End of Class 2

Class 2 ended this week. I polished my last assignment and put together a pogress reel for both classes 1 & 2. The concentration level increased dramatically in class 2. Next time I'll try to chose simple projects  so that I don't stress for more time. Sandy proved to be a valuable friend when I needed help tackling the dreaded gimble lock - thank you Sandy. 

One of our classmates from the first class, Casey McDermott, landed a job at Rhythm & Hues. Congratulations! Casey is a talented animator and a wonderful person who has a great potential to go far in this industry. He helped me rig the fishing rod in my final assignment. I wish him the best. I also owe him a lunch ;o)

Another friend of mine, Teresa Nord, graduated Animation Mentor - congratulations Teresa! I met Teresa at Martin Hash's get together a couple of years ago when we worked on The Tin Woodman of Oz, a volunteer film project of ameteur animators using the Animation:Master software. Teresa's dream is to work for Pixar and I believe she will ventually end up there because I saw in her a burning desire to succeed and a strong passion for the art. All she has to do now is polish her demo reel and gain as much experience as possible working in the industry. All the best Teresa!

My mentor, Peter Kelly, also got his job back at ILM, congratulations on that. I think ILM is the place for me because of the array of projects they work on, most of which are behind the scenes, which I like.

During the course I joined MySpace, Facebook, and Linkedin, just to keep on the up & up with the rest of the animators. I also did a small acting gig promoting a translation software being developed by the Stanford Research Institute. I'll post the clip if I can get a copy.

Anyway, that's all for now - I hope you enjoy the clip. And Happy Holidays.

Sleeping Beauty and Return of the Jedi

I watched Walt Disney's legendary Sleeping Beauty 50th anniversary platinum edition and was reminded of the sophisticated artistry and style of this unique treasure. Most notably, the background work of the artist Eyvind Earle


to whom Walt went in the hopes of injecting new life into what has become a predictable cartoony style aimed at children. This movie is Eyvind's. The infusion of Eyvind's style raised the bar for the animation industry to new heights and opened doors for imagination that later led to such classics as Fantasia. Geometric landscapes, art deco, gothic and even the characters were inspired by Eyvind, all contributed to produce one of Disney's first successful films.

But what struck me was the scene where we first see Malificent's goons in her castle as she expresses her frustration for not finding Aurora/Briar Rose. And in particular this guy (from a later scene in the film):


Immediately I thought "that's the character from Star Wars the Return of the Jedi!" The resemblance is unmistakable:


(Or should I say that the guy from Star Wars is based on him?) Could it be that George was, somehow, influenced by that image and reintroduced his own version for his film? I don't remember him saying that. It amazes me, however, when I saw ROJ I did not make the connection but now that I watch SB again the connection is made. And just to be sure that I'm not the only one making this connection, I asked my son when we watched it and he also immediately made that connection without hesitation.

So the next time your kid scoffs at Sleeping Beauty, it might be a good opportunity for an intellectual discussion about how history influences the future. And in my animation journey it certanly made me appreciate the contributions of of the artists of the golden age to the rest of the generations after them.

Class 2 update - 208

Since each assignment takes 3 weeks to complete, updates in this blog become few and far in between. Right now I'm working on the last assignment, but I thought I put up my last two assignments.

This one was done in week 4. The emphasis is on weight shift. This is also where we start shooting video references of ourselves as part of the assignment to study the different mechanics and forces that are involved in a simple turn around.




Mid term assignment is where we get to use Stewie without arms. The complexity of animating an added torso and head increased exponentially. I found myself going over the allotted frame limit. This is also the first time I add sound to my work.

An evening with animation legend Richard Williams

It was an exciting evening (Sunday, 11-2-2008). At the old Balboa Theater in San Francisco



I attended an evening with Richard Williams, a legendary animator best known for his work on Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, sponsored by ASIFA SF.



He is the author of one of the mandatory animation books at Animation Mentor 'The Animator's Survival Kit', a book that I have referred to many times in my animation journey and found it to be very useful and practical. It has become one of the most popular animation books in the industry. Although Richard's main purpose of the seminar is to promote his tutorial DVDs (16 DVDs of 100s of clips that he animated to illustrate his lecture). I liked the fact that the format of the presentation was more of a Q & A than just a "shameless promotional". He began by showing the promotional clip which started with the animated logo http://www.theanimatorssurvivalkit.com/logo.html The rest of the evening continued with an equal mix of clips from the DVDs and Q & A.

When asked what can be done about animation as a medium to advance beyond the children and family entertainment so that it can be taken seriously not just as a form of telling high browed narratives but as a fine art; Richard replied "I'm making one of those!" His answer, in a nut shell, was to just do it. But the problem is 'the golden rule' (Whoever has the gold, makes the rule), so if you want to get backing from somebody, they want to make children stuff. This is the reason Richard is selling his work in order to be able to produce his own work.



He dodged a question about his opinion of The Thief and the Cobbler, I guess its a sensitive spot with him.

He didn't reveal much about his film other than he had the idea for it since he was 15. He does not want anyone else to help him with it. He mentioned how relieved he was when Spielberg took over his small company of animators. He does not like running the business side of animation.

Watched some incredible footage about lip sync. He relayed Milt Kahl telling him the secret of lip sync, he told him that Jim Henson, the Muppet guy, is the genius because he realized what no other puppeteer realized before him, he is progressing the action. The secret to lip sync is progression.

A good quesion was asked "How do you feel about the attitude that there is no point in animating human beings (realism) when you got action films?" In summation, Richard said that animators discovered how realistic animation does not work back in the 30s. It lookd floaty, unbelievable. They tried using a reference for Snow White walking. The important part of artistic animation is that you only show the essence of the idea. In realism there is so much detail being conveyed that the viewer will become detached from the subject.

Richard is not of the opinion that 3D animation is an outgrowth of 2D. He said that 2D animators are scribblers while 3D is hi tech marionettes. Different animals.

Another great clip about eyes. The eyes tell the story. We watch the eyes more than the mouth.

About facing frustration during animating, he advised to research your work before you animate.

He told some charming stories of his work with Milt Kahl, Art Babbit, Ken Harris and other animation legends and revealed some little golden animation nuggets of wisdom that he referred to as little secrets. They are no secret now, but his way of relaying them was funny and entertaining. He also relayed a funny story where actor Michael Caine gave an acting session where he said to his students "If you see something you like, steal it! Because they did" Of course Richard also said that he doesn't like it when people steal his work, but I took it in the context of inspiration.

The theater was full, 300 people attended. This is the first time that I was among so many individuals with similar interest as mine. Quite a few Animation Mentor students but the majority were SF State or College of Art students. Their enthusiasm to Richard's lecture tells me that this industry has a lot of steam in it. I am looking forward to what comes next in the future of animation.

Class 2

Class 201

The second semester Q&A started like the last semester, introduction time! My mentor this time around is Peter Kelly, a soft spoken gentleman and a talented animator whose latest work can be seen in Iron Man. He animated Iron Man so well I thought it was a suit worn by Robert Downey Jr.


Peter started with 2D animation, inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, he pursued Disney animation. A CalArts graduate of traditional animation, and an accomplished draftsman, he was further inspired when attending lectures by animation legends such as James Baxter, Andreas Deja, Glenn Keane, and Marc Davis. Hired by ILM after they saw his short film he went on to work on Star Wars Episode II and III, the Hulk, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3, and Iron Man, among others.



















Laid off from ILM during the writers' strike, Peter now is a lead animator at Cinematica, a game production company. The class students is a mix of different levels of experiences. Sandy Sze (pronounced Sea) is the only classmate from my previous class, which, I think, makes the transition into the new class easier - Sandy is an accomplished animator and a great person to be associated with.

End of Class 1

Just got back from a mini vacation so I thought I update this blog. Last week was the end of class 1. There really was no assignment per se but Bobby wanted us to upload a progress reel containing all of our work in the class, so, here it is




I wanted to keep polishing the Laurel & Hardy walk cycle but there seem to be a glitch in the Maya AM tools and since school is out for this week I figured I upload what I got and polish it later. This class has been an eye opener for me when it comes to planning the work. I learned how to plan everything by blocking and layering every detail. I also learned how to exaggerate my poses. Elliott Roberts has been great and gave me a very good review. I will keep in touch with him since I know he has tons more knowledge to offer, besides being a great guy to chat with.

On to Class two.

Class 109

This is where we get to experiment with walk cycles which is pretty exciting because this is arguably the most difficult part of animation, as admitted by the professionals as well. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the other assignment, the concerned pose.

Concerned! Now that is one vague emotion to try and illustrate on a faceless character such as Stu. What I found frustrating about this assignment is the lack of a good pose that clearly illustrates (in silhouette) someone who has a concern. I googled many references for "concerned", but I either come up with previous AM students' work - which had a certain sameness to it - or pictures of actors where most of the concern was in the face. So how do you illustrate someone who is concerned with only the body? I recorded my thoughts in the hope of finding an answer to the basic of posing in animation; the line of action. What line of action best describes a person is concerned? The first thought of a concern pose almost always reads either more like a person is thinking, or is devastated. Worry is closer to concern but only to a lighter degree, yet the question still begs for an answer:

I don't know if my ideas about what line of action is most appropriate for the concerned pose have any merit, but I wish there was a book or a blog out there that explains, in detail, the correlation between emotional states and lines of action.

In my search for a pose that is unique I found the old Coppertone ad to be the most appealing, and since most students at Animation Mentor are too young to reember this ad

I siezed the opportunity to pose Stu in that fashion because I think the pose, in all its adorable cuteness, represents concern without going overboard into other emotional states that everyone (including myself) seem to fall prey to.

I am still searching for that illusive connection between vague emotions and the line of action, and I hope that someone will discover it.

In the meantime, here are some more examples of my work in Class 1. With only two weeks left this is by far one of the most positive experiences I have in my life.

In this next clip is an exercise in overlapping action. Our class had the pleasure of being mentored by Raquel Rabbit as a substitute because Elliott had to be in Germany for a couple of weeks. Raquel brought with her a fresh perspective and her thorough observations and engaging style was welcomed by all.

Here we combine the principles of exaggeration, squash-and-stretch and overlapping actions all in one act of our choice.

I, again, opted for some originality in the pose depicting strength. Almost everyone else went for the oft cliche of physical srength. I tried to illustrate a strength in attitude;