The main reason I’m posting this one is not the short video itself but the nice ‘making of’ video that David put together to accompany it.  He hits on some very nice points that it is well worth paying attention to in our efforts to improve our own animation.

The Making of:

The Video:

I’m going to post a few short bits of animation that I come across from time to time.

I find these to be a lot of fun.

Kudos to the creators because their talent is on display!

A few things I especially like about this one:

– Cute character! (This pig has personality… a thinking brain… an attitude!)

– Fast and Slow movement (creates nice contrast!)

– Cyclic storytelling (repetition but repetition with variation!)

Back in December veteran animator John Celestri posted notes from a seminar he conducted at Nelvana Studios back in 1981 that provide some great information on the process and production of animation.

He states in his blog that these notes where created prior to the release of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston’s “Illusion of Life” when animators didn’t have access to such information and had to learn it largely through individual experimentation.  In his blog commentary he emphasizes that while the process as outlined in the seminar notes specifically addresses hand drawn animation it applies just as well to computer animation.

I’ve collected the notes into a single PDF file and attached it here but make sure you visit John’s blog for the original posts and to get his commentary and context for them.  He has lots other great information there also so don’t miss out!

John Celestri Nelvana Seminar Part 1 (1981)

John Celestri Nelvana Seminar Part 2 (1981)

John Celestri Nelvana Seminar – collected notes (PDF)

John’s blog/site:  http://johncelestri.blogspot.com/

Here’s an excellent analysis of animation found in Disney’s ‘Dumbo’ by Marc Hendry.

Source:  www.onanimation.com

This is a excerpt from Disney’s ‘Robin Hood’ that highlights a little piece of performance during the ‘ooooo’ phrasing from the word ‘you’ when the Sheriff of Nottingham interrupts Skippy’s birthday party on cue with a “…Happy Birthday to yoooo.”

The voice acting here with added emphasis in the character’s dialogue is exquisite and ideal for animators in that adequate space is created for an animated (read:  lively) performance.

Several people have asked if I have any of my work online and I have had to admit that I don’t have much of a public presence.  I hope to remedy that while at the same time staying within the general scope of exploring cartooning and animation.

To start off I’ll share this piece that was put together for a project currently on hiatus.  A general description of a house that had been expanded with new rooms as the owner grew richer was described.  It’s the exterior of a home where a young lad is seen briefly in an upper window as the story begins.

The image in the upper left corner represents the initial concept of the building with the other notations being my thoughts on improving the setup.  My initial thought was that the large window made the house look very tiny… almost cartoony… so the first thing I played with was the scale.

My work since I first picked up crayons to draw with as a child has been a similar exploration of themes and ideas not original to me but that have never-the-less captivated my attention.

The theatrical version of Glen Keane’s upcoming interactive film ‘Duet’ has been released and here’s a drawing from it:

It is said that Glen is drawing 60fps but the timing chart seems to suggest something more akin to 32 frames on twos (or 64fps)?

I had assumed the 60fps described by others is to allow for user interaction… allowing alternative views on an otherwise 2D scene but now I’m not so sure.  It will be interesting to see more of the process behind the project and some information has been released already.

If anyone has any more information on this I’m certainly interested.

Every cartoonist and animator should study… and enjoy… Pogo.

This is the last tier of a comic page that demonstrates how bite-sized portions of a story can stand independently on their own.

For the entire page:  http://whirledofkelly.blogspot.com/2014/05/all-big-fishes-get-away.html

For more Pogo check out the wonderful collection of strips at: http://whirledofkelly.blogspot.com/

Thomas Haller Buchanan posts additional material by Walt Kelly at: http://pogoinpandemonia.blogspot.com/

There is scarcely a subject that cannot be mathematically treated and the effects calculated or the results determined beforehand from the available theoretical and practical data. The carrying out into practise of a crude idea as is being generally done is, I hold, nothing but a waste of energy, money and time. – Nikola Tesla

Source:  extracted quote from Forbes article

A lot has changed in 100 years but some things haven’t.  We still tend to learn through expensive methods of production through trial and error.

At the time Nikola was writing the above he had been taken to task for not producing something from the ideas he had.  Nikola’s reasoning was that he didn’t have to actually produce the product in order to determine the results.

This recalls to mind a similar story told (I believe by Richard Williams) of the Disney animators all crowding around to see the first glimpe of their animated drawings springing to life on their tiny moviola.  Noting that Milt Kahl didn’t appear at all interested in seeing his drawings animated in this way they asked him if he wanted to join in and see how his animation played out.  His response was a terse (and I paraphrase), “Why should I need to do that, I animated it!”

Okay, back to Nikola then:

My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it.

Don Bluth once said of the process of hand drawn animation (with a pencil), “The first step in animation is to put the pencil down.”