Virtual Pose and Cintiq

I kind of bashed this picture out on my Wacom tablet (Intous 3) so I’d have something to post along with this comment sent to me from Robin Ator. He has some first hand experience with the Cintiq drawing table that I thought would be helpful to anyone considering digital drawing like myself. He wrote:

Cintiqs have their problems, too. They are no panacea for whatever's ailin' ya.

1- you mention the disconnect that occurs between the wacom pen and the screen. having used the cintiq the same way, I found that having the cintiq pen on top of my drawing to be even more annoying: each time I would try to start a line at a precise spot, I'd be unable to find the spot because the stylus was exactly on top of it.

2- the angle of the screen can be set in a number of ways to accommodate the arc of your drawing hand and arm, but it's still not enough for optimum comfort, I find. with a tablet pc, at least, you can prop the thing on your knee like a sketchbook. the cintiq is so large and heavy that you can't really do that.

3- the thing heats up a great deal. so, as you use it, it's slowly cooking your drawing hand. very annoying. also, there's a faint electronic buzz to the screen as you move your hand across it, making a faint but noticeable staticky crackle. that too I find annoying.

so, I wouldn't agree that a cintiq is the electronic answer to drawing that I would like.
__________
Robin is a true force of nature and please check out his amazing work, (Warning: adult themes), here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/r8r/

My Friend Flickr

I forgot I had an account on Flickr. It's updated with a lot of my personal art. Some has appeared here but not all so if you want to see what I do without having to dig through other stuff check here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29289570@N00/

Thanks

The 'four old men' working on the movie "The Wild". I'm the bearded one sitting down so I don't break a hip.

Walt Kelly

Yesterday was Walt Kelly's birthday. He would have been 94. Kelly is dear to me not only for his connection with Fred Moore and Ward Kimball's unite at Disney and the work he did on the classic animated films. He is treasured as the creator of "Pogo", a comic that continues to amuse and amaze me. Happy news it is to find Fantagraphics Books is doing a reprint of everything Pogo. Check out Mark Evanier and the Kelly Studios site here: http://www.pogopossum.com/index.htm

Madame Tutli Putli

I've not seen this yet but after watching these clips it looks very good. Here is a link to an interview with the film-makers about the two years of darkness and tedium they endured to animate this stop-motion film. It never mentions if the eyes were real and put in later but that's what it looks like to me.

Check out the video here: http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/madame-tutli-putli/player.php?film=3

Sultan's Elephant

I love the surreal moments life throws out unexpectedly. Here is a tiny piece of a grand scale performance that happened over four days in London. You can go to YoutTube and find the Elephant yourselves. He's quite impressive and it looks as though a lovely time was had by all.

Ron Mueck

Hope you all have high speed connections and can enjoy this link to a video about the incredible Ron Mueck. The still image is just one of his startlingly real sculptures.

Watch video here: http://blip.tv/file/94203

Elephant Gun

I couldn't resist posting this lovely moody video with music by Beirut.

Cinema School

I've discovered a new favorite site from Stage 6 called Cinema School. Here's a link to an interview with David Lynch a director I'm fascinated and frustrated by. He comes across as a sweet almost childlike guy and the irony is not missed that he's surrounded by sharks. As David would say, "Keep your eye on the doughnut and not the hole".

http://stage6.divx.com/Cinema-School/video/1286184/Scene-By-Scene---David-Lynch

More Virtual Pose

I tired using “Virtual Pose #3” by Chakkour with my Wacon tablet again for figure drawing. I’m finding I can’t get a good global reading of proportions. To see anything on my small screen I need to zoom in and out and soon I’m lost. Also there has always been a bit of a disconnection for me drawing on a Wacom because the image is not directly under my pen. The Cintiq tablet looks like the way to go for digital drawing but I can’t afford one yet and my tablet is fine for my current work which does not involve much drawing.

Digital sketches by Joel

No MooCap!

Keith Lango has a post called Dangerous Opinions. it's about not being able to express an opinion because it might damage your career. I can understand if you break your confidentiality clause and leak something before release time or discrediting a film as it's being made. But what I found intriguing about this is the fear of speaking out against Motion Capture or Mo-cap. No animator wants to clean up mo-cap but the use is becoming more and more prevalent. It’s too bad that productions can’t use it judiciously. Say what you will about “The Barnyard” and those damn udders on males but here is a case in point where mo-cap was used well. Mo-cap was used ONLY on the background characters in a crowd. The rest of the cast were done by animators of which I was one.

Read Keith’s’ Post here: http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?p=649

Virtual Model

I can't get out for life drawing classes so I'm trying something different. I've had this book for awhile and never used it till now. It's "Virtual Pose #3" and consists of a book with numbered photos and a corresponding CD with QuickTime movies of the model that you can rotate 360 degrees and zoom in and out. I find there is a foreshortening that I need to overcome and sometimes I get disoriented zooming in and out. I'm drawing in Photoshop on my Wacom Tablet and it's difficult to make nice swooping lines like you can by rotating paper. These sketches are kind of scratchy but I suppose they could be cleaned up on another layer.

Digital sketches by Joel

Jim Tyer Smear

Thad K. has posted a break down of some Jim Tyer animation done at Terrytoons. Many have held Tyers’ work in high esteem but I personally find a large majority of it annoying. What set Tyer apart from other animators was his variation on the ‘smear’: a technique used to bridge large distances in fast moving objects or appendages. The smear was used to simulate the blurring found in live action motion pictures caused by fast movement and slow film speeds. Tyer used it in almost a reversed fashion where a part of the body, say a nose, would stretch out in a direction before anything else. Then the rest would stretch to catch up with it. Tyer also had the habit of doing ‘shrink takes’ where the character would actually shrink in size and then pop back out again. He also blinked the pupil of an eye without blinking the lids over the eyeball, very strange stuff.

See Thad’s study of Tyer work slowed down for full effect here: http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/

Mr. Men

We just got great feedback from Cartoon Network about the first four episodes of "The Mr. Men Show". It's going to be a pretty cute show and very funny. I think it will reach a wide range of age groups and most adults who have seen it find it funny and charming as well. Check out the site here: http://www.mrmen.com/

HELLZAPOPPIN

I wouldn't have believed it but people have posted bits of “Hellzapoppin”, the movie I mentioned in my last posting as the inspiration of the projectionist gag 12 years later in “Duck Amuck”, on YouTube. Watch this opening and I’m sure you’ll agree there was some cross-pollinating going on between toons and comedians. Thanks Rockhead for turning me on to this movie!

Origins of a Toon

Speaking of Jones, here is a piece I wrote of what I think were the origins of "Duck Amuck". Cartoon Brew had posted it awhile ago but I thought I would re post it here:

DUCK AMUCK
Indisputably Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese created the 1953 classic cartoon “Duck Amuck,” but the ideas and comic bits were around for a long time before they brought them to new light. The springboard seems to be Buster Keaton’s 1924 masterpiece “Sherlock Jr.” In it we find the continuity gags of changing backgrounds and props pulled and replaced. Next, a very specific split-frame gag can be traced to an obscure 1941 Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson adaptation of the play “Hellzapoppin.” Director H.C. Potter continually broke the fourth wall in this self-referencing farce, and created a projectionist joke where the film became stuck with the framing splitting the screen. The characters comment on their condition before the supposed projectionist can make the correction twelve years before Daffy found himself in the same situation.

Chuck Jones Documentary

I haven’t watched all eight parts yet but this looks like a good documentary on Chuck Jones posted on YouTube. The whole thing can be found here with a little digging: http://uk.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=KindOfMonty&p=r

I love Jones as a director but I’ve often wondered if he would have been as successful without Michael Maltese as his writer? I look at all the best loved and academy winning cartoons Jones did and they all were written by Maltese. I think it’s kind of like The Beatles. They were all talents individually but together they made history. Too bad you never hear much mention of Michael.

Dr. Pepper

I let some friends listen to my album of original music which I recorded on my off hours. I’m not much of a musician and play by ear but the response has been flattering and I’ve been compared with The Gorillas, Wean and even The Beatles. I did intentionally try for a Beatle sound sometimes and even did a mock cover which no one has seen till now. Just having fun, folks.

Click on image to enlarge.

Messy Mouse

I probably shouldn’t post these tests. People might get the idea I’m showing finished stuff but I’m just playing. This was a test using Flash and the drawing tools aren’t very good. I do like the onion skinning though. I’m drawing right in Flash using my Wacom tablet.

Don’t sue me WD, I’m just messing around.

PJ's

Well well, look what turned up on YouTube. Someone has posted a sequence from "The PJ's". It's a little dark, (maybe that's a good thing), and unfortunately happens to be a whole sequence that I animated. Tarnell's lip sync doesn't match in some spots because he originally made references to "The Dating Game" and the lines had to be changed. And no, I did not post this on YouTube.

“The PJ’s” was a prime time stop motion sitcom fathered by Eddy Murphy and Ron Howard after watching "Thunderbirds". It was 'gorilla animation' on a tight schedule with an unbelievable daily frame rate numbering in the hundreds. We shot on 'ones' at 24 frames per second.

The Art of RATS!

Jim Hill has posted a nice article about Karen Paik’s book, “The Art of Ratatouille”. He says in the book there are bits and pieces of what the original director and creator Jan Pinkava was doing before Brad Bird took over, and of course glorious production pictures.

Check out these murals that did make it into the film and cover the walls of Gusteau’s. Also here are title card ideas that show the film was originally going to be called “Rats”. And last this beautiful clay sculpt next to the cg version of Remy.

Now that's two books I want for Christmas,(hint hint)

Images are property of Disney/Pixar

Purves Book

I know what I want for Christmas. Cartoon Brew just posted an article on the new book by stop-motion master Barry Purves. You can pre-order it in a few weeks from Amazon and Focus Press. For more info, check out Cartoon Brew.

I never got the chance to work directly with Barry but I did attend a class he taught at WVP. He's one strange guy, but an amazing artist.

Ratatouille Visuals Taste Good

I’ve already mentioned the great visual nuances in Ratatouille like Ego’s coffin-shaped room. Now animator Michel Gagne has posted his work and how he accomplished the wonderful food tasting visualization sequences that really impressed me with the inventiveness. Let’s keep cartoons visual! Check it out here:
http://www.gagneint.com/Final%20site/Animation/Pixar/Ratatouille_main.htm

The Laika Story

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/features-the-knights-tale.html

Up until then, Travis had been just another young, obsessive animator at Will Vinton Studios in Portland, Oregon. He spent his days mostly alone, posing his delicate puppets or creating computer graphics for ads and a short-lived TV series, hoping for another show, maybe his first film. A humble life near the bottom of the ladder. Today that would change. Travis was taking a seat on Vinton's board of directors, a body he'd always thought of as some kind of secret society. He was 29, with no experience as a manager and only four years as an animator, his first real job. Ever.

Thus begins the unusual tale of a father and son teaming up to ressurected a failing animation studio.

The link above takes you to an article that talks about the birth of Laika from the rubble of Will Vinton Studios. It's sad for me to read because it involves events that touched a lot of my friends, yet it's good to know another studio is born. It also shows how precarious a situation it is for the new studio and for the Knight family. I sincerely hope "Coraline" is a monster hit for them.

Richard Williams

I’ve been meaning to post this some time ago. There’s also a terrific 6 part documentary on Richard Williams, (and a whole lot of other cool animation related stuff), on YouTube called “The Thief Who Never Gave Up” that you can find here: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=cookedart&p=r&page=3




Unfortunately I waited too long and only the trailer remains of “The Thief and the Cobbler: Recobbled” which is a restoration of Williams feature film to the way he had envisioned it.

My personal experience with Mr. Williams was attending his animation class that eventually became his book “The Animator's Survival Kit”. During the talk he would make drawings on a dry board to illustrate his point. He would erase the drawing with his hand and make a new one. As he talked he would wipe the sweat off his face and leave dry mark smudges till at the end of his talk he looked like he was in black face! He did this three nights in a row. He was tremendously funny and a very sweet guy.






Of course I met him afterwards and got his autograph. A few of my mates did better and had dinner with him later. They say he and his wife are great people. I believe them.

Tex Avery

A great documentary on Tex Avery has surfaced on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQkUmkWhXQY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fclassicanimation%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

You can also see all five parts on Animation ID here: http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/

Ratatouille

Just saw Ratatouille. Amazing, Bird has so much packed into it, the critic Ego’s office in the shape of a coffin, the tears in Colette’s eyes, the feel of flesh and fur, all great. It’s the first film I’ve looked forward to in a long time that didn’t disappoint. The audience actually applauded after the screening. Kudos to my buddy Brian Boyd for helping make another Pixar hit.

Women In Art and Mona Lisa...

My sister sent me this movie. It reminds me of Joan Gratz's Oscar winning short "Mona Lisa
Descending a Staircase".

Instead of clay painting like Joan's film, this uses computers and the actual artwork. But it is not as impressive to me because no human hand was required to do the transformations.



Here is Joan's great clay animated classic, "Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase". It is a masterpiece not only because of Joan's ability to recreated the paintings and morph them into others but also for the historical structure and subtext of the film. Remember these are animated clay paintings! Quite an accomplishment.

Costumed Figure

More from my sketch book. These aren’t particularly good but it was a fun session where the model wore some kind of feathered headdress and costume.

Life Painting

I took my watercolors to a session once but I'm too slow to get anything good. Here are two of my attempts.
Click on images to enlarge.

More Life Drawing

Here’re more of my life drawings. These are more line without modeling. I love women. I can’t think of anything more beautiful.

Figure Drawing

My modeling is kind of muddy on these. I think the term is chiaroscuro. Anyway, I’m trying to get back to doing some figure drawing. There maybe more gesture stuff from these sessions I might post later.

click on images to enlarge.

Rabbit Miniature

During some house cleaning, I came across this image of the white rabbit miniature I did long ago as a kid. The lighting isn't very good and I've gotten much better as a sculptor since then. Partly it was the material but mostly it was just lack of experience. I see a big fat finger print I never would allow today and things that could have been detailed better. There’s a penny in the shot to show scale.

Click on image too enlarge.

Sorry Frank

This needs some explaining. While I was busy on a project, a friend asked if I could find time to do a test of Liberty Meadows characters as part of a pitch for a series. So I did these rough animations overnight. Before I could show them the next day to get feedback the plug had already been pulled. All characters are the property of Frank Cho.

See the real Liberty Meadows and other cool Frank Cho stuff here: http://www.libertymeadows.com/

Fantasia Cuts

The digital removal of cigarettes from Disney archives indicates a rather recent editing of the studio history. I would like to know when the removal of racist humor, although common to the times, was applied to the original 1940 film “Fantasia”? In the Beethoven Pastoral segment, the character Sunflower was, (understandably), cut with simple edits way before digital images existed. Later, the zebra centaurettes who rolled the red carpet out for Bacchus were digitally removed making the carpet appear to magically unroll itself. When was this last edit done, and why? They don’t seem offensive to me, am I wrong?
 
 UPDATE:  The youtube vids are sometimes taken down because of ownership, but I have added smaller files that hopefully wont' get removed.  If you have trouble with the youtubes, try the ones below them.

Omation House Jam

Not the best fidelity, but here’s the house jam mentioned in the last posting. All animators, the line up is Cory on bass, Ivo scratching, Fatty on guitar, Steve on drums, David on water cooler jugs, and myself on sax.

Fantasia-Minor

I found this on another Omation buddies site. Eric ‘Fatty Lees’ posted one of my dry board drawings that had started quite innocently as Fantasia-Minor and ended up Fantasia X-treme. The reeling drunks may have been mine but I swear the drug paraphernalia was added later.

Fatty’s site is still shaping up but you can see more dry board lunacy and even a movie clip of our house jam with Fatty on guitar and me on Saxophone, here: http://www.fattylees.com/

Kris Costa is Brilliant

One of the many great pleasures of Omation was working with Kris Costa, one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. Not only can he animate, the guy is a true artist. Words fail to do justice but fortunately images speak louder. Take a look at this virtual sculpture of Marty Feldman that he modeled and textured.

See more Kris Costa work here: http://zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=045504


Click on images to enlarge.

Good Knight

Animation Magazine has an interview with Laika’s Travis Knight. I’ve worked with Travis when Laika was Will Vinton Studios and I have to admit this article is the most I’ve ever heard Travis speak. He was a pretty quite guy and I understand why, (his dad was buying the studio). Regardless of all the politics, there is one thing that speaks louder than anything that went down in the transformation of the studio and that is Travis is a natural born animator. Stop-motion or computer, his characters move beautifully and their hands are particularly expressive. He did a sequence for Gary and Mike that I think is some of the best stop-motion anywhere. Travis would be an asset to any studio. I hope our paths cross again, and then maybe he could answer my question, why Laika and not Leica as in leica reel?

Read the article here: http://animationmagazine.net/article/6824

Rotoscope VS Reference

I wanted to do a test using live action as a reference and a character whose anatomy was different from humans. I used; I guess in this case it would be ‘Anthony the Tiger’,(They'rrrr fabulous!), because he was recognizable and I had a model sheet of him.

This test illustrates the difference between rotoscoping and reference. Snow White and most Disney features have live action film as reference but the styling and proportions of the characters make it impossible to call them rotoscoped. Rotoscoping is the verbatim tracing of live action footage as can be seen in the still images from Don Bluth’s “Thumbelina” posted below.

Other animated films with heavy rotoscope are Fleischer’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, and Ralph Bakshi’s “Lord of the Rings”.

Update:  For some reason many of my early Youtube videos don't play all the way through anymore.  Sorry for the inconvenience but it's out of my control.


Live action reference rotoscoped

Rough animation of Anthony by Joel Brinkerhoff using Flash



Live action footage and rotoscope from Don Bluth's "Thumbelina"












 UPDATE:  A sequence of reference for the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland was discovered and put beside the animation to show how much of the performance was altered by the animators.  Here it is:

Copyright Law Explained

We have long known animation is a great teaching tool. Here is a brilliant explanation of the copyright laws that even I can understand from Stanford Law School.

Soup Scene

Speaking Of Ward Kimball, here is the scene he did that was cut from Snow White. It's nice but I can understand the reason it was taken out. It fell right on the heals of the 'Washing Song',(which was a better tune), and really didn't advance the story or character development. This and another Kimball sequence involving a bed built for Snow White were cut because they slowed the movie down. Walt felt badly about the cuts and gave Ward many opportunities to try and make up for it.

Ward at Play

The lens on this picture makes the room appear much larger than it actually was, but here is Ward Kimball with his toy trains and airships. I had the privilege of a two week visit with the Kimball’s where I saw this and his other detached building of Disney Memorabilia first hand. The time spent with the Kimball’s made an indelible impression and I hope to enjoy life and work with as much integrity and fun as he seemed to.

Picture by L.A Times

Click on image to enlarge.

Tale of Tales

One of the most powerful attributes of animation is the ability to communicate mood and feeling visually. Strengthened with music it can transport you to realms beyond our daily norm or symbolically comment on the human condition in ways not possible in other media.

Yuri Norstein's Tale of Tales is a dreamy mix of memory and myth that reminds me of Chagall and Fellini. Fragmentary and illusive, touching and haunting this is a masterpiece of artistry that could only be animation.

Hedgehog In The Fog

I'm really digging all the great animation posted on YouTube. I wish the quality were better but it still allows you to see some obscure and classic films from around the world.

Here's one of my favorites: Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog. There are versions without subtitles available that don't encroach on the picture but I thought the translation adds to the poetic understanding of the narration.

It looks to be shot on glass with flat cutouts, but his control of light and shadow and the multi plane depth he creates along with elements like water make me wonder just how he pulled it off.

Stealing Disneyland

Cartoon Brew has an article on China's blatant plagiarizing of Disneyland. Apparently they were not alone. Check out this postcard from a Japanese amusement park called Nara and the building from Disneyland Main street USA.

Check out article on China here: http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/chinas-unlicensed-knock-off-of-disneyland

Disney Scene In Stages

This may seem like over kill to some but I found these interesting. Someone called cookedart has posted these on YouTube. It’s a scene from The Emperors New Groove going from story reel, to rough animation, to clean-up.