To have this kind of control over animating 3D characters! Not sure how practical it would be in the short term, but the prospects for future development are certainly encouraging. An entire new subset of animation could exist - hand-drawn in 3D!
Lifelike animation heralds new era for computer games
No way this is 100% CG.
Glen Keane on his Mentor, Ollie Johnston
September 26, 2008
Over a month ago I was lucky enough to attend the tribute to my favorite animator of all time, Ollie Johnston. While it was nice hearing from his friends and families, the greatest part of the night came from the memories of Glen Keane and John Lasseter. If you’ve ever heard Glen lecture or watched a video with him on YouTube you know what a wonderful storyteller he is. He painted a wonderful picture of an artist who loved his craft and spared no expense in sharing that with those who were to follow him.
The following clips are provided in 5-minute segments and are not of the greatest quality. But for those who couldn’t make it I hope this somehow inspires you as much as it did me.
A nice round-up of the evening’s events can be found here.
Listen...
Chris Sanders is now the director on the next film I’m working on, How to Train Your Dragon. Dean DeBlois is coming on as a writer as well. Have to admit, I always liked Lilo and Stitch, so this is pretty exciting.
Look who made the Fall Movie Preview in People magazine this week! That’s my scene there and let me tell you - it took quite awhile to get all 6 of them in there for a group hug!
Disney Animation Reveals Brand New Site
August 9, 2008
Sporting the retro Mickey and a slick and simple interface, Walt Disney Animation Studios unleashed their brand new site yesterday (at least, it looks brand new to me - I’ve never seen it before!).
I love how wonderfully simple the site is - no extraneous garbage and no ads. A clear well-designed site like this not only is easier and more enjoyable to navigate but also speaks of a conscious effort to communicate effectively with their intended audience (in this case, anyone looking for information on what Disney Animation is all about). Hopefully this is a reflection of their new direction—something perhaps we can expect from the stories they plan on telling.
There’s plenty of information on submitting reels, studio life, and future projects. Unfortunately there isn’t any information on taking tours:
We are very busy making our next films, and cannot accommodate tours at this time.
I hope this doesn’t offend anybody who’s worked there the past 10 years…but it sure is nice to have Disney Animation back again.
Saludos Amigos Concept Sketches
August 6, 2008
Found. An English translation of a French blog:
...devoted exclusively to artistic research of the Disney’s animation feature films. Creating an animation feature film is an art.
So far the blog seems to focus mainly on concept sketches like the one above (Pedro’s story being my favorite from Saludos Amigos). But there is the requisite post on Glen Keane and some great story sketches from Dumbo.
Mid-century Textbook Takes a Tour of Disney’s
August 5, 2008
Jerry over at CartoonBrew has posted a neat look at the Disney studios in 1948. It’s a children’s textbook so there really isn’t that much insight into the studio. Nevertheless, it’s always great too see how the process of animation was described throughout the years (that is, before the Internet). Choice quote:
Many people would like to see how motion pictures are made. If they all visited the studios, the studio workers could not do their work. That is why the studios have high fences around them.
You know, to keep the workers working.
Oddly enough, I never thought of myself as a “studio worker” before. In fact, the constant use of the word “workers” doesn’t make the greatest job in the world sound all that exciting, does it?
(via cartoon brew)
Walt Disney Animation Studios The Archive Series: Story
August 1, 2008
Didier has the info on some new Disney Animation books coming out in the Fall.
While the Alice In Wonderland book doesn’t do that much for me (Yes, Mary Blair is wonderful), the Archive Series book on Story looks somewhat intriguing. I wasn’t too enthralled by Canemaker’s Paper Dreams book on storyboard art; hopefully this one is a bit more inspiring.
The cover alone is worth the price.
Besides at 200+ pages you can’t go wrong - especially when 101 Dalmatians is one of the featured films. Finally we’ll have some real world editions of these.
(via Didier Ghez)
Computer Animation a Dead End?!
July 29, 2008
I don’t read much of Michael Barrier’s blog, but I was completely floored by this comment:
What’s clear from WALL•E and Kung Fu Panda , as never before, is that computer animation is a dead end, a form of puppetry even more limited than stop motion.
This is the kind of statement that makes me think I’m wasting my time “blogging” about animation. How could anyone in their right mind say something like this? The animation in those two films is far from being a form of dead puppetry. I can’t even form the right words to respond intelligently to it. Strangely enough I can’t link to the original post to read any comments, but I’m not sure it would be worth it.
But what I was really surprised to read today was this comment from Michael Sporn:
Bill Tytla Speaks!
July 23, 2008
Didier Ghez has posted a clip of an interview with the famous Disney animator, Bill Tytla.
Personally I never really thought Tytla was all that great - the devil in Fantasia didn’t do much for me, but Stromboli was pretty cool. I appreciate the “strength” and “force” with which he animated, but I was never really a Tytla fan-boy.
Still, this clip is a rare find and an excellent gift to the world of character animation.
(via The Disney Blog)
