Biking!

For fun.

This really is amazing to see:
Its Glen Keane quickly animating a scene, straight ahead, for a lecture at Cal Arts. One drawing at a time, this character really does begin to come alive in front of you. He really does believe it, and you can be startled (along with the class) when he rolls the drawings and the guy actually comes alive. Its really quite something, and I dont think any other artform can give you the same feeling. And for those of you that know me, know that Glen's work was and is a big reason why I decided to pursue animation in art school.

Oh and look who it is! Just me chillin with my Pixar peeps, hangin out online, shootin the poop, drinkin beers.

In reality its from a Ratatouille q & a session ( with Robert Russ and Doug Dooley) Animation Mentor held tonight. I was so excited I can barely remember the answers to the questions I had, as a matter of fact I can barely remember the questions I had.

I did remember to ask what some of the biggest lessons they learned on the project. Both of them mentioned specifically they learned more about posing than ever before. Especially since Pixar brought on a lot of newer traditional animators they dubbed the French Connection. Bolhem Bouchiba, Kristophe Vergne, Theirry Martin among others. I did recognize these names from the Tarzan animation team, who was animated at the France studio. (Off the record: I'm a huge fan of Bolhem, dude, he animated Jumba in Lilo and Stitch. Who was RAD! ) Anyway, these guys came in and taught them so much about graphic solid posing, strengthening their work.

I cut out early to walk the dogs and spend time with Cheryl, but at least I got a question in and walked away with some sage advice. And that is:
In this industry, if you're not French, dont bother.

Kidding!

Or am I?

Assignment 1- Polish Pass!

AnimationMentor-Class 2 Assignment 1 (Polish Pass)

Tryin to put this one to bed ! Until tommorow morning when I see something to fix. I swear you could tweak some of these scenes up until the very last minute. Theres always something.

Lion!..

....Tiger and Bear not so much! Lately I've been only drawing what I'm comforable with. I've always been intimidated by doing animals, so In the spirit of pushing myself, heres an attempt at a lion! Uh sorta. I need to hit up the zoo more!

Another.
Gah. Apologies for the Lion Kingy-ness of this one, I was just trying for some appealing shapes. Kind of turned out looking like bad clip art.

If you wanna see drawings from someone who really knows what they're doing, check out these sketches by Andreas Deja from Victor Ens' blog! Thanks for sharing these Victor!

On another Disney note, I found this relatively unknown, but fantastic, Disney Animation short linked from another blog, CartoonColin:
"One By One" (2004), a short that was apparently created for the never completed Fantasia 2006, directed by Pixote Hunt and plopped on the Lion King II DVD:


I loved Fantasia 2000, well done short films animated to music make for an amazing experience. It doesnt get an better than Rhapsody in Blue and the Firebird Suite was sweet I dont care what you say Katy. Watching this is just as awesome and I wish I could see it on the big screen!

Robinson Crusoe & the 50 foot woman.

For this weeks Sketchwich.For the next weeks Unleaded Artists.

ARRR!

My submissions for this week's Sketchwich!

Pirette.Captain Morgan and Jose Cuervo. Bosom Buddies.
Quickie sketch done at work.
Not very pirate-related. Just another lunchtime quickie sketch.
Maybe shes doin a pirate jig! yo ho yo ho!
For this weeks Chades Challenge, the theme was Flamboyant Armadillo.

Class 2- First Assignment!

Back at Animation Mentor!
One of the choices for our first assignment was to have "Ballie"(Ball character with two legs) kick a ball. Kicking a ball was considered a one star difficulty, while another choice, turning around 180 degrees, was a two star. Really? Turning around? I didnt want to seem like I opted for the easier one , still, I thought'd be fun to have him kick a ball.
My idea was just to have Ballie ready himself to kick what he thinks is a rubber kickball. But shh get this.... What he doesnt know, is that its actually a bowling ball! hahaha! Take that Ballie! To the bank Ballie!
Anyways here is some of my ref footage. Hopefully this doesnt come out assy.
Animation Mentor-Class2 Assignment 1 (Reference Footage)

back in action

I'm back from from the Philippines, again! I'm gonna just start taking two week vacations every month.

Check out this super rad sculpture I scored! Not quite as cool as barrel man, but a little bit cooler than phallic ashtray.

I know right?!

Tonight is supposed to be my first night back in Animation Mentor, but for some reason I cant seem to log in. And considering the price tag every one of these sessions is precious. I dont even know who my mentor is yet. If this goes on any longer, I better get like, Brad Bird or something. Or anyone French. Like a Gobelins student or something, I'd settle for that.

**Update** Finally got to log in and my new mentor is Greg Kyle! Sweet.

Heres a quickie done for the Unleaded Artists site, a blog started by some Gas Powered Games artists. It just started up so theres not much yet, but heres my meager, unfunny contribution!
The theme was "The unathletic, promiscuous priest who was genetically engineered".

My brain cant process that many words in one sentence. So heres my unathletic priest.