"It is the three strange angels, admit them, admit them": DH Lawrence.

D H Lawrence and "The Song of the Man Who Has Come Through"

2012-01-14T16:59:00.001+10:00

Got a really nasty email today: asking me to change my blog title and "my mark" and domain name. Not sure why this company needs to pick on small bloggers especially when they don't own the poem by D H Lawrence which I was quoting and which I love and find inspiring as it completely encapsules the idea of the strange disguises that the angels, meaning to me; the teachers and messengers that walk into and through my life and dose me with sometimes difficult but beneficial lessons. To me it is also about becoming so transformed through difficult circumstances that paradoxically by become less an "ego" you become all the keener and observer and participant/experiencer of life.....D H Lawrence.....it's almost Buddhism, this sort of being, wind and time can run through you not because you are less.....but because you are open and have answered the knock in the night on your door.....you are open and willing to listen to what life is teaching you.......it's a hard life lesson and that is my interpretation...and DH Lawrence says it so much more keenly and satisfyingly completely.

Here is the poem: "The Song of A Man Who Has Come Through".

Here is the email:

HANSEN, JACOBSON, TELLER, HOBERMAN, NEWMAN,
WARREN, RICHMAN, RUSH & KALLER, LLP
ATTORNEYS AT LAW
ANDREA MITCHELL
PARALEGAL
Direct: IJIO! 246-3 I 6 I
Fax- 13 I O) E76-63 I O
Email. am@hjth.com
Via E-Mail
January 13, 2012
Michelleb.animator@gmail.com
Re: Three Strange Angels
Dear Michelle:
We represent Three Strange Angels which has been in the motion picture business since June 28,
1999. We are aware of your use of the Three Strange Angels name and mark and in light of our
client's prior use of the mark, we are requesting that you change your name and domain name and
cease further use of your mark. This is the link: http://michelleb-animator.blogspot.com.
We request that you inform us in writing within 7 days advising us that you have so complied with the
foregoing. Our client is inclined to not take action against you for your use of the mark if you promptly
cooperate with this request.
Nothing in this letter is intended or shall be construed to constitute an express or implied waiver of any
rights or remedies which our client may possess in connection with this matter, all of which are hereby
expressly reserved.
Very truly yours,
Andrea Mitchell
cc: Donald W. Steele, Esq.
45O North Roxbury Drive. 8'" Floor, Beverly Hills. CA 9O2 IO4E2E

I wonder if this company paid DH Lawrence's Estate money to use this part of a line from his poem?
Last time I looked the non-word "Inc" didn't appear in his poem.
This blog started as a requirement for my animation course, as a student blog.
The blog title was never intended as a business name.
Go suck on a celestial egg, corporate bullies.
I can use a quote if it is put in italics. I have referenced DH Lawrence as the author of the poem from which the words came: surely that is not illegal. Any ideas anybody?

As the recepient of the email I am entitled to distribute the content of the email.
So I may have to move my blog but what the hell, eerrr, I mean heaven, as after a year of death and destruction, changing my blog address and name seems pretty much like a puny first world problem.

You know what?

This might even be a "strange angel" , a teacher with a good lesson in disguise: putting my blog on my portfolio site will make things easier . Yeah!

Still I don't like being threatened or bullied and I wonder if Google cares about these sorts of goings on.

So my words all may become dust.....but as I said.......what really matters is that DH Lawrences poem is art and has a heart and is loved all the world over.

To all my kind readers (ever) I may have to see you in a better place soon.!!!!!!DDDDDDD

To the company trying to scare me into giving you all the usage of those three words, if it's money your after...I'm a student of animation and a part time cleaner......How bloody big and tough of you.

Big Bully Company from the USA, oh "HOLYWOOD", SHAME ON YOU!

Here is a blogpost article of your president Lindsay Doran stating that it's tough for women in Hollywood! Go figure.
As I found over the last three years , it's women that are the meanest to other women.
I don't know why the title of a personal blog like this is deemed a threat to someone like Lindsay Doran and company.
Surely there are better ways to communicate and fix problems.

From an Australian: (Me): "I'm really glad I saw "Arietty" by Studio Ghibli last night because it was transporting and it lives with me today, the experience of watching it kind of salving the shock of finding your rubbish e-mail in my in-box today.
Companies like yours never quite hit the mark because you are too interested in money.
For example your: "Nanny Macphee" was just okay and you made poor use of too fine actors and the concept that old and trite belief that physical beauty is a virtue.....cmon.....the movie lacked real warmth and heart....as I said it was okay.

And good on you for making life just that bit harder for another woman.

Yes, I'm allowed to speak out and stand up for myself.

I am woman after all......hear me tap on my keyboard.......

Hell, do you think Helen Reddy will sue me now for misquoting her?

Oh well, Mr DH Lawrence had some! experience of the Courts of Law.

Oh American Company, here is to blogging and freedom of speech and yes, that little golden thing that is often twisted and lost, avoided and squashed but prevails none the less....

Truth.

Oh wait, yes someone has already incorporated that.

Oh wait, just because you are a woman doesn't mean you have to be nice to other women.
That would be sexist. Or maybe it's just a stupid western generalization.
Meh....

The Strangest of Angels

After being threatened by an American company for using a portion of a quote from a DH Lawrence poem
: "The song of a man who has come through" as my blog title.

"Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!"

Not all that has wings brings glad tidings
Wonder if God has dibs on the word "Angel"
or "Three"
it's strange alright
You wanna sue
You wanna Own
a quote or a part thereof
from a loved DH Lawrence poem...
I've been waiting to see real angel wings for years
but the action you are proposing
makes me wish forlornly
for a new
Heaven and Earth
For a
"new Direction of time"
where art lives
without being incorporated and protected
by the invested interests of a privileged few
What is truly corporeal is the bloat
of lies and greed...
less, less for me
always more for you...
You have a wound....
Where else does the poison seep from
but that old festering underdog wound?
Is this just the world
shattering with hard winds
you hunt the small from under the furthest rocks
and it isn't even the Hesperides...
I am nothing to you.........
Nothing........
.
"If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
By the fine, fine, wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
Driven by invisible blows,
The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides."

Who the hell are you?
I don't think you're from heaven any day soon..
I wish God had some say in this....
perhaps you think you're in heaven but
It's only an Empire
Once you
the poor
the hungry
You had a wound
and it's ugly and
it'll never heal
while you worry heaven with your subclauses
while you're too afraid
because you can't find it
that what?
That ...heaven...

"Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression."

Even though you have built a massive wall
and you are safe
you are separate
from us
You were I once
outside looking in
That feeling
that heavenly feeling that you want
I have it
you want to wipe me out of existence
Are you an angel of death?

"What is the knocking?
What is the knocking at the door in the night?
It is somebody wants to do us harm."

here...you could have had it...
been there today...
by letting live...
I don't want your world of everything owned by men and women somewhere else
you are always chasing and not finding
the lean underdog you once were
How could you be a bully?
I am sure you are a good and decent person
but not all the way through like an angel is
So don't call yourself that
really and truly
you have committed the greatest of sins...
You are selfish
You want to own everything
Everything is underlined and in a box
but
You don't get to own Art or Angels........
as I said
In heaven there are no minute sub-clauses to be read
No signing on the dotted line....
But you can't have what I'm having
Until you "let the wind blow through you"
and how can I be
If you don't let me be......

Besides there is one corporation of you
and really only one of me

Could this be a reminder that all is dust and compost and death
I know them
they are knocking at my door
my old friends and harbingers:

"No, no, it is the three strange angels.
Admit them, admit them."

dust becomes soil
with compost grows food for thought and without death
their is no rebirth
ascensions or resurrections
(not even a circle or wheel of life!)

here's to me for once
a poor poet in comparison
but I have a heart
here just here
between an eyeblink and the back of a fleeting angel
is an almost tiny and ordinary
portion of
Public Domain Heaven.

And the heaven you want
and are chasing
and trying to own:

It's called creativity
and nobody gets to own that
if you have any problems
Talk to my creator

(that's God not Google)

Michelle Boland 2011.

See you all in a better bloggitty place!D

.

Matthias Hoegg: CBeebies Summer Sam

2011-12-06T19:30:00.001+10:00

CBeebies Summer "Sam" from Matthias Hoegg on Vimeo.

With such (beautiful) and deceptively simple artwork this short reminds me how much "good cooking" goes into the art of creating animation that captures and enchants, as in Matthias Hoegg's case, (who works at Beakus in the UK). In the above short for CBeebies, it's not only his fantastic colorscripts and appealing art design, but his beautifully observed movement . And there is that elusive thing, that dreamy, summer warmth "feel" to his work that makes him a visual poet, it's called heart.......and he balances it well with wry but fond observation......

Some attentive former animation students will remember Matthias Hoegg's stunning and acclaimed 2D graduation short : "Thursday" . Love and isolation, birds and a ballet of technology pumping gently like a heartbeat...

Also check out "August", also a student animation, for his particular brand of "Heart:" not schmaltzy, but it shows his keen and humourous/non-judgemental, eye for realistic detail and his wonderful use of contrasting scale. In this short he has also imaginatively used repeat patterning woven into the context of the tale and with it, highlighting some illusory moments where, as in his use of scale, he takes us with him back and forth from realism to an almost exotic Folly of Ants.....where, he celebrates the beauty in the mundane, the hidden, the ordinary...that's what I mean by poetry.....somehow the ants become stars...become regal, dignified by role and purpose in contrast to the meaningless repose of the majority of the holidaymakers.

Seems like another of his great sensibilities is a fantastic sense of place within the soundtracks and a distinct (and welcome) lack of, or little dialogue.

Reminds me that an animator, as a poet does , grows from a person who has the heart and sensitivity to observe...and that's observation from the inside out....experiencing and feeling .....no expensive course or software can give you that, that eye, that ability to make beauty from something like ants, a bleak holiday and drunkeness.....

I like how his work for children discards any adult humour blithely, and he wholeheartly devotes the work to the world of the child, which is not too far from his own.....

Makes me breathe.....experiencing this sort of creative balance.....makes me think that ...you can get caught up in all the wanna-being and posing and appearing to be an animator but the art can come from paying attention to the humdrum details , the minutiae and the particular tastes sights and sounds from your own lived experience.....a treasure trove of unique particularities in each individual....

Thanks for enticing me to think when I watch your work, Matthias, as opposed to just telling me how to think......

And that feels real and doable, sustainable too....creating from where you are.....from the inside of your existence and creativity out....a bit of a universal conversation.....found and valued within a particular breath of a moment of personal experience....

Yeah, this animation really makes me think about what the word observation really means in relation to personal sensibilities, and also how fantastic animation always has an air of inclusiveness....such particular and personal observation welcomes us into our common humanity...

Reminds me that it's not really all about your particular topics themes or motifs that you use in your animations....it's how you personally experience, observe, grow combine and use these film-making ingredients to tell a fresh take on some old stories...

So that's why I find the obvious integrity and lived emotions of Mathias Hoeggs work to ring true. And I'm not alone!D And I bloody love all that beating heart realness underneath that slightly designery retro look of simplicity and freshness.....it's a clever refraining from overdosing the audience with the reality.....the art and poetry grows from the balance of sight and thought and sound...the audience is allowed to experience some subtleties and make their own judgements.

Matthias Hoegg 2011 Reel from Matthias Hoegg on Vimeo.

Gobelins:So much to learn from these!

2011-11-09T20:17:00.000+10:00

Great cause and effect and unexpected movement in various directions:

Even the drawings are alive in this "making of Le Royaume":

33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl Results

2011-11-03T14:56:00.002+10:00

Had a pretty quiet Sketchcrawl , a really balmy, dreamy sunlit day and Southbank all warm and inhabited again....nice.... then I met up with my animating friends, and the thunder and lightning hit the view! Frank's Brother took an awesome photo of the ferris wheel.....Great to catch up with everybody.....Here's some of my sketches from the day:

I tried to capture more of the character of the people I drew, less fleeting glimpse and more recall after they'd gone.

I loved this little girl who was hiding behind a big orange bag!

Looking down towards the QUT bridge.

Looking across the river from Southbank , MOMA end.

Below Sketches done late afternoon that day when I met up with friends and we all sat and drew and talked

Dreaming and Muppets!

Jac, someone I don't know, and Corey!

Birds, we talked about the bird that was seen the other week!

Sketchcrawls are always really different, kind of like very good dreams, and give you another little perch from which you can observe and gain some more insights into the surrounding world, your craft and even yourself.......

33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl this Saturday 15th of October.

2011-10-11T21:58:00.002+10:00

The 33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl is on again this Saturday the 15th of October. Wherever you are reading this from there may be like-minded folk near you, check out the forums for this event and find a drawing group or start your own. It's such a great day just chilling and sketching your surrounds! I will meet up with people at the Southbank Piazza, Southbank , Brisbane at 10.30am. See you at the Riverside entrance to the Piazza.

It's a Book

2011-09-19T20:57:00.003+10:00

This is a great example of an animated book. E-books and Apps are currently part of the Animation world's online discussion. It's relevant for us as new animators to embrace and move with new technology. I'm as interested in the possibilities of the media as anyone else.
But honestly, books will never go out of fashion. Just see for starters some of the reasons above! And we, as intending story-tellers should be open to improving our minds and be open to new stories and people and places and ideas.....

I think if you've really lived with and read books, good books where authors took risks and struck new paths....as every reader knows, you become a better person for taking the very unglamorous and private time of sticking your head into a book and emerging somehow changed.....books read and woven through your life and breathed in and truly felt, give you not only the rhythm of their author's particular language but open a world where, unlike social media, you can forget yourself......and this is necessary: reading is kind of like being a receptive, ie. very good listener......the author gives of their very best....they write because they need to share an observation.......and books are funny things, good books never grow old ....in fact..... you have to let certain books that have found you, that your intuition tells you that you are not yet ready for, sit like a golden cheese upon your shelf until YOU are the one that ripens and it is suddenly time to meet another mind....a mind perhaps from this last century or the century before, perhaps from right now.......a mind that needed a future reader listener......a listener who may just become a little more because of their reading ....who may alter themselves and their immediate world...for the better....(depending on the book!D)

If you love books, and truly love books and (are not the sort of person whose afraid of librarians as someone stupidly commented in our class last year!) you are not going to be worried about trends, fashions, keeping up pretenses and posing! You'll read because you like what reading gives you....and this is the greatest of gifts : you'll learn to look for the bigger picture in real life, you'll find shutting up and listening is the perfect status for receiving cultural treasure...and I don't just mean English Literature....I mean any book that you genuinely connect with be it the Harry Potter series, Sci-Fi, non-fiction or Graphic Novels! Just read and you'll start to do that in real life too; You'll grow how you look and observe....You'll grow as a person instead being a constant noise who robs other people of their peace or small time in the spotlight, you won't be jealous of other people's successes, you'll follow their story, knowing everybody has their ups and downs.....you'll take an interest in and be glad for their successes.....You'll want to see how their story goes....... In fact if you read for whatever reason, to escape to another world , to improve yourself, you'll start to understand that everybody and every place, plant and animal has a story, including a history, and you might even start to be bothered to actually get to know people that before, you may have been afraid to.
As a reader you'll grow some insight and compassion and you'll no longer judge another person or place or idea so quickly. Reading, being a reader, grows you the gift of imagination, of the possibility of everything other than yourself owning the capability to surprise and be different and separate from yourself. .....And that you'll learn is a an enchanting and good thing.......Paradoxically by reading and being brave enough to bother to understand the world that you stand within you'll begin to see similarities as well as as the initial differences......your world will become larger, but less frightening, the more you choose to face and to understand , the less afraid you will be and the less you will need to react and try to destroy the joy in other people's lives. ..because reading gives you a sense of having enough......because good books...and it's your perogative to decide which books are good for you.......give you the intangible wealth of active thought and a curious mind......As a reader....you will never be bored....and you will wear thoughts and ideas as your clothes, your jewels, your food, your companions......satisfied....you will become kinder and more tolerant....There is room enough for everybody in a mind that reads books.
I believe if you have the nose and need and instinct.....reading..... will also get you out of your chair.....what you thought was escapism you find is actually a ticket to the whole world......a world where you feel you belong........you'll start to want to get out there and hear real people's stories.....it's a peaceful day, a brilliant day when you realise that it isn't all about you.......
Because reading is shared culture and it, reading is story-telling, when you read, you become part of a vast shared human conversation that has been occurring for a millennia...........books are just shared stories....
we are not always lucky enough to share our culture over a feast or fire, through shared dance and song....it depends on where we live and when......
And yet for the beautiful time that you read....that story is just for you......and that's how the author imagined the conversation going..... for just the right amount of time that you read a book you are both extremely important and simultaneously and almost zen-like, you, yes, you, are : nothing.
Forget the nonsense of perceiving yourself......"How do I look in this or that social media"......"Believe me, all of our egos look way too big in that........for that perfect time that you make yourself small enough to enter the Portkey that is a book: you are in in the very best incarnation/Alpha -state to feed the garden of your mind, your creativity. A book has a life! You are part of that book's life, part of the author's life.....so small......held in the hand......

It's a book!

Mr Coo and "El Rey del Mambo y la Reina de Saba"

2011-09-03T22:22:00.002+10:00

Spanish animator, Nacho Rodriguez from Barcelona, has a fantastic web-portfolio called Mr Coo. How good are his web page buttons! Really enchanting and appealing! This music clip, besides being both fun and sad, whimsical AND dark, is also poetic and extremely well animated! Fun too, if you like your art history , to notice all his little homages /references to the great artists! The title of his blog Mr Coo is the name of one of his main characters who he has also created a video game for called Mr Coo in the Spherical Labyrinth according to this article. His movement really captures your attention because it's so alive/fresh. A 2008 article about Mr Coo from Cold Hard Flash. It has some interesting observations.

Bjork, Michel Gondry, David Attenborough: Biophilia!

2011-08-22T13:16:00.000+10:00

God love David Attenborough, Bjork, Michel Gondry!D All three have intelligence and creative integrity, real insight and curiousity into how the world grows and works and how we perceive the world/biosphere around us.All three are future thinking too.
I've blogged about Bjork and Michel Gondry before, (and David Attenborough) but this post is really about how Bjork realised that her original plans of making the album into a movie with Michel Gondry were not going to happen and how Bjork, with her shamanistic powers , always channelling the zeitigist with disarming visual and auditory appeal, has collaborated with, amongst other creatives, David Attenborough, to create this wonderful introduction voiceover for her App for "Biophilia", her latest album, ( the first App album of it's type in the world apparently). It was partly created on and i-pad and included 5000 Skype interactions amongst other multi-media and locationl collaborations....The album is named after the theory of Biophilia, humans' relationship, intrinsic love of all life within the Biosphere.(And that also explains the current abundance of Forest imagery in animation and other cultural forms!)
Here's an amazing article from UK magazine The Stoolpigeon about the origins and ethos of Bjork's: "Biophilia", the album, and it's forward thinking creation and distribution. Wired magazine UK has an even more in-depth and equally fabulous article about the creation of this multi-media App and album collaboration. Even more at Bjork.com.
Luckily for us,Michel Gondry, whose time was fairly taken up directing "The Green Lantern" lately, did direct the video "Crystalline" below.

In our current world of much pretense and disguise (David Attenborough voice), Bjork's current display of flaming red hair both draws our attention and reflects the urgency of her message. (It is also in complete integrity with her Punk origins).(According to The Stool Pigeon article above). There is much to be read in the plumage of this creator, her chameleon-like ability to adopt visual signals that add depth and subtext to her work, create a warning call that no overpaid stylist (with an eye to making their latest popstar visible in the jungle of popular culture), could ever achieve.....it's not just a pose or an attempt at looking alternative.....she's not trying to be different....Bjork, Michel Gondry and David Attenborough are the real deal . Listen, look, learn.....Bjork....she's a blazing force of nature.

Some of the amazing instruments used on the album, below.

Nice too, here's an update on Bjork's contibution to the Moomin movie, Moomin's and the Comet Chase that I blogged about last year, here and there is some more info on Michel Gondry!

At a time in history when we are in grave danger of reducing our lives to mere consumerism and paying fandom....it's good to take notice of muses like Bjork, David Attenborough, Michel Gondry, people not afraid to bless us with their unique original voices and far-sightedness.
Oh yeah!

Howl

2011-08-21T16:08:00.000+10:00

Howl from Natalie Bettelheim on Vimeo.

Beautiful and spacious final graduation animation project from two students at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design , Jerusalem, Israel. Love the yearning and the darkling purity , the weaving of tenderness and shadowy ambiguity.......this animation sure hits the emotional spot with grace and beauty. The title perfectly describes the feeling that this animation evokes....Here's the project blog for Howl. This animation kind of explains to me (without words), the abundance of forest imagery in so many animations these days and it cleverly combines city AND forest backgrounds and imagery to whisper of hidden, secret other-places, and other ways of being. Combines Natalie Bettelheim's (animator and illustrator) animation, art and direction with Sharon Michaeli's animation.Yoav Brill's sound and music, (he's also an animator and student at Bezalel). Tal, Rosina, I know you'll both appreciate this animation.

My Generalist Showreel and Business Card.

2011-08-03T21:59:00.000+10:00

Michelle Boland's 2D and 3D Showreel July 2011 from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

I put this generalist showreel up way over a week ago now on my portfolio site but didn't want to post it here until I'd emailed Ian and Frank for feedback. I've been sick for a week so only now have just surfaced! This reel is just a start, as I begin to chase work and opportunities and will be the basis of where I will drop the work, which is in the pipeline that is better. I am too perfectionistic so, I won't comment, not having any delusions. But it's better just to make a start and go from here. As I get more work and target different jobs I'll be able to create specific 2D and 2D reels. I love working with music! The titles are from my business card as I am officially a sole trader now! I really love what I'm doing, the challenges of creating work and improving and I'm loving my creative workspace and precious time focusing on what I do. Below is my business card which I used as titles for the reel.

I'm using the RGB theme for the card and of course the elf is my ID pic and I blogged about it's creation recently as it is based on a picture I created in 2009/early 2010 . I showed the original pic to my classmates in 1st semester 2010. And it looks like my little elf alter ego has a fan!!!!!!!D Hilarious!!!!!!!! I must be doing something right when my character has inspired an ex-classmates hairdo!!!!!!D

Preston Blair Frog Jump Animation Practice.

2011-08-03T21:53:00.000+10:00

Frog jump based on a Preston Blair Exercise from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

I based this frog jump on Preston Blair's exercise but redrew the frog to make it look more like an Aussie Tree Frog! Looks like it needs a bit more stretch and squash but the exercises teach you about spacing and timing.

warming up for some Gobelin's like frog and elephant jumps because I've realised my showreel movements all go from left to right and vice versa!

Sketchcrawl No 32 Sketches!

2011-07-24T15:08:00.001+10:00

Above and below are my day's sketches and there is more great results from the other participants on the Sketchcrawl forum.

Warm up...Southbank was teaming with people as I waited for other Sketchcrawlers.

Two worthy Sketchcrawlers showed up and we went off to the BBQ area where we sat under the tree and drew all of the activity below:

We met up with another great Sketchcrawler at 12.30 pm and waited for more folk then went of for lunch and sketching at a good high table with lots of room to sprawl. The conversation, food and drawings were very good! I loved talking shop, listening to how the other Sketchcrawlers approached their professions, and watching the pages fill up almost by sleight of hand in the various sketchbooks .

Last meet-up, and there was good Mr Frank and his goodly Sketchbook, so we went off to the new part of Southbank at his suggestion where we had another great view of people enjoying the gentle slope down to the water.

Some of the compiled drawings below, the heads, are also from the train journey home, after some of us went home. Thanks to my fellow Sketchcrawlers for an excellent day which has given me lots of food for thought and given me some good insights into what developing "a professional attitude" might mean in the creative business we are in , and how I might go about finding better ways to develop my current skillset.

32nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl: Saturday 23rd of July!

2011-07-19T11:18:00.001+10:00

Hi Everyone ,

A lot of you will get this notice in email form! This is for those folk whose addresses I don't have.

The date for the 32nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl has crept upon us and there is a meetup at Southbank at the Suncorp Piazza , main entrance, Parkside not streetside from 10.30 am to start at eleven. The good news is that myself and another Sketchcrawler from Brisbane want to make this drawing meet as flexible as possible, so we'll be meeting up at the same place, at 12.30 midday then 3.30pm for people that want to meet and draw with others.Here are the plans for the day in the forum. Please feel free to join in the ideas and conversation.

We also want to encourage people who can't make it to just draw from where they are on the day then post on the forum under the Brisbane thread or even start your own. For example every Sketchcrawl, SBIT teacher Frank draws some wonderful pictures from his workplace on Saturday morning.He then meets up with us in the afternoon if he can.

So if you can't make it , are too shy, are working, are somewhere else, (or your personal politics don't permit you to hang out with the scurmudgeonous likes of me!D), I encourage you to draw from wherever you are in Brisbane or elsewhere on that day, and as I said then post onto the forum, either on the Brisbane thread or start your own thread! I'd love for everyone to just feel like this is a great regular event that they can enjoy, and meet-up and draw with like minded sketchers.

For those who haven't participated in a worldwide Sketchcrawl yet, I'm just the messenger, and the creator of this event is Enrico Casarosa, Storyboard Artist at Pixar, and now director of Pixar's new short "La Luna". Four-times a year World-wide Sketchcrawlers meet-up at places all over the world and draw to their hearts content on that day! Some people draw alone or in a group! I've done both, and both are great because you are basically giving yourself some special allocated time to concentrate on drawing and collecting some great material for your visual memory and for future reference, to use in your illustrations, paintings, animations. Most of all it's just what we do and love anyway, and you can see that creative magic in peoples's drawings from all over the world. There is a really special sense of time and place in Sketchcrawler's drawings. Any sketcher at any level, is encouraged to join in whatever way they can!

Here is more about Sketchcrawl. How to participate. (It's free).

Check out the lovely work on the forums and Enrico Casarosa and friends blogs on the links above.

An affiliate sketching group Urban Sketchers is also holding a big event in Lisbon over three days including the 23rd. So that is exciting!

Cheers everyone, hope to see you there or on the forums with your great drawings from the day!

Michelle, (Shello on the forum)

Banjo Productions/Autochennille Productions

2011-07-18T13:46:00.001+10:00

Links here to Frank and Ian's SBIT Animator's Facebook posting about Banjo Studio: "The Rabbi's Cat", Le Chat du Rabbin, plus great links to the making of series on Vimeo. So very good and so great to explore Johan Afars blog and the extent and qualityof his graphic novel and comic output found via the biographies at Autochennille Production , (Banjo Studio is the animation part of Autochennille Production). Clement Oubrerie artist and writer Marguerite Abouet are directing the currently in production Aya de Yopougun based on their original graphic novel. Looks equally beautiful and will be released in 2011. I think both of these works are a great example of what Ian Lacey was trying to get through our heads recently ...that the sort of person you are , your personal beliefs are going to come through your work regardless. These productions look to be intelligent, entertaining, aesthetically gorgeous all at once!
Below the Book Trailer for Aya de Yopuougun.
Author Marguerite Abouet is a very inspirational woman because she has funded a library in Abidjan.

Creating Movement that tells the Character's Story-Glen Keane/2D Student Reels

2011-07-18T01:31:00.000+10:00

I love this video posted by Cooked Art on Youtube. I love that process of exploration the different animators went through under Glen Keane's direction to collaboratively create the defining movements and characteristics of Tarzan...it's an eye-opener about how much research and exploration went into the planning stages of Tarzan.
Long live 2D and the pencil because its obvious from this video how important it is to be able to capture your ideas with the immediacy of drawing ....I want to note this video here because it's gotta be a reality check for myself and everbody that's serious about animating.
I was also so impressed by Karl Hadricka's animation showreel (2nd year student at Ringling College) recently when Frank talked about it.....his overstatement and ability to keep everything moving and alive is wonderful.

Animation Reel 2011 from Karl Hadrika on Vimeo.

Equally inspiring is the animating talent of one of the students our teacher Frank made friends with at his 2009 Gobelins Summer School adventure, Karina Gazizova, who is now a second year Masters student at Gobelins. She's such an inspiring animator, I love how much personality is invested in the movements she creates, for example her fierce little dragon and that gorgeous bear sequence where the movement of the little fish at the beginning creates that enticing moment when we feel the bear lured and deciding to jump in....just before he does.....Nothing happens in a void for any of these animators.......it's those gorgeous moments of appealing movement that really draws you into the characters world.....

DEMO 2011 from Karina Gazizova on Vimeo.

It's really impressive and inspiring to watch Karina animate her way through the set Gobelins exercises. Something I love observing is how each different Gobelins student approaches the different frog jump and fish swim and elephant jump and cog turn etc exercises.....it's lovely to realise and know that each animator has their own approach, which comes out regardless of the highly exacting exercises (style is too overused a word, too conscious a word), so it's like an animation supervisor can read their animators distinct hand-writing.....way of animating....and as in the top Video, a great enthused animation director can get the different animators to explore and play to their strengths.So I'm thinking there's so much to creating movement that just can't be defined in using the descriptors: 3D or 2D animator....seems we have to be good at thinking and understanding the cause and effects of movement.....and I can never get sick of the heart and thinking in Jennifer Hager's Reel.

Of course there are heaps more students I could talk about but these are the ones my mind has been on lately.
I've got to put this one up too of Sam Challis's (Former QCA student) 2011 showreel because when I look at it, it has a such a fantastic clean uncrowded quality that really leaves a good staging for the appealing movement that he's thought about and created to define his characters.I'm really impressed with his clear thinking. I saw his reel linked to my blog and I just thought: That's the way to do it! Clarity and focus on the movement......The way he presented his work and the way he animated has really made me think about having readable movements......as I said I'm really enjoying the thinking of all of these animators, and I'm enjoying their work and learning from them.

Untitled from Sam Challis on Vimeo.

Professional animator and former QCA student Alex Grigg is heading off soon to another professional contract down South.
Alex's reel shows off his work through great choices and great movement. I find his reel very direct and professional, yet appealing and I laugh at the policeman's fall everytime...(It's all in the timing and spacing!).

Demo Reel Autumn 2011 from Alex Grigg on Vimeo.

And I'm putting up Sunmee Dong's 3rd year Cal arts short here too because I love the gentle movements she's used to portray the child , the hermit crab, and their comical gentle interaction. Lovely observation and again real clarity in the movements.

Shell Out from Sunmee Dong on Vimeo.

Vincent Caudeville, Animation Demo-Reel 2009 from Vincent Caudeville on Vimeo.

Just putting up Vincent Caudeville's 2009 reel again because I remember how much I loved the snail and it's mouth and predicament and then that wicked lizard leap at the end of the real!!!! So bloody funny, I must have linked to it before when talking about French Roast.
Vincent Caudeville animated Gaspard in French Roast and has currently been working on the gorgeous
"Monstre in Paris", (via Alonso's blog) directed by Bibo Bergeron, who I was delighted to find out via IMDB actually animated on the "Fern Gully,The Last Rainforest" (1992) Movie which I've watched in the last two months and really enjoyed. I love seeing that he directed "The Road to Eldorado". And that does bring me back full circle to the Tarzan movie because in the 1992 movie the character Zac actually does some surfing down the trees! But not as much as Tarzan!:D

So really I guess, this blogpost is a very personal exercise for me in working through some of what matters to me and by my own exploration over months and years of experiencing theses animators work....I'm retaining my precious focus on what has always mattered to me....and what I need to focus on...and that's the animating and nothing else.....studying animation can come with lots of diversions and the theme that has kept popping up for me lately is what Ian Lacey said very recently: "Don't put the cart before the horse!"
When I look at these fantastic animator's experiences and work I can really tell now how much focus and thought and sweat and living has gone into their work. Now I can, a little bit more. I really need them to be Kick-ass and set the bar so high!It makes me able to eliminate all the other crap from my mind! I love how their work teaches me and makes me feel!

Joe Hisaishi and Kazumasa Hashimoto, Gontiti and Herb Ohta -San.

2011-07-13T21:56:00.002+10:00

Looks good , Frank! Joe Hisaishi, original music. Above, and below one of the most painful, violent and moving Japanese Movies I've seen: Takishi Kitano's : "Hana-Bi".(1997) Joe Hisaishi's music is a very powerful and important element of this movie's fabric. It's a a difficult combination of pathos and beauty , art and violence, sorrow and meaning....very powerful.

I was thinking of these movies above because I was thinking about Japan last night and today, Kyoshi Kurosawa's 2008 "Tokyo Sonata" was on today again, on SBS at lunchtime...the original music in this 2008 movie was composed by Kazumasa Hashimoto. This scene below is the ending (Spoiler) but is the key scene of the movie, to me, and is kind of a rebirth and redemption after an emotional storm when the naturalistically portrayed family of four is threatened with being ripped apart by the father's recent unemployment and the emotional dysfunction of the parents. It is both painful and beautiful to watch with some very honest performances, and it kind of honours the resilence of family and is so beautifully shot, with so much thought to the colour script that it seems also a lingering love song to everyday Tokyo.

I'm entranced how silence and music are interwoven in all of these movies where dialogue comes second to the acting, and colour and space, the pace of camera movement and scene length and editing are used to skilfully rupture the audiences emotional composure.

I feel kind of very lucky....for three months my brother has been living with us on and off and I've experienced him take a simple request from me, a short repetitive folk tune, for an animation, and on his keyboard he has created something more complex and more subtle, something more subtle and textured, thoughtful. I am amazed and moved. Hearing this simple tune that my mother used to sing to us given a new life and form that I can weave into my tiny production with other sound seems like a very precious gift. And he cooks and awesome Hell-yeah! Power Stew too! My family is becoming quite an ensemble!

Maybe because I am from a pretty down-to earth, unemotive family, I relate to these above movies in a powerful way.....or maybe they are just pure emotional and visual relief from all the RAh-rah, 15 mins of fame, LOUD constantly attention seeking behaviour that seems constantly inroading on my senses...EVERYWHERE....
God love music.....it makes even the endless squawkers of the world shut up and feel! Here's a parting gift from me:D Just sharing some of todays discoveries and some of my favourite things! Below is the first part of the movie: "Nobody Knows" where the adult is basically a child and the children fend for themselves as best they can. The director is Hirokazu Koreeda and the music is by Gontiti. There is a poignant reference to Totoro in this movie! Again the naturalism of this movie and the focus on the children's perspective is very special.

And just to cheer up a little:D

Kokuriko-Zaka Kara Trailer!

2011-07-13T00:40:00.002+10:00

Looks beautiful! It's purportedly going to be in the naturalistic, some call it realistic, style of Isao Takahata, as in "Grave of the Fireflies" or one of my favourites, for it's beautiful naturalistic pace warmth and vision: "Only Yesterday". Goro Miyazaki is directing, and his father was involved in the initial planning, scripting and image?storyboards, according to Daniel Thomas McInnes at Ghiblicon.blogspot.com . More links of interest on the Ghiblicon page.
Of course we are still waiting to see "Arietty" here! But we are really blessed to be experiencing this work flowing from this studio, especially in light of recent times. I think the nearly unspeakable thing is how these events may have affected the psyche of Japan, besides the terrible physical damage. But God love Studio Ghibli because ....well look at this!

I particularly love this Anti-Nucleur banner because as always, there is that knowledge, humility, or true sense of self and reality in that statement. Hayao Miyazaki knows Studio Ghibli's work on earth is to make animated movies nothing more, nothing less. This statement connotates to me the amazing combination of pragmatism and imagination and personal integrity that lights this studios work. But the statement also acknowledges the influence the studio has on it's audience worldwide....us.....people longing for alternatives to petty competition and greed and profiteering at cost to the planet and each other. I feel their respect for their audience. Just the sight of those sunflowers on that banner reminds me to be true to myself and to look at the bigger picture.

Studio Ghibli has been working so hard for years to help to heal the wounds of exploded nuclear power and war......they offer us in the west a precious chance to see an alternate point of view: "Grave of the Fireflies".....opens our eyes.....and Totoro's overnight forest transforms the hideous shape of the mushroom cloud into a full symbol of hope. We feel this when we watch the movies ......Studio Ghibli always gives us courage to face the future, not as some super hero but as ourselves. Studio Ghibli acknowledges all ages and both genders. Studio Ghibli doesn't treat us as consumers but reaches further to touch our humanity and asks of us difficult things, sometimes, but things that are better than dead fandom and consumerism. And those last two things glint of the sort of false gold that No-face offers Sen/Chihiro. No-face is the Ghost of Everyman, in grave danger, gone mad with consumption ignited and fueled by exclusion from community and loneliness.....and yet No-face is both tortured and torturing when ultimately at the peak of his compulsive gluttony. And that's a perfect description of a human caught up in needy insatiable competition to achieve and accquire selfishly through some belief that they are lacking. But Chihiro saves him by leading him away to a better existence to useful meaningful, daily work. We must respect Studio Ghibli their roles as workers, and the toil it takes to create their movies.We are not meant to worship Studio Ghibli, they only have asked us to stand side by side with them, in common humanity, and think more and act accordingly.....as productive human beings not just as consumers....As potential animators, looking at this little sunny protest banner.....I can feel it's humble understatement and yet it purports the difficulties of recent events....I feel we can know that the story tellers in our human tribe have some responsibilities.....so put away your fan hats.....fandom has just become another way to identify yourself (or at least to pretend to be something you continually fear you are not!) and to collect and compete!
I am extremely touched and very grateful that Studio Ghibli always asks of me better things than just to buy their stuff!

La Luna

2011-07-09T22:20:00.000+10:00

Short clip from Pixar's new short: "La Luna" . More about this project and it's director, Enrico Casarosa here.
(From my blogpost from a month ago).

Butterfly Girl: Coloured Version

2011-07-09T21:18:00.000+10:00

Butterfly Girl Coloured from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

A coloured version of the practice work I did quite a few weeks back, still experimenting, with the look and line work, but gladly I sorted out a few practical issues and smoothed out a good process that would increase my sped. It's all a learning curve.

Arietty UK Trailer

2011-07-02T10:57:00.000+10:00

Here's the British Trailer for Arietty, posted on JDH's Spungella blog. Attention Chris and Rose!(And Miss Maxine!)!

Hey Bully! Justin Nieuwland!

2011-07-01T01:36:00.000+10:00

HEY BULLY from Justin Nieuwland on Vimeo.

How gorgeous is this? Justin Nieuwland from Toronto made this music clip for Canadian band "Lake of Stew". Brings back the joy! Concept art and character design are to be found on Justin's other blog: cricketcartoons.blogspot.com . I remember watching some really early animations as a kid when things like a whole kitchen would spring to life and start dancing and singing! I've seen some Australians recently revisiting this early animation style too. It's certainly got the appeal of being whimsical and fun and free from real-life convention. Aah the double bounce walk brings in that joyous feeling! Although it's about kind little hoboes and one nasty bully, it's also fun and hopeful! Love the Music! You know it kind of gives you that great feeling you get from a lot of recent 2D......that animation is really great when it remembers it's got a sense of humour. I know what it is.....this clip, like Henry Zhang's recent animation "Be quiet" which Frank posted recently on his blog, are small and cosy and kindly and humourous and although completely different they both depict journeys and finding a place, food and friends in your world. But they're not angsty, they just recognise that the human heart longs for warm socks, stew and friends (and good music) and any kind little hobo-animator will instinctively find their way home to their own little place in the world, (led by the open road, a smell of stew and fresh air, and a notion in their wobbly head that bullies are just part of the journey and that there is kindness to be found amongst strangers.) That's the same feeling Hedgehog in the Fog gives me!
That's quite a gift!

Brave!

2011-06-29T15:38:00.000+10:00

They've been leaking snippets and pics and intriguing us for a few weeks now! I just found this on Cartoon Brew!
What's a girl/animator not to love: firstly great animation, a Celtic "costume drama" with an air of myth and legend, a strong female lead who knows the right end of a bow and arrow and how to defend herself, (THWACK), a to-die-for-noble and feather-footed horse, and beautiful art direction that (possibly) takes some of it's cues from the intensity and brilliance of the Pre-Raphaelites, (who represented their red-haired heroines in their paintings as strong and sensual, outside the bounds of prim Victorian Society.)....but Merida looks great as an appealing feisty character.....love those pale lit eyes and fiery orange curls against the moss green darkness. (Seriously red-hair is a genetic adaption (along with the white skin), to lack of light).(You need to absorb vitamin D through your skin and paler skin has less melatonin and this allows for the lack of light.)(Babies in Africa with parents who have very black skin are born with lighter skin because babies little bodies need lots of vitamin D to grow).Yes, you needed to know that!D
Anyway, Pre-Raphaelites; that's what the colour palette of this clip reminds me of. Look at this beautiful painting: "The blind girl", by John Everett Millais. and look at the intensity and depths of the detailed greens showing drowning Ophelia , and her pallor.The cover of one of my favourite books has a detail of Millais' "The Violet's Message". Artist's in love with colour, know the value of contrasts!

Thanks Alonso for posting this great Google Art Project Link a while back.....you can now see these works close up over the net......so go there and check out how artists over the aeons have made their main "characters" , or their focal point in a painting, stand out (or not) from the background. (Yes, that is a part of the magic of staging and good concept art.) But these works pre-date Deviant Art, Facebook, and Tumblr. You can be sure that Pixar's Visual Development artists are well aware of their Art History.

Gotta love that brilliant "Brave" poster Pixar put out too, (Seen on Spungella on the 22nd!) with Merida's back to the viewer, that was BRAVE and awesomely effective.Here is the official page.
I'm off now to check out the comments on Cartoon Brew because I'm not a blind fan type of audience member and it's good to hear some different reactions that make you think about the complex being that is an "audience" for animated features. It makes me think......about what we are all trying to do.....

Max Leaps!

2011-06-24T23:50:00.000+10:00

Richard Williams Leap Exercise from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Above, a "proper" leap I did in 2D a while ago, and it is based on a Richard Williams exercise from his book:
The Animator's Survival Kit. I then brought it into Maya onto a plane and I made Mr Max Leap! Two Views below.

Meu Amizaogao: My Big, Big Friend and Brazil's: 2Dlab !

2011-06-22T23:24:00.000+10:00

In a bit of serendipity, my animation teacher Frank and I both seem to be thinking about Brazil and it's Portugese speaking animators! (I'm enjoying the awesome new SBIT Animators Facebook page Frank and Ian!) That's where I saw Franks call-out tonight for anybody having seen any Brazilian animation recently.
Check-out the magic of the above kids series: Meu Amizaogao: My Big, Big Friend from Brazil's 2Dlab.
It so happens that I was browsing around Toonboom's website yesterday as I was intrigued by the news on Cartoon Brew of their withdrawal from Annecy. They. Toonboom, have instead planned to tour a promotional presentation of their new Animation production organizational software package: Harmony which I saw the amazing collaborative results of when viewing "Chico and Rita" roughly a month ago now. In fact, looking at their site again that's been happening right now .
A review of the transporting "Chico and Rita" feature is another post away from me, and anyway, it's wonderful directors are Spanish and it's set in Cuba, not Brazil, and all over the world and it was made in at least six different countries simultaneously thanks to Harmony. See the link above!
As for Brazil, touring Toonbooms site, yesterday I found this beautiful children's animation: Meu Amigaozao, (My Big Big Friend) above, from Brazil's 2Dlab as an example of companies using Toonboom. Here are some more Toonboom Harmony users. I can't tell you how much I love this! So much warmth and attention to children's needs and feelings. I love the art style too, and the colours.The characters are pleasingly distinct and I love all three very appealing children and their equally appealing imaginary animal friends! Awwwwww. Really lovely. Wonderful interactions between characters. I love how the creators show the child's feelings in the animals. There is a lot of thought and magic in these snippets and it's easy to access your inner six-year old with work as appealing as this! Here's the opening, below and if you want to explore their Portugese channel here, for Meu Amizaogao.

The english voices are nice in this English teaser below.

Kazuo Oga

2011-06-22T20:59:00.000+10:00

Just posting a link to Alonso's Monotreme Dreams blog because I watched this awesome video there today of Kazuo Oga's Background art. Watch it full screen and you will appreciate it even more. Watching this video is a great education on how this master artist creates whole environments through sensitive observation, capturing form, depth, distances and perspectives, colour and details that tie location to time, time of day, and place. Kazuo Oga's vision of the "Background"or landscape is an encompassing of the characters as a harmonic prescence and entity in the movies. Watching this video makes me understand that a fine-line was achieved here between a submergence of ego, (as the artist worked as a team member and the characters need to be enhanced by the backgrounds, not overpowered) and a real hymn, a singing by the artist of the detailed particular landscapes that surround all of us. If ever I'll want a real example of an eye for detail, for naturalistic grounding detail, I'll look again at Kazuo Oga's work in this video. It makes me realise the importance of what that phrase really means when creating backgrounds for an animated movie. But that's what really gets to me, and today, watching this I got how much of an art there is in these works, and how much all the elements artfully tell the story, and could any of us imagine any of these beloved movies without their well loved particular environments? And there is that something more there in this work: a beautiful consciousness of an artist working for something more loved than fame, money, the artist gives us his eyes for a time, his precious perception of the world, he researches, observes, crafts selects, edits all in the name of story and we can then not just believe in the worlds that Studio Ghibli creates, it's more like entering another universe and coming home. The combo of images and music from these loved movies really moved me. Sublime.

Max Jumping!

2011-06-21T01:23:00.000+10:00

Max Jumping! from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

I keep laughing at this jump! It's impossible in life but possible in animation. But I really learnt a lot trying to really do this properly and block first, focusing on the core/pelvis, then following with the rest, methodically. It's based on the 2D Preston Blair Jump exercise if anyone is interested. Translating it into 3D was a good learning curve for me. And it was fun!

Glen Keane Video Lectures

2011-06-07T22:19:00.000+10:00

There's such beautiful observation in the boy and eagle. This is the first in this series of lectures and here is the link to the rest on the blog: The Art of Glen Keane. God love the Internet!

New ID Elf Picture!

2011-06-06T22:43:00.000+10:00

Just been working on different more toony styles for the portfolio. I based this little elf above on a digital painting I did in 2010 and showed to my class in the first semester that year in a class talk about where we were hoping to be in the future. I remember that day well because I came to a descision that, no matter what happened I felt comfortable about my art and animation, even after I had stumbled and fell apart in my talk that day! That evening I remember sitting at the bus-stop and listening to the billion parakeets in the trees and watching a brilliant coral and golden scaled sky soften and fade. I was thinking how this was the real stuff and I remembered that I had this greater world that hummed around me alive and always bringing me gifts: light breezes, birdsongs and a billion colours, a trillion blades of waving grass ....When I got home I watched a Glen Keane video about eagles! I made a connection between Glen Keane's seamless weaving of his art and life....I loved how he spoke from his integrity...he seemed just that...in integrity.....I wanted to be like him....comfortable.....talking to people from a genuine place within his art and life....it was a glimpse....but the whole day kinda purified what I felt about why I do this stuff.......Below are my paintings I showed .....so that whole day is mixed up in that little toony elf ID! I didn't have a wacom til later that year, but it's easier to paint with a mouse than it is to draw. Believe me! This picture below taught me a lot! I had to stop working on it, it never seemed finished, became a little flat.....but I've been working on a lot more different stuff lately and realised how much this picture taught me.

Max-walk on Spot!

2011-05-29T23:55:00.004+10:00

Max rig: Walk on the Spot from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Some more animation practice and it's a Work In Progress and not exactly vanilla! What is that hand doing? Trying to not be so perfectionistic and pace my work, so instead of "fixing" this, I should certainly give it another go and start from scratch while the brain cells are warm! All good practice.

Jeff Liu, 2011 Calarts Student Film

2011-05-21T04:52:00.000+10:00

Arte y Animacion blog also led me to Jeff Liu's 2011 Cal Arts Student film: Hummingbirds and Holograms below. Such a nice life and feel to this, a lovely combo of characters and elements and natural, observed movement. Okay, the dog LOOKS a natural playing the organ! Jeff Liu seems to have a knack for emotionally hooking the audience, in a gentle sleight of hand way. Nice!

Hummingbirds & Holograms from Jeff Liu on Vimeo.

And look at what Jeff Liu does in his spare time! I particularly love this! It's joyful!

The Trackpad Jam from Jeff Liu on Vimeo.

And check out the Cube Producers 2011 Show Opening!

Mike Nguyen Interview!

2011-05-21T04:32:00.000+10:00

Behind the Scenes with an independent 2D Filmmaker Hosted by The Creative Talent Network from Creative Talent Network on Vimeo.

Interview with Mike Nguyen about July Films, found via Marcello Alvarez's blog, professional animator and Animation Mentor Student and via my search for more details on Alfonso Rodriguez, in the last post. I like these journeys of discovery! Will watch this later this morning after I catch up on some sleep. I want to give it the time it deserves over a cup of coffee.

Alfonso Rodriguez talks about directing Pocoyo

2011-05-21T04:20:00.000+10:00

Frame a Frame: Alfonso Rodríguez. Director of Pocoyo with subtitles from Christian Dan on Vimeo.

Found this via Spungella and it is insightful as to the role of a director and how complex yet delightful constantly creating this fresh movement and story that IS each episode of Pocoyo. Aww, man! I get such a good feeling watching this interview of Alfonso Rodriguez talking about directing Pocoyo, it feels like Zinkia have created something very special in time, space, place and culture (I'm talking Animation culture here, not specifically Spanish culture, although I'm thinking that contemporary Spanish Animation productions that I have seen recently, have a lot of wit and style and sparkle and warmth!) And this little quiet interview witnesses a little inside picture of the dedication and care, the quality of effort that the director's and company grow at Zinkia. Integrity. I like how Alfonso Rodriguez talks about listening to the team. Really, the work reflects the care with which the very distinct characters and their interactions are observed. There is love and respect for the craft and art and business of animation in this interview. Respect for the staff and for the intended audience. Nice.
Spungella always holds treasure and another little lead for us by JDH is this great blog where he sourced the interview: artyanimacion.es .

Bloody good Advice from Travis Tohill

2011-05-21T03:31:00.000+10:00

Bloody good advice to graduating students from Travis Tohill from Animation Tips and Tricks! I mean, what is the point of having big dreams and goals if you aren't challenging yourself. He means really understanding a difficult movement by attempting it, DRAWING it, thinking about it, using tried and true animation processes and principles to tackle it and gain some sort of understanding of the movement. Forget appearances, try it again, two three times, get it into your system via your drawing, grow your understanding. Concentrate on integrity and understanding of movement. (Note to Self).

Walks and Runs-Richard Williams Exercises.

2011-05-17T23:41:00.000+10:00

Just some of the 2D work I've done over the past months. You can't beat these Richard Williams exercises for getting your head around the keys and breakdowns in walks and runs.

Basic Walk on the Spot-Richard Williams Exercise from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Walk Distance-Richard Williams Exercise from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Run on Spot: Richard Williams Exercise. from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Run over Distance: Richard Williams Exercise. from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Enrico Casarosa is Directing New Pixar Short!

2011-05-12T21:58:00.000+10:00

Heads up! I was reading this very good news over at AWN the other day: Enrico Casarosa, Pixar storyboard artist, is directing a new short for Pixar called "La Luna".
Awesome! More about the story and Enrico Casarosa here. This is a natural path for good storyboard artists but according to this article it's an interesting move by Pixar to produce more than one short per year by more than one new director! It will Premiere at this years Annecy festival and will not be in front of Cars 3. It looks lovely in it's art design! Yes, people, this director is the same awesome artist who created Sketchcrawl which you can all be a part of. The next Sketchcrawl event, Worldwide Sketchcrawl 33 is on Saturday, July the 23rd. This is our industry and this event is a pretty win-win situation for all who love to draw around the world, on those days.
Look at the lovely drawings on the sites's forum, and you can see this event is a celebration of drawing! It's free to join and participate. Hope some more people in this vicinity catch the spirit of this quarterly drawing event and join us at Southbank on that date!
Here's Enrico Casarosa's blog link.

Check-out Sumo Lake on Ozanimate

2011-05-12T11:54:00.000+10:00

Click on the poster above and read Alex Grigg's (Independent animator and writer for Ozanimate) fantastic story on SA's Greg Holfeld's new hand-drawn short "Sumo Lake". Alex's story includes some great links where you can enjoy learning about the origins of the production.......it follows nicely on the animation palate after seeing Ryan Woodward's Google tribute to American Master Choreographer and dancer, Martha Graham, which Frank blogged about yesterday.

Animation Practice.

2011-05-12T00:19:00.002+10:00

Butterfly Girl Animation practice from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Some of my animation practice from last week. I need to practice "takes". Started rough as. So doing this pointed me back to better planning and thumbnails and character design done before not during! :D I'm switching between pencil and Wacom now as we must needs do both!

Bloody Genius! Pocoyo and the Space Circus: Zinkia's Short Film.

2011-05-02T12:18:00.000+10:00

I've enjoyed Frank's Pocoyo posting recently about a dance off, and I know how much he and my other fellow animator's will love this 20 min short film by Zinkia, (Spain and China) : "Pocoyo and the Space Circus" which was screened this morning at 7.00 am on ABC2. To my utter hilarious joy!
I can't get it again on I:View, ABC, Australia, yet. But this is a definite must experience again and purchase!

It's bloody genius! It's not only an animator's celebration of the bouncing ball, it's spot on for it's target audience, who live with joy , in the moment! (And I must be one of them because I laughed all the way through this and I identify closely with the yellow gap-toothed wide-eyed grub!) (When she crosses her eyes it cracks me up every time!) (DAMN! I'm in love with the duck). The aliens are balls with arms and legs and feelers. They emote so clearly. They are essentially, bouncing balls! Brilliant!
Here's to doing the "boring" hard yards of ball bouncing as a junior animator! Here's to the ongoing struggle of trying to get the Animation Principles into your system and into your work! Watching the above work, I feel joy and hope......to join the dance and become an animator means (for me) NOT competing, NOT measuring my progress against others, but getting back to basics over and over again.....It's you and me Animation Principles!
Think I'll go and look at Cameron Miyazaki's work again too, as was the advice that Ian and Frank gave me a long while ago. When I made a good start and was keeping my eye on the ball. Not procrastinating in timidity and fear of failing, WHOA! Here's a good little reminder on how to tackle procrastination! Honestly competition thrown at me fails to motivate me, it just makes my head invert and I decompose and implode like I've been hit by an alien space gun! I need space and time to think and learn so right now I'm not going to worry about competing for animation jobs. Mind you Cameron Miyazaki got a Pixar job on the strength of his bouncing balls, but they employed him because he could animate and emote with the simplest of tools and with a complete grasp of the Animation Principles. He continues to inspire!

Also check out this bouncing ball discussion on Animation Mentor.
And I'm posting this up again from JDH on what a student should animate, via the ARC!
And again, JDH on why mastering the bouncing ball is essential! Again via the ARC.
Here's Ian Lacey's basic rigs for animators starting out.

I think this is a normal process for animators in training, to invert, (I think I'm not alone in being a bit of an introvert, although you wouldn't think it reading my blog.) Purge, regroup, and refocus. Just a reminder to myself brought on by the perspective and clarity given to me by watching Human Planet and Pocoyo and the Space Circus! (Disparate? Maybe not!!) Out go fancy future imagined plans, in with the simple present.

I guess I could make a million valid excuses why I don't feel my work is up to scratch at the moment but really I'd just be thinking too much, merely playing a role and procrastinating! The above links are for me and for anyone else that relates to what I'm saying to get benefit from. As we move along : the challenge still stands!60 frames a day 6days a week!

BBC's Human Planet

2011-05-01T22:47:00.000+10:00

Just sharing this with friends and family here and in other states. I know some of you will love this as much as I do, but not because it's easy on the eye and spectacularly beautiful, and it is, but because it is very challenging and emotionally moving.... It is a must see, 80 different locations and our contemporary fellow humans going about their daily lives with dignity, ingenuity and strength in the most testing of conditions. In this clip you can see the wonderful tree-house living people from last weeks episode and from this weeks program the wonderful living bridges made from strangler figs , woven over a life time, and this information is passed on from a father to a daughter in this episode. They are people from Meghalaya in the Khasi Hills in North East India. Shot on HD, my admiration and respect goes out to the documentary makers too.This is a groundbreaking series and it places human endeavour back into perspective against the vastness of nature.
Particularly humbling and moving are the gentle fathers and mothers in both of the episodes I've seen, braving extremes and being courageous and resourceful feeding their families, not destroying or challenging nature but paying it attention, knowing and understanding it and living with in it.What stands out again and again is the combined fragility yet resilience of humans.
So this is not a travelogue of exotic places...it is about us, human beings, coping in the most extremes conditions all over our planet, and this documentary series brings you to a very moving place and will ask of you many questions. Most of all this is a respectful celebration.

The Fabulous: "Chico and Rita"

2011-04-22T13:03:00.062+10:00

The 14th Spanish Film Festival is screening at the Palace cinemas from the 18th-29th of May.
I emailed Frank a few months back about a wonderful looking and sounding animated feature called "Chico and Rita", co-directed by artist/director Javier Mariscal and director/music director Fernando Trueba and director Tono Errando . I'm excited to see that Brisbane folk will have a chance to see it. It's central love story revolves around the title 's characters who are living in the golden age of Jazz. It looks visually stunning: read here about the features design , art direction, animation and fabulous backgrounds and about it's wonderful score here and abut Bebo Valdes, most importantly the movies arranger and composer, as well as being an inspiration for the character "Chico". Bebo Valdes was featured in Fernando Trueba's doco Calle54.
For animators: Manuel Galiana was head of animation on the production.
However if you are wondering where the wonderful animation studio is that made this, forget a singular location or company, and welcome to a worldwide collaboration, thanks to current technology as seen in this fantastic site below about animation production software and organizational systems Harmony, Hobsoft and Toonboom. Follow the link , above and it's a must watch! It's a revelation about the organization and interaction of 200 animation production staff from 11 different studios from six countries across the world. Welcome to the present!
Below some more great video's about "Chico and Rita', these two videos reveal, again, the directors use of combining 2D, 3D and mo-cap to create this vision, and I love what Javier Mariscal says about spending 90 mins of intimate time with an audience and about the necessity to create for them a wonderful : "dream".

31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl Results

2011-04-18T01:30:00.001+10:00

Phew! That was a bit of a learning curve trying to organise Sketchcrawl meet-up number 31! I was happy that one person turned up, Zade, thrilled that a second came, Johnny, and we then went and met Frank after his work later on and collected Johnnys lovely girlfriend Bec later. Two other people turned up but we missed each other. Regardless all six sketchcrawlers (plus Bec!) had a great day (and evening). Really worthwhile.

Our small group are great people who follow through and came to draw and I really appreciate that they Sketchcrawled and we had a good time and I raised some funds for Japan! Some wonderful drawings were done by all and I feel happy and grateful that I got to spend the day with such a nice bunch of friends.Thanks again, everybody!My "Scrawl":

Started my Sketchcrawl early just after 10.00am with a coffee at the cafe near the Suncorp Piazza.

At 10.30 am I went and sat near the front entrance of the Suncorp Piazza in case anybody came earlier than the designated 11am.

Sketching the increasing numbers of passersby at the Southbank Piazza.

The view from the Suncorp Piazza entrance, left and a gorgeous child holding a doll protectively plus other passersby. Waited at the Suncorp Piazza for everybody knowing some might still be coming and at about 12 midday, Zade turned up he started drawing too. We waited there for Johnny and the other two people who said they were coming.

Loads of people were walking past the Suncorp Piazza so I made the most of these opportunities!

View from the Suncorp Piazza and the wonderful stream of humans enjoying the healing and bandaged Southbank Parklands!

View from the entrance of the Southbank Piazza looking up at the Chinese lanterns hanging off the Bouganvillea trellis. More kids! Johnny showed up, yay! and when it was after 1.30 pm we decided

that the other two people who said they were coming were a no-show so we went to a cafe for cafe au lait!

Zade, left and Johnny, right creating some awesome and original drawings at the cafe bar. We sat there for over an hour and drew various passersby and objects ....

At the cafe bar. Realised it was well after two thirty and that we needed to start over to find Frank at GOMA as I was sure that Frank would be doing as he said he would and be drawing at the Riverside cafe, as was also prearranged! I also hoped that we might catch up with any of the Sketchcrawlers who had definitely said they would come but may have been late etc or working too. It was a big walk over and there was roadblocks and we had to go right round past the convention centre so it was 3.10 when we saw Frank's curls bobbing over his open Sketchbook. We looked around for more sketchers but to no avail!

"Beer" said Frank .

"Beer" we agreed.

"The Joynt" said Frank and to the Joynt we went and met up with Johnny's lovely partner Bec there and we drew and ate beer battered chips and drank buckets of golden hangover free Coopers ale and the folk there were friendly and we drew and joked around a lot more.

Frank had had a bit of a sad day at the Vet surgery and he told us a sad tale and talked of elderly cats and elderly ailing men.

The children of my imagination seem to be watching me amused from the sidelines (left) as I regale Frank with a tale about a bat sanctuary that I had visited the day before with a friend. I remember their acrobatics and innocence! I draw their shapes roughly from the images in my head. A gentle beer banter prevails and we all laugh and the staff chat and are genuinely nice and interested we discuss each others drawings and make jokes, all the while still sketching away.....

Johnny smoking on the road, left, and another child from head and Frank's cat stories come out on my last two pages! My lines have become more carefree!

It gets to be after 7pm and Zade has drawn Frank on the back of a coaster and in his journal, so has Johnny. We have discussed while drawing, many things under the golden ales influence, learnt of Frank and Fran's magical elopement, and discussed people and politics, drawing and animation , Bec's interesting work, Zade's travels, Johnny's goldfish and ..blue extemities.....

"Food" says Frank

"Food" we agree as the chips are long gone....We finish a really lovely afternoon of drawing and friendship at West End and catch a bit of Bolt on the screen of the Vietnamese Cafe, while enjoying our tea.(That's Qlder for dinner) There's something lovely about striding the streets of West End in the cooling night air and chatting to friends about the strings and sealing wax of life....movies and ideas....not feeling the weight of the future so much because we'd drawn and talked any heaviness away by the time we all parted.....

That's my last drawing above but I remember looking back at The Joynt as we left it to go and eat and remembered that I had often admired this old pub opposite the Milk factory on my way to my early morning shift cleaning the Qld Theatre company nine years ago. The tiny wrens that nested in the factory fences sang better than nightingales on my way home from sweeping up sequins in the early morning. ..The pub to my right as I reached the end of the road, always made me look at it and I was sad it was not being used as it was boarded up ....it looked like an amazing place.....I thought it would make a wonderful restaurant...a place where people could gather....I could see it alive and warm in my head....a smile of a picture.....as we walked into West End for tea I looked back and understood where I was standing and how long ago I had been on the same spot before looking at that place......good golden feeling ...and funny how the future finally catches up with you and you find yourself back where you started and find it to be a kindly future and find yourself amongst friends......Wonderful to see that what I saw someone else did too!

Here's to community and good things like drawing with friends. To things that bring us together without any of us having to take from one another, or having to judge each other. Here's to making descisions with a pencil! What a bloody nice bunch of happy kind intelligent conversationalists my fellow Sketchcrawlers were, including Bec. Cheers and Thankyou all for a lovely day!

Sat 16th of April: 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl Update!

2011-04-09T13:07:00.000+10:00

The updates for the upcoming 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl and the links to the downloadable fundraising sheets and logo are here:

Brisbane meeting places and itinerary. Note to Brisbane Sketchcrawlers: I have included the fundraising links in this forum post!
Elsewhere in Australia and the world, find your area on the forum post.
Main Sketchcrawl page and links to fundraising sites.

Everyone make sure to join up to Sketchcrawl (free) so you can participate...there is still time to fundraise!

It's Frank's School: I-Animate as shared on Spungella!

2011-04-05T10:16:00.000+10:00

iAnimate.net Promotional video from iAnimate on Vimeo.

Awesome clip of Frank's (my SBIT 3D teacher) school: I-Animate, found on JDH's ever awesome Spungella blog.Impressive! Great rigs and body AND facial acting by students! Looks like Franks work will be seen later this year! If anybody hasn't seen it already, here's the calibre of Frank's student work for I-animate here.
I'm really proud that my teachers are following the path of ongoing professional development that every animator needs to embrace to survive and develop their skills beyond your first few years of college. It's inspiring......go Frank!
It's great that there are an increasing amount of online schools and opportunities to improve your animation skills post college. There are quality schools and tutorials to fit all experience levels and budgets. Tuition is much more available and flexible now. And that's what I like about the Industry and JDH, he is a positive supporter of other endeavours and animators. He supports and contributes to the Animation Industry. He is also running online workshops himself. Ian Lacey, an SBIT teacher and former Disney Animator, first introduced Spungella to us SBITters on the richly resourced ARC and Alonso on Monotreme Dreams daily drives by it. In the past it's been an awesome site to delve into and in the last six difficult months, I've loved and really heard the encouraging words JDH has for animators starting out such as his encouraging "What should I animate?" series of blogs posts. We are so lucky being part of such a supportive, communicative, creative, growing industry.

Lloyd Rees and his Early Drawings of Brisbane!

2011-04-05T09:16:00.000+10:00

Lloyd Rees: Moreton Bay Fig at Milton, Figure under tree. c.1912-17

Caught up with one of my best friends (and art buddies) yesterday....and we were glad we caught the Lloyd Rees: Life and Light exhibition....on at QAG gallery 14 from 12th March to the 13th June, 2011.

Lloyd Rees/Exterior of St Brigids Church, Red Hill 1916

There is nothing like making a time leap via experiencing the immediacy of an artist's sketchbook drawings, especially one of the calibre of Lloyd Rees. If you're looking for some inspiration to get you out there and warming up for the upcoming Sketchcrawl....take a quiet moment and go and explore these beautiful drawings.The sketch-book pages have aged and yellowed but the freshness and honesty in the mark-making and tonality of Lloyd Rees sketchbook drawings ( and studies for larger commissions) really communicate his immediate response to Brisbane circa 1914 and onwards. Trams, heavy horses, trees and the structures (and shadows) of buildings we know today....You can also see some of his sketchbooks on-line at this remarkable online collection from the archives of the Art Gallery of NSW. But I urge you to experience them in real life....it's like being there and looking over the artist's shoulder just after he has finished a quick sketch....
There are larger more developed works, where the artist's response to light is focal and to the point of his expressing a spiritual celebration of light. Seeing, experiencing these beautiful sketch-book drawings and feeling the gist of Rees purity of response, has taken my focus back to how I'll be responding to Brisbane on Sketchcrawl day: remembering Lloyd Rees' visual integrity and not just trying to create a pretty picture, but responding to my environment and letting my eye draw me into the lights and darks, the forms and volumes, the textures, lines and light of sprawling inner Brisbane.
.....my favourite sketch in this exhibition is no larger than the a third the size of my palm but in deft tone, it records the light falling on a conglomerate of recognisable buildings and foilage at the high part of Kangaroo Point......if anyone is interested in becoming a reasonable matte painter, go and see this modest little drawing and see how Llloyd Rees approaches recording a whole viewed environment.....go see it....it can communicate how an artist sees and draws better than any explanation I could make here.....

31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl Fundraiser for Japan! April 16th!

2011-03-24T02:39:00.000+10:00

Would you like to raise money for our brothers and sisters in Japan merely by setting your pencil to paper? Sketchcrawls have been used as fundraisers in the past...and now an update on the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl: Enrico Casarosa has announced that he would like to make it a fundraiser for Japan!

enrico wrote:This thought crystalized last night in my mind: we should make this World Wide SketchCrawl a benefit drawing marathon for Japan!
We HAVE to help our fellow artists and all our friends in Japan! They need our help.
We have raised money for a good cause before with SketchCrawl and it's time to do it again. It's time to come together and draw with a real meaningful and important reason!

Here's how it could work:
Each participant around the world will be responsible for raising a minimum of $100 in donations for his drawing marathon day ...
It would work very much like an AidsWalk, you'd look for sponsors to pledge a certain amount of funds for you to draw all day ...
We should get all donations pledged to ArtistsForJapan a trustworthy fund that works through GIVE2ASIA
http://give2asia.org/artistshelp

With hundreds of SketchCrawlers around the globe we could end up with a significant donation and on top of that we'll let our Japanese friends, brothers and sisters know how much they are in our minds and our hearts.

World Wide SketchCrawl 31 - Japan earthquake & tsunami Emergency Benefit

What do ya all say?

Enrico

He is suggesting that we do it like a sketchathon, and get our friends and family to pledge an amount for the amount of time that you draw. He is thinking it would be great if each Sketchcrawler could raise a minimum of $100 dollars....think of it like this: If you can get, say 10 of your friends and family to pledge $2 an hour for every hour that you draw......and you draw for five hours....remember...it is a drawing marathon......there's a hundred, easy! Better still get ten people to donate $10 upfront for this worthy cause, donate and then just turn up on the 16th of April at the designated point and draw, draw draw!

Gustavo, (http://www.imageswithin.com/ )an officiater on the Sketchcrawl site, advises in the forum that American Sketchcrawlers can donate through the Artists Help Japan site set up by Dice Tsutsumi the co-creator of Sketchcrawl.    Sketchcrawlers, like us, outside of the US should donate through the already set up outlets like those listed in the faqs on the above site:

     International Rescue Committee
   Direct Relief International
   Save the Children

Explore the Artists Help Japan site and the above NPO's to give yourself an idea and an inspiration for where your money and efforts will be headed.
This is exciting news, because what could be a better way to support Japan, drawing with a great purpose with friends in the Southbank precinct (or elsewhere). Southbank is still the choice of location so far.

I'm hopefully setting up a downloadable PDF with (hopefully) the Sketchcrawl logo on it, as it is a registered not for profit organisation and it will include the organisation we will choose to make a pledge to.
There are now lots of positive responses to the event and the ball is now rolling, so if you want to make this your event and participate in helping Japan in a very special way, get involved and sign up to the Sketchcrawl website and join the the conversation on the forum. I'll be posting exact times and meeting points as the event draws closer.
Look out for ongoing updates there and on this blog.
Here is another project that you may recognise that Dice Tsutsumi set up for the Artists Help Asia organisation The Totoro Forest Project to help Hayao Miyazaki protect the Sayama Forest on the outskirts of Tokyo. The forest is also called the Totoro Forest as it is the setting and inspiration for that feature.

Manuel Arenas, The Gruffalo and Yaxin the Faun

2011-03-23T14:46:00.000+10:00

I was wobbling on to Frank via email about the magic of Manuel Arenas' visual development/concept art and storyboards.....way back...when I had another blog malfunction (like last week) ......and poor Frank....was getting all these enthusiastic long emails about folk in the industry...... he said: blog...share....
Manuel Arenas is a Brussels born Spaniard who does a lot of freelance work in Europe.
See what I was enthusing about at Manuel Arenas' website Dodecaden which I've opened up at his production storyboards. Here are some of the movies that he's worked on such as The Gruffalo. Some of you may have seen his beautiful graphic novels about Yaxin the Faun .

So much great volumetric, perceptive drawing and wonderful design goes into his work....the drawing! The use of subtle colour, watercolour.....a lot to learn from this master.....and I have to say that his work makes unicorns appealing again.....this is a great example to me of someone who is a master draftsman.......because he constructs the unicorn realistically yet it is still ethereal.....but beyond that....the layouts, storyboards and visual development really teach me a lot about staging, and colour and lighting.....and using space effectively....yes....a lot to learn here and so much to just enjoy. Here is some more of his artwork for The Gruffalo which was made at independent German animation company Studio Soi . Below is a trailer for Laura's Star the movie made by Rothkirch Cartoon Film, which were based on the books by author/illustrator Klaus Baumagart .

Anybody interested in any of my other postings about animations about stars and animation can read some of my old posts on the beautiful Margarita and the wonderful movie Nocturna and it's makers. And here's a link to my (crappy) rotoscope from first year with an angel creating the stars! It's certainly not in any league with the above work but it does talk about dreaming and creating.....good past-times for animators. Staring at the stars and dreamin' from the aerated comfort of the family trampoline used to be a popular summer night past-time in my childhood house full of six kids! Jump then gaze and dream......Something enchanting about stars or rather our wish for light and comfort and also a way to dream up and create change in our lives......

31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl Coming Up on April 16th, 2011!

2011-03-10T21:21:00.000+10:00

Hi Everybody!
Some of you (Brisbane folk) may have missed my e-mails to you all about the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl coming up on the 16th of April, 2011. I thought I'd start contacting people early so that we have a good chance of a lot of people going. The more the merrier for this fun quarterly event for sketchers, and the word is out to the good people who are already Sketchcrawl members, SBITters, Griffith folk, Animator's Alliance and many others. Ozanimate is kindly going to advertise the event.....but first....below is my e-mail info about Sketchcrawl for those that missed it.....So far Brisbane and Southbank have come up as good possible/suitable starting points.....

What is "Sketchcrawl" ?

Enrico Casarosa, currently a storyboard artist at Pixar, has just initiated the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl! to be held simultaneously, all over the world on Saturday 16th of April 2011 . Absolutely everybody is welcome to join this worldwide sketching event! People get outside and draw on that day from Iceland to Hobart, South Africa to San Francisco, Denmark to Chile! They draw in a group or by themselves....here's some more info on the Sketchcrawl events.

Are you interested in being part of creating a Brisbane/ Gold Coast group to draw together on the Saturday 16th of April, 2011? The events happen quarterly, so explore the Sketchcrawl official website and see all the amazing sketches from people worldwide. Sign up to Sketchcrawl and join me, Shello, on the forum and we'll all work out the best starting point and itinerary that suits everybody. All ages and skill-levels welcome! I've started the thread on the Sketchcrawl forum for the Brissy/Gold Coast area but I am only the instigator and would love anyone interested to collaborate on what all participants want! You can draw by yourself or in a group and groups can range from two to two hundred, doesn't matter, the point is to get out there and draw our time and place and be part of a great FREE event!

For the people who are reading this and who are not in the Brissy/Gold Coast or even Australia region, check out the Sketchcrawl forum and find the group nearest in your country or city, or you or just draw by yourself! In Australia here are established groups in Melbourne, Sydney, Darwin, etc or you could start your own! People don't just draw outside....they also draw in Museums or malls or zoos! The idea is to start at one point and draw your immediate surrounds....then "crawl" to a new view and off you go again....drawing and developing your perception and observational skills. And hanging out and working side by side with like-minded folk. You can start a forum thread and draw anywhere. Even if you are the only person drawing in your area that day, you are still part of a huge worldwide group and may even get more drawing done! You can draw for an hour or all day then share your work with other members by posting it on the forum! Forum members are positive in their comments,as this event is all about getting creatives out there and drawing regularly! It's something we do anyway, but it's fun to to participate in a quarterly worldwide event!

I participated in the 30th Worldwide Sketchcrawl , by myself because of the Brisbane flood restrictions. I really enjoyed the challenge of Sketchcrawlin' and got a lot out of the experience. But this time I thought it would be great to put some effort in and rally everybody I know of to have a great day participating in this event. It's good to get the creative community communicating and supporting each other!

Everybody is welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People of all Professional or drawing skill-levels welcome! Join the Sketchcrawl forum and talk to me, and the other people on that that thread or contact somebody who has set up a link in your area and country! Work-out where and when to meet up and get out there and draw!

How to participate in Sketchcrawl.

And for the current Sbit Students, and anybody interested here's a great Enrico Casarosa interview on Storyboards from the worthy Animated Views Blog. From the same site is an interview on his involvement in
UP.

Some worldwide examples of sketchcrawl events!

Un Vie de Chat: A Cat in Paris!

2011-02-24T19:55:00.000+10:00

Like most cat owners, have you ever contemplated what your cats get up to....when they aren't sprawling languorously over your animation table.......
The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2011 is bringing animation fans " A Cat in Paris", " Un vie de Chat" to a cinema near you! And this 70 min long animated feature is a thriller about a companion cat, who is also a thief by night.... It's been made as far as I can make out as a co-production by Gebeka Films and it's directors are : Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. Here's the official site and it is a lovely example of how to promote your film via an official website. (All you intending Gobelinites can practice your French there too! or use Google translate although it's a bit odd when you do that! ) AAhhhh....I see, it is distributed locally by Gebeka and internationally by Films Distribution but it was created at Folimage Animation Studio, according to this Cartoon Brew article with Jaques Remy-Gireud as producer. Folimage is an important French animation studio and distributor as well and it looks like it's also also a place of training and residency opportunities for animators who have also produced an animation.
Frank will know this already, but it's exciting to see on this page that shorts of the artistic calibre of the Monk and the Fish, by Michael Dudok le Wit were produced at Folimage.
I'm thinkin' you've gotta get those distinctions right if your dreaming, even remotely, of eventually getting an animation distributed internationally.
Check out the longer review from Animation Insider on the Cartoon Brew article link.
For we lucky Brisbanites, it's showing at the Palace Cinemas, Centro and Barracks this March and dates and times are on the link on the title above.....Hand drawn 2D, it's a must-see for any of us contemplating career development stints at Gobelins! It looks pretty damn fine!!!! There's other great cinema showing......in the festivals lineup......it's all a bit too much for this Francophile........some beautiful productions to look forward to...the last French Cinema experience I had at the Palace was in January pre-floods, when my friend and I drooled (at Romain Duris) and laughed at the comedic talents of the very worthy and funny cast of The Heartbreaker. ( Don't miss the talents of that movie's supporting cast!) So that's what Johnny Depp"s wife Vannessa Paradis gets up to while he's working as voice talent on Rango!
Anyway, below is Jaques Remy-Gireud's beautiful : "Mia and Migoo"! I really like the look of it because it seems to have an audience of children in mind.

Inside Pixar's Studios.

2011-02-22T09:32:00.000+10:00

This is a great video from the New York Times, made by Melena Rizek, and it gives us a rare inside excursion into Pixar's Studios. (This link was posted by David Short on the DLF mailing list). I'm putting it up because besides being a very cool place for creative people to work, I really like the insights into, for example, how they will match an animator with a scene! I also like their micro-breakdowns of movement, with subtlety in their sights. Something to keep us all inspired and/or to learn from how a great working environment can be all part of the creative process, especially for these hard-working folk!

Tezuka's Buddha

2011-02-16T17:57:00.000+10:00

The above video and part 2 and 3 of this lecture series is about a fantastic new book I borrowed recently from my local library, and it is a must read (and have) for fans of Osamu Tezuka or ANY fans of animation or anime, or comics, manga or zines or graphic novels!
In fact the book: Osamu Tezuka, The God of Manga by Helen McCarthy (published by Abrams Comics, USA, 2009) could be summed up as a wonderfully clear example of how a story-teller is born amongst a distinct series of events which occur within a certain time and at a distinct place in a particular culture and history. Clearly written and laid out with wonderful reproductions of Tezuka's original comic covers and early and later works, it is a book that is accessible and is in the familiar format (to me and others who have an interest in Art History) of an artist biography. This means the content introduces you to the early, mid and later years of the life and works of the artist in their natural order. This format structures how a reader experiences the artist's life in the order that it fuels the artist's creativity, which is where an artist's language of visual symbols, the themes that recur in his/her work are born.
This is an important thing to remember that we are all products of time and place.....each of us is completely unique in that sense and once an artist, writer, animator realises this, they can start to retell stories in a truer more authentic way in line with their personal experiences and beliefs.We are all attracted to certain themes and stories.....the art is in retelling a story so it rings true for yourself first and foremost........
That's what artistic integrity is and it gives a beating heart to important work.
In this book there are many details that reveal this phenomenon of a distinct developing force of creativity and it creates for the reader a more comprehensive picture of the real man behind the tag "The God of Manga".
I recommended it for some deliciously inspiring and illuminating reading between animating! I was also lucky to find this excellent review by Jonathon Clements at schoolgirlmilkycrisis.com which is also the name of the collected edition of two decades of his, Jonathon Clements, critical writing on manga and anime.
What stood out for me in this book was the force of and persistence of Tezuka's productivity....which was ignited by early experiences of a combination of being a sickly, precocious and bullied child, but luckily, also originated from his being the product of a progressively thinking, wealthy and loving family who encouraged him to acquire his lifelong tools of intelligent thinking and self-expression. And drawing.....I think in his life-time he must have drawn five-times around the world!
But this book is also about the quality of Tezuka's mind and this biography illuminates how Tezuka's creativity was driven and fired up by his witnessing first-hand the fire bombings of war-torn Japan. It reveals how as a child and teenager witnessing human suffering at close range, it infused his work with a lifelong search for justice or rather it illuminated possible paths of mediation between warring parties.....revealing the complicated, never black and white, nature of personalities/characters/entities/people and creatures. This experience also developed his interest in reincarnation.....the original "Circle of Life" which is evident in works, both manga and anime, such as Kimba the White Lion, (Jungle Emporer Leo), Astro Boy, (Tetsuwan Atom), Metropolis, The Phoenix and his long format and episodical comic (what would later be called a graphic novel) :"Buddha".
And here is some exciting news:
Toei Animation with Warner brothers is releasing the movie-length animated "Buddha" in 2011! I found this link on the website Tezuka in English. They got it from Anime News Network
who reveal that this Toei made production is directed by Kozo Morishita. There's more in the article above.

I read the Tezuka serialized manga in 2009 as a first year animation student, (the volumes are in the SBIT library). Having grown up with Kimba and Astro as constant childhood heroes, this adult orientated work was a revelation to me about the depth of Tezuka's thinking and creative interests, although I was already starting to get the gist of his scientific and philososophical thinking by slowly working my way through a collection of early original Astro boy episodes. It's so different to experience these as an adult, when you can recognise philosophies and scientific influences, but the strong and simple appeal of the mediating character of Astro boy remains the same........
Reading Tezuka's Buddha blew me away, not the least with it's action and adventure but also with it's energy and pace and sex and violence and treasure troves of what I recognise now as Tezuka's alleviating slapstick humour! The energy of his line work and his staging, create a fluid experience while reading these works, that is cinematic. Helen McCarthy talks about this in the above book. What stands out in this work is the huge scope of teeming creation that is skilfully woven together into this retelling of the Buddha's life by Tezuka, enabling him to focus on and enrich us with new understandings of his favourite themes. It took a big mind to tackle and do justice to the story of Siddhartha Gautama! Don't be fooled "Buddha" is not a tale of peaceful enlightenment but is rather a story of reality, acceptance and suffering....and death and life....always surfacing....continuing......
This set of manga is riveting story-telling. I love the distinctive art style of Tezuka's action and adventure, his deft pen and minimal backgrounds, the humourous cameo appearances....this rounded plastic style is obviously missing in the above trailer, however I'm hoping Tezuka's lively writing (and the comics used as storyboards).....will prevail unscathed......I think it's best to judge AFTER seeing the above movie! Anyway it's looking pretty good!
I was really lucky to see Tezuka's Metropolis on the big screen in 2001. It was directed by Rintaro a contemporary of Tezuka's, and it's script was by Katsuhiro Otomo based on the original manga by Tezuka.
It's art style and deft story telling reflected all of these important influences. It will be interesting to experience the Buddha movie and to also understand it's various influences.

For Rosina who is reading this:

New Ghibli movie with Goro directing!

2011-02-08T13:57:00.000+10:00

Looks like Karigurashi-no Arietty (the Borrowers) has been put back to a (US) 2012 release date (... I guess that means even later for us!) although it was released in Japan in July 2010. But here's some great news from Ghiblicon (always great for Ghibli news) about a new planned Studio Ghibli production : Kokurico Zaka-Kara..... with Goro Miyazaki directing and Hayao doing the preplanning and the poster.....Seems like there's another wonderful heroine and lots of fantastic Ghibli ingredients.......the poster is beautiful!

Nice article and Video about Sketchcrawl

2011-02-05T16:43:00.000+10:00

Here is a nice article and video (found on the Sketchcrawl Forum) about the Sketchcrawl phenomenon and it's true value to participants and reason for being! How participating in it is such a positive thing and changes the way you see and coaxes you out of any sense that you are alone in getting out there and drawing, something that is essential for we junior animators to be doing! It's not about how "good" (or not) you think your sketching abilities are, it's about getting out there and experiencing your world via a pen or pencil....suddenly when you stop and focus....and forget about "making a picture" and you just draw....you get lost in seeing and drawing.....when you finally "see" your drawing ...you see yourself on paper articulating, responding to your immediate environment! I already "knew" this in head knowledge but I felt it in the intensity of trying to continually draw for long stretches...I also love what Mike Nguyen on his Rainplace blog said recently about personal observation giving our work a "unique texture": in his words.What we perceive and experience also enriches our inward world and from this merging of outer and internal worlds our creativity is born! And interestingly he is talking about how each individual perceives movement....For me his writing always unfurls something that was in danger of getting a bit crushed! As we get our heads around competing in the real world I think maintaining a strong sense of our personal creative identity from understanding our world through drawing and animating what we see and feel and live and hear and experience......helps balance the relentless quest for the huge improvement in technical skills that we also need to pursue to compete for jobs....Anyway....Just read it ....(and let yourself breathe/inspiration!)
He says it much more simply and beautifully!

30th Worldwide Sketchcrawl Marathon Results

2011-01-23T23:45:00.000+10:00

Saturday the 22nd of January was the 30th Worldwide Sketchcrawl Marathon! Sketchcrawl is the original idea of Enrico Casarosa , who has been in the animation industry for ten years and is currently a story artist at Pixar. The Worldwide Sketchcrawls happen four times a year and that means, apart from the time difference , you will be drawing on that day with people far apart as Greenland and South Africa, Malaysia and the UK, California and Australia. It's a great phenomenon to participate in . Joining is free, and you can draw alone or in an organised group.When the day and drawing is over, you post the results on the Sketchcrawl website. Anyone, who is a member, and who is wanting to organise group Sketchcrawls independently of the quarterly dates is asked to give credit to Enrico Casarosa (who originated and has trademarked the concept and name "Sketchcrawl") and to share the results for the benefit and enjoyment of the Sketchcrawl community. I'm guessing this is because, besides being his idea, this is moreso to create a hub of likeminded drawing loving folk who can all appreciate each others work and learn from and get inspired by each other's work. Instructions on how to join and how to post work can be found on the webpage, as well as the beautiful drawing results from people all over the world. So join up now and we can all organise a group on the forum for people in the Brisbane/ Gold Coast area for the next sheduled Sketchcrawl! Absolutely everybody is welcome and free to join independently, there's no "Boss", it's just an organic event discussed and organised democratically over the forum. So once the next one comes around look out for my name and we can all chuck in our ideas where we all want to start from and to work out a great itinieary.

I've wanted to join for about a year now and this year, I've committed myself to developing professionally, and to not hold myself back personally. Joining a drawing group like this means that even if I've left college, I'm linked to some more amazing inspirational folk! Below are my results for January 22nd's Worldwide Sketchcrawl Marathon! The results are good, bad and average respectively, but all of the drawings gave me quite an education once I knuckled down and got committed to seeing each one through! It WAS a bit of a marathon!

My main tools of trade for this Sketchcrawl......As it was so windy,
I mainly drew in the permanent sketchpens which I knew I would have to draw
rapidly with because they would bleed on the cartridge paper....
I wanted to commit to their heavy mark-making to stop being tentative!
I coloured the work later when I got home testing my new artist's watercolours,
another forced committment to keep myself on my toes......

...Warming up in navy pencil at the breakfast table: goal: drawing marathon,
focusing on drawing my environment that day....

.....putting runners on, on the front verandah...I spy my pink gardening clogs...

.....procrastinating at the front gate, I spy the neighbours Bananas.....
This was permanent marker and was (over) coloured on the spot and later.....

.......El Nino has sent a cool and fierce wind blowing the heat and clouds away
after the floods.....kite surfers and lots of people are enjoying the glorious sunshine.......
...and rabid wind......
These people were having an amazing time....they were moving so rapidly.
At this stage of the marathon I had actually got out of the gate, gone down the hill,
wanted to draw on the hill down to the sea but felt...
AWKWARD, (a feeling to ignore in future as I missed some exciting drawing opportunities)....

Pandanus and beyond two Norfolk Pines looking towards some beachside flats
.......so much effort that I had to eat half of my lunch early :D
This is at the Labrador, Broadwater and is the view directly behind the previous image.
I try to keep my eyes on my subject and struggle with getting visually lost!

....I get up and walk on hundreds of metres to a new part of the Broadwater
Parklands and I meet a little field of "relatively" young Pandanus palms
with hardly any trunks.......the wind is crazy but fresh.......

.....I move to a small point above rocks where I'm in the shade of the Coastal
She-oak with it's thin spiny leaves.....usually these have a magic whispering sound
if you sit under them, but as you can see by the kite surfer the wind is now
blasting.....this is quick and I lose..then hunt down my hat....
.....getting exhausted here......need a rest......

....So I walk another kilometre through the refurbished parklands, past surreal tents
full of up-market children's parties, mommies with bling, and past some normal families
mixed in enjoying the wading pools......tired of the wind and ready for a coffee , I head to
a shopping centre foodcourt where I can rest then draw and eat!
And these people above were there!

.....and so was this older gentlemen who'd bought a lamp.....

...And this amazing deciduous figtree is what makes this open air food court
smack bang in the middle of a shopping centre, truly amazing....
....this is only a third of this giant fig and it is surrounded by food outlets,
and I used to be a cleaner at this centre and I felt very privileged to be
sweeping up it's leaves.....it's flourishing under the labour of love of local expert
horticulturalists.....it's glorious and protected and I can't draw it all at once!

......there are ramps and escalators running into this food court......
My 1st coffee is finished and I'm visted by fellow tree-lovin' folk, including this joyful
little girl who plays on a ramp...then has to leave with her mum.......
these are rapidly moving food-court wildlives so I just jump in, draw and think later!

Second cup of coffee! I decide I'm in a pretty damn fine place without wind
and sun blasting me.......and concentrating hard means a second cup and
another wonky drawing ........the Japanese cafe makes a damn fine coffee!

Looking back into the shops past the Asian Grocery....is it the effect of leaning into the wind?
All my vertical lines today are on an angle.........I push on, but at this stage of the marathon
I'm not really appreciating getting too technical......

...and then the little girl in the ballerina dress is back....
as her grandma speaks loudly to her Mum behind me, she runs and stuffs leaves
into a grate in the low brick wall around the tree.....She runs around
so fast that I have to hold her image in my head and draw from that......

......My last drawing for the day.........
......I have had enough....I get up.....take back my cup...and see that the little girl...
who was throwing a bit of a tantrum a minute ago is now seated and engrossed
in drinking a proper granita style drink, strawberry to match her pink ballet dress
and sandals......She's just a beautiful child and her mum smiles at me.....
...I leave the gracious, hospitable tree who started it's life in the grounds of a now built-over kindergarten.
I'm tired but happy......thinking that it's a really beautiful life and today has reminded me that drawing
is such a great way to appreciate your surroundings as they happen about you.

That's my Sketchcrawl! I draw constantly anyway, but mostly when in my comfort zones, so this Sketchcrawl I had to find comfort in drawing steadily in less comfortable places. I had a great day...and I learnt that there is so much more right under my nose when I forget myself and just draw! Once I got into the constant flow and forced myself to act on snap descisions and just plunge in, I then just enjoyed the process of describing my immediate environment without too many attachments about the end result.......the more I drew yesterday and pushed on, and the more I was committed to filling a page or seeing a drawing through...the better I felt....and my eyes were already hungry to see more and saw much more.....each step I took or direction I looked presented drawing opportunities....so I'm thinking the Sketchcrawl marathon works as a sort of immersion in being acutely aware of details in your immediate surrounds.

I also feel like I became aware of how much detail I must overlook in a familiar place.....and how much i started to feel closer to humans I drew...felt, was reaching for a perception of them as another person.....I started...just...to really see them....As for capturing movement.....when I got home, bus, too tired...I coloured the drawings and I was surprised how this took me straight back and how much I remembered...so these drawings hold a map of some of the movements and are also triggers for remembering some of the movement I didn't record.....phew...so it was a good day...and I can really feel the value of working intensively like this..!!

Headless' Real Magic!

2010-12-28T22:31:00.000+10:00

I'm a monster from Headless Productions on Vimeo.
I saw this on Cartoon Brew today in my internet travels and it looks pretty amazing. There is also a great interview on Character Design blogspot which I found via the comments on Cartoon Brew's post...I've previously done a blogpost on Headless Studios if you want any more background info on Headless. Reading the comments on Cartoon Brew is also interesting to get a gist of how the community perceives and expresses their opinions on such work as the above......but before I go, I must say I've been taking a lot of inspiration from the links in Alonso's new post on Monotreme Dreams , the Ilusionario studios's work is really expressive and strong, and I've also learnt a lot from the Keith Lango link he makes in regards to harmony in animation. Reading this post, definitely defined some of what appeals to me in the Gobelins work....AND ...well this posts and links, offer some alternatives to the Big Studio Job Dream....Luckily for all of we students of animation , if you are feeling a little displaced at the moment or are feeling the need to set your head straight about the current industry climate and your place in it, get educated by spending some time exploring the links from this wonderful post from Alonso's lively mind , he's always considering angles and possibilities/questioning the status quo (Like that Ted Video!). I'm working my way through each link because there is a lot, but it's relevant if you need some educational thoughts on becoming an independently minded operator in the Animation business.The Mayerson links educate you on future industry developments and about the beauty of thinking small and independently. I haven't gone through all the Keith Lango links yet besides the ones on Harmony but Alonso's last link (scroll right down to the end of the post) is about real emotions creating the strongest engines for characterization and I think that illustrates Headless' exploration of character in the above teaser. I find this approach to an animation career , ie, being proactive and thinking outside the square appropriate and extremely attractive and adaptive. Thanks for the research and educational links , Alonso!

Gobelins!!! Keeping Us Inspired!

2010-12-20T04:51:00.000+10:00

Ever since I started perusing the ARC two years ago and saw inspiring works such as Oktapodi or this:

La ballade sauvage // Gobelins 2008 from Mysteropodes on Vimeo.
or this ....well, Gobelins' students have kept me inspired! Frank and I have had many a chat about the loveliness of Gobelins student productions, but unfortunately he could only use a little bit of his magic stack of Gobelin Summer School learning-notes, sadly because we just weren't up to that stage yet, but the inspiration sure filtered down! So hard to get in to this school but when people do, they are passionate and focused! It's also good to see 2D animators working in 3D, my belief exactly, an animator is an animator! It's all about understanding movement! Below: Garuda: the colours and movement/light take my breath away, and
Fenrir, below that, combines it's art and the art of movement so beautifully. It's good to see the evolution of the work.

Garuda from Andres Salaff on Vimeo.

Making of Fenrir - Oussama Bouacheria from Bouacheria Oussama on Vimeo.
I love the Ghibli reference and conversation combined with great movement in this: Troix Petit Points, below.

Below: I really like how this guy worked on this lovely 2D animation but can also animate 3D and that's a great model and goal for me!

Chachachat from Antoine Birot on Vimeo.
We may not all get to go to Gobelins, maybe Frank will, I hope so, but it's just as essential for me to have the bar set so high and to be able to study and understand how their Gobelins "Magic" is made! Gobelins is certainly a door to employability! Art plus employability beautifully combined! But you can always try and make some magic right where you are! I think that is the gold I get from Gobelins: How good animation CAN be, how it makes you feel and dream........

Antoine BIROT Showreel 2010 from Antoine Birot on Vimeo.

Dream of Working at Dreamworks or Overseas?

2010-11-29T12:40:00.000+10:00

Thanks to Alonso for posting up this great link below to Olivier Ladeuix blog, who in turn had posted another great link by Cameron Fielding , an animator At Dreamworks. If you read the Monotreme Dream Blog, it's linked to the ARC, you'll see that Alonso has introduced us before to Cameron Fielding's great animation. He's interesting because he's a Brit, self-taught, started in games there but made the big move to the US to follow his dream of animating in big Feature Animation company.
I know I have some vague notion that maybe..one-day...but ....if like me, you need a good pants kickin' wake up to reality sometimes well then:
You MUST read the post linked to Cameron Fielding's blog post below if you are interested in working for a US Feature Animation Company!
Now...
This is a short post, (for me!)(don't fall off your perch!) but I'm advising you : Go get a cup of coffee, with or without a Doublecoat Tim Tam, and settle down and read this amazing and very helpful post and LONG post here by Cameron Fielding about HIS journey from working at a UK Games company to being a full-time current employee at Dreamworks circa "How to Train Your Dragon! Loud Sarah, are you listening? Warning: It is a very long post, not many pictures(!), hence my coffee advice, but sit back, take your time and absorb the gold that this very accomplished self-taught animator is offering us! It's certainly a very grounding read and an eyeopener and offers plenty of leads on, and identification, of , possible hurdles that involve copious amounts of paperwork and gigantic intercontinental moves, away from family and friends and not just by himself but with his wife and children! But ultimately it leads to his success in getting a very well-deserved job at Dreamworks! Below is his fantastic showreel for us to enjoy, and yes you've seen the Turok work posted on Alonso's Monotreme Dreams blog. Just wonderful movement! Here is another great post on Cameron Fielding via Alonso, talking about Cameron Fielding's ILM experience.
Below is his 2009 showreel.

I think I'm going to use some of Cameron's great advice in my own career direction, and job searching, in the spirit of : Work hard, Improve and You won't know until you try!
For my own reference and in a very similar vein, I'm just adding this great 11 second Club forum blog post by Keith Lango that Frank found and emailed to us. At first it elucidates on Keith's experience of how much animator's in the US make but the last paragraph is another wonderful reality check, about how good you have to be, and how hard you have to work, to get into the US Feature Animation jobs. My greatest respect goes to these animators. It's like Ian Lacey said: "Don't do it for the money!" Good luck and good animating everyone and I'm certainly going to take Frank's advice and keep the joy in my animating! Thanks for that link Frank, been thinkin' on the same track!

Children's Animation and Animals!

2010-11-26T14:08:00.000+10:00

Continuing in the vein of the last post about Kid's Animation, I'm just quickly posting up three wonderful Kid's series that the ABC runs currently, and that intrigue me with their diversity of approaches. I think it's worth considering how different all of their art direction, and story treatments are. I've found all of these shows to be interesting and engaging. They all use animals in various ways to entertain and teach children, but they all approach the topics in different ways. They also use songs and music to great effect. Below, I mentioned 64 Zoo Lane , created and directed by An Vronbraut, and made by Millimages, who are a powerhouse of UK, and European Children's Entertainment. They are co-producers as well, and it looks like they worked on Skyland with 9 Stories! It's worth knowing all these companies if you intend to create for children, either working for one of these companies or even creating your own content!

Below is Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies a delicious mix of live action footage of wild animals combined with appealing cartoon animals. Yes, it works beautifully especially because it has the wonderful voice of Vanessa Williams playing Mama Mirabelle, (Her voiceover in this series is warm, kind and funny but yes, she does play the hilarious, stunning and evil Whilhemina Slater on Ugly Betty!)
I'm showing this American version, because this is the one we see here, although I've discovered it is actually made in the UK by King Rollo Films! David McKee created the character of King Rollo. As his illustration practice grew, the BBC asked him to create an animation of the appealing story about a naive young king, and that's how the company started! Awwww, King Rollo Films make "Humf" and "Maisie"! I was wondering! Humf has some really lovely movement! A nice intriguing little discovery! Both of these productions are winning awards and rightly so! Again, I see that there is so much consideration for the Series's audience. I'm understanding right now that all the wonderful magic is created by really considering and respecting your intended audience.
And below the beautiful Tinga Tinga Tales which I researched earlier on this blog. It's showing on the ABC now and it's art direction is really beautiful! Read my blog post here about the Tinga Tinga Tales unique and global coperative production.

Wow, watch this clip below to see how the instigator of this series, Claudia followed her interests and passions and help grow this production into a successful series that does justice to the beautiful work of the Tinga Tinga artists.

These are just 3 more wonderful series that have caught my attention.
To watch now on ABC i-view, and to check for screening times where i-view is not available:
                                   64 Zoo Lane
                                   Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies
                                   Tinga Tinga Tales

I'm finding that after coming up against some obstacles this year, this sort of research, be it via the internet or the couch, is particularly good for me professionally, as I said before, it's inspiring me to clearly define my work goals by following my nose as to what really appeals and works for me, the types of productions I love, and it keeps the joy of animating alive for me.

I've loved researching and writing this blog, which was originally a class task and a canny method devised by Frank to get us researching and thinking about animation. And sharing. I've wondered recently why everything has to be perceived as a competition in this society. There is such an anxiety over there not being enough to go around! I was going to keep all my delicious discoveries to myself because lately I've wanted to protect myself and I wondered about how much this blog sharing thing can get distorted.
But here's the funny thing: If your intention is to genuinely share and respect your audience then you have nothing to fear. Writing and researching is a joy. These blogs are like great conversations you can stumble upon and join in. The Internet is a wonderful resource but it too can be used destructively.
So, I'm rethinking my audience. And I'm really thinking about audience and about who I want to make work for. Why I want to tell stories. But here is what an expert says about thinking about your audience: I found this interesting info from Suzie Campbell on WAnimate's great website and it certainly addresses the dillemma of pushing some of your darker topics on the wrong audience, or rather finding your audience AND still getting jobs and contracts. She has some sage advice about promoting your work and getting into the Industry via exposure in festivals. But I think making a watchable animation that respects it's intended audience is ideal! This is the article that really got me thinking along this line....because I find the idea of animating for kids really appealing, mind you I don't think it's any easier! Perhaps harder. I loved Despicable Me's child-friendly ending. That's when I twigged who the movie was really for! Like Ponyo! Nice thought!
My next big job is to get a job! But it is extremely important to keep your animation joy and inspirational fires well-lit! Not so hard, when there is such lovely work, like the above, being made!

An Amazing Festival of Wibbly and Bouncing Balls!

2010-11-26T11:29:00.000+10:00

I pounced on this ex-library throwout at an Op Shop earlier this year!

I've been embedded on the couch at 8.06 AM each morning recently, now that my mum has recovered enough and is soldiering away, back at work for the last four weeks of the teaching year. I can afford a bit more of potato time, a little bit, (Still finishing stuff), especially at this time of the morning , (as bad and as good as it feels to watch her limp out the door) because that's when Wibbly Pig airs on ABC1! AND YOU MUST WATCH THIS EPISODE! Aired at 8.06 am on ABC1, Thursday 25th of November, 2010. It says this set of Series 1 is only up for 5 days so watch it now! (Please!)
The animator's involved had a wonderful time bouncing a very rubbery ball through the whole episode!!!!
Sounds Boring? It isn't!
Aww, Sarah M and Cassie3 (Frank's identi-code for our Third Year Last Year Cassie!) you must watch this Friday episode for today Friday 26th of November 2010, as you are both avid Dragon lovers! Wibbly finds a baby Dragon!

Wibbly Pig is based on the original series of books by author and Illustrator, Mick Inkpen,
Mick Inkpen (1952-) Biography - Personal, Addresses, Career, Honors Awards, Writings, Adaptations, Sidelights
My collected book above, is a 2006 edition and part of a series that were first published in 1995 by Hodder Childrens Books, London. If you take some time to read Nick Inkpen's biographical details, you'll be introduced to a wealth of enchanting award winning, child-friendly work. From those details given in the above biographical research, I can understand that the animation series respects and reflects Mick Inkpen's well-loved books. It's worth reading the above author details if you intend, like myself and other aspiring animators, to create work for children and want to respect and reflect that world and speak to your intended audience. This blog has been great for making me research topics relevant to my animating interests and goals. Or rather to consolidate my thoughts and start to define a direction for myself. Most Importantly Wibbly Pig reminds me how important the Principles of Animation are, how applying them makes this show so appealing and believeable. Below is some details of how much dedication, and life lived, hard work, timing and collaboration has gone into this lovely series. I also feel this series is a great example of work created for a particular audience.
Wibbly Pig is a co-production. The project was created by Wish Films in the UK, who worked with Canadian Animation Studio: 9 Story to create a series that the original author and millions of parents throughout Britain are very pleased with, because it truly embodies the art design, subject matter and spirit of the well-loved books. Read Wish Films production programme details of Wibbly Pig, on the above link, to learn more of the intentions of the makers of this collaborative effort.
Toronto based, 9 Story look like a great animation company who produce work as diverse as Wibbly Pig, Best Ed and Skyland, all carried by the ABC. I really like what 9 Story say about collaborations on their "about us" page! I think we sometimes mistake collaborative effort for being a very broad sort of vanilla "getting along with people" or even worse being "popular". To me it's distinctly about taking your examined and developed passion and interests to the right empathetic and equally coperative and creative entity, and collaborating to bring to life something as good as this animated series! Bringing the project to life and doing the creator's vision justice is paramount, above personalities, and great collaborations like this are all about the work! Wish Film initiated the project as they own the rights to developing the character of Wibbly Pig in this way, and importantly their company's policy is to respect their audience, so they make sure they hire educational advisors for these child-centred productions. Looks like this is company policy, as I see that award winning Animator, Illustrator and Author, An Vrombraut who created 64 Zoo Lane is creating a new series for Wish Films: "Dear Dragon" , about a little princess and her 700 year old, blue, bubble blowing Dragon best-friend! Click on her name above and check out the award winning "When I Grow Up I want to be a Tiger" and spot the monkey's from 64 Zoo Lane (Millimages) on her Youtube channel!

But more about Wibbly!

Oh, wow! In this animation series you should see the Wibbly Pig type of amazing, magical stories that are spun from a very (deceptively) simple series style: soft pencil and watercolour, with Wibbly, the appealing series protagonist interacting with his age appropriate/simple props against a mainly white but sometimes imagined background!
The animation is most enchanting and throughout this series the animators celebrate opportunities to reflect a child's love of movement and a child's experience of always being intensely in the here and now moment! In Wibbly's cause-and-effect style of exploring his immediate world, the animator's at 9 Story achieve subtlety AND hilarity! They've taken scenarios from the original books like "Wibbly makes a tent" and extended and explored and respected the spirit of the books! The characters have lovely children's voices and the appeal is in their innocence and in the attention to natural child-like behaviour in all of Wibbly's varied and distinctively identified friends! Various characters are differentiated by spots or size or in one case large ears, and adults are family members or close community members, who reflect modern Britain, ie one of Wibbly's helpful Aunts has a West Indian accent, (Trampoline episode, it's gorgeous!), in another episode, Grandpa comes to visit. These featured adults are silly and caring and funny, too, but sometimes help out enormously when things get too much or out of hand! It's a safe, warm world where children can explore and experience the everday familiar combined with experiencing Imagination used in a seamless way: as natural super-magical extensions of the place and happening's in Wibblies world. The bouncing ball episode above is a case in point!
But hey, just watch that episode above and see the magic!

The adventures of this little pig, is child friendly fair, (ABC 1 viewers, for three hours, at this time of day are targeted as preschool), but I marvel at the masterful way the series makers hold your attention, and include you the viewer, as you experience Wibbly's world which reflects a real child's micro-world of experiences. (Or should I call it a Macro-viewpoint?) Apparently this important sense of inclusion is intentional, I perceive, after reading Wibbly's programme details again, and comparing them with the Mick Inkpen biography and the accolades he has recieved for creating child-friendly and age appropriate work. So it isn't strange then, that as we, the adult viewer, percieve Wibbly in gentle natural action, we gain a new respect and understanding for the child's simple small world. If you can let your jaded adulthood go for at least 10 mins (the shows running time), if you can welcome feeling inluded (!), well, I'm reminded, as an adult watching this series, how important are all our early impressions and explorations. We matter at all stages of our lives. Childhood. This is when perception and imagination begins and this lovely series successfully fosters both of these. And it sure is a pleasant reminder and education for we adults, aspiring to be animators, that we must remember our audience, first and foremost. That's a theme that's been on my mind a lot lately.

Wibbly Pig from Yost Family on Vimeo.

Preston Blair Based Warm up Jump for an Eap Leap!

2010-11-26T10:02:00.000+10:00

Modified Preston Blair Jump from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.
Just a warm up exercise I did to work out the mechanics and physics of a leap and a jump from an expert! Preston Blair. The figure in the foreground is the straight out cartoony jump, as Preston Blair intended, and the figure behind is a modified version where I've drawn in more frames between the keys and breakdowns, because I needed to find out how that would alter the movement besides slowing it down. All on twos so more variation is possible of course. I seem to need to do this to work out the best results. And it takes away the fear of having to get it right the first time! And it gives me an understanding of possible models in my mind to play with and vary in future. I ended up deciding on using a more of the Richard Williams type of leap, I'll post that exercise up later. And working from that I still had to modify and vary. But I like the joy and bounce in this exercise!
Posting this up to display some of my more less ponderous, unpotato like qualities, and because I'm thinking about how I tend to work and how I can either work with how I do things now, or modify my working habits, so that I'll eventually be able to pull it all together to function in the animation workplace and be paid to meet deadlines AND be creative, well at least to know my animation principles upside down and backwards!

Simon''s Cat....and subtext?

2010-11-14T10:13:00.000+10:00

Heh, heh, Simon Tofield at Tandem Films, again, is supreme master of the beauty of observation and simplicity! You'll only get the subtext, (if there is any) if you are a hedgehog! (There is no subtext if you are a cat). Eh!schrummmble..eh..beh...rumble...Meh!

Kung-Fu Panda 2, Cee Lo Green and Jack Black

2010-11-12T15:16:00.000+10:00

Yeah-heah!!! Two amazingly talented and hot guys, Jack Black and Cee lo Green! The Panda is back!

Cee lo Green's voice is pitch perfect and blows you away! I love the joy in the dancers movements. Cee lo Green , who with Danger Mouse, (Brian Burton) are Gnarls Barkley, have used a lot of animation in their collaborative music clips. Remember "Crazy" and it's awesome Rorscharch ink blots? Danger Mouse produced Gorillaz second 2005 album, Demon Days. This Video below is different again, truly awesome and positive and really powerful because it's got heart and honesty. And great movement.

Check out this collaborative short below. You know folks, you can feel pain but be funny and ironic too!

This last new song off Cee lo's new album Lady Killer is probably going to become an anthem, if it isn't already. I love how the indignance and pride of the young kid at the beginning is captured in his quick hand movement. You love it because, even though he's visisbly a chubby kid, he's allowed his dignity of expression. Nice genius touch. We know what it's like to be that kid and not be taken seriously. Watch it and FFFeel the healing joy! Oh yeah, and this ones for you, baby. He says it better than I can!

Sylvain Chomet and the Illusionist

2010-11-03T16:20:00.000+10:00

A few people in my class including Sarah M and Will, as well as myself and Frank, are really looking forward to this feature. Some more background on The Illusionist: it's always a plus to have some understanding about an animation's origins. (from the illustrious wikipedia!) Below Sylvain Chomet talks about animation. Great how he defines his characters softly first! I found this on Sam Taylor's Vimeo posts.
Phew can't wait! Any professing animator worth their love of animation should also experience The Triplettes of Belleville also created by Sylvain Chomet! They play it every year on SBS just before the Tour de France!
Third time round and after some more animation learning you are even more enchanted and struck by Chomet's brilliance in story and characterization through character design and character's movements. In the scary (to some) SBIT Library.

Sylvain Chomet talks about animation from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.
Some interviews with Sylvain Chomet : about finding 2d animators.
Here's some info on Jaques Tati and another great Chomet work below!

See what I was raving about, Jon?
Aaaah, animating and blogging keeps me sane and happy! Glad you made us blog Frank!

Check out Animation Mentor's Job Satisfaction Survey!

2010-11-03T13:29:00.000+10:00

Here's something encouraging to keep all the future animator's in our course working and dreaming. It's a survey by Animation Mentor on job satisfaction and you can download it for free, and examine it's content but don't get too excited by pay-rates etc, remember it's about job satisfaction and only constantly improving will get you there. It's your responsibilty and hard work and facing yourself in the right direction that are going to land you or any of us Dream jobs! But it's so great to read about job satisfaction! I also think it's worth thinking about, examining and questioning any info you get. I want to know where the other 28% of people are working....but first I'm sweating just finishing my course-work after looking after my very ill Mum for weeks! She's well thanks, alive and well! And as Sarah said about herself on her blog, I'm alive and well too! Thanks to my teachers for caring and asking, and to Sarah M and Cassie from third year last year for contacting me! Thanks for your encouraging comment Katie D. Hi Sam! I've actually had the mental space to consolidate my direction... so what seemed a misfortune in having to take time off from college has proved really great mentally for me and your advice on what my real goal should be, Frank , (My teacher) has stuck in my head like a simple clear path! I didn't understand it at first but know I fully comprehend it's importance to me!
Thanks again Frank, it's a simple worthy goal! If you want to know what Frank said ask him for yourself!!!!!! For Yourself!

Gnomes and Gnomons!

2010-10-03T23:55:00.000+10:00

Aaah yes, Gnomeo and Juliet! I've been waiting to see what this looks like. It's from Starz Animation, Toronto, Canada and is directed by Kelly Asbury who directed Shrek 2. Here's an AWN news release on Starz and it's newly reshaped company. Voices include James MacAvoy (Mr Tumnus!), Emily Blunt (Young Victoria, The Devil Wears Prada) and Michael Caine, amongst others. I was hoping they'd go for the foresty fairytale angle, ( does anyone remember "David the Gnome"? My brother's girlfriend does! I have it on Video, caught in a $2 opshop trawl!) (It's sweet and innocent and homely and the character designs are based on the famous illustrations of Gnomes by the wonderful Dutch illustrator Rien Poortvliet who was co-writer with Wil Hugyen on the book). He was also a writer on the animation series. Gnomes of this sort are nature spirits. There is a nice table on this wiki page that lists gnome-like equivalent from different countries.
This feature however, is about Garden Gnomes and comes from an nice interesting angle for all lovers of kitscsh and/or opshopian archaeology, and I get that these garden version gnomes gave the creators lots of opportunities for garden gnome gags, so it's great that they've stuck with a recognisable sweet and old fashioned dollop of character design mixed up with some modern forms and eyeshapes.
It must have been difficult moving the squat characters and maintaining that statue-like look while going for some plasticity. Elton John gnome is a ripper! David Furnish, civil partner of Elton John is the features' producer and Elton John has created and performed songs for the score. Oh yes and the story is by Shakespeare!:D
Starz Animation is another possible employer for we junior animators, so here's a link to their career page:
Starz Animation Careers. You have to register your name but that means you'll stay in the loop.

Awww, David the Gnome below! For Tal and David, Chris and Rose!

More Gnomes! Here's a " Gnomes and Trolls-The Secret Chamber" trailer below which I've just discovered in my research made by Swedish Company : Forestlight This is the first movie released in 2008 and there is a second movie coming: "Gnomes and Trolls: The Forest Trial" due for release in 2010.

You know what a gnome may be but do you know what a gnomon is? Technically speaking it's the upright triangle that casts the shadow on the sundial, letting you know the time of day. But the gnomon has a grand and classical origin. (Check link)! And more! It's origin is Greek and means "Indicator", "One who discerns" "That which reveals"! That's an interesting word for we second years looking for signposts and direction as to the next wobbly yet determined step in our careers!
I thought it was also an appropriate thing for we junior animators to ponder that in that wiki post James Joyce used the word to describe an aesthetic process where a whole character is revealed by a part/one indicator! At first I thought this meant great characterization through a movement or utterance made by the character. (You know, telling a tale with economy and grace which as I've been reading is the key to good visual story telling). But as Joyce was an observer of mankind, and despised wholesale judgements and enforced dogma, he was an observer therefore of the very best kind and caused readers to reflect on their own predjudices by paralysing their judgement of a represented character via not revealing all, or only a part. Because the representation is merely a vignette, the whole summation of the character by the reader remains elusive, fluid/ungraspable. As in real life, his characters can only be partly deciphered by the hint and clues he reveals. I'm thinking this gives the sense of a further existing world that they have stepped out of for a short moment. So a gnomon in this sense directs our thoughts but gives us full responsibility over our judgements. Very respectful of an audience! Think of Miyazaki's despising of uncomplex unrealstic villians, he not being willing to take a one-dimensional easy path when creating his characters. It's important that children are shown this as an alternative to linear narcissistic perceptions where it's safe and easy to see other people in one dimension. Great animation for children, like good literature encourages a child to think in more complex terms, to offer insights into thinking wholistically about a situation that may feel threatening. It gives a child tools. And there's mystery in the slow reveal, I like this gnomon concept, it lures a reader into a story, we are given clues but we question our evaluations, then we have to let go control a little and learn to trust ourselves through following of the clues given by the signposts/gnomons within character's actions/speech. Think of Snape in Harry Potter!
I've learnt over these last two years that an animated character, especially one that will hold our attention for a feature's length, must have more complexity, more internal conflict to make it interesting, and to make it's motivation clear to the audience through it's depicted movements . (Mary and Max!) And like James Joyces' characters, perhaps our characters have a complex life of their own in the end.....but to get this good at depicting what a character is thinking so that it reveals story and leads us on, we have to be observers and learners and not make snap judgements about the real people we observe around us. Our animations will never be any good, never have any heart, if our own perceptions of other people are safely one dimensional because we want to confine their scary differences into a box that may be labelled "Villian"or "different than me". How can we tell other peoples stories if we only care about own narrow existence? How do we bottle all that complexity into one economical movement and give the audience a sniff of the stories direction, while still retaining some allure, some mystery, and pace our story with delicious anticipation and alternatively surprise reveals! It's beyond my skills at the moment, but it is something that I will think about.
So, character complexity creates Appeal one of the important 13 Animation Principles. Frank and Ollie have got a lot to keep reminding us about Animating what a character is thinking. I'm reminding myself again! Frank and Ollie are important gnomons for me! They make me feel calm, like I'm inheriting something precious and good.
There are heaps of good leads on character acting on the ARC!
I was pondering the word gnomon because some of us will have to chase the dollar again to survive next year, while juggling the ongoing development of our skills and portfolios and applying for various jobs that we may not yet have the full skillsets for but as our Frank says, at least we can try! I love this guest blog post by Mark Pulleybank about how to get your first animation job. It is on the Animation Tips and Tricks site. Thanks for the link, DLF and ARC.

And just because it's on my mind I thought I'd put a link here to the Fabulous Gnomon School where you can learn a lot of 3D aspects online, by buying videos, or just by taking some of their free tutorials. I originally discovered this from the ARC's fabulous listings. Remember some of these are additional skills that will enhance your employability besides character animation. We are pretty lucky to have so much available to us as online resources!
And if youv'e stayed with me this far there is one thing more.....in writing this it has occurred to me that there is another sort of gnomon/signpost who is NOT a gnome but is a Boddhisattva and a protector of children, yet deals with all the earthly things like fertility and childbirth, and stillborn souls. That is Japan's beloved Jizo who you see as a stone marker in Spirited Away. Amongst other things, he protects souls in transition, hence his appearance outside of the abandoned Fun Park, once a place for children. He is small and roundfaced and squat, marks gardens, fields and cemetries and is made hats and capes (often in purifying red (fire)) by those paying their respects and asking for intercession. He is both a Shinto and a Buddhist entity. He's a gnomon in the movie and is ambiguously eerie although his round shape and heavy material makes him permanent and comforting. I was wondering who he was, why he was there.....

No Pets Allowed by Josep Pozo

2010-09-09T02:39:00.000+10:00

NO PETS ALLOWED (Animation feature film) from Josep Pozo on Vimeo.

More Spanish goodness! There is a really pleasing colour and light in this clip and the character designs are really interesting, exaggerated, but when you see those monsters you can then see that the human characters need to be pronounced in features to be visible against all that hair and bulk! This feature is directed and produced by Josep Pozo from Six Birds in conjunction with the wonderful Barcelona based Headless Studios.
I made a big research post on Headless (Check out this link for further links and info on Headless and Six Birds) a while back after I saw their astoundingly good Demoreel on the Monotreme Dreams blog and realised they were the makers of "Nocturna".

Margarita revisited...a hybrid between European and American Styles

2010-09-09T01:12:00.000+10:00

I first saw this beautiful animation, "Margarita" by Hampa Studios on Alonso's Monotreme Dreams blog months ago, then Frank put it up on the ARC and I felt all the enchantment of this 2D animation, as it is gentle, beautiful, unafraid to have a heart. It was unplayable from Alonso's blog for the last few months but the company has now updated it and they have a new ipod/app friendly embed code. Something for us students to think about when it comes to considering multi-platform delivery of our future work.
I'm embedding the making of the animation and the animation itself, here for my own inspiration and enjoyment and also for the rest of the animation fans in my rather extended family and for my art-loving friends!
According to director, Alex Cervantes, the goal of this short animations creators at Hampa Studios, Valencia, Spain was to aim for something new, a hybrid of styles between European and American imagery. I think by this company's intuitively tuning into the age group aimed at by their inspiration, which was a children's book based on Ruben Dario's poem , (one of the key animator's favourite children's books!) they've accomplished a timeless tale. I love how it's full of fairytale archetypes and motifs: the royalty, the star to be reached, the ocean, pirates, the distant craggy mountain.....the innocent brave child! It inspires me to tune into their worthy goal of creating some beauty in the world and to always keep your audience in mind! Lovely 2D animation! What it's all about. The making off video is especially enchanting as you can view how they , Hampa Studios, as a group, often intuit and go by feel in their descisions! They mention the outstanding background artist Miki Montllo, and even if you can't read Spanish you can benefit from his outstanding lifedrawings and the comprehensive breakdowns of his beautiful background art work on his blog and here at Animationbackgrounds blogspot.

MARGARITA (MAKING OF) from HAMPA STUDIO on Vimeo.

MARGARITA from HAMPA STUDIO on Vimeo.

Here's their Demoreel showing a lot of their TV series work.

HAMPA STUDIO - Demo Reel from HAMPA STUDIO on Vimeo.

What it's all about!

2010-09-04T22:48:00.000+10:00

So good!!!!In March, Alonso on his Monotreme Dreams blog posted a link to this CM featuring Konyara, a kitten, directed by Miyazaki Goro and animated by Kondou Katsuya at Studio Ghibli . I couldn't get the link to play but I was really happy to to find it on Youtube tonight. It's a commercial that celebrates the 108th anniversary of Nisshin. Nisshin Seifun Group are co-sponsors of Studio Ghibli's overseas distribution label. Lovely 3d form captured in a calligraphic style.
Frank challenged me about this animation and this spacing and it got me to think about this animation more so I've reproduced my comment here about how I read this ad.. I was suprised at how much I could detect of the creators motives... do you agree/ disagree with my assessment? It's my observation and Frank made me really analyze the spacing of the animation. Frank is right: we can't just consume Studio Ghibli as comfort food, their art really deserves thinking about. Below are my thoughts reproduced. What do you think?
My comment:
I'm looking at it again and this is what I see: I think the spacing is controlled by firstly the Jingle beat ie: the keys and extremes hit inbetween the beat so that there is a counterpoint/ ballet of sleepy kitten graceful movement in between the cheerful beats.This illustrates the inherent cat-nature of grace, langour and spontaneity. The dreamy quality of a sleepy kitten who inhabits that other mysterious cat-world is achieved by overlapping and holding frames so two appear at once to the eye and this gives a weird dreamy quality of timelessness which contrasts so nicely with the chirpy song!

We know the kitten must have been playing madly and tired itself out but even awakened by a wandering butterfly, it's kitten nature reacts instinctively! I feel that the animator wanted to convey a feeling of an animal always in motion, kitten-like , represented by it's spontaneous and uncalculating movement. I feel this was the other important reason that the animator chose this dreamy spacing, as I said it counterbalances the jingle. I like the uncontainable nature of a cat as it is shown jumping out of the frame! I think therefore this could teach me a bit about spacing keys AROUND, not just ON a musical beat in my music clip, something I was thinking about!

It has most probably been designed from quite a few pieces of observation, so I tend to think that it has been planned by feel but key to key, as per normal and then once the keys are balanced naturally within the rhythm of the song, only then was the timing, the breakdowns worked out with some straight ahead animating where necessary. I think it looks deceptively simple and appealing but it is complex in it's planning. I think it's a case of the animation talking about the inherent nature of things sort of a constancy or a perpetuity of things ie: There will always be a kitten discovering the world even as sleep entices, the kitten may inhabit a small corner of the world, but it is a life and it has a constancy and a particular rhythm all of it's own! Hence the kitten moments are as I said, snapshotted? captured within the song beats. I'm trying to explain the whole appeal/feel of it for me, simple and childlike but in a natural way. Very Studio Ghibli as you know!And as it looks like Studio Ghibli's cat who appears in "The Cat Returns" and "Whisper of the Heart" therefore it's a kind of motif for Ghibli, who are the kind of folk who love to have cat's around as you know and know what I mean! And the kitten also represents children; who are the heart of Studio Ghibli's ethos. It's not just an overly cute kitten, it's very Ponyo-like and unconscious of it's cuteness even under the swamping hat! The drawing style and texture also speaks of the Nisshin company's celebrated 108 years of perpetual existence! So the style celebrates both the companies time of origin but also reminds us that Ghibli retains and celebrates a commitment to quality hand-drawn 2D animation/images as well! Phew! Thanks for the challenge, that's my assessment. I'm not a an anime fan blinded by "cuteness"! They are saying real babies, natural movement and personality in children and kittens are appealing because of their inherent nature!

And thinking about and observing the personality and nature of a character and representing it and collating it into an animated movement that tells the viewer important things about the character and his/her role in the story is what we hope to do and what Studio Ghibli does so well!

My animals remind me to live in the moment and breathe!

Thanks Frank, that made me think a bit more about why I really like this animation!

Animation Inspiration from Thursday!

2010-08-19T12:52:00.000+10:00

Jane and Sarah and Sam and I were talking about these different styles of animations. Inspiring stop-mo! below is a great Music video from Katy Davis who is an award winning British graphic designer and animator who I discovered via being a member of the the DLF. She has a lovely personalised web site called Gobblynne and is a great example of someone who uses After Effects well, and as an animating tool. Her "Naive" style has created a unique niche for herself that is in demand and she's done such a wonderful job of conveying the whimsical storybook style of the music clip below which reflects the intimacy of Bim's vocal's. As Sarah observed yesterday the clip uses "intrigue", the surprise that you wait for when each page is turned! Katy's style is original and experimental, of course with her flair for colour and mood and narrative and on-purpose child-like/innocent quality of it's drawings but it also reflects a wonderful trend in paper stop-mo animation that has emerged again and can be seen when you explore great sites like Vimeo. Paper produces a wonderful feeling of both play and fragility which you can see in Katy's lovely work below.

Jane, our teacher was brainstorming and discussing animated resume's while we watched this great "Yellow Sticky Notes" animation by Jeff Chiba Stearns whose studio is called " Meditating Bunny". Jeff, another award winning animator, grew up experiencing conflict and exclusion because of the "mixed race" label of his European/Japanese/Canadian part of his heritage, something which has helped form his topic/ interests when creating his award winning narratives and is reflected in his animation style.
You must have seen his viral and amazing animation before and it especially packs a punch emotionally because the paper post it notes seem so homely and personal, (as does the bunny image) but it adresses a painful topic amidst all the fun! (spoiler) just watch it! I'm sure I've seen this clip before via Frank's, the ARC or Monotreme Dreams blog but I can't seem to find it because in web time it came out quite a while ago. I'll keep searching. I personally can't stand it when people don't share their sources (within reason) and I find it unprofessional and mean and rude. Then again it's going to be hard for such lazy people to adapt to the pedantic accredititation that they will have to do when they research at Uni level. No room for plagiarism of peoples class talks or blog posts there! Crediting your sources honestly is a good way of developing a good sense of attention to detail, a key characteristic of good animators.

Also, here's a great stop-mo made from books and paper made by British APT studios, I found it trawling on Vimeo, and am showing it here because I was talking to Sarah abut trends in stop-mo and paper that I've seen recently on Vimeo.

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

And just as a reminder for myself and any other student, of what's really important at our stage of learning, before we get all caught up in the exterior outward look of our animation here's a link and some salt and pepper to add to this blog post: Ian Lacey's great post: "The rules are the Friggin' Rules". !!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's great medicine for me because my first animation badly flopped between experimental and commercial achieving neither. I learnt a lot but I needed to learn more! Does the look and style of your work help the narrative flow, does it add to the narrative? Important to keep all of these things in mind! Don't mistake a naive or limited animation style for an excuse for you as student not to learn your animation principles and theories! These people I'm showing here have earnt their stripes and found their niches. There work contains experimentation. We should all try to find our own styles, eventually, but we should make sure, like Ian say,'s that we can then CHOOSE to break the rules.

My Asics make me feel like I can walk strong and tall!

2010-08-19T11:22:00.000+10:00

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

We are looking at logos and branding in Jane's class today and this is one brand that I love, although I'm definitely not a brand buying or loving person. But my Asics make me stand tall and walk in long comfortable strides. This is an award winning animation by Mabona Origami and contains not only a story about feet and walking, but reflects on creative influences and processes when designing, in this case: running shoes. It's a kind of timely thing that I discovered this video by chance this morning by trawling on vimeo because it contains both walk and run cycles. In Origami! The stopmo and limited colour scheme are also beautiful and effective in conveying the simplicity of an idea born of humble beginnings that then grows and flourishes into a positive worldwide company. (Nice analogy between company growth and winning the Olympics (in Asics of course!) Have a look at the beautiful Mabona Origami website.

Horse Trot

2010-08-16T15:29:00.000+10:00

This is the horse trot cycle that I will be using for the movement in my music video. It's based on a Muybridge study of a horse trotingt which I found in Preston Blair's "Cartoon Animation". I'm joining these movements together to form a simple narrative. The bone construction of the horse is also from the same book by Preston Blair.

Wonderful Gypsy Horse Reference.

2010-08-12T10:06:00.000+10:00

horses from James Wright on Vimeo.

My brother's girlfriend, Tal loves Friesians, so she will love this Gypsy Horse reference which will help me with the bucking scenes in my music clip. These horses have such a sturdy and rounded conformation. I know the Friesian horse was bred to carry knights and their armour. The manes and tails are an animator's dream on these Gypsy horses. So much personality coming through in their movements! These are Fairytale horses, they must be a passion of their owners and a labour of love.

Walk Cycle : Reference, Roto-reference then Animation !

2010-08-12T00:28:00.000+10:00

Thankyou Frank for this awesome teaching exercise! I have so much respect for Frank's teaching because he is giving us such valuable structure to methodically deal with the walk cycle in our animations.... In a nice switch in methods I'll therefore be going from digital video capture to tying down stage back to pencil, which is how my animation is being made. I can identify the real-life animating applications in this process ie. the time saving applications. As you'll see this isn't rotoscoping, although you take four frames out of your video reference; contact, passing, up and down , then you create the Flash sequence as a guide.

Contact, Pass, down , up rotoscope guide. from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

That's why it's so rapid, even though my initial actual real life walking was very slow. A lot of learning came in understanding via Frank that you can only treat a walk generically so far. You read these things, you know these things but it always sinks in best/is reinforced mainly in the doing process of animating. To start defining my story through my character's walk, I then redrew the whole figure, bar the feet, using them as markers.

Combo of two drawings to show the differences/exaggeration from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Here's it is without the guide so you can see the result of this process more clearly:

Contact, down, passing and up positions animated. from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

It was worth ploughing slowly through the day on stony soil with a slow and ancient mule (Whatha?) and staying until five etc because I then got to work on the actual spacing of the poses in Flash when Frank directed me to import the sound as a guide. Gaining this extra insight, to me meant my day was really a worthwhile one.

The four animated key frames timed to the soundtrack. from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Next step is tying down on paper.....and yes that means redrawing those poses again but in character this time. I look forward to that because it's another challenge in using this method to best effect. I swear these methodical processes restructure my brain (for the better!). Like listening to great music.

Reset, Contrasts and Wong Kar Wei

2010-08-12T00:09:00.000+10:00

reset from szymon kabala on Vimeo.

I love the wonderful use of colour in this stop -mo and the editing and strobing that emphasises the animations story peak (spoiler) where the character is emphasized amongst the flashing images. It's such a wonderful student animation and the body movement in the puppet is pleasing. The repetition actually pleases me in this animation's context. Because I'm on a "Borrower" bender it's also so appealing that the little engineer appears to be so tiny yet outside of time and yet so creative and able to regenerate so much. A tiny God? Yes God is in the details! So much great use of contrasts (light, sound, colour, concepts of extremes in size, and in the passing of time, technology/nature) wow, and such a wholistic use of the whole medium of film: lighting, sound, staging, narrative rhythms, editing etc. That appealing little character draws us into some deep philosophy. This is an amazing student animation!
Which leads me to this music video from from Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wei's 2000 movie "In the Mood for Love". I was talking to Frank about this director's intense use of colour and his hypnotic use of staging, yes hypnotic staging because he uses it to the point of genius in the Movie below "In the Mood for Love". This movie works upon your senses and sensibilities simultaneously, elevating your movie watching experience to a complete submergence into the films rhythmically paced narrative where he artfully entwines the existences of the two leads, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, who play a man and his neighbour who discover that their separate spouses are actually having an affair with the other. This clip is long but it won't spoil the movie because you have to submerge yourself in the whole movie, an heightened experience in itself. The score is to die for.

As we are doing walks, I'm thinking about spacing and pacing within a narrative and these clips, which I'm talking about here (the animation above included) are making me think on these things. So I couldn't help but remember this awesome movie that operates at a measured pace so purposefully, I think, like a heartbeat. Or maybe that rhythm is also suggested by the staging where the camera places the viewer's vision as though they were someone always walking by, or catching a glimpse in the street through curtains, around corners, these receding images are ongoing throughout the movie. The viewer becomes part of the dance. Besides capturing a different era, (Hong Kong in the 1960's) the movie has a surreal quality, a kind of dreamy suspension of time that captures both the torpidity of the stranded spouses and their growing attraction which conflicts with their resistance they feel towards emulating their spouses. Tension is created with the saturated (to the point of eroticism) colour schemes, which when coupled with the subtle and restrained acting from the two leads (both beautifully groomed and stunningly attractive) makes this winding journey of a movie like unwrapping an amazing present. And talk about lighting... and the director's use of deep shadows. You can also see the director's desire to use colour tonally and as a showcase for the restrained emotions of these two amazing actors. The artful stylization of the characters movements speak mesmorisingly of the restraint that they feel.
These contrasts, the wonderful pacing of the story beats that entwine with the submerged, coiffed sexual tension between the leads, their growing friendship, and their adherence to their routines and spousal loyalties, seduces the audience with again, contrasting art and carefully observed honesty in detail. It's all about that very heightened awarenesses of that other and from colour, light, sound and pacing, to the cinematography of Chris Doyle, Wong Kar Wei strikes such fine tuned balances in these contrasts. This film looks/sounds beautiful (lushness amongst the urban and humdrum everyday) yet it's leads portray a touching reserve and nobility, and ...love, where what could have been a revengeful brief aquaintance is elevated by restraint and respect and it in turn becomes something that is slowly recognised to be deeper and thereby eventually enduring. It's Wong Kar Wei's hands this portrayal of love is like an orchestration not just a narrative. The plot is simple but the twist in the tale is the cruel conflict that the characters endure with both a grace yet a combustible hopelessness. Their love grows in a precarious world.This is the powerful heart of the narrative. Of course it's part of a trilogy but I feel this movie is the core.
Definitely a movie for grown-ups. You know the art of this movie is that although we are aware of the mannerisms reflecting the era and the outrageously gorgeous staginess, we as the audience are completely sold on both of the characters earnestness within this constructed reality and their bewildered and slow revelation of something that both heals yet wounds. You also get a sense of many possible endings, different paths that could be possibly taken making their chance meeting something of phenomenal portent. They are living in a pocket of a greater dangerous world. Frank and Fran will love the grace of this movie!

Update on "The Borrowers"

2010-07-30T15:42:00.000+10:00

Exciting stuff! In April and on June 13th, I posted the Official Youtube trailer of Studio Ghibli's new upcoming interpretation of Mary Norton's 1952 children's book, "The Borrowers", titled : Karigurashi-no Arietty. I also added some further links so that readers of my blog interested in this animated feature could discover some of the exciting background information that I had looked up. Here's the link again to my original post and research for Ghibli's Karigurashi-no Arietty. I've just reread Mary Norton's book and now I can see that Studio Ghibli really does have it's finger on the pulse of the Zeitigeist (Sorry mixed metaphor) and I can think of of no Animation Studio that could do this poetic and humourous book justice or keep the heart of the story, courageous little Arietty, alive and well. It's an utterly charming story and what really strikes me is the inventiveness of the characters situations, the wonderfully defined characters and humourous dialogues. The attention to detail in the description and use of Victorian household objects is fascinating. And it really is a view from the inside out as it's told from the perspective of a child and from the little folk themselves. Here's some character designs and concept art:

Horse walk (Keys and Breakdowns)

2010-07-30T14:42:00.000+10:00

Preston Blair Horse walk (Keys and breakdowns) from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

For my Music clip project. I'm using and learning from tried and tested animated movement cycles from various Masters of Animation for the walk cycle , and other horse movements I need to animate. I animated this horse walk based on Preston Blair's walk cycle for a quadraped in his book: Cartoon Animation, from our SBIT library. It's fast because it is on three's, and it is keys and breakdowns and needs inbetweening and then lots more thought put into say the weight of the walk, more extremes, the horse's mindset. Preston Blair's drawings of the pelvis and shoulder bones and the internal arc/ swings were a revelation and a solid self-imposed learning curve for myself on Wednesday avo. I'm looking forward to the sweaty work of imprinting more quadraped walkcycles! There are no short cuts to my long term goal of becoming a Jedi Master! Here's an interesting blogpost on animation books by Michael Sporn and another on Preston Blair by Bill Plympton and a Cartoon Brew Preston Blair post. Here's an ASIFA Preston Blair post.

Little girl dancing!

2010-07-23T16:58:00.000+10:00

Lil' girl Colour Test Animated in Flash from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

This is the little girl I use in my blog image ID and she comes from a short sequence I animated in late 2008. Recently I coloured the sequence and used her as a test for colouring pencil tests in photoshop as an alternative option for my final 2D handdrawn animation. I also then put her into Flash and made her Chihiro (Spirited Away) yellow shoes shine in the dark! It's deep....a happy metaphor for really feeling like I'm in the right place at the right time.

Eye darts (saccades).

2010-07-21T03:33:00.000+10:00

Stan Blinks and Eyedarts (Saccades) from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

From Frank's Monday class task: eyedarts. I started with two rapid blinks to act nervousness/confusion and then eyedarts where the character is meant to be searching, thinking... I finished with a slower blink as the character calms and stares. Stan rig.

Experimental Animation and Music Videos.

2010-07-21T02:14:00.000+10:00

Practice experimental Filmstrip from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

This is an assessment short exercise for Jane using Photoshop and Premiere to digitally paint on a digital filmstrip. I used one of the many background textures I've discovered and hoarded over the years (like any good artful bower bird) whacked away at it with some of photoshops amazing brushes and filters and tried for some sort of progression in movements. Really, it looks like the collective vomit of all of 20 six year olds running rampant at a birthday party (So fun!) but I'm always excited about the possibilities you discover when experimenting like this. My first animation from years ago was based on crumpled reflective paper I'd collected and creating this (however faulty it is ) for me it opened up many potential avenues of visual experimentation. For those that haven't read my blog, or don't recall seeing this before, I've come from a visual arts background in my past education and practices. So this was my first short animation below and alas needed a lot more in the way of planning and actual animation, but it is what it is, a student film, and certainly has some good points being that I understand now how important good planning is and how very essential strong animation gives the "Style" or look of something it's actual life. It was great fun to do and a good way to explore photoshop and layers. The potentials are endless in photoshop. You can let different layers show through by rubbing out the top layer, and or pasting layer over layer slightly altering each image step by step. Remember this is not a new idea photoshop is built like a digital multi-plane camera so if you think of it that way the possibilities are endless. It's like being able to paint on glass in multiple layers! Any way to see what I'm talking about watch the animation. I assure you you will never again be tempted to put long opening or credits on your animation!

My first student film in 2001: The Crumpled King from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

I was working to a theme with the medium: I was using the collected and scanned shiny paper to represented the glittering world, the wrappings that the king (whose like a sort of Midas), surrounds himself with: but I used the beating heart, bird and butterfly motifs to talk of the spiritual neediness of the king. The music was from my own collection and I felt it reflected the frenzied state of our object and outer appearance loving world, and our constant need for feeling good by buying ourselves presents of bigger, brighter better things! We all want to be that pretty bright acceptable product that believe will gain us love and lots of attention. But our wealth really lies within ourselves and our achievements are surviving the darkest situations with our integrity intact so we can live to flourish another day. That was the subtext! So using textures, shapes, collage is one of my animation things and interests and its really good to see how much experimentation is going on in current music clips and animations. I love what everyone came up with in class, it's been a great atmosphere of creativity all week in class. There's a kind of intimacy and warmth relayed in using actual objects and textures, a sense conveyed of being at play, telling a story. Look at this great music clip Ian Lacey, who loves They Might Be Giants, showed on the ARC a while back. The name of the New York based company is Tiny Inventions and it's really interesting to see their work place and processes. I'm glad Ian brought They Might be Giants to our attention because they use a lot of interesting animators for their music clips.

and this shows more experimental styles and the song is great!

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

A while back I blogged about the work of Michel Gondry who is a Master creative animator whose music clips are a big part of his body of work. Think of his wonderful music clips for Bjork and the White Stripes for example. He also discovered this young animator Valerie Pirson who works in Stop-motion in many different mediums, always experimenting with new materials and new ways of exploring that medium. He saw her student animation "Pistache" and employed her on his second feature :"The Science of Sleep". He also introduced her to an ad agency, Partizan that uses her talents as a stop motion animator.

Valerie Pirson - Pretty Cool People Interviews from SubmarineChannel on Vimeo.

Another great inspirational site to look at how animators create for music videos is by exploring the website of Passion Pictures in the UK. Loud Sarah will know this company well. Check out the amazing animation of Koichiro Kujitsawa! He goes cosmic with plastic figures and stones and I recognise some of the Schleich figurines!
Anyway I, like like any person with an arts background, am attracted to oddments and interesting objects. For years I've haunted op shops, garage sales, Reverse Garbage, (My former flatmate worked at Reverse Garbage and made Musical Instruments from the objects there!) markets, the left-behinds in cupboards and rooves and under-the house, of each rental house, things found, etc, for years living in a spectacular and satisfying world where your attention is captured by wonderful bibs and bobs, (strings and sealing wax) that offer stories of their own volition. (Yes, I love it when they dig up broken shards of pottery on Time Team) ! I kind of feel like I've been a quiet curator of endless real-time still-lives that have collected randomly on my shelves. Every fabric remnant, stone, seedpod,shell, paper, odd little object or toy has had a tone and placed next to something else starts a little dialogue! I've lived a little with remnants of peoples stories. Anima mundi is a real thing! I really like the composting work of Jan Svankmeyer and this animation in particular talks about the life of objects and the nature of dialogues a lot better than I can:

In part one of Dimensions of Dialogue (above) somehow he's channelled Braque and Archimboldo, Picasso, Roman busts, Duchamp, Dubuffet, dutch and flemish still lives and American Photorealism, well, disembowelled and gnashed and mashed them together, so this animation talks to me about conversations, and other such devouring, all consuming exchanges in his masterful visual language. He was not only deconstructing (Post-Modernism), in this he Reconstructs, things and objects become fodder then become entities in themselves continuing a cycle of spewing, devouring and reforming. This whole series is a Masterpiece because his profundity lies in the truth that we are all made of atoms, the stuff of the earth, our endless devourings, gorgings and death are part of an endless cycle, the sort of ressurrection and rebirth that are the cornerstone beliefs of both Eastern and Western religions. Yet he is somehow more of a modern man to me, aware of his mortality and his smallness in the world, the constant churning over of all the life and objects in the world he treats with a relentless black humour that I think is very Czech. His work can seem unpleasant at time but it talks about difficult things. Another Master animator that inspires me is Yuri Norstein who I've talked about on this blog about his Hedgehog in the Fog animation: Below more Norshsteyn charm and creativity and warmth:

and some more:

and this:

So creative and Inspiring! I'll be happy if I can pull something simple and well animated together, that is even just a skerrick as beautiful as Norshsteyn's strange and comforting, eerily beautiful animations.But his work inspires you to think and explore and play.
What I learn from looking at these animators that inspire me is that they explore different media for different projects. A different narrative requires thinking about the materials you will use, how will it help tell the story, does this material add to the films tone and enlarge on the story.
In our our music clip assessment task I'll be using some stuff that I've collected over the years but I'll try to think through why I'm using this texture, that object and what feeling does it give to the animation. looking at these animators makes me want to play more with how I animate to the music, and what sort of transitions etc I might use. I'm hoping to combine a more experimental look/style with a really good dose of animation planning and a hell-yeah must-do dose of pencil animation as a guide underneath that contains all of of the principles. One minute. Solid planning. Repeat cycles. Lots of actual pencil animation first. Pretty shiny bower bird stuff kept under tight (Discerning, lets hope) control! Here's some Australian and Australian and Canadian animation that uses collage and more experimental animation in an effective way:

Itty Bitty Ditties - Teaser 'Bladder' from PRA on Vimeo.

The PRA, ( The Peoples Republic of Animation), Adelaide, who made the above, have used collage like effects in their work for example: Carnivore Reflux.
Another great show now running on the ABC is Dirt Girl World its a co-production with mememe productions and Sydney based Hackett films along with and Toronto based Decode Entertainment who became a successful company in 1999 with THE Angela Anaconda, an exemplar of collage in animation used effectively.

That's my research and homework done! I was telling Jane about these websites so I'll send her these links as well as sharing them with you. Lots here to inspire myself with! I 'm really looking forward to doing this music clip now!

Lee Evans!

2010-07-20T10:22:00.000+10:00

Sarah and I were chatting on this morning's train about the Melbourne comedy festival that was on T.V last night and I was telling her about this other British comedian I saw on Jean-Dennis Haas' Spungella blog recently. Funny in extremis! I wanted to say very funny shit but me mum sometimes reads this blog!!!!!!!! I love this gu...er....chap's flying jibs! As Jean Denis-Haas says, he's a wealth of animation reference!!!!! The Spungella blog is a must for animation students!

Don Bluth Lil'bird 4 drawing Flight Cycle

2010-07-19T00:01:00.000+10:00

Don Bluth Lil'bird 4 drawing cycle! from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

This is the four drawing flight cycle of the little bird that Don Bluth shows us how to animate. Frank posted it on his Animation Cogitation blog and it's really fun to do, just watch your volumes angles and curves! Endless possibilities where you could use this.

More Blinks

2010-07-18T03:08:00.000+10:00

More Blink Tests from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

Some more blinks: the first one above is from an exercise in "How to Cheat in Maya" and the second blink comes from Richard Williams. Below is me starting with some vanilla blinks then trying to use the blinks and eyes to act! Clunky! The Stan Rig is by Belal Ballout and can be found on the Creative Crash website.

Even More Blinks! from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

La Marche

2010-07-18T02:54:00.000+10:00

La Marche from Simon Rouby on Vimeo.

Completely impressed with this... that's my head...and what a walk! Sometimes simple concepts are the best!
From my in box on Vimeo like lots of good things. Look at Simon Rouby's painterly approach in "The Omen" below. It's a powerful style, making strong images. Judging by the credits he's linked with Cal Arts and Gobelins. There is breathing space in this work.

Le Présage (the Omen) from Simon Rouby on Vimeo.

1st run blink test!

2010-07-15T20:40:00.000+10:00

Test blinks! from Michelle Boland on Vimeo.

This is the first run of a blink test where I've used the two characters (originally from my short comic for Terry last year) from my final year animation to create acting with blinks. I've widened and extended the eyes in places using a technique we learnt from a Richard Williams lesson on blinks. Basically the characters are clinging onto a large tree branch which is cracking under their weight! The blinks themselves are the basic type, but I followed some advice from Frank re: their spacing and creating the first double blink as the female character tries to register what the male character is trying to say despite the blasting updraft and their terror.