Animation

90 % of drawing is "knowing your way around a piece of paper."At one point in the early 1980's I found myself working on an animated arcade game . Now something of a relic, DRAGON'S LAIR was a kind of revolution for a short time, spawning a couple follow ups. It was really unique in concept, story and design. Instead of 8 bit pixel images, the game would be done as "full" or "classical" cartoon film animation on cels. Dozens, if not hundreds of actions had to be animated of a knight who was called "Dirk the Daring" in various settings and actions. The animation would be then published on a laser disc and played on a system that "knew" the correct sequence of moves, which were programmed to succeed or fail based on a player moving the joystick. It was very sophisticated at the time but now seems kind of crude by todays standard. My kids just showed me something called Project Spark coming out for the new XBOX that pretty much blows everything out of the water, but I digress. Back on DRAGON'S LAIR I was a very low grade apprentice animator, and considered myself lucky just to be involved. I was often in over my head among a group of talented young animators who had earned their chops in the majors already. I had one scene (or "node") involving the knight jumping from one tile to the next in a wide, "down shot" of a tiled room, kind of like a disco floor. Various jumping sequences would lead to various outcomes for the knight, I really didn't understand it at the time and had my hands full enough just trying to animate the character hopping in space on the grid. The hops were short. which made the animation very difficult. Even trickier, the character was facing away from the viewer, drawing a back view for me back then made the task even more difficult (the back of a character at that stage was considered difficult and nondescript to me, but having to draw the face would have probably made it even harder).I went to visit John Pomeroy, who was the most senior animator on the project and he had another "node" in the same visual setup. He was effortlessly animating away at it, getting the height and spacing of each instance of the character perfectly correct. The perspective was making me it's bitch, but John had complete command of it. He gave me some tips but I shuffled back to my desk feeling just as whipped before. At that point I realized two things:1. Drawing and animating are mainly mental processes.2. A real drawing master knows his or her way around a piece of paper. John certainly did. I would not for a long time to come.I will try to elaborate on these a bit more coming up.

First a Land, now a movie. In between live-action assignments, Phil Lord and Chris Miller do animation. Cloudy with Meatballs broke out a couple of years ago. Though they aren't directing the sequel, due in September, they have supplied notes. The synopsis for their new picture: The 3D animated adventure tells the story of Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared. The movie isn't stop motion, but certainly looks it.

I've had Mandalorians on the mind recently.This dude is the love-child of Boba Fett, biker scout armor, and the derelicte fashion sense of Jabba's denizens...three of my favorite design schemes of the Star Wars universe.He would totally eff your Jedi sh*t up.30 days...

A year ago I was asked to come on to Frozen and Supervise Story - It's been an incredible journey and I'm really proud of how the film is shaping up and the experience of working with one of the greatest story crews I've ever had the privilege to work with. Here's our first teaser for the film:Here's one of my story panels from the teaser:and here's some incredible images showcasing the look:

Today’s Cartoon Brew Artist of the Day post is sponsored by the CG Master Academy. Sign up TODAY for Philip Dimitriadis’s class Environment Sketching. Philip Dimitriadis works as a conceptual 2D and 3D artist for animation productions. For the “Arabia project” that Philip was working on at Mike Young Productions in 2007, he was assigned to create a fictional hieroglyphic alphabet for use in the background environments which can be viewed here. Above is a foliage study and robot design that Philip modeled in Maya. More work in both 2D and 3D is available for viewing on his blog.

The Blackwing Experience at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in Costa Mesa, California opens next Tuesday, June 25 for a three-day run. The exhibition will be open daily from 10 AM to 6 PM and each evening there will be different events. Tuesday, June 25 @ 7PM: The Party. This event will launch the new Chuck Jones Gallery website created by Gigasavvy as well as introduce southern California creatives to the Blackwing Experience. RSVP at BlackwingExperience.com. Wednesday, June 26 @ 7 PM: ChuckTalk. A panel discussion moderated by author and historian Charles Solomon with Charles Berolzheimer, founder of Palomino Brands; Craig Kausen, Chairman of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity; Jenny Lerew, noted animation story artist and musician Christian Tamburr. This event is free and open to the public. Space is limited, please RSVP at BlackwingExperience.com.  Thursday, June 27 @ 7 PM: Blackwing Sessions. Benefit concert for arts education. Starring Andrew Combs, Willie Watson, and Willy Tea Taylor. Tickets begin at $25.00 and are available at BlackwingExperience.com. The Blackwing Experience Recap (Final Cut) from Palomino on Vimeo.

As of Monday, June 17 we've had 313 wage surveys returned for tabulation -- 270 by mail and 43 online. This is 8.75% of the surveys the Animation Guild sent out. If Guild members have not yet filled out the survey, please, PLEASE, PLEASE take five minutes and complete the one-page form. (You can use the survey you got in the mail or complete it online at our website.) The studios know what artists, writers and tech directors are making, it's important that we know too. It only takes five minutes. Knowledge increases leverage and leverage increases the money we all make. (Samplings from earlier surveys below ...) Wage Survey Median Salaries Staff Writers (TV) -- $2,125 (2011) -- $2,202.50 (2012) Directors (TV) -- $2,550 (2011) -- $2,500 (2012) Storyboard Artists -- $2,000 (2011) -- $1,987 (2012) Visual Development -- $2,100 (2011) -- $2,100 (2012) Lighters -- $1,742.11 (2011) -- $1,913.16 (2012) 3D Animators -- $1,808.41 (2011) -- 1,911.77 (2012) 3D Compositors -- $1,860.00 (2011) -- $1,911.58 (2012)

Chris Robinson (OIAF Artistic Director) has listed off his 24 must-watch animated shorts over on his Animation Pimp column at AWN. Some of them might surprise you.

Years back, we posted this Eva Schneider caricature by John Sparey. (At the time of the caricature -- 1954 -- Eva was a Disney assistant. The other person there is Wes Herschensohn, another 1950s Disney artist.) Eva departed the industry in 1981, and we wondered where she had disappeared to. We were quickly enlightened: Eva Schneider is alive and well. After Eva retired from a long career in animation, she moved to --(can you guess?) New Orleans. Refusing to leave, Eva Schneider rode out the storm and survived hurricane Katrina. A photo of Eva and her dog appeared in Vanity Fair magazine some months ago. -- Floyd Norman, September 19, 2006 ... (Floyd wrote more about Eva here.) Then, two and a half years later, there was this: [Eva] lives in a neighborhood call the Faubourg Marigny - just a stones throw from the French Quarter. She has a new dog now, and walks to the store every day. ... Then, yesterday, we received this: Eva Schneider has lived in a living center in New Orleans for the past 4 years. I was not her care giver but from the first time I spoke to her, I found her most interesting and loved her from that day. I wanted to say she has been a blessing to me and an inspiration. She passed this Fathers' Day, 6/16/13 @ 3:45 AM. During her stay, she told me many stories of Walt Disney and her time spent there. She also told me stories of her time when she traveled with the circus. Before she passed, I printed everything and anything I could find on Eva and Thursday last week, we started to read all the articles. Eva would fill in what the articles missed. I knew her time was growing very short, so I spent as much as I could with her. She was a very amazing and strong woman! I will miss her much. Rest in Peace, Eva. You were one of the trail blazers for women in animation, and you won't be forgotten.