark Void sometime ago but just found it on YouTube. The character at the end overhearing their conversation is a different design than what was originally there. The sequence is a little stiff to me now but still in keeping with the rest of the acting in the game for the most part. It is choppier because this was captured from the game engine and the refresh rate isn't always fast enough.

I feel compelled to mention there is no motion capture in this game. It seems mo-cap is becoming more prevalent in cg animation but it wasn't used here.

The Pumpkin Queen

2010-10-26T15:46:00.000-07:00

All Hail The Pumpkin Queen! This is a photo of my granddaughter taken by her Aunt Joanne Zarzana. I pushed it over the top by adding the kitties. This will probably be my next painting.

Speed Painting

2010-10-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'm just playing with the stills I shot of my painting "After the Hunt". They weren't registered and shot under different lighting conditions. I tried to tidy them up as best I could.

Deep

2010-09-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

Another free-view stereoscopic painting. You know you've got to cross your eyes and focus on the image that forms in the middle

More Stereo Life Paintings

2010-09-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

You must cross your eyes and focus on the image that forms in the middle to view it in 3D.

Click on Images to Enlarge

Stars

2010-09-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

I was thinking of calling this "X", or "X Marks the Spot". Anyway, it's another stereoscopic free view style life drawing of mine. You'll find others scattered through this blog.

As always you must cross your eyes and focus on the image that forms in the middle to view it in 3D.

Click on image to enlarge

They'll Get You if You Don't Watch Out...

2010-09-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

It's only Sept. but I already have Halloween thoughts.

New Reel

2010-08-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

I can never get the image quality I want. After jumping through many codex hoops this is the best I could come up with. I hope to learn how to get better resolution.

After the Hunt

2010-08-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Doing my daughters nursery picture, (see earlier post), got me into the painting mood so I've started a new one. I took the sketch and enlarged it onto 8"x11.5" pages which I taped together to make the canvas size I wanted. Then I took transfer paper and traced the pattern onto my canvas and went over it with burnt umber to make my under sketch. Now I've got to let it dry and then do color toning. It feels good to smell the turpentine again and get messy.

This next bit may confuse some but I took a Cadmium Red and toned the whole picture with a thin wash. Even though the picture has primarily rolling green hills and trees this wash of red will unify everything and give it a depth I want. The last image is an over-all tone leading up to detailing. I hope I find time to finish it.

Cadmium Tone

Tone Pass

This is a first pass at detailing after my toning was done. I may need a few more sessions before it's finished but because it's oils I will need to let this dry. I may have to get several paintings going in various stages if I want to get a body of work done.

1st Pass

2nd Pass

El Tabador Returns!

2010-08-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to work on the latest El Tabador spots for Koodos. You may remember an earlier post where I talked about how fun the first commercials were too.

I did the running shots jumping over the cup and running up the books plus the very beginning where he rises and says, "Join me in the fight for phone freedom!", which is used on all the spots.

Nursery Picture

2010-08-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

My daughter is having her first child and wanted a painting of a ladybug for the nursery. Her husband complicated it by wanted a baby riding the ladybug so this is what I came up with. I don't know why my camera won't take more focused pictures.

Click on image to enlarge

Claymation tools

2010-08-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

Will Vinton

A fellow animator was asking how certain things were accomplished at Will Vinton's Claymation Studio. Here is a paraphrased version of the questions and answers.

Q: When you join pieces together, how do you erase (blend) the seams? Especially when reaching across a crowded set to get access to the puppet at a 45 degree angle.

A: You might want to consider ways of gaining access to your characters so you don't have to bend in unnatural ways. If you can pin register props like tables and chairs you can remove them and get to your figures and then replace them for the shot. I've had walls on hinges that swung out of the way so I could get to characters. If a character is seen from the waist up or never walks or is seated, we sometimes mounted them on a square platform and registered them with 'L' brackets screws to the floor. We lift the thing out and drop it back into the brackets.

Q: What kind of tooling technique is used to get that mottled/carved wood look? Gairy Bialke was probably best known for that style. It looks awesome, especially on arms and legs.

A: The chiseled look to some Claymation probably started with Barry Bruce who used what became known as a Barry Stick. It has a flat surface with a blade on one side and a round edge too. We made our own custom tools in the wood shop and a variation made by Jeff Mulcaster became my favorite tool. It's small and extremely versatile. (See diagram)

Click Image to Enlarge

Basically the flat side was used to spread the clay, kind of like frosting a cake. We were using the soft Van Aken and the flat tool side also was used to block out the shapes giving you that carved kind of look. The sharp blade created creases and the round side was used to smooth and blend . The curving tip was used for prying open spaces, smoothing and detailing, and on the Mulcaster tool it was great for detailing small areas.

Q: In EB's mustache at the end of Claymation Easter, how was it modified from fame to frame to appear as though the lines were bending (looks almost like morphing or deforming, but the lines would have to be re-scribed, and it doesn't look like they are).

A: The mustaches were clay replacements you could bend and shape so they looked like they were morphing until you replaced it with the shape you wanted. We has a mold to make copies.

Q: How was the lip sync done on the Raisins? This is probably my biggest question because I can't tell if it was completely torn apart and re-sculpted every frame, or if it was a single expression being re-worked frame to frame. Even with live action reference, I would have trouble with some of those mouth shapes. It's incredibly fluid.

A: The lip sync was done using live action reference of the actors preforming their lines. We all had Moviolas at our sets and tried to match the lip shapes the best we could. Generally the mouth was carved out leaving a cave from cheek to cheek and nose to chin which was lined with black clay. The mouth was built up using rolls of flesh colored clay spiraled around the edges of cave until you got the mouth size you wanted. Then you smoothed out the spiral and added the lip details. If you were very careful and remembered where your cave was you could cut these mouth shapes out and use them again like replacements.

The Man Who Planted Trees

2010-07-25T08:01:00.001-07:00

Daniel Caylor brought this film back to my attention; "The Man Who Planted Trees" by Frédéric Back. Even in this degraded form the message and artistry still inspire and impress me.

This is an important film and one of the most perfect uses of animation conveying complex emotion and message with every facet of sound and design in an entertaining and beautiful way. Like good art should it communicates in a way other media could not and is poetic and spiritually uplifting all the more so because it is animated.

Clicking on the title will take you to an interview with Frédéric Back.

Dr. Seuss Models

2010-07-18T10:09:00.001-07:00

I rediscovered some of my favorite toys that I’m sure had a lot to do with shaping my career choices.

In the sixties, Revell created a series of model kits designed by Dr. Seuss. They were colored vinyl plastic pieces that snapped together and required no painting or glue. Better yet you could intermix body parts with other kits and make your own creatures! These were some of the best toys ever made! Too bad there is nothing like them today that I know of.

Seen here from top to bottom: Norval the Bashful Blinket, Tingo the Noodle-Toppled Stroodle, and Roscoe the Many-Footed Lion.

Thanks to j_pidgeon’s photostream for these great pictures. Click title to see stream.

Studio System Assistants

2010-06-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm posting a part of Matt Williames article from his blog: Hand Drawn Nomad, (click the title to take you here). I post this portion not as criticism of Disney but as further conformation of the idea that the "Nine Old Men" and other 'stars animators' of Disney owe a tremendous amount of thanks to their assistants.

In an earlier posting called First Assistants and Clean-up: the Unsung Heroes of Animation, I published an honest and grateful acknowledgment by legendary animator Bill Tyla stating his reliance on good support from his crew.

I agree with Matt and wonder why we don't know more about these wonderful artists who helped make the Lead Animators great.
_________________

I more take issue with the "Star animator" mentality that Disney is so good at pushing. If you don't know what I mean how often do you hear about Dale Oliver? Dale was Frank Thomas' assistant for a long time, and honestly he made Frank look VERY good without getting any credit himself. Find some of Franks original ruffs, they are nothing to marvel at. Look at what Dale did with them... amazing assistant work. But you never hear about him.

Matt Williames

Work in Progress

2010-06-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

Here's some more developmental sketches for my independent project. I don't want to give too much away but I think you can see here this is going.

click on images to enlarge

The Things We do for Love

2010-06-16T15:18:00.001-07:00

I'm not known for 'cute' stuff but when my daughter is having her first child, I am already turning to mush. This is the artwork I did showing my granddaughter, (yes it's a girl), riding their dog Ryley, that will be used on the Baby Shower invitations.

David Brown Lessons

2010-06-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

This was taken from Bill Plympton and Patrick Smiths' Scribble Junkies Blog. The first part is there, or here: http://scribblejunkies.blogspot.com/2010/05/7-lessons-from-david-brown-part-1-of-4.html

7 Lessons From David Brown, part 2 of 4

8.Never be mean, chintzy and ugly to your secretary or she'll write a book.
9.Verbal pitches rarely make it to the screen and are frequently forgotten in the passage.
10.Nobody but the filmmakers can be trusted to form a valid opinion of a film by seeing a rough cut or reading a script. Especially marketing people. Show them the finished movie only and even then, their opinion is suspect.
11. Enthusiasm is the fuel of show business, especially unwarranted enthusiasm. Without it you can't go to work in the morning.
12.The larger number of executives in a production department, the poorer their movie. Bureaucracy dilutes the creative process – and slows decision making to a pathetic trickle.
13.This is from Darryl F. Zanuck. Interesting subject matter of a movie is more important than brilliant execution. I'd rather have a fair script on a provocative subject than a brilliant one about the sex life of an earthworm. I've had both.
14.Being a waiter, book salesman or a dealer in a casino is better preparation for a producing career than four years in film school. The best producers often are rogues and super salesmen.

New Old School

2010-06-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

I know there are tons of old cartoons around but, here is my attempt at getting back some of the sensibilities I enjoy from the classic style of 1930's animation using digital software. This is partly a reaction to the very angular, flat, hinged vector designs so prevalent today.

This is a work in progress and I may darken the background and add sound and a gag at the end.

New Fave Blog

2010-06-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Daniel Caylor has a blog on animation that I've just discovered called "On animation.com Talkin' cartoons and Film-making " It's more geared to actual animation production without the commercial interference and stylistic bickering of other animation sites.

Click on the title or find it here:

http://onanimation.com/

Dear Client and Agency People...

2010-05-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

I’ve wanted to tell you this for years. You are doing yourselves a big disservice every time you single frame through your animation. I understand you probably want to get your moneys worth and are checking to see how much movement you’re getting but each time you panic and say on frames 100 through 103 the character is ‘off model’ or only the whites of the characters eyes are showing on frame 30 and want fixes, you weaken your animation. Please play the scene at speed and see how it feels. Many times those distortions are intentional and as knowledgeable as using terms like ‘off model’ sound there are other terms like ‘squash and stretch’ and ‘smear’ which are real phenomenon observed from the study of organic life. Smear is really a technique simulating the blur caused by a fast moving object caught on slow speed film but it’s a great method for snappy actions. These are tools the animator uses to impart life and by removing them you instill a plastic rigidity into your characters that makes them that much more lifeless. Many times you react to your changes even more negatively and want to restage the action because now it’s not working for you. Trust me, try watching your dailies at speed and stop the habit of single framing through the animation. If there is a real problem it will leap out at you. Remember people will not be watching this one frame at a time and believe that the animators love their media and want it to look as good as possible for you and for them selves.

A few stills showing the 'smear', from Disney and Warner Bros.

Crew Jacket

2010-05-22T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've had some great opportunities and Cartoon Brew did a posting that made me dig out a piece of my past. Brew mentioned "Marvin the Martian in the Third Dimension", one of the first stereoscopic theme park attractions done in the early days of computer animation. I've included the trailer that sparked the CB posting below.

I did some character rigging and animated the 'Instant Martians' and some of the dog K9 and Marvin. From that came an amazing crew jacket that is a real flight jacket with cool embroidered patches. Sorry about the poor photos but these patches are on the arms, front and the big patch of K9 and Marvin fill almost the entire back of the jacket. The label with Bugs shows its a limited edition and was made for the Warner Bros. Movie World attraction which opened in 1996 at Bottrop Germany.

I love this jacket but am too embarrassed to wear it.

El Tabador

2010-05-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of commercials I helped animated using the character El Tabador. The work was done at Bent Image Lab and was a lot of fun. I've also included a fight scene I did for the interactive web site they have as part of the campaign. El Tabador is a cool little guy and I hope they do more with him, (and I'll get to work on it).

Pan

2010-04-19T12:41:00.000-07:00

Click image to enlarge

I've been neglecting the blog so here's a new post.

This one was hard to dial in the colors and they still aren't right. He's an original design based on old school ideas that I grew up with and find pleasant. I personally am getting tired of the angular character designs in so much modern animation today. To me they are kind of stiff and hard to get good poses without a lot of cheating the volumes around that make up the character. They also appear ridged in animation.

Old Design/New Presentation

2009-12-14T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here's an old design I kind of liked so I did a repackaging on it.

Click on images to enlarge

Brer Rabbit

2009-12-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

Click image to enlarge

A new character design for a film I'm planning based on Uncle Remus. I just want to do the animal stories without the problems Disney faced with "The Song of the South".

Thinking Christmas

2009-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

I just finished this years card for the Hippo-lot-ofus, a club for hippo lovers. They bought my bathing beauty hippo sculpture so I always try and remember them.

Click image to enlarge

The End of Little Foxes

2009-11-07T14:56:00.001-08:00

This is the end design choice.

click on image to enlarge

More Little Foxes

2009-11-07T07:55:00.000-08:00

I'm throwing everything at this for the moment.

Fleet Foxes

2009-11-06T14:08:00.000-08:00

These little foxes won't steal your grapes. I'm playing with different constructions.

Click image to enlarge

Happy Day After Halloween Re-post, "The Mad Doctor"

2009-11-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

This had been removed from YouTube but it's back up again for our enjoyment.

A Mickey from 1933 when he was at the heights of stardom, this cartoon does what animation is supposed to. Beautifully done in every way, it’s just as entertaining today as it was back then. A perfect cartoon.

Pencil Test Depot

2009-10-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

Wow, I found a new favorite blog called "Pencil Test Depot" with some crazy good, guess what?... Yes, pencil tests, from all over the place. It's very inspirational and shows that magic quality not found in other styles of animation. For me the moving drawing is still amazingly effective and much more satisfying than stop-motion or computer animation. The draftsmanship and acting are sometimes more worthy than the script but you can see how dedicated these animators are to capture something entertaining.

Here's just a taste of the wonders to be found! Click the title above to go here.

Thief from bj crawford on Vimeo.

Ruby Rocket Again...

2009-09-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

I found some old files while cleaning my computer. Here are some scenes from Sam Niemanns' "Ruby Rocket" adventures.

The slates at the beginning show I did the inbetweening and clean-up on a scene animated by Sam and one by B. Larsen. We were using Flash and drawing everything, animating on fours. Later we did tonal passes for highlights and shadows.

The finished look was quite impressive and nothing like what you would expect from Flash as you can see from the still image of Ruby.

Hopefully Aniboom will show all the episodes someday. Click on the title to go to Sam's blog all about the making of Ruby.

Mounties

2009-09-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some expression studies I did for Hive FX pitch material for their tv series proposal called, "Mounties".

Although I didn't design the characters, I was asked to do facial studies and turn-arounds for all the cast. It was pretty fun and the style is kind of like what I do anyway.

I also built and animated the lead characters in Flash for a trailer that you can watch by clicking on the title or going here and clicking on the trailer: http://www.mounties.tv/

All art work is property of Hive FX

Click on images to enlarge

Character Designs

2009-09-11T09:07:00.000-07:00

Thought I would post some of my design work for a few personal projects. More to come.

Click on images to enlarge

Maria Gurevich

2009-09-03T11:27:00.000-07:00

Animator/Puppeteer Zack Buchman and Producer/Doll-maker Maria Gurevich have teamed up to create Furry Puppet Studio and you can learn more about them here: http://www.furrypuppet.com/

I've posted some of Maria's delightful dolls to show how charming they are. A little Marc Chagall, kind of Heinz Edelmann, these designs would be beautiful animated.

See more of Maria's work by clicking her name in the title of this post.

3D Shower

2009-08-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

A continuation on my free view style stereoscopic paintings. Click on the image to enlarge then cross your eyes and focus on the image formed in the middle to view in 3D.

First Animated Christmas Special Book

2009-08-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

I just got my copy of animation director Darrell Van Citters' book, "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special", and it's terrific.

I knew Darrell from working on the first season of Cartoon Networks "The Mr. Men Show", and when I heard he shared a love for and was writing a book on the Magoo Christmas special, I was thrilled because now I might find out more about one of my favorite cartoons.

Magoo's Christmas Carol was something I tried never to miss. Not only is it a faithful retelling of the Dickens' story, it's also true to the character of Mr. Magoo. There are beautiful songs and moments of comedy and heart touching poignancy.

Let me tell you this is a great book full of beautiful production art and well researched information on who and how this classic show was made. After just reading the introduction I learned Walt Disney was so deeply moved by the show after its first airing that he made a personal call to the producer to congratulate him. It's chuck full of stuff like that!

Click the title above and go to Darrell's website where you can learn more about this wonderful Christmas Special and order a copy of this well written and glorious book.

Bath Time in Pepperland

2009-07-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Click image to enlarge

Heinz Edelmann, who developed the psychedelic look of the Beatles’ animated 1960s film Yellow Submarine, died on Tuesday, aged 75.

I didn't intend this as a tribute to him but this 3D free view painting of mine clearly shows his influence.

To free view this image you must cross your eyes and focus on the image formed in the middle.

Fourteen Indians

2009-07-21T07:50:00.001-07:00

Occasionally I've mentioned my mother and her influence on my paintings. Recently she had me scan some of her Indian paintings. The originals had been sold and all she had were pretty bad photos. Even so the handling of her brush strokes and the expression in the faces re impressed me as to how good she was in her prime.

Mom has rheumatoid arthritis and is battling the slow loss of her hands. I'm grateful to have a few of her many paintings saved digitally and glad the originals are hanging in someones homes.

The Indians were only a favorite subject for my mother and her paintings ranged from portraiture to landscapes, fantasy to still-life. She worked not only in oils but did water-colors, pastels, charcoals, and sculptures too.

It would be fantastic to get a collection of her work together but I have no idea who owns what. Maybe mom has an address book of past clients.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE

3D Rumpus

2009-07-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

It wasn't used because apparently you need to be invited but here's my free view stereoscopic offering to Terrible Yellow Eyes, Cory Godbey's blog that celebrates Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" Click the title to check out more artwork by various artists.

Clicking the picture will take you to my Flickr page where the double image lives. There you will be able to free view in 3D.

If you are unfamiliar with 3D free viewing, you must cross your eyes and focus on the image that forms in the middle. It's a great headache inducer!

Walt's Vision...

2009-07-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Click image to enlarge

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1917

This is one page of an eight page letter from Walt Disney to Don Graham about Disney's idea of night classes for his animators.

Clicking the title or pasting the link above will take you to Michael Sporn's posting of the entire letter and a little history on how these classes later evolved into Cal Arts.

What leaps out to me is Walt's understanding of the needs to be communicated in animation and how best to teach these ideas. He shows an understanding of how motion is influenced not only by physicality but also motivated by emotion.

Walt doesn't shoot out some ambiguous letter full of generalities on improving the product and building moral. This letter is a well thought out strategy suggesting the needs and how to meet the needs to push his studio beyond what everyone else thought animation could be.

The success of Disney animation clearly came from Walt's willingness to equip his artists with a full training in draftsmanship and motion analysis and his practical suggestions on how to go about achieving that.

Enchanted Dolls

2009-07-13T16:28:00.000-07:00

Doll maker Marina Bychkova has a site displaying her beautiful articulated porcelain dolls. They are intricately fashioned with graceful hands and expressive faces and are anatomically correct.

Bychkova has a real design sense and some of the figures wear elegant tattoos and exotic head ware.

These beauties are extremely pose-able and a section of the site has demos of their versatility and ability to hold a pose. The figures immediately suggested stop motion puppets to me and would probably lend themselves very well to it.

I believe these lithe ladies would be great aids for artists and more useful than those ugly wooden manikins.

Click on the title or paste this link to see more: http://www.enchanteddoll.com/galleries/costumed.html

Style vs Style

2009-07-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

I ran across the cool promotional video for Kevin Dart's art book,“Seductive Espionage: The World of Yuki 7,” on Cartoon Brew.

Although the design is lovely I feel it suffers from the curse digital animation seems to promote and that is a tendency toward robotic hinged movement. It's understandable because the method is to literally cut the artwork up into pieces and assemble it like paper cut-outs. The limbs rotate from fixed pivot points and everything is flat flat flat.

The argument is an aesthetic one where the artist has deliberately chosen that look. This may be true, it certainly is becoming wide spread.

I love high styled designs in animation but I think I would have done some hand drawn animation on top for hair and clothing to ease some of the stiffness.

Stylistically the design could have been the same and treated in a more graceful way emulating traditional drawn animation. Take a look at one example of high styled limited animation from the opening of "I Dream of Jeanie" and try and imagine the World of Yuki trailer retaining the graphic style but moving like that.

Now before you get all upset let me clarify that I understand this trailer was done on a very short schedule and I think they did a brilliant job but I would love to see the same graphic style in a more lush manner.

"A Kiss From Tokyo" Theatrical trailer from Stephane coedel on Vimeo.

Oxberry Camera

2009-06-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1652

Clicking the title or pasting the link above will take you to an article posted by Michael Sporn about John Oxberry, the maker of animation cameras.

It brought back fond memories of my first job in animation. It was at a commercial house in Ft. Wayne Indiana that used an Oxberry with aerial image projection for rotoscoping, effects and combining live-action with animation.

I recall the hum of the motors that ran the camera up and down it's double rostrums was loud enough to drown all ambient sounds from the room. This was a good thing and helped focus your attention on the mound of artwork, the correct camera settings and following the exposure sheets.

The N/S, E/W pegs were all hand cranked, (there may have been servo motors too that you could program), and the exposure sheets had all the computations for every frame marked out in the camera column.

Fortunately for me it was not my job, although I did shoot some less complex scenes on it, because it involved consulting big expensive books full of mathematical equations to figure compound moves with fairings to ease in and out.

Our brainy cameraman Chris Dusendschön later went to Robert Abel Associates and got involved with effects and early computer graphics.

My second experience with Oxberry was at Will Vinton's Claymation Studios. There was a derelict camera that sat dejected for years until another brainiac Animator/Director Hal Hickle restored it single handed. It was used for titles and Animator/Director Mike Wellins did a short film using paper cutouts on it.

Incidentally Hal also owned one the the cameras Ray Harryhausen used to shoot "Mighty Joe Young".

I am excited by the digital revolution and the autonomy it allows. But I'm also glad to have experienced the early method of cartoon making and kind of miss the big toys.

Click image to enlarge

Disney Picture

2009-06-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

I haven't read this book but I love the cover. It's great that Walt was photographed from the same angle and posture. I love the intensity of his early picture and the contrast of the later well groomed Walt.

Click image to enlarge

Something Strange and Provocative...

2009-06-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

I found a great blog about Illustrators called Today's Inspiration that you can find here: http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/

There is an article about my favorites, the incredible husband and wife team, Alice and Martin Provensen.

I was surprised to learn they designed Tony the Tiger and the other Kellogg cereal mascots in 1953.

Click on the title or go here to read more: http://todaysinspiration.blogspot.com/2008/07/provensens-something-strange-and.html

It's all in the Scrawl

2009-06-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

click image to enlarge

I’ve been enjoying the first volume of Walt Stanchfield notes from Disney drawing classes, “Drawn to Life”. It’s a wealth of information that must be taken in doses.

Like animation itself the book is intimidating in the amount of details that must be judged and juggled, but there is also a source of comfort for me. The book is filled with scrawl. I know scrawl is a term for poor penmanship but I'm using it to describe loose scribbley tangled drawings.

We are all familiar with the beautiful draftsmanship and elegance of a finished Disney still. What we haven’t been privy to are the rough developmental drawings that evolved into these beauties.

The examples I’m posting are actually more legible than most but show the loose building up of masses and how they relate to each other traveling through 3D space.

Being able to see the masters’ messy exploratory scrawl is always liberating for me and I feel less inclined on trying to make a ‘pretty’ picture and more empowered to do something with vitality and power.

Getting Goofy with Toon Boom...

2009-06-01T12:36:00.000-07:00

I started playing with the Toon Boom Animate Preferences settings and found I could get a fair digital 'pencil' that would act more like a real one. I also decreased the opacity on the pencil color so now I can sketch lightly and build up a line without it becoming too dense.

Here's a walk I tried using a model sheet of Goofy I found online.
I had read somewhere that Goofy was kind of a circus clown so I wanted to try and make a goofy clown walk for him.

I didn't bother cleaning and finishing this because I'm lazy, (there's some stutters here and there I need to take out too), but I think I'm getting a technique worked out.

There have been some unexpected crashes too and I don't know if it's a Vista compatibility issue or what. Sometime it's pretty smooth going and I get lulled into a false sense of security.

I'm still using a Wacom tablet but if I angle it a bit it's more accurate.

_____________

Perhaps this part should be called Goofy in the Sky with Diamonds...

I took my ruff animation and just colored it to see what it might look like with solid fills. I stuck a background behind it but it wasn't long enough to pan so I stretched it.

Even though it's a little trippy I'm encouraged that I could do old school type animation with this.

Adult Characters and Advertising

2009-05-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

UPA created Mr. Magoo and Hanna Barbera made The Flintstones with an adult audience in mind. The Flintstones was the first prime-time animated series and was sponsored by Winston cigarettes.

These delightful commercials would never fly in today's PC world but they show how fun advertising was when the corporate executives, (before the agency 'creatives' took over), trusted the studios to make something for them without interference.

Something in My Eye...

2009-05-27T17:07:00.001-07:00

The advance word on Pixars latest film “Up” is that they have done it again with a wonderfully entertaining and poignant story.

Did you catch the word ‘poignant’? Yes it’s something many animated films forgot to work into the mix. A good story in general has to connect with situations and characters we the audience care about and can relate to.

How many animated films can you remember that have sacrificed pathos and sensitivity for false bravados and ultra cool characters that laugh in the face of danger?

In an attempt to be current many animated films gave us shallow heroes with little compassion or insight who blather innate verbal banter in an attempt at wit. They crack jokes at inappropriate moments such as confronting death and dodge hazards as if they were on an amusement park attraction.

These films failed because they didn't connect emotionally with the audience. If the lead characters were unaffected by their situations why should we care?

The best animated films let us feel with the main characters. We understand them and have had similar experiences. We see a part of ourselves in them and worry when they are in trouble and cry with them when they are sad.

The best animated films always seem to have that ‘lump in the throat’ moment where you hope no one notices if you shed a tear.

I’m banking on “Up” giving us an emotional connection with these characters that will linger with us long after we leave the theater.

Squirrelly Squirrels

2009-05-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of teaming up again with my friend and fellow animator Melik Malkasian to animate these crazy squirrels.

Melik is a fine actor and has appeared in several TV shows, stage productions, and feature films so it's always a great experience working with him.

This is the second time we've teamed up to animate these squirrels. They've been modified but we first animated them in the direct to DVD movie "Dog Gone".

We tried to divide the shots up equally by length but somehow Melik got to do the great dancing scene. I fortunately did get to do the scenes where Leroy squirrel gets hit on the head and drops all his nuts. We tag teamed on the high-five and the running around the tree shot,(only shown on the website version).

This video is without sound but you might catch a better quality version of it on TV or better yet go to this website, watch the video with sound, roll over the squirrels to make them talk, look for Bigfoot and play some games while you're there.

http://www.firsttechfans.com/

Paste address above or click on title to go to site.

Flipping out in Toon Boom

2009-05-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Because I work primarily in 3D animation the time for exploring digitally drawn traditional animation has been on and off. I am getting familiarizes with the Toon Boom interface and tools but one big obstacle I'm hoping someone has overcome is how to 'flip' or 'roll' the drawings as one would using paper.

I thought being freed from the mountainous stack of loose drawings would be a big advantage. And it is to some extent but there are times when I want just a few drawings and to be able to put them in any order I want.

Many is the time I will reverse the order of the Key drawings when I'm doing the inbetweens, rolling the drawings back and forth to see the action. I can't do that digitally. Now you can use what is called 'onion skinning' to look through your stack of drawings and you can scroll back and forth in a time-line to see the progression of the action but it's not as discrete as having those pages on pegs to roll between your fingers.

With paper I can find those tweaks a drawing needs as I'm rolling the pages back and forth and can make changes and additions on the fly. But digitally I need to be on the right image layer and have it active to access a drawing. I've drawn on the wrong image sometimes impulsively because I wanted to make that addition and forgot I had to break my concentration in order to pick the right drawing level.

There must be something I am unaware of because many big studios are using Toon Boom today and I'm sure these issues have been addressed by them.

_______

My friend Eric told me the keys F and G toggle between drawings and that seems to work to an extent. I can do better just scrubbing through the time-line.

Sita Sings the Blues on YouTube

2009-05-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here is the gorgeous film "Sita Sings the Blues" by Nina Paley in it's entirety.

The movie is available for FREE download in 1080p, 720p, and 480p!
For an updated list of download or torrent links, go to: http://sitasingstheblues.com/wiki/ind...

Sita Sings the Blues, by Nina Paley
http://www.sitasingstheblues.com

DVD version(s) will be coming soon!

Please help support this film.

Going to the Dogs

2009-04-20T09:04:00.000-07:00

click on image to enlarge

I've been reading the Walt Stanchfield books "Drawn to Life" and feeling guilty about not drawing every day. These guys were handy so I did some fast sketches.

Disney Reuse Cont.

2009-04-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

Following the delightful video of the Disney's reused actions in the last posting, I found the scenes I personally remember being recycled.

Now I know this was done partly for economic reasons but it can't have saved that much considering the action had to be redrawn to different character designs. But the timing was there and the action proved entertaining so I guess it did save time in concept and direction. Need a dance sequence here? Go to the vaults!

Disney does Disney

2009-04-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Watch Disney Templates on CollegeHumor

My friend and talented animator Jim Richardson sent me this awesome compilation of recycled Disney animation.

I remember as a kid seeing the same elephant actions from Jungle Book used elsewhere and the same actions used for Mogley, (Jungle Book), Christopher Robin, (Winnie the Pooh), and Wart, (Sword in the Stone), but I didn't know it went soooo far!

First Assistants and Clean-up: the Unsung Heroes of Animation

2009-04-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

“My assistant will take the scenes over and really add quite a bit to the stuff. That is part of the function of the first assistant. Several pieces of animation in this reel are examples of the value of the first assistants and the cleanup men. There are several scenes in this sequence that I know would never have resulted as they did if the cleanup men has not been able to draw and did not know something about animation.”: Bill Tytla

The above quote is from legendary animator Bill Tytla during an action analysis class. Here is one page of that talk where the quote can be found.. The whole talk can be found here: http://afilmla.blogspot.com/2009/03/tytla-speaks-on-forms-vs-forces-i.html

What I found interesting is the complete honesty about his process of animating and how it's not any one thing in particular but a blend of many elements.

One thing the studio system had going for it was the distribution of labor which allowed the lead animator to concentrate on the big acting gestures and handing off the scenes to assistants who polished and filled in the additional drawings bringing the action up to the 24 drawings per second of screen time. The scenes were cleaned up during this process and details added such as fingers, buttons and hair etc. by more assistants known as clean-up.

These guys had to be good or they could blow the whole shot and ruin the animation altogether. We all hear about the Lead Animators but it's a shame we don't know much about their assistants.